Steve Litchfield explores the Nokia N95's continuing legacy in something of a tribute to the original dual-sliding smartphone... In terms of features, build quality and longevity, how do its successors stand up? And is there an 'ultimate' N95? Find out here. I look at the N95, the N95 8GB, the N96, the N85 and the N86 8MP - it's a veritable N95-fest!
Nokia has announced the Nokia N900, a Maemo 5-powered device. Maemo 5 is the evolution of Nokia's previous generation of Internet Tablets and aims to occupy the space created by the convergence of mobile phones, laptops and the Internet. The N900 features a horizontal slider design with a three line QWERTY keyboard, a 3.5 inch WVGA (800 x 600) touch screen, ARM Cortex-A8 600 MHz processor with 256MB of RAM (and 768MB of virtual memory), 5.0 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, tri-band WCDMA and WiFi connectivity, integrated A-GPS, 3.5 mm AV jack (audio and TV-out), and 32GB of flash storage and a microSD card slot. The N900 will be available in select markets from October 2009 at a cost of €500 before taxes and subsidies. Read on for further details and comment.
Following on from my Nokia E55 review, I look at its sister device, this time with traditional keypad - is there anything to complain about in the perfectly formed little E52? Don't worry, I manage to find quite a bit - you can't read the keys in some light conditions and there are significant omissions from the initial firmware - though it's still a triumph of S60 miniaturisation. Here's my review of the Nokia E52.
Nokia today introduced Nokia Money, a mobile financial service, which will offer basic financial management and payments from a mobile phone. It will allow you to send money to another person, using just their mobile phone number, pay for goods, services and bills or recharge pre-pad SIM cards. Financial services are widely considered a very significant market opprtunity for the future: there are 4 billion mobile phones, but only 1.6 billion bank accounts.
We here at All About Symbian have been using Ovi Store for quite a while now, and have noticed a number of things that need to be fixed or could be improved. We don't doubt the effort and resources that Nokia has put into this so far, but we think it's fair to demand that Ovi Store lives up to the same general standards as other online content shops. Here are 23 suggestions for the Ovi Store team's to do list, neatly categorised into 'urgent', 'gripes' and 'suggestions'!
Nokia today announced the Nokia 5230, a lower mid-tier, music and Ovi service-centric device for €149 (before taxes and subsidies). The device runs S60 5th Edition on Symbian and key features include a 3.2" screen, homescreen Contacts Bar and Media Bar, 2.0 megapixel camera, A-GPS, 3.5mm audio jack and integration with Nokia's Ovi services. The 5230 will be available from Q4 2009. Read on for full details.
Somewhere there's a bundle of ex-Symbian employees quietly muttering “I told them the way forward was a two-box solution....” What to make of the announcement of the Nokia Booklet 3G (beyond the fact that they're consciously avoiding the term 'netbook', even though every single post, tweet and message about this device is going to call it the Nokia Netbook)? Read on for my thoughts on this new mobile device...
In a thought-provoking piece, Tzer2 wonders if it would be possible to replace hard-remember text passwords with a signature, a pictogram or even just a custom gesture. Moreover, you can apparently try the last technique yourself right now if you have a S60 5th Edition phone.
Over on Ovi Gaming we've been reviewing lots more games, we have another batch of Ovi Store client installation walkthroughs, and we'd like to know which games you want us to review. See below for a complete list of links...
It's, hand-down, the smallest and lightest and - almost - most powerful QWERTY smartphone ever created. But is the E55 any good? Find out in my full review. Of its two Unique Selling Points, I was impressed by the tiny EDoF camera, which produces results beyond expectations, but I was left feeling that the 'half QWERTY' keyboard implementation needs a little more software intelligence behind it. A great value smartphone overall, but the bottom line is that its fiercest competition will come from its own sister phone, the E52.
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.
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.
As it's the weekend we've got a round-up of eight new game reviews over on Ovi Gaming, as well as a few other features. Following our new format, the reviews are brief but include long gameplay videos and lots of screenshots, to give an idea of what the game is really like. All the relevant links are below...
Nokia today announced that it has reached the mile stone of one million activated Ovi Mail accounts in just over six months. Of these accounts 650,000 have been created on a mobile device. Nokia says Ovi Mail 'is quickly establishing itself as the email account for the developing world', underlining that, with Ovi Mail, people can get their first email address, set up and manage email entirely on their phone, without any need for a PC.
It's August and it's the time of year when Ewan Spence disappears into the caverns of Edinburgh to report for his Fringe podcast - and we do like to load him up with something he hasn't seen before and ask him to road test it properly. This year it's the Nokia N97 and embedded below is the second of his reports, covering the N97's keyboard and camera. Comments welcome, as usual, along with any questions for the bearded one!
