LG EnV

LG vx9900 EnVThe EnV isn't the slimmest cell phone around, but it offers excellent messaging features and great multimedia options.
The LG vx9900 EnV is a standard cell phone with a secret: At first glance, it looks like a slightly bulky, run-of-the-mill candy bar-style phone. But this phone opens horizontally to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard. Available from Verizon Wireless for $250 with a two-year contract, the EnV is an impressive messaging and multimedia device.
When closed, the handset sports a small display, basic navigation controls, and a numeric keypad. The phone's exterior has a nice-looking silver finish, but its external screen is disappointingly small. At just 1.25 inches diagonally, the display is hard to see, and the empty space surrounding it could have been put to better use. The keys, though small, are easy to enter phone numbers on.
Despite feeling slightly thick and heavy, the EnV provided reasonably good call quality. I occasionally noticed background fuzziness on some calls, but most callers were easy to hear. Talk-time battery life was only fair: the EnV lasted 5 hours, 5 minutes in our lab tests--longer than the vendor-stated talk time of 4.5 hours, but not as good as many standard cell phones we've tested recently.
When the EnV springs open, however, you see its full potential: Inside are a spacious QWERTY keyboard, a bright 2.25-inch screen, and keys for accessing the phone's many features. If you don't need a full-fledged PDA phone with mobile office applications but still want a QWERTY keyboard for easy typing, the EnV is an excellent choice. It comes with a dedicated e-mail key for quick access to Verizon Wireless's VCast Wireless Sync e-mail service. This app costs an additional $20, but lets you easily sync your phone with your POP3 or IMAP e-mail account. The EnV also includes mobile versions of AOL, MSN, and Yahoo instant messaging clients.
In addition, the EnV supports Verizon's VCast music service, which offers over-the-air song downloads for $1.99 each. The service is nicely laid out and easy to navigate, though you can't access all of its features when the phone is closed. From the external screen, you can play your existing collection of songs; but to browse the store and purchase new music, you must open the phone, which can be inconvenient. You can transfer your own music to the phone, too, but the phone doesn't ship with a microSD Card for storage, a USB cable for connecting the phone to your PC, or a headset for listening to your tunes; you'll have to purchase each of these accessories separately. A Music Essentials Kit--which includes a USB cable, a headset, and software for managing your music collection--is available from Verizon for $30. You'll need to buy an adapter if you want to use your own stereo headphones with the handset.
The built-in, 2.0-megapixel camera takes adequate photos. The lens sits on the back of the handset and is protected by a sliding lens cover--a nice touch. The camera's autofocus tool captures still shots well, but the resulting shutter lag of up to 2 seconds can cause you to miss a moving subject. However, you can switch this feature off, and use the phone in fixed-focus mode instead. The phone's shutter-release button (on its right side) doesn't allow you to start up the camera, and you have to dig deeper than you should in the phone's menu system to reach this instruction. Still, the button is positioned nicely when you hold the phone horizontally for use as a camera; and the EnV also captures serviceable video clips.
The phone supports Verizon's 3G EvDO service, which makes for reasonably speedy Web browsing, and Verizon's VZ Navigator service, which (with an additional subscription) offers turn-by-turn GPS-based directions

Nokia 5300 XpressMusic Phone

Nokia 5300 XpressMusic PhoneThis handset offers excellent music playback features, and works well as a phone, too.
At first glance, you may not realize that the Nokia 5300 XpressMusic Phone is a cell phone at all. With its boxy black-and-white case, prominent music controls, and large screen, you could easily mistake it for a digital audio player. And you wouldn't be wrong: The 5300 is, in fact, almost equal parts music player and cell phone, and the music features are some of the best that we've seen on a phone.
When closed, this slider-style phone looks squared-off and slightly bulky, but its gorgeous 2-inch display takes center stage. The music controls sit in the black rim around the display (a red-and white-version also is available); to the left are keys for scrolling through your music collection, as well as keys for playing and pausing tracks. Volume keys sit on the right side of the handset. Since the keys are rubbery, they're simple to locate by touch, and easy to push.
Basic controls below the screen make navigating the phone's many features a breeze. Sliding the device open reveals the one disappointing aspect of its controls: a phone keypad that feels overly plasticky. Still, the keys are nicely raised, so dialing is easy.
But the music features really make the phone shine. The music player, which is easily accessible through the unit's home page or via the external music controls, is very user-friendly. You can quickly scroll through your music library, which is organized by artists, albums, genres, composers, or playlists. The phone ships with Nokia's Music Manager software for organizing your library on your PC and a USB cable for transferring tunes to the phone, which includes a 1GB microSD card for storing them. While the desktop software isn't as intuitive as the phone's music player, it is still relatively easy to use. It scans your PC for audio files and lets you transfer any of them to your phone with one click. You can also use the Music Manager app to delete songs from the phone and to create playlists, which you can't do on the phone itself. T-Mobile does not offer its own music service with over-the-air downloads, so you'll have to obtain your music collection elsewhere.
The audio quality won't rival that of your iPod; but, whether the sound plays through the included 2.5mm headphones or the external speaker, it's better than what we've heard from most music phones. Songs occasionally sounded tinny when played over the speaker, but overall the audio was very good.
As a phone, the 5300 works well. Its rubbery exterior makes it comfortable to hold, and it slides open nicely with one hand. The unit is light enough to hold comfortably next to your ear during long conversations. Call quality and volume were quite good, but the talk-time battery life was only fair: It lasted 5 hours, 6 minutes in our lab tests.
The 5300 also includes a 1.3-megapixel camera that takes serviceable to very good snapshots. Still-life photos came out great, but like many camera phones, this model suffers from a significant shutter delay, so capturing moving subjects is hard. The phone also takes video clips, but they look pixelated and slightly grainy (typical for a camera phone).
Overall, the 5300, with its stellar music features, is impressive, especially when you factor in the price: T-Mobile is offering the phone for $99 with a two-year contract. That's less than you might pay for a dedicated MP3 player--so it's an excellent price for a device that makes calls, too

Samsung SCH-u740

Samsung SCH-u740This phone sports an unusual dual-hinge design and some deep messaging capabilities.
When looking for a new phone, I have some very specific priorities. I like phones with a clamshell design; I want a better-than-T9 predictive-text input system for messaging; and I'm tied to Verizon Wireless by the vagaries of signal strength at my house. And with expensive and incredibly cool new models like the iPhone waiting just around the corner, I don't want to spend too much right now. If you're in a similar frame of mind, Samsung's SCH-u740 (available for $200 with a two-year Verizon Wireless contract as of March 23, 2007) is an outstanding choice. If you have less exacting requirements, you'll probably find a better fit elsewhere.
The SCH-u740 pulls off an impressive design feat: Its dual-hinge design lets the phone open horizontally or vertically. Open it like a normal clamshell phone, and you're ready to talk or take pictures. Open it the other way, and you're ready to use the full QWERTY keyboard for text messaging, IM, or e-mail. Though the phone is small--it's almost exactly the same size and weight as a Motorola Razr--its keyboard is incredibly comfortable, thanks to keys that are taller than those on most thumb keyboards. The hinge feels quite solid; after a month of use, I wasn't at all worried that it might wear out down the road.
The dual-hinge design does have a few drawbacks. Most notably, certain features on the phone don't work in both modes. Occasionally I tried to start a game or a message in regular clamshell mode only to be told that the service was available only in rotated mode. You use the NumLock key to access symbols on the QWERTY keyboard, except in the phone's Mobile Web 2.0 browser, which disappointingly shunts them off to a menu option. Oh well. It's not like Web addresses contain lots of punctuation.
Oh. Right.
Verizon offers a number of text-based services on the SCH-u740. Its Mobile IM app lets you connect to AIM, MSN, or Yahoo instant messaging accounts, though any instant messages you send count as text messages, and you're charged for them as such on your data plan. An e-mail app uses Verizon's Mobile Web 2.0 to access AOL, Hotmail, or Yahoo Mail accounts. For an additional fee, you can download Verizon's Wireless sync e-mail application, which will push e-mail down to your phone Blackberry-style.
The device's battery life was far less impressive than its text capabilities. The SCH-u740 lasted 4.75 hours in our lab tests--better than the quoted talk time of 3.5 hours, but worse than talk time of many phones we've tested. Calls sounded clear at various signal strengths, and the clamshell design makes the phone comfortable to hold for even long calls.
The SCH-u740's built-in, 1.3-megapixel digital camera is easy to use and takes good but not great photos; it can also record short movie clips to its internal memory or to a microSD Card in the phone's slot. Using a card reader, you can also sync MP3 or WMA music to the microSD Card and play it alongside any tunes you download from Verizon's VCast music service. The phone's external playback controls make it easy to switch tracks without opening the device up. Unfortunately, the SCH-u740 doesn't include a headphone jack, so you'll need to supply Bluetooth headphones--or an annoying little adapter--to listen to music.
Despite having a few quirks, the SCH-u740 should appeal to anyone looking for an attractive, inexpensive phone with deep messaging capabilities

Motorola RIZR Z3

Motorola Rizr Z3This well-designed multimedia phone performs satisfactorily, though its keys are a bit stiff.
If you're tired of carrying around a music player, a digital camera, and a cell phone, the Motorola Rizr Z3 can help you consolidate. This midnight-blue cell phone is the slider-style cousin of Motorola's popular Razr. It's available from T-Mobile for $150 (with a two-year contract, as of March 23, 2007) and has a magnificent screen, a 2.0-megapixel still-and-video camera, and a digital music player. Oh yes, and it works well as a phone. But be forewarned: With the phone's plethora of features and the software required to run them, you'll need quick access to your manual for the first week or more.
The Rizr is small--2.75 inches wide by 4 inches tall with slider closed, and just over 5.5 inches tall with the slider open. At 0.5 inch thick, it's also quite slim, and it's comfortable to use when making long phone calls. Call quality was good though not exceptional; battery life was great. The phone pulled down 10 hours of talk time in our lab tests--the maximum length we test for. On the other hand, the keypad and the navigation controls--while extremely easy to access with my small fingers--were stiff, which made entering phone numbers, commands, and data tougher than I would have liked.
Still, the Rizr has many appealing features. One is a slot that can accommodate a microSD Card with up to 2GB of storage space. Unfortunately you must remove the battery door to get the memory card into the phone--and you'll have to spring for your own card, as the Rizr doesn't ship with one. T-Mobile sells a 1GB microSD Card for $60.
You can drag and drop music files onto the card after connecting the phone to your PC via the included mini-USB cable. And in the Rizr Z3's airplane mode, you can listen to your music without activating the cell phone while flying. Audiophiles take note: The phone may not play files whose bit rate is above 128 kbps. When played over the external speaker, songs sounded quite tinny.
Taking digital photos with the Rizr Z3 was a snap. While the phone's slider is closed, you can shoot only in landscape mode; but you can also use portrait mode when the slider is open. The shutter control is nicely situated on the right side of the phone in thumb range. Though snapshots looked sharper than photos I've taken with other camera phones, they often looked dark and a little murky.
Many phones are now three-in-one devices, but the well-thought-out design and easy handling of the Rizr Z3 as a phone, camera, and music player make it a multimedia device I'd be happy to put in my pocket

Sony Ericsson W810

Sony Ericsson W810Sony calls on its Walkman roots to create this impressive cell phone/music player hybrid.
While it's no iPod, Sony Ericsson's W810 does a more-than-adequate job as both a cell phone and a multimedia player.
The W810 is a candy bar-style standard cell phone, and at first glance its dimensions of 3.9 by 1.8 by 0.8 inches make it look somewhat boxy. It works well in light use, offering adequate voice quality and volume, but it can be uncomfortable during long conversations. It offers impressive talk-time battery life, as it lasted 10 hours in our lab tests (the maximum amount of time we test).
The W810 is the latest addition to Sony Ericsson's Walkman line of phones, and its impressive roots are on display--its music and multimedia features, including an FM radio, really set it apart. When you start up the phone, you're given the choice between launching just the Walkman functions or all of the phone's features. The W810 also automatically pauses songs when you receive an incoming call, and resumes them when you hang up.
The W810 comes with its own PC software for transferring songs onto the included 512MB Memory Stick Duo card. The software is simple to use, though unfortunately it does not let you create playlists on your PC--you can do that on the phone, but it isn't as easy as it could be. A 2-megapixel camera and Memory Stick Duo slot round out the features.
I have one minor complaint about the W810, regarding its navigation controls. Sony packs a lot of features--including the music player controls--into a small space. The controls are tiny, and the limited real estate leaves no room for dedicated send and end phone buttons. I adjusted to the controls quickly, and I was able to scroll through my music collection in no time, but the device's layout left me longing for the minimalist look of my iPod.
The W810 doesn't come cheap; an unlocked handset will cost you $500. (We tested a handset from Cingular; the carrier is expected to offer the phone by September for the same price.) But if you're in the market for a cell phone that doubles as a digital music player, the W810 is worth a look

RIM Blackberry Pearl

RIM Blackberry Pearl

The BlackBerry has long been synonymous with business. Known best as an addictive corporate tool for professionals who need always-on access to e-mail, Research In Motion's device has had something of a staid image compared with today's multimedia-savvy phones.But that's about to change. With the BlackBerry Pearl 8100--the first BlackBerry to offer a camera, an audio player, and a video player--the BlackBerry loosens up and sheds its business-only image. In my tests of a shipping version, I found the makeover mostly successful.
Available now from T-Mobile (for $350 with a two-year contract), the candy bar-style Pearl has a pleasingly shiny black-and-silver finish. It is noticeably lighter and more petite than its predecessors, and--unlike most BlackBerry devices--it looks remarkably like an ordinary cell phone. The small size comes with a trade-off, however: The Pearl's keys are tiny, and, thanks to the slick finish, slippery--two traits that make the keys difficult to push. The keys are so small that pressing them with a finger is nearly impossible; even dialing with a fingernail is difficult.
Like the BlackBerry 7100 series, the Pearl features a SureType keyboard--a modified QWERTY keyboard that saves space by combining two letters on most keys. Once you start to type, the SureType system suggests words based on the letters you've entered. When SureType guesses correctly, this system is a huge time-saver; when it doesn't (which happens often), typing is a time-consuming chore.
The SureType keyboard is not the Pearl's only departure from typical BlackBerry navigation tools. The jog wheel typically found on the right-hand side of the device has been replaced with a white trackball that sits on the face of the phone, directly below the display. The trackball turns an incandescent white when the phone is active, making it look like--you guessed it--a pearl. While the effect is aesthetically pleasing, it's not a functional improvement. I found the trackwheel harder to use than the jog wheel on other BlackBerrys; it also makes one-handed operation more difficult.
In my use of the phone, I found call quality a mixed bag. On some calls, voices sounded loud and clear, but on others I noticed an echo or muffled voices. Talk-time battery life was excellent, however: the Pearl last 8 hours, 34 minutes in our tests, earning a score of Very Good.
One of the big attractions of the Pearl is its multimedia capabilities. The Pearl's 1.3-megapixel camera is easy to access, though it lacks a dedicated shutter control (you press the trackball to capture shots). You use the 2.25-inch screen to frame photos, and roll the trackball to zoom in or out. While the controls make operating the 5X digital zoom easy, I also found them frustrating: Occasionally, I accidentally rolled the trackball instead of pressing it, causing me to zoom in and miss a moment I had hoped to capture. If you're shooting in dark environments, the built-in flash can help illuminate your scene.
Picture quality was about what you'd expect from a camera phone. Bright colors often looked washed out, and the snapshots sometimes lacked crispness. Unfortunately, the Pearl doesn't capture video; but it will play back video clips, which look fantastic, if small, on its 240-by-260 TFT display.
In addition to sporting a camera, the Pearl is also the first BlackBerry to include a music player. You can transfer AAC, MP3, and WAV files to the device via the included Desktop Manager software, which is easy to install and use. You can also store music files on a microSD Card (not included). While this is the first BlackBerry to support an expandable media card, the card slot's location behind the battery is as inconvenient as it gets. To add or remove the card, you need to first slide the back off of the phone and then remove the battery.
Like the camera, the media player lacks dedicated controls. Nonetheless, I found the Pearl easy to use for playing music. The player itself features a nice, clean interface. I found it a breeze to scroll through my music collection, as well as select tunes and pause them.
Die-hard BlackBerry fans will be glad to hear that the addition of all these consumer-friendly features hasn't lessened the device's prowess as a stellar messaging device. The Pearl supports the RIM push e-mail technology that has made the BlackBerry so popular, and adding a POP3 e-mail account is a snap. You enter your e-mail address and password, and within minutes your messages will be delivered to the device. It also supports AOL, ICQ, MSN, and Yahoo instant messaging networks.
None of the new features on the Pearl are earth-shattering; most smart phones have offered music players and cameras for some time. And the phone has rough spots in audio quality and key design. Nonetheless, when you combine its well-executed features with RIM's messaging capabilities and the Pearl's sleek look, this device is a winner

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Nokia E62

Nokia E62

This newcomer to the PDA phone scene has quickly become a top contender thanks to a bevy of features and a keyboard that's a pleasure to type on. Available from Cingular, this handset lacks high-speed HSDPA support (it does support EDGE) and has some interface quirks that take a little getting used to, but it's one of the most capable smart phones on the market.
As a phone, the E62 is on the quiet side, so your callers may be hard to hear. Dialing is easy, however, and the unit is comfortably light to hold. Talk-time battery life is excellent, reaching the 10-hour maximum that we test for.
The E62's roomy keyboard is its biggest draw: It's one of the most spacious arrangements I've ever seen on a candy-bar handset, with wide, flat keys that are beautifully sized and spaced. Setting up e-mail is a breeze, and sending and receiving messages are just as simple. The E62 handles attachments with aplomb, and its included office suite lets you edit documents easily. Though the included MP3 player is loud and clear, you'll want to use the bundled headset in lieu of the tinny internal speaker.
My few complaints center on features that the E62 lacks: It has no camera and no 3G service. The Symbian OS is surprisingly sluggish, too; I found myself hitting commands several times, thinking that the button presses hadn't registered, when in reality the E62 was just processing them slowly.
Otherwise, it's a stellar little device. Factor in its reasonable $200 price, and the E62 is a top contender-and number one on our chart

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