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.