EISA presents its mobile category winners

Aug 16, 2008 11:09 GMT  ·  By

Except the fact that they're all on the high-end side, HTC Touch Diamond, Sony Ericsson W980 and Samsung G810 don't have too much in common. Still, these three handsets have been recently awarded by the European Imaging and Sound Association (EISA) as the best mobile devices in their category.

More exactly, for 2008/2009, EISA declared that:

- Sony Ericsson W980 is the "European music phone";

- HTC Touch Diamond is the "European smart phone";

- and Samsung G810 is the "European photo phone".

These awards will surely bring "more fame" to the handsets and each comes to recognize the advanced quality of the products.

Available on the European market since July, Sony Ericsson W980 seems to be the best Walkman phone ever released by the Swedish-Japanese company. The EISA description for the clamshell says, "Who could resist this piano-black Walkman-series phone? It's a quad-band handset loaded with 8 GB of internal memory, a 3.2 Megapixel camera, an FM tuner, Bluetooth stereo, and a music player that operates even with the phone flip-lid closed. Opened out, the handset reveals its 2.2-inch QVGA display with 262k colors and stunning picture quality. One incredibly valuable innovation is the built-in FM radio transmitter. This broadcasts phone-based music playback to a standard car radio, even transferring artist and track details via RDS. The music player handles a wide variety of audio file formats, and automatically sorts tracks according to a range of criteria. Finally, two excellent features are the SenseMe and Shake control. These group tracks by mood, enabling track changes and entire playlist shuffling with just a simple flick of the hand".

HTC Touch Diamond is surely one of the hottest Windows Mobile devices of 2008, and its mix of good-looks and high-end features has already attracted lots of mobile users. "The Touch Diamond's glossy, shiny case contains an operating system based on Windows Mobile v6.1 Pro, enhanced with a new 3D TouchFlo interface. Images on the 2.8-inch VGA touch-screen are very sharp and clear, making the Touch Diamond a refreshing and rewarding device to use. No user will want for anything in terms of functions, since HTC has included a 3.2 Megapixel camera, 4GB of internal memory, an FM radio and GPS navigation. Connectivity options include HSDPA, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and USB. By achieving such slick looks and performance, the Touch Diamond is a clear winner," states EISA.

Samsung G810 (or SGH-G810) is the oldest of the three award-winning handsets (if we can call old a product released in April this year). Although Samsung has, since July, presented an even better camera phone (the 8 Megapixel Innov8), G810 remains a top option for all  those who want a camera-meets-mobility solution. "Only a few years ago the SGH-810's features would have been unimaginable on anything but a high-spec camera," EISA says. "It offers 5 Megapixel resolution from its CMOS sensor, and protects its optical 3x zoom lens with a sliding cover. Image quality is surprisingly good in bright light, while in low-light conditions the xenon flash is a real bonus. Numerous camera-style photo functions include auto focus with face detection, panoramic mode, macro capabilities, multi-shot mode, digital image stabilization and red-eye reduction. Plus the SGH-810 device also includes Wi-Fi connectivity, GPS Geo-tagging, USB, an earphone socket and a slot for microSD memory cards. Best of all, it manages to look at once both elegant and robust."

There's not much else to say for now, save for the fact that we're curious to see what next year will bring in terms of EISA-awarded handsets. Maybe some Nokia, LG or RIM devices will be among the appreciated products - we'll see.

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Sony Ericsson W980
Samsung G810HTC Touch Diamond
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