MWC 2009: Live Report

The code-named Idou (read it “I do”) is Sony Ericsson’s first phone following the slogan “entertainment unlimited”. Are you wondering what this means? Well, this is what we call an “all-in-one” device and what rivaling manufacturers (Samsung, LG) have already offered last year. Until now, Sony Ericsson had either good camera or good music features – respectively in the top Cyber-shot and top Walkman phones. It seems that they have now realized the customers want it all and Idou is the first all-in-one model. Although looking as a C905 on steroids, it is a really new phone, so check the following lines.



It will do it all, but will it do it fine? If we read its specs  - definitely yes! The camera is top-notch, with 12-megapixel resolution and a xenon flash. The display is also really impressive – it is a 3.5” touch sensitive unit with 360x640 pixels resolution for 16:9 ratio, suitable for movie watching. There is no information if it will support DivX, Xvid or if it will play HD movies (as the OMNIA HD), but the TV in the Media menu gives us hope that the final unit will have a tuner – DVB-T will be great! By the way, the Media menu is almost identical to the one found on every other Sony Ericsson phone and the gallery and music player also look very similar, but upgraded  in order to take advantage of the touch screen. This made us think the Idou is not a smartphone during its announcement, but we were wrong  – it is the first announced device to run the new open-source version of the Symbian OS. Of course “regular” stuff like GPS, 3G and Wi-Fi are present and supported.
 
So overall, it really seems that it has it all, and the “entertainment unlimited” slogan doesn’t look out of place.  However, the performance and the software will be what will make or break it. What we see is nice, but we’ll keep our final judgment for our review. It is expected to launch in the second half of the year and additional details, including its real model name will be revealed later. Don’t worry, we’ll update you on each of them!






The second big announcement SE made at the MWC is the new top of the line Walkman phone – the W995. Previously known from leaked (we just love those) information as the Hikaru, the W995 will not only pack the standard Walkman functionality, but 8.1 mega pixel camera as well, to “offer the ultimate in multimedia experience”.

Keep in mind the units present here at the expo as all pre-production, so their performance in terms of keyboard, screen etc. might change. The phone is comparably small with very good in-hand feel. The front is dominated by the untypically large for Sony Ericsson 2.6” display. The quality is good, but we actually expected something with even greater quality, given this top of the line device. Here is our personal message to Sony Ericsson: it is about time you forget about the 320x240 resolution and move up… at least on the high-end models.



The keys on the front were quite good, given its pre-release status. Some of us were quite happy with the d-pad, while others found it kind of small for larger fingers. No doubt, even a legally blind person will see the humongous OK button located in the middle of the d-pad (this is not a complaint!). The keys on the keypad were really hard to press, which is something we are confident will be fixed before it ships out.

The right side has three music dedicated buttons, the camera shutter and the … hmm… what do you call something that is hard to see, hard to fell and hard to press? SE calls it the volume rocker. They should follow their own example from the IV-835 headset, where they just completely removed the volume keys after struggling to make them user-friendly. Now on more serious note, hopefully at least the tactile feedback is improved on the volume rocker.

The back side has the 8.1 mega-pixel camera module with photo flash and a metal semi-ellipse used to either as a stand to prop the phone on a flat surface for watching videos, or to wear it on your neck. Making it stay upright on the table is not easy, unless stand is not exactly at 90 degrees to your phone.

After bashing SE for the volume-rocker, we have to congratulate them for finally including the standard 3.5mm head-phones jack in a Walkman-series device! Another nifty feature is the DLNA compatibility, allowing the user to view content from the W995 on other DLNA certified devices, such as Play Station 3.

From the first look, the C903 seems like just another Sony Ericsson handset and indeed it is. However, if it comes at a good price it may become pretty decent camera phone. It is a mid-level device and wouldn’t wow you with its specs, but wouldn’t disappoint either – it has 2.4” QVGA display, 5MP camera, 3G, GPS, you name it, all packed into decently sized and designed slider phone. What we love about it is the sliding lens cover that is as long as the phone itself and moves very easy, without any effort. This is a great improvement compared to previous models and some may like it even more than the automatic covers, as it allows you to easily start the camera without using the buttons. Mentioning the keys, the design of the numeric keypad reminds us of the C905, and it seems to be flat, but actually is not. Also as the high-end Cyber-shot, the d-pad illuminates its camera functionality once the camera interface turns on. Typically for SE, the navigation keys are well spaced and with well expressed relief, so feeling them by touch is extra easy. Overall, as we started, the C903 may become a nice slider camera phone and the only things we don’t like about it are the d-pad design and the color solution – white, chrome and purple?!




The W395 was announced a few days ago and is what SE touts as the Walkman “bringing great music to the masses”.  The newest Walkman slider is part of the lower end of the family, but still packs decent feature-set. Design-wise, it is a standard slider with 2.0 inch display on the front. The screen is nothing to brag about but still offers very decent brightness and details given it is a low-end device.  All the keys and the d-pad located below the display were with good feedback and did not cause any issues. The same can be said about the main keypad.  One of the more interesting features is the stereo speakers located on its back. Unfortunately, the room was way too loud to test them out properly, so expect an update on this soon.

Feature-wise, the device is a quad-band with EDGE only data and 2-megapixel camera. Similar to the other Sony Ericsson device, it runs their generic UI.  The expected availability is the first quarter of this year.

Touch screen phones are cool, aren’t they? It seems that Samsung thinks so and all of its five new interesting models are equipped with a touch sensitive display. Yes, all of them, not only the multimedia centric OMNIA HD but also the flagship UltraTOUCH, the music BEAT Edition handsets and even the eco friendly Blue Earth. Sounds interesting, so let’s check them out in details.

According to Nokia, the new E55 just announced today will be their thinnest smartphone, or even the thinnest smartphone in the World. It sports the standard candy-bar design, but instead of the full QWERTY found in all E-series phones, this one combines two letter per key, making it as Nokia calls it a “compact QWERTY”. This of course saves space, making the device lighter and smaller. The short testing we did with it left us overall happy but still will require some time to get used to it. Still, looks like very good compromise if you want to keep the size down.  The rest of the keys on the front are flush, but still easy to press. Interesting were the embossed edges of the d-pad, which make it very easy to distinguish without having to look at it.


The E55 will utilize noise-cancellation technology, which should improve the voice quality. We couldn’t test this at the show, but will definitely rigorously examine this when we get our review unit. The new technology utilized dual microphone design and special algorithms to surprises ambient noises. During the CES expo, Motorola demoed their Crystal Talk noise-cancellation technology and it really impressed us. Hopefully Nokia’s solution comes close or better to that.

The E55 and E75 will be the first devices to have updated messaging application. Most notably, it now supports HTML viewing of email.  By default, messages are opened in text mode, but you have a link at the top of each message to view it in HTML with formatting and images. Those of us (nowadays most of us) who have several different email accounts, will definitely appreciate the tweak Nokia did to move the switching of the different email boxes directly into the reading panel. So instead of selecting your personal email, reading the messaging, going into the main messaging menu, selecting the next email, you can directly switch between the different accounts.

If you are well organized (not like us), you probably have several different folders in your e-mail mailbox, such as important, to do later, not to answer ever etc. Accessing the stored messages in those folders was not possible up until now. This is one of the other important updates of the new messaging client.

A new feature is the sliding subject field when a message is highlighted. It is nothing major, but should help when you have emails with long subjects.

Sorting emails is nothing that most people do every day, but now and then it always comes handy. The new e-mail client just a few more sorting options – flag, priority, unread, attachment and size.

Nokia E75 is the other new member of the E-family. Even though the device does not bear the Communicator name, it is considered to be part of that line. Nokia claims this is the best messaging device they have ever done. This is not only because of the particular hardware configuration, but because of the added services such as the first device to ship with Nokia Messaging (for those of you not familiar with this, please check out our Nokia World coverage).

Because of the full side-sliding keyboard, allowing it to be a lot narrower compared to the rest of the E-series, it really looks a lot like the E55. For the same reason, it is a lot ticker as well.

The front keypad seems just OK – there is no separation between the different keys on each row. Once used to it, this probably will not be a problem. The d-pad is very comfortable and easy to use.

Sliding the bottom part reveals the full keyboard. The keys are very large, with little space between them. They offered slightly less tactile feedback than what we’ve used to have.

Just looking at the E75’s display, you can guess correctly that it is high-end device. The colors are very vivid with great contrast.
We always want to give you our final judgment after we use a device for a while, but the E75 is definitely something that attracted out attention. If you want S60 based phone with full keyboard and not huge dimensions, the E75 will probably be one of the best choices.

Nokia 6710 is the 3rd device from the Navigator line. As the name implies, the main aim is navigation. The first Navigator was introduced back in 2007, and a new one announced at the MWC. As all other members of the same family, the new 6710 keep the slider design, but the keypad part creates a slight arc. The actual keys design is pretty much the same.

Other than this, it is pretty much very similar to the 6210 Navigator. Of course, each year the specifications are upgraded and now the screen is 2.6” from the 2.4” on the 6210. As Navigation is what is it made for, battery life is really important if it is going to be used in pedestrian mode (or you don’t want to plug it into the charger every time you use it in your car). That’s why the battery life has been generously upgraded to 19 days of stand-by and around 7.5 hours of talk time (almost doubling the 6210 times). The camera resolution has also gone up and it is now 5 mega-pixels with autofocus.


The new 6710 will come preloaded with the new 3.0 version of Nokia Maps. The software is currently in Beta testing and was originally announced during the Nokia World event, which we covered several months ago. 

Depending on the region you live in, if you purchase the 6710 it will come preloaded with different maps set. For example, if you get it in Spain, you might end up having also France and Italy. Purchasing it in the US, might result in having Canada and Mexico for example. Nokia has not worked up the details on that yet. The main point it that by purchasing it, you will get all the premium feature of Nokia maps, plus car charger and holder.

We went to the show, secretly hopingthat we will finally get a chance to see the much-anticipated successorof the legendary G1,which has been the first phone to incorporate Google’s open-sourceoperating system, Android. And indeed, a little surprise had beenwaiting for us at the Mobile World Congress, but, sadly, it wasn’t theG2. However, passing by HTC’s booth, we spotted a device, incorporatinga pretty familiar design - thoroughly white. We can even describe itas… snow white? That’s it! HTC has indeed come to introduce thesuccessor of the G1. Ladies and gentlemen, please meet the HTCMagic…

What you see on the pictures is aprototype device that was available at the MWC event. The Magic isHTC’s second phone to run Google’s Android OS, but it also comes with anumber of improvements over the original handset. We can’t help butnotice the great changes that have been made to the design. It is now alot thinner, which is due to the lack of a hardware QWERTY keyboard.One very significant improvement has been made to the body and itrefers to its build quality, which is now much higher. When in one’shand, the device doesn’t feel cheap at all, which used to be a featureof the G1. As you may have noticed, we have avoided shooting thehardware buttons on the front side, since HTC representatives told usthat changes in the design of these elements are still to be made. Thescreen size, however, will stay the same – 3.2 inches with resolutionof 320x480 pixels.


Some of you mayremember that one of the main drawbacks of G1’s camera was the totallack of video capturing, which is somewhat strange for such a device.This issue has been fixed, and now the Magic is proud to have a3.2-megapixel camera plus video capturing capabilities. Well, thehardware side-sliding keyboard may have not made it outside the drawingboard (if it has been a subject of discussion at all), but this willsurely be well compensated by the newly added on-screen QWERTY keyboard(such has not yet been developed for the G1). In addition, users willnow get features like MMS attachments and A2DP profile forBluetooth.

When it comes to availability, the HTCMagic will be a quad-band GSM and a dual-band 3G device, which will beoffered by Vodafone in Europe, starting this April. At what price?Remains a mystery for now.

Here in Barcelona it is obvious that there is a worldeconomic crisis – last year the city was covered with advertisementsfrom all major phone manufacturers while this year, there are almostnone. However, if you are in the capital of Catalonia, you havedefinitely seen the ad of the LGARENA, either at the airport, on a bus, or at a billboard. LGis platinum sponsor of the show and is probably the only manufacturerwith a massive advertising campaign. Curiously, it advertises only theARENA, but it seems that it is the really flagship model, so let’scheck it out.

Its design is not a masterpiece, butit definitely looks nice – brushed aluminum, rounded shapes, largescreen combine well into one piece. However, neither the design, northe high-res 480x800 pixels display are the key features of the ARENA –it is the software. ARENA uses LG’s new S-Class user interface which definitelycatches the eye. The software in previous touch phones of the Koreanmanufacturer was not bad, but it was rather mediocre.  Thisone looks top notch. Even though the demo units are prototypes,transitions and other effects are silky smooth and remind us of theiPhone a few years ago.

The ARENA has a fewdifferent home screen pages: one is stressing on multimedia withshortcuts to the audio, video and imaging content, the second one hasshortcuts (favorite apps), third one houses widgets and the last oneshows pictures of your favorite contacts.  Moving from one tothe other can be done by swiping a finger horizontally, but analternative is the “cube mode” which is activated by pressing thecentral hardware button. It visualizes the pages as the sides of a cubeand is designed to make moving to a particular pagefaster.


The main menu structure is ratherinteresting as well – it separates the large icons in four categories(communication, multimedia, utilities, settings). As all category itemscannot be shown in a single row, you can scroll it horizontally byswiping a finger. It’s rather strange, but seems easy to use. Still,rotating the phone horizontally will show you more (but smaller)icons.

Multimedia is what the ARENA is designed forand as the Renoir, it comes with support for various video formats.We’ll wait to review it, but hope that it will play well high-resmoves, taking advantage of this nice display. ARENA is said to come outnext month and we are eager to see the final product. What aboutyou?

LGproudly announced that the LGGM730 will be the first Windows Mobile6.5 smart phone. It will be customized with the S-Class user interfaceand thus will share lots of features with the ARENA. However, as weknow from our experience, it is very important how the custom interfaceis combined with the WindowsMobile OS – the final product must delivercomplete experience, not the felling that there are a few patches ontop of some OS. Here at the MWC, LG didn’t have an actual GM730 phonebut a “smart dummy” – a test unit which displays a few of the S-Classscreens. They definitely look nice, so LG, send us one of these whenthey are ready!

AlthoughLG announced its plans to release lots of Windows Mobile phones in thefollowing years, the Korean manufacturer will also continue to developSymbian smart phones. The KT770is one of them, running on the S60 3rd edition interface for non-touchdevices.

It seems that LG tried to make it astylish slider and have given it a glossy front side that is a truefingerprint magnet. In addition, its back is exactly as the one of theSecret and has carbon fiber battery cover. However, the bulky size andmediocre overall design are obstacles for calling the KT770 a fashionphone.


LG decided to use untraditional navigation keys – as in theSecret, they are touch sensitive. We don’t like them as they appear tobe unresponsive. This may change with the final units, but as Secrethad the same problem, we guess it will not. In addition, the small sendand end keys (which are physical and not touch sensitive) are not easyto press. A uniquesolution is the 9-way joystick – it is designed to makebrowsing the internet easier but the diagonal movement can also be usedin the main menu. We did a few mistakes while testing the phone, but inthe long term usage it may appear to be a small positive side,alternative to the optical joysticks other phones have. We only wish itwas slightly more raised from the front surface, so it will be easierto control it.

The KT770 is yet another Symbianphone, only that LG has changed the look of the home screen and themain menu. Features include 2.8” WQVGA display, 5-megapixel camera, 3Gsupport (there are a couple of version, but not one suitable for theUS), WI-Fi and a-GPS. Overall it packs lots of features into a so-sodesign, so we are positive aboutit.

The DX900 is a mid-range phone with dual-sim support. Being able to carry around one device with two phone number associated with it is not popular in the US, but a lot of people are doing it in Europe and Asia. The DX900 was actually the first Windows Mobile phone in the world with dual-sim support and is just rebranded ETEN DX900. Unlike the other devices announced at the MWC 2009, the DX900 will not run the new Acer Shell, but will feature the latest ETEN’s one.

The X960 is just a mid-range Windows Mobile based device, with every feature we expect to see in such device – 2.8 inch VGA screen, 3.2 mega-pixel camera and so one. There is nothing really exciting about it – decent size with decent design.

Meet the Acer Shell – Acer’s personalization for Windows Mobile OS. Like the Touch Flo (HTC) and TouchWiz (Samsung) it tries to do the operating system both finger-friendly and more intuitive. What we saw at the show were prototypes and the transitions were not smooth at all, but we still manage to like the idea. Currently, it is Acer Shell 2.0 and future versions will respectively increase the number.

Let’s start with the home screen – it shows you a virtual 3D desk with different objects (widgets) over it. It is wider than the display and by scrolling left or right you’ll see the items that are positioned on it. The cool thing is that you can rearrange them - in 3D. For example we took the Calendar and put it behind the messaging – as it goes deeper into the desk, the icon becomes smaller – really cool effect of virtual space. Most of the icons have information, for example the email has a number of new mails, the picture frame shows the last viewed image, the music player shows the last track you’ve listened to, etc. There are lots of widgets and we hope Acer will allow additional ones to be installed.


However, if people want a simpler interface, swiping a finger vertically shows the alternative home screen – a grid of icons with pages (by the way, they are marked as in the iPhone). It seems that Acer want to keep it as simple as possible, and you won’t be able to rearrange the icons here. However, once you install new applications they will appear in this list. In addition, there is a link to the Quick Menu app, which houses shortcuts to your favorite functions.


Other custom applications include favorite contacts, images gallery, music player, weather. The first one has nice thumbnails of the people but isn’t really space-friendly, showing only 4 on a page. If you have lots of friends in this list, prepare to scroll a lot. In addition there is a speed dial app which shows 10 people at a time. The Images gallery is what you’d expect it to be – large thumbnails with 3D effects, when you swipe a finger images will move so the next is shown, etc. Once you select a photo and want to zoom, do not search for pinching or some gestures – you’ll have to press zoom buttons to change the size. The music player seems fine although its design is rather old school. It displays the album art covers as separate CDs and once you lay the song, the disc increases its size showing progress bar, volume and other controls. Oh, and on your virtual desktop, click on the Windows and you’ll open the Weather app – it can show the current situation in a few cities but we are wondering why Acer has given it such an old-school look.



Overall, the interface looks nice – it isn’t revolutionary, isn’t really sleek but is definitely good. We hope Acer will add additional personalization, for example in the phone book and the messaging menus (in addition to the Easy Keyboard) that are some of the most commonly used apps.

After the G500 and G900 which we reviewed in the middle of 2007, the electronic giant Toshiba didn’t release any interesting phones. This changes now, after the TG01 was announced. It is a powerful Windows Mobile smartphone, the World’s first to use Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset, with 1GHz fast processor. Yeah, now that is a fast WM phone! Opening the start menu, the programs, the contacts, messaging – everything happens instantly! However, the first thing that one notices in the phone is not how fast it reacts, but how big it is. Big is diminutive, it is huge but is very slim (0.39”/9.9mm) and light weight. In addition we do not really blame it for its size, as its display is huge as well – 4.1” unit with WVGA (480x800 pixels) resolution. It has very good sensitivity, pressing and swiping is great.

Toshiba didn’t really give their best to personalize the interface. What is added is a custom home screen and that’s all. Honestly, we are not impressed by it: it doesn’t look easy to use, isn’t pretty and unlike the rest of the system, doesn’t run smooth. So what is good in it? Check out our video hands-on to see what we mean. We like that the Core Player is added though – it is the best video player for Windows Mobile and although it looks ugly, we really like it because it can play DivX, Xvid, MKV and other video files. We really want to test TG01, it has good display and with such processor we guess it may be able to play HD videos! Another key feature is the presence of Flash in the Internet Explorer. We loaded our page and were able to play YouTube videos directly. Unfortunately, the browser lagged, but we guess this will change with final units.

We like how powerful the TG01 is. We hope Toshiba will improve its interface before it comes out and it may turn out to be a great, although big, smart phone.

Back in 2007, Gigabyte, better known as computer hardware manufacturer, enter the phone market. Since then they’ve been releasing about six devices each year, most of them going by unnoticed by the media. The only Gigabyte device we have had change to review was the T600, which was model from 2007. At the MWC, Gigabyte showcased two new devices, part of their 2009 line.

The S1200 is the more interesting one as is personalized with AdobeFlash user interface. The device will originally launch with WindowsMobile 6.1 but is capable to support 6.5 as well. The home screen showsa large clock with the current weather information, the number ofmissed call, SMS messages and new e-mails at the bottom, plus the “?”which shows you a diagram of the functionality. The problem here isthat it is shown for a very short period of time and cannot serve itsprimary role, which is to help the user find where the functionality hewants is located.

Keep in mind again, that the software is really early alpha release, and a lot of the things we tried did not work properly or at all.

So think about the home screen as the center of the UI. Swiping finger from right to left will bring up the menu which stands to the right of the center, which is the Programs. Swiping finger from top to the bottom will bring My Favorites menu, which is situated to the north of the center. So, all the menus are positioned around the center home screen and are – Programs (east of the center), Smart Viewer (north-east), My Favorites (north), Smart Player (northwest), Setting (west), Smart Calendar (southwest), Phone (south) and Smart Browser (southeast).

Once the Phone menu is opened, displayed are the several options available – Speed Dial, Call History, Contacts and Call Settings. Each option has a very beautiful icon which is completely black and white. We really would have liked to see some colors in here. A small arrow at the top of the screen shows to which direction to swipe your finger to return back to the main menu.

It seems Gigabyte’s strategy will be to fully personalize the whole WM interface. As this is not a small task (not even HTC has done it so far), they will start releasing devices with whatever they have done so far, and continue to develop their Smart Zone UI along the way. So far, it seems like Gigabyte has slightly deeper level of personalization compared to HTC’s TouchFlo 3D. Still  a lot of menus still rely on the standard WM UI – music player and calendar to name a few. A very cool is the image viewer, where the images seem like flowing in the space and tapping on one zooms it in.

The first device to run the new Smart Zone UI will be the S1200. Aquick glimpse reveals its complete departure from the designs we areused to see from Gigabyte. It is very light, with a metal trim aroundthe corners and is considerable smaller compared to for example theSamsung Omnia. The construction seems very good with really nice andbright display. As it is WM 6.5 capable, the minimum three buttons arepresent here. Smaller does not mean with less features – Gigabytemanaged to jam in 3.1 inch display with WVGA (800x480) pixelsresolution, quad-band GSM with only single band Euopean/Asian 3G and3-megapixel camera.

Our overall impressions from the flash based UI are positive. Even though the menu structure seems somewhat confusing at first, after a few days of usage should be enough to get accustomed to it. We hope the next level of the Smart Zone UI will offer even deeper customization.

The second new device showcased at the MWC is the GSmart MS820 and unlike the S1200, it will run Gigabyte’s older UI. In is widget-like based menu, with limited customization. The home screen can either show a calendar, an image viewer, a music player or a phonebook plug-in. At the boom of the screen are positioned several shortcuts to other functionality.

The design language is similar to the older Gigabyte models with not so rounded corners. The size is larger compared to the S1200, but still decent for such a device with OK build-quality.

i-mate, once the almighty HTC distributor, finally have realized thatmaking one very marginal device in four different form factors (liketheir 2008 line) will not bring any sales. This year, they announcedone new unique product and showcased two other ones.

The new i-mate 810-F is the only device that we know of which will be offered with life-time warranty. Of course there is a slight catch here (or let’s say their terms are): you have to send your 810-F in to i-mate EVERY year for a check-up. If you have not temped with the screws, or left evidence for intentional attempts to break the device, you will get your warranty extended for another year. This of course needs to be done every year. Of course, the cost for sending the device in will be out of the consumer’s pocket. The price tag seems very hefty – about 700 to 800 Euros (880 to 1,000 USD). For that you get a phone which can withstand against extreme temperatures (ranging between -10 and +60 degrees centigrade), hard hitting and steeping into water. For this purpose, its body is covered by waterproof rubber coating, attached with overt screws. As you may see from the picture, the device is anything but beautiful. However, this is completely understandable, having in mind that endurance is what’s important here.



The device will come with 2 GB of internal memory, which cannot be expanded, as i-mate wanted to have the least possible number of openings to ensure the phone is really water-proof.

The Centurion is another unique product, which i-mate is hoping to boost their sales. The device is really tiny Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard (no touch-screen) phone with full QWERTY keyboard. The prototype we tried out was so early, that it kept falling apart. The main issue will of course be the size of the keyboard, which seemed usable, but the keys were very hard to press. i-mate did not reveal the price or when it will hit the market. The device will not probably have GPS, as there will be no space inside for the antenna.

Another new unannounced product we spotted at their booth is something called the legionnaire. i-mate did not want to reveal a lot of info about it. Pretty much all we know is it will be Windows Mobile 6.1-6.5 with touch support and expect to be something similar in specs to the Centurion.