Very Exclusive Gadgets & Gizmos

The MiPhone A3 is an Android powered iPhone clone which comes with probably the best specification of any clone handset on the market at the moment. We got our hands on one to test, and found the phone to have a surprisingly well built feel, while suffering from a number of software glitches which made it a little frustrating to use at times

This Excalibur 3G Android Phone is the first higher-end, unbranded Android phone we’ve managed to get our greasy little paws on. It’s fully-featured too with a 3.2″ resistive touchscreen, GPS, camera, rotatable screen, trackball, stereo bluetooth and a pair of batteries so it should keep you out of trouble. Turns out it’s a pretty darn good phone at a good price too.

Interesting little note for those adventurers among you who fancy picking up a cheap unlocked Chinese mobile phone. There’s a new trend springing up which involves labelling phones as ‘Google Android Interface’.

These are not Android handsets, they are typically phones with an Asian operating system installed – like this SciPhone G15 – which have an Android skin bolted on to make them look and feel like the Google standard. No app support or anything like that. Caveat emptor, peeps, especially when you could be spending up to $200 for the privilege of unpacking a pony.

Want a smartphone but sans contract? The Kyocera Zio M6000 may not be the “super” smartphone that the Google Nexus One is -- but it has Android and will reportedly require no commitment by being offered by carriers such as Virgin Mobile or Cricket. The best part is how cheap it is going to be -- at $169 combined with a pre-paid plan, this is a great starter Android product.

Not sure when this is coming to Europe, but the HTC EVO launched yesterday looks like it really could be a milestone Android phone. I played around with the sister product HTC HD2 a few weeks back and was blown away by the quality of the screen and the responsiveness of the applications, and that thing uses Windows Mobile. Forget the 4G hype, it’s the rest of the EVO package that’s so exciting – 4.3 inch screen, two cameras, WiFi hotspot for up to 8 devices, 1GHz CPU, HDMI out etc etc.

This SciPhone N19 is an Android smartphone with a 2.8 inch touchscreen, WiFi, quadband, Bluetooth, 2 megapixel camera, microSD slot and 128MB of RAM. Price? $135.00 unlocked (including a 1GB memory card).

Lenove has also annoucned a Google Android system smartphone - Lenovo Lephone.
The Lenovo LePhone features include a vibrant 3.7-inch 800x480 touchscreen, 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon, a camera on both the front and back (3 megapixels for the latter), A-GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, removable battery and 3.5mm headphone jack. The best part, it has a optional keyboard accessory. the chameshell-style snap-on is very similar to the IdeaPad U1's detachable display. It will launch in China this year at first.

This Chinese Sunno S880 mobile phone looks to be pretty conventional, but hidden inside is a deep meaningful secret. It is designed to run both Windows Mobile and the Android operating system. It will ship this month with Windows 6.5 installed, and customers can update the firmware for free in a few weeks to run Android as well. Not sure whether it’s one or the other, or if the two can co-exist, but either way it’s a pretty awesome feature.

The SciPhone N21 is the world’s first dual SIM Android phone. It also comes with a 5 megapixel camera, WiFi, Bluetooth, 3 inch touch screen and something called Dual Standby, which we assume means it can flick between SIM cards on the fly. There’s no mention of 3G in the specs, so the Web function may be a little dodgy, but hey what do you expect for $215.00 (and available via Paypal)?