While having an iPod is certainly the hip thing to do, you can think outside the box and get a different brand of gadget that performs the same functions. Here are some options for off-brand iPods.
SanDisk Sansa Clip: A cute little shuffle with a wheel and small display screen. It’s small and compact, which makes it ideal for working out. The casing is very durable, and the screen has an adjustable brightness which can light up a dark room if necessary. Comes in 1GB or 2GB for $40 and $60 respectively, a fair price compared to the iPod Shuffle.
Microsoft Zune HD: Microsoft’s answer to the iPod. An impressive set of software provides for excellent visual quality, especially for available games. Like the iPod Touch, the Zune comes with an Internet browser. The touch screen is gorgeous and very responsive. One negative: you must use Microsoft points to purchase anything, meaning you must first buy points before you can buy anything like a TV show or album. Available in 16 GB for $220 or 32GB for $290.
Samsung P3: Samsung famously took plenty of hints from its user forums to deliver a great product that its fanbase wanted. It boasts a slick touch screen, a very user friendly interface and astonishing compatability with a wide variety of audio and video formats. It also features a voice recorder (great for lectures or quick verbal notes) and Bluetooth compatability. Comes in black or silver. Available in 8 GB, 16GB and 32GB for $150, $200 and $300, respectively.
Sony Walkmen X-1000: Walkmens aren’t just for playing tapes anymore. This sophisticated device seriously rivals and possibly even surpasses both the iPod and the Zune for features, responsive touch screens and applications. Browse YouTube or surf Slacker for new music. While the Walkmen is more compatible than the restrictive Zune and iPod, it is a bit pricier. Available in 16GB and 32 GB for $300 and $400, respectively.
The LG Rumor started the trend of messaging phones. This trend hit a lot of counties in the end of 2008 and it can be safely traced to LG Rumor because this was quite an iconic phone. This phone has a keyboard that is quite roomy as well as good features that could attract anyone. While it was not the first messaging phone with a QWERTY keyboard, it is true that this keyboard did make t quite a hit. It seemed as if many elements had come together to bring success and popularity to the LG Rumor. Now it seems as if LG wants to taste success again with the LG Rumor 2.
The LG Rumor 2 like the LG Rumor is an easy to assess and easy to use phone. The keyboard is quite spacious and it has a messaging application that is intuitive. Call quality is also as good, which is a good thing. But it seems like the LG Rumor 2 does not have any extra features to make it stand out. The camera is still the low resolution 1.3 MP which means your pictures will not be very clear. The EV-DO feature is also missing and the only newness here is that of Outlook and Lotus Notes corporate e-mail facility.
iPod Shuffle: The shuffle is the most basic option. It’s a simple model with two options for selecting music: next and previous. It’s great if you have a pre-loaded playlist you want to take with you running. Not so great if you like to have control over the songs that come up. A voice-over feature tells you artist and song title of the upcoming selection. Available in 2GB (500 songs) for $59.00 or 4GB(1000 songs) for $79.00.
iPod Nano: The next step up offers a screen and way more space, as well as more color options (nine colors versus the Shuffle’s five). In addition to music, the Nano plays and records video with a built-in camera. Along with sleeker design, the Nano offers the Genius shuffle (picks songs that go together) and a radio station. Available in 8 GB (2,000 songs/8 hours of video) for $149.00 or 16 GB (4,000 songs/16 hours of video) for $179.00.
iPod Classic: The squat iPod Classic boasts even more space and features. Along with a color screen, Genius playlist capabilities and the selection wheel, the Classic gives you coverflow selections: pick your music based on a flowing line-up of album covers. Colors, however, are curiously limited: your choices are black or white. Available in 160 GB (40,000 songs/200 hours of video) for $249.00.
iPod Touch: Basically a thinner iPhone that doesn’t make phone calls. Do it all: surf the web, check your email and hold plenty of songs. The absence of a wheel, however, makes it harder to control from your pocket. It may be more cost effective to go ahead and get the iPhone. Available in 8 GB (1,750 songs/10 hours of video) for $199.00, 32 GB (7,000 songs/40 hours of video) for $299.00, and 64 GB (14,000 songs/80 hours of video) for $399.00.
There are some phones that are meant to be quite rugged as well as able to take on the elements. The Samsung Convoy is one such handset that brings to the fore Samsung’s answer to competition from the likes of Motorola’s Barrage. This is also similar to the Samsung’s Rugby, which is for AT&T, with the Samsung Convoy being for Verizon Wireless. The Convoy does provide exciting features like 3G, a 2 MP camera and a music player as well as GPS. These are features that you will not be able to ignore easily. This phone has also great voice quality, which is the essential purpose of any phone. The cost is also low as it is just $99, with a $50 mail in rebate.
With the Samsung Convoy, you get a rather rugged phone, where there is a plastic skin that is quite tough and also rubber sidings. The battery cover gets locked well into place so that there are no problems with the phone’s battery falling off while in use. The hinge is sturdy and though it may not be fully waterproof, it has elements like humidity, shock, thermal and salt fog proofing. The phone is quite solid in its feel and yet it is quite comfortable to use too.
There was a time when most people would balk at the very idea of a square phone slim phones were in, and flat ones too, with the candy bar type of phones also appealing to a set of customers. But to come up with something as radical as a square phone needed a lot of grit and a lot of pluck, which Motorola seems to have had. Now that it has become somewhat of a trend, you have to accept it, but when the Motorola Hint was launched, there was not the slightest hint that it would become so very trendy. It had also happened that earlier attempts to come up with and market a square phone had almost fallen flat and got quite enmeshed in controversy.
The Motorola Hint gets its shape from the full keyboard that it so readily sports. In this way it is similar to the Samsung Gloss and the LG Lotus, which had also been successful being square phones. Performance wise, the Motorola Hint is not bad, but there seem to be some serious design issues. One of these had to do with the battery covers, which seemed to slide open at the drop of a hat. This was a serious problem that we could not get the better of, till the end. You can have a beautiful phone, but if the battery cover doesn’t stay, it’s not much good, we suppose.
There are some phones that build up a reputation for themselves for some unique characteristics that they bring with them. One of these is the Casio G’zOne which is quite a sturdy and a rugged hone that is quite well known for this characteristic of it. These phones are quite military certified, which means that it is able to take almost anything that you throw their way. This is one phone that will be able to take a huge beating and till be able to keep working fine and without the smallest hitch.
With the tough exterior, the phone is able to take a huge battering in terms of water, dust, shock and immersion to name a few of the kids of rough treatment that you can expect. In addition to this, you will also see that while the phone looks chunky with that 90’s look, it is rugged beyond your wildest dreams. After all, every phone is not meant to look good because you have some phones that have to be ready for some serious wear and tear which the Casio G’zOne is. So if you have to contend with water depth, high altitudes, fog, smog, rain and snow, this is the phone for you.
The cell phone review has less opportunities of dealing with Helio phones because there are few handsets of this phone to begin with. The Helio Company is a fairly new one, having been launched in May 2006. This is a phone that runs on Sprint’s high speed network which is the EV-DO network. There is a lot f hip marketing that is going into promoting this cell phone brand and there are quite a few net based and multimedia features that exist in the phone to lure the younger crowd. These phones have a more stylish interface that is quite unique too. It also has integrated access to youth platforms like MySpace and this is one of the main draws of the phone that appeals to the hip and young crowd around the globe and here at home in the US too.
The Kickflip costs as much as $250 which is on the higher side considering the fact that there are additional user charges and you also have the prospect of catering to younger crowds that do not have so much disposable cash access. In any case, there are a number of less expensive options that you might like to consider too. You can get a lot of these online too.
The Pharos 137 is a phone that follows the Pharos 127 that the cell phone review had reviewed some time back. This is a GPS enable Smartphone that looks good and has pretty okay functionality too. This phone has the advantage of having its very own maps and also navigation software so that you do not have to shell any extra money on such location services as well as cell connections. But the problem is that the software is quite chunky and you do not have all that good performance as well. The Pharos 137 has a pretty sleek design as well as full touch screen of your using pleasure.
There is more memory in this phone and at the same time it also has a faster processor which is why you had expected a much better performance than what the phone is currently able to deliver. But this was not to be as the navigation capability is tacky and the performance is also a big letdown. Sometimes the phone is also quite slow which makes you want to scream at it or bang it someplace hard, which is not a great emotion to have when you are using a sleek cell phone. If looks are all you want, this phone may be good enough, hut who wants a phone as just a good looking accessory?
With the release of the Motorola Droid, the iPhone got its first major competition. The sleek smartphone offers a crystal clear screen and the opportunity for plenty of apps like the iPhone has.
So which is better? According to David Pogue of the New York Times, each has their strength and weaknesses.
”The Droid wins on phone network, customizability, GPS navigation, speaker, physical keyboard, removable battery and openness (free operating system, mostly uncensored app store),” he writes. “The iPhone wins on simplicity, refinement, thinness, design, Web browsing, music/video synching with your computer, accessory ecosystem and quality/quantity of the app store.”
So while the iPhone might have more functions, the Droid is a physically more sound gadget with a more optimal speaker and keyboard system. It also allows those turned off by the Mac image and brand to have an equally functional phone. Obviously, a Mac person will appreciate that the iPhone instinctively communicates with the rest of their Mac products and services. The Droid is more appealing to those who haven’t bought into the Apple universe.
However, the iPhone trumps the Droid with available apps. The Droid offers 10,000 apps. The iPhone has nine times that many, offering over 93,200 various downloadable applications.
The physical keyboard is another huge plus for the Droid. Instead of hitting where you think the keys should be on the iPhone and backspacking innumerable amounts of times, your fingers can feel the physical buttons and get things typed a lot faster. Those on the go who use their phones more for business purposes will likely feel more comfortable with the Droid.
Google’s involvement with the Droid gives it some points in the GPS department. While the iPhone GPS system is great for walking down the street trying to find the right place, the Droid’s GPS is more suited for driving. It speaks directions out loud, easily edging out the silent iPhone map system.
Overall, both incredible phones with minor differences.
There are a lot of people who have witnessed and also acknowledge the rise of Korea as a cell phone powerhouse. You have companies like LG and Samsung that churn out handsets by the millions and have become household names across the glove. Another company that has tried to attempt the magic is VK Mobile, which has brought out the VK2020 as a product offering to delight you and charm your senses. The VK Mobile is quite sleek and also a beauty to look at, which is fine considering the fact that the handset is slim as well as quite wonderfully packaged.
If looks are your passion and you want a phone to look good in your hands, then the VK Mobile is just right for you. On the other hand, if you want performance along with the looks, the VK Mobile may not be quite right for you. The display may be fine, but the quality of the reception of sound as well as low music quality was not quite suitable. The keys are rather confusing and there is no speakerphone as well. The phone is not cheap and comes at $339 which is quite pricey, if you were to ask me.
