T-Mobile UK is offering a 20% discount on all PAYG phones for today only. This takes the BlackBerry Curve 8520 down to £119 and the Pulse Mini down to £79. Phew! Full details are here. Thanks to Steve.

The PUMA Phone is marketed as a smartphone, but I’m not so sure it quite fits the term. Maybe I am wrong, but hope to have one for review soon and we will all find out. The solar charger is the stand out feature.

LONDON, 16 August 2010 – Elite Mobile, one of the UK’s leading mobile phones distributors, has signed an exclusive partnership agreement with Sagem Wireless, a leader in the design and delivery of customised connected lifestyle devices and services, to launch the much anticipated PUMA Phone.

As one of the UK’s leading distributors of SIMs, pre-pay and SIM-free mobile phones, Elite Mobile’s expertise within the industry and commitment to providing high quality products and unrivalled customer service makes it the natural choice of partner for Sagem Wireless.

The PUMA Phone is an active smartphone combining Internet, messaging, and GPS
localisation capabilities with solar charging, video calling and Bluetooth photo sharing to create a wearable fashion accessory for the active lifestyle. The PUMA WORLD portal aggregates rich media content services from PUMA into a single intuitive and entertaining mobile user experience where users can interact with multimedia content from puma.com, download PUMA applications, and access PUMA products through m-commerce services.

Wayne Langford, Director of Trade at Elite Mobile says, “As an Industry leading distributor, Elite Mobile is constantly looking for new and innovative products and solutions for our customers.  We are delighted to be working in an exclusive partnership with Sagem Wireless. The PUMA Phone is an exciting product and we are proud by to be the first distributor to bring it to UK market”.

Thomas Brenac, Director of Sales, UK and Ireland at Sagem Wireless commented: “The dynamic mobile phone market in the UK means retailers are always looking for innovative devices which really deliver something different. Operators and retailers across Europe are already seeing the PUMA Phone as a creative and innovative device that brings real personality to their portfolio.  We’re delighted to be partnering with Elite Mobile to bring the PUMA Phone to the UK market, enabling retailers across the UK to sell a device that’s not like all their other phones.”

Key features of the PUMA Phone include:
Integrated solar cell, with charge indicator (one hour of sunshine provides power for one hour and 30 minutes of MP3 play or enough energy to send about 30 text messages)
Touchscreen: 2.8 inch thumbable screen with 240 x 320 QVGA resolution and TFT wide viewing angle
Camera: 3.2 megapixel camera with LED flash and x6 zoom; Bluetooth photo sharing
Video: VGA video call camera; full screen video playback, with video recording and streaming and progressive video download
Music: wide range of music formats with playlist support and FM radio
Memory: microSD 2GB memory card supplied with the phone
Localisation: GPS, compass, geotagging, routing and mapping
Sports: pedometer, GPS tracker and stopwatch
Internet: Open internet browsing, with WAP Push
Messaging: Mobile email client and mobile web mail notification; instant messaging; MMS and SMS
HSPA and W-CDMA/EDGE/GPRS/GSM connectivity; Bluetooth; USB 2.0
Talk time up to 5 hours with 350 hours stand-by time; video call time 140 minutes; music player time 24 hours; video player time 5 hours
Tablet form factor; 115g weight and dimensions of 102mm x 56mm x 13mm

A while back I reviewed the Doro HandlePlus 326i and PhoneEasy 345gsm which are designed for the older mobile user. They are great products and have a niche market, but now Bea-fon has come up with a more stylish selection.

The Bea-fon S50 and S20 (in black and white) are now available for £144.52 and £101.05 respectively.

“The Bea-fon S50 brings the convenience of a slider design to everyone.  It benefits form having a large clear TFT display, which is easy to read and also has a convenient keypad with big buttons. There are no complex additional features, just what you need to make phone calls and text messages to keep you in communication with your friends and family.

To provide peace of mind the Bea-fon S50 benefits from having an integrated SOS button which can have up to 5 emergency numbers assigned.  When the SOS button is pressed the S50 will automatically call each number starting with the first one on the list.  It will keep calling until the button is moved to the normal position.

Many extra additional useful features are included, polyphonic ringtones, keylock, vibration alarm and many more.  Being Hearing Aid M3/T3 compatible the Ben-fon S50 doesn’t have any restrictions to its usage.”

“The Bea-fon S20 is a great looking phone which has been designed to be as simply as possible to use.  It features a display with large clear fonts and keys which are easy to press.  There are no complex additional features, just what you need to make phone calls and text messages to keep you in communication with your friends and family.

To provide peace of mind the Bea-fon S20 benefits from having an integrated SOS button which can have up to 5 emergency numbers assigned.  When the SOS button is pressed the S20 will automatically call each number starting with the first one on the list.  It will keep calling until the button is moved to the normal position.

Many extra additional useful features are included with a flashlight, FM radio, vibration alarm and many more.  Being Hearing Aid friendly the Ben-fon S20 doesn’t provide any restrictions to its usage.”

Motorola has announced the GRASP which is a feature phone in smartphone clothing. It seems that the likes of Moto, Nokia and Samsung see a big market for this type of deice, and I concur.

“Staying in touch has never been easier with Motorola GRASP. Providing convenient and organized messaging with advanced contact search and a large QWERTY keyboard, GRASP keeps you connected, assuring you’ll retain your social butterfly status.  GRASP also keeps you environmentally responsible with a recyclable eco design so you’ll feel good about how you hold your conversations.

Type, Talk, Done
Motorola GRASP takes hold of your contacts and messages and makes them easily accessible, right from your home screen.  Spend less time digging through contacts to find the people you want to talk to.  Advanced contact search makes finding phone numbers and emails addresses easy and the QWERTY tablet design fits comfortably in pocket or purse. Threaded messaging helps keep track of your conversations, allowing you to read the trail of previous text messages, similar to instant messaging.

Eco Conscious
GRASP is the newest device from Motorola to give back to the environment. Featuring eco design elements, Motorola GRASP is BFR and PCV free with a housing that is 100% recyclable at end of life.

Entertain Yourself
Motorola GRASP features multimedia options that are sure to keep you entertained between calls.  A 1.3MP camera with digital zoom and fixed focus captures random moments as they happen.  And with video capture and playback you can also capture movies.  For non-stop music lovers, GRASP has a built-in MP3 player and a 3.5 mm headset jack along with Bluetooth1 wireless capabilities so you can listen to music plugged in or wirelessly. Store all your music and photos directly on the device, with GRASP’s expandable memory of up to 8 GB.”

Vodafone is launching the VF 247 in India soon for the paultry sum of $32 (1,500 Rupees). It is very basic and is in essence a voice and texter with a fixed battery. But, it is solar powered and one 8 hour charge will give 4 hours talk time / 1 week of standby.

There are aspects of this which are potentially very interesting- the price is the main one and could lead to similar technology appearing in other high-end phones. Of course more development will be needed to achieve this, but I do wonder if this will be the next big thing for mobiles. If only the UK got as much sun as India…

More at Greenlaunches.

The Nokia E5 will soon be available from Orange and represents a lower cost alternative to the E71 / E72 for those who do not require all of the high-end smartphone functions.

Here is the full specs list-

* 3G HSDPA 7.2
* 5-megapixel camera
* Bluetooth®
* EDGE
* FM radio
* GPRS
* GPS
* Java™ capable
* LED flash
* MP3 ringtones
* QWERTY keypad
* VGA camera
* WiFi
* external memory up to 32GB
* internal memory 250MB
* instant messaging
* micro USB v2.0
* multimedia messaging (MMS)
* organiser
* push email
* Series 60 rel. 3.2
* Symbian OS v9.3
* T9
* vibrating alert

Samsung is aiming to recycle 1 million phones this year in the US. No doubt a great idea, but that’s a lot of eBay money which some will not want to give up. Personally, I have wanted to recycle every Samsung I have owned so far…

“Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung Mobile), the No.11 mobile phone provider in the U.S.2, is kicking off a nationwide as part of its March to a Million pledge to collect one million mobile phones for recycling in 2010. Reaching an estimated seven million middle and high school students in approximately 9,500 schools across the U.S., the eco-focused program will educate teens about the importance and ease of mobile phone recycling.

“Samsung Mobile has numerous eco-friendly initiatives in place, including our Mobile Take-Back program and last year’s launch of the Samsung Reclaim, the first phone in the U. .S. constructed from eco-friendly bio-plastic materials,” said Paul Golden, Chief Marketing Officer of Samsung Mobile. “The March to a Million program is taking our green initiatives one step further to educate consumers on the importance and ease of recycling mobile phones. The goal of the in-school program is to reach an influential demographic and one that we think will help us spread the word throughout their communities.”

Vertu has launched four new mobile phones in Japan costing a cool $215,000 each. Each model represents a season and has been handpainted and covered in gold to make them look vulgar. This seems to be a trend for very expensive items- the more vulgar the better, as long as you can tell it is very expensive. Unwired View has all the details included the nugget that buyers will get free domestic calls in Japan- no doubt a serious consideration when buying such a phone…

The free Nav4All navigation service is no more. The timing is interesting when we consider that Nokia just made its maps application free and the following statement has a touch of annoyance within it.

It is with the deepest regret that we hereby notify you that the global navigation of Nav4All and the Tracking & Tracing will go offline in 3 days. The reason for the same is that the data licence agreement with Navteq (a 100% Nokia subsidiary) was not extended, in a totally unexpected manner. It is not possible to implement data from another supplier in our Nav4All systems within the short term.

The Nav4All navigation system was developed for Navteq data. Nav4All has therefore been constrained to stop.

We greatly regret the fact that we have to suspend the operation of our service. With your help, we have developed Nav4All into a global product with 27.5 million users in 56 languages, in 5 years. This has made Nav4All the largest navigation supplier. This large number of users also has to do with the fact that Nav4All works on hundreds of different mobile telephones of many makes such as Blackberry, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Motorola, Android, HTC, Nokia, LG, Iphone, Ipod etc.

After 5 years of testing and market development, we witnessed rapid – in fact, exponential – growth during the last two years. That growth was reported in the licence reports to Navteq. In mid-December 2009, the global coverage was extended to include the Philippines, Morocco and Kenya.

Please contact the Nav4All support desk in case you have any questions: www.nav4all.com/support. If there is any further information from Nav4All concerning the subject of this letter, the same will be published on our website: www.nav4all.com. For reasons of privacy, Nav4All does not have the email addresses of all its customers, and we therefore request you to forward this email to the maximum extent possible, in order to ensure that everyone is informed.

This is funny, very funny indeed. A BBC reporter has broken an unbreakable phone with just a couple of hits. The video is here and the uncomfortable laughter from the company rep is even funnier.

The Samsung GT-B3410 is one of a number of new feature phones which include many functions you would normally expect to find only in a smartphone. The GT-B3410 can now be bought for under £80 unlocked with a pay as you go SIM card and the main features stand out for people like me who expect certain things in any phone-

A slide-out QWERTY keyboard, 2.6” TFT LCD touch screen, 2 Megapixel camera, MP3 / Voice recording, Built in instant messenger, Social networking out of the box, Email setup wizard.

Can an £80 phone really cut it as a smartphone? Well I have to say that the answer is yes if you are happy with more caveats than I have time to quote here. The B3410 is very easy to use and the touch screen is ultra responsive with the clever interface making you feel that you are using a phone which costs at least twice as much. The build quality is good and sliding out the keyboard produces an immediate change of orientation that makes some of the Windows Mobile devices feel sluggish in comparison. Sadly the keyboard is somewhat dowdy and doesn’t provide much feedback, but it is still better than most touch screen keyboards.

For size and form factor the B3410 feels almost perfect and offers a reassuring if slightly chunky feel in the hand. I have little doubt that it will survive that harshest of handbag and briefcase environments. The 3.5mm headphone jack shows that entertainment is high up on the list of priorities here and music and video playback are acceptable, if not of the level of most other devices. The microSD expansion does mean though that you can carry a large selection of music and videos with you whenever you like which is a bonus.

There is a lot of software included and the PIM side is usable at best. The notes application and calendar do the job quite well with the contacts app feeling more than a little clunky, but the inclusion of tasks, memos, a world clock, calculator and a converter will no doubt be all that the target market will want on a phone. Other apps are included with Google and Facebook being the most notable alongside an FM radio, voice recorder, communities (MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, Photobuscket and Picasa) and some trial Java games for good measure. Sadly you will be relying on Java apps for expansion, but again I suspect the target market will not need to download much (patronising I know).

The communication side is weak with no 3G or Wi-Fi and only EDGE support offers usable internet browsing. However, this phone is all about messaging and keeping in touch and for that you can easily get away with 2G so it will still suffice for what it really needs to do.

The B3410 is a basic phone which knocks on the door of the smartphone world, but ultimately provides a voice experience which is too weak to be classed as a serious contender. It feels slightly cheap and this goes against the great screen and usable keyboard which are the highlights here. It is a hugely likable device with a good battery though and will serve its purpose well. For £80 it is a demonstration of what is possible in 2009 / 2010 and I suspect we will see a feature phone which deserves the title ’smart’ before 2010 is over with.

LG has just sold its 10 millionth Cookie phone which is a stunning achievement. It is a low end touch phone which appeals to consumers of all ages and the price point makes it a firm favourite with huge swathes of the market.

From IntoMobile- “The LG Cookie, which first started shipping during in November 2008, is a low end touch screen device created for the masses. In July Dusan reported that it took LG just 9 months to sell 5 million, well here we are in December, a little over a year since the Cookie first hit the shelves, and the South Korean company has just announced that they’ve shipped their 10 millionth unit. Over 5 million units were sold in Europe, 2+ million in Asia and 2+ million in Latin America.

“The sales record adds credence to our philosophy of studying consumer demands and offering a full touchphone that balances premium features with sleek design. LG will continue to shape the future by delivering products and technologies to satisfy the tastes and expectations of our consumers.” said Dr. Skott Ahn, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Division.”

Nokia has released two more sliders for the mass market. They are not exactly budget models, but are near the lower end of the market.

Nokia 6700 slide – Capture and share quickly and easily
With a choice of six fresh and vivid colors – pink, red, petrol blue, aluminum, lime and purple – this slimline slider is sure to turn heads. Its compact size, modern design and aluminum finish feels great in the hand, and fits perfectly even in the smallest pocket or bag.

The smart capabilities of the Nokia 6700 slide are beautifully easy to use: The 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics is perfect for capturing and sharing moments as they happen. Favorite images can be edited on the go and uploaded to the web directly from the camera menu. The device’s high speed 3G connectivity ensures your favorite communities are always as close as your Nokia 6700 slide.

Nokia 7230 – Share in style
Being connected has never looked so good. The Nokia 7230’s compact slide design, colorful looks and solid set of features are a package that offers great value for money.

Sharing special moments and joy with friends and family is effortless, thanks to the 3.2 megapixel camera, large 2.4″ display and fast 3G connectivity. With the Nokia 7230 in your pocket, you also have quick access to email, instant messaging and social networks on the go, and the subtle illumination indicates if you have missed calls or messages from your friends.

AAS is reporting that the N97 has been withdrawn by Vodafone and that the SE Satio has also had the same treatment by Carphone Warehouse. It seems that high returns are to blame- makes you wonder how things like this are ever allowed to get through the manufacturing process.

Nokia has announced 5 new phones which will sit at the very low end of the mobile spectrum. They are designed specifically for emerging markets and areas where mobile life-improvement services will be useful, but they will be available globally soon. They are described as follows-

With affordability and ease of use as the cornerstones of solutions for emerging markets, the five new Nokia phones – Nokia 1280, Nokia 1616, Nokia 1800, Nokia 2220 slide and Nokia 2690 – support Nokia Life Tools, and bring with them all the features that consumers around the world have come to expect.

Priced at EUR 20, EUR 24 and EUR 26 respectively (before taxes and subsidies), the Nokia 1280, Nokia 1616 and Nokia 1800 support FM radio, prepaid tracker, flashlight, anti-scratch cover and dust-resistant keymat, among other features. The long battery life, with up to 22 days of standby time, is vital for people in areas where access to electricity is limited.

The Nokia 2220 slide and the Nokia 2690, priced at EUR 45 and EUR 54 (before taxes and subsidies), also support email on the device through Ovi Mail, giving people in developing markets their first digital identity directly from their handsets. Ovi Mail accounts can be created on the device and people can start sending and receiving emails without ever needing a PC. Other device features include FM radio, VGA camera, GPRS and MMS support, phone books for up to 1,000 contacts, and Bluetooth. Standby times for the Nokia 2220 slide and Nokia 2690 are about 20 days and 13 days respectively.