Camera Phones Plaza

Nokia 6500 has been widely expected by the thin phones users. When the first images with the phone appeared, many said that it was a phone made especially for women. I totally disagree with this statement, because the black version seems appropriate enough for a man who does not want a smartphone over 100 grams with him. Nokia 6500 looks really good and fits in any pocket. It comes with a generous 1 GB of internal memory and 3G technology. Even the phone box is quite thin. In the box we find only the minimum necessary: a charger, a microUSB cable, a handsfree, the manual and the software CD. The phone is available in two colors, black and bronze.

The design is quite nice. The case is made out of metal, so the phone is solid and gives the impression of quality. It has buttons on its sides, and everything is made using the numeric keypad. It does not even have a Start/stop button, because this function is done with the red button, which rejects calls. Although the keys are a bit small, I had no problems in using the phone. The menu is like the usual S40 menu from Nokia. It is clear and intuitive, so here it gains a plus. Besides the fact the menu is well organized, the phone has sufficient resources to run quickly. There usually are no blocking problems, and no noticeable delays when we launch certain functions or move from one menu to another.

The 2 inch screen has a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels. At how small it is, this resolution is more than sufficient and images or text look very clear. It is very well lit so you can see the screen well enough even in bright light. But do not think this is very good for those with eye problems. The screen is quite small so the text is also small.

With these small dimensions, I would have expected Nokia to have made a compromise on sound quality. However, the sound is excellent; even in noisy environments we can talk on the phone without problems. I think that the radio is weaker than in other larger phones.

The address book is easy to use, typing the first two - three letters you immediately find the contact you want to call. I do not understand why Nokia did not implement video calls because the phone is 3G anyway. They could have done it without being forced to install a front camera; you could have made video calls using only the back camera, as with another Nokia 3G phone - the Nokia 6630. About SMS / MMS, I have only good things to say. They have simplified their use as much as they could, so you only have the option "new message", without knowing if it is SMS or MMS. The explanation is the following: by default, it is a new SMS message. If you add a picture for example, it is automatically transformed into an MMS. You can manually interfere, and if you prefer, a very long text message can be sent as an MMS, instead of sending it as a sequence of several SMS.  If you are used to choosing "New SMS" or "New MMS" it is going to seem a little odd at first, but for those less technical it is easier that way.

The phone is not made for avid users of multimedia, but it can handle without problems a few pictures, songs or videos. I already said that the screen is small but has a good resolution. The images are therefore reasonable.

At the music chapter, things are slightly better but not perfect. The Music player is good and has many functions. It was originally used only on Nokia XpressMusic phones, and then they extended it to other devices. The problem is that you cannot use other headphones than the original ones, because the phone does not have a 3.5 mm slot. The headphones found in the box are medium quality headphones. If you use them occasionally is OK, but if you are a music freak you will not be too happy. Unfortunately, the phone does not have an FM radio. This function becomes standard on many new phones.  According to the fact that Nokia 6500 is not quite cheap I would have expected an FM radio.

The Video player is also quite good. I do not think that the small screen will help you watch any movies on your phone. The camera has 2 megapixels, but it is not the best. If you content to see the pictures on the phone screen or to send them by MMS, then this is no problem, you will be pleased; but if you transfer them to your computer, than you will see they do not have a great quality. Especially if there is not enough light, the digital noise is annoying. As if it was not enough, it has no autofocus, so do not think of close pictures being clear. It takes good seconds from the moment you press the button until the picture is saved in its memory and the next picture can be taken.

The phone supports both 3G and EDGE technology, so you can rely on the Internet at a reasonable speed. The HSDPA is missing, but this function helps a lot more business people who want to quickly browse the Internet from a laptop using the phone as a modem. Businessmen are not the target for Nokia 6500. The phone browser is reasonable, but cannot be compared to a smartphone browser. But it does its job when needed, and it is very useful when you do not have a computer close by. It is good that Opera Mini is already installed, I prefer this browser for rendering the pages better, even on small screen that Nokia 6500 has. Email can be used in the messages menu. It is an integrated client that supports POP3, IMAP and SMTP. I would not compare it to a mail client on a smartphone, but it works if you do not receive too many messages. Nokia 6500 does not have infrared port, but has Bluetooth.

This is definitely not a business phone, but the calendar is quite OK. You can add meeting events, and it has a "to-do list" too for deadline tasks.

The phone has some applications installed, but none of them impressed me. Do not think you will use it for mobile office, I cannot see how you could modify a PowerPoint file on a 2 inch screen. You can probably find some programs to view this file type, but you better get a smartphone if you work frequently with them.

I did not expect so many preinstalled games. Although they are old games, you can't get bored playing these games. Backgammon II and Snake are my favorites. Obviously, there are many other Java games available.

Nokia 6500 is excellent if you are looking for a phone that just looks good, is small and it can execute basic features easily. If you are an advanced multimedia user or you need business functions, this phone is clearly not for you. Use it for what it was designed, praise yourself that it looks good and be happy with it.

Sony Ericsson W350 is an entry-level phone and by that, I mean it is very simple, but after all it is a real Walkman. The phone was designed to look like an MP3 player, and this is reflected by the dedicated buttons it has. You should not expect things unseen from this phone, because, again, is only an entry level.

Here is the Sony Ericsson W350 review.

The phone measures 104 x 43 x 10.5 mm and weighs 80 grams, and that means it is a compact phone. It is a candybar phone, but with a flap, giving it a retro air. But this flap is something more special because it's not just decorative.

Being a candybar, the phones front is occupied by the screen and keyboard, which, in the case of the clamshell W350, is hidden above the flap mentioned above. The terminal is covered in quality plastic. Sony Ericsson W350's screen is 1.9 inches and has 256,000 colors and the 176 x 220 pixels resolution. Above it we have the Sony Ericsson logo and the speaker, and under it the light sensor. The flap covering the keyboard has specific controls for a music player, Play / Stop, Fast Forward and Fast Backward, which is one of the features of an MP3 player that we discussed earlier.

Under the clamshell, we find the D-pad and the standard alphanumeric keypad. The D-pad is composed of four buttons plus the navigation key in the middle. The first two buttons below the display correspond to Calls Menu and Main Menu, but according to navigation menu it can change its functions. Under these, we have the Return button and the C (Cancel) button, which is also used to turn on/off the phone. The keyboard is quite usable but it has little inconveniences. Even if the keys are quite flat, the flap makes writing a message to be a little bit more difficult. The sides of Sony Ericsson W350 do not have many buttons. The left one presents the dedicated Walkman button and peripheral attachment slot, headphones, USB cable and charger. The right side has just the volume control buttons and the top presents a hole for attaching the safety strap and a key lock button, another feature of an MP3 player. The lower side does not present any button. It has just the Walkman logo.

The backside of the phone is somehow more generous. Here we find a 1.3 MP camera, a player speakerphone and a cap that covers the standard battery Lithium-Po 780 mAh, which can hold up to 300 hours in standby mode and up to 7 hours talk time. I found out that the standby time and the talk time Sony Ericsson gave are correct. Also under the cap we find the microSD card slot and the SIM card slot. The annoying part is the removal of the battery system that requires shakes when it moves away from its place.

As I said earlier, Sony Ericsson W350 is an entry level. In this case, his brain will not be super-functional. In standby mode, the screen displays the signal, the battery status, the mobile phone operator and the menus. Once we are in the menu, we see that this is the standard Sony Ericsson style with icons placed in 4 x 3 matrixes. Even though newer walkman models have flash interface and come with File Manager submenu removed, in this model, it is still present, but this may be good news.

The phone can be customized with different themes or wallpapers, but according to this, the menu could not react very well, and by that, I mean that the menu navigation could be followed by a slight vibration when one of the submenus is selected

Even if it is a small phone, Sony Ericsson W350 supports SMS, EMS, MMS, E-mail and IM. As we have already got used to it, SMS, MMS and EMS share a mailbox, e-mails having a separate inbox. E-mail can support standard protocols POP3, IMAP4 and SPTM.



As I said earlier, this phone was designed to be a true MP3 player. So far, we have seen that the terminal has dedicated buttons for all this, but let's see how things are inside. Sony Ericsson W350 comes equipped with the latest version of the Walkman, and that is 3.0. Unfortunately, the phone has an internal memory of only 14 MB and it does not come with a too generous microSD card, but only 512 MB one. You can always make an upgrade up to 2 GB.

But let us focus on the sound quality for a moment. W350 comes with its own headphones in the package, which is good, but they are not the Walkman headphones that the most of us love, those "caps", and this time we have to deal with those normal headphones, still they are much more convenient than other versions from other companies. The phone offers an external speaker. The speaker as well as the headphones offers a good sound quality. Sony Ericsson W350 does not lack the TrackID function, which allows identifying any songs by recording them, and then sending them into a database and the Sony Ericsson MegaBass equalizer. In addition, the terminal will always enter into the music player mode when it is closed, because this is the phone's default standby mode.



It is no longer necessary to repeat what this phone is and why it has such a modest camera. The terminal is equipped with a 1.3 megapixel camera without autofocus and without flash. The images are captured at a maximum resolution of 1280 x 1024 pixels, so you have to find the perfect light, because otherwise you will have problems in this chapter. However, even in these conditions, the phone supports picture effects such as negative or black and white. Here another thing should be mentioned, and that is the video capture capabilities.

The Sony Ericsson W350 phone has the GPRS and EDGE technology, (both Class 10) that are more than sufficient. The screen is quite small and surfing on the internet with such a display would let the nerves heavy. The good news is that the navigation is using the WAP 2.0 XHTML and HTML (NetFront) technology. Checking e-mails or quick searching on the internet is an easy task for W350, but that is it.



An entry-level will always remain an entry-level. From this Sony Ericsson W350 review I know that those of you who want more will never be satisfied with a 1.3 megapixel camera or a memory of 14 MB. Those who want a standard phone, Sony Ericsson W350 could be one of the phones on their list, especially in the music chapter W350 is one of the best MP3 players on the market today. And besides, the quality-price is ideal.

Sony Ericsson W810i is W800s twin model, but in addition, it was equipped with support for the EDGE technology, and the menu has undergone several modifications. All other applications have remained untouched. W810i was released to customers that have not found in W800 everything they have ever wanted from a cell phone. However, the new model has only one major change and that is the connectivity options of this device, the rest is more or less identical to W800. The people at Sony Ericsson ignored the EDGE technology for some time. They explained the absence of this technology on European production line by the fact that this transfer standard is still not very popular in Europe. Moreover, many providers do not even have EDGE technology support in their networks. It seems, however, that fans desire has been heard and fulfilled by Sony Ericsson, so as mentioned above, the manufacturer has changed the market philosophy and has implemented the EDGE technology into all new models, including the case of the Sony Ericsson W810i.

The dimensions of the phone remained almost the same, the new model is slimmer by 1mm. The camera lenses mounted on the back of the phone are not as convex as the W800. They are not protected by a sliding cover, which is an inconvenience, but, hopefully dirt won't have much impact on image quality. The camera is equipped with two LEDs, which serve as a flash. The LEDs can be switched on from  the camera application or from the main menu. They can be set to illuminate constantly for a minute or even to send SOS signals. They're quite strong, so they're able to illuminate a whole room.

The key speaker is just below the camera lens. Sound performance does not become bad when it lies on its back on a flat surface, because surface around the speaker is a little raised. The portrait mirror is not silver as usual, but orange, it is a very interesting solution, and the Walkman logo inlaid on the battery cover is quite attractive.

The black design does not attract so much attention, as it happened with the W800. Sony Ericsson W810i looks more like a sport model than a trendy device. It gives this impression probably because of the orange and silver elements inlaid in the phone shell. The top of the device presents the infrared and the shutdown button. On the left side where the Sony Walkman logo is found, we also see the Play/Pause button and the memory stick slot covered with a rubber cap. To remove the card the protective cover must be opened and the memory stick must be pressed inside. This is a Memory Stick Duo Pro, and by purchasing the phone you  get  a card with a capacity of 512 MB, in package, which in the case of SE W810i is more a necessity than a luxury, considering that is a music player in the first place. The card can be removed even when the phone is switched on, being able to change memory cards quickly.



The volume keys and the camera button can be found on the right side of the device. At the bottom of the phone, we find a fast microphone connector port.

The numeric keys work flawlessly and because of that writing a message is a pleasure. Keys are distributed evenly and enough space is left between them. No deviations or extravagant curves can be found. The most important changes were made to the functionality of the keyboard. The phone has no joystick, and in its place a 4 navigation keys and the confirmation button in the middle were chosen. Each navigation key, including the middle button, was associated to one special feature in the music player. The symbols of these special functions are engraved on the navigation keys so there is a play symbol, a fast forward symbol and so on. Contextual keys and correction key C can be found on two additional rings, which fit perfectly with the main navigation key. On the edge of the phone there is a button that provides direct access to the music player and a direct access button for the menu. The edges of the phone are slightly convex and raised, and the function keys mentioned above are in their own traces.



We must not forget the battery; unfortunately, its properties are slightly different from W800s. The player, being the most energy consuming application, decreases battery efficiency at less than two days, which is too little for a phone with a music player. According to the declaration of the producer, Sony Ericsson W810i can provide up to 350 hr in standby mode and 480 minutes talk time. However, it should be kept in mind that an intensive use will shorten the load cycles to half the times displayed above. W800 has the same type of Li-Pol battery, only that for this model, the producer mentioned 400 h in standby mode and 540 minutes talk time, so for those who tried the W800 model they can certainly make an idea about the capability of the W810 battery. When a SIM card is inserted or the battery is removed a quarter of the rear case must be removed. The battery can be removed and inserted without too much difficulty, but the SIM card may even be a problem. Both building solutions contribute to the phone strength and demonstrates how well the phone is developed around the case. The phone does not cause any scratch indifferent how hard it is pressed. There are no unnecessary spaces in construction. It is just wonderful.



Unfortunately, the purchase package does not contain any material for polishing the screen. Fingerprints are visible everywhere and, at the same time, the screen can be easily scratched because the screen surface has no protection. The screen is beautiful, resolution and size have nothing particular, it is simply a normal TFT. These two details, however, create a fascinating picture of 176x220 pixels. Graphics design has suffered several changes, mostly cosmetic. As usual, the phone has four preinstalled themes, if you want more themes, you can download them from the internet.

Listening to music through headphones does not exclude the simultaneous use of other applications. Even if you run more than one application at the same time, the menu speed rate remains the same. The other incredible moment is when you use the headphones because the more you use them the more you will be satisfied and you will not want them out. The main function of the phone is the MP3 player. It can be started using either the icon in the menu or the orange button above the navigation key. In fact, you do not even have to start the phone to use the player, because every time the phone is switched on, the user is asked if he wants to use only the mp3 player or the entire phone. Fortunately, the user can choose this question.



The camera can be activated either by selecting it from the menu or if the shutter button is long pressed. The phone must be held horizontally, just like a digital camera. When the shutter button is pressed, the phone needs 2-3 seconds to focus. The phone is still a slow one comparing to its competitors, but the effort is worth it, the phone takes pictures and the excellent macro mode also offers outstanding performance.

An addition to this phone is the EDGE Class 10. Internet connection is ensured by the CSD and HSCSD, or the GPRS Class 10. PC Sync works great, standard connection speed is 115 kb / s, and the connection as well as the PC Suite software is fairly stable.

Nokia 5310 XpressMusic is one of the most popular representatives of the music phones series from Nokia. What makes the 5310 XpressMusic to be special? It is a little phone, slim, feature-rich. Moreover, it has a good price. It is very suitable for those who need a medium mobile environment, an everyday phone, and who often listen to music on the phone.

The package, in which the Nokia 5310 comes, includes primarily the supplied charger and the user guide. In addition, we have a handsfree consists of two parts: one part with the remote and the jack, and a second part that is the headset itself. A big plus is the microUSB cable, used to connect the cell phone to your PC, along with the CD for the drivers and the software suite. Considering that the standard microUSB is not so widespread right now, we can say that Nokia has made the correct choice by providing the data cable in the standard package.

This Nokia cell phone is ideal for listening to music and it can easily compete with Sony Ericsson phones in the Walkman series. We love the thin design and the lightweight, a good, practical keyboard and an attractive look (you can choose between red or blue). Nokia 5310 XpressMusic has a fully loaded music player and FM radio, up to 4 GB of memory for storing your music, a 2 megapixel camera and Bluetooth connectivity.

The battery life is below average and some users have reported a software problem, but nevertheless, Nokia 5310 XpressMusic deserves to be taken into account. Oh, yes! Nokia XpressMusic has evolved and Sony Ericsson would better watch out. Nokia 5310 XpressMusic is a music phone with a classic shape and it is available in a choice of red or blue. It is a thin phone, only 9.9 mm and has a beautiful and practical design with a conventional keyboard of the right size plus 5 navigation keys (Sony Ericsson take note!). There are three dedicated music keys placed on the edge of the 5310 XpressMusic phone screen and along the side of the phone, we find the volume keys. The oblique edge makes the cell phone easy to hold in the palm, and red or blue stripes are funky, but not extraordinary. We like the look, we like the feeling. Nokia XpressMusic is definitely one of the phones you can enjoy even when it is turned off, is small and quite easy enough to be worn anywhere in the pocket of your jeans, your shirt or your bag.

It is basically a music phone, and comes with a music player with all the features of a player and FM radio. This music player has support for playlists, albums, and an equalizer. You can listen to your music using built-in loudspeaker (which does not sound that good) or it is better to use the stereo headset that you received when buying the phone or an optional headset. Its quality is good, but for those who really want to enjoy the best sound, this 3.5 mm audio connector makes it possible to use other headphones and superior quality differences are obvious. Also, because of the A2DP support, you can listen to your favorite music using a Bluetooth wireless headset. We can not forget about the presence of the FM radio, which uses the same interface with the music player. RDS support is also present. Nokia 5310 XpressMusic has a new audio chip upgrade, and the quality of the sound is impeccable. Seriously, the music player is as easy to use as a Walkman phone from Sony Ericsson, or as a simple MP3 player. We like that it has a decent internal memory (30 MB), but you will definitely want to add a memory card to increase the storage space. Nokia 5310 supports microSD cards up to 4 GB.  A 4 GB memory card is enough to store about 1,000 songs. The memory cards are really cheap, so there is no reason not to try to reach the maximum available capacity of the phone.

However, 5310 XpressMusic is not just a music phone. This is just the most important feature. Besides the possibility of phone calls and listen to music, you do everything you expect from a mid-range mobile phone that has no 3G support. The camera has a 2 megapixels resolution. It lacks the flash, which is a shame, but if there is enough light it can take some good quality picture. The Nokia XpressMusic screen has an exceptional quality with a high resolution, as good as any other phone of this price range. Although Nokia 5310 XpressMusic is not a 3G phone it supports fast downloads using the EDGE technology and has a preinstalled internet browser (Opera Mini Browser), so you can surf the Internet, and the screen is big enough to make this possible. The Nokia XpressMusic comes with 3 games already installed and you can also download more Java games. It can even be personalized with animated screensavers, wallpapers and themes that can be downloaded into the phone from the internet or from your computer.

If there is a problem with the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic, that is the battery life. Nokia claims that the phone can remain in standby up to 300 hours - that means 12.5 days. Not true! You can use this phone approximately 1 or 2 days, depending on how often you use its various functions. Since Nokia 5310 XpressMusic is a music phone, perhaps you will use it very much and you will need to recharge it almost every day. Well you must get over it - it is a thin phone with a large LCD display and many features. The life of the battery is similar to any phone of this type. If it is important for you to have a phone with a longer battery life, then buy another phone (definitely not a thin one - maybe a SE W810i or a SE W910i). A number of users complained that the phone freezes or reboots itself. So something like that is unacceptable, and if it happens to you, take the phone back to the store. If it happens again, ask for another phone.

It is very clear that the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic is a great mobile that includes all the needed features and meets the multimedia demands of a very broad class of users. The music player is up to the requirements for a dedicated phone in this segment, but the external speaker sound could it be something more powerful.

The device has a very good price-performance ratio, and a rich package of features. It could be better, but perhaps the price would have been different. Nokia 5310 XpressMusic is a phone that I can recommend to anyone.

It is distinguished by: music player quality, light weight (71 grams), slim design - only 9.9 mm thick, dedicated buttons for playback control, audio output 3.5 mm jack, A2DP profile support, FM radio stereo with RDS, microSD card slot (1GB or 2GB card included), a 16 million colors display with QVGA resolution, S40 interface - 5th edition.

Disappoints by: lack of 3G, video recording - at very low resolution, the operating speed of the camera is small, low autonomy compared with the announced, memory slot is under the shell.

A smartphone is a mobile phone that has almost the same features as a computer provides. Talking at the phone and text messaging has become crucial since the phone has begun to exist and that's because it's easier with a mobile phone to communicate. But the scientists wanted to transform the mobile phone as a thing you can't live without. So they started to search for ways to improve the phone's services, such that you can use it all the time. So there it is; they have started to implement the MIDI songs, polyphonic ones, then the player for music appeared, then the MP3 support and many other features. So this is how they have discovered the smartphone by implementing features as internet connections, email system, GPS and many others.

You should ask yourself now: "What roles play smartphones in education?"

Referring to our young generation, we should add that there aren't many teenagers that don't own a mobile phone. More than that, you can see at some of them the most sophisticated phones with unbelievable capabilities.

Sometimes I am thinking about how it feels to return to our classic cell phones again? With fewer competences but, the majority of us have to admit that we use or phones just for having conversations and for writing text messages. But scientists don't agree that and for selling their ideas, they have to give a sense to those functions they are implementing so, now, they are trying to convince us that Smartphones can be useful in our education.

For long time ago, I remember that the only thing we did need in our education was just the big blackboard, the used notebooks and many many pencils to use them when writing your kilometer-length homework. Seems nowadays they don't use anymore those standard notebooks, those cheap pencils and everything became more complicated. Instead of notebooks they are using A4 papers, instead of cheap pencils they are using pencils which must have a cool design or else it can't be used and of course, the homework on math isn't solved by them with hard work and paying lot of attention - they now use the computer to solve equations and many others.

But the job with the PC became somehow complicated because they felt the need to use the computer all the time and there were situations in which they couldn't access the machine. So, their parents started to buy them laptops considering is for their good and education to have one. But as the technology developed, they found out that laptops don't worth anymore. They are heavy and more than this, with a smartphone, you can complete the tasks you did with the help of your computer/laptop and you can also use it as a mobile phone. So, scientists tried to combine the computer features with the ones of the mobile phone and it resulted a big project and of course, and expensive one.

Now let's see how students can now use the smartphones in education?

First of all, with the help of internet feature that the smartphone provides, students can have permanently access to some virtual textbooks - because teachers thought it's less expensive to read a freeware book or courses on internet than to pay for buying or copying them on Xerox.

Then the teachers thought it might be helpful to have a virtual catalog for marks and to fill there the students marks, because students' parents don't have enough time to go on school and to verify the kid's situation in education. So with the help of a smartphone connected to the internet, parents may access a database with their kids' marks and presences.

Of course, another impact of internet in education is the interactive courses. So, instead of using a handout with lots of writing, they can use videos and photos from online sources to share with the students and make them understand better.

Because someone thought the courses are important anytime and not all of use may get every time to the course. So with the help of internet, there can be created online classes with online courses and why not online attendance. So, if you cannot get to a course, you just use your smartphone and connect to the course and they guarantee you an attendance of 100%.

For each class and course, teachers may develop some websites for smartphones that can be useful for their students. On these sites, students can register, logon, and then have access to their courses. Teachers can add there some class notifications, notes and others.

The usage of smartphones in education has no limits. There are several ways in which smartphones can help the education to do its job and nowadays technology is often used by students because their teachers use it too and there is no other way to understand the education than following your teacher's example.