Mobiles Unleashed

Nokia X10 Symbian Anna/Belle

king17 — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 19:39:42 GMT

The Nokia X10 concept supports
quad band connectivity, 4G-LTE, packs quad-stereo speakers and a Super AMOLED plus Clear Black Display with 4.5 inch diagonal and 1280 x 720 pixel resolution.

The screen is protected by the Dragontrail Glass Display technology and the specs list of this monster also

15MP camera with Carl Zeiss optics, dual Xenon flash and geotagging.

The camera records in full HD 1080p at 30 fps and another stunning feature is

the 2GHz quad core CPU inside the smartphone,

32GB of storage, 2GB of ROM,

2GB of RAM and a great GPU

Quad-core phones don’t seem that futuristic now that the Sony NGP quad-core console was announced, so it’s only a matter of time till some company takes the Tegra 3 direction…

Nokia N11

king17 — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 19:35:04 GMT

This is a dual OS phone, that uses both MeeGo 1.2 and Symbian, thanks to

dual core 1GHz CPU.

512MB of RAM are also on board

16GB of internal memory, a microSD card slot and the usual Nokia anodized aluminum casing.

The display upfront if a CBD 4 inch AMOLED unit with a 800 x 480 pixel resolution.

3D image capture and a removable battery complete the specs list and you must notice that the images included in this article also show the front gaming keys on the device, so this makes us think of an N-Gage follow-up

Nokia N8-01

king17 — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 19:32:39 GMT

Nokia N8-01 runs Symbian^3 with PR3.0/Belle and its most impressive feature is the:

16 megapixel camera with autofocus, Carl Zeiss Optics and True Zoom technology. There’s also a Xenon flash in the mix, plus a 3.2 megapixel camera at the front with Facelock feature.
Hardware also includes a dual core 1.2GHz CPU,
1GB of RAM, 1GB ROM,
32GB storage and a microSD card slot.

HDMI and Dolby Digital Plus round up the specs list. Nothing new about the design of this Nokia model, but maybe we’ll learn more about the newcomers during tomorrow’s Nokia event in Athens.

Nokia N801 – 16 MP camera

king17 — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 19:29:15 GMT

Here are the specifications for the upcoming
Nokia N801

3.8 inch display
Amoled 640 x 360
1.2 ghz cpu
16 mp camera, Carl Zeiss , Xenon Blitz,dual Blitz , full HD capture
Bluetooth , usb 2.0 , wifi
16 Gb internal memory
1550 mAh battery

Nokia N8 review

GhenMoKai — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 21:31:31 GMT

The first time Nokia's N8-00 popped up on our radar was way back in early February of this year. On that chilly, misty morning, we learned of a mythical being capable of shooting 12 megapixel stills, recording 720p video, outputting via HDMI, and -- most importantly -- ushering in the promised Symbian^3 touch revolution. It's been a long road of leaks, teasers, hands-ons, and previews since then, but at long last, the legend of the N8 has become a purchasable commodity. All the early specs have survived, including the 3.5-inch AMOLED display, but the key question today, as it was at the beginning, relates to that all-new software within: does Symbian^3 succeed in elevating Nokia's touchscreen experience or does it drag down an otherwise stellar combination of high-end parts? For that verdict and much, much more, join us after the break.

Hardware

Let's not waste any time equivocating here, it'll be quite obvious to anyone with a set of eyeballs that Nokia has fashioned one of the most ruggedly handsome devices of recent memory with the N8. In a sea of identikit touchscreen-dominated phones, the N8 manages to stand out, thanks to its (mostly) aluminum construction, wide palette of color options, and atypical mixture of curvy sides and sternly straight lines at the top and bottom. The biggest distinguishing feature will of course be the protruding camera compartment on the back, which houses the world's largest image sensor yet seen in a smartphone, a Carl Zeiss lens, a Xenon flash, and a loudspeaker.

We've got no complaints to proffer about the apparent durability of the handset itself and that extends to this extra bump on the back, but there are a couple of notes worth making. Firstly, the N8 will spend most of its horizontal time resting on the camera section's bottom edge. In our time with the phone we noticed it generated an unpleasant screeching sound anytime we slid it across a flat surface and we imagine over the long run that portion of the body will suffer plenty of wear and tear. Additionally, we found ourselves inevitably fingering the lens every time we held the handset up to make a call. That was just the most natural place for our forefinger to go, which is hardly a deal breaker in itself, but something to bear in mind if you care to keep your imaging equipment immaculately clean (and if you read our camera section below, you probably will care).

We'd be remiss not to also note that the menu key at the N8's bottom left corner feels rather improperly placed. Nokia loves to tout its phones as being designed for single-handed operation, but reaching down to hit the menu key and access its multivariate functions was something of a treacherous activity. We nearly dropped this precious drop of aluminum a couple of times while trying to maneuver our digits over that button, and eventually settled on using a second hand when we needed it.

Aside from those somewhat minor points, the N8 really looks to be continuing Nokia's fine tradition of making phones built to last decades rather than mere months or years. The volume buttons are crowned with handy little nubs for blind operation, the traditional screen-locking slider is also present and accounted for -- coming with a nicely ridged surface and a finely tuned spring mechanism -- and is joined by something of a rarity in smartphones: a two-stage shutter button for the camera, which is also easy to find and operate.

Internals

Much has been made of the N8's use of a 680MHz processor in a 1GHz world, but those numbers are predictably beguiling. The N8 has a separate Broadcom GPU alongside its ARM 11 processing core, which takes over when things get graphically intense and delivers performance that rarely left us feeling underpowered. Couple that with Symbian^3 being able to exploit the graphics processor to perform hardware-accelerated OS animations and graphics, and grunt should altogether be quite adequate for the tasks the N8 is intended to perform. 720p movies were certainly no challenge for this phone. A lot more worthy of critique might be the 256MB memory allowance, which halves what other new phones are coming out with, but again, the argument can be made that Symbian^3 is an inherently more efficient platform and the lower number on the spec sheet doesn't seem to have had a correspondingly negative impact on real world use. In our experience, spanning multiple N8 devices, we only saw a "memory full" error message once -- while viewing a video file on the phone with the calendar open in the background.

Suffice it to say, you won't be lacking for options with the N8.

The array of additional features is pretty comprehensive too, with 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0 plus A2DP, GPS (both the real and assisted kind), USB On-The-Go support, a 1200mAh battery, 16GB of built-in storage, and of course a MicroSD slot for adding up to 32GB more. Light and proximity sensors are joined by an accelerometer and magnetometer in ensuring that there's no unfilled nook or cranny within the N8's aluminum body. Suffice it to say, you won't be lacking for options with this handset.

It's also worth pointing out that a recent teardown of the N8 showed it to be quite friendly to user repairs, thanks to the use of Torx screws throughout, with the battery compartment in particular being only two of those fasteners away from being pried open. It's reassuring to know that even when Nokia moves away from the traditional user-replaceable battery design, it still offers a cell that is accessible to the somewhat more motivated owner. We didn't have the chance to test the battery out in full, but our time with the N8 made a good impression -- we were typically able to get more than a full day's use out of it, though do beware overusing that Xenon flash. The camera was the biggest power drain for us, with its oversized lighting unit predictably being the chief culprit.

Even happier news were found on the video transmission front, where we were able to drop a downloaded .mkv file off from our MacBook Pro and onto our N8 just through OS X, without recourse to any additional software, before exploiting the phone's HDMI connection to pump the video out to our home cinema projector. It was easy and straightforward, and having Matroska format compatibility right out of the box is very nice indeed.

Display

We've got two words for you: Gorilla Glass. We had to confirm this with Nokia since nobody seems to have bothered to make an official announcement on the matter, but yes, the N8 comes with the scratch-resistant glass that's garnered so much admiration since making its mainstream debut on the Motorola Droid. We scratched, clawed, poked and prodded the N8's front, but nothing we did caused it any discomfort. That's just what we've come to expect from these Gorilla Glass screens, which offer a real sense of assurance when plopping your expensive gadget into a pocket or in a bag that includes more than just fluffy toys.

What lies beneath it is a 3.5-inch AMOLED display stretching to 640 x 360 resolution. That's obviously not the densest panel you can own anymore, but neither is it a slouch. The N8's vibrancy and color saturation look highly accurate while the auto-brightness guesses correctly most of the time and gives you enough power -- unless you've got the sun shining directly down on the phone, of course -- to get on with your Symbian^3 business. That resolution is really the only thing holding this display back, but it's not like Nokia can do too much about it now.

Camera

Nokia has a long history of milestone imaging devices (the N91, N73, N93, N95, N82, and N86 all come to mind), and is the number one camera manufacturer in the world by sales volume. While the N95 set a new standard for cameraphones when it was launched in early 2007 and remains competitive today in terms of photo quality, every Nokia cameraphone since then has only delivered small upgrades. Enter the N8, with its 1/1.83-inch (12 megapixel) sensor, Carl Zeiss autofocus lens, mechanical shutter, and Xenon flash. Without mincing words, this is a phenomenal camera, and the N8′s raison d'être. It marks a significant step forward for cameraphones, and improves upon the N86 (Nokia's last imaging flagship) by a wide margin. Contrary to devices like the iPhone 4 which take comparatively pleasing but artificial pictures, the N8 produces extremely detailed and natural shots.

Color balance and light metering are superb. The two-stage shutter button feels wonderful, and locks both focus and exposure when half pressed.

Pictures captured with the N8 contain a tremendous amount of information and leave the door wide open for some serious post-processing. Color balance and light metering are superb. The two-stage shutter button feels wonderful, and locks both focus and exposure when half pressed. This gives the more advanced user plenty of creative flexibility in re-framing shots and/or playing with exposure. As to the less talented among us, we did note that the use of the physical shutter button (instead of the provided onscreen capture icon) introduced an extra bit of camera shake into our results. That wasn't universally the case and trained professionals could perhaps show us how to hold it right, but it did arise as an issue in our earlier hands-on with Nokia's new flagship.

The N8's LED-assisted autofocus is the fastest we've ever encountered on a cameraphone, but focus distance is somewhat limited by the wide-angle lens, with the macro starting at 10cm (four inches). Low-light performance, while generally quite impressive, sometimes exhibits more noise than expected. We talked about this with Damian Dinning at Nokia (the man behind the development of the N8 camera), who explained that the goal was to preserve detail at the expense of some noise, thus allowing more wiggle room for post-processing. While this is a reasonable approach, we'd like to see a setting to enable additional noise reduction. With the flash turned on, the N8 is pure Xenon magic. Night shots from macro to about two meters (six feet) look fantastic with the flash.

The N8 records video in 720p at 25fps. It performs better than the Motorola Droid X, but the resulting footage is choppier than the iPhone 4 and Samsung Wave, which both record at 30fps. Instead of autofocus, the N8 uses an active hyperfocal system which keeps objects in focus from 60cm (two feet) to infinity. While this works well most of the time, it means there's no macro for closeups. Audio is captured in stereo and sounds extremely clear, even when recording in loud environments. The N8 was recently hacked to record video at 30fps with continuous autofocus, and to take pictures at 100 percent JPEG quality (the default is 85 percent). Hopefully, Nokia will make some (if not all) of these features available in a future firmware update.

While not as simple as the iPhone 4 or as polished as the Samsung Galaxy S, the N8 camera interface is reasonably intuitive for long-time Symbian users, and provides plenty of useful settings, such as flash control, scene mode, face detection, exposure, white balance, ISO (100/400/800), sharpness, color tone, and contrast. There's no touch-to-focus, and no panorama setting, although the latter is supported via a separate app (see our sample shot here). The onscreen zoom slider is easy to touch by accident and seems redundant since the volume rocker also controls the digital zoom. Nokia provides functionality to edit and tag photos and videos, but strangely no direct way to upload content to sites like Flickr or YouTube, other than via email, of course.

In the end, the N8 camera truly is a photographer's delight. It excels at taking pictures and is competent at recording video. Still, there's room for improvement, and we're hoping Nokia steps up to the challenge. If you're looking for more sample shots, our own Myriam Joire took her N8 to Decompression in San Francisco last weekend and captured some beautiful pictures, while the untouched full-res version of our gallery above can be found in a zip file right here.

Speaker / earpiece

Sound is another feather in the N8's resplendent hat. The speaker is loud, bordering on booming (for its size), and produces crisp and punchy output. When placed on a flat surface, the rear-firing audio port did a fine job of bouncing sound back off its resting place and into the atmosphere around you, but it was less accomplished when placed on softer landing zones. We managed to disarm it almost completely by innocently placing it atop a cushion. You might say that's a small shortcoming and you would indeed be right. For those cozier moments, you can just make use of Nokia's bundled headset, which features a pair of noise-isolating ear buds that are a clear cut above the mediocrity typically thrown in with phones. It also has an in-line music remote plus a built-in a mic for some old school handsfree telephony.

Call quality on the N8 was similarly above average, with our direct comparison to the iPhone 4 showing a slight, but distinguishable, advantage for Nokia's handset. While voices sounded a tad bit tinnier on the N8, they were also more natural, making the iPhone sound "digital" by comparison. Not that it should come as any sort of a surprise, but Nokia has clearly taken care of the fundamentals with aplomb here.

Software

Nokia and the Symbian Foundation have been met with a unique challenge: the platform has needed to evolve in ways that prevent it from breaking many years of architectural compatibility.

Looking at the spec sheet, the N8 is notable not just for its epic camera hardware, but also for the fact that it becomes the first Symbian^3-based device to hit the market. Of course, Nokia and the Symbian Foundation have been met with a unique challenge that Android and iOS really have not thus far: the platform has needed to evolve in ways that prevent it from breaking many years of architectural compatibility. A very real example of that comes in the form of Avkon, Symbian's UI framework, a framework that has existed since Series 60's creation in 2002; odds are many of your old non-touch S60 applications don't work on S60 5th Edition or Symbian^3, but the fact that any of them do is a testament to the fact that Avkon soldiers on just as it did back in the pre-5800 days. For devs, Avkon's relative stability has made it easier to develop Symbian apps with some assurance that they'll work for years to come -- an important point for attracting high-quality software to the platform.

That's not to say Nokia's been standing still. The company has been slowly preparing itself, its users, and its developers for a clean break from Avkon to Qt starting with Symbian^4 and MeeGo, and to make that transition a smoother one, preview implementations of the Qt framework have been available for quite some time both on S60 5th Edition and on Maemo. In other words, Nokia has given devs plenty of time to wake up, convert their wares to Qt, and deploy them right now -- no need to wait for the first Symbian^4 devices to come out in 2011 and go through several weeks of panic as customers realize that none of their prized apps will install. The N8 supports Qt out of the box.

That's great, but there's still a big problem: to call Symbian's third-party app ecosystem "primitive" would be an understatement. Like the backward compatibility issue, part of this malaise stems from S60's nearly decade-old roots -- a time when phone storage could be measured in kilobytes, not gigabytes. Back then, users had to accustom themselves to trawling websites and forums to download .sis files (or purchase them from vendors they may or may not trust) and transfer them to their phones -- only to repeat the process when updates became available. Put simply, app discovery was nigh impossible (ironically, Nokia helped pioneer the managed app clearinghouse concept with its Download! service, but never bothered to do anything useful with it).

Ovi Store

More recently, Nokia has all but solved those shortcomings with Ovi Store, and we found Ovi Store 2.0 -- the new version that ships with the N8 -- particularly pleasant to use. Actually, back up: it doesn't ship with the N8. There are a few hooks in the operating system (looking for more UI themes online, for instance) that will prompt you to visit a site where you can download the Ovi Store installer, but it's not in ROM. That's a problem that RIM has had prior to BlackBerry 6, but they've now corrected it -- it's mandated that all BlackBerry 6 devices ship with App World pre-installed, the company tells us -- and we'd recommend Nokia does the same. This is how consumers expect to get their mobile apps now, and there's simply no reason for Nokia to pretend that there might be a scenario where you don't want it. It's fine that Nokia still allows you to install your own .sisx files if you're into that sort of thing -- in fact, that flexibility is one of the platform's big advantages -- but the only way for Ovi Store (and other Ovi components, for that matter) to achieve success is through ubiquity. Nokia's got a massive installed base and is selling literally hundreds of thousands of new phones each day ... it makes no sense for Ovi Store not to be instantly available on every one of them -- the ones running Series 40 and Symbian, anyway.

Of bigger concern, though, is that once you get the Store installed, it's a little light on big names. Don't get us wrong -- it's far better than the early days when paid wallpapers and themes outnumbered actual apps by a wide margin, but there are still glaring holes in the inventory that would make it difficult or impossible to beef up a seasoned Android or iOS user's N8 with enough functionality to match what he'd had before (or even come close). Easy example: where's the official Twitter app? Yes, Gravity is quite good, but we dare you to find another modern smartphone platform where you need to pay $10 for a kick-ass Twitter client. Another example: Facebook's in the Ovi Store, but it's not showing up for the N8 at the moment for some reason ... and regardless, it's not a true native client, but a somewhat wonkier web runtime. Google services are weak too -- the Gmail app is a barebones Java client (if you've used the BlackBerry app, you've got an idea of what that's like), the Google Maps app is optimized for the 5800 (there are several places where it asks you to press the nonexistent Send button) and lacks multitouch capability, and if you're a Google Voice user, you're pretty much out of luck ... we were able to track down a year-old Python-based third party client with mixed reviews, but nothing even close to an official app. You might also miss major streaming services like Pandora and Slacker.

Considering that Symbian still commands the largest installed base globally of any smartphone platform, you might say it's really strange the Ovi Store doesn't get far more respect from the big names. It's pure conjecture on our part, but we think there are a few reasons for it. The root cause is likely the legacy we've mentioned -- as a smartphone platform, Symbian is relatively ancient, and its users and developers are still acclimatizing themselves to the brave new world where both free and paid apps flow like water through a well controlled central source. Secondly, Symbian's in a transitional phase right now where developers need to support both touchscreen and non-touchscreen form factors, which essentially means two entirely different user experiences and twice the design work. Thirdly, Nokia's global dominance might actually be working against it here -- localizing apps to the countless markets where Nokia does business can be a huge pain, and outside North America, Nokia's market share is so well distributed that you have little option but to take on the challenge (an interesting side effect of that: many of the reviews we saw in the Ovi Store were in languages other than English).

For entertainment, you've got the all-important Angry Birds, and Electronic Arts has made a big commitment to the platform with key titles like The Sims 3 and Need for Speed.

It's not like the Ovi Store is barren, though. Services like Qik and Fring -- both of which got their start on S60 -- are in there, and you'll find popular names like Foursquare, OpenTable, and YouTube. For entertainment, you've got the all-important Angry Birds, and Electronic Arts has made a big commitment to the platform with key titles like The Sims 3 and Need for Speed. The biggest problem might be with home screen widgets; most handsets Nokia currently sells (and nearly all devices in users' hands right now) still don't support them, so developers seem to be lukewarm on creating the content at this point. At our count, there are just 14 widgets available for download, which supplement the 16 that Nokia supplies in firmware -- some of which are lame like a Phone Setup widget (essentially a shortcut that takes up the entire width of the screen) and dedicated CNN and Reuters RSS widgets, so they don't really count towards the total (you can create your own RSS widgets by subscribing to feeds from the browser).

Wrap-up

You know it, we know it, and Nokia sure as hell knows it. The Finnish mobile-making team shot itself in the foot with its N8 launch purely through a bungled execution on the software front. It's not unreasonable to believe that the hardware for this device was ready as far back as April -- which shines through with the perfectly thought out and built handsets our review team was provided with -- but delay after delay on the Symbian^3 front meant the awesomely specified hardware didn't see the light of retail day until, arguably, too late. Had this phone come out earlier this year, during what we might refer to as the pre-EVO era, its 720p video, spectacular camera, and high-end construction would have returned Nokia to the title of smartphone leader all on their lonesome. Seriously, the hardware is that good.

Let us also be clear about the software: we can say in no uncertain terms that the N8 is easily the best Symbian device that Nokia -- or any company, for that matter -- has ever made. Unfortunately, by evolving at a glacial (and largely superficial) pace, Symbian itself continues to cater specifically to a market of individuals who were early smartphone adopters five or more years ago. That's a market whose continued loyalty only stands to shrink, not grow. And at a time when 720p video recording is no longer novel and 3.5-inch screens are starting to look a bit on the small side, even DSLR-like image quality isn't enough to justify a phone without a fantastic and thoroughly modern user experience to match. Symbian^3, sadly, regrettably, heartrendingly, isn't there yet.

MeeGo, your move.

Sony Ericsson Vivaz review

GhenMoKai — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 09:29:59 GMT

Sony Ericsson's no stranger to phones with decent cameras, and the Vivaz with European 3G frequencies aims to be one of them; after all these months we've finally got hold of this S60 device, which is the first phone capable of continuous autofocus on 720p video recording courtesy of its speedy 720MHz Cortex A8 and PowerVR GPU. Compared to its predecessor, the Vivaz bears a similar button layout and GUI to the Satio's, but lacks a front-facing camera, Fast Port (replaced by a micro-USB port and 3.5mm headphone jack), and a slide cover for the camera. The resistive touchscreen (sigh, more on that later) has been downsized from 3.5 inches to 3.2 inches but retains a similar resolution (640 x 360), while the camera sensor is also scaled down from 12.1 megapixels to a more sensible 8.1, possibly for the sake of picture quality and component cost. But enough with the comparison -- let's get cracking with the review.

Hardware

We have mixed feelings about the Vivaz's appearance -- on one hand the 'human curvature' approach (as applied on the Xperia X10, we've been told) is a fresh change to Sony Ericsson's usual rectangular form factor, but at the same time this does come with a bloated look that some may or may not fancy. The shiny, hollow-sounding plastic chassis is a bit of a downer -- it's the only feature that has turned the Vivaz's lightness (at 3.42 ounces) into a drawback, as the combination inevitably brings the illusion that this £300 / $448 device (as offered by 3 UK) is a budget phone instead. Another niggle is that the back cover's proven to be quite a challenge to rip open, so mind your fingernails. So much for a natural grip, eh?

In terms of buttons, the Vivaz has managed to get away with two fewer buttons than the Satio -- the function of the old lock switch is now ported to the power button at the top (tap twice to lock), and while the media playback button on the right side has been killed, the dedicated shutter button now also triggers the still camera function (thus turning the old combo button into a dedicated video recording button). The buttons for volume control (one of which also does search), phone calls and menu are at their original spots. There's hardly anything to fault here as this simpler button layout is pretty easy to pick up, although the lack of lock switch has allowed the phone to unlock itself on several occasions while in our pocket (by pressing the "Unlock" virtual key at the bottom left of the screen).

There's no AMOLED magic on the 3.2-inch display, but at 640 x 360, this crisp resolution (229 dpi) will help you check that your lens is in focus while snapping and filming -- not to mention the sharp visual multimedia playback you'll get as well. We did, however, notice that our screen had a slight yellow tint, and we haven't been able to confirm whether this applies to all the Vivaz units. Moving on to a more touchy subject: this phone uses a resistive touchscreen (as the pointy stylus above suggests), but we were almost fooled by its unusual hardness as conventional ones tend to be spongy, so at least it feels good to the touch. We won't go into the whole capacitive versus resistive debate again, but we will say this: resistive is fine only if the user interface is designed in such a way that a stylus is not needed; in other words, the virtual keys need to be finger-friendly, and that pages can be scrolled without the sole reliance on narrow scroll bars. We'll check on this later.

Camera

Those who are familiar with the Satio should notice this similar camera interface on the Vivaz. You get an identical set of "Scenes" (auto, portrait, landscape, twilight landscape, sports, document, twilight portrait, beach/snow) and "Shoot mode" (normal, panorama, smile detection, touch capture) but without "Bestpic" -- a tool that lets you take a sequence of photos and then pick out the best shot to keep. "Exposure" and "Auto mode" are still there, but the button for disabling the LED flash "Photo light" (same light as the X10's) is now replaced by a "Focus" menu (auto, face detection, macro, landscape); to fiddle with the light, you'll need to go into Settings at the bottom right corner -- probably a pain for more people so we're not sure why Sony Ericsson did this swap.

The camera app can be launched by holding down either camera buttons (thus launching the corresponding capture mode), even when the phone's locked. Some may see this as a handy feature for quickly capturing short-lived comical moments, but this also brings the risk of accidentally turning on the camera when it's in your pocket (which has happened to us a few times).
Once you're in, you can switch between three aspect ratios (4:3 at 8 megapixels, 3:2 at 7 megapixels, 16:9 at 6 megapixels) and smaller sizes for still shots, whereas in video mode you can choose either 720p or 640 x 480. Picture quality is pretty decent overall -- great colors and sharpness for shots taken in the daylight, albeit with fairly noticeable artifacting in the blue sky; at night, we've had the occasional struggle with the focusing, but the Vivaz's impressive noise reduction is worth the multiple attempts for each shot.

Like many compact cameras these days, the Vivaz also offers some fun camera modes as seen on the Satio. We started off with the smile detection mode -- once chosen, you need to press on the shutter button to activate the detection, and it responded best with a bit of teeth. Next up is the panorama mode -- it relies on the accelerometer to guide you through the three-stage shoot, and it worked brilliantly as long as our camera was pointing straight ahead and level for all three shots. Lastly, touch capture was equally impressive and pretty handy for close-up shots. If you don't mind sacrificing a bit more battery juice, you can also enable geotagging for your photos.

There aren't as many fancy toys to play with in video capture mode, but the YouTube uploader and the overall video performance alone are enough to keep us satisfied. Again, picture quality is great during both day and night, although the latter does suffer from some color noise. Audio's good, especially with picking up nearby voices even in a noisy environment, but it won't do much good if you're in the wind. Most importantly, the continuous auto-focusing -- a first on a 720p-recording phone -- worked well for us. You can see it all for yourself in the demo video below (and remember to turn on HD playback).

Software

Earlier we mentioned how the resistive touchscreen is still acceptable as long as its interface accommodates the finger well, as in avoiding the stylus wherever possible. Sadly, the Vivaz isn't entirely finger-friendly -- the full landscape QWERTY keyboard isn't available in all apps, and some menus are only scrollable using the thin vertical bar on the right. This alone isn't as much of an annoyance as the inconsistency across the menus and apps, so hopefully Sony Ericsson will get this fixed before users go grey.

The homescreen consists of five tabbed panels in this default order: favorite contacts, Twitter, "Flow" (some cool accelerometer-based wavy animation that doesn't seem to do much else), camera gallery and shortcuts. You can change the panel type by holding down its tab, thus getting the above list plus two more options: aquarium and album. On each panel you can summon the same shortcut box by clicking on the hang-up button, then you'll have quick access to the dialer, media gallery, messages and search, plus the music playback buttons (accompanied by album artwork) if you have some tunes playing in the background.

The Twitter panel is essentially a simple Flash-powered app. How do we know? It says so in the many memory-related error messages we've seen, and the only way to relaunch the crashed app is by restarting the phone. On top of the slightly laggy scrolling, it's also disappointing to see the full QWERTY keyboard missing for Twitter -- we've had to rely on the little stylus to log in (for every boot, that is, as it didn't store our credentials) and compose tweets. The lack of reply and direct message filters is a frustration, too, but you can always hit the Twitter website from the app for your regular Twitter features and the full keyboard. On a more positive note, the minimalistic camera gallery panel is pretty slick -- it's essentially a vertical-scrolling, one-at-a-time photo / video viewer, so from afar the panel appears to be a wallpaper showing the latest picture / video still from the camera. Clicking on the image will launch the full media gallery.

We've found a few nice apps preloaded on the Vivaz, namely YouTube, Rally Master (simple accelerometer-based car-racing game), SSX 3 (accelerometer-based snowboarding game), WorldMate (travel planner), GTalk, Google Maps (without multitouch, of course), TrackID (song identifier) and Facebook. You also get a 30-day trial for the Navteq-powered Wisepilot turn-by-turn navigation app, and while we cannot comment on its accuracy since we didn't have a car, we were impressed by the vast amount of POI data that it offered. If you want a different navigation app then you're out of luck, as the PlayNow store doesn't seem to offer any alternatives. Similarly, there are only four free games offered on PlayNow, so you're most likely looking into spending at least £4 / $6.10 per game; you get more free non-game apps, while paid ones start from £2.50 / $3.80 each. Regardless of the prices, looks like PlayNow's got a pretty tall mountain to climb here in comparison to the other platform's app stores in terms of content.

There's little to complain about the bog-standard apps such as the media player and organizer. In fact, the delightful music player is pretty much identical to the Satio's -- good to see a familiar feature that works well. The only black sheep here is the web browsing performance and experience -- the phone insists on asking us to pick the connection method (WiFi or 3G) every time we wanted to use Twitter, Facebook or the browser, and then you need to develop the habit of using mobile websites as the browser's crashed on us a few times due to insufficient memory. Neither are acceptable for a smartphone these days, especially the former -- we'd be so much happier if the phone can at least remember or determine our preferred connection method.

Wrap-up

The Vivaz is no doubt a good specimen for showing what Sony Ericsson does best -- great video and photo capture along with a user-friendly media playback interface, not to mention being a world's first with its nice continuous auto-focus 720p video recording. On the other hand, though, the user interface needs some tweaking for the sake of mainly consistency, ease of web access, security (as in so the phone is less likely to unlock itself) and stability (and we hope a software patch will be offered to fix all these). Not much can be done about the phone's build quality now, but we'll let it off this once given the nice curvature for gripping. All in all, we'd say hold off until Sony Ericsson comes up with some software patches -- if they ever get around to it, that is.

Nokia N85 Review

comandos — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 08:57:17 GMT

Introduction:

If you’re a Symbian fan most likely the Nokia N96 represents the best you can get. It is not without it’s flaws however, like the weak battery and the DVB-H tuner which is usable only in a few countries. The phone is very good but not perfect, and if you find yourself wanting just a bit more then the N85 may be the phone for you. It is the first of Nokia’s N-series equipped with a power-saving OLED display. In addition to helping the battery, it doesn’t fade away in direct sunlight and offers a brighter picture. It’s hard to figure out whose successor is the N85 by just looking at the company’s product line. It is supposed to be a lighter version of N96, but at the same time offers upgrades such as a better display and battery performance; it is almost as if the N85 is an updated version of the N95.

The package includes:

* Nokia N85
* handsfree extension with a remote control
* stereo headphones
* USB cable
* 8GB microSD card
* documentation
* codes for ordering n-gage games
* software CD

Design:

The N85 reminds us of the N95/N96 – it’s a dual slider featuring four multimedia buttons which are revealed when the phone is open. The device carries the new ideas for the design of the N-series.

The back panel is in a cream-colored tone, while the front one is entirely black. N85 fits well in a hand no matter the mode you are using it in (portrait/landscape) and is perfectly balanced. In a pocket, the N85 feels slightly thick, but not large or heavy.

It is made entirely of plastic, which bends easily. The unpleasant feel of the slider also creates the impression for a cheap and fragile phone. Moreover, it’s hard to open, especially downwards. We weren’t very impressed with the overall feel, after all this is a high-end smartphone
We had great expectations for the OLED display, a key feature for the model. It was clear from the start that the contrast is at a very high level and the colors are realistic, as if the image is alive. All this is thanks to the characteristics of the organic screens. In contrast to the TFT technology, the image quality stays consistent when exposed to moderate sunlight. The true test is when you try to read it in direct sunlight, when then you can clearly see how the iPhone’s display gets the upper hand, and N85’s one is not that easy to use.

The keyboard can hardly be called stunning, but we enjoyed it. It is much more user-friendly compared to the Samsung INNOV8’s. Text input isn’t exactly pleasurable, but it’s acceptable for casual messaging . At first, the navigational buttons create the impression that they are touch sensitive, but they are actually clickable keys. The designers have come up with a strange solution for the SEND and END keys;t they are simply two rubber lines, which are hard to hit sometimes. Another interesting element is the Navi Wheel. It is a part of the D-pad which responds to circular movements from your finger. This allows easy scrolling like seen in N78 and N81. The feature is not sensitive enough and sometimes interferes with operating the device. Luckily, it can be deactivated. On the right of the navigational block we have the multimedia key, which opens the Nokia XpressMedia menu. We’ll get to it later. The nice Breathing function illuminates the 5-way navigational button and flashes every few seconds as if breathing. This reminds us of the elegant Nokia 8600 Luna

[img]http://yfrog.com/jpshowimagephpjj[/img]

On the right we have the volume rocker and the locking slider, accompanied by the camera shutter. Talking about the latter, we have to say that it’s somewhat confusing and we don’t always know when we’ve reached the autofocus position and when we are all the way to the end

Interface:

The N85 runs on Symbian S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2. Let’s take a look at the more interesting options here.

We were nicely impressed by the transitions between the menus and the option to change their appearance by using different themes. This makes them a pleasure for the eye and gives a modern look to the otherwise boring S60 interface

he multimedia menu is the same as we’ve found on other Nokia such as the N96. It offers information for the track currently playing, latest photographs, video, N-Gage games available, current position defined by the GPS and the contacts.

Phonebook:

As we’ve covered in other S60 device reviews, we find an excellent phonebook with multiple fields, and now with a large picture on an incoming call. When searching it makes no difference if you input first or last name for the system to look for since the results you get include them both also.When adding a new contact you are provided with the “basic” fields, but with the “Add Detail” function you have almost no restrictions on the number of fields and you can add a lot of phone numbers. We also like having the option for adding a given field several times, for example we are able to record the numbers of three phones all as mobile.

Organizer:

There are no surprises in the organizer, and as you’d expect from a smartphone it has all the bells and whistles. In the calendar you can add four types of notes (appointments, notes, anniversaries and tasks) and there is a field for time, alarm and others. You still have an unlimited number of alarms, notes, calculator, unit converter as well as a file browser

Messaging:

From here, you can send an SMS, MMS or e-mails. Unfortunately, for the last ones you can only configure one mailbox. At least the settings for the more popular web mail servers (Google, Yahoo) are automatically filled in.

You have a Message reader at your disposal, which is usually seen in the business class devices. For the visually impaired, or just the lazy, , this application can be very handy. When activated, a female voice reads the entire contents of the message, including the name/number of the sender and the title

Connectivity:

The N85 is equipped with A2DP Bluetooth support and Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g) as most smartphones of this price range are.

For quite some time the S60 web browser been one of the best. Although a few steps behind the touchscreen leaders in user-friendliness, it is still very pleasant even for frequent use. Pages render correctly and are relatively easy to navigate through using either the d-pad or the optical mouse. Shortcuts, such as pressing 8 to activate the Panning mode, make the browser even easier to navigate. As found in newer S60 phones such as the Nokia N95 8GB, the browser is capable of handling Flash objects, though large Flash files caused it to choke at times. Most notably, this means that you’ll be able to watch YouTube videos.

Camera

The N85 is an all-in-one smartphone, and so, we expected Nokia to have paid close attention to the camera and the different possibilities for image editing. We’ve known for a long time now that the Carl Zeiss optics don’t necessarily guarantee good images, despite whatNokia’s advertising may lead you to believe. However, we’re quite satisfied with the quality of the images andissues we ran into are pretty standardUnder artificial lighting colors look somewhat cold, but in warm light, such as sunlight, the pictures are topnotch. Unfortunately, if the room is softly lit, most of the dark places go pixelized and the image loses a considerable part of its overall quality. We’ve found the double LED flash isn’t good enough, mostly because of the limited area that it’s able to light up – barely two meters. It’s hard to understand why Nokia didn’t use a Xenon flash instead, seeing as how it was used in the N82.

The start-up speed is average and is no match for the Motorola ZINE ZN5, but it’s at least as fast as Nokia’s older phones. This is a bit disappointing – we were hoping to see some progress in this aspect. The viewfinder loads in about 4 seconds and it takes additional 1 or 2 in order to focus in a brightly lit room. In case of soft lighting, focusing can last up to 6 seconds, which is too much and the moment could easily be missed. It’s the same story with saving an image– about 4 seconds. Keep in mind that we saw the same results with Samsung’s INNOV8, which has an 8MPsensor compared to the N85’s 5MP. The sad news is that there isn’t any improvement in the camera speed since N95 (with its newest software installed.)

Audio:

The interface is quite simple, with a very nice overall design, though it’s not as pretty as the iPhone’s. We didn’t have any trouble with our test music, except for the fact that it managed to show only one of six album covers. The artist and song names were perfectly recognized, and it had no difficulties with sub-folders

Sound quality is decent if you’re using some nice headphones, the included ones are predictably subpar. Low and high frequencies are far from pleasant, but are good enough for video playback. You can try turning on the “stereo widening” in order to achieve better sound quality. The stereo speakers are really loud and high-quality. We didn’t like the position of the speakers when holding the phone in portrait mode; you’re actually placing your hand on top of one of the speakers. It’s not a big deal, but sometimes even such small details can spoil the overall impression of the product.

FM Radio:

Besides the standard FM radio with RDS, the N85 offers something a lot more interesting – a built-in FM transmitter. After you choose a band, the device starts transmitting any sound it makes. This way you can listen to music with your car radio, for example, without any additional accessories. However, the broadcast coverage is not wide enough and in order to deliver some decent quality you need to place the phone right next to the FM receiver. If you’re thinking of operating your own illegal radio station – forget it, it won’t work

Video:

After enjoying some nice music capabilities, we hoped that we could experience some top-notch video support, in order to take advantage of the OLED display! However, it was not meant to be. N85 is only able to play MP4 files with the H.263 codec, which are not good enough for today’s standards. This is totally unacceptable for a modern multimedia phone.

Software:

It was long ago that the integrated memory of a device could limit its possibilities for data storage. N85 comes with 73MB integrated memory, but the good news is that you’ll find an 8GB memory card. Most of the popular N-Gage games are stored on it. Every one of them can be easily installed as a demo, and afterwards you can choose three of them and order their full versions for free, using the codes provided in the kit. Some of the more interesting titles are Asphalt 3, Snakes Subsonic and Bounce.

Performance:

Nokia N85 Review
It may be an all-in-one multimedia device, but is the N85 still a good phone? Fortunately, Nokia has not overlooked this all-important aspect. The sound quality during a call is really high-level and we got the feeling that we were communicating face to face. We were fascinated by the deepness of the sound, and the side noises were almost unnoticeable. They could also hear us loud and clear at the other end of the line, but without the same “Wow!” effect.

We all like smartphones, but sometimes they can be a real pain with their constant lagging and crashing. The N85 did relatively well and in spite of the active transitions, the phone had to spend some time “thinking” just a few times, during the test. What left us with a bad taste in our mouth was that the device didn’t respond adequately enough when we wanted to navigate through the menus more quickly. You can experience this especially with the central key.

The main reason for some to choose the N85 instead of its big brother N96 is the battery. With manufacturer ratings of 363 hours of stand-by time and 6.5 hours of talk the battery is almost twice as good as the N96. We’d imagine that for most people good battery life is it is more important than, let’s say a TV tune

Conclusion:

On the whole we are quite disappointed by the N85 due the total lack of new features. It’s not a bad phone, but there are no innovations compared to previous models. The OLED display is indeed good, unless it’s exposed to direct sunlight. The poor video support means you won’t be able to watch high-quality clips or even movies. In all other aspects the N85 isn’t innovative, but it’s just fine – a smartphone with a nice browser, satisfying audio performance and camera.

To us, current N95 owners have no reason to buy it. We would instead recommend the INNOV8 because it out performs the N85 in several high-end categories. If you’re a loyal Nokia users, the N85 is a decent solution trading the N96’s DVB-H tuner for a better display and battery.

nokia N82 review

comandos — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 08:55:32 GMT

In the middle of November, the new Nokia N82 was announced. Being a 80-series model, it is not among the top-of the-line Nokia phones (90-series), which is logical as its features are very similar to the 9-month old N95. The next high-end model which will be the successor of the N95 (including the 8GB version), is expected to be presented in the first quarter of the 2008, either on CES or 3GSM expos.

The N82 is Nokia’s first cameraphone equipped with a Xenon flash, instead of a standard LED one. This is what Sony Ericsson has been using in its top cameraphones since the K800 and has proved to be the best such technology. Flashes of this type have also appeared in the recently released high-end cameraphones of Samsung (G800) and LG (Viewty).
The Nokia N82 is targeted not only as a high-end cameraphone but as an all-in-one multimedia device. It can also capture high-resolution (VGA) clips, manage audio and video as well as office files, as it is a Symbian 9.2 S60 smartphone.

Design:

Just a look is enough to see that the new N82 is … let’s say different. It doesn’t remind us of any previous Nokia phone, has very different style and design-language as a whole. We may characterize it as hate-it-or-like it style and as a whole it is not among the attractive phones. The entire phone’s body is made of plastic, but unfortunately there is a cheap feeling when using it, although the construction is solid. Still, the weight is pocket-friendly, which has been the idea of the manufacturer.

In the upper half of the phone are situated the lightning sensor, the QVGA secondary camera, the earpiece and the 2.4” display. Although it is smaller than the huge 2.8” one used in the N95 8GB, it is bigger than the K850’s 2.2” which is a success. Although it is not the brightest one, it is still perfectly readable in any environment, something typical for a contemporary Nokia

Packing a large display and a keyboard into a body not that huge, isn’t exactly the easiest thing to do, so compromises must be made with both of them. The N82 isn’t huge, the display is large, so the logical conclusion is that its keypad is small. There is some space between it and the display but obviously the technology still does not allow the developers to use it for a larger keypad. As a whole it is not really bad but the numeric buttons are very tiny, and must be pressed with the tip of a finger. Their type is similar to those of the Sony Ericsson K850, but the latter are more convenient to use as they are bigger and with larger space between each.

Untypically for Nokia, the bottom side houses only the microphone and the connectors are moved to the other sides. On the left are the charging connector, the microSD slot (covered with protective door) and the microUSB for connecting the phone to a computer. On the top is the 3.5mm jack, which allows connecting standard headphones and the typical for Nokia power key, while on the right similar to the N95 are: the volume rocker, the gallery shortcut and the shutter key. As they are illuminated, it is easy to find them by looking, but it is not so by touchin

As usual, the camera lens and flash are located on the back side. Next to them is a small slider that opens/closes the lens cover; it is not very comfortable but we prefer it to the bulgy cover used in the Samsung G800 for example.

Interface:

Nokia N82 is using Symbian v9.2 Operating System and S60 Interface 3rd edition with Feature Pack 1, which is what other contemporary smartphones of the brand use (N95 8GB, N81 (8GB) ).

The banner at the top of the homescreen houses all the service information. Just below these is a row of 6 shortcuts which can be personalized to suit you best and the rest of the display is used for “notifications”. This is where missed calls, upcoming tasks (or To-Do in the calendar), received messages are displayed, as well as the music player status (the song that’s played at the moment). Shortcut to a global Search, that will seek in the whole phone's memory, which we find very handy is situated here also. Located at the bottom of the screen are the two software buttons which can also be personalized from the Settings menu.

he main menu can be viewed as a 3x4 grid of icons that can also be displayed as a list (it’s chosen directly from the main menu), but the icons are not animated in both cases. The numeric keypad buttons can be used as shortcuts. Like other Symbian phones, you can rearrange the icons in the menu and move links in folders.

A nice extra of the Symbian v9.2 is that each application which is active has a small circle next to its icon in the menu. For example, if you left any application running in the background, then in the main menu next to "Applications" link an indication would appear. As all other Symbian S60 phones, you can see the running applications by holding the Menu key, and shut some of them off by selecting them and using the C key.

The menu can be personalized by using themes, and if you combine various screensavers and personalized homescreens, two identical phones can look quite different. The operating system definitely provides many good personalization options.

Nokia N82 has a sensor for the orientation of the device, which is used to control the interface. Once you rotate the phone it should go into landscape mode, however, this isn’t the most adequate one we’ve seen. Often, you’ll have to shake the phone, in order the changes to take effect.

Connectivity:

Just as the Nokia N95, the N82 cannot really be considered a global phone due to its crippled 3G support. Although the quad-band GSM/EDGE receiver allows it to be used worldwide, the 3G UMTS/HSDPA will be limited only to regions with 2100 MHz coverage (Europe and Asia).

There are three methods for local connectivity: Bluetooth (v2.0 with EDR), WiFi and USB. Bluetooth will most commonly be used for connecting to other mobile devices or phone accessories; WiFi is most convenient for connecting to local wireless networks and using them as a source of Internet; while the USB is the preferable connection to a computer. Once the microUSB cable is attached, the phone asks you to select one of four connection methods:

1. PC Suite used for synchronizing the Contacts, Calendar entries (To-Do) and the Notes with most popular systems: Outlook (Express), Lotus Organizer, Lotus Notes, Vista Contacts.

2. Data transfer opens the memory card (if present) as mass storage device, for easy and fast transfer of files.

3. Image print is used with compatible printers, to print images without a computer being necessary.

4. Media player is used for more comfortable transfer of multimedia files to and from the phone.

Internet:

As other S60 phones, loading and viewing a standard HTML web site is a pleasant and easy job. The phone has no problem rendering all pages and reading phoneArena's news was a pleasure as the text fields are shrunk to fit the width of the display. Scrolling left-to-right and top-to-bottom is done with the phone's d-pad, and a mini-map indicates, which part of the page you are looking at. The pages loaded pretty fast and as a whole, we had a great experience with the browser. Another great idea is the history: when you use 'back' to see pages you've seen earlier, you see the pages as thumbnails, instead of just as names. The browser can load RSS feeds for even faster access to information.

Camera:

The N82 is advertised mainly for its camera capabilities, featuring 5-megapixel resolution, Carl Zeiss lens and Xenon flash. According to the Product Manager of the phone, new algorithms are used for the images, due to the new flash that delivers white-colored light. As it is much stronger too, the results should be much better.

And this is true – when shooting in dark environment using the flash, the N82 gives excellent for phone results, similar to the K850 which also uses Xenon. The two phones surpass the competition with well lit photos, more realistic colors and better detail. Even in complete darkness, the object will be in focus thanks to the very strong assistance light. It creates a large red “spot” where the phone is pointed, which may be unpleasant for the others but does its job excellent. Although both Samsung G800 and LG Viewty have Xenon flashes, they both have mediocre performance next to the N82.

The photos during the day are not bad at all either. They are very similar to those of the N95, which is one of the good cameraphones on the market. The detail and noise levels are good and so is the exposure, with the only problem being the unrealistic color representation in some situations. Still, we would have liked to see improvement over the older models also here, but we guess this will happen with the next generation high-end cameraphone of Nokia.

Performance:

Although it is not as fast as the Symbian phones with 369 MHz processors, the N82 can not be referred as to "slow". The only times when it slows down is while opening and previewing a large image, which isn't a very easy task for any phone. Its speed is pretty good for a smartphone, especially when compared to its Windows Mobile rivals. We are also pleased with the quality of the sound during a call: emblematic for top-shelf Nokia phones it is very good. The strength in both directions is sufficient, the voices are clear and pretty realistic with the only drawback being that they are slightly muffled . but it has Dual ARM 11 332 MHz processor; 3D Graphics HW Accelerator

Conclusion:

Are you looking for a multimedia phone? You've been reading the right review then: the N82 will offer you everything you would expect. Its camera is top-notch, upgrading what the N95 offered with a real, powerful Xenon flash with excellent focus assistance. The rest of the multimedia (music, videos) is typical for the Symbian 9.2 in the N-series phones and is very good. Of course as in every phone there are some minor drawbacks, like the imperfect design and keyboard, or the sound through the speakers, but overall the N82 offers a lot, in pocket-friendly dimensions. In addition, it is a smartphone, which gives additional advantages over the rival 5-megapixel models, so we highly recommend it.

Nokia N81 8GB review

comandos — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 07:54:09 GMT

The Nokia N81 8GB is a truly exciting smartphone combining the power of Symbian 9.2 OS spiced up with the new N-Gage platform. What we have in N81 8GB is entertainment and multimedia unleashed. Not only does its specs sheet impress, but it promises tons of fun. With that said you cannot blame us for being too eager to test it out, can you? So please make yourselves comfortable and join us for this review.

Key features:

* Massive storage space (8GB version)
* Symbian OS 9.2 S60 3.1 UI
* Wi-Fi support
* Unique gaming experience with the new N-Gage platform and dedicated gaming keys above the display
* Brilliant 2.4" 16M-color QVGA display
* 2 megapixel camera
* 3.5 mm audio jack
* Touch sensitive Navi wheel
* Dedicated music keys and hardware keypad lock switch
* 3G with video calls
* Nice multimedia menu

Main disadvantages:

* Mediocre camera
* Awkward D-pad
* Hefty weight
* Uncomfortable keypad
* No HSDPA

As you all know, there are two versions of the handset - standard and 8GB. The standard version features a memory card slot, the other has none but offers the exciting 8GB of onboard memory. We are looking at the Nokia N81 8GB but all of it holds true for the standard Nokia N81 as well. Therefore, from now on we are going to simply call it Nokia N81

Both versions of Nokia N81 have been in the spotlight ever since their official announcement at the Nokia Go Play Event in London back than in August. The air is getting thick with anticipation, as N81 seems to have earned quite a lot of fans. No wonder with a specs sheet like this, though we know better than taking anything for granted. After all, the question is whether performance cashes the checks written by the specs. Besides, we just couldn't wait to play a few games and see if those dedicated keys are worth the fuss.

Symbian goes flat

Nokia N81 is about the size of most other Finnish smartphones. It stands at 102 x 50 x 17.9 mm, which is almost identical to Nokia 5700 XpressMusic or Nokia 6110 Navigator. No need to fuss over a millimeter or two. The difference in weight however can't be overlooked, with the N81 weighing 15 grams more than the recently reviewed Navigator and good 25 grams more than the 5700 XpressMusic smartphone. Even Nokia's top multimedia device - the omnipresent N95 - is as much as 20 grams lighter. Not that it's too much of an issue, but there are a lot of people who don't want such a load in their pocket. In any case, the phone will be hard to squeeze in tighter pockets and, if dimensions are the most decisive factor when buying a phone, you will probably have to look elsewhere.

On a different note, the handset is of solid build, with high-quality sturdy materials used on the casing. The slider construction also seems very reliable though it somewhat lacks smoothness. All in all - the phone is a typical Nokia in that aspect.

Starting with the Nokia N81 front panel, at the top right corner is the video-call camera. Dead center at the top of the front side is an oblong plate with the earpiece right in its middle. The plate serves as a dual key (rocker) with the two gaming buttons on each of its sides. Invisible when not in use, the dedicated gaming buttons backlight in environments where they can be used. Under the gaming keys is the sparkling 2.4" display. It supports 16M colors and has a QVGA resolution. Offering stunning picture quality, the display ranks among the best even by Nokia's standards. Under the screen come a whole bunch of controls in what seems the most crowded of D-pads. The Navi Scroll key is the central element. It is truly unique for two reasons. Firstly, it offers the exceptional Navi wheel navigation and, secondly, its confirming center is very hard to press. This may sound unbelievable, especially given its ample size. In fact, it has to be pressed exactly in the center, otherwise the cursor will move before confirming. We did have some trouble with it and we have little hope that it's going to be fixed in the retail version. On the other hand, the Navi wheel is doing a truly amazing job but more on that later in the review. The square Navi Scroll key is framed within a larger pad with the four dedicated music keys at its angles. On the periphery of this frame-within-frame layout are the two soft keys (top), and the Menu key and Clear key (bottom). At the sides of the D-pad are the Call and End keys, placed on the sloping edges of the handset's front. Finally, on the right side of the scroll key we find the last control: the silver multimedia key. It has the same functionality as in Nokia N95 - opening a dedicated multimedia menu, which has been redecorated and is now looking even better and more convenient to use. Except for the multimedia key and the frame of the scroll key, all other buttons are completely flat. Regardless of their touch-sensitive disguise, they are actually regular hardware keys.[img]http://http://img816.imageshack.us/img81[/img]
Opening the slider reveals the numeric keypad, which just happens to be one of our greatest disappointments with Nokia N81. The keypad is entirely flat with almost undetectably thin lines separating each row of keys. If you had any hope of typing on Nokia N81 without constantly looking at you fingers, you'll be vastly disappointed. The keys themselves are quite large but still fail to resolve the usability issues of this keypad. Built on the concept of a new gaming experience, the N81 will likely attract the young and it is not the smartest decision by Nokia to make the phone so texting unfriendly. After all, SMS is key to exactly this age group, which the N81 seems to be targeting and keen texters wouldn't appreciate having to put so much effort into it.

Picture perfect

When we speak about phones, a 2.4" inch display is well worth a praise. With N81 and the N-Gage gaming experience it offers, the 2.4" display with 16M colors and QVGA resolution seems the spot-on choice. The display on Nokia N81 has great sunlight legibility, incredible picture quality and is large enough for everyone to see. You can hardly want any more even in this price range.

Symbian with a pinch of fun

Nokia N81 is running on Symbian 9.2 OS and uses the well known S60 3rd edition graphic user interface. The improved Feature Pack 1 is no news anymore, as all recent Nokia smartphones are equipped with it. Among the strong points of the FP1 is the availability of multiple alarms, as well as the voice memo limit increase to a whole hour. Furthermore, it displays blue circles on running applications' icons to remind you to turn them off when you don't need them any more. No one wants used up RAM to slow down their smartphone. All that said, we need to mention that Nokia N81 is armed with the fastest Nokia processor to date (ARM 11, 369 MHz). The same CPU powers the Nokia 6120 Classic and Nokia 5700. Navigating the menus is very fast. All the commands are executed in an instant, which greatly contributes to the impression N81 leaves.

Audio quality test

Being able to listen to your favorite tracks is one thing but playing them properly is completely different. We were more than glad to realize that Nokia N81 is good at both. Our audio quality test showed very good results and convinced us that Nokia N81 is a real step forward for Nokia in this aspect. It is way better than Nokia 7500 Prism, which we recently tested. The Nokia 6110 Navigator worthies nowhere near such a comparison. More details about the test itself here. And there go the results,

Camera reduced in rank

It's astonishing that Nokia has decided to integrate a 2 megapixel fixed focus camera into the Nokia N81, instead of trying to close the gap in the three megapixel race. But let's leave our frustration aside and continue the camera test.

The camera interface looks identical to the one found in the Finnish multimedia flagship Nokia N95. The camera options are shown with small icons near the lower end of the screen. These can be hidden to make full use of the display as a viewfinder. The main camera only shoots in landscape mode which is easily explainable by the position of the dedicated camera key. Besides, it feels far more natural to take pictures this way. Camera settings are identical to the one on Nokia N95 with one nice addition - grid lines can now be added to the viewfinder. You can use them to help compose your snapshots like a pro - the photography rule-of-thirds is that you should place your main subject either along these lines or at the points where they intersect. The rule-of-thirds also applies to landscape shots. There you should have the sky occupying either one third or two thirds of the frame. The other change made goes without saying - macro mode is not present due to the lack of autofocus on Nokia N81. Luckily the customizable ISO settings, white balance and scene modes are still present. Finally we need to mention that the dedicated camera button could be a bit bigger and easier to press. As it is with this phone, you either need to look at it or spend a few seconds finding it with your fingertips.

Get yourself connected

Connectivity is definitely among the Nokia N81 priorities. A microUSB port is in charge of cable connections. If you do not have the required cable, you can always rely on Bluetooth v2.0 or Wi-Fi. In addition, there is a rich choice of network selections - GPRS, EDGE and UMTS are all present. We felt sorry that HSDPA has been missed out this time, but we could live with it, having all those alternatives at hand. The N81 8GB lacks a card slot too but, as we see it, card readers are rarely used for transferring data from and to a mobile, so it is not a big deal.

N-GAGE gaming

Nokia N81 will come with three preinstalled games. All of them are based on the new N-gage platform and even the demo versions promise a pleasant pastime. The keys above the display also contribute to the improved gaming experience. You can take a look at our videos for a feel of the games on N81. At this stage purchasing the full games from the N-gage site is not yet available but it's expected to start in the nearest future. Then we'll also know what a game would cost to buy. It is sure however, that these games will excel at both graphics and interface and, as the list of expected titles shows, there will be something for everyone.

iPod nano review (2010)

GhenMoKai — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 05:24:13 GMT

Apple's sixth generation of the iPod nano is essentially the first complete rethinking the product has had since its debut in 2005. The previous form factor -- slim and light with a decently sized display and clickwheel -- has been all but abandoned. The new design is a complete departure; a full touchscreen device that brings to mind something more like a large, living postage stamp than a portable music player. Along with the radical hardware redesign, Apple has infused the media player with a brand new operating system as well -- an interface that looks and plays more like iOS than iPod. We've spent the past week or so knocking the nano around to see if it's worth your hard-earned dollars, and we've got the answers inside -- so read on for our full review.

Hardware

Size-wise, the iPod nano has never been smaller. The new hardware is slightly wider than the previous nano, but this time it's a tiny square, with a miniature, 1.54-inch 240 x 240 capacitive multitouch LCD display. Around back is a built-in clip, and the whole affair is encased in the same kind of anodized, colored aluminum you've come to expect from an iPod nano. In case you're wondering, this particular model can be had in seven different colors -- which weirdly makes us think that Apple believes someone out there will get one for every day of the week. Though the previous generation device sported a video camera, that's been ditched in the new model along with the physical controls. Anyone who's spent a lot of time on the go with the nano will probably be happy about these changes -- the clickwheel could be a bit hard to navigate with accuracy, say, when jogging.

Other than that, the new nano is considerably lighter than the previous model, weighing in at roughly 21 grams, whereas the older version clocked in at about 36g. In fact, it's so light that when using the clip to attach it to a shirt (or in our case, the strap of a bag), you barely notice it hanging there at all.

The nano boasts just three hardware buttons -- one larger button on the top right for power / sleep, and two smaller, circular ones on the top left for volume controls, another change we appreciate. In the previous nano, in order to adjust the volume you had to unlock the device then navigate with the wheel. Now with actual hardware buttons, you can turn the volume up or down without ever actually looking at the player. It's a minor but welcome improvement. If these buttons are a byproduct of Steve Jobs hating buttons, we like it.

While that screen is small, it's not hard to get around in, and the touch response seemed about as tight as it is on the new touch or iPhone. Multitouch rotation worked just fine, and in general use, moving from place to place with the new nano was considerably faster than on previous models.

Overall, we think the design is a big step forward for this line of players. Eschewing the staid clickwheel for a simple touchscreen interface is a big plus in our book, and the high-end feel to the materials and build quality makes this seem right at home next to something like the new iPhone. Of course, at this size, you're far more likely to lose this thing -- and the price tag will make that sting a bit more than if you misplaced a shuffle.

Software

The iPod nano's strongest suit has always been its simplicity of purpose, and that's never been more evident than in this newest device. If there was ever confusion for buyers about whether to get a nano or something more full-featured, such as the touch -- that argument is dead. Apple's ditched the video camera and the ability to play back video here, along with lots of other "extra" stuff (contacts, calendars, notes, games). With the new nano, you can listen to audio and look at photos -- and that's it.

The new interface is far more intuitive than the classic iPod interface, in our estimation. Though you have just as many playback and sorting options as before, the multitouch, iOS-ness of the experience strips away the feeling of endlessly scrolling through menus (often without context) to get to what you're looking for. The new UI looks and acts just like iOS, but according to Apple the nano is not actually running a build of iOS. We know that previous iPod UIs were built using a handful of components from OS X, so it's safe to assume that this new interface is made up of a hodgepodge of tried and tested frameworks. The results are great -- the nano feels like iOS in all the ways that matter (so much so that we mistakenly call it a "phone" in the video below), including inertial scrolling, the ability to rearrange your homescreens, and general navigation throughout the device.

Getting around the UI is similar, though not exact, to iOS. To navigate you flip through a couple of pages of iPhone-style icons. It's like a micro Springboard. You can hold down on an icon to put it into "jiggly mode," and then move the icons as you would in iOS. When you're using one of the functions of the device, you can long press on the center of the screen to return to your homescreen; swiping to the right when you're listening to music or viewing photos will take you back through your previous screens until you land on home. Lists are scrollable and multi-tiered just like in iOS. There is the occasional hidden dialog in some places that we found odd, like where Apple placed the "add" and "edit" buttons for playlists -- they're unexposed at the top of your playlist screen, and require a scroll up to discover.

Long lists of songs, artists and albums are still present here, but the new interface has streamlined a lot of actions in a way that makes the nano feel much neater than previous models. Dedicated icons for podcasts, the FM radio (a feature we're glad was held over from the last generation), voice recorder (as long as you've got earbuds with a mic plugged in), and the fitness functions make getting to what you need to easy even when you're not fully paying attention -- which is a great advantage of graphic, rather than text-based, menus. There are also tasteful little tweaks too, like being able to set the default lock screen of the nano to an analog clock. We're sure there will be a slew of aftermarket armbands for this -- and honestly, it does make kind of a cool looking watch.

Oh, and you can use multitouch to rotate the screen to whatever orientation you like, but there's no multitouch in the photos application. You can double tap to zoom in, however.

Sound quality / playback

Sound quality seems to have improved a bit over the last generation, as well -- though we can't be scientifically positive, it sounds to us like Apple's made some iterative improvements here. Bass felt full and deep, and highs were less cutting than on most players we've used, though the Zune and Walkman sound quality are tough to beat in this category. Still, for a player of this size and price point, the nano performs excellently.

Wrap-up

Ultimately, if you've had the same iPod nano for the past few years, this new device will probably make you feel like you need a replacement. While there isn't slew of fresh additions (in fact, there are notable subtractions), the re-think about what the nano is supposed to be feels right to us. It's still not exactly your cheapest option if you're looking for pure MP3 playback, but something tells us that if you're looking at the nano, you're living in Apple's ecosystem, and that makes this a pretty attractive choice. We ultimately would like to see the capacities on these guys grow a bit, and those prices drop, but there's no sticker shock here. The new nano is a smart, fast, capable player that should please a lot of people looking for something new this holiday season.