Mobile Digest

Nokia's 3650 - slight return

Quite possibly our least favourite smartphone of last year is apparently getting a facelift. According to website Mobile Burn, the Nokia 3650 is to rise phoenix-like from the ashes and return in the guise of the 3660. While the new model still keeps that rather nasty curvy design Nokia has at least done the decent thing and got shot of the 3650’s ridiculous circular number pad. Nokia is also likely to update the screen to 65K colours and maybe tweak some of the handset’s camera facilities.

No news on a launch, or even if this is a genuine product, but the company has a press conference lined up next week, so maybe that’s when we’ll hear for definite.

Three's flagship handset

Over at The Guardian Three's top-end handset, the Motorola A920, gets a thorough going over. There's also a few words about Motorola's other new phone, the Windows Mobile powered MPx200.

To read the review click here

Handspring debuts killer smartphone

It has been a busy few days for Orange. Earlier in the week the network unveiled the Motorola/Microsoft smart phone – the MPx200. Now it has announced a second smartphone this time using the Palm operating system in the Handspring Treo 600.

Already highly regarded in the US we think this phone is likely to become a huge seller here.

Its key is its size. Sure it looks and feels like a PDA, and has all those handy Palm applications (it runs Palm OS 5.2.1) plus compatibility with a huge number of downloads for the OS. Yet Handspring/Orange has shrunk the phone so it is small enough to be pocketable. It comes in at 11.2 x 6 x 2.2cm and weighs around 170g.

Another bonus is the keypad, which is on the whole very easy to use and the rocker-style navigation switch. The only thing we didn’t like about the design was the large protruding aerial at the top.

Handspring/Orange has also kept the feature-count high.

* POP3 e-mail with multiple accounts
* Push e-mail, so messages are sent straight to the device when they arrive on the server
* Internet access via its Blazer browser
* 160x160 colour display
* VGA camera
* Polyphonic ringtones
* SDIO slot (so users can add Bluetooth/Wi-fi cards)
* Pocket Tunes MP3 player

Perhaps the only thing users might feel short-changed about is a not especially fast processor (144MHz Texas Instruments ARM OMAP), just 32MB of memory - way behind recent Palm PDAs.

Best of all is its very competitive price of around £300.

It goes on sale in October.

Sony Ericsson 3G phone on its way?

It has been rumoured for a while, but now it seems a cert, UK 3G phone network Three is set to add Sony Ericsson's Z1010 phone to its range, probably in January.

Premiered at the GSM Expo in Cannes in February, the Z1010 is a clamshell phone that is significantly smaller than the other 3G handsets avaialble via Three.

It boasts Three's key Video Calling facility courtesy of a pair of integrated cameras. Other features include MPEG4 (video) and MP3 (audio) playback, a front display, 65K colour main display, MMS and Bluetooth.

Read more from 3G.co.uk

Sony Ericsson's new phones

Sony Ericsson has today taken the wraps off its line up of Christmas phones, but in spite of rumours to the contrary there’s no announcement of a replacement for its P800 high-end smart phone.

Instead there’s a camera phone with gaming facilities and two low-end handsets aimed at the budget market. All three models will go on sale in the UK in Q4.

Here are the three models

Z600
Clamshell design with a built in camera – designed to take on Sharp’s GX20, Motorola’s V600 and Samsung’s E700. Features include

MMS
65k colour screen
Bluetooth
Triple band
Polyphonic sound/Music DJ editor
Front screen
Java
200 hours standby, six hours talktime

Z200
Got a sneak preview of this recently courtesy of one of the networks. It has a really weird design - kind of chunky and curved. There’s also a strap at the top so fashion conscious Scandinavian types can hang their phone round their neck. You don’t get an integrated camera (although it is compatible with click-on snappers), but you do get

4K colour screen
MMS
Changeable covers
4.5 hours talk time, 200 hours standby

T230 Budget model. No clamshell just a traditional SE candy bar design. It does have

MMS
Embedded and downloadable games
32 Polyphonic sounds
13 hours talktime, 300 hours standby

The real Becks phone

Unlike us here at Tech Digest, it appears David Beckham hasn't yet taken delivery of his new Sharp GX20 camera phone. Surely some mistake as in this image from Yahoo's sports website he is using a Siemens SL55. The rather tasty sliding mini handset is probably a freebie as Beck's new club, Real Madrid is sponsored by Siemens. Still, someone from Vodafone/Sharp better get on the case pronto.

The Becks phone killers

We might have given it a rave review last week, but we’ll admit that the Sharp GX20, you know the latest version of the Vodafone Becks camera phone, could face some stiff opposition. Sure none of the line up of camera phones we’ve seen in the last few weeks can match its superb screen, but there are handsets coming soon that could may have the edge on other areas. Here’s a few to keep your eyes out for including new models from Nokia, Motorola, Samsung and others

Motorola V600 – Motorola’s best handset for well over the year, the V600 revives the clamshell form factor of the classic V60 yet adds an integrated camera, Bluetooth, video and Java. It is very compact for a camera handset and its black and silver facia with the company’s Batman style logo looks amazing too.

Samsung E700 – A stunning camera phone that certainly has the edge over the GX20 in terms of its design. We especially like its really cool front facia/screen and the way its antenna is incorporated into the handset. The lens is in an unusual place too on the top of the flip up part of the front. It is quite possibly the smallest camera phone on sale too. We reckon it will fly out of the stores.

Panasonic X70 – The successor to the popular GD87, the X70’s trump card is its photo light which improves images taken in poor lighting conditions - although, it obviously doesn't work as well as a flash. It’s a little on the large side when compared with the Samsung and the Motorola, and we would like to have seen a few new features too.

LG 7100 – One of the most unusual handsets we’ve seen in a while, LG’s debut UK phone sports a screen that swivels round – you can even have the main display at the front of the handset. Bizarrely the camera lens is at the side of the phone too. Yet its major boast is that it is the first handset to feature an integrated flash. A bit off the wall for our tastes but it has the makings of a cult phone.

Orange SPV2 – The third version of the SPV is identical to its predecessor (the E-100) with the exception that the SPV 2 features an integrated camera and has Bluetooth facilities. Definitely a handset on our shopping list.

Nokia 6600 – Top-end smartphone with an unusual design. It is wide to accommodate its large-ish screen, yet extremely thin. Packed with features it includes an integrated camera, video, Bluetooth, full web browsing and a 65K colour screen. It will go head to head both the SPV 2 and Siemens, similarly sized smartphone the SX1. It’ll be interesting to see how it fares.

The new Sony Ericsson P800?

A Spanish website is claiming to have images and details of a revamped version of Sony Ericsson's popular P800 smartphone. It will apparently be called either the P810 or P900 and launch in Europe before Christmas (Vodafone seems the most likely network). It features the following revisions to the original

* Much better screen - 65k colours to put it in line with handsets like the Sharp GX20
* Smaller, thinner and generally much cooler casing
* Proper metallic stylus (not the rubbish plastic one on the P800)
* Real removable keypad
* Symbian OS 7

The phone certainly needs a revamp as it will face stiff opposition this autumn from the Orange SPV2, Treo 600 and Nokia 6600.

more from

www.clubsonyericsson.com/en/products_p810.htm