Nokia 5235 Comes With Music

The Nokia 5235 Comes With Music is a low cost touchscreen smartphone with a large display, and 12 or 18 months of free music downloads from Nokia's Comes With Music service.

 Nokia 5235 Comes with Music

The handset might look familiar, and that's because the hardware

on the 5235 is identical to the 5230, and it is also closely related to the 5800, 5530 and X6 touchscreen phones.

As with the 5230, the Nokia 5235 comes with a 3.2" 640 x 360 pixel touchscreen display, microSD expandable memory, Bluetooth

, 3.5G support, a 2 megapixel camera, FM radio, multimedia player and a 3.5mm audio connector. There's a big 1320 mAh battery too which can give up to 5 hours talktime on 3G.

There's no WiFi support on the 5235, but it does support HSDPA downloads of up to 3.6 Mbps. If you want WiFi, then our recommendation is to go for the 5800 instead.

We mentioned the 2 megapixel camera, which is the same unit as found on the 5230. Really, it's pretty poor when it comes to stills photographs, but it can capture video at up to 640 x 480 pixels at 30 frames per second which is rather good, and certainly good enough for uploading to YouTube.

The Nokia 5235 works with Facebook, MySpace, Ovi and YouTube, and because this is an S60 smartphone then there are a load of applications

available for it. The large screen is ideal for web browsing, and it's remarkable to find a display of this quality in a handset that's so cheap.

We keep talking about price - so how much is the Nokia 5235? Nokia say that the handset should retail for around €145 before tax and subsidy, around the same as the current 5230. The 5235 offers very good value for money even before you take into account the music downloads, so if you take advantage of Comes With Music then this looks like a real bargain.

It is perhaps worth noting that the 5235 doesn't come with a memory card in the standard sales package, but it does include a wired headset. Some of Nokia's data sheets say that it includes a USB cable, whereas others say that it doesn't.. so if you need a USB cable, check before ordering.

Nokia say that the 5235 Comes With Music should be available during Q1 2010 in White or Black colour schemes, each with an ice-blue tinted chrome rim.

Nokia 5235 Comes With Music at a glance

Available:
Q1 2010

Network:
GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 +
UMTS 900 / 2100 or
UMTS 850 / 1900 or
UMTS 850 / 2100

Data:
GPRS + EDGE + UMTS (3G) + HSDPA

Screen:
3.2" 640 x 360 pixels, 16m colours

Camera:
2 megapixels

Size:
PDA-style device
111 x 52 x 15mm / 113 grams

Bluetooth:
Yes

Memory card:
MicroSD

Infra-red:
No

Polyphonic:
Yes

Java:
Yes

GPS:
Yes

OS:
Symbian S60 5th Edition

Battery life:
5 hours talk / 19 days standby (3G)
7 hours talk / 18 days standby (GSM)

Sony Ericsson Elm & Sony Ericsson Hazel

A pair of new "GreenHeart" handsets, the Sony Ericsson Hazel and Sony Ericsson Elm are two fairly conventional phones that slot into the upper midrange market.

 Sony Ericsson Elm

What sets these two handsets apart from most other phones is their environmental credentials. Although all mobile phones

are quite environmentally unfriendly, mostly due to the exotic materials that they are made from, the Elm and Hazel do go some way to reducing the impact that they make.

To this end, the Sony Ericsson Hazel and Elm are made with a high proportion of recycled plastics, are free from hazardous chemicals and come with a low-power consumption charger. There is an electronic manual in the phone itself, plus a "Walk Mate eco application" and "Green calculator". The handsets are shipped in minimal packaging in order to reduce waste.

We have always said that one of the best ways to minimise the impact that your mobile phone habit has on the environment is to pick a really good phone and keep it for longer, and then recycle it when you are done. Some "environmentally friendly" phones in the past have been of such a low specification that they have been almost obsolete before they ship. With the Hazel and Elm phones, Sony Ericsson have made sure that the devices have a decent enough specification so that they should still be useful in two to three years time.

The Sony Ericsson Hazel is a slider phone with a 2.6" QVGA display, the Elm is a lightweight monoblock device with a smaller 2.2" QVGA screen. Almost all the other technical specifications are identical between the two phones - both the Elm and Hazel have a 5 megapixel camera with auto-focus, flash and geo-tagging, they include a GPS receiver with Google Maps and a trial version of the Wisepilot turn-by-turn navigation application, they have 3.5G support plus WiFi, microSD expandable memory, a multimedia player and an FM radio.

 Sony Ericsson Hazel From the front, both the Elm and Hazel have a very standard layout, but one novel and elegant feature is the way that the back of the phone is curved to fit into the palm of the user's hand, something that is particularly noticeable on the Elm. This is a very simple piece of industrial design, but it certainly makes these two handsets more noticeable and we suspect that we will see it on other phones in the future too.

Sony Ericsson handsets tend to come with a slew of multimedia and personal information management tools, and the Elm and Hazel are no exception. Of course, there's a web browser, email client and RSS reader and these two phones with synchronize with Microsoft Exchange too.

At just 90 grams in weight and 110 x 45 x 14mm in size, the Elm is pretty lightweight for a 3.5G phone like this, the Hazel is a fair bit chunkier at 120 grams and 102 x 50 x 60mm.. but then it does have a much bigger screen. For both handsets, talktime on 3G is quoted as about 4 hours with a maximum of around 18 days standby time.

The Elm will be available from Q1 2010 in Metal Black and Pearly Rose colours, but for some reason you will have to wait for the nearly identical Hazel until Q2 2010, and that will come in Superior Black and Passionate Red schemes. There's no guidance on price, but our best guess is that these will come in the €250-€300 price range SIM free when they hit retail outlets.

Critics of Sony Ericsson (and there are many) might argue that the best thing that the company can do to help the environment is to make phones that work properly in the first place, so that they don't have to be replaced under warranty when they go wrong. If Sony Ericsson can't get its quality control up to scratch, then the whole GreenHeart project is really rather pointless.

Samsung S5560 preview: First look

Ah, the futuristic appeal of touchscreens - consumers can't get enough of them. Enter the Samsung S5560. With a 5MP camera and Wi-Fi, it's two widgets ahead of the competition. The rest mostly follows the recipe for success from the S5230 Star cookbook, with a few tweaks to bring it up to speed.

Samsung S5560 official photo Samsung S5560 official photo Samsung S5560 official photo Samsung S5560 official photo
Samsung S5560 official photos

The Samsung S5560 lacks 3G connectivity but comes with Wi-Fi connectivity. It's hardly the solution that most carriers opt for (and carriers ARE the biggest cellphone contractors), but we guess Samsung have gone for pleasing the end client this time. In an effort to keep the price down, trading 3G for Wi-Fi is a compromise many users would make.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves, check out the rundown of the Samsung S5560 features:

Samsung S5560 (a.k.a Marvel) at a glance:

  • General: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
  • Form factor: Touchscreen bar
  • Dimensions: 107.5 x 52 x 13.2 mm, 95g
  • Display: 3.0 inch WQVGA TFT resistive touchscreen, 240 x 400 pixels
  • Platform: Latest TouchWiz 2.0 UI, Smart Unlock
  • Memory: 78MB integrated memory, hot-swappable microSD card slot (up to 16GB)
  • Camera: 5 megapixel auto focus camera with LED flash, image stabilization, WDR, face detection, Smile Shot, blink detection and QVGA video recording at 15 fps
  • Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, standard microUSB port, 3.5mm audio jack
  • Misc: Accelerometer for screen auto rotate and turn-to-mute, FM radio with RDS
  • Battery: 960 mAh battery

Samsung S5560 Samsung S5560 Samsung S5560
Samsung S5560 in our office

This phone is clearly a Samsung Jet wannabe - the styling, the camera, the Wi-Fi connectivity all make it a cheaper alternative to the Jet. Sure, tradeoffs have been made for the sake of a lower price, but if you've never owned a touch phone before, the S5560 makes a great introduction.

The timer on non-touch operated phones seems to be running down - touch phones seem to get the best features and the most hype. This makes it harder and harder to say no, especially now that their price is no longer prohibitive.

New Motorola MILESTONE


The Motorola MILESTONE is the GSM version of the Motorola DROID, and is tipped to be the first Android 2.0 smartphone to be released in Europe.

There are a handful of differences between the DROID and MILESTONE, the most obvious one being that this is a GSM / UMTS device.

Just in case you missed the fuss over the DROID last week, we'll recap briefly: the Motorola MILESTONE has a large 3.7" 480 x 854 pixel touchscreen display, a five megapixel camera, 3.5G support, WiFi, and GPS. Inside is a 550 MHz ARM Cortex A8 processor which is reportedly as powerful as the CPU in the Apple iPhone 3GS. There's a fairly conventional slide-out QWERTY keyboard, and Motorola say that this is the slimmest device like this coming in at 13.7mm.

 Motorola MILESTONE Although the camera seems a little basic, it does have autofocus, dual LED flash and can capture widescreen 720 x 480 pixel video at 24 frames per second. The new version of Android also has significantly improved camera software.

Android 2.0 is a big improvement over previous versions, but one major difference between the software on the DROID and MILESTONE is that the MILESTONE doesn't have the new version of Google maps with turn-by-turn navigation, and instead it comes with a trial version of Motorola's MOTONAV application. Presumably, Google Maps will be upgradeable when it becomes available in Europe.

There's a little confusion over the MILESTONE's touchscreen features, Motorola's product data sheet shows that it might have multi-touch capabilities that are apparently lacking from the DROID. The rest of the software suite is comprehensive and appears to be the same overall features as the DROID.

Most major video and audio formats are supported on the MILESTONE, and there's a 3.5mm audio socket and stereo Bluetooth as well. As standard, the Motorola MILESTONE comes with an 8GB card in the box (the US DROID has a 16GB card), and this is expandable up to 32GB using a compatible microSD card

.

This is a quad-band GSM phone with 900 / 2100MHz UMTS support, HSPA (3.5G) high-speed downloads and uploads, plus 802.11b and g WiFi. The large 1400 mAh battery gives up to 6.5 hours talktime and 14 days standby time, although it is not clear if these are GSM or 3G figures. Measuring 116 x 60 x 13.7mm and weighing 165 grams, the MILESTONE is quite a large device, but then it does come with a large screen and QWERTY keyboard.

 Motorola MILESTONE There's no exact word on availability, except that we know Germany and Italy will see it first. O2 Germany's page indicates a SIM-free price of €481 which seems to be good value for such a high-end handset. With a bit of luck, the MILESTONE will be available in some regions before Christmas, although when it will turn up in the UK is a mystery.

One optional extra is the MILESTONE Multimedia Station which is a combined docking station and charger, and there's also a Phone Holder so that the MILESTONE can be used as an in-car satellite navigation system.

This is an impressive looking device, and crucially it seems cheaper than the Nokia N900 and the new version of Android closes the gap somewhat between this type of phone and the iPhone. If Motorola can get the MILESTONE to market quickly enough, and if they can make sure that everything works properly.. then this handset could well be a winner.

The Motorola MILESTONE is currently available in the UK from eXpansys.


Motorola MILESTONE at a glance

Available:
Now

Network:
GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 +
UMTS 900 / 2100

Data:
GPRS + EDGE + UMTS (3G) + HSPA + WiFi

Screen:
3.7" 480 x 352 pixels

Camera:
5 megapixels

Size:
PDA style device
116 x 60 x 14mm / 165 grams

Bluetooth:
Yes

Memory card:
MicroSD

Infra-red:
No

Polyphonic:
Yes

Java:
Yes

GPS:
Yes

OS:
Android 2.0 (Eclair)

Battery life:
6.5 hours talk / 14 days standby

Nokia 6700 Classic Gold Edition

The original Nokia 6700 Classic is a versatile device with very smart but discrete looks, and it is an ideal handset for people who want something just a little bit showy while remaining tasteful.

But just in case the original 6700 was a bit too understated for your tastes, you can now treat yourself to the Nokia 6700 Classic Gold Edition which rather predictably covers the handset in 18 carat gold.. which makes the whole thing rather less understated.

Nokia's press photographs seem to show two versions of the 6700 Classic Gold Edition, one with white inlays and one in all gold. It's not clear if these are two different versions of the phone, or if the inlays are somehow changeable. In our view, the version with the white inlay looks much classier.

 Nokia 6700 Classic Gold Edition


It isn't just a matter of some gold plating, the 6700 Gold Edition also has special themes to match the design, comes with a matching carry case and strap as standard, and Nokia have also thrown in an 8GB microSD memory card and a stereo wired headset into the standard sales package.

The other features are pretty much identical to the original 6700 - this is a Series 40 phone with a 2.2" QVGA display, 5 megapixel camera, 3.5G support and GPS. There's a web browser, multimedia player and FM radio too, plus the usual array of personal information management tools you'd expect. It isn't a smartphone, but it should certainly meet the needs of most customers.

The extra bling makes the handset more costly, coming in at about €370 before tax and subsidy. This makes the Gold Edition about twice the current street price of the standard 6700. It's not stupidly expensive though, and you will get a pretty decent mobile phone for your money too.

Nokia say that the 6700 Classic Gold Edition should be available during Q1 2010.


Nokia 6700 Classic Gold Edition at a glance

Available:
Q1 2010

Network:
GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 +
UMTS 900 / 1900 / 2100

Data:
GPRS + EDGE + UMTS (3G) + HSDPA + HSUPA

Screen:
2.2" 240 x 320 pixels, 16m colours

Camera:
5 megapixels

Size:
Medium monoblock
110 x 45 x 11mm / 116 grams

Bluetooth:
Yes

Memory card:
MicroSD

Infra-red:
No

Polyphonic:
Yes

Java:
Yes

GPS:
Yes

OS:
Series 40

Battery life:
4 hours talk / 16 days standby (3G)

Nokia 7230

Priced at just €100 before tax and carrier discount, the Nokia 7230 is a fashion phone that does seem to offer a lot of features for the money.
 Nokia 7230

While it isn't exactly state of the art when it comes to specification, the 7230 does come with 3G support, a 3.2 megapixel camera, a 2.4" QVGA resolution display, FM radio, Bluetooth, microSD expandable memory (with 2GB in the standard sales package) and a 3.5mm audio socket.

There are a few drawbacks - the main one is that the 7230 doesn't support 3.5G data, there's no camera light and the video recording capabilities are pretty average.. but then we wouldn't really expect features like that on a phone of this price. It's worth noting that Nokia say that the 7230 is capable of a maximum download speed of up to 2Mbps using UMTS, where carriers can support it.

 Nokia 7230

The Nokia 7230 runs the familiar Series 40 operating system, it can also integrate with Facebook, Flickr and Ovi and it comes with all the usual features such as a web browser and email client and it also support Nokia Maps (although obviously it doesn't have GPS).

Maximum talktime is 3.7 hours on 3G with up to 16 days standby time, and the phone package comes in at a pocket-friendly 100 grams weight and 98 x 48 x 15mm in size. There are two colour variations available of graphite and hot pink.

This is a straightforward phone that should be good enough for most people when it comes to mobile Internet, music playback and basic photography.. as well as making phone calls. It's a good looking handset too, and given all of these features we think that it should appeal to both prepay and budget contract customers.

Nokia say that the 7230 should be available during Q1 2010. Just try not to confuse it with the Nokia 2370!

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