Review When you buy a mobile, you know that you’re likely to be stuck with it for the life of your contract. Good news: you’ll get used to its quirks and differences. Bad news: you can only watch as gorgeous handsets are released for the next year or two.
Smart move? Nokia’s X7
But what’s trickier about the new Nokia X7 is that it uses Symbian, the much-maligned operating system which even the Finnish phone maker says won’t be its main phone platform. From later this year the company will mainly focus on Windows phone for its smartphones. So do you really want to buy what may turn out to be the last major Symbian handset? Read the rest of this entry »
Review Touchscreen phones are where both manufacturers and punters are spending now, and all other categories are seeing rapid declines in market share. But if the most important applications you use involve phone calls and messaging, all of the new, whizzy devices fall short. None do voice particularly well, or messaging comprehensively. Few will make it through a demanding day.
The E6: Nokia’s white knight?
Nokia thinks there’s a part of the market here that is poorly catered for, and has revisited one of its former glories for inspiration, the E71, the monoblock Qwerty phone introduced in 2008. I doubt if anyone felt an emotion resembling affection for their E71, but it’s was dependable, it made its rivals seem clunky and immature, and it’s deservedly popular. Read the rest of this entry »
The Nokia E7 is the company’s latest for phone for business and, in keeping with the styling makeover first seen on the N8, it features a sleek aluminium casing with tapered ends and a big 4in screen. Indeed, it could easily be mistaken for an N8 at first glance.
For business and pleasure: Nokia’s E7
It’s only when you look more closely that you notice the thin gap around the display. Press on the edge of the phone and the screen swings up to reveal a four-line Qwerty keyboard which, despite its flatness, has enough travel in the keys to be highly usable. The tactile keys are well-spaced and easy to read. Read the rest of this entry »
Review Nokia’s X6 smartphone is more than just another touch screen smartphone in an overcrowded market. In its 32GB form, this well-spec’d music phone will only be available with Nokia’s Comes With Music package. It’ll be hard to avoid, and is likely to benefit from aggressive subsidies.
Nokia’s X6: one of the few models currently supporting the latest Ovi Maps upgrade
Comes With Music is basically a free download subscription service, but this ‘universal jukebox’ allows you to keep the music you’ve downloaded. The cost of a year’s subscription is bundled with the phone, so it appears to be free. If after a year, you choose another CWM Nokia phone, it rolls over, and continues to be free.
Either way, the music doesn’t disappear, as it does with Rhapsody or a Spotify subscription. The only restriction is that it plays on one nominated PC and one nominated CWM phone. It’s a great sounding concept, but the public has been unimpressed so far. So the X-series represents the company’s best and possibly last hope that the CWM concept will finally catch the interest of the masses. Is the X6, and the revamped CWM enough to do it?
The X6 runs Series 60 Fifth Edition, Nokia’s stop-gap touch UI, and there are no surprises if you’re familiar with the 5800 or N97 handsets. Nokia opted to retain familiarity for users, and API compatibility for developers – Fifth Edition is really just the old S60 in a fishtank, so the interface and interaction are unchanged. Read the rest of this entry »
Review Nokia’s Symbian-driven N97 smart phone came out in the summer to rather mixed reviews, with most people praising its feature count, but finding it a bit of a pain to use. Now comes the N97 Mini, a little (but not a lot) smaller than the original N97, and with most of its feature count intact, including its 5Mp Camera, HSDPA 3G, Wi-Fi and A-GPS, though it now has a smaller screen, as well as reduced memory and battery life.
Nokia’s N97 Mini: supports the new free Ovi satnav
The original N97 measured 117 x 55 x 16mm and weighed 150g while the newbie cuts that down to 113 x 53 x 14mm and 138g. It’s still a decent handful, but where the N97 felt bloated and heavy, the mini is comparatively sleek and tactile.
Above the touch screen is a 640 x 480 Camera for video calls, while below it are touch-sensitive call start and stop buttons, plus a distinctive, offset, hard menu button. Around the sides are a volume rocker and Camera shutter button, plus micro USB power/sync slot, and screen lock switch, with power button and 3.5mm headphone jack on top. At the back is the Carl Zeiss Camera lens and dual LED flash, standing slightly proud of the rest of the casing. Read the rest of this entry »
