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Apple iPhone 3G Cell Phone Review
 Here it is, our in-depth, comparative, totally obsessive review of the new iPhone 3G. The latest iteration of Apple's cell phones brings a couple of major upgrades on the hardware side with 3G and GPS on board. It also comes with the new iPhone 2.0 software upgrade that brings support for Exchange Server and third party applications. In addition, it has the benefits of a full year's worth of upgrades that we haven't looked at since we did the last iPhone review. So, is it a worthy upgrade to one of the most iconic cell phones of our time? You're going to have to read the review to find out, or go out and pay $199 with a two-year contract to make your own decision. But seriously, we recommend you read our review first. Note: we're still working on battery tests, we will update the review when those are done.
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by Alfredo Padilla
2008-07-11 12:57:00
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Sony Ericsson Z750a Cell Phone Review
 The Sony-Ericsson Z750a is an entry level flip phone that represents Sony-Ericsson's first 3G device for AT&T. As with any 3G device we were concerned about battery life, but found ourselves pleasantly surprised by the results of our tests. In fact we found ourselves smiling a lot as we wrote this review. The Z750a is akin to Quasimodo, on the face it might not look great, but underneath there's a lot to love.
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by Alfredo Padilla
2008-06-12 16:36:00
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Nokia 6555 Cell Phone Review
 The Nokia 6555 is a low-end offering for AT&T that offers an intriguing mix of the very good, very bad, and in-between. For the former you have controls and a keypad that are very comfortable and responsive. In the middle you have poor battery life and camera quality, and for the last is a stable and fairly fully-featured software suite. Of course at the price of nothing with a two-year contract, after a $50 mail-in rebate, you'd expect the Nokia 6555 to make a few compromises. Whether those you can live with those compromises is up to you, but you might want to read the rest of the review to find out exactly what you'll be living with.
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by Alfredo Padilla
2008-02-29 08:43:00
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Samsung Blackjack II Cell Phone Review
 The Blackjack II is a powerful Windows Mobile smart phone that brings a high end feature set at a very compelling price. Many of the significant flaws of its predecessor have been addressed such as poor battery life and a difficult to use D-Pad. It also brings support for global roaming on 3G networks and GPS functionality to the table, all for about $100. There are some flies in the ointment, though. The Blackjack II's stills camera is pretty poor and we found the control keys were as difficult to use as the original Blackjack. We also noticed some lag from time to time, but not enough to make the device a chore to use. In balance the good things about the Blackjack II outweigh the bad and it will be a very attractive device for those looking for a high end feature set at a reasonable price.
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by Alfredo Padilla
2007-12-31 14:09:00
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Samsung SLM Cell Phone Review
 The Samsung SLM, as its name would imply, is a slim entry level flip phone that is the first from AT&T to support their new Napster mobile service for direct downloads of Napster music to your phone. The service itself is nothing impressive, about the same as we've seen from other carrier music stores, and aside from that the Samsung SLM is a solid phone with some nice features like good battery life but nothing that will wow you. It would be a good phone to get free with a contract, perhaps even up to $50 or so, but for the $130 that AT&T is currently asking for you can do significantly better.
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by Alfredo Padilla
2007-12-17 21:33:00
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Pantech Duo Cell Phone Review
 The Duo from Pantech looks and feels like a more business-oriented version of the Helio Ocean. The Duo's namesake feature is its dual-sliding form factor, which gives users access to both a keypad and full QWERTY keyboard. The Duo also has a very plasticky facade for a phone of its class. This makes the phone look a little cheap. Also, the QWERTY doesn't slide out smoothly, and doing so feels more like you're manipulating a toy than a $200 smart phone.
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by Mark Brezinski
2007-11-15 13:52:00
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AT&T Tilt Cell Phone Review
 The Tilt is a Windows Mobile 6 phone that bears a striking resemblance to HTC's last offering in the U.S., the Mogul. Like the Mogul, it has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard that allows for some quick typing. It also features a 2.8-inch screen, which is larger than most, but not quite as large as the iPhone's display. Unlike the Mogul, however, the Tilt's screen can perform its namesake action by tilting upwards to a 45 degree angle. This means you can sit the device on a desk or airline tray table and use it like a laptop, as well as putting the device at a more comfortable angle for watching videos. This tilting does raise several issues, though: despite HTC's reassurance that it should survive a drop from a handheld height, the screen on our review unit broke after just a few days, leaving the screen to flip forward too far. The Tilt is offered by AT&T for $549.99 without a contract and $299.99 with a two-year contract after two $50 mail-in rebates.
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by Mark Brezinski
2007-10-25 08:50:00
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BlackBerry 8820 Cell Phone Review
 BlackBerry has come to be synonymous with business, thanks to its easy-to-learn operating system, great organizer software, and incredible e-mail client. The BlackBerry 8820 is basically an 8800 suited up with Wi-Fi capabilities. There are a few minor software upgrades, but for all intents and purposes the phones are identical. The 8820, therefore, inherits both good and bad traits. The 8820 is carried by AT&T, and costs $499.99 for an unlocked phone and $299.99 with a two-year contract and a $50 mail-in rebate.
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by Mark Brezinski
2007-10-11 14:49:00
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Razr2 V9 on AT&T Cell Phone Review
 The Razr2 V9 is AT&T's version of Motorola's latest Razr cell phone. The major carriers are offering different iterations of the device. So far, we've reviewed the Sprint and Verizon versions and found them to be disappointing, to say the least. Will AT&T's take on the Razr2 fulfill the phone's potential? As this burning question has undoubtedly pushed you to the very edge of your seat, we'll answer it right now to avoid any posture-related discomfort: no, no it won't. Again, the AT&T version fails to fulfill the potential of the phone; the software that AT&T loads on it doesn't take full advantage of the hardware. The phone costs $399 with a contract from AT&T, or $499 without one, meaning that both the Sprint and Verizon versions are less expensive and offer similar functionality.
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by Mark Brezinski
2007-10-02 14:28:00
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Apple iPhone Cell Phone Review
 Welcome to our comparative review of the Apple iPhone; a feature-by-feature matchup against the LG Prada, Treo 750, Blackberry 8800, Helio Ocean, and Nokia N95. To say the iPhone comes with high expectations is like saying the ocean is a little bit wet. Apple's first foray into the competitive cell phone market comes with the sort of pre-launch hype that most companies would dream of, but this sort of thing can backfire if the product doesn't live up to the hype. That's why we have taken a comparative approach to this review, contrasting the iPhone's functionality to that of other popular handsets such as the Treo 750 and BlackBerry 8800. As always we will be examining every feature in depth. Our testing looks at the phone's sound quality, the camera's image quality and the touch screen's usability. So does the iPhone live up to the expectations? The answer is a qualified yes.
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by Alfredo Padilla
2007-06-29 20:25:00
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Sony Ericsson W580i Cell Phone Review
 The W580i is one of Sony Ericsson's line of Walkman-branded handsets. These music focused phones are popular globally, but few of them have made it to the United States. The W580i is one of the few that has, carried by AT&T. And it's a good pick for the carrier; it provides a decent set of media features that is on par with many more expensive handsets. True to its Walkman billing, the W580i's music player does a very good job, but it didn't last that long playing back music; we measured the battery life at 5 hours and 32 minutes. That's enough for everyday use, but is significantly shorter than other phones. Video playback was also a disappointment; the screen is too small for comfortable viewing, and the controls are awkward to use. The 2-megapixel camera takes decent photos, but the audio quality in calls could have been better. We did find the interface to be surprisingly responsive, and we liked the capabilities of the Web browser, which is good enough for casual browsing.
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by Alfredo Padilla
2007-09-24 11:20:00
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BlackBerry Curve review
 The BlackBerry Curve, or BlackBerry 8300, represents a new target demographic for the company: the budget user. Priced at $199 post-rebate with a two-year contract, the Curve is much cheaper than most other BlackBerries; the more sophisticated 8800 is currently at $299.99 with a two-year contract. And it's even cheaper if you shop around; with the mail-in rebates some dealers and resellers are offering, we've seen it for as low as $-14. That's right: some retailers are offering the phone for free as long as you also take $14 and sign up for a 2-year contract. That's the beauty of contracts.
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by Mark Brezinski
2007-08-10 16:07:00
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Sanyo Katana DLX Cell Phone Review
 The Sanyo Katana DLX is an unremarkable handset that provides a pretty standard mid-range feature set. The Katana DLX is differentiated from the Katana II by the presence of a Micro SD slot and music playback capabilities. The DLX also supports Sprint's music store, which allows you to purchase and download music on the fly. The 1.3 megapixel camera is unremarkable, as are the organizer features. We were pleased to see, unlike most regular phones that only allow Web-based access to e-mail, that the Katana DLX has a true e-mail client, allowing you to view downloaded messages even when offline. The Katana DLX's gold design is supposed to approximate a fashion phone, but users will quickly realize the plastic construction is much more reminiscent of a mid-range handset. The Katana DLX is available exclusively from Sprint for a reasonable $129.99 with a two-year contract.
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by Alfredo Padilla
2007-08-06 08:31:00
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BlackBerry 8800 Review
 The BlackBerry 8800 is the latest iteration of RIM's incredibly successful BlackBerry lineup of enterprise focused handsets. The direct successor to the widely available 8700 series, the 8800 adds a new slim form factor, multimedia features, and it ditches the scroll wheel in favor of the trackball. Under the hood anyone who is familiar with BlackBerry OS will find themselves right at home, which isn't a bad thing considering how stable and quick the operating system is.
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by Alfredo Padilla
2007-05-22 14:23:00
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Nokia N75 Review
 The Nokia N75 is the first N-Series smart phone from Nokia to be sold by a U.S. carrier; it is available on AT&T (Cingular) for $199.99 (including a $50 mail-in rebate) with a 2 year contract, or $399 without contract. So it arrives with high expectations, but fails to meet them in many areas. While the audio quality of the N75 is good, the quality of the built-in camera is very poor. Nokia has been known as one of the better phone camera manufacturers, but our tests showed that the N75's camera falls short in just about every key area; the images are low in resolution, have inaccurate color and had lots of noise in low light. The second major drawback of the N75 is the battery life. The N75's talk time of 2 hours and 23 minutes is one of the worst we have seen, and it's music playback and browsing times (at 5 hours 36 minutes and 2 hours 42 minutes) are not much better. These combined with limited RAM (which means that many applications are slow to respond) make the N75 a disappointment.
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by Alfredo Padilla
2007-06-14 14:36:00
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Palm Treo 750 Cell Phone Review
 We reviewed the Treo 750 on Cingular. It is not currently available from any other U.S. carrier. The Treo 750 is available from Cingular for $399.99 with a two year contract or $649.99 without a contract. The 750 is the latest in Palm’s lineup of Treo devices, which a little over a year ago expanded to include both Windows Mobile and Palm OS devices. Like the original Windows Mobile Treo, the 700w, the Treo 750 runs Windows Mobile 5. The 750 differs from previous Treo’s primarily in its appearance, losing the antenna, adding soft touch paint and slimming down every so slightly. Under the hood the 750 retains many of the enhancements found on the 700w, including dialing, photo speed dials and Google search built into the Today screen. The 750 adds threaded SMS messaging to the package of Palm enhancements and as such provides value that does not come standard on many other Windows Mobile devices.
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by Alfredo Padilla
2007-03-17 14:54:00
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