Symbian software w950i

I also quite liked the Wi's character recognition software, which lets you scribble on the screen one letter at a time in a way similar to the method used on old PalmPilots. After just a few minutes, I was speeding along much faster than I would have been typing on the keypad.

At 20 Kbps, surfing the Web, downloading e-mail, or doing anything that touches the Internet is like pulling teeth. You're left waiting so long for pages to load and mail to download that you end up giving up. Don't buy this phone if you insist on accessing the Internet.

The phone also has a whole bunch of minor interface issues that add up to a persistent level of minor annoyance. Take its flat keys. I was still misdialing after three days. When you get beyond basic menus and media-playing into real smartphone tasks, the on-screen buttons get so tiny that you have to take out the stylus.

Some menus and icons don't explain themselves particularly well either. For instance, rotating into landscape mode is often a two-step process involving nested menus. Also, when you hit the volume button accidentally, a window pops up, interrupting whatever you're doing. And various icons, such as "Application Shop" and "PlayNow," don't do anything useful at all. Compared with the sleek interface we saw at the iPhone demos, the Wi's buttons and panels are too busy, too small, and too complex.

Although its good looks and music-playing panache are admirable, I find it hard to recommend a smartphone this expensive where surfing the Internet feels like slogging through molasses, especially when you can get a Sony Ericsson Wi phone and an Apple iPod nano together for less money. Compare the Sony Ericsson Wi with several other mobile phones, side by side. More Cell Phone Reviews:. He's the head of our Fastest Mobile Networks project, one of the hosts of the daily PCMag Live Web show and speaks frequently in mass media on cell-phone-related issues.

Good 3. Bottom Line Not quite the anti-iPhone, this music-playing smart device feels like a luxury item—until you try to get online. One important thing to note is that the Wi supports 3's new X-Series flat-rate data plan, which gives you unlimited Web browsing and free Skype-to-Skype calls to any PC or other X-Series user worldwide, as well as the ability to search on Google and Yahoo, send MSN instant messages to your friends, watch your TV from a Slingbox , access your computer at home with Orb and buy or sell stuff on eBay.

Next up is the Nokia N95 , which runs on the Symbian OS and measures 53mm wide by 99mm tall by 21mm deep. It's a two-way slider phone, so slide it one way and you get media keys and slide it the other way and you get a keypad.

There's an iPhone-beating 5-megapixel camera on the back, with a Carl Zeiss lens, auto focus and a lens cover. You can also view your photos and video clips on a compatible television using the TV-out feature. There are also stereo speakers, a standard 3. The iPhone has Wi-Fi but lacks 3G connectivity, which has caused some concern among smart phone users who need high-speed connectivity on the go. There are no concrete details as to whether a 3G iPhone will be available, but we hope there will be one in the future.

Unlike the iPhone, the Nokia N95 doesn't have a touchscreen, so you have to browse the Web using the navigation buttons. The Web browser features an overlay mode similar to the iPhone's zooming function, which lets you see the whole page while you scroll over particular parts. This means you can look at detailed text and at the same time see where you are in relation to the rest of the page. Impressively, the features don't stop there, as the Nokia N95 also has built-in GPS with maps of over countries.

Apple's phone does feature Google maps but not satellite navigation, which gives the edge to the N95 when it comes to finding your way home. The Nokia N95 is supposedly going to be available some time soon, but as with most of the N-Series range, it might take a little longer than expected.

Now that the iPhone has launched, we're pretty sure Nokia will try and rush this on to UK shelves as soon as possible. Finally, there's the LG KE Prada phone , a tri-band phone that many are calling the iPhone killer, mainly because it bears more than a passing resemblance to this year's Macworld darling.

The Prada phone measures 54mm wide by 99mm tall by 12mm deep. And, while not a showstopper, the first few minutes of any consumer experience need to be enjoyable — I get the feeling for someone new to UIQ, that that is not going to be the case.

Sony Ericsson Wi Preview. Sony Ericsson Wi Forum. Sony Ericsson Wi Software. Any time I pick up a new smartphone, I tend to do the exact same three things.

The recently arrived Wi has been no different.