: anniversary / technology special

  These are the hottest ones of the season

Fran Monroy Moret | Special to The Journal
 

Let's say you'd like to change your cell phone and Christmas is a good excuse for that.
Even though the Holidays are almost two months away, the companies' promotions are just around the corner.
To the buyer not familiar with technology it is difficult to choose among so many models with so many numbers and different specifications.
Just Movistar has a catalog of over 70 models; Digitel has over 50 in its portfolio and Movilnet offers about 40 models.
So how do you choose in that vastness of models?
We made a tour through the different options like prices and characteristics, so here is our selection of models.

Apple iPhone 3G:

● Price tag: It's nuclear but rumors place it at between Bs.F. 2,400 and 2,900.

● Availability: Aproximately December 2008.

● Operator: Digitel and Movistar.

What can be said about the most aspirational phone of the world? It was launched in Colombia, Chile and Argentina but not in Venezuela.
Funny, but in Colombia it was launched by Claro (that belongs to Carlos Slim) and by MoviStar; however the press ads clearly stated that the 3G network would not be ready until this December.
So it was launched without the most important piece: a high- speed connection.

● Pros: Nice and clean Interfase.

● Without a doubt it is the best music player. And the GPS is not bad.
 

The Latinamerican Itunes Music Stores have been launched at the same time, but in Venezuela you can only "buy" free apps.
The camera is a lot better and takes really good pictures even though it only has 2MP.

● Cons: It doesn't send multimedia messages.
To record you have to buy an application from a provider that's not Apple.
It has had 3G navigation problems in the U.S.
nRating: 8 out of 10

● Advice: Start your line now because, in Venezuela, if we get 1, 10, 1,000 or one million units, they're all going to be sold. By now, it's not a good idea to bring it from other markets.

● Tip: Apple didn't invest a single dollar promoting the first generation iPhone,
Which wasn't available in Venezuela. However, according to sources in Movistar and Digitel, their platforms have more than 100,000 active iPhones, and all of them brought in by individuals.
It is estimated that other brands have had to shell out up to $1 million in advertising in order to sell as many units.

Sony Ericcson W910i

● Price tag: Bs.F. 1,200 without line in Movistar. Bs.F. 1,219 in Digitel (includes external speakers).

●  Availability: Movistar and Digitel already have it.
 

● Pros: The "Sense-Me" feature that guesses the user's mood and plays music according to it.
The "Shake-it" feature that allows a change of song by just shaking the device.
The screen has really vibrant colors. Spectacular sound. It's a 3G device that we're able to enjoy at least in Caracas with Movistar service.
It has a double camera, one with 2.0 Megapixels for picture taking and a VGA one for video calls.
 

● Cons: It's a phone focused on the Walkman line, more for sound quality, but before Sony Ericcson balanced the features and models like the W810i were excellent in both audio and camera. Thing that doesn't happen with this model. It's the worst Sony Ericcson camera. Not even the base line models have such a deficient camera, and without zoom.
The camera is really slow and its video app is bad. It makes no sense that a device that for other features seems to be fast, it is not so for other functions.

● Advice: Sony Ericcson has excellent phones in its portfolio; it'll bring several new thrilling models for Christmas. It's not time to buy this device, it's not worth it, and in Digitel's case the price/value ratio is too low. As a gift is a discreet business. Too bad that Sony Ericcson has such a bad information policy and it's probable we see the info on new models by Carnival 2009.
 

● Rating: 3.5 out of 10.

Palm Centro

● Price tag: Bs.F. 1,200 (without line)
 

● Operator: Movistar. Availability: Already available since May of this year.
 

● Pros: Palm's operative system is the most intuitive among all the other smart phones, thus when you open it it is like using something you're already familiar with. Its memory can be expanded easily with the Micro SD ones. The box includes all the necessary software to start it up, and there're millions of applications (most of them free) in Internet.
 

● It has an excellent screen, its video camara allows video recording at a vey good resolution.

● It has a Mail Push application very similar to that of the Blackberries. It's the best price-quality ratio of all the smart phones found in the Venezuelan market.

● Cons: It is time that the Palm phones come with Wi-Fi. It's time for Pam to take a look at its operating system.

● Tip: Palm sold 10,000 units in a month from its first lot; thus this is the most successful phone from this brand.

● Rating: 7.3 out of 10

● Advice: Excellent option for a first time user of Smartphones.

Motorola Z8

● Price tag: Bs.F. 1,700 without line in Movistar.

● Availability: already in stock at Movistar.

● Pros: Nice design and ergonomic. Dual camera, a posterior one of 2.0 megapixels for photos and a VGA at the front for video calls. It's a 3G device that we can already enjoy through the Movistar network. It has a Symbian operating system as well as a Bluetooth Stereo accessory, which is not yet available in Venezuela. The best Motorola video camera as it records 30 frames per second with a 320 x 240 resolution. Pretty good.

The box is well equipped with USB stereo headphones, Bluetooth headphone, and internal memory of 512 Mb and includes the Bourne Identity movie.
 

● Cons: The Micro-SD memory is just 512 Mb, for example, a lower line model like the Z6 has 1Gb memory and it costs half the price.
The Interface is really complicated and not easy to use.
The video camera is excellent but the photographic one leaves a lot to be desired. The music player could use some improvement.

● Advice: The device is good but not for that price. It comes really complete in the box and it has its strengths but we'd wait a little for the price to come down.

● Rating: 6 out of 10.Rating scale from 1 to 10, being 1 the worst and 10 the best.

Blackberry Bold:

● Price Tag: Bs.F. 2,600 in Movistar, aproximately Bs.F. 2,000 in Digitel.
 

● Operator: MoviStar, Digitel.
 

● Availability: Movistar since September and Digitel from November.

● Finally a nice looking Blackberry with GPS, Wi-Fi and 3G in just one unit. It is one of the greatest mysteries of the civilization of the XXI Century and is the addiction to Blackberrys since they're ugly units with fewer properties than other devices.

● Pros: At least this Blackberry has Wi-Fi, 2 MP camera, GPS and nice looking appearance.

● It has a fast processor that makes the device move like fish in the water.

● Advanced operating system with lots of improvements in multimedia, which we're thankful for.

● A 128Mb memory in the device and a 1Gb memory with the option to be expanded to 8 Gb.

● Without a doubt the Blackberry hook is its instant messaging, instant e-mail and the assurance that the data sent through the Blackberry tunnel are 100% safe.

● Cons: The camera could have been better since 3.2 Mp is almost a standard. And it could be smaller in size.

● Rating: 9 out of 10
 

● Advice: What are you waiting for to get one? So let's be clear about one thing: This is an excellent device if it's going to be used just for work or for an executive; but it is not a phone apt for reasons of vanity or status. There are other models and brands more suitable for those purposes.

● Tip: Research In Motion, the Blackberry manufacturer always makes fewer units than the real demand, so they tend to be scarce.

● The Blackberry GSM models have been commercialized by Digitel and Movistar, however, 75% of active Blackberry for these operators have been brought by individuals instead of buying them from the authorized retailers because these always ran out of them.