Samsung BlackJack II no. 1 in Consumer Reports’ smartphone survey

Consumer Reports has released their January 2009 issue, and based on their study, the Samsung BlackJack II is the no. 1 smartphone as far as the US market is concerned.

This QWERTY-equipped Windows Mobile-powered mobile phone managed to beat not only the T-Mobile G1, but also the more popular iPhone 3G. Actually, neither of the two even made it to the top five which was composed of the T-Mobile Wing, Motorola Q9C, T-Mobile Shadow, and BlackBerry Pearl Flip. The first Android-based phone and iPhone both were tied at 6th place. I guess this just goes to show that consumers still value form, function and price over design and hype.

Of course, this listing applies to the US and being in the Philippines, we definitely have our own set of smartphones to choose from. My personal top five picks for local market are as follows (in no particular order):

1. Nokia E71
2. Samsung BlackJack II
3. iPhone 3G
4. Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1
5. Motorola Q9

3G iPhone Unlock on New Year’s Eve; Demo Video now Available

We’ve got good news for all those still waiting for a software unlock tool to become available for the 3G iPhone. The iPhone Dev Team has announced that they are ready to release one by New Year’s Eve.

In anticipation for its public debut, they will likewise stream a live video demo of this 3G iPhone unlock to be broadcast at a date to be posted on their blog.

With this latest announcement, I guess we can now really look forward to a very promising new year. New phones, new gadgets and thanks to this iPhone 3G unlock, we can probably look forward to cheap unlocked 3G iPhones hitting the interwebs as well.

UPDATE: The iPhone 3G unlock demo video has been released already. Video after the break.

Samsung unveils Luxury GT-S9402 DuoS Phone

If you think the global economic crisis is discouraging mobile phone manufacturers from launching uber-expensive devices for the time being, the recent unveiling of the Samsung Ego GT-S9402 clearly shows that they’re not that affected by it that much.

This new phone model from Samsung features an 2-inch QVGA AMOLED display, 5-megapixel camera with LED flash and autofocus, image stabilization and face and smile detection, FM radio, tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, Bluetooth, 1GB internal memory expandable via microSD card, and is also a DuoS which means you can use two SIM cards on it at the same time. Except for the camera, the specs look pretty average, but what truly makes this model special and expensive is its use of liquidmetal composite alloy which is touted to be much better than titanium in almost all aspects. It may not be a Vertu, but the S9402 definitely provides a more luxurious option to Samsungs already impressive line-up of phones.

It’s expected to cost 1200 EUR or roughly P75K when it becomes available. With such a steep and hefty price tag, I highly doubt you’ll be seeing this in the regular mall stores if ever it does make it to the local market.

Sony XPERIA X1 Official Price, New Panels now Available

I’ve got good news and bad news for all your Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 hopefully owners out there. The good news is that the XPERIA X1 is now available in Sony Ericsson concept stores which means its official price is out as well. The bad news is that it’s higher than what we were expecting. Its SRP is P42500 to be exact; much more expensive than a 3G iPhone 8GB prepaid kit or a Samsung Omnia, but still cheaper than an HTC Touch Pro.

On a similar note, Sony Ericsson has launched two new panels for the XPERIA X1. The Facebook panel allows users to seamlessly integrate their Facebook account with their mobile phone. It even comes with call to contacts functionality. The Windows Live panel, on the other hand, provides you with an easy way to sync and import your Windows Live contacts to your XPERIA X1’s phonebook. It also gives you an easy access to Windows Live Messenger and Hotmail. These two new exciting panels that will definitely enable you to get the most out of your XPERIA X1.

So now that the XPERIA X1 is finally out, will you be getting yours soon or will you be waiting for something better to come out in 2009?

Nokia 6260 slide: First S40-based Phone with GPS

If you’re looking for a little something more powerful than the budget-friendly phones we previewed last week, the recently launched Nokia 6260 slide might just be the phone for you.

It’s set to debut in early 2009 and while it may not be an Nseries phone, it comes with a bunch of features that are commonly associated with multimedia line of Nokia. The Nokia 6260 slide comes with a 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens and LED flash, WiFi, 3G/HSDPA connectivity up to 10.2 Mbps, and Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP. It also comes with GPS with A-GPS making the 6260 slide the first S40-based phone to come with such a feature. Likewise, it has TV-out functionality, stereo speakers and comes with 200MB internal memory and supports microSD card technology for additional storage. Despite its lowly S40 software, the Nokia 6260 is nonetheless a truly full-featured slider that can definitely match up with its heftier Nseries siblings.

It’s expected to cost €299 or close to P19K (converted using the current exchange rate) before taxes and subsidies. It seems a bit expensive for an S40 device, but considering the features it comes with, it might just be worth considering.

UPDATE: Sad news guys as this one won’t be relased by Nokia Philippines. Hopefully, something that’s equally delightful (and full-featured) will replace it as part of the 2009 line-up of Nokia phones in the country.

Mobile Internet Browser Face-Off

With most mobile phones featuring internet browsing capabilities, choosing which phone offers the best mobile internet experience is a pretty daunting task. It’s a good thing though that Gizmodo has come out with a very juicy comparison to help us out. It may be a very limited comparison leaving out the likes of the HTC Touch Pro and XPERIA X1 out of the picture, but it is, nevertheless very informative.

As you can see with their scores, the iPhone is still the best among the rest despite lacking Flash support. Garnering a B+ score is the HTC G1 with the Android OS while both the BlackBerry Bold and Nokia E71 got a B-.

The table below shows how all the phones fared using a 3G connection. Page rendering is denoted by a Poor to Excellent rating while the color (green is good; red is poor) takes into account both speed and page rendering accuracy.

This second table show how each phone performs under a WiFi connection.

All-in-all, it was a pretty interesting showdown. Some lived up to their expectation while some failed miserably. Safe to say, if mobile internet browsing is your kind of thing, then it seems that it’s best to go with the iPhone albeit lacking support for flash. For more details about the results and how they conducted the test, you can check out Gizmodo.

How about you guys? Which mobile phone do you think provides the best mobile internet experience?