Mobile Phone Deals, Latest Mobile Phone News and Reviews

Samsung has unveiled yet another touchscreen phone to its range, which will be available very soon according to prominent sources. Codenamed the A867 Eternity, the device looks very much like the Samsung F480 Tocco, but that’s where the similarities end.

The Samsung A867 Eternity is quad-band and features a 3.2 inch touchscreen display, HSDPA and Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity, microSD memory card slot and a 3.15 megapixel camera. The Samsung Eternity will also feature built-in GPA and A-GPS as well as a media player for listening to music or watching videos.

The Samsung Eternity measures 109 x 56 x 13mm and weighs in at around 110 grams and the battery life has a capacity of up to 250 hours on standby and 5 hours of talk time. Rumours suggest that the Samsung A867 Eternity will be released before Christmas, but as yet are unconfirmed.

Mobile phone operator O2 has added more customers to its network during Q3 of 2008 (July to September), than Vodafone and Orange put together as O2’s iPhone exclusivity and sim-only deals extend its market share over its rivals.

Recent figures released by O2 show that the network operator has had its best Q3 of all time and has added 31,000 more customers than its closest two rivals put together.

Over Q3 of 2008, O2 has seen a total of 402,000 new customers with 278,000 contract customers and 124,000 pay as you go customers. The recent jump in customers is thought to be due to the company being the exclusive seller of the widely popular iPhone 3G, combined with its simplicity sim-only deals.

O2 also added over 72,000 customers to its fixed-line broadband division, beating the market leader BT who added 69,000 customers and coming second to Sky broadband, who added a staggering 164,000 new customers.

Nokia has announced a new Smartphone to join its range, the Nokia E63. The E63 is basically a stripped down version of the popular Nokia E71, which will be aimed at the consumer market rather than the business sector.

The main difference between the E71 and E63 is that the E63 does not have GPS or HSDPA built-in, and the E63 only has a 2 megapixel camera compared to the E71, which has a 3.2 megapixel camera. Other differences are that the E63 will incorporate a 3.5mm headphone socket, so there is no need to use an adapter when using your favourite headphones.

The Nokia E63 will feature a full QWERTY keyboard, 2.3 inch display, 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity and microSD memory card slot. The E63 also has dedicated keys for home, calendar, contacts and email as well as a NaviKey to scroll through the device. A multimedia play is also featured, which supports various audio and video formats and the whole phone is controlled by the Symbian S60 operating system.

The Nokia E63 will be available in two colours, blue and red and will be released in the next few weeks for around the £160 price mark, but expect it to be free with certain contracts.

One of the leading High Street mobile phone retailers, Phones4U has been investigated by Ofcom after a spate of complaints to Trading Standards. There were more than 2000 complaints in a two month period, prompting the Ofcom investigation.

The investigation, which has lasted for nearly six months, concluded earlier this week and found that Phones4U had breached consumer laws when selling its mobile phone contracts. This included employees giving bad advice to customers about the phone contracts and failing to refund or replace faulty handsets.

Phones4U, which has over 400 stores in the UK, has changed its phone returns policy and numerous sales practices since the investigation; it has also implemented new changes to its staff training.

Ofcom said that Phones4U had given their full cooperation during the inquiry, and a statement released by Phones4U said, “Phones 4u notes the Ofcom announcement and is pleased that the investigation has reached a satisfactory outcome following a constructive and collaborative process.”

O2 have announced that it’s new PDA, the XDA Zest will be available on both pay and go and contract tariffs. It will be the first O2 XDA device to be offer on their pay and go tariff, and is hoped that first time PDA users will opt for the new device instead of a standard mobile phone.

The O2 XDA Zest is manufactured by computer hardware firm Asus, and is basically a re-branded version of the Asus P552w. The device features the Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional operating system, 2.8 inch touchscreen display, a 3.2 megapixel camera and secondary front camera for voice calls.

Wi-Fi and HSDPA are also supported as well as Bluetooth 2.0, USB synchronisation, built-in GPS and A-GPS, Pocket Office for viewing Word, Excel and PDF files and a media player supporting various audio and video formats. A microSD card slot is also available and can take up to 16GB of memory.

The O2 XDA Zest is due out sometime this month and will cost £249.99 on O2’s pay and go tariff, and will be free with some contracts.

Sony Ericsson has unveiled a new device for their Walkman range, the W705. This new device is a slider phone and will be the first Walkman branded device to feature Wi-Fi connectivity.

The Sony Ericsson W705 features a brushed metal front, 2.4 inch display, HSDPA and Wi-Fi connectivity, Bluetooth 2.0 and comes with a 4GB Memory Stick Micro card to store your audio and video files on.

In addition to the mentioned features above, the W705 also has a 3.2 megapixel camera with flash and a front mounted VGA camera for voice calls. Dedicated music keys are positioned on the front, so you can play, stop and skip through your music with both camera and volume buttons located on the side.

As you would expect from a Walkman phone, the W705 has a media player with the latest Walkman v3.0 software installed and supports numerous audio and video files; FM radio is also included. One big feature that is missing is a 3.5mm headphone socket, but Sony Ericsson usually include an adapter if you want to use your own headphones.

There is no word on a release date or price for the Sony Ericsson W705, but it is widely expected to surface in the first quarter of 2009.

Nokia have announced a new version of their popular 5130 XpressMusic mobile phone. Designed as a low budget phone and touted as one of the cheapest music handsets on the market, the new Nokia 5130 XpressMusic is set to be popular with the pay-as-you-go sector.

The Nokia 5130 XpressMusic is a quad-band device and has a 2 inch display, dedicated music buttons, a 3.5mm headphone socket and FM radio. Other features include a not too shabby 2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth and a microSD card slot that can take up to 8GB (1GB card supplied with the device).

Of course being an XpressMusic handset, the Nokia 5130 has a media player that supports various audio and video formats, and the dedicated music keys on the side make it easy to play, pause and skip through your favourite tunes.

The Nokia 5130 XpressMusic ticks all the boxes for an entry level device, and with a price tag of around £70 and lots of features, is set to be very popular. The only downside is that it won’t be released until early next year, meaning you won’t be getting one in your Christmas stocking.

The latest report by the Mobile Data Association has shown that UK mobile phone users send on average 217 million text messages a day, up from an average of 157 million during the same period of last year.

This means that over 6.5 billion text messages are sent a month by UK mobile users and the number of multimedia messages, such as picture and video texts has also risen by 20%, up to an average of 1.5 million a day.

The survey, which was conducted in Q3 of this year (between July to September), tracked the amount and type of text messages that were sent from UK based mobile phones. The Mobile Data Association went on to add that the increase of messages sent compared to last year, was a result of the cheap text message bundles being offered by network providers.

The report also showed that 16.9 million people accessed the internet on their mobile phones during September; this was down compared with August, which saw 17.1 million users access the mobile internet, though this is probably due to people accessing the latest sporting results from the Olympic Games.

The Nokia N79 is one of the newest devices to gain the N-series name and is also the smallest. Although it only measures 110 x 49 x 15mm and weights 97 grams, the Nokia N79 is packed full of features.

The Nokia N79 is a quad band, candy bar styled mobile phone that features a 2.4 inch display, 5 megapixel camera with dual flash and HSDPA and Wi-Fi connectivity for high speed internet browsing.

GPS and A-GPS are also featured on the device, as well as a comprehensive media player, FM radio and FM transmitter. Internal storage is 83MB and a microSD card slot is also present (a 4GB microSD card is included) to store your audio, video and picture files.

The Nokia N79 uses the Symbian S60 operating system, which has proven to be a very popular OS and data and files can easily be transferred to and from the device via Bluetooth 2.0 or the bundled USB cable. The N79 also comes with Xpress-on covers so you can customise the look of the device.

All in all, the Nokia N79 is a practical and small mobile phone, packed with the advanced features of a bigger device. The Nokia N79 is due out in a couple of weeks, no word on contracts or prices yet.

Samsung have unveiled a new Armani embossed mobile phone to join its other mobile devices. For the new Samsung M7500 has ditched the ‘Giorgio’ name tag, going for the ‘Emporio’ name instead.

The Samsung M7500 Emporio Armani, also known as the Night Effect is a stylish and trendy candy bar shaped device, which features red, green or blue side lights displaying the Armani logo. Built as a multimedia phone, the M7500 boasts dedicated music keys as well as a media player capable of playing various audio and video formats.

The display is a 2.2 inch OLED screen, which is designed to give more vibrant colours, and a rear mounted 3.1 megapixel camera and a front mounted VGA camera are featured. Music and video files can be stored on a microSD memory card and can be transferred to the device via the USB cable or Bluetooth 2.0.

The Samsung Emporio Armani also features 3G and HSDPA connectivity, but does not include a Wi-Fi connection, which might put some people off.

The Samsung Emporio Armani is due out sometime in November, prices and contracts are to be confirmed.