Nokia 6120 Classic, SE K660 & SE Z770i: Affordable, yet highly recommended 3.5G phones

With the recent launch of DSTCom's new 3G Services, Prima and Easi customers have been able to upgrade their mobile SIM card (for free until 31st August 2008), to enjoy Internet access speeds on their mobiles of up to 7.2 Mbps on their newly upgraded 3.5G (HSDPA) network.

For you to truly make full use of the HSDPA capabilites of this 3.5G network, we here by present to you a line up of some affordable, and highly recommended HSDPA ready mobile phones;

Nokia 6120 Classic


Main features;

• Surf the web and download music and videos quickly over the high speed 3G or HSDPA connection
• Document viewer: Quickoffice and PDF
• Catch all the action on the video recorder
• 2 megapixel camera with flash and panorama imaging
• Make video calls
• 35 MB of internal memory, microSD card slot
• Convenient PC synchronisation via MiniUSB connector

At B$368.00, this phone is a real bargain. Running on the Symbian 9.2, S60 3rd Edition platform, it's very stable, and you can easily add applications like instant messengers, and Skype amongst others. Unsurprisingly for a phone in this price range, it lacks WiFi connectivity. (If Wi-Fi is what you need, then check out the highly recommended Nokia E51 which we reviewed earlier on here). Overall the Nokia 6120 Classic is a joy to use, especially with its no nonsense, and super fast interface.

Sony Ericsson K660


Main features;

• HSDPA enabled
• Web Optimised (Landscape Browsing and Shortcut Keys) for easy surfing
• Google Maps for Mobile
• 2 megapixel camera with instant photo upload to your blogsite
• Walkman Player 3.0
• Video Calls
• 10 hours talk time and 350 hours standby time
• 32MB of internal memory, further expandable through the Memory Stick Micro card slot

If you're a big Sony Ericsson fan, then this phone would tickle your fancy. You'll be able to enjoy landscape browsing when you surf the Internet from this phone. The built-in Google Maps application will allow you to find your way instantly with interactive maps that let you zoom in or out, or pan in any direction to orient yourself. Enter your current location and destination and receive point-to-point directions. The K660 is definitely an all-rounder phone, and at B$368.00, we think it's worth every cent.

Sony Ericsson Z770i


Main features;

• HSDPA enabled
• Picture Blogging
• Google Maps for Mobile
• Walkman Player 3.0
• Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync
• Track ID music recognition
• 320x240 pixel 262K TFT QVGA display
• 32MB internal memory and removable external storage with Memory Stick Micro.
• FM Radio with RDS

If the 'candy bar' design of the Sony Ericsson K660 is not your style, then the 'flip phone' design of the Sony Ericsson Z770i could be for you.

The Z770i features lets you browse the Internet with its magnetic mouse pointer, supports RSS feeds, picture blogging and e-mail access using web mail and Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync. The Z770 also features Google™ Maps for Mobile. At B$388.00, the Z770i is a serious contender which will help you enjoy the full benefit of the HSDPA network.

All phones are available at Incomm with further discounts when you present your DST Card.

Sony Ericsson W960i: Touch 'n' play

The W960i was perhaps one of the most highly anticipated phones by the Sony Ericsson faithful last year, and it certainly lives up to that billing. The W960i is the latest, and without doubt the most feature- packed handset to come from Sony Ericsson's ever-so-popular Walkman line.

Probably Sony Ericsson's answer to the Nokia N95 8GB, the W960i has 8GB of storage space, a large TFT touchscreen display, a 3.2-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, and of course, 3G connectivity.



Key features:

• Walkman Touch music player


• Symbian OS 9.1 with UIQ 3.0


• 3G connectivity, with video calls


• Wi-Fi support


• 3.2-megapixel camera with autofocus, 3x digital zoom
  
• 8GB of storage space
  
• 262K color TFT touchscreen display
  
• Handwriting recognition
  
• FM radio


• Stereo Bluetooth (with 3.5 mm adapter included)
  

There are, however, a couple of setbacks, the phone's lack of HSDPA (3.5G) connectivity might put some tech enthusiasts off, especially when new technologies come and go very quickly. The lack of a navigation pad too, could be a setback for those who prefer a more tactile feedback when browsing through the phone's menus.

All in all, the W960i is still the phone to die for, easily offering more than any other Sony Ericsson Walkman phone has ever done before.


The Sony Ericsson W960i is available at Incomm for B$938.00, with further discounts when you present your DST Card.

Sony Ericsson K850i: Taking camera-phones to another level

If you're an aspiring photographer, or simply just love taking photos, then the K850i will bring sparkles to your eyes! The K850i is Sony Ericsson's new flagship Cyber-shot mobile handset which features a 5.0 megapixel camera, a 16x digital zoom and Xeon flash, an Automatic lens cover and a beautiful 2.2” crystal bright display. The phone also boasts an innovative auto-rotate feature which lets you display your photos in the correct aspect - portrait or landscape – irrespective of the orientation it was taken in.

The K850i comes in a choice of two colors - Luminous Green and Velvet Blue, which in both models, the plastic the front face is coated in is black, while the navigation key’s rim and side-mounted inset varies in each color. The glossy surfaces on the phone might be prone to fingerprints and smudges, but it's nothing a quick wipe with a cloth can't handle. One thing's for sure, the glossyness sure makes the phone look super sexy.



One cool feature is the touchscreen function which lets you navigate your way through the menu. It takes a while to get used to, but after a few hours, we're sure you'll get the hang of it.

Another feature which will definitely make local Bloggers take notice is the "post to blog" option. Simply take a picture and you'll be able to send it via MMS directly to your designated blog on Blogger. You can read more about that here.

Easily switch between Camera, Video or View function, just as you would do on a digital camera.

Overall, Sony Ericsson's K850i excels as a camera phone with innovative features that make it very desirable to both normal and the more photo-savvy users. Perhaps, more important for those who want to be up-to-date with their mobile technology, the phone's HSDPA (3.5G) connectivity will ensure you have broadband mobile Internet speeds once the service is available in the near future.


The Sony Ericsson K850i is available at Incomm for B$898.00, with further discounts when you present your DST Card.

Sony Ericsson W910i: Shake to the music

Sony Ericsson's latest addition to their Walkman Series line is the W910i, an impressive 'slide' phone which sports a new media-browsing interface, built-in sensor motion for both music and games, backed by a strong suite of cellular connectivity features.

The W910i comes in two colors - Hearty Red and Noble Black, and thanks once again to our friends at Incomm, we got the chance to play around with this smart-looking piece of gadgetry.

The design and curves of this phone are unsurprisingly sleek and easy on the eyes, following the likes of other recently released Walkman phones. The large 240x320 pixel 2.4-inch display makes the look of the phone even more sexy, being able to display up to 262,144 colours.

One of the phone's sexy features, it's slide function, opens & closes ever so smoothly, which makes picking up a call or accessing the main menu enjoyable to say the least.

Sony Ericsson phone owners will be familiar with the phone's shortcut key button, a regular on almost all recent Sony Ericsson phones, which helps you access your most frequently used functions such as creating a new message and turning on the Bluetooth function. It even lets you assign any other function you want to the menu with ease.

As a Walkman phone, the W910i undoubtedly delivers great quality music. The cool new motion sensor built into the phone lets the user not only control playback by shaking the handset, but also changes the orientation of the screen automatically in the media browser. We wonder if anyone would really make full use of this function really as we always ended up using the normal button controls most of the time. But it is, without doubt still a quite impressive feature. The built-in games also make use of the motion sensor, letting you play in a Nintendo-Wii-type of manner.



The W910i only comes with 40MB of built-in memory, but music lovers will be happy to know that the sets available from Incomm come with a 2GB Memory Stick Micro M2, so you can easily store hundreds of your tunes.

The phone's 2.0 megapixel camera however, seems quite insufficient as there is no autofocus, no LED flash light for shooting in darker environments, and no way to do self-protraits, possible minus points for those snap-happy users.

The rated battery life of the W910i is 9 hours of talktime (3.5 hours using 3G) and approximately 14.5 days of standby. We surprisingly managed to not have to charge the battery for two days worth of texting, gaming, and the occasional music playing when we used the phone over the weekend.

Connectivity-wise, the phone supports GPRS/EDGE, 3G, and even HSDPA (3.5G); which lets you make full use of high-speed broadband connections when they become available.




The super-smart-looking, and impressive Sony Ericsson W910i is available at Incomm for B$828.00, with further discounts when you present your DST Card.

Sony Ericsson P1: Mixing business with pleasure

The latest addition to Sony Ericsson's P-series comes a year after the release of its predecessor, the P990, and proves to be their best one yet. The P1 offers a number of new features that many P-series enthusiasts have been waiting for, including an improved display and upgraded user interface.

The Sony Ericsson P1 combines business with pleasure in one beautiful, stylish package. It's 25% smaller than the P990, and perhaps one of the most obvious changes is that the P1 sports a QWERTY keyboard, looking quite like the M600 with wider keys, which is surprisingly very comfortable to use.

The P1 packs a new 2.6" QVGA transreflective TFT display, which will make it easier to read when under direct sunlight. The display still maintains its touchscreen capabilities, a feature all P-series enthusiasts have come to get used to. The phone's intelligent handwriting recognition software lets you input text with a stylus, as you would with a pen, and transforms it to the corresponding letter on a keyboard.

3G connectivity, combined with full office applications, lets you edit and view your documents, and send them to your business counterparts with ease. A surprising addition to the P1 is the business card scanner, which lets you use the phone's 3.2 megapixel camera to take photos of business cards, and automatically scans the text and saves it as a contact.

Besides being 3G enabled, the phone also boasts Wi-Fi connectivity, Push email support, Opera Web Browser, 160MB internal memory and 512MB Memory Stick Micro.

The P1 offers more than every other Sony Ericsson smartphone has ever before, and is by far the best in the long line of P-series phones.



This smart, feature-packed phone is available at Incomm for $1,088 (further discounts with a DST Card) . For more information, please call 2420122.

The Sony Ericsson P1 is also available online at the QQeStore, with the absolute lowest price in Brunei guaranteed!* For more information on its current price, please click here.