Welcome to the introduction page to the the phone reviews section.

The actual phone reviews can be accessed via the menu on the left grouped by the various brands.

To help you understand how we view things here’s a quick summary.

We test the phone for at least one week or 3 battery cycles before releasing the review.  We do not install any 3rd party software except for those included in the sales package or applications we have developed ourselves.  We do this so that you know how stable the phone is.

We divide phones into various categories:

Basic: Has the basic functions of a traditional phone. Calls and SMS with basic call management functions like an address book. Additional functionality like colour screens, MMS and games are considered bonuses. Price range for this category is under$150. The cheaper or more functionality they have the better they’re rated.

Entry Level: Has the functions of a basic phone with some more desirable features like camera, radio, basic MP3 player, basic media player, color screen, calendar and usable memory size. A web browser is not considered essential in the category. Price range for this category is between $150-300. The cheaper they are with more functionality they are given a better rating. However the user experience like navigation speed and so forth are now considered as part of the recommendation.

Personal: Has all the functions of a entry level phone but with even more desirable features. For example video messaging and calls, 2 cameras and so forth. A memory card slot for example is essential in this category to score a good rating. Construction materials, design, user interface are judged evenly as part of the overall recommendation.

Business: Has all the features of the personal class but tailored to business type functions. For example a web browser is essential in this category but a camera isn’t, push to talk is not essential but bluetooth is, battery life is more important than being able to make a playlist.

Luxury: This category is all about design. It has got to look expensive, use high quality materials and at least the features of a Personal class of phone. It must not be mainstream.

Geek: This category is all about functionality the more stuff it does the better the rating. These are leading edge phones that show case mobile technology when released. For example a phone with GPS is not geek class but a phone with GPS and HD TV is. Very few phones can be classed in this category.

Benchmark: These are phones which some how achieve the balance between all the various classes that make them sell heaps. These are very popular phones.