If you thought Bluetooth headsets – staple ear decoration for mini-cab drivers, construction site foremen and, well, all ****s who think that a flashing piece of plastic hooked into their ear hole looks good – were painful to be around in your day to day life, just you wait until the next mini revolution in mobile phones happens: watchphones.

That’s right, in some kind of back to the future style scenario, watchphones are back in the shape of the Samsung S9110 (and we say back, because one of Samsung’s last notable efforts in this category came in the shape of the SPH-WP10, an almost unbelievable ten years ago). And as well as the S9110, LG are getting in on the act with the GD910, although their effort is arriving next month rather than this, and costs £1,000 whereas the Samsung S9110 comes in at under £400. But regardless, we don’t doubt that in a few months, you’re going to start seeing a lot of people with strange looking watches. All the most strange when you see them seemingly dislocate their elbows and wrist in an attempt to talk into these things like they’re a phone. See…. do you see why we’re worried? Because, as quaint an idea as a watchphone is, we just fail to see how it’s going to be all that practical. Either it’s going to be something you have to twist and turn up to your face in some weird way, or it’ll just be on permanent speakerphone (which will really, really wind us up). Or it’ll go down the route of the so-called “hands-free” sets. And don’t get us started on hands-free sets… IT’S NOT HANDS-FREE YOU IDIOT BECAUSE YOU JUST TOOK LONGER TO USE YOUR HANDS TO STICK THE EAR PIECE IN, RE-ADJUST THE STUPID DANGLING MICROPHONE AND THEN ANSWER THE CALL THAT YOU WOULD NORMALLY TAKE TO ANSWER THE CALL. AND LOOK! LOOK! NOW YOU’RE HOLDING THE MICROPHONE BIT CLOSE TO YOUR MOUTH AS YOU TALK. JUST USE THE ****ING PHONE LIKE A NORMAL PERSON YOU ****ING **** ****.

Ahem. Anyway. Yeah. Watchphones! Woooo!

Check out this Samsung S9110 review for less rant, more stats. Or have an early look at some Samsung S9110 deals.

If the Cold War taught us anything – which, thinking about it, it really should have done – it’s that two or more powers squaring up to each other and building more and more and bigger and better weapons and waving them around and screaming at each other whilst hovering fingers dangerously in the direction of the ‘launch’ buttons doesn’t really get us anywhere. Except mired in a world of mutual distrust, and of course saddled with trillions of dollars worth of debt.

But, it seems, the world has not learnt, as the Samsung Pixon 12 proves to us all too well. With its 12 megapixels of camera-light-receivingness strapped onto its chest, the Pixon 12 is a veritable human bomber of a phone, out to make a statement and attract lots of attention but, all in all, being little more than a worked up show-off. And why is that? Well, as with most of these idiots, there ideas can be disproved via a series of very short, very simple, and utterly infallible facts. Such as

1. More megapixels does not = better pictures
2. More megapixels only = better pictures when spread across the far, far larger light-receiving sensors of, say, a real camera
3. The only thing more megapixels definitely = is more megabytes in the file size created

However, the world being as it is we don’t doubt that many millions are going to be conned into disagreeing with all of the above, listening to raving lunatics and boldly showing off their new Pixon 12 in many a pub around the world come it’s release date. The sad thing is it’s not a bad phone in its own right, as this Samsung Pixon 12 review tells you, but oh well, we’re off to go and join the hari krishnas and preach peace and love and happiness to all men. Join us. Or just watch the video below instead.

We like phones that aren’t pretentious. We like phones that don’t pretend to be more than what they are. And we like phones that feel well-designed from top to bottom and from inside to you.

Three simple things, but three things that very, very rarely get a tick from us in relation to one phone. The Samsung Jet S8000, however, gets a nice big red check against each one of these.

Not pretentious? Nope, this is a mid-range phone, not pretending to be anything else. But that’s not to say it’s lazy, either. A good example is the camera. Fair enough, it’s only 5 megapixels. But with those five megapixels you get Autofocus, a Dual LED Flash, auto Face Detection, Smile Shot, Panorama option, Blink Detection, Geo-tagging and a nice simple Photo Editor. Then add to that the video capturing at 720×480 with 30fps, and also the slow motion video capture (QVGA resolution) and suddenly your nodding your head, impressed with what Samsung have achieved with the Samsung Jet.

Doesn’t pretend to be more than it is? Nope, this could be nothing other than a mid-ranger. The screen, for example, is not really that big – 3.1-inches. It’s plenty big enough for all the things the phone can do, and with the AMOLED technology is as bright and clear as anything else out there, but Samsung haven’t been tempted to stick a needlessly huge screen on a crap phone to make it seem bigger and better than it is. Not only this, but the rest of the phone’s design is absolutely perfect – from the colours to the materials to the curves, it’s all fantastic.

So it’s well-designed from top-to-bottom and outside. And inside, with the newest version of TouchWiz, zipping along thanks to the 800mhz processor, all is more than dandy too.

What more can we say? Apart from watch this space very carefully indeed, to find out the launch date, as the Samsung Jet could be a phone to make you as happy as it’s made us. Read a full Samsung Jet Review here for more persuading, or have a look at the nice little video below:

We were listening to someone from Samsung telling us about the Samsung Omnia 2 recently and we got that feeling you get when you’re trying not to stare at or ask about something. You know the feeling: a girl with an impressive chest area is trying to tell you about saving pandas… or a different girl with what seems to be a bullet wound in her hand keeps talking about the weather. You keep biting your tongue, keep nodding and mumbling things in agreement, but eventually it’s too much, you snap, you find yourself screaming. And this is what we screamed: WE DON’T CARE ABOUT THE DAMN GPS WITH ITS PRE-INSTALLED NAVIGATIONAL SOFTWARE, TELL US ABOUT THE MASSIVE SCREEN YOU IDIOTS.

Because the i8000 has a massive screen (right in the middle of its face, for everyone to see… how could we not stare?) and after deciding not to call security, the nice girl from Samsung told us all about it.

It is, in fact, the biggest screen ever seen on any mobile phone. Ever. Full stop. That one impressed us.

It utilises AMOLED technology. You know, active-matrix organic light-emitting diode technology. Which means that not only is the screen bright, crisp and clear, not only is it not backlit and so not a massive power drain for the battery, it is also super thin, allowing the Samsung Omnia 2 I8000 to measure an almost obscenely thin 12mm.

With 800×480 pixels the Samsung Omnia 2 is fully widescreen and plays back at a DVD-like quality (that’s not to say, of course, that it’s the same quality as DVD, just that it looks like it could be, and for our superficial selves, that’s plenty good enough).

Then she went on to talk about the GPS again, then the Wifi, the new TouchWiz interface and all sorts of other things, but we were lost. Hypnotised in fact, staring straight into the big wide screen of this very attractive phone. Check out a Samsung Omnia 2 review here with less infatuation, more facts, and the video below almost, but doesn’t quite, do justice to the object of our affection.

The Samsung Omnia Lite is shaping up to be a pretty nifty little smartphone. Samsung have deliberately stripped some of the high-end features available in the other members of the Omnia family meaning the Samsung Omnia Lite B7300 lives up to its name – it’s very thin for a smartphone (just 13mm) and weighs in just over a hundred grams (impressive especially as it includes a 1500 mAh battery that will provide a reasonable amount of juice for all your needs.

Thanks to all this, the Lite B7300 is a bit of a looker – with brushed metal features, a distinctive cell-like pattern on the back, and a great curvy body that will feel great in the hand, this is a huge step in the right direction away from the somewhat brick-like Omnia phones we’ve seen so far.

The screen isn’t of the highest resolution (64k colours, compared to some similar phones that are hitting the 16million mark), the camera’s a paltry 3 megapixels and has no flash, but we think these are minor enough that what’s left will be more than adequate for all but the heaviest of users. Being Samsung, there’s also the great TouchWiz interface (designed specifically for all-touch handsets) and loads of interesting navigational features and apps to take advantage of the onboard GPS.

There’s also WiFi, 3.5G data connectivity, a maximum download speed on HSDPA of 3.6mbps and an FM radio, so we think you’ll find more than enough to keep your fingers happy for the length of your contract if you choose to buy it that way. It might not be about to break into any new territory or win any awards, but we think the Samsung Omnia Lite B7300’s going to do more than an adequate job for those of you out there who want a smartphone without having to worry about taking out a loan to afford it. Check out this full Samsung Omnia Lite review here for even more details. And look forward to a launch sometime around October (or even earlier if Samsung get their fingers out)

Oh, when will they learn? When will the fiddling, tinkering, time-wasting mobile phone researchers learn that less is most often more. That adding more and more and more features and alternatives not only confuses people, but also wastes valuable research and development time.

Take the new Samsung Omnia Pro as a painful example that’s come our way recently. It’s going to come with not one, but two User Interfaces (UI’s). One called “pro” the other “media.” Although keeping in mind that the launch date is still a fair way away (October 2009 at present), so there’s few other details available (and things might still be scrapped) we think this is a terrible, terrible idea. all things might not be finalised.

We can almost understand the logic – some people will be more media-heavy users, so they’ll want a PMP (personal media player) kind of interface, whereas other will be more heavily business and email-hungry, and they’ll want something more traditionally smartphone or businessphone-like. But, aside from the fact that this is patronising (because business people are too serious to ever use media functions, right, and people who don’t wear suits don’t want easy email access either, right?), it’s also a huge waste of effort. Why not just make the Samsung Omnia Pro B7610 a good phone? Tricky concept, we know, but try it again: it’s one handset, it’s one phone, it’s one device…. so why not just make it good. All-round, every function, every feature: good.

Now, we’re not saying the Samsung Omnia Pro B7610
’s going to be a bad phone, or that this dual identity thing isn’t going to work… we’re just saying it’s probably not going to work as well Samsung hope/pray it will. Check out a full Samsung Omnia Pro review here for all the main specs and features. Or have a squizz at this dull video below.

Yawn…. Another handset trying to grab market share by adding a better camera. I don’t know if it’s just me, but bolting on more megapixels onto an old model doesn’t really do it for me. Yet that is exactly what Samsung have done with their “all new” Samsung Pixon 12. It seems that in a bid to increase market share, Samsung is releasing the Sony Ericsson Satio which is expected to be released later this year. Overall both handsets promise to offer great image quality, but is there really much more room for increased pixel quality images on your mobile phone. I feel that we should now be looking beyond purely just megapixels. We should be looking at optical zoom, new filters, better flash quality and more besides. 12 megapixels is great, but without a high quality lens, you will not see a marked difference image quality. I have mentioned before in other posts that we may not be far off a truly universal device that will allow users to leave their digital camera at home and just take a phone out with them. However if handset manufacturers are determined to simply increase the resolution on their handsets and not offer other features, it may take us a little longer to achieve this. So can we say that 12 megapixels is going to be the highest spec? I very much doubt it!

The Samsung Omnia HD i8910 was one of the most eagerly anticipated phones which was unveiled during the MWC. The specs’ sheet is something which is totally unprecedented.
The Samsung Omnia HD i8910 comes with a 3.7” OLED touchscreen which has a resolution of 640×360 and can show upto 16 million colors.
An 8 MPIX shooter with the first ever 720p HD video recording at 24fps has made the headlines. Other imaging features of the Samsung Omnia HD i8910 include smile and face detection, geo – tagging and WDR setting.
The Omnia HD makes use of the newest S60 5th touch UI platform. As far as connectivity goes, there is Wi-Fi with DLNA, microUSB port, stereo bluetooth 2.1, TV-out and a 3.5mm headset jack. A GPS receiver is also available with A-GPS functionality.
You can select whether your phone should have 8GB or 16GB of internal memory. You can then extend the memory with a 16GB microSD card. There is also support for XviD/DivX, accelerometer, FM radio and a proximity sensor.
The OmniaHD is a quad-band phone with HSDPA and HSUPA support.
Samsung have done a good job of changing up the normal S60 UI which was first found in the 5800 XM. The TouchWiz homescreen is used, which really makes the homescreen very useful.
Some of the really nice features of the UI include the photo contacts screen, whereby you can dial the contacts just by pressing their photo.
The OmniaHD is really an eye-catching device, even though it’s quite big, but you should understand that there is absolutely no way that you can put in so many features along with a 3.7” screen in a smaller package.
check out this video
Once it’s released, you can get some good phone deals here.

Follow the links below for network specific deals:

Samsung Omnia HD on Orange
Samsung Omnia HD on O2
Samsung Omnia HD on T-Mobile
Samsung Omnia HD on Vodafone
Samsung Omnia HD on 3 Mobile
Samsung Omnia HD on Virgin

The brand new Samsung U810 Renown is a great new phone which offers a very small set of features. A lot of people have been saying it’s a little too basic and I have to agree. The phone is equipped with a 2 mega pixel camera, a media player and there is a possibility that GPS will be available as well. The US version of the phone has GPS but it is still unclear as to whether the UK version of the phone will have the same. I’ve seen a recent Samsung U810 Renown review and it appears as though I’m not the only one who thinks it’s a bit of an odd phone. It has an odd colour which is the only colour it’s available in and it has very few features.
I’ve also seen a lot of deals available for this phone and so far the Samsung U810 Renown Vodafone phone seems to offer the best value for money. However, I will say that if you’re looking for PAYG or Samsung U810 Renown contracts that you shop around before you buy just to make sure you’re getting the best deal possible at that time. I’ve noticed that mobile deals in general are getting more affordable as we approach Christmas and I think it’ll be a nice surprise for people when they realise what they can afford.
Overall, the Samsung U810 is a nice phone with nice features but that’s it – it’s just nice. It doesn’t have anything spectacular about it and in fact the colour of the phone is simply disgusting in my opinion. I’ve seen a lot of Samsung U810 Renown videos available online and I think if you’re interested in this phone then you should definitely take a look at them as they’ll give you a clearer idea of what this phone has to offer and you’ll get to see the phone in action before you make a decision.

The recently released Pixon M8800 is a great new phone which offers a huge set of high quality features in a beautifully designed handset. The phone is equipped with a massive 8 mega pixel camera which in itself has a lot of features, high speed internet, GPS navigation, a media player and a lot more besides. I’ve also seen a recent Samsung Pixon review and it seemed to suggest that this is probably one of the best phones available on today’s mobile phone market and I have to agree. I’ve not read a bad word about this phone and everyone seems to be as excited as me about the prospect of owning one.
I’ve also seen a lot of Samsung Pixon deals available and I think a lot of people will be very pleased to have the chance of owning this phone. I’ve also noticed that as we approach Christmas a lot of mobile deals are becoming more affordable and I think a lot of people will be able to afford more than they thought this year. I’ve also seen a lot of Samsung Pixon contracts available and most of them are free on most major UK networks and that is a great thing to hear.
Overall, the Samsung Pixon is a fabulous phone and simply has everything you could ever need. I’m so impressed with how this phone has turned out – it’s brilliant. I’ve also seen a lot of Samsung Pixon M8800 videos available online and if you’re interested in this phone then I’d suggest you watch them because they allow you to see the phone in more detail than I can describe and you’ll get to see the phone in action before you buy it and that is something I’d recommend regardless of what phone you’re buying.