Sony Ericsson Zylo Review

his is a global GSM phone, it can be used with AT&T and T-Mobile USA without 3G.

Introduction:

Sony's Walkman brand has given a lot to mankind, from the first mobile cassette player to the Sony Ericsson Zylo, which we are about to review. We have always liked the idea  of having Walkman-branded devices (yes, we are old school), but how will the Zylo perform as a music-centered phone? Read on to find out...

What's in the box

• Sony Ericsson Zylo handset
• 900mAh Li-Ion battery
• Manual and quick start guide
• Charger
• Headset with microphone

Design:

The Sony Ericsson Zylo has the typical slider form factor we are used to seeing in many of the company's handsets, with rounded edges, and a slightly curved back panel, which makes it pleasant to hold. The handset is rather smallish, and to operate it with one hand, you have to support it the usual way with the pinky, or even the ring finger. Well, that's why nature gave us opposing thumbs, we guess. The Zylo is built well and the slider mechanism snaps back and forth with ease.

Sony Ericsson Zylo is pleasant to hold

You can compare the Sony Ericsson Zylo with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

The screen is a regular 2.6” QVGA resolution display with average visibility in direct sunlight. The screen is able to display 262 thousand colors, and its glass cover is rated as scratch-resistant. No touchy-feely here, operating the UI is done mainly by the six buttons and the circular d-pad under the screen. The send and end buttons on both sides are decently sized and easy to press, but the two soft keys and the two little activity and clear keys are extremely small, and with shallow travel. The navigation ring of the d-pad is not the most correct of them all either, but you get used to it after some time with the phone.

Pushing the screen part up reveals a traditional numeric keypad with a smooth plastic feel on the buttons. They are fairly large and really easy to press with deep travel.

As a typical Walkman series phone, the Sony Ericsson Zylo has a dedicated button to fire up the music player on the right, just below the volume rocker. The Walkman key is also utilized as a camera button, but you have to start the camera software from the menu first, again annoying. The only other element around the phone is the charging/headset port on the left. The company is still bothering us and itself with proprietary connectors, so you will have to buy an adapter cable if you want to use another headset.

The sides of Sony Ericsson Zylo

The 3.2MP camera on the back is also a video recorder without an LED light to it (or any sort of light). There is a chrome-like band surrounding the Sony Ericsson Zylo, but our review unit was the silver version, so it didn't make much distinction. The chrome color would stand out better on the black or the pink versions of the Zylo.

Samsung B7722 Review

This is a global GSM phone. It can be used with AT&T and T-Mobile USA without 3G.

Introduction:

Thе Samsung B7722 is an enticing offer for people who definitely need the comfort of using two networks, or two SIM cards from the same carrier simultaneously on a brand name handset. The ability to change cellular subscription lines with the touch of a button on a phone with a comparatively generous 3.2” touchscreen makes it quite a novel handset. Samsung has decided that this is enough of a distinction in the overcrowded cell phone market, and has conceived the B7722 as a feature phone instead of providing it with an operating system. Let's explore the features then!

What's in the box:

• Samsung B7722 handset
• Wall charger
• microUSB cable
• Stereo headset with microphone

Design:

The Samsung B7722 is a chubby (14.3 mm thick) device with an all-plastic build. The front houses a 3.2” resistive touchscreen with WQVGA 240x400 pixels resolution, supporting 256k colors. Nothing really exciting in terms of color representation or contrast, and the phone is struggling for legibility in direct sunlight, even at maximum brightness.

Samsung B7722 is a 14.3 mm thick device with an all-plastic build

You can compare the Samsung B7722 with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

Under the screen there are three physical buttons – the middle key has Samsung's edgy shape found on a lot of its feature phones recently, and serves as a back key to return you to the previous screen. It is flanked by the send and end keys on both sides. The dual-SIM phone has a front-facing cam as well as a 5MP primary one with an LED flash beneath it on the back. The rest of the physical elements are hosted on the sides – the left has the volume rocker and the microUSB port, while the right side finds space for the lock and camera buttons, plus a dedicated key to toggle between the SIM cards.

The sides of Samsung B7722

The Samsung B7722 is fairly light at 122gr, and comfortable for one-handed operation due to the average-sized screen. It even has a setting for left or right hand operation that in contacts, for example, moves a search slider to the respective screen side, which is a nice touch.

The phone is built durable, with plastic that doesn't flex or creak when pressed hard. It feels solid in the hand, unlike the flimsy offerings we come across sometimes.

LG Viewty Snap Review

Introduction:

LG was one of the first to take touchscreen technology to mainstream phones, and it continues to rest on these laurels. With the LG Viewty Snap it aims to have created a no-frills feature phone, which, as the name suggests, targets the casual shutterbugs out there.

LG Viewty Snap is very light and comfortable to hold.

Design:

The LG Viewty Snap is mainly made of black or silver plastic with chrome-like surrounding band, it is very light and comfortable to hold. The screen is 3”, of the resistive type, with a fairly decent 240x400 pixels resolution. Colors are looking good, despite that it only supports 262 144 of them. Where it fails, though, is the screen responsiveness. Spoiled from capacitive technology nowadays, we have almost forgotten that on some touchscreens you have to press firmly to register, or use your fingernails to scroll – but the LG Viewty Snap really reminded us how tough the beginning was. Setting the display brightness on maximum makes the screen legible enough in direct sunlight.

You can compare the LG Viewty Snap with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

The navigation is complemented by three buttons underneath the screen, which are backlit in white. The middle one serves to call up your favorite and most used applications, and the end button also serves to take you to the homescreen if you are buried somewhere in the menus. Traveling around the phone we see the charging/syncing microUSB port on the left, the power/lock button and the standard audio jack on the top, as well as the dedicated camera button and the volume rocker on the right side. All the keys have enough travel click to be considered comfortable to use.

The sides of LG Viewty Snap

The main feature of the LG Viewty Snap – the 5MP camera with LED flash – is housed in the upper left corner on the back. It is with Schneider-Kreuznach lens, and is surrounded by a large bezel that almost makes you think the phone has optical zoom with its size and the way it is protruding from the back – but it doesn't really.

HTC Wildfire Review

HTC Wildfire's 3.2” screen has a 240x320 pixels QVGA resolution, which we are more accustomed to see in cheapo 2.8” types. At 3.2”, the pixel density lets you almost count the individual dots when close to the display, and we are not exaggerating. On top of that legibility and viewing angles really suffer outside under direct sun rays, unless brightness is at the fullest. At least the screen supports up to 16M colors, and is capacitive with multitouch, which brings a world of difference in terms of scrolling and responsiveness.

Underneath that wonder of nature, the Wildfire's screen, are the four Android navigational buttons in capacitive touch form, backlit in white. They return haptic feedback, if that feature is turned on for the touchscreen. The phone comes with HTC's trademark optical trackpad, which also serves as a shutter button. The ear speaker above the screen looks like a BMW grill, the way it is split in two parts, and is a nice design decision, similar to what we have on the Desire. Beneath it on the left of the HTC logo is the notification LED.

Underneath the screen of the HTC Wildfire are the four Android navigational buttons

The lock/power button is situated on the top right, while on the top left is the standard audio jack. The left side houses the volume rocker – a whole piece – and the unprotected microUSB port. All keys are chromed and with a good travel click to them.

The sides of the HTC Wildfire

The HTC Wildfire sports a 5MP camera with LED light, the lens of which are elevated above the back cover like a periscope. It looks different, but we can imagine all sorts of scratches and bruises arising from that frivolity. The back has a wide strip of plastic with brushed metallic looks running across it. It obviously got inherited from the HTC Desire, as it's even the same brown color. The material also surrounds the screen and the sides, with the exception of the curvy bottom where the soft touch plastic of the back panel transitions to the front up to the optical trackpad, thus making the lower front side look like a three-layered cake. That soft touch plastic is above the back metallic strip as well, surrounding the camera, and, as usual, brings an air of comfort to holding a phone. Thanks to these touches the overall look and feel of the HTC Wildfire is that of a high quality designer handset. If the brown finish of our review unit doesn't click with you, there are versions dressed in white and red as well.

Nokia N900 mobile computer.

The Nokia N900 has a great 3.5 inch Touchscreen display with 800 × 480 pixels which works pretty well under most conditions . But don’t  we always crave for larger displays ?  How about blogging on a 21 inch TV with the N900 . Apart from blogging

the TV-out feature of the N900 is so cool that you can watch Youtube videos playing on the phone browser on your TV  (with audio ofcourse)

Imaging playing games on your TV with your phone. Nokia has got brilliant hardware on the N900 but the Maemo apps  and games are still evolving. Nokia is doing a developer event in India called DevCon 2009 and Maemo is part of the agenda. Lets see what comes out of the Developer Conference.

At the heart of this mobile computer is its powerful 600 MHz processor and up to 1GB of application memory. The superscalar ARM processor delivers exceptional power and enables you to run all your applications quickly, smoothly, and simultaneously.

• ARM Cortex - A8 superscalar microprocessor core running at 600 MHz
• Up to 1 GB of application memory (256 MB RAM, 768 MB virtual memory)
• Linux-based operating system
• 3D graphics accelerator with OpenGL ES 2.0 support

Large Internal Storage.

 The built-in 32 GB storage is big enough to store up to 7,000 of your favourite songs or 40 hours of DVD-quality video. And with an external microSD card you can expand the storage to up to 48 GB.

• 32 GB internal storage
• Expandable to up to 48 GB with an external microSD card

Fastest Wireless BroadBand

 For the first time get high-speed broadband that’s as fast as an internet connection at home. Enjoy rich interactive content across the web and view pages the way they should be seen with stunning full-screen browsing.

• 3.5G and WLAN connectivity
• Quadband GSM with GPRS and EDGE
• Data transfers over a cellular network 10/2Mbps
• Data transfers over Wi-Fi 54Mbps
• Flash 9.4 support
• Full-screen browsing

Technical details 

Display

• 3.5 inch touch-sensitive widescreen display
• 800 × 480 pixel resolution

Web browsing

• Maemo browser powered by Mozilla technology
• Adobe Flash™ 9.4 support
• Full screen browsing

Camera

• 5 megapixel camera (2584 × 1938 pixels)
• Image formats: JPEG
• CMOS sensor, Carl Zeiss optics, Tessar lens
• 3 × digital zoom
• Autofocus with assist light and two-stage capture key
• Dual LED flash
• Full-screen viewfinder
• Photo editor on device
• TV out (PAL/NTSC) with Nokia Video Connectivity Cable (CA-75U, included in box) or WLAN/UPnP
• Landscape (horizontal) orientation
• Capture modes: Automatic, portrait, video, macro, landscape, action

Video

• Wide aspect ratio 16:9 (WVGA)
• Video recording file format: .mp4; codec: MPEG-4
• Video recording at up to 848 × 480 pixels (WVGA) and up to 25fps
• Video playback file formats: .mp4, .avi, .wmv, .3gp; codecs: H.264, MPEG-4, Xvid, WMV, H.263

Music and audio playback

• Maemo media player
• Music playback file formats: .wav, .mp3, .AAC, .eAAC, .wma, .m4a
• Built-in FM transmitter
• Ring tones: .wav, .mp3, .AAC, .eAAC, .wma, .m4a
• FR, EFR, WCDMA, and GSM AMR