Phone New Update: April 2009

ZeroZero Calling cards : Mobile Add-on that cut international call cost

UK Company Vectone has launched its new service called the ZeroZero Calling card.

ZeroZero is been called the future of the mobile industry. ZeroZero comes with a new call routing gadget that gives users the option to make calling card rate, cheap international calls from their mobile. Its simply a mobile add-on that cut the cost of international phone calls.

This device simply fits between a user's mobile phone and the existing SIM card and recognizes when the user dials an international number. In simple language, whenever you dial a local number or a national number then your call is routed via your normal telecom provider but when you dial a International number, ZeroZero recognizes it and the number is routed via ZeroZero thus bypassing your telecom provider (what it does is dial a local access number and then connect to international number via ZeroZero). Vectone is banking on the service to attract contract users with free minutes in their bundle to use them in conjunction with ZeroZero to get low rate international calls.

This way you simple save a lot of your international phone bills as you are charged by ZeroZero and the call cost are very cheap.

Your Zerozero card automatically activates as soon as you make an international call.
provided you have topped-up your ZeroZero SIM. To top-up, call #123 and
following the instructions. You can also top online.
ZeroZero reduces costs for international voice calls only, not SMS. ZeroZero will only work on your home network - you should disable it when calling from abroad.

ZeroZero is compatible with

NOKIA:
N95, N70, E61, E66, 6300, 1208

MOTOROLA:
W156

LG:
KE970, KP100, KP500

SAMSUNG:
SGH-E820, SGH-400, F210

SONY ERICSSON:
K720i, T280i

Now talking about the call rates of ZeroZero calling card by Vectone. The call rates are very cheap compared to other calling options. The call rate to India is just 1 pence per min.

To make calls to Pakistan you have to spend just 5 pence per minute. Too many other countries call rates is 1 pence per min.

You can buy ZeroZero online now: For just £10.99 you will get
£10 of ZeroZero calling credit
1 x free ZeroZero SIM (worth £4.99)
Postage and packaging @ £0.99

Well according to me a great deal for people who make international calls, and prefer phone to phone dialing. This device removes the need for dialing access numbers, very easy to install and very easy to use. Overall a great mobile add-on.

Iriver P7 (16GB)

Iriver P7 (16GB) measures 4.5 inches across, 3 inches tall, and a relatively svelte 0.5 inch thick. The overall form is more pocket friendly than the chunkier design of the Cowon O2, feeling more like an Archos 5 with a shrunken screen. The majority of Iriver P7 (16GB) is operated using touch screen control, however, you'll find teeny, tiny buttons for power, menu, and volume on the top edge of the player. Iriver P7 (16GB)'s headphone jack is on the right edge, along with a hold switch, and a microSD memory slot covered by a plastic door.

While the P7's hardware looks like it takes a few cues from Apple, the touch screen interface is entirely unique. Iriver appropriately describes the main menu screen as magazine like, laying out each of the player's functions on a single screen, compartmentalized into an attractive arrangement of boxes. If you're accustomed to scrolling though menus, Iriver P7 (16GB)'s Mondrian esque layout takes a little time to grow on you.

After spending some time with it, we can't say the layout offers any practical advantages, but it's a pleasant break from the norm. Once you dial down into Iriver P7 (16GB)'s music and photo menus, the single page interface of the main menu eventually gives way to a more common list view. Unlike the iPod Touch's smooth, swift, and responsive song lists, sorting through your music on Iriver P7 (16GB) requires patience and a precise touch on a slim graphical scroll bar.

If you plan on storing a large music collection on Iriver P7 (16GB), prepare for some navigation frustration. The P7 is easy on the eyes, but the features are nothing to write home about. Despite the movie worthy 4.3 inch screen with a 480x272 resolution, video really isn't the P7's strong suit. On paper, support for formats such as AVI, MP4, WMV, MPG, FLV, XVID, H.264, and a handful of others, makes Iriver P7 (16GB)'s video capabilities seem very impressive.

In practice, however, we found that Iriver P7 (16GB) didn't offer the kind of drag and drop video format and resolution flexibility we've seen from competitors such as the Cowon O2 or Archos 605 WiFi. Just like the smaller screened Samsung P3 or Iriver SPINN, we found ourselves spending extra time converting the videos we wanted to watch on Iriver P7 (16GB) using the included software. Power users and the patient minded may be able to put up with Iriver P7 (16GB)'s particular video requirements, but people looking for drag and drop simplicity should look elsewhere.

In spite of our complaints about the sluggish, unfriendly design of Iriver P7 (16GB)'s music menu navigation, the audio capabilities of the P7 are arguably the best feature of the device. Iriver P7 (16GB) supports MP3, WMA, FLAC, WAV, and OGG file formats, along with album artwork and lyrics, but leaves out the AAC format critical for playing back music purchased from iTunes. Songs are listed in either an ID3 tag sort (Album, Artist, Genre, Playlist) or presented as the user's own custom list of folders.

Once a song is playing, you can apply custom or preset EQ (there's also some nice SRS WOW HD enhancement settings), change the playback mode (shuffle, repeat, etc.), rate the song on a five star scale, and even view song lyric information embedded within the file's ID3 tag. There are also settings for bookmarking, looping, or saving files to a custom playlist. Between Iriver P7 (16GB) and the similarly priced Cowon O2, we're a little torn when it comes to each player's audio capabilities.

Neither device shines in terms of touch screen menu navigation, but we suspect the O2's AAC support is more important than its lack of ID3 song sorting (some will surely disagree). Iriver P7 (16GB) features, such as the FM radio and text reader, are nice to have, but unexceptional. The photo viewer, like most aspects of Iriver P7 (16GB), is a little sluggish. At best, transitions between photographs take 3 seconds to complete, and the image browser uses the same tiny, tedious scroll bar found on the music player.

Reliable calling offers 1 cent per minute to India

Though betamax companies are increasing their call rates to India, however we have found some alternatives for you. We promise you won't have to pay much for making voip calls to India.

Just like AirtelCallhome and Reliance India Call, Reliable Calling is offering 1 cent per minute calls to India. Reliable calling works just like other calling card providers like Airtel, Reliance, Trueroots. These are Phone to Phone calls which can be made dialing the toll free access number or the local access numbers.

Lets talk about the Calling plans offered by Reliable Calling.

Monthly Plan

The Monthly Plan is an exclusive offer where you can enjoy great Talk time for a period of 30 days. Subscribe to this plan with $9.99 which includes rental charges of $3.99, for the remaining $ 6, you get 600 mins at 1cent/min using local access number and 260 mins using Toll Free access number. Effective rate comes down to just 1.6 cents per minute (and this is Phone to Phone calling rates).

Refunds: No refund of talk time value, rental or plan value will be entertained under any circumstances.

Any talk time value left after expiry of validity will be automatically forfeited.

FortNight Plan

The Fortnight Plan is an exclusive offer where you can enjoy great Talk time for a period of 14 days. Subscribe to this plan with $7.99 which includes rental charges of $3.99, for the remaining $ 4, you get 400 mins at 1cent/min using local access number and 200 mins using Toll Free access number.

The calling rate to India in both the plans is 1 cent per minute however the effective calling rate is bit high (though the effective rate is also not much).

Some other features of Reliable Calling.

Your Call is routed to India using ILD providers.
Your caller id will be passed to the destination phone in India.
Lowest calling rate in the Industry
Quality calling at most competitive rates with no hidden cost
60 seconds rounding
No Connection Fees

SmartVoip, ActionVoip increases call rates to India

Few days back we blogged about ActionVoip and SmartVoip the betamax, companies offering cheapest calls to India.

These voip companies brought a kind of revolution in India calling plans with offering call rates as low as .7cent per minute to India. But the betamax is known for the rate fluctuations and that is the reason many people don't prefer these services. Again the betamax has done same thing.

SmartVoip and ActionVoip have increased their calling rates to India. However the calling rate is still lower than 1 cent, and still these companies hold the title of cheapest voip provider to India.

Let me put forward the latest calling rates to India.

SMARTVOIP
India (Landline) $0.009 (that's .9 cent per minute)
India (Mobile) $0.009 (that's .9 cent per minute).

ACTIONVOIP
India (Landline) $0.009 (that's .9 cent per minute)
India (Mobile) $0.013 (1.3 cents per min).

The calling procedure remain the same, you can either make Pc to Phone calls or Phone to Phone calls using SIP. But the question arises whether you should continue with betamax or look for some other option.

In my opinion it depends, if you make less calls then better stay with betamax (buy the minimum amount, so if you loose the loss is less). But if you make lot of calls to India then choose other cheap voip providers like Nymgo for making cheap calls to India.

Canon PowerShot A590 IS

As with previous PowerShot A-cameras, Canon built Canon PowerShot A590 IS around a large, bright, flexible lens. The 35 to 140mm equivalent, f/2.6 to f/5.5 lens offers a slightly longer reach and wider aperture than the 3x, f/2.8 lenses found in most compact cameras. It incorporates Canon's Optical Image Stabilization system, which shifts lens elements to help reduce image shake.

The camera can also accept conversion lenses with an optional adapter that fits over the base of the original lens. Unfortunately, the adapter retails for about $25, and conversion lenses retail for $100 or more, so outfitting your A590 IS with wide and or telephoto conversion lenses can cost almost as much as the camera itself. Skilled photographers will appreciate the camera's myriad controls and options.

Like other PowerShot A-series cameras, it offers program, aperture priority, shutter priority, and full manual exposure control modes. Of course, if you don't want to use any of those features, you can still shoot in the automatic mode, or with the camera's several scene presets. Finally, the camera adds a new "Easy" mode, which further simplifies and automates the interface. Slow shot to shot speed hindered Canon PowerShot A590 IS's otherwise very quick performance.

After a 1.8 second wait from power on to first shot, the camera could capture a new picture once every 2.3 seconds with the flash disabled. With the flash turned on, that wait more than doubled to an anguishing 5.2 seconds. Burst mode further disappointed, capturing 9 full resolution shots in 11.2 seconds for a rate of 0.8 frames per second. On the other hand, its shutter performed admirably, lagging a scant 0.45 seconds with our high contrast target and an even more impressive 0.7 seconds with our low contrast target.

Whether you shoot in low light or outside on a sunny day, you can expect the camera to grab the shot quickly, and then leave you waiting a few seconds before you can shoot again. Last year, the Sony Cyber shot DSC-T100 wowed us with its remarkably crisp picture quality. Though the A590 IS retails for far less than that camera, it manages to produce photos that are nearly on a par with those from the T100.

While the A590 IS's automatic white balance does a great job for a camera in its price range, it's not quite as good as the automatic white balance in the T100. The A590 IS does a good job of neutralizing colors shot under incandescent light, but leaves a hint of warmth. It also leaves more of a green cast than we'd like to see on a camera like this when shooting under fluorescent lighting.

Its tungsten setting did a wonderful job of neutralizing our very yellow tungsten hot lights. While noise remains extremely low from ISO 80 to 200, we did see some noise even at the camera's lowest sensitivity setting. Still, at these lower ISOs pictures look very good for a camera of this price, and fine textures such as fabric and fur appear consistently crisp. Noise becomes prominent at ISO 400, though details still come through clearly.

Like most compact cameras, Canon PowerShot A590 IS produces significant grain at ISO 800 and its maximum of ISO 1,600, covering the picture and damaging details with a fuzzy sheen. Overall, Canon PowerShot A590 IS produces very nice images and can even yield usable small prints at ISO 800, which is impressive for a camera of its class.

Cheap Voip calls to Pakistan : Nymgo

Few months back, a voip provider came to the market named Nymgo. It offered some very attractive unlimited calling plans to countries like India and Pakistan. It also promised to offer cheapest Pc to Phone calls.

Well, Nymgo has gained itself a very big name in the voip industry. Its giving a great competition to Mediaringtalk (counterpart in field of Pc to Phone calls). Nymgo earlier stopped its unlimited calling plan to India and lowered its call rates (Pay as you go) to just 1.3 cents/minute.

A few days back, Nymgo also stopped its unlimited calling plan to Pakistan (a lot of voip calls are made to Pakistan, guess Voip providers should also focus on this). As you know, that uptill last year the call rate to Pakistan was very cheap however the current voip rate to Pakistan aint any cheap.

Nymgo has now lowered its Pay as you go rate to Pakistan (guess to compensate for the closing of unlimited plan to Pakistan).

Nymgo is presently offering just 8.9 cents/minute to Pakistan. This rate is flat for calling both Pakistan landlines and mobile phones. (yeah you need a Pc in order to make voip phone calls to Pakistan).

I will also search for a cheaper calling option to Pakistan and post it on this blog. Guys, I would like to know if you are using any cheaper voip provider. Please post about it on this forum.

Skype Call Rates : Skype India 300 Callng Plan

Skype has always been a leader in the Voip market, the main reason for this is not its calling rates but it being quite a old voip, widely used by many and good voice quality skype offers. Skype Call rates are not that low but still competitive and some of Skype Calling Plans are worth trying!

The calling rates of Skype have always been on higher side but still a lot of people use Skype.
Skype also offers Free Voip Calls to some countries. Many of you must be using a Skype phone for your calling needs. And many of you just want to continue with Skype. So for those NRI who want to call India, Skype has got a deal for them.

Skype India 300 Calling Plan.
Lets see what does Skype India 300 monthly subscription plans offers to you.

What do you have to pay -: €9.95/month (€11.44 incl. VAT)
You will get 300 minutes of talktime to landlines in India. Effective rate gets to around 5.9 cents/minute (0.059 USD). I know the Skype Calling rate is very high. Call any time of the day, any day of the week. No long-term contract.

The 300 minutes of Skype talk time run from the first to the last day of each calendar month. If you use up all of your minutes within one calendar month your next subscription purchase will be active from the first day of the following month.

Other unlimited monthly subscription plan which Skype offers.

Skype : World 300 - €11.95/month (€13.74 incl. VAT)
300 minutes of calls to landlines in India and over 40 countries per month.

Skype : Unlimited World - €8.95/month (€10.29 incl. VAT)
Unlimited calls to landlines in over 40 countries worldwide (excluding India).

So, if you prefer voice quality over call rates (Skype Call rates being high), want uninterrupted voice calls, own a Skype Phone (or prefer Skype calls) then this Skype India 300 plan is surely for you!

Telbo : Unlimited Voip Phone calls : Free Internet Calls

One more entry to this list of Voip providers in this Voip world. A betamax launch, offers some good unlimited voip calling plans.

Telbo, is the latest release of Voip provider by the voip giant Betamax. I know many people face lot of problems with betamax companies (bad customer support, unexpected price hike etc). I am one among them, not in favor of Betamax but still a lot many people use betamax services simple because of the luring voip deals, cheap calls and good voice quality.

As we have always blogged about various voip services, we thought to review this one (Telbo) too. Telbo is one such voip provider which claim to provide Free internet calls and best value calls. Telbo offers unlimited phone calls for paying just $1/month. Man the effective rates just comes almost to zero...lolz..!!

Telbo offers two unlimited calling plans.
Unlimited calls to US & Canada for just $1/month.
Unlmited calls to
Canada
-Landline
-Mobile

Guam
-Landline

Puerto Rico
-Landline

USA
-Landline
-Mobile

The 3 and 12 months subscriptions also include a little credit so you can reach people outside of your subscription.

A Fair usage policy applies, there is a limit of 10,000 minutes per user per month, with a maximum of 6 hours per day
No more than 50 different numbers in total can be called per day.

Another plan offered by Telbo is
Unlimited World for just $5.95/Month.
You can make unlimited calls to landlines in 36 countries. Many european countries, Australia, Singapore, China are included but India, Pakistan are not included in the country list.
Along with unlimited calls it also includes a number you can use to call contacts abroad from any landline or mobile phone.

Now talking about the method to make calls. You can download their Voip softphone (PC application) to make Pc to Phone calls or you can use access numbers for making Phone to Phone calls.

Overall, for those who don't mind trying new things and are comfortable with Betamax services, Telbo is worth trying. A nice voip calling offer by Telbo Voip.

LG Xenon

LG Xenon appears to be just another touch screen phone. Measuring 4.16 inches long by 2.11 inches wide by 0.62 inch thick, the Xenon has smooth, sleek lines all around, with a touch of chrome around the border. It's a little smaller than the LG Vu and a little thicker as well. The Xenon is fairly lightweight at 3.81 ounces, and it's slim enough to fit in a front pocket. LG Xenon looks like a touch screen phone from the front.

Dominating its entire front surface is a large 2.8 inch touch screen display. It's smaller than the 3 inch displays on the LG Dare and the LG Vu, but it still looks good. It supports 262.000 colors and 240x400 pixels, which result in great looking graphics and colorful images. You can view the date, time, battery life, signal strength, and photo caller ID. Even when the screen is locked, you can see the date and time in a screen overlay.

You can set the brightness, the backlight timer, and the font size. For dialing fonts, you can set the color as well. Along the top of the screen are three icons, each of which corresponds to one of three customizable standby screens. You get one just for your favorite contacts, one for the home screen, and one for your favorite application shortcuts.

All standby screens have four shortcut icons along the bottom, which correspond to the phone dialer, the contacts list, the messaging menu, and the main menu. The main menu interface is similar to the one on the Vu, with four tabs along the right to differentiate applications. You get one tab for Phone related apps, one for Multimedia, one for My Stuff (which includes the media gallery plus productivity tools), and another for Settings.

For the favorite contacts screen, just follow the instructions to add a contact from your phone book. The contacts will then appear as small icons with the person's name, phone number, and photo. You can have up to three pages of favorite contacts, and you can arrange them on the screen however you wish by dragging and dropping the icons, or you can align them with the grid.

You can also fix the icons so they don't change position with the screen orientation. As for the shortcuts screen, you can add up to nine shortcuts. To add and remove shortcuts, simply press and hold down on a shortcut icon. The home screen is also customizable with a variety of widgets, similar to the TouchWiz interface on some Samsung phones. On the bottom left of the Xenon's home screen is a little right arrow that opens up to reveal a tray of widgets.

There are only six to choose from, though there's an analog clock, a world clock, the calendar, sticky notes, the image gallery, and the music player. To add a widget to the home screen, just drag and drop it on the page. You can then close the tray by pressing the little left arrow. LG Xenon also has a drop down shortcuts menu it calls the "Annunciator."

Simply tap the top part of any screen, and a list of shortcuts will appear. You can go directly to the music player, toggle the Bluetooth connection on and off, set your ring and vibration profile, send a new text message, send a new mobile email, check your voice mail, start the instant messenger for either Yahoo, AOL, or Windows Live, set your alarm clock, or view the calendar.

Reliance India Call offering 1 cent/min to India : Try Reliance India Call

Reliance India Call is a major voip provider, a Reliance initiative. Reliance India Call offers some of the best voip plans. If you have not tried Reliance India Call before, then its a must try for you.

The Voip has grown really big and this is easily shown by the decreasing call rates to India. Firstly Nymgo, Mediaringtalk started the price war. This was then led by the betamax companies like SmartVoip, ActionVoip. These betamax company SmartVoip is offering less than a cent per minute to India. And now its time for Reliance India Call to join it !

AirtelCallHome first offered 1 cent per call to India. It was obvious that other telecom providers will follow up and this is what has happened.

Reliance India Call, a global calling card provider ( a voip provider) is offering just 1 cent/min to call India.

Reliance India Call obviously needs no introduction, a major Indian MNC (a major telecom provider in India). So you need not to worry that your money is in wrong hands. You will not loose any calling credit by Reliance India Call.

Lets talk about the plan which Reliance India Call is offering to its customers.

Reliance India Call Calling Plans :

A seven day package. The pack is valid for 7 days only from the date and time of registration.
Call india at 1 cent/min.

You pay $6.99. (Pack Value)
Admistration Cost - $ 3.49
TalkValue - USD 3.50

Talk minutes offered - Local access (350 minutes)
Toll free access (150 minutes)

The catch in this plan offered by Reliance India Call is that effective rate is not 1 cent per minute. You actually have to pay $6.49 for getting 350 minutes. So the effective rate is 1.8 cents/min. The calling cost is still very low as you are getting associated with big voip provider (Reliance India Call), will get good voice quality etc.

One more thing is the pack validity - you get only 7 days to use 350 calling minutes. So better register cautiously so as to get talktime on right time. (Mothers day approaching).

Reliance India Call works like other calling card provider, you have to dial access number to connect to your destination.

Overall a great deal for making Cheap calls to India, cheers to Reliance India Call.

PS: After trying Reliance India Call voip service, please share your reviews about it. It is highly important to us.

Vizio VF550XVT

This big screen LCD looks unassuming for the most part, with the standard glossy black frame surrounding the picture area. But the nondetachable speaker bar along the bottom, with its silver coloring, reflective supports, bulbous shape, and see through panel exposing the wall behind the TV, assumes a bit too much, and we predict you'll either love it or hate it. We fall into the latter camp.

Vizio VF550XVT
We're not fans of the TV's big, nondetachable speaker bar, which brings silver and reflective chrome coloring to the aesthetic party. Vizio VF550XVT 55 inch VF550XVT measures 51.5 inches wide by 36 inches tall by 13.5 inches deep and weighs a svelte 86 pounds with stand attached. Remove the nonswiveling stand and its dimensions become 51.5 by 33.9 by 5 inches and its weight just 73.8 pounds.

We liked Vizio VF550XVT's large remote, with its oversize chrome colored cursor pad surrounded by well spaced, easily differentiated, yellow backlit keys. Highlights include a section that offers direct access to different input types, "A, B, C, and D" keys for other devices, such as cable boxes, that double as picture in picture controls, and the capability to command three other devices.

Many of the keys double up, but the remote handles these well we appreciate that the oft used key to control aspect ratio shares the bright red "record" key, for example. Vizio VF550XVT's main menu system, arranged along the left side of the screen, is a bit awkward to use. The company has revamped its menu system for the XVT models, squeezing it onto the left side of the screen and improving the graphics. The menus' usability has taken a step backward, however. We found ourselves annoyed at the fact that you can only see one parameter at a time and that too much scrolling is required to access all of the settings.

Cheapest Voip calls to Nigeria by Rebtel

If you have to call African destinations then its quite a pain as far as calling rates are concerned. However with Voip, calling these destinations is also cheap.

Call rates to Nigeria ain't any cheap however with Rebtel, you won't have to pay much. Rebtel has always been hot favorites among voip users, voip blogger. In the past, Rebtel has brought many working codes to offer free calls to India. Rebtel is a very well known voip provider on this blog thanks to its offers like Free 60 minutes to India, Double your money offers etc.

Today, we will be discussing Rebtel and how it is useful for making calls to Nigeria. Rebtel offers the world's lowest calling rates to Nigeria.

Rebtel has slashed its calling rates to Nigeria to half so Nigerians living abroad can call their loved ones at home for just 9.9 cents per minute. Calling rates offered by Rebtel to other African destinations.
Nigeria - 9.9 cents/minute.
Ethiopia - 24.9 cents/min.
Ghana - 9.9 cents/min
Kenya - 11.0 cents/min
Senegal - 19.1 cents/min.

Now apart from the 50% reduction in calling rate, Rebtel is also offering another nice offer.

Rebtel is offering First 30 minutes free on your first payment. After you have purchased credit for first time, you will get first 30 minutes of talktime absolutely free. All new Rebtel customers who use the voucher code NigeriaApril when they sign up this month and purchase at least US$10 of calling time will receive 30 minutes of free calls to Nigeria.

What else..? some other features of Rebtel are -:

* Pay only for the time you talk
Six second billing after the first minute, no contract, no hidden fees.

*Great call quality
Reliable lines with clear voice quality.

*Any phone, any network
Works with your current carrier.

*No calling cards, no downloads
PIN-less dialing. Use it instantly.

So you have any queries about Rebtel or its offers just leave a message, I will be most happy to answer them all.

Another cheap calling offers by Voip giant,
Rebtel .

Samsung Propel Pro (AT&T)

Samsung Propel Pro (AT&T) captures your attention for a couple of reasons, the first of which is its shiny exterior. The smoky mirrored chassis is definitely eye catching and tones down the Samsung Propel's playful image with a classic and corporate appropriate look. However, the shiny surface gets dirty pretty quickly, as it holds many fingerprints and smudges we had to constantly wipe the screen. Also, the back of the handset can feel slick, almost greasy.

All these issues sap the smartphone of some of its initial allure. Samsung Propel Pro (AT&T) is slightly bulky. The second reason you take notice of the Propel Pro is because of the slider phone's squat, squarish shape. Though we've seen more handsets come in this shape, including the LG Lotus and Verizon Wireless Blitz, it's still uncommon and to our recollection, it's the first smartphone we've seen with this design.

That's not necessarily a bad thing, however it's just different. In all, Samsung Propel Pro (AT&T) measures 3.9 inches tall by 2.4 inches wide by 0.6 inch thick, and weighs 4.8 ounces, so it's quite a bulky handset. The smartphone feels wide when held in the hand and you might want to put this into your coat pocket, since it's not going to easily slip into the pocket of your pants. On front, there is a 2.5 inch, 65.000 colors TFT nontouch display with a 320x320 pixel resolution.

It could stand to be a little bigger and there's certainly room, but overall, we found it sharp and easy to read. Like most cell phone screens, Samsung Propel Pro (AT&T)'s tends to wash out a bit in bright sunlight. You can customize the Home screen with various layouts, color schemes, and background images. We particularly like the sliding panel layout since it provides easy access to your information and applications right from the Home screen.

Without a touch screen, the controls beneath the display will be your main way to navigate the phone. You get two soft keys, Talk and End buttons, a Home shortcut, a back button, and a navigation joystick. The controls are fairly easy to use, with the exception of the joystick. It doesn't provide the most precise method for scrolling and selecting menu items. For example, on several occasions, we inadvertently moved the joystick when we were simply trying to press down to select something.

It gets easier with more time, but still, it doesn't offer you complete control like a traditional directional keypad or trackball. Below the display, you'll find some navigation controls. We weren't huge fans of the joystick since it wasn't very precise. To access the full QWERTY keyboard, simply push the screen up. The sliding motion is smooth and the screen securely locks into place. The Propel Pro's keyboard is slightly different from the regular Samsung Propel.

The buttons are rectangular instead of oval shaped and there's no spacing between the keys, making it slightly cramped and troublesome for users with larger thumbs. The spacebar was particularly problematic, since it's so short we'd have preferred it slightly longer (and it looks like there was space to do so). On the positive side, the buttons weren't stiff to press as they were on the Samung BlackJack II, so that reduced some typing errors.

The Propel Pro's full QWERTY keyboard features good size buttons that are easy to press. However, the layout is a bit cramped. On the left side, there's a power button, a volume rocker, and a microSD expansion slot and on the right spine, you'll find a camera activation or capture button and Samsung's pesky proprietary power or headset jack.

We really hope Samsung considers switching to a more standard Mini or Micro-USB port and a 3.5mm headphone jack in the future, since having to use Samsung specific accessories is quite annoying and restricting. Finally, the camera is built into the back of the front cover, so you need to slide open the phone in order to use it.

PennyTel Voip reduces call rates to India

The voip war to offer cheap calls to India led by Nymgo, Mediaringtalk and triggered by betamax companies has taken a new turn.

Now every other voip provider is offering very cheap calls to India. Yesterday, we blogged about the cheapest voip provider offering cheap calls to India. Today, we will discuss about PennyTel, a Australian voip provider quite famous for offering unlimited voip calling plan.

A large part of Indians live in Australia. Its always good to use a voip provider of your own country. PennyTel is quite widely used by Indians living in Australia to call India. The popularity of this voip provider can be judged bythe fact that PennyTel has been discussed many a times on this viop blog.

PennyTel offers a wide range of calling plans but the main point to be mentioned here is that PennyTel is now offering very cheap calls to India. Under all the calling plans, now one can call India at just 0.02 AUD (approx equal to 1.44 cents ($0.0144) per minute). The calling rate holds good for all the calling plan.

Plans offered by PennyTel are -:
Free Access (timed)
Free Access (untimed)
Freedom
Talk till U drop
Crazy Talk
Penny SIM

If you are already a customer of PennyTel than better continue with the service, for all new users I would suggest you to buy minimum credit may be of (5 AUD), you will get 250 minutes of talktime.

Now everyone is waiting for some voip provider to offer free calls to India (may be limited only), and I am sure that day is not very far.

Nikon CoolPix S630

Nikon CoolPix S630 is a little thicker than usual for Nikon's S-series cameras. That extra depth is for the 7x zoom lens out front, but it doesn't stop this camera from easily fitting in a pocket or small handbag. Available in five colors black, blue, purple, silver, and red it looks more stylish head on than from the back where things get more functional. The right side swoops out a bit leaving a large thumb rest that was appreciated more and more while using the zoom ring around the shutter button on top of the camera.

Below that are the Mode and Play buttons followed by a scroll wheel or directional pad and two more buttons for the settings menu and deleting photos while shooting or in playback. Controls are very straightforward and even if the menus aren't much to look at, they're easy to navigate and a simple tug to the right on the zoom pulls up the Help system. Plus, you can get through them as fast or slow as you want with either the scroll wheel or directional pad.

General shooting options Nikon Coolpix S630

ISO sensitivity (full resolution) Auto, Fixed-range auto (ISO 64-200, 64-400); 64; 100; 200; 400; 800; 1,600
White balance Auto, Daylight, Incandescent, Fluorescent, Cloudy, Flash, Manual
Recording modes Auto, Scene, Scene auto, Sport continuous, High sensitivity, Smile, Movie
Focus Face priority AF, Auto AF, Manual AF, Center AF
Metering Matrix, Center weighted
Color effects Standard, Vivid, Black & White, Sepia, Cyanotype, Pastel
Burst mode shot limit (full resolution) 4 photos

When it comes to shooting controls and options, Nikon CoolPix S630's feature set is not terribly deep, making it inadequate for anyone wanting to experiment. It has taking simple snapshots down cold, however. Recording modes are kept pretty lean with Auto giving you the most shooting control, including the ability to limit the ISO range the camera uses.

There are three specialized shot modes, too. Smile mode, which snaps a picture whenever it picks up on a smiling face, includes a Blink Proof setting that'll fire off a second shot in case it detects the subject blinking (and it works, but the person has to be fully facing the camera). A Sport Continuous mode works well for capturing action, but does lower the resolution to 3 megapixels and increase the sensitivity to a minimum of ISO 640.

This not only creates some extra image noise, but it'll also cause outdoor or well-lit photos to overexpose. Lastly, there's a High Sensitivity mode for low light shooting, but it too drops photos to a 3 megapixel resolution and sets the ISO range from 640 to 3,200. (To be fair, the thorough instruction manual warns about these things and explains how and when best to use the special settings.)

JVC Everio GZ-MS100

JVC Everio GZ-MS100 (part of the Everio S series) is smaller at 2.2 inches wide by 2.7 inches high by 4.4 inches deep. Its traditional horizontal body design is atypical of the fashionable YouTube camcorders, which tend toward the shape and size of a deck of cards. This does mean JVC Everio GZ-MS100 is bigger and heavier (though it weighs only 9.6 ounces), but it allows for a debatably useful 35x zoom lens and a higher resolution 680,000-pixel CMOS sensor (340.000 effective) compared with VGA resolution (307.200 pixels) on most of those models.

The MS100 is also around twice the price. For these reasons size, chassis, components, and price the MS100 shouldn't be judged against the VGA camcorders, but against models like the Canon FS100. By that those standards, the JVC looks considerably less impressive. Even as small as JVC Everio GZ-MS100 is, it's very comfortable to use and does look and feel nice, despite being entirely plastic.

The battery takes up most of the back there's just enough room for the record start or stop button to the right of it. On top are the zoom rocker and a snapshot button. You cannot take stills while shooting video, but instead need to flip a tiny switch on the left side of the body. (Photos are 640x480 and are typical quality for SD camcorders good enough for the Web at small sizes, barely.)

Above that switch sits a button to flip between play and record, and below it is one for changing out of Auto mode to Manual. Then there is the ballyhooed one touch Upload button and its partner Direct DVD button. This one button YouTube upload, though, really just connects, transcodes, and uploads via the bundled Cyberlink software (Windows only). It certainly doesn't relieve you of having to be in front of your computer to keep the process moving start to finish.

This is not really any different than the MS100's competitors, except in that some of them have the software built into the camcorder so you don't have to worry about where the software's installed. Then there are the Laser Touch controls. Down the left side of the flip out 2.7 inch LCD is a touch sensitive strip that sort of takes the place of a joystick or directional pad. However, those generally have five directions used for selecting things. The strip, while responsive and pretty it lights up a brilliant blue when stroked only handles scrolling up and down, or for adjusting focus, exposure, and shutter speed in Manual mode.

SmartVoip : Lowest call rates to India by SmartVoip.com

Betamax is really taking the lead in this voip race to provide cheap calls to India. Betamax understand the potential trapped in the Indian Voip market (the large number of phone calls made to Indian numbers) and does not want to loose any chance to cash on this. And that is the reason, Betamax has launched another Voip provider : SmartVoip !

Few days back, Betamax launched its ActionVoip service which offered very cheap calls to India. Yeah the price offered was the cheapest in the voip market. Their calling price to India landline is just $0.007 (that is .7 cents) and to Indian mobiles as 1.3 cents/minute. A large number of people subscribed to this plan offered by ActionVoip and have been their satisfactory customers.

Now to capture more of the market share, another betamax named SmartVoip (this voip provider too gained lot of popularity in short time) has further lowered the calling rates to call India.

Calling Rates Offered by SmartVoip

SmartVoip is offering flat .7 cents per minute to Indian landline and mobiles. (man this is lower than one cent, less than 50 paisa lol.).

I remember the day when we discussed that voip rates to India will be less than 1 cent and day is a reality now with voip providers started to offering such cheap calls to India.

And best of all, you can call several popular destinations for FREE! (check the list on their website to find which destination you can make free calls to). You can also call all your friends who have also download SmartVoip for free, using PC to PC calls!

So whats the latest cheapest rate to call India. Its .7 cents per minute ($0.007) to both Indian mobiles and landlines offered by SmartVoip.

Now with betamax you can either Download SmartVoip softphone (PC application to make Pc to Phone calls) or you can use SIP to make Phone to Phone calls. You can now also try SmartVoip on your iPhone, SmartVoip Android Application or SmartVoip Mac app for your Mac!

Again : SmartVoip rates are very cheap, so if you are looking for cheapest voip provider then SmartVoip is worth trying.

SmartVoip SIP Settings :

SIP port : 5060
Registrar : sip.smartvoip.com
Proxy server : sip.smartvoip.com
Outbound proxy server : leave empty
Account name : your SmartVoip username
Password : your SmartVoip password
Display name/number : your SmartVoip username or voipnumber
Stunserver (option) : stun.smartvoip.com

SmartVoip also offers local access numbers. You can choose your country, get a local access number. Now dial this number and the international number and your call will get connected. This way it works similar to a calling card. Another good option if you prefer to make Phone to Phone calls thus eliminating the need to remain connected to a PC.

Its time to checkout SmartVoip Calling Service (aka SmartVoip Calling Card ). Please share your views and feedback on SmartVoip. If you face any problems regarding SmartVoip, please let us know : may be we can help out!

AirtelCallhome : India One product (1cent per minute to India)

Few months back, it was Mediaringtalk which offered cheapest calls to India of 1.7 cents/minute. It was soon followed by Nymgo which then offered the lowest rate of just 1.3 cents per minute to call Indian mobile.

Then came the betamax with its ActionVoip service. It brought a kind of new game with offering less than a cent call to India. At present ActionVoip still holds the name of cheapest voip provier to India, their calling rate to India being just $0.007 per minute to India. (Less then 1 cent per minute).

All these voip provider have forced other calling cards providers and voip providers to decrease their calling rate to India. Many of you must be already using Airtel Call Home, a bharti Airtel product. We all are known to Bharti group (Airtel being a very old telecom provider in India).

AirtelCallHome 1cent per minute to India

A lot many people use Airtel Call Home calling cards only because of the good voice quality, cheap rates, good customer support etc.

Airtelcallhome has launched its India One product which allows you to call India at just 1 cent per minute.

The $ 9.99 pack of India One has a rental of $ 3.99, for the balance $ 6 you get the rate of 1 cent / min rate on local access.
This is applicable on any call terminating on either landline or mobile phone in India. i.e. you get an amazing 600 mins in just $10 on local access. You need to use the minutes within 30 days of buying the product.

The only thing to be noticed here is that this rate is applicable for local access numbers not for toll free access. If you call using the toll free number the rate is still an attractive 3 c/min.

There is one more catch in the tag line "Offering 1 cent/min to India". What about the rental money of $4. Its better to include this while calculating the effective rate. So you pay $10 and you get $6 credit that is 600 minutes. So your effective calling rate is 1.4 cents/minute. Well now I won't call this rate high, instead the rate is very very cheap as compared to other calling card providers.

Can existing customers buy this plan?
Existing customers can login and buy India One product on the Recharge page.

What about Refunds?
No refund of talk time value, rental or plan value will be entertained

I am very much convinced by what Airtel Call home is offering and would suggest people to atleast try their service. I know Free calls to India is possible now (but they are limited) so for all those who use Calling cards, AirtelCallHome is a very good option for them.

RingtoIndia : Cheap calls to India from anywhere in UK

We have found you another voip provider which is offering cheap calls to India. This voip provider is specially for people living in UK and want to call India. RingtoIndia offers very cheap calls to India from anywhere in United Kingdom.

RingtoIndia can be used to make calls to other countries too, their rate being quite low. For making calls to India you will have to spend about 1.5 pence per min. Their calling rate to Pakistan is 9 pence.

Now the question arises that when voip providers like Nymgo, Mediaringtalk, ActionVoip are offering cheaper calls than why will you use RingtoIndia. The point here is that all the above said voip providers offer Pc to Phone calls and to remain connected to your PC is always not possible. Many a times you require to make Phone to Phone calls, this is where voip providers like RingtoIndia can help.

Ring to India understands your need for keeping in touch with your family and friends so their UK to India calling plans works similar to that of a monthly cell phone plan but no contracts and commitments. But if you think you still like to use a calling card to make international calls keep this in mind it offers a same service too with full call details. Ring and sign up to become a ringtoindia customer enjoy the benefits of cheapest calling charges to India on this very planet.

You can use RingtoIndia by using their local Access numbers. This way make cheap calls to India directly from your mobile.

Lets see other features and benefits of RingtoIndia.

PIN-less Service
Save While Travelling
Use From Any Phone
Auto Recharge
Check your account online
24X7 customer service
No Hidden Charges
No Switching Necessary
Refer a friend offer
No expiry date
Crystal clear call quality.

Samsung NC20

Samsung NC20's 12 inch size, which blurs the line between typical Netbooks (and we're even hesitant to use the term in reference to a 12 inch display) and more full featured ultraportable laptops. The key to Netbook satisfaction is keeping one's expectations realistic, and with a larger screen and keyboard, the NC20 looks and feels more like a traditional laptop, but still struggles, as all Netbooks do, with multitasking and video streaming.

Our test unit was an imported Korean version of Samsung NC20, but when it's available in the U.S., we expect it to sell for between $500 and $600, based on prices in other markets and current exchange rates. We'll update this review when we get our hands on the American version of Samsung NC20.

As most 12 inch laptops are high end ultraportables built around expensive ultralow voltage processors, you may be expecting a slim, highly designed system along the lines of Lenovo's U110 and Toshiba's Portege R600. But at about a third of the price, you instead get a thicker, heavier system with a plastic chassis that looks and feels like a grown up version of Samsung NC10.

The no frills chassis contains a reasonably comfortable keyboard with slightly tapered keys and a shortened space bar. The large touch pad is a big improvement over the ones we've seen on smaller 10 inch Netbooks, but the single wide rocker switch that takes the place of left and right mouse buttons feels cheap. There are no media control or quick launch buttons, which, while we wouldn't expect them on a Netbook, are common on more traditional 12 inch laptops.

The 12.1 inch wide screen LCD display offers a 1,280x800 native resolution, which is the same as you'd typically find on a 13 or 15 inch laptop. That lets you view more of a Web page than the 1.024x600 resolution we've seen on most 10 inch Netbooks. Even though it's the right resolution for watching 720p HD video, the system showed typical Netbook style stuttering when trying to stream HD content. Via's integrated graphics chip also includes an app called Screen Toys for monitor management, screen rotation, and other option tweaks.

Unlimited Calling plans by Truphone : India Included

As the calling rates to various countries are decreasing, voip companies are coming with new plans and offers to attract customers. Among such offer is Unlimited calling package. Earlier voip providers like Pennytel, Nymgo offered such packages but now a others too offer similar unlimited calling packages.

Now the Unlimited deal has shifted towards Mobile Voip. In layman terms, Mobile Voip is just using Voip in your Mobile phone itself. You just need to download some voip software to your mobile phone, you need internet connection(wifi, gprs, edge etc) and then you will be able to make cheap voip calls directly from your mobile. This removes the need to be attached to a computer for making calls. Its simply phone to phone calling similar to your telecom provider but with lot cheaper rates.

Truphone has again proved why it is one of the leaders in Mobile Voip. Truphone has launched Unlimited Calling Package which includes 40 countries around the world. The best part is that India,Pakistan, bangladesh and many more countries are included. This unlimited calling package is on monthly charged basis.

In order to use Truphone you need to download their Voip application. It works great with Wifi and SIP. So, if your country have many hotspots (free wifi zone like USA, Canada) then this application is great for you. With Gprs it works but as the internet speed is poor, you will experience poor voice quality. Most of the Nokia phones, iPhone work (just check if your phone is supported I am sure it will).

Now talking about the newly launched Truphone Unlimited packages.

TruUnlimited (For both landline and Mobile at $40/month).
UNLIMITED CALLS TO MOBILES and LANDLINES in 69 countries (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Srilanka included).

* Call mobile to mobile - UNLIMITED!
* Call any time of the day, any day of the week
* No long-term contract
* Call other Truphone users, Skype and Google Talk users for FREE in Wi-Fi

TruUnlimited (For only landline at $17/month).
Unlimited calls to landlines in 38 countries worldwide - plus mobiles in 9 countries
Also includes unlimited calls to mobiles in 9 countries including the US and China as a bonus!

Overall a great deal for Mobile Voip users. And you are getting Cheap calls to India and Pakistan.

HP Mini 2140

HP Mini 2140 shares the same basic silhouette as the earlier Mini 1000 and Mini Note 2133 systems from HP. Because it has an aluminum case, like the 2133, it's a half pound heavier than the plastic Mini 1000 it's a trade off that may be worth it, however, as the metallic Mini 2140 feels as if it'll stand up to the rigors of the road better than a plastic Netbook. The biggest selling point for HP's Netbooks has always been the fantastic keyboard, which HP claims is 92 percent of the size of a full size laptop keyboard.

Other Netbooks have been plagued by tiny Chiclet like keys, which make typing a pain and typos plentiful. By expanding the keyboard right to the edges of the system, HP is able to fit bigger keys into the tray than other Netbooks (and even ultraportable laptops). The result is a comfortable typing experience that takes a tiny bit of adjustment (as the keys are very close together), but one that is, thus far, our favorite on a sub 12 inch notebook.

The touch pad has an unusual shape, stretched into a letterbox like wide rectangle and the mouse buttons have been moved to the left and right sides of the touch pad. This permits the system to have a minimal amount of wasted wrist rest space, but it's a somewhat awkward compromise, especially if you do a lot of vertical scrolling or right clicking. The 10.1 inch wide screen LED display has an unusual 1.024x576 native resolution, which is a few pixels shy of the 1,024x600 we typically see in Netbooks.

The end result is largely unnoticeable, but a Windows XP pop-up window expressed concern that we weren't running at a standard resolution. Besides its big keyboard, HP Mini 2140 has one major selling point that no other Netbook currently offers a full ExpressCard 54 slot. Lenovo's S10 has a half size ExpressCard 34 slot, but there are fewer options for add on peripherals in that size. We rarely find that we actually need an ExpressCard slot for anything, but some rely on them for mobile broadband modems, memory card readers, or even TV tuners.

HP offers a handful of fixed configuration versions of the 2140, but we're perfectly happy with the basic $499 model, which has an Intel Atom CPU, 1GB of RAM, and a 160GB hard drive. For $50 more, a smart upgrade might be an identical version with 2GB of RAM, but that comes with Windows Vista Basic. Adding an XP "downgrade" to that model adds another $80 onto that (but also includes a faster 7,200rpm hard drive).

Voipian 1cent per Call : Cheap international Calls.

Another Voip provider has entered the market with a bang. Named Voipian, interface much similar to other betamax providers is a launch by Voipax and Freebuzzer.

The best part about this voip provider is the offer which it is giving to its customers. Voipian is offering 1 cent per call to large number of destinations. Let me put it again, it is not 1cent/min but it is 1cent/call.

So, once you have initiated a call you can talk for as long as you like and you will be charged just 1 cent. However a Fair usage policy do apply, it states "Voipian resevers the right to limit the number of calls, duration of calls and/or amount of minutes per account to prevent excessive usage on its network. Voipian may charge the regular rate for calls if excessive usage is detected."

Now lets talk about the countries which you can make such cheap calls to. Voipian offers these cheap 1cent calls to following destinations.

* Andorra
* Argentina
* Australia
* Austria
* Bahamas
* Belgium
* Brazil
* Brazil Rio De Janeiro
* Brazil Sao Paolo
* Brunei Darussalam
* Bulgaria
* Canada (+mobile)
* Chile
* China
* Croatia
* Cyprus
* Czech Republic
* Denmark
* Estonia
* Finland
* France
* Germany
* Greece
* Guadeloupe
* Hong Kong (+mobile)
* Hungary
* Iceland
* Ireland
* Israel
* Italy
* Japan
* Jordan
* Korea South
* Latvia
* Liechtenstein
* Lithuania
* Luxembourg
* Macao
* Malaysia
* Martinique
* Monaco
* Netherlands
* New Zealand
* Norway
* Panama
* Peru
* Peru Lima
* Poland
* Portugal
* Puerto Rico (+mobile)
* Romania
* Russia
* Russia Moscow
* Russia St.Petersburg
* Singapore
* Slovakia
* Slovenia
* Spain
* Sweden
* Switzerland
* Taiwan
* Thailand
* United Kingdom
* United States (+mobile)
* Venezuela

As seen from above list, India is not included. I know some people are too lazy to check the country list on voip provider website, so I have pasted the country list here itself.

You can also make free calls to all your online friends (Voipian to Voipan calls). In order to make such free and cheap calls, you can either use the Pc to Phone option. Just download the Voipian Voip application, register and start calling. You can also use your SIP phone or any other SIP device (or SIP in your mobile itself) to make Phone to Phone calls.

SIP configuration of Voipian.

Phone Number: Enter your (home) phone number.
User name: Enter your Voipian username here.
Password: Enter your Voipian password here.
Registrar: voipian.com
Proxy: sip.voipian.com

Overall a good service Voipian for those who make long duration phone calls to above said destination. I would suggest you to buy minimum credit (you now know that $5 is actually 500 calls). Great power of Voip enabling Free and Cheap Phone calls. Still are you waiting for switching to Voip for your calling needs.
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HTC S743

HTC is all about offering different styles of handsets to meet individual needs, and as we mentioned earlier the HTC S743 falls somewhere between the Touch Diamond and the Touch Pro. The handset is smaller than the Touch Pro, measuring 4.5 inches tall by 1.7 inches wide and 0.6 inch deep and weighing 4.9 ounces, yet still manages to pack in a full QWERTY keyboard using a slider design, so it's a good device for the mobile professional who needs to keep on top of email, appointments, and such.

The HTC S743 (pictured next to the T-Mobile G1) keeps a slim design while packing in a full QWERTY keyboard. The thinner profile makes it feel more like a regular candy bar style cell phone in the hand and when on calls, but the S743 is still on the thicker, longer side so it might make for a tight fit in a pants pocket. It's a solidly constructed handset, however, and has a pretty sleek look with its classic black chassis and mirrored face.

The smartphone also has a similar geometric design on the back like the unlocked GSM version of the HTC Touch Diamond, but it now features a soft touch finish so it's not as slippery or smudge-prone as the Touch Diamond. On front, you'll find the 2.4-inch QVGA non touch display with a 65.000 colors output and 240x320 pixel resolution. The S743 isn't part of the Touch series, so you don't get a touch screen or HTC's TouchFlo interface.

Instead, you get the more traditional Windows Mobile UI. It's not as flashy as TouchFlo, but at least with Windows Mobile 6.1 the Home screen offers more of your information right at a glance. For example, you can preview new email, scroll through bookmarked Web sites, launch your media player, and more. You can also choose from other Home Screen options under the Settings menu.

Below the display, you get a standard navigation array of two soft keys, Talk and End buttons, a Home shortcut, a back button, and a four way toggle with a center select button. Overall, the controls are pretty easy to use, though we're not huge fans of the tiny Talk and End keys. Fortunately, the alphanumeric keypad features large buttons, so we didn't have many misdials or errors when composing simple text messages. Overall, the S743's full QWERTY keyboard is easy to use, but we wish the spacebar were bigger.

For longer emails, you'll probably want to use the four row QWERTY keyboard, which you can access by pushing the face of the phone to the right. The sliding mechanism is smooth and securely locks into place, and the screen orientation also automatically switches from portrait to landscape mode. For such a compact phone, the keyboard features good size buttons so we think most users won't have too many problems. The one thing we do wish for is a bigger spacebar.

Though we appreciate the inclusion of extra SMS or MMS shortcut key on the bottom row, we'd much prefer that was taken out to make the spacebar larger since we had to stretch to reach it as is. That said, the smaller size and lighter weight of the S743 over the Touch Pro also makes it more comfortable to hold while typing messages, since it doesn't feel quite as top heavy from the slide up screen. We found the location of the microSD expansion slot to be inconvenient, since you have to remove the SIM card to get access to it.

On the left side, there's a volume rocker and a camera activation or capture button on the right. The power button is located on top, and on the bottom of the unit you'll find a Mini-USB port and headset jack. We're once again disappointed by the lack of a 3.5mm standard headphone jack, though you can get an audio adapter so you can use your own headphones. Another annoyance is the location of the microSD expansion slot.

It, along with the SIM card slot, are located behind the front cover, so the phone needs to be in an open state to access it. Our gripe isn't its location but rather the fact that the microSD slot is located under the SIM card so you have to remove the SIM card every time you want swap a memory card. Granted, you probably won't do this often, but it's still an annoyance. Last but not least, the camera is located on the back.

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