The Nokia N8 has ruled the roost for almost nine months of course - and I don't think anyone reading this is going to expect it to be toppled even by the best of the rest, tested here. But what I was interested in was how much other devices and systems have closed the gap, as at June 2011. Surely the current batch of 8 megapixel-toting smartphones have good enough cameras for most users these days? I wanted to gather some data points, looking right down at pixel level, at four photos in four different scenarios/light levels, for each device.
It's never easy finding an exact match across different smartphone platforms for these head to heads, but these two devices are certainly surprisingly close. Nokia's X7 is here now in retail form, while the older Nexus S has been available now for almost six months but retains its 'pure Google, latest OS' reputation. Appropriately, the X7 too has the latest Symbian OS, in the form of the Anna software. Matched at every level then, how do the two smartphones stack up?
This is the biggest and most comprehensive - and last - in my series of "Pimping" features - for S60 3rd Edition smartphones. And as such, I've saved the best until last, as they say. The Nokia N86 featured here is one of my all time favourite phones and the ultimate incarnation of the original N95 dual slide concept. Just read the list of unique selling points below and you'll see what I mean. Can the N86 still 'cut it' in 2011? It depends what your smartphone needs are, to be sure. Certainly it's a great second hand bargain these days and hopefully this feature will show any new users some tricks and tips for setting it 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.
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....
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.
You may remember Nokia's rather thought-provoking video promo "Welcome to the Fourth Screen", embedded below? It was part of the launch of N-Gage 2.0 and devices like the N96 and, yes, it's now somewhat dated, in terms of specifics. But the central concept remains inspiring: that with a smartphone in our pocket we can go out into the world, rather than being cooped up in our homes and offices, plugged into broadband and desktop computers. Into the world, with its knocks and shocks, with rain, with extremes of sun and cold. Good thing that my smartphone tools of choice can take it. Here's some evidence...
