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The New Nokia 5800 Xpress Music

Nokia 5800
Look out, iPhone, you may have a little competition going from Nokia. The Nokia 5800 is powered by a new operating system known as the S60 5th edition.

It has a 3.2 inch touchscreen that uses a stylus. It comes with Wi-Fi connectivity, GPS navigation, and is HSDPA compatible. As for memory, it has 8GB intneral, and a microSDHC memory card slot. The camera is a 3.2 megapixel number with an autofocus Carl Ziess lens and LED flash.

The Nokia 5800 with XpressMusic should be available in this quarter for a price of $392.






Nokia N97 versus iPhone 3G

nokia-n97-versus-iphone-3g.jpg

Nokia has finally delivered a smartphone handset which easily rivals the iPhone 3G. On paper, the specs are amazing. Let's take a closer look, with what we know so far, and see whether it's an iPhone killer or not. Should Apple be worried?

Look & Feel

The Nokia N97 measures 117.2 (L) x 55.3 (W) x 15.9mm (D) compared to the iPhone 3G's 115.5 (H) x 62.1 (W) x 12.3mm (D); the N97 weighs 150g compared to the iPhone 3G's 133g. All pretty similar.

The N97 obviously has the slide out QWERTY keyboard and features a tilting touchscreen, whereas the iPhone 3G is a single, static unit.

Screen

The iPhone 3G's 320 x 480 3:2 ratio screen is eclipsed by the Nokia N97's true widescreen (16:9) 640 x 360 pixels. Both measure 3.5 inches diagonally. Nokia definitely wins on this one, as not only will TV/DVD based widescreen movies fill the whole screen, but there's more resolution

nokia-n97-open-view.jpg

Camera

Again, the N97 wins hands down on the camera front, offering five megapixels, Carl Zeiss Tessar optics, and a LED flash / video light. Yes, video. The N97 will shoot video at DVD quality (30fps). The iPhone 3G, by comparison, has no video functionality and a paltry 2MP camera with no flash or focus.

Multimedia

Both handsets are heavyweights when it comes to consuming multimedia content, with both phones loyal to their companies' services - the iPhone 3G obviously has access to a huge range of content via the iTunes Store, with all other content having to go via iTunes. The N97 has access to the Nokia Music Store.

Both can play a wide variety of audio formats, but the N97 manages WMA on top of MP3, AAC, eAAC and eAAC+.

Both play variations of the MPEG4 video format, but the N97 also supports Windows Media 9 and Flash Lite/Flash Video via the Internet browser.

Navigation

The iPhone 3G utilises A-GPS and Google Maps, plus any third-party applications which use geo-location data, while the Nokia N97 has A-GPS and an electronic compass and uses Nokia Maps.

Google Maps offers 3D views of selected cities, driving, limited public transport and walking directions.

Nokia Maps offers multimedia city guides and navigation services, voice-guided car navigation, pedestrian-optimised guidance.

The N97 wins on navigation functionality, as the Nokia Maps system does seem to offer a wider range of options, however individual usage will vary depending on location.

Communications

Both phones offer HSDPA and Wi-Fi connectivity. The N97 has the full Bluetooth 2.0 A2DP implementation whereas the iPhone 3G has only basic Bluetooth.

Web Browsing

Both handsets offer full access to Internet web sites, but the Nokia N97 offers support for Flash Lite 3.0 and Flash Video, so will be able to render pages more fully than the iPhone which doesn't. It's not immediately clear from the specs whether the N97 offers in-browser Java support, the iPhone 3G doesn't.

Operating System

The initial Nokia N97 specifications don't explicitly mention which operating system is being used, but I presume, as an NSeries phone, it's Symbian-based. The iPhone 3G uses OS X.

Storage

The iPhone 3G comes with either 8GB or 16GB of fixed storage with no external expansion. The Nokia N97 comes with a whopping 32GB of internal memory plus up to 16GB of microSD expansion. Very nice.

Applications

iPhone 3G users have access to the standard range of useful applications plus a host of free and pay-for applications in the iPhone App Store via iTunes.

Assuming no restrictions, users will be able to install Symbian-based applications onto the Nokia N97.

Pricing & Networks

Pricing and networks have not yet been announced for the Nokia N97, thought it's expected to have a pre-subsidy price of €599 (about £465).

Conclusion

Technically, the Nokia N97 beats the iPhone 3G in nearly every area - screen resolution, camera, web browser, video capability, storage - but of course it's an ewer handset.

I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Steve Jobs announcing a third generation iPhone at Macworld in January - before the N97 comes to market.

There's a lot of buzz surrounding the N97, and rightly so, but will its superior specs beat the "I want one" iPhone factor?

Time will tell. Do you want your phone to be Apple-flavoured or Nokia-flavoured? And what about the price - both are going to be fairly hefty and/or require a serious contract.


Nokia N97 launches latest challenge to iPhone

Nokia N97 launches latest challenge to iPhone

Touchscreen handset with Point and Find software is " world's most advanced mobile computer" accessing the entire internet, Nokia claims

Nokia N97
Nokia unveiled its latest challenge to the iPhone today, the N97, as the Finnish mobile giant vowed it would transform the internet.

The touchscreen smartphone, which has a 3.5 inch screen and both a touchscreen and a glide-out Qwerty keyboard, is the latest handset in Nokia's N series. It follows the blockbuster N95, the handset which has so far sold 15 million, and the N96, which was released earlier this year.

The N97 is the latest handset to join an increasingly crowded smartphone market that includes the G1, which runs Google's Android software, the BlackBerry Storm, which went on sale last month, and Sony Ericsson's X1.

Nokia claims the N97, which is due to be released by the middle of next year, is "the world's most advanced mobile computer" and will boast new services that will transform the way people connect to the internet.

The phone comes with 32 GB of memory - more than twice the capacity of the most powerful iPhone on the market - with the option to expand this to 48 GB with a 16 GB memory card. This means it can store thousands more songs, or hours more video, than its rivals (up to 37 hours of music and 4.5 hours of video playback to be precise).

In a gentle dig at Apple, Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia's executive vice president of markets, who unveiled the phone, made the point that the N97 can access "the entire internet, not just piece of it" as, unlike the iPhone, it will be able to play the Flash videos used on many websites.

In another move that makes the N97 more like a mini-computer than a phone, the screen tilts to a 35 degree angle when the keyboard glides out, making it easier to see the screen while typing. It is a nice touch. I tried it out: your forefingers fit snuggly behind the screen making it more stable to hold and therefore easier to type. Unlike other slide-out Qwerty keyboards, as seen on handsets such as the G1 or the HTC Touch Pro, which feel quite clunky as they move into place, the N97 really does glide, or almost pivot, out. It is a very satisfying movement.

Like most of its rivals the N97 will run over HSDPA, the fastest type of mobile broadband, with speeds of up to 7.2 Mbps, and, although this is a feature surprisingly absent in the Storm, the N97 is wifi enabled.

While the hardware is impressive, it is the software that Nokia executives are most excited about and which they say will let users personalise the internet.

The N97 will sport internet widgets that can be moved around with your finger to personalise your home screen and a Nokia Messaging button - a single application that will enable you to access any webmail, e-mail and Instant Messanger accounts you might have.

The N97 also introduces so-called "SoLo", or social location, making it easier to update social networks automatically with real-time information. The phone's integrated A-GPS sensors and an electronic compass means it knows exactly where it is, and, if your friends allow it to, will know where they are too, opening up new possibilities for gaming and applications.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X1



Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 contains many features previously unseen in Sony Ericsson mobiles. Their earlier products in the smartphone segment have featured limited new ideas and have been tainted by the slow, somewhat illogical UIQ interface.



There's a good reason to mention the HTC Touch Pro, as both phones are more or less identical hardware-wise. The 'Sony Ericsson' Xperia X1 is being manufactured by HTC, though Sony Ericsson has gone to lengths to communicate that they have developed the phone without HTC:s input. Even so, it makes sense to compare the two, as both phones are based on Windows Mobile and also are in the same price range - at least on the Swedish market.



The best screen I've seen during the test is available for free download and is an adaptation of the SPB Mobile Shell; it simply shows everything the regular Windows interface does, but beefs up the size to facilitate use of your index finger instead of the stylus.

Screen:

With a 800×480 VGA screen, you can’t really go wrong right? Right. We’ve got to say off the top that this is the best-looking screen we’ve ever seen on a Windows Mobile device. It puts all the others to shame. It’s not just that the screen has an amazing resolution, it’s that the screen is vibrant and clear as day. If your vision isn’t top notch you might have to increase the font size in settings because it gets a little small with that super high-res. Sunlight couldn’t phase it either as we had no problem using it on the go outside.

Audio quality

We didn’t put the speakers through our normal tests just yet to be honest. We tried a couple MP3s and they sounded good, not great. The speaker volume in general could have been a little louder and the sound could have sounded a little fuller. Speakerphone was the same. We’ll report back with more detailed findings.

Notification lights

If you’ve seen the Sidekick LX, you’ll know what we’re talking about. There are 4 independant notification lights on the four corners of the X1. These are LED lights that change through various colors. Unlike the Sidekick, you have complete control over the notification settings. Only want people to think you’ve got a UFO in your pocket when you’re getting a text message? No problem. There’s a lot to choose from to suit your own needs. The lights offer a nice touch and weren’t too over-powering and bright which we were afraid of. The kids will love it.

Call quality

Calls came in and out with crystal clear quality. The ear speaker was plently loud and the party on the other end said we sounded like we were on a land line.

Data Connectivity

Name something you’d like to see in a mobile device… HSDPA? Wi-Fi? GPS? The X1 has all of it. T-Mobile USA lovers will also be overjoyed at the fact that an AWS 1700MHz version is coming. Our unit had the 850MHz/1900MHz US 3G bands so we were rockin’ over HSDPA just fine. In fact, web browsing was abnormally fast. We didn’t find much of a difference between browsing over Wi-Fi or HSDPA. That’s probably due to the bottleneck of the phone in general, but it was a pleasant surprise.

Build quality

Another winner for Sony Ericsson. While the device isn’t the lightest phone on the market, we think it’s build quality is almost second-to-none. Maybe even iPhone status. It’s just so sturdy and well put together. We have to give HTC some mad props on this one. Could you please try and incorporate some of this newfound metal addition into some of your devices HTC? Please. The sliding mechanism was fantastic even though the device isn’t a normal “flat” slider. Major points for build quality.

Usability factor

This could be subjective depending on your view of Windows Mobile, but we found the X1 to be on par or better than any Windows Mobile device we’ve used. Baring the keyboard issue, (see below) there wasn’t anything that hindered us from taking full advantage of the device. When closed, the device gives you access to all necessary shortcuts on the bottom front of the unit. Slide it open and you’ve got access to everything you could want. People have wrote us and asked about how it is to use the phone when the QWERTY keyboard doesn’t have directional keys, but they’ve overlooked something — the optical joystick. This works wonderfully well and doesn’t have a learning curve. It’s a natural extension of what we’ve been forced to use in the past. There was a “cursor” menu in settings but no cursor showed up on the screen. You also have full control over the sensitivity of the optical joystick. Making phone calls was comfortable and we didn’t have any issues with people hearing us or us hearing them.

Keyboard

The keyboard is a sensitive area for many people. Anyone who follows us know we take it very seriously — we put them all through the ringer! So, it pains us to report, that at least with our particular unit, the keyboard wasn’t great. It didn’t take time to get used to it, it just didnt perform like the way we had hoped. The reason is because the keys almost are completely flush with the case and don’t give good tactile feedback when pressed. Odly enough, the spacebar was actually ok. It faired the best out of all of them. We understand why there really is no travel in the keys — there is a huge sliding mechanism right over them — but we would have liked to see a little more feedback when typing. They have this triangular pattern on top which does make it easy to feel them, but you don’t get a good response when actually pressing them down. The backlight on the QWERTY ‘board successfully helped us find the keys when it was nightime, but that still didn’t help when typing. We said this before, but if we had to compare the keyboard to anything, it would be Sony’s UX-series computers. It’s the same exact thing.

Samsung Omnia SCH-i910

samsung omniaThe Samsung Omnia is the latest in Samsung's TouchWIZ phones for the global market, and also the most advanced


“The Window-Mobile 6.1 Samsung Omnia SCH-i910 is the best Verizon phone we’ve seen for photos, video recording, and Web browsing.”

However, it looks like there are some cons:

“Frustrating touch screen and accelerometer. No standard headphone jack. Video playback can be jerky”

I witnessed some of those frustrations myself when I played with the Omnia at the PDC. The concept is cool and the display is awesome but the overall performance was sluggish. Not sure if I’m a fan of widgets either…


The Samsung Omnia is the latest in Samsung's TouchWIZ phones for the global market, and also the most advanced, as that TouchWIZ interface here runs atop Windows Mobile 6.1 instead of a standard carrier OS. This idea of creating an overlay to improve Windows Mobile is all the rage right now, but instead of making things easier, the Samsung Omnia is more confusing and difficult to use. There are a few things this phone does well, including DivX movie playback and Web browsing, courtesy of Opera. But for the most part, there are better all-touch smartphone options for Verizon Wireless. All in all, we think the concept of TouchWIZ on multimedia phones works better than using the widget-based UI to turn a Windows Mobile phone into a multimedia powerhouse. There's no doubt about its potential, but eventually the overall experience left us feeling seriously annoyed

"The i900 is packed full of top-end features and presented to the user in a very good package...its specification is superior.(to the iPhone) My money would certainly go onto the i900 rather than the 3G iPhone."



The Omnia is a Windows Mobile 6.1 phone, so at the basic level, you know what you're getting. The difference between it and basically every other WinMo 6.1 phone lies in the TouchWiz UIcing that's been slathered on top, and the hardware. If you're doing a double-take after peeking Sammy's Behold for T-Mobile, we wouldn't blame you—the Omnia is kinda like the smartphone version of the Behold, since it's got an almost identical industrial design, the same TouchWiz UI and a 5MP camera.


Pros: Good Opera Web browser with cool 'upshifted' navigation. Fine camera with auto focus and loads of pixels.
Cons: TouchWIZ experience disappoints when running atop Windows Mobile. Confusing redundancies in the interface.

Apple Iphone



Features
Introducing iPhone 3G. With fast 3G wireless technology, GPS mapping, support for enterprise features like Microsoft Exchange, and the new App Store, iPhone 3G puts even more features at your fingertips. And like the original iPhone, it combines three products in one � a revolutionary phone, a widescreen iPod, and a breakthrough Internet device with rich HTML email and a desktop-class web browser. iPhone 3G.

Specification

Display

  • 3.5-inch (diagonal) widescreen Multi-Touch display
  • 480-by-320-pixel resolution at 163 ppi
  • Support for display of multiple languages and characters simultaneously
Audio

  • Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz
  • Audio formats supported: AAC, Protected AAC, MP3, MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV
  • User-configurable maximum volume limit
Video

  • Video formats supported: H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Low-Complexity version of the H.264 Baseline Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; H.264 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Baseline Profile up to Level 3.0 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
Headphones

  • Stereo earphones with built-in microphone
  • Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz
  • Impedance: 32 ohms
Camera and photos

  • 2.0 megapixels Camera located on back of iPhone.
  • Photo geotagging
  • iPhone and third-party application integration
Sensors

  • Accelerometer
  • Proximity sensor
  • Ambient light sensor
Capacity

  • 8GB
Cellular and wireless

  • UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100 MHz)
  • GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
  • Wi-Fi (802.11b/g)
  • Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
GPS

  • Assisted GPS
Mac system requirements

  • Mac computer with USB 2.0 port
  • Mac OS X v10.4.10 or later
  • iTunes 7.7 or later
Windows system requirements

  • PC with USB 2.0 port
  • Windows Vista; or Windows XP Home or Professional with Service Pack 2 or later
  • iTunes 7.7 or later
Environmental requirements

  • Operating temperature: 32 to 95 F (0 to 35 C)
  • Nonoperating temperature: -4 to 113 F (-20 to 45 C)
  • Relative humidity: 5% to 95% noncondensing
  • Maximum operating altitude: 10,000 feet (3000 m)

Power and battery

  • Built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery3
  • Charging via USB to computer system or power adapter

Talk time

  • Up to 5 hours on 3G
  • Up to 10 hours on 2G
  • Standby time: Up to 300 hours

Internet use

  • Up to 5 hours on 3G
  • Up to 6 hours on Wi-Fi7

Audio / Video Time

  • Video playback: Up to 7 hours8
  • Audio playback: Up to 24 hours9
Physical Description

Size and weight

  • Height: 4.5 inches (115.5 mm)
  • Width: 2.4 inches (62.1 mm)
  • Depth: 0.48 inch (12.3 mm)
  • Weight: 4.7 ounces (133 grams)

Specifications
Color Display Yes
Resolution 480 x 320
Frequency Band 850/900/1800/1900
Internal Memory 8GB
Expandable Memory No
Infrared No
Bluetooth Yes
GPRS Yes
Camera Phone Yes
Dual Camera No
Camera Pixel 2.0
Video Recorder Yes
MP3 Player Yes
FM Radio No
MMS Yes
WLAN/ Wi-Fi Yes
Web Browser Yes
3G Yes
USB Yes
Handsfree Speaker Yes
Talk Time Up to 10 h
Standby Time Up to 300 h
Dimension 115.5 x 62.1 x 12.3 mm
Weight 133 g
EDGE Yes
Touch Screen Yes
Full Keyboard No
Camera Flash No
GPS Yes