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Sharp TM100 Review

If the Sharp GX30 is a phone that aimed to achieve the paramount technical superiority in the clammshell camera phone category (and did it with an impressive success), with the Sharp TM100 Sharp makes their debut in an altogether different genre aiming to create a popular middle-range camera phone in a sliding candy-bar format.

The Sharp TM100 is a Tri-band GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz, with support for GPRS (class 10) and WAP 2.0 it also supports Java platform. Mobile connectivity is provided by supporting SMS and MMS picture messaging. It has an overall good battery life with talktime of up to 3 hrs and impressive standby time of up to 200 hrs plus just about 2 hrs charge time. PC connectivity is via Infrared (IrDA) port. Measuring 49 x 100 x 22 mm (with retracted keypad), weight 105 g, it is both well-proportioned and compact.

The style of the phone is strangely reminescent of the Sony Ericsson T610 and Sony Ericsson T630 but not without a surprise. At the first glance it puzzles you by an apparent abcence of the keypad, not being so brave to get rid of the keypad altogether Sharp decided to take a path first opened by the Nokia 7650 and later on developed in the Siemens SL55. They put a sliding mechanism into the phone and when you shift the top upwards it reveals a rather comfortably looking keypad that can be used for dialing as well as texting. At the same time, for many functions like call answering or taking pictures you do not really need to open the keypad at all.
Similarly to Sharp GX20 and Sharp GX30 it features a brilliant Sharp's own Ultra-high resolution QVGA 240 x 320 pixels, 262144 colour system CGS LCD display (among the competitors so far only the Samsung P-730 offers a similar display unit).
The digital camera unit seems to be borrowed almost entirely from the Sharp GX20 with VGA 640x480 (310k) pixel CCD digital camera with a 3 stage digital zoom, macro mode and 3 picture sizes (small: 120 x 160 dot, medium: 240 x 320 dot or large: 480 x 640 dot). And in addition to all of these, the Sharp TM100 camera packs some advanced features too. It includes a good variety of integrated frames and graphics for individual editing of pictures. It also has 4x digital zoom and on top of it there is the macro/micro dial near the lens on the outside allowing to optimise the camera for distant shots like landscapes or close-ups like portraits. There is a small mirror beside the camera making it easier to take self-portpaits. It also has manual brightness and resolution adjustment. The circular protrusion on the outside shell acts as an inbuilt LED flash. And the flash can also be used as a torch light! The camcorder function also supports video recording so you can capture short video clips and play them on your PC.

The Mobile Fun side of the phone is well-advanced too having polyphonic ringtones (40 tones) with ringtones composer, in-built alarm clock, stopwatch, calendar, calculator, Email, screensaver, wallpaper (supporting JPEG wallpaper display), and games and support for downloadable applications, games, Java Games, logos and ring tones. You can also watch news, film trailers and sport clips on the multi-format digital audio player.

All in all, it is a brilliant camera phone in the middle range with some star features like an excellent display and very advanced camera functionality. Perhaps Sharp slightly missed the target by not introducing Bluetooth in this model, which considering the popularity of BlueJacking among the intended audience could be a drawback, but set against the obvious bunch of advantages offered by the Sharp TM100 this looks really insignificant and besides is likely to be corrected in Sharp's future models.

Released in UK initially only on T-mobile network this version provides tight intedration with T-mobile t-zones (Click Here to buy direct from T-mobile) but soon the Sharp TM100 is likely to make a second entry as a SIM-free or network-free version but it seems this variety will be marketed under a different name, perhaps not with TM index seemingly standing for T-mobile.

Look also for Ringtones, Java Games, Wallpapers, Screensavers, Logos and Accessories for your Sharp TM100!

Sharp TM100 Deals

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