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".
A minor firmware update, version 12.0.024, has been released for the Nokia N97. The updates fixes a number of bugs and improves performance and stability. The firmware is being made available through both Nokia Software Updater (part of PC Suite) and OTA on the device. The firmware is currently available for SIM-free models; as usual the availability of the firmware will vary by market and device variant.
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.
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!
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'.
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 first of his reports. And yes, it includes an unboxing - of sorts! Comments welcome, as usual, along with any questions for the bearded one!
It was that time of the year again. When I got ready to head out into the wilds. Armed with nothing more than my trusty smartphone (in years past, a Nokia 9500, an E61i and an E90, this year it was the E75's turn), the aim was to keep in touch with the world even when camped miles from anywhere with my family. But what about power? How did I keep my smartphone supplied with juice? Not mention the barrage of 'Daddy, my xxxx's battery is flat' complaints, all of which needed to be handled quickly if a peaceful atmosphere was to be maintained!
Nokia's sent us one of their Cityman 450 anti-theft units designed for the Nokia N97, and we have to say it's quite impressive. Absolutely no one will want to steal your phone once you've put this little beauty into action. Find out more below...
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!
Give two very articulate and S60-experienced phone reviewers the same device and they'll come to roughly the same conclusions, right? Wrong. Showing yet again that the Nokia N97 seems to polarise opinion, we have Karri Ojanen, concluding that the N97 is well worth perserving with and who seems enamoured of most aspects of the device, and Johnny Bruha, who found the N97 lacking in so many areas during his extended test period that the device ended up in the bin. Both reviews are well worth reading over a glass of wine this evening and I guarantee you'll nod your head in agreement with both, somewhat paradoxically!
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.
