The Best Camera Phone In the U.S.A.
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The Samsung Memoir SGH-T929 (T-Mobile) may be the phone that gets you to leave your digital camera at home. This 8-megapixel shooter is full of surprises, including support for two decent Web browsers, a fun widget-based interface, and 640-by-480 video recording. The Memoir is expensive compared with other T-Mobile feature and camera phones, but if price is no object, this Samsung can't be beat. The Memoir, which measures 4.7 by 2.1 by 0.6 inches (HWD) and weighs 4.4 ounces, resembles a Samsung Behold mated with a point-and-shoot digicam. The face has a 3-inch, 240-by-400-pixel touch screen with Send, End, and Back buttons sitting in a row below it. The back looks a lot like a digital camera, with a protruding autofocus lens, flash, and slightly textured grip. 
As a phone, the Memoir is adequate. Reception on '1-Mobile's 2G and 3G networks is very good; the phone also works on 2G and 3G networks in other countries, though it can't access AT&T's 3G network anywhere. Earpiece and speakerphone volume are both decent, though the earpiece tends to distort at top volume. Transmissions through the microphone sound a bit muddy on the other end, and a lot of background noise tends to come through, although there's remarkably little in-ear feedback of your own voice. The Memoir's battery life, at 5 hours of talk time, is passable.
The big deal with this phone, of course, is the camera, which is better than that of any other carrier-subsidized phone in the U.S.—both for photos and for video. It's not on a par with top dedicated still cameras like the Editors' Choice Canon PowerShot A1000 IS, but it competes with lesser cameras like the Casio Exilim z250. Even though the Memoir doesn't have full smartphone capabilities, its superior ability as a camera phone lead us to award it an Editors' Choice. —Sascha Segan and PJ Jacobowitz 
PC Magazine April 2009
SAMSUNG MEMOIR SGH-T929 (T-MOBILE)
Redfly Smartphone Terminal C8N
Netbooks trounce this phone accessory 
THE REDFLY SMARTPHONE TERMINAL C8N from Celio is a laptop-like companion for Windows Mobile-based smart- phones. It features a bright, 8-inch LCD and a keyboard to make your smartphone more useful for data-intensive tasks. Priced at $299, the C8N aims to undercut every netbook on the market, but we're not convinced it's worth the price of admission.
Weighing 2 pounds, the C8N resembles many of today's ultraportables. Though compact, the C8N packs a full QWERTY keyboard that's responsive and comfortable to use. But the C8N lacks any internal guts or software. Instead, it relies on your smartphone's processor strength and storage space to create, store, and edit documents. To connect the C8N to your handheld via USB or Bluetooth, you must install a driver onto your Windows Mobile smartphone. When the C8N and the phone are paired, your smartphone's screen goes dim and its image shows up on the C8N's LCD.
In our tests, we experienced some lag when editing lengthy Word documents or when typing rapidly. Also, we found that the touch pad wouldn't always respond to our movements, and the mouse buttons were overly rigid and at times difficult to press. As you'd expect, though, browsing the Web on the C8N is more enjoyable than on a smartphone's screen. And we managed to get an impressive 7 hours and 40 minutes of battery life out of it. 
But despite the C8N's positive attributes, ultimately its nemeses are netbooks that cost little more. Until Redfly slashes its price or adds new features, most road warriors will benefit more from one of them. —L.R.
HTC Fuze
Stylish smartphone hindered by keypad 
WITH ITS GLOSSY lacquered finish, the HTC Fuze is one of AT&T's more stylish smartphones. It packs a 3G radio, a touch screen, built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and a full QWERTY keyboard.
Despite its design and formidable feature list, however, this $299 smartphone suffers from some notable hardware and software flaws. Measuring 2.8 inches, the Fuze's sharp VGA screen dominates the device and makes everything from Web browsing to watching videos an enjoyable experience. The phone's slide-out QWERTY keyboard, however, is cramped and makes everyday typing a little more involved.
To further complicate matters, the Fuze's keyboard lacks dedicated buttons for numbers. This unique layout takes some getting used to if you're accustomed to working with dedicated number keys. Although the Fuze is powered by Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, most of the time you're interacting with HTC's visually stunning TouchFLO 3D interface, a shell that runs on top of Microsoft's OS in an effort to make Windows Mobile more intuitive. 
Functionally, it's miles ahead of Windows Mobile, but we noticed some lag when opening apps from within the TouchFLO shell. In addition, booting up I ITC's interface adds a few extra seconds to the phone's overall startup time, which is already long. Call quality was excellent, although the built-in speaker is weak. Browsing the Web was smooth and fast. The 3.2-megapixel camera features built-in autofocus and an LED flash, but test images appeared grainy and lacked detail. Battery life was dismal. With moderate 3G and Wi-Fi use, we barely made it through a 6-hour workday before we needed to recharge. For heavier use, a spare battery or additional charger is highly recommended. -Louis Ramirez
Computer Shopper May 2009
LG WINE
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
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.
