Mobile Broadband To Suit Every Budget

January 26th, 2010 | Broadband, Mobile Broadband, Mobile Technology, Wireless Technology

If you are looking to purchase a dongle for internet access on the move it is a good idea to ensure that you compare mobile broadband packages. All providers have varying mobile broadband deals and the speeds, prices and download limits vary greatly. If you are planning to opt for a mobile broadband contract these are generally available for 12, 18 or 24 months and you can expect to pay between £10 and £30 per month. However, as with mobile phones you can also opt to purchase a pay as you go dongle that you top up as required, however you do have to purchase the dongle up front which can cost in the region of £60. You will find that most of the networks operate a fair use policy for download limits.

The mobile broadband comparison is necessary as all of the networks have options to suit every budget. For example, Vodafone offer their Ultimate Plan on a 24 months contract. You can expect to achieve speeds up to 7.2Mb and you can download up to 5Gb per month. On this contract the first three months are as low as £10 rising to £25. However, at the other end of the spectrum Vodafone have a standard option with free dongle for 3Gb usage per month at the cost of just £15.

However, it is worth noting that no matter which network you opt for that you should check coverage in your area to ensure that a service is available.

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Blackberry Bold 9700 Review

January 25th, 2010 | Blackberry, Mobile Phone Reviews

There’s no question that Blackberry mobiles phones are among the very best smartphones, and with the Blackberry Bold 9700 (the successor to the 9700, acclaimed in mobile phone reviews), they’ve made some significant improvements.

It’s much sleeker than its parent, and that’s not a bad thing. It has kept some aspects from the 9700, but it’s smaller, fits a little more easily in the hand, and is decidedly lighter.

The QWERTY keyboard is very similar to other Bolds, but then there’s little that could have been done to make it better. This is a little smaller, but still an absolute pleasure to use, and only likely to be problematic for those with large fingers.

Handset maker RIM has brought the trackpad that has been used elsewhere to the Bold 9700, unlike the trackball of previous models. It is much superior for navigating, giving the user a much better and smoother experience.

Although the screen is a little larger than the 9700, the increase is only slight – indeed, barely noticeable – and smaller than many competitors. The processor is snappy, utilising the Blackberry 5.0 OS, so browsing is a pleasure, with none of the lag associated with older models.

The camera is much improved, and the 3.2 megapixels offer very crisp pictures, although the Bold 9700 only has 2x digital zoom, instead of the previous 3x, but it’s hard to tell the difference.

Blackberry mobiles phones have never been ones to have all the latest bells and whistles. But they do what they do very well, and this is one of the best yet.

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Nokia E72 Smartphone Review

January 21st, 2010 | Mobile Phone Reviews, Nokia

The Nokia E72 is the newest Nokia mobile phone, one which has been anticipated for a good six months as the successor to the widely lauded E71. It’s a phone that has a lot going for it, designed as a business phone and so yet another direct challenge to the supremacy of the Blackberry in the field.

Since messaging is vital, the QWERTY keyboard is important, and this one doesn’t disappoint. It’s small but easy to use, with domed keys, and with enough spacing so that fingers don’t become cramped. There’s a great deal of mail support and you can use several accounts at once – a big bonus for those on the go; corporate mail can be pushed.

Connectivity is strong, too. There’s quadband GSM, Wi-Fi, 3.5G, and even PictBridge support for those who want it. The browser supports Flash, enabling video streaming from YouTube to pass the time, while GPS is supplied by the excellent Nokia Maps.

With a five megapixel camera, it takes good, clear shots, with autofocus and an LED flash for good measure. Those who care about music will be disappointed – the music player is functional, rather than great, but there is a 3.5mm headphone jack built in.

Voice calling offers excellent audio, as users would expect from Nokia, while the battery life is listed as 12.5 hours talk time, although mobile phone reviews have stated that it can last almost twice that long. At 2.35” the screen isn’t generous, and could have been more colourful, but then, this is aimed at the business crowd.

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Samsung G600 Review

January 20th, 2010 | Mobile Phone Reviews, Samsung Mobile Phones

Samsung really appears to have a thing for slider phones. The company keeps on producing them, and the G600 is the latest Samsung mobile phone to feature the slider design. But is there any real point to yet another model like this?

What the Samsung G600 has going for it is its camera. To all intents and purposes it’s almost like a digital camera with a phone attached. It might be only five megapixels, but the shots are crisp and clean, and it comes with autofocus built in, as well as 4x digital zoom and plenty of options for changing settings, including panorama mode for those stunning landscape shots and an assortment of macros. Photo editing software on the camera allows the user to make changes to the pictures taken.

That’s all great, and it turns the Samsung G600 into a very good camera phone, even if something like eight megapixels would have made it outstanding. Beyond that, though, there’s certainly nothing to make the G600 stand out from the crowd. There are no special features, no GPS, no Wi-Fi – there’s not even 3G, so uploading pictures directly from the phone would be a slow, tortuous process.

So yes, it takes good pictures, and you can edit them handily on the phone before loading them onto your computer. There are other phones that accomplish exactly the same thing and come with more features.  That makes it very hard to recommend this. Other than the camera, it’s just another in the slider pack.

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Plusnet Broadband Packages

January 18th, 2010 | Broadband, Mobile Broadband, Wireless Technology

Plusnet Broadband is one of the most used among the many mobile broadband providers in the UK. This is due to the difference in service provided by Plusnet broadband from many other broadband providers. Let us compare the benefits of Plusnet broadband to other broadband providers.

Plusnet Broadband offers speeds that can reach up to 20Mbps while most other providers offer speeds that only reach about 10Mbps. It has no monthly download limit, unlike many other broadband providers. Finally you only have to pay £11.99 a month, whereas with others you would normally pay £15.00, perhaps for a slower connection.

This broadband provider also has 10 years worth of experience in the business, and they also provide a 24/7 customer helpline if you ever run into a problem. Plusnet Broadband also offers two packages, namely the Plusnet Value Package and the Plusnet Premium Package. The main difference between these is the speed offered and the price, however, even if you do decide on the Plusnet Value package you will still be getting more than from most common broadband deals.

Perhaps the best thing that Plusnet Broadband has to offer is the referral programme that they are offering, they basically reduce the cost of your monthly fees for as long as your referred customer stays with them. They remove 25p from your monthly fee if you referred a person who uses Plusnet Value and 50p for Plusnet Premium. There is also no limit to the number of people that you can refer, so if you refer enough and they take out a deal you can get your broadband for very little cost.

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Recycling your old mobile phones

January 17th, 2010 | Mobile Phone Recycling, Mobile Technology

These days we are all more aware of our environment and the impact that our lifestyles have on it. Whether we try and limit the use of our cars or recycle drinks cans, we all know that each person doing something quite small can make a big difference. In the last couple of years a European law has come into force that states that all manufacturers of large electrical goods should provide some means of safe disposal of them once their useful life is over. This is not so with mobile phones.

Mobile phones contain some hazardous chemicals including Arsenic and Cadmium that can be hazardous to human and animal health if they get into our environment. While there may be only trace amounts of these materials in each phone, the sheer volume of discarded mobile phones means that their impact on the environment can be significant.

Mobile service providers often offer their customers upgrades to their handset, but are not held responsible for what happens to the old mobile phone. These unused mobiles are generally kept in drawers and boxes in people homes, neglected and gathering dust. Many of these phones are in good working order and can be reused.

This is where mobile phone recycling firms come in. They offer to pay cash for mobiles and recycle broken ones free of charge. This allows phone users to cash in on the value of their old phone instead of leaving it to gather dust in a drawer whilst also keeping the toxic materials out of landfill sites.

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Nokia E71 – is it just for business users?

January 14th, 2010 | Mobile Phone Reviews, Nokia

Yes, it’s a Nokia, although the QWERTY keypad does make it look similar to a Blackberry. That small visual confusion aside, it’s a superb offering among Nokia mobile phones, and seems to have almost everything.  About all that’s missing is a 3.5mm headphone jack for good private listening.

What’s truly outstanding about this phone is the QWERTY keypad, praised in mobile phone reviews as one of the best on the market. The keys are surprisingly large, meaning that it’s easy, and definitely not tiring, to send lengthy messages – which is the point, of course.

The screen is a very good size, crisp and clear, and the case is very slim, but also metallic and sturdy – this is a phone that can handle a few knocks and keep on working.

There’s plenty under the bonnet, too, since the phone comes with Wi-Fi and HSDPA for fast, smooth browsing, as well as uploads and downloads, while the GPS is also good. Interestingly, and also annoyingly, the phone’s email client supports Microsoft Exchange, yet doesn’t have Exchange folder support, which seems an odd oversight.

Apart from that, the only real negative comes with the E71’s camera. It might be 3.2 megapixels, but it’s far from the best around, with horrible lag that often results in bad pictures.

If you can ignore that, and Exchange folders aren’t important to you – which probably means most people – then the Nokia E71 is a great phone, with one of the very best QWERTY keypads available today – even Blackberry could take a lesson from this.

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Express yourself with the pink LG Cookie

January 12th, 2010 | LG, Mobile Phone Reviews, Touchscreen

Aimed squarely at a specific niche in the market, the LG Cookie Pink is a decidedly affordable touchscreen phone (around £100, or free as a contract mobile phone) designed for the young female market. It looks good, and it does all the basics, but certainly doesn’t offer the real smartphone experience.

That said, it’s a very good handset, with an excellent music player that can cope with most file formats, and a three megapixel camera that’s decidedly better than adequate – both important features given the crowd LG is going for with the Cookie Pink.

The touchscreen isn’t the best on the market – at this price you wouldn’t expect it to be – but still perfectly adequate and customisable. However, it does require quite a bit of finger pressure, although there’s a very serviceable onscreen keyboard for texting. A number of mobile phone reviews have criticised the handwriting recognition, however, so users might want to leave that alone, good as it sounds in theory.

Since this isn’t a smartphone, don’t expect the LG Cookie Pink to come with all the features you’d find in a more expensive unit. There’s no GPS, no Wi-Fi, and no 3G. However, the slim, chic styling (the phone weighs in at a mere 89 grams), and obviously the colour, is intended to appeal to young females. There’s excellent battery life and a three inch screen (not the largest on the market, but still very attractive and readable).

Among new mobile phones, the LG Cookie Pink has made a great impact. Just remember, though, that it’s a phone, not a smartphone.

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HTC Hero – Android at its best!

January 11th, 2010 | Google Android, HTC, Mobile Phone Reviews, Touchscreen

Built around Google’s Android operating system, the HTC Hero has been billed as the iPhone killer, but can anything really live up to that hype? HTC has experience in the smartphone field, though, and with the Hero it’s done an excellent job, perhaps because it doesn’t rely solely on Android, but puts another interface on top of it.

Plenty of thought has gone into every aspect of the HTC Hero, including its physical design, which has been widely praised in mobile phone reviews, especially for the 3.5mm jack, which means a user can plug in headphones or ear buds to listen to music the way it should be heard. Unlike many of its competitors it’s set up for social networking, with a built-in Twitter application, and both Gmail and Facebook contacts as part of the address book – a very forward-thinking move for HTC.

All these are very positive things, but the Hero does fall down in several ways. With little memory built in, the user is reliant on microSD cards. That’s not the end of the world, but could have been improved. So, too, could the on screen keyboard, which has the typical sluggishness of Android’s slow processor. At five megapixels, the camera sounds impressive, but several mobile phone reviews commented that it simply wasn’t especially effective.

Those negatives aside, the HTC Hero certainly represents strong competition to the iPhone, even if it’s not likely to topple it from its perch just yet. However, the next generation might just manage that.

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Samsung Tocco Lite Review

January 9th, 2010 | Mobile Phone Reviews, Samsung Mobile Phones, Touchscreen

Samsung mobiles phones have long offered good value at low prices, and with the Samsung Tocco Lite they’ve gone after the young consumer who wants a touchscreen – in fact, it’s a direct competitor of the very popular LG Cookie.

It combines the best of touchscreen and mobile phone technology, offering not only a full QWERTY keyboard on the screen but also a regular phone pad for calling and for those used to regular texting. There’s a 3.2 megapixel camera on board that also handles video, and users can edit photos on the phone itself.

Attention has been paid to what the consumer will want, including a music player with surround sound and an equaliser, FM radio, and memory expandable up to 16GB. There’s Bluetooth, of course, and ready access to social networking sites like YouTube and Facebook, which is pretty much a necessity for the young market. However, it lacks both GPS and Wi-Fi.

Samsung has brought its TouchWiz interface to the handset, and it works as well here as it does elsewhere. Switching between portrait and landscape modes is smooth, and the home screen can be customised readily. The large screen is ideal for web browsing, which is fast, although download speeds do tend to be slower since there’s no 3G, but that’s a reminder that the Tocco Lite is a budget phone, although it all too often doesn’t look or feel it.

Mobile phone reviews have placed the Samsung Tocco Lite ahead of the LG Cookie, simply because of the better user experience. As bargain phones go, it’s a real deal.

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