Camera Phones Plaza

Sony Ericsson today presented a new 3G clamshell, the Z610 model. This new device is 94.5 x 49 x 20 mm big and weighs 110 g. The UMTS 2100 phone has tri-band GSM networks support and will come in three color variants: Luster Black, Rose Pink, Airy Blue.

Z610 has an interesting external display, a 128 x 36 pixels OLED one. It is virtually invisible if the phone is in peace, but when someone calls you, you receive a message or a calendar event takes place, it suddenly becomes active and displays the necessary information. The main screen of Z610 is 2" 262K TFD with 220 x 176 pixels resolution.

The phone also features a 2 megapixel camera with 2.5x digital zoom and video calls availability. Video can be recorded in QCIF resolution. The internal phone memory is about 16 MB and can be expanded by the Memory Stick Micro (M2) card slot. A 64 MB card is included in the retail package. The phone also has Bluetooth (with A2DP) and USB 2.0 connectivity.

Sony Ericsson Z610 will be available in Q3 2006 but the expected price is still to be confirmed.

The official SOny Ericsson press release:
"LONDON 22 August 2006 - Sony Ericsson today announces the Z610; a stylish 3G phone that blends performance with stand-out design. The sleek mirror finish on the front cover gives the phone a jewel-like quality that is complimented by a hidden ‘magic mirror’ display which can only be seen when in use. This striking phone delivers on its good looks: its advanced feature set includes a 2.0 Megapixel camera and broadband-speed 3G connectivity. With such a unique design and a choice of three eye-catching colours – Luster Black, Rose Pink & Airy Blue – Z610 is the clamshell to be seen with.

“The unique design of the Sony Ericsson Z610 is inspired by nature. We have applied a mirror finish and used a hidden display for the first time to achieve the feel of a calm ocean surface” says Eiji Shintani, Art Director, Creative Design Centre, Sony Ericsson. “OLED technology has enabled us to build in a display that doesn’t interrupt the seductive, reflective qualities on the front of the phone. And given that Z610 is also a highly-specified device, it appeals to the design conscious that need a phone for every day use.”

The magic of the Z610 is revealed when a call comes in or the user receives an SMS or MMS. The hidden external display illuminates, giving the effect that the caller-ID information is floating on the face of the phone itself.

The distinctive design of the Z610 is matched by a feature set that lets the user get the most from their mobile phone. The Picture Blog application allows the user to share photographs with friends and family, via an online ‘blogsite’, within just a few clicks. Simply take a shot with the Z610’s 2.0 Megapixel camera and upload (or blog) the images directly to the site.

The Z610’s 3G capability, coupled with its large 2.0 inch screen, makes video calling and accessing the Internet a pleasure; and with support for Push Email and RSS feeds that deliver the latest news updates direct to your mobile, it’s so much more than a pretty face.

And when its time to reflect, support for Memory Stick Micro™ (M2™) allows for generous storage of photos, video clips and MP3 files. This popular and portable storage format is available in memory sizes up to 1GB – that equates to around 2,800 pictures of 2.0 Megapixel quality."

Via gsmarena and Sony Ericsson.

Now then, now then. Nokia has flipped. Well, we think so, anyway.

The N71, yet another handset in the N range of multimedia rich phones, is a flip (or clamshell) phone. Nokia doesn’t do these very often – the 3G N90 with the Carl Zeiss camera lens and the non 3G 6131 are the two most recent examples, but they are mere droplets in the vast ocean of Nokia handsets. So we had somewhat baited breath waiting for the N71 to land on our desk.

When we took the Nokia N71 out of its box, our first reaction was raised eyebrows. ‘Are you sure this is a clamshell?’ we asked ourselves, and exclaimed, ‘it’s huge!’

As we see it, the plus points for clamshell phones are: they are small and so ideal for tiny pockets; they look cool as they have a smooth opening mechanism and are easy to open one-handed; just as with sliders, you can control a lot of features without opening the handset; and inside there is room for a large screen and a big keyboard.

And the camera controls, once you’ve got the thing running, are very straightforward. You use the softkeys and the navigation key to access the camera settings, and working your way through them is fast and easy.

A novelty we really like is the range of options for auto shooting a sequence of images. Shooting a sequence – or ‘burst mode’ – is not exactly rare on phones, but in this case you can set the time lapse at intervals between 2 frames a second to one frame every 15 minutes. It’ll carry on shooting for as long as storage memory holds out.

Battery life was a bit of a let down. We listened to music non stop for as long as possible, which turned out to be eight and a half hours. We maxed out the screen brightest and power save settings during this test, and if you minimise them instead you’ll get longer life, but still we’d have liked a bit more from the battery.

We didn’t find the Nokia N71 an especially great handset. Hampered by its size it really needs to offer some extraordinary features by way of compensation, and while we like the sequence shooting mode, that isn’t on its own enough.

Read full review here.

In many ways, the Sanyo Katana for Sprint is a testament to the marketing and engineering geniuses at....Motorola. Motorola's marketing team taught the industry the value of a name for a phone instead of just a model designation (ie. "XYZ123i"). Their engineers came up with the new and improved clamshell/folder form factor that places the phone's antenna in the bulge beneath the keypad, and they were among the first to embed the camera module in the hinge of a clamshell in such a way that allows for modules that are thicker than the top half of the folder design itself. All wonderful things that Sanyo, and many others, have grabbed hold of and run with.

So to a large extent we can thank Motorola for the wonderful new breed of clamshell phones like Sanyo's adorable Katana.

The Katana's VGA camera has many nice features to it that I credit to Sanyo's many years of experience in the Japanese market, where cameraphones have been in vogue for a very long time. The Katana has a number of features that are rarely seen on a phone. For example, it has a number of pre-defined "picture modes" that are similar to those found on dedicated digital cameras.

These include a special mode for taking photos at the beach or of snow, which normally require a bit of metering compensation to get a correctly exposed photo. The feature I like best is the "my favorite settings" function, which allows the user to define 4 groups of settings that can be enabled quickly. With this, it is possible to define a "bar scene" setting, for example, that turns on the night mode and sets the white balance for incandescent lighting. Color tinting and picture frames can also be configured in a favorite setting.

The conclusion is that the device is reasonably good looking, and it is both thin and light. If you are a Sprint customer, this is the closest thing to a Motorola RAZR V3 that you are likely to ever find. It may not be very original, but it scores well on usability and is overall a pleasure to use. Its QVGA display is an added bonus. It scores a solid "Recommended" rating.

Another Sprint handset to consider would be the A900, also known as the Blade. It has a similar form factor but includes 3G support and stereo music playback.

Read full review here.

There has been a camera phone war going on this summer, with the introduction of the Sony Ericsson K800i, Nokia N73 and N93, and the LG KG920. The list is not going to stop here, though; we are still waiting for devices from Samsung, Benq-Siemens, and ASUS. LG showed off its first 5 megapixel cameraphone, the SV550 (also known as the KV5500 and LP5500) back in May 2005, and since then, its PR mailbox had been flooded with enthusiastic petitions asking for a GSM clone. It has taken the company more than a year of hesitation before introducing the SV550's GSM counterpart, KG920, outside Korea. This delay is mainly due to the shortage of suitable camera modules, especially when domestic demand was so high. Production cost also plays a role, due to both the camera module and the Qualcomm MSM6500 chipset that the phone is based around being so expensive.

After the success of the Chocolate series of handsets, LG hopes to ride on the wave of its suddenly increased brand awareness, and launch the "ultimate" camera phone. Today we will see if the KG920 can live up to the company's expectations.

The KG920's camera specifications appear top notch on paper: a 5 megapixel CCD sensor, autofocus, and Xenon flash. Before going on to how the photos came out, let's talk about the camera application itself.

Typically, it takes slightly more than 2 seconds for the camera application to start. The camera screen is very informative, but you can turn off all the icons if you find them distracting. The camera menu contains almost all the settings you can find on an average consumer digital camera. You can make use of various shooting modes such as night and sports depending on the situation, and you can pick the most accurate white balance setting from incandescent, fluorescent, sunny, cloudy, or shade. You can also specify the ISO setting, selectable from ISO100, 200, and 400. You can apply frames and filters if you wish.

The camera also gives you options for red eye reduction and whether on not the flash will fire. Popular tools such as a self-timer and date stamps are all in place. LG also gives you access to more advanced settings such as autofocus and metering modes (average or centre) if you are into that kind of thing. If you can't be bothered with all the settings, you can simply set everything to auto. I do need to mention the sluggish response in the camera menus, though, which is the same problem found on the older LG P7200. This has destroyed an otherwise pleasant experience with the well-designed application.

The 5 megapixel sensor allows you to shoot at resolutions up to 2592x1944 pixels. The video mode isn't weak either, recording at a decent 320x240 and at a smooth 30fps. (sample videos here). Depending on the amount of compression you choose, a 5 megapixel photo ranges from 250KB to 2MB. In terms of speed, the camera takes less than 2 seconds to focus, and about 7 seconds to resume to camera mode including saving a 2MB file.

The KG920 is a strong performer in terms of Multimedia. The camera quality is amongst the top in the market today. The wide range of music formats supported pleasantly surprises me. Of course, the phone is not without its bad spots: we would love to see some kind of picture editing tools and background MP3 playing capabilities in the future.

Rerad full review on mobileburn.

SmarTone-Vodaphone has just launched the slim new Sharp SX633 is looking hot with it’s screen derived from Sharp ’s AQUOS technology, the 17mm-thick 3G phone is available as the Black Opal Edition with a metal vapour look to it, the phone is made in Japan, and pricing is around $4,180 HKD ($500 USD).

The Sharp SX633 is also available in two other colors (Silver McIntyre / Pink Champagne). Also has 2.2″ QVGA Mobile ASV, Dual Cameras (Main one is 2 mega pixel, 4 MPEG long play video capture and supports 1GB MicroSD card ofr various types of media. SmarTone is a mobile phone operator in Hong Kong. The new branding SmarTone-Vodafone was officially launched in April 2005 following a partnership agreement with Vodafone in December 2004.

Via ministry of tech.