Grundig B700

This week I am featuring a business oriented phone, the Grundig B700. The specs aren't so great, a 2MP camera with video recording, MicroSD card slot, FM radio, EDGE, 100MB memory, loudspeaker, 2.4" QVGA display and an MP3 player. So why am I featuring this phone, you ask? Because it has none other than Linux installed! That means an endless variety of apps and cool things you could do with it. It also looks nifty in an unusually thin-for-a-smartphone 10mm body.

Spec Page

Softbank 810SH

Yes you are probably wondering if I am in love with Softbank by now, and to tell you the truth I am. Their plans are cheap, phones are good, etc but that's for another entry. This week we have the Softbank 810SH made by Sharp. Although you wouldn't see me with this phone, it is nice phone because the design is so clean and it has a surprisingly good feature set for a fashion phone. It has a beautiful outside, the lid has a nice diamond pattern which in my mind is a stroke of genius. There are multiple colours, including pink, black, and white. Inside is a VGA display, which are non-existant in North American carrier phones. There is also the standard microSD card slot and an okay 2MP camera. Overall the design is great but the technical specifications are too low compared to others from Softbank. I wouldn't be surprised if a slimmer version would demolish the RAZR in North America.

Spec Page

Who this is for:

-Fashonistas

-People who want a good balance between style and function

-Girls

Who this is not for:

-Power users

-Hardcore geeks

-Gangstas 

Softbank 911T

Week 4, one month anniversary! And now I am featuring a very new phone, the Softbank 911T. It is made by Toshiba and was released last week on Softbank's website. It is a very powerful phone. First you are taken back by the 3" VGA display and how slim it is, 17.9mm thick. Then you find out it has 1GB of internal memory, and a 3.2MP camera! You can also watch One Seg television broadcasts on it. Shame it's for Japan only.

Softbank Spec Page

Who this is for:

-People addicted to television

-People who like to take pictures and listen to music

-Cell phone geeks like me

Who this is not for: 

-People who want a basic phone

-Old people who do not know how to use a phone 

Nokia 7390

This time on Cell Phone of the Week, I am featuring a rare phone: that being a phone with impressive specifications and looks quite good. It is the Nokia 7390 of the 2006 L'Amour collection. The nice looks are obvious, with lots of swirls and stuff gracing the cover. 2 models are available, a black and brown one intended for men, and a cream and pink model, obviously for girly girls. But beauty isn't always skin deep. This packs a 3MP autofocus camera with a flash that also does video, and an inside VGA video call camera. The display is impressive, being capable of showing 16 million colours like any high end phone should. Less important but useful features include stereo speakers, an FM radio receiver, and a standard microSD card slot.

Who this is for:

-People who like pink phones

-People who want a good balance of power and looks

-Someone wanting a chique phone with a nice camera

Who this is not for:

-Manly men or tomboys

-Extreme geeks who need the best of everything

-Rich people who spend most of the time in the boardroom

GSMArena Page | GSMArena Review | Sample Photos

LG KE820

Okay, second week, and this week's phone is on a different side of the cell phone realm. Instead of being fairly large and crammed full of features, this one is unusually small and still manages to pack a punch. The KE820 is a very small candybar phone that measures in at 95mm tall, 52mm wide,and 9.9mm thick. It is quite fashionable, being pretty much pure black with a cool keypad that has the joystick in the top-middle to save space. There is a 2MP camera built in with flash and video recording, quite good compared to most phones offered by Canadian carriers. LG even managed to cram in a microSD card slot, something Samsung seems to fail at on some basic phones. (a640..) Bluetooth is also there as you expect. So all in all, this is quite a good phone.

Who this is for:

-Fashionistas who like a good looking phone

-Someone who wants a compact phone with good features

-People who are sick of the RAZR

Who this is not for:

-People who require extremely high performance

-People with large hands or do not like small little phones

GSMArena page

This is the first ever episode of Cell Phone of the Week, so we will start with something grand.

Nokia E90

Why is this phone so awesome? For one it's fairly stylish. It has a nice screen on the front that has 16 million colours at 320x240 resolution, and when you flip open the phone, you're breath is taken away by the massive 800x352 display that's massive, and a complete QWERTY keypad that's backlit. If you think that's it, you're dead wrong. It has a wonderful camera, 3.2MP autofocus, and a flash. It can also shoot 30fps video. Inside there is a QCIF video camera for making video calls. Then you have Bluetooth like all phones, but also WiFi to browse the web and an FM radio. Finally, the icing on the cake, a GPS module, and it has literally every feature of a high-end phone.

GSMArea Page | My-Symbian Review

Who this is for:

-The business man who must stay connected at all times

-Cell phone geeks (read: Mammoth)

-Early adopters

-People who do masses of texting, emailing, and web browsing on their phone

Who this is not for:

-Fashionistas who want a cute, slim phone

-Anyone with small pockets or no bag to carry it with

-People who only need a basic cell phone

-The poor

Hello, this is a review of the Samsung SPH-a640.

In the Box

-a640 phone

-User manual

-1000mAh battery

-Travel Charger

The Outside

The a640 measures 90mm long, 46.3mm wide, and 22.9mm thick. Fairly large compared to todays standards as far as thickness goes. The exterior of the phone is completely black, except for the silver band on top and the Bell logo. The lid has a 1.3MP camera and a hidden OLED screen. The screen is monochrome and completely impossible to read in direct sunlight, probably because it is hidden by a glossy piece of plastic.

The left side has the volume up/down keys and a 2.5mm headset jack covered by a plastic flap. The right side has a camera key and loudspeaker key. On the bottom there is only the charging/data port again covered by a plastic flap. The back is bare, with the entire lower 3/4 being the lid for the battery. It has a Samsung logo embedded. There are 2 small nubs on it as well, to steady the phone perhaps. I think it is quite ugly and would look more clean without them. The manual says to press down on the 'button' part of it and slide back to remove it, but I cannot do it no matter how hard I try. I half suspect the dealer at the store glued it on. On top of the back is the eyelet for a wrist strap or such, which quite interestingly does not come included.

Over all I think cosmetically it is quite an ugly phone. There is nothing special about the looks and it is impossible to open the battery compartment. Build quality is mediocre, I have only had this phone for a few months and already I can rock the lid left and right about half a millimeter. With a little effort I can move it an entire millimeter. There is a gap between the lid and body when closed which makes for extra thickness, although not much.

The Inside

When you open the lid you are greeted by nothing special. The screen is surprisingly small. My old T720 even has a very slightly larger screen. Colours are average, just 65,000. The keypad is okay, seeing as I don't have a really good phone to compare it to. The keypad backlight is quite even, I am impressed by it. The navigation keys are surrounded by a silver band that really doesn't look good. There is no memory card slot at all.

Operation

Navigation is simple as all Samsung phones, although the themes are quite lacking. No games come loaded, a definite minus. The T720 came with 2 games preloaded. If you turn the ringer volume down system sounds still play, including start up and shut down noises.

Camera use is okay, there are frames to use for fun, but they are bad quality and block most of the picture. When taking a self-portrait, you can close the lid and use the OLED screen to see yourself. Problems arise though, as the screen is slow and quite small. There is no way to get the pictures off the phone without spending money on either uploading it to an 'online album' or a data cable with does not come in the box. Because all the pictures I've taken with my phone are stuck on the phone, I can't say anything about the quality of it. There is no video recording, although it might not matter with the low amount of memory

Overall

If all you do with a phone is make calls, some texting, and the occasional picture, this phone is probably for you. If you're a heavy power user like me that wants a camera that can produce print quality images and a large screen, etc, do not get this phone. Some good alternatives on Bell include the Sanyo Katana, Nokia 6275i, or Samsung a900.

The Good

-Stylish (Not to me though)

-Cheap (I paid $30 but a few weeks later it's free)

-Good keypad backlighting

The Bad

-No memory card slot

-Bad build quality

-Outside screen is monochrome

-Outside screen is impossible to read in sunlight

-Cannot get files off phone without spending money one way or another

-Camera does not shoot video

-Start up and shut down noises always play

-No wrist strap included

-No data cable included

Rating: 4/10