Helio Ocean
As is standard around here, as soon as we added a Cingular 8525 to our cell phone arsenal here at Bachleorchic (and signed our lives away for the next two years), something much sleeker dropped from Helio. By now, you’ve probably heard about the Helio Ocean ($415), it makes T-Mobile’s sidekick look dated in comparison. This is all thanks, in no small part, to its dual sliding design which allows the Ocean to slide out a full QWERTY keyboard or just a standard numbers pad. It also packs what is quite possibly, the best implementation of various messaging and email clients and a speedy full HTML web browser courtesy of 3G compliance. The only drawback is that it’s a CDMA phone, not a GSM, which may be a problem for some users.
Samsung M620 “Upstage”
Sprint recently announced that they would be carrying the Samsung M620 Upstage ($100 with a new contract), a phone that literally has two faces. One side gives you your standard dial pad and a small LCD for displaying call data, the reverse side however sports a larger screen and dedicated mp3 controls. The phone is indeed capable of displaying phone information on the “music face”, so don’t panic. The Upstage is pretty slick and slim, so it’s easy to pocket, and it comes with a leather case that extends battery life. Those of us that use Sprint have often maligned Sprint for refusing to jump on new, cool phones, instead of choosing to wait 6 months before getting sloppy seconds, but it looks like they may have done something right this time.
Nokia 8800 Sirocco Gold
There are luxury phones and then there are luxury phones, the Nokia 8800 Sirocco Gold is one of the latter… we think. Nokia already produces a silver and black version of the 8800, which aren’t exactly a technophile’s wet dream, but deliver plenty of chic for those that are easily entranced by shiny objects, such as ourselves. The gold version (which really is coated in 18-carat gold, not just some facsimile) is the new kid on the block, and touting a hefty $1300 price tag, you better start saving up that milk money if you had any plans to own one. A nice, scratch-resistant screen capable of displaying 262k colors, a 2MP camera and bluetooth capabilities will easily get the job done for most people craving this fashion phone.