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 Once the unequalled leader among mobile phone manufacturers, Nokia still returns impressive sales, but ceded its dominance of the smartphone market with the arrival of the iPhone. It’s been playing catch-up ever since, sticking rigidly to a Symbian OS that only seemed to grow older looking with each new device.
Symbian successor? Nokia’s N900
Now, with the N900, Nokia is trying something new, with a brand new OS in Maemo 5 – a slimmed down version of Debian Linux – plus a host of top-end features, including a sizeable 3.5in touch screen, slide-out Qwerty keyboard, 5Mp Camera with Carl Zeiss optics, Wi-Fi, A-GPS, quad-band and much more besides.
We were torn on the appearance of the N900. We like its glossy black minimalism, with no hard buttons on the face to break up its smooth lines. But it’s a chunky chappy and a very solid pocketful at 111x60x20mm and 181g – svelte it is not.
Around the sides are a volume rocker, power key, shutter button and a rare example of an infrared port. Top and bottom features a brace of Stereospeakers, micro USB power/sync port, a lock switch, 3.5mm headphone jack and a plastic stylus. The back hides the Camera lens behind a sturdy sliding cover, which is surrounded by a fold-down kickstand for viewing video. Read the rest of this entry »
Review The E72 is the latest in Nokia’s line of Qwerty handsets, beefing up the popular E71 with a slightly sleeker look, improved software and some interface tweaks. It’s very slim – only just over 1cm thick, 58.3mm wide, and 114 tall, weighing 128g. The 2.36in screen is only QVGA, though arguably on a unit this size, a higher resolution wouldn’t make much difference.
Fast talker: Nokia’s E72
Below the screen are two soft keys, call and end buttons, plus four dedicated buttons. The home/menu key can’t be reassigned, but the others can, with one function for a short push, and one for a long one. By default, for example, pressing the calendar button briefly shows the calendar, while a long press creates a new entry.
Between these is the Navikey, a standard looking four-way navpad. However, it’s not entirely standard, as it has an optical sensor as well. So, you can scroll through menus and lists by wiping a finger or thumb over it, which makes for much faster navigation – although some third party apps did seem to be a little confused by it at times. On the whole, it works well, and is a good improvement. Read the rest of this entry »
