Samsung Vibrant

Out of all the Samsung Galaxy S series models, we'd have to say the Samsung Vibrant is the sleekest and sexiest one of the bunch. The look is rather familiar, but the combination of the slim profile, clean design, and rounded edges is really pleasing to the eye. Also, at 4.82 inches tall by 2.54 inches wide by 0.39 inch thick and 4.16 ounces, the Vibrant makes for a nice travel companion, slipping easily into a pants pocket and feeling lightweight in the hand. That said, the handset feels plasticky and slick. We wouldn't say it's fragile, but it definitely left a lot to be desired, especially compared with the solid and durable Nexus One.

Samsung admits that it hasn't really attacked the U.S. smartphone market as aggressively as it's done with basic handsets, but the company's planning to change all that with its Galaxy series. Launching with all four major U.S. carriers, as well as a couple of regional providers, the Android-based Galaxy S models come with impressive stats, such as large Super AMOLED touch screens, 1GHz Hummingbird Cortex A8 processor, and an entertainment content store. But is it too little, too late? Well, after spending some time with the Samsung Vibrant for T-Mobile, we don't think so.Sleek, fast, and packed with entertainment features, the Vibrant shines as a multimedia device and beats T-Mobile's other top Android offering, T-Mobile my touch 3g slide, in that department. However, battery life is a concern; if you plan on taking full advantage of the Vibrant's multimedia capabilities, you'd be wise to carry an extra battery or charger with you at all times. The Samsung Vibrant will be available from T-Mobile starting July 15 for $199.99 with a two-year contract.

Like the rest of the Galaxy S series, the Vibrant runs on Android 2.1 with Samsung's TouchWiz 3.0 interface. The latter is definitely improved from previous versions, with some enhanced functionality and a more polished look.

To start, there are new widgets, including one called Feeds & Updates and another called Buddies Now. Feeds & Updates streams updates from Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace, and you can choose to display content from one, two, or all three of the social-networking sites, as well as set the refresh rate, ranging from 30 minutes to once a day. Buddies Now is like a favorites list and allows you to immediately call or text those contacts, as well as comment on any of their updates. There are a number of other Samsung widgets, as well as Android widgets and other shortcuts, all of which can be added to one of seven home screens.

The home screens can also be personalized with live wallpapers, but there are two elements that can't be changed: the pull-down notification tray on top, which now includes wireless manager and profile functions, and the toolbar along the bottom with quick-launch buttons to the phone app, contacts, messages, and applications. Pressing the latter takes you to a nice grid view of all your apps; they're spread out over several pages, which you can swipe from side to side to get to. We much prefer this layout over the standard Android one, where you have to scroll up and down. It feels more natural and easier to navigate.

The LG Rumor Touch

Long before messaging phones became a trend, LG has been making feature phones with full QWERTY keyboards. Verizon has its line of Voyager and enV handsets, and Sprint has the LG Rumor and the subsequent LG Rumor 2. Though they made decent messaging phones, the previous Rumor handsets were more for the entry-level consumer due to their basic feature sets.

The LG Rumor Touch changes all that, however; it is the first touch-screen phone to bear the Rumor branding, and it carries a slew of improved features. Not only that, but the Rumor Touch carries a unique user interface that seems tailor made for sending and receiving text messages. Its impressive feature set includes a 2-megapixel camera, a 3.5mm headset jack, GPS, and EV-DO Rev. 0.

As the name suggests, the Rumor Touch has a large 3-inch touch screen display on the front. It is capable of showing 262,000 colors and holds a 240 x 400-pixel WQVGA resolution, which results in a vibrant display with crisp text and images. You can adjust the brightness, the backlight time, and the font size. The touch screen is resistive so you can either use a stylus or your fingertips to navigate. It doesn't feel as smooth as a capacitive display, but it's not any slower than other resistive screens we've tried. You can add haptic feedback if you want the phone to vibrate whenever you select something and there's a touch calibration wizard if you want better touch precision. Underneath the display are three physical controls--the back key, the home screen key, and the Call key.

The user interface on the Rumor Touch is unlike most other touch screen phones we've tried. The welcome screen area is quite blank, except for the date, time, battery, and signal strength information on the top bar and a single shortcut to the home screen on the bottom. However, whenever you get new incoming text messages, you will see a small bubble icon on the upper right with a number that indicates how many you received. When you select that icon, all your new messages will appear as floating bubbles, filling up the normally empty welcome screen. From there you can either close them out or start replying to your messages. We thought this bubble interface idea is quite a clever one, especially if you're a big messaging fanatic.

When you select the home screen, you will find a simple list view of frequently used applications. You can easily customize this by adding and removing shortcuts. The main menu is presented in exactly the same boring list layout--we would've preferred some kind of variety here to differentiate the two zones. Still, at least it was easy enough to navigate to the features we wanted.

Another specialty that sets the Rumor Touch apart from other phones is the Hello UI, or Hello User Interface. It's accessible via the Contacts list and is essentially a smart way of grouping up your contacts. There are four colored dots on the left hand side, and each corresponds to a different group. To add a contact to a group, simply select the add symbol and choose a contact from your address book. The contact will then be represented on the Hello UI as a cartoon character--you can change this to one of 12 included characters or you can select your own picture to represent him or her.

You can add up to six contacts per group. From there you can drag and drop the icons around or you can snap them to a grid if you like. When you select an individual contact, a circle of shortcuts will appear around the image. They lead to a new text message, the most recent text conversation with him or her, a speed dial to that person, plus quick access to the contacts list. Perhaps the coolest thing you can do with the Hello UI is that you can draw a "lasso" around all the contacts in a particular group to send all of them a group text message.

To get to the number dial pad, you have to press the Call key. The virtual dial pad has large numbers so you can easily dial without messing up. There are also shortcuts to a new text message, the recent calls list, the phone book, and the aforementioned Hello UI. As for sending a text message, you can do so via the touch screen with either handwriting recognition or a T9 keypad. There's no virtual QWERTY keyboard, but that doesn't bother us because the Rumor Touch has a full physical keyboard.

The keyboard slides sideways to the right of the phone, which will then prompt the display to change from portrait to landscape mode. If you are doing this from standby, you'll be presented with the messaging menu the second you slide out the keyboard so you can get started on typing out texts straightaway. The keyboard is quite spacious--it is a five-row keyboard, which gives it one row just for numbers. The keys are raised above the surface in a smooth bubble shape so it's easy to text by feeling your way around. However, the Back, Enter, and arrow keys take up just a tad too much space on the right, which throws off our natural thumb typing position. It therefore takes a little slower to type out texts than we would like.

On the left spine of the Rumor Touch are the volume rocker and camera key, and the 3.5mm headset jack, the Power/Screen lock key, and the microSD card slot are on the right. The charger jack is on the bottom and the camera lens sits on the back next to the external speaker.

Samsung Champ

Samsung Champ Mobile Phone is a touch screen cell phone with several useful features offered at the right cost.

This mobile phone targets mainly the youngsters who would like to use new creative methods to utilize their cell phones. The design of this phone is super compact and stylish. Convenient grip and curved features are offered in this phone. It is available in several attractive colors such as chic white, dark black, brown expresso and sweet pink. The touch display screen is very large with about 2.4" in size. The menu format is designed in a simple way. The touch screen ability is suitable for sending SMS, enjoying Java video games and downloading applications. The touch screen is provided with attractive color differences and vibrant images. The 240 x 320 pixel screen is capable of displaying about 256,000 colors. The activity of image rotation is automated with the help of an accelerometer sensor.

The battery power of this phone can be retained for a long time, hence the users can enjoy multimedia facilities for a long time wherever they go. Bluetooth facilities, small SD card with a memory capacity of 8GB along with a travel and headset adapters are also included.

SOS alert is one of the excellent features of the phone. When the Samsung Champ Mobile Phone users are in trouble, this alert facility will search for a help nearby. To send a SOS SMS, the clear key i.e., the C key must be pressed four times after locking the keypad. This activity will send SMS to about ten numbers selected by the user immediately. This SMS will provide alert messages to the receivers and indicate that the message sender is in need of a help. When a call is received from the receiver, the Champ mobile phone will immediately answer the calls and pass on the message to the user and help them in getting the proper support.

A useful phonebook facility is also provided in this phone which is able to store about 1,000 calls along with the photo call facility. The inbuilt memory of this phone is about 30MB which can be extended with a Micro SD card. MP4 and MP3 media players are capable of accepting and supporting different formats of files. The speakerphone is provided with stereo speakers. The FM radio is of stereo type and it is provided with RDS thus enabling the mobile users to listen to a wide variety of radio stations.

Other interesting entertainment such as games and social networking are also included. This phone is very light to handle having only a weight of about 80grams. The mobile tracker facility offered in this phone helps the users to find their mobile phones easily when it is lost or stolen. Tata Zone facility is useful for downloading the desired ringtones, games and wall images. Lengthy messages containing up to 480 characters can be sent using this device. This phone is capable of storing 150 SMS and 20 template messages.

This mobile phone can be compared with HTC smart mobile phone. HTC phone does not have a good battery life as the Samsung phone. It is slightly heavier than the Samsung phone with a weight of about 108 grams. Micro SD facility is almost equal in both the phones. The camera of HTC phone is about 3 MP having a higher resolution than the Samsung Champ Mobile Phone. The antenna is fixed internally in Samsung phone however it is not present in the HTC phone.

The Samsung Champ is due to be released in early Autumn of 2010 in the UK. It is expected that you'll be able to get Samsung Champ deals on contract with all of the 6 major UK networks as well as on Pay As You Go due to its low price.

Nokia N97 mini

Nokia's powerhouse N97 touchscreen, QWERTY keyboard-packing smartphone may have arrived to mixed reviews, but its new, rescaled Nokia N97 Mini stablemate offers a refreshed take on the device. Its 'Mini' moniker doesn't mean this is a heavily stripped down version of the original N97, however. While it does pare down some elements of the N97 - such as a smaller screen and reduced internal flash memory from 32GB to 8GB - the N97 Mini is still a big hitter in the pure feature count department.

The N97 Mini is a full touchscreen smartphone device, running on Nokia's Symbian S60 5th Edition platform - previously seen on recent models like the N97 and 5800 Xpress Music. It has a 3.2-inch display, and has a slide-out full QWERTY keyboard with a tilting screen, and, geared up to be a web-orientated multimedia device, it supports high-speed HSDPA mobile data as well as Wi-Fi connectivity. It's loaded up with an impressive amount of applications out of the box, and as well as multimedia player capabilities it has A-GPS location finding with Nokia's Maps software, plus a 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics.

The typical touchscreen slab look of the Nokia N97 Mini is similar to the original N97, with a minimalist front panel sporting a trio of keys below the screen. But the bodywork is smaller than the bulky N97 - the N97 Mini measures 113(h) x 52.5(w) x 14.2(d) mm and weighs 138g, compared to the original's 117.2(h) x 55.3(w) x 15.9-18.25(d)mm, 150g pocket-bulging package. The display is scaled down from the N97's 3.5-incher to a 3.2-inch screen on the Mini. It's a 640 x 360 pixels, 16.7 million colour screen that's lovely and bright, with a decent amount of clarity. It doesn't have the pixel count of the very best touchscreens on the market, but it looks good enough on this showing for multimedia playback and browsing.

The QWERTY keyboard has been given a makeover from the N97; gone is the five-way navigation pad, leaving a bit more finger-room for the 38 keys (which include direction keys). It has a much more usable feel, the rubber-like keys slightly less flush to the surface so you can feel more action as you type.The space bar is still shifted over to the right rather than central, and while that may not satisfy the touch-typist, it's very easy to get used to. And, in practice, it's rather useful when you're thumb typing when holding the device.

The screen still automatically tilts at an angle when the QWERTY keyboard slides out, with a reassuringly rock solid spring-loaded mechanism locking it in place.

The HTC HD Mini

The HTC HD Mini is to the HD2 what the iPhone Nano would be to the original iPhone. It's well-built and charmingly small, but its OS is too dated to ever enjoy very much. Window Mobile 6.5.3 is an albatross hanging around the HTC HD Mini's neck. With the HTC Sense interface, the phone is somewhat usable. But with the wondrous Windows Phone 7 , you can't seriously consider the HD Mini right off the bat. The OS is the dark flip side to the beautiful hardware.

The hardware is great. It's what we've come to know and love from HTC, scaling the HD2 to a more accessible size. It's an industrial one, the HD Mini. Certainly not sleek and sexy like the Legend, nor curved like the Desire. Exposed screws on each corner of the rubberized back plate give it a very masculine appearance—which I loved.

Underneath the cover lies a bright yellow inside, a hidden secret which I showed off to countless friends while testing it. The size of the phone is perfect, proving easier to handle than the 4.3-inch HD2, with the 3.2-inch capacitive HVGA screen more than big enough to browse and type on. It's bright until you hold the phone in the sun.

The screen is responsive, with haptics providing feedback—though I found it more difficult typing on the HD Mini than I did the Legend and Desire, often pressing the wrong letters.

Predictive text exists for a reason, but it did have me pining for my usual BlackBerry.

Few buttons live on the phone's case, with the left side containing volume keys and the top of the phone the on/off button. Five soft-touch keys are down the bottom of the phone, for calling, home, menu, back and hanging up.

A 600Mhz processor with 384MB of RAM should be adequate to drive a modern smartphone OS, but the lag was infuriating. Switching between programs, heck even scrolling through the sideways menu bar through Sense was a real hassle. Trying to read the Twitter feed, scrolling through the messages but encountering an almost-frozen screen resulted in me just not bothering after a while. The HD2 a Snapdragon processor and 448MB of RAM, which was "unbelievably fast," but with the slower processor the HD Mini is almost crippled by WinMo.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10

At 4.7 inches long by 2.5 inches wide by 0.5 inch deep, the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 is only slightly larger than the iPhone.The X10 comes through with a 4-inch screen which makes it larger than most touch-screen phones currently on the market and a rich resolution (65,536 colors; 854x480 pixels). Graphics, photos, and colors are sharp and vibrant, and can see the display relatively well in direct light. The touch interface was accurate and responsive, both when tapping icons and swiping through long lists. It even was responsive at the very edges of the display. It weighs only about 4.8 ounces.

The X10's virtual keyboard is very close to the standard Android design, but it offers a few unique elements. In landscape mode it takes advantage of the display's full size so you have plenty of room for typing. There are three rows of alphabetic/punctuation keys with separate keyboards for numbers and symbols and other punctuation. You also get a special pop-up keyboard above the alphabetic buttons that includes smileys and some symbols. That's particularly convenient since it puts oft-used characters, like a dollar sign and parentheses, right on the main screen. The space bar is conveniently located in the center of the bottom row.

The X10 also has an autocomplete function and dictionary. Instead of just one possible choice when writing a word, the X10 offers up to 20 possible choices. For example, if you type "it" you get not only "its" as an option, but also "itself," "Italy," "item," and even "ignore." What's more, the X10 is adept at remembering previously used words and offering them as suggestions even if they aren't in the dictionary. After typing "germank" just once, we got it as a suggestion each time we started typing another word that begins with G.

Below the display are the X10's only physical controls. The Home key, back button, and menu control are large and tactile, so we had no trouble using them. On the left spine you'll find the volume rocker and a camera shutter. The latter is a rather small, but it didn't pose a problem. On the top of the phone are the 3.5mm headset jack, the power control, and the Micro-USB port for the charger and syncing cable. We give Sony Ericsson major points for ditching the proprietary connections and including a microSD card slot. The slot is located behind the battery cover, but we'll let that slide in this case since we aren't stuck with a Memory Stick Micro format.