Product: Xera Sharp GZ200 Price: $2,980 Pros: Lightweight, fun camera options Cons: Buttons too small, and phone quite stiff to open
The GZ200, the second in the Xera lineup from Sharp, is a simple yet stylish flip phone. Although the shape and colour (dark blue and silver) are slightly masculine and reminded me a bit of a grenade, all was forgiven when I picked the phone up.
Weighing just 90 grams, it fitted comfortably in my palm and also in my pocket.
Similar to the first Xera, the functions are easy to use but the keys are a bit small when it comes to text messaging - and I don't exactly have sausage fingers. On the other hand, the large two-inch 262K colour screen is more than ample.
The large screen scores a thumbs up all around when it comes to video recording: the quality of both the picture and the sound are better than that on most other camera phones.
The 330K pixel VGA camera comes with a flash - something the GZ100 lacked - and a 4x digital zoom function, which means that, although I won't be swapping it for my digital camera any time soon, it takes perfectly acceptable photos. The photos can be transferred to other devices via a Bluetooth connection. The edit picture function provided a good 15 minutes of fun while I rotated pictures of my friends, adjusted the sizes, and retouched them to include sepia tones, ripples, tiles and embossing. I could also choose from a selection of frames and stamps to add to the photo.