Three's smallest 3G phone

Last night 3G network Three finally confirmed the worst kept secret in the mobile phone industry that it is to offer LG phones on its network.

As regular TD readers will know we are huge fans of the first mobile it will offer the LG U8110.

The handset which features all Three's headline facilities like person to person video calling and video downloads is one of the most compact 3G handset so far. It is significantly smaller and lighter than all the other models in Three's portfolio bar the non-video calling Nokia 7600 handset and looks and feels much more like a GPRS phone than a 3G one.

It is available from 49.

There will be a full review of the phone in The Guardian and here next week. Until then suffice to say that with the LG phone and the excellent Nokia 7600, it seems at last that Three has finally overcome its handset issues.

Motorola super slim RAZR phone

In terms of iconic phone designs, Motorola certainly leads the way and it looks like the company has just done it again with the release of the V3 RAZR.

The clamshell phone is incredibly slim - just 14mm - which is about a third of the depth of rival phones like the Sharp GX30 and Motorola V600. It is also very slight weighing in at a very pocket-friendly 95g.

Motorola has also pulled off some pretty neat tricks with the keypad which features illuminated keys sitting flush on the casing. Amazingly, the keys are incredibly easy to use.

The internal 2.2-inch TFT screen has support for 260k colours, and the external display is also in colour.

Motorola has managed to squeeze in a VGA camera as well as Class 1 Bluetooth technology.

Nov 9 trial for cellphone cops

Constables Errol Bonner and Kumar Bailey, who are each facing a charge of breaching the Corruption Prevention Act, in the Half-Way-Tree Resident Magistrate's Court, will be tried on November 9 for allegedly accepting two cell phones to overlook a traffic violation.

Appearing before presiding Magistrate Judith Pusey Friday, both men were ordered to return to court on November 9 when they will face trial. The two were also denied bail and remanded in custody until that time. Bonner and Bailey, who were assigned to the Mobile Reserve Division of the police force, are alleged to have accepted a Motorola Razr cellular phone and a Motorola V60 cellular phone from two men travelling in a motorcar on September 22. They had the car driven in the oppositie direction on the one-way road from the roundabout to the departure station at the Norman Manley International Airport.

Orange's latest SPV arrives

The SPVs have always been popular around the Tech Digest office as they are among the most compact smartphones to use Windows Mobile and actually make for surprisingly manageable web browsing. The latest, the SPV C600, is a very similar candy-bar style to its predecessors now with a 320 x 240 colour screen, as well as a 1.3 megapixel camera and 64mb internal memory. Not following the C550, it has opted away form music playback button and returns to a style more similar to the C500 but this time imbued with the latest Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system. This means that applications load up a lot quicker and has a generally more handset friendly interface. Also improved over the C500 is the new joystick control system that has proved itself to be a much needed addition.

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The Orange SPV C600 has pretty much ticked all the boxes; but there's no escaping the fact that it's hard to make such a small unit very easily useable with internet browsing, emailing and so on.