You'll have already seen Rafe's exhaustive (p)review of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, the first S60 5th Edition phone: Intro and Hardware, Multimedia, Software and Compatibility. In today's review feature, Steve Litchfield gives his own pointed slant on the device. Armed with production (9th Dec 2008) firmware, he critiques the 5800 XpressMusic from various standpoints, including text entry, user interface, camera and web browsing.
Steve and Ewan round up the last of the news before Christmas turns up in the latest All About Symbian Insight podcast. We talk about the beta labs image Exchange, how much to charge a user for Web 2.0 services in 2009, Resident Evil on the N-Gage, ask where Rafe is, and finish with a musical number from Geoff Smith.
Hot on the heels of the last one (I don't know, you wait forever and two come along at once), it's the latest Insight podcast from All About Symbian. Catching them between flights, Steve chats to Rafe about Sony Ericsson and the Open Handset Alliance and some of the shorter news pieces, while Ewan talks about a brief hands-on with the N97 and the welcome regularity of N-Gage games.
A few days later than usual, but hey, at least you've got some weekend listening - it's AAS podcast 104, a.k.a. Insight 51, in which the usual AAS team discuss all the announcements at Nokia World 2008, including (of course) the Nokia N97.
After three days mostly in the dark (in terms of economical data), Ewan has a few choice words for manufacturers and software designers - don't assume that an Internet Connection is always present. Because there are times, especially when roaming, when an always-on data connection can be as much a curse as a blessing.
With Christmas fast approaching, it's high time for a detailed hands-on head to head between the three smartphone platform flagships: Nokia N96, HTC Touch HD and Apple iPhone 3G. Can I pick a winner? Do I need to? Plenty of opinion, facts and device lowdown here, but your comments most welcome.
... In which I get all picky about the quality of video capture on Nokia's latest devices, the N79, N85 and (here) the N96. Is there a problem, and if so then is it down to changed premises, settings or lack of graphics acceleration hardware? For once, I'm really not sure and would love folk with more technical/photographic expertise than me to help out in the comments, as we try to get to the bottom of the issues.
In this, the second part of Ewan Spence's chatty look at the Nokia N85, he carries on from part one's look at the hardware and styling of the device. Running S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2, the N85 sees tweaks to the interface and some of the built in applications to help the user experience. How successful have Nokia been?
AAS's month of trying to destroy Nokia smartphones concludes with me taking an unscheduled fall and hurting myself rather nastily. An N82 helped break my fall, yet still works perfectly. After Rafe's attempts to drown an N95 8GB and an E71, how much more do we have to do to break one of these things? Summing up, I reckon that robustness is a factor often forgotten by other gadget blogs and reviewers.
Rafe Blandford will be reporting back in detail from Nokia World over the next few days, but in the meantime, watching the coverage across the Internet of the new Nokia N97, Ewan's apprehensive that there's a fight brewing now that the Nseries has a touch champion and that the battle field is becoming more level.
In Insight number 50 (woohoo!), Rafe, Steve and Ewan discuss the latest news from the Symbian World. Steve talks about his overall N79 experience, Ewan has been playing with an N85 and Rafe waffles about the state of the open platform market. Plus, we look forward to Nokia World 2008 (tomorrow)....
In the concluding part of his very detailed hands-on (p)review of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, based on almost a month of day-to-day running with Nokia's 'Tube', Rafe Blandford brings us a report on the rest of its applications and on third party software compatibility, plus, of course, he sums up the device. Why is it unique and just how well will it do worldwide?
Another of Nokia's latest wave of S60 3rd Edition FP2 phones goes under Steve Litchfield's scrutiny. This time it's the Nokia N79, which, like the N96 before it, though full of 'toys', is ultimately not powerful enough when compared to the older N82 and N95 variants. A lack of graphics acceleration and poor video capture are two aspects which Steve felt disappointed with, but the all-in-one, slim, fashionable form factor will, I feel, ensure mainstream success.
Sometimes we at AAS Towers get review hardware that we're allowed to keep for many months - in these cases, it means that it's practical to move everything over and use such a device as our main phone, day in, day out. In such a situation is Ewan with the Nokia N85. The data transfer process wasn't without its hitches though and there's one critical piece of software whose absence is causing Ewan's blood to curdle. Read on...
Yes, it's the long awaited part 2 of Rafe's definitive hands-on preview of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, a.k.a. the 'Tube', this time covering all aspects of multimedia, from camera to Web to games. The touchscreen and wide display make for a unique form factor among Nokia's current line-up, and Rafe leaves no stone unturned in his quest to evaluate the device.
