The Sharp GX20 operates on the Vodafone Live service, and replaces the Sharp GX10. The clamshell mobile has the same sleek look as the GX10, and basically has the same feature set, with only slight improvements.
The GX20 measures 48 x 26 x 94 mm and weighs 102 grams. On the front of the phone is a small 65 colour LCD screen 60 x 80 pixels in size. As well as displaying date, time and other information it can be set to display the wallpaper of your choice. This screen can also be set to display the image the camera is taking, which is how you take pictures of yourself.
Opening the clamshell reveals the main screen, which is a 65k colour 240 x 360 pixel LCD, which Vodafone claims is a resolution four times higher than the GX10. The screen does look amazing, and displays images clearly. It is also backlit, and is easy to see in bright daylight. The GX20 has the normal mobile keypad, on/off keys, two softkeys, a five-way arrow key and a Vodafone Live dedicated hotkey.
Being a "next-gen" phone, the GX20 has a digital and movie camera installed. The digital still VGA CCD camera operates at 350K pixels, and works with the screen in taking images with 65K colours. In addition to the landscape/portrait macro dial mentioned earlier the mobile has the ability to adjust exposure, making the image lighter or darker. There are three different sizes offered: small (120 x 160), medium (240 x 320) and large (480 x 640), and the picture quality can be set to normal or fine.
We found the images taken with the camera could be really good, if all the conditions are met. For example, both the phone and the subject have to be very still or the image is blurry, and sometimes the camera seems to capture the image a few seconds after you press the button, which can be annoying.
The ability to change the viewfinder to the LCD on the front of the phone is useful for taking pictures of yourself, and the delay timer allows you to set up the camera and leap into the picture yourself. Of course, setting up the camera can be difficult since the mobile -- a clamshell -- naturally has the camera pointing towards the ground if it's laid down flat on something. The "flash" is useful for taking pictures in the dark, and the different lights can add interesting tints to the images.
The video camera seems to have a lower resolution than the still images, and can take 20 seconds of MPEG4 video. This can be sent to another compatible phone or to an e-mail address, but the receiver will need to download software from Philips to see it.
Naturally, the phone comes with polyphonic ringtones, which can be downloaded from the Vodafone Live site (for a fee) and sound pretty good.
The GX20 allows you to link several SMS messages together to send one with 1024 characters, and the messages are easy to type once you work out the keys. You can send an SMS to five different people at once. The mobile also has MMS capability, which Vodafone calls PXT.
Multimedia messages are easy to create, utilising a menu option to add pictures, sounds and video clips from the relative albums. Bear in mind the objects have to be saved before you create the message, and you may not be able to include objects you've downloaded from Vodafone Live. That's right - they're DRM protected. MMS messages can be sent to up to 10 different people at once.
The mobile includes three MMS templates (Birthday, Christmas, Love) which are reasonably tacky. The phone also includes the ability to cut, copy and paste text, which we can see as being useful.
Vodafone claim you can send and receive up to 1000kb by MMS, and you can send these to e-mail accounts as well. We managed to send many MMS to our e-mail account successfully, but we did have some disappear into the ether never to be seen again. If you're particularly keen on someone receiving a message, make sure you keep the components until you've confirmed they have received it.
The GX20 has a 'memory status' option in the menu, which allows you to see how much space you have left and which folders are chewing up the bytes. Since the phone automatically saves messages you send, this is the most likely culprit.
The GX20 supports Java VSCL 1.1, which allows for some nifty applications. Many of these will be games, which can be downloaded from Vodafone Live (for a fee). The games are pretty good, with clear visuals and fast, responsive game play.
The mobile comes with standard applications such as calendar, alarm, calculator, and voice memo. The applications folder also includes 'Phone help', which details all the hotkeys that are included with the phone.
The contacts folder on the phone can accommodate 500 entries of numbers and e-mail addresses, although two numbers for the one person will take up two entries. You can also assign pictures and ringtones to a contact, which is fun.
The GX20 is a tri-band GSM phone, working on 900,1800 and 1900 MHz. It also has IR connectivity, WAP, GPRS and a data cable to link to your computer. The battery lasted around two and a half days of normal usage, which is pretty good considering the power of the screen. Using Vodafone Live chews through power pretty quickly though, so a heavy user of the service can expect to have to recharge the battery more often.
The Sharp GX20 is a spectacular phone and presents the features offered by Vodafone Live in a good way. The AU$1,049 price tag might put you off, unless you're happy to go on a plan.
Sharp GX20
Company: Sharp
Price: AU$1,049
Distributor: Vodafone Stores
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Can I please have one? Please?