Nokia 6124 - Compact 3G multimedia phone exclusive to Vodafone

The Nokia 6124 classic is a compact multimedia phone that has this month been announced exclusively for the Vodafone market.

Vodafone customer's world-wide will benefit from high speed access to Vodafone's internet and entertainment services. 3G broadband download speeds at up to 10 times faster what is currently available from 3G will be supported by the Nokia 6124. Customers who frequently use their mobile for internet browsing and video streaming should certainly benefit from this handset.

Other standout features include a large 2.0"display, 2 megapixel camera an external memory slot that will allow the user to expand the phones memory up to 8GB.

Based on the Symbian operating system, the Nokia 6124 provides SmartPhone capabilities and the freedom to download new applications to the phone. Multiple applications can run at once, making it possible to listen to music while browsing the web for example.

The Nokia 6124 will be available in Vodafone markets from the second quarter of 2008.

Nokia 7900 Prism

The Nokia 7900 Prism is a striking looking 3G phone that features diamond cut geometric patterns, laser etched surfaces and polished matt finishing.

This style focused phone includes a lighting effects feature that lets the user customise their phone to 49 different colours.

The Nokia 7900 is one of the first phones by Nokia to feature an OLED (Organic LED) display. OLED displays do not need a backlight to function which means that they draw far less power than traditional backlit TFT displays. Another advantage of OLED techology over TFT is a much greater contrast ratio and rage of colours.

The camera on the 7900 Prism is 2 megapixels with 8x digital zoom and flash. DVD quality video (H.263) recording and playback is also supported.

Specifications:
- Camera: 2 megapixels, 8x digital zoom, flash
- Video recording and playback: QCIF, 3GPP, H.263, MPEG-4 codecs
- Display: OLED (organic LED), 16 million colours, 240x320 pixels
- Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.0, Micro USB for charging and data transfer
- Memory: 1GB internal

Recent Nokia Posts:
Nokia N81 Music Smartphone
Nokia 3110 Evolve - Nokia goes green
Nokia 6555 - Slick 3G flip phone

3G vs 4G

There has been more talk about 4G (fourth generation) mobile broadband recently and Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN's) has announced that the first 4G field trials have been completed in Berlin.

As 4G seems to have taken a step closer to reality, I decided to do some research and find out what advantages 4G may offer over 3G. The specifications for 4G are not standardized yet but the following 3G vs 4G table gives an idea of what 4G is likely to provide.

Technology	3G	4G
Frequency band	1.8 - 2.5GHz	2 - 8GHz
Bandwidth	5-20MHz	5-20MHz
Data rate	Up to 2Mbps	100Mbps moving - 1Gbps stationary
Access	W-CDMA	VSF-OFCDM and VSF-CDMA
FEC	Turbo-codes	Concatenated codes
Switching	Circuit/Packet	Packet

The existing 3G W-CDMA standard will be replaced in 4G by VSF-OFCDM and VSF-CDMA. VSF-OFCDM allows extremely high downlink connections, both indoors and outdoors. VSF-CDMA provides high-efficiency, high-speed packet transmissions for the uplink.

The 4G adoption of concatenated FEC (Forward Error Correction) will allow much larger data packets to be transmitted and at the same time reduce the bit error rate. This will increase the overall data through-put.

One of the main advantages that 4G technology will have over 3G is higher data rates. This will benefit the end user by allowing faster access to multimedia and video while on the move.

We may still have to wait a while for 4G though, as it looks like 4G networks won't be launched until 2008 and won't become widely available until 2010.

Samsung i620 3G SmartPhone

The Samsung i620 is one of the latest 3G smartphones to be released by Samsung. The i620 features a wide design to accommodate its QWERTY keyboard and comes with a range of smartphone capabilities.

The i620 supports HSPDA (High Speed Download Packet Access) which makes it ideal for streaming video and chat using video telephony. It runs the Windows Mobile operating system which gives it a range of multimedia options including Windows Media Player.

A user-friendly PC environment is provided with the Windows Mobile 6.0 operating system, providing support for Crossbow, Message Smartifier, IRM email access as well as a range of other applications.

A range of connectivity options are provided with Bluetooth, WAP, Outlook Sync, PC Sync Application and an Internet HTML browser.

It includes a standard 2.0 megapixel camera with digital zoom, brightness adjust, shot mode and photo effects and quality settings.

Smartphone functionality includes a scheduler, document viewer, mobile printing, offline mode, file explorer, voice memo and voice mail.

Specifications:
- Platform: Windows Mobile 6.0
- Browser: Opera
- Display: TFT, 2.2", 320x240 resolution
- Battery: Talk Time - 4.2hrs, Standby - 350hrs
- Input device: QWERTY keyboard
- Camera: 2.0 megapixels, digital zoom, no optical zoom
- Connectivity: Bluetooth, WAP
- Memory: 30MB internal, mircoSD external memory up to 2GB
- Model number: SGH-i620

Nokia 6555 - Slick 3G flip phone

The recently released Nokia 6555 (August 21, 2007) is an attractive 3G phone featuring a smooth-back fold design and stylish analog clock.

The main selling point for the 6555 is the smooth-back fold design. It has recessed hinges which means that when the phone is open, there is no obvious line at the join.

An additional attraction of the Nokia 6555 is a QVGA 16 million color internal display, providing a crisp resolution on a large 240x320 screen. This will be very useful for viewing and editing photos and videos on the go.

For a stylish, mid-range 3G phone, the 6555 is reasonably priced at around €200.

Other features:
- Display: 240 x 320 pixels - QVGA with 16M colours
- Sub Display: 128 x 160 pixels with 262k colours
- Camera: 1.3 megapixels
- Connectivity: Bluetooth version 2.0, USB
- Memory card: Micro SD memory slot up to 4GB
- Internal memory: 30MB