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SINGAPORE: Getting physical with a Qwerty keyboard on a phone might seem outdated, what with touchscreen phones being all the rage now. But touchscreen handsets aren’t necessarily better. Hedirman Supian plays with three of the hottest Qwerty phones in the market to find out if they’re worth your time (and money).
Review: BlackBerry Bold
It has been a long wait, but the BlackBerry has finally caught on with the times. With the BlackBerry Bold, Research In Motion (RIM) has packed in 3.5G connectivity, along with an updated Web browser and a form factor that won’t make style-conscious users cringe.
The BlackBerry now looks classier and sports a faux leather backing. But what really catches the eye is the brilliant screen. The 480x320 display renders pictures and videos crisply, with rich colour and contrast.
The fancy display complements the glossy new interface. Onscreen icons sport a neon glow effect and text doesn’t just appear; it fades. Sleek.
The smartphone retains the glowing mini trackball, making it a breeze to scroll through menus and zip through emails. While the keyboard’s keys are small, they’re subtly contoured so you can easily feel your way around. If you’re used to typing on Qwerty-based smartphones, this keyboard is a cinch.
With a 624MHz Intel processor, double the horsepower of previous BlackBerry devices, everything’s snappy, and applications launch almost instantly.
But once you delve deeper into the applications, you’ll find that the overhaul in the user interface isn’t as consistent. Applications like Tasks, MemoPad, Contacts and Mail look pretty basic.
In fact, the application set is the Bold’s weakest link. For example, it takes a long time to load maps and to pinpoint your location. There’s also a lengthy registration process before you get to use the productivity applications. The only good applications are the robust Mail feature and the browser, which displays full-fledged Web pages sans Flash.
Thankfully, the Bold’s multimedia capabilities have been given a boost. With RIM’s BlackBerry Media Sync, you can keep your music playlists and files in sync with iTunes. There’s a standard 3.5-inch audio jack so you can connect your own earphones. The 2-megapixel camera comes with flash as well. The Bold has 1GB of onboard memory and a microSD slot that supports capacities of up to 16GB.
In terms of connectivity, the BlackBerry comes with everything you need: GPS, Bluetooth 2.0, WiFi (802.11a/b/g) and 3.5G (up to 3.6Mbps).
The Bold is by far, the best BlackBerry yet. If you’re a “CrackBerry” head, there’s no question about upgrading. And, the Bold holds enough crossover appeal to mainstream consumers thanks to its polished looks and slightly overhauled software. Unfortunately, the Bold needs a more compelling selection of applications to compete with other smartphones on the market.
Review: Palm Treo Pro
Palm’s latest smartphone, the Treo Pro, is a mixed bag. With its curvy and glossy body, it’s one of Palm’s better-looking phones. Unfortunately, it still looks dated compared with the current batch of smartphones in the market.
The 3.5G (up to 3.6Mbps) phone runs Windows Mobile 6.1 instead of Palm’s operating system, which may raise its appeal to a much larger market of corporate users.
The Treo Pro includes some tweaked applications from Taiwanese phone maker HTC (which we hear actually designed the phone), like the Comm Manager and Task Manager, which make it easier to switch apps and set connection options.
The phone runs the mobile version of Internet Explorer, which doesn’t display websites in a desktop-like manner. It has GPS, WiFi (802.11 b/g) and Bluetooth 2.0, and a 2-megapixel camera that captures videos. A 3.5mm audio jack lets you use your own set of earphones.
The Treo Pro’s weakest link is its screen. While other manufacturers are ramping up the screen resolutions of their phones to make visuals sharper, this smartphone’s 2.5-inch screen is stuck at 320x320 and isn’t quite bright enough for outdoor use.
The smartphone is snappy when it comes to running Windows Mobile on its 400MHz processor. There’s only 100MB of internal storage but you can expand that up to 32GB with the integrated microSD slot.
When you unbox the smartphone, you’ll find that there aren’t any accompanying software discs.
Palm has preloaded the drivers and software onto the phone. When you connect it to your computer for the first time (only Windows is officially supported), installation runs automatically. This unorthodox method makes installation a breeze and we wish more device makers would adopt it.
The keyboard feels slightly cramped and the keys are so small that we keep making typos as we compose text messages and email.
Palm used to be known for smartphones that are easy to use, thanks to the Palm operating system. By running Windows Mobile instead, it makes the Treo Pro indistinct from the legions of smartphones out there. Its dated looks do not help, and though this Treo does have an ample list of features, it’s looking quite like a plain Jane smartphone.
Review: HTC Touch Pro
The HTC Touch Pro is the chunkier sibling of the Touch Diamond, with the extra heft coming from its most distinctive feature - a slide-out keyboard.
In terms of features, the Touch Pro is almost identical to the Touch Diamond. It retains the glossy 2.8-inch touchscreen with VGA resolution and includes GPS, Bluetooth, WiFi, 3.5G connectivity (up to 7.2Mbps), an FM radio and a 3.2-megapixel camera. The smartphone runs on the same 528MHz Qualcomm processor and is preloaded with Windows Mobile 6.1.
But there are a few refinements.
It sports a battery with a higher capacity and eschews the Diamond’s 4GB storage and lack of an expansion slot for 512MB of internal storage and a microSD slot. The main camera also sports a flash. Now, the TouchFLO 3D interface is also more responsive, thanks to the tweaks HTC made since the launch of the Diamond.
The star feature of the Touch Pro is its five-row keyboard. The backlit keyboard has neatly laid keys large enough for most thumbs. When the keyboard is in use, the phone’s onscreen display orientates itself automatically. Kudos also to HTC for making the sliding mechanism of the keyboard smooth, solid and responsive.
However, the keyboard isn’t quite as tactile as we’d like it to be. The keys are flat and smooth, making it hard to feel your way around the keyboard. More could have been done to make the keys feel more distinct from one another.
We’re also not crazy about the thickness of the device (18.05mm, compared to the Touch Diamond’s 11.35mm) and the lack of a 3.5mm audio output.
Still, thanks to its slide-out keyboard, the Touch Pro can afford to have a bigger touch-enabled screen than other smartphones. With VGA resolution, it’s sharp too.
For those hooked on the looks and features of the Diamond but can’t live without a physical keyboard, the Touch Pro seems like an apt choice. - TODAY/sh
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