Category: Hardware Reviews

Vodafone Palm Treo 750v Review

The Vodafone Palm Treo 750v is a strange beast. Palm have always been known for their Palm handsets using Palm operating systems. They're successful but just recently Palm have started making Palm handsets with Windows Mobile inside...

T-Mobile Vario II Review

           Specs Connectivity - GSM, GPRS, 3G, WiFi, HSPDA. Quad-band, SMS, MMS, Video calling Talk time - Up to 5 hours Stand by - up to 10 days Weight - 176g Dimensions - 21.95(w) x 112.5(h) x...

T-Mobile MDA Compact III Review

The Compact III isn't your average Pocket PC phone. If you buy one people may still "think" it's a normal PDA but wait - it's far more than that. First up there's the control mechanism. When I first heard that it came with a trackball I ...

T-Mobile MDA Vario Review

The T-Mobile MDA Vario is built by HTC under the name "Wizard". This is the model that Orange decided NOT to launch in the UK after announcing their variant - "SPV M3000". T-Mobile are launching this in the UK. In fact, so are o2 as the XDA Mini …

Orange SPV M5000 Review

What’s in the box? Well I picked up my M5000 this morning and sat in the car park of the depot going through the box. This is what you get..• The Phone (of course) • USB cable• Mains cable• Battery• Spare Stylus

Orange SPV M5000 (3G) Review

The Orange SPV M5000 is big. In fact, it's a tad bigger than my SPV M2000 however the M5000 decides to get even bigger when you open it up. Is big beautiful ? What will we see this as ? A phone ? A mini-laptop ? Let's see....From …

o2 XDA Exec (3G) Review

The o2 XDA Exec is big. In fact, it's a tad bigger than my SPV M2000 however the Exec decides to get even bigger when you open it up. Is big beautiful ? What will we see this as ? A phone ? A mini-laptop ? Let's see....From …

Orange SPV C600 Review

In November 2002 Orange launched the original SPV. At the same time a small page cropped up devoted to it. This single page grew into a site called CoolSmartPhone.com. As we've moved on, so have Orange and the SPV range. Orange brought us the first Wi...

Smartphone Music Dock

Who needs an iPod eh ? Well it appears that millions of people do. I walked past the huge Apple shop in Birmingham the other day and it was heaving looking at iPods and accessories. A popular accessory for the iPod is this thing.. If you've got a …

T-Mobile MDA Compact II (Pink) Review!

Hot on the heels of the T-Mobile MDA Vario (reviewed here) comes the MDA Compact II. This time it comes in graphite or this "WoAh!!!!" baby pink colour. We had the pink one in for testing, and to be honest as a man about town I doubt I'd …

Orange SPV M600 Review

Outside The outer skin of the Orange SPV M600 looks like rubber, however it feels like steel. The bold "M600" logo on the top left and the "SPV" in the centre suit the unit well and give it a understated yet space-age feel. The c...

Motorola Q – First Impressions

I managed to get a very brief look at the Motorola Q today so I thought I'd take some shots of it along with my first thoughts. First up - apologies for the quality of the snaps, they were taken with my C600 and the lack of a …

MP3 / SD Card Reader Review

Just a few days ago I mentioned a cheap MP3 / SD card reader here. I went ahead and bought one to review and it arrived just the other day. The unit itself is a plastic / rubber texture with flexible buttons. In the box there's a set …

Neuros MPEG 4 Recorder Review

Note - This review uses fairly large video files. You may have to wait a few seconds after pressing "play" for the video to load. I'm probably going to switch these to a different format shortly! :) The idea is simple. Make a box that will record s...

MPx220 on Contract in UK

Motorola MPx220 – I've got one at last After 12 months with my mpx200 and being extremely pleased I have eagerly waited Orange in the UK to offer the mpx220 for the last 6 months. I usually get a free upgrade every 12 months because there is bound …

Boxwave Flexiskin for Orange SPV C500

The FlexiSkin from for Orange SPV C500 / Audiovox SMT 5600 is designed to stop your phone looking dented and scratched while preserving its "coolness". The problem with many cases for such a tiny phone is that they tend to hide the ...

Boxwave miniBuds headphones

I've reviewed some Boxwave products before and they have a very clever "winding" mechanism included in a lot of their products. The Boxwave MiniSync cable scored highly with me and... let's be honest, this does too. Before I've ev...

Orange SPV C550 – First Impressions

The Orange SPV C550 is an iPod-esque music-centric handset featuring Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition, a 1.3 Mega pixel camera, dedicated music buttons and Windows Media Player 10. It gives you the ability to play MP3 ringtones and use all the sof...

C550 – More First Impressions

Theres a few things i picked up on which other review havn't mentioned so feel free to mention them! Pros-- Camera is better (could have been even better with a 2.0 megapixcel, oh well)- When i send mms messages an icon now displays in the top rig...

Stowaway Keyboard by ThinkOutside

Here's some pictures of the "Stowaway Keyboard" made by ThinkOutside (California). Rico sent these in and it looks just the job for those who love their keyboards. Here it is in action with an Orange M500. Rico got his from Tottenham Court Rd for abo...

SanDisk Ultra II 2Gb SD card

What can I say about the SanDisk Ultra II 2.0Gb SD card ? Well, to be honest you can't say much. That's not a bad thing either. This thing is massive - it's like the tardis. It's amazing to think that I had a hard drive in my …

Orange SPV C550 Review

  The latest in the SPV range, the C550 is pretty similar to the C500 which was released a few months ago. This time however the joystick has made a come-back, Windows Media Player 10 is on-board, there's dedicated music buttons on the front,...

Orange SPV C600 Preview

Introduction Well, here it is - a preview of the Orange SPV C600, the new Smartphone from Orange which - until now - has been pretty damned secretive. The C600 is made yet again by HTC with the code-name "HTC Tornado". HTC sit in the background a...

T-Mobile SDA – A First Look

Review & Cam Pics - Ian Moore Additional Handset Pics / Screens - AgentM T-Mobile SDA, various prices (dependent on tarrif) - Here on the T-Mobile SDA page After previously owning an SPV E200 (remember the battery life before the update?!), I really got put off the Smartphone, …

Orange G2 Bluetooth Headset Review (AKA BlueTrek G2)

The Orange G2 Bluetooth headset is an excellent bit of kit. Although there is little mention of it on the Orange website, it is available from Orange shops for around £40. The headset is a branded version of the BlueTrek G2, which can be obtained fr...

Orange SPV M2000 Review

I'm on holiday right now. In fact, I'm about 50 metres from the beach. It's bloomin hot and I've read through pretty much every magazine we brought. Now, not being a terrific book-reader, I'd normally spend this time drinking some Banks beer (it's a b...

Canary – A Faster bird than a Tanager?

A very explosive news, came to me today. Checking the manual of both HTC birds, the Canary and the Tanager, i saw what it seems to be an error, but maybe not. The new Tanager is actualy slower than it's predecessor Canary. Despite, they both use a...

SPV and E100 accessories with the E200 – not all work

I personally tested on my \SPV E200 the following:   1. Battery Extender (with 4x AA Duracell batteries) - plugs in, but does nothing.  Tested with E100 to make sure it was still OK.   2. Car Charger - plugs in, but does nothing.&n...

Flexis FX100 Keyboard

Flexis FX100 Keyboard for Smartphone £49.99 from www.orangesp.comTested on - HTC Tanager (Smart Amazing OS 1.3.7.8) Well, here it is - the Flexis FX100 keyboard from Orangesp.com. I'm going to attempt to write this entire review on the keyboard - I...

Orange SPV C500 Review

My first impressions of this handset are good. It's fast, the refresh on the camera is much better, the battery lasts blinkin’ ages, it’s well built, it has a completely flat screen.   Then I start using it.. and still, things are good. It’...

BoxWave miniSync

Boxwave MiniSync What is it ?A durable, light-weight, tiny sync-cable for your smartphone with charger! The power comes directly from any USB port - just plug in and go.Where can I use it ?This is ideal for laptop users, or anyone who wants to quickly...

Battery Extender

Battery Extender for Smartphone - £8.99 from www.orangesp.com Tested on - HTC Tanager (Smart Amazing OS 1.3.7.8)   Yes we know ! The Smartphone is great and all but what about battery life? Do you find that after a long night on the be...

Sync & Charge Cable

Sync & Charger Cable for Smartphone - £8.49 from www.orangesp.com Tested on - HTC Tanager (Smart Amazing OS 1.3.7.8)   You know, I've been sitting here thinking (which isn't something I do too often, as it interrupts beer drinking) .. ...

Mitac Mio DigiWalker (8380)

So, as I said a while ago I went to Taiwan to see about buying the Mio, yes I know its a hell of a way to go just for a phone, but I was in the area (Singa). I also know a friend out there so that …

Jabra Bluetooth Headset

When you think about it, we're lazy ! :) Not content with having a phone that we can use pretty much anywhere, we want to text anywhere, email anywhere and play MP3's as we ride the train to work. Well, now we're not even satisfied with hands-free.. He...

Krusell Leather Case

The Krussell case is a very nice leather protector for your HTC Tanager based Smartphone (like the one pictured). Krussell are a very well-respected case-manufacturer and have won several awards for their cases and carrying systems. So - wha...

Ora Safe2Talk

I was very impressed with this product. I've had many "plug 'n go" kits for other mobile phones in the past and I've always ended up binning them because I'm shouting at the cigarette lighter or the speaker volume is wrong, or something else. This didn...