Two high-end phones aiming to attract high-end handset buyers reached the Online test bench this week. Here's a first look at the Sony Ericsson P900 and Motorola A835.
Sony Ericsson P900
One of the most eagerly awaited phones of the year, Sony Ericsson's P900 should be heading for the stores shortly. Those expecting a dramatic reconstruction of its predecessor - the P800 - will be disappointed. Most of the changes are to the design of the handset rather than to its list of facilities.
But this is still one of the most impressively-specified phones on the market. Running Symbian's version 7 operating system with its UIQ interface, the phone features excellent web browsing and e-mail, an integrated camera, MP3 music player, personal information manager systems, triple band facilities and Bluetooth.
It's a tad smaller than the P800 and also a little ugly. Mercifully Sony Ericsson has upgraded the flip screen that's home to the keypad, so it is now more sturdy and easier to use, if still a little awkward-looking. Perhaps the most important tweak of all is that the screen now has a resolution of 65K colours to put in line with most of its other rivals in the smartphone market.
Other key upgrades include substituting the plastic stylus (the phone is unusual in that it has a touch screen) for a marginally more sturdy metallic one, the addition of fast and easy to use jog dial system for accessing applications, and a moving image camera.
Essentially, if you liked the P800 you'll find this very much to your taste. Whether it remains the best smartphone on the market is a moot point as the opposition is catching up very quickly. Handspring's Treo 600 (available via Orange) is around the same size, and although it has a smaller screen it is compatible with many excellent third party applications that have been developed for its Palm operating system.
In the Microsoft camp, the O2 XDA was always an excellent product and its second incarnation, the newly launched XDA II, has a powerful processor, enhanced software and additions like a VGA camera and Bluetooth. Perhaps the decision as to which high-end handset you buy is now determined mainly by your choice of operating system and the phone network you subscribe to.
The Sony Ericsson P900 will be available before Christmas for around £350.
Motorola A835
A few weeks ago the mobile phone industry was awash with rumours that the 3G phone network Three couldn't keep up with demand and was running out of handsets. Well the cavalry appears to have arrived in the guise of a new clamshell phone which is due next month, the NEC 616, and this handset, the Motorola A835, the company's third attempt at a 3G handset.
Last month Motorola unveiled the A920, a high-end handset with a large screen that runs the Symbian 7 operating system for smartphones. For the A835 Motorola has delivered a smaller phone (though it is still fairly hefty), with a more compact, less versatile screen and fewer facilities that runs on a proprietary operating system.
Just like the A920 it performs Three's signature applications rather well. With a video refresh rate of 12 frames per second downloaded footage, like Premiership football goals and MTV music clips, are very watchable and largely free from jitter and blocking.
They are far better than the NEC Three phones and clearly superior to other networks attempts to offer video clips through GPRS.
Video calling is also an improvement over the original NEC phones especially as users don't have to wear a headset to hear what the other person is saying.
The AGPS (Assisted Global Positioning System), which shows maps and offers direction to pubs, restaurants, cash points etc, works extremely well on demo and should prove very handy to Motorola A835 and A920 owners when it becomes fully available later in the year.
Also, the Three web portal - with its selection of video clips and Wap style information - is now on a par with the Wap-based services offered by Three's rivals.
Other features include stills and video cameras, Bluetooth, MP3 player and Java.
The downsides? Well, the ludicrous restrictions imposed by Three - which means users can only access a very small walled garden of internet sites - still rankles. And the limited storage of 64MB is not upgradeable - so you won't be able to keep too many MP3 files on the phone.
Then there is the size of the phone - still a little too large for buyers used to dinky clamshells and cute caddy bar style handsets - and the issue of battery life, just 1.5 hours talk time or 120 hours standby.
This is, admittedly, more than previous Three handsets. And on all fronts the A835 is a step in the right direction. It should be available in Three stores next week for around £100.
