Is it Safe to Sell Your Phone?

May 7th, 2010 | Mobile Phone Recycling

Perhaps you have noticed that more and more of your friends are having their old mobile phones recycled for cash. Maybe you have considered doing the same thing yourself. But you might be having some worries and concerns that keep you from making up your mind to sell your old, unwanted mobile phone for extra cash.

Your concerns are natural and understandable. Most mobile phone recycling companies that are offering cash for your old phone units operate only through the internet. This means that you may not actually be dealing with a human being and everything could just be a big hoax. This could be very unsettling especially when you have to send your mobile phone unit through the mail. Perhaps you are thinking of the risks – especially the risk of not getting paid for it.

These are all reasonable fears and doubts. Fortunately, the companies that buy your mobile phones for cash generally run very smoothly and have an impressive track record. In fact, most people never complain about the process and their services.

One way to ease your fears is to talk to some of your friends who were successful in having their old mobile phones recycled. Ask them about how the process worked, how long they had to wait before they got their payment and if they were happy with the amount of cash they received. You might also want to ask if they had any trouble with customer service.

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Samsung i8910HD Overview

May 5th, 2010 | Camera Phones, Mobile Phone Reviews, Samsung Mobile Phones, Touchscreen

For the latest mobile phone technology look no further than the Samsung i8910HD handset. This handset boasts a 3.7inch touch screen that produces clear sharp images that is perfect for showing off any photographs taken using the in-built 8 megapixel camera. The camera itself also has many extra features such as the ability to take panoramic photos; it also has face detection and smile shutter technology giving the ability to take beautiful photos.

The razor sharp images shown on screen are further enhanced by the HD quality video recording feature the i8910HD has to offer. The massive 8GB storage facility this handset has means peace of mind taking photos and video footage without worry about missing out on those once in a lifetime moments.  For those travellers amongst us the GPS complete with Orange Maps facility is ideal for days out and spur of the moment trips to places outside of the usual comfort zone.

Of course every phone has negative points and some users may find that this phone is a little bulker than what they are used top; it may be too awkward to fit into pockets so not as easy to carry around. The Orange Maps are rather slow to update too, and some may find it easier to use their existing SatNav instead.

The touch screen can be a little slow to respond after a command making scrolling through lists a little tricky, and also some users may find that the screen is not as sensitive as other handsets they may have used requiring additional taps before the screen registers being touched.

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Motorola Aura Diamond Edition – comes at a price!

May 2nd, 2010 | Mobile Phone Reviews, Motorola

The Aura handset looks very similar to the Aura with the sapphire screen but it comes in a kind of light, soft coffee colour. Motorola say that it has ‘an exquisite blend of 18 carat gold, 34 diamond and a 62 carat sapphire crystal lens’, which all sounds very impressive and luxurious if that is what you want from a mobile phone.

Like its predecessor the Aura Diamond Edition has a 16 million colour circular screen and opens by turning the outside part round so the 1.55 inch 480 pixel diameter screen is in the middle of the hand held unit. The nav key inset has four diamonds and is made from solid gold and the keypad is spun aluminium, giving it a soft, smooth look and feel, with the whole thing housed in an eighteen carat plated gold casing.

Technically this model of mobile phone is nothing special. It offers 7.3 hours of talk time, and up to 400 hours in standby, multimedia messaging and text messaging. The two megapixel camera only has a fixed focus but the phone does come with video capture, and can cope with WAV, H.264, WMA9, AAC, MPEG-4, MP3, H.263, WMA10, eAAC+ , AAC+ formats.

This is a great handset if you want something that is obviously expensive (£3500) and fits quite nicely into the hand, but it has few gadgets and features. Despite the original high price there are some excellent deals available on this model by visiting mobile phone comparison sites.

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Nokia X3 Deals and Contracts

April 30th, 2010 | Mobile Phone Reviews, Nokia

If you are looking for cheap mobile phones, but want to push you luck on functionality, then the Nokia X3 could be worth a second look. This is a cut down version of their X6 and again it is one of the Nokia mobile phones that features a slider, again only incorporating a standard phone keypad rather than the more useful QWERTY keyboard. Mobile phone news is always made when a manufacturer chooses to leave out something significant, as the current trend is to jam-pack the devices with as many features as possible.

The X3 is a cheaper option, because it does not have music player capabilities and in terms of mobile phone deals if you are prepared to give up a feature like this then you will save a packet. If you have a separate music player or just don’t really want to listen to music on the move then the X3 could be the choice for you. It has a male vibe and we see this phone appealing more to the men than the ladies, but whoever chooses it, they will not be disappointed with the performance of the handset. The Nokia X3 makes an excellent choice for a lower cost contract mobile phone and even the cost of purchasing this as a pay as you go new mobile phone isn’t too wallet clenching. It doesn’t quite make it into the smartphone league, but what it does offer it offers well and for the money is a cracking realistically priced piece of kit.

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LG Renoir KC910 Overview

April 29th, 2010 | LG, Mobile Phone Reviews, Touchscreen

The LG Renoir KC910 is a touchscreen phone with smooth edges, a shiny-bright casing and an overall look that is very tidy.  The key feature of the Renoir is an 8-megapixel camera that comes with a sizeable lens cover and a dedicated shutter button so that budding photographers will have no problem taking pictures.

There’s face detection and smile detection so that the camera takes a picture the second that somebody smiles.  Pictures taken in daylight have a good colour and sharp quality according to some mobile p[hone reviews and there’s an inbuilt flash for poorer lighting conditions.  But be warned, the xenon flash does not illuminate dark conditions adequately.  You can use the GPS to geo-tag your pictures.

The camera also shoots videos and slow motion footage, if you want to video a fast-paced action shot.  You can also view DivX or Xvid films but not all resolutions are supported so, if that’s important to you, check the specification before you buy the phone.

As well as using Renoir’s GPS to geo-tag, you can also use it for navigation and you can connect to the internet using HSDPA 3.5G0 as well as Wi-Fi.

On the plus side the phone has an integrated Dolby sound system but on the down side it has no 3.5mm headphone jack.

The Renoir holds its own against other camera phones but its other functions do not come up to scratch.  To check out other phones like this, look at the Samsung i8910HD and Samsung Tocco Ultra.

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Earthmobile helps you recycle your old mobile phones

April 26th, 2010 | Mobile Phone Recycling, Mobile Technology

Earthmobile is another UK based company that deals with mobile phone recycling; they pay you seven days after they have received and tested your unit.

Earthmobile’s official website at www.earthmobile.co.uk offers £81 for a Blackberry 8120 unit and even as much as £120 for an Apple iPhone 16GB. A Nokia N79 will fetch around £78 and an HTC Hero will fetch £103. All in all, Earthmobile accepts phones made by over 19 manufacturers.

In order to sell a phone at the Earthmobile website, you can choose a manufacturer from the dropdown list of manufacturers on the left side of the homepage. You should then type in the name of your mobile unit model in the space below and click the “Find Handset” button. Selecting a manufacturer name will also automatically bring you to a picture list of units under that manufacturer. You then click on the unit and you can see the price offer. If you agree with this, then you click the “Add to basket” button or the “Add Multiple” button if you want to send in more than one unit.

Earthmobile only pays for working phones. According to standards set by the company, a working phone should be able to switch on or off, have a working screen, contain its battery, and not be crushed or damaged by water. Also, it should be fully functional with only the usual cosmetic wear and tear. Non-working mobile phone units have broken or bleeding LCD screens, cannot be turned on or off and have a broken speaker, microphone and/or aerial.

Earthmobile may also not pay for some working models which they consider to have no value. In such a case, the most they can do is recycle its parts or send you back the phone.

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LG GM205 Review

April 23rd, 2010 | LG, Mobile Phone Reviews, Samsung Mobile Phones

The LG GM205 is a basic handset in a vivid red; it is very light to hold and a great music player for the price.  Being a basic handset though means that the call quality can sometimes let it down, with the sound sometimes a bit distorted.

The phone comes with an MP3 player and an FM radio that auto-scans for radio stations which you can then save to the station menu in one easy go.  On the back is a Dolby Mobile 2.1 channel woofer and the sound quality that comes out of the two side mounted speakers is really good; the MP3 playback is exceptional quality when you consider the price of the handset.

You’ll have to install a memory card to download music from a PC, so you’ll have to add the cost of a Micro SD when you’re considering this phone.

It has a 3.5mm jack in addition to the proprietary connection so you’ll be able to plug in your headphones and listen to your music without disturbing the other passengers on the train.  There is an option to minimise the MP3 player so that it continues to play music while you use another phone function even though this capability is not at first obvious.  A dedicated option on the screen would have made the task a whole lot easier.

The camera is basic, only 2-megapixel, but the pictures do come out a lot sharper than other cameras in this range, for example the Samsung Solid Extreme and the Samsung Genio Touch.

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Samsung i8910HD Review

April 20th, 2010 | Camera Phones, Mobile Phone Reviews, Samsung Mobile Phones

The Samsung i8910HD was originally launched as the Omnia HD and was the first mobile phone to incorporate a high-definition camcorder.  It has a huge screen, 3.7 inches across, and it is one of the heavier, bigger phones.  It still fits into the palm without any discomfort and the size makes it simple to operate the touch screen. 

The large screen offers high resolution, fantastic colour definition using OLED technology which makes it simple to operate and read outside on a sunny day.  It’s brighter than a normal TFT screen.  It has a high resolution – 640 x 360 pixels – which makes it a pleasure to watch videos or use the touch screen menus.

The operating system is Symbian S60 5.0 which regular Samsung owners will be familiar with; the system is not as powerful and efficient as Windows Mobile.

The 8-pixel camera works with autofocus, LED flash and 4x digital zoom.  It has enhanced options such as smile detection, blink shot, face detection and panoramic shot.  The camera, though adequate, is not as good as a dedicated digital camera but still holds it own in adverse lighting conditions.

The video camera is fabulous, and records in HD format of 1280 x 720 pixels.  You can even view your videos on an HD TV or upload them to Facebook or YouTube.

The music system is of equal high quality being kitted with twin speakers fitted at the top and bottom of the handset.

It also has access to the web.

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Motorola Motosurf A3100 Review

April 16th, 2010 | Mobile Phone Reviews, Motorola, Touchscreen

The Motorola Motosurf A3100 is a gorgeous candy bar phone, and with smart features and almost perfect connectivity, definitely a phone to check out.

The phone’s dimensions are 110 x 59.7 x 13.7mm and it weighs only 119gms making this must have device a manageable size.  The battery life is good and offers up to 6.8 hours GSM talk time and 12.4 days GSM standby time being powered with 1170mAh battery. 

It has QVGA with Touch Panel and the screen is a respectable 2.8 inches.  Navigating around menus is easy and fast.

The phone supports WLAN 802.11 b/g and HTML web browser as well as GSM Quad-Band, EDGE/GPRS 12/12, WCDMA HSDPA 7.2 and 850/1900/2100 Triband guaranteeing improved connectivity options.  You can enjoy fantastic connectivity with USB 2.0 HS and Stereo Bluetooth wireless technology with A2DP2.

As well as its phone function, the Motosurf features a number of text-based services such as SMS, MMS, Multi Head IM and email.  It runs Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional Software.

It comes with a 3-megapixel camera with inbuilt auto focus and includes a 356MB Flash memory, 128MB RAM with the capability of adding a MicroSD to increase memory to 32GB.  The camera is one of the key features of this phone; picture quality is very good and you can shoot still pictures or videos.

There is no doubt that the Motosurf will keep you entertained whether you watch videos, play games or listen to your favourite tracks.

The audio quality is fantastic and you have access to features such as YouTube and Facebook.

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LG Pop Review

April 15th, 2010 | LG, Mobile Phone Reviews, Touchscreen

The LG Pop is a touchscreen phone with a good call quality and despite being in a plastic casing still manages to look good thanks to a brushed silver finish.  The phone is environmentally friendly being made of hazardous-free components and boxed in recyclable packaging.  It even gives you a signal when charging to tell you the battery is full, saving electricity.

According to mobile phone reviews, it is one of the lightest and smallest phones on the market but the screen is a decent three inches.  The phone has three home screens for simple access to the functions like contacts or the media player.  The single button on the front of the handset can be used to do different tasks depending what menu you are in.

The camera button, volume controls, micro USB port and power/screen lock button are all placed on the sides of the handset and are no problem to operate.

The camera is 3-megapixel and you are able to do basic image editing to both still and video shots that are of pretty good quality.  You can add an external memory card, allowing room for 200 mp3 files or 10 videos.

You can’t download any additional applications but the phone comes already pre-loaded with a good selection in the Games and Applications menu.

The phone has no 3.5mm headphone jack and so you are limited to using the LG earphones that come with the handset.

If you want to shop around and compare mobile phones, other similar new mobile phones include the Samsung B3410 and the Samsung Genio Slide.

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