SONY ERICSSON YARI U100i
With the Yari U100i, Sony Ericsson has brought gesture gaming on the mobile platform. A tiny camera located at the top of the screen on Sony Ericsson Yari acts as an interface to enhance the gesture-gaming facility on the phone. However, the overall gaming experience leaves a lot to be desired.
The phone has an all-black body, with the slider of the same colour, and a 2.4-inch display screen. Yari has the standard Sony Ericsson Java UI. The keypad is not that great—it is very annoying while texting.
The Sony Ericsson Yari U100i is a high-end camera phone featuring a 5MP camera with many features and has an accelerometer sensor.
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The phone’s music output is quite decent, but do not expect a Walkman series-like performance. The Styles option is very impressive, giving the user the option to select skins such as the gramophone or LP cassette player.
Conversations is another interesting feature of the U100i which allows threaded texting. Yari integrates social networking, with dedicated applications for Facebook, YouTube and Blogger.
For Rs16,950, we feel it’s decently priced; there is no other phone in the market with as many wonderful features.
SPECIFICATIONS
Network: Quad band GSM/UMTS
Screen: 2.4-inches, 240 x 320 pixels, 256K colours
Video: QVGA @ 30fps
Talktime: 10 hrs
Standby time: 450 hours
Connectivity: Bluetooth, aGPS
Contact: Sony Ericsson ; Phone: 1-800-111 800
Price: Rs16,950
RATINGS*
Features: 8
Performance: 7
Build quality: 6.5
Value: 7.5
Overall: 7
COWON iAUDIO E2
At first glance, you may be excused for thinking the Cowon iAudio E2 audio player is a bottle opener. Its design is minimalistic but striking. Screenless audio players come with the most basic features, but the E2 goes a little further.
It comes with a 3.5mm audio jack. It is also used for data transfer via a 3.5mm to USB cable. As many as eight BBE audio modes are voiced out by a female voice to keep you engaged. BBE is audio enhancement technology developed by BBE Sound Inc., an audio technology company based in California, US. BBE High Definition Sound (HDS) technologies are used in stage and studio set-ups and the Cowon E2 uses it to enhance the overall audio experience. Pressing this button longer enables the shuffle on/off mode.
Sound quality is crisp but it does tend to screech at maximum volumes in certain modes. It supports MP3, FLAC, OGG, WMA and WAV audio formats. A big plus is the quick charging time of under 2 hours. It lasts 8-10 hours on a single charge.
A big negative is the absence of the ability to skip folders. So if you have many songs, be prepared to exercise your fingers. FM radio is not available. At Rs3,600, it is priced similar to the 4GB iPod Shuffle that has a similar feature set.
SPECIFICATIONS
JetEffect modes, supports MP3, FLAC, OGG, WMA and WAV
Frequency range: 20–20,000 Khz
Capacity: 4GB
Weight: 16.6g
Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR): 95dB, internal lithium polymer battery
Contact: Cowon India, Lipap Systems Pvt. Ltd
Phone: 022-28743457
Email: iaudio@lipap.com
Price: Rs3,600
RATINGS*
Features: 8
Performance: 7
Build quality: 8
Value: 7.5
Overall: 7.5
*Ratings out of 10
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