You'll have seen my previous 'retro' article, looking at pimping the Nokia E61i, an early 2007 device that can now be picked up for pocket money but which still has a unique form factor. The same applies, but 'in spades', to the Nokia E90, released only a few months after the E61i but sporting the full Communicator form and also S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1, plus SDHC support. Like the E61i, it too had a number of performance bottlenecks, so how did I get on pimping the Nokia E90 to 2010 standards and might it possibly challenge the mighty (ahem) N97? Read on....
Two years ago the Nokia N95 8GB was on top of the world, the N96 was the newest offshoot, the E61i was the best bet for the common man in the business world, and their 2.8" screens were deemed massive. And, the oddity of the E90 notwithstanding, we were happy. Weren't we? These phones did all we asked them to and the the world was good. And yet, less than 24 months later we find the smartphone world dominated by 4" screened, touch-only devices that bear little resemblance to the champions of 2008. Is it all the iPhone's fault, or is there more to the change? And will it all end in tears?
In a departure from traditional All About Symbian conservatism, Steve Litchfield goes exploring the world of firmware modding, specifically looking at the Samsung i8910 HD, a flagship smartphone in terms of specifications that has been under-curated by its manufacturer. Can a third party, armed with no source code whatsoever, really mess around with the files in the firmware to produce a better device? Short answer? Yes. With a few caveats. Read on...
After resisting the persistent trend of touch screen smartphones, David Gilson reports on his experience of living with some S60 5th Edition touch screen phones.
While I've previously pitched the Google Nexus One head to head with the Nokia N97, concentrating on screen size and general capacity, there's another interesting comparison to be made in the smartphone world, centred on metal construction and all-round communications and multimedia ability. Here, I take the industrial designed Motorola Milestone and the Nokia N97 mini - which will stand up to my intensive testing best?
In an epic tale of heroism and 'making do', I lead you through a series of hopefully thought-provoking segments, showing that perhaps there's more to a smartphone than feeling compelled to buy the latest £400 hardware. In the process, I point out the potential benefits of one of Nokia's unsung heroes, the E61i, my main smartphone through the summer of 2007 and a device to which I was recently reintroduced. Reality bites home in the end, though, and I conclude that there's an equal acknowledgement to be made in terms of progress made by Nokia and Symbian over the last few years.
In the second and final part of a two parter, Steve Litchfield again looks outside the Symbian world to ask if the current Android flagship could replace a Symbian-powered smartphone. In the process of answering the question, he analyses (in order) the next 8 essential functions which devices like the Nokia N97 perform for him - how easy would it then be for a non-Symbian device like the Google Nexus One to step up to the plate? (Here's part 1, covering the top seven functions)
In the first of a two part feature, Steve Litchfield looks outside the Symbian world to ask if the current Android flagship could replace a Symbian-powered smartphone. In the process of answering the question, he starts to analyse (in order) the 15 essential functions which devices like the Nokia N97 perform for him - how easy would it then be for a non-Symbian device to step up to the plate?
