The Good: The Nokia 6103 is a tri-band phone with a clamshell design and a basic feature set. It supports both SMS, MMS and E-mail/IMAP protocols, has both an external and internal display and includes both Bluetooth and Infrared connectivity support.
The Bad: The phone is quite expensive for its limited capabilities, with the poor 0.3 megapixel camera, lack of MP3 support and tiny 4.4Mb of internal memory with no expansion slot particularly disappointing. The phone can be connected to a PC for backup and the installation of additional Java applications; however a USB cable is not part of the retail package and is quite pricy. The design is simple and vaguely appealing, however its wide girth and stubby external antenna make getting it out of a pocket somewhat cumbersome.
The Bottom Line: This is an adequate offering for those wanting a basic phone without all the fancy bells and whistles. However multimedia junkies and futuristic fanatics need not apply.
The Good: This is a well-featured flip-style world phone with multimedia messaging features, instant messaging clients for the most popular networks and a wide array of polyphonic ring tones.
The Bad: This phone is aimed at the business market, and as such does not include a camera. The inclusion of voice dialling is a nice touch; however this only works through a headset or car kit. The speakerphone only works at short range making it difficult for callers to hear when there is excessive background noise. The low 10MB of shared internal memory provides little room for extensive user customization. The unit’s SAR value of 1.6w/kg, being the highest allowed under US regulations may worry more health-orientated users.
The Bottom Line: This is a mid-range phone with impressive talk and standby times. The phone serves business users well, however ‘leisure’ users or those wishing a more high-spec device may wish to look elsewhere.
The Good: The RIM Blackberry 8700g is a quad-band world phone aimed at business customers, the phone includes a full QWERTY keyboard, Speakerphone, EDGE and Bluetooth. The 8700g offers easy e-mail setup and adds support for popular instant-messaging clients
The Bad: The keyboard feels slippery and cheap to the touch, and the square design may take some time to get used to. The phone doesn’t include any games and PDF files often lose their formatting when viewed and do not open completely. Another sore point is the inability to edit documents viewed on the device.
The Bottom Line: This is an ideal device for the travelling businessperson, with a fine range of bundled accessories and long talk and standby times. However, with the lack of any ‘leisure’ features, other consumers may wish to look elsewhere.
The Good: The jewel in Nokia’s crown is a phone for all, both music megalomaniacs and photo fanatics alike. Boasting a 5 mega pixel camera, dual band WiFi and GPS with maps for over 100 countries, there is no shortage of things to get excited about.
The Bad: Although branded as a world phone, the N95 lacks support for US 3G data networks. Battery life even on standby is low, and performance sluggish despite the large internal memory. Finally, the handset finish looks cheap and the dual-sliding mechanism feels somewhat insecure.
The Bottom Line: You get what you pay for with technology, and the crème de la crème of the Nokia range is no exception. This is most certainly a unit which many will envy but few will be able to afford. However, despite it’s impressive specifications, the lack of a TV tuner such as that offered by the N93, the cheap finish and sluggish performance make it hard to justify the almost $800 retail price.
