The latest RIM BlackBerry Bold 9780 comes along with Blackberry OS 6. It has twice the flash memory and greater megapixel camera when compared to the Bold 9700. It supports Bluetooth and Wi-Fi calling. There is no variation in hardware with its earlier model 9700. The BlackBerry Bold 9780 smartphone is a very good phone for messaging, and, since it has latest OS from blackberry, it is preferred by many users.

It updates famous Bold series with OS 6 that includes very good user interface, improved multimedia capabilities and faster browser. The flash memory has been doubled and camera resolution has also been increased but there are no other design changes. The smartphone costs 129.99 dollars and comes along with 2-year contract with mail-in rebate of 50 dollars.

The design is very similar to earlier version and the dimensions are 4.29×2.36×0.56 inches. The phone can be used both as messaging device and phone and has textured battery cover with smooth and soft-touch finishing in sides. It has screen measuring diagonally 2.44 inches with resolution of 480×320 pixels. The display is very clear and sharp and we could watch media and go through e-mails easily using this phone. There is no requirement for zooming to web pages and reading text since the size of display is small.

As we have mentioned earlier in our review, the OS6 works fine with devices that does not have touch screen though the interface has been designed based on touch screen usage. The touch pad the selection of items and moving across menus is simple.

There are various buttons including the back button, blackberry shortcut for menu, usual end and talk keys below the screen. There are other controls such user-defined convenience key as well as volume rocker on sides. The 3.5mm jack, micro USB port for charging are present in left side. The lock buttons and mute buttons are present on top of phone. The camera with integrated flash is present in back side along with micro SD slot for expansion behind the door of battery. The keyboard is very good and comfortable to use. The smartphone comes along with 2GB card, USB cable, AC adapter, reference manual and stereo headset.

It has speakerphone, conference calling, multimedia and text messaging, conference calling, Wi-Fi, GPS and 3G support. Also there are other interesting features in the BlackBerry Bold 9780 smartphone which makes it very useful.

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The AT&T R225 GoPhone smartphone is a very attractive small phone which has excellent call quality at very cheap price. The lousy speakerphone and small screen are annoyances but lack of volume rocker and Bluetooth are very great disappointments of R225. As long as you have point in using hands-free, the call quality of AT&T R225 smartphone is very good. The lack of volume rocker makes it preferable for occasional callers.

It could cover its uniqueness in branding of AT&T R225, but mobile manufacturer is behind the Gophone. It is combination of bright silver and black with silver accents which would be useful in a premium handset when compared to this. Its dimensions are 4.2×1.8×0.5 inches and it is comfortable to wear on ears in hand due to soft-touch material with back cover. The phone is also very light weighing 2.9 ounces and is somewhat wispy.

The AT&T R225 Gophone smartphone is very stylish, portable and slim. Its screen is very small with resolution of 128×160 pixels and has support for 262,000 colors. The soft key options and menu choice help in navigation and it is very simple to get around. The hardware navigation buttons of R225 is very helpful. There are end and talk buttons with sufficient gap in between. The 4-way directional pad with select button in center was not that comfortable to use and gave some problems.

Also the dial pad which is backlit was responsive and spacious. It had various shared button to turn on vibrating mode in phone and to lock screen. Though keys are separated they are not comfortable enough to type. There are external speakers at the back of the phone but lack of camera makes it irritating. The micro USB port for charging is present on bottom of phone. It supports up to thousand entries in address book and you can enter email addresses, multiple phone number, URLs etc. Also assigning calling group to contact and photos are easier. You could also assign eleven ring tones and ringtone from file which you store on phone.

As it does not have support for SD cards to transfer music, you must download certain ringtones from the online store for expanding the options. The calendar, to-do list, alarm clock, stop watch etc are other normal applications which are available apart from world clock, audio recorder and currency convert. There is no Bluetooth option and so hands-free talking is not possible. Overall the AT&T R225 GoPhone is a cheap smartphone with limited features suitable for average users.

The LG Apex fits is a very comfortable and simple to use smart phone with QWERTY keyboard and elegant design. It runs on Android 2.1 operating system and has plenty of wireless options with a price tag that is budget friendly. But it does not have good battery life and also performance is too bad. The keyboard is very good and design is also cool, but there are other limiting factors in this phone. The LG Apex smartphone is available for 49.99$ with mail-in rebate of 89$. When related with other QWERTY slider like Epic 4G and T-Mobile G2, it is very compact at 0.62×2.22×4.57 inches and approximately weighs 5.39 ounces.

It is very wide as other smart phone and is very comfortable to posses. The phone is not very thin and does fit inside a pants pocket without a problem. It has soft-touch and smooth finish, solid construction and other cool features. It is compact when compared to other slide phones. The display is very slim and smaller measuring 3.2 inches diagonally and has capacitive touch screen which is very responsive. The display supports more than 242,000 colors and is very good. The phone also has in-built accelerometer and support for pinch-to-zoom.

The menus and applications can be launched easily while tapping appropriate icons. The scrolling and swiping actions are somewhat sluggish. The Apex phone has a nice feature since it allows 3rd party applications to be installed. You can install Swype for easier navigation and also use the physical keyboard as well as on-screen touch keyboard.

Apart from the directional pad, the keyboard is very easy to use. The D-pad on right side is very good. The buttons on keypad are well-raised and separated well. There are dedicated keys such as menu, home and search short cuts. There is a 4GB microSD card, stereo headset, USB cable, manual and AC adapter.

The phone has micro USB port and volume rocker on left side, camera button and expansion slot on right side. You can find the camera with integrated flash at the rear side while 3.5 headset jack is present on phone’s top. The LG Apex has Android 2.1 operating system and has many applications installed. The battery life is average with talk time of 7.5 hours and standby time of 14 days. Overall it is a good phone for average users.

The Kyocera Torino comes with user-friendly design, very good keyboard and other features such as Bluetooth and voice dialing. The call volume is low and it has 2.5mm headphone jack. The kyocera torino smartphone is accessible for all users. The phone measures 2.2 inches diagonally and has support for 262,000 colors. There are many changes with the design. The phone has back-end camera which is very good. There is burgundy color in panel below the keyboard. Apart from that, the look of the phone is quite okay. There are no changes with exterior controls and their positions. The camera shutter is placed on left side along with volume rocker, the micro USB charging port is at phone’s top, the 2.5mm headphone jack is present on phone top while speakers and camera lens is present at rear side.

The phone book supports up to 500 contacts and there are ten polyphonic ringtones. There is multimedia and text messaging, voice recorder, world clock, timer, calculator, auto-answer, memo pad, stop watch, alarm clock and other useful applications. The camera has 1.3 megapixel camera in its rear side. There is a WAP 2.0 browser which is useful for surfing. The phone has dual-band service with CDMA of range 1900 and 800. The call quality is somewhat good when compared to its previous model. The battery life of the phone is somewhat average. The talk time is 5.5 hours and standby time of the phone is 12.6 days. The test talk time as per the reports is 4 hours, 54 minutes. The phone is very good for average users.

Its slim design makes it an easy fit inside our pockets and you can take it anywhere easily. Also the display is pretty good but the battery life is below average. It is a good messaging phone which lacks multimedia features like smart phones. The address book is limited to 500 contact only whereas modern smart phones support up to 1 million contacts. There are various other features in the including utility applications which are not found in ordinary phones. Also the phone is cheap and is available for very low rate.

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The Sanyo Taho Phone (Sprint) comes with comfortable controls and very durable design. It has excellent call quality and very good functional. It has a 2.5mm headphone jack and lacks 3.5mm jack which is found in most phones nowadays. There is distortion with voice quality with very high volume levels and does not have good speaker phone. The Sanyo Taho scores high points for simple and rugged design. Though there are problems with call quality, the phone is good for average users and comes with very affordable price of 99 dollars with 2 year service agreement.

In era of sexy and slim mobiles, Taho is very bulky with extra padding. It has more rubber padding in edges and plastic skin. There is a firm grip in hand due to that and makes sure that its certified for military specifications for shock, vibration, dust, blowing rain and extreme temperatures with 30 minute dunking in 3.28 feet. The phone has dimensions of 4x2x0.9 inches and is very heavy and bulky device with touch design. There is no stylish design and display is very small monochrome with a large speaker at the back. There is battery life, signal strength, time and thin light below screen flashing while there is an incoming call in the display.

You will have a solid feel when holding it in hands and the design is very sturdy. The main display is 2 inches wide diagonally with support for 262,000 colors and native resolution of 320×240 pixels. Graphics and photos are displayed very well and it has straightforward and simple menu system. The navigation array has very good design with raised keys and center OK button also has good finish. Apart from toggle that is also used as shortcut to 4 features which are user-defined, there is also a Back key, camera shutter, speaker phone short cut as well as End and Talk controls. The navigation array and keypad of Taho is very good. The keypad buttons are raised and design is very sturdy. Taho is suitable for people having visual problems since the letters and numbers on keys are very big.

The address book support 600 contacts and there is a 2 megapixel camera at back which is suitable for taking pictures in various resolutions and with 3 settings to control picture quality. There is multi-shot mode, self-time and 12x zoom option available in the phone. The photo quality is also very good.

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