New mobiles packed with features

By PETER GRIFFIN

Alcatel OneTouch 735

French phone-maker Alcatel sold a stack of phones in New Zealand by capturing the budget pre-pay part of the market populated by kids with text-messaging and calling appetites larger than their account balances. But it has never been a hip brand for adult, working-type people.

The 735 is a determined effort to try to change that and a mix of reasonable pricing and digital photography may see Alcatel succeed.

At 89g in weight and sporting a sleek aluminium facia and vibrant colour screen, the 735 sits comfortably alongside late-model, mid-market Nokias or Sony Ericssons in terms of design.

Navigation around the phone is through a series of chunky icons. Everything is clear and easy to follow, if unsophisticated in design. The 735 does not support Java so there's little scope for downloading new menu items or software features. Battery life is good - an impressive 12 days on standby and a claimed 700 minutes of airtime.

While equipped to use GPRS data networks and with infra-red for use as a wireless data modem, the 735 has limited appeal as a data device. Website browsing is clunky and there is no straight access to Vodafone Live. But turn the phone over and you see its main redeeming feature - a built-in digital camera. With 1.8MB of memory you'll be able to store a good number of pictures that won't win any amateur photography awards but you'll have a lot of fun.

Sony Ericsson T610

The designers of this little phone obviously drew some inspiration from the successful Apple iPod. Sure, the latter is an MP3 player rather than a phone but its designers proved that square, angular looking devices can be fashionable.

The T610 has been on the market for a while, but is still a flagship product for Sony Ericsson in its field. At 95g it is lightweight, yet built with a reassuring solidness. A number of strategically placed buttons allow instant access to volume control and the camera. It carries a respectable 2MB of memory and has the features you'd expect of a phone in its class: GPRS network-enabled, Vodafone Live access and tri-band capability.

Where the T610 excels is in its phonebook and organiser software, which are nice updates from the successful T68i. As you get to know your way around the menu settings, you find the T610 has the potential to be a powerful little tool. Bundled software lets you send the content to your computer via infra-red - if you can be bothered.

The T68 joystick survives to give good navigation but the T610's keys are rigid and cramped. I was annoyed at the frequency with which I found myself connecting to Vodafone Live or undertaking some mistaken menu command.

The camera can take pictures at two resolution settings and is much better than the 735's optical add-on.

Sharp GX20

When the release of the impressive GX10 was followed in rapid succession by the GX10i and then the GX20, I was sceptical.

How could a phone with the same dimensions, the same look and feel, be all that much better? With the GX10i, the improvement was subtle, but the GX20 is a big step forward.

The best new feature is video recording. The VGA digital camera - the resolution of which has been bumped up to 640 x 480 pixels - can be used to record 20-second snaps of video, which, in the same way as PXT messages, can be sent to other video-capable phones or emailed.

To do so will set you back 50c plus data charges. The average video clip is about 90KB, so on a casual Vodafone data plan, sending a clip will cost you about $1.40.

At that price you wouldn't want to be firing off too many video messages each month, but the price will ultimately come down. This is a feature that will subsume PXT-ing and hopefully text-messaging.

There's now a dedicated key for logging yourself on to Vodafone Live. The external LCD is now colour. The menu system is icon-based, but as you drill down into sub-menus, things get a bit confusing.

It's a tri-band phone so will roam across the US, and onboard memory is now 2MB, great for storing lots of video pics, text-messages and pictures. The digital camera is even equipped with a small flash. All that and it weighs just 102g.

The price may put you off if you're just a talk-and-text mobile user. But all of those extras suck the power - you'll get talk time of 200 minutes, if you leave the camera alone.

Alcatel OneTouch 735

$399.

Pros: Good value, nice diary feature, rich colour screen.

Cons: Clunky web access, no Java support.

Rating: 7.5/10.


Sony Ericsson T610

$699.

Pros: Stylish, compact, good software.

Cons: Pokey keyboard layout.

Rating: 7/10.

Sharp GX20

$1299.

Pros: Great camera integration, lots of features.

Cons: Expensive, cluttered menu system, low talk time.

Rating: 8/10.