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.