The Phonematchup Blog: everything you ever wanted to know about the latest cell phones. High-tech gadgetry, quality writing, and more! tag:www.phonematchup.com,2010://1 2010-01-05T19:01:58Z PhoneMatchup: Find the best prices on the latest phones. PhoneMatchup tag:www.phonematchup.com,2010://1.64 2009-12-01T0:00:00Z 2009-12-01T0:00:00Z

Symbian Fifth Edition, Nokia's first attempt at a touch-screen platform operating system, never really cut it. While the more budget handsets could get away with a subpar touch user experience, the N97, Nokia's first high-end smartphone to use the new OS, ultimately failed. It wasn't so much that the OS was bad, there were just a lot of far better alternatives out there, like the Palm Pre, a number of HTC touch-screen devices, the Droid, and of course, everyone's favorite iPhone.

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There's a lot here. We've got 32 gigabytes of internal storage, 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, a large 3.5" touch display, and 3D graphics acceleration. Unlike previous Nokias, there's oodles upon oodles of memory (256 RAM with 768 MB of virtual memory). The browser is Mozilla-based, and supports full Flash 9.4 along with the standard HTML/XHTML, CSS, and Javascript (+AJAX).

Battery life is quite decent, and lasts about 5 hours on 3G, and 9 hours on GSM.

Connectivity is a little strange, however. For the N900, Nokia opted to use the 1700 mhz band (essentially, T-mobile's 3G band in the USA) instead of going with AT&T's 850/1900 3G combination. This can be seen as a plus, or a minus depending on which network you prefer. The way I see it, however, is that T-mobile users have been left out in the cold for every Nseries and Eseries model ever produced - so it's all fair.

Let's also talk about what the N900 is missing. That list currently includes MMS support and portrait mode, and I can't really seem to find any good reason why the second wasn't implemented.

Sadly, the biggest problem with the N900 right now is simply finding one.]]> tag:www.phonematchup.com,2010://1.63 2009-10-16T0:00:00Z 2009-10-16T0:00:00Z

It's highly unusual when we write about a non-GSM phone exclusive to one of the least liked wireless carriers on the planet. But this is the Palm Pre, and the sheer amount of hype that has been generated by the Pre rivals only Apple's flagship phone. To say that the Pre is anticipated is, pretty much, understatement of the year.

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At first glance, the Pre looks like an HTC Touch phone. It's got a iPhone-ish capacitive touch-screen, and slides open to reveal a smallish QWERTY keyboard. Under the hood, however, is an ARM Cortex 600 mhz processor, with plenty of computing power and snappy performance. Add to that a decent 3.2 megapixel camera, GPS, Bluetooth 2.1, and wi-fi, and the Pre is looking to be one of the few serious contenders to Apple's juggernaut.

However, like many a device before the Pre, battery life is a huge issue, and the smartphone loses a couple of points for its mediocre 1150 mAh battery which cranks out a mere 5 hours of talk time. For such a serious multimedia device, we'd expected better.]]> tag:www.phonematchup.com,2010://1.62 2009-07-29T0:00:00Z 2009-07-29T0:00:00Z

Let's be honest here: HTC didn't exactly go nuts upgrading the Touch Pro. While the touch-screen is now bigger than before (480x800, instead of 480x640), and tilted at an angle, the innards are pretty much the same. Qualcomm 528 mhz processor? Check. 288 megabytes of internal memory? Check. 3.2 megapixel camera? Check. Uh?

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New to the Touch Pro series is a touch-sensitive zoom bar, slightly more battery life (30 minutes of talk time more), and some minor acoustic improvements (noise cancellation and full duplex sound). Besides that, expect all of the bells and whistles that made the the original so popular.]]> tag:www.phonematchup.com,2010://1.61 2009-06-15T0:00:00Z 2009-06-15T0:00:00Z

The first Omnia touch-screen phone didn't leave much of an impression on users. Despite having some cutting-edge hardware early on in the game, the phone suffered from a lousy integration with Windows Mobile 6.1, sluggish performance, and that general "wow" factor.

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Windows Mobile 6.1 no longer graces this phone, and instead the Omnia HD uses the Nokia-approved Symbian S60 operating system, fifth edition. This of course brings up a completely different set of GUI bugs, interface flaws, and other problems, but it's still a huge improvement over WiMo.

So why is it called the Omnia HD? Not because of the extra-large screen, but because of the potential to record video in 720p HD glory (@ 24 fps). That alone is impressive, and the camera - an 8 megapixel shooter with features competitive to consumer digital cameras - simply blows us away.

We could go on and on about the CPU (now a 600 megahertz monster, complete with a 3D graphics accelerator chip), battery life (10 hours on GSM, 6.5 on 3G), audio (3.5mm audio jack included, and virtual 5.1 Dolby surround sound), or any of the multitude of features that come standard on the Omnia HD, but let's just say: this phone does everything. Now provided that Samsung hasn't screwed up the user experience, we think they've got a winner.]]> tag:www.phonematchup.com,2010://1.60 2009-06-08T0:00:00Z 2009-06-08T0:00:00Z

It's here. Nokia started shipments of the flagship Nokia N97 smartphone earlier this month, with the phone slated to begin selling within the next several weeks. The N97 is, quite possibly, one of the most eagerly awaited handsets released by Nokia. Let's see why.

phonematchup www.phonematchup.com Xperia X1's arc slider, the actual implementation is completely different.

It's also worth noting that the screen itself is larger than the 5800 XpressMusic's 3.2 inch display. At 3.5 inches with 16 million colors supported, the N97's widescreen size is near the upper end of the spectrum.

The keyboard is a three-row QWERTY, with 33 keys and a five-way directional pad. It's small, and the odd position of the spacebar (to the right of the m key, instead of below) may be a hindrance to some typists.

Battery life is one of the N97's strongest points, with the 1500 mAh lithium-ion churning out up to 9.5 hours of talk time on GSM, and up to 6 hours on 3G.

And storage is another. Internal memory clocks in at a gigantic 32 gigabytes, and further expandable with the standard microSD slot which supports another 16 gigabytes. So you could be walking around with 48 gigabytes of storage space on your space - a number previously unheard of in a mobile phone.

One area that hasn't really gotten much of an upgrade is the camera. At 5 megapixels, it's not much better than the oldschool Nokia N95, despite huge gains in mobile device imaging technology in the past couple of years.

Of course, connectivity is still a huge factor, and the N97 has support for 3G, WLAN, and Bluetooth 2.0.]]> tag:www.phonematchup.com,2010://1.59 2009-05-28T0:00:00Z 2009-05-28T0:00:00Z

When it comes to smartphones, and particularly touch-screen smartphones, Apple is king. However, with only one phone (well, two) under the company's belt, Apple can't quite compare to HTC when it comes to smartphone variations - the Taiwan-based semiconductor company has practically every type of smartphone ever invented in its portfolio.

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The standard touch features available on most of HTC's touch devices are also present: TouchFLO 3D, HTC's finger swipe interface, accelerometer with auto-rotation, and handwriting recognition.

New to the phone is a Zoom Bar, a dedicated area just outside of the screen, a microSD slot, better camera (5 megapixel vs 3.2), manual touch focus, and a bigger battery. However, that battery actually translates into less talk time (5 hours vs 5.5 hours), which is a little bit of a disappointment.

It might also be important to note that the Diamond2 runs Windows Mobile 6.1, like any other WM device out there right now. The next version of the OS, Windows Mobile 6.5, won't be available until sometime later this year.]]> tag:www.phonematchup.com,2010://1.58 2009-02-07T0:00:00Z 2009-02-07T0:00:00Z

Rumors swirled around the internet for years predicting the existence of a GooglePhone. In the end, the rumors were true - to a point. Instead of producing an actual mobile device, Google did what Google does best: creating an intuitive software operating system that could compete with Apple's OS X.

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There are some minor inconveniences, however. Like the first iteration of the iPhone, there are some features that just weren't added or overlooked (such as the lack of A2DP), and some of the bugginess that comes with a first generation handset.

And while the number of applications for the Android operating system is nowhere near Apple's iPhone App Store count, Android applications have the distinct advantage of being completely free.]]> tag:www.phonematchup.com,2010://1.57 2009-02-01T0:00:00Z 2009-02-01T0:00:00Z

The original LG Prada was widely hailed as the first full touch-screen phone. While the phone itself had few redeeming features, LG's partnership with Italian fashion house Prada paved the way for future generations of touch-screen devices. And now, two years later, the KF900 is LG's newest touch-screen handset. Is it a worthy successor to an evolutionary phone or simply another iClone?

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And now, two years later, the KF900 is LG's newest touch-screen handset. Is it a worthy successor to an evolutionary phone or simply another iClone?]]>
The camera has been improved considerably, with the Prada now sporting a 5 megapixel sensor, with flash, autofocus, and 30 fps video recording, and support for 16 gigabyte microSD cards.

While the "old" Prada had limited connectivity options, the KF900 is now a quad-band phone complete with 3G (900/2100), Bluetooth 2.1 (A2DP), and WLAN.

Unfortunately, the KF900 is still missing a real operating system.]]> tag:www.phonematchup.com,2010://1.56 2008-12-29T0:00:00Z 2008-12-29T0:00:00Z

When you're a phone manufacturer on the verge of going bankrupt, what's the best recipe for success? If you answered "design a $1999 phone," then congratulations: you're right! Motorola's fortunes in the past couple of years have fallen considerably, in part due to some pretty lackluster cell phones. But in its latest attempt to jumpstart its device portfolio, the company released the Aura, a highest-of-the-highest end swiveling handset with a price tag of $1999.

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Motorola's fortunes in the past couple of years have fallen considerably, in part due to some pretty lackluster cell phones. But in its latest attempt to jumpstart its device portfolio, the company released the Aura, a highest-of-the-highest end swiveling handset with a price tag of $1999.]]>
Like most luxury handsets, the Aura opts for a simple feature list, including a 2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth 2.0 (A2DP supported), and 2 gigabytes of internal memory (no external).]]> tag:www.phonematchup.com,2010://1.55 2008-12-28T0:00:00Z 2008-12-28T0:00:00Z

Nokia's first real touch-screen media smartphone isn't meant to compete with the higher-end offerings by Apple, HTC, LG, and Samsung. Instead, the company is focusing its efforts on the larger, potentially more lucrative emerging markets. Yet the 5800 XpressMusic is no mere budget phone.

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Since the phone was built under the XpressMusic name, we're glad to see that there's the standard 3.5mm stereo jack, as well as stereo speakers and support for the A2DP Bluetooth profile.

With a talk time of up to 8.75 hours (GSM) and 1320 mAh battery, Nokia has certainly pulled out the stops - and the 5800 XpressMusic keep you rockin' and rollin' 'til the cows come home.]]>