The Good: This is a basic camera flip phone which boasts a VGA camera, Bluetooth and a WiFi receiver for connecting to wireless networks. It looks attractive with a brushed aluminium finish and has a keypad which is spacious and easy to use when dialling by feel. The phone has a variety of personalization options and expandable memory via a Micro-SD card.
The Bad: Although the phone has both an internal and external display, both are very small (less than 2 inches diagonally) leaving items on screen looking cramped and hard to read. Also the external display cannot be used for photographic Caller ID. The VGA camera provides lackluster picture quality.
The Bottom Line: This is an adequate phone for first-time buyers but what does give it great appeal is the inclusion of wireless connectivity, allowing the making of low cost VoIP calls and web surfing on pre-configured wireless networks. However those wanting something with a little more ‘jazz’ may wish to look elsewhere.
The Good: The Samsung T409 is a mid-range phone with a simple feature set, featuring internal and external displays, a 1.3 megapixel camera, support for e-mail and the most popular instant messaging clients and a WiFi receiver for connecting to pre-configured wireless networks. For ease of use the phone has a number of programmable shortcut keys and a hotlist where five ‘favourite numbers’ can be listed for easy dialling.
The Bad: Despite a wide range of photographic options, the T409’s camera is disappointing with pictures appearing washed out and hazy. The speakerphone also suffers from poor sound quality.
The Bottom Line: This phone’s greatest asset has to be, without doubt, the wireless connectivity which allows users to browse the web, make and receive VoIP calls thus saving money, particularly on long distance calls. The phone is simple yet effective and is more than suitable for business and leisure consumers alike.
The Good: This is a tri-band flip phone identical to the Samsung SGH-309 with the addition of Bluetooth and a different color scheme. It has a VGA camera on board with a variety of photographic options and picture resolutions. The phone can also be customized via a number of operational and thematic settings. Call quality is excellent both through the earpiece and when using the speakerphone.
The Bad: The phone is very pricy for the feature set. Both displays are hard to see especially in bright light. The keys are small and rather flat, making dialling by feel difficult and causing frequent mis-dials. Standby time is also disappointingly short, lasting just 3 days despite the rated 9.
The Bottom Line: This phone isn’t likely to win any beauty or technology awards anytime soon, and those wanting anything more than super call quality should probably look elsewhere.
The Good: T-Mobile has long been known for pushing the boundaries of mobile technology and the SDA (Smart Digital Assistant) is no exception. Sporting the modern Windows Mobile 5 operating system, Bluetooth, WiFi and EDGE, a 1.3 megapixel camera with a variety of enhancement options and full media support including DRM, it has everything for the mobile traveller.
The Bad: Lacking a QWERTY keyboard and with a rather cramped keypad, typing longer messages may be difficult for those with longer digits. Adding additional memory is also a little cumbersome with the expansion slot resting underneath the battery. Also the limitation of being able to view but not edit Word; Excel and PDF documents may be problematic for business users.
The Bottom Line: All in all this is a great offering for the modern mobile user with an ideal balance of features for both productivity and entertainment. The long talk and standby times adds extra appeal as does the large 64MB internal ROM and RAM memory banks.
