The mobile is taking over
2005 Review Mobile phones The story Once upon a time, the mobile phone was a means of talking to someone who wasn’t in the same room as you. But in 20
2005 Review Mobile phones
The story Once upon a time, the mobile phone was a means of talking to someone who wasn’t in the same room as you. But in 2005, the mobile decided it wanted to take over the world – and so the Stuff offices were inundated with high-resolution cameraphones, MP3-playing mobiles, gaming decks, sat-nav handsets, miniature TV phones and even, in the case of Nokia’s 7280, mobiles disguised as lipsticks. Quite a year.
The highs Sharp broke the three-megapixel barrier with the 903 cameraphone in the summer, Nokia set the design bar a little higher with the gorgeous 8800, and Sony Ericsson defined the music mobile market with the W800i Walkman phone. But perhaps the most significant change for mobile-lovers was the arrival of pocket-sized 3G handsets – starting with the LG U8120 clamshell and the Sony Ericsson V800.
The lows Motorola’s ROKR might have boasted compatibility with iTunes, but it was clearly just a mildly modified E398 that had none of the iPod’s style or sophistication. Meanwhile Nokia’s iPod killer, the hard drive-toting N91 music phone, was announced back in March but still hadn’t been launched by the end of the year. Shame – especially as it meant that Samsung could get there first, sneaking out its 3GB i300 before Christmas.
Mobile phone of the year While Sony Ericsson’s Walkman range of phones set a new standard in terms of convergence, the iconic phone of 2005 has to be the Motorola V3 RAZR – now reborn with iTunes compatibility as the V3i, and with 3G functions as the V3x (pictured).
Previous 2005 reviews:
Media Centers take centre stage
Smarter than your average palmtop
