This is the second in a series of articles giving real world, honest feedback from Symbian users of varying levels of expertise who have tried moving to Windows Phone in general and the Nokia Lumia 710 in particular. Here Laurie Garratt takes perhaps the archetypal Symbian geek position, despite being a teenager, and approaches the Lumia fairly critically.
The lack of uptake of the Nokia 808 by networks in various countries is something that still provokes controversy. Are the networks mad? Is the device not good enough? Or - and this is a theory that's worth considering - is it actually better for the long term success and reputation of the 808 for it not to be ranged on contract anywhere? Yes, totally mad, but also making total sense, as I shall explain....
This is the first in a series of articles giving real world feedback from Symbian users of varying levels of expertise who have tried moving to Windows Phone in general and the Nokia Lumia 710 in particular. Here Paul Sargeant finds a lot to like in terms of day to day use and loves the hardware, but it's fair to say that it still didn't completely replace his existing N8.
I've had surprisingly many requests to include the Nokia N86 in my upcoming Nokia 808 PureView camera comparison review part, comparing the native 8MP with the 8MP PureView mode - and I was preparing to disappoint the requesters, since my comparison phones were the N82, N8 (i.e. staying with the Xenon blood line) and HTC One X. However, never one to let the side down, I popped out just now and shot a sequence of test shots, analysed below. Summary: keep the N86 if you're into snapping flower macros, otherwise the 808 blows it out of the water.
A month ago, I put the (then upcoming) 808 PureView against the (also upcoming) Galaxy S III in tabular, opinionated form. And, having now used both smartphones, reckon I got the verdict spot on. However, the SGS III is a monster form factor, with 4.8" screen, so I thought I'd cast around for something current and cutting edge that's more the Nokia 808's size. Aha - the HTC One S, with almost identical specs to the flagship One X, yet within a more conventionally-sized phone form factor. Read on for my head to head.
OK, so not so much of a fight, since there can only be one winner, but I did think you'd be interested in some direct comparisons between shots grabbed in sometimes light-challenged conditions on the N8, still the best camera-toting smartphone in much of the world, and identically-taken shots from the 808 PureView, available for over a week now in parts of the world. The examples below, plus some of the anecdotal useage comments, come in conjunction with AAS guest writer Mark Wilkinson, working in China.
This morning's news from Nokia was bleak, with 10,000 job losses and a revised financial outlook that will see the company's key Devices & Services division report losses of several hundred million Euros for Q2 2012 on the 19th July. Media coverage has understandably focused on these key points, but a number of important strategy changes were part of today's announcement and these are worth examining in more detail.
I think I shocked a few people when I declared, back in January, that the feature at the top of my shopping list when choosing a smartphone was a loud speaker. I did justify this, mind you, before quoting a few phones from all platforms in some sort of best-worst order. What I'd like to do here is go further, keeping the list to just the Symbian world, this being AAS. Which Symbian phone will be at the top of the tree?
You may remember that, exactly six months ago, I wrote 'Nokia C7 vs N8: Female vs Male: Madonna vs Kurt Cobain?', facing arguably the two top Symbian handsets against each other and pointing out that they had very different personalities. The same is true of the N8 versus the Nokia 701, arguably the C7's direct successor. We've covered the 701 before, in review part 1 and review part 2, but since then the device has received a big Feature Pack update, including a processor speed bump, so why not take a sideways look at the N8 and updated 701, blow by blow?
The subject of the future for current Symbian users has been debated a lot over the last year or so. "I've got to try living with the times", I thought, so I switched my main SIM into the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, 4.6" screen, dual core processor and full on Android 4. I'd dabbled with Android a lot in the past, of course, but this was an intensive week's test. I wasn't even allowed to pick up a Symbian phone, other than for review purposes. And you know what, my SIM card's now back in the N8 and I think I'm faster, lighter and more productive on my mobile feet as a result - here's my fairly personal list of things I missed after my week with Ice Cream Sandwich...
