Nokia N8 Review

We’ve come to take Nokia for granted in the low end or the business class but it seems it has lost the knack for killer phones, run out of royal blood. It’s up to the Nseries to fix it all up. The Nokia N8 may just turn out to be the right cure. With that kind of hardware, it’s a smartphone you’d be mad to ignore. For a change we are not talking netbook-grade processing power or loads of RAM. Nokia have instead given their flagship an industry-leading camera and stuff like HDMI port and USB-On-the-Go

The Finnish engineers often like to make a point about Symbian being the most resource-effective OS. We’ve seen it run reasonably fast indeed on even slower CPUs. This time though it’s Symbian ^3, so we’ll have to see it again to believe it.

Key features

• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support
• Penta-band 3G with 10.2 Mbps HSDPA and 2 Mbps HSUPA support
• Sleek anodized aluminum unibody
• 3.5" 16M-color AMOLED capacitive touchscreen of 640 x 360 pixel resolution
• 12 megapixel autofocus camera with xenon flash and 720p@25fps video recording
• Camera features: large 1/1.83” camera sensor, mechanical shutter, ND filter, geo-tagging, face detection
• Symbian^3 OS
• 680 MHz ARM 11 CPU and 256 MB RAM
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
• microHDMI port for 720p TV-out functionality
• GPS receiver with A-GPS support and free lifetime voice-guided navigation
• Digital compass
• 16GB on-board storage, expandable through the microSD card slot
• Active noise cancellation with a dedicated mic
• DivX and XviD video support
• Built-in accelerometer and proximity sensor
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Stereo FM Radio with RDS, FM transmitter
• microUSB port with USB On-the-go support
• Flash and Java support for the web browser
• Stereo Bluetooth 3.0
• Nice audio reproduction quality
• Smart and voice dialing
• Scratch resistant Gorilla glass display

Main disadvantages

• Symbian^3 is still behind Android and iOS usability standards
• No video light
• Camera interface is decidedly outdated
• Relatively limited 3rd party software availability
• No office document editing (without a paid upgrade)
• Video player has some issues
• Battery life is not on par with best in the business
• Battery is not user-replaceable

Nokia E7 Review

Business as usual for the Eseries is a cliché – thank you very much. But the kind that makes the world feel right. The Nokia E7 could’ve been just another Eseries phone. Oh well, that wasn’t meant to be. The latest is implicitly the greatest but, in the case of the E7, the latest may simply be the last.

Symbian is just about to be knocked off the top-spot as the market-leading smartphone platform. Worse yet, while loyal users are still sitting on a fence about replacing their E71/E72s Nokia is deciding whether to euthanize Symbian. Question marks have been hanging over the platform’s approach to touchscreen since day one. And now it’s got WP7 at its very doorstep. It’s the worst of times for the Nokia E7. But it’s up to it to show that the Eseries are still open for business.

Key features

• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support
• Penta-band 3G with 10.2 Mbps HSDPA and 2 Mbps HSUPA
• Anodized aluminum unibody
• 4" 16M-color ClearBlack AMOLED capacitive touchscreen of 640 x 360 pixel resolution
• Scratch resistant Gorilla glass display
• 8 megapixel fixed-focus camera with LED flash
• 720p video recording @ 25fps
• Symbian^3 OS
• 680 MHz ARM 11 CPU and 256 MB RAM
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
• microHDMI port 720p TV-out functionality
• GPS receiver with A-GPS support and free lifetime voice-guided navigation
• Digital compass
• 16GB of on-board storage
• Active noise cancellation with a dedicated mic
• DivX and XviD video support
• Built-in accelerometer and proximity sensor
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Stereo FM Radio with RDS, FM transmitter
• microUSB port with USB On-the-go
• Flash and Java support for the web browser
• Stereo Bluetooth 3.0
• Good quality audio
• Smart and voice dialing
• Office document editor preinstalled

Main disadvantages

• Symbian^3 is still behind Android and iOS usability standards
• Ovi store content is inferior to Android market and App Store
• Fixed-focus on an 8 megapixel camera is just wrong
• Camera interface is decidedly outdated
• Battery is not user-replaceable
• No microSD card slot

Nokia C6-01 Review

Key features

• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support
• Quad/Penta-band 3G with 10.2 Mbps HSDPA and 2 Mbps HSUPA support
• 3.2" 16M-color ClearBlack AMOLED capacitive touchscreen of 640 x 360 pixel resolution
• 8 megapixel fixed-focus camera with dual-LED flash and 720p video @ 25fps recording; geotagging, face detection, smart-zoom in videos
• Symbian^3 OS
• 680 MHz ARM 11 CPU and 256 MB RAM
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
• TV-out functionality (SD)
• GPS receiver with A-GPS support and free lifetime voice-guided navigation
• Digital compass
• 340MB on-board storage, microSD expandable
• DivX and XviD video support
• Built-in accelerometer and proximity sensor
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Stereo FM Radio with RDS
• microUSB port with USB On-the-go support
• Flash and Java support for the web browser
• Stereo Bluetooth 3.0
• Excellent audio quality
• Smart dialing and voice commands

Main disadvantages

• Disappointing battery life
• Symbian^3 is still behind Android and iOS usability (mostly in text input and web browsing)
• The camera is a fixed-focus unit, tends to oversharpen images by default
• No office document editing (without a paid upgrade)
• Relatively limited 3rd party software availability

Nokia C5-03 Review

Key features

• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support
• Tri-band 3G with 10.2 Mbps HSDPA and 2 Mbps HSUPA support
• 3.2" 16M-color TFT LCD resistive touchscreen of 640 x 360 pixel resolution
• 5 megapixel fixed-focus camera and VGA video @ 15fps recording; geotagging
• Symbian S60 OS
• 600 MHz ARM 11 CPU and 128 MB RAM
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g; UPnP
• GPS receiver with A-GPS support and free lifetime voice-guided navigation; free city guides and traffic information
• Digital compass
• 40MB on-board storage, microSD expandable up to 16GB; 2GB card included
• Built-in accelerometer
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Stereo FM Radio with RDS
• microUSB port (charging)
• Flash and Java support in the web browser
• Stereo Bluetooth 2.0
• Very good audio quality
• Voice commands

Main disadvantages

• Symbian S60 hasn’t aged well
• Relatively limited 3rd party software availability
• Screen has poor viewing angles and behaves badly in the sun
• The camera is a fixed-focus unit with no flash, shutter key or lens protection
• No office document editing (without a paid upgrade); No PDF viewer
• No proximity and ambient light sensors
• No DivX or XviD video support out of the box
• No video-call camera
• No smart dialing

Nokia C3 Touch and Type Review

GENERAL             

2G Network           GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900

3G Network           HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100

SIZE       

Dimensions         111 x 47.5 x 11 mm, 51.4 cc

Weight                  100 g

DISPLAY               

Type       TFT resistive touchscreen, 256K colors

Size        240 x 320 pixels, 2.4 inches

SOUND 

Alert types             Vibration, MP3 ringtones

Loudspeaker        Yes

3.5mm jack           Yes, check quality

MEMORY              

Phonebook           Yes, Photocall

Call records          Yes

Internal                 30 MB, 64 MB RAM, 128 MB ROM

Card slot               microSD, up to 32GB, buy memory

DATA     

GPRS                    Class 32

EDGE                    Class 32

3G                          HSDPA, 10.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 2 Mbps

WLAN                    Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n

Bluetooth               Yes, v2.1 with A2DP

Infrared port          No

USB                      Yes, v2.0 microUSB

CAMERA               

Primary                 5 MP, 2592х1944 pixels, LED flash, check quality

Video                     Yes, VGA@15fps

Secondary             No

FEATURES           

Messaging            SMS, MMS, Email, IM

Browser                WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML

Radio                    Stereo FM radio with RDS

Games                 Yes + downloadable

Colors                   Silver, Warm grey, Golden khaki

GPS                        No

Java                       Yes, MIDP 2.1

- Facebook, Twitter

- MP4/H.264/H.263/WMV player

- MP3/WAV/WMA/eAAC+ player

- Flash Lite 3.0

- Organizer

- Voice memo

- Predictive text input

BATTERY               Standard battery, Li-Ion 1050 mAh (BL-5CT)

Stand-by                Up to 405 h (2G) / Up to 440 h (3G)

Talk time               Up to 5 h 30 min (2G) / Up to 4 h (3G)

Music play             Up to 20 h

MISC      SAR US 0.87 W/kg (head)     0.58 W/kg (body)   

SAR EU 0.99 W/kg (head) 

Nokia 5250 Review

Key features

• Quad-band GSM, EDGE support
• 2.8" 16M-color 360 x 640 pixel resistive touchscreen
• S60 5th Edition (a.k.a. Symbian^1)
• ARM 11 434 MHz processor; 128MB of RAM
• 2 MP fixed-focus camera
• VGA (640 x 480 pixel) video recording @ 30fps
• Stereo Bluetooth v2.0
• microSD slot, microUSB port
• Accelerometer and proximity sensor
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• FM radio with RDS
• Stylus tucked inside the phone's body
• Excellent loudspeaker performance
• Good audio quality
• Web browser has Flash video support

Main disadvantages

• No 3G, Wi-Fi and GPS receiver
• Poor screen quality
• Doesn’t charge off USB
• No preloaded Office document viewer
• No support for DivX/XviD videos out-of-the-box
• Gets sluggish as the memory card starts filling up
• No USB cable or memory card in the retail package

Nokia E7 vs LG Optimus 2X vs Apple iPhone 4

All the three phones are having great design and hardware that is more than competent for the job, especially the Optimus 2X with its dual-core chipset. The call quality is good as all three are equipped with noise-canceling microphones. The iPhone 4has this grip reception issues sometimes, which most probably won't affect you, unless you live on the very edge of the signal tower. 

It is not all about hardware these days, not even about having the slickest interface, but rather the amount and quality of third party apps that can make your phone so much more versatile. This is where the App Store excels, as it got a head start of about a year before Android Market even appeared, not to mention Nokia's Ovi Store, and it is still most profitable for developers to write apps for iOS.

Considering that these phones cost more than $600 unlocked, and the Nokia E7 actually takes the crown as the most expensive at this very moment, so at this price you'd probably set your eyesight on it only if you definitely need a physical keyboard to type comfortably, and already have some experience with Symbian, i.e., if you are a Nokia fan. As we said, its market timing is the worst now, with all the noise surrounding Nokia Windows Phone.

Now the tough call is between the iPhone 4 and the LG Optimus 2X. Android Market might not have an app for everything, but the 150 000 + applications thereabout cover most basics, and then some. The dual-core chipset allows for Full HD video recording, fast page load times with zippy Adobe Flash support, and thus makes for the best hardware of all the three phones. This unlocks a different set of apps and possibilities, which have not yet materialized on Android Market, though, and matter most for more technically inclined people, which are the most likely to fall in love with the Optimus 2X.

The iPhone 4's thin steel and glass frame is very appealing, especially if you are coming from a phone with a plastic chassis, which the overwhelming majority of them are built with. It doesn't do Full HD video, and the browser can't load Flash to save its life, but those are obviously not considered a necessity, since most people that buy the iPhone 4 prefer the smooth experience, devoid of hiccups. The other thing they are looking for is the possibility to  have these numerous apps and versatile accessories everyone is talking about, as well as ease of use, which is very visible in the dead simple camera interface, for example. The sheer fact that it is a 9 month old phone, and still in the mix, comes to show that you are only likely to switch camps if you are getting bored with one mobile OS or the other, and want to try something new for a change. 

As for the Nokia E7, we know the company has its loyal fanbase that is dying to get its hands on the latest piece of design art from it, so we are sure the E7 will do fine, once the price starts going south.

Nokia N8 vs Apple iPhone 4

The Nokia N8 has a lot going for it. It is a multimedia powerhouse, packing a 12MP camera with a huge sensor, Carl-Zeiss lens, and a powerful Xenon flash. The Finnish handset also adds other notable virtues, that the iPhone 4 doesn't have, namely the ability to play almost any HD video file on a big screen via HDMI-out, with 5.1 channel surround