In All About Symbian Insight 83 (AAS Podcast 145), Rafe and Steve discuss the enterprise focused alliance between Microsoft and Nokia and ponder its implications. Steve shares news of Gartner's Q2 smartphone shipment figures, before moving on to first thoughts on the Nokia E55. We then answer some reader questions. You can listen to AAS Insight 83 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
For a few weeks in August, I lent James Burland, an experienced Nseries user, photographic wizard and also a huge Apple iPhone 3GS fan, my Nokia N86 8MP, asking him to really push its unique selling point - the camera. Here's his report. Despite a few concerns and a general scepticism about the keypad form factor in 2009, James proclaims the N86 8MP to be "the best all round photo and video capture smartphone currently available".
In this All About Symbian hands-on video review of the Nokia E55, embedded at standard resolution below, Rafe spends 9 minutes giving you a detailed visual tour of the device's software and hardware. Included are comparisons with the E51, the E75 and the E71, plus (of course) the E52, - choosing the E55 is all about choosing the form factor, it seems! Staying with the E55, there is a full text review to come, from me, later this week.
If it's a geeky accessory review you're after, then I'm your man. In today's slot, I present a look at the ultimate Nokia E75 battery life extender, in the form of the Mugen Power after market 2000mAh cell - does it actually double the useful life of the phone, are there any gotchas and just how badly will your street cool factor be affected if you use this?
In this first look review Rafe runs through some of the key points of the brand new Nokia E55, sharing his thoughts after 36 hours with the device. I'm currently writing a far longer and fuller review for AAS and this will follow sometime next week. In the meantime, enjoy Rafe's photos and observations.
The Nokia E75 has been slowly but surely working its way into the hearts and minds of the All About Symbian team during 2009. Here's my real world, long term Nokia E75 review - what has been outstanding and what has been a problem? Of note is that the E75 was my only device for my recent holiday, i.e. it had to do absolutely everything - how did it cope under pressure?
In All About Symbian Insight 82 (AAS Podcast 144), Rafe and Steve round up software news from Quickoffice, DataViz and Digia. Steve reprises his Mobidapter review and we discussing some of the forthcoming hardware content on AAS including the Samsung i8190, Nokia 5530, E52 and E55. You can listen to AAS Insight 82 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Now live is The Phones Show 87, also embedded below, featuring (since I've been away on holiday) 24 testimonies from my audience, sharing their current choice of phone/smartphone and why. Plenty of Symbian representation in the choices, with the all-conquering Nokia E71 being most 'picked'.
The head to head that all Nokia camera phone fans wanted to see - Damian Dinning, the guy behind both the N82 and N86 8MP, has been doing controlled tests at Nokia's Southwood test centre, and the results are his presentation, embedded below. See also the original Nokia Conversations accompanying article, helping explain what you're seeing. Make sure you click to go full-screen, by the way, if you want to see everything!
In recent years the USB flash disk has become the ubiquitous way to carry files around with you. But what about getting files from a USB flash disk to your mobile phone when you're out about? In his review of the Mobidapter, an accessory which offers a solution to this issue, Steve considers whether this is a really useful solution or a really bad idea.
In which I reprise my 'Gotta have QWERTY' theme and explore the currently available options for anyone wanting Symbian OS and a 'proper' keyboard... I look at Eseries, Nseries and numbered S60 phones - it's safe to say there's no runaway winner either. (Oh yes - and I promise not to mention 'Psion'!)
Another year, another design iteration of Proporta's bestselling mobile charger range. This is 2009 and we now have the USB TurboCharger 1200 and the USB TurboCharger 3400, with the numbers helpfully telling us how many mAh of charge are stored within. I've been reviewing the (physically and electrically) smaller version - is it worth sacrificing charge for size?
In All About Symbian Insight 80 (AAS Podcast 142), we discuss Nokia's Q2 results and the announcement of the Nokia Surge. We follow up with news of Symbian's Horizon program, before talking about the latest set of software updates for the N97. Finally we answer some questions from our listeners. You can listen to AAS Insight 80 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Nokia today announced the Nokia 6760, it is an unbranded, enhanced version of the Nokia Surge that was announced in conjunction with AT&T last week. It is a horizontal slider with QWERTY keyboard and is a mid-tier, consumer-focussed, messaging device. The Nokia 6760 will be available from Q3 2009, at a cost of €200, before taxes and subsidies. Along with the Nokia 5530, it is one of the cheapest S60/Symbian phones released to date.
I've mentioned the direct lineage between N95 and N86 8MP before here on All About Symbian, so let's break this down - how far HAS Nokia come in the last two years? And how much of this distance is covered by software updates that can also be applied to the N95? In another of my device head-to-heads, I compare the N95 'classic', as it was at launch in early 2007, with the N86 8MP of mid 2009...