Sony Ericsson P990: A Desired Smartphone

Whenever Sony Ericsson releases a new P-series, it's is very much raved with anticipation, most especially that we haven't seen a successor to P910 in more than a year already.

The P990 boasts a business-filled features for people who craves for carrying a great smartphone than a bulky laptop. P990 has a 2-megapixel camera with autofocus pretty much similar with K750's interface and K600's lens cover. But what's amazing is it's larga QVGA so that you could appreciate its fantastic display when taking photos, browsing the internet etc.

There is so much to say about this phone, but to begin with, YES its touchscreen based as well like all other P-series which makes it extra special and luxurious. Everyone expects a good P-series phone and the company never failed to deliver. Connectivity options are a must in smartphones today, so as to compete with the N-series, P990 have 3g, bluetooth, infrared, and Wifi (WLAN) connectivity for browsing the internet in hotspots like Starbucks, Greenbelt or your office maybe. Another great feature of the phone is the business card scanner wherein you could take shots of any calling card and immediately scans it and saves it on your contacts list - That's really amazing! Aside from the qwerty keypad hidden beneath the normal keys, there is also a jog dial for quick browsing through the menu, a true Sony Ericsson smartphone trademark.

Unlike Nokias sluggishness with its Nseries and smartphones, P990 is very fast and the processing speed is very great. Typing an sms can either be used by the normal keybad, qwerty keypad, or touchscreen handwriting capability

The construction might be a bit bulky for other people, and this might be more targeted to men.

At this time, the phone would costs from P30,000 to P40,000 depending on which shop you go to (Greenhills, or Sony Ericsson shop). But may I suggest that if you are going to buy a phone with this caliber, make sure that there is a one year warranty included in the package.

My rating 9.7/10

Sony Ericsson Walkman W300: The Budget Walkman

At a very affordable price of around P9000-P10,000 MTD, this is Sony Ericsson's budget style walkman for Pinoys. The Sony Ericsson w300 has been in the market for several months now, and it has been also given as a prize for a popular softdrink brand months back. And some Pinoys have yet to realize the full capability of the handset. With a very reasonable prize, you would get a great WALKMAN Mp3 player with 256 MB of memory included in the package, a headset adapater so you could put your favorite MP3 headphones and even take in calls using them, a VGA Camera (that explains the price), a video recorder - packed in a very stylish and youthful design.





W300 comes in two variants - Black and White, but I like the black better. The interface and functions are pretty much the same with other Sony Walkman models like w810 and w800. The display is a notch-down from K800's QVGA display. The external display is monochrome with orange highlights making the phone more walkman looking. You could control the music even when closed since the music controls are located on the left side of the phone. The music player is very intuitive. If you are a current or previous Sony Ericsson Walkman user, you would know what I mean. But for those not yet familar, think of Ipod. But for those not yet using an Ipod, you could sort your music by artists, and by tracks. You could shuffle them and arrange equalizer presets. The most interesting part of the equalizer presets is the MEGA-BASS mode which is a trademark of Sony and all Walkman phones have this preset.

That is the leading function Sony Ericsson is pushing for this handset. The VGA camera is just ok. Since it's VGA don't expect it to have Cybershot like output. It's great for quick snapshots and the like - but it can be interpolated to 1.3 Megapixel.


The built in 256 MB Memory Card Micro M2 is added in the package. Using Disc2phone software provided in the CD Package you could transfer your music file from you computer at ease. As a trick, change the bitrate from 126kbps to 64 kbps so an MP3 file of 4 MB can be compressed to 2 MP without compromising the quality of the song. Thus making more space in your phone to accomodate more songs. Itunes doesn't have that.

Will walkman phones replace your Ipod? In my case I did...

My rating 8.5/10

Nokia N70: A Popular Nseries Phone for Pinoys

Together with N90, N70 was one of the first N-series phones to be released last year, and has increasingly become of the most popular handsets in the Nseries lineup here in the Philippines due to its reasonable price with highend performance you come to expect from an N-series phone. They even rereleased with phone with a music edition (black) one, packed with a 1-gig memory card.

If you would notice, you wouldn't miss a day seeing a person or two using a Nokia N70 while walking down the streets of Makati, striding in the Mall or commuting in a taxi, jeep, colorum or bus. But aside from its price and functions what makes it really popular mong Pinoys. I guess its the personal ackowledgement that the person is using an Nseries phone.

I have come across an N70 phone every once in a while. Being a previous series 60 phone user, the interface is quite the same, sound has noticeably improved and display is verr vivid and bright.

But texting is quite difficult at first since the keys are very muched cramped together. Camera is just so-so, but when you compare it to its camera-phone competitor K750, the latter proves to have better shots considering that the technology is backed up by the Sony. So N70 is a powerful phone with just a camera as an add-on so don't expect a Sony Ericsson like great quality pictures, N70 is just good for everyday snapshots. If you would see the picture taken by N70 below, you know what I mean.

Sluggishness is also a factor. I tried opening up some folders and it would 5 to ten seconds to open them up. Imagine that if you're really in a hurry or something. I guess that's one of the deciding factors why I switched to another brand. But for most of the people sluggishness is not big of a deal, because if that's the case we would not see plenty of N70 users around right?

But all in all this is a versatile phone with great value for money. My suggestion, its better to buy this handset than to buy a higher end Nseries phone because here's a hint - They're just ALMOST the same.

My rating 8/10

Motorola RAZR: Fashion Phone for Pinoy Budget Conscious

I have noticed lately, when I was walking in Makati, that a lot of people are using this Motorola V3, and its just appropriate to make a review for those people who would want to purchase this very fashionable phone.

There are a lot of versions of the RAZR family and some first timers may find very confusing, but let me try to help you guys ok.

First up is the most basic among the V3 family (picture above), simply named Motorola V3, which has a VGA camera, a very small memory around 7MB (i think). It doesn't have a radio, but it does have an mp3 player, well, with limited memory all you could upload is just one song. But what strikes us the most is its form factor, which is a mobile phone on a diet. Motorola spearheaded the anoxeric phones, which was followed by Samsung.

The next one is Motorola V3i, which boosts a 1.3 Megapixel Camera, iTunes player, a memory card slot to name a few. Definitelt, this is a bigger improvement from its older sibling. A thicker version was released which is V3x (below) which has a 2 megapixel camera, has dedicated macro mode, iTunes player, 3g capabilities to name a few.

Typing is very great with the handset. With it's metallic and laser etched keypad, typing is very easy. Again for Nokia users who will be shifting to this phone, you will have to adjust to the menu, interface and sms messaging. Display is large and colorful, great for playing games, however I tried downloading java games and not all can be played since I'm getting errors whereas with Sony Ericsson's I have no problems.

Sound is great, it Moto has very great speakers at the back of the phone! So listening to MP3 on speakers won't be a problem. But what really is frustrating about the Moto RAZRs are the file transfer system, which I think is very difficult since most of the phones being sold here in the Philippines doesn't come with a CD driver, you have to painstaikingly look for the drivers (cracked version) through the internet, or you have to purchase it.

You wont have any problems with the price range, because Motorola V3 would cost around P7000-P8000, Motorola V3i P9000-P10000, and Motorola V3x at P14000-P16000. There's no problem with support because like Nokia Care and Sony Ericsson Shops, theres already Moto Shops at Mall of Asia and Glorietta.

My rating 7.5/10

Sony Ericsson K800: Cybershot Phone

Hey guys! This will be my first review and what better gadget to review than the phone that I am currently using now, Sony Ericsson K800 Cybershot Phone.

My unit was the Allure Brown edition as opposed to the more common color in the market here in the Philippines which is black. Just recently, I also saw some in Silver, which is the James Bond Limited Edition, in my opinion, looks fairly similar to N70.

Included in the orginal package is a USB adapter, a CD installer, a charger, earphones, and a memory stick adapter. The phone also has a 64MB Memore Stick Micro or M2 included together with the unit, although at some retails shops they would bundle it with 512MB. Price range for this unit as of November 2006 would be around P18000-P21000, but if you buy it at authorized SE dealers and SE shops it would be around P26000-P29000. I bought mine at about P19500 at COMPEX in SM Sucat.

The display was really fantastic almost similar or a but better than S700 which I previously owned. The menu was very intuitive with very cool animations. If you would compare the intereface with Nokia, I think Sony Ericsson would be a notch higher.

Texting in my opinion was quite difficult because the keys are so clumped together, but I got used to it in a couple of days. For nokia users who think of shifting to Sony Ericsson, you have to adjust with the space key.

But most of the people I know who find K800 3.2 Megapixel Cybershot the selling point of this phone. The picture quality is perfect and can be compared to the early digital cameras a few years back, so of your still using a low end digicam this might just replace those things. What puts this camera phone above other (including N73) is its ability to take night or low-light shots with great illumination using its Xenon Flash. Most of the camera phones use LED flash which is of no help at all. If you would see the picture below the phone was taken in Araneta Coliseum and at Seaside Market in Macapagal at Night. K800 managed to take decent shots at low-light conditions.

So as you can with the picture above K800 is an all around camera phone. So it takes good pics at night, how much more if theres regular lighting!!! Check and see the other pictures below.

As you can, the pictues are very vivid and natural. You could even see Taal Volcano in the background. The K800 also has an image stabilizer so even if you shake the phone while taking the shot, it would produce any blurr.

Well aside from the fantastic imaging capabilities, the phone also has a good mp3 player, but take not it is not as good as the Walkman Phones, an FM radio, tons of wonderful java games both pre-installed and downloadable through the internet.

I haven't used 3G that much, but I was able to upload photos via 3g to my other blog site at freezymenthol.blogspot.com. Battery time is very subjective, which means on how you use the phone. If you use it for taking photos every now and then, at full charge the phone would last about two days. But in my case I was able to use my phone 5 days without any charging. Oh did I mention that like Ipod it is also capable of USB charging.

With all the great features in the phone, a very intuitive interface, a fantastic camera and other multimedia options, this is a very great non-smartphone device in the Philippine market today.

My rating 9.5/10

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GSMPinoy: Gadgets Sa Mga Pinoy

Welcome to gsmpinoy.blogpsot.com. This is a mobile phone review site specifically made for Pinoys. We have seen a lot of website pertaining to mobile phones etc. like gsmarena.com, mobile-review.com, and so on... But I hope this review site intended for Pinoys like me would be a good site for review, discussion and helpful topics for one of the most popular gadgets here in the Philippines - MOBILE PHONES!!!