Google Nexus One shows up at Vodafone UK's website
With US consumers really getting their fill on the HTC Nexus One, our friends on the other side of the big pond will soon see the arrival of Google's flagship Android phone. Since its unveiling back in January, it was confirmed that the Nexus One was coming to Vodafone UK some time in the spring; specifically it was scheduled for an April release.
From the looks of it though, the Nexus One has finally landed on Vodafone UK's web site with a “coming soon” attached to it – early adopters planning on snatching up the phone can register to get updates about the handset. Even better news are on the horizon as it's expected to make some waves with a possible release before the month of March is over. Despite the anticipation starting to simmer from Vodafone customers awaiting for the Nexus One, there is still no official price announced for the smartphone – but it's speculated to land in at €150 with a 2 year contract. Fortunately for Vodafone UK customers, they'll also be treated with another Android 2.1 device with the HTC Legend that's coming soon as well.
Via Mobile Phone News
Labels: Android Phone, Google Nexus one, Nexus One, Vodafone
Nokia X6 16GB Now Available at Vodafone UK
Vodafone UK has announced the availability of the new Nokia X6 on its network. The Vodafone’s Nokia X6 16GB phone is pre-loaded with Vodafone 360 Homescreen and the British comedy show Gavin & Stacey of third series. Moreover, The Vodafone’s Nokia X6 16GB phone provides the 360 Apps and Games Shop, Vodafone My Web, Vodafone Music, VIP contacts, and downloads DRM-free songs.
The X6 16GB also features a 3.2? capacitive touchscreen display, HSPA, Wi-Fi, Nokia Maps, GPS, 3.5mm headset jack, stereo speakers, TV-out and a 5MP camera with Carl Zeiss lens . The Nokia X6 16GB is actually being offered for free with a 2 year agreement that’s at least £30 per month which would include 600 minutes, 500MB of mobile internet, and unlimited texting.
Vodafone to Offer Apple’s iPhone in Ten Markets
More at iphonebuzz
Vodafone Signs with Apple to release iPhone in Australia and Other Countries
Vodafone today announced it has signed an agreement with Apple to sell the iPhone in ten of its markets around the globe. It’s signed with Apple to sell the iPhone in ten markets, including Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey. Expect the phone later this year — that’s all we know for now.
Vodafone’s Otello search engine uses images, not text
Vodafone is demonstrating a trial service called “Otello”, which is a search engine that uses images, rather than words at the CeBIT show in Germany. Rather than use a word as a search term, Otello users can send images via MMS from their mobiles and the search service which then returns the results to the user’s phone as an “ordinary” search result.
A picture from a newspaper, billboard, book cover or place are all examples of what can be searched for. Vodafone is running trials with a German newspaper that lets users find out more about stories by photographing the images that appear in the article and MMSing the images.
Labels: Vodafone
Nokia introduces the Nokia 6124 classic for Vodafone
Available exclusively for Vodafone customers world-wide, the Nokia 6124 classic has a 2.0" display and support 3G connection. Taking pictures is convenient with the 2 megapixel camera, flash and panorama mode. The external memory card slot allows the user to expand the memory up to 8GB, which offers plenty of space for favourite images, videos and music.
Based on S60 and Symbian OS, the Nokia 6124 classic enables the user to download additional applications and content on the phone. It also allows the user to run several applications on the device at the same time - making it easy to browse the Web while listening to your favorite music or talking. The Nokia 6124 classic will start shipping in Vodafone markets in the second quarter.
Vodafone UK and Telmap today introduces Vodafone Sat Nav
Vodafone Sat Nav provides users with a complete mobile navigation experience, including both in-car and pedestrian navigation. Featuring 3D maps that enhance the navigation experience, up-to-date maps and directions it also gives the customer instant access to live traffic alerts and millions of points-of-interest such as hotels, restaurants, shopping and attractions.
Vodafone Sat Nav is available on a variety of consumer mobile devices; launching initially on three of Vodafone UK's GPS embedded handsets - Nokia N95, Nokia N95 8GB and Nokia 6110 as well as the new BlackBerry Pearl 8110 smartphone. The subscription to the service costs GBP 5 per month with the first month free.
Labels: Vodafone
Vodafone to Roll Out Advanced Customer Service Directly on the Handset
Following a trial with more than 3000 customers in the UK and Spain using SNAPin SelfService, Vodafone will begin a phased roll out of the on device self care service from this year. The service will be available on open OS handsets, including S60, UIQ and Microsoft Windows Mobile, to begin with, with the aim to extend to the majority of handsets on offer from Vodafone over time.
The SNAPin service enables customers to navigate an on-screen visual menu of options which customers can use to answer questions or solve their problems right on the handset. Customers also have the option to connect through to the call centre, bypassing traditional IVR menus, or to get an automatic response directly on their phone. The menu can be tailored according to the needs of different customers.
Labels: Vodafone
Vodafone Group Trials 3G Femtocell Technology
Vodafone Group is carrying out technical trials of 3G femtocells to assess how effectively the technology is able to deliver wireless high-speed data and voice services inside homes and business locations.Vodafone is currently carrying out technical trials in Spain with both Alcatel-Lucent and Huawei to explore the potential of femtocells, which are wireless access points supporting 3G devices and connecting to the core network via broadband DSL.
Based on the trials, Vodafone anticipates that femtocell technology may potentially enable it to offer its customers highly targeted propositions for the home and office offering enhanced indoor coverage.
Vodafone is also exploring whether the deployment of femtocells could generate greater cost efficiencies through the provision of highly targeted 3G broadband coverage using DSL technology to connect the customer to the core network.
Labels: Vodafone
Vodafone to trial HSPA Plus
Vodafone will work alongside Ericsson, Huawei and Qualcomm to trial Release 7 HSPA+ (also known as HSPA Evolution) which has the potential to handle data even more efficiently than today’s HSPA technology.The initiative will help to establish whether HSPA+ is capable of delivering data throughput rates of up to 28.8 Mbps compared to the 14.4 Mbps maximum offered by today’s HSPA networks. If successful, the technology has the potential to extend the life of today’s HSPA infrastructure still further.
HSPA+ technology is designed to offer higher throughput than HSPA through its use of multiple antennae on both base stations and handsets (Multiple Input Multiple Output) as well as the deployment of a complex modulation technique called 64-QAM HSDPA. Both features will require new advanced devices compliant to 3GPP Release7 standard.
The project builds on early technical assessments that Vodafone has already carried out where the MIMO version of HSPA+ recorded high data throughput rates for users in a simulated urban macrocellular network.
Last year Vodafone launched a 3G broadband service based on High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) with downlink peak rates of up to 7.2Mbps in selected hotspots within some key markets. Vodafone plans to carry out software upgrades to more of these selected hotspots to deliver up to14.4Mbps from the end of the year as part of the existing HSPA roadmap subject to device availability.
Labels: Vodafone
Vodafone Launches Vodafone 227 and 228
Both the Vodafone 227 and Vodafone 228 offer more choice of style and price to customers. The Vodafone 227 is a clamshell phone and the Vodafone 228 is a slider mobile. In addition to core text and voice services, both come with a colour display, vibrating alert and headset.
Labels: Vodafone
Vodafone and Roshan Launch First Mobile Money Transfer Service in Afghanistan
The M-Paisa system builds on Vodafone’s M-PESA mobile money transfer service in Kenya which has seen 1.6 million people register as customers since its launch in March 2007. At launch the Afghan service will, however, have a significantly different focus from the Kenyan version. Initially M-Paisa will act mainly as a vehicle for microfinance institutions’ (MFI) loan disbursements and repayments, with an additional range of business to business applications such as salary disbursement and airtime distribution. Consumer person-to-person transactions will also be available from the outset, enabling those MFI clients and employees who have received their money via M-Paisa to benefit from the full capabilities of the service.
Roshan and Vodafone are trialing interactive voice recognition services which, when launched later in the year, will enable greater use of M-Paisa by consumers who might otherwise be excluded due to high illiteracy rates in Afghanistan.
Roshan’s retail outlets will serve as transaction points for the withdrawal or paying in of money, thus reducing any dependence on financial institutions. Currently, there are 50 M-Paisa-trained dealers in the cities of Kabul, Mazar, Jalalabad and Herat; Roshan is looking to expand agent reach nationwide by the end of 2008. In addition, M-Paisa will be used by major organisations such as Afghanistan’s The First MicroFinanceBank and FINCA – one of the world’s largest microfinance institutions. The First MicroFinanceBank has successfully used the service to disburse funds and accept loan repayments while FINCA is currently trialing the product. Other institutions within Afghanistan will soon use M-Paisa to disburse salaries to their unbanked employees.
Labels: Vodafone
Vodafone UK and Orange UK to begin sharing mobile mast sites in 2008
Orange and Vodafone today outlined the next steps in their vision to deliver better quality mobile coverage to more people, in more places across the UK.The two companies announced their intention to work together last year and are aiming to deliver customer, environmental and business benefits by establishing joint network efficiencies. The first stage of implementation will see Orange UK and Vodafone UK share existing 2G and 3G mast sites, with one site housing the equipment of both companies where previously two would have been used. Implementation will begin this year and will mean that half of the UK population – the combined customer base of both companies – will be able to make calls and use the mobile internet in more places than ever before.
As well as improving the quality of coverage across the country, the two companies will also have a smaller environmental footprint due to the fewer number of mast-sites needed. It is expected that the initiative will lead to a 15% reduction in the number of mast sites - almost 3,000 sites in total – in the first two years alone.
Orange UK and Vodafone UK will continue to maintain separate networks, will retain full responsibility for the quality of service they offer their respective customers and will remain competitors in the UK mobile wholesale and retail markets.
Vodafone and Orange will also benefit from the associated operational and financial cost efficiencies of having fewer mast sites, enabling them to deliver even more investment in innovative products and services for customers.
Labels: Vodafone
Sagem my411cv a pink clamshell for girls
Girls, we have one more thing to add to our get-me-these list for Christmas! And since its pretty affordable, I’m sure this pink clamshell phone from Sagem will definitely be in your hand. Sagem my411cv is cool as the handset's top cover is white with a pink trim while the back of the handset is entirely pink.The handset has a VGA camera with video capture and playback, a music player (additional microSD card required for mass music storage) and alarm.
It boasts a 128 x 160 pixel 65k colour screen and comes pre-loaded with five games: Block Breaker, Midnight Bowling, Midnight Pool, the award-winning Lego Star Wars and the classic game Worms.
The WAP 2.0 handset can access Vodafone Live! that enables the user to access content including sports news, entertainment news, games, videos, music and more.
The my411cv is available now in Woolworths for £40 on a Vodafone pay-as-you-go package.
Palm Treo 500v - World in your Palm
The latest Treo 500v is Palms attempt to save a position for itself in the market. The new Palm phone is coming in the market after a long break. Let’s see if Plam’s innovative team was working hard during this long break or was just having a break.The Palm Treo 500v is available in two colour schemes - grey/silver and white/silver is a Vodafone exclusive, hence given away free with some Vaodafone contracts. The sleek and slim casing with no edges is much more appealing then its Treo predecessors. The Palm Treo 500v measures 110x 61.5x 16.5millimeters (4.3″ x 2.4″ x .65″) and considering its loads of features it weighs just 120 grams. The phone features a QWERTY keyboard and a decent sized screen the phone look pretty stylish. But the size of the keys can be a problem for some as there is always a risk of accidentally giving a command which the user not intended to give. But it seems that the mobile phone makers have not been able to find a solution for this problem. If they concentrate on the size and the shape of the phone the keys get smaller and if they concentrate on the keys the phone gets bulky and ugly. Some will argue that touch screen is already a solution but they will also agree that it gets dicey sometimes as well. It is laced with bright and clear 320×240 pixel screen which is not scared of sunlight. It features strong backlight which illuminates the entire keyboard. Right below the screen there is an Oval ‘D’ pad, four flush buttons and the call receiving and ending buttons. The controls buttons are responsive and are comfortable as they are not small like rest of the keys on the keyboard. Laced with a 2megapixel camera a user replaceable Li-ion 1200MaH battery sitting tightly inside with the SIM and miniSD card slots lurking below the Treo 500v might fulfil the purpose it was launched with. You know we are not talking about the users.
Vodafone 710
The 710 is Vodafone’s first attempt to produce an own branded 3G handset aimed squarely at consumers. It isn’t available on Pay Monthly tariffs, only on Pay As You Talk, will set you back £72 and incorporates tri-band GSM.
As such the Vodafone 710 might have its greatest appeal among those for whom 3G is uncharted territory, who aren’t sure whether they really want or need the speed and services 3G offers, or who simply use their handset so infrequently that Pay as You Talk seems like a viable option.
Whatever the reason people are drawn to a handset, they are going to get something rather neat with the Vodafone 710. When closed this phone is very small and tidy in the hand and pocket – 91.2mm tall, 46mm wide, 23.5mm thick and weighs 99g. Open the clamshell up and it grows to just over 160mm tall.
Its fascia is pretty much entirely black, with silver trim and some silver side buttons. The Vodafone logo is a dot of scarlet on the front. The black parts of the casing have that slightly rubberised feel that makes phones comfortable to hold, and the edges are rounded so that it has a ‘bar of soap’ feel reminiscent of Motorola’s PEBL. It all adds up to a phone that is comfortable to carry and to use.
There is a small front greyscale display, just 96 pixels wide and 64 pixels tall. Also on the front is the main 1.3 megapixel camera and its flash unit.
Inside the clam the main screen manages just 176 x 220 pixels in an area measuring 2in corner to corner. It is about as wide as the casing can cope with, and couldn’t be a lot taller either. I can’t say it is especially impressive, though it does display 262,000 colours.
The number pad is fairly large, with the rows of keys separated from each other and raised enough from their surroundings to make them easy to find. The navigation button incorporates shortcuts to Vodafone Live!, SMS creation, contacts and a file manager when you press its north, east, south and west points. Add in dedicated buttons for video calling and launching the phone’s music player, and the configuration here seems to provide access to a reasonable proportion of what the phone has to offer fairly easily.
On the right edge is a covered slot for a miniSD card. You’ll probably need cards to augment the internal memory. There is 18MB built in, which is not going to be up to much if you are keen on using the Vodafone 710 for music playback or for shooting pictures.
When you shut the clam the front screen shows what is playing and combined use of the camera shortcut button on the right edge of the casing and the volume rocker on the left edge allows you to pause and resume playback and skip around through tracks.
Rather sadly, the headphone slot is a 2.5mm one, and the only way to use headphones with a 3.5mm jack is to buy a converter. This is an ungainly option for such a small handset, and won’t work well at all if you intend to carry the Vodafone 710 in a pocket. Bad move, Vodafone.
The main camera is a bit of a disappointment too. It shoots stills at a maximum resolution of 1.3 megapixels which puts this phone somewhat behind in the camera stakes. There seems to be a tendency to overexpose if the handset is left to decide how to handle shots itself. The coloured dish, my standard reference photo, taken indoors with the room lights on was a little washed out. The cat photo was taken outside on a gloomy winter day and his white fur is far too brilliant.
There is a notable lag between depressing the shutter button and the shutter noise coming from the phone. Shots appear to be taken when the button is pressed making the shutter sound an incidental, unnecessary and somewhat off-putting extra. I turned the shutter sound off pretty early on during testing.
The handset’s front screen does not act as a self portrait viewfinder for the camera when the clam is closed. Instead, when you hold down the camera shortcut button with the phone closed the built-in voice recorder starts running. Only when the clam is opened does the side button activate the camera, and then when you close the clam, the camera shuts down.
Your option for self portraits is to open the clam and use the camera that is primarily designed for video calling, which sits under the main screen. However, its resolution is limited to a maximum of 640 x 480 pixels.
Other features include email support, alarms, calendar, calculator, unit and currency conversion, task manager, timer and a stopwatch. Battery life proved to be a bit disappointing with continuous music playback from a full charge running a shade under five hours.
Verdict
The hardware design of the Vodafone 710 is rather appealing, the phone sits well in the hand and pocket when closed, and it is not too unwieldy when opened up.
In general, though, I’d have to characterise this phone as average. Then again, for £72 and a Pay As You Talk tariff you shouldn’t really be expecting something at the very leading edge.
Labels: Mobile, Vodafone, Vodafone 710
Sagem my850v
Sagem isn’t one of the best known handset producers, but it does churn them out at a steady old rate. Most recently I looked at the my215x which, while it didn’t pack in the features, was an absolute bargain for £20 on Vodafone Pay As You Talk.
Vodafone also has the scoop on this week’s handset, the Sagem my850v. It’s a 3G mobile, and a flip phone. Online you can find it at Vodafone’s business store and not its consumer store, though I don’t see why it shouldn’t be offered as a consumer phone. In fact its front facing music controls lead me to think it is more¬ of a consumer handset than a business one.
As flip phones go this example is rather large when closed - 96mm tall and 49mm wide but at least it is thin at 16mm, and pretty light at 95g. It’s tall when opened – 180mm, and like some other flip phones it does feel like a bit of a giant in the hand.
Inside there is plenty of space for a large screen but Sagem hasn’t given us one. Above and below it are vast tracts of unused space. Its two diagonal inches look a little lost. Still, it manages 240 x 320 pixels and 262,000 colours.
There is a large number pad at least. The number keys are possibly the largest I’ve ever seen on a mobile, and the central column key is massive. The navigation pad and its associated keys are also large. These are the Call, End, softkeys, a video call key and the music key.
When the phone is closed, small indents on both left and right sides let you slip a thumbnail between the upper and lower sections of the phone and open it one handed – this is good.
I like the rounded edges and the blue and silver colour scheme on the back of the handset. While the front of the phone looks blue in the photography accompanying this review, in real life it is dark enough to appear black, and I don’t find it as visually appealing as the back. Its glossy finish also attracts greasy fingerprints really easily.
However, embedded in the front is a small black and white LCD measuring just 1.1 inches corner to corner and offering 96 x 64 pixels. It shows the time and date, information about incoming calls, and can be used in conjunction with the volume rocker on the left side of the phone for quick profile switching.
When you are playing music it provides track information and three touch buttons beneath it enable you to skip tracks and pause/play. The screen and ‘buttons’ fade to nothing after a few seconds, but a quick tap of the volume rocker springs them back into life.
My review sample didn’t come with headphones, though the power slot on the side of the casing has a headphones logo on it, so I assume that you get a set and that the connector will be proprietary.
There are two cameras on this phone. One just below the screen is primarily for video calling though it can also be used to capture stills that include yourself at two resolutions – 320 x 240 and 640 x 480. The main camera has a 2-megapixel lens and so can shoot stills up to 1,600 x 1,200.
Without autofocus or flash it is a bit limited in terms of range and capability, though I found the lens let in a surprisingly large amount of light and results were generally quite pleasing under the auto setting I always use to test phone cameras.
The coloured dish, for example, which is my standard reference photo, taken indoors under household lighting displays vibrant colours that are well reproduced. The phone captured colours outdoors well too, with the pinks and yellows of the flowers pretty much spot on. You can see evidence of over exposure in the yellow flowers, but this image also shows that the phone does fairly well at capturing detail.
I said at the head of this review that Vodafone is selling the my850v out of its online business shop. It isn’t a high end smartphone for business users, though. Despite being 3G, it is only tri-band GSM, and you don’t get any PC connectivity software or leads in the box, though Sync ML is supported.
There is no push email support, though you can pick up POP email in the messaging centre which also caters for MMS and SMS. There is also a web browser, calculator, alarm function, to do list manager, diary, voice recorder, stopwatch, timer, and currency converter. There is Bluetooth (Vodafone provides a Bluetooth handsfree kit with the phone), but no Wi-Fi. You can use the phone as a modem.
As for battery life, Sagem suggests four hours of GSM talk, two hours of video calls, six hours of music and 300 hours on standby. I didn’t get the time to do a full battery rundown test as I normally like to with mobiles but experience using the phone day to day suggests these estimates are pretty near the mark and I’d be inclined to plan on topping this phone up every other day if you want to use it for business.
Verdict
The my850v is a middle of the road handset, but those touch sensitive music playback controls and better than expected camera lift it above the rest of the crowd. I'm not sure why it's being sold as a business phone though.
Labels: Mobile, Sagem my850v, Vodafone
Sagem My215x
If you were asked to name five mobile phone manufacturers, I bet Sagem would not be among your list. The company doesn’t have the sheer presence of many others, and it can easily slip under the radar. But for all that, Sagem’s mobiles are often pretty good.
The last one I looked at was the 3G enabled My600v. I found that to be a neatly designed and efficient handset. Not at the leading edge, but certainly at an attractive price.
The My215x is another low cost handset from Sagem – just £19.99 on Vodafone Pay-as-You-Go which makes it a bargain. At that price you shouldn’t expect a huge array of built in features. There is no camera, for example, which immediately puts it out of the reckoning for anyone even remotely interested in taking snaps with their mobile or MMSing other people.
Pink is everywhere at the moment, and here it is again. The My215x has pink trim around the brilliant white front fascia and the entire back fascia is also pink. That is the only colour combination available in the UK. So if you don’t like pink, look away. Also this is a dual-band handset without GPRS, or a web or WAP browser and it doesn’t have Bluetooth.
In its favour, this is an extremely light and pocketable phone. At 69g and 103mm tall, 44.5mm wide and 15mm thick, the My215x rates as one of the smallest, thinnest and lightest candybar handsets. OK, it is not as thin as, say, the Samsung SGH-U600, or Sony Ericsson’s emaciated W880i but then those mobiles trade on their thin format in a big way, which the My215x does not.
As well as the appealing size of this handset I rather like the button design. The number keys are large and so easy to hit. They aren’t individual keys but rather a single pad, which also includes the two softmenu keys and the Call and End keys. This is made of a rubbery substance, which is pretty tactile and while you don’t get the satisfying return that you do with individual keys when you hit them there is a slight click and you can feel the ‘keys’ depressing.
The sides of the phone are completely devoid of buttons and controllers. You do everything you need to by prodding at buttons on the front fascia. I have to admit I found this rather refreshing. The sides have a recess built into them, which adds a little to the overall look and feel.
As well as being pink, the My215x fascia is made of plastic. It feels reasonably solid but it may well get a bit knocked about during use. At a price of £20 though, if this mobile lasts you a year and you then replace it with another model, it will have done good service.
Sagem is pushing the My215x as a combination phone and music player. It supports MP3, AAC and WAV files. It has 256MB of built in memory, and it functions as a USB mass storage device. That means you access the memory simply by plugging the provided mini USB cable into the phone and your PC.
The mini USB slot doubles as a charge slot and the phone’s battery will charge while connected to your PC. With the phone and PC connected you can drag tunes from your PC into the My Sounds folder in the phones memory. Music files can’t be inside folders nested within My Sounds. I found this pretty annoying as it prevents you from just pasting the entire folders of your music library.
When you are charging the phone with its own charger music playback continues. However when I switched to using a mains power adaptor I use with a lot of devices the phone decided I was trying to put it into mass storage mode and so refused to playback my tunes.
That 256MB of memory is all you get. There is no expansion slot. 256MB is a paltry sum if you want to carry a good array of tunes around, though if all you are interested in is your favourite few songs it will suffice.
Sagem has put its music control buttons onto the navigation pad enabling you to control volume, start and stop playback and move backwards and forwards between tracks. You can’t scan within tracks though. The left softkey button offers quick access to the music player too.
Listen through headphones was a surprisingly positive experience. There is no equaliser but the sound quality is pretty good, stereo effects are fine, and volume is OK too. If I found in-ear buds comfortable I’d have no problem using this phone for music listening. This matters a lot as the jack is a 2.5mm type so you are stuck with what Sagem provides unless you want to use a converter to 3.5mm. With the jack on the bottom edge of the handset using an adaptor could be a bit awkward.
I like that tapping the right softmenu button and then the bottom of the navigation button cycles you through options like reading text messages and calling voicemail, because this saves you from having to go to the full handset menu for these tasks.
Other applications on the handset include calendar, to do manager, a single alarm, voice recorder (embedded within the music player), timer, calculator with embedded converter for money and a couple of games – a Sudoku clone and a puzzle in which you need to rearrange the jumbled bits of a picture.
Battery life is quoted by Sagem as three hours, 50 minutes of call time, 255 hours on standby. I got the phone to play music non-stop and it gave me just short of seven and a half hours of music.
Verdict
Labels: Mobile, Sagem My215x, Vodafone
Sagem My600v
Of all the many handsets I see from day to day, I find Sagem’s to be one of the most aesthetically appealing and the my600v is a good example. The design isn’t groundbreaking by any means, but it does have something that makes it stand out from the crowd - a simplicity that makes for a refreshing change.
The my600v is available exclusively on Vodafone with a pay-as-you talk tariff. The handset will cost you £70 if you buy it on the high street, and as I wrote this review you could get it online direct from Vodafone’s Web site for £63.
In design terms this is a neat and tidy candybar handset. At 99g it is light and measures only 110mm tall, 48mm wide and 16mm deep, very pocketable dimensions.
The back casing and the outer edges are made of white plastic with a pearlescent finish. This can pick up and reflect traces of other colours in certain lighting conditions. The number pad and screen frame are made of a more brilliant but less reflective white plastic.
A strip of red goes all the way round the edges, echoing the Vodafone logo on the back of the casing. The rear also houses the lens for the built-in camera. The top edge is clear, while the bottom has a slot for mains power.
There are two buttons on the right edge and both are made of shiny silver metal. One is a volume rocker, the other activates the camera. There is a covered slot for the minSD card so you will need to add to the built-in memory on the lower part of the left edge. About 16MB of internal memory was free on my review handset.
The screen is fairly small – it measures just 1.9 inches corner to corner and has 176 x 220 pixels but is redeemed by delivering 262,000 colours.
Beneath it the number pad is large, with well defined keys each independently shaped making them very easy to find and hit. The same goes for the softmenu keys and the call and end keys. The square navigation button is also large, and is indented towards a square, silver, select button.
This is a 3G handset and also supports Triband GSM. It is video calling capable, but rather oddly, there is no front facing camera. You can either look at the handset’s screen and see the view from the camera of the phone you are calling, or look into the back facing camera on the my600v and let the person you are calling see you. However, there’s no self portrait mirror accompanying the camera lens to frame yourself. Vodafone calls this ‘see or be seen (one way) video calling’. I can’t say I approve. Video calling is still a rather niche activity and this won’t do anything to make it more attractive.
As for picture quality, the my600v makes no pretensions to become your only digital photography device: its camera shoots stills at just two resolutions, 320 x 240 and 640 x 480.
After you’ve shot an image and waited a couple of seconds you can immediately send a photo as a picture message. But forget about taking photos to keep as mementos. The resolution is not high enough and the quality not good enough.
The shot of flowers, for example, shows how the lens fails to pick up much detail. There was a little breeze blowing as the photo was taken and you can see some of the white flowers are blurred as a result. The colour reproduction is good in this photo, but the same can’t be said for the picture of the Canada goose. This was shot on a bright winter morning, with plenty of natural light, but the colours lack vibrancy and the bird’s white feathers are over exposed.
The coloured dish, my standard reference shot, was taken indoors with ordinary room lighting and again lacks vibrancy, while the colours look rather washed out.
The built in software includes a voice recorder, calculator, clock with alarm complete with irritating ‘get up’ tone – at least it should do the trick. There’s also a stopwatch, countdown timer, calendar and to do list manager which you can synchronise with a PC.
You’ll need to buy a cable if you want to synchronise via a wired connection or you can choose Bluetooth. Some software is also needed, and again this was not provided with our review handset. It can be downloaded though and instructions are in the printed user guide.
Battery life is superb. Using my usual rundown test, playing music continuously from a memory card, I got a staggering 16 hours 58 minutes of music. This is very odd as the handset specifications suggest the phone is good for 6 hours of music listening, but I am not going to complain.
This makes the fact that the my600v is not supplied with a headset pretty annoying. Vodafone’s web site does not readily offer one as an optional extra but the my600v will send stereo sound to a suitable Bluetooth headset, though I did not have one to hand to test this.
Verdict
The my600v is not the most advanced handset available, and there are a couple of real annoyances such as the lack of a front facing camera absence and the absence of a wired headset.
The VGA main camera isn’t as much of a problem – if you like your photography you’ll have a good separate digital stills camera at your disposal and this one is fine for ‘shoot, share and shred’ snaps.
Labels: Mobile, Sagem My600v, Vodafone