Cell Phone magazine

If you are concerned with the sound quality of your mobile phone you should be concerned with Sony Ericsson. It is a joint venture established on October 1, 2001 by the Japanese consumer electronics company Sony Corporation and the Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson to make mobile phones. The stated reason for this venture is to combine Sony’s consumer electronics expertise with Ericsson’s technological leadership in the communications sector. Both companies have stopped making their own mobile phones.

The company’s global management is based in Hammersmith, London, and it has research & development teams in Sweden, Japan, China, Germany, the United States, India and the United Kingdom. By 2008, it was the third-largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world after Nokia andSamsung. The sales of products largely increased due to the launch of the adaptation of Sony’s popular Walkman and Cyber-shot series.

In the United States, Ericsson partnered with General Electric in the early nineties, primarily to establish a US presence and brand recognition.

Ericsson had decided to obtain chips for its phones from a single source — a Philips facility in New Mexico. In March 2000, a fire at the Philips factory contaminated the sterile facility. Philips assured Ericsson and Nokia (their other major customer) that production would be delayed for no more than a week. When it became clear that production would actually be compromised for months, Ericsson was faced with a serious shortage. Nokia had already begun to obtain parts from alternative sources, but Ericsson’s position was much worse as production of current models and the launch of new ones was held up.

Ericsson, which had been in the cellular phone market for decades, and was the world’s no. 3 cellular telephone handset maker, was struggling with huge losses — in spite of booming sales since 2000 — due to this fire, and its inability to produce cheaper phones like Nokia. To curtail the losses, it considered outsourcing production to Asian companies that can produce the handset for lower costs.

Speculation began about a possible sale by Ericsson of its mobile phone division, but the company’s president said they had no plans to do that. “Mobile phones are really a core business for Ericsson. We wouldn’t be as successful (in networks) if we didn’t have phones”, he said.

In June 2002, Sony Ericsson said it will stop making CDMA cellphones for the US market and will focus on GSM which was and remains the dominant technology. It also slashed jobs in research and development in USA and Germany. In October 2003, it posted its first quarterly profit but warned that falling prices on phones and competition would make it difficult to stay in black. Sony Ericsson’s recovery is credited to the success of the T610 model.

Following the success of its P800 phone, Sony Ericsson introduced the P900 at simultaneous events in Las Vegas and Beijing in October 2003. It was pegged as smaller, faster, simpler and more flexible than its predecessor.

In March 2004, Ericsson said it would try to block its rival Nokia from gaining control of Symbian, an industry consortium that made operating software for smart phones.

In 2004, Sony Ericsson’s market share increased from 5.6 percent in the first quarter to 7 percent in the second quarter. In July 2004, Sony Ericsson unveiled the P910 communicator with its integrated thumbboard, broad e-mail support, quadruple memory and improved screen.

In February 2005, Sony Ericsson president Miles Flint announced at the 3GSM World Congress that Sony Ericsson will unveil a mobile phone-come-digital music player in the next month. It would be called the Walkman phone and would play music file formats such as MP3 and AAC.

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In early 2000’s  is someone was looking to buy a cell phone the one of the obvious choices would be the Nokia 3310.The Nokia 3310 has been one of the most popular mobiles of all time,but you can’t really do much when connecting to other devices, since it’s USB capabilities are limited to nill. The keys are well spaced and the letters are big especially for someone with failing eye sight.

The Nokia 3310 is not capable of accessing the Internet, due to the limitations of GPRS access. Unfortunately, there is no MMS capability. On top of sending messages, the Nokia 3310 is equipped with intelligent t9 typing, which allows you to easily type text messages without pressing each key upto 4 times for the correct letter.

Well one can say that the lack of technology is its strong point, not its weakness

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When we consider cell phone one of the names that comes to our mind is Motorola. Motorola, Inc.is an American, multinational, Fortune 100, telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois. It is a manufacturer of wireless telephone handsets, and also designs and sells wireless network infrastructure equipment such as cellular transmission base stations and signal amplifiers. Motorola’s home and broadcast network products include set-top boxes, digital video recorders, and network equipment used to enable video broadcasting, computer telephony, and high-definition television. Its business and government customers consist mainly of wireless voice and broadband systems used to build private networks and public safety communications systems like Astro and Dimetra. Motorola is now working on Google open sourced based platform mobile operating system phone featuring Google Android 2.0 known as “Eclair”.

In 1991, Motorola demonstrated the world’s first working-prototype digital cellular system and phones using GSM standard in Hanover,Germany. In 1994, Motorola introduced the world’s first commercial digital radio system that combined paging, data and cellular communications and voice dispatch in a single radio network and handset. In 1995, Motorola introduced the world’s first two-way pager which allowed users to receive text messages and e-mail and reply with a standard response.

In the year 1998, Motorola was overtaken by Nokia as the world’s biggest seller of mobile phone handsets.

On September 15, 1999, Motorola announced it would buy General Instrument in an $11 billion stock swap. General Instrument had long been the No. 1 cable TV equipment provider, supplying cable operators with end-to-end hybrid fiber coax cable solutions. This meant that GI offers all cable TV transmission network components from the head-end to the fiber optic transmission nodes to the cable set-top boxes, now at the availability of Motorola.

In June 2000, Motorola and Cisco supplied the world’s first commercial GPRS cellular network to BT Cellnet in the United Kingdom. The world’s first GPRS cell phone was also developed by Motorola.

In 2002 Motorola introduced the world’s first wireless cable modem gateway which combined a high-speed cable modem router with an ethernet switch and wireless home gateway.

In 2003, Motorola introduced the world’s first handset to combine a Linux operating system and Java technology with “full PDA functionality”.

In June 2006, Motorola acquired the world-class software platform (AJAR) developed by the British company TTP Communications plc.

Motorola creates numerous products for use of the government, public safety officials, business installments, and the general public. These products include cell phones, laptops, computer processors, and radio communication devices. The Motorola RAZR line has sold over 120 million units bringing the company to the number two mobile phone slot in 2005.

Divisional Products:

Enterprise Mobility Solutions: Headquarters, located in Schaumburg, IL, comprises communications offered to government and public safety sectors and enterprise mobility business. Motorola develops analog and digital two-way radio, voice and data communications products and systems, mobile computing, advanced data capture, wireless infrastructure and RFID solutions to customers worldwide.

Home & Networks Mobility: Headquarters, located in Horsham, PA, produces end-to-end systems that facilitate uninterrupted access to digital entertainment, information and communications services via wired and wireless mediums. Motorola develops digital video system solutions, interactive set-top devices, voice and data modems for digital subscriber line and cable networks, broadband access systems for cable and satellite television operators, and also wireline carriers and wireless service providers.

Mobile Devices: Headquarters, located in Libertyville, IL, currently the least prosperous arm of the firm, designs wireless handsets, but also licenses much of its intellectual properties. This includes cellular and wireless systems and as well as integrated applications, andBluetooth accessories.

Motorola sponsored Scottish Premier League club Motherwell F.C. for 11 years. This long term deal ended after the company started to reduce its manufacturing operations in Scotland. The company also sponsored a cycling team that counted Lance Armstrong amongst its members. Motorola is also a large sponsor of Danica Patrick, David Beckham, and Fergie.

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All of us who use cell phones know the name of Nokia a Finnish multinational communications corporation that is headquartered in Keilaniemi, Espoo, a city neighbouring Finland’s capital Helsinki. Nokia’s history starts in 1865 when mining engineer Fredrik Idestam established agroundwood pulp mill on the banks of theTammerkoski rapids in the town of Tampere, in southwestern Finland, and started manufacturing paper.

The seeds of the current incarnation of Nokia were planted with the founding of the electronics section of the cable division in 1960 and the production of its first electronic device in 1962: a pulse analyzer designed for use in nuclear power plants.[35] In the 1967 fusion, that section was separated into its own division, and began manufacturing telecommunications equipment.

The technologies that preceded modern cellular mobile telephony systems were the various “0G” pre-cellular mobile radio telephony standards. Nokia had been producing commercial and some military mobile radio communications technology since the 1960s, although this part of the company was sold some time before the later company rationalization. Since 1964, Nokia had developed VHF radio simultaneously with Salora Oy. In 1966, Nokia and Salora started developing the ARP standard (which stands for Autoradiopuhelin, or car radio phone in English), a car-based mobile radio telephony system and the first commercially operated public mobile phone network in Finland. It went online in 1971 and offered 100% coverage in 1978.

Nokia was one of the key developers of GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications), the second-generation mobile technology which could carry data as well as voice traffic. NMT (Nordic Mobile Telephony), the world’s first mobile telephony standard that enabled international roaming, provided valuable experience for Nokia for its close participation in developing GSM, which was adopted in 1987 as the new European standard for digital mobile technology.

Nokia delivered its first GSM network to the Finnish operator Radiolinja in 1989.The world’s first commercial GSM call was made on July 1, 1991 in Helsinki, Finland over a Nokia-supplied network, by then Prime Minister of Finland Harri Holkeri, using a prototype Nokia GSM phone. In 1992, the first GSM phone, the Nokia 1011, was launched.[50][51] The model number refers to its launch date, 10 November.[51]The Nokia 1011 did not yet employ Nokia’s characteristic ringtone, the Nokia tune. It was introduced as a ringtone in 1994 with the Nokia 2100 series.

GSM’s high-quality voice calls, easy international roaming and support for new services like text messaging (SMS) laid the foundations for a worldwide boom in mobile phone use. GSM came to dominate the world of mobile telephony in the 1990s, in mid-2008 accounting for about three billion mobile telephone subscribers in the world, with more than 700 mobile operators across 218 countries and territories. New connections are added at the rate of 15 per second, or 1.3 million per day

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Now the first thing that comes to mind when you have a look at the Samsung i8910 Omnia is that , it’s a stunning looking phone. Also the other thing that will attract most people is the 3.7 inch touch screen. Everyone who wants a large touch screen phone might want to check it out.It also has the usual Wi-Fi, GPS, quad band GSM, tri-band 3G, plus TV-out, UPnP, Bluetooth and Digital Compass

The screen itself is scratch resistant and a great viewing experience. The handset runs on the Symbian S60 version 5.0 operating system. Some of the main features include an excellent 8 megapixel camera, GPS, music player, FM radio and 8GB of internal memory plus memory card support. The Samsung i8910 Omnia also comes with a web browser, USB, Bluetooth, instant messaging, document viewer and video recorder.

The i8910 HD sets a number of important examples . It’s the first S60 5th Edition device from Samsung, it’s the first mainstream mobile phone to record HD video, and it’s the first Symbian device running on a next generation chipset (OMAP 3). At 123×58x12.9mm, it’s also a large phone, some 6mm longer and 3mm wider than the already-largish Nokia N97. It’s thinner though, thanks to the monoblock form factor – there are no sliding parts to fit in.

The i8910 HD’s size means that prolonged one handed usage, especially for those with small hands, is somewhat cumbersome. This is true of all touchscreen devices to an extent, but it is a matter of degree – the Nokia 5800, for example, is narrow enough that it feels more like a traditional phone and less like a PDA/tablet. At 144g, the i8910 HD is also significantly heavier than the typical mobile phone.

In style terms, the i8910 HD is typical for a high end Samsung device, with metal and hard, glossy plastics and with tempered glass covering the screen. It is a sleek and attractive device, apart from the perennial problem of fingerprints on the glossy surfaces. The overall build quality feels very good with no squeaking or flexing.

Now in respect to the camera the i8910 HD’s 8 megapixel still image capture is largely overtaken by the HD video recording, but is still very impressive in good light conditions. The presence of a single LED flash is very disappointing, it felt weak compared to some of the dual LED solutions that Nokia and Sony Ericsson have introduced in recent devices, plus the sensor isn’t anywhere near as good in low light as the Nokia N86 8MP. Attempting to shoot a subject in pitch darkness was, simply, an abject failure. Sony Ericsson have used a proper Xenon flash in their new Satio and I fail to see why Samsung couldn’t have done the same here, given the device’s size and price tag. A missed opportunity.

Other than a weak flash, I have two main complaints about shooting photos on the i8910 HD. Firstly, there’s a slight lag between pressing the shutter key (after focussing) and the photo actually being taken. It’s only of the order of a fraction of a second, but it does result in a few blurred photos at first until you learn to hold the phone steady for a second after the shutter is pressed right down. This should be something that can be optimised in future firmware.

Secondly, the OLED screen is absolutely at its worst on a nice sunny day with the sun behind you - exactly the same conditions which represent the optimum lighting for taking great photos. All of which is a bit unfortunate – Nokia has exactly the same issue with their OLED-screened N86 8MP, interestingly – I can’t help thinking that, gorgeous as OLED is indoors, a standard transflective screen should have been used for a camera-centric device. Compromises, compromises. With care though, taking a moment or two after pressing the shutter and trying to avoid ’sun right behind you’ situations, the i8910 HD is capable of working well as a camera and taking great photos.

Now people might ask if the Samsung i8910 is a good buy , well it definitely is and most people who are cell phone freaks might want to check it out.

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If you want to look at a modified version of the Nokia 5800 then please have a look at the Nokia 5230. The 5230 has almost all the features of the 5800 except for the wi-fi system.

Now to look at the bright side , what the Nokia 5230 does give us , is a handset that comes in at an extremely competitive price, making it an odds-on certainty to appear on the cell phone markets, as well as on all the low price point tariff deals available. Features of the Nokia 5230 include music player with 33 hours of playback time, support for Comes with Music service, contacts bar with thumbnail images for up to 20 contacts, 3.5mm AV connector for superb music listening and access to YouTube.

The Nokia 5230 runs on the Symbian S60 5th Edition with the presence of flip scrolling. The user interface also supports kinetic scrolling now so that the users can press and slide on the screen. The lists will continue to scroll down, eventually slowing down and coming to a halt.

But all in all one should not under estimate the 5230 as it comes at a very competitive price. Nokia has packed in enough features so as to give its competition a good run for their money.

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As the name suggests it is a super slim stunning looking phone. Motorola have used premium materials to give the phone a great look and feel and it shows in the output. Although the camera is very bad but the other features make up for it. Some of the other features consist of a music player which is fantastic, plenty of storage space, touch screen controls and Bluetooth headset.

It also supports 262,000 colors, and photo caller ID is definitely supported. On standby mode, the date, time, signal, and battery strength are displayed, as well as background wallpaper. Also when in Music Player mode, 3 buttons appear on the screen that provide vibrating feedback and act as rewind, play/pause, and fast-forward/skip buttons. Some of the complaints i have with the Motorola Razr2 V9 is that it has skinny/tiny side buttons and a really flat keypad.

But no phone is perfect and so we must get on to the handset’s admittedly few failings. One annoyance is that you end up getting greasy paw prints all over the front screen; this polished surface also looks like it has the potential to scratch easily, although we haven’t managed to do so yet.

It’s not much different from the v8 except that this version is a 3G version that enables fast data transfer of up to 3.6 MBPS. This phone also allows you to make video calls through the 3G network and it also supports a microsd memory card. There have been some improvements in the form as compared to the previous versions. The new question as a much more user-friendly and responsive keypad. Now it also supports microUSB 2.0 connectivity.

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The LG chocolate is a beautiful phone  with a innovative touch pad for easy navigation. It has a built-in camera, Bluetooth, music player among the essential features.The camera is not the best one at around but the phone has enough internal memory to store about 30 songs. But many people  have complained that it has poor battery life and overly sensitive  key buttons. But despite these  problems this phone  has been one of the best selling models in its segment. The price is also really low  as compared to other phones that we know of. The phone being a sliding phone looks mysterious when the slide  is closed. Among the features it has a 1.3 megapixel camera with flash and a video camera. The display is high quantity and also has a Mp3  player that can handle a wide variety of formats . All the music can be controlled with the touch pad or the in-line remote that comes with the headset.  For MP3 ringtones 120 mb of memory is pretty decent. Moreover USB is  supported by this phone.

Another thing that people might want to look out would be the  smaller than expected dimensions (9.5 x 4.8 x 1.5cm) and noticeably light weight (approximately 85g). One might  also have heard about  the “hidden LCD” screen which had many people scratching their heads for a while. It pans out that the red buttons on the front aren’t buttons at all but in fact a touch-keypad section which lights up when you slide it open. The looks you can pretty much judge yourselves from the pictures, but it is most distinctive for the very subtle and minimalist style – interesting touches like the universal power/USB/headphone socket shows off the effort made to give it that cool, elegant design. As an LG spokesman observed, it is unusual in that it appeals to both men and women alike, however all the rest of the packaging suggests an expensive bottle of perfume or similar – a perfect present for the ladies.

But no phone is perfect and so we must get on to the handset’s admittedly few failings. One annoyance is that you end up getting greasy paw prints all over the front screen; this polished surface also looks like it has the potential to scratch easily, although we haven’t managed to do so yet.

The internal memory seems a little bit limited at 128MB; normally manufacturers tend to stick MP3 support on as an afterthought but the Chocolate is actually better than most. The sound quality is pretty impressive but what really appeals the most to us is the 3.5mm headphone socket attached to smart, matching remote. Audio support (MP3, WMA, AAC) and playback quality is surprisingly good  but we can’t help but wish for a little more capacity, maybe even a card slot.

Amazingly the chocolate can function as a storage device instead of a regular phone. The battery is not as good as the company claims but is managable . Another important feature that poeple will like is that the phone supports java games..

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The 5800 was Nokia’s attempt to enter the touch screen market, with it being the first touch screen phone produced by the manufacturer. Before its entry, many were hoping it would cut into the market of the iPhone. But one thing is clear that, Nokia are not trying to cut into the iPhone’s market with this individual handset, though they may make their challenge later this year with a different model.

The 5800 is a superb touch phone though. It is aimed at those who really like the Nokia user interface and who want their mobile phone primarily for music. This is where the 5800 excels. It is superb for music and movies too. However, in movie playback things can get a little jerky. In addition to the main screen being fully touch sensitive, there is also a touch media button located just above the top right corner of the screen. This gains you quick access to your media files. Music playback is awesome, nice and detailed, easy to control and you can add memory card storage to expand the handset capacity. You get 81MB of memory in the phone itself, which is a bit measly considering it is aimed at music lovers. However, Nokia do include a generous 8GB microSD card in the box and the phone supports up to 16GB cards, so plenty of storage capacity.

The camera is 3 mega pixels and is located on the back of the phone, with the back of the phone acting as the lens protector so it doesn’t get scratched or damaged. The camera when used is easy to handle and navigate and can make the difference between catching that photo and not catching the photo.

Downsides about this phone are that with the screen being rather large it makes it easier for the screen to be damaged and can cost a bit to repair so this phone in my opinion is for contracts only and make sure that its ensured otherwise this phones not for you. Apart from that this phone may not be the best but it does have a wide range of uses and abilities that can help in day to day occurrence.

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The most amazing feature of this phone  is the 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus. Look wise the phone is absolutely stunning. It also comes  along with the good  a music player, FM radio, 7.2 Mbps HSDPA and support for 8 GB memory cards. But if you look at the negative side of the phone we can say that a flash with the camera would have been a nice.

The sliding system  is just as good  with the Steel as it was with the Soul. A gentle press  is all that you need to get it rolling, and soon after it follows its own spring-loaded design to become fully extended or fully closed.

If you’ve large palms  the slide should be a pleasure  to use, but in my smaller mitts I found that closing the phone meant applying pressure to the keypad or D-pad beneath the screen thereby hitting something I didn’t want to. The alternative is to use both hands to shut the thing, which isn’t that convenient when you are standing on a swinging, bumping swerving bus and holding on for dear life.

That comment should lead you to the fact that the Steel is a bit large. At 104.2mm tall when closed, 48.9mm wide and 14.2m thick it troubled the smaller pockets in my clothing. Opened, it stretches to about 145mm tall

Looks wise it is very similar to the Soul with its silver and black colours and smooth metallic lines. It has a sturdy industrial and rugged quality about the design (described as a full metal jacket on the Vodafone website), and feels very tough. You’d probably expect that this meant it was heavier than usual, but it doesn’t feel like that in your hand. However the phone is a touch big with its straight lines. In your pocket it feels noticeably chunky, which while isn’t a deal breaker is an annoyance.

Unfortunately, the camera doesn’t really live up to some of the other functionalities the Steel has. You’ll only find a 3-megapixel sensor, which is disappointing when you acknowledge that many mid-range devices scrimp a further 0.2-megapixels out. However there isn’t any flash, and other phones in the same price range offer a better photographic experience.

The same is true with music. Compared with some of the competition out there, there’s nothing spectacular about the way you can use or work with music on the Samsung Steel, although sound quality is admittedly very good. For a mobile phone nowadays to be even thought of as a device which could regularly be used to listen to music, you need to be allowed to put in your own headphones, and with a porprietary socket, you can’t do ths.

The disappointment continues with memory capacity. The Steel offers a stingy 30MB for music, and unless you put in a micro SD card, you won’t be able to fit in much of a collection in here.

The battery is another problem. Vodafone quotes a big figure, but honestly with average use you will have to charge the phone quite regularly, most likely every other day. With regular internet use as well this cuts down the life even more.

The problems with the camera, music and battery aren’t particularly surprising when you consider that this is aimed at the cheaper end of the mid-range market, as Vodafone are offering some very competitive deals – you can get the phone free on contract for £15 per month for 18 months, while it is also reasonably priced on prepay.

If you’re looking for a phone on a budget that looks really good, does all the basic calling and texting jobs as well as well as offer great internet speeds, then this is a pretty good phone to go for. The sturdiness of the phone means that unless you’re really violent with it, it will take a few knocks and last you quite a while.

Also I have heard that many  people have complained that the phone sometimes automatically switches itself off which is a major drawback. But the price of the phone is a really low which helps people overlook the negative site of the phone. In short it can be said that this phone has high quantity looks,  midrange features and a helpful entry-level price. Also one thing can be mentioned here is that the phone has a front end camera for video calling. It also supports high-speed downloads as it works with the 3-g network.

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