Product summary
The good: The LG Wine is an attractive phone with a nice display, four dedicated shortcut keys, and a very roomy keypad.
The bad: The LG Wine's photo quality is mediocre and the call quality could be improved. We also would prefer more direct access to the Web browser and e-mail.
The bottom line: Despite a few problems, The LG Wine's spacious keypad and easy-to-use interface makes this a great low-end phone for U.S. Cellular customers.
For a regional carrier, U.S. Cellular has quite a number of phones that we sometimes wish were available on nationwide carriers, like the LG Rhythm and the Samsung Delve. Well, now we have another one to add to the list; the LG Wine. Though it has fairly ho-hum features, it has a great big keypad plus four physical shortcut keys underneath the display, both of which really help make this phone easy to use. We see this as an excellent everyday low-end phone that anyone can pick up and use without having to fiddle too much with the manual. The Wine is also quite affordable at only $29.95 with a two-year service agreement.
Design
The LG Wine has a pretty standard flip phone design, with a simple rectangular shape and rather sharp corners. Still, we quite like the design, especially with the shiny spun metal look on the front surface. Measuring 3.89 inches long by 1.93 inches wide by 0.66 inch thick, the Wine comes in both red and white, which is indicative of its beverage-inspired name. The Wine feels good in the hand, and is quite lightweight at only 3.32 ounces.
On the front of the Wine is a 1.3-inch external screen, which shows the date, time, battery and signal strength, as well as incoming caller ID. It will also work as a self-portrait viewfinder for the camera. The camera lens is above the screen. On the left spine is the volume rocker and charger jack, while the headset jack and dedicated camera key are on the right.
Flip open the phone and you'll find a very nice 2.2-inch 262,000 color display with 240 x 320 pixels. The screen looks great and shows off bold graphic icons quite well. You can adjust the screen's backlight time, the menu style, the font settings for style, color, and size, and the color scheme.
Directly underneath the display are four dedicated shortcut keys. They are shortcuts to the messaging menu, the alarm clock, the images folder, and U.S. Cellular's EasyEdge online store. It's certainly nice to have dedicated shortcut keys like these, but since you can easily get to these functions from the existing navigation array, they seem a bit unnecessary. Still, if you don't want to remember what keys correspond to what function, these four keys are very helpful for quick access.
The navigation array consists of two soft keys, a four-way circular toggle with a middle Menu/OK key, a dedicated speakerphone key, a Back key, a Talk key, and the End/Power key. The four-way toggle doubles as shortcuts to the Bluetooth menu, the EasyEdge online store, a shortcuts menu with room for up to 12 shortcuts, and the calendar.
Both the navigation array and the number keypad are a joy to use. They're both very roomy, and all the keys are large and quite tactile. The number keys on the keypad are in very large text, which is great for those who don't have the best eyesight. It's very easy to dial and text by feel as well.
Features
The LG Wine has a roomy 1,000-entry phone book with room in each entry for five phone numbers, two e-mail addresses, and a memo. You can then add your contacts to a caller group, pair them with a photo for caller ID, or pair them with one of 34 polyphonic tones to be either the ringtone or message alert tone. Other features include a vibrate mode, a speakerphone, text and multimedia messaging, a calendar, a memo pad, easy tip calculator, a calculator, an alarm clock, a world clock, a stopwatch, a unit converter, voice command support, Bluetooth, and support for location-based navigation.
There's also a mobile Web browser and mobile e-mail access. However, in order to access them, you have to go to the MyStuff tab in the EasyEdge interface. We would prefer a more direct way to access the browser and mobile e-mail.
The LG Wine takes mediocre photos.
The 1.3-megapixel camera can take pictures in five resolutions (1,280x960, 640x480, 320x240, 176x144, and 160x120), three quality settings, four color effects, and five white balance presets. Other settings include a self-timer, a night mode, multishot modes, brightness, zoom, and four shutter sounds plus a silent option. Photo quality was decent, but not great. Pictures had an orange tinge, and it was not as sharp as we would like. The Wine doesn't have a music player or a camcorder, which is good since it only has 48MB of internal memory.
You can personalize the Wine with wallpaper, themes, tones, and a banner. The Wine also comes with games like Pac-Man, but you can always get more from the EasyEdge Shop.
Performance
We tested the LG Wine in San Francisco, roaming outside U.S. Cellular's home network on Verizon Wireless. Call quality was good, but it was still clear that we were talking on a cell phone. Callers said our voice sounded tinny and rather robotic. On our side, we thought the same of their voices too. Still, we enjoyed very little static. Speakerphone calls went well, though there was a bit more static and audio sounded a little weak and muffled at times.
The LG Wine has a rated battery life of 4 hours talk time and 7 days standby time. According to the FCC, the Wine has a SAR rating of 1.3 watts per kilogram.
CNET
LG WINE
MOTOROLA MOTOZINE ZN5
The Hi-Res Camera Phone Gets Affordable
Developed by Motorola and Kodak, MotoZINE ZN5 for T-Mobile succeeds admn ably at its two primary goals: to excel as both a camera phone and a voice phone This is the first 5-megapixel camera phone offered by a U.S. carrier, and with the contract price and mail-in rebate, it's a terrific deal. But to hit this price point, Motorola had to make some sacrifices, such as 3G capability and decent video recording. Still, if you just want to make calls, send text messages, and snap good pies, the ZN5 is the way to go.
From the front, the 4-ounce ZN5-4.65 by 2.0 by 0.6 inches (WD)—looks like your average high- class slab-style handset. It's got a large, bright, 2.4-inch, 320-by-240-pixel screen over a flat keypad with small tactile bumps on the number keys. Various parts of the keypad light up to activate special functions, such as photo reviewing or editing, when needed. With a combination of hard-and soft-touch plastic, the ZN5 feels comfortable. Call quality is excellent: Voices are clear even in extremely noisy locations. The speakerphone also sounds good. The phone's RF reception, on the other hand, didn't stand out from the crowd of 2G T-Mobile phones on my tests.
The ZN5's connected without a problem. As stated, the phone's camera is responsive and produces good shots, even in low light. You can store your photos in the 350MB of memory or on a microSD and download them via the included micro USB cable or over Bluetooth.
Overall, the Motorola MotoZINE ZN5 is a solid device, and its super-low price makes it an amazing value—the most affordable camera phone you'll find in the U.S , in fact. It fell just short of winning our Editors' Choice award; that prize still belongs to the Sony Ericsson TM506, which uses Jr-Mobile's new 3G network.—Sascha Segan
PC Magazine February 2009
This article is published on More Techs, Handphone Reviews, Fun Gadgets and Cellphones Info.
RIM BLACKBERRY STORM 9530
A Troubled Storm
Verizon's BlackBerry Storm 9530 is a radical new direction for BlackBerry, but it's imperiled by a difficult-to-use QWERTY keyboard and widespread reports of serious bugs.
The decidedly sexy 5.5-ounce Storm is a 4.4-by-2.4-by-0.5-inch (HWD) slab dominated by a 3.3-inch, 360-by-480-pixel touch screen. The screen is capacitive, meaning it detects the electricity from your fingers, thus requiring less effort to press. It is also transflective, so it's easy to view outdoors in bright light.
Below the display are Pick Up and End call buttons, a Back button, and the familiar BlackBerry menu key. On the sides of the handset, you'll find Camera, Volume, and a programmable multifunction button. RIM has again transformed keyboard design with the Storm's click screen, which you click by pressing down. Although this method gives you actual feedback, the learning process for the new interface is challenging. Furthermore, the keyboard had some serious accuracy problems.
The Storm showed zippy performance when it wasn't overcome by software bugs. It is a world phone, running on Verizon's EV-DO Rev A network here in the U.S. and on dual-band CDMA, quad-band EDGE, and 2,100-MHz HSDPA networks abroad. On our tests, the Storm registered fine reception, and earpiece and speakerphone volume are both very loud. In a straight-up talk time test, I got an excellent 7 hours 25 minutes.
Overall, the Storm is an exciting device Nonetheless, I can't recommend it strongly until the software bugs are fixed.—Sascha Segan
PC Magazine February 2009
This article is published on CellPhones Info, Handphone Reviews, Fun Gadgets, and More Techs.
Nokia N85
Good looks and an OLED screen in a small package
The N85 is the sleeker younger brother of the N96; it's similar in size to an N95 without the slider and its own slider feels positive and well built. The case is largely black. with menu, application. cancel and media keys lighting up when they're active and fading away the rest of the time, giving a very polished look. Push the slider down and the buttons will either light up in media player mode or N-Gage mode for gaming. The phone's a little heftier than the N95 and feels more solid, despite being smaller.
It has an OLED screen, rather than LCD, which helps with battery life and gives great, vivid colours - though as it's OLED, you'll find the scrcensavcr glows. It's also great for movie playback.
At first the keypad looked similar to the N96, which felt flat, but in use it's actually much closer to the N95, with good tactile feedback, so you can text quickly and accurately. The navigation pad can also double as a scroll wheel, though it takes a little getting used to. The software - S60 Third Edition Feature Pack 2 - is much the same as on the N96, with support for WebDav, and you can connect to services such as Apple's 'Disk and browse them in the file manager. There's Internet radio support (as long as it's MP3), as well as the standard FM, and you can even share your music in the car, thanks to a built-in FM transmitter .
We do have a few gripes - the usual Series 60 browser isn't up to par. USB charging is a welcome addition, but the micro USB port means another cable, and there's no socket for an ordinary Nokia charger. The camera is OK, but needs pretty good lighting for best results. And there's no edit button - if you want to copy and paste, you need to call up the menu.
But those are mostly minor issues; this is a nice phone - it's compact, has good battery life, good build, and a great screen. The N96 may have DVB-H, which is probably pointless in the UK, but it's the N85 that's really the flagship in our book - and arguably what the N95 should have been. Nigel Whitfield.
Price £405 SIM free;
free on contract
Contact Nokia
Specifications 50x16x103mm (wxdxh) • 128g • 2.6in QVGA OLED screen • Quad-band GSM & 3G • 802.11b/g Will • Bluetooth • FM transmitter • FM radio • USB2 • Micro USB connector • Micro SD slot (8GB card included) • 74MB memory • Five-megapixel camera with geotagging • Video capture up to VGA 30f ps • WMV, WMA, AAC, MP3 • Flash video, Real Video playback • Assisted GPS • Symbian S60 Third Edition Feature Pack 2
Personal Computer World February 2009
This article is published in More Techs, http://handphoneku.blogspot.com/2009/03/nokia-n85.html, Cellphones Info and Handphone News.
RIM BLACKBERRY BOLD 9000
Bold in the USA
If the Bold works, don't fix it. AT&T has mostly done well by following that advice for its version of RIM's BlackBerry Bold 9000, which is very similar to the Bold model for Canada's Rogers Wireless. This is an excellent executive smart phone with a gorgeous screen, reliable e-mail, MS Office document editing, and a terrific media player. But we wish AT&T had worked on the troubled Web browser, which still struggles to load pages that contain JavaScript.
At 4.5 by 2.6 by 0.6 inches (HWD). the 4.8-ounce device feels solid in your hand. Although the keys are slippery the keyboard is roomier than others and easy to use. This phone has the best-looking screen
(320 by 480 pixels) I've ever seen on a mobile device; I just wish the display were a bit larger (it's 2.6 inches, compared with the iPhone's 3.5).
The Bold features a 624-MHz Marvell Tavor CPU, which is a little bit faster than the iPhone's proces-sor. BlackBerry handhelds are typically very responsive. and I found the Bold to be snappy except for its Web browser, which was often sluggish. This phone did not drop calls during testing, and it transitioned between 2G and 3G networks seamlessly. But our Bold had t rouble connecting calls in areas with weak 2G signal. Its battery life— 4 hours 28 minutes—is about the same as that of of her 3G smartphones but will disappoint BlackBerry loyalists. The iPhone has a better Web browser, but the decision really comes down to what you prefer—a keyboard or a touch screen.-Sascha Segan and PC Jacobowitz
PC Media January 2009
BLACKBERRY PEARL FLIP 8220 (T-MOBILE)
Don't Flip Yet—This BlackBerry's Still in Beta
A rare misstep for RIM, the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 combines interesting new hardware with software that's a bit underbaked. Hold off on buying a Flip until there are software revisions to fix the many bugs I encountered on my early review unit.
I question the reason for the 8220's very existence. but RIM execs insist that there are a lot of people out there who won't buy a phone that doesn't flip. So the first clamshell BlackBerry device was born. When it's closed, the Flip is about the size of a BlackBerry Pearl 8120, with a handsome black face and deep red body. There's a big external screen and a camera on the front, and various buttons and ports on the sides (including the useful BlackBerry mute button). The microSD card slot on the side even accepted the latest 16GB SanDisk card without a problem.
The crisp 2.3-inch, 320-by-240-pixel screen and a hybrid SureType keyboard were both a pleasure to use. But in terms of software, my 8220 was so buggy that it felt as if it had been released too soon. On the first call I made from a Bluetooth headset after a cold reboot, when I flipped the phone closed, a garbage message briefly appeared on the external display. When I played music, closed the flip, and hit the up and down volume buttons quickly in sequence, the external display went wacky. And at one point, the external screen clock just vanished—I could bring it back only with a cold reboot. But the biggest problem, by far, was with the Web browser, which struggled with JavaScript and loaded pages at a painfully slow pace. Wi-Fi wasn't much better. Overall, RIM has built some solid hardware here. But I can't recommend a phone that's this buggy until the kinks have been worked out,—SS
PC Magazine January 2009
T-MOBILE G1
A Solid First Try for Google Android
The first-ever Google Android smartphone is a respectable initial effort that. given an open development platform. willgrow with time. It's missing a bunch of key features, such as a decent mediaplayer and support for corporate e-mail. But the G1, manufactured by HTC. is a quality phone with few bugs.I'm confident that more features are on the way.
The 5.6-ounce Cl looks like a grown-up Sidekick. It has a big 3.2-inch. 320-by-480-pixel touch screen that's bright and responsive. Volume and camera controls are on the sides oft he handset, and the 3-megapixel camera is on the back. Slide the screen up to reveal a comfortable little QWERTY keyboard. You get about 60MB of available space for apps and data, as well as a slot for a microSD memory card.
A quad-band EDGE. dual-band HSDPA phone (1,700/2,100 ). the GI works on T.Mobile's 2G and 3G
networks in the U.S. and on high-speed networks overseas. We achieved 6004-to-700-kilobit-per-sec-
ond speeds in the GI's browser on the 3G network which is fairly typical for a 3G phone. We also con-
nected to our WPA2-secured 802.1Ig wireless network without a problem.
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Calls on the GI sound terrific, at least to the user, the person on the other end may hear background noise. E-mail reads well, but attachment support is poor. As you might expect fro m a Google phone, the GI has one of the best Web browsers around. There are holes in the phone's media capabilities: There's no video player or video camera, for example. Nonetheless, the Cl is a phone with a bright future that's worth checking out.-Saseha San
PC Magazine January 2009
