Cingular Music
Intro:
Positives: Cingular Music is the first mobile music subscription service for GSM carriers. You can download tunes using existing subscriptions to Napster, Yahoo Music, and eMusic, and you can stream music via MobiRadio. You also get access to XM Satellite Radio, a music identifier service, and a selection of community-created content. Music selection is wide and varied, and audio quality on our test device was high. Negatives: Cingular Music does not let you download songs directly to the cell phone; you have to download the music to a PC and then transfer them via a USB cable. We also experienced buffering issues in a few of the streaming music applications. Facts: Cingular Music is certainly a viable and attractive alternative to the other mobile music services on the market, thanks to its ability to be used with existing music subscription services and access to cool applications such as MobiRadio and XM Satellite radio. However, it is unfortunate you cannot download songs over the air.
Cingular Music
Long after Verizon and Sprint launched their music download services, Cingular finally has released its own mobile music solution, aptly titled Cingular Music. As the first mobile music solution for GSM carriers, it's poised to take advantage of the carrier's expanding high-speed 3G data network. On the downside, only a few cell phones support this service so far and you must buy the Cingular Music Bundle to use the service. While Cingular's partner-focused approach seems like a smart move, you still have to download the songs to your PC and transfer them to your phone via USB. In the bundle are a stereo earbud headset, a USB cable, and a software CD. The Music Bundle costs $39.99. Unlike its competitors, Cingular Music is not a music store from which you can download songs. Cingular Music instead acts as a kind of portal to different sources of music. From the main Cingular Music menu, you can select "Shop Music," which leads you to a browser page listing the various music stores available. Cingular has partnered up with existing online music subscription services such as Napster To Go, Yahoo Music, and eMusic to offer the consumer an incredibly wide music selection. We can't help but applaud this model--instead of forcing the consumer to purchase exorbitantly priced songs (a track from Sprint's store is $2.50, while a song from V Cast Music is around $1.99), you can simply pay a flat monthly fee to the subscription service of your choice for an all-you-can-eat music experience--the Napster To Go subscription fee is $14.96 a month, while a Yahoo Music subscription is $11.99 a month. The Napster To Go model does include a new service called Napster Mobile, which lets you preview and buy songs from your phone for $0.99, which is still far cheaper than the other stores. It does not cost extra to download the songs from Yahoo Music, however. While Napster To Go and Yahoo Music are included in all phones, the eMusic content is specialized specifically for Cingular's aforementioned Sony Ericsson phones. Consumers who buy a Sony Ericsson Walkman phone from Cingular can get a free "in box" offer for up to 50 songs from eMusic. Music downloaded from Napster To Go and Yahoo Music is laced with Windows Media DRM, but the music from eMusic is DRM-free. Unfortunately, there is a huge catch to this. Songs purchased or added from the phone cannot actually be downloaded over the air directly to the phone--you still have to download the song to your PC and then transfer it via a USB cable. For example, after we bought a song from Napster Mobile (you have to enter in your e-mail address and your phone number in the purchasing process), we received an e-mail that includes a URL link to download the song. So you can't even have the song waiting for you in your computer--you still have to click the URL link, which prompts the download. This is a pretty big flaw in the concept of mobile music, and we hope that Cingular Music adds over-the-air downloads in the future. If you need music immediately but don't want to go through the bother of downloading songs, you have a few streaming music options. Cingular Music provides access to MobiRadio, a streaming radio station, as well as 25 XM Satellite radio channels for $8.99 a month. You also can view streaming music videos from MTV and VH1. Though not related to the music category, you also can catch short clips from other variety shows from MTV and VH1, such as Best Week Ever and Celebreality. Other applications available on Cingular Music include MusicID, a song identification service, access to industry news thanks to Billboard Mobile, and access to music fan sites in the community section. We used Cingular Music with the Cingular Sync (Samsung SGH-A707), though it also works with the LG CU500, the Sony Ericsson W810i, the Sony Ericsson W300i, and the Cingular 3125. We experienced pretty good audio quality via the included earbuds, though we can't say the same for the speakers. We loved the wide music selection from the aforementioned stores, and the streaming music available was not too shabby either. The interface of the music player appeared rather generic, but it was intuitive enough for our purposes. You can create playlists, and have repeat and shuffle modes. We were disappointed with the lack of an equalizer though. While the Cingular Music experience has some serious flaws, overall we were very pleased with the variety of music options available. The music subscription model seems to lend itself very well to a cell phone experience, since it would no longer be so cost prohibitive to have tracks downloaded to the phone. This, combined with streaming music and XM Satellite radio, definitely make Cingular Music a viable competitor in the mobile music market. We just hope they fix the ability to download music to the phone.
Our recommendation: Buy
Reviewed by James Galindo - St. Thomas, North Dakota
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In our lab: Helio Kickflip
Intro:
Positives: The Helio Kickflip is a very attractive phone with a nice swivel design. It features a beautiful display, a 2-megapixel camera with flash and a 4X digital zoom, a music and video player, a user-friendly interface, EV-DO support, and great audio quality. It also comes with tight MySpace integration, plus an optional newsfeed aggregator. Negatives: The Helio Kickflip lacks Bluetooth and instant-messaging options--especially disappointing in light of the high price tag. Helio's download store doesn't offer music at this time, and the Helio on Top aggregator doesn't allow the manual addition of feeds. We also experienced subpar call quality with the Kickflip. Facts: The attractive Helio Kickflip offers high-end features, such as a 2-megapixel camera and EV-DO support, and is the better phone of the carrier's two offerings. Unfortunately, it's plagued by the lack of Bluetooth and instant-messaging options; plus, the call quality is subpar.
Helio Kickflip
Editor's Note: As of August 2006, Helio has released an update to the Kickflip that adds an instant-messaging feature to the phone. It was not available at the time of this review. Along with the Hero, the Kickflip is one of two models released by brand-new cell phone carrier Helio, which launched in May 2006. A joint effort by EarthLink and Korea-based SK Telecom, Helio is a mobile virtual network operator that rides on Sprint's high-speed EV-DO network, while offering its own line of phones and services. It appears to be targeting the younger crowd with its hip marketing campaign focused on Web and multimedia features, as well as the phones' unique and stylish user interface. Helio also ups its youth appeal with a feature exclusive to its phones: integrated access to the mobile version of MySpace, the popular social networking site. Manufactured by Korean company VK Mobile, the Kickflip shares many similarities with the Hero in terms of features but certainly not in design. It's definitely the slimmer and sexier of the two and is probably the one to get if you're considering a Helio phone. The Kickflip costs $250, which we find rather expensive, especially when you factor in Helio's monthly fees and its target demographic. The Helio Kickflip has a cute, curvy design. The cute and curvy Helio Kickflip is one of the more fashionable phones we've seen to date. Perhaps taking some style points from the iPod, the Kickflip has a very minimalist body; it's pearly white with silver accents around the sides, and its front face is graced by only its large display when closed. While the Kickflip won't compete with the Razr in terms of thinness, it's a pocketable phone, measuring 3.88 by 1.96 by 0.98 inches and weighing 4.47 ounces. Its rounded corners and overall curves resulted in a cozy feel in the hand, though when open, it feels a little awkward held up to the ear. The Kickflip lives up to its name; the phone's swiveling action results in a very satisfying "kick" when it swings open and close, either to the right or to the left. The Helio Kickflip has dedicated music player buttons. As we mentioned, the display on this phone is quite large, measuring about 2.2 inches diagonally. Showing off 262,000 colors and a 240x320 resolution, the QVGA screen is marvelously sharp and saturated with color. Unfortunately, it didn't fare so well in sunlight, where we were hard-pressed to see anything without shielding the screen. On the left spine of the phone are the volume buttons, a TV-out port, and a USB port, while the bottom has a Micro SD card slot and a headset jack. The right spine is home to a dedicated camera button, as well as music player controls such as rewind, play/pause, and fast-forward. The latter gives the Kickflip an advantage over the Hero, which doesn't have dedicated player buttons. On the back of the phone, you'll find the camera lens with a flash. Sitting on top of the lens is the macro mode toggle, which you can turn on to take better close-up shots--a great feature not normally found on camera phones. There's also a self-portrait mirror on the back, but it's accessible only when the phone is open. The Helio Kickflip's camera has a macro mode toggle, a flash, and a self-portrait mirror. When open, the phone reveals the keypad and the navigational controls. The navigational controls consist of two soft keys, a four-way navigation toggle, and a middle OK key marked with the Helio logo. The toggle acts as a shortcut to the browser, applications, video and music, text messaging, and the Helio on Top service. Below these controls are the Send and power/End keys, followed by a voice-recorder button and a Back button. The numeric keypad is arranged in a grid, and all buttons yielded easily to pressure and were textured enough to navigate and dial by feel. The user interface is exactly the same as the Hero's, and you can read more about it in our review. The Kickflip's feature set is also very similar to that of the Hero. You get a 2-megapixel camera with flash, the wireless browser, a music player, a voice recorder, a speakerphone, vibrate mode, EV-DO support, and a video player and recorder. The address book can hold as many as 1,200 contacts (compared to the Hero's 500), each of which can accommodate five numbers, two e-mail addresses, a birthday, an anniversary date, a memo, and photo caller ID. You can also organize your contacts into groups and assign them with one of 21 polyphonic ring tones. There are the usual text- and multimedia-messaging features, but sadly, the phone doesn't support instant messaging--a huge oversight for a phone designed for the younger crowd. Rounding out the features are e-mail, a calendar, an alarm, a calculator, world time, and a notepad. Like the Hero, the Kickflip doesn't have Bluetooth, which we found similarly disappointing. If you wish to learn more about the MySpace Mobile integration, the Helio on Top news aggregator, and the music and video player, please read our review of the Helio Hero for details on these features. The Helio Kickflip's 2-megapixel camera produced decent snapshots. The Kickflip's 2-megapixel camera comes with a slew of settings. There are six available resolutions (1,600x1,200, 1,280x960, 800x600, 640x480, 320x240, and 240x320), four quality settings (Normal, Small, Superfine, Fine), up to 5X zoom, and a series or multishot setting for up to nine consecutive snaps. You can spruce up your shots with 10 different photo "stickers," 10 brightness settings, six light settings, six capture modes, 14 photo effects, and the ability to rotate the photos. You can also choose between two shutter sounds, though you can't disable it. The camera produced decent snapshots, but we couldn't say the same about the disappointingly low 176x144 resolution on the video recorder. Like the Hero, the Kickflip has a long list of personalization options. You can change the wallpaper, the screensaver, the ring tones, the graphics, the menu styles, and so forth. You also have the choice of downloading additional ring tones and games from the Helio store. There are two games included with the phone--Hello CAT and a demo of MidnightPool3D--and you can always download more. We tested the dual-band (CDMA 800/1900; EV-DO) Kickflip in San Francisco using Helio's service. We found the call quality to be subpar, especially in our office building, where there was a lot of electronic equipment that caused quite a bit of interference. Callers could hardly hear us at times, and though we could hear them, there was a lot of static during calls. When making calls from a more isolated location, the quality was a little better, but callers still had problems hearing us. The Kickflip's speakerphone quality was similarly dismal, and music playback sounded tinny. The Kickflip comes with a wired headset that doubles as a set of earbuds for the phone's music player functions. Downloading files was fast enough, though we experienced the occasional lag. The Helio Kickflip has a rated talk time of around 3 hours and a rated standby time of up to eight days; our tests showed a talk time of 3 hours, 10 minutes and a standby time of eight days. According to FCC radiation tests, the Helio Kickflip has a digital SAR rating of 0.427 watt per kilogram.
Our recommendation: Buy
Provided by Callie Radabaugh - Weaubleau, Missouri
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