May 14th, 2010 | Mobile Phone Recycling
Mobile phone recycling means selling your old mobile phone unit to a mobile phone recycling company or having its parts recycled for free. In the UK, where there are an estimated 14 million mobile phone users, mobile phone recycling is a very good option when dealing with old units. Various phone recycling companies are based in the United Kingdom and these companies vary in their features, modes of payment and most of all, price offers.
Mopay.co.uk is one of the leading phone recycling sites. Mopay has won awards for excellent service through the years. The company pays up to £400 for a mobile phone unit and offers various payment methods such as cheque, bank transfers, Paypal or gift vouchers for M&S and Argos.
Fonebank.com is another company that pays only by cheque. Fonebank pays up to £220 for every old unit. One good thing about Fonebank is that it accepts both working and non-working mobiles. It also sends free padded envelopes and the site provides a free data deletion tool to erase large files.
Mazumamobile.com is another giant in the mobile phone recycling business. Mazuma pays up to £250 per old unit and has a fast payment time of only 48 hours.
Envirofone.com is another one of the biggest UK based mobile phone recycling sites. Envirofone pays a maximum of £180 per mobile and also accepts both working and broken units. Free padded envelopes are also provided to customers and payment is by cheque, Paypal or BACS after two to five days.
Other phone recycling sites are MobilePhoneXchange.co.uk, Earthmobile.co.uk, and SellOldMobile.co.uk.
May 12th, 2010 | Mobile Phone Reviews, Samsung Mobile Phones
The Samsung J700 is one of the simple, cheap mobile phones that some people find attractive for use as a second phone, when taking their more-expensive phone just isn’t viable. It also appeals to those who prefer basic over “does everything”.
This isn’t a flash phone – although it does come in pink as well as black. Slender for a slide-up phone, the dimensions for the J700 are 99.5 mm tall by 48 mm wide and 14.8 mm deep. It weighs 92 grams. The two inch TFT display is fine, and a keypad becomes accessible when the phone is in its slide-up position.
The built-in 1.3 megapixel digital camera features easy access camera keys and facilitates stills and video footage. Other features include an FM radio, music player, and Java game support.
The integrated messaging functions support SMS text, EMS (enhanced messaging) and MMS for messaging through video, pictures, and sound. There is also a built-in WAP browser accessible via the main window.
Connectivity includes Bluetooth, EDGE, USB, and GPRS. Networking is tri-band. Battery life the J700 isn’t much; two and a half hours of talk time or 250 hours of standby.
As I mentioned in the beginning, the Samsung J700 is a cheap mobile phone, that appeals to those who are looking for a good mobile phone deal on a second or “worry-free if I lose it or break it” mobile. It may not have much in the way of features, but it is reliable and it gets the job done.
May 10th, 2010 | HTC, Mobile Phone Reviews, Touchscreen
With the recent release of many new smart-phones within the last few years, it’s easy to overlook some of HTC’s offerings in the mobile device market. With hundreds of mobile phone deals available from over a dozen providers, marketing efforts become vital to the success of a new mobile phone, often overshadowing the raw performance factors that should be vital.
While every new mobile tries to have its niche, the HTC HD mini exceeds expectations in both size and display quality. Of the many new phones available, HTC HD mini combines the size and portability with an ultra sharp, 3.2 inch high definition display. The display performs excellently, and is quite responsive and easy to use with one just one hand. With Wi-Fi and GPS capability built in, this is quite the handy device.
Unfortunately, with the improved size of the unit, a decrease in performance is noted compared to HTC’s other offerings in the mobile marketplace. Windows 6.5 Mobile does not run nearly as well, as we’ve come to expect from more powerful units. With so few Windows mobile apps on the market, and the upcoming release of Windows 7 mobile, it’s hard to say that everyone will be satisfied with this device, despite its stand out features. The HTC HD Mini has its niche, and it performs well within it, however many will find that a larger mobile is just as portable as the slimmer sleeker HD Mini.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
