Those looking to purchase the hottest phone on the market should be aware that not every deal and every contract are created equal. Thankfully there are some great deals being offered by many European cellular service providers.

One such deal is being offered by Vodafone through Phones4U. This deal requires a £25 a month plan with £39 due up front. For that price, you will get 100 calling minutes, 500 text messages and 500MB of mobile data allowance. Granted, this might not be the best phone for those who are heavy on the texting and calling end, but the data allowance is comparable and is even a plus considering it’s offered through Vodafone.

Better yet the phone is unlocked so it will be first in line for any Android updates that are pushed out by Samsung, something locked devices are not able to boast.

That’s not the only deal out there for the Samsung Galaxy S II, though. Why not check out the Samsung Galaxy S II contracts over at Best Mobile Contracts, where you can compare this deal with many others to find the best deal for you.

The Motorola Corporation is set to launch a superb technologically advanced tablet computer running the Android OS. The most absorbing feature of this tablet is the video playback, as the Xoom can support video playback up to 1080p. The Motorola Xoom will be the company’s first ever tablet computer and faithful Motorola users are eagerly waiting for the release so that they get a first-hand experience of it. Excitingly, the Xoom will run on Android 3.0 Honeycomb which is the latest version of Google’s Android OS, specifically designed for tablets.

Important software features of the Xoom are quick multi tasking, a user interface specifically optimized for tablets, a thrilling Bump Top 3D desktop, enhanced browsing options for Google Maps, book mark syncing and many more advanced options. A wide range of official accessories are available for the Xoom, including a super-thin wireless keyboard, various multi-functional docks and a unique portfolio case, doubling as a stand that allows you to view the Xoom at a comfortable angle. Bluetooth headphones and protective gel cases are also available. If you’d like to get your hands on a Motorola Xoom, you can find Motorola Xoom offers to suit all budgets, so why not pick one up today?

Android, Droid, Honeycomb, Froyo, Gingerbread, all these names conjure images of little robots happily playing on nearby green hills as butterflies float by and half eaten applies jealously look on. Maybe not? Either way, Android is on its way to become the world’s number one cellphone software and with that comes talk about the future of the operating system.

As of now, Android is split into two different and distinct software options. Android 2.x is the software that is built for cellphones while Android 3.x is designed and geared for tablets and maybe netbooks in the future.

Even though the core architecture under both operating systems are the same, Android 3.x is one that has more features that are geared for bigger screens and more powerful processors than what you would find in a smartphone. But would such software ever make it to the smartphone?

TechRadar asked Google’s Director of Engineering of Android Dave Burke if the world could ever look to the possibility of 3.x coming to smartphones which would also herald the death of 2.x altogether. According to Burke, “Right now it’s a tablet operating system.” He did say that Google would like to unite both numbering systems which would essentially mean that one software would run on both device form factors, smartphones and tablets.

“I think that coming together is a good idea. What we’re trying to do here is make a base platform that’s so good, that others only need to add native elements in their core areas. We wanted to make the whole UI better – it shouldn’t be necessary to customize the texting widget with the Honeycomb UI. We don’t think one size fits all with Android, but sometimes changes [people make to the UI] miss the point – then again, sometimes it amazes us.”

The much awaited and talked about successor to the Nexus One, the Nexus S is finally available for pre-order in the UK, the release date already being set for late December, with no word on when it will be released in the US (where the first Nexus was released, with not-so enthusiastic user feedback).

The pricing seems pretty normal for a new high-end smartphone that packs in everything you might ever need and looks good to boot. An unlocked, SIM-free unit will cost the potential users 550 pounds, or $870, while the version bound by a 24 months contract will only be 35 pounds per month. The choice is pretty clear: if you want this phone but don’t have the money, go for the contract version, but if you already have a contract with another network company, it may prove difficult and more expensive to do that.

The new Nexus S certainly looks great, with the curved housing and the new Android 2.3 Gingerbread pre-installed, but a lot of people think it’s not worth paying the price when a brand new, unlocked Samsung Galaxy S, which shares the same platform and hardware with the Nexus S, costs only 415 pounds, and has support for HD video filming and an external micro SD card slot (though the lack of the former in the Nexus is probably only a matter of software). Furthermore, it might actually be cheaper to export the phone from the US when it comes out there at 550 US dollars (which is only 345 pounds).

Still, with all the issues, the Nexus S is definitely a phone worth paying attention to, and if you want to have the latest and greatest software, it’s the only choice besides the older Nexus One, as Google markets it as a “fully open” device with no locks or limits (unlike HTC, Motorola, Samsung and other brands, which lock the boot loader and do not allow the users to customize their own ROM).

The Taiwanese company HTC created their new 7 Mozart with higher quality than usual. It also has a new operating system to run it. Discover the features of the HTC 7 Mozart here in this snappy article.

The HTC engineers created the 7 Mozart with a unibody construction. The back of the handset shows an assymetrical construction with a mix of aluminum and plastic. Some could call it “artsy”. The size is not too large for a pocket or purse. The 3.7 inch screen is nearly fully featured with an acceleromter and proximity sensor. There is no Swype input and no manual keyboard for the 7 Mozart.

Looking on the inside, there is a fast one gigahertz processor made by the popular chip company Qualcomm. This is accompanied by 576 megabytes of RAM and 512 of ROM. All the former features help to give the HTC 7 Mozart speedy operation while opening and closing programs or during navigation. Internal memory is rated for eight gigabytes. There is no external storage available, that is, no MicroSD card slot.

One of the strong points of the HTC 7 Mozart is its camera. It is eight megapixels in power. It was given a Xenon flash instead of a LED style. This is superior to LED for taking photographs. There is also geo tagging, auto focus, face detection and video. The camera is competent enough to support high definition video in 720p format. The only problem will be getting those videos to other places, since there is no MicroSD card slot and no HDMI connector on the 7 Mozart.

The new Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system is running the HTC 7 Mozart. This is a redo of the older 6.5.3 and provides a hub connection system for easier navigation. It supports social networking sites as well as the regular Microsoft browser and word processing documents. Bing maps are included for free. Look for HTC 7 Mozart deals in Europe on the Orange network.

Taiwan-based leader in smartphones HTC unveils its second full-QWERTY slider Android in the HTC Desire Z, a good 18 months after the first, the HTC Dream. Running the latest Android v2.2 Froyo, the new handset is powered by a Qualcomm MSM7230 engine clocked at 800 MHz. That’s a bit less muscled than the 1 GHz Snapdragon of the HTC Desire. From the aesthetics, it’s really a Desire that grew a QWERTY keyboard slider.

Great Flagship Features

Looking like the Desire when closed, the HTC Desire Z actually has the same the feature of the HTC Desire HD which is only distinguished by its larger 4.3-inch screen display. Instead you get a 3.7-inch capacitive S-LCD touchscreen with multitouch, WVGA (480 x 80) resolution, 16 million colors, accelerometer and proximity sensors.

Despite a set of flagship features, it is positioned as a more modest option than either the earlier Desire or its successor the Desire HD. It also boasts of social networking prowess that comes with Facebook, Twitter, Picasa, YouTube and Google talk integration.

The new HTC Desire Z is a cornucopia of data and telephony connectivity options. It’s 3G handset on the dual band UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA and a quad band GSM on 2G with class 32 GPRS/EDGE data speeds. Local connectivity gets WiFi 802.11 b/g/n with DLNA, Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP and microUSB v2.0 including GPS SatNav with A-GPS support.

Imaging gets a 5-megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash, face detection, geo tagging and video recording at 720p high definition while mobile entertainment gets the usual media playback features, a stereo FM radio with RDS and headphone listening in either wired (3.5mm jack) or wireless (A2DP) mode.

Internal memory gets 1.5 GB with 512 MB RAM and microSD expansion for up to 32GB. Its li-ion batters rated at 1300 mAh delivers up to 9.8 hours of call time on 2G, 6.6 hours on 3G with 430 hours on standby.

For years, the layout of the T9 keypad has been a simple and easy to understand style. While, the Nokia X3 Touch and Type will not be changing any standards, it is certainly a fine point in any argument that variation and deviation can often result in slightly more advantageous situation. In this case, it seems as if the new layout of the keys has made typing a whole lot easier on this handset.

Small Changes, Big Differences

The one thing that users will be able to point out at first glance is the fact that the bottom row of keys has been moved into a fourth column for the handset. The positions have also been altered slightly, instead of the zero/space button being placed in the center row; it is located on the bottom right –which actually turns out to be a lot more intuitive a position than in the center.

In practice, it is easy to say that the Nokia Touch and Type handset is a device that is easy to get used to. Just type with it for a short while and it will seem as if this is how the keypads on all mobile phones should be. Of course, it also helps that the display is a touch screen that complements the controls of the keypad.

Resistive Touch

It is pretty understandable that the initial public reaction to resistive touch screen technology is one of mild dismay. After all, the convenience of capacitive technology is quite outstanding. But when one realizes that the display on both the Nokia X3 and Nokia C3 Touch and Type has been designed as a complementary input method as opposed to being a primary, one can see how the combination truly works in favor of the handset –and how redundant having a capacitive touch screen would have been.

Nokia is the king of mid range mobiles. Apple and BlackBerry may be outperforming them in the Smartphone scene, but there is no doubt that Nokia still remains to be on top of the lower market segments.

They have had immeasurable success in providing their users with quality mobiles that come with very reasonable price tags. One such device is the Nokia E5 – a mid range QWERTY Smartphone that’s equipped with a ton of useful features, but does without the alarming market price.

What’s in an E?

Nokia’s E Series of Smartphones is one of the most acclaimed lines of mobile phones to date. However, while critics absolutely loved the likes of the Nokia E71, the consumer market was not as receptive. Nonetheless, the fact still remains that E Series Smartphones are very impressive.

One of the fruits of this family is the Nokia E5. However, it has been positioned differently from most of its predecessors as it hopes to target a lower and younger target market. This is made evident not only by the E5’s reasonable price tag, but also by the fact that it comes in a number of more ‘youthful’ colour schemes such as sky blue, chalk white, and copper brown.

Packed

In terms of features, there’s nothing more you can ask for from the Nokia E5. Composing longer text messages or emails is made much easier by the QWERTY keyboard of the device. High speed mobile internet is also on board via 3G HSDPA and WLAN support. This Smartphone has a powerful 600 MHz ARM processor to back up the Symbian mobile OS.

We were also impressed by the Nokia E5’s built-in camera which has a 5-Megapixel resolution. Fixed focus, an LED flash, and video capture (VGA @ 15fps) are some of the snapper’s built-in features.

Stiftung Warentest is a German based consumer group. When you have an expensive electronic gadget that is not working the way it is supposed to, then it is just natural that consumer groups would step in for the purchasing masses; and there are a lot of people who bought the iPhone 4. In fact, it was reported that within just three days of sales, Apple sold about 1.7 million iPhone 4 smart phones all over the world. And it has been more than three weeks since then.

If the research that Stiftung Warentest is to be used as a basis, then that means there are at least a couple of million iPhone handsets that have antenna issues. This is because the problem is not really a faulty antenna, but with the actual phone design that fails to keep the antenna away from human touch. In fact, the antenna is so exposed that the signal strength drops to a ridiculously low number when touched.

To give a more logical comparison, most phones lose about 10% to 20% of their signal strength when touched in a regular way. Some can be made to choke out on network signal up to more than 50%. The Apple iPhone, even when touched just slightly on the exposed portion, will lose about 90% of the total signal strength.

With this, it is now wonder that people complain about dropped calls on the iPhone. The handset truly lacks any form of provisions or hardware features that would prevent users from accidentally touching the exposed portion. It is ironic how the iPhone 4 seems to be the iPhone killer that competitors have been waiting for. This is an otherwise impressive handset that has been beset by a major design flaw.

In the meanwhile, current iPhone 4 owners may choose to avail of Apple’s free bumper casing offers by downloading the official app.

Digital camera technology has gone a long way since the very first digi-cams have been introduced to the consumer market. These days, it seems all too easy to slap on a camera on almost any handset. The average laptop and netbook comes with a built it webcam, even handheld gaming consoles such as the PSP and the DSi have cameras (in the case of the PSP, it is an external accessory; the DSi has it built in.) Naturally smart phones also have digital camera technology as well.

Nokia is already promising the industry a massive 12 mega pixel camera on the upcoming N8 and N9 smart phones (which use the Symbian^3 and MeeGo operating systems respectively). Sony Ericsson’s Vivaz and the Motorola Milestone XT 720 each bring an 8 mega pixel camera to consumers everywhere.

These days, taking a high resolution image of anything basically means simply pointing a phone at a subject and taking a quick snapshot. But for the more discerning graphic artists, the concern does not stop with the mega pixel count alone, having zoom, autofocus, LED flash and other additional features are also important.

For users who like to upload straight from the phone to a Flickr account or in Facebook, a smart phone with integrated social networking features are recommended, as well as having pre-loaded image editing software (which would really help a lot when it comes to sizing down images to make them viewer friendly as full resolution images shot with an 8 mega pixel camera takes a while to load).

In both cases, it pays to have hot swappable micro SD cards. While 32GB cards will take a while to fill up, they eventually will. And having other media such as music and videos are certain to fill up the cards as well (most phones are also capable of recording video in 720p, 30FPS, which is also pretty space consuming).