All posts by Ezra

IRiver 80GB X20

With 22 hours battery life, 8GB capacity, a micro SD slot, wide audio and video support, the X20 sprints ahead of the competition, like a hare on steroids.

From the rotating menu to the terrific 2.2inch screen for movie playback, it’s a pleasure to use, although new earphones are a must if you want your audio of a similarly high quality.

The X20 can’t match the like of the Samsung T10 for hep and groovy style, lumbered as it is with an awful white click wheel that looks and creaks. Apart from that though it’s a fantastic wee player.

Video: The Samsung pocket projector

With all the furore of Monday’s mobile madness, this potential pocket gem passed us by. When we finally greeted the MBP-100 projector it gave us a well-deserved boot in the pills for our folly.

We’ve kissed and made up now, and as you can see from our video footage of Samsung’s latest gizmo, it could be the start of a beautiful friendship.

Upon it’s forthcoming release in Korea, Sammy predict this mini-marvel – which fits comfortably in your average-sized jacket pocket – will be the smallest projector on the planet at just 7cm (top left to bottom right) and just 2.6cm thick.

The projector pumps out VGA content from your mobile phone at 10 ANSI Luminem, to a maximum screen size of 50″, making it ideal for taking your movies on the road and projecting them wherever you can find a nice white space. We could have done with one of these babies in our Barcelona hotel to relieve us of all these Spanish sitcoms.

It has the added bonus of an AV input socket, meaning you can hook the MBP-100 up to any media playing device with an AV port. DVD players, portable media players, camcorders and of course mobile phones – the choice is yours.

The little ripper boasts a 2-3 hour battery life and a tiny 0.5 watt speaker built in, as well as a headphone/speaker jack for some surround sound awesomeness.

It’s out in March or April in the Far East, it will cost between £100 and £150 and it kicks bottom.

Video: A look into Samsung’s Soul

Not only was one of the most anticipated handsets to be unleashed at WMC, it also spawned a million rubbish headlines like the one above. But is it any good? We made a beeline for the Samsung stand to find out.

The immediate eye-catcher is the gorgeous and original Magic Touch navigational mouse pad, which alters depending on which application the handset you are using. Pretty neat, huh?

The sleek 12.9mm sliding metallic shell gives it unquestionable style, but what about the nitty gritty? Well, the Soul’s 5mp camera boasts face recognition, auto focus, image stabiliser and an impressive x4 digital zoom.

Need a fast internet connection? Well the Soul soothes as you can search google with HSDPA at 7.2mbps. It also plays multi-format music through the banging Bang & Olufsen ICEpower pre-amp.

Sammy say they’ve gone all out for the perfect combination of ‘highly styled design and functionality’ You know the specs, now check out the design in our video and judge for yourselves.

Hands on with the N96

We’ve been bowled over by how many top notch phones that have been shown off in Barcelona.

But there’s one that’s really caught our eye: the N96. Replacing the ubiquitous, standard-setting N95, it’s set to become the phone to crave in 2008.

Close up, it’s an absolute treat, building on the N95 8GB black stylings, but with prettier curves and a sleeker bod’.

The flip out stand means it’s great for watching vids without having to constantly cradle it in your sweaty palms, and with 16GB on board, plus room for another 8GB card, you’ll have no shortage of space for all your media.

N-Gage is also crammed in, although as ever we’re still waiting for Nokia to roll this out beyond their beloved N81.

Nokia’s Maps 2.0 also make an appearance, as does good ol’ geotagging and the AGPS the N95 was so famed for.

Frankly, this phone beats the competition hands down and lays down the gauntlet for other big players to start hitting their stride.

Take a closer look in our exclusive hands on video.

MWC Video: First look at the Xperia X1

Let’s cut right to the chase. On first impressions, this handset from SE, boasting a Windows Mobile operating system, looks looks the business.

The touch screen interface is easy to use, navigating between the nine possible homescreens (internet, media, calendar etc) at the touch of the screen.

The phone has a slimmer-than-expected appearance, with the QWERTY keyboard sliding out nicely from underneath the screen in an arc. The naviagtional mouse touchpad is smooth as you like.

The DVD quality screen 3-inch is also looks top notch and a 3.2 megapixel camera owns the iPhone too.

Sony Ericsson just stepped up to the plate in the high-end handset wars. Check out our video and see what you think.