Can You See Me Now?
The Japanese are still way out ahead of us with cellular phones, in a craze that includes outrageous camera phones. For example, since March, Japanese users have been able to perform full videoconferencing on NTT DoCoMo cellular phones!
Our good friends at Texas Instruments, which makes the processor on the hypercool Panasonic 2102V DoCoMo cell phone, tortured us with their Japanese phone that features not one, but TWO video cameras.
Sadly, the technology that allows cell phones to send real-time video across the network doesn't work here in the good old U.S.A. and probably won't for another five years. But, to avoid total despair and gadget envy, we've found some U.S. cell phones that feature cameras that can take still are slowly making their way across the Pacific.
Motorola V600
This little beauty, soon to be offered by AT&T Wireless, features Bluetooth and can accommodate a wireless Bluetooth headset. Plus, it's got a great camera on the face near the hinge. This phone is so hot that for months now, a handful of wooden mock-ups were being peddled on eBay for about a thousand bucks to phone enthusiasts eager to get their hands on this sleek clamshell bad boy. I'm not usually a fan of Bluetooth (for its wimpy power and pathetic range) but this headset/ phone combo finally makes sense technically and aesthetically.
Panasonic GU87
What a memorably named phone… I'm kidding. Actually, this little phone with the ungainly name features a camera with a self-timer. The color display is beautiful, and the phone's form factor – an important consideration in all of our reviews – was comfortable. We also liked the polyphonic ring tones. Call us picky, but if we don't like the way a phone sounds the first time, we won't want to hear it ringing all day long.
Verizon Wireless steps up to the plate (albeit late in the game) with its first camera phone – the LG VX6000. And it's a home run. It's a clamshell design that has a bright color screen; rich, beautiful ring tones, and a form factor that fits nicely in the hand -- but too snugly into the belt clip.
When the phone is opened, a small camera faces away from you, toward your subject. Operating the camera is simple. And thanks to a zoom feature, it can get you the picture you want at a respectable resolution. You can send the picture to another phone or e-mail address, with or without text and sound or speech. The process is pleasingly simple.
The phone's other features –- address book, call logs, etc. -- are pretty standard and easy to navigate. The phone costs $150, with service starting at $40 a month plus message fees.
Sanyo SCP-8100
This is the tiniest clamshell phone we've tested yet, and although the hinge is a bit stiff, the phone itself is probably as small as I'd go before saying it's too small. The keypad is less intuitive than other cell phones, but the buttons are sizeable enough not to hit two while dialing.
The phone we tested ran on the Sprint PCS network, and offered a browser for web pages, e-mail, and instant messaging. The camera included in the phone's top half aims away from you, making it easy to take pictures and send them right from the phone. The images were sharper than most phone cameras, but still low resolution.
Nokia 3650
There's no mistaking the Nokia 3650 for any other cell phone. While it appears in the standard "brick" form factor, its dial pad is laid out in a circle -– reminiscent of old rotary dial phones. The look is a novelty, but it forces you to dedicate a few more brain cells to typing in phone numbers -- and especially text messages.
The phone features the ubiquitous digital camera, but this model can also shoot and send video clips with audio. Shooting the clips is easy, as is sending them via e-mail directly from your phone. But viewing the clips does require extra software –- which can be downloaded from nokia.com or through Apple's QuickTime software.
The Nokia 3650 offers respectable battery life, a bright color screen, and Bluetooth connectivity, allowing you to access the Internet or other Bluetooth-connected devices. (As I was about to write how useless I think Bluetooth is, Bob Bicknell, my former favorite producer and the co-author of this review, just shocked me by snapping an unflattering picture of me with the aforementioned phone and printing it wirelessly on my Bluetooth printer just to tick me off.) We tested this Nokia on the AT&T Wireless network and its M-Life program, and have no complaints -- except for that darn circular dial.
Handspring Treo 600
Like its predecessor, the Treo 300, the 600 is a combination Palm PDA and GSM cell phone. But its design is new. The flip phone is gone, in favor of a small brick form factor. Its color screen is a vast improvement over the 300, as are the buttons on its thumb-sized keyboard.
The Treo 600 also includes a color camera, which takes decent small pictures and can help create a photo caller ID system, so you can see a picture of who's calling you. A variety of instant message features are also planned for the 600, which won't be available until later this fall, from Sprint, among some possible others.
WANDA
Technically, you'll never be able to buy this. Its name stands for "wireless any network digital assistant." And for now, WANDA exists only as a prototype, offered by Texas Instruments to other manufacturers who will mass produce them with their own looks, under their own names.
WANDA is the first device to combine a GSM/Pocket PC cell phone, built-in 802.11b wi-fi, and Bluetooth. With it, you'll be able to schedule appointments and carry around your contacts, like a regular Pocket PC PDA, hold it to your ear as a cell phone, browse the web via wi-fi or cellular connection… even use it as a wireless Bluetooth modem for your laptop if you're outside of a wi-fi hotspot.
This device technically won't exist on the market until the first quarter of next year and already, we love it. We wanna WANDA now!!!
By Dan Dubno and Bob Bicknell