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.
Well, not quite, but it's a fair indication. According to the eagle-eyed Jay (who has thankfully scanned the appropriate table), the Europe-wide Carphone Warehouse has listed its top selling pay-monthly phones - the Nokia 5800 is number 1, with the Apple iPhone at 2 and the Tocco Ultra feature phone at 3. As Jay notes, it's really not surprising, given that the 5800 started free on £15 a month contracts, undercutting the iPhone by a factor of around two, while out-speccing it in many departments (the exceptions being screen tech and size of app store).
Just.... as us normal-coloured geeks start to get a glimpse of SIM-free Samsung i8910 HD phones, guest writer Stuart Clark reports on his first week with the bona fide, Orange-crippledbranded version. What has Stuart loved about the i8910 HD so far and what has he hated? And, more importantly, what's he had to do in order to get some of the lost functionality back?
[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.
There's something outrageously different about the Nokia N97 (or is it outrageously the same?) that utterly polarises opinion, on both sides of the world. The Really Mobile Project's Ben Smith and James Whatley seem completely divided here on video (and embedded below), while Engadget Mobile's Chris Ziegler and Thomas Ricker seem equally polarised in print, right here. Sigh. Whatever happened to peace and love? Or maybe the N97 is a 'Marmite' smartphone that you either love or hate?
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.
I'm not sure if The Gadget Show's Jon Bentley has been watching my Phones Show, but in his own video review (embedded below in HQ) of the Nokia N97, he seems to have picked up on many of the same complaints, including the diminutive keyboard and the still immature S60 5th Edition interface. Yet, overall, he concludes it's still "one of the best phones you can buy". I'd concur, with the rider that Nokia need to get cracking on firmware updates and that the 'b' in 'Buy' is in capitals - £500 is still a sizeable sum!
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.
