Multimedia Madness: The New Wave of Music, Movie, and Media Capable Phones

By John Gawley on May 14th, 2007

The cell phone market has proven to be one of the most cutthroat and competitive ones in all of history. Manufacturers, as well as service providers, regularly prostrate themselves before the consumer culture to try and entice every ounce of business out of the cellular populace as possible. This means big advantages for you, the consumer. Namely, more and more features. Try it: Dream up a feature you’d like to see in your phone (Lets keep it clean, people!) and then wait.

Odds are if there’s not a phone on the market already sporting your dream technology, there will be in the next 6-12 months. GPS (Global Positioning System)? Been out there waiting for you. MP3s? You must have been under a bed for almost a year. Text messaging capability with a complete keyboard? I think you’re getting the picture. We’ve showcased four phones in this review, to illustrate the new multimedia technology that’s not only possible, but downright prevalent in today’s Mobile Communications Market.

The Motorola RAZR V3xx is the newest incarnation of the venerable RAZR line Motorola RAZR V3xx
The Motorola RAZR might be the most famous groundbreaking new phone that still looks like a…phone. When RAZRs first hit the market a few years back, it was their ultra slim design and beautiful layout that sold them. Now Motorola has cranked out an even more amped up model, the Motorola RAZR V3xx. Almost a half inch thinner than the original, the Motorola RAZR V3xx runs seamlessly on Cingular’s broadband HSDPA network, though unlocked versions are generally available. Speedy access to video and streaming radio are a plus—and add Bluetooth connectivity, hot-swappable MicroSD card and a 1.3 megapixel camera, and you’ve got quite a phone. And it’s good looking, too!

Motorola MOTORIZR Z3
Yes, were still on Motorolas. What can I say? This manufacturer has been coming out with hit after hit, from physical design to specific features geared perfectly towards niche consumer markets. The MOTORIZR Z3 is no exception. One of the new “Slider” type phones, this is neither a single slab or a flip top “clamshell” design. Instead, the whole front of the phone This is one sleek, sexy looking little phone! (which incidently is almost completely taken up by a striking LCD screen) slides up to reveal a stark, minimalist keypad. The functions of the MOTORIZR Z3 can be accessed whether the phone is “open” or “closed”.

Newly added for this year is a 2.0 megapixel camera with an extremely good camera light for those low-light photographic opportunities. This fancy phone also has a built in music player that supports both AAC and MP3 files. This phone is only slightly wider than half an inch. It has 20MB of onboard memory, although some of that is taken up by essential phone software applications. You can expand that already prodigious memory up to 1GB with a MicroSD card. It also supports Stereo Bluetooth, and a USB 2.0 connection makes the MOTORIZR Z3 functional and good looking.

Nokia 5300 XpressMusic Unlocked GSM Cell Phone Nokia 5300 Xpress Music
We’ve done a video review about a similar Nokia phone, But this one’s innovative enough to bear repeating. This no-nonsense phone is one of the best deals on the market. It is also one of the new “slider” design phones, but costs much less than it’s similarly incarnated competitors. It’s 2-inch LCD screen can display video in both portrait and landscape modes, which is a handy little feature for watching widescreen material.

This model sports a camera as well as being a great music phone. The Nokia 5300 XpressMusic has one of the most comprehensive music player software and setups available. The music player functions like a real MP3 player, allowing you to slice and dice and randomly assemble your playlists easily, without a lot of unnecessary deleting. It also has a true random track selection option, rather than cycling through about 10 songs as most music-capable phones are wont to do. The music controls on the Nokia 5300 XpressMusic are seperate buttons directly under the user's thumb. The music controls are actual separate buttons on the phone, so you won’t accidentally dial Grandmother’s while selecting your favorite PussyCat Dolls track. And there’s a MicroSD Card slot under the battery cover, so you’ll have 1GB of music with you wherever you go. This phone is truly a music lover’s treat, but those of you out there who just appreciate a good song and a pretty phone will get a kick out of it, too.

Sony Ericsson W880i Walkman Phone
This phone probably won’t even get picked up by a US domestic market carrier. But we’ve got it! If you are looking for one of the sleekest, slickest, and most exclusive music player phones out there, get the Sony Ericsson Walkman W880i. NO ONE else is going to have this one, we promise. Measuring only 0.37-Inches thick and decked out with a stainless steal finish, the W880i is pretty damn hot. Coming in a choice of burnished metallic silver or flame-black, the W880i carries up to 900 songs via the 1GB Memory Stick Micro Flash card. There’s also a 2.0 Megapixel camera, stereo Bluetooth capability, and an integrated Web Browser that can support RSS feeds for news hounds on the go. If individuality is important to you, this is the phone of choice. Trust me.