Guest author Nick Anstee here. I'm on the crossroads of deciding whether to continue with Nokia devices or make the transition/leap to Android - I like the idea of using Google for Contacts and Calendar, etc. But before making the transition to Android I thought it prudent to take a few minutes to properly analyse and consider what I would need to replace in an Android world, at the same time it made me think just how amazingly efficient the Symbian homescreen really is. As my current device is a Nokia N97 (classic), there is only one homescreen, so it is important to extract maximum functionality out of every ounce of the screen real estate. I believe I've done this and hoped readers here might be interested in how I've set things up.
Maximising battery life has been important for all smartphones since time began (2002!) With the Symbian^3-powered Nokia E7 and N8, both with slightly underwhelming battery capacity and no easy way for a user to swap cells, it has become an all-consuming, critical obsession. Which is why we're doing everything we can to help you eke out the milliamp hours... In extreme cases, by implementing all of the dozen measures detailed here, you can even double the battery life of your device - I did!
I know, I know, I promised to go quiet on the subject of EDoF for a while - but I was out and about in glorious weather with the Nokia E7 and Samsung Galaxy S II (recently named the no. 1 smartphone in the world in Phones Show 140) in my pocket - and I couldn't resist a direct comparison. Both units have cameras of similar size and resolution - the E7 has EDoF and the SGS II auto-focus, but I wasn't majoring on macros shots here - more on raw performance. Full images are shown and available below - which do you think are best? How does the business-focussed E7's camera fare?
Tomi Ahonen, like me, has been a heavy Nokia Communicator user over the years. And so our opinions on the Nokia E7 should be pretty similar. He has just published his long term critique of the device and, in typical Tomi style, there's no holding back in terms of volume of words (so get yourself a coffee before settling down to read). While we do agree on many aspects of the E7, both good and bad, there are many, many notable criticisms made by Tomi that are well, well worth a response in the device's defense.
Unless you've (literally) had your head under a rock for the last 3 years, you'll have noticed that 'thin' is 'in' in the phone world. The thinner the better and the lighter the better - the aim seems to be to create a phone that's nearly all screen and never mind its other attributes. Playing devil's advocate, I present five reasons why thinner is not necessarily better.
With the news that Nokia is closing the door on its Ovi Adventure, reported yesterday here on AAS by Rafe, this is a good time to look at Nokia's marketing message for the rest of the year, into 2012 and beyond. With the Microsoft partnership in the wings, it'll need to make sure that the Nokia message stays in the minds of the consumers. All it needs to do now is work out what that message is - and communicate it effectively.
Why the N8? It's a question I get asked a lot. Not just in the Symbian world, either (i.e. which is my pick of the current devices?), but out of the dozens of current smartphones that I've tested, borrowed or bought, why the heck am I still using the N8, a whopping seven months after I got it? After all, the OS is supposedly 'dead', the interface is 'unintuitive' and the screen on the small side for a 2011 champion phone. The answer, surprisingly, is not just all about the camera....
It's all very well Symbian having typing auto-correction, iPhone-style these days. But many devices are shipping with the defaults set 'off', so that only geeks are benefitting from the correction, which is utterly crazy. In case you, or (more likely) a new user or friend is struggling with typing on their new N8 or C6-01 smartphone, here are the small tweaks you need to point them towards. (The C7, if you were wondering, shipped with the auto-correction correctly activated - and the E7 has the full physical keyboard!)
So I'm at the Eurovision Song Contest... and I know the idea of attending all the rehearsals, parties hosted by each country singing, welcome receptions by the Mayor of Dusseldorf, and generally immersing yourself in one of the biggest live TV shows of the year would strike terror and fear into the hearts and minds of many of you, but bear with me. I want to talk more about using the Nokia N8 at an event like Eurovision.
The new Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc has been long awaited by many in the Android community who wanted a challenger to the all-conquering Nokia N8 in the camera department. With its back-illuminated EXMOR R sensor, Sony Ericsson have been claiming extremely good low light performance. So, with the Arc in hand, I decided to put the two head to head for still photos under various conditions.
