Not as sexy as the N97's update, no doubt, but the Nokia N96 has always underperformed and I'm hoping that v30.033 firmware, also released today, will help the beleaguered flagship-of-2008 come up to par. v30 is a 6MB over-the-air update and installed smoothly on my N96. The previous firmware version was v20, by the way. Some brief comments below.
In All About Symbian Insight 77 (AAS Podcast 137), there is news of Truphone's extended support for Nokia and the 5800 continues its best selling streak. Rafe talks about Nokia and Intel's strategic tie up and reports back from the launch of the HTC Hero. Ewan shares news of AdSense for applications, which leads to a general monetisation discussion. You can listen to AAS Insight 77 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Rafe and I present part 2 of our extended review of the new Nokia N86 8MP, in which I look in detail at the improvements made in the camera hardware, directly affecting still photo and video capture in a wide range of lighting conditions, and with special reference to the output of the N95, of which the N86 is something of a spiritual successor. See also our Nokia N86 8MP Review - Part 1 - Overview
After being struck by an informed comment by Symbian's Executive Director, Lee Williams, that the touchscreen market would top out at about 30%, i.e. that at least 70% of phones will continue to be keypad or qwerty-driven, I wanted to get to the bottom of which smartphone keyboard, in the Symbian world, at least, was the best, in terms of size, feel, capability and efficiency. Oh, and I wasn't allowed to include any obsolete models... [Ouch.]
The Nokia N97, N86 and E75, along with the iPhone 3GS are now in my smartphone-choosing Grid, if you'd care to try your luck. After finding what the Grid thinks is your perfect smartphone, try playing the 'fiddle the preferences so that device X wins' game - it'll while away your Friday afternoon, anyway! 8-)
Steve's Friday Buying Tip (SFBT, should maybe be a regular feature?!): I thought you'd like to know that the all-rounder (qwerty) Nokia E75 smartphone, liked by all the All About Symbian team [it's grown a lot on me, incidentally - see the next Phones Show for comment!] is now on sale at Expansys, reduced from the RRP of £379 inc VAT to a much better value £299 inc VAT, SIM free. See also our review of the E75.
With the advent of summer in the Northern Hemisphere, Steve Litchfield reprises an old rant with a look at how the current crop of 2008/2009 smartphones fare on a sunny day. Does your phone turn into a hand mirror or can you see what's going on? Featured here are seven popular screen types, showing how well - or how badly - they do.
In this Insight, Rafe, Steve and Ewan talk about the Nokia N86, a visit to Symbian, N-Gage Games (Dance Fabulous and Pinbusters) and general reaction to the N97.
[updated - 23 June 2009] In which I report on a usually forgotten feature of all modern Nokia smartphones - their stereo speakers. Why are these important (to me) and what sort of variation is there in volume and quality? I think you're going to be rather surprised - I know I was, the cheapest devices were the best! I looked briefly at the Nokia 5800, N95, N86 and N97... and have now added Nokia E90, E75, N96 and 6220c, plus the Samsung INNOV8 for good measure.
In this photo-centric review Rafe performs a group test of some of the heavyweight S60-powered cameraphones. It's the Nokia N86 8MP versus the Nokia N97, Nokia N82 and Samsung i8510 (Innov8). That's some test and Rafe tries each out in a range of conditions and settings. Summary: The N97 disappoints, but the new kid on the block, the camera-specialist N86 8MP delivers in spades.
It's a hardware spectacular for The Phones Show 83, now out, with news of new Symbian OS smartphones, a long video review of the HTC Touch Pro, with head-to-head section against the Nokia N97, plus a demo-focussed tour around case makers Proporta, down in Brighton. If you want to pick the show up via RSS, here are the QVGA (for phones) and VGA (for desktops) feeds.
Rafe's been sending back some pictures and thoughts from the UK launch of the Nokia N97 and N86 in the Nokia store on Regent's Street through both Twitter (@aas) and Flickr (RafeB). No huge queues at the store, but plenty demo units, augmented reality units and he's wondering if the N86 is getting lost in all the lust for the N97.
Don't be fooled by the 'Overview' subtitle, we proudly present All About Symbian's detailed review of the Nokia N86 8MP being launched today. We cover all aspects of the device and explain where it fits into the world of top-end phones. Future review parts will cover specific areas, such as multimedia functions, in greater detail, plus we'll have specific photo comparison articles. Can the N86 8MP succeed amidst the barrage of summer touch-screen 'heroes'?
The Nokia N97 and Nokia N86 will launch tomorrow, Friday 19th June, in the UK. Nokia's Regents Street flagship store will open it doors at 10am. They are advising customers to come in, if possible, and pre-order a device, ahead of tomorrow, to avoid disappointment. You can also order the N86 and N97 via Nokia's online store. Other UK online stores will also start selling both devices and they will become available through select operators in the next few weeks.
Rafe excels at these annotated photo galleries, and his Nokia N86 Gallery is his biggest ever. Pore over the N86 8MP with him and see why both he and I think it almost perfectly formed and a spiritual successor to the N95 Classic. Yes, the screen's only QVGA, but it's perhaps the ultimate in the keypadded dual-slider form factor. And the camera's not bad, too. 8-) Note that a full N86 review is coming very soon, don't go away.