November 2008

There are only a few weeks until Christmas and as mobile phones are a popular gift choice, Reevoo.com gives you the low-down on mobiles; examining what’s hot, what’s not, what people are actually buying and which phones are the best value for money.

WHAT’S HOT? The iPhone 3G of course! But it’s not highly rated…

Despite being one of the most talked about phones of the year, the iPhone 3G has failed to beat its 2007 predecessor. The original iPhone is rated 8.3/10, just pipping this year’s 3G offering to the post, (the iPhone 3G scores 8.2/10). According to owners, the major issues with the 3G model are its battery life and application crashes, meaning that other phones have been able to storm ahead of the iPhone.

So what really is the hottest mobile phone this season? Reevoo reviewers pick the BlackBerry Bold 9000 as the best phone released in 2008. Some genuine reviews on Reevoo for the BlackBerry Bold 9000 include:

 + Great keyboard for e-mailing and texting. Cracking screen which is nice and bright and videos look lovely on it. The sound from the internal speaker is really good. Just a great phone overall.
 –  Out of the box battery life is bad but gets better with regular charges.

 + The Bold is undoubtedly the most impressive Blackberry yet. One of its greatest advantages is that in spite of many new features, it feels very familiar. Web browsing is almost broadband speed.

REEVOO RECOMMENDATIONS: TOP FIVE CHRISTMAS MOBILE PHONES
The hyped-up phones usually get all the attention but it’s interesting to see how the most popular phones differ from the most highly rated:

TOP FIVE MOST POPULAR IN LAST 30 DAYS:
Nokia N96
Samsung F480 Tocco
Blackberry Storm
Sony Ericsson C902
Samsung Omnia

TOP FIVE HIGHEST RATED PHONES OF 2008:
BlackBerry Bold 9000
Sony Ericsson W980i
Apple iPhone 3G 8/16GB
Samsung F480 Tocco
Sony Ericsson K660i

For the full lists, see Reevoo’s blog, Decide What to Buy.
The Nokia N96, whilst being the most popular phone on the market, gets marked down by reviewers for poor battery life and software problems. At around £500 for Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) customers, it’s no surprise that it also gets rated below average for value for money. However, it does impress with its design and features. One reviewer writes “great picture and video quality, very easy to find your way around, fantastic features...looks good”.

REEVOO RECOMMENDATIONS
When it comes to value for money, the stylish Samsung F480 Tocco is a great buy. It scores highly for design and features and gets much higher scores for battery life than the Nokia N96, both iPhones and the BlackBerry Bold 9000. It’s around £150 PAYG or free on some contracts.

Here are some of the reviews from owners of the Samsung F480 Tocco:

+ Easy to use, good haptic technology feedback from the touch screen, excellent camera, fair battery life, smart, compact, stylish.
No Wi-Fi capability.

+ It's easy to use and has a very good memory and has good features that I would have expected.
- Should come with a ball point touch screen pen, can be hard to press the right keys sometimes.
 
Check out www.reevoo.com for thousands of genuine reviews and scores for mobile phones.