Palm Treo 680 Preview
The Palm Treo 680 is a pleasant surprise - a classic PalmOS based Treo smartphone that replaces the two year old Treo 650 without the price and complexity of the Treo 700p or Treo 750v devices.
Palm are pitching the Treo 680 as an entry-level messaging device with consumers in mind, but to be honest it’s a pretty straightforward replacement for the Treo 650. Unlike some other Treo devices, Palm are intending to ship the Treo 680 worldwide, stating that they expect to have around 20 carriers on board by mid 2007. Another slightly unusual feature about the Treo 680 is that it will be available in a variety of colours.
Motorola SLVR L7e Review
Motorola announced the Motorola SLVR L7e (also known as the MOTOSLVR L7e), yet another member of the interminable Motorola RAZR/SLVR series of attractive but incredibly tedious phones.
The Motorola SLVR L7e tweaks the design slightly with a keypad very similar to the Motorola KRZR K1 clamshell, and the result is very pleasing to look at. The SLVR L7e also boosts the camera resolution from a poor 0.3 megapixels to a just-about-adequate 1.3 megapixels. The display is still a 176×220 pixel panel, there’s microSD expandable memory, Bluetooth and an MP3 player.
Toshiba TS608 / Toshiba TS30 Review
Even though it’s an impressively slim and lightweight device, it’s considerably thicker and heavier than the Samsung X820 which is 6.9 mm thick and weighs 66 grams, but the Toshiba TS608 is more compact than the 85 gram and 12mm thick Motorola SLVR.
One neat feature on the Toshiba TS608 is the top-mounted media controls, something we’ve only seen before on the BenQ-Siemens E61 - this means that you can control the TS608’s multimedia while it’s clipped to a belt.
BlackBerry Pearl 8100 Review
The BlackBerry Pearl 8100 is a much more compact device than the 7130. The BlackBerry 8100 comes in at 107×50x15mm and just 90 grams, compared to the 7130’s 115×56x18mm and 120 grams. But, the Pearl manages to fit in a 1.3 megapixel camera, expandable memory and an MP3 player, making this a much more consumer friendly handset than the business-orientated BlackBerry devices that have gone before.
LG-SV420 the Shine Black Label
The LG-SV420 is part of LG’s “Black Label” range, which includes the LG Chocolate, although there are many different “Chocolate” handsets in different markets. So, this Korean CDMA version of the LG Shine is called the LG-SV420, but any derivative for worldwide markets would be slightly different.
Samsung E420 (SGH-E420) La Fleur Edition
The Samsung E420 is a low cost member of Samsung’s “La Fleur” series of fashion phones with a 128×160 pixel OLED display in 65,000 colours, a VGA resolution (0.3. megapixel) camera and that’s really about it, apart from the E420’s attractive looks.
In fact, it’s the SGH-E420’s looks that give the game away - the interior and basic specifications mark it out as an upgrade to the Samsung X400 (see below) from 2003. Yup, this is essentially a three-year-old phone with a bit of a facelift and a few new features.
Sony Ericsson Z610 / Z610i Clamshell Phone
The Sony Ericsson Z610 is a 3G clamshell phone with a 2 megapixel camera, but perhaps its most striking feature is how shiny it is.
It looks gorgeous - but in reality, the Sony Ericsson Z610 is a reasonably standard phone underneath. There’s a 176×220 pixel display in 262,000 colours, Bluetooth, Memory Stick Micro Support, video calling, a web browser and email client plus everything else you’d expect to find.
Motorola RAZR V3i Gold Limited Edition
Just in case the original RAZR V3i wasn’t quite blingy enough for you, this gold version is limited to 1000 units and will be sold exclusively through Dolce & Gabbana outlets worldwide.
Perhaps it’s not to everyone’s tastes, but it’s certainly a good deal tamer than the rather mad RAZR V3 Unrath & Strano Edition.
