Car Review: Peugeot 308 2.0 HDi 136 GT

When it comes to competing for a slice of the UK family car market, there are no half measures. And that is exactly why Peugeot has pulled out all the stops to get its new challenger here in record time.Only last week we carried a world first drive of the new 308, and now we?ve tried a right-hand-drive model in Britain. How come it?s here so soon?You don?t need us to tell you that September is a key month for new car sales, and Peugeot didn?t want to miss out on a large chunk of business, so bosses decided to bring production of right-hookers forward.

The new family hatchback is the first Peugeot of the ?8? generation, and while it doesn?t represent a massive departure from the 307, it?s reasonably attractive, with a redefined front end and curvier shape at the rear. As with Mercedes? latest C-Class, the nose and tail get different treatments dep-ending on which model you go for.

Under the skin, the 308 uses the same platform as its predecessor, so the car?s overall dimensions haven?t changed a great deal. In fact, boot space has risen by only seven litres and rear legroom remains modest.

Yet the Peugeot feels deceptively large inside ? and that?s all thanks to the Cielo glass roof, a feature that?s standard on the top two of the five trim levels and optional on the rest.

The French firm desperately wanted to enhance interior quality on its fam-ily hatchback, and has succeeded. The one-piece dash moulding, which has five chrome-ringed air vents set into it, looks and feels great, and is better designed and more tactile than the effort in the 307. There are a couple of black marks against the newcomer, though: the right-hand-drive version has no footrest for the driver?s clutch leg, while the glovebox is tiny.

Buyers have six engines to choose from. We drove the top-of-the-range 136bhp 2.0 HDi, which is currently the only model to feature a six-speed gearbox. The diesel engine is refined, but could have done with being updated, because it lacks real grunt, with the power tailing off too early in the rev range. It doesn?t help that, despite the modest size gains, the 308 tips the scales by at least an additional 60kg across the board.

Still, that extra weight has not dented the car?s road manners too badly. While it?s far from sporty, the Peugeot is very capable, with a fine balance of ride quality and handling, plus excellent cruising ability.

It?s a strong vehicle, too, and has already earned itself a five-star rating in Euro NCAP crash tests. Prices start at �12,595 for the five-door 308, with three-door versions costing �600 less when they arrive here in December.

RIVAL: VW GOLF 2.0 TDI GT

While it?s not as well equipped, the equivalent Golf ? the 2.0 TDI GT Sport ? is considerably cheaper than the Peugeot, at �18,887. We still think the VW has the edge for build quality, too, and it?s a great car to own, thanks in no small part to its superb resale values. But the diesel engine isn?t the smoothest around and the car doesn?t have the 308?s polished road manners.

Other Peugeot Cars:
+ In Flux: Peugeot Flux concept coming to 2007 Frankfurt Motor Show
+ 2007 Frankfurt Motor Show Preview: Citroen C5 Airscape - full details, hi-res gallery
+ Drive Experience: Citroen C-Crosser Exclusive HDi
+ Peugeot asks, "Parlez-vous TT?" with 308 RC Z Coupe Concept
+ Peugeot's 4007 Off-Roader Has Car-Like Handling And A Torquey, Refined Engine
+ Citroen's 2CV is back!
+ First Drives Experience-Peugeot 207 GTi
+

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Asus P526 reviewed

Our friends at Trusted Reviews have spent some quality time with the Asus P526, but the results weren't really all that impressive. Operating on the Windows Mobile 6 Professional platform, this smartphone might look dashing but it doesn't really impress where specifications are concerned. Sure, you get a light 115 gram body, a microSD memory card slot, a 2 megapixel camera, and a decent GPS receiver, but the P526 fails miserably where processor and memory allocation are concerned. At 200Mhz, this definitely isn't a speed demon, while 128MB of onboard memory is but a pittance these days making the microSD card a must. What's worse is the USB 1.1 connection that was supposed to be extinct quite a while ago. Definitely worth avoiding as you can get way better bang for your buck out there.

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Review: Moto Razr2, Q9m fail to excite

Motorola (NYSE:MEU) (NYSE:MOT) rode high for a while on sales of its slim, stylish Razr phone. When its competitive edge started to dull, the company set its hopes on the Q, a BlackBerry-like e-mail phone, which it initially thought would sell as well as the Razr.

Now, with Motorola's position as the world's No. 2 cell-phone maker in jeopardy, it has brought out a thoroughly reworked Razr, and jazzed up its Q with more music-oriented features.

Unfortunately for Motorola, neither of the new phones feels like a winner that's going to bolster the company's stock price, which is down 35 percent from its high of $26.30 set last year.

I tested samples of the MotoRazr2 and Moto Q music 9m for a few weeks, taking help from colleagues who were or are users of the original Razr, which was launched in 2004. Overall, we weren't seriously tempted with either of the new phones, though some improvements are noticeable.

We started out with one Razr2 from each of the three largest carriers: AT&T Inc. (NYSE:SBT) (NYSE:T) , Verizon (NYSE:VZC) (NYSE:VZ) Wireless (NYSE:VOD) and Sprint (NYSE:FON) Nextel Corp. AT&T charges $300 for the phone with a 2-year contract, the others charge $50 less.

The Razr2 is thinner than its ancestor, but slightly longer. One former Razr user said it felt 'too big,' but this is mostly an illusion. It's created by the Razr2's sturdy feel, which is reinforced by heavy-duty metal hinge and by its heft. It weighs 4.6 ounces, about an ounce more than the Razr, depending on the model.

Overall, it does feel slightly less pocketable than the Razr, and it's harder to flip it open elegantly with one hand.

The other immediately noticeable difference is the large color LCD screen on the outside of the clamshell. At 2 inches diagonal, it's just slightly smaller than the inside screen. It's not exactly a touch screen, but it does have three touch-sensitive areas, with different functions depending on the carrier-specific model. For instance, the Sprint phone has buttons for the mobile TV, music player and camera functions.

Sadly, the outside screen is a mostly wasted feature, though one of us liked it for controlling music. The touch-sensitive buttons are vexing to use, and poorly programmed. For instance, you can activate the 2-megapixel camera and take pictures, but only of yourself, because both the screen and the lens will be facing you. And then you can't get out of camera mode using the outside screen -- you have to open the phone and hit a button.

And what is it we like about clamshell phones anyway? That's right -- that we don't have to lock their keypads before slipping them in our pockets or bags. With the Razr2, you do have to lock the buttons on the outside screen (by pressing and holding a button), at least if you were playing music before closing up the phone. On several occasions, a closed phone started serenading our pockets before we figured this out.

The rest of the interface is clunky, but works. We didn't really take to the TV and music-downloading features that rely on the carriers' cellular broadband networks. The video clips are still small and jerky, and the music selections hard to navigate.

The best part of the Razr2 may be CrystalTalk, a technology that improves incoming and outgoing sound quality in noisy areas like restaurants and trains. Another nice feature: you don't need to teach the phone to recognize specific phrases for voice-activated dialing -- just read out a phone number or say the name of a contact.

The rated standby time for the Razr2 is 330 hours, or two weeks. That might be true under the best of circumstances -- in light use, we recharged the phones every four days. The Verizon Wireless model, however, wouldn't hold a charge for more than a few hours, so we got a replacement. It only held a charge for 24 hours. This is worrisome, but it appears to be a fluke -- neither Motorola nor Verizon said they had heard reports of power problems. Certainly, if a brand new phone acts like this, return it to the store.

The Q9m is only available on Verizon, and costs $200, though there's an additional $50 mail-in rebate available. It has a very tough act to follow: Apple Inc.'s iPhone launched two months ago and, as far as I'm concerned, slapped the smart-phone category silly with its large screen and fantastic interface.

The Q9m does have three things on the iPhone:
-- A good hardware QWERTY keyboard, probably the best I've seen on a smart phone. The buttons are rubberized and gentle on the fingertips.

-- Access to Verizon's broadband network, with makes for faster e-mail retrieval than AT&T's poky Edge network from AT&T.

-- Since it has Windows software, it's easier to get work e-mail on it. I was, however, not able to test this.

So as an e-mail device, the Q9m is serviceable, but the main reason Motorola and Verizon updated the original Q -- which came out just last year -- is to make it more of a music player. It has access to Verizon's Vcast music store, and there's a choice of two different top menus, one of which is more music-oriented.

I would much rather have had one top menu that worked really well. The Q9m lacks a touch screen and instead relies on a side-mounted BlackBerry-style scrollwheel. Combined with the sluggish Windows Mobile software, this makes the phone just too slow, clunky, and confusing. Important features are hidden and screen space is wasted.

The best I can say about the Q9m is that if I was issued one for work, it wouldn't be much of a burden. But after the iPhone, everyone really needs to work a lot harder to impress with a smart phone.

As for the Razr2, if you're like most people and want a phone mostly to talk on, it's not a bad choice, though it may be hard to justify paying $200 to $300 more than you would for an original Razr.

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New Sony Ericsson K850 review

This time the K850 was reviewed by the mighty gsmarena site which are famous for their long indepth reviews. The review contains lots of pics and sample camera pics so it's definitely worth checking out. HEre are the advantages, disadvantages and conclusion.

Key features
5 MP autofocus camera with automatic lens cap and three dedicated hardware keys
Tri-band HSDPA (3.6 Mb), EDGE.
New Media Center, smart search, Manage Messages application
Monolith body with digicam-like battery cover
Brand new three soft keys
Innovative D-pad layout
Dedicated call and end keys
Large crystal-clear 2.2" display
Memory card slot with hot swap functionality
FM radio with RDS
Bluetooth (with A2DP)
Multi-tasking support

Main disadvantages
Awkward D-pad
Reversed soft key funtions, atypical for Sony Ericsson
No Wi-Fi and infrared
Fingerprint magnet

Final Words
We believe the Sony Ericsson K850 lives up to the responsibility of being a landmark product in the company portfolio. With rich camera settings, the K850 comes incredibly close to stand-alone digital cameras. The novelties in navigation suggest the K850 will not resort to simply being an upgrade to older Cyber-shot handsets and will be aiming beyond the brand-loyal consumers. However, the first 5 megapixel Cyber-shot will be forced to handle a lot of pressure. It's been a year since Nokia N95 was introduced, which indisputably outruns K850 in non-cam features. Other tempting 5 megapixel mobiles as LG KU990, Samsung G600, Samsung F700, and Nokia N95 8GB will soon be crowding the cameraphone market. With an expected price tag of about 430 Euro, some users will think twice before buying a K850 at its very release. If the mentioned rival phones get launched at the same time, the domination of Sony Ericsson K850 will put to a serious test.

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Sony Ericsson T650 review

Mobile-review posted an excellent review of the Sony Ericsson T650 with loads of pics and videos. Here is the final impression/conclusion for all of you that are too lazy to read the whole review.

Impressions
Despite the polyphony being 72-tone, the handset does not provide a breakthrough in sounding of mp3 tunes as compared to other Sony Ericsson branded phones. The loudspeaker is average volume-wise and has a great deal of basses in its sounding, so the call is easily heard even on the streets. The silent alert is of moderate power or even slightly higher than this, but even this admission isn?t an excuse for the cases when it proves too weak to be felt. The reception part is in line with other products by the company ? in other words, it?s very fine.

The handset started shipping early in September for 380-420 Euro. Looking at the T650i from the standpoint of functionality and competition inside the Sony Ericsson?s portfolio, it is way too much ? you may well call it overpriced. But since its design might actually get someone fall in love with it, the price matters take a back seat and lose any meaning. Curiously, the T650i is almost like the Motorola PEBL, with its positioning, the way we look at it and so on. As you might remember the PEBL was all but a failure and then got pushed out of the market with one of its final price tags a tad heftier than 130 USD. The Sony Ericsson T650i is very unlikely to share the same destiny, but one this is for sure- the company will adjust its price, because as it stands now, this is a very niche offering that won?t generate significant sales.

For example Nokia has a strong understanding of how the conjuncture has changed lately and offers its own fashion-conscious models at mid-range price point ? namely Nokia 7500/7900 Prism. They charge less for these, and the specifications are a tad worse, for example the camera module, but is this what a fashion-savvy solution is all about? Sony Ericsson hasn?t embedded its very best camera either. It turns out that the company?s first attempt to foray into the segment of fashion-conscious phones is, if not a failure, not ever-so successful. This is some helpful experience for Sony Ericsson, so let?s hope the impending devices will be more eye-catching, offering ?pure fashion? for their money.

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