Mobile Phones

Sagem's SG343i mobile phone is stylish slide phone, similar in design to Samsung's D600, although lacking extra features such as MP3 playback and a high resolution camera. What the SG343i does provide for is a cheap solution for users who wish to subscribe to Telstra's I-Mode information network.

On first look, the SG343i is a striking phone, with simple lines and an intuitive interface. At 81 x 41 x 24 mm and 85 g, it is light and unobtrusive in a pocket, although with the slider down, the pointy antenna can become a nuisance. The top half of the slider contains shortcut buttons to menu items (including I-Mode access and email access buttons), as well as four cursor keys and a menu access button. With these nine menu buttons, the interface does seem quite complicated, even though the buttons are self explanatory, the interface looks and feels cluttered.

The screen is a fairly decent colour 128 x 160 pixel LCD, capable of displaying 65000 colours. This is adequate for general phone use as well as photo viewing. The screen is capable of displaying 6 lines of text, which is fine for viewing messages, although is quite limiting when reading more data, such as when using the I-Mode service.

Targeted at those living in rural areas, the Telstra F165 promises excellent reception thanks to a pull-out antenna and a larger design. The handset also focuses on durability, encompassing a rubber casing that provides basic protection against knocks and bumps.

At first glance, the F165 looks rather similar to an old CDMA handset. It's quite large and the pull-out antenna certainly takes you down memory lane. The benefit of a larger casing is evident in the controls and keypad; they are large, well spaced apart and easy to press, making the Country Phone easy to use. The rubber and plastic casing of the handset certainly feels durable and the hard, plastic design of the keys feels sturdy. A minor annoyance is the rather loud clicking sound made when keys are pressed, but we are being picky.

The rubber casing of the Country Phone means its not only ideal for those in rural areas, but is a handy option for tradespeople as well. An included plastic belt clip only sweetens the deal.

The Country Phone has been designed as a last ditch bid to woo current Telstra CDMA customers over to the Next G network, as Telstra plans to close the former in January 2008.

Released for AT&T, the BlackBerry Pearl 8110 is the first BlackBerry Pearl model to feature built-in GPS (Global Positioning System).

Combined with applications such as AT&T Navigator, this device offers turn-by-turn voice and on-screen directions with 3D maps that can be used in vehicles or while walking. AT&T Navigator also alerts users through voice and on-screen prompts to traffic slowdowns and incidents along their route, and gives the option to choose an alternative route.

Measuring 4.2 inches by 2.4 inches by 0.5 inches and weighing approximately 3.2 ounces, the Blackberry Pearl come equiped with an audio and video player for the 240 by 260 pixel display, a microSD/SDHC memory slot for additional storage of multimedia files, a 3.5-mm stereo headset jack, Bluetooth 2.0, with support for headsets, car kits and other Bluetooth accessories.

The 8110 does not support AT&T's high-speed 3G network. Instead, it uses the 2.5G standard EDGE. One of the main drawbacks of EDGE is that it does not allow for simultaneous voice and data connections.

The XV6900 runs Windows Mobile 6 Professional, and comes with a suite of applications for handling Internet-based tasks like web browsing and email. Other applications include Microsoft Office Mobile for editing Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files, and Adobe Reader for viewing PDF files.

Other features include a 128 MB RAM/256 MB ROM, 2.0 megapixel camera, and a microSDHC card slot.

Verizon says its its standard 1100 mAh battery gives to 3.5 hours of use or 10 days of stand-by time. Its extended 1880 mAh battery gives 6 hours of use or 17 days of stand-by time.

Physically, the XV6900 is 4.0 inches tall, 2.4 inches wide, and 0.6 inches thick. It weighs 4.0 ounces.

The Verizon XV6900 is available now $300 with a two-year contract and online discount.

As mentioned earlier, this is a version of the extremely popular HTC Touch, which is already available from Sprint and Alltel in the U.S., as well as a number of wireless carriers around the world.

Looking very similar to Palm's Treo 500v, the ASUS M530w offers a comparable feature set to Palm's entry-level model. The M530w runs Windows Mobile 6, has a 2-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a microSD slot for extra memory.

ASUS has done an admirable job with the design of this unit. We are fans of the trusty scroll wheel and the three-way scroll on the left side of the M530w does an excellent job — though we would have preferred it to be placed a little lower. Combined with the well-laid out controls and five-way navigational pad below the display, navigating this handset is a breeze. The keyboard is a mixed bag — it's fairly comfortable to send long winded e-mails, but the first and last column of keys are very close to the edge.

The unit is fairly thin, but unusually wide, so the orientation of the display is short and wide which is a little unusual. Build quality is notable and it definitely seems like it could handle a few knocks and bumps. The M530w doesn't have a touch screen, so it runs the standard WM6 OS rather than the Professional version. The speed of the interface on this unit is impressive, with no noticeable slowdown, even when running multiple applications. ASUS has included 64MB RAM and 256MB ROM in addition to a 416MHz processor.