The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic phone has been eagerly awaited, as it's been touted as Nokia's first real iPhone-killer. Sporting a fancy new touchscreen user interface, the Nokia 5800, also known as the Nokia Tube before its release, is a mid-range phone that's designed purely for fun and media while offering a similar user interface experience to the iPhone.

Better still, it comes with Nokia's Comes With Music service, which lets you download an unlimited number of tunes from its music store for an annual subscription.

So with good looks, a promising user interface and some nifty features, all from a phone that won't break the bank, the Nokia 5800 looks very promising indeed. Read on for the full Nokia 5800 review to find out if it lives up to its hype.

Nokia 5800 overview

The Nokia 5800 is a candybar phone that operates solely via touchscreen. There isn't even a physical keypad on the 5800, so like the iPhone, you have to do everything via its touchscreen. Nokia clearly aren't as confident with their touchscreen recognizing your fingers, though, as they've included a stylus, something that the iPhone doesn't have (Apple are too cool for stylii!)

Primarily, the Nokia 5800 is aimed at media fans, with a particular emphasis on music. Everything about the phone is therefore geared around providing easy access to an unlimited amount of music and videos for your listening and viewing pleasure!

Nokia 5800 Features

User interface

One of the things that had everybody so eager to see this new phone was the 5800's new touch-based user interface. Nokia have dabbled with animated user interfaces before on their phones, but they've never combined an animated interface with a touchscreen in quite the same way as they have with the 5800.

For example, when browsing through your photos, you can go from one photo to the next just by swiping the screen. Although the iPhone has been doing this since the day it was first released, this is the fist time that a Nokia phone has done it, and so you can see why people have been calling this the iPhone killer.

The Nokia 5800's interface isn't as good as the iPhone's though, but then the phone is only a mid-range device,and so costs a lot less than the iPhone. In fact, at just £250, the 5800 costs so much less than the iPhone that you can buy it outright for the same price as the iPhone and just 3 months of charges!

As far as text entry is concerned, you have to use a virtual keyboard. These can be notoriously flaky,but luckily the 5800 gives you several options with which to enter text: a straight QWERTY virtual keyboard, T9 text entry, or handwriting recognition though its stylus, which seems to work quite well.

Nokia 5800's music player

The Nokia 5800 was designed at the outset to be a music playing mobile phone, and in this it doesn't disappoint. It's not just the abilities of its music player that's so good, it's the user interface that enables you to access all your tunes so easily, plus Nokia's new Comes With Music service.

The music player itself comes with a variety of codecs (mp3, SpMidi, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, and WMA) and the usual playlists, equalizer, and so on. The 5800 alos comes with an FM radio and 3.5mm standard headphone jack.

However, it's doubtful you'll ever need the radio, as the Comes Wtih Music service is just so compelling. Similar to iTunes ion that it's an online store of millions opf tunes, Comes With Music lets you browse, listen and download tunes directly to your phone over the air. However, unlike iTunes, once you've downloaded your tunes, you can keep them forever and freely swap them between your phone and your PC.

Better still, you don't pay per track; rather, you pay an annual subscription,which gives you access to whatever tunes you want. The tunes don't expire after your subscription does, either - you keep them forever.

Nokia 5800 camera

The Nokia 5800 is designed primarily for use as a media player phone rather than a camera phone, and so its camera and video features aren't quite as good as on some other phones. The camera, for example, is only 3.2 megapixels, although it does come with a variety of different settings for getting the best photos you can, as well as Carl Zeiss optics.

In addition, with dual LED flash, it's actually surprisingly good at taking photos in low light conditions. As such, although it may not have the largest megapixels, it's certainly able to hold its own compared to many other camera phones on the market.

Video camera

As well as the main stills camera, the 5800 also comes with a video camera, which isn't too shabby. Capable of shooting at 640x480 pixels at 30 frames per second, it'll certainly produce some good results.

You can also watch video from a variety of different formats, including MPEG4-SP, MPEG4-AVC, WMV9, and MPEG4-SP nHD.

Web browsing

The Nokia 5800 is an ideal device for browsing the Web. Its touchscreen offers a 3.2" 640 x 360 display with 16 million colours, which means Web pages are rendered in a clear easy to read format. Any web page that could do with a bit of magnifying can easily be zoomed in simply by double tapping the screen at the appropriate point. The screen can also be dragged around by holding a page with the finger and moving it around, much like the iPhone.

The browser is the WebKit browser that Nokia use in all of its higher end phones, and having used this browser for over a year in my Nokia E90, I can tell you that it really is one of the best mobile browsers on the market today. Combing WebKit with a touchscreen interface is an excellent touch that should amke browsing the Web on the 5800 simplicity itself.

Video of the Nokia 5800 in action

Pictures, as they say, paint a thousand words, so here are a few videos of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic in action.

The Nokia 5800 vs the iPhone

The Nokia 5800 was compared to the iPhone when it was announced, simply because of its touchscreen abilities. However, as Nokia themselves are quick to point out, it's not an iPhone killer, and it's not meant to be - rather, it's a great little mid-range music phone that just happens to have an excellent touchscreen display.

It's interesting to note that Nokia still haven't released a phone that competes head to head with the iPhone. The 5800 comes closest so far, but that's only because of its touchscreen abilities. Until Nokia comes up with a touchscreen phone with the same level of music abilities and Web browsing as the 5800, combined with GPS and an application development environment similar to the iPhone AppStore, we won't see the two companies going head to head.

Summary

The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is a fantastic music phone. It combines the ease of use and intuitive nature of the iPhone's user interface with the feature set that Nokia is known for in a phone that must be one of the bargains of the Century! At just £250, the Nokia 5800 is almost too good to be true - touchscreen controls, great Web browsing, camera, video camera, accelerometer, Wi-Fi, 3.5G HSDPA - the list goes on!

It's extremely usable, looks great, will do pretty much whatever you want a phone to do, and is extremely good value. 9/10.

Dialaphone have an even bigger Nokia 5800 review if you feel the need to read more!

If nothing else, though, it shows the direction Nokia are working towards. Full touchscreen phone, context and presence, integrated services, multiple homescreens. Seems that direction has "iPhone" written on it in super-huge letters!

[Source: Engadget]

Fear not, that's where we come in! We've compiled a list of ten of the best mobile phones that the man in your life should love.

Each of these phones is either gadget-laden, or offers a select number of features that performs exceptionally well.

So whether your man is into photography, playing games, listening to music or watching TV, there's a phone for him in the following list that'll make you the star of Christmas in his eyes!

10. Samsung Omnia

We start our list with the Samsung Omnia i900. Samsung phones have always had a distinctive look, with most of their handsets featuring a strong, minimal look, and being clad in the deepest coolest black.

They work both as business phones and as feature-packed multimedia phones, as they're phones to be taken seriously while also offering an enormous range of features.

The Samsung Omnia follows in this tradition. The Omnia was touted as Samsung's answer to the Apple iPhone, and although it can't match the iPhone in terms of user interface, it does come with a touchscreen, a beautiful minimalist design, and a range of features to make the iPhone quake.

As well as the 3.2" touchscreen, the Omnia also comes with a 5 megapixel camera with face detection, 7.2Mbps downloads, 8GB of memory, pocket office, video recording, GPS, and all squashed into a phone just 12.5mm thin.

If the bloke in your life loves his gadgets, the Samsung Omnia must surely be on your list.

You can buy the Samsung Omnia today for free and get unlimited text messages, unlimited mobile Internet and £130 cashback thrown in. That's some deal!

9. Nokia E90

If it was up to me, I'd put the Nokia E90 in top slot. It's quite simply best mobile phone for browsing the Web that you can buy, and that includes the T-Mobile G1 and the Apple iPhone. The E90 has a full QWERTY keyboard(which the iPhone doesn't), 3.2Mbps download speed (ten times faster the iPhone), and a huge 4" screen, which makes the G1's look like a tiny LCD screen in comparison.

You can buy the Nokia E90 for free and get unlimited text messages and unlimited mobile Internet thrown in.

8. Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1

If the Nokia E90 is too much for your man in terms of size, then take a look at the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1. It does most of the things that the E90 does - 3.2 megapixel camera, QWERTY keyboard, GPS, Wi-Fi and 3.2Mbps download speed - but it's quite a bit thinner and smaller overall.

The disadvantage of this, of course, is that the Web browsing experience isn't quite as good, as the screen is only 3" in size, compared to the E90's 4".

However, if your man wants to surf the Web intermittently without being wedded to it, and he still wants a feature-packed phone, then the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 would suit him very well indeed.

You can buy the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 today for free and get unlimited text messages, unlimited mobile Internet, plus £120 cashback, all thrown into the same deal.

7. Sony Ericsson C905

The Sony Ericsson C905 is a beast of a camera phone. Featuring a huge 8 megapixels plus image stabilization, xenon flash and autofocus, it set the bar high for other camera phones to follow, and although other camera phone manufacturers have tried, the C905 is still considered one of the best around.

In addition to the huge megapixels the C905 supports, it also offers 3.2Mbps download speeds, GPS, FM radio, TV-out and an accelerometer.

If your man's a bit of a photo nut, and again has to have a phone packed to the gills with features, he'll love the Sony Ericsson C905.

You can buy the Sony Ericsson C905 today for free and get unlimited text messages, unlimited mobile Internet, and a whopping £155 cashback thrown into the deal.

6. Sony Ericsson W980

If music's more your man's thing, then check out the Sony Ericsson W980i. It's one of Sony Ericsson's Walkman phone, and it's sleek style and superb features put it well above nearly all the other music phones on the market.

The W980i features a 3.2 megapixel camera, a whopping 8GB of storage space for storing literally thousands of tunes, has a great music application for sorting through all those thousands of tunes, and is quite possibly the best looking music phone out there today.

Better still, you can buy the Sony Ericsson W980i for free and get a free Nintendo Wii and £65 cashback thrown in. So, two pressies in one, both of which he'll love, plus some extra cash in your pocket - what more could you ask for?!

5. Nokia N95 8GB

The Nokia N95 has been around for nearly 18 months now, but it's still Nokia's best-selling phone, and with good reason. The N95 comes with virtually every feature you could ever wish for.

5 megapixel camera, DVD quality video recording, GPS plus Sat-Nav navigation, Wi-Fi and 3.2Mbs download speeds, plus a massive 8GB of onboard storage space. IF your man is gadget obsessed, the Nokia N95 will do very nicely indeed.

That's not all, though. Because the N95 has been around for a while, you can get some superb bargains.

You can buy the Nokia N95 for free, for example, and get unlimited texts, unlimited mobile Internet and get £130 cashback.

There's a reason why the N95 has proven so popular - it's quite simply every gadget lover's dream phone, and now that it's come down in price, it's even more desirable.

4. Nokia N85

If your man likes his games, then consider the Nokia N85. It's another souped-up Nokia N-Series phone, and so offers all the toys he could wish for: GPS, 3.2 Mbps download speeds, Wi-Fi, 5 megapixel camera, video recording, etc. But it's also got another trick up its sleeve in the shape of a dedicated gaming chip buried deep inside and seamless connection to Nokia's N-Gage gaming system.

This means that you can play first rate games on the N95 that are similar to a Nintendo DS, and download them wherever you are. You can even try the games before you buy them, and all without having to go near a PC.

It's cheap, too. You can buy a Nokia N85 for free and get unlimited text messages, a free 8GB memory card, £65 cashback, plus an iPod Nano thrown in! That should really make his Christmas!

3. LG Renoir

OK, we're down to the last three now, and it's time to get out the big guns! In third place is the LG Renoir, a true beast of a camera phone. Like the Sony Ericsson C905, the Renoir features a huge 8 megapixel, but it also throws in auto-focus, face tracking, smile shot, blink detection, and a top quality Xenon flash for superb picture taking ability.

Not content with one of the best camera phones on the market, LG also made sure the video recording was top-notch, too. You can record in DVD quality at up to 120 frames per second, which lets you playback your videos in slow motion, should you want.

And if your man gets lost, there's built-in GPS, while the 7.2Mbps download speeds plus Wi-Fi will ensure he can connect to the Internet whenever and wherever he likes at broadband speeds. And did I mention it's touchscreen?!

The LG Renoir is one of the most feature-packed phones on the market today, and it'll keep your bloke occupied for weeks just trying out every feature it has, which is exactly what you need on Christmas day!

You can buy the LG Renoir for free and get unlimited text messages, unlimited mobile Internet, £40 cashback and an iPod Touch all thrown in. This has to be one of the deals of Christmas 2008.

2. Samsung Pixon M8800

Second placed phone goes to the gloriously-named Samsung Pixon M8800. The Pixon, as its name sort of implies, is a serious camera-phone - and we mean serious!

Featuring an 8 megapixel camera with face, smile and blink detection, it's difficult to take a bad photo with the Pixon. Add GPS, 3.2" touchscreen user interface, GPS, accelerometer, 7.2Mbps downloading, TV-Out and 8GB of storage, and you can see that the Pixon is one of the best specified mobile phones on the market today.

If your man simply has to have a phone with more features than any other, the Samsung Pixon is a must.

You can buy the Samsung Pixon M8800 today for free, and get unlimited text messages and £95 cashback thrown in.

Nokia N96

And so, we come to our number one phone - the Nokia N96. The LG Renoir, Samsung Pixon and Nokia N96 are all competing fiercely this year, but in my opinion, the N96 edges it (but only just!). It's not got quite the same size camera - a 5 megapixel version compared with the 8 megapixel monsters from LG and Samsung - but it's got tonnes of other features that more than make up for it.

It's got the usual array of gadgets - GPS, Wi-Fi, 3.6Mbps download speed, etc. But it also adds an accelerometer, an enormous 16GB of onboard storage - and mobile TV!

Yes, if your man's a tellyholic, or just loves watching videos, the N96 not only lets him watch telly where he is, he can also record it, store it for later, or even pause live TV - just like a Sky+ box.

Quite simply, there's no better multimedia phone on the market this Christmas, so if your man simply has to have the best, and wants it in a stylish sleek package, then go for the Nokia N96 and make him very happy indeed!

You can buy the Nokia N96 for free and get unlimited text messages and unlimited mobile Internet phone in for free.

If you decide to buy your man a phone this year, you won't go wrong with any from this list, and with the amazing deals that are now online, there's never been a better time to buy.

And if you're buying for a girl in your life, check out our list of ten phones for women, too.

The first is something of a shock - it's the Nokia Home Music system, a dedicated wireless music streamer pitched directly at the Logitech Squeezebox.

Seems Nokia's going into the music business in a big way, and we can only assume they're trying to usurp the dominance of Apples iTunes store (and thus sever peoples reliance on the iPhone) with an enhanced version of their Comes With Music music download service.

Either that or Nokia also has 10% time just like Google, and one of their engineers came up with something bloody amazing!

The second announcement rumour comes from Scoble, who has either got his days wrong, or knows something we don't!

More details after the jump.

Writing early on Monday 1st Dec., he said "[A] Nokia executive met me and bragged that the Internet has no clue what they will announce this week. I asked what about the touch screen cell phone that I've seen rumors about? He said that no one had gotten it right yet. The announcements are on Wednesday morning (it's early Monday morning as I post this) so we'll have to wait to see what they announce" (my emphasis).

Later on, he asks "...what do you think Nokia is going to release on Wednesday? Will it take 'touch' and 'experience' leadership back from Research in Motion and Apple?"

That's a lot of Wednesdays! Today's Tuesday (well, it's not, its 12:38am when I'm writing this, so technically it's Wednesday, but you know what I mean!), and the N97 has already been announced. If Scoble's right, and there are more announcements to come on Wednesday morning, then Nokia must have something even bigger up their sleeves than the world's best Facebook phone and a new Home Music Streamer!

Or, Scoble just got confused with time zones and confused Wednesday with Tuesday!

[Source: Scoble, MediaMentalism]

Of course, that's not difficult - the iPhone has a poor 2 megapixel camera, no video and no keyboard, whereas the Nokia N97 has a 5 megapixel camera, DVD-quality video recording (which, incidentally, can record in widescreen 16:9 ratio), huge 3.5" widescreen VGA screen, and a full QWERTY keyboard as well as screen!

Check out the video of the Nokia N97, and see what you think of it.

Fortunately, Scoble, who's at Nokia's N97 briefing this morning, has kindly obliged, so here are the pics, courtesy of Scoble and Flickr.

More pics after the jump.

There's a full slide-out QWERTY keyboard, which wil be super-ergonomic (the E90's is a peach), and a massive screen for desktop-like Web browsing. In fact, the screen is the star of the N97. It's massive - 3.5" in size, widescreen 16:9 ratio, and touchscreen to boot, making it perfect for browsing the Web.

More pics of the Nokia N97 after the jump.


Other features of the new N97 include:

• 32GB memory, expandable to 48GB
• 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens and dual LED Flash
• GPS
• HSDPA
• Wi-Fi
• USB 2.0
• Bluetooth 2.0
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• Huge battery life, offering 37 hours of music and 4.5 hours of video

There's also a neat new user interface, which lets you thumb through your pictures or your Web pages with the touch of a finger.

That said, I'm a little underwhelmed. The N97's QWERTY keyboard might have been unexpected by the blogosphere, but the rest of the specifications have been doing the rounds for over a month now. Looking at the specs, the N97 is the Eitri, but without the compass or the proximity sensor, which were the most interesting things I was looking out for.

In fact, other than the screen, it's not exactly pushing the boundaries in any of its features. You get the same camera, GPS and connectivity offerings in an N82, for example. There's a nod towards third party developer support with Nokia's Widsets, but these aren't exactly going to trouble Apple's AppStore. They've been around on the E90 for some time, and are almost without exception useless (and ugly, too).

In fact, the Nokia N97 is much like the N96 - an unbelievably good phone when looked at in isolation, but offering nothing innovative or competition-beating when compared to other phones on the market. The N97 is just a Nokia 5800 with a bigger screen and a QWERTY keyboard.

If we had no iPhone or Google Android, the N97 would be a stunner. But we do, and so the N97, although undoubtedly good, fails to capture the imagination in quite the same way that these phones did.

Maybe I'm being unduly harsh. These are just my first impressions, so a full review later will see just how good the Nokia N97 is in the flesh.

The Nokia N97 release date will be Q2 2009, priced around 550 Euros before subsidies, which is actually quite cheap considering what it offers.
[Source: Dialaphone, Nokia]

Nokia are making a huge announcement tomorrow that they're hyping like mad, leading some to believe that Nokia's iPhone-killer is finally on its way. Nokia's 2008 line-up of phones disappointed some, as its flagship, the N96, was only a minor improvement on the N95. Although a great phone in its own right, the N96 was no competition for the iPhone, leaving some to wonder just what Nokia's response would be to Apple's market-changing phone.

Given that the iPhone was released in 2007, that response has been a long time coming, but we should know tomorrow, as Nokia are definitely announcing NSeries phones for 2009 - and we've also got our hands on some rumoured specs. If you can't wait for Nokia's announcement, check out the specs after the jump, and come back here tomorrow morning for full details of Nokia big new announcement.

Leaked specs for 2009 Nokia NSeries phones

These specs were first leaked to EngadgetMobile about a month ago, so take them with the usual pinch of salt. However, the image of the specs was rapidly pulled at Nokia's request, so they probably won't be too far from the truth.

The specs and the phones' codenames are as follows:

IP08

Widescreen touch, Naviscroll, QWERTY, AGPS, FM radio and transmitter, 5MP AF camera, WiFi, Bluetooth, TV-out

Corolla

3.0-inch VGA display, non-touch, 8MP camera, half QWERTY keyboard, 128MB RAM, 8GB ROM, WiFI, UPnP, HSPA, AGPS, FM transmitter

Eitri

Landscape candybar with QWERTY, 3.5-inch 640x350 display, minimum 8GB ROM, microSD, pressure sensitive touch UI with tactile feedback and gestures, charging via USB, 5MP AF camera with dual LED flash, integrated compass and accelerometer, proximity sensor, FM transmitter .

Of the three, the IP08 and Eitri stand out, both having widescreen touchscreen displays with up to 3.5" VGA screens. The Eitri in particular looks very special, with its huge screen, compass, accelerometer, and, intriguingly, proximity sensor. A mobile phone that knows where it is, which direction it's facing, which way it's moving, and where you are in relation to it - now that opens up some huge possibilities!

Let's hope Nokia encourage developers to develop for their new devices in a similar way to the iPhone and Android markets.

To help you through the PDA phone maze, we've compiled a little guide to the best smartphones to buy for Christmas 2008.

The Top Five PDA Phones

The majority of PDA phones are currently based on four different platforms:

• Apple iPhone
• Google Android
• Windows Mobile
• Symbian

In no particular order, here's a list of the best PDA phone for each platform.

Apple iPhone

An easy one this as there's only one phone based on Apple's legendary technology - the iPhone! Originally sold without 3G, the latest version now has both 3G and GPS built-in. It's responsive, with a fantastic user interface, but despite 3G, it's still slow downloading data unless you manage to hook up to a Wi-Fi network.

Other irritants include being locked into a specific operator, a battery that can't actually be removed, a poor camera, and the lack of a physical keyboard, making text entry less than 100% accurate.

That said, the iPhone still has the best user interface of any mobile phone on the market today, and people who have one swear by them. They look fantastic, are fully extensible with thousands of downloadable apps, and sync seamlessly with Apple Macs.

If you're after a PDA phone but don't need to do much typiing on it (and you can stomach the 18 month restricted contract!), then the iPhone should be up there on the top of your list.

Google Android

Again, another easy one to describe, as there's currently only one mobile phone based on the Google Android platform - the T-Mobile G1. In many respects, Android can be thought of as the PC equivalent to the iPhone - it also has a fantastic touchscreen user interface, is even more responsive than the iPhone, and syncs seamlessly with Google's existing browser-based apps (specifically Calendar and Gmail). It even alerts you whenever someone sends you email or changes your Calendar.

Better still, unlike Apple it's completely open. Although there's currently only one Android phone on the market at the moment, there are dozens currently in development, with everyone from Samsung to Motorola feverishly working away to release more Android phones in 2009.

As such, the G1 can be thought of as the benchmark system to beat. And what a benchmark! Great design, touchscreen, slide out QWERTY keyboard, GPS, and HSDPA, enabling it to download data ten times faster than the iPhone. The G1 is also extensible via third party applications that can be downloaded and installed on your phone.

If you need a smartphone that's fast to use, offers the best mobile Web browsing experience of any mobile device on the market, is slick, has a proper keyboard, and you're a heavy Google user, then the G1 is for you. If however, you love the idea of an Android phone but want to wait until other manufacturers release their own version (like me!), you might want to hold off until mid-2009.

Windows Mobile

Windows Mobile phones have been around for years, with Windows Mobile 6 currently being the latest version. You can pick up a Windows Mobile phone from a generic brand really cheaply - but that doesn't mean it'll be any good! As I discovered with the Toshiba G910, some phones based on this platform are simply awful!

Part of this is to do with the awfulness of Windows Mobile itself, particularly its user interface. Looking like something from 1999, the Windows Mobile interface is so bad and clunky that many smartphone manufacturers have gone to the extreme lengths of developing their own user interface to place on top of it!

That's not to say the Windows Mobile platform has nothing going for it. Because it's from Microsoft, it'll sync seamlessly with your desktop apps, including Microsoft Outlook, and will let you read and edit Microsoft Office documents (only Powerpoint docs are read-only). The cost of this, though, is the unremittingly-awful Pocket Internet Explorer that comes with it. Should you get a Windows Mobile-based PDA phone, the very first thing you'll need to do is download and install Opera's mobile browser (Opera Mina) ASAP!

Of the different Windows Mobile smartphones that are out there, you should consider the MWg range, if you're after a cheap no-nonsense smartphone. Their main advantages are that they're fast, cheap, and as well specified as the average smartphone, even coming with GPS and HSDPA.

If you're after a sexier smartphone, check out the Sony Ericsson X1 or the HTC Touch. The X1 suffers a bit from a rather unintuitive interface, while the HTC Touch is a bit slow, but they've both got much better user interfaces than your average Windows Mobile device.

Symbian

Symbian used to be a company owned collectively by a variety of mobile phone manufacturers, but since Samsung finally sold their stake, Nokia now owns the whole company and its operating system.

Symbian has always been a well-respected platform, being both robust and extremely efficient. In recent years, it's also become increasingly powerful, with Nokia driving its development to ensure it doesn't get left behind in the smartphone race with the iPhone.

Perhaps its most sophisticated incarnation is the Nokia E90, a phone that I've personally owned for the past year, and which I whole-heartedly endorse! It's a big brick of a phone, granted, but with a huge VGA screen and great keybaord, it's perfect both for viewing Web pages and writing (short!) documents - exactly what I needed it for.

It'll sync with most desktop-based applications, including Microsoft Outlook (via Exchange), and will even sync with GMail via the external toool offered by GooSync.

It comes with HSDPA, Wi-Fi, GPS and great camera and video camera - in fact, in many respects, it's still the most feature-rich PDA phone on the market today.

However, its design and its size are now looking a little dated, so if design matters, better to go for the iPhone, G1 or Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1.

Summary

In conclusion, then, we have the following phones for the following people:

• Apple iPhone - perfect for the intelligent fashionista
• T-Mobile G1 - perfect for the person who wants the best mobile Web browsing device on the market
• MWg - perfect for the smartphone user on a budget
• Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 and HTC Touch - perfect for the fashionista on a budget
• Nokia E90 - perfect for the person who needs to Get Things Done, browse the Web, and can fit a small country in their pocket!

The E63 is designed primarily for business, and so as well as the full QWERTY keyboard, will also integrate seamlessly with a wide array of different email systems. Despite being designed for business, though, it also comes with the usual array of multimedia features you'd expect from a consumer phone, such as 2 megapixel camera, video recorder and GPS unit.

One thing that is surprising is the E63s connectivity options. Although it supports quad-band GSM, 3G and WiFi, there's no support for HSDPA, meaning its data transfer rates are restricted to 3Gs 384kbps, which is just 1/10 that of HSDPA. Given that the E63 is a business phone that can be used not only to browse the Web, but also to exchange files over email, Id have expected HSDPA to be a given.

Maybe its something to do with the cost-cutting that Nokia has done with this phone. As I said, the E63 is basically a cheaper E71, and so presumably Nokia have had to cut a few corners to get the price down. The rear case, for example, is plastic, rather than the metal of the E71s.

This is disappointing, but it reflects the market conditions were in. The E63 is a business phone, and business is doing badly at the moment, so if any mobile manufacturer wants to continue selling products, prices must be cut. The E63 is the first sign of these changing signs, and are a signal that Nokia has recognized the drastic shift in market conditions that has occurred in the past few months. Nokia will therefore pitch the E63 as a cheaper alternative to the Blackberry.

The E63 is undoubtedly a good phone, as the E71 was - its just a shame market conditions have prevented Nokia from being more innovative for once.

[Source: Dialaphone]