Gadget Reviews

The Samsung Jet is now free on a £30 per month contract with £270 cash back. This is equivalent to 18 months half price line rental or effectively just £15 per month. Cash back needs to be claimed in stages at months 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18.

Dolphin 30 offers 400 anytime minutes per month to any network and unlimited text messages. Mobile internet can be added for an extra £5 per month, just call Orange once you’ve received your new phone.

The Samsung S8000 Jet is an exquisitely designed, slim-line touchscreen phone with a 5 megapixel camera. The Samsung Jet has a powerful 800Mhz processor, which makes it one of the fastest touchscreen phones currently available – hence its name. The TouchWiz 2.0 interface is ultra-smooth and multimedia applications run with the minimum of fuss. The Jet epitomises speed, quality and choice with a vivid AMOLED display and smartphone features such as multi-task manager, and Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, brought together in a sleek and compact design that measures just 11.9mm in thickness.

The Samsung Jet supports DivX and XviD for hassle free video downloading. There’s a built-in Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotating movies into widescreen aspect. The picture and sound are second to none thanks to DNSe and SRS technology. Other notable features include 5 megapixel camera, WVGA display, customisable widget screen, smart unlock and built-in GPS. Clear the runway and get set for take-off!

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Samsung Jet on PAYG only £169

Alcatel OT-203 for £2.95 or Nokia 1661 for £7.95. Prices subject to purchasing a £10 top up. Next-day delivery is free. Great stocking fillers.

Weighing just 63g, the Alcatel OT-203 is an ultra-light mobile phone at a bargain price. Designed for keeping things simple it’s perfect for calling and texting. It has a built-in FM radio, two games, calculator, predictive text, a 1.5 inch colour screen and polyphonic ringtones.

Also consider our favourite, the Nokia 1661, a bargain at just £7.95 on PAYG. The Nokia 1661 is frequently one of our most popular phones. There are no complicated features, it’s just the thing for people who want to make calls and send a few texts. Even though it’s an entry-level phone it does have a couple of nifty tricks. Such as a speaking alarm clock and a built-in torch. Nothing cutting edge but you will find these to be surprisingly useful features!

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The latest phone from social networking experts INQ is the Chat 3G which is a BlackBerry style phone that is dedicated to social networking. Looks-wise it’s pretty funky with a glossy finish, curved lines and bright red accents, it definitely adds some style and a splash of colour to the INQ range. INQ phones are designed to ensure you never miss a thing from your favourite social networking sites with integrated Facebook, Skype and Twitter as well as instant messaging and email facilities. The aptly named Chat features a full QWERTY keyboard so you can send messages, emails and texts from the landscape 2.4 inch screen in super fast time.

The operating system on the INQ Chat 3G allows you to stay logged in to your favourite online sites whilst using other applications on your phone and the homescreen provides notifications on Twitter and Facebook updates as well as support for push email. The Chat 3G features a 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus and it has built-in GPS. The phone has 120MB of storage with the ability to expand to 8GB, which is loads of room for photos and videos. This is a great phone if you love to stay in touch with friends while you are on the go. Buy it on contract with unlimited internet, free Skype-to-Skype calls and free Windows Live Messenger.

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Free on a pay monthly contract from £30 per month. Order now for delivery in time for Christmas.

The N900 is the latest generation, Maemo-based internet device from Nokia. Unlike previous devices such as the N800, the new N900 features full telephony and messaging. The Nokia N900 has a super sharp 3.5 inch touchscreen.. With a built-in accelerometer it automatically launches the phone dialler application when you turn the N900 into portrait mode, giving you quick access to make calls. The super powerful processor allows you to run multiple apps without problems. For example if you have a video playing you can switch to the task manager where everything will still be working, great for those who love to multitask!

The Maemo interface gives you four different homescreens that are easily accessible with a simple swipe of the thumb. To stay in touch with friends the N900 has combined SMS messaging with Instant Messaging and allows you to view the availability of contacts in real time. There’s a slide-out QWERTY keyboard for writing messages and emails with ease. Skype is also pre-installed, for making VOIP calls.

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Free on T-Mobile, O2 or Vodafone. From £36 per month with 1000 minutes and unlimited texts.

HTC has been pushing the boat out with its recent smartphones, but its HD2 is a knock-out. While everyone has their personal preferences and little fads, it would take an Orc-like perspective on the world not to be impressed by the display that fronts its feature-rich core.

Thirteen years of working with Microsoft has certainly paid off. Essentially, the HD2 is a big screen in your pocket: 4.3 inches (diagonal) of high-resolution touch cinema, yet housed in an amazingly skinny shell. It is the world’s first capacitive touch technology to run under Windows: Windows Mobile 6.5 to be precise.

Just to be clear, capacitive is the name for a technology made famous on Apple’s iPhone. It relies on the electrical properties of the human body to detect when and where on the display you are touching. This means you can be as delicate as you like, but it generally doesn’t work effectively or at all with a stylus or wearing gloves.

Also for the first time in Windows, HTC has allied the touchscreen with its HTC Sense concept: customising the HD2 with favourite apps on the home screen, one-touch contacts, easy flipping from email to call and, should the need arise, setting up a conference call. Whether it matches your expectations of a “holistic” experience as described by HTC, it is undoubtedly impressive and user-friendly, with a logical layout and many one-touch operations to watch, browse and flip through your stuff.

It weighs in at 157g - heavy even for a top-of-the-range PDA/ smartphone - but somehow, because it is so thin, the heft of the HD2 enhances its attraction: it lets you know its there and gives you something to press against.

The sheer clarity and definition of the display is remarkable and for those of us no longer able to spot a gnat on a fencepost half a mile away, it makes Web page and document viewing not only feasible, but pleasurable. Navigation is slick, straightforward and easy to control; viewing is crisp and rich, whether or not it actually conforms to high definition in the strictest sense.

Once experienced, Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir’s culinary and sensory experience puts most eateries in the shade. In similar fashion, the HD2’s sumptuous visual experience makes it hard to return to a smaller, less striking display.

HDC has raised the bar for smartphones and with the likes of Motorola and its Android-based Milestone also emerging, 2010 should see some amazing devices on the streets going head-to-head.

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A free Nokia or Samsung phone and a free Sony PS3 Slim, plus Ratchet and Clank game, plus Batman The Dark Knight on Blu-ray, plus a cheque for £30.

Get all of this for just £25 per month with a mobile phone contract on Vodafone or on Orange with 400 minutes per month and unlimited texts. Amazing value and your free Sony PS3 will be delivered with your phone.

The Sony Playstation 3 Slim takes up 32% less room and consumes 34% less power than the previous model, whilst boasting a new 120GB harddrive. The Playstation 3 Slim also features an improved processor, allowing the console to function quieter and remain cooler than before. Your new Playstation 3 Slim comes with a Wireless Dual Shock 3 controller. Integrated Blu-ray player allows you to enjoy the latest Blu-ray releases in high definition.

£30 cheque back will be sent to you by The Carphone Warehouse, 28 days after receipt of your phone. There is no need to claim.

Get yours today

The Nokia 1661 is frequently one of our most popular phones. There are no complicated features, it’s just the thing for people who want to make calls and send a few texts.

Even though it’s an entry-level phone it does have a couple of nifty tricks. Such as a speaking alarm clock and a built-in torch. Nothing cutting edge but you will find these to be surprisingly useful features!

The Nokia 1661 has six classic Nokia games pre-loaded, including Snake Xenia, Beach Rally, Bounce and Sudoku. It would be unfair to compare them to the impressive 3D games found on high end phones, but they do have their moments and are just as enjoyable, even on the primitive 1.8 inch screen. There’s also a built-in radio and a basic wired headset is included in the box. What a wonderful little phone it is.

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The Nokia X6 has an impressive 3.2 inch touchscreen that covers almost the entire front of the phone giving it a very innovative and unique design. The phone is pocket and palm friendly measuring 111 x 51 x 13mm and it’s great for watching movies with the 16:9 aspect ratio screen. With 32GB of internal memory there’s plenty of storage too. The X6 runs on Symbian OS v9.4 and has a 434 MHz processor, which is enough to compete with many of other smartphones on the market. The new X Series range from Nokia, will replace the XpressMusic range. As well as launching the X6, Nokia will release the entry-level X3 slider phone iearly in 2010.

The X6’s TFT capacitive touchscreen gives a crisp, bright image and comes with scratch resistant glass. There is a built in accelerometer for automatically switching the screen from portrait to landscape, for widescreen images and videos. For texts and emails the X6 also supports handwriting recognition. The 5 megapixel camera from the Nokia N97 is built-in, it has Carl Zeiss optics, auto focus, LED flash and geo-tagging to take fantastic images of your favourite moments and stamp them with their exact location. The camera also has video recording capabilities and there is the ability to edit images with software provided in the package.

Connectivity-wise, the Nokia X6 has all the usual feature you would expect in a smartphone, 3G, HSDPA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and a microUSB slot to transfer files with or without wires. To ensure you never get lost the X3 has Ovi maps 3.0 satellite navigation software pre-installed. The X6 combines style and technology to bring a fantastic, feature packed flagship phone to the X Series.

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The LG Cookie is a touchscreen phone that’s fantastic value for money. It’s more compact and easier to use than some of the more expensive touchscreen phones, yet it still has a large 3 inch display. Simply press the virtual buttons on screen using your finger.

Text can be entered by typing on the QWERTY keyboard which slides into view when needed. Or, with handwriting recognition, you can use the supplied stylus to write on the screen. The LG Cookie has an accelerometer which means the screen automatically rotates depending on which way up the phone is. This is useful when viewing different photos in landscape and portrait mode. The accelerometer is also used to play some of the built-in games.

The camera has 3.2 megapixels. There’s no autofocus but it’s still decent for a budget phone and is more than adequate for an average user. There’s a good media player, a built-in FM radio and microSD card support up to 8GB. There’s no 3G or Wi-fi, which is a shame as the web browser is actually quite good – but 3G and Wi-fi would have increased the cost, size and weight. With all other essential features included, it’s no wonder that the Cookie is one of the most popular touchscreen phones.

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3 have announced an improvement to their SIM only range, as from today SIM only 15 will be available with free mobile internet access. As demand for mobile internet grows this is an attractive offer.

For £15 per month on a 30 day rolling contract you can now get 300 minutes per month, unlimited texts free mobile internet (3GB allowance per month), unlimited calls to other mobiles on 3 plus free Skype-to-Skype calls and messaging.

SIM only deals start at just £10 per month with no commitment. If you’re out of contract and happy with your phone then compare all SIM only deals below to see how much you could be saving without committing to a new long-term contract.

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