A smartphone with a dead battery isn't very smart, I think we'd all agree. Constantly overlooked by many of the world's smartphone manufacturers, battery capacity and the efficiency with which it is used is often shoved to the back of the priority pile, behind exciting bullet points like 1GHz processors and 4.3" screens. In this feature, I quote an old rant and embellish the point, before launching into a passionate plea to the guys behind Nokia Social Networking - and then, for fun, I list my top 5 battery champions of the Symbian smartphone world in the last 10 years.
Alongside Steve and Rafe’s clinical and extensive review of the Nokia N8 (see parts #1, #2, #3, #4 and #5) I’ve been looking at the N8 in the real world – or as much as I can replicate while filming. How will the latest handset cope when asked the sort of questions the man in the street would ask? It’s time for a real world video review of the Nokia N8.
You'll remember from three months ago that I explored, in some depth, peoples' various definitions of what makes a phone a 'smartphone'. I also tested some of these with a concrete example. Musing on the apparent huge divide between the excellent and dismissive reviews of the Nokia N8, it hit me that one of the original tenets of smartphone-ness is utterly personified in the N8 and yet almost totally ignored by tech-mainstream reviewers. They are indeed working to a totally different definition of the word - and this split in meaning for this now oh-so-common word threatens to not only confuse the casual reader but also split the smartphone world apart. Can't we bring the best of each world together and give peace a chance?
Let me introduce you to guest writer Tony Butler, a long time AAS reader and, as it turns out, a first class wordsmith too. Like me, he has been fighting to balance the innate gadget lust that all of us secretly harbor with common sense - admitting that the current smartphone we own actually works pretty well. Grab a coffee and read on - I guarantee that some of his musings will strike a chord with many reading this - and may well help save you a few pennies by staving off the dreaded 'lust'....
So..... Xenon flash is back in fashion (thank goodness) and we have several top end smartphones with decent cameras and decent overall specifications. Having now been using the Nokia N8 for two weeks, I wanted to pitch it at the Motorola XT720, its exact counterpart in the Android world. Which device wins out overall in terms of specifications, usability, software and results? Here's my latest best-of-Symbian versus best-of-Android 'head to head'!
With the Nokia N8 finally here, there are a lot of people thinking “finally, it’s been shipped!” And a lot more now wondering how long till the E7 makes its way into the stores. Is there any rhyme or reason to the gap between announcing and shipping a phone for Nokia? And how do they compare to other manufacturers? I decided to have a look around.
One of the future technology demonstrations at Nokia World 2010 was an innovative system for providing indoor location services. Indoor positioning has always been a missing link in navigation software because GPS signals cannot penetrate into buildings. This new system from Nokia Research Centre has the potential to revolutionise navigation, providing a seamless transition between outdoor and indoor navigation. For example, allowing people to navigate to a public place, and then find their way around once inside, and much more. Read on.
You'll remember that I wrote a piece six months ago looking at the (then) new camera technology EDoF (Extended Depth of Field), used in Nokia's super-lightweight smartphones, the E52 and E55? It's entirely possible that some people either missed this or didn't 'get' how EDoF works, even after my piece, because there still seems to be some confusion over whether Nokia's decision to put EDoF cameras in their new C6-01, C7 and E7 is a good one or bad one. I'm definitely in the former camp, but agree that E7 users might be disappointed. Read on for some genuine C7 EDoF photo samples and commentary.
And so the E7 has been announced and shown off, at Nokia World 2010. And you've already had your say, in our big launch news article and the hundreds of comments. Anssi Vanjoki made a big deal about how the E7 is being pitched as the new 'Communicator', the replacement for the venerable E90. With that in mind, I thought it might be helpful to produce a blow by blow comparison of the two. Can the E7 really replace the E90?
We're used to Symbian, iOS and Android being the big players in the mobile wars, but Microsoft are ready to return to the fray. Mind you, they never really left, and the Windows Mobile 7 UI is already out there with consumers. In this feature, I take a look at the Zune HD and how it interacts with its audience. Is there a lesson in here for the Symbian Foundation for Symbian ^3, ^4 and beyond? You bet! Read on...
