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A Quick Look at Upcoming Handsets

Liam — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 12:04:58 +0000

From rumors to forgotten previews, there are many smart phones that we are waiting to see. Leaks often give us glimpses of promising new technology that often become bitter memories when manufacturers decide to cancel production or completely change an upcoming device. Here is a quick list at several handsets that we are hoping would make it to the production line.

First up is an Android handset with a 5.5 inch touch screen display from Sony Ericsson. The device was leaked along with the upcoming SE XPERIA Shakira and the W150 TeaCake. According to the leaked report, the device is an Android smart phone. Looking at the leaked images alone makes us wonder when this impressive tablet hybrid smart phone will actually be available –it even has a slide out QWERTY keyboard that allows it to be used as a netbook.

Right after the launch of the Nexus One, there was plenty of talk about a new handset from Motorola that might possibly end up as the Nexus Two. There were rumors that the next Google phone needed a keyboard and at that point, Motorola’s Milestone/DROID was the best basis for an Android with a keyboard.

By the time word of the Shadow handset in production became public, people were already looking at it as the next Google device. Recent news updates have revealed that the Shadow is still in production.

When it comes to high end Android, no other rumor seems to be as delicious as the upcoming HTC Scorpion (though the Sony device is starting to overtake everything else). This handset is said to be equipped with the latest Snapdragon CPU and is said to possibly be clocked at speeds more than 1.2 GHz.

The Samsung Galaxy S Pro may be the least impressive of these four, but with the already good specs on the original, all it simply needs is the QWERTY keyboard (hence the Pro on the name). So far, Samsung has not commented if the Galaxy S Pro will be made.

Sony Ericsson Jalou. Truth fight!

Martin — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 15:57:40 +0000

Ah, the age old debate… well, the years’ old debate: who to believe: the person who’s made something and is trying to sell it, or the person who has nothing invested in either its success or failure.

Rather a one-sided debate, we’ll agree, but one that’s certainly always amusing to watch from the sidelines. Step forward the contenders on either side of the fight ring that has been erected around the Sony Ericsson Jalou. In the red corner (booo, goes the crowd, boooo) we have the suitably named villain Charles Hunt, head designer on the Sony Ericsson Jalou over at Sony Ericsson. Let’s call him C, for short. Mr C Hunt. Then in the blue corner (wooooo, woooooo!) we have a selection of slightly overweight, scruffy but intelligible online bloggers and Sony Ericsson Jalou reviewers. Oh, and it’s C Hunt coming in with the first punch:

“Structured forms, intricate corners, hidden depths and jewel accents are set to be some of the hottest fashion trends in 2010. You can also expect to see deep and natural jewel colours on the runway next year.”

The bloggers corners ducks and the wild, almost surreal attempt at a punch goes miles wide. Good lord, look at this, C Hunt coming straight back for another effort:

“Packed with unique features and encased in a beautiful facet-cut jewel form, it is a stylish addition to any handbag….”

Wild, crazy almost, and ducked again. Again!:

“Sony Ericsson’s latest style statement is only 73mm long – shorter than your favourite lipstick…”

The crowd booing ferociously as C Hunt starts to sweat and slaver, foam oozing from his fat lips as he becomesa frustrated at the complete lack of effectiveness of what he thought would be the Jalou’s killer blows.

Then, what’s this, the bloggers have discussed something, argued a bit, and are now shoving forward one of their ranks to do something. He’s opening his mouth, wait for it…

“I believe this might be the worst thing I’ve ever seen today. And this is coming from a man who this morning watched two turtles having sex.”

BOOM! There is is! C Hunt is flawed! The crowd goes wild. Truth wins out! World Order is retained… phew.

Picking out your August mobile phone contract

Martin — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:04:15 +0000

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.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X3. Vrooom!

Martin — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 13:01:59 +0000

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…

Sony Ericsson T715. Bare faced favouritism

Martin — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 09:25:24 +0000

Sometimes it might seem that this blog favours certain phone manufacturers over other phone manufacturers. That’s because this blog favours certain phone manufacturers over other phone manufacturers. It’s as simple as that. We knows what we likes. And we likes what we knows. Other blogs might hide their affiliations and affections in desperate attempts to remain impartial / in favour with all and sundry, but we just don’t see the point in that. We’re here to over biased, opinionated rants and we’re proud of the fact.

What made us write that little intro? Basically, this official press release for the Sony Ericsson T715. As we waded through the almost insufferable turd that it is, we realised that Sony Ericsson are not a company that we are all that happy with. Their products are fine, many of them very fine indeed. It’s more their, well, their personality that we don’t like. It’s like many of the actors and sports people we admire – love to watch them, appreciate their skill and all that, but we’d never, ever want to spend a nice afternoon in a pub with them because they’re terrible people. Sony Ericsson are the Peaches Geldof of the mobile phone world. They’ve got a silly name, think far too highly of themselves and have no sense of decency, no decorum in anything they do.

Someone like Nokia, for example, would have been very upfront and outright about the Sony Ericsson T715 being a phone for poorer people, whether in this country or in emerging market. They would have been proud of the fact that they’d managed to squeeze a modest range of smartphone-esque features onto what is in all honesty an entry-level phone. Sony Ericsson, on the other hand, spend the whole press release lying outrightly and trying to hoodwink you into believing this is some kind of sophisticated and trendy gadget that’s going to change your life forever. Just to be clear: it most definitely is not, and most definitely will not (check out this Sony Ericsson T715 review
for full proof). Again, we’ve nothing against this phone as such – it does what it’s supposed to (not a lot, but for not a lot of money) – it’s just Sony Ericsson’s attempts to position it as something it’s not are, well, offensive. There we are then. Glad we got that off our chests…

Sony Ericsson Satio. Is it a bird?

Martin — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 10:51:58 +0000

No.

Is it a cameraphone? No, but it has a 12 megapixel camera. Is it a businessphone? No, but it has email software, full touchscreen QWERTY and document editing software. Is it a… ah, sod it. The Sony Ericsson Satio is whatever you want it to be, as far as we can tell. It may look – with it’s huge, almost all-screen surface, like a camera, but it’s far, far more than that.

With a handy little media panel to tap straight into all of its media-playing functions with one touch, an amazing, nHD screen, great sound and free headphones in every box, and loads more other functions we’ve not quite got the space / finger power to tell you about, we reckon the Sony Ericsson Satio’s going to be making plenty of appearances in people’s palms come its release in a couple of months. For our money, it does what a whole host of other phones have been pretty much failing to do recently – act as a genuine, multifunction media phone, whilst not forgetting that first and foremost it is just that: a phone.

The Sony Ericsson Satio doesn’t overarch in any of its aspirations or claims, but at the same time it utterly delivers with everything it promises. The camera’s more than decent and offers as many functions and modes as the best out there. The media playback is simple and incredibly high quality. The internet connectivity is again up there with the best. And Sony being Sony, they chuck those headphones and even an 8GB microSD card in the box for you to enjoy too.

Perfect? Not quite. But a long, long way ahead of just about all its rivals? Most definitely. There’s a full run through of everything onboard in this Sony Ericsson Satio review, or just have a look at the video below instead:

Sony Ericsson Aino. PS3 smugness on the rise

Martin — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 11:57:07 +0000

In what we think might be a first, the recently announced Sony Ericsson Aino is going to be pretty much ignored by everyone who doesn’t own a certain top-end games console. Because the Aino has onboard several really kind of interesting features. But features that are only really kind of interesting – or interesting in anyway whatsoever – if you own a PS3. How can we say that so definitely? Well, follow us dear reader, on a journey through a list of those…

Remote Play – All that music / photos / etc. saved onto the hard drive of your PS3 can be accessed directly from your phone. Whether you’re linked via a local network at home, or even tapping into it from some distant country via whatever internet connectivity that place might have, all of it is accessible to you to play, share or do whatever else you want with.
PlayTVservice – All those free TV channels you can watch on the PS3?… yeah, you guessed it – they’re now available for your perusal on the little Sony Ericsson Aino, again no matter where you might find yourself on the planet.

Okay then, patient reader. Wasn’t a very long list to follow us down, was it? But we hope you’ll agree that it pretty much excludes the PS3-less from getting any fun out of this thing. Which isn’t actually true, as the next little line-up proves, but if you aren’t a member of the first gang, there’s not really any point getting to know this lot:

Media Home – Synchronise your PC with the Aino. Simple, but effective. And means you don’t need lots of wires trailing all over the place. Huzzah!
Media Go – Turns your phone into a remote control and mediaplayer in one, letting you watch, organise and play all your home computer files (photos, music, etc.) using the Sony Ericsson Aino itself.

So, not got a PS3? Well done for reading this far. But, seriously, nothing better to do? Have got a PS3? Yeah, yeah, we know, you’re great. Read this Sony Ericsson Aino review for even more reasons to feel smug. Or feast your gammy eyes on this:

Sony Ericsson Aino looks the real deal

admin — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:35:27 +0000

Sony Ericsson have announced yet another sleek looking phone that goes by the name of the Sony Ericsson Aino. The all new Aino is due to be released later this year and represents a step forward in terms of integration between Sony and Sony Ericsson.
The main feature that is sure to get PS3 owners drooling are the interactive features that allow the user to interact with Sony’s PS3 console remotely. This is the first handset that is able to do this and it now means that users can interact with their PS3 without even being in the room. I am still a little unsure as to how this will play out, but I’m sure both Sony and Sony Ericsson will release further details in the coming months.
However if you can’t wait that long. Why not check out some of the Sony Ericsson W995 deals that are currently available in the marketplace. There are great sites like Moby1 that compare mobile phone contracts from a wide range of retailers in the UK, allowing you to get the best possible deal. You can also sign up to be notified when handsets such as the Sony Ericsson Aino become available. Well worth a visit in our opinion.

Samsung goes large with the Samsung Pixon 12

admin — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:26:40 +0000

Samsung has announced that it will be releasing an upgraded version of the original Samsung pixon, the name? The Samsung Pixon 12. OK it’s not the most imaginative name to come from Samsung, however it seems that they are building on what was an already successful phone and as the old adage would say, if it aint broke, don’t fix it. It seems that Samsung is looking to rival Sony Ericsson in the megapixel department after they announced the originally named Idou was unveiled as the Sony Ericsson Satio. Both handsets will boast a 12 megapixel camera and both will inevitably take great quality photos.
Unfortunately we will have to wait until the handsets are released to see which one does take the best quality images (as yet we haven’t found any samples of images taken). As soon as we know more we will post an update here at Best Rated Phones.
So what does it all mean in terms of you purchasing your next mobile phone? Well you can be fairly sure that the Samsung Pixon 12 will be released before the Sony Ericsson Satio, so if you can’t wait to get your hands on a mobile phone with the highest resolution camera, the Pixon 12 would be the way to go. In our opinion though, it may be well worth waiting for the Satio to be released as we just love the design of this phone.

Sony EWricsson W395

admin — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 18:01:19 +0000

The Sony Ericsson W395 Walkman is a new phone in the Sony walkman series. The official press releasefor this phone was some time in early February. It is the most affordable Walkman slider phone to date. The phone has a 2 inch 262k colour TFT display with a 176 x 220 pixel resolution. The screen is scratch resistant. The battery of the phone allows up to 8 hours talk time, 12 hours music listening time and a whopping 480 hours standby time.

TheSony Ericsson W395 Walkmancomes with 10 MB phone memory which can be expanded using the micro memory stick slot.

The phone supports quad band connectivity and also includes Bluetooth.

The best features are its music options which include a walkman player, powerful built-in stereo speakers with high quality bass, stereo headset and an equaliser. Album art it supported and Bluetooth A2DP stereo wireless headphones and speakers can also be used. The phone has the standard Sony Ericsson entertainment “quirks” that users have grown to love like the TrackID which helps the user to find a song even when not sure of the name and the PlayNow which provides a range of downloadable entertainment content from the handset from themes and wallpapers to unique ring tones.

The Sony Ericsson W395 Walkman has a 2 MP camera with built in support for picture and video blogging. The W395 also has a photo fix application to tweak photos after they have been taken.

Other features of the phone include motion gaming support which makes playing 3D games even better. The phone also comes with an FM radio keeping the user up to date with the latest music. The phone comes with a battery, battery charger, GB memory stick, USB cable, Stereo-portable hands free and a HPM-64 Stereo headset.

Overall this phone is an excellent mid range music phone with its excellent music features.

For network specific deals, follow the links below:

Sony Ericsson W395 on Orange
Sony Ericsson W395 on O2
Sony Ericsson W395 on T-Mobile
Sony Ericsson W395 on Vodafone
Sony Ericsson W395 on 3 Mobile
Sony Ericsson W395 on Virgin