Samsung Phone Offers Wireless Broadband, But It Has Drawbacks
The new Samsung i730 surfs the Web and sends and receives email at broadband speeds, but Walt says the short battery life and two-handed navigation can be aggravating.
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The new Samsung i730 surfs the Web and sends and receives email at broadband speeds, but Walt says the short battery life and two-handed navigation can be aggravating.
Samsung’s Q1, an Ultra Mobile PC that’s smaller than the smallest mainstream laptop, goes on sale next week, but the machine is so deeply flawed in key respects that it amounts to little more than a toy for techies.
The Samsung BlackJack smart phone has a slimmer design and longer battery life than the Treo 750. But if you can afford $499, you might want to wait for the Apple iPhone, Walt says.
Nokia is pursuing a radical product: a hand-held computer that isn’t a cellphone at all. The N800 has some nice features, Walt says, but the software is unpolished and it’s hard to imagine users carrying it around. (Video)
The FlipStart, part of a new wave of tiny Windows PCs, has a decent battery life, but its awkward, in-between size and $2,000 price tag is likely to keep it a niche product. (Video)
Samsung’s radical new music phone, the UpStage, shows real creativity in cramming music player and phone into one slim gadget, but has too many downsides. (Video)
Walt Mossberg tests Samsung’s Q1 Ultra, and says the tiny PC addresses the biggest weaknesses of an earlier model and throws in other improvements such as a built-in keyboard. (Video)
A new type of T-Mobile cellphone can place calls over Wi-Fi for a flat monthly fee without using regular cellphone minutes and can switch seamlessly to regular cellular service, but has a few drawbacks.
The SYNC system from Ford and Microsoft is a big step forward in integrating cellphones and portable music players into cars, says Walt Mossberg.
A tiny new computer called the Eee PC is better than competing products in certain respects, such as text entry and price. But it still has too many compromises to pry most travelers away from their larger laptops.
A free cellphone service called ChaCha lets you ask any question answerable via a Web search, by simply making a voice call. In most cases, it gave fast, accurate answers. But it has a few weaknesses.
The parade of iPhone lookalikes continues, and the latest to arrive is the Samsung Instinct. While it isn’t a bad phone and has some features the Apple product lacks, it’s no match for the iPhone.
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