Sony Ericsson S710a – Our Review
Sony Ericsson S710aThey say a picture is worth a thousand words. But what about the phone-cam pictures you took over the weekend, drunk, in a dark and crowded bar? Are those blurred streaks of light worth even one word? With most camera phones, capturing a worthwhile photo is as difficult as deciphering Keith Richards’ drug-induced mumblings. But not with the Sony Ericsson S710a. Not only does the S710a deliver uncommonly discernible images, it also has a beautiful screen to view them on. Related :Get our best deals using the leatest Sprint Promotional Codes And Coupons Some phones fall just short of duct-tape quality when integrating features, but the S710a combines its phone and camera capabilities excellently. The 2.3-inch screen is a beautiful viewfinder, the 8x digital zoom makes for more versatile shots, and the light lets you click away even at night. Also, the phone’s swivel lets you take pictures the way you’re accustomed to: from the back, with two hands, and with the shutter button on the top right. Add in a lens cover to protect the optics from pocket lint and keys, and you’ve got yourself a nearly bona fide camera. The gorgeous screen also makes capturing video a pleasure, and cruising the web is easier on the eyes because of the screen’s size and clarity. Games have never looked so good, and they’re easy to play because the swivel action of the keypad makes for a comfortable, sturdy grip. The phone also plays MP3s, which are easily downloaded onto the phone’s 32MB Memory Stick Duo. (It’s not a ton of space, but it’s a start.) And Bluetooth allows for quick and easy file transfers between the phone and your PC. Most everything you need to make a call is easily accessible from the home screen. Menus are intuitive and user-friendly. Contacts and recent calls are reached without having to swivel the phone open. The four hotkeys around the five-way joystick are programmable, making your favorite menus one punch away. In fact, as long as you don’t have to type a number or text message, you can perform almost any task with the phone closed. Despite cramming every feature imaginable into one handset, the phone weighs just 4.6 ounces. Unfortunately, it’s a tad fat. But overall, the Sony Ericsson is worthy of the attention it’s been receiving. It’s chock-full of features and is one of the first phones to hit the market that couples a higher-resolution camera with a screen that is worthy of flaunting. So go ahead, take a picture. It’ll last longer. –Jennifer Scully Best Feature: Fat with features SPECS: The post Sony Ericsson S710a Review appeared first on Mobile PC Mag Coupons. from http://www.mobilepcmag.com/sony-ericsson-s710a/
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Motorola i860 by Boost – Our ReviewWhat’s better than a bitchin’ phone? A bitchin’ phone with tribal tats and prepaid service — so you can avoid the hassle of a contract and ditch the cell when an even more bitchin’ phone comes along. Boost Mobile’s latest offering is just that, matching mad features with an edgy, industrial design that will surely get you noticed while you’re sippin’ yo bub up in da club. Top Read : Get The Latest Sprint coupon codes Right Here Utilizing the same spring technology as the beloved switchblade, the i860 snaps open with a press of the silver nub located on the phone’s hinge. Not only is this fun, it also exposes you to some serious goods under the hood. Amenities include a brilliant 262,000-color LCD and a digital camera. On the downside, the camera’s 0.3-megapixel resolution is hardly appropriate for a VIP-class phone that costs nearly $400. You do, however, get a good number of preloaded MP3 ringtones, such as “Give It Away Now,” “Dirt Off Your Shoulders,” and “It’s My Life,” plus a ton more for download. There’s also a solid selection of applications and the convenience of the Nextel-supported walkie-talkie service. And you may just want to use that service, because pressing the i860’s wee buttons is a finger-twisting chore. Even if you happen to have dainty fingers, it’s hard to hit the tiny keys. But the phone works competently and rarely fumbles a call. Despite being a tatted-up, thugged-out device, the i860’s features prove that it’s just a geek at heart. So if you see one, compliment it for its multiple applications — just not in front of the other Boost phones, or you might ruin its street cred. –Daniel Dumas Best Feature: Bling-bling LCD screen Motorola i860 by Boost The post Motorola i860 by Boost Review appeared first on Mobile PC Mag Coupons. from http://www.mobilepcmag.com/motorola-i860-boost/ Nokia 7280 Our ReviewFrom whispers to full-blown harassment, the Nokia 7280 definitely turns heads. So much so that while using it on your commute you may wish that the long, slim phone would suddenly turn into the weapon it so resembles — a can of pepper spray — just to keep the gawkers in their seats and off your back. Top Read : Get The Latest Sprint.com coupons Right Here From a design point of view, everything about this phone is completely unconventional. There are no number buttons, only an iPod-like NaviSpinner and a couple of hotkeys. The screen is set up in landscape instead of portrait, and when the LCD is dormant or powered off, it actually turns into a little mirror. Because of the mirror, along with the phone’s unique shape and slider function, the 7280 is often affectionately referred to as the “lipstick phone.” You actually can use the mirror to put on lipstick. Really. We tried it. And like that perfect shade of crimson, this phone is meant to be unveiled during your nighttime activities. The Nokia is positioned as a so-called second phone (to go with your second car and second home, no doubt). The idea is that you take your SIM card out of your daytime phone and pop it into the Nokia, so you can hit the clubs with a slimmer, lighter handset. But in the process, you sacrifice your day-phone’s keypad, so you’re limited to the numbers you already have on your SIM card. You can dial with the NaviSpinner, but that requires dexterity and concentration — which greatly diminishes after each cosmo you imbibe. And even switching the SIM card in and out of the 7280 is complicated, requiring a special tool (using a paper clip is less fashionable but just as efficient). With such a radical design, there’s bound to be a little discomfort during the getting-to-know-you phase. Using the scrolling dial is a little like using a rotary phone, but with too many options and too many occasions to make a mistake — it takes some getting used to. But the biggest pain comes with texting — a hot pastime of the target audience of this hip phone. Scrolling through the entire alphabet is tedious, although the phone does have a decent predictive-text dictionary. While the 7280 does not come with any games, support Java, or have the ability to record video, it does have an awesome pair of headphones that turns the sleek phone into your personal pocket radio. And the 0.3-megapixel camera is neatly hidden, revealed only when you pull the two ends of the phone away from each other — a method that you can also use to answer and end phone calls. The phone has fine, but not exceptional, call quality, and its talk time of three hours and 55 minutes is plenty to last you from happy hour to last call. With a nod to art deco, the biggest draw to this phone seems to be the flashy facade. But to some it might be a tad over the top, a little too stylized. We tend to enjoy gadgets with a healthier balance of form and function. –Jennifer Scully Best Feature: Slick slider design Nokia 7280 The post Nokia 7280 Review appeared first on Mobile PC Mag Coupons. from http://www.mobilepcmag.com/nokia-7280-review/ Samsung SCH-a890 -Our Review
Like the car you drive, the cell phone you tote reveals a lot about you. If you were to carry Samsung’s SCH-a890, it would say that you’re not the flashiest person in a crowd, but you can be dependable, stylish, and possibly exciting when the moment calls for it. Kind of like the feeling you get driving a Volvo. The silver and black coloring and straightforward keypad give the Samsung a890 an air of sophistication. But it’s the phone’s subtlest design feature, the rotating camera lens, that commands attention. The 1.3-megapixel camera is set in a swivel hinge, letting you shoot scenes or self-portraits with a flick of a thumb, without having to flip the phone around. But Samsung doesn’t go far enough with it: You can’t use the a890’s external display in conjunction with the rotating lens to record video or snap pics on the sly. Top Read : Get The Latest Sprint.com Coupons Right Here And the camera is not the best we’ve seen out of the latest 1.3-megapixel crop — but it’s not the worst, either. At the highest setting, pictures come out much better than typical VGA cameras, but they still don’t offer a tremendous amount of detail. Samsung includes many of the camera features you expect to see in VGA camera phones, such as digital zoom, brightness, self timer, rotate and flip functions, and color tones, but not much more. Like other camera phones, you can also record up to 15 seconds of video. But there’s no card or cable for image transfers; to get pictures and videos off the a890 you’ll need to send them to an e-mail address. The phone has features such as a world clock, calendar, vCards, and advanced voice recognition — but the pièce de résistance is access to Verizon’s EV-DO 3G data service. Though it’s available only in select markets such as Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and New York, it really knocks the teeth out of poky, beat-down 1xRTT. High-octane fuel for your phone, EV-DO delivers DSL-like wireless web surfing speeds. You can upload pics and videos and send them to an e-mail address at blistering speeds, as well as check e-mail, download apps or games, and even watch streaming music videos, sports clips, and celebrity interviews on Verizon’s V-Cast service.
And you’ll positively drool at how well the a890 handles the basics. Call quality is clear and loud. Battery life will really leave an impact: The phone logged more than five hours of talk time before punching out for the night. And if you crave a mobile with large, legible onscreen text and numbers, the Samsung will not disappoint. There’s a lot to like about this fairly compact phone: stellar battery life, decent call quality, high-speed surfing, swivel lens, and an easy-to-use interface. But the camera quality and overall design are simply missing something (maybe a pinch of salt?). That said, if you’re in the market for a decent phone that won’t let you down, the Samsung could be a good match. –Joni Blecher Best Feature: Slick swivel barrel lens Samsung SCH-a890 The post Samsung SCH-a890 Review appeared first on Mobile PC Mag Coupons. from http://www.mobilepcmag.com/samsung-sch-a890-review/ Motorola A630 – Our ReviewSure, you can type an SMS on any phone. But with the Motorola A630, there’s more than meets the eye. Under its unassuming facade, there’s a messaging dynamo lurking. Top Read : Get The Latest Sprint.com Deals Right Here For a candy-bar phone, the A630 looks sort of odd. It’s short, squat, and a little too thick. And its tiny monochrome external display leaves a lot to be desired. That is, until you flip open its well-concealed hinges to reveal the spacious QWERTY keypad and 1.8-inch, 220 x 176-pixel TFT. Deployed in full messaging mode, the A630 may still look odd, but you won’t be complaining. The widely spaced QWERTY keypad gives you plenty of room to twiddle your fingers. In fact, it’s one of the largest we’ve seen to date, even spreading a little further end to end than that of the BlackBerry 7780. We only wish it didn’t ride so close to the phone’s hinge, forcing your fingers to bump against the base of the screen as you hit the keys in the top row. While 1.8 inches isn’t a lot of space by current screen standards, the A630 makes the most of it by turning it to landscape mode. So you get a more text-friendly view of your messages as you type, and it’s a little easier to make sense of web content than it would be with a portrait screen. (Don’t get your hopes up, though. Web pages look almost as bad on this handset as they do on any other; you just get a little more text on the screen.) Battery life is where the A630 overtakes the pack. In a field where two hours is more or less the standard, this phone knocked out a staggering five hours and nine minutes in our tests, more than doubling the expectations set by Motorola’s spec sheet. Clearly your mileage may vary, but the competing Nokia 6820 came in at just under the two-hour mark, so we’re plenty impressed. High on cool factor though it is, the A630 is far from flawless. But then, we’ve yet to encounter a transforming messenger phone that doesn’t suffer from some significant shortcomings. This phone’s main problem, apart from the close quarters at the top of the keypad, is a poor combination of funky software and an oddly placed five-way pad at the center of the controls. It wouldn’t be so bad that the menus are unintuitively laid out if it wasn’t such a pain in the wrist to get your thumbs to the controller every time you want to change selections. We’d like to see the five-way placed off to one side in the next incarnation (preferably in a position that favors right-handed folk). We generally love the idea of transforming messenger phones, and the few models that have hit the market thus far are essentially adequate in their way. But most are either too bulky or suffer from unbearably small screens. The A630 overcomes both of those limitations with a little bit of compromise and a whole lot of moxie. Though it’s got some growing pains to overcome before it can truly dominate the market (and no carrier has picked up the phone yet), this is the best transformer we’ve seen. –Robert Strohmeyer Best Feature: Longest battery life in its class SPECS: The post Motorola A630 Review appeared first on Mobile PC Mag Coupons. from http://www.mobilepcmag.com/motorola-a630-review/ LG MM-535 Review – Strictly A PlaythingSome people want to get work done on their phones; for others, a cell is strictly a plaything. If you’re in the second category, the MM-535 is meant for you. It can snap 1.3-megapixel shots; games look great on its large and vivid screen; and it can even serve up canned, streaming TV. Should you want to get a little work done, you can even shoot out an e-mail now and again. But limit your playtime, or the MM-535’s short battery life will limit it for you. In fact, the battery life would have been a deal-breaker if this wasn’t a cool phone in so many other ways. The screen, for example, is stunning. Though a 200 x 176-pixel screen is far from rare, the LG’s is ultrabright, with a tight interpretation of crispness. Even the standard screen saver on it looks great, and games look fantastic on the TFT. While you’re at it, why not watch a little TV? Sprint’s Media Player collects and serves up around 20 channels of television and radio that you can then stream to your phone. At around $5 a month per channel, it starts sounding like cable TV, but if you have to have your Fox fix (and CNN to balance it out), satisfaction’s no farther away than your shirt pocket. You can also listen to tunes from a MiniSD card. If you’d prefer to create your own media, the 1.3-megapixel camera can shoot 1,280 x 960-pixel shots or 15 seconds of video at a time. While the whole package is bulky and the battery life is poor, the LG MM-535 is a capable companion for the cell phone user who doesn’t take life too seriously. However, it’s no match for a pro like the Nokia 6682. “Roger Hibbert” Best Feature: Multimedia features galore LG MM-535 The post LG MM-535 Review appeared first on Mobile PC Mag Coupons. from http://www.mobilepcmag.com/lg-mm-535-review/ The Nokia 6682 – Sensible Yet Sophisticated
Like a sensible yet sophisticated sister to the awkward wild-child Nokia 7610, the 6682 is a candy-bar phone that’s all pearl, silver, and symmetry. A striking 2.5-inch display and a keypad arranged for optimal blind-dialing are all it takes to separate this class act from the amateurs. These days it pales in comparison to the iphone but was great at the time. The Symbian operating system makes this phone such a clever workhorse that we weren’t sure whether we should classify it as a top-of-the-line smart phone or a multimedia phone, but its imaging and music tricks made it stand out in the second category. The 6682 veils its 1.3-megapixel camera behind a sturdy slider, along with an LED flash to ensure decent close-ups in low-light environments. Record an hour’s worth of video with the camera, then cut it down, insert sounds and images, and add color or special effects. By the time you’re through editing, the clip of that guy at KFC stuffing himself with 20 pieces of chicken will be a full-blown internet meme, ready to be unleashed on the world. The camera is so legit that it’s even PictBridge-compatible: Just plug the USB end of the included data cable into a printer, and you can print your pics straight off the phone — no computer necessary.
Its 8MB of internal storage is hardly enough space for all those clips, pics, and sound bites, let alone Word and PDF docs. But if you pop open the steely trapdoor on the right side of the phone, there’s a 64MB RS-MMC card already sitting there; it comes with your purchase. The 6682 is big-boned — tall and wide, but not thick. But that extra space lets it house a bunch of fancy trimmings: Bluetooth, push e-mail with attachments, high-speed data transfer on an EDGE network, a powerful speakerphone, instant messenger clients, and the fantastic Opera browser. All these high-end features would mean nothing, though, if you were forced to focus in on a tiny, dull screen. Luckily, the 6682’s display is big, bright, and clear. And because the phone packs a little extra weight, it also has a generous battery life. “Rachel Rosmarin Best Feature: More media functions than we know what to do with Nokia 6682 The post Nokia 6682 Review appeared first on Mobile PC Mag Coupons. from http://www.mobilepcmag.com/nokia-6682-review/ RIM BlackBerry 7100g – A Fine Thing
Disconnecting for the weekend? Forget about it — your neurotic urge to stay online won’t let you. And besides, your inbox is a cruel mistress. But the iphone 6 costs too much, and, frankly, you spend more time reading e-mail and web pages than writing. Meet your new phone: The BlackBerry 7100g, unlike the RIM 7520 it combines the slim profile of a candy-bar phone with all the e-mail and internet savvy of other, less stylish, BlackBerrys. Granted, the 7100g is a bit wider than most phones, but it fits comfortably in a pants pocket, and you won’t feel like an idiot holding it to your ear in a bar — or the office.
The 7100g’s compressed QWERTY keyboard sports two letters per button. The phone’s SureType software does a good job of figuring out which letter you intend for each button press, so you can type fairly quickly. However, we found the keypad disorienting at first, and URLs are tricky to enter. The screen is bright and crisp, making reading web and e-mail a pleasure. As a phone, the 7100g is solid, with decent if somewhat crunchy sound and a respectably loud and clear speakerphone. The keypad is extremely easy to use for dialing numbers; and combined with the excellent BlackBerry contact manager (which syncs with your PC), the 7100g is a top-notch communicator. Add a calendar, USB for syncing, Bluetooth for wireless headsets, and 36MB total of memory for holding data and running Java applications, and you’ve got a sleek, powerful, portable organizer, too. “Dylan Tweney” Best Feature: Bright, readable screen RIM BlackBerry 7100g The post RIM BlackBerry 7100g Review appeared first on Mobile PC Mag Coupons. from http://www.mobilepcmag.com/rim-blackberry-7100g-review/ RIM BlackBerry 7520 Was It Any Good ?
Your boss is trying to get rid of you. But no matter how far she sends you into the remote, byzantine reaches of your city, you always seem to find your way back. What’s your secret? A GPS-enabled BlackBerry. It keeps you on course — and in contact with the office the whole way. OK, so it isn’t pretty. It looks like a thousand other BlackBerrys, fat and squat, and it’s even thicker than its brethren, with a hunchback of a speaker on its posterior. But that’s where the magic happens: The extra space makes room for a GPS antenna as well as the guts for Nextel’s Push To Talk service.
For an extra $10 a month, you have access to the GPS functions of this phone, and they’re well worth it. Through a combination of GPS navigation and wireless net access, you can find businesses, points of interest, and directions using a huge online database. And because it’s all online, you don’t have to store megabytes of maps on the unit; you just download the details when needed. There’s even a database of the proper pronunciation of all the goofy street and neighborhood names across the country, which makes the turn by turn more intelligible than “Turn. Left. At. Corner.” You don’t buy the most handsome ox; you buy the strongest. And this ox is a true worker: It’ll find you the cheapest gas or the nearest restaurant, serve up your e-mail, and let you browse the web. And with more than six hours of battery life, it’ll keep doing it until happy hour. “Roger Hibbert” Best Feature: GPS keeps you on track RIM BlackBerry 7520 The post RIM BlackBerry 7520 Review appeared first on Mobile PC Mag Coupons. from http://www.mobilepcmag.com/rim-blackberry-7520/ Microsoft Wireless USB 2.0 Adapter MN-710Not every device you own has Wi-Fi. Chances are your desktop machine — if you still have one — has no idea your wireless network even exists. And if you’re still struggling to keep an aging notebook alive, it probably doesn’t do Wi-Fi either. If you need to bring your old wired machine online fast, a USB adapter is the quickest solution. Microsoft’s Wireless USB 2.0 Adapter is about the size of a CompactFlash card reader, cable included. And it’s about as easy to install. Just load the driver, plug in the adapter, and your network should come into view. Top Read : See all our top Sprint coupons for your next smartphone to get a great deal In our tests, the adapter’s usable range proved considerably shorter than most notebooks’ built-in Wi-Fi cards. At more than 100 feet, signal quality dropped to nearly unusable levels. But if you’re a home user who doesn’t stray far from the router or access point, this shouldn’t be too great a problem. The included software makes it easy to adjust your wireless settings, and it also adds interesting features that let you monitor your wireless network more accurately than Windows XP’s built-in utilities will do. Wondering how strong your signal is? Big green bars will tell you. Looking for your gateway’s IP address? It’s right there on the screen. Plus, it gives you an at-a-glance view of other resources available on your network. If you need high performance wireless for your notebook, this adapter is not your best solution. But if you want a versatile adapter that works as well on your desktop as on your portable, few adapters are as easy to manage as this. For true plug-and-play simplicity at a reasonable price, it’s hard to go wrong with this little dongle. -Robert Strohmeyer Best Feature: Five-minute setup SPECS: The post Microsoft Wireless USB 2.0 Adapter MN-710 appeared first on Mobile PC Mag Coupons. from http://www.mobilepcmag.com/microsoft-wireless-usb-2-0-adapter-mn-710/ |
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