All Gadgets Aside...

Whatever you wanna call it, it falls into the category that I really hold a place for in my heart. I am big fan of all things that are more portable than a laptop but larger than a pda. There really is a happy medium for a "truly portable" device, this device may have hit that happy medium on the head.

The Kohjinsha SA1F00 is one of the devices that is nice and small but it has the capabilities to do anything a regular computer can(ok maybe not play top of the line games, but you understand). What really makes this stand out above and beyond is the fact that A. it has a nice price range, $750 for one with 40gb of HD space or $930 for one with an 80gb HD and Office installed. and B. because it so portable yet it has all the same aspects as a standard laptop, wifi, bluetooth, up to 1gb of ram, 5 hours of battery life. This portable wonder packs a 533mhz AMD Geode processor, which may not sound like much but for a device like this it's more than plenty. Now only if I could ditch the OS for a flavor of linux it would be great in my book(it comes standard with Windows XP). I think though that I will have to stick with my favorite portable computer of choice, the Nokia 770, oh the touch screeny goodness.

Unfortunately there comes a time in the life of every gadget when you have to set it aside and upgrade to something new. Well for me there were a few reasons for me to upgrade my Mobile to a new device so I searched high and low for the right device for me. I am a rather picky person when it comes to mobile phones mainly because of the fact that I have been spoiled by using a Sony Ericsson S710a for the past year. When it came down to the features and price that I was looking for I ended up going with the Nokia 6270 (Nokia, if you are listening, I will gladly accept an N73 for reviewing purposes). One of the main factors that I look for in a phone these days is whether or not it can run the applications that I use regularily, so basically it needs to run Opera Mini.

Upon Opening the box I was greeted by a sleek looking phone, squared off edges, slider, nice large screen, dark brown aluminum exterior. Starting up the phone was a snap, I started off by inserting the SIM card, the included 128mb memory card(can take up to 2gb MiniSD Card) and battery then pressed the conveniently hidden power button(located on the top of the phone). The phone greets you with some friendly Nokia hand holding intro and then you are off. The Series 40 interface is very visually pleasing and is very easy to navigate. One of the main things I was curious about was the active standby mode so I scurried over to the settings and turned it on. Active Standby is basically a way to display important information on the main screen including the calendar, notes, music currently playing, current radio station and shortcuts to frequenly used applications. The Active Standby made going from application to application and song to song a breeze.

As far as music goes on the 6270, I would say it that this phone qualifies as a great way to listen to your favorite tunes. On the exterior of the phone there are two speakers to give you stereo sound. I was skeptical of the external speakers at first but after taking a listen to a few songs I quickly change my mind. Although the speakers don't offer much in the way of bass(what do you expect?, they are tiny) they do offer some pretty incredible stereo seperation for being so close together. When you plug the headphones into the pop port you get sound that I feel is very comparable or better than the iPod. Plenty of volume is cranked out through the headphones and there is an Equalizer to fine tune the sound to your liking.

The camera was one of the main reasons I decided to pick up this handset and so far it's been great. The camera on the 6270 is a 2 megapixel camera with flash as well as video capabilities. When taking photos with the phone you hold it sideways like a digital camera and the button to take the shot is located on the top, the camera will start up automatically when the button is pressed. Unfortunately I haven't been able to take too many photos with this handset yet. The photos that I have taken have come out very well, great color, nice contrast, decent night shots. As I take a few more photos and videos I will update this section.

Overall I would say this is a great handset and would recommend it to anyone looking for a full featured phone that can't or doesn't want to spend $450USD or more on the next step up. I do have a couple gripes but nothing that would deter from the overall experience. The first complaint is that the sliding feeling is a little less solid than the S710a that I was used to using(like I said, spoiled). The second would be that it seems that the battery runs down pretty fast, I haven't run it down to dead yet but it looks like you wouldn't get more than a few days out of a charge. I tend to plug my phone in every night anyhow.

I do have bad news for those people living in the US, this phone is not currently available in the US but you can always track one down Unlocked.

Nokia 6270 Product Page

We all know that coutries like Korea and Japan are the envy of the rest of the world when it comes to things like mobile phones. It appears that KTF, a Korean mobile company, is trying to make our mouths water once again with the introduction of the EV-K130. The EV-K130 has all the standard features you have come to expect from a decent mobile phone: 1.3mp Camera, 160mb of internal memory, bluetooth, mp3 player. The thing that sets this phone aside from others is the fact that its a slider that is slightly larger than a stick of lipstick. The KTF EV-K130 is the perfect phone for that 5th pocket on your jeans. With the size thing set aside, it looks as if KTF has also made this into a very attractive phone that is sure to impress even the most seasoned gadget geek.