cellrater

I just came across Sony Ericsson’s G705 via Gizmodo earlier today and I have to say that I am drawn to it’s simplicity. At first I scrolled right past it, thinking it was just another lame music player, but upon further inspection I realized it was just another lame phone! No, in all seriousness the Sony Ericsson UI designs are by far the most fluid and beautiful designs I have had the pleasure of working with. I like how square this phone is, it doesn’t look like most of the slider phones I have seen simply because of how square it is at the bottom. I will however miss the slight curve at the bottom of the phone (like the s500i for example), it really helped to grip and slide the handset open with one hand. Other than that technical specs seem to stack up fairly nice, with a 2.4 inch TFT that has auto-rotation, A-GPS DLNA, 2.0 Bluetooth, FM radio and 3.2 mp camera with a built in flash! So overall it looks like a fairly well equipped handset for the everyday user. According to Sony, they beefed up the browser for full html (about time), and its packing Exchange ActiveSync for email (although without a full qwerty do I really want all that email on the little phone?) The US version looks to be launching sometime around early 2009 but no word on pricing just yet. If this comes in under 300 I think it would be a good handset to pick up, it looks like it has some higher end features that would bump the price kind of high but for a simple looking slider I don’t know if I would drop more than 300 for something like this when for a little more I could get a phone with the same features and more with a full keypad.

Popularity: 14% [?]

After seeing an article online about a new phone called the Ellipse from a company called NEO I began doing some research on the company website. It seems they have a couple of different handsets in the works which are probably worth mentioning.

First let me start by talking about the Elipse, which looks like some kind of half moon handset… honestly it was the looks of this thing that got my attention but to be honest I don’t know how well I would actually rate this phone, the curve design looks good at first glance and sounds good in concept but it also makes the phone look really thick and bulky. I wonder how big that would be in my pocket. Still though, I have to give them credit for trying something different. I bet it looks great lying out on the table at a restaurant or something.

The other phone they have is called the Neo 808i and from the look of the photos, it is tiny. As you can see from the image I posted they have it hanging on a keychain however once again side photos reveal that it is a fat little phone. I doubt it would be much larger than my Haier Elegence however. I bet those tiny buttons are a pain to text on, don’t you? If I could grab it for under $120.00 I think it would be an interesting phone to add to my collection. I don’t know how long a phone would last rubbing up against metal keys everyday but it would be an interesting experiment either way.

If you want more information you can hut up the company website at http://www.stuffbyneo.com/

Popularity: 14% [?]

You know, as I think back upon the latest round of sharp-edged phones in the past year or two I have to say that I have been inexplicably drawn to many of them. From the Nokia prism series to the HTC Diamond inspired phones; I know that they are not for everyone but for some reason I really dig the sharp edges as a contrast to every other phone we see out there.

I guess the reason that I bring this up is that I have never really thought much about my attraction to this recent trend until I set eyes upon Motorola’s newest handset, the MOTOJEWEL. I mean, come on, how lazy can you get? This thing looks like a tacky fat PEBL from 4 years ago but with the edges cut into it. Don’t get me wrong, I am sure the phone works great and is built solid but how un-original can you get! Glancing over the specs it looks like not much got upgraded, it has all the standard stuff, Bluetooth, 2mp camera, music player… same old, same old if you ask me.

No word on if any of the US carriers will be stocking this little puppy, but lets be honest here, despite the fact that it probably does the bare minimum reasonably well this looks like another mediocre new model from the ever dwindling Motorola line of phones coming out next year. I really hope they pull it together and start producing something fresh soon, they actually make a fairly decent quality phone, too bad their design dept has been out to lunch since the original RAZR line.

Popularity: 15% [?]