1st February 2008 – Top 5 Rundown
I hope to make a regular feature of these Top 5 Rundowns – lets face it, not everyone has hours upon hours to determine which the better handsets are, and find the best value price plans on offer. So to help you choose in a hurry I’ll be diving into our sales figures to determine which phones and tariffs are hot right now. Here goes…
By quite a margin the best selling phone at the moment looks to be the new black Nokia N95 8GB. It really is a fantastic phone. I ought to clarify, it’s not just a black version of the original N95 with a bigger memory – Nokia have made some very nice changes to the hardware too. This phone does so much, you’ll be pleased to hear that this new version has extended battery life – with new features like enhanced GPS Satellite Navigation, a better quality screen, the 5 megapixel camera, a fantastic music player with built in stereo speakers, and pre-installed 3D games, I think you’re going to need it!
A new phone that’s shot up to the top since its launch is the Nokia 6500 Slide. It’s a tasty looking phone and I wonder if a lot of buyers have fallen for it after seeing friend’s one, or in a shop. If you’ve seen one already you’ll know what I mean. A luxurious look and feel with a compact slider design, and very well priced in the marketplace. This isn’t a outrageously expensive phone – but it looks it. It’s bound to appeal to the die-hard Nokia fans out there. I’ve noticed that the Slide has been selling well on higher Mix & Match plans – I guess this is because its attractive price is allowing buyers to purchase more minutes and texts within their budget.
Don’t rule out the older handsets! That’s the message I’m getting from the third place handset. The Sony Ericsson K800i in original black or special silver. It was the original Sony Ericsson Cyber-shot camera phone and I guess they really threw everything at it – it would certainly make the mobile hall of fame. I think part of the reason these do so well is their fantastic reputation – they’ve been around for long enough that if there was a fault with them, everyone would know by now – and there isn’t. To summarise, a great dependable phone at a great price point now, as it’s been superseded by newer models. Definitely life in the old dog yet!
Speaking of superseding the K800i, here comes junior into forth spot – the Sony Ericsson K850i Cyber-shot! Not quite up to the sales figures of its ol’ pa just yet but on phone performance this fantastic camera phone is set to become the new president. It has a quality lens and will take whopping 5 megapixel pictures meaning you’ll probably need a pretty good excuse to keep your traditional digital camera. The camera side of things also feature auto focus, a bright Xenon flash, and a nifty automatic lens cover – very swish! Definitely up there with the best of the camera phones ever.
LG’s have been a bit thin on the ground lately at 3Store but maybe the reason for that has been that the touchscreen wizardry of the LG U990 Viewty has been hogging all the limelight? A 3-inch high resolution screen is the focal point for most of this phones features. Clever use of intuitive software means that you won’t miss a keypad (and large thumbs aren’t a problem too). The camera is worth a mention too, with a resolution of 5 megapixels and a fantastic video capture function featuring an amazing 120 frames per second! That makes watching in slo-mo a possibility. Another nice gadget that I must mention is the iPod-esque scroll wheel that doubles as a manual camera zoom. Currently available only in black but watch out for a new colourway launching on 3 soon.
Well that’s it for this installment – hopefully some of you will have found that useful. It will be interesting to see how the top 5 changes through time. Two of this top 5 are being released in additional colour variations and I’m sure this will appeal to people who want a popular phone but slightly different to the crowd. As the product range changes I’ll be drawing attention to new releases right here on the 3 Mobile Blog.
See you next time…