Colour screens will be the big differentiator in the new generation of cellphones. For now they are a pleasant feature, but in the future they will enable you to use their high-resolution screens for videoconferencing. This facility is a few years away, while the cellular networks implement the necessary data speed upgrades.
The first of these faster services, general packet radio services (GPRS), is already operational on the MTN network. Though a pricing structure has yet to be decided, the possibilities of its super-fast, always-on data transmission are thrilling.
Advanced personal information management (PIM) software makes these devices more organiser than phone. Thankfully, most have a means to connect to your computer to transfer data — such as contacts and diary appointments — to your phone, instead of having to enter everything as if you were typing an SMS text message.
Samsung T100
The best and brightest colour screen belongs to the Samsung T100. With a resolution of 128 x 160 pixels and displaying 4 096 colours, it has better resolution than some hand-held computers. It is by far the most sophisticated colour screen I’ve ever seen on a cellphone.
Apart from the main picture, each menu item — calls, messages, settings — has its own colour picture. Considering the brightness and clarity of the screen, it is remarkable that it has been squeezed into a phone that fits into your palm and weighs 94g.
This is setting the stage for the next step in mobile communications, which will use much faster data speeds to send colour images, a bit like electronic postcards, and then eventually videoconferencing.
It has a dual liquid crystal display (LCD), a smaller monochrome screen on the front, which displays the time and incoming numbers, as well as preserving the battery life and the general-purpose colour screen at the back. The active flip feature that answers calls and turns on the colour screen when the lid is lifted can be turned off.
My favourite feature of this phone is Samsung’s clever hands-free kit, which is sewn into a cord that you use to hang the phone around your neck. This is a popular way to carry these light clamshell phones, which are the most common type in South Korea, Samsung’s home, so the bundling is innovative.
The sound quality is as rich and detailed as the colour. Samsung calls them ”poly tone rings” but they are more like snippets of a carnival than cellphone rings. The chirping bird ring is so clear and detailed it could be coming straight from a forest.
Ericsson T68i
The colour screen is the standout feature on this phone, but its ease of using Bluetooth was my favourite function. It took less than five minutes for me to pair this phone with my Bluetooth-enabled Palm hand-held computer, letting me type text messages and dial numbers from my Palm’s address book. This has always been possible using the infrared ports on each device, but they needed to be in line of sight of each other.
I also paired the Motorola Bluetooth headset in a minute with this phone, which is one of only two phones in this batch that has a facility to check e-mail. Using MTN’s trial GPRS service, I set it up to check my e-mail every 30 minutes. It’s not ideal as a primary way to deal with e-mail — nothing beats a computer and a keyboard — but it’s damn nice to have the feature, letting you read your e-mail and send short replies.
There were a few minor operating system (OS) ticks with the T68 that have been erased with this upgrade. Now, it is possible to save numbers more easily and the operating system is less cumbersome.
The CommuniCam MCA-20 camera, which clips to the bottom of the phone, is another wonderful add-on.
Despite the gushing reviews, I was disappointed with the picture quality. It was the kind of low-res image that harked back to the early days of digital cameras. But don’t be disheartened, there are bound to be improvements in quality.
Nokia 6310i; 6510
Winter must be the season to get a new phone, because Nokia, the cellphone sales leader, has released more than can be reviewed here, including the 3410, which was tied to the launch of Star Wars Episode II.
I’ve heard many people wish that more manufacturers had an Attack of the Clones and copied the easy-to-use Nokia OS, which is arguably the reason they hook their users through numerous upgrades.
The 6310i takes over from the hard-working 6210, which followed in the footsteps of the 6110 and the all-conquering 2110. It is larger than all the other models reviewed here, but its form factor has a loyal following, principally because it is neither too large nor too small.
Its most significant new feature is its Bluetooth chip, which lets it communicate with other devices that use this low-power radio system to transfer data.
Nokia’s other Bluetooth-enabled phone is the 6510, the so-called male version of the highly popular dinky 8310. Its predecessor, the 8210, was small, had bad battery life and few of the features of the 6210. But its users, says Nokia, were mostly male.
The 8310 comes with pink-and-red clip-on covers and is clearly more fashionable, but the 6510 is aimed at a more business-minded market, people who still want the size advantages and the built-in radio. The radio is a must during the cricket season, I discovered, and is the feature most new users praise. The battery life is vastly improved and the phone also has interchangeable covers.
Both the 6310i and 6510 have a high-resolution pastel-blue LCD display and a nifty feature that might take some educating to get South African users comfortable with: an electronic wallet.
The larger phone has built-in Java support so it can run mini-applications such as converters, calculators and sophisticated games. The smaller phone boasts the other high-speed data protocol, high-speed circuit switched data (HSCSD).
Nokia 9210i
The top-of-the-business-range Nokia 9210i has also had an upgrade and has most of the improvements listed for the other models. It runs the Symbian OS that emulates a desktop computer and has enhanced Web browsing capabilities on its clear screen. Shaped like a small brick that flips open, laptop-like, to reveal a small Qwerty keyboard and screen, it has taken another leap forward. Not only can you view and edit Microsoft Word and Excel files, but it supports the Java scripts used on websites, Flash Player 5, used to stream video or audio content and the RealOne player, a subscription service for streaming data by big-name news and sports websites. Streaming data can only be done over HSCSD networks, but the phone is still a leader in sending and receiving e-mails, with attachments, at current cellular speeds.
Motorola V70
Motorola made the clamshell, flip-open phone its trademark. The design allowed a smaller phone to double in length and stretch easily between ear and mouth, though microphone technology has advanced sufficiently to pick up voice from further away.
Now, the United States phone manufacturer has departed radically from its flip-open format but seems to have kept the concept. The V70 is a beautiful phone, the sexiest of the ones reviewed here, with a rounded display area that also acts as the pivot for the front of the phone. Instead of swinging up and back, it swivels around, like a switchblade, to the side and up, doubling its length.
With a sheer silver exterior and a reversed black screen, the text appears as white, it stands apart from all other Motorola models and from other makers’ too. Its backlit colour is a cool blue and the text, though small, is compact and clear.
Using a data cable, I used this GPRS phone as my primary Internet link. It has a sophisticated synchronisation package that lets you copy appointments and contacts from a program like Outlook to the phone.
Its OS also includes the ability to make voice notes, do voice dialling and handle its ITAP predictive texting system for SMSs.
Handspring Treo 180
Cellphones are becoming more like handheld computers, but one personal digital assistant (PDA) has incorporated a phone. Handspring is as innovative as Palm because its founders originally set up Palm and were the first hand-held makers to include expansion capabilities. Early Handspring Visors had slots at the back for clipping on devices like a Global System for Mobile Communications module that turned it into a phone, using the touchscreen to dial, a global positioning satellite (GPS) receiver and a digital camera.
Now Handspring has incorporated the phone into the Treo and has made the device smaller and more phonelike. It has a cover flap, with a clear panel over the touchscreen, which flips open to answer the phone. The top of the flip has a built-in speaker and the device has a microphone at the bottom of the main body. This means you can use it like a phone, but a plug-in headset also means you can use the device without taking it out of a pocket.
There are numerous advantages to bundling the phone with the PDA, most notably that it adds the calling ability to what is already a useful list of contacts. Handspring runs the Palm OS, which allows you to dial numbers over an infrared-enabled cellphone, but this is even easier.
It lacks the usual Palm scribble areas — where you use a kind of shorthand called Graffiti to input text — which are replaced with a mini-Qwerty keyboard. The default buttons are slightly different in that the phone keys have multiple calling options.
You dial by using the keypad the Treo displays on its 160×160-pixel resolution touchscreen, but there are several screens for 50 speed-dial numbers, a 1 000-number call list, as well as your full list of contacts, which can be accessed by pushing the default button again. It has a wheel on the side, so you can scroll your way through your phone book.
Sending SMS text messages is obviously much easier using the keypad, as are e-mails, making this the best messaging-enabled cellphone reviewed here.
However, the disadvantages are glaring: projected users are sure to be Palm users, but the significant changes in the layout of buttons, the lack of the Graffiti scribble areas and the difficulty in getting to the main menu count against what is otherwise a brilliant and well-executed idea.
Later versions of the Treo return to the usual Palm size, include the scribble areas and appear to have a more friendly reception from Palm OS users.