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Review: Skinny and Smooth LG KG320 Fashion Phone
The LG KG320 forms the bar-style entry into LG's Black Label series of slim and sleek mobile phones. Measuring only 9.9mm (0.39") thick, the KG320 certainly looks the part, and with a casing made out of a mix of stainless steel and plastic, the phone oozes class and quality. This candy bar style phone is equipped with a 1.3 megapixel camera, along with 128MB of onboard memory, making it a real beauty with brains. The KG320 is a triband (GSM 900/1800/1900MHz) phone, and features GPRS connectivity.
MobileBurn would like to thank LG Malaysia for loaning us a pre-production unit for review. Physical Aspects
Our review unit looked battered - it had scratches, and even a dent on the battery cover. However, the phone was still pretty solid, and did not exhibit any squeaks or creaks.
PHOTOVIEW: Samsung SGH-i600 Windows Mobile UMTS Smartphone
Samsung recently announced the Samsung SGH-i600 which will be released in Europe and Asia later this year and also the the Samsung SGH-i607 was recently approved by the FCC for the U.S. American market. Both devices are based on Samsung's BlackJack II concept, a UMTS-enabled Windows Mobile Smartphone with thumb-keyboard, and therefore the i600/i607 is the UMTS/HSDPA follower of Samsung's 2.5G Windows Mobile Smartphone, the SGH-i320 (see my previous review here).
This week I had the chance to play a little bit with a prerelease version of the SGH-i600 and I took the chance to make some high resolution photos of Samsung's next and its first UMTS- and HSDPA-enabled Windows Mobile Smartphone. Since it is a prerelease device only - without any accessories, etc - I can not write a full review about it at all but I will publish a preview later this week.
Nokia Enables Oracle Apps on Phones
Mobile workers can now access some Oracle applications from two of Nokia's newest enterprise-focused phones, the companies said on Tuesday. Users of Nokia's E61 and E62 phones can access Oracle's Mobile Field Service work schedules and job information while out of the office. Phone users can also view, edit and create entries within Oracle's Siebel Wireless applications for sales, service and partner relationship management. The two phones that support the applications are part of Nokia's Eseries, which began selling earlier this year and are targeted at enterprise customers. The E61 looks similar to the popular BlackBerry. The offering is available immediately.
Earlier this year, Nokia introduced access to some Oracle applications on a few other smart phones, including the Nokia 9300 and Nokia 9500 Communicator.
New handsets from Siemens
During the SK65 launch yesterday, the guys at Siemens spent a good deal of time insisting that the company is not about to get sold off or shut down. They did admit that things hadn't gone too well for them in the past year, though - what with software issues, handsets that were late to market, and (we're guessing) the disappointing standard of some of the phones, especially the SL55's chunkier SL65 upgrade. To reassure us of Siemens Mobile's rude health (number 2 in Europe, number 5 in the world), they announced that 15 new handsets would be heading our way between now and Christmas. So what can we expect? They weren't giving much away, but we know that there will be more slider phones (hopefully to rectify the SL65 chunkiness), a clamshell and at least two 3G handsets. Siemens wouldn't be drawn on whether a Wi-Fi handset is on the card, saying only that more announcements would be made at Cebit (so that's a yes then).
Sony Ericsson Z558i and Z558c
The Sony Ericsson Z558i / Z558c is a very close relative of the existing Z550 handset, but with one unusual change - the Z558 supports handwriting recognition and comes with a touch-sensitive display. Of course, handwriting recognition is nothing new, but this is the first time that Sony Ericsson have included it in a non-Symbian phone (i.e. a smartphone). As far as we can tell, this Z558 is simply a slight software and hardware revision of an existing run-of-the-mill handset. The Sony Ericsson Z558 can recognise Chinese, Thai and English characters - and as usual with Sony Ericsson, the "c" variant is for China, with the Z558i aimed at other markets. Other than the handwriting recognition, this is a pretty standard midrange clamshell with a 176x220 pixel display, 1.3 megapixel camera, Memory Stick Micro expandable memory, an FM radio, MP3 player and Bluetooth.
Siemens SK65
General
|
Network |
GSM 900 / GSM 1800 / GSM 1900 |
| Announced |
2004, 3Q |
Status
|
Available
|
Size
|
Dimensions |
120 x 47 x 22 mm, 115 cc |
Weight
|
144 g
|
Display
|
Type |
TFT, 65K colors |
| Size |
132 x 176 pixels |
|
- Integrated cross-type QWERTY keyboard
- Downloadable pictures
|
Ringtones
|
Type |
Polyphonic (40 channels) |
| Customization |
Download |
Vibration
|
Yes
|
Memory
|
Phonebook |
2000 |
| Call records |
100 dialed, 100 received, 100 missed calls |
| Card slot |
No |
|
- 64 MB shared memory (30 MB available to user)
|
Data
|
GPRS |
Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps |
| HSCSD |
No |
| EDGE |
No |
| 3G |
No |
| WLAN |
No |
| Bluetooth |
Yes, v1.2 |
| Infrared port |
Yes |
USB
|
Yes
|
Features
|
Messaging |
SMS, MMS, Email |
| Browser |
WAP 2.0/xHTML |
| Games |
3 - Chess master, Golf and Sea Battle + downloadable |
| Colors |
Black Silver |
| Camera |
No |
|
- Java MIDP 2.0
- Push to talk (VoIP service)
- E-mail push based on BlackBerry Built-In technology from RIM
- T9
- SyncML
- Organiser
- Built-in handsfree
|
| Battery |
|
Standard, Li-Ion 750 mAh (EBA-660) |
| Stand-by |
Up to 250 h |
| Talk time |
Up to 5 h |
|
