5 Hottest Qwerty phones

Nokia E72

The E72’s multimedia skills beat all the others here. It’s very stylishly built, flaunting an elongated profile and a robust metallic rear battery bonnet. The keyboard’s domed buttons (which include dedicated punctuation keys) are easy on the thumbs, feeling almost ceramic to the touch, although not as distinct as the BlackBerry’s.

The Symbian S60 interface is a bit dated but highly customisable. The push email set-up rivals the BlackBerry for ease of use, and while Nokia’s Ovi Store isn’t overflowing, it offers a decent choice of apps and games to download.

Verdict: With outstanding media and SMS talents, the E72 is the best all-round QWERTY phone.

Specs: OS: Symbian Series 60; Display: 2.4in, 320x240; Camera/video: 5MP/VGA@ 15fps: Storage: 250MB + microSD; Battery 6hrs talk, 576hrs standby.

Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro

The X10 Mini Pro is the smallest here and could be the dinkiest smartphone we’ve ever handled. A flick of a thumb is enough to slide the screen up with a satisfying snap to reveal the surprisingly roomy QWERTY.

In our tests it proved a fine platform for speedtyping, but those with larger digits than ours may find it more challenging. Beneath the responsive capacitive touchscreen is an Android-based interface that’s been tweaked to accommodate the small screen size. If you’ve previously been put off QWERTY handsets by their size, the Mini Pro could change all that.

Verdict: A lesson in smartphone miniaturisation that’s incredibly user-friendly.

Specs: OS: Android 1.6; Display: 2.6-in, 320x240 capacitive touchscreen; Camera/video: 5MP/VGA@ 30fps; Storage: 128MB + microSD; Battery: 3.5hrs talk, 360hrs standby.

Palm Pixi Plus

Thanks to Palm’s flexible webOS, the entry-level Pixi Plus is a multitasking demon. No rival QWERTY handset can switch between apps and features so effortlessly.

It’s very slim, light and well made, and while the keyboard looks cramped it’s great to use. The soft rubbery domes are very tactile, you get dedicated full stop and comma keys, and the phone’s slender profile means you can easily tap out messages one-handed. This frees your other hand to use the responsive capacitive touchscreen or the gesture pad.

Verdict: This multitasking smartphone has more appeal than its entry-level status suggests.

Specs: OS: webOS 1.4.1; Display: 2.63in, 320x400; Camera/video: 2MP/VGA@ 30fps; Storage: 8GB; Battery: 5.2hrs talk, 350hrs standby.

Acer Neo Touch P300

The Acer’s 3.2-inch widescreen display is a beauty. Unfortunately, this Windows Mobile-powered phone doesn’t follow through with performance to match. The sliding keyboard is spacious and geared for drafting long messages and emails.

Flush to the surface with an almost pressurepad action, each key is distinguishable by a smooth rubberised finish. The same can’t be said of the resistive touchscreen. It copes fine with aggressive taps on the main menu icons, but swipe and scroll and it becomes temperamental.

Go off-road from the main menu and you’ll be grabbing the stylus to negotiate the fiddly sub-menus. Also, the processor seems to have trouble if you throw it a quick volley of taps or swipes, needing time to catch up. Ultimately this lack of response overshadows the fairly impressive set of features.

Verdict: A great QWERTY is let down by a moody touchscreen and sluggish processor.

Specs: OS: Windows Mobile 6.5; Display: 3.2in, 240x400; Camera/video: 3.2MP/320x240@30fps; Storage256MB+microSD; Battery: 4.4hrs talk, 400hrs standby.

BlackBerry 9700 Bold

In terms of design and ergonomics, the BlackBerry’s keyboard is the finest on test. Inspired by the frets on a guitar, it has reasonable-sized keys that are ridged to help your thumbs keep their bearings.

It’s a pleasure to use and great for instinctive typing, even in the absence of standalone punctuation keys. Like the Nokia E72, the Bold is a traditional messenger, so there’s no touchscreen but there is a touchsensitive optical trackpad. Teamed with its splendid keyboard, for pure messaging the BlackBerry is hard to beat.

Verdict: Its thumb-friendly keyboard makes this BlackBerry a top-class messenger.

Specs: OS: BlackBerry 5.0; Display: 2.4in, 480x360; Camera/video: 3.2MP/480x352@30fps; Storage: 256MB + microSD; Battery: 6hrs talk, 408hrs standby.

Sony Ericsson launches 3 mobile phones

Sony Ericsson unveiled three new models of mobile phones, including entry level handset for 3G.

The company unveiled Xperia-X8 entertainment smartphone on Android platform, besides Cedar, the basic entry level model for 3G and Yendo,the full touch walkman phone. "We continue to offer an amalgamation of communication and entertainment by fusing together best quality touchscreen experience, in the second half of the year," Sony Ericsson India Marketing head Anurag Kunto told newsmen.

"The newly launched models shall be available at the stores from September," Kunto said.

According to Kunto, Android platform in mobile handsets has begun taking away market share worldwide.

Sporting a 3-inch HVGA capacitive touchscreen (320 x 480), Xperia X8 comes with 3.2 megapixel camera, full Web browser, FM radio, support for video streaming, access to social networks through Timescape and music player with PlayNow and TrackID.

Xperia X8 runs on 600MHz processor and Google Android OS 1.6. For connectivity, the phone includes Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The phone packs 128MB of internal memory and a 2GB microSD card. The memory can be expandable upto 16GB.

In the walkman series, Sony Ericsson has launched its first full touchscreen phone called Yendo. Featuring four corner touch user interface (UI), Yendo comes with 2 megapixel camera with 4X digital zoom.

The phone's music features include FM radio, music player, walkman player, MP3/AAC tones and a Bluetooth A2DP stereo.
Sporting a 2.6-inch TFT screen with 320 X 420 pixel resolution, Yendo has 3.5mm jack, Bluetooth, micro USB connector, USB mass storage and modem.

The company has also launched an entry-level 3G phone called Cedar. The phone offers quick access to social networking sites through a feature called Widget Manager 2.0.

Featuring a 2.2-inch display, the phone packs a 2 megapixel camera and 3.5mm headphone jack. The phone's battery promises upto 4 hours of talktime on 3G network.

The company has close to 1,000 point of sales in western region including Maharashtra and Gujarat, and nearly 4,000 across the country.

Close to 100,000 million GSM handsets sales are projected for the Indian market in 2010, of which 70 per cent are priced below Rs 3,000, a company official said.

BlackBerry solution in India soon

BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion may provide some solution next week to help Indian security agencies access corporate email by obtaining encrypted data in readable format, a government source said. 

Research In Motion (RIM) faces an August 31 deadline to give Indian authorities the means to track and read BlackBerry Enterprise email and its separate BlackBerry Messenger service. 

The government, concerned about the potential for militants to use the secure BlackBerry network to carry out attacks, has vowed to shut the services ifRIM fails to comply, cutting it out of one of the world's fastest-growing telecoms market. 

An RIM technical team in New Delhi has been working with the department of telecoms and security agencies to find a way out. 

"We are expecting they will come up with some solution for Enterprise mail next week," the source said. He did not want to be named as RIM's discussions with the government are not public. 

India said this week that it would allow the messenger service to continue beyond the deadline as it had been assured access to the services, but could shut down the secure email service if access is not given by then. 

India is one of a number of countries putting pressure on RIM, which has built the reputation of the BlackBerry, popular with business professionals and politicians, around confidentiality. 

Government officials have said RIM has assured manual access to BlackBerry instant messenger by September 1, and automated access by year-end.

Fujifilm launches 3D camera

Fujifilm has launched the world's first 3D camera and printing service. 

Photographs on the new FinePix camera can be printed on special 3D paper, ready to stick in the family photo album or be instantly viewed on the camera's built-in display. 

Unlike the 3D films in cinemas, special glasses do not need to be worn to show the 3D image. The camera takes two photos simultaneously from its two lenses which are fixed a similar distance apart to human eyes, reports the Telegraph. 

Using "lenticular" technology, the separate left and right eye images are interlaced on a furrowed surface to create the stereoscopic illusion. 

This method has been used since the 1940s typically on novelty items and stickers, featuring simple two-frame animations, such as a winking eye. The new camera also incorporates a high-definition 3D video camera, allowing users to watch their home movies back on any 3D TV. 

The new FinePix Real 3D W3 will go on sale in early September, costing around 400 pounds.Fujifilm said its 3D printing service would be available "shortly" after the camera's launch.

Asus launches dual touchpad notebook NX90

Notebook PC-maker, Asus has launched its new product NX90 notebook in the domestic market. 

The product is designed in co-operation with technology developer Bang and Olufsen's chief designer David Lewis, Asus' (India) Country Head for System Business, Alex Huang, said. 

"With the NX90 we hope to give notebooks the world over a new definition and place," Huang said. 

The product comes with features including 8GB DDRIII memory and 1TG (500GBx2) 7200rpm storage capacity. The 18.4-inch full high definition LED backlit display laptop is priced at Rs 1,31,999. 

"Initially, we would be marketing our product primarily in major metros like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata," Huang said, adding that the product would be marketed through its dealer network channel partners in India. 

The NX90 comes with a configuration of an Intel Core i7 processor, graphics card NVIDIA Geforce GT 335M, an amplifier and a built-in webcam of 2 megapixel. 

Among other features, the laptop has a dual touchpad located on both sides of the keyboard.

HTC launches Desire in India

Cellphone maker HTC Corporation in partnership with telecom service provider Tata Docomo launched a new handset 'HTC Desire' in India. 

HTC Desire is supported by android operating system that offers the enhanced HTC Sense experience to users. 

Sporting a 3.7-inch AMOLED display, the phone comes loaded with Android 2.1 OS. Desire also has an optical trackpad and physical buttons. The phone also supports multitouch gestures. 

Desire packs a 5 megapixel camera with auto focus, flash, face detection capability, widescreen photo capture and Geotagging. The phone records videos at WVGA resolution (800*480) at 15 fps. 

The handset also supports music player and FM radio and has both audio and video recording. Powered by 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, Desire has 512 MB of ROM and 576 MB of RAM. The phone comes with 4GB MicroSD card and the memory can be expanded upto 32GB.

The phone also has 3.5 mm stereo audio jack, standard micro-USB and Bluetooth 2.1. For connectivity, Desire supports 3G, GPRS, EDGE and Wi-Fi. 

The new HTC Desire will be available at a market price of Rs 28,900 at all authorised HTC resellers across the country. 

"This launch marks the strong relationship, Tata Docomo enjoys with HTC and, going forward, we will continue to work together to launch more innovative mobile offerings for Indian consumers on the Tata Docomo platform," Tata Docomo Head Marketing Gurinder Singh Sandhu said. 

HTC Desire comes with an exclusive offer for Tata Docomo users in India, wherein the company's postpay subscribers will get free data download of 500 MB per month for six months, the company added. 

Tata Teleservices has so far launched GSM services under the Tata Docomo brand name

Meet Desi e-reader, Wink

Bangalore-based digital publisher EC Media International has launched its multi-function e-book reader Wink that not only supports 15 languages but will also offer over 200,000 book titles on debut. 

Wink will offer consumers a one-stop e-store to access e-reading content of choice via www.thewinkstore.com that would enable access not just to e-books, but also journals, newspapers, magazines and selected articles, EC Media said. 

Many of the titles have been acquired from international aggregators, giving Indians access to a whole lot of books not available in the country. 

"With the launch of Wink, we aim to revolutionise the way people read," said Ravi DeeCee, founder and chief executive of DC Group, which has promoted EC Media and the Kerala-based publishing house DC Books. 

"Wink will allow readers to access their favourite content anytime, anywhere -- that, too, in the language of their choice," he said. 

Another offering will be Wink Wire for news, the first e-reader newspaper in India. EC Media has entered into a content alliance with IANS, India's largest independent news service, for Wink Wire. 

EC Media's e-reader itself is designed primarily for reading digital books and periodicals but users can also listen to music, check e-mails or even play games, executives said. 

This e-reader uses e-ink technology to display content to readers, and the main advantages of these features are portability, strain-free reading even in bright sunlight and substantial battery life. 

"With the launch of Wink, we want to enable the growth of content provisioning through electronic medium by leveraging existing eco-system of global tie-ups with publishers and aggregators," said Pradeep Palazhi, chief operating officer of EC Media. "We hope to succeed in attaining this vision." 

The group also aims to help publishers and authors leverage the new platform, simplifying the process of publishing -- from the draft of a book to its final printing, besides also helping them to reach out to a larger audience. 

Wink has enrolled top publishers like Penguin, Roli, Oxford University, Harper Collins and Permanent Black for content so far. It will provide access to over 100,000 tiles to begin with, along with some newspapers and magazines. 

The group has also announced a tie-up with Croma, the electronics megastore promoted by the Tata Group, as its retail partner. It has also roped in Redington as its distribution partner. 

"From a consumer perspective, it's going to be a resourceful investment. It will certainly enhance their reading experience with a variety of offerings," said Ajit Joshi, chief executive of Croma Electronics Megastore. 

Explaining how the e-reader works, officials said a user can access the online store from the web or through the catalogue present on the gadget, intuitively designed for easy preview of content, downloads and a secure payment gateway. 

The Wink store will have a strong base of regional language content on top of a wide-variety of international titles and category of e-books. Members will be able to avail of special deals and discounts on the store, they added. 

Gurcharan Das, author of "The Difficulty of Being Good: The Subtle Art of Dharma", is upbeat about e-readers. 

"E-readers like Wink are well positioned to capture the imagination of the younger generation," Das said at a function at the Crossword book store at Kemps Corner here. 

"I feel book stores are going to be history soon because the younger generation wants everything on screen. E-books are going to get cheaper than an actual book over time, so there is no point being stuck in nostalgia," Das, who is among the nominees of the Vodafone Crossword award, said.