Dell XPS M1730


When: December 2007 Worth: $4500


Gamers can buy special laptop that's skinned for Blizzard's World of Warcraft and comes with a bunch of extras.

Starting on Tuesday, Dec. 11, gamers will be able to purchase a premium edition of the Dell XPS M1730 that is emblazoned with custom World of Warcraft artwork and includes a variety of extras.

Customers who buy this special-edition laptop will receive a special "Quest Envelope" that contains access to items such as a "Golden Ticket" from FigurePrints, a company that creates custom figurines of players' individual World of Warcraft players.

Other unique features include original art by Blizzard artists on the back of the LCD display, World of Warcraft itself and The Burning Crusade expansion pack pre-loaded on the system, original desktop background artwork and screensavers and a World of Warcraft-themed backpack that includes a strategy guide and other expansion packs.

The XPS M1730 is one of Dell's premier gaming notebooks. It's a 17-inch HD system with dual Nvidia SLI graphics (that is, 2 graphics cards running in tandem) and a special AEGEIA PhsyX accelerator chip. The WoW-themed edition will retail for $4,500, about an $1,800 premium over the base M1730.

Fujitsu Lifebook S6510

When: November 2007 Worth: $1530

Fujitsu released a 4-pound version of its 14.1-inch LifeBook on Wednesday, shedding at least a pound off the normal 5-pound footprint. The new LifeBook S6510 is designed with thinner, lighter components for those who want the sizeable screen of a mainstream notebook (14-15 inches), but the lightweight feel like of an ultraportable (3-4 pounds).

The announcement underscores the growing preference toward lighter laptops across all categories. With Fujitsu's own line of LifeBooks featuring a U810 "Mini-notebook" that weighs in at a miniscule 1.56 pounds, the trend toward miniaturization is seeing reductions even in the 5-pound thin-and-light arena.

The S6510 slopes from an inch thin to 1.42 inches at its thickest point. Normal computing time is 4.5 hours, but an optional modular bay battery can extend that to 6. It sports a 14.1-inch LED backlit WXGA display encased under a magnesium-alloy lid.

Fujitsu also introduced the 5.2-pound LifeBook S7210, a mainstream corporate notebook that weighs slightly more but costs slightly less. Both the S6510 and the S7211 come with a biometric fingerprint swipe sensor, an embedded Trusted Platform Module (TPM) and a dedicated smart card for enhanced security that's meant to lure in corporate customers. Both notebooks are configurable with the Intel Core 2 Duo processor, Bluetooth and Aheros Super AG Wireless LAN.

New Nokia N81 8GB

New Nokia N81 8GB

The Nokia N81 has dimensions of 102 x 50 x 17.9mm and weighs in at 140g. The screen is 2.4" QVGA TFT affair, supporting up to an impressive 16m colours.

There are two versions of the N81, one has a memory card slot supporting Micro SD memory cards, the other has 8GB of internal memory which we are using for our comparison purposes. Plenty of room for music, pictures and additional applications. There is a 2.0 megapixel camera included. Video clips are recorded at 15 fps, I couldn't find video playback stats, if anyone knows??

On the data connection side, the Nokia N81 is a tri band GSM handset and also offers 3G reception. There is also WiFi, Stereo Bluetooth, and USB 2.0 The N81 also offers EDGE and HSCSD.

The nokia N81 runs Symbian OS 9.2, Series 60 v3.1 and fits in as a strong member of the Nokia NSeries family. There are plenty of applications available for the N81, as with the W960 you can find software for the N81 at the NSeries Mobile Software Shop.

On the music front the Nokia music player supports multiple formats including MP3 and AAC. There is also an FM stereo radio and the N81 also has a 3.5mm stereo jack for using your own headset with the phone.

Summary:
On the face of it the two handsets are very well matched. Both with 8GB memory, the W960 has better camera spec, and a touch screen. It is also 21g lighter and almost 2mm slimmer. Small measurements but noticeable in the world of mobile phones. On the other hand the N81 offers more data connectivity options, although HSDPA is a noticeable absentee from the spec of both phones.

It's too early to call a winner in this fight, so I'm going to give an honourable draw for now. Especially with the expected announcement of the European iPhone on Tuesday, it will be interesting to see if it offers specification to match the impressive W960 and N81.

Dell To Launch New XPS Laptop

Dell To Launch New XPS Laptop

According to reports emerging here, Dell is all set to announce a new addition to its XPS range of laptops. The new entrant will be the XPS 1730, which will feature a powerful range of specifications. It will be powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo X7800 (2.6GHz) processor, Nvidia GeForce Go 8600M GS graphics card with 256MB memory, system memory of up to 4GB RAM, a Blu-ray drive, 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi support and Bluetooth.

Sony announces world's first OLED TV

Sony XEL-1
The 11-inch, 3mm-thick display hits the streets of Japan in december for $1,743.

Sony has announced they are adding a new category to their TV business, launching the "XEL-1," the world's first organic light emitting diode (OLED) TV in December of 2007. OLED, a light-emitting display technology based on electroluminescent organic materials, allows extremely thin design parameters to be achieved. With its low power usage, it is also extremely environmentally friendly. Sony first produced full-color OLED panels in 2004, focused mainly on mobile products. The XEL-1 boasts a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, 960 x 450 resolution and 2 x 1W speakers, with USB, Ethernet and HDMI inputs. An 11-inch model will be available in Japan on December 1 for an MSRP of around $1,750.

Pantech PX-500
Score: 75% Worth: $1 - $200

One of the first connection cards to support Sprint's high-speed EV-DO Rev. A network, is it fast enough for your on-the-go life, or does it move at a snail's pace?

Setup - Very Good

Setting up the Pantech PX-500 Type II PCMCIA card on our Dell laptop (Latitude D420) was very easy; even the shakiest tech-neophyte could handle it. We simply installed the Sprint Connection Manager software, inserted the card and clicked the "Go" button. Once everything was installed, reconnecting was a simple matter of firing up the Connection Manager and clicking “Go” again -- nice, though we wish the app would connect automatically when you insert the card. For the most part, connections were successful on our first attempt, but there were a few occasions during our tests in New York when we had to try several times before a connection was established. The biggest headache the card gave us was in Las Vegas, covering CES 2007, when our laptop went into standby mode. Our connection was lost and could not be reestablished until we restarted the computer. Fortunately, the problem didn't reoccur on subsequent hibernations.

Signal - Very Good

Signal on the PX-500 was nice and strong and rarely dipped below three bars during our tests in New York, New Jersey and Las Vegas. Reception on the mobile broadband card was often stronger than on our Samsung SPH-M500 and our Samsung MM-A900, which both run on Sprint's EV-DO network. During our testing, we took the PX-500 with us on our commute from the North Jersey suburbs to New York, and found that traveling on the turnpike and through the Lincoln Tunnel didn't disrupt our signal; it remained consistent throughout our bus ride.

Speed - Good

While the PX-500 doesn't offer the same speed that we get from the wired broadband connection in our office, we were impressed by the speed we saw on Sprint's EV-DO Rev. A mobile broadband network. The numbers in our tests obviously varied depending on our location, but our downloading speed averaged 745 Kbps and peaked at 884 Kbps, which exceeds Sprint's claims of 800 Kbps average. Our uploading speed was about 256 Kbps on average and topped out at 562 Kbps, which is truly impressive, especially compared to the lagging upload speeds you'd expect from EV-DO rev. 0. Though these numbers don't seem all that high compared to the 24 Mbps download speed we get on our office connection over Ethernet, the Pantech PX-500 trumps all the speed we could eke out of our Palm Treo 700p, when tested simultaneously. In practical terms, this means that it took us about four minutes and 18 seconds to download a 4MB song off of iTunes (the same song took us about eight seconds over Ethernet). To the PX-500's credit, it was able to adeptly handle YouTube videos, regular e-mail checks and standard Web browsing without any hitches

Google Android

Google, joined by companies such as T-Mobile and HTC, today unveiled its new open platform for mobile devices, called Android.

A broad alliance of technology and wireless companies today joined forces to announce the development of Android, an open platform for mobile devices. Google, T-Mobile, HTC, Qualcomm, Motorola, Sprint and others have collaborated on the development of Android through the Open Handset Alliance, a multinational alliance of technology and mobile industry leaders.

This alliance shares a common goal of fostering innovation on mobile devices and giving consumers a user experience that rivals current solutions. By providing developers a new level of openness that enables them to work more collaboratively, Android aims to accelerate the pace at which new and compelling mobile services are made available to consumers.

"With nearly 3 billion users worldwide, the mobile phone has become the most personal and ubiquitous communications device. However, the lack of a collaborative effort has made it a challenge for developers, wireless operators and handset manufacturers to respond as quickly as possible to the ever-changing needs of savvy mobile consumers," says Google.

Through Android, the OHA initiative hopes that developers, wireless operators and handset manufacturers will be better positioned to bring to market innovative new products faster and at a much lower cost. The end result is claimed to be an unprecedented mobile platform that will enable wireless operators and manufacturers to give their customers better, more personal and more flexible mobile experiences.

Thirty-four companies have formed the Open Handset Alliance, which aims to develop technologies that will significantly lower the cost of developing and distributing mobile devices and services. The Android platform is the first step in this direction -- a fully integrated mobile "software stack" that consists of an operating system, middleware, user-friendly interface and applications.

Consumers should expect the first phones based on Android to be available in the second half of 2008.

The Android platform will be made available under one of the most progressive, developer-friendly open-source licenses, which gives mobile operators and device manufacturers significant freedom and flexibility to design products. Next week the Alliance will release an early access software development kit to provide developers with the tools necessary to create innovative and compelling applications for the platform.

Sony Ericsson W960


When: November 2007 Worth: $600

Touch screen, musically inclined, loaded with gigabytes of flash memory and designed by one of the heavy-hitters in the consumer electronics industry. Think we're talking about the iPhone? You're only half right, as Sony Ericsson's recently-announced W960i Walkman phone has all those features and more. Whether its an iPhone competitor may be a moot point, as the W960i is going to be a Europe-only phone, while rumors have been circulating that European carriers have balked at Apple's stipulations for selling the iPhone. So the question may not be which phone to choose, but rather which continent. We size up both models, feature for feature, and decide which phone is the one to keep an eye on.

Interface

If there is one true innovation in the iPhone, it's the interface. Besides the multi-touch screen, the interface is filled with nice little effects that add up to a more visceral experience, made for the tactile navigation. The Sony Ericsson phone, on the other hand, will use UIQ, which is a Symbian-based interface. We last saw UIQ on the Sony Ericsson P990i smartphone, and, frankly, we weren't impressed. Many icons were abstract collections of spheres and cubes, with little relation to their actual purpose.

The one to use: Apple iPhone

Design

We are seriously concerned about the lack of a keyboard on the iPhone, for every aspect of the phone. In our experience with Palm OS and Windows Mobile devices, the touch screen keyboards, even simple numeric pads, just don't cut it. They can be inaccurate, insensitive and distracting to use, especially while driving. Still, just look at the iPhone and you want it. It has all the design appeal of the iPod, simple and clean with a symmetrical look and one-button design. The Sony Ericsson W960i is a very nice looking phone, very slim and glossy, and we're generally fans of Sony Ericsson's designs. Still, the iPhone is something completely different.

The one to hold: Apple iPhone

Platform

We were relieved when The New York Times reported, inaccurately, that Steve Jobs would release a software developer's kit (SDK) for the iPhone. Instead, Apple announced compatibility with Web-based apps, and simultaneously launched their preferred Web browser, Safari, on the PC. It's an intriguing step, but with Symbian OS support, the W960i is definitely going to have more third-party software available at launch, especially our favorite third-party app, SlingPlayer. Sure, Google's Web apps might work on the iPhone, so you might be able to open Microsoft Office documents, but proven apps for Symbian already exist, so W960i won't have to worry about possibilities.

The one to develop: Sony Ericsson W960i

Video playback

We're not exactly sure what sort of videos the W960i will be able to play, and though Sony Ericsson is touting "TV quality," we aren't expecting true DVB-H for mobile television. Assuming it will use a similar standard to the iPhone, which will play h.264 video files like the iPod video, we still think that videos on the iPhone will look better, for a couple of reasons. First, the iPhone's 480 by 320 pixel screen has twice the resolution of the Sony Ericsson phone. Second, the iPhone's screen is nearly an inch larger, diagonally, than the W960. Even with the increased size, Apple has improved pixel density to 160ppi, which is better than most computer monitors.

The one to view: Apple iPhone

Music playback

The iPhone has iTunes, with the accompanying music store, so it must be the one to watch for music, right? Not so fast. Sony Ericsson has a slew of interesting music features coming soon, notably the recently announced support for the MusicStation software. MusicStation is basically a subscription-based music store with over-the-air (OTA) downloads. An early criticism of the iPhone has been its lack of OTA access to the iTunes store, which always seemed to us a strange omission, as the iTunes software uses many of the same core elements as Safari for access to the massive catalogue. Eventually, we expect to see the iTunes store on the iPhone, but probably not until the device gets a 3G upgrade. Beyond MusicStation, we're interested in seeing some of the new music organization features on Sony's Gracenote-powered Media Manager software, like smart playlists that group songs by mood and tempo.

The one to listen: Sony Ericsson W960i

Camera

We're not going to make assumptions about the lens quality of the Apple camera, though we hope Apple doesn't go the route of other manufacturers by including a cheap, plastic lens that takes pitiful snapshots, albeit at a respectable, though uselessly high, resolution. We do know that the Sony Ericsson phone's camera will feature a flash, but more importantly will have auto-focus capabilities. In the past, we've been pleased with the image quality from Sony Ericsson's Cyber Shot phones, which use Carl Zeiss lenses, so the W960i is the one we're keeping an eye on, in terms of camera.

LG Voyager
Score: 70% When: November 2007 Worth: $300

Let's get the comparisons out of the way early. The LG Voyager wants to be an Apple iPhone killer, and it could be the very first bona fide contender. It does plenty of things that the iPhone can't, and while it isn't perfect, for many users its shortcomings won't detract from the significant advantages over Apple's device. Forgive us for glossing over the hardware keyboard in this review; we'll discuss whether we enjoyed using it for messaging, but whenever we could, we kept the lid closed on this device, and tried to rely on touch for whatever functions we could.

Design - Very good

The LG Voyager is easy to describe. It's an LG enV with a large, 2.8-inch touchscreen on the exterior instead of the numeric keypad. But if LG had simply stopped there, slapping a touchscreen onto the enV, this phone wouldn't be half the device it is. The touch screen is reinforced by haptic feedback, so whenever you tap the screen you get a slight buzz. It's a great effect, and it made the screen much more pleasant to use than the screens on more static devices.

The Touch interface has improved upon the Verizon Wireless in some nice ways. For one, Verizon has kept the LG Voyager in their walled garden, so you'll be familiar with the features if you've used a VZW phone before. But the garden looks much nicer on this phone, and they've put the best plants up near the front entrance. So VZ Navigator and the Web browser--formerly buried under the "Get it now" menu--are now top-level menu options, just as they should be. Perhaps we understand hiding V Cast Mobile TV, as it won't be available to all potential customers, but we can't understand why the mobile e-mail app is hidden, while SMS and IM are near the top.

The internal QWERTY on the Voyager is nice, but a little flat for our tastes. We prefer HTC's excellent keys, like we found on the AT&T Tilt. The Voyager's onscreen keyboard, however, is the best software keyboard we've seen on a phone. It beats the Apple iPhone with its haptic feedback, though its design is otherwise very similar. Unfortunately, like the iPhone, the Voyager doesn't let you use the wide, touch QWERTY keyboard everywhere you want, and gives you a 12-key pad on screen for SMS messaging, or sometimes makes you open the flip to use the hard keys.

Calling - Good

Call quality on the Voyager was disappointing, and in many ways the calling features are simply average. Though the soft buttons on the touch screen looked nice and polished, there were no new or outstanding calling features to take advantage of the technology, and some of our favorite features were missing. Speaker-independent voice dialing worked perfectly, but we miss conference calling, which the Voyager lacks. Bluetooth worked well for calling, and the speaker phone was nice and loud, better with the phone open than closed. The address book was unfortunately average, and though it had plenty of fields, a touch screen phone cries out for innovative speed dialing, like the "Hollywood Squares"-style menu on the HTC Touch on Sprint.

For calling times, we managed a phone call over four and a half hours, longer than Verizon Wireless' four-hour pledge. Still, that's not much for a multimedia phone, and V Cast Mobile TV is even more of a resource hog. On a long train commute home, we managed to drain the battery in less than three hours, watching television and browsing the Web, then navigating from the train station to home.

Messaging - Very good

Messaging was fine on the LG Voyager's touch screen, but the best experience required opening the phone. This is too bad, as the Voyager's on-screen keyboard is nothing to hide. We enjoyed using it when it did pop up, but this wasn't in the text messaging or instant messaging apps. The phone supports AOL, MSN and Yahoo for IM, and had no trouble setting up our Gmail account without additional help from us, even though Gmail wasn't one of the listed presets. The phone can also handle picture messages and video messages, though we wish there was a way to e-mail pictures. Instead, the e-mail app is somewhat buried, and separate from the standard "Messaging" window.

Verizon XV6800
Verizon Wireless today confirmed that the Windows Mobile 6 powered XV6800 business smartphone will arrive in stores today.

Sporting a conventional, yet popular, Windows Mobile slide-out QWERTY thumbboard form factor, the new XV6800 will replace the nearly two year old XV6700 on Verizon Wireless' network. Most notably, the manufacturer, UTStarcom, has dropped the external antenna and added Windows Mobile 6 to the new smartphone. Its Wi-Fi radio has also been upgraded from b to b/g, and the old 1.3-megapixel camera has been replaced with a 2-megapixel camera with flash. The smartphone's non-volatile memory has also been bumped up from 128MB to 256MB, while maintaining the 64MB of RAM.

Measuring 4.3 by 2.3 by 0.7 inches and weighing 5.8 ounces, the XV6800 is slightly more petite than its predecessor, but continues to focus on messaging, scheduling and productivity tasks. However, with an integrated microSD slot supporting up to 8GB cards and Windows Media Player 10 on-board, it could also be transformed into a decent multimedia smartphone. With a 2.8" touch display, Internet Explorer Mobile, and EV-DO connectivity, web browsing and large attachment downloads should also go like a breeze.

The XV6800 doesn't offer the largest-capacity battery around, yet Verizon Wireless claims a talk time of up to 5 hours. Also worth noting, the device comes with hearing aid compatibility, voice-activated dialing with voice command and Bluetooth 2.0 support.

The XV6800 is available online today for $450 after a $50 mail-in rebate and a new two-year contract.

Samsung's new 3-megapixel

The Samsung SCH-U900 FlipShot phone updates the aging SCH-A990, a previous 3-megapixel camera phone in the same design family as the new device. The major design feature is the rotating screen, which can twist 180 degrees so that it's facing the user when flipped closed, thus acting as a view screen for the phone's camera. This update to the model adds a few features that bring it in line with today's multimedia phones, but doesn't do much for the more-important imaging features. The camera sensor hasn't seen an upgrade, and we would have liked to find an auto-focus lens or even a Xenon flash

i-mate Ultimate 9502

When: December 2007 Worth: $750

The user's eye will rest on what is likely to be a magnificent 2.8" VGA (640 by 480 pixels) touch screen, showing up to 262K colors.

The i-mate Ultimate 9502 also sports a GPS radio, and i-mate claims a talk time of up to 4.5 hours (UMTS) from a powerful 1620mAH Lithium ion-Polymer battery. The smartphone also incorporates a Qualcomm 400MHz processor, 256MB ROM and 128MB RAM.

Samsung SC-DX10

When: November 2007 Worth: $600

On our way up to see the new hi-def Samsung camcorder, our rep told us it looked like a "coke can." He summed things up nicely, as the cylindrically shaped SC-HMX10 fit in our hands exactly as a soda can would, though without the battery it felt considerably lighter than soda pop. The design is slick and well rounded, including a stiff swivel attached to the leather hand strap that lets you hold the camera more easily at a few awkward angles. At the lower end of the spectrum, the SC-MX10 looks exactly like its powerful sibling, but without the hi-def capabilities. Instead, Samsung has wisely chosen to pitch this camera as a YouTube solution. With recent phones, like Helio's Ocean, coming optimized for YouTube and even some digital cameras, like Casio's recent releases, supporting YouTube-ready video formats, clearly there is interest in the market for this feature, and we think this could be driving a whole new audience to the digital camcorder realm. For this reason, we think that Samsung's choice of SD and flash memory for these cameras makes sense. Even for Hi-Def content on the SC-HMX10, SD cards have matured enough that even capacities as high as 32GB will soon be available, and that's plenty for anyone who's not making a feature-length film. And smaller cards can be had cheap; even name-brand 2GB cards can be found for less than $30. Other benefits of flash are the cameras' light weight and instant-on capabilities, two nice features on consumer models.

camcorders

Sanyo Xacti DMX-HD1000

When: January 2008 Worth: $1000

Sanyo's new solid state HD camcorder, the Xacti DMX-HD1000, is their first full-HD 1080p model, recording at 1,920 x 1,080 resolution. Sporting a pistol-grip style and a fold-out 2.7-inch LCD, the camera can record about an hour and 25 minutes onto an 8GB SDHC card, using the MPEG-4 AVC codec. The camcorder also has the ability to shoot 8-megapixel stills, a 10x optical zoom, a 2.7-inch LCD, HDMI-out and SDHC compatibility (presently up to 8GB). Battery life is about 2 hours per charge for video. Sanyo will be shipping 15,0000 DMX-HD100's in Japan in September 2007, price to be determined.

T-Mobile Sidekick Slide

When: October 2007 Worth: $200

T-Mobile today finally drew the curtain back on the Sidekick Slide and Sidekick LX devices. These devices had been floating around the rumor mill in pics and speculation, but are now official. The larger Sidekick LX (check out our image gallery here) packs a WQVGA widescreen that T-Mobile says uses Sharp's Aquos hi-definition LCD technology. Since the dim screen on the old Sidekick was easily our biggest complaint we're about ready to stick a fork into this new Sidekick, and check it for doneness. The phone has a 1.3-megapixel camera, a music player for MP3 and AAC tracks, at last, and a microSDHC card reader that can handle cards up to 4GB. We're not terribly excited about the new MySpace Mobile application, but we are itching to take the new mood lights for a spin, as we liked the similar feature on the recent Sony Ericsson W580i. The Sidekick Slide foregoes the kick flip screen for a simple slide-up design. The small new sidekick stresses its pocketability. It is a half-inch shorter than the Sidekick LX, which is nice, considering the bulky Sidekicks we've tried to cram into our jeans until now. Standard features are all there, including a QVGA screen, 1.3-megapixel shooter, a music player, and all the messaging options you can handle. You won't get the benefit of Sharp's high-quality Aquos screen technology, as the rumor has it this device isn't being built by Sharp, the company that has built every Sidekick model so far. Rumor has it another phone manufacturer, possibly Motorola, took over the gig for this phone. We'll know as soon as we've seen it dissected.

LG KG800

worth:180$

Another aspect of the KG800 which lights up when opened is its bright and crisp medium-resolution display, which does a good job of conveying the colourful, pretty and mostly intuitive interface of the handset. This also works as the viewfinder for the integrated 1.3 Megapixel camera, which - with the exception of a slight blur and slow picture saving - does a decent job at taking pictures and recording short video clips. Its 128 MB of onboard memory will hold in excess of 700 highest-quality pictures, which should suffice for most shutterbugs.

The music player of the KG800, however, quickly runs out of space due to the handset's lack of memory expansion. Capable of storing only in the range of 40 MP3 files at best, out-of-box audio quality as delivered by the bundled handsfree kit is at best mediocre - as compared to a dedicated music phone, that is. Furthermore, the only functionality offered is a simple playlist and shuffle, and USB 1.1 is merely sufficient; basic sums it up.

Speaking of basics, this is an area where LG should have paid more attention. Although the keypad of the KG800 is equipped with large, comfortable keys, they not only lack a backlight for use in the dark but also suffer from not being able to keep up with rapid-fire text input. Similarly, wireless reception doesn't quite compare to other slim phones, although voice quality in general and the handset's Bluetooth performance - including headset and laptop connectivity - are good. GPRS is the only option for data transfers, which means business users should look elsewhere.

Also present in the KG800 are the usual trappings such as SMS, EMS and MMS for messaging, along with a barebones e-mail client. A WAP 2.0 microbrowser makes for light surfing, while a 500-entry phone book joins a calendar and memo function in taking care of daily duties. Lastly, it should be mentioned that the battery life of the KG800 is unimpressive; talk time hovered in the 2 hour range, while standby time clocked in around 140 hours.

CAMERAS

HP Photosmart R927


When: March 2006 Worth: $280

HP's Photosmart R927 offers 8 megapixels, a 3X optical zoom, and more image-manipulation functions than almost any digicam on the market. Will its creative modes unleash your inner artist?The R927 is the premiere model in hp's Photosmart line, and its biggest draw is the ability to alter your pictures far beyond correcting red eyes and color. With the R927, your photos can look like comics and even slim you down.
Images retained bright colors and crisp details in a variety of lighting conditions. the 3X optical zoom is a bit scant yet acceptable, and we didn't experience any purple fringing or blur in our test shots. High-contrast photos were easily remedied thanks to hp's Adaptive Light Bracketing feature, which transforms an image into three options: one with adaptive lighting off, another with it on low, and a third with it on high. Images adjusted to low looked the best in many instances with background details becoming clearer and shadows lifted. The R927 also shoots VGA video at 24 FPS; footage turned out a little grainy and should only be used for quick clips.

Samsung NV11

When: June 2007 Worth: $400


Samsung announced a slew of new point-and-shoot digital cameras at PMA 2007, including the NV11, with a large LCD, 10-megapixel sensor and 5X optical zooming.
The Samsung NV11 marks the company's latest camera in its high-end, stylish NV line, as well as the most feature-packed camera in the flurry of its recent announcements. The NV11 has a 10-megapixel sensor, along with a lens by German lens manufacturer Schneider that's capable of 5X optical zoom. The camera also features Samsung's Face Recognition technology, which finds a subject's face and adjusts the auto-focus and auto-exposure settings that Samsung claims will make faces in photos more clear. The camera also includes a 2.7 inch LCD display that's surrounded by touch-sensitive buttons that allow you to scroll through menus by sliding your finger across the keys. The NV11 can also shoot MPEG-4 videos at 30 frames/second. The Samsung NV11 will be available this spring and should retail for $400.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-G1



When: April 2007 Worth: $600






The sleek camera supports Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) technology and can send photos wirelessly to other DLNA-enabled cameras or computers.

Sony announced its Cyber-shot DSC-G1 camera, which includes wireless capabilities with support for Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) certification. The Cyber-shot DSC-G1 will be able to wirelessly transfer images to other DLNA-enabled computers or cameras, such as the Fujitsu FMV-BIBLO PC with the touch of a button. The DSC-G1 also features a 6.1-megapixel sensor with 3X optical zoom, manual image stabilization and a large 3.5-inch LCD display with an impressive resolution of 921,000 pixels, which is much higher than the pixel density on most camera LCD screens. The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-G1 includes quite a bit of internal memory at 2GB, which Sony claims is enough to fit about 600 photos at the 6-megapixel setting. The camera also comes equipped with a memory expansion slot for Sony's Memory Stick Duo or Memory Stick PRO Duo cards. The camera also includes an organizational system for photos, where photos can be grouped by events or by the subject in the picture.

MOBILE PHONES

Nokia N-Gage




When: December 2007

The perennial mobile gaming platform stages another comeback, this time on Nokia's popular N-Series devices
All of the games available on the N-Gage service will be available as a free demo. Then, users can decide to download games, which will cost somewhere between $8 - $15 dollars, if our Euro converter is still accurate. If you don't feel the need to own the game forever, Nokia's N-Gage service will offer daily and weekly licenses for shorter-term play. Nokia has lined up a stable of heavy-hitting developers, including the largest games publisher in the world, Electronic Arts. Titles like EA Sports FIFA '08, The Sims 2 Pets and Tiger Woods PGA Tour have already been announced, along with an unnamed "Crash Bandicoot" title. Once you download a host of games, you can backup and manage your titles on your PC.

Nokia 6500

When: September 2007 Worth: $400

Featuring a 3.2 Megapixel camera and video calling, the sleek Nokia 6500 slider could become another Nokia hit.
Featuring a 3.2 Megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and the ability to share pictures, videos and video calls on a television, the Nokia 6500 slider will be quite a powerful multimedia phone when hitting the streets. The handset's integrated camera sports autofocus, a dual LED flash and 8x digital zoom, while its support for 3G networks will allow for quick data transfers in Europe and Australia. A TV-out jack has also been incorporated for connection to any television with standard RCA inputs. The TV-out feature can also be used to allow an entire group of people to simultaneously participate in video calling.

LG LX150

When: November 2006 - $180

Design The LG LX150 is a budget phone that sports an appealing glossy sapphire blue shell. While its shiny appearance does attract its fair share of fingerprints, it wasn't as bad as other glossy phones we've seen, such as the smudge-magnet Motorola KRZR K1m. The LX150 isn't thin at 0.8 inches, but it still manages to feel light (2.9 ounces) in our hands without being cheap or flimsy. However, the the handset’s budget status is revealed in its displays. The monochrome external screen is traditionally an entry-level standard, but we were disappointed to find such a low-resolution internal display (128 by 160 pixels) that suffered from a serious screen-door effect. Calling - Good Call quality on the LX150 was decent at best, and though we didn't hear a lot of static on our calls, our friends' voices sounded muffled, distant and slightly slurred. The flip phone's reception was pretty solid throughout New York City and north Jersey, never dipping below two bars. We're also fans of the phone's robust (for a budget handset) feature set, including Bluetooth, a speakerphone with a dedicated button, three-way calling and voice tagging, which also gets its own dedicated key. All of the calling features were easy to use and functioned well. However, we weren't impressed with the LX150's phonebook, which looked rather blocky and bland, though it does support while-you-type searching. We were also let down by the clamshell's talk time; we barely got three hours out of the phone, well short of the promised four hours. Messaging - Very good Messaging is certainly the LX150's strong suit, as it features one of the most convenient and comfortable keypads we've used on a light messaging phone, and includes a dedicated "text" button. In general, the keys are large and easy to distinguish, especially since the glossy center column of keys sits slightly lower than the rest of the keypad. The interface looks a bit dated and blocky, but fits a respectable 129 characters on outgoing messages, and can receive 120 characters on the screen at once. The LX150 also serves up instant messaging support for AOL, MSN, Yahoo and Earthlink.