Viewing your images and videos is easy on the 3.7 inch touch screen and it has an HDMI port which allows you to connect and view on a HD ready TV.  The internal memory can be expanded dramatically with the use of micro SD memory cards and the phone will support up to 32GB. 

As with all Android phones, there are lots of apps to choose from and you can customise your home screen.  Connecting to the internet is easy and you can synchronise your work and personal emails so that you can access them on the move.  Multi-tasking is a great feature of these phones and users can be reassured that they will lose no functional speed on the phone if they have several windows open at once.

The Motorola Milestone XT720 will be a regular feature in mobile phone reviews and for the latest mobile phone deals, a quick search of the internet will tell you all you need to know.  As one of the latest mobile phones, you can be sure that there is a value for money deal just waiting for you.

Pros

The design of the Curve 8300 is even more attractive than some earlier BlackBerry mobile phones marketed to consumers.  It’s thin enough to fit comfortably in the hand, but spacious enough to support a full QWERTY keyboard.  The 64mm screen features 320×240 resolution and produces sharp, clean images.

Messaging remains strong as ever:  instant email access, SMS, MMS, and BlackBerry Messenger.  There’s support for attachments including Microsoft Office documents, PDFs, and media files.

For multi-media applications, the Curve 8300 performs admirably.  The media player handles a wide range of formats, and sound quality is very good.

Cons

There’s significant glare off the screen, and the surrounding chrome accents certainly don’t help matters.  The microSD slot is positioned inconveniently underneath the battery, and there’s no microSD card bundled with the phone.

Even the most consumer-centred new mobile phones are moving toward 3G data connection, but this is missing from the Curve 8830.  Downloads and web browsing are hampered by the slow connection.

The 2 megapixel camera is miserable, lacking more than the most basic features.  Images are grainy, poorly coloured, and dull.

Conclusion

Ease of use goes a long way to make up for the Curve 8830’s lack of features.  Users who compare mobile phones, however, are likely to find other products with more advanced multi-media offerings.

Lurking in the middle of the battery cover, the camera shoots video at 720p with motion that remains smooth and clear (videos at this resolution are often distinctly jerky) and there are two dedicated buttons – one for stills, the other for videos, which makes operation a breeze. The still shots are crisp and detailed, although they’re just a little muted in the colour department. You’ll probably be aware that HD footage guzzles a lot of storage space, but the Sony Ericsson Vivaz comes with a capacious 8 GB micro-SD card as standard. There’s an irritating design glitch here, though: to get at the card, you have to remove the battery. Hurrumph to that.

At 3.2 inches, the display is generous without being massive (the Sony Ericsson X10’s screen is a stunning 4 inches). For the size of screen, the 640×320 pixel resolution is more than adequate, making browsing the web a delight – videos, graphics and even text look fabulous.

The main downsides lie in the use of the cumbersome and sluggish Symbian S60 OS and the choice of a resistive rather than a capacitative touch screen. But there are plenty of preloaded apps (including a YouTube player), the GPS is excellent, and the phone’s HSDPA and Wi-Fi will permit fast data downloads wherever you are. And you’ll get at least 2 days out of a single charge of the battery. If you like contract mobile phones, you can pick this one up for a not too unreasonable £25-a-month over two years. SIM-free, it’ll set you back about £350.

It has a very small external screen which only displays the time and a 65k internal screen measuring 176 pixels by 220 pixels which is just about adequate for watching video clips and viewing photographs. The superb onboard camera has a 4x zoom and the video capture is excellent quality.

The Motorola E550 comes with a selection of J2ME™ games built ii, including ‘Wakeborder’, and ‘Photofun Editor’, and others can be downloaded if required. Bluetooth ability makes it possible for a call to be taken on a headset when the user is not close to the phone.

There are a mixture of polyphonic and mp3 ringtones for the Motorola E550 and these can be downloaded from the internet if the user fancies a change of ringtone. The Motomixer remixable ringer lets the user play with the ring tones, mix match, merge, etc and can be a lot of fun to play with.

Text messaging (also called SMS) and multimedia messaging (MMS) which sends sounds, pictures to other compatible mobile phone handsets is very easy and somewhat intuitive to use.

Samsung mobile phones have certainly made progress on their original AMOLED screens – although they were amazingly bright and crisp, their glossy finish made viewing difficult in daylight. The Super AMOLED is considerably less reflective, and all the better for it. And the Wave’s Super AMOLED also happens to be super-responsive, too, which makes navigation a pure delight. Like the Galaxy, this highly sensitive capacitative screen supports multi-touch – to zoom in on a text or image, you just pinch your fingers together and, hey presto, you’re closer. You’ll also find that the phone includes HSDPA for super-fast web browsing over 3G, as well as GPS and the very latest 802.11n standard of Wi-Fi. You can also expand the integral 2 GB memory to a jaw-dropping 32 GB with a micro-SD card – and that camera’s a dream: not only will it automatically compensate for dark areas with a quick touch of the screen, it also shoots superb 720p HD video.

The Samsung Wave uses the new ‘Bada’ OS rather than Google’s Android, and Samsung believes this will deliver more smartphone features to less expensive phones. We’ll have to wait and see, but in the meantime, the Wave is a truly smart-looking smartphone at a reasonable price.

What’s most noticeable about the LG GW520 is its full QWERTY keyboard.  This is an excellent keyboard, having keys which are nicely spread apart and large enough to eliminate mistyping errors. The keyboard also carries a set of arrow keys, perfect for scrolling up and down a webpage or conversation. This keyboard combines with LG’s LiveSquare software, to create an ideal instant messaging device, combining a wide variety of protocols and programs into one simple system. 

While the software may be adequate, and the GW520’s keyboard may be suitable, this phone suffers from several key hardware issues that simply make the phone inferior to other models. First and foremost, the provided touch screen is simply not sensitive enough. The arrow keys quickly turn into a necessity rather than a convenience factor, simply because the touch screen cannot be effectively scrolled through. In addition, the 2.8 inch screen, while a decent size, is simply not large enough for some social networking apps.  The face book application quickly begins to look cramped, and difficult to read.

The GW520 is an honest attempt, however due to the glaring faults of the product, it cannot be recommended.  Hopefully LG takes this device as a lesson, and improves future QWERTY keyboard, touch screen smart phones. Please check mobile phone reviews for other LG products, or compare mobile phones from other manufacturers.

Pros

Much like the Wii gaming system, the Yari features gesture-controlled gaming.  This is a unique innovation uncommon to most new mobile phones.  Some games require the user to move the entire handset, while others let users prop the phone and use their hands to move the characters.  The gesture controls are not always practical – try using this mode in a crowded pub while waiting for a friend, for instance – but they’re definitely good fun.

There’s a built-in GPS, a 5 megapixel camera with good picture quality, simple photo sharing capabilities, and a chic, stylish outer casing.

Cons

The Yari has a lot of buttons.  It’s very easy to fumble with the keys or accidentally press the wrong button.  There is a learning curve, as with most new mobile phones, but initially it feels very user unfriendly.

Music playback is underwhelming, though the music player itself is quick and easy to launch.  As with many Sony Ericsson mobile phones, there isn’t a 3.5 mm headphone jack.

Intensive apps like games load painfully slowly, and customisation is limited.  Web navigation is badly pixellated, making pages appear outdated despite the Yari’s 3G speed.  There is no Wi-Fi connectivity – a glaring omission.

Conclusion

The Yari is a pleasant mobile phone with great gaming capabilities.  The overly complex button layout and proprietary headphone jack do little to stand in the way of basic phone and messaging functions.

The biggest difference between the X3 and its older brother, the X6, is that the X3 no longer has a touch screen, and instead reverts back to a more traditional hard 1-9, non-QWERTY keyboard. This keyboard slides out from the bottom of the phone, and is easy to use despite being relatively low tech.

The music player on the Nokia X3 is well thought out, and perhaps an improvement on the X6 despite not coming with the Nokia ‘Comes With Music’ package. The camera, though, is a big step down on the Nokia X3 as it shuns the Carl Zeiss lenses which are used on more expensive Nokia mobile phones for a cheaper version. Despite this drop in lens quality, the camera on the phone will still take good quality photographs.

One of the biggest problems with the Nokia X3, though, is the feel of the phone. As the handset is designed to be a cheap mobile phone, it can feel poorly made and unwieldy at times. Also, due to the lack of ‘Comes With Music’, owners of other Nokia mobile phones can’t transfer their download library to the X3 due to digital rights management issues.

The screen is undoubtedly one of the sharpest ever seen on a handset and the colours are amazing.  It gives you the ability to browse the internet using HSDPA or the Wi-Fi connection.  One of the outstanding features on this handset is the email system that supports all the major clients.  You can even have corporate email accounts that are simple to set up. 

The BlackBerry Bold 9000 has Quad band coverage and gives you up to 4.5 hours talk time and up to 324 hours standby time.  It has many features including a 2 mega pixel camera with flash, a video camera, video and audio player with that all important 3.5 mm headphone jack.  Also included are GPRS, 3G, GPS and Bluetooth. As previously mentioned it has a great email system that is ideal for both business and pleasure.

The Bold handset is very versatile for anyone who uses it.  It is ideal for people who are conducting their business away from the office or just using it to keep in touch with friends and family.  The browser facility allows you to go online and keep up to date with all your social network sites.  For many years people have complained about handsets having one feature but lacking in others; this handset appears to have it all.

The AMOLED touch screen is bright, with vivid colours that really pop. Three navigation buttons are located just beneath it. Open the slider and you’re presented with a user-friendly keypad with back-lighting and well-spaced keys for easy texting.

One of the best features of the Tocco Ultra is its 8.0 megapixel camera. The camera is easy to use and the resulting photo quality is sharp. One of least favoured features is the resistive touch screen. The interface is weak and it can be difficult to use; sometimes taking several deliberate presses to get the phone to do what it is supposed to do.

To compare mobile phones, we look to the Sony Ericsson C905, which also features an 8 megapixel camera, only with Xenon flash versus the Tocco Ultra’s dual LED. The C905 also has Wi-Fi capability, which the Tocco Ultra does not.

The Samsung Tocco Ultra is available through several contract mobile phone deals, as well as on pay-as-you-go and SIM free.