March 2009 Roundup
31st March 2009
March is usually a quiet month in the mobile
phone world. Most manufacturers make their big announcements in
February, but this year we have seen follow-up details emerging from
Samsung plus a few other announcements across the board.
Nokia
The
Nokia 5730 XpressMusic is a slight remix of the upcoming Nokia E75. It
tries to put a decently sized keyboard into a standard format phone,
and although it looks quite nice you will have to wait until Q3 to see
one. Launched alongside the 5730 is the Nokia 5330 XpressMusic, it's a
decently specified music phone.. but you might find it hard to get used
to the way it looks. Right down at the bottom end of the music phone
market is the Nokia 5030 XpressRadio. As the name suggests, there's no
MP3 player here - but this extremely inexpensive handset packs a good
quality radio and comes with excellent battery life.
Samsung
The
Samsung S5230 and S5600 raised the question: does the world need any
more black slabby touchscreen phones? Samsung seem to think so. These
two midrange touchscreens don't offer anything really exciting, so we
assume that they are competing on price.
The steel-clad
Samsung S3500 sells itself on safety features, and the dual-SIM Samsung
C5212 DUOS is their cheapest dual-SIM device to date. Russia is one major
target market for these two phones.
The
Samsung S7220 Lucido or Ultra b is a subdued but quite capable handset.
Why Samsung need several different names for the same product is a
mystery. More bizarrely, the Samsung i7410 comes with a built in
projector.. a clever idea, but is there really any point?
Then
there's the ultra-tough Samsung B2100, which is a phone that is
completely waterproof and joins a small number of very rugged handsets in
the marketplace.
Other manufacturers
The glossy Motorola
ZN300 looked interesting from the outside, but lacklustre
specifications mean that it has little lasting appeal. Then there's the
Sony Ericsson T707, a very shiny and attractive phone that again relies
more on good looks than technical features.
If you are looking
for something a bit different, then the Hyundai Mobile MB-910
wristwatch phone will make you feel like James Bond for a couple of
hundred Euro. But if you actually ARE James Bond, then perhaps the
gorgeous but fabulously expensive TAG Heuer MERIDIIST might be more for
you.
Finally, we looked at Astera 3D, a process for transforming
real phones into 3D computer models that potential customers can
actually play with on the web.
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