Phones of the Year

The year 2005 has been a good year for mobile phone users in general and camera phone and music phone lovers in particular. We knew early on in the year that "multimedia" and "convergence" would be the buzzwords of ’05 but perhaps not to this glorious extent. Read on and see why there are so many reasons to celebrate 2005, mobile phone-wise.

Nokia 7710

The Nokia 7710 is one handset that looks more like a PDA or handheld PC than a mobile phone. But I’ve seen the future (in a telecom show in Singapore last June) and the 7710 is it. This different-looking Nokia showed mobisodes of popular TV series as well as real-time news aired from TV networks with technical tie-ups with the cellphone network provider. It is also capable of Visual Radio, video streaming, music playback, and megapixel photography. The 7710 is one of the few phones with a designed-for-video landscape screen orientation. The device is not equipped with a keypad, and so the 7710’s gigantic 640 x 320-pixel display allows touch-screen control with a stylus.

Sony Ericsson K750i

This smashing handset retains the hallmarks of an outstanding Sony Ericsson phone with new additions to its impressive feature set. And since the latest trend in the fast-paced world of mobile phones revolves around multimedia capabilities, the phone company put emphasis on the most demanded functions in the market — quality camera and an outstanding audio player.

Bursting to the seams with megapixels (two, to be exact), MP3s, expandable memory, Bluetooth connectivity and other outstanding features, the K750i is one heavy-hitting phone. The K750i takes amazing pictures, plays back great audio, and is topnotch when it comes to connectivity. A high-quality color screen and the trademark dual-face design of later Sony Ericsson phones round off the list of features nicely.

Sony Ericsson Walkman phones

Who better to recreate the concept of "Walkman" than the company that started it all in the ’70s? But with Ericsson now also in the picture, what we get are some cleverly conceived music phones — the Sony Ericsson Walkman phones, namely, the W900, W800, W600, and W550. These handsets have spawned a new breed of mobile phones; that is, one that has outstanding phone features and excellent music playback capabilities.

These phones are equipped with huge and expandable memories to carry audio files, megapixel photos, contacts, and other pertinent data. The newest Walkman phone, the W900, comes with 3G capability, and with Sony Ericsson turning out a new Walkman phone practically every quarter, it looks like the Sony Ericsson Walkman line of phones can only get better. Now that’s music to our ears!

Nokia Nseries

This trio of handsets represents the Finnish giant’s major salvo at elevating multimedia to a new level, not to mention the effort to create a noteworthy departure from its tradition of using four-digit nomenclature. The N90 is for the camera-phone "prosumer," thanks to its Carl Zeiss optics and other advanced photographic features. Its multi-hinge, twist-and-shoot design likewise takes mobile phone form factors to new heights.

Music lovers, meanwhile, will love the N91. With its generous 4GB hard disk, you can actually survive without your iPod. The full-featured monoblock 3G N70 with dual cameras (one of which boasts a two-megapixel camera) complete the first batch of the Nseries triumvirate (a second batch has already been announced in Finland).

Nokia 8800

If there are luxury or prestige watches, then there should be luxury/prestige cellphones, too. And as far as Nokia is concerned, the 8800 is it. This phone offers a luxurious alternative to your old chatterbox. Its stainless steel cover, spring-loaded sliding mechanism, and scratch-resistant crystal display ooze quality and style. The 8800’s 0.5-megapixel camera and digital music player may not be something to text home about, but the inclusion of Bluetooth and EDGE should place it firmly in the sights of those who fancy exclusivity mixed with good connectivity. In line with the 8800’s premium positioning, Nokia even enlisted Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto to create some very New Age-y ringtones.

Samsung D600 and D500

For years, Samsung impressed consumers with vivid screen and good polyphony. But alas, Samsung phones were just beautiful devices: they impress with sound and colors but were lacking in features. Until the launch of the D500. It was the first stylish phone from the Korean giant that won’t look out of place in business meetings or shindigs. Bluetooth, a 1.3-megapixel camera, an MP3 music player plus a host of other features add to the tri-band D500’s appeal. The equally dashing D600 is gaining popularity, thanks to additional features such as an expandable memory via TransFlash and more megapixels — 2-MP to be exact — in its built-in camera. Truly, these phones’ beauty isn’t just skin-deep.

O2 xda IIi and Mini

The O2 xda IIi and xda II Mini put a lot of other smartphones to shame with their well-engineered designs and features that make them the perfect mobile office, camera, phone, e-mail, Web browser and just about everything else you’d need to conduct your business and personal affairs on the go. Owners of xda II Minis made heads turn with their smartphones’ sleek, slim and compact design which amazingly did little to compromise the devices’ performance. The full-featured 02 XDA IIi, on the other hand, saved its users a lot of time as it runs at a high speed of 520Mhz. It also made life easier for its users as its connectivity covers every conceivable method of transferring data. Both O2 xdas have been good depositories of fun memories for their users this year as they sport integrated 1.3-megapixel cameras and displayed images on brilliant high-resolution screens.

Motorola ROKR

Just to underscore the popularity (and importance) of integrating music players with mobile handsets, Motorola tied up with no less than Apple to include the iPod-defining iTunes into a mobile phone and then call the end result the Motorola ROKR. Looking much like the popular MTV-oriented (there’s that music connection again) E398 but with an iTunes hotkey, the ROKR’s pearl white finish and generous array of features and connectivity functions should make a host of users rocking for quite some time.