iPhone Contenders on the way
First up is the new LG Prada II - one for the fashionistas. Loosely based on the LG Renoir with similar features, the LG Prada II does come with one feature that sets it aside from the Renoir - a slide-out keyboard.
As you can see, this pretty nifty feature makes texting & writing emails a much more pleasant experience, using the thumbs instead of a delicate pen or finger on the touchscreen. However, you dont have to rely on the keypad - the phone still has a conventional touch screen keyboard and numeric keypad, should you wish to use it.
The LG's slick 'noir' interface is mostly borrowed from the same platform used by the Renoir and Cookie, but still works here nicely. However, you'll be making do with only a rather excellent 5 Megapixel camera this time - still a fast improvement on the iPhone's 2 Megapixel offering. The camera is nicely tidied to the top back of the phone complete with flash. Wifi, Bluetooth 2.1 & 7.2Mb/s HSDPA 3G mean your connectivity is covered also. Nothing bad to say about the phone really, now if we could just get iTunes applications running on it...
Next up is our pick of the latest HTC smartphones, the HTC Touch HD. Boasting a screen resolution of 480x800, its a nice step up from the iPhone's 320x480 screen, despite being only a little larger & heavier. A 5 megapixel camera is mounted on the back, albeit with no flash, and the back of the phone is covered in a nice grippy rubber substance.
Whats special to note is this phones excellent connectivity - a USB port provides both charging and peripheral usage, as well as a standard 3.5mm jack for headphones - no proprietary mess of cables here. Being a Windows smartphone, its interface is familiar with anyone who's seen a PC in the past 15 years. Again, Wifi & Bluetooth connectivity come as standard.
Last up is the new offering from Toshiba, which caused quite a stir at its unveiling this week. No-one saw this coming.
Looks good, doesn't it? Especially in white, which is a nice change from all the predominantly gloss black smartphones we've seen. Again based on the Windows Mobile platform, albeit 'modified' by Toshiba themselves, this phone crams in a 480x800 screen, A-GPS, Wi-Fi & HSDPA 3G connectivity into a platform smaller and thinner than the iPhone. Unique is the phones G sensor, which combined with a map and the A-GPS system is able to rotate around the map as you turn it around a central point. Not much more detail is available for this phone apart from it containing a Micro SD slot and some form of what looks to us to be a flashless camera.
