Mobi Press

The Motorola RAZR (known as the Motorola DROID RAZR on Verizon Wireless in the US) is an ultra-slim dual-core Android smartphone that manages to stand out from the normal black slabby crowd of touchscreen phones with a design that is just as sharp as its name suggests.

Motorola have taken a somewhat brave decision to re-use the name from the classic Motorola RAZR V3 and its many descendants. The original RAZR V3 looked really cool, but was pretty awful to use, and Motorola's addiction to the RAZR line nearly killed the company. Obviously, this new RAZR is nothing at all like its namesakes, but Motorola must surely be hoping that customers remember how cool the original V3 looked rather than how bad it was underneath.

The striking physical design sets the new RAZR apart from other phones. At its thinnest point, the RAZR is just 7.1mm thick. The back of the phone is covered in laser-cut Kevlar - the sort of stuff they use for body armour - and the screen has Gorilla Glass on the front to protect it. The RAZR has a nanoparticle-based water repellant system called Splashguard that covers the case and even the electronics inside.

When you get past the remarkable external characteristics, the RAZR is a pretty powerful beast underneath as well. Inside is a dual-core 1.2 GHz processor coupled with 1GHz of RAM. On the front is a 4.3" 540 x 960 pixel super AMOLED touchscreen. On the back is an 8 megapixel camera with 1080p HD video recording, plus there is a secondary 1.3 megapixel camera for video calling. A 16GB microSD card comes preinstalled in the handset.

Motorola RAZR This specification might sound eerily familiar.. and that's because it is almost the same as in the upcoming Motorola ATRIX 2. Although the two handsets look very different, perhaps the most important difference is that the RAZR is heading to Europe while the ATRIX 2 isn't.

The Motorola RAZR is an Android 2.3.5 device, the latest revision of Google's "Gingerbread" operating system. Coincidentally, the RAZR's launch almost coincides with the anticipated announcement of the first Android 4.0 smartphone, and it remains to be seen just how that operating system will compare with this.

Motorola have enhanced the OS with some of their own applications such as Smart Actions which allows for all sorts of clever actions depending on location, time or who is calling you. As the iPhone 4S shows, sometimes these advanced software applications really do make the difference.

Motorola RAZR Of course, the RAZR does everything that any other Android phone does, so it has WiFi, GPS and access to a massive collection of applications plus useful things like a web browser and turn-by-turn navigation pre-installed. One thing missing is an FM radio and of course there's no physical keyboard either in a device this thin.

The Nokia Asha 300 is a revision of last year's C3 Touch and Type handset, adding very little in the way of features, but cutting a great big amount off the price tag.

In these days of touchscreen phones, the Asha 300 may seem like something of a relic. But rather unusually, it does combine a small touchscreen with a numeric keypad, so it can be used either like a traditional "dumb" phone with through the keymat, or by using the simple touchscreen interface.

By "simple", we mean that this is an old-style resistive panel that is also quite small at 2.4" in size with 240 x 320 pixels in resolution. On the back is a 5 megapixel camera capable of VGA resolution video capture. There's a media player, FM radio, microSD slot and quad-band 3.5G support but no WiFi.

This is a Series 40 feature phone rather than a smartphone, but you can still download Java applications and the Asha 300 comes with a preinstalled version of Angry Birds Lite plus a web browser and social networking tools.

This is a very lightweight device, weighing just 85 grams and measuring 112 x 50 x 13mm. The 1100 mAh battery is quoted as giving up to 4.3 hours talktime on 3G and 24 days standby time.

Costing just €85 before tax and subsidy, the Nokia Asha 300 will be available in several colours depending on market and should start shipping before the end of the year.

The Windows-based Nokia Lumia 710 is closely related to the flagship Lumia 800 model, but it is quite a lot cheaper than its sibling at the cost of missing out a few features along the way.

As with the 800, the Lumia 710 has a 3.7" 480 x 800 pixel display, with a 1.4 GHz single-core CPU and 512MB of RAM under the hood. In this case though, the display is a cheaper TFT panel rather than the curved Super AMOLED display in the 800. Other downgraded features include a 5 megapixel camera on the back rather than an 8 megapixel one, a smaller battery and half the amount of internal flash memory, with just 8GB rather than 16GB.

For many users, these downgrades won't be a particular problem, and when you consider that the Lumia 710 is pitched to sell at just €270 before tax and subsidy compared to €420 for the 800, then it does look like very good value for money.

In terms of software, the Lumia 710 is a Windows Phone 7.5 smartphone that does everything that the 800 does.. in other words, it does everything that you want but wrapped up in a novel tile-based interface that looks much fresher than rivals. One key selling point over other Windows handsets is that the Lumia 710 has the Nokia Drive turn-by-turn navigation software installed plus Nokia's own Music and Mix Radio services.

The Lumia 710 looks very different to the 800 in design terms, which a much more traditional Nokia design. The handset comes in black and white colours with a variety of interchangeable covers for the back. It is about the same size as the 800 but a little lighter at 119 x 62 x 13mm and 126 grams. Inside is a 1300 mAh battery that gives up to 7.6 hours talktime on 3G and 16 days standby time.

The Nokia Lumia 800 is one of a pair of Windows phones from Nokia, marking a radical change of direction from the Finnish manufacturer who announced that they were partnering with Microsoft earlier this year.

Featuring a 3.7" 480 x 800 pixel touchscreen display, an 8 megapixel camera with HD video recording, and a 1.4 GHz single core CPU with 512MB of RAM, the Nokia Lumia 800 is pitched very much at the midrange smartphone market against some very tough competition.

If the Lumia 800 looks familiar, it is because the design approach used is almost the same as the Nokia N9, and indeed the physical dimensions are identical, except that the Lumia has a slightly smaller display and a set of buttons on the front. The N9 is now shipping, and reviewers have been enthusiastic about the build quality and the very beautiful display, and it is likely that the Lumia 800 will share those qualities.

The display is a slightly curved AMOLED panel with ClearBlack technology. The edges of the display look like they blend into the case. The N9 demonstrated that this particular type of screen is very bright with high contrast, and the screen design makes the image appear to "float" which should be particularly impressive with the tile-based Windows interface.

The unibody design is a pleasingly minimalistic affair which is tapered at the top and bottom with some ancillary controls on the side. On the back is a metal plate with the Nokia logo and an 8 megapixel camera, and apart from the flash near the camera the rest of the back is completely smooth. The camera itself has Carl Zeiss optics and is capable of 720p video capture, although one thing notably missing from the Lumia 800 is a front-facing camera for video calls.

As far as Nokia is concerned, the biggest development here is the software. The Lumia 800 runs Windows Phone 7.5, codenamed "Mango", the latest update of Microsoft's new Windows Phone 7 OS that debuted last year. Mango's user interface is completely different to anything else on the market, using active tiles that display useful information (such as the number of email messages or the weather) rather than dumb icons such as those on the iPhone, Android or Symbian devices. This different look and feel permeates the whole operating system, and it makes Windows Phone feel very much more modern than rivals.. at least on the surface.

The BlackBerry Bold 9790 is an update to last year's Bold 9780, but although both handsets look superficially similar, the Bold 9790 has been upgraded with a small touchscreen, a much faster processor and a very significant upgrade to the internal flash memory.

The 9790 also updates the operating system to BlackBerry 7, bringing it into line with almost all the rest of the BlackBerry range.

Despite the improvements, this handset is likely to appeal to existing BlackBerry fans rather than new customers. Over recent months, BlackBerry has had significant network outages and the shine is definitely going off their products. And these latest BlackBerry devices will be among the last of their type before BlackBerry moves to their new - and untested - BBX operating system.

BlackBerry Bold 9790 Don't expect to be able to achieve much on the 2.45" 480 x 360 pixel touchscreen display. Although small displays like this do have their uses, they are simply not practical for anything other than very basic prodding at the screen. The small touchpad under the screen is probably more use. Of course BlackBerries are not the only devices to come with such a basic touchscreen, but rivals such as the Nokia Asha 303 are only half the price.

On the back is a 5 megapixel camera with VGA resolution video recording. Inside is 8GB of flash memory with a speedy 1GHz processor. The BlackBerry Bold 9790 supports GPS, 3.5G connectivity and WiFi plus all the usual features you would expect.

The Bold 9790 should cost something in the region of €370 at launch, a lot cheaper than the street price of €500 for the Bold 9900, but a lot more expensive than the €140 or so for the Asha 303. Alternatively, you can get the Curve 9360 for about €290 which does almost everything that the Bold 9790 does except it comes with a much more basic screen.