Nokia 6210 Navigator

GPS handsets are catching the fancy of consumers due to convenience they offer when you get lost in middle of nowhere. Nokia has stepped up to the task and brought out a series of cellphones under the “Navigator” brand name. Nokia 6210 Navigator is the latest cell phone to join the bandwagon. Apart from GPA, Nokia 6210 has good specifications as mentioned below.

Nokia 6210 Navigator specifications :

• Dimensions : 103 x 49 x 14.9 mm
• Weight : 117 g
• Display : 2.4″ TFT display with 240 x 320 resolution
• Camera : 3.2 megapixel with autofocus
• GPS : Built-in GPS receiver
• Radio : Stereo FM Radio with RDS
• Card slot : MicroSD
• Connectivity : GPRS, HSCSD, 3G.
• Bluetooth : v2.0 with A2DP
• USB : v2.0 miniUSB
• OS : Symbian OS 9.3, Series 60 UI
• Approx. price : $400

Nokia 6210 Navigator is an upgrade to the Nokia 6110 Navigator which was released last year. Nokia 6110 Navigator is still quite popular among the people and it has a decent specifications and a great GPS navigation solution. Nokia 6210 Navigator has upgrades ranging from accelerometer to latest symbian OS.

The box contents do not lend any surprises with the standard accessories lined up inside the box. USB cable, DC charger, wired handsfree, manual, CD and a 1GB microSD card. An in-car charger should have been there in the box considering the nature of the device.

The design of the phone is much similar to its predecessor but it slimmer. The keys have also got a rejig but apart from that there is not much noticeable difference, although I preferred the overall looks of the Nokia 6110 navigator more. The phone is light weight and the sliding mechanism is sturdy and smooth.

You can find the video call camera at the top right used for making video calls over 3G networks. Just adjacent to it is the ambient light sensor. The D-pad is quite big and is flanked by soft keys on either side. You also get a dedicated key for launching the GPS navigation software which is in the form of a star.

The keypad has aptly sized keys which offer tactile feedback and a boon for SMS junkies. The phone has a 2.5 mm jack instead of a 3.5 mm one, leaving you to the mercy of the adapter. Right side has the volume rocker and the dedicated camera key. Left side which is usually bare has the mircoUSB and the card slot.

The display is a 2.4″ TFT with QVGA resolution. The display clarity is great and so is the visibility under sunlight. The auto-rotate sensor turns the screen to landscape mode automatically. The call quality of Nokia 6210 is crystal clear and no disturbance at all. The speakerphone is quite loud and you would not face any problem hearing the ringtone even in noisy environments.

The music player has become a standard on almost all Nokia Symbian 60 devices. It supports a wide variety of formats such as WMA, MP3, AAC, eAAC+ and also M3U playlists. Songs can be added directly via USB or using Nokia PC Suite and they reflect when you refresh the music library. You can sort songs by albums, artists, genre, composer, podcasts and playlists. With the A2DP profile, you can play songs wirelessly over a stereo bluetooth headset. The audio quality is good and comparable to what is offered in Nokia N series.

Real player is the default video player and works in both portrait and landscape mode. You are better off with installing a third party video player which supports more formats and offers better functionality. FM radio is also available in the form of Visual Radio. It also has RDS support and can automatically scan for channels. The interface is simple, clean and functional.

Nokia 6210 comes equipped with a 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus. and LED flash. No lens protection leads to fingerprint smudges all over the lens. The image quality of the camera is great and comparable to Nokia N73. The images produced are well saturated, have low noise and good amount of detail. Geo-tagigng surprisingly isn’t available putting the inbuilt GPS functionality to shame. Video recording is possible at VGA resolution but the frame rate is limited to 15fps.

Web browsing on the Nokia 6210 is a pleasure due to the great inbuilt browser. Nokia browser has almost all the features that you desire and auto-rotation of the screen is the cherry on the cake. The web page fits perfectly both in portrait and landscape modes. A mini map of the web page is also generated which leads to quicker navigation around web pages. Search function also comes in-built into the browser allowing you to search for text, phone numbers, email addresses and VoIP address. Page zoom levels can also be adjusted but sadly the browser does not support full screen view mode.

Coming to the main features of this cell phone : GPS! The software included by Nokia to control the GPS is Nokia Maps 2.0 which is a surprise as the Route 66 application that came bundled with Nokia 6110 Navigator was brilliant. There is also an inbuilt compass which does come in handy sometimes. The dedicated GPS key illuminates as soon as you get a satellite lock. You have the option of loading maps on the go like Google Maps or download the whole map on your PC and then transfer it on to the mobile saving you the GPRS charges. Sadly auto rotation does not work in Nokia Maps 2.0 as there is no landscape mode to view the maps. The GPS receiver is sensitive and gets satellite lock even among tall buildings. In-car navigation provides turn-by-turn directions and visual guidance. There are four different modes to view the map : Hybrid, Satellite, Map, Map 3D. Points of interest are also mentioned on the maps, a great asset and are divided into categories neatly. Overall the GPS experience was great and it lived up to the expectation.

Pros :

• Good keypad
• Great display
• Loudspeaker volume high
• Music quality good
• Great camera
• Excellent GPS
• Amazing web browser

Cons :

• Small display
• No Wi-Fi connectivity
• No lens cover
• No geotagging
• VGA recording at 15fps

Final Thoughts

The Nokia 6210 Navigator is a good handset to invest in to put it straight. It has a great camera, good music quality, excellent GPS functionality and amazing web browser which will please a lot of people. Small display and no Wi-FI connectivity are its two major shortcomings. Overall if you are want great GPS functionality then this cell phone is a great investment.

My Rating: 3.75/5

Nokia E66

The Nokia E66 is the newest addition to the Nokia E Series family. The E Series family is reputed to have feature packed, value for money, high end business phones and the E66 is no exception. It was launched alongwith the other heavy weight from the E Series stable, the E71 which was quite a good phone, . The E66 has specifications largely similar to the E71. In fact, there is little difference between both phones except the design, form factor and the lack of the QWERTY keypad in the E66.

It is primarily aimed at business users who would like a smart phone packed with features, a superb design with a dash of style, and can do without a QWERTY keypad. It does have good multimedia capabilities as well, which make it versatile in function. It can handle almost anything you can throw on it easily as it is powered with a fast processor and loads of RAM. Being a Symbian OS v9.2 FP1 phone, it has a large repository of applications and games which add to its functionality and make it an all rounder.

Nokia E66 Specifications:

• Dimensions: 107.5 x 49.5 x 13.6 mm
• Weight: 121 gms
• Display: 2.4″ TFT, 16M Colors, QVGA 240 x 320 px.
• Camera: 3.15 MP Cam with Autofocus, Flash, secondary videocall cam
• Chipset: ARM 11 369 MHZ Processor
• Memory: 110 MB Internal memory, 128 MB RAM
• Connectivity: GPRS Class 32, HSCSD, EDGE Class 32, 3G HSDPA, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, USB 2.0, Infrared
• Bluetooth: Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP
• OS: Symbian OS v9.2 rel 3.1 with FP1

Other Key features:
FM Radio, VoIP, GPS Receiver with A-GPS

Design and Display:

The Nokia E66 is a very sleek, slim slider with a superb finish and great design. It looks very cool in black and is amongst the best looking and slimmest sliders currently available. With dimensions of 107.5 x 49.5 x 13.6 mm, it isn’t exactly small but is just about the average size for a smartphone. It is moderately heavy at 121 gms but doesn’t feel bulky. It has a great build quality, as expected of all Nokia phones and can withstand rough usage coupled with light drops. Its looks are in total contrast to its business image, which is a nice and welcome change. It is available in two colors, grey and white complete with a metallic finish. The slider is solidly built and won’t loosen up or creaky over extended usage. The design is clean, with keys blending in with the design.

On the front panel, you find the earpiece, video call camera, ambient light sensor, 2.4″ TFT display, standard key controls, Call, End, Left and Right select keys, Cancel key and 4 other shortcut keys - Home, Contacts, Messaging, Calendar, with a D Pad in the center. The slider at the bottom includes the keypad and the mouthpiece. On the right, you find the two volume control button, a voice command button and a dedicated camera shutter button. The left side houses the 2.5 mm audio jack, the Infrared port and the microUSB port. The top sports the Power button while bottom has the standard Nokia 2 mm charger port.

The display is a superb 16 M color 2.4″ TFT display supporting the standard resolution of 240 x 320 px. The display has superb brightness and contrast levels and vibrant colors. It has decent sunlight legibility as well. Overall, the phone has a great design with a good display with nothing much to complain about.

OS and Interface features

The Nokia E66 is powered by Symbian OS v9.2 rel 3.1 with Feature Pack 1. FP 1 packs a lot of features over the original OS v9.1 and noticeably improves performance. It is surprising why Nokia didn’t include OS v9.3 with FP2 with the E66 and E71, as that would have made the phone much more irresistible. The E66 however, does have a lot of FP 2 features bundled in. Underneath the hood of the Nokia E66 lies a blazing ARM 11 369 MHZ processor supplemented by 128 MB of SD RAM. This combo is more than enough to run scores of resource hungry applications and games easily without any lag. Multitasking is a breeze on the E66, thanks to the powerful hardware. It has 110 MB internal memory which can be extended further by 8 GB through the micro SD slot.

The E66, like all other E Series phones, comes with Office applications pre installed. Document editing isn’t supported out of the box though, which is a let down considering it is a business phone. It also supports the vast library of Symbian Applications - Office Applications, Email clients, Chat clients, Imaging Apps, Audio and Video players, File Explorers etc so you can easily download all the applications you need. Web browsing is a pleasure, as on all other Nokia OS 9 phones. The built in OSS browser based on Webkit is excellent and renders even heavy and detailed web pages exactly as they would on a PC. You seldom feel any lag, thanks to the huge amount of RAM in the E66. The E66 has an accelerometer which automatically changes the screen orientation with a tilt in the position, accompanied with nice animations. It features the Active Standby screen with some improvements which make it all the more desirable to use. Most of the OS features are much the same what you have seen already in older phones.

Multimedia and Camera

The Nokia E66 has much better music capabilities than other business minded phones. It has good sound quality with a nice frequency response. It does lack a bit in the volume department though. It supports a wide range of formats like MP3, AAC, eAAC+ and WMA. The Music Player supports 5 equaliser presets and effects like stereo widening. It also supports the A2DP profile which allows you to listen to your music on a stereo bluetooth headset. The video playback is great on the superb 2.4″ TFT display supporting 16M colors. You can view videos in portrait, landscape or fullscreen mode in the default Real player. There are no delays in opening and viewing media files, all thanks to the fast processor and ample RAM.

The Nokia E66 has a 3.15 MP camera with autofocus and a LED flash. It shoots pics at a standard resolution of 2048×1536 px. The picture quality isn’t much to speak of, though the camera performs quite decently considering it is primarily a business phone. The Camera UI is great and offers a range of advanced options like sharpness, contrast, ISO, white balance. The camera does QVGA video recording at 15 FPS with rather mediocre quality. It also has a standard FM Radio with good reception, but without RDS.

Connectivity and Accessories

The E66 offers almost all the standard connectivity options like GPRS, EDGE, 3G, Wi-Fi, USB 2.0, Infrared. It also offers Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP profile support. It doesn’t miss out on any feature you would expect. It also has a GPS receiver built in with A-GPS support. GPS reception is quite good with a short lock in period and works flawlessly with the bundled Nokia Maps 2.0.

Along with the Nokia E66, you get a spacious 2 GB MicroSD card, a hands free, a charger, a data cable and a leather case. You also get the regular manuals, guides and a PC Suite CD. It has a relatively weak 1000 mAh BL-4U battery, compared to the E71, which offers about 6.5 hours of talktime and lasts about 2 days with standard usage. With Wi-Fi or any data connection on, the battery drains quickly.

Pros:

• Superb Design
• Sturdy Build quality

Cons:

• No QWERTY keypad
• Mediocre camera
• No Document editing
• No RDS with FM

Final Words

The Nokia E66 is a very stylish business phone packed with a load of features. It is almost at the top when it comes to business phones. It offers decent multimedia performance as well which makes it a good buy for anyone who wants a business phone with a mix of style, usability, entertainment and performance.

Rating : 3.7 / 5

Nokia 5320 Xpress Music

The Nokia 5320 is the newest Xpress Music branded music phone from Nokia. It is way ahead of its older Xpress Music siblings in terms of features and even pure music. It is powered by the new Symbian S60 OS 9.3 with FP2. It is small, sleek and very light. It has excellent sound quality and above all, it is not very expensive. In fact, it is one of the cheapest S60 smartphones. It is fully packed with most standard connectivity options as well, which makes us wonder whether it should be marketed as a music phone or a smart phone.

It is one of the few phones that possess almost everything a phone should and at a very reasonable price. It does lack out at some points like the absence of Wi-Fi and GPS. We attempt to review this device and try to showcase its weak and strong points. Finally, we check out whether this phone emerges out a winner or turns out to be just another damp squib.

Nokia 5320 Specifications:

• Dimensions : 108 x 46 x 15 mm
• Weight : 90 g
• Display : 2.0″ TFT, 16M Colors, QVGA 240 x 320 px.
• Camera : 2 MP Cam with LED Flash, secondary videocall cam
• Chipset : ARM 11 369 MHZ Processor
• Memory : 140 MB Internal memory
• Connectivity : GPRS Class 32, HSCSD, EDGE Class 32, 3G HSDPA, USB 2.0
• Bluetooth : Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP
• OS : Symbian OS v9.3 rel 3.2 with FP2

Other Key Features :
8 way Navi key, FM Radio with RDS, Nokia Say and Play, Java MIDP 2.1, 3.5 mm audio jack.

Design and Display:

The Nokia 5320 Xpress Music is a very compact phone and has dimensions of 108 x 46 x 15 mm which are very small compared to other smartphones with similar features. It weighs just 90 gms which is light compared to smartphone standards. It has a normal candy bar form factor and features a cute new design with rounded edges. It is fully made of plastic and has quite a good build quality. It is sturdy enough, conforming to Nokia’s famous durability standards meaning that it can easily withstand some light drops. The design was meant to appeal to the younger generation and it seems to do quite a good job at that. The alphanumeric keypad is standard and ergonomic with large keys that are easy to press. It has good backlighting making it easy to operate in the dark. The D Pad is comfortable and gels in with the keypad.

Coming to the design details, the front face of the 5320 consists of the 2.0″ screen and the keypad. On the top of the front face are the earpiece, the videocall camera and a “My Own” key which can be used to set personalized shortcuts to any application or function. The right side sports the camera key and the volume rocker while the left face houses three dedicated music control keys. On the top is just the Power key in the middle. The bottom sports the Micro USB slot, the 3.5 mm headphone jack and the charger slot. The back of the phone houses the 2 MP camera with dual LED flash.

The display is a 2.0″ TFT supporting 16 M colors and resolutions of the standard 240 x 320 px. The screen size is a bit of a letdown as it isnt very easy to read it at such resolutions. The display quality is good with decent brightness and contrast levels and vibrant colors. It has good sunlight legibility as well.

OS and Interface features :

The Nokia 5320 Xpress Music is powered by Symbian OS v9.3 rel 3.2 with Feature Pack 2. It is the latest edition of the very popular Symbian OS. It is one of the few phones to sport the new features including the N78 and the E71. Feature Pack 2 adds in a host of new functionality and visual and performance improvements. As the 5320 has a powerful 369 MHZ ARM 11 processor and a good amount of RAM - about 80 MB at bootup, the OS feels very fast and responsive. There are no lags or delays when multitasking about apps.

The 5320 never slows down even with quite a few apps active. FP2 comes with a lot of cool new animations added to the User Interface. The 5320 supports the vast library of Symbian Apps - Office Applications, Email clients, Chat clients, Imaging Apps, Audio and Video players, File Explorers and much more. It has the standard Symbian Contacts and Messaging apps with slight improvements. It does have a few quirks but those can easily be fixed with firmware updates.

Web browsing is a pleasure, as on all other Nokia OS 9 phones. The built in OSS browser based on Webkit is excellent and renders even heavy and detailed web pages exactly as they would on a PC. You seldom feel any lag, thanks to the huge amount of RAM in the 5320. The only thing you can complain about is the small screen.

It is rumored that the 5320 will support Ngage 2.0 games with a future firmware update as soon as all bugs related to the Ngage 2.0 app on FP2 are ironed out.

Multimedia playback :

The Nokia 5320 Xpress Music doesn’t quite live up to expectations of being the latest Xpress Music phone.The sound quality is definitely better than most phones but nothing spectacular. The loudspeaker quality is great and is very loud too. It supports many audio formats like MP3, AAC, eAAC+, WMA natively. The new Music Player is simple and easy to use. It has 5 default equalizer preset settings you can choose from. You can also create more if you wish to. The 5320 XM also supports A2DP which enables you to hear streaming music wirelessly on your stereo Bluetooth headset. The three dedicated music keys on the side are a great addition allowing you to control your music with a click. You can also plug in your own headphones directly to the 3.5 mm jack without the need of any adapters.

The video playback is great on the superb 16 M color screen. You can view videos in fullscreen mode in the default Real player. You can also install many other video players like Smartmovie player, DivX player or Core Player. However, a bigger screen would definitely have added to the video watching experience. the 2″ screen is not very suitable for watching videos. Other than that, there are absolutely no negatives when it comes to video playback. There are no delays in opening and viewing media files, all thanks to FP 2.

Camera and FM :

The Nokia 5320 XM has a sub standard 2.0 MP (1600 x 1200 px) camera with a dual LED Flash. The camera interface is good but it doesn’t feature many customizable options. It doesn’t have autofocus. It comes as a shocker as almost all new phones these days sport atleast a 3.2 MP camera. It takes average pics that have slightly washed out colors. It shoots video at 15 FPS at QVGA (320 x 240) resolution. The video quality isn’t much to speak of either. Overall, if you want a decent camera phone, this isn’t where you should be looking at.

It also features a FM Radio with RDS and comes a nice, easy to use interface which can auto scan all the available stations and store them. It comes with RDS support and the Visual Radio app.

Connectivity :

The 5320 carries a host of connectivity options like GPRS, EDGE, 3G, Bluetooth, USB 2.0 which is a bit surprising considering that is is essentially a Xpress Music phone. However it does miss out on Wi-Fi which shouldn’t be much of a problem as it wasn’t intended to be an office phone anyways. It doesn’t have IR support also but that standard is almost dead now. It also doesnt support GPS which means that you will have to use an external GPS receiver. But that is understandable considering the other features it packs, and its price.

Accessories :

Along with the Nokia 5320 XM, you get a 1 GB MicroSD card, the Xpress Music handsfree, a charger and a Micro USB data cable. You also get the regular manuals and a PC Suite CD. It has a weak 890 mAh BL-5B battery powering it which provides about 3.5 hrs of talktime and lasts for more than a day with standard usage.

Pros :

• Sturdy build quality
• Relatively Inexpensive
• Fast processor and High RAM
• Good audio quality

Cons :

• Small screen
• Substandard 2.0 MP cam with no AF
• No Wi-Fi
• No GPS
• Poor battery life

Final Words :

The Nokia 5320 Xpress Music is a great phone and offers the best of both worlds. It is a potent mix of features and multimedia capabilities at a relatively low price. However it does have its shortcomings but that do not make it a bad buy. Apart from the mediocre cam, absence of GPS and Wi-Fi and the small screen size, there is nothing that this phone lacks in.
It should become a great hit and connect with its target audience easily.

Rating : 3.8 / 5

Nokia 6220 Classic

check out the Nokia 6220 Classic, the latest Symbian smartphone offering by Nokia. It is the latest 5 MP by Nokia, following N82 and N95. It offers many improvements over its older siblings, the most significant being the inclusion of Feature Pack 2 along with Symbian OS v9.3, same as the Nokia N78. It has most of the features one would look for in a smartphone except Wi-Fi. It is very similar to an Nokia N82 sans Wi-Fi and with a smaller screen. Let’s have a closer look at the latest stud from Nokia’s stable.

Nokia 6220 Classic Specifications :

• Dimensions : 108 x 47 x 15 mm
• Weight : 90 g
• Display : 2.2″ TFT, 16M Colors, QVGA 240 x 320 px.
• Camera : 5 MP Cam ( 2592 x 1944 px ) with AF & Xenon Flash, Secondary CIF cam for video calling
• Chipset : ARM 11 369 MHZ Processor
• Memory : 120 MB Internal memory, 128MB SD RAM
• Connectivity : GPRS, HSCSD, EDGE Class 32, 3G HSDPA, Micro USB 2.0
• Bluetooth : Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP
• GPS : GPS Receiver with A-GPS
• OS : Symbian OS v9.3 Rel 3.2 with FP2

Other Key Features:
FM Radio with RDS, TV Out, 3.5 mm audio jack.

Design and Display:

The 6220 Classic is a normal phone with a candy bar form factor with decent looks and oodles of functionality. It doesn’t have great looks but at the same time it isn’t outright ugly. It lies somewhere in between, more on the better side. It is available in Black and Purple colors. The build quality is amazing. The keyboard has a bit plasticky feel though. It is slim and light - weighing in at just 90 gms, and is perfectly suited for an office environment.

It has a 2.2″ display which is rather small considering the standard 2.8″ displays in almost all of Nokia’s new phones. The display supports 16 M colors and resolutions of 240 x 320 px (QVGA) . The display is great and bright enough with good contrast levels and is clear enough even in daylight. The keypad is average but has a bit plasticky feel which is not the best to work with. Of course, over time you will get used to it, but they could definitely have made it a lot better. The D Pad is smooth and good to navigate around the phone. The black keypad with a blue backlight looks quite attractive.

OS and Interface features :

The Nokia 6220 Classic is powered by the Symbian OS v9.3 with Feature Pack 2. It is the latest edition of the very popular Symbian OS. Feature Pack 2 adds in a host of new functionality and visual and performance improvements. As the 6220 Classic has a powerful 369 MHZ ARM 11 processor and a very good amount of RAM - 128 MB SD, the OS feels responsive. However the User interface does feel a bit laggy sometimes especially when navigating around the menu, due to the added animations that come with FP2. This comes as quite a surprise considering it has more RAM than a N78. This shouldn’t be much of a problem though, as it will easily be solved with a future firmware update. The Nokia 6220 Classic supports the vast library of Symbian Apps - Office Applications, Email clients, Chat clients, Imaging Apps, Audio and Video players, File Explorers and much more. It has the standard Symbian Contacts and Messaging apps with slight improvements.

Web browsing is a pleasure, as on all other Nokia OS 9.1 phones. The built in OSS browser based on Webkit is excellent and renders even heavy and detailed web pages exactly as they would on a PC. The MiniMap and Zoom features are very helpful during browsing. You seldom feel any lag when browsing, thanks to the huge amount of RAM in the 6220 Classic. However a bigger screen would have helped provide a better experience.

Multimedia playback :

The 6220 Classic fares quite decently when it comes to multimedia playback performance. It has good audio quality and supports many audio formats like MP3, AAC, eAAC+, WMA natively. The Music Player is simple and easy to use. The 6220 Classic also supports A2DP which enables you to hear streaming music wirelessly on your stereo Bluetooth headset. It has a 2.5 mm audio jack though, which may be a deal breaker for audiophiles, but it wasn’t meant to be a music phone anyways.

The video playback is simply awesome on the superb 16 M color screen. You can view videos in full screen mode in the default player. You can also install many other Video players from the vast Symbian repository available. However, a bigger screen would definitely have added to the video watching experience.

It has the good old Gallery application with some serious performance improvements. There are no delays in opening and viewing media files, all thanks to FP 2. It comes with 120 MB internal flash memory and a 2 GB Micro SD card bundled. It supports up to 8 GB external memory which should be enough for all your multimedia needs.

Camera and FM :

The Nokia 6220 Classic has a 5 MP (2592 * 1944 px) camera with Auto Focus, a superb Xenon Flash and a Carl Zeiss lens. It is one of the best 5 MP camera phones currently. It has a wide range of customizable options to fine tune the settings - Exposure, White balance, Brightness, Contrast, Sharpness, ISO sensitivity etc. The 6220 Classic takes good pics with accurate color reproduction. It also supports Geotagging which is tagging the images to any geographical location. It shoots video at 30 FPS at VGA (640 x 480) resolution with stunning quality. It also has a secondary front facing CIF cam for 3G video calling.

It also features a FM Radio with RDS to obtain track information of the currently playing song using a data connection.

Connectivity :

The Nokia 6220 Classic features a range of connectivity options like USB 2.0, Bluetooth with A2DP, GPRS, HSCSD, EDGE Class 32, 3G HSDPA. It has most of the options that are currently available in any smartphone except Wi-fi. The absence Wi-fi is the major turn off in this phone. As the phone is targetted at an office going crowd, Wi-fi was an absolute necessity. It doesn’t have an infrared port but it is on its way to extinction anyways. Data transfer is blazing fast with all these options.

The Nokia 6220 Classic also supports A-GPS (Assisted GPS) which provides for better and precise location tracking. It comes with Nokia Maps 2.0 with free maps and 3 months free Voice navigation. You can also try other mapping applications like Google Maps and TomTom but Nokia Maps 2.0 is a great option with good and detailed maps of all the main cities. The GPS receiver is much more sensitive than the ones in the N82 and N95. It has a quite small startup duration - just 10 seconds to boot from cold and lock in to your current location.

Accessories :

Along with the Nokia 6220 Classic, you get a 2 GB MicroSD card, a charger, a Micro USB cable and a TV Out cable. It comes with standard Nokia 2.5 mm earphones. You also get the regular manuals and a PC Suite CD.

It has a rather underpowered BP 5M 900 mAH battery underneath its hood which provides a measly talktime of 3.5 hrs. We wonder how Nokia could have done such a blunder. A more powerful battery would have taken it places.

Pros :

• Less Expensive
• S60 OS9.3 with FP2
• Powerful GPS
• Great 5 MP Cam with Xenon Flash

Cons :

• Laggy Interface
• No Wi-fi
• Small 2.2″ screen
• Weak 900 mAH Battery

Final Words :
The Nokia 6220 Classic is a great phone at an affordable price. The performance improvements are great and FP2 is a superb addition. However it has some glaring deficiencies like the exclusion of Wi-fi and a weak battery. It would have fared great with a bigger screen as well. If you can do without FP2 and desperately need the Wi-fi, we would recommend the Nokia N82 which is almost in the same range and is better than the Nokia 6220 Classic.

Rating : 3.5 /5

Nokia E71

Nokia recently released two spanking new business class phones which offer a whole lot of featured packed into slim and classy cellphones. The Nokia E71 was released in the market a few days ago with Nokia E66 to follow suit shortly. Nokia E71 features a full hardware QWERTY keyboard and a slim body. It is dubbed as a successor to Nokia E61i.

Nokia E71 specifications :

• Dimensions : 114 x 57 x 10mm
• Weight : 127g
• Display : 2.36″ TFT with 16M colors
• Display resolution : 320 x 240
• RAM : 128MB
• Processor : ARM 11 369MHz
• Memory card slot : microSD
• GPRS, EDGE, 3G, HSCSD
• WiFi : 802.11 b/g
• Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP
• OS : Symbian OS 9.2 Series 60 v3.1 UI
• Built in GPS receiver
• 3.2 MP camera with autofocus
• Approx. price : $500

So much for the specifications, lets start with the review. The first thing that you will notice about this cellphone is its extremely small QWERTY keyboard. Nokia has cramped the keyboard in a small space by reducing space between buttons and making them smaller. Maybe that also explains the reduced display size to 2.36″ from the 2.8″ found in the E61i. On the brighter side, Nokia has made the handset extremely slim at just 10mm thickness.

Design and Display

Talking about design, the build quality is absolutely amazing with a solid exterior. It has been made of metallic, duo-toned finished which offers a neat and stylish look. The handset feels solid in the hands. So much for the praise, Nokia has still not sorted out the fingerprint smudges that appear on the metallic part of the exterior, similar problem as the E51 had with its metallic backside.

The display is dissappointing as it has been reduced to a mere 2.36 inches from the 2.8″ one found in E61i. The resolution of the display is still 320 x 240 which is good enough for the display of its size. But the quality of the display is great as expected. The clarity and brightness is excellent and visibility under sunlight isn’t of any concern either.

The QWERTY keyboard has smaller keys and lesser spacing between the keys. That does hinder in typing but slowly you get accustomed to it but few typos are still unavoidable. The phone also has auto correction feature built in to rectify the typos but unless you are typing emails, using it while typing SMS is pretty useless.

Camera and Operating System

The camera resolution gets bumped to 3.2 megapixel along with the inclusion of LED flash. But the camera quality isn’t great which still remains a downpoint of the E-series. The camera interface is good with all the standard settings that you would expect. The LED flash is weak which makes night shots pretty much useless. The pics turn out good but nowhere near the quality that you would expect with a good 3.2 megapixel camera.

The Nokia E71 comes with S60 Platform with FP1, a bit of shock as FP2 is already out. Probably Nokia will FP2 in one of the future firmware upgrades for this phone. Some of the standard features include active standby screen, Calendar, Quick Office, Maps 2.0 etc. Maps 2.0 is the default application for using the built in GPS. Encryption feature has been incorporated which is a boon for enterprise users which allows you to encrypt contents of both your phone as well as the memory card.

Some extra features include Online music store and online sharing applications like Flickr,Vox etc. Its a pity that no accelerometer has been incorporated into the phone. The music capabilities of the phone are ordinary and nothing spectacular can be seen apart from the standard music player.

Easy Dial is another great feature as it lets you call the contacts as you type in their name. Apart from this, Flash Lite 3 support lets you watch Youtube videos on your cellphone. Calendar and Contacts applications have been bumped up with some new features.

Performance

The battery life is excellent and it can last a fortnight with a single charge and normal usage. Phone reception has hardly been a problem for Nokia and same goes for this handset. The 128MB RAM is sufficient for running multiple applications and menu navigation is also fast. Lack of 3.5 mm jack is another thing that might deter a few users. Camera and music player performance are nothing spectacular. But being the business class phone, it excels in business class features and plethora of connectivity options.

Pros :

• Extremely slim
• Fast performer
• Wi-Fi, GPS compatible
• Great battery life
• Flash Lite 3 support
• Great business class apps and features

Cons :

• Small display
• Cramped QWERTY keyboard
• No 3.5mm jack
• Average Camera
• Ordinary music capabilities

Final Thoughts

The Nokia E71 is a great phone with small dimensions to hit the market. It is a typical business phone which lacks imaging and multimedia capabilities. Great battery life, GPS, Wi-Fi, fast performance run away with all the glory. Small display is its major problem which might not make this phone a big success.

My Rating : 3.75/5

Top 5 iPhone 3G

The iPhone 3G has just released and we have reviewed it already. It is a great phone but definitely not the best out there. We take a look at some phones which, while priced similarly to the iPhone, have many features that are much better than the iPhone 3G. They can easily kick the iPhone 3G’s ass in a one to one face off. So here we present the devices, that we think, can dethrone the iPhone to become the king of smartphones. All these phones have all the regular features like calling, messaging, email, high speed web browsing etc, so we won’t be elaborating much on those points. We will highlight and compare just those features which are in direct contrast to the iPhone. All these devices will be releasing, hopefully, by the end of 2008. All new phones now have accelerometers, touchscreens and other sensors, all thanks to the iPhone. Do note that the devices are in no particular order.

Side note: The iPhone 3G has changed the history of mobile phone development and set the path for constant innovation. Its Multi Touch UI is its biggest asset. It was so cool and innovative, that even after a year of the iPhone’s release, no manufacturer has been able to beat it in terms of user interface capabilities. However even after the release of the iPhone 3G, it still has some very stupid shortcomings like - no video recording, no cut paste abilities, no MMS, no A2DP, no Flash support etc.

Top 5 iPhone 3G Killers

• Samsung Omnia i900 :

The creators of the Omnia i900 at Samsung definitely had the iPhone 3G as a target in mind when they made the Omnia i900. Whatever features the iPhone lacks in, the Omnia makes up for it in the best possible way. It is powered by Windows Mobile 6.1 and sports an iPhone esque Multi Touch interface - Touch Wiz. Though it is not as refined as the iPhone Multi Touch UI, it does come very close. It sports a superb 5MP cam and has everything that the iPhone does not - Flash, Video recording ( VGA at 15 FPS & QVGA at 30 FPS ), FM with RDS, A2DP. The audio quality is close in line with the iPhone 3G. Being a Windows Mobile phone, it offers a greater variety of softwares and games. It offers up to 8 GB expandable memory compared to iPhone 3G’s 8 / 16 GB.

• HTC Touch Pro :

The HTC Touch Pro is the most powerful and feature packed phone ever on Earth. It sports 288 MB RAM, coupled with a very powerful 528 MHZ processor. It runs on Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro and features a very cool User Interface - TouchFLO 3D which is just as good as the iPhone’s UI. In addition it features many more softwares and games from the Windows Mobile stable. The 3.2 MP Cam with AF & Flash is much better than iPhone’s 2 MP Cam. It supports CIF ( 352*288 ) Video recording at 30 FPS. It comes with a QWERTY keypad too which slides under the back of the phone. It combines style (Multi Touch) with usability (QWERTY) and is much more suited for office executives.

• Sony Ericsson XPeria X1 :

The Sony Ericsson XPeria X1 is a slightly underpowered clone of the HTC Touch Pro. It marks Sony Ericsson’s foray into Windows Mobile phones. It is slimmer and lighter than the HTC Touch Pro and with a supposedly inferior UI. It sports 256 MB RAM, a little lesser than the Touch Pro. It has a 3.2 MP Cam too, with Auto Focus, Flash and VGA Video recording at 30 FPS. The other features are almost same as the Touch Pro which mean that it pretty much pawns the iPhone 3G except in the UI department. The QWERTY keyboard is much more comfortable when typing, compared to a virtual onscreen keyboard.

• Nokia N96 :

The Nokia N96, though not a touchscreen phone, has everything you could ever expect from a phone. A superb 5 MP cam with Auto Focus and Flash, Video recording - VGA at 30 FPS, 16 GB Internal memory, A-GPS, a DVB - H receiver, a Dual ARM 9 CPU, 128 MB RAM, a brilliant 2.8″ 16M color screen - the list just doesn’t end. It is powered by Symbian s60 V3.2 OS v9.3 - The most popular smartphone OS ever. It has huge 3rd party application support, second only to perhaps Windows Mobile. It has the most user friendly interface in smartphones. Even though it doesnt have Multi Touch, it easily surpasses the iPhone in terms of its easy to use UI. It is going to be the flagship Nokia smartphone and packs enough power to kill the iPhone 3G. The UI with the iPhone 3G comparison is subjective. Its Webkit based inbuilt OSS browser and Opera mobile are just as good as Apple OS X’s safari and even beats it in some aspects.

• Sony Ericsson C905 :

The C905 is Sony Ericsson’s latest and greatest Cybershot. It will have a mind boggling; yea, hold your breath, 8.1 MP Super Cam with AF, Flash, VGA Video recording at 30 FPS and the likes. It is the best camera phone ever and gets precariously close to digicam territory. Taking awesome pictures is in its genes. It has 128 MB internal memory and theoretically supports up to 32 GB. It has all the other regular stuff like 3G, A-GPS, Geo tagging, WLAN, Bluetooth with A2DP etc. Like the Nokia N96, this one also doesn’t sport a touchscreen, but WTH! , does one need Multi Touch with all such features packed in?

And Re-introducing the current nemesis of the iPhone 3G,

• The HTC Touch Diamond :

The HTC Touch Diamond is the current reigning iPhone 3G ass kicker. It will soon be surpassed by its successor, the HTC Touch Pro. It has similar features to the HTC Touch Pro - Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro + Touch FLO 3D, except that it doesnt have the QWERTY keypad and has less RAM - just about 192 MB. The only negatives with the Touch Diamond are the absence of a QWERTY keypad and the slightly laggy Touch FLO 3D user interface. You can check out the here.

Nokia N78

This is the latest product from Nokia’s warehouses. The Nokia N78 hit the markets across the world a few weeks ago. It certainly does seem a successor to Nokia N73 which was a huge huge success and sold millions of handsets. Carrying a shape similar to N73 and also having a similar camera as N73, N78 is sticking to tried and tested formula for being a big success.

Nokia N78 specifications :

• Dimensions : 113 x 49 x 15.1 mm
• Weight : 102 g
• Display : 2.4″ TFT with 240 x 320 resolution
• Stereo speakers
• GPRS, HSCSD, EDGE, 3G
• WiFi : 802.11 b/g
• Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP
• 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus
• Built-in GPS receiver
• OS : Symbian S60, rel 3.2
• 3.5 mm jack
• Approx. price : $500

The Nokia N78 has the same set of features that some of the recently released mobiles such as Nokia N81, Nokia N82 had. But it does come pre-loaded with Feature Pack 2 which is the latest addition to the symbian platform and has lots of new features and tricks up its sleeve.

The N78 looks quite similar to N81 but it not a slider but a simple candy bar phone. Nokia could have definitely included a 5.0 megapixel camera as it has done with Nokia N82 to make it much more attractive for the price. No motion sensor is also a big disappointment, and it comes at a time when we are close to the release of the second iteration of the iPhone.

Design and Keypad

The Nokia N78 has dimensions pretty much similar to Nokia N73 but it is slimmer by a cool 4mm. Nokia could have done better to shorten its dimensions a bit as it is a bit too large just like the N73. The secondary camera located at the top right side of the display and the ambient light sensor to the left of it.

Nokia has placed the loudspeakers of the phone diagonally, with one being at the top right edge and other at bottom left edge. MicroSD card is present on the left edge and is also hot-swappable. The volume and camera keys haven’t moved and are present on the right side. The 3.5mm jack is at the top as expected along with the power key.

At the back, you can find the 3.2 megapixel camera with the LED flash. The camera does not have a protective cover like N73 which makes the camera lens prone to scratches.

Coming to the keypad, Nokia N78 has a completely different keypad to the N73. The keys are placed in a line with no borders between keys of same row. The keys are pretty tiny too which makes typing them difficult. Overall the keypad is only a slight improvement over N73’s keypad but still leaves a lot of room for improvement.

Display and User Interface

The N78 has a 2.4″ TFT display with QVGA resolution and supports 16M colors. The picture clarity on the display is brilliant. The display produces images which are appropriate brightness and contrast as well as saturation. The display has good visibility even in bright sunlight which has always been a trademark of Nokia displays.

The phone comes with Feature Pack 2 loaded as I mentioned earlier, it being the latest development in the Symbian platform. Eye candy gets a boost with transition effects while navigating in the menu system. You can also choose three different styles of the active standby menu. The Navi wheel has got more functionality as it can now also be used to navigate across the menus. I like the Navi wheel technology introduced by Nokia and hope to see more of it in the coming handsets.

The phone also has FM transmitter which is really cool as you can set up your own mini radio station for a distance of about 30 feet and send out signals to your friends!

Camera and Music Player

The 3.2 megapixel is no improvement from the N73’s camera as even the flash is the same LED one. But due to the latest Symbian OS, you do get better control over the camera. It has various settings like exposure control, white balance, light sensitivity, color tone to play around with.

The images produced by the camera are good and have just the right amount of color saturation. The night shots are diseased by the weak LED flash leading to noisy photos. Overall the camera performance is almost similar to N73 and that disappoints.

The Music Player supports a wide variety of formats. Sorting the tracks according to genre,artist,composer is nothing new to Nokia’s music players. The loudspeaker does a great job and the volume levels are high. The 3.5mm jacks ensures that you can plug in your favorite pair of earphones and enjoy the music quality which is great.

Pros:

• Good loudspeakers
• Excellent display
• FM Transmitter
• Good music quality
• Navi Wheel

Cons:

• Average camera
• Below average keypad
• No Xenon flash

Final Thoughts

The Nokia N78 was just another average phone as it has its sets of flaws. I certainly expected it to be a lot better after seeing the huge success of N73. I might not be a great phone but certainly is a good one but does not compel people to upgrade. I would chose N82 over it anyday.

My rating : 2.5/5

Nokia 5310 XpressMusic

Slim is in! That has been the motto nokia has been following for its XpressMusic series. The cell phones released under this series are extremely thin and at the same time deliver great performance at a low price. Nokia 5310 is on the low priced models in this series and is complete value for money.

Nokia 5310 XpressMusic specifications :

• Dimensions : 103.8 x 44.7 x 9.9 mm
• Weight : 71g
• Display : 31.5 x 41.5 mm TFT with 240 x 320 resolution
• GPRS,EDGE,HSCSD
• Bluetooth, microUSB
• 2 MP Camera with
• Stereo FM with RDS
• 3.5 mm AV jack
• Approx. price : $270

At just 9.9mm in thickness it is one of the slimmest phones you will come across. It has almost all the features that one generally needs except that it is not 3G compatible. And it has been labelled XpressMusic which gives you an idea about its music playback capabilities.

The phone comes bundled with a 2G micro-SD card.The bundled package is pretty much the usual but Nokia has been kind enough to provide a microUSB cables for data transfers which are not easy to find.

The dimensions other than the thickness are also compact and by weighing just 71g it ensures that you don’t feel it in your pocket. The phone has been launched in two variations : Blue and Red. Being a music phone, it has dedicated music keys which have been placed at the left corner of the display. The D-pad easy to use, the keypad is also quite convenient to use as it has large keys. The volume rocker finds it place to the right panel of the phone.

Some of the drawbacks of this design are that the display tends to get dirty due to close placement of music keys. Also the memory slot is beneath the battery which makes hot-swapping of the card impossible.

The display is quite of a gem but the small size restricts its capabilities. At 16M colors and a QVGA resolution the display produces great picture clarity. Also it works well under sunlight.

Coming to the music playback of the phone. The dedicated keys help a great deal and are very handy to use. The music player is an upgraded version of the ones you would find in older phones from Nokia. A lot of formats like MP3,AAC,WMA,MIDI etc are supported. Sorting the tracks is same as before. A2DP profile as expected is supported by the phone. What has changed is that, now you can apply themes to customise the look of the player. You get 8 preset equalisers to choose from with custom ones always at your disposal.The audio quality is exceptionally good. The loudspeaker is loud and clear.

The camera does not feature a flash or autofocus which is disappointing. As the phone is a S40 one, the camera interface is not as intuitive as found on its S60 counterparts. But it does have enough controls to make use of the “limited” camera. The photo quality isn’t good either which was expected. Also another major drawback is that the camera is really slow and takes loads of time to save picture and do other stuff.

Pros :

• Slim and lightweight
• Dedicated music keys
• Great display
• Excellent music playback

Cons :

• Below average and slow camera
• No 3G
• Small display
• Memory card under battery

Final Thoughts

Nokia 5310 XpressMusic is an excellent phone for the price tag it carries. Although its camera is below par but there are other good points to boast about this phone such as it excellent music playback capabilities and great display. If you do not care about the camera then go ahead and buy this one.

My Rating : 3.75/5

Nokia N95 8GB

Nokia came out with their complete multimedia device aka. Nokia N95 exactly an year back an created a wake in the cellphone market.Nokia has taken a step further by improving the flaws in the device and bringing out a much improved version of the device name Nokia N95 8GB. Although Nokia N95 8GB is not perfect and has its share of defects but it surely is a hell of a device and certainly the best cellphone in the market right now according to me.

Nokia N95 8GB specifications:

• Dimensions : 99 x 53 x 21 mm
• Weight : 128 g
• Display : 2.8″ TFT 16M colors, 240 x 320
• Memory : 8GB internal
• 5 Megapixel camera with autofocus
• GPRS,HSCSD,EDGE,3G
• WiFi: 802.11 b/g,UPnP
• Built-in GPS receiver
• Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP
• 3.5 mm audio jack
• OS: Symbian 9.2 rel 3.1
• Approx Price: $700

Design and Display

The basic design of the phone goes unchanged and the phone is still a dual slider phone, a first of its kind which got down well with the users.The all black body is made of high quality plastic but is prone to fingerprints which thankfully are not much visible.The front camera and the light sensor are located at the top right side.The card slot is no longer present due to the huge inbuilt memory present.The slider mechanism is smooth in all the three directions.Power key is at the top as usual.The left side contains the speakers,audio jack and IR port.Right side contains the other speaker,volume keys and camera keys.The most noticeable change is with the camera as the lens cover is removed and the LED flash has been placed right below the lens.

The display has undergone a increment of 0.2″ to become a 2.8″ display.The display quality is remarkably good and you won’t find absolutely any difficulty even in bright sunlight.I did find the clarity of the display to be better than the N95-1.Display although is also plagued by the fingerprint problem.The keypad is the same expect for the fact that the backlighting color has been changed from blue to white which complements the black color perfectly.

Music Player and Camera

They have been the forte of the N95 that make it a complete multimedia device.The music player has not gone any transformations, which is a bit of disappointment as I had expected something new on this front.Although there are no grudges with the current music player as it is fully capable of doing all the expected tasks be it sorting tracks,setting equalizers or creating playlists.The audio quality goes unchanged over N95-1 which is a big disappointment.Newer phones such as N81 or N82 offer better music quality and it is a shame that Nokia did not provide same level of experience on its premier device.

The camera has not gone any major changes except of the removal of the lens cover and repositioning of the LED flash.Integration on Xenon flash would have been great.The changes that were brought about through firmware changes in N95-1 reflect on the N95 8GB.The image quality has not got any improvement , though it is still one of the best you can get from existing 5.0 megapixel cellphone cameras in the market.

OS and Web browser

The N95 8GB is powered by Symbian 9.2 OS with the Series60 3rd Edition user interface.The 128MB memory on the device is enough for all you multi-tasking needs.Demand paging has also been included in the OS though it is not a standard part of OS 9.2. Navigation through menus is quick and applications open up in a snap.

The screen rotation has got better but still no animation like iPhone.Multiple alarms,unlimited voice recording are now standard features.The phonebook can store unlimited contacts with great details of every contact.The gallery is a pleasure to work with as the 3D view is refreshing.Zooming in and out of photos is quicker and slideshow can be customized according to your needs.

File management is very good and sending multiple files is a breeze.Search has taken a step further as now you can start a search from active standby itself.Organizer as expected has everything that you need to manage your tasks.

The browsing experience on the device is great and the default browser does the job very well.The browser manages to fit every page perfectly well on the screen.Virtual cursor does it job nicely without any hiccups.Zooming level can be adjusted by a few key presses.Mini-map feature is also available which comes in very handy for large web pages.Overall it provides rich browsing experience.

Pros:

• Big 2.8″ display
• Great 5.0 MP camera
• Massive amount of RAM
• Audio jack
• Built-in GPS and WiFi
• TV-out function included
• Massive 8GB storage

Cons:

• No lens cover
• Unimproved audio quality
• Unimproved camera performance
• No Xenon Flash

Final Thoughts

Nokia N95 8GB is definitely an improvement over Nokia N95 , but it does leave room for improvement. A better camera quality and audio quality are my only complaints with this device but that’s how Nokia likes it. 8GB is huge and the fact that you can use the device as a removable drives makes it even more useful.Bigger display is another notable improvement.Nokia N95 8GB still is a device anybody would love to own, so if you have the money then go buy it!

Rating: 4.3/5

Top 10 Mobiles

Cellphones are released everyday but only few survive the fight to live long in the hands of the consumer! There have been many exciting cellphones that have been released off-late that not only take functionality to a new level but also add a lot of glamor to one’s personality. I have reviewed the best cellphones across various categories and I will list them all here to help you compare them and help you make your decision easier!

1. Nokia N95 8GB

The complete multimedia device with all the looks that money can buy! It has everything ranging from 5 megapixel camera to 8GB internal memory. The phones excels at imaging and multimedia tasks and the big 2.8″ screen is sheer pleasure to work with . WiFi,GPS,3G, this phone has it all. The phone is a fast performer and has all the ingredients that make it a ‘mini-computer’.

2. Nokia N82

The Nokia N82 is a bar phone and is very much similar to the N95, but it has a few more tricks up its sleeve. The phone is a first from Nokia to feature Xenon flash which delivers amazing performance in night shots and can be considered as a replacement to entry level digital cameras in the market.Average looks do not go well with its personality but that will change when the all black Nokia N82 comes out soon.

3. Sony Ericsson W960

This one is revolutionary phone from Sony Ericsson and has loads of features starting from touchscreen to a 3.2 megapixel camera. The device excels at playing music as well as taking great images.8GB internal memory is an added advantage along with integration of WiFi. All in all it is great device and being Symbian it will attract lot of Nokia users also.

4. LG Viewty KU990

A LG phone made it to the list! The phone takes the imaging in cellphones to a new era with support for VGA recording at 30fps which is really cool and the images taken are also amazing. The interface on the phone is flash based and different from the rest and is operated through the stylus or your fingers. TV-out support also comes with this cellphone. A ‘different’ phone that sets it apart from the crowd.

5. Sony Ericsson P1i

P1i is an excellent offering from Sony Ericsson in the PDA department. Sony Ericsson has always come out with great Pocket PC devices and here is yet another example. The device manages to get almost all the things right. A 3.2 megapixel camera does a good job at imaging but lacks in the video department. Handwriting recognition , Symbian UIQ 9.1 OS , WiFi are some of the nifty features of the P1i. It is one the best Pocket PC devices and absolutely worth buying.

6. Apple iPhone

Apple has done a remarkably good job on its first cellphone it introduced in the market. The device has generated a lot of hype and interest all over the word and selective availability has resulted in ‘unlocked’ versions selling all over the world. A lot has changed with the device after a series of firmware upgrades and various annoying restrictions were removed. But what set the nail on the head was the announcement of the iPhone-SDK that sets the path for development of 3rd party Apps on the device which will take the experience to a new level. All of you would already know about its features like Multi-Touch, huge 3.5″ display, accelerometer etc. It is the device with the highest flaunt value and increasing functionality!

7. HTC Touch Cruise

A strong competitor to the Sony Ericsson Pi1 , the phone is an improved version of the HTC Touch which had a few drawbacks. TouchFLO interface is fun to work with and makes navigation easier. Camera quality is not a strong point of the phone and display also could have been a bit better. Otherwise there are no drawbacks with this device and performs all the tasks a PocketPC can with utter smoothness.

8. Nokia N81 8GB

This device is aimed at music lovers who do not want to compromise on music quality. Apart from being a music phone the N81 is also a gaming device and belongs to the Nokia N-Gage gaming platform. The display is breathtaking and will leave you spellbound. NaviWheel is another great invention by Nokia. Inbuilt 8GB memory will never hurt. Bulky weight and average keypad are its only deterrents.

9. Sony Ericsson K850i

Sony Ericsson has done a great job by integrating almost a lot of features in this phone. Although the display is not big but you get a plethora of features like GPRS,EDGE,3G, 5 megapixel camera with xenon flash,motion sensor etc. WiFi is one thing which you will miss in this phone.Motion sensor is a cool feature aka. accelerometer of iPhone. The 5 megapixel camera with xenon flash paves the way for great imaging experience. Sound quality is another strong point. Only if it has symbian!

10. Sony Ericsson W910

Looks are of prime importance with this phone. Big display, good keypad, extremely thin, new Walkman 3.0 player are some of the positive points of this phone. Camera is not a strong point of this phone.The speakers are pretty loud and ShakeControl and ShakeMe are excellent additions. The phone also comes with a good accessory bundle. There are other phones with better functionality but they don’t look as sexy as W910!

Nokia E51

Nokia E-series phones are aimed at business professionals who need to access mail and internet day in and day out and at the same time also not lose out on multimedia features.Nokia E51 is one of the latest offerings from Nokia in this segment and has many improvements over its predecessor Nokia E50.

Nokia E51 specifications:

• Dimensions : 114.8 x 46 x 12 mm
• Weight : 100g
• Display : 2″ QVGA, 16M colors
• 96MB SDRAM,130MB phone memory
• GPRS,HSCSD,EDGE,3G,Bluetooth,IR
• WLAN: WiFi 802.11g,VoIP over WLAN
• Symbian OS 9.2, S60 v3.1
• 2 MP camera

Design and Keyboard

The design of E51 is very business like and has no frills but a simple metallic body.The handset is quite slim at just 12mm and its 100g weight makes it light on the pocket.All this seems good but one major disappointment with E51 is the material used to make the back panel of the phone.The panel is very much prone to oily hands and you would hardly find it clean at any point of time.

The keyboard has been designed pretty ergonomic as expected and it does not disappoint.What does disappoint though are the navigation keys that have been made very tiny and have been cramped in small space and navigating through them is tough as you always tend to press a neighboring key.

Display and Layout

The E51 sports a small but crisp and bright 2 inch display having a resolution of 240 x 320.The small screen and high resolution makes the font size small but it is very much readable.The display has good clarity also in bright sunlight.

The layout is neatly organized by Nokia and leaves no room for complaint except for the navigation keys as already mentioned above.The ambient light sensor is on the right side above the display.The display and the keypad nicely blend into one another.The pencil key which is a standard on Nokia smartphones is missing but not its functionality as hash key takes over its function.The power key is at its traditional place on top right side.The volume keys have been placed in the middle of right side of E51 and a voice command key in between the two.These keys are not very responsive and require fair amount of force to activate them.

Music Player and Camera

Nokia E51 does not have a music player which will go down too well with music buffs.It does not offer high functionality as N-series music player.The interface is also very simple and feels boring.Music management is at the same level with other music phones and you can download tracks via the internet too. The supported tracks are MP3,WMA,AAC,eAAC+.The audio quality is good but not at par with music phones and that is understandable.

Camera is not what you will like to use too much.The camera is a mere 2 MP when 5 MP phones are getting released so fast.The camera also lacks autofocus and the basic flash which makes it completely useless for night pics. The pics have greenish appearance which is a bug and is likely to be fixed in future firmware updates.The photos have high noise levels and excessive sharpness. The video mode is limited to 15fps another disappointment. Overall its a camera for a few casual pics.

Connectivity, Browser and Organizer

Connectivity is the area where E51 score heavily.The integration of WiFi is cool but the icing on the cake is VoIP over it. Bluetooth also has A2DP so that you can enjoy music via wireless headsets.EDGE,3G,HSCSD are added benefits.

Browsing the internet with E51 is a pleasant experience.The mini-map feature is available like in Opera Mini and is very handy for navigating through large web pages.Virtual cursor,custom zoom level,3D view makes the browsing experience rich.You would not need to install a third part web browser!

Organizer is another strong point of E51.The scheduler is neat and has variety of tasks to configure.Adobe Reader and Mobile Office take care of your document files.Zip Manager has also been pre-installed to handle zip files.Other standard application include Notes,calculator,converter. Nokia Team Suite is a new application which handles your group conference calls,emails and text messages and does that efficiently.

Pros:

• Light weight
• Good amount of RAM
• Excellent connectivity options
• Fast performance
• Neat layout
• Great browser

Cons:

• Bad camera
• Fingerprint prone back panel
• Average music player
• Cramped navigation keys

Final Thoughts

The E51 is truly aimed at business class users and will not go down too well with general users.It has all the features needed in a business phone but it lacks ability in music and camera department.Hopefully Nokia will fulfill these in future versions of the phone.Buy this if you are not affected by its drawbacks.

Nokia N82

Nokia N-series managed to live up the hype created by Nokia and every cellphone that is released under this series makes it special.N73 and the N95 have been the best sellers in the N-series category and it was no sooner than later expected that Nokia would come out with their successors.Nokia N95’s successor N95 8GB is already out.N82 is touted as a successor to Nokia N73 and was launched by Nokia recently.

Nokia N82 specifications:

• Dimensions: 112 x 50.2 x 17.3 mm
• 2.4″ TFT Display,16M colors
• 332 MHz Processor
• 5 Megapixel camera with autofocus
• GPRS,HSCSD,EDGE,3G,WiFi
• UPnP Technology
• Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP
• Symbian OS 9.2
• Built-in GPS receiver
• 3.5 mm jack,TV out

Nokia has been kind enough to bundle a 2GB microSD card with the phone considering the fact that it not considered a multimedia phone and Nokia is known to give high capacity cards with those phones only.N82 has many improvements over the N73 and is also a serious competitor to N95.

Package and Design

In the package is included a microSD card with a SD adapter to make it compatible with card slots in PCs which is great thinking by Nokia.Bundling a TV-out cable along with the standard cable is a bonus.The N82 is a bar shaped phone and is currently available only in silver exterior though is black counterpart will be available in a couple of months.The silver version is not as elegant as N95 and that probably is one of the negative points of the phone! The placements of the button is pretty much same as N73.The major noticeable change is the placement of the multimedia key which has been placed between the right selection key and the clear key.The 3.5 mm jack has been put besides the power key.

Display and Keypad

The 2.4″ TFT display supports 16M colors and has QVGA resolution.The screen is an improvement over N73 but not as good as N95.The brightness is a bit on lower side but that doesn’t affect its performance in direct sunlight at all.

The keypad is not an improvement over N73 and is similar to one used in N91 which wasn’t good at all.The keys used are very small but have enough space between them.The backlighting could also have been better.Overall the keypad dissapoints and does not go down well with me atleast.

Music Player and Camera

The music is very similar to the one in N73 Music Edition and has all the features you demand it.You can create playlists,sort songs according to Albums,Genre,Artists etc.N82 supports almost all the major formats be it WMA or eAAC+.You can transfer songs via bluetooth,data cable or thanks to the SD adapter using the card reader also.The 5 preset equalizer settings are good for most but you can create your own custom eqaulizer settings if you like it that way.The audio quality is at par with N95 and the 3.5mm jack makes it possible to be able to plug in headphones of your choice.

The camera is another strong point of the N82.The integration of a 5MP camera adds a whole lot of value to the phone.The Xenon flash takes a step further than the N95 camera.The camera performance is fast and shot to shot times are comparable to Sony Ericsson phones.The camera interface is similar to N95 has all many settings to play around with.You can tweak the white balance,exposure,contrast,sharpness,ISO and other settings included under color tones.The addition of Xenon flash has made all the difference in night shots.To sum it up the N82 camera is one of the best cellphones camera you will come across till date and Nokia has done a great job with it.

OS and Web browser

N82 has been equipped with a Symbian 9.2 OS and also has the Feature 1 pack.The 128MB RAM is something that will enable you to multi-task as much as you like and still not run into memory low warnings.One of the coolest features of the phone is the auto rotation of the screen like the Apple iPhone but is not as smooth as it.The icons can be animated if you prefer it that way.The alarm clock has all the functionality one would desire including repetitive alarms.N82 also has voice recognition which can be used to control the device using voice commands and can recognise huge number of commands.

The bundled browser is a serious competitor to Opera Mini as it offers functionality similar to it.Features like virtual scrolling,mini map,different zoom levels offer a rich browsing experience.The font is readable but the viewing a site on 2.4″ screen isn’t the same as on a 2.8″ one! The sites fit to screen perfectly.High RAM is great for opening bulky sites.

Pros:

• Excellent 5 MP camera
• WiFi,UPnP,3G compatible
• GPS receiver inbuilt
• 3.5mm jack
• Great browser
• High RAM
• 2GB memory card bundled

Cons:

• Average keypad
• Average looks
• No USB charging

Final Thoughts

As you can already see the N82 has a huge list of pros compared to some minor cons.Nokia has made a excellent all-in-one device with the N82 and a great successor to N73.I am sure this phone’s sales will be at par or more than N73.So there is no reason to suggest why you should not buy this phone if you have the money! This phone receives a big thumbs up from me.

Nokia 5610 XpressMusic

Nokia 5610 XpressMusic is the latest addition to the Nokia mobile phones.You must have seen this phone in the latest ads released by Nokia and we will see if it manages to fulfill the hype that has been created around it for a while.So is this a perfect mobile phone to gift yourself this new year..Lets find out!

Here are its specs:

• Dimensions: 98.5 x 48.5 x 17 mm
• Weight: 111gms
• 2.2″ TFT QVGA display, 16M colors
• GPRS,HSCSD,EDGE and 3G compatible
• Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP
• 3.15MP Camera with Autofocus

Design

The specifications are pretty impressive and so is the design of the phone which is mesmerizing.The phone has been made sporty yet elegant and the ergonomics have not been forgotten.The back panel has been designed to provide better grip.The red strip along the sides contrast with the black finish perfectly.The sliding mechanism is solid and you are unlikely to encounter any problems with it.

Keypad and Display

The keypad has been built keeping ergonomics in mind completely.Its a pleasure to use the keypad with the keys offering good feedback and slider does not hinder them in any way.The NaviSlide key is a major boon as it can be used to launch the radio,main menu,music player.The white lit keys glow only when the slider is open but you won’t need to do that often!

The display does not offer any room for complaints with it offering 16M colors and a big 2.2″ QVGA screen which has great contrast and excellent reproduction of colors.So watching videos or viewing images is going to be a pleasure on it.

Camera,Music Player,OS

The music player supports MP3,MP4,AAC,WMA and AMR file formats. It comes with a set of 7 predefined equalizers and you can also customize one according to your needs. The rest of the features are standard with other Nokia models like creating playlists or arranging your songs.The sound quality is very good and you can bank on it as a standalone music player for your mini party!

The camera is a 3.2MP sensor which has a resolution of 2048 x 1536.The S40 interface limits the camera options but that does not hinder its performance at all and is as good some of the other 3.2MP phones by Nokia like N73.The pictures have apt brightness and deep colors to bring out good pictures.

The phone supports the fifth generation of S40 interface which does bring in a lot of improvements over its predecessor but falls short of OS 9.2. Active standby feature is now included with S40. Phone performance is very good with the menus being fast and responsive and camera startup times very low. Copy,paste is now possible too! But thats where your world ends as you can only install java applications.

Pros:

• Brilliant display
• 3.2MP camera
• Ergonomic keypad
• FM with RDS
• Fast performance

Cons:

• S40 interface
• Weak LED
• Not so common microUSB port

Final Thoughts

5610 XpressMusic is a excellent buy if you are looking to buy a slider phone with good camera and excellent music playback options.The phone design is excellent and so is its performance.The camera is above average but it has great music playback. S40 might be its only drawback if you like to call it that way. The current price at around 300 euros I guess is a bit overpriced but no so much so as other Nokia phones like N95 were at launch.

Nokia N73 Music Edition

Cellphone apart from being a necessity has become a multi-functional device which none of us can do without.With so many cellphones out there it becomes hard to pick and chose one.N73 is one such device which is a perfect blend of style without compromising utility.

Here are its specs:

• Dimensions:110 x 49 x 19 mm
• Weight 116g
• Display:256K,TFT
• 3.2MP Camera with Autofocus and Carl Zeiss optics
• 3D sound stereo speakers
• Light sensor
• GPRS:Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
• HSCSD:Yes
• Edge:Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
• 3G: 384 kbps
• Bluetooth ver 2.0 with A2DP
• Symbian OS 9.1, S60 3rd edition

So much for the specifications but there is more to this black beauty. It also features stereo radio which has become a standard is most of the mobiles nowadays. The difference between the vanilla and the music edition is that Nokia bundles a 2 GB MiniSD memory card along with better earphones with the music edition making a complete pack.Lets examine N73 step by step.

Design

Its shape looks rectangular from front but seems trapezoidal from aside.The buttons are cramped to give way to the big 240 X 320 screen it sports.The camera cover is a slider which is a bit wobbly but does the job well.The body is full black and the feel of the plastic is also elite.The infrared sensor has been placed on the side along with the volume control button,camera release button and a quick image/video gallery access button. The speakers have been cleverly placed at top and bottom. So other than the keypad everything seems perfect!

Memory Card,Keypad,Display and OS

The 2GB comes bundled with the music edition which is pretty easy to insert into the card slot as card slot is provided at the bottom above the pop-port. As this model was introduced some time back it supports MiniSD cards against the MicroSD cards that seem to be the standard with all new Nokia models these days. The phone also has an inbuilt 42MB memory which is good enough to install applications and store messages.

Keypad is the negative point of this phone as it has been squeezed and hence is far from being ergonomic and easy to use.You are bound to press the red button instead of ‘3′ while typing out a fast message.The keys have also not been separated properly making typing a message a pain.But the backlighting to the keypad is good and you won’t need to dig your eyes deep in the night.

The display is one of the best thing that this phone has as Nokia has moved away from VGA resolution to give way to QVGA resolution ie. 240 X 320 which can be seen on this model. The screen size is one of the largest for its category and it produces brilliant,sharp and crisp images.

N73 features OS9.1v3 operating system which although it the predecessor to OS9.2 but it continues to enjoy support from developers across the globe who keep churning out great applications for this platform.You can find hundreds of great applications for this platform which is what makes this device a powerhouse.

Camera and music player

The 3.2MP camera is another stronghold which makes this phone unbeatable.There are not many phones in market which take pictures as good as this one does.The pictures have low noise,vivid colors and have aptly lit provided you have proper lighting conditions.The interface of the camera is very easy to use and Nokia has been kind enough to include manual settings like manual exposure,white balance and color settings.It also comes with 8 preset shooting modes and also has red-eye reduction feature.Self timer and sequence mode take it at par with an entry-level digicam.

Some of the weak points of the camera are its weak LED flash and night pictures.The LED flash is not strong enough to provide lighting to night shots. Purple fringing is prevalent in night shots and hence you would be better off a standalone digicam for this purpose.The video quality is good for close ups but loses quality drastically when you zoom in.

Music player can be launched directly from the dedicated music key which can also launch the radio application when pressed for a longer duration.The music player remains pretty much unchanged and you can view tracks according to artists,albums,genre and composers.You can create your own playlists. You can either select one of the 6 preset equalizers or create a custom one suiting your need.Coming to the sound quality of the loudspeaker, it certainly a league apart from other Nokia cellphones with it being loud and clear. You don’t expect any bass from the such small speakers and so is the case.Beats and vocals are clear and all in all its sound can be compared to some Sony Ericsson phones.The bundled earphones are not good and I recommend getting good pair of earphones like Creative EP-630 to be able to enjoy music at it best.

Other features

Radio quality is very good and I have not heard better radio or any other cellphone.Phonebook is a charm to work as it provides you with many details you can fill about your contacts and also make groups to separate them. The default internet application lets you surf only in portrait mode and has limited features.But the new Opera Mini v4 works perfectly and you would be better off installing it if you surf net daily.The picture gallery is slow to be frank and you won’t find it pleasing if you have to open it often.Menu navigation is fast.Open office documents and PDF files is possible as QuickOffice and Adobe Acrobat comes pre-installed with the phone.Other features like alarm clock and stuff are nothing to boast about.

Pros

• 3.2MP Camera
• Big and brilliant display
• Symbian OS
• Loud stereo speakers
• 3G Compatible

Cons

• Cramped Keypad
• Wobbly camera cover
• No WiFi
• Average bundled earphones

Final thoughts

The N73 is a perfect device is you don’t like carrying around a cellphone,your MP3 player and a digital camera along with you all the time.It manages to fullfill all their needs to a certain extent.If you are a WiFi junkie that you would have to give this a miss and start hunting for another one.The battery life is decent with 8 hours of music playback,3 days standby. So Nokia has rightly called this as a “multimedia computer”.