Cons:

Sadly, the BlackBerry Curve 9370 doesn’t have the potential for HD video capture, boasts some bumpy side buttons, and for a phone of this standard it clearly is overpriced.

Intro:

The all new BlackBerry Curve 9370 is RIM’s one more attempt on concluding their 3-pronged move towards appraising their basic BlackBerry Curve series. This cute little candy bar handset enters the market with only one major enhancement over 9350/9360 handsets in the form of a GSM SIM slot, which allows you to take the handset overseas.

Along with that, the Curve 9370 also has the brand new BlackBerry 7 Operating System and supports NFC (near-field communication), which lets you pair accessories with the handset or read SmartPoster tags. There also is a 5 MP camera. The Curve 9370 clearly is not as advanced as the revised Bold 9930/9900, or for that matter the 9860/9850 and Torch 9810, but if you are a Blackberry fanatic and wants to upgrade your BlackBerry Curve, you could get it done with the BlackBerry Curve 9379 priced at $99.99 with a $50 mail-in (or online) discount and a 2-year contract.

Quick Fire Features

• Manufacturer: BlackBerry
• Part Number: CURVE9370
• Product: Smartphone With digital player/ digital camera
• Phone Design: PDA
• Operating System: BlackBerry 7 OS
• Dimensions (W x D x H): 2.36 in x 0.43 in x 4.29 in
• Weight: 3.49 oz
• Price as Tested: $99.99 with a $50 mail-in (or online) discount and a 2-year contract
• Service Provider: Verizon
• Technology: GSM / CDMA
• Band: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 (Quadband) / CDMA 800/1900 (Dual Band)
• Wireless Interface: IEEE 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1

Design

No matter in which way you look at the BlackBerry Curve 9370, it is a fairy of a phone. The Curve 9370 is adequately stylish having a lustrous black façade which certainly curves smoothly from the base and top for meeting the back at 2 points. Regrettably, the entry-level BlackBerry Curve doesn’t have that premium finish that makes it a quality-looking handset.

There certainly are some metallic-looking dark-gray accents about the back and slim rim, in addition to about the RIM logo and the optical touch pad on the somewhat textured rear cover—which has also been given a rubbery finish.

We already have cited that the BlackBerry Curve 9370 is a tad smaller in size, measuring 4.3 in x 2.4 in x 0.4 in (W x D x H), but at the same time the handset is also significantly lighter and slimmer than its precursor, the BlackBerry Curve 3G 9330. The BlackBerry Curve 9370 weighs around 3.5 oz., and hence cannot be accused of being heavy, but at the same time we won’t call it dolly either.

As far as the display is concerned, the BlackBerry Curve 9370 has a pretty decent display in the form of a 2.4-in, HVGA screen having native resolution of 480 x 360 pixels. The display clearly is not as striking as Bold 9930’s VGA touch screen, but the good thing here is that it’s clearly better than the 320 x 240 pixel display of previous Curve.

Hardware

Positioned underneath the display is the optical touch button of the BlackBerry Curve 9370, which does an excellent job of navigation and doesn’t leave us asking for touchscreen. The navigation array here is pretty much the same that we saw on the prior Curve, comprising of the same Menu, Send, Power/End and Back keys, together with the optical touchpad packed in the center. The keys here are not touch-sensitive, and  you will have to push them a bit harder to operate them. The optical touch pad is pretty much the same that we saw on all the other QWERTY BlackBerrys — user-friendly, and allows you to select options and navigate accurately.

Positioned underneath that navigation array is the popular Curve keyboard, but this time around it’s a tad different than you remember. The keys are a tad bigger and circular than the previous models, though in comparison to all the other BlackBerry Bold the keyboard still is a bit small. But the good thing here is that because of slightly bigger keys here makes typing comfortable. Overall the keys are a bit toy like and plasticky, and a bit less different than any other BlackBerry models. Though we don’t have any problems with the keyboard because of the small size of  our hands, we think that the handset clearly has lost its edge.

Software

The BlackBerry Curve 9370 runs on the all new BlackBerry 7 Operating System, which introduces it to the Liquid Graphics technology for enhancing the responsiveness and vibrancy of the display. The text and graphics clearly were vivacious, colorful and sharp. Even home screen’s font size is a bit on the smaller side, which we think could be a problem for the people who just don’t have that entire sharp eye.

Now, as far as the non-touch-sensitive display screen of the Curve 9370 is concerned we are pretty neutral, because the screen size here is pretty small to be made as a touch screen, and in addition to that, the optical touch pad of the handset does excellent job. But then again, the Curve 9370 and its almost alike siblings are the only two smartphone models that actually don’t have the touchscreen competences, and when you take that into account it clearly is way behind the times.

Performance:

We tested the BlackBerry 9370 on Verizon network, and will have to say that the call quality was a tad unsatisfactory. Although we didn’t had any problems with the volume, but we detected a great-pitched whine every time someone else spoke, together with some fuzziness. There also were some digital interruptions which sometimes were like blips and burps.

Our callers also appreciated the volume at their end, and reported that we did sounded a tad intelligible.

Overall the call quality of the BlackBerry Curve 9370 was OK, but still was not nicely clear. The same was the case with the speakerphone volume.

Verdict from Experts Mouth:

Finally, we’d say that the BlackBerry Curve 9370 from Verizon brings BlackBerry 7 Operating System to you, along with a SIM slot which lets you travel outside USA, in an ultraportable bundle. Sadly enough, there are some design flaws, and an elevated price tag which makes it tough for us to recommend this entry level BlackBerry except for the BlackBerry fanatics.

The smart phone is based on Android (2.3. Gingerbread) operating system and has a side-slider form. The dimensions of the smartphone are 127 x 67 x 13 mm; and weight is 179 grams.

Motorola DROID 4 has 4.00 inches huge touchscreen display, which has a resolution of 540 x 960 pixels. The smartphone has pixel density of 275 ppi. It has Capacitive and Multi-touch touchscreen display, and has various features such as Proximity sensor, Light sensor and Scratch-resistant glass. Motorola DROID 4 looks quite similar to the DROID RAZR, however the only difference is the landscape sliding QWERTY keyboard. Also, there are same angular corners, which make PHOTON 4G and DROID RAZR stand out of the crowded. The smartphone is constructed using tough plastic. It has a spacious 5-row QWERTY keyboard that boosts flat keys, however they are of decent size.

The 1785 mAh battery of DROID 4 has a talk time of 12.50 hours and stand-by time of 8.5 days. The smartphone is powered by 1200 MHz dual core processor. The dual-core processors aren’t a new introduction. It was also featured in DROID 3, however this time the processor us a 1.2GHz TI OMAP 4430 that runs the show. It operates quickly; as it is complimented with Android 2.3 Gingerbread. It has a graphics processor as well. With a system memory of almost 1024 MB RAM, the smartphone has a built-in storage capacity of 16000 MB, If required the storage can be easily expanded using a microSDHC or microSD, and the maximum card size supported by the smartphone is 32 GB.

DROID 4 has both primary as well as secondary cameras. The primary camera is of 8 mega pixels and has LED flash; on the other hand the front-facing camera is hardly 1.3 mega pixels and can be used mostly for video calling. Various features of the rear camera are auto focus, white balance, geo tagging and scenes. The camcorder can shoot 1080p HD videos.

There are chances that Motorola DROID 4 gets more popular than the DROID RAZR, as it is easier to handle and doesn’t have a massive size. Although its body is relatively thick and is warranted; considering the chances of the tucking away of physical keyboard.

This might sound familiar to you and that is because the spec list here is the same as that on the Samsung Galaxy S II also from AT&T. These two phones are almost the same and the big difference is the OS inside and physical button for camera. The specs guarantee a pretty smooth Windows Phone user experience and the phone will put you back by $199.99 with a two year deal. However, while I was writing this review, I saw an offer for $99.99 so I would recommend you to check around for discounts before buying.

In a few words, I would say that the Samsung Focus S is open, sleek, and classy. It has an all black design with flat sides and rounded corners. This phone also comes with a dimpled back cover and there is a slight rise where cover snaps on the phone’s bottom. Focus S is five inches tall, 0.3 inch thick, and 2.6 inches wide. The weight of the phone is 3.9 ounces and it feels quite substantial. Looking at the design, it will surely come smiling out through accidents.

Samsung Focus S come with a 4.3 inches Super AMOLED display having a 800×480 pixels WVGA resolution and there is 16 million color support. Just like other phones having this screen technology, the colors are quite vivid and they stand out from the display. The videos and photos might look more saturated on the display as compared to that on a computer monitor.

This handset runs on Windows Phone 7.5 Mango OS and the interface is just a start screen having live and dynamic tiles. A lot of them are updated with information real time. You can customize this page to some extent with the app order and color. The tiles can also be pinned/unpinned according to your choice. There is also a second screen for showing your apps.

Above the screen, there is a 1.3 megapixels camera. Below this, you get 3 touch sensitive buttons which relate to search, home, and back functions. Long pressing back button will let you switch amongst the tasks. The long press on home button launches the voice actions.

The amount of physical buttons on Windows OS is more than that on the other platforms. However, I was disappointed to see that these buttons are a bit cheap looking; the manufacturer has used plastic lumps which isn’t good considering the high end genre of this phone. Volume rocker is located on the left and the right side has camera shutter and power buttons. MicroUSB charging port is located on the bottom and the 3.5 mm headphones jack is there up top.

This partnership first started in the year 2006 and the first phone from this house came out in the year 2007. They have made two premium handsets till now and both have been fashion centric phones. The first phone that they made was the first touchscreen mobile phone that the world ever saw.

It will be interesting to see how this phone does in the market. The earlier two handsets have sold pretty well and hence the expectations are high for the next phone too.

The design of the Samsung DoubleTime will be welcomed by people who are bored with the traditional black, thin, and tall designs of smartphones. It is an all white design with 2 sturdy hinges which open the 3.2 inches touch screen (at 2 different angles) for revealing another screen inside and full QWERTY four rows keyboard.

Samsung DoubleTime is 2.4 inches wide, 0.6 inch thick, and 4.5 inches tall, and the handset is relatively thick and compact device. The design is a bit different from the other razor thin cell phones like Motorola Droid Razr and the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. I liked the design of the phone but I am not sure if everyone will like it. The phone is easy to hold because of the width and shooting videos too is easy. You can take photos with one hand and hold food in the other. All this is a bit hard to do on the thinner phones. Tighter pockets will find it hard to accommodate this phone but it will fit pretty well in a woman’s purse.

Apart from the bulky design, the phone is a bit heavy too at 5.2 ounces. However, the weight gives it a sense of durability which you don’t get on the plastic phones. This phone has two screens. One of them is 3.2 inches big and has a HVGA resolution of 480×320 pixels. Icons look a bit too small on this display and the Web sites too aren’t very easy to read on the bigger screens. However, it is colorful and quite bright provided you are not using it in bright sunlight. I don’t think that you will be getting Ice Cream Sandwich on this phone anytime soon and Gingerbread fans too don’t have much to miss here. There is support for a lot of features on board like hot spot connectivity for maximum of five devices.

Samsung DoubleTime also comes with Samsung TouchWiz interface. You get an overview of all the home screens (max. seven) which you can pinch and access the system settings after pulling down notifications. It also has a stylish feel and look to it. Below the external display, there are 4 physical buttons which are responsive and nice. They give you menu, go back, go home, and launch search.

Hardware

The battery cover of the Samsung Captivate Glide comes with a nice textured grippy finish. Pull it off and you will see really thin plastic interiors. I was a bit wary of removing or installing anything; I thought the phone might get damaged accidentally. When closed, the phone feels quite solid but everything changes when the keyboard slides open. Slide mechanism asks for some provocation and there is some play between the keyboard halves and the screen. This isn’t a deal breaker but the manufacturer should have done better here.

The biggest selling point on the Samsung Captivate Glide is its keyboard and it isn’t really perfect. The keyboard has a four row layout and the keys are totally flat. People who use their finger tips or nails while find it a bit hard to use because of the metal grid which separates the buttons. Some times, my nails dug inside the plastic of the button but missed the buttons below.

Also, the four standard Android buttons are on the keyboard’s either side. It looks like a pretty good addition for sometime till your thumb glances off inevitably on the Home button instead of the Shift or Alt buttons. I used it for a few days and then used my thumb flats for better success. If you are buying this phone just for its keyboard, then I would recommend you to check it in the store before purchasing it.

Just like original Captivate, AT&T and Samsung hasn’t included a microSD card inside the box and the internal memory is just eight gigabytes. Some of the buyers won’t mind this but if you are the kind of person who loves to load up the media library then you might want to keep these cards ready.

There are some physical quirks on the Samsung Captivate Glide but there are some bright points too like the awesome Super AMOLED screen. I won’t write too much about the display because everyone knows what it is like. But for those you don’t know, this display is quite crisp with plenty of vibrant colors.

Software

If you have used the Samsung Galaxy S II before, then you won’t need a lot of time to get used to the Samsung Captivate Glide. Both have the same version of Samsung TouchWiz UI. I don’t like custom UIs much but I also feel that the TouchWiz UI is better than the other UIs out there. It has bright colors with user friendly looks and also adds some novelty to the mix without obscuring the Android goodies.

AT&T has included some of its bloatware inside the phone. You get AT&T Family Map, Live TV, AT&T Code Scanner, Asphalt 6, myAT&T, YP, and Qik Lite. A lot of them can’t be uninstalled but you can throw them in a folder and then forget it completely.

Samsung own services and apps are included on the Samsung Captivate Glide and most of them perform well. AllShare did a pretty good job of giving access to all the episodes of This American Life on the desktop but I was disappointed to see that this app can’t stream the content in background. The Samsung Social Hub gives you aggregate of the social media and the email accounts in a single location and hence you get easy access. This will be a great solution for some but Social Hub does not play well with the Google Voice accounts so a lot of its appeal is lost for me.

I was also surprised to see that the Samsung preloaded Media Hub does not start without microSD card inside.  Samsung Captivate Glide doesn’t come with a memory card inside the box and hence you will have to buy it separately.

Performance

The physical feel of the Samsung Captivate Glide might be lackluster but this isn’t the case in terms of performance. I didn’t see any lag when I was scrolling through the navigating menus and apps and Glide was quite responsive. It isn’t the same powerhouse as HTC Rezound or Droid RAZR but there is plenty of oomph under the hood of this phone for giving a smooth performance. Even my few test videos ran pretty well on this phone.

Samsung Captivate Glide has a pretty impressive battery life too. I used it for all kinds of tasks like texting, Web browsing, answering emails, and music streaming from Rdio and this phone gave me up time of eleven hours. You might have a bigger or shorter battery life than mine according to your use but I don’t think that there will be much problems for people who are away from the power out lets for a long period of time. There is also the task manager for killing apps if there is shortage of memory.

Samsung Captivate Glide is an impressive photo machine too. The only problem here is that the photos look great in bright sunlight but the same can’t be said about dim light conditions. On the bright side, this phone can take good shots and the shutter lag too is kept to minimum even if colors look muted. Video recording isn’t that good and there isn’t any way to force this phone to focus on subject. You will have to wait for auto focus to catch up.

Audio on the Samsung Captivate Glide was below my expectations. The phone quality for calls was pretty good but the rear facing speaker isn’t anywhere close to what you get on other phones. You can crank up the volume to respectable levels but calls and music that are routed sound distant and hollow. The speaker, in fact, is quite incapable of playing some songs and this is quite puzzling.

Conclusion

To conclude, I’d say that the Samsung Captivate Glide is a mixed bag. Phone’s body is a bit chintzy but the internal Android goodies are pretty good. If you are an avid fan of the keyboard, then you won’t mind the flat layout. However, if you don’t like keyboard’s much, then I would recommend you to stick with Galaxy S II. It costs $50 more but the money is well spent looking at the slimmer frame, faster processor and better display.

Features

• Four inches Super AMOLED display with 800×480 resolution
• Eight megapixels rear facing camera
• 1.3 megapixels front facing camera
• 1 GHz dual core Nvidia Tegra 2 chip
• Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread OS with TouchWiz UI
• Cost – $149.99 with two year service agreement

Pros

• Incredibly responsive
• Great Super AMOLED display
• Long battery life

Cons

• Flat keyboard
• Chintzy build quality
• Rear mounted speaker quality could be better

Motorola Admiral has an ergonomic and durable design which I really liked and it can withstand dust, solar radiation, shock, low pressure, vibration, low/high temperatures, and it is also one of the first handsets from Sprint to support push-to-talk on the CDMA network. The price of this phone is $100 after a rebate and 2 year contract and I would recommend this phone to anyone who is looking for a functional and low maintenance handset.

The Motorola Admiral looks quite similar to a BlackBerry phone with the QWERTY portrait keyboard. Above the keyboard, there are the Android keys with the four buttons for Search, Home, Back, and Settings.

The display of the Motorola Admiral is 3.1 inches and this screen has a resolution of 480×640 pixels. It is a touch screen and can be used as an alternative to the user input if you don’t wish to use the hardware keyboard. Apart from offering more choice; this keyboard will also go well with vintage BlackBerry users.

Screen of the Motorola Admiral is made up of Corning Gorilla Glass it is quite clear, bright, and responsive. The font is small yet easy to read. Under bright sunlight, things appear a bit washed but this isn’t unexpected in cell phones of this price point. Hardware keyboard is quite good, I liked its performance and the tactile response that it had to offer. You get easy access to the symbols.

There is a DC or Direct Connect button placed close to the volume rocker button on the left. By default, it activates the push to talk feature of the phone. It can also be reprogrammed to open any apps or widgets. Control is positioned in the phone’s middle and this makes it easy to use when you are holding the phone in the front. But it is a bit awkward to use it when raised close to the ear.

There is also a microUSB port located on the left side for connecting the Motorola Admiral to a computer. There is a rubber cover for protecting it from elements like dust, vibration, shock, solar radiation, lower pressure, and low/high temperatures. Noteworthy here is that this phone isn’t a water resistant device.

On the top of the Motorola Admiral, you get power button, 3.5 mm headphones jack (which is covered by rubber flap), and quick silent button. Latter works when this phone is un locked to prevent any accidental presses when the handset is kept in your pocket. Right side has camera shutter button which quickly turns this feature on and starts snapping photos. You can also record videos.

microSD card slot of the Motorola Admiral is located below the battery of the phone. Back cover has soft finish feature with some curves and this makes the phone fit well in your hand. The handset is 4.7 inches by 2.4 inches by 0.5 inches and the weight is 4.7 ounces.

HTC Rezound is the first handset to have support for Beats Audio Technology. It was developed by HTC after purchasing majority stake in the Dr. Dre Beats Electronics. This handset ships along with pair of the Beats Audio earbuds which cost around $100. When you plug this set inside the Rezound, the phone recognizes it instantly and you get to boost sound through special Beats Audio algorithm.

HTC Rezound is a pretty hefty phone and on the surface, there is a 720p HD resolution with HTC’s Sense 3.5 UI which is quite attractive. There is Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread OS inside and the manufacturer has promised to update it with Ice Cream Sandwich by early next year. Other goodies on the phone include an impressive eight megapixels camera having f/2.2 sensor, 1080p HD video capture, 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon dual core chip, two megapixels front facing camera, and there is also support for Verizon 4G LTE network.

This is probably the bulkiest 4G LTE handset I have ever had in my labs. The handset is 0.54 inch thick, 2.58 inches wide, and 5.08 inches tall. The handset feels quite beefy in the hand and it isn’t really light at 5.78 ounces either. On the bright side, the heftiness gives you a solid feeling in the hand. There is soft touch material coating of matte material on the phone and the corners are rounded to make it feel easy in the hand. The back cover has some topography added and this looks better than the traditional simple slab looks. There is a big island of ridges on the back to give you a good grip. The tapered edges and narrow bezel on the phone helps the smaller hands to hold the handset without any discomfort.

Just like the Droid Incredible, the phone has red insides and this complements well with the black and red coloring of the phone. You will notice this only after the cover is taken off but I liked the attempts made by the manufacturer for keeping the phone beautiful inside out. This red touch is carried on some other parts of this handset too like camera lens ring, speaker grille, touch sensor lights, and wired cord of Beats ear buds. It is interesting to note that the Beats logo too has same color scheme.

One of the best part of this phone is the 4.3 inches Super LCD display which looks quite stunning. This screen has a resolution of 1,280×720 pixels which means it is of 720p HD quality. Frankly speaking, it is totally gorgeous looking. The text and images look smooth; the colors are vivid looking and the clarity too is amazing. Colors look painted on. The videos are pretty luscious on such a big screen size and I had a great time browsing the Web.

HTC Rezound comes with a capacitive touchscreen which is quite responsive and this is courtesy of the 1.5 GHz Snapdragon Qualcomm dual core chip inside. There is some lag in scrolling using the browser but overall, I was pretty happy with the speed that I got while taping and swiping. There is pinch to zoom, proximity sensor, light sensor, and accelerometer inside. The screen also washes away in bright sunlight so you need to be wary about it.

HTC Rezound is running on HTC Sense 3.5 just like HTC Rhyme. There is the new lock screen which gives you instant access to the four of the favorite apps. You just have to slide the shortcut over the metal ring and it will be launched soon. Other improvements here are 3 dimensional carousel for home screen, refined widgets, and there is also the ability to remove and add the home screen panels. The maximum home screens are seven. Main menu is divided in to apps, downloaded apps, frequently used apps, and the Verizon apps.

Below the display there are the standard touch sensitive four controls for search, back, menu, and home. The right spine has volume rocker and the microUSB charging port is located on the left side. microUSB port can also used as MHL or Mobile High Definition Link port for connecting an HDMI adapter. On the top, there is a 3.5mm headphones jack. Upper right side of the screen has two megapixels front facing camera and on the back, there is an eight megapixels camera along with LED flash.

Monster Beats brands has been put in this phone in 2 ways. First there is the bundled pair of the Monster Beats in the ear headphones. The headphones have Beats branding, multiple ear fits, and red calbe. There is also an on the cable track control keys and microphone included for taking phone calls. It sounds great but the design is flimsy and aren’t as durable as the Dr. Dre Tour in the ear headphones which cost $149.

Second part of Beats infusion here is software button which toggles sound enhancement effect on/off. This sound enhancement boosts audio volume, bass is deepened and audio is also fuller and rounder. This button can be accessed from notification pull down when you are playing music in stock Music app but it is not available in the other multimedia apps like the Google Music app. It is a separate download but totally worth it.

If you are purchasing this handset just for the better sound quality, I will ask you to reconsider it. You will get such high end sound on other smartphones too through premium headphones and you will most probably buy a higher end headphones on the HTC Rezound anyways because the bundled ones aren’t that good in terms of design.

HTC Rezound comes with Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread OS and there are a lot of improvements done to the user interface as compared to the previous Android 2.2 Froyo OS. Just like other Android handsets, this one has support for Google services and apps and a lot of them are presintalled on this handset. This includes Google Talk, Gmail, Google Search along with voice, Google Maps along with Navigation, Places, Latitude, Google Books, and YouTube. The essential smartphones tools here include the standard PIM and phone tools like calendar, alarm clock, task manager, calculator, voice command support, speakerphone, and to-do list.

Apart from Rezound support for the 4G LTE network, this phone comes with other connectivity features like Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth 3.0. This phone can be used as a mobile hot spot for connecting up to ten Wi-Fi devices but this option will cost you $20 a month. There is also MHL to HDMI adapter for connecting this phone to an HDTV. There is support for 5.1 surround sound along with SRS Wow HD surround when you hook it up with a home theater. Media can also be spent wirelessly through DLNA compatibility.

Verizon and HTC has put in a lot of preinstalled apps here and some might say it is bloatware. They are Amazon.com Kindle app, Facebook, Blockbuster, Footprints, Hot Pursuit, Friend Stream, Let’s Golf 2, Scan (QR code scanner), Polaris Office, Slacker radio, NFL Mobile, Video Surf, My Verizon Mobile, V Cast Music, Mobile IM, VZ Navigator, and V Cast Videos. ther is Visual Voicemail too for $2.99 per month. I was disappointed to see that these apps can’t be uninstalled.

Just like the other smartphones out there, the HTC Rezound comes with the HTC Watch. It is the rental and download service from HTC. You can also purchase and rent the movies and TV shows. The rental prices start from $2.00 to $3.99 and the purchase prices are in the range of $8.99 to $14.99 for the movies. I couldn’t check the TV show prices for my review model.

HTC Rezound comes with standard Android music player which is pretty good. Music that you put in gets sorted through album, genre, artist, and you can also create/edit your own playlists. There is 16 GB onboard internal memory and there is also a 16GB card bundled with the phone. The card slot supports maximum of 32 GB memory if you want more storage space.

Nokia N9 has a 3.9 inches display and it is enclosed in polycarbonate compact unibody enclosure. The physical aspects of the Nokia N9 smartphone is quite similar to Nokia Lumia 800 which is runs on Windows Phone 7.5 OS. The form factor is similar but the approach is different.

Through the new update, users will be able to use music controls on the lock screen itself. The manufacturer has also put in NFC or Near Field Communication tag reader for interacting with NFC tags instantly. This update will also tweak audio codec and will make noise cancellation suppress background noise in a better way to making sure that nothing comes between you and your music.

The shutter bug freaks will be delighted at the fact that there will be new filters in black and white, negative, vivid, sepia, and solarize mode for videos and still photography. There are tweaks in the multi-tasking for making it more powerful and the memory handling too has been improved. Users will now be able to close the apps through a Swipe-down gesture.

The manufacturer says that the PR 1.1 (20.2011.40-4) update will be available to users all over the glove from next week and the OTA notification on the cell phone will be indicating the arrival of the update.

LG Marquee comes with a four inches Nova screen and it has WVGA resolution of 800×480 pixels with support for 16 million colors. Below the screen, there are four standard Android short cut buttons for Search, Back, Menu, and Home. The arrangement of buttons here is a bit different to that on Optimus Black. On the left side of the Marquee, there is volume rocker buttons close to it; there is the customizable short cut button. Top of the phone has screen lock/power button, microUSB port and 3.5 mm headphones jack. Above the screen, there is a front facing two megapixels camera and on the back, there is a five megapixels camera along with LED flash.

LG Marquee comes with Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread OS and as compared to the earlier phones of Android, this one has updated user interface and the social network integration too is tighter. The makers have updated the virtual keyboard. There is also a Swype keyboard inside the phone. Being an Android phone, the LG Marquee has compatibility with a lot of Google services like Google Maps with Navigation, Gmail, Google Search, YouTube, Google Search with Voice, Google Talk, and Google Latitude. If you don’t want Gmail, then this phone also offers support for corporate e-mail through Exchange ActiveSync as well as IMAP and POP e-mail.

Apart from default Google apps on the LG Marquee, this handset has some Sprint apps preloaded like Sprint Mobile Wallet and Sprint Zone. There is Polaris Office for editing and writing the documents, and also SmartShare, an app for sharing medial with the other DNLA enabled gadgets. Apart from the DLNA compatibility, this phone comes with the usual goodies like Wi-Fi, GPS support, and Bluetooth. This handset can also be used as mobile Wi-Fi hot spot for connecting maximum of 5 gadgets but you will have to sign up with Sprint mobile broadband plan for that. It will put you back by $29.99 per month and there is a data cap of five gigabytes.

Voice features on the LG Marquee include multimedia and text messaging, conference calling, voice commands, smart dialing, speed dial, and speakerphone. For multimedia enthusiasts, there is the standard Android Music player but that’s it. LG is giving a 2 GB card bundled with the phone and the microSD card slot accepts maximum of 32 GB cards.

LG Marquee comes with a five megapixels camera and it has plenty of settings and tools inside. You get four focus modes (fixed, macro, infinity, and auto), 7 scene modes, 6 resolutions, 5 color effects, 3 quality settings, 4 ISO settings along with auto setting, LED flash, 5 white balance presets, geotagging, and up to 3x zoom. The quality of picture is quite good. The images look well defined and the colors too are natural and vibrant. There is HD 720p video capture too.