Omio News Blog

Mobile Phone Review Round Up: Sony Ericsson XPERIA Neo, HTC Salsa, Vodafone Smart, HTC ChaCha, Nokia E6

TechRadar

Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo review

Verdict:

With a slightly better-lit screen, the media features of the Sony Ericsson XPERIA Neo might have wowed us a little more. As it is, it’s a functional little mite, with high usability and simple, one-handed navigation and operation.

The cost is still a little higher than we’d have liked to see for a phone of this caliber, with £30-£35 per month on a contract quite a lot for some retailers. However, at £300 on PAYG this a much better buy, so we’d recommend you look at it if you’re willing to pay a bit more to lose the hassle of a contract.

- Check out the latest Sony Ericsson XPERIA Neo deals on OMIO!

HTC Salsa review

Verdict:

We love the hardware and HTC’s Sense interface runs exceptionally smoothly on top of Android 2.3, plus the HTC Salsa works very well indeed as a mobile web browser and can handle the demands of Angry Birds’ physics code with ease.

If the camera worked a little more smoothly and if there was a touch (well, a lot) more app storage space, it would be the perfect mid-sized Android phone.

It’s a well-made phone that’s enjoyable to use and a breath of fresh air in the world of bland black slabs – but today’s app-hungry smartphone users will find its lack of on-board memory a daily frustration.

- Take a look at the latest HTC Salsa deals on OMIO!

Cnet.co.uk

Vodafone Smart

Conclusion:

When you consider its astonishingly low price, it’s easy to forgive the Vodafone Smart‘s shortcomings, such as its low-res screen, lack of multi-touch support and relatively weedy processor. After all, it’s about the same price as many far more basic phones — for example, the Motorola Gleam and Nokia C2-01. For those shopping on a shoestring, the Smart is an excellent way to get into the wonderful world of Android.

- See the selection of Vodafone Smart deals on OMIO!

Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo

Conclusion:

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo is a thoroughly agreeable smart phone. It more than holds its own in the esteemed company of other mid-range handsets like the HTC Desire S and HTC Salsa.

HTC ChaCha review

Conclusion:

The HTC ChaCha‘s screen takes some getting used to, but the excellent QWERTY keyboard and Facebook button mean it’s a very appealing device. If you already use a phone with a large touchscreen, you may find the transition to the ChaCha too painful to bear, but BlackBerry users looking for a route into Android will be absolutely bowled over by this phone.

- Look at the latest HTC ChaCha deals on OMIO!

Trusted Reviews

HTC ChaCha

Verdict:

The HTC ChaCha has many likeable features. Its keyboard is first class, the Facebook integration is good and the camera is better than you might have expected. However, we’re still not convinced that the messaging form factor works all that well with the Android OS. That said, if we were to pick an Android messaging phone from those currently available, the ChaCha would definitely be the one we’d go for.

Reghardware

Nokia E6

Verdict:

There are a few loose ends, and one potential show-stopper of a bug. My review Nokia E6 didn’t always answer phone calls – with the phone hanging up before I had a chance to answer it. I’m not alone in experiencing this.

Other bugs are cosmetic, but annoying. When you put the phone into Offline mode it will repeatedly tell you: “Conn.lost”. Er… thanks. Then, when you put the phone back into a General (online) profile using the status indicator still tells you the phone is “Offline” – even with the signal indicator showing five bars.

The sun might be setting on Symbian, but the E6 plays to its traditional strengths, and marks a return to form for a product line where battery life and call quality are valued. I can see it going on forever – if Nokia can fix the bugs.

- Check out the latest Nokia E6 deals on OMIO!

Nokia N9 Revealed: Big Screen, Big Camera, Big Dreams

Nokia launched their N9 handset amidst a whirlwind of rumours, leaks and murmurs last week, one which saw the Finnish manufacturer uncharacteristically loose-lipped about its future…

The Nokia N9 is their (fifth?) effort to strike back against the burgeoning market of sleek, snappy and simple smartphones currently vying for the affections of consumers.

The N9 works on Nokia’s MeeGo platform, an operating system they may well be ditching after just one handset (this one) to sail off into the sunset with Windows Phone 7. Remember how well that worked for the Nokia N900 and Maemo? Yeah…

That being said, the Nokia N9 is sporting some impressive features, including a 3.9-inch AMOLED touchscreen, 8-megapixel Carl Zeiss autofocus camera  with wide-angle lens, Dolby Digital Plus audio support, Near Field Communication technology for the contactless payment stuff and weird Angry Birds sequels that may force you to speak to other people (ugh), whilst also packing up to 64GB of internal memory.

In addition, they are trumping the iPhone’s single Home Screen button on the face with no buttons…but admittedly the device looks the part with those razor-sharp angles and it might finally be a sign that whilst the behemoth has taken a while to change tack, Nokia are finally starting to sway in sync with the mobile market.

Check out more on their no-button user interface on the gorgeous swipe.nokia.com, or this video below for a classy, yet informal introduction to the Nokia N9.

Nokia To Close UK Online Store By End Of June

Following from the recent closure of Nokia’s online stores in France, Spain and the Netherlands, it has been revealed to us today via affiliate network Tradedoubler that Nokia will soon be closing their online shop in the United Kingdom.

As stated on Engadget, a representative from Nokia Spain said that “prices are too subsidized by the carriers and sales were low, so they will keep providing support,” equating to the fact that users will still be able to get customer assistance from their local Nokia site, despite not being able to purchase mobile phone deals. We suspect the same fate is due to fall upon the UK site very soon…

This is yet another woe for the Finnish giant that has seen its market share slip significantly in the last few years as they failed to capitalise on the steep growth in the appeal of smartphones, with analysts predicting Korean manufacturer Samsung is poised to overtake them in this lucrative market.

Whilst the deals available from Nokia Direct saw early and exclusive launches for the Nokia N8 32GB, Nokia E6 and Nokia X7, competitive deals from third party retailers and the lure of freebies proved too strong to convince cash-strapped consumers of going straight to source…

Nokia Comes Top In O2 Eco Survey, Saving The Planet One Phone At a Time

Mobile network O2 revealed the latest scores in their planet-loving Eco rating scheme today and manufacturer Nokia has taken the top two spots, with the Nokia C6-01 and Nokia E7-00 both scoring 4.1 out of 5 (stars? wedges? rainbow wedges?).

The Nokia C7-02 scored came joint second with a respectable score of 4 and the Samsung Galaxy Mini, Samsung Galaxy Ace and Sony Ericsson X8 round out the selection, meaning three of the top six phones come from the Finnish manufacturer’s stable.

This will be welcome news for the handset giant who has dominated the headlines after shacking up with Microsoft for their future smartphones, has seen a slight slump in their share of the smartphone market, as well as recently announcing that their Symbian operating system will be no more come 2012.

O2 launched their Eco rating scheme in Aug 2010 and it currently covers 90% of the handsets ranged by the provider. It covers 3 broad areas including ‘the overall environmental impact of the device over its lifespan’, ‘;the functionality of handsets, highlighting devices which help people live more sustainable lives’, as well as ‘the ethical performance of manufacturers’.

With Nokia keeping costs low and quality high, as well as selling resilient mobiles to the furthest flung corners of the globe (where the brand name is still synonymous with the term ‘mobile phone’), it is all the more impressive that the Finnish phone maker is still great good at making devices in huge volumes, whilst still maintaining a relatively small impact on the planet at large.

Low cost music Nokia mobile phone launches

Nokia’s new X1-00 handset has one of the loudest speakers, longest battery lifes and lowest costs of any of their devices around today.

X1-00 comes with a 128×160 screen, with a built FM radio, an MP3 player along with three dedicated music buttons and a loud speaker that can actually shake window frames.

The mobile’s operating system is one of the older Symbian Series 30 that delivers to the whole phone a whopping 61 hours of battery life on standby, or over two and a half days between charges.

There’s even five different address books on the Nokia mobile that allows for multiple people to share the phone.

Nokia’s X1-00 is coming to a store near you in April with a cost of just £30 or 34 Euros, making this idea for the real budget, prepay or youth market.

Check out all of the Nokia deals on OMIO today.

Three to sell the Nokia Communicator E7

Three has announced it will have the Nokia E7 mobile phone on a tariff early next year, although no costs have been made public as yet.

The Nokia E7 has a similar shape to their N8 handset, only the E7 has a massive 4-inch touch screen and the Nokia N8 has a smaller 3.5-inch display – which isn’t accompanied by a slide-out Qwerty keyboard.   

Three already has the Nokia N8 on its network with a price attached of £35, with 2,000 minutes, 5,000 text messages and a 1GB data allowance – Omio believes a similar tariff will be bundled with the E7 handset.  

Traditionally, the Nokia Communicators have been aimed at the business world rather than at the consumer. Thanks to lines being blurred by those using BlackBerry phones for everyday use, the Nokia E7 could find its useful place amongst everyone these days.    

Check out the full range of Nokia E7 deals at OMIO

DEAL ALERT: Free Nokia Booklet 3G with X3 Touch & Type on T-Mobile £40 per month plan

Nokia are currently offering a bundle of their new X3-02 Touch & Type handset and Booklet 3G netbook …sorry, mini-laptop (worth a cool £589) for £40 p/m on T-Mobile, allowing even the most indecisive of Christmas shoppers to have their cake, and eat it.

Nokia’s entry last year into the burgeoning sub-notebook market received some high praise.  Whilst the 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor and 120GB hard drive initially suggested that it was just  another netbook, there were some distinctive features that allowed it to stand out amongst a sea of clones.

Critics were seduced by the sleek 2cm thick aluminium chassis, offering the same build quality as Nokia’s high-end handsets and its beautiful 10” 720p HD screen with HDMI out for connecting to larger TV’s and monitors.  The Booklet 3G is also fully mobile, connecting to the web via wifi or dedicated 3G SIM card slot, and running for up to an incredible 12 hours from one charge!

The only setback until this point has been the price; it’s currently retailing at £589.  That needn’t put you off this time around though, as Nokia is offering this for FREE… yes, gratis, with compliments, bundled with it’s X3-02 Touch & Type handset.

The X3-02 Touch & Type combines a 2.4” touch screen and the camera and music features synonymous with the ‘X’ series, whilst giving avid thumb warriors the accuracy and speed of a 12 button keypad and candybar format that we all know and love.  The X3 Touch & Type is a perfectly capable handset with great battery life that solidly compliments the expanded HD multimedia and productivity of the Booklet 3G.  Weighing a paltry 78g and measuring a svelte 9.6mm, its brushed aluminium body offers the looks to match the performance.  Expect effortless connectivity between phone and computer and tight integration with the built in Ovi apps and services.

This deal is available direct from Nokia on a £40 p/m 24 month contract with T-Mobile, which gives you 1200 minutes and 1GB data allowance.  The handset and laptop are available in matching white or black.  Omio has a full range of colours and offers on other networks available for the X3-02 Touch & Type on our deals pages.

Nokia directly selling latest Touch and Type C3-01, SIM free and unlocked

Nokia’s on-line store is now retailing their C3-01 touch screen handset with a keypad for just £159.

Nokia’s C3-01 has a 2.4-inch 240×320 touch screen, a standard keypad, with a 5MP camera, WIFI and 3.5G capabilities – all in a candy base style phone, with a classic Nokia design.

The Nokia C3-01 builds on from their Nokia 6100 classic model of 2009 and was only announced a few months back, at Nokia World 2010 in London.

The name touch and type comes from the mobile having both a touch screen, along with an actual keypad. There has only been one other phone in the touch and type range, the X3, which was aimed at music lovers just like every other X series mobile phone.

Nokia’s C3-01 Touch and Type can be purchased from here SIM free and unlocked for £150, or for £99 on pay as you go with O2, T-Mobile and Vodafone.

Check out OMIO’s Nokia C3-01 deals here.

Orange Rolls Out HD Voice Service In UK, We Accept The Call

There once was a time when the term ‘HD’ used to mean something. ‘High definition’ denoted a significantly better quality of image, video or sound, adhering to specific parameters and standards.

Then those wily marketing folk caught wind of it and HD has come to mean pretty much anything, from shorthand to describe games on the iPad and fancy mobile phones, to a pair of wraparound specs that can help you see real life in a little more clarity.

There is even the promise of daubing our living rooms in a high resolution hue, thanks to the invention of HD paint.

HD paint.

So excuse our scepticism when Orange announced that they were bringing high definition voice calls to phones in the United Kingdom.

Thankfully, they are trying to make HD mean something again as this service promises clearer and higher quality connections between mobiles, eliminating the occasional hiss and distortion that we’ve come to tolerate from chatting on the move.

Orange’s HD Voice runs on 3G connections utilising the WB-AMR (Wideband Adaptive Multi-Rate) speech codec, essentially meaning a wider bandwidth is used and packs in far more sound data, whilst placing the same strain on the network infrastructure.

Tom Alexander, Chief Executive of Everything Everywhere said:  “Although what we use our mobile handsets for has evolved significantly in the past few years – the way we make mobile calls hasn’t changed a great deal since the 1990s.

“So we’re proud to be the first telecommunications brand in the UK to change this and offer customers a revolutionary new calling experience. With mobile HD Voice – hearing really is believing”.

Talk of bandwidth and codecs is certainly encouraging; this is not just a gimmick or attempt to differentiate Orange with a unique selling point, significant time and investment seems to have gone into improving the aural experience on mobiles with the results coming through loud and clear.

Okay, so that video was a little gimmicky, but tests and trials have been ongoing with many coming away suitably impressed with the clarity of hearing the person on the other end, equating them as being in the immediate vicinity.

Background ambient noise is subdued, whilst the disembodied voice on the other end is as clear as a bell…sounds like HD Voice is a hit!

Well, not just yet. It isn’t simply a matter of snagging an Orange SIM card and getting your Bob Hoskins on.

HD Voice is limited to four specific handsets initially – the Nokia X6, Nokia E5, Nokia 5230 and the Samsung Omnia Pro – with further devices on the network soon to receive the signal.

A cute HD Voice logo is also present on new handsets to let you know if it is compatible with Orange’s service, available to no extra charge to those lucky phone owners…provided you’re in an area with decent 3G reception.

And talking to someone else with decent 3G reception.

On the same network.

Whilst great in theory and a huge step for mobile, the problem is that the advent of HD Voice on the various networks might be more divisive than anything, with each attempting to promise the richest quality of chatting experience rather than colluding to make the service better for everyone.

Once the range of compatible handsets broaden and 3G reception becomes less flaky in the UK, we are sure that we will banish the memory of crackling lines and dropped calls to the history books, whilst Orange blazing a trail without cost to the consumer is a commendable start.

More importantly, it promises a future for connectivity so bright that we’d have to wear HD WrapArounds…definitely a good thing.

Swype: Swift Text Messaging Arrives For Symbian Phones

Not content with helping a humble Manchester lass break the world record for fastest texter ever and appearing on the new Samsung Galaxy Tab, typing app Swype is winging its way over from Android to Symbian handsets.

Now available in beta form for loads of Nokia’s Symbian^1 devices including the Nokia N97, Nokia N97 mini, Nokia X6, 5800 XpressMusic and the 5230, Swype provides swift text entry to touchscreen phones by allowing users to deftly drag fingers (or a stylus) between letters on the keyboard, rather than pecking away at .

Whilst still a Beta Labs product, the ease of switching to the Swype input method is a little strange at first, but proves second nature after sending a few messages thanks to generous and loose predictive analysis that can second guess plenty of common words and spellings.

Also great is the extent to which Swype integrates with a host of existing applications, adding the new funtionality to them almost seamlessly.

Grab it from here for free, be sure to submit constructive feedback as it is still a work-in-progress, and stay tuned as Swype glides over to more handsets in the future!