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YOU, ME AND 3G

BY SARAH BROBERG

Third generation mobile phone technology has been gaining momentum in Asia and Europe for almost five years, but only recently began to appear on the Egyptian market in anticipation of a new license to build the country’s first 3G network. But you don’t have to wait until the network is up and running to enjoy the many advantages of 3G-compliant phones. Already, existing networks support high-speed mobile services such as video streaming, multimedia messaging, e-mail and Internet access, games as well as news and information services and data transfer via GPRS. When 3G becomes reality, you will also enjoy faster access to these services, better quality telephony service, faster data transfer and videoconferencing.

All 3G smartphones reviewed here are equipped with basics such as Bluetooth, SMS and MMS messaging along with POP3, SMTP and IMAP4 e-mail, and a web browser to name but a few.

Sony Ericsson K600 (£E 2,400)

Sony Ericsson introduced the K600 as a mass 3G solution on account of its small size and simplicity. Compact with a simple design, the tri-band phone is GSM900/1800/1900 MHz compatible and has a TFT screen with a resolution of 176 x 220 pixels showing up to 262K colors. Its onscreen picture is vivid but tends to wash out in sunlight, and, although text remains legible, making out all the details is sometimes challenging because of the small font size.

The K600 boasts a 1.3 MP camera with a sliding shutter on the back of the device and includes a flash. It provides three possible resolutions: 1280 x 1024, 640 x 480 and 160 x 120 pixels, but doesn’t compress photos, so they are always set at the highest quality. Yet since the small phone was designed to be strictly functional and not for high-quality photos, it only has 33 MB of shared memory with no expansion slot. In addition, the resolution of the phone’s video is somewhat low.

The handset has a good quality built-in FM tuner and MP3 file player, and is equipped with a mini USB plug and socket for connecting to a PC. The featherweight 105 gram phone has a 900 mAh Li-Ion battery that can run for up to 200 hours in standby and a respectable six hours talking. Full recharging takes about two hours. The phone is only available in aluminum silver.

i-mate JASJAR (£E 6,499)

i-mate is a new player on the wireless market, with the Dubai-based company’s first product launching in 2002. More than just a tri-band mobile supporting GSM 900/1800/1900 MHz, the new JASJAR handset is a small clamshell-style pocket PC with a built-in 62-key QWERTY keyboard and a 180-degree pivot VGA screen.

The handset’s huge 9cm portrait/landscape display with 640 x 480 resolution is both vivid and detailed, which makes it an ideal portable media player. While the screen is bright, power consumption from the LED backlight is low.

The JASJAR is equipped with a 1.3 MP camera with resolution of 1280 x 1024 as well as a powerful flash and video light. The device comes equipped with a 520 MHz Intel processor and Windows Mobile 5.0 applications, as well as Internet telephony software. Its 64 MB of RAM and 128 MB of flash ROM gives it almost as much memory as you might find in a PC, and with an expandable memory slot to boot. But all this power tips the scale at 285 grams, making it a heavy handset.

The phone has a mini USB plug and socket to connect to a PC. Its 1,620 mAh Li-Ion battery provides up to eight hours of talk time with a standby time of up to 260 hours.
Mobinil recently struck a deal to distribute the JASJAR and its cousin, the i-mate K-Jam, at its shops and customer service centers nationwide. Users pay a flat £E 150 monthly GPRS subscription fee in return for unlimited data and web access, or can be charged according to data transferred.

Nokia N90 (£E 4,650)

The N90 is the first of the new generation smartphones by Nokia. The novelty of this flip phone is that its 2 MP pixel camera is actually an appendage affixed to the top of the phone able to rotate separately from the phone. If the phone is held vertically, the camera can be rotated up to 270 degrees without moving the phone. The camera comes equipped with auto-focus, 20x optical zoom and integrated flash, among other features, which make this one of the best camera phones on the market.

The N90 is tri-band GSM 900/1800/1900 MHz and runs Symbian version 8.1a, non-Microsoft software that emulates many of the functions of Windows. It has a 2.8 x 2.8cm external screen with TFT resolution of 128 x 128 pixels and up to 65K colors, while the 3.6 x 4.2cm internal screen has a TFT resolution of 352 x 416 and 262K colors. The high-quality screens work well in both sunlight and darkness, but at a hefty 173g, the N90 is a giant compared to other smartphones.

In fact, the phone’s size necessitated a smaller battery, so Nokia opted for a 760 mAh Li-Ion battery with a standby time of 240 hours and up to 4.5 hours of talk time. The N90 is available only in metallic and comes equipped with just 31 MB of memory, though expansion cards are available.

Siemens SL75 (£E 2,550)

The Siemens SL series has attracted much attention for its design and the SL75 exemplifies why. This sleek, rounded slide phone combines a 1.3 MP camera with Bluetooth, USB, a multi-format audio player (including MP3) and a healthy 70 MB of memory. The tri-band GSM 900/1800/1900 MHz handset has a 4.6cm transflective TFT display with a resolution of 132 x 176 pixels and 262K colors.

The camera has a maximum resolution of 1280 x 1024 pixels and integrates an LED photo light and 5x digital zoom, allowing for still shots and video recording. While its shutter speed is too slow for fast-moving objects, and images take too long to save for multi-shooting, it balances this handicap with video streaming capability in three formats: H.263, MPEG4 and Real Video 8. Video can be recorded in two resolutions with a maximum duration of 1.5 minutes, with the option of turning the sound off.

Small, lightweight and sexy, the SL75 weighs in at under 100 grams. Its 720 mAh Lithium Ion battery allows about 300 hours of standby and four hours of talk time. The phone is available in three colors: black, pure silver and polar white.

Motorola PEBL V6 (£E 1,990)

The Motorola PEBL V6 is designed for those placing more preference on style than substance. It might not boast as many high-tech features as some of the other 3G handsets, but with its small size and minimalist design it’s one of the most elegant. The quad-band GSM 850/900/1800/1900 handset has a 3cm TFT screen with a resolution of 176 x 220 pixels and 262K colors – the same screen is used in the majority of Motorola’s clamshells and one of the best in its class, although it is known to wash out in sunlight.

The oval flip-phone handset features a standard VGA camera with no flash, although picture quality is good. The camera also records video for up to 30 seconds, supporting resolutions of both 128 x 96 pixels and 176 x 144 pixels with optional sound recording. Video quality is average though saving a video can take almost as long as recording it.

The 109 gram phone plays AAC and MP3 files, but with its paltry 5 MB of non-expandable memory, you can only store a few of them. A standard mini USB connector on the top of the phone lets you synchronize the device with a PC or charge it. Running on a 820 mAh Li-Ion battery, the phone allows about 180 hours of standby time and a respectable six hours of talk time. The handset comes in a wide variety of colors including pink, orange, blue and black.

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