The Nokia XpressMusic 5130 just might be at the bottom of the pack for the XpressMusic line.  That doesn't mean it's a bad phone, though - just that it goes easy on the feature set.

Bearing the XpressMusic brand, it's only natural to expect a bare minimum decent music performance out of this phone.  That's exactly what it delivers, with Nokia's excellent music player interface and above average audio quality.  It supports a wide variety of file types, apart from including a good range of options, including stereo widening and an airplane mode.

Physically, the 5130 sports a rather pedestrian candy bar form factor, with a cheap-looking plastic build.  Navigation set and keypad works great, albeit a little small; same with the two-inch LCD screen.  It manages a good 320x240 pixels, though lacks better sharpness.

As a phone, it comes with excellent voice calls, managing loud, clear and static-free conversations.  There's a bit of an echo at the highest volume levels, but  it's great, otherwise.  Speakerphone performance was fine, but the volume is a bit lacking.  Battery is rated at six hours of talk time, making for plenty of use before requiring a recharge.

It comes with the usual set of basic phone features, including stereo Bluetooth, a few simple apps and messaging (SMS, MMS, IM and Web-based mail).  A 2.0 megapixel camera is also onboard, with a number of editing options and average photo quality (good detail, but washed-out colors).  There's also a wireless Web browser thrown in.

Overall, the Nokia XpressMusic 5130 is an ideal choice for a budget music phone.  There's not much to rave about, but it does the basics well and plays songs rather nicely.

The Dropbox service always seemed like a perfect fit for the iPhone, which only made it seem odd that they haven't released an app on the platform for the longest time.  That changes now.

As you may expect, the new App Store download connects you to all the documents and files you've got stashed in your Dropbox account.  Everything works seamlessly, provided you've got a live connection to the web, giving you instant access to every single folder in your online collection.

Directly from the app's interface, you can view photos (jpg, tiff, gif) and read numerous types of documents (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, PDFs, Keynote, HTML pages, txt files and vcards).  That covers a wide set of file formats, making this an extremely useful addition to your mobile device.  Even better, though, it lets you play media files, both music and videos, allowing you to effectively access your media collection when you're on the road (provided you dropped them, of course).  Other features include uploading photos and an offline viewing facility (called "Favorites").

Overall, this is a very nifty app that should prove very useful to existing Dropbox users (it's available for both premium and free members).  iPhone users still on the fence about joining the service should find the decision much easier with the new app in tow.

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The Samsung Instinct, an excellent phone from last year, gets an improved and updated successor in the Samsung Instinct HD (aka SPH-M850).  Like its predecessor, the handset comes with a sleek design, attractive UI and a good set of features.

Physically, the new feature phone is larger than both the original Instinct and the Instinct S30.  Plenty of curves and smooth angles, coupled with the color scheme, makes it a veritable eye candy.  Naturally, it's also a bit more hefty, which gives it a very solid feel.  Display is a 3.2-inch touchscreen with a rich 480 x 320 resolution.  Screen quality is gorgeous, although some may be put off by the small text (which cannot be resized).

Touch interface is sharp and responsive, with taps and actions going through quickly.  There's a noticeable problem with the hardware performance, though, being very sluggish at times.  Launching apps, like the browser or the music player, in fact, can take a couple of seconds.

As a phone, the Instinct HD manages good voice calls.  Most conversations went through clearly, although there were some noticeable interference.  Speakerphone performance was along the same lines - average.  It has a rated battery life of just under 6 hours, which should be good for at least two or more days of regular use.

While it's not a smartphone, the handset does come with a good lot of features.    You get all the basics, of course, such as a 600-contact phone book, stereo Bluetooth and a full suite of messaging talents.  It offers plenty of options for email, including POP3, IMAP and corporate accounts.  It can also sync with Outlook, although stops short on full Exchange support.

The HD branding, by the way, stands for two things: the camera (which can manage 720p video capture) and the 720p video playback (which it can output to an HD-capable display).  Unfortunately, the cable for video output doesn't come with the phone and will require additional purchase ($29).

Camera module, by the way, is a highlight of the phone.  Shooting up to 5 megapixel stills, it comes with plenty of editing options, including color tones, quality settings, spot metering, white balance and more.  Photo quality is above average and videos are much better than many we've seen on camera phones.  Data speeds are fast (via both 3G and Wi-Fi), making for fast browsing (it comes with Opera 9.7, but no Flash support) and excellent streaming performance (in the US, Sprint offers plenty of options, including Sprint TV).  Media playback of both music and video are also excellent, as are the good number of widgets Samsung has bundled with the phone (e.g. Facebook, MySpace, etc).

Overall, the Samsung Instinct HD is an excellent feature phone, packing plenty of features and decent phone performance.  Sprint's asking price of $249 (with a two-year contract), however,  is quite excessive.  Unless shooting HD videos on your camera phone is a must, going with a premium smartphone might prove a better choice.

I've always associated Sony Ericsson with their more expensive phones.  However, they do make decent entry-level handsets, too.  The Sony Ericsson S312 happens to be one of them.

Sporting a nice-looking candybar form factor, the S312 is slim, light and compact.  The largely plastic material matches its budget status, although it has a fairly good build.  Buttons and keys have a nice click to them, but you will likely have handled better controls.

As a phone, it manages average quality voice calls with decent speakerphone performance.  Interface is standard Sony Ericsson fare, with main menu icons and menu lists as you dig deeper.  Internal memory is minimal, so you'll need an M2 card if you want to carry any media.  Battery life is rated at 8 hours of talk time, making for plenty of use before requiring a recharge.

Feature set, as you may expect, isn't all that much.  It fits in a decent 2.0 megapixel camera with an underpowered LED lighting.  Like many SE camera modules, it comes with a good number of editing options, although capture quality is fairly average. It has a dedicated physical video button that immediately takes the handset into motion capture mode, shooting 320 x 240 pixels at 15fps.

It comes with the usual set of basic phone capabilities, including messaging (SMS, MMS, IM and email), Bluetooth and an onboard music player.  Music quality is good, but you're stuck with the bundled headphones, due to the lack of a 3.5mm audio slot.

Overall, the Sony Ericsson S312 is a decent phone with likeable looks, a decent camera and attractive price (between $120 to $180 unlocked, depending on where you buy).  The fact that you're stuck with a proprietary headphone jack and M2 expansion, though, makes it less-than-enticing to use for other functions, other than text and calls.

I loved both NFL 2010 and Madden 10 on the iPhone.  When asked what's the best sports title I've seen on the platform, however, I'd have to point towards that other sport where they kick balls too.  X2 Football is, hands down, the most consuming sports game I've played with on the handset, setting the bar high for future action sports apps.

The game offers four modes of play - Exhibition, Penalty Shootout, Training, and Tournament.  It's all single player, though, with a multi-player update promised for the end of the year.  You can tell, pretty much, what each mode is about just based from the names, so I won't delve into descriptions.

In Tournament play, you go after various championships, both national, international and league tourneys.  It offers detailed team management, allowing you to assign formations, captains, substitutes and many more.

Game controls are excellently picked out, making for a game that is both exciting and technically challenging.  An onscreen joystick is available on the left side of the screen, with three buttons for various actions (kicking goals, putting pressure, passing, sliding tackles, etc) available on the right side.  The range of shots and passes can be controlled by holding buttons down, filling up the power meter.  Double-tapping during a run makes your player do special moves to get around opponents.  Numerous additional buttons also appear onscreen as needed.

An instant replay with slo-mo is integrated into the game, allowing you complete saveable playback in 3D mode.  Both the graphics and audio are topnotch (though not as good as Madden), adding plenty of realism into the gameplay.  You can also play songs from your library during the game.

With challenging AI, realistic action and technical gameplay, X2 Football 2009 is probably the best sports title I've laid my iPhone thumbs on.  Sorry, Real Soccer fans, but it blows that game out of the field.  There's plenty of fun here to keep you busy till the multi-player update rolls out before the year is through.

Photo Credit: X2 Football

Sporting an eye-catching, albeit a bit tacky, design aesthetic, the Motorola Debut is one of the most unique-looking iDEN phones around.  For one, it's the first iDEN push-to-talk handset that comes in a slider form factor.

While most PTT phones are bulky numbers, the Debut comes in at a slim 0.59 inch of thickness.  It's sleek and svelte, with some nice accents to boot.  At 2.99 ounces, it's both thin and light enough to fit comfortably in your pocket.

It sports a 2.2-inch LCD with a low 176 x 220 resolution.  As you can imagine, display quality isn't the best - a tad blocky with washed-out colors, in fact.  The navigation array, slider mechanism and T9-style keypad, however, are very well done.

As a phone, the Debut manages excellent quality of voice calls, for both the PTT and the regular variety.  Callers came through loud and clear, all while reporting the same on their end.  In fact, voice was so natural, it sometimes felt like we were conversing over a landline.  The speakerphone facility was similarly impressive.  It has a rated battery life of only 3 hours, though, so expect to charge frequently.

On the features end, it doesn't offer all that much.  There are the usual standards, of course, like a 600-entry phonebook, messaging (SMS and MMS, with threaded display) and some basic software.  More premium capabilities include a 1.3 megapixel camera module (not a lot of editing options, with average capture quality), aGPS, stereo Bluetooth, a web browser (WAP), microSD support, a 3.5mm audio jack and a good music player.  It supports plenty of file formats, with excellent song organization, a 3D music mode and equalizers.

Overall, the Motorola Debut should offer a great low-cost choice (around $170 without a contract) for anyone in search of a small and slim iDEN phone.  In fact, it's probably your best option if you're looking for a really pocketable PTT handset.  The music capability is a nice bonus, too.

LG has announced another new touch-friendly handset, which the company is billing as "the most compact 3-inch full touchscreen phone ever made."   Yep, it's quite the mouthful of a description for the LG GD510 Pop, a very plain-looking device that seems cut from the same mold as the company's massively successful Cookie.

Clad in an unassuming slab of a brushed aluminum chassis, the phone is marked by one of the most plain front panels we've seen in a while.  With nothing but the 3-inch display (240 x 400 resolution) and a sole button (which serves as the menu, end and cancel key, depending on the mode) in front, it makes for a curious and minimalist design.

Features mirror the same simplicity reflected in the physical design.  Apart from the display, the GD510 Pop comes only with the most essential of favors, which include a 3.2 megapixel camera module, 8GB of internal storage, onboard multimedia player and other basic niceties (thus, enabling the compact frame).  The photo of the back plate suggests that the handset includes a solar charging panel, although it's not mentioned in the accompanying press release.

According to LG, the entry-level touchscreen phone is geared towards users who want only the most necessary capabilities in their handsets, "without the overhead of features they didn’t use."  I guess we can expect the lack of a good deal of more premium talents here, including aGPS and 3G.

No price was announced for the LG GD510 Pop, although, availability is slated for European markets beginning mid-October.

[LG Press Release]

Camera phones aren't generally exciting.  After all, their performance has remained noticeably inferior compared to lower-resolution point-and-shoot devices.  Not that handset manufacturers aren't trying hard enough.

The just-announced Samsung SCH-W880 (Anycall AMOLED 12M in Korea) is the next device looking to bridge that gap, with enough features to get even the most jaded handset user excited.  Why all the fuss?  It's simple, really, as the unit packs the most souped-up camera module ever to hit a mobile phone.

Details of the hefty camera package includes a full 12 megapixels of resolution, 3x optical zoom, variable aperture, dual LED flash, 6x digital zoom, image stabilization, one-touch auto focus, face detection and 720p video recording at 30fps.  Whether this equates to photo quality rivalling those from dedicated compacts is something we'll have to wait and see, though.

The feature set doesn't stop there, of course.  The W880 also boasts a 3.3-inch AMOLED capacitive touch display with WVGA resolution, stereo Bluetooth, 3G connectivity, 4GB of internal storage, microSDHC expansion and an 1100mAh battery unit.  Since it's destined for Korea, the phone will come with a T-DMB TV tuner, which you can expect to be traded off for a GPS or Wi-Fi module for the European and US versions (suffice to say, I'll be surprised if this doesn't hit either of those two markets soon).  Do note that this is a feature phone and not a smartphone.

The Samsung SCH-W880 will be available for South Korean consumers sometime this coming October.  No pricing details has been announced, but expect it to be on the high-end of the scale.

[via GSM Arena]

A small controversy came out of a cease-and-desist letter that Google sent Android modder Steve Kondik, aka Cyanogen, last week.  The letter was drafted as a reaction to his CyanogenMOD, one of the most popular custom Android ROMs around.

Used by an estimated 30,000 handset owners, the modified Android firmware integrates various features, such as multi-touch, that aren't found in the base version of the operating system.  Being open-source, there wasn't supposed to be any problems tuning up Android.  As it turns out, though, that's restricted to the base OS.  The core apps, such as Mail, YouTube and Maps, remain closed to Google and aren't open for unlicensed third-party distributions.

While the ensuing discussions created a bit of an uproar within the community, it looks to be ending on a positive note.  More than clarifying the boundaries of use for the OS and the applications that are considered crucial to its experience, it's sparking constructive activities that can dictate the future of the platform.

The controversy clarified many integral things; in particular, it brought to fore that essential services like the Android Market, Gmail, Maps, gTalk, YouTube and Contact Sync are not a part of Android.  Instead, they are proprietary apps that Google has integrated into the base OS.  Want to release your own version of Android?  Don't bundle them in and everything will be fine.

To help the process along, Google engineers are now providing previously-unavailable components that will allow independent developers (and modders) to create their own Android releases without any of Google's closed-source apps.  Development of alternative applications is also under way, both from the immediate Android community and the newly-formed Open Android Alliance.

For CyanogenMOD, Kondik is now working on a backup tool that will allow Android users to save copies of their existing applications.  After installing the updated firmware (minus the apps), users should be able to restore the core services from backup.  Sounds like a tiring workaround, but it should do for the meantime.

Photo Credit: CyanogenMOD

Billed as the world's thinnest smartphone at 9.9mm, the Nokia E55 is a sexy-looking number with a good set of business talents to boot.  It's similar, in many ways, to the Nokia E52, save for a SureType-style keypad, in place of the standard T9 keys.

Like the E52, it's packs a powerful package within the small candybar chassis.  A 600Mhz processor runs at the core, ensuring excellent performance for the Symbian S60 3.2 OS it comes with.  Business features are topnotch - excellent messaging (with full corporate email support), office VoIP integration, an elaborate organizer package and plenty of business apps pre-loaded.   Suffice to say, business users will find it to be a particularly outstanding unit.

Voice calls are wonderful, facilitated by the phone's active noise reduction.  The tech causes a bit of echo at the other end, but not too much to be any hassle.  Volume is sufficient, as well, although the speakerphone could be just a tad louder.  It posts great battery life and should easily last a good three days between charging (with a claimed eight hours of talk time).

It comes with a very solid build, although the backplate is a little flimsy.  Navigation array and the SureType keys both work well.  It could have used a little more variance in feel, however, along with a little more travel.  You get used to it, though, so it should be easy after a while.

For connectivity, the E55 packs a full HTML browser with both Wi-Fi and 3G support.  Pages load fast and layout is great, but the 2.4-inch screen (320x240 resolution) is a tad too small for comfortable browsing.  Everyone should be able to appreciate the premium browser features, which include a page overview function, pop-up blocking, visual history, zoom, a toolbar and full Flash video.

The handset comes with a 3.2 megapixel camera module that manages average-quality pictures and surprisingly decent video capture.  There's no autofocus, bit it offers 180-degree panorama and 6x multi-shot modes. Music playback is clear and beautiful, with a fair amount of detail (you'll need to slot in better headphones, though).  Playing videos turn out acceptable quality, but the screen, again, is too small to offer all that much enjoyment.   Other extra talents include aGPS (with Ovi Maps), an FM tuner and a microSDHC slot (up to 16GB).

Overall, the Nokia E55 is a powerful phone, with all the capabilities you expect from a top-end business handset.   Camera and video playback take a bit of a hit, but the rest of the package, including the SureType keys, are excellent.   Retail price is between $450 to $500, though some online sources have it for as low as $350.