Released in February, LG's new KM900 Arena touchscreen phone was one of the most hotly anticipated devices at the Mobile World Congress. But does it live up to the hype?
The first noticeable aspect of the new Arena is the excellent and exceptionally bright 3-inch screen. While more and more phones feature a large touchscreen, the aesthetic is still an incredibly pleasing one, producing a real sense of value when handling the phone. Well-built, the phone feels sturdy and looks great, with its brushed metal exterior and rounded edges. It feels smooth and compact in the hand, with measurements that make the iPhone feel a little chunky. In fact, for some users the LG KM900 may be a little too small and light (only 105 grams!). It feels great in a pocket, but some people may wonder if its worth the loss of screen real estate for pictures or video. Which brings me to one of the phone's greatest strengths, the new S-interface. Slick, with lots of 3D effects that perfectly utilize the screen's space. While every one has a touchscreen, the LG KM900 feels futuristic through exceptional design. The whole operating system acts like a 3D cube, allowing the user to rotate new faces, and new features, with gentle flicks of a finger. The menus also auto-adjust to vertical or horizontal orientation, allowing for users to choose the format that best suits their browsing.
Of course, even with an exceptional interface, a phone can only be as strong as its abilities. The KM900 Area excels in this as well, with an included 5 megapixel camera. Finally phones are beginning to catch up to digital cameras, allowing for full-resolution pictures without the need to carry multiple devices. Even more remarkable is the inclusion of 120 fps video shooting, allowing anyone to capture exceptional slow-motion. Additional details, such as an FM tuner and a 3.5 mm headphone jack (instead of the annoying mini-USB found in so many phones) makes the Arena an excellent value.
The KM900 Arena is a true multimedia device, serving as an excellent platform to store pictures, videos, and music. The interface for media use is interesting, flipping around like a rolodex containing all your music and video. The phone comes with 8 gigabytes of storage, but a hot-swappable SD card slot allows for limitless expansion. Even the speakers, usually a weakness in multimedia phones, are clear and loud, thanks to help from Dolby.
While not perfect, the LG KM900 Arena may be just the trick to shake up the cell phone world. It is still uncertain how many applications will be developed for the platform, and the small screen can be occasionally hard on the eyes, but a slick interface and a plethora of features make this phone an exciting next-generation choice.
Saturday, 6 June 2009
Wednesday, 3 June 2009
Samsung Tocco Ultra
The Samsung Tocco Ultra is the future of mobile phones. This phone is set to top this year's sales and beat all other phones in style, slide, and touch categories. This phone's genius comes from the fact that the phone combines the full touch screen that is taking the world by storm and the regular old 3x4 keypad that we are all used to. This is done by simply having the keypad slide out from underneath the screen! The touch screen is a vivid full 2.8 inch Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode (AMOLED) touch screen all kept in a very slim 12.7mm body. The screen itself is gorgeous, clear, and crisp. I love the clarity of the AMOLED screen, and this screen allows us to watch movies and view photos with better clarity, contrast, higher definition, and deeper blacks.
The form of the Samsung Tocco Ultra is what makes it unique. The fact that it has a touch screen and keypad allows users to be able to easily and intuitively scroll through menus, listen to music, browse the internet, and (of course) make calls. The keypad is a great relief for people like me who don't like texting on the touch screens. That was the one thing holding me back from buying the tremendously alluring touch screen phones popping up all over the marketplace today. The upgraded TouchWiz software helps as well. I love how I can go from dragging a widget across the screen to texting on the keypad.
When it comes to style, no one does it like Samsung. The Samsung Tocco Ultra is no different in that sense. The build of the phone is great quality and seems very sturdy, yet it is still sleek and elegant. The addition of the anti-smudge screen is a great one for people with oily hands.
The features on the handset are spectacular. One that is particularly unique is the feature of the "fake call." You record yourself and then when you feel threatened you can turn the volume up and then simulate a call so that the person trying to mug you thinks that someone knows where you are. Another great one is the addition of an 8 megapixel camera with a duel powered LCD flash. This is very high for a phone camera quality, and we thought the Omnia's camera was big with 5 megapixels. If you couple this with the integrated GPS you can actually tag photographs with GPS coordinates to help you organize them and use them on social networking sites. Even the video camera is 30fps. For those web junkies out there you get 7.2 mbps internet access. Way faster than lots of other phones out on the market now. If you were looking for good battery life this has it. 4 hours of non-stop-talk battery life beats out the Samsung Omnia by an hour! The phone only has 80 megabites of internal storage but it is capable of holding up to 16GB.
All in all, I would say the Samsung Tocco Ultra is a spectacular phone that will take the market by storm. I can't wait to get my hands on one. 9.5 out of 10 stars for this phone.
The form of the Samsung Tocco Ultra is what makes it unique. The fact that it has a touch screen and keypad allows users to be able to easily and intuitively scroll through menus, listen to music, browse the internet, and (of course) make calls. The keypad is a great relief for people like me who don't like texting on the touch screens. That was the one thing holding me back from buying the tremendously alluring touch screen phones popping up all over the marketplace today. The upgraded TouchWiz software helps as well. I love how I can go from dragging a widget across the screen to texting on the keypad.
When it comes to style, no one does it like Samsung. The Samsung Tocco Ultra is no different in that sense. The build of the phone is great quality and seems very sturdy, yet it is still sleek and elegant. The addition of the anti-smudge screen is a great one for people with oily hands.
The features on the handset are spectacular. One that is particularly unique is the feature of the "fake call." You record yourself and then when you feel threatened you can turn the volume up and then simulate a call so that the person trying to mug you thinks that someone knows where you are. Another great one is the addition of an 8 megapixel camera with a duel powered LCD flash. This is very high for a phone camera quality, and we thought the Omnia's camera was big with 5 megapixels. If you couple this with the integrated GPS you can actually tag photographs with GPS coordinates to help you organize them and use them on social networking sites. Even the video camera is 30fps. For those web junkies out there you get 7.2 mbps internet access. Way faster than lots of other phones out on the market now. If you were looking for good battery life this has it. 4 hours of non-stop-talk battery life beats out the Samsung Omnia by an hour! The phone only has 80 megabites of internal storage but it is capable of holding up to 16GB.
All in all, I would say the Samsung Tocco Ultra is a spectacular phone that will take the market by storm. I can't wait to get my hands on one. 9.5 out of 10 stars for this phone.
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