Is a music mobile a real iPod rival?

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August 2007 Page 54-55

I was very disappointed to see that this review did not include the Nokia N91. The Nokia reviewed (5300) is lower in the range, and thus the review is not fair to Nokia's overall product range. If there was any concern about this being an expensive phone, I should point out that it is available free on many contracts (I know this because it was free on my contract over a year ago). I also note that you have reviewed the model in the past, yet it does not even appear in the mp3 section of your buyers guide. If you have any concern that you would be reviewing too many Nokia phones, I should point out that you did review two Sony Ericsson phones. Also, since the release of the N91, there has been released an updated version with 8GB of storage.

Also, I'm not sure that the phrase in the HTC review is helpful "even movies sound pretty good thanks to WMV support" is helpful. Support of a particular video format does not equal high quality sound in video playback. Firstly, the MP4 video format supported by many other phones can include the modern audio codec MPEG 4 AAC. Secondly the sound quality of the video will vary with the bitrate it is encoded at. And thirdly, the sound quality will depend on the quality of decoding by the phone and the other electronics that handle the output. It is fine for you to say it supports WMV and the movie sound quality is good, but I do not think you should link these two matters with "thanks to", as you did in the review.

Unfortunately, this is not the first problem with your magazine. If your review quality does not improve, I will have to seriously consider cancelling my subscription.

 

[Anonymous]

Woah there martineyles. Let's not do anything hasty.

When we were arranging this group test, we asked a number of phone manufacturers to supply us with 'Music Phones' for testing. The model that Nokia chose to send us was the 5300. Presumably this was the phone the company felt best suited the test. We actually requested an N91 as well, but unfortunately Nokia was unable to provide us with one in time for the test. We've been told the upgraded version is on the way. When it arrives we'll be taking a good look at it.

Your second point about the wording in the HTC review is a valid one. We were intending to comment that the wmv support meant that the P3600 was able to play better quality video than those phones that support only MP4 (which we feel is a generally poorer format and was certainly less-than-brilliant when played on the phones in the test). Unfortunately, during the editing process the sentence was amended and inadvertently ended up referring to the sound quality rather than video. The person responsible has been subjected to 20 lashes and sent to the corner of the office.

 

[Anonymous]

Just a couple more things.

Can you respond specifically to this point "I also note that you have reviewed the model in the past, yet it does not even appear in the mp3 section of your buyers guide.".

Also, a tip for the future. If there is an item you can't get hold of, it might be useful to have a boxout saying you weren't able to get the item for review, so your readers know why a particular item is not there. I realise that page space is limited, but I think there's probably enough for a small a text only box.

 

[Clare Newsome]

Hi there,

We're in the process of redesigning the Buyer's Guide to include new categories and specs for products - including mobile phones - which is why they're temporarily missing. Apologies for that.

And thanks for the feedback re missing products in tests. We do try and mention is in the intro text of larger tests, but it's worth bearing in mind for the smaller round-up tests, too.