Samsung BizBee

What is the Samsung BizBee? A phone? Sort of. But really the word "BizBee" refers to a new sub-brand that Samsung have created to sell messaging smartphones.

Does this sound silly? Well, remember that "BlackBerry" is actually a sub-brand of RIM (Research in Motion). We suppose that Samsung want to make the "BizBee" brand well known in the same way.

"Samsung BizBee" represents a range of mobile phones that offer full business connectivity and functionality wherever the user might be. And that means a lot more than taking phone calls, it means the ability to surf the web, read emails and work with documents. And although Samsung have not explicitly said that the BizBee concept will run on Windows Mobile, the first BizBee phone certainly does.

So, what fabulous new handset have Samsung come up with to promote the BizBee range? Step forward.. the Samsung i780. Wait a minute.. haven't we seen this phone somewhere before? Yes - the Samsung i780 was announced a year ago in an industry where a year equals a product lifetime. Fortunately, the i780 is an excellent phone, but it is just a shame that Samsung couldn't come up with something completely new.

The Samsung BizBee i780 isn't exactly the same as the original i780, because it has now been "refreshed" (or if you prefer, "warmed over") with Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional. That's on top of a smartphone that combines a 320 x 320 pixel 2.6" touchscreen and QWERTY keyboard, comes with WiFi, HSDPA and GPS support.

We don't really like the "BizBee" name, but we have said for a long time that Samsung need to make their range easier to understand, and BizBee will certainly help.

Nokia 6260

Nokia 6260 Slide

The Nokia 6260 Slide is one of the most important handsets launched by Nokia this year, but annoyingly it is one that is hampered by a completely unmemorable model number that has been used before.

The Nokia 6260 Slide features a 5 megapixel camera, a high-resolution 320 x 480 pixel (HVGA) display, HSDPA and HSUPA high-speed data, WiFi and GPS. What's unusual is that all of these features are running on a standard Series 40 device, rather than a high-end S60 smartphone which makes the 6260 Slide the most powerful Series 40 device ever made, and the first S40 handset from Nokia to have integrated GPS.

In other words, these are high-end features that you would usually find in an expensive N-Series handset, repackaged into a phone that has genuine mass-market appeal. It's not a particularly cheap phone with an estimated retail price of €299 before tax and subsidy, but then that is about half the price of the Nokia N96 but with most of the really useful features still included.