The highly controversial Apple iPhone is finally getting a more reasonable price of GBP 169 instead of the original GBP 269. O2 UK and Carphone Warehouse who exclusively sell the iPhone in UK will be also giving GBP 100 vouchers to customers who have bought the iPhone in the last 30 days.

The new price cut of GBP 100 (valid as of today) actually makes the European version of the iPhone less expensive than the US counterpart - the price tag pf GBP 169 translates into something roughly around $330, while the US 8GB version still costs $399 before taxes.



The price drop actually makes us wonder whether O2 UK is having problems with selling their legit iPhones. Nevertheless, it's not sure whether this step will tame the black market of unlocked iPhones imported from the USA. After all, to get an O2 iPhone you have to sign a long-term contract with O2.

While the iPhone 8GB gets its numbers slashed, the price of the 16GB iPhone version remains unchanged at GBP 329.

This move from O2 opens doors to even more rumors about the expected announcement of a 3G iPhone in June 2008. The new 3G iPhone is rumored to even boast a 32GB version. We are yet to see about that though.

After numerous recent rumors, the Tag Heuer luxurious mobile phone is finally officially announced. The oddly named Tag Heuer Meridiist is a high-roller fashionable handset and a perfect match of the Swiss-made Tag Heuer timepieces.

We must admit that its name sounds noble, but it's awfully hard to spell (maybe we should type it wrong intentionally just for the sake of scoring high on the inevitably numerous wrong Google searches, hehe). But we digress.

The Tag Heuer Meridiist mobile phone is made from watch-making stainless steel and has two unscratchable 60.5 carat sapphire crystal displays. The most notable achievement about the Meridiist is probably its battery life - besides 7 hours of talk time it is said to offer almost unmatched standby time of 672 hours (or 28 days). We wonder how it would manage to achieve those numbers.


The Tag Heuer Meridiist is armed with a 2 megapixel camera, a primary 1.9-inch display with QVGA resolution and a secondary OLED one with a resolution of 96 x 76 pixels. The secondary display is rather unusually placed on top of the device and is used for displaying the time (with Swiss precision, you can bet) and your incoming call ID.

The Tag Heuer Meridiist will also be available in several modifications of the back panel - leather, steel, plastic, etc. It's obviously not a feature-packed handset, but instead a piece of luxury - and as such it might just snatch some of the scarce Vertu market.

Now it might be interesting for you to know that the actual manufacturer of the device is a French company called Modelabs. They are also the manufacturer of the Levi's phone, which you might have seen.


Tag Heyer Meridiist mobile phone

The Tag Heuer Meridiist mobile phone will be available in September 2008 in Tag Heuer boutiques and selected watch and jewelry stores. The price tag of the Meridiist will be somewhere along the lines of 3400-3900 euro depending on the chosen modification.

To get it straight, Nokia 3500 classic is not the kind of handset to have you head-over-heels in love. It was never meant to be. What really matters in this classic from-the-head-not-the-heart scenario is ease of use, decent looks and passable performance. The less promises are made, the less heartbreak you have to deal with. Classic, ain't it?


Nokia 3500 classic official photos

Key features:
1.8" TFT 256K-color display
Compact and light-weight handset
2 megapixel camera
microSD card slot
Good organizer
S40 3rd edition user interface
Stereo FM radio
2.5mm standard stereo audio jack
MiniUSB slot
Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP
Built-in handsfree
Spacious phonebook (2000 entries)
Main disadvantages:
Inadequate display resolution
No 3G
Java-based email client
No hot swap for the memory card
No camera flash and no dedicated shutter key
Disappointing video recording
8.5 MB of internal memory only
User interface has limited capabilities
Nokia 3500 classic is another face in the crowd of budget handsets. There's massive competition in this segment, which understandably has the highest sales. After all, most people don't really need an N95 or the like. They want handsets that are user-friendly, simple to use and good at the essentials (read: calls and messaging).


Nokia 3500 classic

Talking about the competition of Nokia 3500 classic is risky: there are so many handsets we can easily miss. To begin with, Sony Ericsson K550 seems to bring an almost identical set of features. The slightly higher screen resolution and the Cyber-shot pedigree do make it a worthy rival.

Samsung E900 is also in for a fairly close match. It has the same price tag as the Nokia 3500 classic but offers a larger 1.96" display of QVGA resolution. This is a good enough reason for choosing it over the 3500 classic, let alone the touch-sensitive D-pad, which might seem very appealing to some. However, many users may find the Samsung E900 sliding design quite boring and outdated. While we're at it, Samsung E590 looks a downright favorite with its minimalist design. At pretty much the same cost it offers a surprisingly good 3-megapixel shooter.

Motorola L9 may also seem appealing to some with its slimmer body and a tad larger display of higher resolution. It also has RDS enabled for its radio. On the negative side, it is a bit heavier due to the metallic casing and its user interface is not the most user-friendly of all. Once again the choice boils down to priorities.

Finally, Nokia 3500 classic is in for some serious pressure within its own family. It has a bunch of siblings offering similar functionality. Nokia 3110 classic is almost identical to its bigger brother save for the 1.3 megapixel camera. It is also a bit cheaper, so you can save a few bucks if 2 megapixel photos aren't that important to you.

If the camera is no issue at all, Nokia 3109 classic seems the better, and even cheaper, choice. If you are after a handset with similar interface and willing to pay a little on top for a better screen and 3G, the extra bucks will be best spent on Nokia 6233. One of Nokia's bestsellers, the 6233 also comes with a camera that is capable of recording video clips in VGA resolution, albeit at 15fps. On the negative side, enhanced functionality pays the price of slightly larger size.

As you can see, no phone is perfect, especially in this price range. Picking the right one for you might seem a hard task but we'll try to make it a bit easier with this review. We're back after the jump.

We have seen lots of phones from Samsung with slider form factor but this time it's a full hardware keyboard that is revealed when you slide the Samsung i620 out - the new mid-range smartphone running on the Windows Mobile 6 Standard edition. Packed with some exclusive features - a rotating D-pad wheel and sensor keys all over, you might as well be blown away by the one-off snowy white color too. So, it's compact, it's QWERTY, it's smartphone - yes this is really an offer you can't resist to play with - and neither do we. So grab yourselves something to drink and join us on this Samsung i620 review.


Official photos of Samsung i620

Key Features
Windows Mobile smartphone
Novel design and unusual form factor
Compact dimensions
2.2" TFT display
Tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and HSDPA, 1.8 Mbps
Rotating wheel and sensor front panel keys
Full hardware QWERTY keyboard with sufficient backlight
Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP
2 megapixel camera
microSD card slot
Main disadvantages
Landscape orientation is not common for applications
No Wi-Fi
No autofocus, mediocre camera performance
TI OMAP 200 MHz processor struggles at times
QWERTY keyboard has little tactile feedback
Only 34MB storage memory available to the user
The Samsung "i" line of smartphones are obviously keeping us busy these days. And again, quite obviously, the i780 we recently tested and the i620 are poles apart. While the high-end PocketPC sure adds value to the Windows Mobile lineup of the company, the main point of i620 is the benefit of diversity. After all, Samsung i620 is an i600 in the slider form factor and short of Wi-Fi. Sadly, one of the defining traits of the device is an absence.

Samsung i620 handles very well. The touch-sensitive controls on the front and the rotating D-pad wheel make navigation a breeze.


Samsung i620

Ergonomics and friendly handling are a nice advantage of this smartphone, especially considering the space consuming QWERTY keypad slumbering under the slider.