Nokia Announces two new N-series phones , The N79 and the N85

Nokia announced two new N-series phones to its already crowded lineup of N-series phones.It'll be interesting to see what the next N7x series phones are gonna be rebranded as , since the N79 is the last number in the N7x series.  

The Nokia N85
 

Operating System	Symbian 9.3 S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2
Band	GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz, WCDMA 900/1900/2100MHz or 850/1900/2100MHz
Data	GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA/WiFi
Size	103mm x 50mm x 16mm (4″ x 1.9″ x .6″)
Weight	128g (4.5oz)
Battery Life	Estimated 12.5 days standby time
	Estimated 4 hours talk time
Display	2.6″ 16 million color QVGA AM OLED, 240×320 pixel resolution
Camera	5 megapixel autofocus with Carl Zeiss optics and dual-LED flash
Video	VGA resolution 640×480 record at up to 30 frames per second
Bluetooth	2.0 with A2DP
Memory	70MB internal, microSD memory card slot with 8GB card included
Other	Built-in GPS receiver, TV-Out, FM transmitter, 3.5mm audio port, Accelerometer
Availability	Planned Q3 2008
Pricing	EUR450 (US$665) before taxes and subsidies

 



The Nokia N79
 

Operating System	Symbian 9.3 S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2
Band	GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz, WCDMA 900/2100MHz
Data	GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA/WiFi
Size	110mm x 49mm x 15mm (4.3″ x 1.9″ x .6″)
Weight	97g (3.4oz)
Battery Life	Estimated 17/15 days standby time (3G/GSM)
	Estimated 3.5/5.5 hours talk time (3G/GSM)
Display	2.4″ 16 million color QVGA TFT, 240×320 pixel resolution
Camera	5 megapixel autofocus with Carl Zeiss optics and dual-LED flash
Video	VGA resolution 640×480 record at up to 30 frames per second
Bluetooth	2.0 with A2DP
Memory	50MB internal, microSD memory card slot with 4GB card included
Other	Built-in GPS receiver, TV-Out, FM transmitter, 3.5mm audio port, Accelerometer
Availability	Planned Q3 2008
Pricing	EUR350 (US$521) before taxes and subsidies

Nokia E71 : Initial Observations !

The great people at Womworld sent me a Nokia E71 to trial. This device is everything you have read about it and much much more..!! I was seriously skeptical about how much praise was being heaped on this "E-Series-Posterboy" phone, but once you get your hands on this stunner ..trust me ....you wont feel like looking at any other e series phones ... ever ! I'm sure a lot of people are going to dump their blackberrys for this baby !

This is only the review of the physical features of the E71. I will be posting a detailed software review later.



As you can see in the picture ... the E71 looks absolutely stunning , The amazing metallic finish feels good to look at and to hold too. Also as with the other newer E-series phones .The phone runs on symbian OS 9.2 and has the new "home" and "delete" keys .. and also features a "CTRL"(which i'm assuming is used to in VPN and Remote Admin functions) function on the dedicated "special characters" button.Also visible in the picture are the Dedicated calendar , phone book and messages button.Also hiding beneath somewhere is the GPS chip. this is the second E-series phone to get inbuilt GPS functionality after the E90. The GPS lock on is fast and takes under 10 seconds as compared to nearly a minute on my N95.The full qwerty keypad is amazing ! it might look minuscule here ... but the buttons are so well contoured that even a guy like me with big fingers can easily use the keypad without pressing two keys at once. Also the combination of predictive text + auto correction + qwerty keypad makes typing out even the lengthiest emails on this device a real breeze.



The side view of the E71 , in all its stunning glory.The only disappointment here was 2.5 mm headphone jack in lieu of the standard 3.5mm one , but i guess it had to be done due to space constraints. So this means you cant use your normal mp3 player headphones like you can in the N95 and certain other N series phones. There button with the dot in the center is used to mute calls.





The back casing of the E71 has a nice feel to it. All the squares you can see are actually carved into the metallic cover , which ensures that this sleek phone does not slip out of your hand under any conditions.Also provided is a 3.2 megapixel camera with auto focus & geo tagging , and a LED flash.The E71 also does away with the front camera found in most N series phones. The camera quality is fairly acceptable for an E-series phone , and cannot be compared to the likes of the N73 or the N95 for that matter. Still , I wish the camera was a little better .



These are some of the accessories that come with the E71 box. A nice red and black lanyard and Case. The case is of really good quality and has a nice red interior and looks very very classy (a nice addition to those Armani suits :P ) . Also included are a 2.5mm headset and the usb data cable (unlike Motorola and Samsung ...you cannot charge the phone with this) and a travel charger.

Comparisons with the Nokia N95 : (physical features)

The E71 is THIN !! Just comparing it with my N95 was like comparing the size of a mac book air to a Panasonic toughbook !!
And I dunno how nokia engineers managed to squeeze a full qwerty keypad in there ...but I must say ..its real impressive to see the amount of stuff they've crammed into this device !



The E71 as you can see is only slightly longer than the N95 in the closed state.




In terms of thickness ... There is no comparison at all !! The E71 is wafer thin as compared to the N95 .. which is really good for all those business suits out there ...so you don't have an awkward bulge sticking out of your trouser/suit pockets !

This concludes my review of the physical features of the E71. I will be posting a detailed software review of the device and its features later. Do let me know if you have any questions about the device and i will try to answer them in my next post. :)

N95 v/s N82 Night shots !!

The great guys at WOMWORLD had sent me a N82 to review a few weeks back. I wanted to post this article sooner , but I was really busy for the past few days. I tested out how the N95 fared compared to the N82 xenon flash. The photos were all clicked in pitch darkness just because I wanted to compare the effect of the xenon flash compared to the LED equipped N95.The result ? The N82 wins by miles. Simply no competition here. Although the N95 did manage to shoot some decent pics when the subject was in focus . Else ...its the N82 all the way !! If you're the type of person who parties a lot ..or clicks a lot of snaps in really dark places...then the N82 is definitely the phone for you !!

Check out the comparison photos here :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fotojunkie/sets/72157604318666969/

Lemme know what you think.

For All The Uber-Dorks Out There... !!

Just stumbled across this 6x optical extension for the nokia N95 over at the Nokia N95 Blog.









Okay...so now we have a quad band phone ...a large 2.6 inch screen..with AGPS...and a 5 mpx camera with 6x optical zoom. Hmmmm....Now if only I had some luck with the "bond girls"...all my spy fantasies would be fulfilled !! Any women interested ... ??

Nokia N95 v12 Firmware Rants...

Whoooooooo Hooooooo !!

V12 firmware for the nokia N95 is finally here. I just upgraded my phone last night.Went through the usual half an hour of "waiting" for the 113 MB rom to download ..and the five minutes of "heart attacks" when the actual flashing takes place.But in the end...its really worth it !! And the new firmware is swwwwwwweeeeeeet !!



Okay...One thing that nokia has to figure out is the re-installation mechanism. After you reset your phone or flash it to a new firmware ..all the registry entries in the c: drive of your phone get erased. so when you put in your memory card ..the applications try to re register themselves on the phone boot up ..and the "installer" starts running. Somehow ..this installer has never really worked its magic for me . It either hangs ..or i have to terminate it using swiss knife utilities...but the next time i reboot the phone ...it starts running all over again. I even tried going to the app manager and manually installing the apps (which appear as some combination of hex numbers..and you really don't know what is what until you install them)...but considering my phone is always full with about 50-60 apps/games at any give time...this is gonna be quite a task. So the only quick solution i see would be to backup my contacts , images and videos ..and format the memory card . :( Sad ..i know...but at least it gives me a clean slate ..and i can start anew all over again.




Regarding the new firmware ....I was disappointed NOT to see the latest version of Nokia Maps bundled with this firmware upgrade. The AGPS really doesn't work out well for me . I have a gprs plan and all the settings are right ...data is getting transferred when i use the maps application ...but I didn't notice any improvement in the lock time.(its still a pathetic 2-5 minutes for me ) ..and i wonder if this AGPS support is only country specific. Anyone knows anything more about this ?? Another thing that pisses me off is the lack of Maps for India in the Nokia map loader ?? What gives ?? They were there in the older version ..so why aren't they there in the new one ? Hello Nokia...are you listening ??


Some improvements I've noticed are ..
1.The interface feels zipper on the whole.
2.Slightly more ram on boot up.
3.Gallery is much quicker ..and now pictures zoom in till 800%
4.The camera is much more responsive...Better focusing.


About the battery life...I'll have to wait and see if that has improved. Another thing I've noticed..is when the screen light times out ..the photo preview button momentarily comes on for a bit ..as if to signal that the screen is switching off.Don't know if this is a bug or they've just kept it that way.

Feel free to add any more bugs / improvements you've noticed . I'll be posting more of my findings here.