LG is a big player in the touch screen phone market. A lot of its products go to big carriers like AT&T Wireless (LG Xenon and LG enV Touch) and Verizon Wireless. A few of its phones make to U.S. cellular which is a regional carrier. This handset is a lot like LG Tritan but the Bliss doesn’t have a low resolution camera or physical keyboard. This product is quite slim and is packed with features, which is what you look to in a phone. The Bliss has built-in accelerometer which gives you a full size QWERTY keyboard when you turn the phone. The buttons on it are spacious and easy to type. It has a 2.0 mega pixel, something that we were disappointed with. Usually you’d expect a 3.2 mega pixel camera but this low resolution camera was surprisingly good in photos.  We had very little to complain about the phone, it had pretty good features. Our only complaint was the feel of the device which feels cheap plasticky in the hand. The handset is yours for $99 along with a 2 year contract  [...]

We all know what HTC is capable of when it comes to smart phones. They have given us plenty of them and very rarely have they failed to make an impact in the market with their handsets. They along with Samsung have been really good in smart phone sales. Such is their impact that Nokia recently announced that they will be cutting down on smart phone production and will be instead concentrating more on mid range handsets because they are unable compete with these two big players. We have always had a soft spot for HTC phones because they never fail to deliver with their devices and hence we pounced on the Tilt2 when it landed in our test centers. This is officially the successor to HTC Tilt but looks more like HTC Touch Pro2 which is available on Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile. The design of the two phones is the same, it has the same speaker layout and the chrome edges which we saw in the unlocked Touch Pro2. One big difference in this handset is the inclusion of Windows Mobile 6.5 so you  [...]

This is an entry level touch screen handset from Motorola but it does have some features up its sleeve that will interest you. We found the display was a bit small and will really get you when you browse through Web pages or try to watch a video. The small display also gives a smaller resolution which adds to the woes. The 2 mega pixel camera located behind the handset is pretty basic and doesn’t come with editing options. But other than that, the features offered are satisfactory and the call quality too is good though we would have appreciated if the volume was a bit louder. You get a music player which plays a wide range of audio formats and we thank Motorola for giving us a 3.5 mm phone jack. It lets you plug in any standard headphones of your choice. The memory card slot is also located on the sides of the phone so you don’t have to go digging inside the battery cover to take it off or change it. The Crush is sold by U.S. Cellular for $69.95 with a 2 year agreement and after a  [...]

This device is the successor to LG Lotus Elite that we got back in 2008. The looks are the same but the handset is now sleeker, curvier and there is a stunning resistive touch screen on the lid through which you can contacts and messaging without opening the lotus elite handset. We couldn’t get enough of this external display and spend a lot of time fiddling around with it in our test centers. Usually the external display’s on the phones are quite disappointing, they only give basic information like signal strength, time, data and caller ID. But we had absolutely no complaints about this external display. The Lotus Elite also has integration with social networks like Twitter and Facebook. But apart from that, the features are about the same which was a bit disappointing considering LG had a year to come up with new ideas.  This handset is made for style conscious people. LG Lotus Elite will put you back by $99.99 and comes with a 2 year contract and a mail-in rebate of $50.

Not everyone out there is a gizmo gadget freak. They don’t need a high end cell phone, all they want is a device which can do basic calling and text messaging. So why buy a cell phone with all the features if you are not going to use them? You can buy a low end phone and save your hard earned money. LG LX-290 from Sprint, is a basic entry level phone and it doesn’t have music player or 3G. But on the bright side, you get a GPS with turn-by-turn directions, Bluetooth, lots of e-mail options and a entry level 1.3 mega pixel camera. The LG LX-290 phone has a slider design which we are a bit wary about because the lubricants in the slider wear out over a period of time and hence phone becomes hard to move the two halves. We really liked the four shortcut keys above the slide out keypad. The LG LX-290 costs $29.99 with a 2 year contract and after a mail-in rebate. LG LX-290 phone has a support for variety of e-mail providers. There is no EV-DO which we were a bit disappointed with.

Verizon Wireless Razzle is one of those smart phones which can is great for messaging and provides great music too. We think it can be used by business men as well as the youth. The Verizon Wireless Razzle cell phone looks like a business handset with the full sized QWERTY keyboard and when you swivel it around, you get dedicated keys for controlling music playback. There is a bit of downside though, we were disappointed that there is a 2.5 mm headphone jack. We would have preferred a 3.5 mm jack for plugging standard earphones. For messaging enthusiasts, the keyboard is tilted to one side which is great ergonomics for typing messages and e-mails. We also liked the task bar shortcut key on the sides that gives you shortcuts for various applications on the cell phone. There no EV-DO either, so you cannot download songs over the air. The handset costs $19.95 with a two year contract from Verizon Wireless. The phone is manufactured by Pantech and is marketed, developed and distributed by PCD.

Samsung Intrepid is Sprint’s first mobile phone to have a Windows Mobile 6.5 OS. The messaging features on good on the device but the looks aren’t impressive, it is wider than your standard QWERTY keyboard smart phone and it is a bit tough to carry it around. On the bright side, the wide body makes way for a keyboard with larger keys so it is easy to type messages and e-mail. We thought that the QWERTY keyboard on the Intrepid was one of the best ones we have ever laid our hands on in our lab tests. The wide phone also gives you a bigger display. The phone is touch screen and scrolling through the honey comb layout menu is really easy. The phone goes well with the new features provided on Windows Mobile 6.5 OS. The Intrepid has world roaming capabilities, in the US, it uses Sprint’s network and when traveling overseas it will switch to a compatible GSM network. The device is shipped with SIM card. One more feature worth mentioning here is 3.2 megapixel camera which takes good quality  [...]

LG Helix is a basic phone from Cricket Communications, it is another basic phone for people who need a handset just to make call and send text messages. The LG Helix phone doesn’t have much features, it sports a simple design with a small screen on the lid (it is a clamshell design phone) and a VGA camera on the top. The design itself is traditional flip phone and the inside features too are traditional of an entry level phone. The display of the LG Helix phone is tiny and doesn’t have a big resolution but as long as you just calling people, it should not matter to you. The navigation array and the keypad is not the greatest we found it pretty hard to type on the buttons. Being an entry level phone, there is no 3G, music player and the 1.3 megapixel camera isn’t capable of recording videos. The speakerphone quality too was a bit disappointing. On the bright side, there are basic features such as Bluetooth, multimedia and text messaging. The LG Helix phone is yours for $120 without  [...]

SCP-3810, the latest offering by Sanyo is an entry level handset with minimal features. All it can do is make calls and send text messages. Sanyo was bought by Kyocera in late September 2007 for about 50 billion yen ($435 million) because Sanyo couldn’t stand the stiff competition offered by other manufacturers. But Sanyo hasn’t lost its roots, the style and design has been the same in the phones. Being an entry level phone it can do only calling and it is pretty good at it with the great call quality. If you are a multimedia enthusiast or want data features in your handset you will have to look else where. The SCP-3810 costs $249 but if you buy it with the service, it is free after a $50 mail-in rebate. The features of the handset is pretty basic, it has a tiny display, few PIM features like countdown timer, stopwatch, world clock, alarm, calculator. It does have a camera but the quality is really bad. There is no music player and the phone has average battery life. It has GPS, which  [...]

The Samsung Instinct HD is a smart phone which is comfortable to hold and feels solid in the hand. Its 3.2 inch screen has a resolution up to 480X320. Colors are vibrant and bright. Its touch interface is responsive and quick to work. The handset has the capability to switch between a right and left handed orientation and you can also adjust the touch sensitivity. The intensity can also be changed and deactivated also. There is a proximity sensor which automatically locks the handset from accidental touches when you are on a call. InstinctHD has the same menu interface which we saw on previous instinct phone. It has an option to display the menu items in List and Tiles format. The tiles view display the thumbnails of the photo and you don’t need to open the photo gallery for this. The Menu choices can be arranged by using the "Faves" option. It also offers the facility to rearrange the menu choices or delete them. The "Web" Menu gives you  [...]