Sharp GX10

Sharp's GX10 comes with a built-in camera and plenty of other nifty features, and operates solely through Vodafone's new Live GPRS tariff.

The GX10 is a stylish silver folding device that has a small LCD display on the front, showing GSM and GPRS connection, battery life, time and whether you have a message.

The screen inside is excellent. Running at 16bit, its 2.2in diagonal screen is very clear, and good enough to play games and view pictures.

Picture messaging is superb, and incredibly easy to use. It takes just six clicks from start to finish to send a Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS) message.

The LCD's refresh rate for the built-in camera is also faster than either of the Smartphones we tested.

There are four Java games preloaded onto the handset. Games are downloadable and range in price from £1 to £5, while some are free.

Besides that, there is plenty to keep you entertained within the Vodafone Live service itself, including Wap browsing and some interesting polyphonic ringtones.

One ingenious function is Find and Seek, which locates, for example, your nearest bar or cash machine. It seems to be accurate to within about 30m, which is not fantastic in the busy streets of London but close enough.

In direct contrast to Smartphones, the fact that it lacks full internet or email (you can send MMS to email addresses, but the recipient cannot reply) means that Vodafone Live is more of a toy for socialising and using MMS.

Nevertheless, this is an excellent device for those who don't want to be tied to the office.

If you sign up now, Vodafone has waived all charges for its MMS and web services until the beginning of February.

SPECS

• Class 10 GPRS connection
• Built-in VGA digital camera
• 2in, colour, 16bit TFT LCD screen
• MMS and Java support
• T9 text input
• Wap 2.0 support

DETAILSPrice: £199.99 with contract (£170.20 ex VAT)

Contact: Vodafone

See also:

NEC e606

Video technology at your fingertips at a size that may prove more than a handful.  03 Oct 2003

Samsung SGH-A800

A darlingly dinky mobile phone for the style-conscious.  12 Mar 2003

Nokia 6610

A small and tidy phone brimming with colourful, non-phone related features.  06 Mar 2003

Motorola T720

A smart mobile phone with appealing features. Let the games commence!  31 Jan 2003

Nokia 7650

Is it a phone, a digital camera or a PDA? Nokia's 7650 tries to be all three.  15 Nov 2002

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