Mobile Phone Deals, Latest Mobile Phone News and Reviews

We here at M-tel reported back in March that there would be a cap on text and call charges when using mobile phones in the European Union, and today the caps became official.

Sending a text message from your mobile phone while in the EU has now been capped at 11 euro cents, which is around 9.4p, down from the previous average of 28 euro cents (23.9p) per message. The price of making a phone call has also been capped at 43 euro cents (36.8p), with the cost of receiving a call dropping to 19 euro cents.

Data charges have also been reduced to 1 euro per megabyte.

The EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding, who lobbied for the capped rates with a number of European Parliament MPs said: “The roaming-rip off is now coming to an end”.

The caps have come into force even though there was stiff opposition from the mobile phone operators, which are estimated to lose significant profits from their roaming charges.

Samsung has announced its latest Smartphone for the Omnia series, the Omnia LITE B7300. As the name suggests, the B7300 is a basic version of the powerful Omnia range that still packs enough features for the majority of users.

The Omnia LITE B7300 is a candy bar styled phone featuring a combination of brushed metal on the front and a peculiar raised cellular pattern on the rear. Featuring a 3 inch touchscreen display with a resolution of 200×400 and a 3 megapixel camera, this is where the device gets its LITE name, but a whole host of other useful features is set to appeal to many.

Running the Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional operating system, the Omnia LITE B7300 also features 3G, HSDPA and Wi-Fi compatibility, as well as GPS navigation, document viewer and multimedia player. The B7300 also features Samsung’s TouchWiz interface, which is seen on the high-end Samsung Smartphones.

Internal memory is 250MB and can be extended up to 32GB with the built-in microSd card slot. Measuring 107 x 51 x 13 and weighing just over 100 grams, the Samsung Omnia LITE is compact and ideal to fit into your pocket.

Samsung state that the Omnia LITE B7300 will be available in Q3 2009 in either black or blue colour combinations.

Nokia Mobile Phones are known for both inexpensive models as well as Smartphone’s, and when Nokia designed the Nokia 6300, they decided to go back to the basics.  The Nokia 6300 has become one of the most popular pre-pay phones in the UK since its release, and combines portability (measuring only 106 x 43 x 11mm) with some newer features.

The screen measures 30mm by 40mm so it is large enough to see text messages and emails clearly; an improvement over some other models.  The screen’s resolution is 320×240 pixels and supports 16 million colours.  However, the Nokia 6300’s camera isn’t all that great.  The camera is a 2-megapixel camera but there is no auto-focus or flash so pictures can turn out blurry with even the slightest movement.

Additionally, the phone features FM radio, Bluetooth, and can synchronize data wirelessly.  The email feature is easy to set-up and works well with most of the popular email services.  The phone handled calls fairly well with only a few disruptions.  Also, the GPRS/EDGE connection was slow sometimes.

The Nokia 6300 is available now for around £80 with a free £10 top up to get you started.

Nokia has unveiled its newest XpressMusic mobile phone the 5530. This new device is styled after the 5800 XpressMusic and features a 2.9 inch touchscreen display, 3.2 megapixel camera and Wi-Fi connectivity.

The Nokia 5530 XpressMusic will be cheaper than its 5800 XpressMusic counterpart, but it does have some differences; it does not come with 3G or GPS support, which may sway some people. However, most of the other features are there including quad-band GSM, 3.5mm headphone socket, fully fledged multimedia player, FM radio and Bluetooth connection, all running on the Symbian v9.4 operating system.

A microSD card slot is also included, which is capable of taking SD cards up to 16GB (4GB card included). The 5530 XpressMusic measures 104 x 49 x 13mm and weighs 107 grams, which is a good size for saying how much stuff is in it.

Nokia has stated that the 5530 XpressMusic will be available in various colours including, blue, grey, red, yellow and pink and has a Q3 2009 release date.

Apple yesterday announced the newest iPhone to join the range called the iPhone 3G S (the S is for speed). The device itself has very similar styling to the previous iPhone versions, but will now offer faster functions and more features.

Apple state that the iPhone 3G S will be up to twice as fast as the 3G model, which in turn was twice as fast as the original device. One of the most awaited features of the new iPhone 3G S is its 3 megapixel camaera, which includes autofocus and is the first iPhone to support video recording; the 3G S can record video up to 620×480 pixels at 30 fps.

The iPhone 3G S is the same size as the 3G version (115.5 x 62.1 x 12.3mm) and has the same 3.5inch touch sensitive display, but most of the upgrades are done through the software and applications rather than the actual device.

The 3G S will run a new version of the iPhone software, which existing iPhone users can upgrade to and take advantage of some of the features. These include an upgraded calendar, better search and web browsing capabilities and better multimedia features. iPhone 3G S users will also be able to connect the device to a laptop to use as a portable modem.

Internal memory will now be 16GB and 32GB, but although it will be enough for most people there is still no way to expand the memory further through a card slot or flash drive.

The Apple iPhone 3G S will be released in the US on the June the 19th in black or white; there is no news on the UK or European release date yet.

Samsung has unveiled its first 12 megapixel camera phone called the M8910 Pixon. This new device is set to rival Sony Ericsson’s 12 megapixel camera phone the Satio (formally the Idou).

The M8910 Pixon is quad-band and features a large 3.1 inch AMOLED touchscreen, HSDPA and Wi-Fi connections, a media player and microSD card slot that supports up to 16GB memory cards. As the Pixon name suggests, the M8910 is similarly styled to the existing M8800 Pixon device, apart from the 12 megapixel camera mounted on the back.

The camera features a touch autofocus interface, geo-tagging, face and smile detection and a power LED flash for dark situations; there is also a front mounted videocall camera. GPS and Bluetooth are also supported, and the M8910 has a buil-in TV-out socket so you can view your pictures and movies on a big screen.

The Samsung M8910 Pixon measures 108 x 53 x 13.8mm and weights 120 grams, making it nearly the same size and weight as the M8800 Pixon.

Samsung state that the M8910 will be available sometime in June, three months before Sony Ericsson’s Satio phone (due for release in Q3 2009), but time will tell who will be the consumer’s favourite 12 megapixel camera phone.

The second budget phone to be announced by Nokia is the 2730 Classic and will be Nokia’s cheapest 3G enabled device to date. Even though it has a small price tag (around £70), the Nokia 2730 Classic has a wide range of features including a 2 inch colour screen, microSD card slot, multimedia player and 3.5mm headphone socket.

The Nokia 2730 Classic also has a 2 megapixel camera and comes with a web browser and email client as standard. Quad-band GSM and dual-band 3G connectivity is also supported as well as Bluetooth and USB connections for transferring data to and from the device.

Small and portable, the 2730 Classic measures just 109 x 47 x 14.4mm and weighs less than 90 grams. Being a budget device there is no HSDPA or Wi-Fi connectivity, but if you are looking at this device I doubt you would need them anyway.

All in all the Nokia 2730 Classic is a high performing phone that doesn’t burn a hole in your wallet. Due for release in Q3 of 2009, the 2730 Classic will be available in black or dark red.

Nokia has unveiled three new pre-pay mobile phones for the emerging markets, the 2730 Classic, 2720 Fold and the 7020. In this article we will concentrate on the 2720 Fold, as it is the cheapest of the three; it will be available for around £50 when it’s released in Q3 2009.

The Nokia 2720 Fold is a pretty basic phone and as the name suggests has a clamshell design. The internal screen is a 1.8 inch colour TFT, with the external screen measuring 1.36 inch which displays the time, signal strength and battery life.

A 1.3 megapixel camera is also included, but being a budget phone, the 2720 Fold does not support 3G or Wi-Fi connections and has no memory card slot; internal memory is just 32MB. A media player is included to play music and videos, although there isn’t much space to store them on and an FM radio with RDS is built-in for listening to music on the move.

The Nokia 2720 Fold is set to be released in Q3 2009 and will be available in black or deep red colours.

Vodafone has announced that it will be launching its own online application store, much like the hugely successful Apple iPhone App store. Vodafone has over 290 million customers worldwide, who will be able to download applications and games straight to their mobile phones from Vodafone’s application store.

Nokia, Microsoft and Research In Motion (RIM), who manufacture the Blackberry Smartphones have all announced similar online application stores over the past few months. Vodafone announced that its store will be launching in the autumn and will allow developers the chance to build applications that could be used on a wide range of handsets.

Vodafone also stated that it would also be working to give access to the store for their partner networks, Verizon Wireless in the US and China Mobile, which would mean that up to a billion mobile phone users could have access to the site worldwide.

Sony Ericsson has unveiled an upgraded version of its Snapshot S302 mobile phone. The new S312 has a more modern design, but the specifications are nearly identical to the S302, with a 2 inch colour display and 2 megapixel camera.

Apart from the design, the only other differences between the S312 and S302 are that the new device has a dedicated video record button and the FM radio now features RDS. Other features include a scratch-resistant display, Memory Stick Micro card slot supporting up to 4GB and Bluetooth and USB connections.

The camera has a pretty basic 2 megapixel lens and LED flash, which can also record video files as well. The Sony Ericsson S312 also has a multimedia player, supporting various audio and video files including MP3 and MPEG4 files.

The S312 measures 100 x 46 x 12.5mm, weights 80 grams and will be available in Dawn Blue or Honey Silver colour variations.

The Sony Ericsson S312 is expected to be available during Q3 of 2009; there is no news on price or network availability, but expect it to be around the £100 mark for the sim free version when it’s released.