More cell phone choices for Christmas

Zatni Arbi, Contributor, Jakarta

How do you know Christmas is approaching? Well, we all know it is already November. Another sign will be that electronic gadget-makers are releasing their best products in hordes, so that people will have something to look forward to when hanging up their stocking.

Cell phone makers are no exception. If I were to test-drive each of the models that are thrown at us between now and Christmas, I would not have enough space to write about them.

Besides, there are other equally exciting gadgets to look at --including several cool new digital cameras from Canon and the first non-black ThinkPad notebook.

For now, let us just have a quick glance at the latest crop from the cell phone leaders. Late last month, Sony Ericsson (SE) launched its fourth Walkman phone, the W900i. Unlike the W800i, W600 and W550i, the new one is the first UMTS (3G) cell phone from SE that has all the music features found on any Walkman.

The swivel model -- you have to rotate the screen panel to get to the keypad -- has several good things that the W550i did not have. You can download music files over the air (OTA), provided the service is available from the operator or its partner. It can also record and playback video clips at 30 frames per second (fps), which produces smooth video.

To store music and other stuff, it has 470 MB internal memory. This can accommodate between 120 and 240 songs. The W550i, in comparison, has only 256 MB internal memory capacity. Better still, the W900i's total storage capacity can be expanded with Sony's Memory Stick Pro Duo, which will boost it by up to another 2 GB. Just imagine how many hours would you need to listen to 1,000 songs!

Transferring music and image files to and from a PC can be done with a USB cable. And, yes, this model comes with a two megapixel (MP) digital camera with LED light, as opposed to the 1.3 MP found in W550i.

Accessories

At the same time, SE also launched two interesting accessories for its Walkman phones. First, if you still find the speakers on the unit too feeble -- you most likely will -- you can buy the MDS-70, which is a set of speakers to allow you to listen to your music collection.

It is a Walkman phone's docking station with large box containing the speakers. All you have to do is drop your Walkman phone into the cradle and start your playlist.

Giving a total output power of 25 watts (RMS), this Home Audio System for Walkman phones can be operated with a remote control. It incorporates Sony's S Master digital amplifier, which helps produce full sound from small speakers. Another nice feature is that it will recharge the cell phone's battery as you play the music.

Unfortunately, this speaker system will not be ready for Christmas, though. It will become available in the early part of next year.

Now, what if your car audio system does not have an MP3 player? On the market there are FM transmitters that can be connected to a portable MP3 player. We choose a frequency on the transmitter, and then set the car's FM radio to the same frequency. Bingo! You now have an MP3 player in the car.

In fact, my friend Wiyanto Kodrat just e-mailed me that he was playing around with a transmitter for USB OTG (do you still remember what it stands for?). According to him, this solution still does not give the same sonic quality that you normally get from a CD, because there is still a lot of interference.

Nonetheless, SE has also thought of car owners who are still using the old radio-CD-cassette head unit on their cars. SE's MMR-60 plugs into the bottom of a SE Walkman phone and will transmit music tracks (MP3 and AAC) over the FM frequency.

SE claims that the transmitter will produce enough power to cover a 10-meter area. They did not specify how the transmitter is powered -- whether it uses its own battery or draws the power from the cell phone's battery. That will be an interesting issue to check out when we see the product later on.

Even if the sound quality is not on a par with CDs, there are times when the FM transmitter will come in handy. For example, I can record an interview with a Sony Walkman and listen to it while traveling in my car. Honestly, though, I still prefer a pair of noise-canceling headphones when listening to my interviews.

From Nokia, too

The world's top handset maker has a lot of new models for Christmas, as well. Just one day after SE launched its W900i, Nokia launched three new cell phones -- the 3155, 6111 and 6270.

The Nokia 3155 is a CDMA cell phone with a clamshell design. It is a mid-range CDMA cell phone, and the feature set is not really as impressive as Nokia's offerings in WCDMA or GSM.

For example, the Nokia 3155 has only a one-megapixel camera and 12 MB internal memory capacity. A feature that is not available in most other cell phones is perhaps the video ringtone.

You can personalize the cell phone, and each time you get a call a videoclip will automatically start playing. Well, say welcome to another source of noise pollution.

The Nokia 6270 -- and its WCDMA-ready Nokia 6280 sibling -- are more mouth-watering, at least for a sliding-keypad fan like me. This GSM/GPRS/EDGE cell phone has a two MP camera with a LED flash.

Like most high-end cameraphones today, you can use the entire screen as the viewfinder in the landscape mode. There are FM and visual radio features, too. By the way, this cell phone belongs to Nokia Series 40 group, and therefore it is not a smartphone. Yet, it supports a MiniSD card, and I have heard its great 3-D audio reproduction capability.

The Nokia 6111 is another tri-band GSM cell phone. Like the 8270 (and the 8280 that has not been launched here yet), it has a sliding keypad. Besides, it has FM, visual radio and Push-to-Talk (PTT) features.

Because it has only a one megapixel camera, I would consider it a low-end cell phone. Surprisingly, though, it can record video for up to 60 minutes.

From RIM

BlackBerry 8700, the latest product from Research in Motion (RIM), is also very exciting. I have not seen the real thing, as this operator-offered gadget will only be available in the U.S. (from Cingular) or Canada (from Rogers Wireless).

They both have a very sleek design with a complete QWERTY keypad, a light-sensing screen, BlackBerry's very popular push e- mail and a slew of other features.

We will probably never see BlackBerry 8700 and its brother BlackBerry 7100 in Roxy Mas, Jakarta, but they certainly reflect how far smartphones and PDAs have developed.

Anyway, these are just some of the possible choices for your Christmas gifts, should you decide to give your loved ones new cell phones.

Of course, given exorbitant fuel prices today, you will have to be really selective in choosing your gifts. Each model has different emphasis, but music seems to be the universal need that they all cater for.