Nokia N900 Vs iPhone 3GS

Nokia has its latest smartphone experiment out in the form of the Maemo powered N900. We call it an experiment as Nokia is still promoting N97 over this wonderful gadget. Yes I certainly believe that the N900 is the best smartphone that Nokia has produced till date and no matter what comparisions say, the N900 comes real close to beating the iPhone 3GS, in some ways it does. The same old issue with the Nokia is the weight and the usability. iPhone scores there.

N900 weighs 181gms and has a large thick structure, which isn’t the best for mobility. The good with the N900 is the strong OS + openness that the iPhone lacks, good browser and the physical qwerty (though Nokia screws up the spacebar again). One impressive thing the N900 has is the 600MHz processor and 256MB ram. This is one area where Nokia has been a miser since ages, however they give good backing to N900 which runs a desktop grade OS. Is this enough? Will the 768MB virtual memory help? Not sure, but the videos we saw looked impressive.

The camera and video recording specs of the N900 might be better but the iPhone scores with better usability and web integration. However a 32GB smartphone with a strong OS for $650 is certainly good. The N900 is IMO the best from Nokia yet, but only time will tell how well it does against the iPhone 3GS. The App Store and slick UI of the iPhone is hard to beat. But Nokia vs iPhone doesn’t end here…

Maemo powered N900 from Nokia

Nokia770

The much maligned Nokia 770 is the subject of our next adventure in reviews. In my years of dealing with technology there is one major truism: no electronic product exists (and probably never will) that meets everybody's needs. This couldn't be more true with the Nokia 770. I hold it in high regard but it has some major limitations. But accepting those limitations and working within them I came to appreciate its functionality even more! On my recent trip to Australia I watched 4 complete movies on my "personal DVD player" (a.k.a. the Nokia 770 + ripped DVD's to MPEG-4 format... yes, I own the movies) on one battery charge. I had no less than 12 other passengers lusting over it simply for that functionality.

Physically the Nokia 770 is a solid beast... the buttons feel good and work well (although I rarely use the hard keys on the front... the touch screen takes care of that). The fit and finish of the product, although not glitzy, is clean and simple. No flash but a very sturdy product. I like the cover for the fact that I felt I could man-handle it without worrying about the large screen getting damaged in my briefcase. The screen is stunning. I have done a fair number of slideshows for people and the images really pop off the screen. The dedicated buttons along the top of the product are great.

They allow you to quickly jump to 'full-screen' mode and to zoom in on a picture or web page... which works flawlessly by actually zooming in rather than rescaling the text only. The touchscreen is great.... remind me why more manufacturers don't use touch screens???? They are so intuitive.

I believe that which makes it strong also hampers it's usefulness. Although it came out with a good basic set of applications, given the appealing form factor there has been an outcry for more functionality. There are some incredible apps that have been written by talented people... a media player, a mapper that will work with a GPS signal (although you must supply the map data) and some pretty fun games. The process to acquire these and maintain them are not consumer-ready.

The Good:
This product excels at a few things. It delivers a clean, quick, true web experience over WiFi (except it's flash version is a bit outdated and doesn't play embedded movies e.g. YouTube). It's screen is very clear and pleasant to gaze upon. It handles a nice variety of media (music, videos, pictures) in many popular formats. Its size is a perfect blend of portability yet big enough to see real content. The VoIP functionality is on par with a PC.

On the Fence: Battery life is approximately 7 hours depending on usage and screen brightness (pretty respectable but borderline.... mainly because if standby time from a full battery is about 3 hours.

So don't walk away from it for a couple days and expect much life from it unless it's plugged in. Open source software is exciting but to raise this product out of the niche of useful device to us geeks and a viable contender to the PMP's and UMPC's of the world the software has to be integrated or brain-dead-easy to install (e.g. Mac OSX software update panel). The current system of repositories is intuitive to those familiar with Linux and few others. Using RS-MMC cards is a bit unfortunate as the current trends it either mini-SD or micro-SD. You can buy them on the web but I would rather share cards with other devices.

The Bad:
Viewing Flash and embedded video on web pages isn't keeping pace with the web. To update the OS you have to wipe your entire system (yes, there is a backup utility but COME ON!). Web only accessible over WiFi or a paired Bluetooth phone connected to the internet via GPS (slow, expensive and pairing of even some high end Nokia's was unsuccessful!). Email and IM is tough without an integrated QWERTY keyboard (yes, I have an external Bluetooth keyboard but it's bigger than the product!) Also, in contrast to Nokia's consumer offerings that work very cleanly and reliably... pre- configured out of the box, the Nokia 770 requires a fair amount of hand holding and reading of the Maemo.org website to take full advantage of the product

Bottom line....
I think this is a great product to have sitting on your coffee table or on your jaunt to the local coffee shop to quickly access info from the web without whipping out your laptop or running back crying to your desktop PC.

I give it a 7.5 out of 10 stars. I use mine often and dream of the few tweaks to make it a kick-arse addition to any household and/or mobile lifestyle.

Nokia N97 Unvieled

Nokia has just unveiled it’s newest high-end N-series smartphone, the N97. It does have some great features, like the 640×360 3.5-inch touchscreen with tactile feedback, QWERTY keyboard and a slider form-factor.



The N97 features an internal memory of 32GB, expandable to 48GB via it’s microSD memory card slot, it’s connectible via HSDPA and WiFi. The 5 megapixel Carl Zeiss glass camera can capture DVD quality videos at 30fps and take good pictures.

It’s battery can play music for 36 hours continuously, which is good for a smartphone. Unfortunately, like most Nokia cellphones, it does look bulky and it’s really pricy, at almost $700 without taxes and subsidies. Expect the N97 in stores in H1 2009.

Nokia N97 - Nseries with touch and QWERTY Published by wahid polin at18 December 2008

Nokia  announced the launch of the Nokia N97. It is the first touch-enabled Nseries device and has a horizontal tilt-slide form factor. It transforms from a touch slate to a landscape QWERTY device. The device, which has an Internet and entertainment focus, runs on S60 5th Edition, has a customisable, widget-based, home screen and full support for Ovi services.It features a 3.5 inch (360 x 640 resolution) touchscreen with haptic feedback, 5 megapixel camera (with Carl Zeiss optics and dual LED flash), A-GPS and compass sensors, comprehensive connectivity options (WiFi, tri-band HSDPA, Bluetooth and USB), and 32GB of internal flash memory. Read on for more.The N97 is the most feature packed Nseries device to date and, by adding touch, it moves Nokia's high end Nseries into direct competition with touch devices such as the Samsung Omnia, LG Renoir, Apple iPhone and G1 Android Phone.Here are first few hand-ons impressions: In the hand the N97 feels pleasingly solid, with an extremely impressive slide mechanism - it is obvious a lot of testing has gone into the hinge mechanism. In slide closed mode it is equally solid, with no give. The keyboard, while limited by design constraints, feels good, though as ever it's difficult to come to any final conclusions with prototypes. Subjectively, the 'feel' and the design of the handset screams high end with materials that can not be fully appreciated in pictures (it has that caress-ability x-factor).It is a relatively large device, especially length-wise, but that's inevitable given the size of the screen and the inclusion of a QWERTY keyboard. There's the usual plethora of hardware features, including sensors (accelerometer, compass sensors and proximity sensors), integrated A-GPS, and connectivity options (tri-band 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth and USB). The large screen is a definite highlight - its widescreen 16:9 resolution is ideal for watching videos, but also works well for browsing the Internet. The touch screen is very sensitive, and there have been further refinements to the home screen to enable easier finger touch usage (the larger physical screen also helps with this). The UI can also be driven from the keypad using the D-pad on the left hand side of the keyboard, together with the on-screen softkeys and home key.S60 5th Edition has been updated to Nseries specifications for the N97. Extras include UPnP, Internet Radio and Nokia Photos applications and we can expect to see a lot more in this area before the phone is released.We'll report in greater detail in due course. Key features of the phone:Software:Runs S60 5th Edition. You can read more about S60 5th Edition in our Nokia 5800 preview. However, the N97 will have the Nseries version of S60, which means there will be a number of extra applications including Internet Radio, FM transmitter, Home media (UPnP) and Photos.  The home screen can be personalised with Internet-aware widgets (based on WRT technology). Examples included in the press photos include weather forecasts, social networking (Facebook, Friendster, My Space) status summaries, and media collections. There are also indicators for time, profiles, email, application shortcuts and so on.  Text input is via on screen keyboard (full screen QWERTY, pop-up QWERTY and alphanumeric), as is standard on S60 5th Edition, or handwriting recognition or via the QWERTY keyboard.  Fully compatible with Ovi services including Maps, Music, Share and Games. Nokia Music store can be accessed from the device (touch optimised version) or from Nokia Music for the PC (an iTunes -Windows application). Nokia Maps now supports high resolution satellite imagery, 3D buildings (selected buildings) and richer map meta data. Pedestrian route finding and turn by turn, voice guided car navigation, are available as premium services.Internet focus with WebKit based browser, comprehensive RSS feed support and runtime technologies including Flash, WRT (widget).Introduces the social location (So-Lo) concept; the N97 has software that allows you to automatically update and share your location with friends and popular social networks.  'N-Gage compatible' device, which indicates that the N-Gage platform will be touch enabled by the release date of the N97.The devices being demoed at Nokia World are running an early version of the software. In the six months leading up to the release date it is likely to evolve considerably.Hardware:Physical dimensions: 117.2 x 55.3 x 15.9 mm (18.25 mm at camera area), and weighs approximately 150g.  Tilt form factor with horizontal slide to reveal full QWERTY keyboard. The upper half of the device slides away from the bottom half and moves upwards in a diagonal direction. The slide is impressively smooth and when closed feels very solid in the hand (so much so its not immediately apparent it is a horizontal slide device).    There are three keys on the front of the device: send and end keys and a home/menu key. On the left side of the device there is a slider lock and a microUSB port, on the top of the device is the power and 3.5mm audio jack and on the right hand side are the volume keys and the camera capture key.  3.5 inch, 360 x 640 (nHD) resolution resistive touch TFT screen with 16 million colours. The device can be driven using finger touch or stylus, or from the QWERTY keyboard.  Haptic feedback for screen touches. This is provided via general vibra feedback, as on the Nokia 5800.  5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and dual LED flash. The camera is covered by a sliding lens cover similar to that found on the N85 and N79.The camera is also used to record videos at VGA at 30 frames per seconds, but I've seen a demo of it recording and playing video back in a 16:9 resolution mode (also as on the 5800). The usual Share online application is present for uploading images and video to online services such as Flickr and Share on Ovi (available services likely to be expanded before launch).  Integrated A-GPS and compass sensor (magnetometer) means that the N97 'intuitively knows where it is' and this is used by Nokia Maps, and for social location; also embeds location information into images and video.  3.5 mm audio jack (also used for TV-Out) and built in stereo speakers. Music playback time of one and half days (36 hours). There's also an FM radio and FM transmitter.  microUSB jack (USB 2.0 HiSpeed) and supports charging over USB  32GB of internal flash memory  microSD card slot with support for SDHC cards upto 16GB in size (giving total potential memory of 48 GB)  WiFi, 3.5G (tri-band HSDPA - 900, 1900 and 2100 Mhz), quad-band GSM and Bluetooth connectivity (various profiles including HID, SAP, A2DP and AVRCP).  1500 mAh battery (BP-4L - the same monster as that used in the E71, E90, 6650 and N800).  There is no stylus built into the phone, but one will be included in the box.  The Nokia N97 is expected to ship in the first half of 2009 (presumably in June) with an estimated price of 550 Euro before taxes and subsidies.The N97 (117.2 x 55.3 x 15.9 mm) is larger than the 5800 (111 x 51.7 x 15.5 mm). Compared to the iPhone (112 x 56.9 x 12.5 mm) is a little taller, but slightly mm narrower. Quite impressive given the incluion of a QWERTY keyboard. N78 also shown.Press release extract:Nokia today unveiled the Nokia N97, the world’s most advanced mobile computer, which will transform the way people connect to the Internet and to each other. Designed for the needs of Internet-savvy consumers, the Nokia N97 combines a large 3.5” touch display with a full QWERTY keyboard, providing an ‘always open’ window to favorite social networking sites and Internet destinations. Nokia’s flagship Nseries device introduces leading technology – including multiple sensors, memory, processing power and connection speeds – for people to create a personal Internet and share their ‘social location.’“From the desktop to the laptop and now to your pocket, the Nokia N97 is the most powerful, multi-sensory mobile computer in existence,” said Jonas Geust, Vice President, heading Nokia Nseries. “Together with the Ovi services announced today, the Nokia N97 mobile computer adjusts to the world around us, helping stay connected to the people and things that matter most. With the Nokia N97, Nseries leads the charge in helping to transform the Internet into your Internet”.

Nokia Aeon: a Concept that Proves that the Nokia Design Team Really Exists

Just when we thought we will still get the same boring clamshell and candy-bar designs  
with no extraordinary stuff along with them, the Finnish research and development  
team from Nokia came up with this: the spectacular Nokia Aeon concept mobile phone that gave all the people that saw it on the R&D section of the Nokia website thrills of anticipation.

And for a good reason. Do you remember the BenQ Black Box, or the Synaptics Onyx Concept? Do you remember the things that crossed your mind the next second you saw them? I do and I had the exact same thought when I saw the Aeon. When will I be able just to hold it in my hand and play with it? 

The device, exactly like the BenQ concept phone, has a full touchscreen surface with, I hope, a dynamic application menu that changes according with the current feature displayed on the screen. Other details aren't possible to guess from the three pictures released by the Finnish mobile phone manufacturer on its website, but, the images taken at the testing site suggest that we might have the occasion, in our lifetime, to have this kind of Sci-Fi gadgets in our hands.

I just hope somebody up there, at the Nokia headquarters, still cares about the poor people that drool all over these pictures of touchscreen interface mobile phones and give a word to the production department to make us all happy! Go Nokia, go!

The Nokia 5800 sports an eye-catching design.

 While LG and Samsung were quick to play their touch-screen phone cards after the release of the first iPhone, Nokia has been holding its hand close. That is, until now. On Thursday, the Finnish company announced the Nokia 5800 Xpress Music, an eye-catching slim touch-screen phone that looks vaguely like you-know-what. Though Nokia is quick to dismiss the iPhone comparisons, they are obvious, and analysts across the board are making them. 

See our Nokia 5800 Xpress Music slide show for a full gallery of shots. 

On the outside there's an expansive (3.2 inches) touch screen with tactile feedback that serves as the primary interface tool. There are also three physical buttons--Talk and End keys and a menu control--but this device is all about getting touchy-feely. The outside is mostly black but you'll be able to exercise a bit of personal style by choosing from three versions--each has a thin colored ring in either gray, red, or blue. At 4.31 by 2.04 by 0.61 inches and 3.85 ounces, the 5800 Xpress Music falls between the iPhone and the LG Dare in size and weight. Exterior controls include a volume rocker, a dedicated power button, and a camera shutter. 

Features are more like the Dare than the iPhone. Inside you'll find a 3.2-megapixel camera with video recording and a Carl Zeiss lens, messaging, stereo Bluetooth, a microSD card slot, 81MB of internal memory, USB mass storage, personal organizer apps, a speakerphone, a 3.5mm headset jack, assisted GPS, a music player, and PC syncing. It's also a full world phone with support for four GSM bands and two HSDPA bands. On the whole, that's a loaded feature set. 

Getting music on the 5800 Xpress Music should be easy. Besides the traditional methods of syncing with a PC (via Windows Media Player 11) or transferring songs via Bluetooth or a memory card, you'll also be able to access songs over the air from Nokia's music store using the company's new Comes With Music service. 

We haven't had the opportunity to hold the 5800 in our hands just yet but from what we can tell the Series 60, 5th edition interface is attractive and easy to use. The main menu uses a series of icons, while the music player features album art. An accelerometer will rotate the display from portrait to landscape mode automatically; in landscape mode there's a full QWERTY keyboard. The 5800 also will have a "Contacts Bar" that will highlight your four favorite friends on the home screen. With one touch you'll be able to access a history of text messages, phone calls, e-mails, and photos. 
The 5800 comes with a stylus and a secondary tool that looks like a guitar. Nokia says the latter tool is designed for use with the music player. You'll get a wired headset in the box as well, but Bluetooth can use one of the new headsets that the company also introduced Thursday. In press photos Nokia also showed the 5800 resting on a stand; we hope that's included as well. 

The 5800 Xpress Music should land in Europe and Asia in the last quarter of this year. As usual, North America will have to wait. When it does land in the United States and Canada, it will sell as an unlocked model only. Nokia wouldn't say if it was negotiating with a U.S. carrier but let's hope that happens. The price at the time of this posting should be close to $391