In a not unsurprising mangling of this lovely language, some of the marketing materials for the soon-to-be-released Blackberry 8520 describe it as a “supremely approachable” phone. Now, it’s not just us, is it, but that is one of the daftest things we’ve ever heard. What next? Phones that are sensitive? Handsets that are well mannered? Operating systems that are considerate?
But, utterly daft as it is, we can see where they’re coming from, because (to put it more simply) the Blackberry Curve 8520 is the cheapest Blackberry ever released. And little more needs to be said, in fact, because it really is as simple as that. As you’d expect, it’s also just about the simplest / least high-end Blackberry ever, but unless you really do need all those super-fast/-fancy options you’ll find elsewhere, it’s not at all that big a deal. And when you take a look at these Blackberry 8520 deals, you’ll agree all the more. And it’s not like RIM haven’t put any effort in with what the phone does feature. Quite the opposite, in fact, because this thing is the first (probably of many) Blackberries to feature the new mini optical trackpad. This replacement for the old scroll wheel is an absolute winner in our humble opinion.
Add to that a fantastic quality keyboard, good solid design and a very nice crisp screen and those deals start to look even tastier. There’s a bunch more details of what’s there and what’s not in this Blackberry Curve 8520 review, but to sum it all up for you, the 8520 is basically full of win. Hurrah!
The names of phones often confuse, amuse or just downright annoy us here, but luckily the LG BL40 Chocolate is in the amusing category. Because with all the marketing and press release spiel about this thing focusing on its ‘tempered glass screen,’ on the ‘iconic red highlights’ to the ’seamless glossy black casing’, this thing is clearly being positioned as something of a sleek, cool, spaceship/sports car of a phone. But then it’s called Chocolate… Chocolate. Like the thing that kids smear all over their faces and fingers and on walls. The thing that melts in the sun. The thing that makes you fat.
And yes, we know, we’re not so uncultured (honestly) that we won’t know that chocolatiers have been making artisinal chocolates for years now, that the humble choc has, in certain circles, been elevated into a very expensive luxury. But, as an association for something that you hold in your sweaty hand, we just think that “chocolate” is a bit daft. But that’s just us. LG BL40 Chocolate = melting mess of sugar is not an image LG are probably hoping for here.
The phone itself, you ask? Some specs? Some stats? What do you think this is?! A mobile phone blog… oh… right. Well, this LG BL40 review should update you on all that boring stuff. Or have a look at these LG BL40 Chocolate deals. Or even at this video.
Warning: phone not available at your local sweet shop.
We have been doing a bit of soul searching this month at Best Rated Phones and have decided to compile a quick list of the best 8 phones out there and the best contracts to go with them. After all you don’t need to spend the earth to get these top class handsets, just so long as you shop around and compare deals. Anyhow, here is our list of the best phones and their respective contracts.
1. Nokia N97 deals – We reckon that this handset is a couple of firmware updates from being the best all round handset out there. You can pick it up for £40.00 per month on T-Mobile and for that you get 800 minutes and unlimited texts.
2. HTC Touch diamond 2 deals – A much improved handset on the original Diamond. The user Interface is great and at just under £30.00 per month for 400 minutes and 500 texts, you can’t go wrong. It’s also on O2, the largest UK network.
3. Nokia 5530 deals – The little sister of the Nokia 5800 just has to be included because it is so damn cheap. £20.00 per month gets you 600 minutes and unlimited texts on Vodafone. You also get Xpressmusic, meaning sweet music to your ears.
4. Blackberry 8520 deals – The best Blackberry yet has been working hard to improve its apps offering, the buttons are better and the screen is brighter, all for £25.00 per month on O2 with 600 minutes and 500 texts. This is an absolute bargain in our opinion.
5. Samsung Jet deals – Samsung’s first Android phone has perhaps been overshadowed by the HTC Hero, but we really like it. It’s definitely worth looking at if you are a facebook addict and let’s face it, who isn’t these days?
6. HTC Hero deals – We put it at number 6 because we felt sorry for the Samsung Jet in all honesty. It is a seriously good phone, although no touch screen left us slightly disappointed. You can expect the number of apps available to rocket this year and so expect a bump up the list in the near future. You can get the Hero on Orange for £26.00 per month with 400 minutes and 3000 texts at the time of writing.
7. Samsung pixon 12 deals – great for big users of their mobile phone, you get a massive 900 minutes and unlimited texts for £40.00 per month. Now that’s some serious minute and text action and the phone isn’t half bad either.
8. Sony W995 deals – The best that Sony Ericsson has to offer at the moment and it really should be higher on the list. The only thing is, we are so excited about the Aino and the Satio that we reckon it’s worth waiting for these to arrive. Having said that, the price is cheap. You can get it on T-Mobile for £21.20 with 700 minutes and 3000 texts, quite unbelievable.
Think we are missing out any handsets? Seen any better deals? Then let us know in the comments section.
In much the same way as those idiots who wear Bluetooth headsets have been the objects of hatred / ridicule / casual violence for many years now, we think the Samsung S9110 is going to unleash a new wave of anger. Because, as lovely an idea as watchphones are, how in the hell are they going to work. We can picture only three possibilities, all of which are terrifying
1 – The user has to contort and twist their watchphone up to their ear / mouth region somehow, therefore making them look like either victims of horrific accidents, or contemporary dancers, neither of which are good things
2 – The speakerphone is the only viable option. Right. Yeah. Enough said. A bunch of geeks yelling into their arms next to you in the pub. That’s going to go down very well
3 – They have to use some kind of ear piece / headphone kinda thing. Which would kind of take away the portable / compact benefits of the thing, right?
Anyway, who knows, maybe as flash as this technology is, there’s going to be some other kind of solution with the Samsung S9110 (details are still surprisingly scant on the ground, even with this things supposed release date this month), but we just can’t see what it might be.
While you’re waiting with crossed fingers, have a look at this Samsung S9110 review, or at these Samsung S9110 deals. But seriously, don’t hold your breath. Or, if you buy one, and you’re thinking about answering your watchphone in the pub next to us: do hold your breath. Hold it very, very tightly indeed.
Love Facebook?! Update your status at least fifteen times a day?! Or can’t get enough of Twitter?! Or just wish you could be instant messaging all day?!!!…
Yeah, us neither. But beware you overly cynical, because even though the Nokia 6760 slide might not be for you, or us, it is going to make a lot of typing types out there plain ecstatic. That’s because the Nokia 6760 slide has one of the largest and easy to use QWERTY keyboards on just about any mobile phone currently out there. Add to that a huge portion of all the Facebook, Twitter and email apps and programs that the well-connected youth of today can’t live without, and release all (in a couple of months) with a very low price tag, and chances are this thing’s going to sell by the truck load.
So even while you think it’s ugly and bulky, someone else might be flocking towards these Nokia 6760 slide deals quicker than you can say ‘I just updated my status to tell everyone about my new phone.’
And that’s even before we mention that even with the big keyboard, this thing is still surprisingly compact and light. And it has a decent-ish camera. And comes pre-installed with the fantastic Nokia Maps… Ah, come on, admit it: you don’t hate this thing as much as you thought you would, do you? Check out this Nokia 6760 slide review for even more glowing tributes to the little thing.
There are many things in life that claim to be designed for one thing but are actually used in very different ways. And, more often than not, it’s the not-admitted ways that are by far the most profitable for the companies making these things. Red Bull, for example, do not make their money out of attractive young skiers and waterboarders in the likes of California or Austria, even though their marketing strategy might suggest that’s who drinks it. No, they make their money from millions upon millions of chavs getting tanked up on doublevodkaredbullpleaseyeah’s every weekend. Similarly, Burberry may employ goddesses like Kate Moss to suggest their clothes are high-end, but we all know their profits come from selling caps, scarves and other mid-priced accessories to, well, chavs who are full of red bull and vodka.
So it is with the Nokia 3720 Classic. A phone that is for explorers, construction workers, intrepid ocean crossers, astronauts, sailors… erm, right… yeah. Where the Nokia 3720 is actually going to make money for Nokia is when all those millions upon millions of you out there who can’t go a full day without spilling coffee on someone, standing on a laptop or dropping their phone realise that having a phone that bounces and is waterproof could be pretty darn useful.
Sound like you? What do you mean, yes, you’re an explorer… oh well, guess there’s always one. Check out this Nokia 3720 review for more things this thing can resist, click here for the official page, or just have a little look at this pleasant little video.
HTC… a name that, phone geeks as we are, we’re rather familiar with. We know that they used to have one of those ridiculous Taiwanese names that are created by people with a vague/comedy grasp on English, before deciding that they’d probably be better off shortening ‘High Tech Computer Corporation’ to simply HTC Corporation. Smart move. We know that their tag line, ‘Smart Mobility’ sums up very well what they do, dealing as they do mostly in the higher-end of mobile communications (i.e. smartphones). And we know that they are so very small in size and stature that they get roughed up in the playground and get their lunch money stolen and their phones rebranded by the likes of T-Mobile. Because the T-Mobile G2 Touch is little more than the HTC Hero, simply re-branded to suit T-Mobile’s needs.
Which is a shame, because we think more people deserve to know the name of HTC (its new name that is, probably best to keep the old one under wraps). They’ve been the predominant makers of Google Android-based phones since that wonderful platform was released. And the HTC Hero / T-Mobile Touch is one of those. Even if it looks, well, bizarre, it’s a full-featured phone that’s well, f’ing fantastic in almost everyway. But all those T-Mobile aficionados out there are never going to know this, are never going to see past the T-Mobile stickers and stamps, and might even never know that HTC built this thing from scratch.
Hey ho, such is the way of the world. Let’s just hope that one day HTC become big and strong and start to fight back for themselves. In the meantime, have a little look at this T-Mobile G2 Touch review, or at the official page for a less wistful rundown of all the specs, stats and features this baby’s got on board.
Imagine if you had a Ferrari, right, but in that Ferrari someone had dumped the engine of a Ford Galaxy. You’d be pretty annoyed, wouldn’t you. You still look kind of impressive, turn heads as you drove through town, but you’d know as you felt the terrible engine chug and grind you around the roads that you deserved better.
So it is with all smartphones running Windows Mobile platforms. Because, fair enough, a Ford engine is kind of alright, does what it needs to, only breaks down occasionally… But a Ferrari engine, now how damn cool is that? And that’s just what we think of the new Google Android platform that is making it’s first ever appearance for Sony Ericsson in the form of the Sony Ericsson Xperia X3. Sony Ericsson phones have for some time now been very, very attractive to look at, and have sported certain features that have really caught our attention. 12MP cameras, amazing WiFi media connectivity, great screens… but they’ve all been running on Windows Mobile. Not any more… and about time too, we say. The video below gives a little taster of how SE have made the Android system their own, too. The Sony Ericsson xperia X3 is shaping up very nicely indeed.
And that’s about all we have to say on the matter. There’s a Sony Ericsson Xperia X3 review here, and details of Sony Ericsson Xperia X3 deals here, but we’re just going to be spending the next couple of months waiting to get our hands on one of these things and take it for a spin…
It’s not often a phone sells itself on what it’s not got, rather than what it has, but that’s pretty much the case with the LG GW300.
Wi-Fi? Not-check!
3G? Not-check!
GPS? Not-check!
In fact, pretty much all this things got going for it is the physical QWERTY keyboard. But then, when you realise that because of all the things it hasn’t got it’s going to be insanely cheap (when it’s released later this year) and when you realise that certain age-challenged groups within this green and pleasant land like to use their thumbs a great deal to message / email / Facebook / Twitter… then you start to realise what a smart little plan LG have concocted to persuade these annually-deficient types (“youth” according to GSM Arena) to part with their “hard-earned” pocket money. Back in the day, pocket money for us was enough to get a couple of 10p bags of crisps and, if you were lucky, a chomp. These days, it seems, pocket money comes in note forms.
And if a pack of these “youths” fancy frittering their cash away on the LG GW300 then we say why not. All it means is that their Facebook status will be updated every 4 minutes rather than every 6 minutes. And if it keeps them from, well, mugging us, then we say it’s a good thing. If you happen to be, or to know, one of these youths, you might want to look at this LG GW300 review too.
Touchscreens touchscreens touchscreens… unfortunately for those around us, this is all we’ve been muttering the last couple of days as we ponder the big question, the major topic, the massive, most important things that the world’s greatest minds are surely pondering all around the globe: are touchscreen phones really all that?
And what made us start scratching our noggins and muttering so bizarrely? The O2 XDA Ignito. Or the HTC Touch Diamond, as you’ll probably know it better as (o2 have done one of their pointless re-naming things again). As this O2 XDA Ignito review shows, the ignito is a pretty decent phone. One of the best touchscreens on the market at the moment, in fact. But that’s not to say it’s perfect, of course. It likes some of the sheer oozing class of the iPhone. It struggles a little with Windows Mobile (which, like all Windows programs, tends to crash quite a bit). And we’ve also had a bit of trouble getting used to the on-screen keyboard.
That’s not to say HTC haven’t done a decent job. You can choose between landscape or portrait QWERTY. And you can even change to an alphanumeric keypad if you want that old-school phone feel. But that’s kind of the point for us… why should a phone keypad be considered old school? Why, indeed, should HTC feel the need to include one? Well, the answer is that the QWERTY keyboard feels kind of weird (no resistive feedback doesn’t help) and unless you have weird pointy fingers, you’ll probably want to use the included stylus. Which, call us daft, kind of ruins the point of a touchscreen, right? Most people become so in tune with their physical keypads that they can unlock, navigate a menu, type and send a message all while barely even looking at their phone. Not so with a touchscreen though, given that there’s no physical ridges / buttons for you thumbs or fingers to navigate by. So, has the O2 Ignito made us realise that the end of the touchscreen phone is nigh? Not quite… but we think that the bubble might be about to burst ever so slightly some time very soon. In the meantime, check out O2’s official page, or even the slightly inane video below.
In a not unsurprising mangling of this lovely language, some of the marketing materials for the soon-to-be-released Blackberry 8520 describe it as a “supremely approachable” phone. Now, it’s not just us, is it, but that is one of the daftest things we’ve ever heard. What next? Phones that are sensitive? Handsets that are well mannered? Operating systems that are considerate?
The names of phones often confuse, amuse or just downright annoy us here, but luckily the 
We have been doing a bit of soul searching this month at Best Rated Phones and have decided to compile a quick list of the best 8 phones out there and the best contracts to go with them. After all you don’t need to spend the earth to get these top class handsets, just so long as you shop around and compare deals. Anyhow, here is our list of the best phones and their respective contracts.
In much the same way as those idiots who wear Bluetooth headsets have been the objects of hatred / ridicule / casual violence for many years now, we think the 
Love Facebook?! Update your status at least fifteen times a day?! Or can’t get enough of Twitter?! Or just wish you could be instant messaging all day?!!!…
There are many things in life that claim to be designed for one thing but are actually used in very different ways. And, more often than not, it’s the not-admitted ways that are by far the most profitable for the companies making these things. Red Bull, for example, do not make their money out of attractive young skiers and waterboarders in the likes of California or Austria, even though their marketing strategy might suggest that’s who drinks it. No, they make their money from millions upon millions of chavs getting tanked up on doublevodkaredbullpleaseyeah’s every weekend. Similarly, Burberry may employ goddesses like Kate Moss to suggest their clothes are high-end, but we all know their profits come from selling caps, scarves and other mid-priced accessories to, well, chavs who are full of red bull and vodka.
Imagine if you had a Ferrari, right, but in that Ferrari someone had dumped the engine of a Ford Galaxy. You’d be pretty annoyed, wouldn’t you. You still look kind of impressive, turn heads as you drove through town, but you’d know as you felt the terrible engine chug and grind you around the roads that you deserved better.
It’s not often a phone sells itself on what it’s not got, rather than what it has, but that’s pretty much the case with the 
Touchscreens touchscreens touchscreens… unfortunately for those around us, this is all we’ve been muttering the last couple of days as we ponder the big question, the major topic, the massive, most important things that the world’s greatest minds are surely pondering all around the globe: are touchscreen phones really all that?