alaTest USA - Product Tests & Reviews

wired.com

Number of Reviews collected

in Cell Phones

110

Total

915

Source country

US

United States

Language: English

Source rating scale

1
10

Average source rating

66

Highest rating

90

Lowest rating

30

Cell Phones

BlackBerry Bold 9000

RIM BlackBerry Bold

By Christopher null

The very name of the BlackBerry Bold hints of a whole new experience from Research In Motion, but the company is overselling things a bit. In truth, BlackBerry vets will find that the Bold is really nothing more than a solid - if long overdue - ...

3G at last! Excellent combination of smart design, performance and RIM's top-notch message handling. Even the camera shots look good.

Chrome trim job feels like a knockoff. Keys a little on the flat side. Cheesy pleather back. Unimpressive battery life.

November, 2008

Rating

70

alaSCORE 93

915 reviews

Sony Ericsson W890

Sony Ericsson W890i

By Steven Leckart

An understated candy bar that geotags 3.2-MP pics, feasts on Wi-Fi and 3G, and captures 640 x 280-pixel video-for a price.

Brushed-silver finish fit for a Terminator. Smooth, improved keypad. 2-GB Memory Stick Micro included (phone holds up to 4 gigs). Vivid vid clips with crisp sound. Audio recorder. Decent earbuds (finally!). MusicDJ app lets you compose ringtones from ...

Won't take calls during "mass" USB file transfer. Proprietary headphone jack. No WiFi. Camera needs a flash (yesterday!). Tiny menu buttons can feel cramped.

October, 2008

Rating

80

alaSCORE 90

925 reviews

HTC G1 with Google (Google Phone)

T-Mobile G1

By Joe Brown

Between the Youtube videos, fan sites, and ever-cranking rumormills, it's like we knew all about the first Googlephone before we ever got our mitts on one: a boatload of apps available through the Market, built-in Amazon music store, 3G, Wi-Fi, Google ...

Fugly. Bulky. No 3.5mm headphone jack and no adapter that lets you plug your own buds into the HTC mini USB multi-port. T-Mobile's 3G network not as quick as AT&T's, and nowhere near as pervasive. We don't mean to whine about free stuff, but the ...

October, 2008

Rating

70

alaSCORE 92

972 reviews

Motorola Motozine ZN5

Motorola Motozine ZN5

By Bryan Gardiner

Access camera mode with a flick of the lens cover. Skinny, with curves in all the right places, the ZN5 is one of the most attractive cameraphones out there. Big, beautiful 2.4-inch screen. Backlit keypad is simple and elegant. Flip the phone sideways ...

Indexed zoom (4x) is clunky and makes noisy images downright deafening. Disappointing low light performance. 15 fps looks craptastic even on the ZN5's screen. WTF! Moto's still cramming the MicroSD card behind the battery.

October, 2008

Rating

60

alaSCORE 89

220 reviews

Motorola RAZR VE20

Motorola RAZR VE20

By Bryan Gardiner

No one knows how to polish a turd like Motorola. For proof, look no further than its latest iteration of the storied RAZR family, the VE20. While you wouldn't know it by glancing at the handset, it's actually been four years since the V3 began ...

Setting aside its pretensions as a multimedia phone for a moment, the VE20 does its job as a phone quite well. Call quality was impressive, and voices rang true even in noisy environs. Battery life was equally noteworthy, with more than 5 hours of ...

Cloudy front screen makes the VE20 look like it suffers from a rare form of cell phone-based glaucoma. Half-hearted attempt at touch interface on the front screen feels gimmicky and is completely unnecessary. Dinky inner screen diminishes most (if not ...

September, 2008

Rating

50

alaSCORE 83

28 reviews

Motorola V750

Motorola V750 Adventure

By Terrence Russell

Gunshots. Fist fights. Fleeing an exploding warehouse on a motorcycle. These are the things I imagine when hearing the word "adventure." Rugged phones from Motorola don't quite make that list. Nevertheless, Motorola has attempted the impossible with ...

Sensible balance of utility and entertainment. Fantastic data speeds via EV-DO Rev A. 1,000 entry phone book stores multiple numbers per entry and postal addresses. 1.6in external LCD makes on-the-go media playback a breeze. Looks and handles like a ...

Modestly rugged at best. Push-To-Talk setup is convoluted and clunky. Muddy speakerphone audio at high volumes. Flimsy battery door flies off during impacts. Verizon OS cripples Bluetooth, video message length, and file sharing. Flashless cameras are ...

September, 2008

Rating

70

alaSCORE 83

66 reviews

Motorola Z10

Motorola Z10

By Steven Leckart

Look! Hardware that breaks - on purpose! Shattered warranties aside, the Z10's apparent bendy kick-slide design skews towards the flashy end of the spectrum, but hey, we're not shallow. We care about what's on the inside, too. But in the case of the ...

30 fps vid clips don't look too shabby. Quick, easy uploading to YouTube and Shozu. Storyboarding was a cinch. Camera shortcut button, plus auto-focus, great for snapping pics on the fly. Easy-to-access external microSD card slot is ready for 32GB ; ...

2.2-inch screen isn't ideal for peeping videos. Only 3.2MP cam? (Tarantino wouldn't settle for less than 5MP). Only a measly 1GB microSD included. Nav and Symbian UIQ more difficult to penetrate than Fort Knox. Curved slider makes lower keypad buttons ...

August, 2008

Rating

50

alaSCORE 84

45 reviews

Apple iPhone 3G

Apple iPhone 3G

By Mathew Honan

Without exception, the best user interface of any phone. WiFi and zippy 3G network fetch websites faster than a Labrador on a sirloin. GPS with Google Maps integration beats many handheld navigators. Bright, beautiful, highly responsive touchscreen ...

Battery drains juice faster than a toddler in the desert. AT&T's 3G network riddled with more holes than Krispy Kreme. Want to cut and paste? Bust out the scissors and glue. Plastic back highly susceptible to nicks and scratches. Still no MMS. Did we ...

July, 2008

Rating

70

alaSCORE 93

3012 reviews

Nokia 5310

Nokia 5310 XpressMusic

By Steven Leckart

slider from just two years ago, this truly bite-size candy bar is 9 grams lighter than the W890i, about 0.25mm thinner and less wide by about 6.6mm (it's also advertised as .01 inches slimmer, but we couldn't tell). While we had no trouble stashing ...

Excellent sound quality. Able to accept calls not only while USB-connected, but also *during* file transfers. Convenient external music controls. 3.5mm jack (can't stress this enough). Tween alert: sufficiently loud external speaker great (annoying) ...

Flashless 2.0 MP camera. Dated, sluggish OS. Only 1GB card included. Dinky earbuds are literally a foot shorter than iPod buds. Only 17-second vid clips. Voice recordings limited to 58 seconds. Ours came stocked with a Panic at the Disco track ...

July, 2008

Rating

60

alaSCORE 89

1283 reviews

Sony Ericsson W350

Sony Ericsson W350

By Roger Hibbert

You've lusted after your high-school crush for two semesters, and you've finally got a date. But now that you have alone time, every feature that you found cute or enticing shows a transparency, a shallowness. As you spend time together, the very ...

It's as tiny and as pretty as a music-box ballerina. Includes an FM radio (which will be cool until the HD radio takeover next year).

The keys and navpad are unfit for grown-up human use. The phone's clunky headphone connector has all the charm of a tumor. The awkward flip panel makes for clumsy, fumbling answers.

June, 2008

Rating

50

alaSCORE 88

467 reviews

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