Penny Mobiles – Mobile phone news, reviews & information
Penny Mobiles brings you up to date information on mobile phones, including how to get the latest handsets for cheaper. A penny for your thoughts on mobile technology.
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The Nokia 3720 Classic is one of the new phones to hit the mid to low range of the price spectrum later this year. Not only is the phone tough phone on the outside, but is also quite functional as well. The Nokia 3720 Classic has been specially designed to be able to withstand a range of weather elements that could possible destroy an ordinary phone. The phone is the ideal choice for anyone prepared to compromise on the features of the phone for the sake of having a tough reliable all weather companion.
The Nokia 3720 Classic has a sealed leak proof design which protects the internal circuit components of the phone. You can pick the color of the outer casing to showcase your personality! The battery cover of the Nokia 3720 Classic is locked into the phone with a screw which protects both the internal circuitry as well as the phone’s delicate components. This means that you don’t have to worry about using the phone in wet muddy environments. The phone can even be used in extreme temperatures with little to show for it.
The battery life of the Nokia 3720 Classic is exceptionally good and will last for a good couple of days even with heavy use. The Nokia 3720 Classic also has an LED flashlight which completes the image of rugged mobile phone. There are additional features such as Nokia maps which come preinstalled on the 1GB memory card that comes with the phone. The large and bright screen of the Nokia 3720 Classic measures 2.2 inches diagonally. The screen is sufficient to view web pages on though images may appear to be slightly dull. The Nokia maps are perfect for anyone who is looking to find their route especially if the terrain you are on seems quite unfamiliar.
Nokia 3720 Classic Links:
One of the most novel media gadgets to come into the “middle class” phone market happens to be the Sony Ericsson Aino. While the phone is expected to come out in the 3rd quarter, phone lovers are now abuzz about the full touch screen and of course its support for 16 million colors. However, the phone can be a little thick on the pocket measuring at 15.5 mm. Also the phone’s weight is 134 grams making it one of the chunkier models in today’s market. On the other hand, with a beautiful screen as that of the Aino, no video lover is going to fuss about the chunkiness. The accelerometer lets you rotate the screen so that you can view media on a landscape view if you are interested. Being a slider, you can slide out the keypad and enjoy tapping as the keys are quite large – a boon for chunky finger owners.
The Sony Ericsson Aino has an internal memory of 55MB which can easily be expanded all the way up to 16GB. It supports a wide variety of networks and plenty of connectivity too with Wi-Fi, Class 10 GPRS, Class 10 EDGE and even HSCSD.
Now here comes the best bits about the Sony Ericsson Aino – it has an 8.1MP camera! Now how cool is that! What more there is an LED flash and autofocus as well – no photo lover is going to be able to keep their hands off this one. Despite all this, ht downside is that a xenon flash would have been much more useful as compared to LED. Anyhow, cheer up for there is Touch focus, red-eye reduction and face detection features too.
Also the phone can be used as a navigator, thanks to the inbuilt GPS receiver!
Sony Ericsson Aino Links:
Despite the fact that it has been roughly two years since the XpressMusic range from Nokia came out, it still stands pretty high. One of the most recent additions to this music range by Nokia is the Nokia 5530 XpressMusic. The phone is to come out pretty soon and of course is a much anticipated one. With a thickness of roughly thirteen millimetres, it is sure to create a bit of a stir. Capable of being somewhat pocket friendly, the phone weighs roughly 107 grams.
On the other hand, who won’t like the Nokia 5530 XpressMusic, after all it’s an affordable touch screen phone. Yes, that’s right! The phone has a TFT touch screen which is about 2.0 inches and is quite a beauty in itself. After all, the screen allows the displaying of up to sixteen million colors at a 360 x 640 resolution. You can also make use of the proximity sensor and the handwriting recognition feature, both of which are quite interesting features.
Onboard memory on the Nokia 5530 XpressMusic is around 70 MB. However, you can get quite musical since the memory can take up to 16 GB. If you want to have a walking music jukebox, the 5530 is for you!
The Nokia 5530 Xpress Music has quite a range of different options as far as connectivity is concerned. These cool options include class 32 EDGE and GPRS too. Wi-Fi features let you download large files as per your wish. However, the lack of 3G connectivity is somewhat disappointing especially for those who love to video call.
On the whole, if you are a musical person looking for a cheaper alternative of the iPhone, there is no excuse for you to miss this little beauty! Go grab it right away and have fun choosing from five colors!
Nokia 5530 XpressMusic Links:
RIM is set to release their latest phone and their first phone for the mid – range market, the Blackberry Curve 8520. The phone is also known as the Blackberry Curve 8520 Wi-Fi phone and will be made available for purchase on Vodafone UK on 18 month or 24 month contracts for free. A Blackberry phone is a phone which every businessperson aspires to have, and this phone comes with a 2 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, some top – class mailing features, 256 MB of internal memory, GPRS and web browsing, making it a very good all-round device.
The Blackberry Curve 8520 is a great mix of very impressive features as well as a good design. The phone makes use of a touch sensitive optical trackball. The Blackberry Curve 8520 is a very media friendly phone, which is a change from Blackberry’s business – oriented phones, meaning that Blackberry is possibly targeting the younger segment of the market. On the top of the phone is the 3.5 mm headset jack in addition to the dedicated music keys. It is, however, sad to note that the phone does not have 3G, though there are rumours which say that the life of the battery of the phone has been enhanced as the 3G feature is not present.
The Blackberry App World is a unique application portal made available to all Blackberry users, including users of the Blackberry Curve 8520. The phone has a good battery life and is able of supporting talk time of upto 4.5 hours and standby time of upto 17 days. The microSD memory card slot is also present on the phone so that you can beef up the memory capacity of the phone to a maximum of 16 GB.
It is not surprising, therefore, when RIM announced that the quadband 8520 was being marketed as a ‘priceless business phone at a very affordable price’ by RIM.
Blackberry Curve 8520 Links:
The Motorola ROKR ZN50 automatically raises the bar for top class media phones. The music playing handset can definitely replace your stand alone music player. The sound engine of the Motorola ROKR ZN50 is such that, sound played over it is even clearer and louder that you would expect for a phone of its class. There is no other music phone in the market right now with a better design. This is not only one of the first futuristically attractive phones in the market, but is also one of the first phones released by Motorola which has the capability of competing with Nokia and Sony Ericsson effectively.
The Motorola ROKR ZN50 does not have a range of top class connectivity features. This and the fact that the camera of the phone is pretty mediocre does put people off the phone, but this is hardly what you would expect to get with a phone that falls in its price range. The media features on the Motorola ROKR ZN50 are actually quite decent as you can store and play a range of media formats without any problem.
The Android operating system used in the Motorola ROKR ZN50 makes the phone almost as user friendly as a Google Android phone. The customizable 3 home screen panels are also characteristic of a Google phone. Flipping one panel to go to the next one is just a tiny finger flick away! Thus navigation through the menu of the ROKR ZN50 is as easy as you can imagine. Accessing even obscure features such as the calendar or notes is easy using the main menu. The whole system on the phone is very intuitive. The built in GPS receiver with the software to run it properly is very useful as it adds to the utility of the phone by making it a navigation tool as well.
Motorola ROKR ZN50 Links:
The LG Louvre GC990 is one of the new camera phones to hit the market later this year. The 12 MP camera on it is the best of its class. Not only is the resolution of this device outstanding, but it is also unmatched in terms of photo and video editing options. In addition to the top class still shots, even videos can be recorded with HD resolution at 30 frames per second. This 12 MP camera utilizes Schneider-Kreuznach optics. This professional lens ensures that all photos captured have excellent detail and clarity. The auto touch focus feature allows you to focus on an object in the screen by just touching it! This feature enhances your photo taking ability even further, as it allows you to focus on any point in the viewfinder that you wish to focus on. You can even zoom in on a section of your view finder this way. Dim light photography is also equally good in terms of resolution as the xenon flash illuminates the object extremely well, even if you capture the shot in pitch darkness.
The LG Louvre GC990 also allows geo tagging. This means that you can tag an image with geographical coordinates after you capture the image. The zero shutter lag feature is also useful as it allows you to capture photos in real time without any shutter lag. This makes the camera on the LG Louvre GC990 as good as any top class stand alone camera.
With GPRS, EDGE, and Wi-Fi, you have nothing to complain about in terms of connectivity features. The LG Louvre GC990 even allows you to access DLNA. The onboard GPS receiver only adds to the utility of the phone by making it an invaluable navigation tool as well.
LG Louvre GC990 Links:
Out of the new touch screen phones that are in the market right now, the LG BL40 Chocolate stands out in terms of usability and appearance. The block form factor makes it easy to carry the phone around in even the smallest space. Featuring a 4 inch TFT display with a top class resolution, you can watch your media at a quality close to cinema screen quality. The dual screen user interface is one of the most interesting features as this allows you to run 2 applications on the phone at the same time without any sort of time lag or delay. You can even check on the status of both the applications thanks to the dual screen.
Connectivity options of the LG BL40 Chocolate include class 10 GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA and Wi-Fi. All of these ensure that you can access the internet wherever you are. This makes the LG BL40 Chocolate ideal for you whether you are a music lover, a social networking addict or even both!
The battery life of the phone is quite decent as with moderate use, it lasts for a good 3-4 days. Transferring data across a short distance is easy via the Bluetooth chip built in the phone itself. In addition to all these features, the LG BL40 Chocolate also comes with an inbuilt GPS receiver. This allows you to use the phone, as a navigation tool, for hiking or even just simply to find your way around. Capturing your precious memories is another one of the many reasons to get the LG BL40 Chocolate, as the 5 MP camera captures photos with excellent detail. The best thing is that all these features are incorporated in a simple user friendly interface which is easy to manage.
LG BL40 Chocolate Links:
Out of the hundreds of smart phones launched into the market this year, the Blackberry Curve 8520 definitely stands out. With the key aim of attracting business users, the Curve 8520 more than just does this job. You get all the top class features that you would expect in a phone of its class.
One of the main advantages of the Blackberry Curve 8520 is the fact that it is slimmer when compared to other Blackberry devices. The thickness of 13.9 mm ensures that you can slip the phone into even the smallest pocket without any problem. The weights of 106 g might make the phone a little too heavy for some people, but anyone used to standard Blackberry devices should not have a problem with it. The screen of the phone is really good as it allows up to 65000 colors to be displayed at a 320 x 240 pixel resolution. The size of this screen is good enough for you to use it to display all your favorite media and is a feast for the eyes by any standard. The Blackberry Curve 8520 has a full QWERTY keyboard which lies below the screen making it easy for anyone to type out messages even if you are stuck with large thumbs!
The dedicated music keys on the body of the phone make it easy for you to access the media player when you want to listen to music. Storing a large music library is not a problem as you can expand the internal memory of the phone up to 16 GB using the microSD memory card slot. Connectivity options such as class 10 GPRS, class 10 EDGE, HSCSD and Wi-Fi complete the image of the phone as a social networking utility as well.
Blackberry Curve 8520 Links:
With the economic downturn the way it is we are all looking to save some money and with phones it’s no exception. But just because we are cutting back on money does not mean we should cut back on substance. There are many great featured phones around going for a decent price and here we have compiled a list of the 8 phone deals we think offer great value.
1) Nokia N97 deals – The highly anticipated daddy of the Nokia phones that comes with more features than you can shake a stick at. Being one of the most high-spec phones on the market it should be costing a lot more than £40.00 per month, particularly with 600 minutes and unlimited texts.
2) HTC Hero deals – HTC were the company most willing to take the plunge into the world of Anrdoid and their eagerness may pay off. The HTC Hero is the best Android device around right now, and will probably hold onto that title for quite some time. For £28.53 you can get the Hero with 400 minutes and 300 texts which is a real bargain.
3) Samsung Jet deals – The mid-range touchscreen from Samsung comes with a range of features that would not feel out of place on a phone that would normally set you back a great deal more than £26.11 per month. As this offer includes 300 minutes and unlimited texts it’s even more of a great offer.
4) Nokia 5530 deals – The latest phone to join Nokia’s XpressMusic range the 5530 is a great choice for music lovers. While cutting back on more expensive features Nokia have focused on packing the 5530 with music functionality and can be snapped up for just £24.46 with 600 minutes and unlimited texts. This offer also includes £75 cashback which is incentive itself as it’s always nice to be handed a pile of cash.
5) Sony Ericsson W995 deals – Another music phone, this time from Sony Ericsson who happened to be somewhat of a specialist at that sort of thing. The W995 is crammed with just about every music feature Sony Ericsson could think of, and they could think of a lot. This phone offers a lot for music lovers at just £21.00 per month.
6) Nokia N86 deals – The £25.00 per month price tag being offered on the N86 is a steal when you consider its high-end camera. The 8 megapixel snapper with Carl Zeiss lens is the sort of addition you would expect to make a phone cost a great deal more than this. 
7) Blackberry Curve 8520 deals – Blackberry have taken what they do best and made it a lot more affordable. Focused on the email generation Blackberry fans will not be disappointed with the prospect of picking this little number up with £170 cashback on purchase.
8 ) LG Crystal deals – The LG crystal is a sexy phone with glittery pads and what it can boast as the only transparent design on a phone. LG have not sacrificed features for looks though, as often happens with ‘designer’ branded phones, as the specs are enough to put more modest looking phones to shame. This spangly handset is up for grabs at £30.00 per month and that’s including 400 minutes and 500 texts.
So there you have it, our rundown of some of the best deals on offer at this present moment. These phones are some of the best floating about this month and are coming with some great offers. With no major new phones on the immediate horizon these offers are looking even more tempting.
The Toshiba TG01 is being considered as one of the best phones to be ever unveiled, having been announced a long time before the MWC 2009 actually took place. There is good reason for the hype due to some monstrous specifications, which include the faster processor ever, the 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, a monstrous 4.1 inch WVGA display and a super slim body of 9.9 mm.
However, one thing that is to be noted about the Toshiba TG01 is the size of the phone itself. Though it is unbelievably thin, the fact that it has a big screen means that the phone itself is quite wide and resembles an 80s tablet PC and might make you think twice of carrying it around in a jeans pocket due to its cumbersome nature. However, because of the size of the screen, it is great for someone who would like to watch movies on the go or for someone who like web browsing on a large screen.
The Toshiba TG01 has a 3.2 megapixel camera which doesn’t really have a variety of options to talk about. Though there are various resolutions, autofocus and a timer, which prove to be the saving grace of the camera, it is no match for the camera of the iPhone 3GS, which doesn’t have a big reputation as such. Also, due to the absence of night mode as well as a flash, there is no chance of you getting good snaps in the night time.
The video recording does get a facelift in the form of MPEG – 4 recording, which can be done in 2 different qualities, VGA or WVGA. However, there is a big downside to the video recording in the sense that it takes ages to start the video recorder by which that precious moment will have long passed!
The phone has been released in June earlier this year.
Toshiba TG01 Links:
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