Filed under: Cellphones

Not a day’s passed after we caught word of Sprint’s launch of Novatel’s S720 PC Card do we hear that Sierra Wireless has a proverbial one-two punch of WWAN modems up its sleeve, this time of the USB variety. First up in Q4 of this year will be the 595U, an EV-DO Revision A device topping out at a purely-theoretical 3.1Mbps downstream, followed by the quad-band GSM, tri-band HSDPA 875U humming along at 3.6Mbps in Q1 2007. Both USB modems look to be coming in sleek little packages with internal antennas and matching cradles, support location-based services, and have upgradeable firmware. If these things really look as slick as the press shots make them out to be, we may not be whining for a Rev A ExpressCard after all — if the ship dates hold up, that is.

[Via Macworld]

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Filed under: Cellphones

Well, it’s not an absolute surprise, we saw this model as an unnamed prototype floating around last month, but Motorola just officially took the wraps off of their new MotoRAZR MAXX, a purtiful followup to the V3x. At a mere 0.6-inches thick, the MAXX shaves a whole 0.2-inches off of the V3x. The new phone also adds EDGE and HSDPA in addition to the already speedy UMTS, making this handset much more likely to show up in the EDGE-friendly USA. Moto has included Bluetooth 2.0+ Enhanced Data Rate, 50MB of internal storage, a microSD slot for expansion and the snazzy glass front and touch sensitive music controls of launch buddy KRZR K1m. The 2.2-inch QVGA display is, of course, always welcome, as are the 2.0 megapixel and VGA cameras the phone has. Also, as a nice embellishment on the lot, the phone’s details glow blue when receiving a call. Motorola is planning to release the phone to unknown markets and carriers in this half of 2006, our fingers are duly crossed.

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Filed under: Handhelds, Laptops, Tablet PCs, Wireless

Sony is never a company to back down from raising a few eyebrows or ruffling a few feathers in the standards game, and so shall it be with the not-quite-UMPC UX180P. There's little question that the UX whips up on the current crop of UMPCs in the marketplace, sporting a more powerful processor, higher-res screen, integrated keyboard and EDGE -- but at $1800, it needs to. And right there lies the million-dollar question: at almost double the cost of a UMPC, does the UX serve its function? And what exactly is its function, for that matter? Read on for our take on the answers, along with some in-depth imagery.

For our purposes, we set out that we would consider the UX a success if, among other things, we felt comfortable taking it anywhere (within reason, of course). If we didn't, we'd be hard-pressed to justify the difference in convenience between the UX and a much more powerfully-spec'd 12.1-inch subnotebook for the same coin.


At the end of the day, we concluded that the portability of the UX rivaled that of the OQO; we could tote it pretty much anywhere we could possibly want to do some computin', though to do that, this reviewer had to attach the included ballistic nylon carrying case to the shoulder strap of his Timbuk2. We know that Sony has been throwing around the "pocketable" term with the UX, but have no illusions, folks -- no pocket we're aware of will comfortably swallow this thing. Think of it more as a "very small computer" than as a "very large PDA." After all, that's what it is.


Breathe easy, friends: Microsoft has triumphantly declared the UX180P "Vista Capable." With a Core Solo U1200 and 512MB of RAM, it may not be pretty -- but yeah, it'll do it.


We're not going to waste any keystrokes here beating up on the UX's keyboard, as there are plenty of reviews already posted elsewhere that have done that for us. Think of it this way: it's there to get you by when nothing less than pure, QWERTY goodness will do. You won't write your thesis on it, you won't rock World of Warcraft on it (though we don't put it past some of our readers to try). We would characterize the tactile feedback to be about on par with a Cingular 8125, and it worked just fine when we needed a keyboard for a few minutes at a stretch. Those with smaller hands might have some trouble with the middle keys, however. The thumb stick on the right side of the computer's face was easy enough to use, though some might complain that it takes you away from the keyboard, whereas the OQO's does not. A nifty feature of the stick is that it can be configured to register downward pressure as a click, though we found it too sensitive to be useful.


One of the big draws of the Americanized UX is the inclusion of the EDGE modem. What gives, Sony? We can't think of any device in the world more suited to an internal HSDPA card. Of course, the modem's internals are of Sony Ericsson origin; apparently Sony couldn't swallow their pride and source HSDPA hardware from elsewhere since they don't have an 850 / 1900 card of their own in production yet. At any rate, we didn't test the service, but we imagine you can expect speeds on par with Sony Ericsson's GC83.

So, when all's said and done, what did we think of the little beast? It's a great piece of hardware with immaculate design, soured by mediocre software -- typical Sony. The stock Windows XP Professional install is an embarrassment, loaded with enough adware and trialware to bring the already underpowered hardware to its knees -- in fact, it hung the very first time we tried to shut it down. Of course, our immediate reaction was to replace it with a clean Tablet PC Edition image, but several drivers on the recovery DVDs we burned were non-functional upon installation, rendering the device crippled. We got closer by downloading drivers directly from Sony's site, but we found that it was hanging on each and every shutdown and standby. It's odd to us that a company with such vast resources and a keen eye for industrial design can fall so far short on the software side.

Despite its flaws, the UX is likely still the best thing going for ultimately portable computing, leaving the UMPC crowd and the venerable OQO in its dust. For those looking to take the plunge, we recommend keeping a pulse on the user community to work through these driver issues and make it a worthwhile second or third computer -- and, of course, there's the ever-present prospect of dropping Linux on 'er. Without further ado, on to the eye candy.

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Filed under: Cellphones

The guys over at PhoneScoop have sure made the site live up to its name today: not only did they get some serious hands-on time with Motorola’s upcoming RAZR slider — codenamed Capri — they also got to preview the next version of Moto’s much-maligned Synergy UI that will show up in such models as the Canary and the SCPL. At least on paper, the Capri seems to offer a very compelling feature set that will probably attract anyone into the RAZR lifestyle- you’re getting a model only slightly thicker and heavier than its clamshell counterpart, but which sports a 2.0 megapixel camera, A2DP-capable Bluetooth, and what sounds like a greatly improved user interface. Especially noteworthy in the overhauled Synergy is an address book that seems to work much more intuitively than past iterations (remember the one on the StarTAC?), allowing you to organize entries by name and search for contacts using multiple letters. Although Phone Scoop was only testing a pre-production model, they have identified some potential problems to watch out for on the final version, such as the unusually crappy quality of what should be a decent camera, and most importantly, a spring-assisted slider that’s difficult to activate due to the raised antenna bulge so familiar to RAZR owners. Click on if you want to peep a few more snaps, but you’re really doing yourself a disservice if you don’t head over to PhoneScoop for the full gallery and a very thorough write-up…

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Filed under: Cellphones

If the true measure of a company was the thickness of its products, Samsung would have a lock on the title. Besides the “world’s thinnest phone” – the SGH-X820 that you can virtually hide by turning it on its side — our South Korean friends are rocking the “world’s thinnest slider” as well in the SGH-D900. Apparently, the FCC is cool with that, as they’ve just given the thumbs-up for the D900 stateside. The phone manages to pack in some reasonable specs despite its size, bringing a QVGA display, 3.13 megapixel camera, A2DP, 80MB flash, and MicroSD expansion to the table. Most importantly for our US readers, this is a quad-band EDGE phone, meaning there might be some actual weight to the FCC grant for a change of pace.

[Via Unwired View]

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Filed under: Peripherals, Sony Ericsson

Sony Ericsson has took off the wraps off its quad-band GC86 EDGE PC Card, which will replace their tri-band GC85 card. The card promises up to 247kpbs when connected to GSM / EDGE networks, although the quad-band capabilities mean it’ll be all the easier to fall back on GPRS and stay connected — no matter how slowly — no matter where you are. While Sony Ericsson describes the GC86 as an “entry-level solution,” they don’t provide an actual cost, and as far as a launch date goes, Q3 is as definitive as Sony Ericsson’s willing to get for the time being. The card is also both Mac and Windows compatible, assuming you Apple users have a Mac with a PC Card slot, that is (you know who you are).

[Via I4U News]

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Filed under: Handhelds, Laptops, Tablet PCs

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Filed under: Cellphones, Laptops

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Filed under: Handsets, Reviews, Windows Mobile, HP, GSM, GPRS, EDGE

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Filed under: Cellphones, GPS, Handhelds

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Filed under: Handsets, Motorola, Cingular, GSM, GPRS, EDGE

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Filed under: Handsets, Samsung, T-Mobile, GSM, GPRS, EDGE

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Filed under: Handsets, HTC, O2, Windows Mobile, GSM, GPRS, EDGE

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Filed under: Handsets, RIM, Cingular, T-Mobile, GSM, EDGE

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Filed under: Handsets, Samsung, T-Mobile, GSM, GPRS, EDGE

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Filed under: Handsets, Nokia

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Filed under: Laptops, Wireless

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Filed under: Handsets, Reviews, HTC, T-Mobile, Windows Mobile, GSM, EDGE

The first thing you'll notice about this phone is the screen. Well, we suppose that's not exactly true, since the start up time borders on the millenia (60 seconds from pressing the power button to making the first call), but after the phone is finally fired up you'll notice just how great this QVGA screen really is, bordering on the brightness of one of our beloved 2405FPWs.

Speaking of startup reminds us of our main gripe of this phone: the buttons. The power button takes great will and dexterity to activate, the side rocker button that controls volume is painful use, and the side camera and comm manager buttons aren't much better. Then there's the keypad; it's much more tactile than the aforementioned buttons -- a very shallow, clicky feel -- but it's squeezed tightly into the bottom fourth of the phone, causing finger cramps, especially during extended texting sessions. This of course makes data entry more of a chore than it already is on a keypad-only smartphone.

The media buttons are a bit of a waste of space since they merely provide redundant functionality for Windows Media Player and are compatible with little else. The center joystick also teases with great feel, but causes difficulty due to the cliche problem with joysticks: it's hard to make a straight and center button press.


Otherwise there's plenty to love about this phone, including great signal (even the occasional single bar when waiting for the subway), and great data capabilities with the included -- and speedy -- WiFi. With a dedicated button for the communications manager, allowing us to enable and disable the phone, WiFi, and Bluetooth radios within a few button presses, the phone couldn't be much easier to use with wireless connections, and we had little trouble finding and using random networks.

As for actual phone functionality, the SDA works fine. We found there to be clear -- if a bit quiet -- voices on both ends and plenty of battery life -- for talking at least. While we found the battery fairly indifferent to talking and PDA usage, the phone usually didn't make it past a couple of days of standby, no matter how little time we spent with it. The speakerphone was our main caveat for phone use, offering clear audio but too little volume.

It's hard to believe the SDA is a Smartphone based on the size, barely out bulking Sony's candybar classic, the T616. Once picked up, though, it makes more sense. The phone has a solid build, and felt a tad heavy after long conversation, but we really can't blame HTC for this one (the SDA is based on HTC's Tornado design), since they really do pack it in. There's a decent 1.3 megapixel camera for a few shots on the go, and also a miniSD slot -- annoyingly placed under the battery -- to expand the phone's paltry 64MB of storage, half of which is already used out of box (hey, that OS has to go somewhere). We would recommend planning to spring for a decently-sized miniSD along with the phone's $300 price tag, especially since the phone excels with media, offering Windows Media Player syncing and great video playback on the QVGA screen. Syncing media files over USB 2.0 went fast, and while the 200MHz processor's performance isn't stellar, we were able to play some DivX "24" in TCPMP without a hitch.

Of course the Smartphone crown is a moving target, but the SDA does plenty for the price for now, and should serve many touchscreen or size-averse Windows Mobile types very well.

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

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Filed under: Handsets, RIM, T-Mobile, Java, GSM, EDGE

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Filed under: Handsets, Cingular, GSM, EDGE, HSDPA, UMTS

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Filed under: Handsets, HTC, O2, Windows Mobile, GSM, GPRS, EDGE

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Filed under: Handsets, Nokia

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Filed under: Cellphones

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Filed under: Handsets, Motorola, Cingular, GSM, GPRS, EDGE

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