In times of inconsistent quality, it's good to reflect back on devices that have oozed quality, charisma or style, and sometimes even all three. In "Top 10 - Classic Smartphones", I count down the significant stars of the Symbian OS world from the last 7 years. Controversial? Biased? Probably. But I'll bet there are four or five of these on everybody's own personal top 10 from the same period! Comments and your own picks are more than welcome!
Vodafone have confirmed, following initial reports that the Samsung i560 would be taken up for the UK as a Vodafone exclusive, that they "won’t be ranging this device. This device was tested with our new Sat Nav software and we weren’t happy with its performance." This was the only one of Samsung's new S60 smartphones that we had a hope of seeing in the UK, although the i450 and i550 are available in Germany and Italy.
Great to see the Nokia N82 getting some professional TV coverage, here on G4 on their Gadget pr0n (sic) show. Despite the American focus(!), the presenters seemed to get the hang of the N82's strengths - well worth a watch. (via Lonely Bob)
Apparently there's a new firmware update out for Nokia 6120 Classic owners, taking you to v4.21, reports Ricky. There's UDP too, so you shouldn't have to worry about backups and restores. Better to back up just in case though?
Rafe also spent a lot of time with the Nokia N78 at Mobile World Congress. Here's his detailed and illustrated preview. A natural evolution of the best-selling N73, despite the hardware improvements, it's the software and services improvements that really caught Rafe's imagination, taking Ovi and a much more rounded package to the mass market.
To complement his textual preview of Nokia's upcoming N96, Rafe has produced a comprehensive hands-on video about the device, covering each of its major areas with video (and photos) shot at Mobile World Congress. Rafe makes a compelling argument against actually calling the N96 a flagship, but its specs are still mightily impressive.
In this podcast we cover current developments around Nokia's Ovi strategy including Sync, Share, N-Gage, plus we chat about all aspects of the Nokia N96, following on from our hands-on preview. Finally, we rant and rave a little about Google's new native search 'client'. Here's the link: Insight no. 14, plus the RSS feed to sign up for the future.
Knuckle down for the real thing, guys and gals, AAS proudly presents Rafe's definitive hands-on preview of the recently-announced Nokia N96. From the DVB-H TV receiver to the new codecs to the music controls to the auto-geotagging of photos, it's all covered. Rafe spent quite a time with the N96 and it shows. Read the feature to find out how the N96 compares to the N95 variants and to the N82 - is there a definite flagship?
Nseries video supremo James Burland echoes many of my own sentiments in chewing Nokia out over the VGA capture in its Nseries devices - the resolution ticks the right box but fails miserably for frame rate and focus. A justified rant? I think so.
After the brace of S60 devices announced at MWC, I've done an update to my comprehensive S60 comparison table. Still a few 'Unknown's, so comment if you can help fill any in. Also of note is that Forum Nokia now has the official specs of the new Nokia devices online.
I couldn't resist passing on Nokia's Nseries team's latest marketing skit, showing off the inner workings (ahem) of the Nokia N78. Funny stuff, see below!
3D graphics benchmarks aren't the 'be all and end all' when it comes to games playing performance, but they're a good clue as to how capable a device is. So it was interesting to find out about a regularly updated and bookmarkable table of OpenGL ES benchmarked smartphones. It's topped by the 'if you believe Nokia' obsolete N93 and the N-Gage 1st access smartphone, the N81, comes in a lowly 22nd. Read on for comment.
It seems that some firmwares for the Nokia 6110 Navigator have a major issue with the core navigation function and that Nokia are recalling some handsets (those that are branded) and fixing others with firmware updates. See the comments below for more info, it's a licensing screwup... (via IntoMobile)
Ahead of our device previews here are a number of image galleries, with the usual commentary, of the 8 Symbian OS powered devices which were announced last week at Mobile World Congress 2008. The Nokia N96 (high end Nseries), Nokia N78 (entry level Nseries), Nokia 6210 (navigation focused), Nokia 6220 (mid tier all rounder), Sony Ericsson G700 and G900 (the first mid tier UIQ 3 phones), Samsung G810 (camera focused high end slider) and LG KT610 (mid tier QWERTY clamshell).
In All About Symbian Insight #13 Rafe, Ewan and Steve discuss their first impressions of Mobile World Congress 2008. Rafe gives his impressions from the show floor while Steve and Ewan pick out their highlights from the various announcements and cover a variety of news from last week.