Mobile Phones - reviews and price comparison

3G

3G-mobiles and the 3G net can handle higher speed and faster data transfer than GSM. 3G can offer services such as video calls and mobile broadband.

According to the 3G operators their net now covers 80-90% of the population (February -07). In the countryside the 3G service is still limited, which means that video calls and high speed internet can be inaccessible in those areas. If the old mobile net (GSM) has service you can still use your 3G phone to make voice calls since it can use the GSM net.

Triple band and double band

All phones today have double band, which gives a good coverage in many countries, but if you want the best international coverage possible you need a mobile with triple band.

Talk time and standby time

The standby time indicates how many hours the mobile can be turned on before the battery needs charging, granted that the mobile is only awaiting calls and is not being used in any other way.

Display

As the amount of functions on the mobile phones increase, so does the demand for usability. The menu should be quick and easy to use. This cannot be judged from technical data, instead you can read our test reviews of the mobile you are interested in. A large screen often helps make a mobile nicer to use.

A big display with high resolution is also important if you are planning to use your phone for taking pictures or playing games. The pictures below show the difference in details between two different resolutions

160x128 pixels, 256 colours	160x128 pixels, 4 000 colours	160x128 pixels, 65 000 colours

208x176 pixels, 65 000 colours	208x176 pixels, 16 million colours

Check how many colours the display can handle, 65536 is usually standard, which is enough to show lifelike pictures.

Features

Camera

Many mobiles have a built-in digital camera and the qualities of these are varying. A good rule of thumb for mobile cameras is that higher resolution gives better pictures. Read the reviews to see which mobiles have the best cameras.

MP3 player

Many mobile phones have a built-in mp3-player. On some mobiles there is also a possibility to use the mp3s as ringtones.

GPS

GPS in the mobile phone can either be integrated in the phone or as a separate module, combined with a downloaded program. If the GPS is integrated you always carry it with you, it doesn't need to be charged separately, and you know that the phone can handle the map programs.
Up till today relatively few mobiles have an integrated GPS.

Memory

The mobile phone needs to have a memory to store mp3-music and/or photos/video files captured with the built-in camera.

How much space pictures and music take can vary quite much, but the usual size is that a 2 megapixel photo takes 0,5 MB, video 1 MB/minute and an MP3 song 4 MB.
Having for example 100 MP3s, 100 photos and 20 minutes video you would need approximately 470 MB.

Most mobile phones have an internal memory which is not bigger than some ten MB. But many models can also use a memory card so that you can buy extra memory (up to several GB) to store more songs.

SMS and MMS

All new mobile phones can send text messages (SMS) and almost always also multimedia messages (MMS), which can contain pictures, sounds and even short video clips.

Bluetooth

Bluetooth is a technology for wireless communication between appliances. A mobile phone with Bluetooth can be connected to various Bluetooth accessories such as:

• Wireless headsets
• PDAs for handling calendars, contacts etc.
• Other mobile phones for exchanging contacts or playing games
• omputers for synchronising calendar and contacts. Some mobiles can also be used as a modem to give a computer access to Internet.

Other functions

Many mobiles have Java, which enables you to download and play games and other programs in your mobile.
Other functions include radio, e-mail client, and video player. A few mobiles also have a built-in GPS.

Rating/awards

On testwinner.co.uk all the different ratings given by expert testers have been translated into a percentage from 0 to 100 with 100 being the maximum rating.
The average rating for a product can indicate different things. A low average rating is a warning that the product maybe won't live up the expectations created by the ads for the product. A high rating often means that the product has great features and works well. The more tests of the product the better accuracy in the average rating.

The amount of test wins/awards shows how many times the product has been named winner or been selected "Editor's Choice", "Best Buy" or received similar positive awards in tests. An award means that the product stands out from the competition in one way or another. It can be by giving value for money or by being innovative, or simply by just filling its purpose in a really good way.