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At a first glance you can’t be impressed by the dimensions of E61i. With 117 x 70 x 13.9 mm in dimensions and 150 grams in weight, this Nokia cell phone seems to be more of a PDA instead of a mobile phone. The front and the back of the phone are covered by metallic design elements, which make this phone to feel very solid and very resistible at intense usage.  On the front side, this Nokia cell phone has a 2.8 inch TFT display and because it is a Communicator, it has a full QWERTY keyboard.

Even if this camera has a mediocre performance, it has proven to be excellent for a Communicator like this Nokia cell phone. But let’s talk a bit about what is the most important aspect for a Communicator device: the keyboard. The Nokia E61i has a full QWERTY keyboard which seems to be very solid and responsive. The keys have good size and are very well delimitated, so you will not have problems in pressing the wrong key when you are typing. Anyway, having a positive feedback, this keyboard is perfect for typing emails, SMSs or other texts. An attractive feature is that this keyboard has a sensor which automatically illuminates the keyboard when a low ambient light is detected.

Powered by a Dual ARM 9 220 MHz processor and 64 MB of RAM memory, this Nokia cell phone comes with a Symbian OS 9.1, Series 60 v3.0 UI interface and a lot of preinstalled applications like Mozilla Internet Browser, Microsoft Mobile Office, Flash Player, PDF Viewer and many others.

Even if you will keep this PDA under intensive usage, it will be capable to run multi-tasks without any lag or other interruptions. A negative aspect which makes this Nokia cell phone to be one step behind other Communicator devices is that it has only 60 MB of internal memory. Thanks to the microSD card slot, you can extend it to a maximum 2 GB, but even so, this is not a very good capacity in our days.

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The BlackBerry 8330 Curve has a case made of resistant plastic with a great combination between business and fancy design, so it is attractive for everybody. With 4.2 x 2.4 x 0.6 inches in dimensions and 4 oz in weight, this smart phone fits very well in your hands or pockets. Like almost all BlackBerry models, the front side is occupied by a large display and a full QWERTY keyboard.

The BlackBerry 8330 Curve comes equipped with a 2.8 inch QVGA display with a native resolution of 240 x 320 pixels. This display does a good job in offering great quality images and clear text. With a good brightness and a perfect contrast of colors, the images are very visible even under direct sunlight.

Powered by a 312 MHz processor and 32 MB of RAM memory, this Curve model is a powerful and very well optimized smart phone. You will not notice any lag or other malfunctions during intense multi-tasking. There is only one negative aspect for this phone, which will disappoint many people. It has only 96 MB of free space and thanks to the microSD / microSDHC card slot, it can be extended to a maximum 8 GB. Even if 8 GB of free memory is enough for you to store your music, photos or other files, in our days, a high-end smart phone has at least 16 GB of free memory.

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The Nokia 3600 comes with a case made of resistant plastic and has 97.8 x 47.2 x 14.5 mm in dimensions and 97.3 grams in weight. Having these dimensions, it certainly fits very well in your hands or pockets. On the front side, this Nokia mobile phone has a 2 inch TFT display which has a native resolution of 240 x 320 pixels and supports 16 million colors. You will not have any problems to see the images because, even if this is a TFT display, you will receive great quality of colors even if you use it under direct sunlight.

Sliding up the phone, you will discover a large keypad which occupies the entire bottom of the device. With very responsive and solid keys with good sizes, this keypad is excellent for typing SMS, emails or writing other texts. For shooting photos, the Nokia 3600 comes with an integrated 3.2 Megapixel camera, capable of taking photos at a maximum resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels and recording clips at a speed of 15 fps. On the back, near the camera, this cell phone has an LED flash which will help you get great quality photos even if the camera has somehow mediocre performances.

For connectivity, the Nokia 3600 (being a tri-band device) supports GPRS, EDGE and GSM networks. For other kind of connections, it has Bluetooth, miniUSB and TV-out. Even if this cell phone has only several connectivity features, you need to remember that this is an entry-level mobile phone, designated for those people who cannot afford to pay a lot of money for a good unit.

Anyway, like all modern mobile phones, this Nokia model supports many music formats (MP3, AAC, eAAC+, WMA) and has great sound performances. The external speaker is very loud and produces clear sounds. For storing your pictures and music, the Nokia 3600 comes with 30 MB of internal memory but if you want more you can extend it up to 8 GB with a microSD card.  The standard Li-Ion 860 mAh battery is capable of keeping this mobile phone on for almost 6 hours of conversations and up to 280 hours in standby mode.

On the front side, this mobile phone comes with a 2 inch TFT display, two soft keys and a 4-way button for menu navigation, a Back and a Clear key plus a dedicated Walkman key and a shortcut button. The phone’s sides contain some interesting details.

The Sony Ericsson W580i comes with a 2 inch TFT display with a native resolution of 240 x 320 pixels. The image quality is more than satisfactory, with a nice color saturation, which can be adjusted from the settings in the phone menu, depending on your preferences. Due to the reduced size of the display, the pixels are not visible, so you will receive a very clear picture on the screen.

Visibility, even in sunlight, is excellent. For taking photos or recording clips, this mobile phone comes with an integrated 2 Megapixel camera, which can take photos at a maximum resolution of 1600 x 1200 pixels and record clips at a maximum resolution of 176 x 144 pixels. Even if this camera lacks a flash and autofocus, you will be able to take good pictures every time.

For connectivity, the Sony Ericsson W580i, being a tri-band device, comes equipped with GPRS, EDGE, Bluetooth and USB. Being part of Walkman series, this cell phone is not recognized as being a very powerful mobile phone with a lot of high-end technology features. The strongest point of this cell phone is the music feature. Like all Walkman models, the Sony Ericsson W580i has an excellent music player and a perfect sound quality.

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With a Candy-Bar design, the Samsung S5230 mobile phone Star is compact and light, and unlike its brother S5600, it is more rounded. The rest is very easy to confuse with other Omnia terminals, but this is Samsung’s policy: a lot of phone models with different names and similar aspect. With 104 x 53 x 11.0 mm in dimensions and 93.5 grams in weight, the Samsung S5230 mobile phone comes equipped with a resistive touch screen, unlike the LG Arena or iPhone, which have a capacitive display.

A welcome improvement is the material used on the back cover, which is more resistant to finger prints and dust. On the sides you will find a camera shutter, a HOLD key (allows you to unlock the phone screen), volume buttons (which can be used for menu navigation) and a USB port (allows you to attach headphones, charge the phone or connect it to a PC).

In connectivity terms, similar to the Samsung Corby, this mobile phone has a support for four GSM bands, EDGE and Stereo Bluetooth. Because it is not a smart phone, it lacks Wi-Fi, 3G and GPS support. The advantage is that it supports Mass Storage, which helps direct recognition of the phone and downloads content.  The Samsung S5230 mobile phone has 40 MB of free space but thanks to the microSD card slot, you can extend it up to 16 GB.

Other attractive features are that this phone is equipped with TouchWIZ UI, a lot of multimedia WidGets and an accelerometer for screen rotating, Face Detection, image stabilization, FM Radio with RDS and a special service for Shazam music recognition.

On the back side it has a 2 Megapixel camera, a camera sensor and a speaker. The back panel is XpressCover type and it can be replaced. In the standard package you will receive two such panels, each having different colors. On the sides you will find a camera shutter and screen lock button, located quite close to one another, which may disturb some users that will accidentally press both of them at the same time.

On the left you will find the volume control buttons and a universal port (which can be used to charge the phone, attach headphones or connect it at a PC). Perhaps a USB port would be much more efficient, but economic considerations have prevailed in this solution. Traditionally, this port is protected by a plastic dust cover.

In low or artificial light situations, you better quit to take photos because you will not be able to get clear pictures. The only feature that compensates the poor performance of the camera is the Face Detection, allowing you a better face capture. Camera’s interface is very well optimized for touch control and it is one of the most comfortable on a touch screen device.

The connectivity is one of the strongest points of this Samsung mobile phone. With support for four GMS bands, EDGE and Stereo Bluetooth, for this price segment, it can handle things more than honorable. Of course, it can be penalized for lack of Wi-Fi or 3G, but anyway, it is not a smart phone.



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When it comes to design, this smart phone is very similar to the first TyTN but it is more solid and it brings a lot of changes. The HTC TyTN II is neither small nor ultra-slim, having a case made of resistant plastic with 112 x 59 x 19 mm in dimensions and 190 grams in weight.  With a rubber-non-slippery back, rounded edges and a sliding spring-assisted mechanism, this mobile phone feels very comfortable in the hand and it is easy to use.  If you slide the display, a full QWERTY keyboard will be revealed. Anyway, from the front side, it looks exactly like a regular smart phone, having a 2.8 inch touch screen, a secondary camera for video-calls and some navigation keys placed below the display.

The 2.8 inch TFT touch screen has a native resolution of 240 x 320 pixels, the same resolution that other smart phones have. It supports 65K colors and handwriting recognition. Even if this display is not the best touch screen used on a smart phone ever, it is still very responsive and you will get a great quality of colors. For more accuracy, you can use the stylus pen which comes with this smart phone.

In photographic terms, the HTC TyTN II comes with an integrated 3.15 Megapixel camera which is capable of taking photos at a maximum resolution of 2048×1536 pixels and record clips with a speed of 30 fps. Because it lacks a flash, this camera can be useless if you want to take photos at night or if you are in a poorly lit room. The QWERTY keyboard is excellent. With 41 keys, including a Fn key, a Wi-Fi key and a My Documents key, this keyboard is very useful if you are a fast writer. The keys are large and offer positive feedback when you press them.

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The exterior finish of the phone is amazing, with a developed area, greatly decorated with a relief finish. A negative aspect is that the phone must be opened to access to its functions – while other phones that have rotary or sliding mechanisms have at least some navigation keys on the outside, so the phone can be used even when it is closed. With a case made of resistant plastic, with 88 x 43 x 23 mm in dimensions and 104 grams in weight, the Nokia 7373 seems to be a cell phone designed especially for women, but it fits great in your hands even if you are a man.

This camera can also record clips, but not at an awesome quality. This cell phone also has a competent music player, with a media player compatible with MP3, AAC, WMA and other popular formats. The audio quality is quite good, with simulated 3D sound from two speakers and stereo headphone jack.

An improvement for this phone is that Nokia manufacturer has added a MicroSD memory slot. This means you can extend the 8 MB of internal memory up to 2 GB to store MP3 tracks, photos or videos. In the package you will find a 128 MB card, which is enough for starters. The Nokia 7373 has all the other features that you might expect from a mid-level phone: Bluetooth and USB connectivity, high speed internet, high quality MP3 ringtones, headphones, speakerphone and Java games. Nokia 7373 phone is impressive, well above the 7370 version. It not only looks interesting, but it is also efficient. If battery life were better, it could be categorized in 5 Stars Category.

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In terms of size, the phone fits very well into the normal smart phone category.  It has 112 x 55 x 13 mm in dimensions and a total weight of 126 grams. To maintain a normal weight for Satio, the manufacturer has chosen a resistant and high-quality plastic which is available in three colors (black, silver and Bordeaux) and it makes this phone very solid and very attractive.

On the right side you will find five buttons: two buttons for volume and zoom, a camera shutter, a button for opening the gallery and a key which helps you switch the camera shooting modes. The power button is placed on the top and on the bottom part the Sony Ericsson Satio has a speaker.

When it comes to connectivity, the Sony Ericsson Satio is equipped with GPRS, EDGE, 3G and HSUPA features for data transfer and many other high-end features like Wi-Fi, DLNA Bluetooth, TV-out, USB 2.0 and GPS. Sony Ericsson’s web browser supports Flash and JavaScript Satio.

Powered by a powerful ARM Cortex A8 600 MHz, PowerVR SGX graphics processor and 256 MB of RAM memory, the Sony Ericsson Satio is capable of loading the pages quickly. The large screen is suitable for Internet use. I noticed however a problem when scrolling pages in the browser, running is not uniform. The browser can open multiple pages at once. He did well even with web pages that contain more flash applications.

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One of the Nokia N Series mobile phones which shocked the world being equipped only with top-technology features is the Nokia N70. With a case made of top-quality paint in a great combination between silver and black and a high-quality construction, this cell phone is very attractive. The Nokia N70 comes equipped with a 2.0 Megapixel camera, a 2.1 TFT display (with a native resolution of 176 x 208 pixels) and 22 MB of internal memory (which can be extended up to 8 GB with a RS-DV-MMC card). Powered by a TI OMAP 1710 220 MHz processor and having a Symbian OS 8.1a, Series 60 UI interface, the Nokia N70 is capable to run applications quickly without lag.

It comes equipped with a 2.1 inch TFT display (with a native resolution of 352 x 416 pixels), an external 65K colors display (with a native resolution of 128 x 128), a 2 Megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens and 64 MB of internal memory (which can be extended up to 8 GB with a RS-DV-MMC card).

But this mobile phone has its positive and its negative aspects as well. Powered by an Dual ARM 11 332 MHz processor; 3D Graphics HW Accelerator, 64 MB of RAM memory and having a Symbian OS 9.2, S60 rel. 3.1 interface, it runs very slow for a modern smart phone.