Vodafone has announced that it is offering three new smartphone handsets to its customers – the Blackberry Pearl 3G, the Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro, and the LG Optimus. Prices will vary although there is no actual pay as you go price plan details available for any of the three models as yet so it’s possible that they will be contract only handsets. However with two Android handsets and the Blackberry it does offer a good choice of reasonable phones.
The Blackberry Pearl 3G is actually a bit of a step away from the usual business phone label that is usually associated with their handsets. Rather than a QWERTY keyboard, for a start, it opts for the more usual mobile phone alphanumeric keypad. It’s also considerably smaller and slimmer than other Blackberry models but it still packs some serious feature rich muscle. Wifi and 3G, GPS, and a 3.2mp camera are just the start. The phone also has multi-tasking and social networking features.
The Android based X10 Mini Pro from Sony Ericsson is also a very good little phone. It’s virtually identical to its very slightly older sibling, the X10 Mini except as well as being touch screen it also has a slide out QWERTY keyboard. The X10 Mini does sell on payg deals, and costs a happily inexpensive £200, so you would be forgiven for thinking that Vodafone will release this one in the same way too.
The LG Optimus is another Android phone and as it’s a mid range mobile you should expect similar prices to the X10 Mini Pro. Unfortunately, you can’t quite expect the same level of quality although if you’re an avid mobile social networker then you can perhaps expect to do a little dance of glee at the single touch social networking features. It also has a 3mp camera and a few other features although the list is a little disappointing.
Have you got yourself a smart phone yet?
Would you opt for the Blackberry, the Sony Ericsson, or the LG?
