Mobile Phones News http://www.phonesindia.com Thu, 26 Jan 2012 09:45:12 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 Poker legalization hearing in Greenville, SC (Playboy strip poker) http://www.phonesindia.com/2009/11/poker-legalization-hearing-in-greenville-sc-playboy-strip-poker/ http://www.phonesindia.com/2009/11/poker-legalization-hearing-in-greenville-sc-playboy-strip-poker/#comments Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:56:57 +0000 admin http://www.phonesindia.com/?p=1301

The video Poker Players Alliance has just sent out notice of a Mobile Casino legalization hearing in Charleston and Greenville, SC this month. From the e-mail: 21 nova Playing poker in the privacy of your own home is a crime in South Carolina thanks to a ridiculous outdated state law signed 209 years ago. Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell will be holding two public hearings to discuss S535 a bill that would legalize home poker games and also expand charity gaming (including charity poker tournaments) in the state. The first public hearing will be March 23rd in North Charleston City Hall and the second on March 30th in the Greenville County Council Chambers, both start at 5:30pm. I plan to attend the March 30 hearing in Greenville. The PPA is looking for a large turn-out of pro-poker folks. Details: Monday, March 30th 5:30-7:30 pm Greenville County Council Chambers 301 University Ridge Greenville, SC 29601 Ill likely have more on the subject in the coming days.

]]> http://www.phonesindia.com/2009/11/poker-legalization-hearing-in-greenville-sc-playboy-strip-poker/feed/ 0 Review: Samsung Genio QWERTY http://www.phonesindia.com/2012/01/review-samsung-genio-qwerty-4/ http://www.phonesindia.com/2012/01/review-samsung-genio-qwerty-4/#comments Thu, 26 Jan 2012 09:45:12 +0000 admin http://www.phonesindia.com/2012/01/review-samsung-genio-qwerty-4/ Review: Samsung Genio QWERTY
With a colourful chassis, full QWERTY keyboard and seriously budget price tag, the Samsung Genio QWERTY is squarely aimed at the younger social networker.Available initially from Orange from under 70 on pre-pay, the Genio QWERTY is a very affordable alternative to BlackBerry-style message-centric devices. It joins the low-cost touchscreen Genio Touch in Samsung’s budget portfolio, with the Genio QWERTY leaving out the touch-and-swipe control interface and instead adopting a more conventional 2.2inch display and physical control system to wow its users.It maintains the bright and colourful bodywork of the Genio Touch with swappable coloured back panels supplied in-box and others available as extras. As well as emailing, texting and instant messaging capabilities, the Genio QWERTY is pitched at social network users. The Orange-flavoured version we reviewed adds optimised online access to services via its Orange World portal, with links for services including Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, Picasa, Friendster and Photobucket. There’s no 3G to speed along online activity though (nor Wi-Fi, as you’d expect at this sort of price) the Genio QWERTY is a quad-band GSM phone only, chomping through data at more modest GPRS/EDGE speeds.The Samsung Genio QWERTY’s onboard media capabilities include music and video player applications plus an FM radio with a 3.5mm standard headphone jack so you can upgrade the supplied earphones. Support for MicroSD card memory expansion is also included, and the Genio QWERTY’s budget price tag is reflected in a modest 37MB of onboard storage. The phone’s camera snapping credentials are limited to a low-key 2MP camera on the back panel – but hey, you get what you pay for.Design and handlingSamsung has trimmed costs with the display too. The 2.2-inch screen is a low-resolution (220×176 pixels) 65K-colour effort, rather than the sort of higher quality displays we’ve seen in recent Samsung devices. That means graphics are a bit blockier and less refined, which is noticeable in graphic-rich applications such as web browsing and image viewing. Like most BlackBerry-style devices, the display has a landscape orientation that’s designed to be more messaging friendly on a wide-bodied device.The Genio QWERTY’s vital statistics 110(h) x 59(w) x 12.9(d)mm and 94g are slim and light enough to slip comfortably into a trouser pocket without questions over whether you’re pleased to see people you meet.The curvy plastic bodywork is reminiscent of several recent Samsungs including the Genio Touch, the Blade and the Jet. Like the Genio Touch, its ‘Fashion Jacket’ back panel battery covers can be swapped. Included in our box were three such ‘Jackets’, in black, deep yellow and yellow with orange swirls, which work strikingly with the Genio QWERTY’s glossy black with yellow and chrome trim front. Side volume keys and the dedicated camera button on the side are splashed yellow, while the number keys on the QWERTY keyboard are also highlighted with yellow blocks, so you can quickly pick them out from the rest.The 37-key QWERTY keypad isn’t the most spacious we’ve encountered, although the four lines of keys are decently separated and contoured sufficiently.This enabled accurate typing with one or two thumbs, and our large fingers didn’t struggle too much in achieving reasonable typing speeds.Among the QWERTY buttons are ‘quick keys’ for certain feature shortcuts, including new messages and the music player although Samsung has also replicated some of these among its user interface shortcuts onscreen and via the navigation controls. The control panel arrangement above the QWERTY keypad revolves around a typical navigation D-pad, which is nicely raised against the surface for quick and responsive thumb manipulation. Immediately next to this are large softkey buttons, which initially feel oddly placed, as they’re not adjacent to the relevant screen softkey options. A bit of usage means you’ll quickly get used it though. Call and End keys perch on either flank of the control panel, and again are pleasingly substantial. Without touchscreen goings-on, the Samsung Genio QWERTY’s user interface is based on a conventional type of Samsung menu system, with a grid format main menu and subsequent lists and tabs as you proceed through the phone using the navigation keypad.The navigation pad also prompts the usual feature shortcuts out of the box these include new message, music player, and a buddy list. The buddy list allows you to display five of your favourite contacts, with photos, enabling you to make calls or send texts quickly and to view logs of your communications.However, the home screen does have some customisation features, including a quick-access ’shortcuts toolbar’, and a sidebar option which is enabled out of the box on the Orange version of the handset. Both of these options can be switched on or off from within the menus, and if they’re on, they restrict the navigation pad shortcuts.These shortcut toolbar features are easy to operate and intuitive. Rows of feature icons are displayed, which can be browsed through and selected from the navigation pad.They’re not particularly whizzy or sophisticated like Samsung’s TouchWiz touchscreen widgets. The shortcuts toolbar, which runs in a strip across the bottom of the display, can be edited to your tastes; five shortcuts are pre-set (messaging inbox, new message, music player, organiser and alarms), though up to 15 can be used, and all can be assigned to one of a dozen features or applications.It’s a useful option to have to hand, though not a particularly special feature. Oddly, it’s switched on or off via the phone’s wallpaper menu rather than the separate Shortcuts Toolbar menu (which is used for editing options only).With the Orange sidebar activated, though, the Shortcuts toolbar option can’t be selected, as they won’t work together, like some sort of Sharks and Jets dance face-off.The out-of-the-box Orange sidebar can be switched off or activated via the Home screen menu options, again quirkily located in the Phone Settings menu rather than in the Display and Light menus.Navigation of the sidebar differs slightly from the simple highlight-and-select shortcuts toolbar. As you scroll down the sidebar, you can also scroll across to get additional options for that particular icon for example, different messaging options under the Messages icon, or links to different parts of the Orange World portal from that icon. Again, it’s not particularly innovative, but it makes accessing certain applications quicker and easier directly from the home screen.Not that the Genio QWERTY’s menu system isn’t accessible enough in itself. Samsung’s convention of using numbers next to sub menu options for quick selection is used again here, cutting down on having to continuously scroll as you drill down through the sub menus.Apart from the quirkily placed shortcuts settings mentioned above, most of the Genio QWERTY’s menus appear straightforward to work through and uncluttered, so shouldn’t present too many issues for Samsung newcomers.Although the numberpad is incorporated into the compact QWERTY keypad, it’s not too difficult to accurately tap in new numbers. The number keys are highlighted in bright yellow and arranged in conventional numberpad formation, so while they’re not as finger-friendly as a generously proportioned keypad, they are easy enough to pick out.Accessing contacts is straightforward, whichever shortcut set-up you opt for, and there are numerous fields you can add to the basic contact details on the handset. As previously mentioned, you can set up a Buddy list as a shortcut, enabling you to view up to five favourite contacts on ‘cards’, with photo images assigned if available. Selecting these enables you to call or text the individual contact, and you can see communications with Buddy contacts listed in chronological order.The call performance of the Samsung Genio QWERTY came across loud and clear. We had sufficient volume at both ends and the earpiece sounded bright and pleasant during calls. The phone also maintained a solidly reliable signal performance throughout our tests – something we’re constantly noticing budget phones manage ahead of their much more expensive counterparts.The core appeal of the Samsung Genio QWERTY is, of course, the QWERTY keyboard. While not everyone prefers these to a regular numberpad for texting, the Genio QWERTY does offer a very affordable option for those who do. This style of keyboard, popularised by the BlackBerry, has been done by Samsung before, but the Genio QWERTY takes it down to mass market for those who want to pump out messages or do plenty of online social networking updates. While the individual keys are quite tiny, they are sufficiently usable and we didn’t have any major issues tapping away at it. Sure, we’d have liked more room to stretch our fingers, but we found it accurate and were able to get reasonably good speeds with it, even with our large thumbs. Changing texts to multimedia messages is a matter of pressing an Options softkey and selecting multimedia file to add from the phone (or memory card). On the Orange-branded Genio QWERTY we reviewed, the Orange Messenger Windows Live Messenger-powered instant messaging application was pre-loaded, enabling users to get IM on the handset in a similar way to a desktop PC. It also had Orange Email preloaded onto the phone’s email client, which you can use to aggregate various email accounts into one account, if that appeals to you.The email client also makes it reasonably straightforward to set up some regular web-based or ISP email accounts. Settings are pre-installed for various popular email services, including Hotmail and Google Mail, and an email wizard takes you through the procedure to add your email account address, password and username for POP3 or IMAP4 email access. If the email provider you want to use isn’t included, you can type in details manually. You can set up up to five different email accounts and switch between them when you select the email inbox option in the messaging menus.The email user interface and functionality is pretty average though. It’s a low-tier Samsung client, with a functional mobile phone look rather than being anything more desktop PC-style or BlackBerry-esque. You can select headers you want to open, and basic no-frills text from the email is downloaded. There was a limit, however, of 100 email headers at a time on our review sample, after which some had to be deleted something many may find insufficient.The phone does support attachment downloading and storing, although there isn’t any document reader software to open them on the screen you can view jpeg images, but not Word documents or PDFs, for example which is a shame for a messaging-orientated device. Overall, we’d have expected a bit more for a device clearly geared up for messaging as a priority feature.The lack of high-speed 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity hampers the web browsing capabilities of the Samsung Genio QWERTY. The phone sports a familiar sort of lower range Samsung Access NetFront 3.5 browser. This works adequately at negotiating mobile optimised sites, including BBC News and network operator portals, where speed isn’t a huge issue. It does trundle along slowly when downloading other full webpages, such as TechRadar, and it doesn’t support Flash. We also got ‘insufficient memory’ messages when downloading some webpages. It isn’t ideally suited if you’re after an enjoyable browsing experience the screen also lacks the resolution of standard issue mobiles so visually isn’t that attractive.In addition, with an average mobile menu based user interface for selecting options, it’s a less than slick browser.There is the facility to use online social networking services on the SamsungGenio QWERTY, with links to Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, Picasa, Friendster and Photobucket.The Orange-optimised model we reviewed provides a selection of services via its Orange World mobile phone-optimised portal. They do work adequately, but some may prefer a slicker online experience.The budget nature of the Samsung Genio QWERTY also becomes apparent when you turn to the camera. It’s a low-key affair compared to some of Samsung’s recent cameraphone efforts; it does the shooting essentials, but the 2-megapixel camera isn’t high on quality imaging. As you might expect from a down-range camera, it lacks autofocus and flash capabilities, so is more for casual fun snap-and-send shots than anything more serious. The camera fires up in just a couple of seconds, displaying the viewfinder across the width of the landscape display. You may find that this makes it slightly more intuitive to snap shots using the D-pad control rather than the camera side button. The user interface is simple to operate, and includes a familiar array of regulation cameraphone settings options and effects to override the auto system.These include white balance adjustment, multiple shots and mosaic images (which automatically shoot in low res), resolution setting options, night mode, timer, plus colour tinting effects and framesImage results, though, are lacklustre and lack the level of detail you can get for a few quid more on other cameraphones. Colour balance is reasonable, and shots do look bright with natural colours. MIXED SCENE: The 2-megapixel fixed focus camera on the Samsung Genio Qwerty is pretty basic it’s okay for snap’n’send images, but offers limited image detail and quality; here images are slightly soft and detail around trees and the sky is impreciseCLOSE UP: The fixed focus lens means you can’t choose the focal point for a shot, so close up images can’t be sharply definedSTRONG LIGHT: Even in strong lighting conditions, images can be soft with subdued colour and lacking in detailLONG RANGE: Longer-range shots aren’t crisp, and in moderate lighting detail is poorly definedMID RANGE: Mid-range shots also suffer from softness and lacklustre colour presentationBRIGHT COLOUR: You can get okay shots reasonably close to the subject. Here, colour rendition is decent enoughMIXED SCENE: This street scene again shows a slightly subdued and soft image with a lack of definitionARTIFICIAL LIGHT: For this grade of cameraphone, the autometering system does a reasonable job with artificial light in dark conditions, although without a flash in dark environments image quality is poorIn dark conditions, without a flash the night mode option doesn’t offer much of an improvement to low light shooting, boosting gain but adding more noise to shots.Overall, though, it’s a low-grade budget snapper compared to other recent Samsung offerings. Video shooting quality isn’t up to much, with low resolution QCIF (176×144 pixels) recording at 15 frames per second providing basic quality images for even a low cost cameraphone.The Samsung Genio QWERTY supports H.263, H.264, MPEG4 and WMV video file formats, although not DivX or Xvid files like some higher end Samsungs. The screen space and resolution limit the quality and viewability you can expect from the player however.The phone’s music player provides a better than average audio performance however, with a 3.5mm standard headphone socket on top enabling you to upgrade the in-box ear-wear with your own earphones. The supplied headset isn’t bad, though the in-ear earphones are a few notches above what you’d normally expect from a budget phone.Sound quality is decent, delivering loud volume, plenty of low-end thump and an acceptable amount of detail. It’s not a particularly subtle performance, but it’s more than you’d expect from a budget handset – and you can upgrade sound quality easily with better headphones.The music player software is familiar Samsung stuff; tunes downloaded or sideloaded to the phone or slipped in on a memory card are automatically filed under appropriate categories. The user interface is low-key but serviceable, and does the job. When playing, the D-pad takes care of control business in regular fashion, with cover art supported if available. Among the other options, there are several equalizer sounds, shuffle control and so on. MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+ and WMA files are supported.No USB data cable is supplied in-box nor Samsung PC Studio software they’re an optional extra if you want to copy over music that way. You can still copy files via Bluetooth, or slip them in on a MicroSD card the Genio QWERTY can accommodate cards up to 8GB. Orange Music Store service is also supported on Orange-branded handsets.On top of the music player there’s an FM radio function with RDS covering 87.5Mhz-108Mhz frequencies. As well as being a breeze to tune in and use, either automatically or manually, you can record clips from the radio to play back on the phone. Without 3G or higher spec power-hungry features like GPS or Wi-Fi to sap juice, the Samsung Genio QWERTY puts in a decent battery performance. Samsung reckons on its 800mAh power pack clocking up up to 7.5 hours of talktime or up to 390 hours on standby. In our tests, the handset doggedly kept going for 3-4 days between recharges with our normal phone usage. Extensive use of the music player or online services, though, could soon see you slim that performance down, however.OrganiserA regulation set of Samsung organiser functions are loaded onto the Genio QWERTY, including calendar, memo, tasks, world clock, calculator, converter and alarms. All are straightforward to use and intuitive, with a functional layout and operation. A voice recorder, stopwatch and timer are also included.ConnectivityThe Samsung Genio QWERTY is a quad-band GSM 850/900/1800/1900 handset, and doesn’t support 3G data connectivity, relying on GPRS/EDGE for online connectivity. This limits its online speed for browsing and uploading or downloading content.The handset supports stereo Bluetooth with A2DP, so you can use wireless stereo headsets and stream music to other Bluetooth devices such as wireless speakers. While the phone supports USB connectivity via a MicroUSB port on the top of the phone, there’s no USB cable included in-box (presumably for cost reasons). No software disc for PC syncing is included either, though you could download the relevant Samsung PC Studio software online.As mentioned previously, the Genio QWERTY does support MicroSD cards up to 8GB. The slot is under the back cover and requires the battery to be removed for access.OtherThe Genio QWERTY doesn’t do too much extra fancy stuff. There are a trio of demo versions of games, which you can buy if you like them. A typing training application is included, just in case you’ve bought a QWERTY keyboard-packing phone without knowing how to type.On the Orange version of the Genio QWERTY there’s an Orange Widgets application that enables you to get online updates and headlines for sports, news, entertainment and weather, plus an online search facility. The updates are effectively a series of RSS feed consolidated into one Widgets application, so nothing groundbreaking.Bringing a full QWERTY keyboard to the budget mobile market, the Samsung Genio QWERTY is device that will interest a particular type of buyer rather than have mass appeal. The relatively cheap QWERTY keyboard is the chief draw, with a sprinkling of messaging functionality in that’s aimed to grab the cash-strapped youth market. A decent music player and colourful swappable casings add to the attraction.However, it is a limited handset. The email messaging functionality is budget rather than top drawer, its browser is run of the mill and there’s no 3G. It doesn’t have the largest or most detailed display and its camerawork is mediocre. Its social networking credentials aren’t as well integrated either as a device such as the INQ Chat 3G, which costs a bit extra but delivers a better all-round package.We likedThe QWERTY keyboard is small but perfectly manageable, even with our large fingers typing away. The conventional menu layout is easy to follow and intuitive to operate, so newcomers should have no problems using it. The music player offers a decent audio performance, with higher grade than average earphones supplied plus a standard 3.5mm headphone socket for easy upgrading to higher quality headphones, should you prefer to. Colourful casings offer something a bit different to the normal business orientated BlackBerry look most QWERTY-equipped handsets adopt. Battery life was good too.We dislikedThe display was disappointingly low resolution. The lack of 3G hampers the connection speeds for browsing and online services some of the supposed attractions of the handset. The browser, too, is standard issue average mobile browser that’s functional but limited. We were surprised that the email client wasn’t more sophisticated for a messaging-centric handset. It’ll disappoint those expecting a near-desktop style experience. A lack of a USB cable and software reflects its budget status though we’d have liked to have them in-box for syncing.The camera is a mediocre entry-level 2-megapixel shooter, with a poor video capture performance.VerdictSamsung is aiming at a particular type of youthful buyer with its colourful, QWERTY keyboard-packing Genio QWERTY. It does the basics well and its compact keyboard has a fast enough action for speedy mobile typing. It offers some decent features, such as a good music player, though others, such as the camera, are limited and down-range. Its messaging credentials are reasonably good for a budget model, if not the best around, and it is one of the cheapest models you can get if a QWERTY keyboard-equipped handset is what you’re after.Related LinksTechRadar’s Reviews GuaranteeMore mobile phone reviewsRelated StoriesReview: LG Chocolate BL20Review: Acer Liquid S100Review: Nokia E72Review: HTC HD MiniReview: Nokia 5230

]]> http://www.phonesindia.com/2012/01/review-samsung-genio-qwerty-4/feed/ 0 Review: Samsung Genio QWERTY http://www.phonesindia.com/2012/01/review-samsung-genio-qwerty-3/ http://www.phonesindia.com/2012/01/review-samsung-genio-qwerty-3/#comments Wed, 25 Jan 2012 02:45:15 +0000 admin http://www.phonesindia.com/2012/01/review-samsung-genio-qwerty-3/ Review: Samsung Genio QWERTY
With a colourful chassis, full QWERTY keyboard and seriously budget price tag, the Samsung Genio QWERTY is squarely aimed at the younger social networker.Available initially from Orange from under 70 on pre-pay, the Genio QWERTY is a very affordable alternative to BlackBerry-style message-centric devices. It joins the low-cost touchscreen Genio Touch in Samsung’s budget portfolio, with the Genio QWERTY leaving out the touch-and-swipe control interface and instead adopting a more conventional 2.2inch display and physical control system to wow its users.It maintains the bright and colourful bodywork of the Genio Touch with swappable coloured back panels supplied in-box and others available as extras. As well as emailing, texting and instant messaging capabilities, the Genio QWERTY is pitched at social network users. The Orange-flavoured version we reviewed adds optimised online access to services via its Orange World portal, with links for services including Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, Picasa, Friendster and Photobucket. There’s no 3G to speed along online activity though (nor Wi-Fi, as you’d expect at this sort of price) the Genio QWERTY is a quad-band GSM phone only, chomping through data at more modest GPRS/EDGE speeds.The Samsung Genio QWERTY’s onboard media capabilities include music and video player applications plus an FM radio with a 3.5mm standard headphone jack so you can upgrade the supplied earphones. Support for MicroSD card memory expansion is also included, and the Genio QWERTY’s budget price tag is reflected in a modest 37MB of onboard storage. The phone’s camera snapping credentials are limited to a low-key 2MP camera on the back panel – but hey, you get what you pay for.Design and handlingSamsung has trimmed costs with the display too. The 2.2-inch screen is a low-resolution (220×176 pixels) 65K-colour effort, rather than the sort of higher quality displays we’ve seen in recent Samsung devices. That means graphics are a bit blockier and less refined, which is noticeable in graphic-rich applications such as web browsing and image viewing. Like most BlackBerry-style devices, the display has a landscape orientation that’s designed to be more messaging friendly on a wide-bodied device.The Genio QWERTY’s vital statistics 110(h) x 59(w) x 12.9(d)mm and 94g are slim and light enough to slip comfortably into a trouser pocket without questions over whether you’re pleased to see people you meet.The curvy plastic bodywork is reminiscent of several recent Samsungs including the Genio Touch, the Blade and the Jet. Like the Genio Touch, its ‘Fashion Jacket’ back panel battery covers can be swapped. Included in our box were three such ‘Jackets’, in black, deep yellow and yellow with orange swirls, which work strikingly with the Genio QWERTY’s glossy black with yellow and chrome trim front. Side volume keys and the dedicated camera button on the side are splashed yellow, while the number keys on the QWERTY keyboard are also highlighted with yellow blocks, so you can quickly pick them out from the rest.The 37-key QWERTY keypad isn’t the most spacious we’ve encountered, although the four lines of keys are decently separated and contoured sufficiently.This enabled accurate typing with one or two thumbs, and our large fingers didn’t struggle too much in achieving reasonable typing speeds.Among the QWERTY buttons are ‘quick keys’ for certain feature shortcuts, including new messages and the music player although Samsung has also replicated some of these among its user interface shortcuts onscreen and via the navigation controls. The control panel arrangement above the QWERTY keypad revolves around a typical navigation D-pad, which is nicely raised against the surface for quick and responsive thumb manipulation. Immediately next to this are large softkey buttons, which initially feel oddly placed, as they’re not adjacent to the relevant screen softkey options. A bit of usage means you’ll quickly get used it though. Call and End keys perch on either flank of the control panel, and again are pleasingly substantial. Without touchscreen goings-on, the Samsung Genio QWERTY’s user interface is based on a conventional type of Samsung menu system, with a grid format main menu and subsequent lists and tabs as you proceed through the phone using the navigation keypad.The navigation pad also prompts the usual feature shortcuts out of the box these include new message, music player, and a buddy list. The buddy list allows you to display five of your favourite contacts, with photos, enabling you to make calls or send texts quickly and to view logs of your communications.However, the home screen does have some customisation features, including a quick-access ’shortcuts toolbar’, and a sidebar option which is enabled out of the box on the Orange version of the handset. Both of these options can be switched on or off from within the menus, and if they’re on, they restrict the navigation pad shortcuts.These shortcut toolbar features are easy to operate and intuitive. Rows of feature icons are displayed, which can be browsed through and selected from the navigation pad.They’re not particularly whizzy or sophisticated like Samsung’s TouchWiz touchscreen widgets. The shortcuts toolbar, which runs in a strip across the bottom of the display, can be edited to your tastes; five shortcuts are pre-set (messaging inbox, new message, music player, organiser and alarms), though up to 15 can be used, and all can be assigned to one of a dozen features or applications.It’s a useful option to have to hand, though not a particularly special feature. Oddly, it’s switched on or off via the phone’s wallpaper menu rather than the separate Shortcuts Toolbar menu (which is used for editing options only).With the Orange sidebar activated, though, the Shortcuts toolbar option can’t be selected, as they won’t work together, like some sort of Sharks and Jets dance face-off.The out-of-the-box Orange sidebar can be switched off or activated via the Home screen menu options, again quirkily located in the Phone Settings menu rather than in the Display and Light menus.Navigation of the sidebar differs slightly from the simple highlight-and-select shortcuts toolbar. As you scroll down the sidebar, you can also scroll across to get additional options for that particular icon for example, different messaging options under the Messages icon, or links to different parts of the Orange World portal from that icon. Again, it’s not particularly innovative, but it makes accessing certain applications quicker and easier directly from the home screen.Not that the Genio QWERTY’s menu system isn’t accessible enough in itself. Samsung’s convention of using numbers next to sub menu options for quick selection is used again here, cutting down on having to continuously scroll as you drill down through the sub menus.Apart from the quirkily placed shortcuts settings mentioned above, most of the Genio QWERTY’s menus appear straightforward to work through and uncluttered, so shouldn’t present too many issues for Samsung newcomers.Although the numberpad is incorporated into the compact QWERTY keypad, it’s not too difficult to accurately tap in new numbers. The number keys are highlighted in bright yellow and arranged in conventional numberpad formation, so while they’re not as finger-friendly as a generously proportioned keypad, they are easy enough to pick out.Accessing contacts is straightforward, whichever shortcut set-up you opt for, and there are numerous fields you can add to the basic contact details on the handset. As previously mentioned, you can set up a Buddy list as a shortcut, enabling you to view up to five favourite contacts on ‘cards’, with photo images assigned if available. Selecting these enables you to call or text the individual contact, and you can see communications with Buddy contacts listed in chronological order.The call performance of the Samsung Genio QWERTY came across loud and clear. We had sufficient volume at both ends and the earpiece sounded bright and pleasant during calls. The phone also maintained a solidly reliable signal performance throughout our tests – something we’re constantly noticing budget phones manage ahead of their much more expensive counterparts.The core appeal of the Samsung Genio QWERTY is, of course, the QWERTY keyboard. While not everyone prefers these to a regular numberpad for texting, the Genio QWERTY does offer a very affordable option for those who do. This style of keyboard, popularised by the BlackBerry, has been done by Samsung before, but the Genio QWERTY takes it down to mass market for those who want to pump out messages or do plenty of online social networking updates. While the individual keys are quite tiny, they are sufficiently usable and we didn’t have any major issues tapping away at it. Sure, we’d have liked more room to stretch our fingers, but we found it accurate and were able to get reasonably good speeds with it, even with our large thumbs. Changing texts to multimedia messages is a matter of pressing an Options softkey and selecting multimedia file to add from the phone (or memory card). On the Orange-branded Genio QWERTY we reviewed, the Orange Messenger Windows Live Messenger-powered instant messaging application was pre-loaded, enabling users to get IM on the handset in a similar way to a desktop PC. It also had Orange Email preloaded onto the phone’s email client, which you can use to aggregate various email accounts into one account, if that appeals to you.The email client also makes it reasonably straightforward to set up some regular web-based or ISP email accounts. Settings are pre-installed for various popular email services, including Hotmail and Google Mail, and an email wizard takes you through the procedure to add your email account address, password and username for POP3 or IMAP4 email access. If the email provider you want to use isn’t included, you can type in details manually. You can set up up to five different email accounts and switch between them when you select the email inbox option in the messaging menus.The email user interface and functionality is pretty average though. It’s a low-tier Samsung client, with a functional mobile phone look rather than being anything more desktop PC-style or BlackBerry-esque. You can select headers you want to open, and basic no-frills text from the email is downloaded. There was a limit, however, of 100 email headers at a time on our review sample, after which some had to be deleted something many may find insufficient.The phone does support attachment downloading and storing, although there isn’t any document reader software to open them on the screen you can view jpeg images, but not Word documents or PDFs, for example which is a shame for a messaging-orientated device. Overall, we’d have expected a bit more for a device clearly geared up for messaging as a priority feature.The lack of high-speed 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity hampers the web browsing capabilities of the Samsung Genio QWERTY. The phone sports a familiar sort of lower range Samsung Access NetFront 3.5 browser. This works adequately at negotiating mobile optimised sites, including BBC News and network operator portals, where speed isn’t a huge issue. It does trundle along slowly when downloading other full webpages, such as TechRadar, and it doesn’t support Flash. We also got ‘insufficient memory’ messages when downloading some webpages. It isn’t ideally suited if you’re after an enjoyable browsing experience the screen also lacks the resolution of standard issue mobiles so visually isn’t that attractive.In addition, with an average mobile menu based user interface for selecting options, it’s a less than slick browser.There is the facility to use online social networking services on the SamsungGenio QWERTY, with links to Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, Picasa, Friendster and Photobucket.The Orange-optimised model we reviewed provides a selection of services via its Orange World mobile phone-optimised portal. They do work adequately, but some may prefer a slicker online experience.The budget nature of the Samsung Genio QWERTY also becomes apparent when you turn to the camera. It’s a low-key affair compared to some of Samsung’s recent cameraphone efforts; it does the shooting essentials, but the 2-megapixel camera isn’t high on quality imaging. As you might expect from a down-range camera, it lacks autofocus and flash capabilities, so is more for casual fun snap-and-send shots than anything more serious. The camera fires up in just a couple of seconds, displaying the viewfinder across the width of the landscape display. You may find that this makes it slightly more intuitive to snap shots using the D-pad control rather than the camera side button. The user interface is simple to operate, and includes a familiar array of regulation cameraphone settings options and effects to override the auto system.These include white balance adjustment, multiple shots and mosaic images (which automatically shoot in low res), resolution setting options, night mode, timer, plus colour tinting effects and framesImage results, though, are lacklustre and lack the level of detail you can get for a few quid more on other cameraphones. Colour balance is reasonable, and shots do look bright with natural colours. MIXED SCENE: The 2-megapixel fixed focus camera on the Samsung Genio Qwerty is pretty basic it’s okay for snap’n’send images, but offers limited image detail and quality; here images are slightly soft and detail around trees and the sky is impreciseCLOSE UP: The fixed focus lens means you can’t choose the focal point for a shot, so close up images can’t be sharply definedSTRONG LIGHT: Even in strong lighting conditions, images can be soft with subdued colour and lacking in detailLONG RANGE: Longer-range shots aren’t crisp, and in moderate lighting detail is poorly definedMID RANGE: Mid-range shots also suffer from softness and lacklustre colour presentationBRIGHT COLOUR: You can get okay shots reasonably close to the subject. Here, colour rendition is decent enoughMIXED SCENE: This street scene again shows a slightly subdued and soft image with a lack of definitionARTIFICIAL LIGHT: For this grade of cameraphone, the autometering system does a reasonable job with artificial light in dark conditions, although without a flash in dark environments image quality is poorIn dark conditions, without a flash the night mode option doesn’t offer much of an improvement to low light shooting, boosting gain but adding more noise to shots.Overall, though, it’s a low-grade budget snapper compared to other recent Samsung offerings. Video shooting quality isn’t up to much, with low resolution QCIF (176×144 pixels) recording at 15 frames per second providing basic quality images for even a low cost cameraphone.The Samsung Genio QWERTY supports H.263, H.264, MPEG4 and WMV video file formats, although not DivX or Xvid files like some higher end Samsungs. The screen space and resolution limit the quality and viewability you can expect from the player however.The phone’s music player provides a better than average audio performance however, with a 3.5mm standard headphone socket on top enabling you to upgrade the in-box ear-wear with your own earphones. The supplied headset isn’t bad, though the in-ear earphones are a few notches above what you’d normally expect from a budget phone.Sound quality is decent, delivering loud volume, plenty of low-end thump and an acceptable amount of detail. It’s not a particularly subtle performance, but it’s more than you’d expect from a budget handset – and you can upgrade sound quality easily with better headphones.The music player software is familiar Samsung stuff; tunes downloaded or sideloaded to the phone or slipped in on a memory card are automatically filed under appropriate categories. The user interface is low-key but serviceable, and does the job. When playing, the D-pad takes care of control business in regular fashion, with cover art supported if available. Among the other options, there are several equalizer sounds, shuffle control and so on. MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+ and WMA files are supported.No USB data cable is supplied in-box nor Samsung PC Studio software they’re an optional extra if you want to copy over music that way. You can still copy files via Bluetooth, or slip them in on a MicroSD card the Genio QWERTY can accommodate cards up to 8GB. Orange Music Store service is also supported on Orange-branded handsets.On top of the music player there’s an FM radio function with RDS covering 87.5Mhz-108Mhz frequencies. As well as being a breeze to tune in and use, either automatically or manually, you can record clips from the radio to play back on the phone. Without 3G or higher spec power-hungry features like GPS or Wi-Fi to sap juice, the Samsung Genio QWERTY puts in a decent battery performance. Samsung reckons on its 800mAh power pack clocking up up to 7.5 hours of talktime or up to 390 hours on standby. In our tests, the handset doggedly kept going for 3-4 days between recharges with our normal phone usage. Extensive use of the music player or online services, though, could soon see you slim that performance down, however.OrganiserA regulation set of Samsung organiser functions are loaded onto the Genio QWERTY, including calendar, memo, tasks, world clock, calculator, converter and alarms. All are straightforward to use and intuitive, with a functional layout and operation. A voice recorder, stopwatch and timer are also included.ConnectivityThe Samsung Genio QWERTY is a quad-band GSM 850/900/1800/1900 handset, and doesn’t support 3G data connectivity, relying on GPRS/EDGE for online connectivity. This limits its online speed for browsing and uploading or downloading content.The handset supports stereo Bluetooth with A2DP, so you can use wireless stereo headsets and stream music to other Bluetooth devices such as wireless speakers. While the phone supports USB connectivity via a MicroUSB port on the top of the phone, there’s no USB cable included in-box (presumably for cost reasons). No software disc for PC syncing is included either, though you could download the relevant Samsung PC Studio software online.As mentioned previously, the Genio QWERTY does support MicroSD cards up to 8GB. The slot is under the back cover and requires the battery to be removed for access.OtherThe Genio QWERTY doesn’t do too much extra fancy stuff. There are a trio of demo versions of games, which you can buy if you like them. A typing training application is included, just in case you’ve bought a QWERTY keyboard-packing phone without knowing how to type.On the Orange version of the Genio QWERTY there’s an Orange Widgets application that enables you to get online updates and headlines for sports, news, entertainment and weather, plus an online search facility. The updates are effectively a series of RSS feed consolidated into one Widgets application, so nothing groundbreaking.Bringing a full QWERTY keyboard to the budget mobile market, the Samsung Genio QWERTY is device that will interest a particular type of buyer rather than have mass appeal. The relatively cheap QWERTY keyboard is the chief draw, with a sprinkling of messaging functionality in that’s aimed to grab the cash-strapped youth market. A decent music player and colourful swappable casings add to the attraction.However, it is a limited handset. The email messaging functionality is budget rather than top drawer, its browser is run of the mill and there’s no 3G. It doesn’t have the largest or most detailed display and its camerawork is mediocre. Its social networking credentials aren’t as well integrated either as a device such as the INQ Chat 3G, which costs a bit extra but delivers a better all-round package.We likedThe QWERTY keyboard is small but perfectly manageable, even with our large fingers typing away. The conventional menu layout is easy to follow and intuitive to operate, so newcomers should have no problems using it. The music player offers a decent audio performance, with higher grade than average earphones supplied plus a standard 3.5mm headphone socket for easy upgrading to higher quality headphones, should you prefer to. Colourful casings offer something a bit different to the normal business orientated BlackBerry look most QWERTY-equipped handsets adopt. Battery life was good too.We dislikedThe display was disappointingly low resolution. The lack of 3G hampers the connection speeds for browsing and online services some of the supposed attractions of the handset. The browser, too, is standard issue average mobile browser that’s functional but limited. We were surprised that the email client wasn’t more sophisticated for a messaging-centric handset. It’ll disappoint those expecting a near-desktop style experience. A lack of a USB cable and software reflects its budget status though we’d have liked to have them in-box for syncing.The camera is a mediocre entry-level 2-megapixel shooter, with a poor video capture performance.VerdictSamsung is aiming at a particular type of youthful buyer with its colourful, QWERTY keyboard-packing Genio QWERTY. It does the basics well and its compact keyboard has a fast enough action for speedy mobile typing. It offers some decent features, such as a good music player, though others, such as the camera, are limited and down-range. Its messaging credentials are reasonably good for a budget model, if not the best around, and it is one of the cheapest models you can get if a QWERTY keyboard-equipped handset is what you’re after.Related LinksTechRadar’s Reviews GuaranteeMore mobile phone reviewsRelated StoriesReview: LG Chocolate BL20Review: Acer Liquid S100Review: Nokia E72Review: HTC HD MiniReview: Nokia 5230

]]> http://www.phonesindia.com/2012/01/review-samsung-genio-qwerty-3/feed/ 0 Review: Samsung Galaxy Portal i5700 http://www.phonesindia.com/2012/01/review-samsung-galaxy-portal-i5700-3/ http://www.phonesindia.com/2012/01/review-samsung-galaxy-portal-i5700-3/#comments Sun, 22 Jan 2012 10:15:17 +0000 admin http://www.phonesindia.com/2012/01/review-samsung-galaxy-portal-i5700-3/ Review: Samsung Galaxy Portal i5700
Samsung, the famed Korean jack-of-all-technologies, is having another go at mastering the Android phone scene, after making a bit of a mess of it with last year’s original Galaxy.The i7500 Galaxy was a brave first attempt, but Samsung threw it away, alienating early adopters by not bothering to update the phone past its basic Android 1.5 operating system. Seriously, there are petitions all over the place. Some men are still very angry about it all.And now, learning from past mistakes, comes the Samsung Galaxy Portal – which looks pretty much identical and features… Android 1.5. Oh well. Let’s give it a chance. First impressions of the Portal are good. Nobody’s going to be won over by black plastic in this day of hyper-alloy unibody combat cases and NASA-derived coatings, but at least the Portal feels solid – and the grippy, rubberised-effect of the back cover should minimise dropping/pavement catastrophes.In fact, the Portal manages to be thicker and generally chunkier than last year’s Galaxy, measuring 13.2mm thick compared to last year’s model’s 11.9mm. The OLED screen of the previous Samsung Galaxy i7500 has been dumped, in favour of reliable old LCD technology – coming in at a thoroughly middle-of-the-road 3.2-inch in size. It’s bright and big enough, and if you haven’t yet used a modern smartphone you’ll be staggered by the HVGA resolution.The phone’s button layout is a slightly tweaked version of the original Galaxy’s control array, which sees acres of the finest black plastic bent into a curved, yet unintelligible collection of icons you might expect to see on the command console of an alien space vessel.You don’t get a trackball or optical pad – directional controls are taken care of by a clickable d-pad reminiscent of old video game controllers. But this is actually fine – text editing is much easier with a reliable, clicky button.Moving the cursor back three characters to correct a typo in an important, what-time-is-dinner-related text message is much easier when you can simply BASH-BASH-BASH a button three times, rather than fiddle about scrolling a little wheel into position – or even worse, trying to poke the screen at the relevant point.The screen is also impressive to use – capacitive tech means it’s solid and glassy, and it’s every bit as occasionally patchy as most other touchscreens out there. You’ll soon get used to pressing a bit harder around the edges. Even Apple hasn’t mastered that yet with the iPhone.The standard Android buttons are all present, but there’s no explanation of what they do. The ‘Menu’ button doesn’t say ‘Menu’ – all you get is an icon that looks a bit like a tray with an arrow on it.The Home button is easy to comprehend thanks to the little house illustration on it, but we can’t help but pity some poor old dad who’s going to get given one of these as a free upgrade and be left utterly confused by it all.The handset also feels very ‘bottom heavy’ – trying to press back or home while holding it in one hand is fiddly, and worse still is the unintelligible approach to button placement – there’s thousands of them. Metaphorically.You get a separate ‘lock’ button on the top-right edge of the case to wake it up and send it to sleep, a camera button on the bottom-right side, and the volume up/down clicker to the left – picking the Portal up without accidentally pressing something requires forceps and a very steady hand.If only Samsung would bite the bullet and copy HTC’s idea (like on the HTC Hero) of having the power buttons also acting as your screen lock – it’d then be possible to do away with at least one plasticky button, shaving fractions of a penny off the manufacturing cost, too.At least there’s a dedicated key for taking photos, which removes the utterly awful concept of operating a camera using a touchscreen button.If you’re not experienced with Android, you’ll find the Portal a confusing phone to get to grips with. For those of you who’ve only experienced Android via a quick fiddle on a demo phone in Carphone Warehouse at lunchtime, the operating system’s basically reminiscent of a simple touch-enabled version of Windows.The desktop, which Google calls Home, spans three screens in the Portal’s standard Android 1.5 (some providers skin this to give you more Home areas and Android 2.1 comes with five), so you’re able to curate three separate collections of shortcuts. This means you can have a page full of all your social tools, a page for your web stuff, then a third desktop space with boring work links.There are two types of Android Home button – icons and widgets. Icons are straightforward shortcuts to apps, a pretty simple concept. Widgets are a little different, coming in all sorts of sizes and offering interactive content.You might download a Twitter widget that sits on your Home screen, taking up three icon slots and letting you watch a live stream of Tweets without having to fire up a custom app. Or there are news apps that load RSS feeds directly onto your Home page, giving you the latest important business (or meaningless celebrity) news without having to open an app at all.Which is the great thing about Android. The Portal’s rather bland and featureless default installation is a blank canvas that can be changed beyond all recognition thanks to a good hour of app downloading through the Android Market, and you’ll soon ditch the bland analogue clock for something much more swish.The Portal’s faster-than-many 800MHz processor (including the Sony Ericsson Satio and iPhone 3GS) means loading apps and swiping your way through pages is very quick, with the Settings and Applications lists populating themselves with data much quicker than they do on some slower Android phones.The phone comes out of standby mode in an instant, and you’re able to pull the menu tab up to start browsing your phone’s content as soon as it’s woken up. Using it’s a breeze. However, the overall feel of the Samsung Galaxy Portal’s interface lacks the smooth gloss of the likes of HTC’s Sense overlay – it just feels a little sparse and featureless.There’s no flashy TouchWiz (like that used on the Samsung i8910HD) or Sense overlay on the Samsung Galaxy Portal; all you get to manage your calling and contacts business is the standard, barely updated Android default system.The Android Contacts list is not your boring old list of numbers. Each entry has a separate field for mobile, home and work numbers, plus you can add as many extra fields as you like, if you have very, very well connected friends.It supports fields for storing instant messaging IDs for your chums as well their postal addresses, and from the Contacts tab you may specify a separate ring tone for each caller if you want advance warning about who it’s going to be on the other end.If you’re sociable and have lots of friends, there’s a separate Favourites list pulled up from a tab within the Contacts, where you can access the numbers of people you call the most – you can also add people to this by pressing the star next to their name in the main listing.You also get a call log of all incoming and outgoing calls, for keeping tabs of who the wife’s been talking to. Calling quality was fine, the same as on the HTC Magic or T-Mobile Pulse – not too digitised and more than loud enough.Sending a message brings up Samsung’s only software enhancement on the Portal – the Samsung keyboard. It’s basically a slightly larger version of the default Android keyboard, along with a customised dictionary, T9 predictive text options and the option of using a 123/ABC numeric style keypad.If you’re a bit old and still stuck in your T9 ways, it’s handy to have your old numeric mobile typing style replicated – but this does run a bit slower than the stock Android keyboard, with the auto-suggest taking a fraction of a second to pop up its possible words.Elsewhere, it’s a standard Android 1.5 phone. Messaging is, therefore, pretty cumbersome. You send text messages by opening up Messaging or picking a name through the phone’s Contacts, bumbling through way too many message screens in the process and wondering why texting is suddenly 100 times harder than it was on your old Nokia.But that’s not Samsung’s fault. And if you don’t like it there are numerous other text interfaces available on the Android Market – you just have to sift through them a bit to find them.Your Gmail account is handled seamlessly by entering your username and password on startup – the inbox is automatically downloaded and messages update at very frequent intervals (especially if you’re one of those popular sorts we hear so much about).Non-Gmail email is also handled incredibly well. Android’s email client supports numerous external providers, and it seamlessly connected to our Hotmail and BT accounts through its own tool in seconds. It certainly beats the traditional living hell that is guessing your POP3 settings when setting up email on other gadgets.And the other bit of good news – when the expected Android 2.1 lands to turn your Samsung Galaxy Portal into the Google super phone you always dreamed of, that will probably come with Exchange functionality as well.Here’s a rare area where the Samsung Galaxy Portal shines. Its 800MHz processor helps kick web pages into view very promptly indeed – and lets you scroll around them with ease.This is a lot better than the likes of the T-Mobile Pulse or HTC Magic – which aren’t slouches themselves when it comes to web browsing. It’s also a darn sight more fluent than the Samsung Jet – which also has an 800MHz processor, but fails to render web pages well at all.One of the areas the Android OS really shines is its web browser, which somehow manages to be so simple you hardly even know it’s there.Android’s default browser is the model of simplicity. Pages load up without any visible tabs, toolbars or anything else on the display, giving you a full 3.2-inch window into the internet.For keeping track of what you’ve been doing – and to save you having to retype URLs on the touchscreen – you get History and Most Visited tabs, accessible by pressing the Menu button, plus you can organise your own bookmarks through the Menu as well.And no, there’s no “pinch to zoom” – but when you touch the screen while browsing it pops up a magnifying tool, letting you zoom in and out in increments or hit a button to shrink the entire page to fit on the screen, which then gives you a magnified square you can use to examine the page in detail.Also, it’s here you get a great impression of how accurate and responsive the Samsung Galaxy Portal’s touchscreen is – selecting tiny text links from a list is easy, with the most delicate and precise of finger touches selecting what you need.Install one of the alternate Android browsers like Dolphin or Opera and you soon realise how little point there is in trying to do anything too complex on a touchscreen. More buttons and more options means mo’ problems, to misquote the famous hip hop song.And if you’re really after ‘pinch to zoom’ on pages you know which phone to flit off and buy instead, don’t you?The Samsung Galaxy Portal’s camera quality is surprisingly good for a 3.2MP snapper that’s been rammed into the body of a mobile phone.The focus is a bit slow, with the phone pausing, steadying its view, doing a bit more auto-focusing then waiting for you to release the button – and then waiting a little bit longer before deciding to capture what you’re pointing at, if it’s still there.It takes a while, so don’t go expecting to capture anything on the spur of any moments, but at least there’s a dedicated camera shot button, which makes using the clunky default Android camera tool a little bit more bearable.Photos come out at a decent 2,048 x 1,536 resolution, although, as with every mobile phone camera in existence, it’s quite poor in low-light conditions.WIDE SHOT: The camera’s a bit over-eager to emphasise the brightness of things. Shadows are wiped out in favour of exaggerated colours when shooting in good light, with shots often coming out more bright and enhanced than necessaryCLOSE UP: The auto-focus, while slow, does a good job when taking pictures up close – the sample shot we took of our emergency backup Nokia 6680 mobile was surprisingly sharp, even with the camera held around 30cm away from the trusty last-gen brickNO MACRO: There’s no macro option, so don’t expect to be able to take detailed pictures of the back of your hand, but as an all-rounder the Samsung Galaxy Portal’s camera performs very wellLOW DETAIL: Detail tends to fall apart into abstract blotch territory when shooting complicated things like, er, grass and trees, but the output is decent enough to more than handle your social networking photo sharing needsSTRAIGHT LIGHT: Shooting straight into bright light is not advised on the Samsung Galaxy Portal, with very little detail capturedYou can also select “camera nightmode” from the camera menu to enhance brightness, if you don’t mind your shots looking like you’ve taken them within the blast radius of a nuclear detonation.However, the lack of any sort of flash won’t help you snap compromising photos of friends drinking specialist cocktails in specialist bars.Another feature added in is Android lets you upload photos simply, but just clicking on them and sending them to Facebook or Gmail or whatever else you’ve installed. It’s clever like that.The Samsung Galaxy Portal’s videos are recorded in 3GP mobile format and look passable, appearing in a fuzzy, blocky resolution of 352 x 288 – and VLC tells us they run at a frame rate of around eight or nine frames per second. We also encountered error messages about not being able to play the video’s sound on our PC due to a missing Samsung audio codec.When it comes to media on the Samsung Galaxy Portal, there’s Google’s Android YouTube client, which is pleasingly simple and uncluttered, while music playback is handled by the bland default Android tool. It is not glamorous, but will make ‘Bad Romance’ spew out of your headphones in an emergency.The Music Player widget takes up four icon slots on a Home page and is alarmingly simple – you can pause or skip to the next track, that’s it. Tapping the widget takes you to the main Music Player menu, and from there it’s as easy as long-pressing on a song to add it to an existing playlist or to create a new one from scratch.The supplied headphones have a flimsy ‘Pause’ button on the wire, but if you want to offend the artist’s integrity by skipping album tracks there’s no option but to get the phone out and use the touchscreen. At least the phone’s volume control works while the screen is in standby mode, so you’re able to adjust sound levels without having to de-pocket your mobile.If you can live without a way to skip tracks without poking the screen, the Samsung Galaxy Portal’s a workable MP3 player option – but you might need to upgrade the supplied 1GB microSD card if you get bored easily of the same few albums.The photo gallery is the standard old Android one, so don’t expect to be blown away – unless you get very, very easily blown away by things like grey tabs. It also confusingly houses videos as well.If you’re into doing it yourself and downloading video content through ‘unofficial’ channels, the Samsung Galaxy Portal copes well. It was able to play an off-the-internet MP4 of Doctor Who, scaling down the original file’s 640 x 368 video size and making it look superbly sharp on screen – and it played with no glitches whatsoever.A 720 x 416 resolution AVI file of Relocation Relocation (don’t ask) played just as well, despite Samsung only listing MP4 and 3GP formats on its official Samsung Galaxy Portal spec sheet. The other video playback option on the phone comes via DivX, which supplies its DivX VOD Player. To activate it on your phone you must first install the latest DivX Player on your PC or Mac, then synch it with the Samsung Galaxy Portal by copying across a registration code, then play a sample video on your phone.And then, once you’ve gone through that significant kerfuffle, you’re greeted by the option to pay for and stream DivX content on your Samsung Galaxy Portal. We doubt many people ever will. A very capable video player, as long as you don’t mind the rather basic front end.It’s your standard Android 1.5 default suite on here, with only a few nods to the year 2010. Samsung has, for some odd reason, decided to pre-install a copy of location-based app Layar onto the phone, so you’re able to do such clichd tasks as look for branches of Starbucks or search for pizza delivery companies in the vicinity.But honestly, who really uses these tools outside of TV adverts? Who thinks to themselves “I fancy a pizza, I’ll fire up my mobile phone and point it at the sky to see if there’s one nearby”?Of far more use are the other Google services you get as part of the Android spec. You need a Google account to activate the Gmail stuff (and access the Android Market), and it’s essential that you do – as it’s through your Gmail account that all your Contacts are backed up and synchronised.You might not think you need that if you’ve not had an Android phone before, but you really do, as once you’re all synchronised it’s possible to edit your contacts on your PC and have them all automatically copied back to your phone nice and neatly.Need someone’s number but left your phone somewhere else? Google’s got a copy on your Gmail Contacts list. That’s a life-saver, if you’re the sort of person who still makes actual phone calls.Elsewhere under the Apps tab sits a Facebook and MySpace button, if you’re into boasting about your life to people you never really liked 10 years ago.The only other time-saving tool pre-installed by a lackey in the Samsung factory is the Switchers app, which handles shortcuts to quickly toggle settings for Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth and Google’s Autosync option.This means you can turn everything off if you’re in a sulk and want to avoid everyone. Or save a bit of battery through killing the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth when out and about.Get ready for a shock – the Galaxy Portal has a surprisingly decent battery. Samsung’s previous Galaxy, was lambasted by all and sundry for eating battery life willy-nilly, despite having a supposedly more efficient OLED screen.The tables have been turned here, with the Samsung Galaxy Portal’s regular LCD screen somehow staying alive for a full day of in-bed, on-train, in-office, on-train then in-bed-again casual Twitter and web action. Battery enthusiasts will know there’s a good scientific reason for all this – the Samsung Galaxy Portal has a 1500mAh battery, slightly larger than the usual 1400mAh versions or lower you find in other phones. Every little helps.You’ll still spend most of your time worrying about unnecessary apps running in the background guzzling power and leaving you without text access at unfortunate moments, mind – but that’s all part of the modern smartphone game. Battery makers need to get their act together, basically, as they’re seriously holding back technology – although there are some free task-manager applications on the Android Market that can seriously help maintain battery life.You’ll be doing all your home browsing and Tweeting while connected via Wi-Fi, and the Portal does a fine job of instantly hooking itself into your router without whining for attention, then slipping surreptitiously back onto 3G when the signal disappears. There’s a 3.5mm headphone jack on the top of the phone, which is welcome, but the awful, awful supplied headphones, which are the type you have to physically force down your ear canal, are crackly right out of the box. At least ours were – instant upgrades are recommended, and at least there’s no proprietary adaptor to worry about.Sound quality was tinny even with the in-brain headphone fully rammed right into our poor little earholes – Samsung’s headphone quality is usually pretty good, so we’re not sure what’s happened here.You’ll be wanting some proper headphones, or, better still, a proper MP3 player – as Android 1.5’s default music-playing software isn’t the greatest or most user-friendly tool in existence, and you don’t want to hammer the battery of a smartphone any more than necessary.There was a 1GB microSD card in our Samsung Galaxy Portal box, along with a large-size SD Card adaptor if you’ve left your Micro-USB cable in the wrong house and need to copy off some photos. The PC situation is a weird one – on the original Samsung Galaxy i5700, the phone came with Samsung’s New PC Studio in the box.Not so with the Samsung Galaxy Portal – but no worry, as this can be downloaded from Samsung’s website to give you all manner of connectivity.Well, no actually, because it appears that like its bigger Android brother, the Galaxy Portal is not supported by NPS as yet. We’ve no idea why Samsung seems to secretly hate mating a PC and an Android phone, but it clearly does.At least you can drag and drop files to the SD card via the microUSB cable – this means getting media onto the phone is a cinch.Samsung is playing an odd Android game. Korean rival LG is playing the budget-Googlephone game with the likes of the Intouch Max GW620, and across the water HTC is bringing out better and better Android phones like the Legend seemingly every day.But Samsung seems to be happy to wander around making basic Android phones like the Samsung Galaxy Portal and then shouting about its new Bada platform instead.Given that both are based on a Linux kernel you have to question whether Sammy’s heart is really in the Google game.We likedPerformance was robust. Our Portal never crashed or got bogged down with multiple apps open, while the battery lasted significantly longer than this reviewer’s ladylike HTC Magic routinely manages. Turn Wi-Fi and GPS off and you’ll easily make it through a full day of semi-pro use.The capacitive touchscreen is responsive, bright and the phone feels reassuringly heavy and solid. The 3.2-inch screen size is right in the Android ’sweet spot’ – big enough to see and use, small enough to slip into the tightest of trouser.Android 1.5, although visually rather basic, runs fast and does what a smartphone needs to do – and you can, of course, customise the hell out of it through the Android Market. Plus there’s a beta version of Android 2.1 for the European version of the Portal (known as the Galaxy Spica) floating about online, so an official update for the Portal ought to be imminent.We dislikedWhile Android 1.5 runs the majority of apps on the Android Market, the lack of a few headline modern tools that require Android 1.6 and above will kill this phone stone dead for hardcore Android nerds. If it doesn’t get an update soon, the Portal will be yesterday’s news. The button layout is a mess. Anyone new to Android will be utterly bewildered by the black plastic nightmare beneath the screen, while the Home button, which is squeezed right into the edge of the case, is tricky to press if you’re a right-handed phone user. Left-handed people will love it, though. Perhaps left-handed people is the mystery demographic Samsung is targeting with this amazingly average phone?VerdictThere’s nothing wrong with the Galaxy Portal, but there’s also nothing exciting about it. Offering the same spec a mid-range Android phone would’ve shipped with 12 months ago, there’s little here to boast about – especially when we’ve been bombarded by hype regarding dazzling new HTC glamour-phones for the last few months.Even Samsung itself seems desperate to make the Portal seem more exciting than it is, claiming in print adverts that it comes with a “visual search engine” – when in fact that refers to the Layar app that’s comes pre-loaded, and is freely available on every Android phone via the Android Market.However, the Portal is tough and perfectly functional. The fact it ships with Android 1.5 and Samsung’s poor history in offering updates will put off the geeks, but for the average punter looking for an affordable ‘in’ into Android, it’s ideal. It does come in for 20 a month on T-Mobile (that’s for 24 months, unless you want to pay 360 for the phone), but it’s the Vauxhall Astra of Android – dull but will get you where you need to be.Related LinksTechRadar’s Reviews GuaranteeMore mobile phone reviewsRelated StoriesReview: LG Chocolate BL20Review: Acer Liquid S100Review: Nokia E72Review: HTC HD MiniReview: Nokia 5230

]]> http://www.phonesindia.com/2012/01/review-samsung-galaxy-portal-i5700-3/feed/ 0 PRADA phone by LG 3.0 http://www.phonesindia.com/2012/01/prada-phone-by-lg-3-0/ http://www.phonesindia.com/2012/01/prada-phone-by-lg-3-0/#comments Sat, 21 Jan 2012 19:30:04 +0000 admin http://www.phonesindia.com/2012/01/prada-phone-by-lg-3-0/ PRADA phone by LG 3.0
The third generation of LG’s collaboration with PRADA, the PRADA phone by LG 3.0 manages to combine a strong technical specification with elegant looks.

]]> http://www.phonesindia.com/2012/01/prada-phone-by-lg-3-0/feed/ 0 Samsung Illusion Phone (Verizon) http://www.phonesindia.com/2012/01/samsung-illusion-phone-verizon/ http://www.phonesindia.com/2012/01/samsung-illusion-phone-verizon/#comments Tue, 17 Jan 2012 01:30:06 +0000 admin http://www.phonesindia.com/2012/01/samsung-illusion-phone-verizon/ Samsung Illusion Phone (Verizon)
Released for Verizon, the Samsung Illusion is an affordable Google smartphone. Running on Android 2.3 software, the Illusion comes with a fast 1-gigahertz processor and EV-DO 3.5G Internet for smooth and speedy access to multimedia and games.

]]> http://www.phonesindia.com/2012/01/samsung-illusion-phone-verizon/feed/ 0 Connecticut Governor To Help Tribal Casinos With Online Gambling http://www.phonesindia.com/2012/01/connecticut-governor-to-help-tribal-casinos-with-online-gambling/ http://www.phonesindia.com/2012/01/connecticut-governor-to-help-tribal-casinos-with-online-gambling/#comments Mon, 16 Jan 2012 05:30:31 +0000 admin http://www.phonesindia.com/2012/01/connecticut-governor-to-help-tribal-casinos-with-online-gambling/ Connecticut Governor To Help Tribal Casinos With Online Gambling
Online gambling is coming to the US, and states are lining up to be the first into the industry. The latest state to throw their hat in the ring in the online gambling industry is Connecticut, where Governor Dannel Malloy confirmed Monday the states’ interest in making Internet gambling regulations a reality.Connecticut’s two tribal casinos, Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods, have been ravaged in recent years by the casino expansion that has taken place in the Northeast. With Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York, Maine, and New Hampshire all opening new gaming facilities, Connecticut’s tribal casinos began to see a decrease in revenue. Coupled with the economic recession of 2008, the expansion devastated what was one of the top gaming industries in the country.The Department of Justice, however, gave the tribe’s some relief around Christmas when they released an opinion that was contrary to what previously had been stated regarding online gambling. The opinion confirmed that only sports betting was illegal under the Wire Act, leading to states starting discussions about regulating other forms of online gambling.Connecticut, according to Malloy’s statements Monday, is one of those states. The governor asserted that his administration is seeking ways to protect Connecticut’s tribal casino interests. He did not say whether the intention was to allow the tribe’s to offer online casinos, or to have the state lottery operate the online gambling sites. In either case, the tribe’s would benefit from the regulations.Under state laws, tribal casinos have the right to operate any form of gambling legal in the particular state. If Connecticut authorized online casinos through the lottery, the tribal casinos would then have the right to open their own online sites. The most likely scenario, however, is lawmakers and leaders from the two tribe’s to work out an agreement to share the revenue from the online gambling.Malloy did not fully endorse online gambling, only saying Monday that Internet gambling is coming to the US inevitably, and that Connecticut plans to be prepared for the activity. Connecticut has long been a leader in the gaming industry, and even with expansion in other states, Connecticut could end up being at the front of the pack when states start unveiling their new online casinos. January 9, 2012Posted By Tom JonesStaff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.comSubmit News!

]]> http://www.phonesindia.com/2012/01/connecticut-governor-to-help-tribal-casinos-with-online-gambling/feed/ 0 Imagination Technologies' next-gen PowerVR GPUs surface http://www.phonesindia.com/2012/01/imagination-technologies-next-gen-powervr-gpus-surface/ http://www.phonesindia.com/2012/01/imagination-technologies-next-gen-powervr-gpus-surface/#comments Sun, 15 Jan 2012 17:15:08 +0000 admin http://www.phonesindia.com/2012/01/imagination-technologies-next-gen-powervr-gpus-surface/ Imagination Technologies' next-gen PowerVR GPUs surface
Imagination Technologies are responsible for the graphical hardware underneath a host of well known smartphones including the likes of the iPhone 4S, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and the Nokia N9 to name but a few. So when they announce their next generation of PowerVR GPUs, we're inclined to sit up and listen. Imagination Technologies have announced that they are ready to license out a new…

]]> http://www.phonesindia.com/2012/01/imagination-technologies-next-gen-powervr-gpus-surface/feed/ 0 Android devs – a call to arms for 2012! http://www.phonesindia.com/2012/01/android-devs-%e2%80%93-a-call-to-arms-for-2012/ http://www.phonesindia.com/2012/01/android-devs-%e2%80%93-a-call-to-arms-for-2012/#comments Wed, 11 Jan 2012 01:00:09 +0000 admin http://www.phonesindia.com/2012/01/android-devs-%e2%80%93-a-call-to-arms-for-2012/ Android devs a call to arms for 2012!
Read the original article on MobileMentalism.com at Android devs – a call to arms for 2012!I complained the other day about the fact that the iPhone seems to have more apps developed for it than Android. Even if Android has the same app as the iPhone, the Android app seems to have limited features. This…Read the original article on MobileMentalism.com at Android devs – a call to arms for 2012!Related PostsHow fast will 2012′s smartphones be?Why does the iPhone get all the good apps?How Apple killed Windows and sidestepped the AndroidThe future of Android revealed by Google (and it’s not what you think)

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