Diaries of a Nokia Fan Boy

Ok, so its not Nokia, or Symbian, or even gadgetry really, but its still pretty flipping cool. I was walking around Downtown Vancouver over the weekend and clear as day (or evening in my case) I saw Fringe’s Walter Bishop (John Noble) walking down the street. It was the first time I’ve seen a celebrity and in my excitement I didn’t get a photo or an autograph. However, since this is Vancouver, I decided that it was best not to pester/harass the actor, since I’ve heard so many times before that actors enjoy Vancouver due to the relaxation they get from not being followed around. On the other hand, a friend of mine pointed out that actors that are in the limelight probably enjoy being in the limelight, and thus would enjoy having someone recognize them and show enthusiasm. So next time I see you Mr. Noble, I will be getting out my camera

But seriously though, Fringe is an amazing show and I can’t wait till the next season, especially seeing as how they’re filming a lot of the footage in Vancouver!!!

-Nokia (and Fringe) FanBoy

Just read a very interesting article by Switched On about the positions that Nokia and Microsoft have taken in their opposing fields and the implications it may have on their current agreement:

If this month has taught us anything, it’s that Microsoft and Nokia are both determined to play across the full array of mobile devices whether they engage each other with handshakes or hand grenades.

Have a read through it, its quite interesting.

-Nokia FanBoy

via: Engadget (read)

Not much to it, here are a couple videos on the N900 that have been circling the interwebs.

-Nokia FanBoy

OK, so the N900 is finally, officially, released; and we didn’t even have to wait until September 2nd! Well looking at the specs, we see that this is quite a powerful machine, but that it is also far too big and heavy to use as a daily cellphone. Also, looking at the 3G frequencies, it appears as if the device will be coming out for T-Mobile’s network and the European networks. Shame that it won’t work on Rogers.

• WVGA: 848×480, 3.5″, 16M color screen
• Proximity sensor
• Accelerometer
• 32GB onboard memory
• microSD card slot (up to 16GB)
• 256MB RAM
• ARM Cortex A8 600 MHz
• PowerVR SGX graphics
• Maemo 5
• 3G @ 900 / 1700 / 2100
• HSDPA 10MBps / HSUPA 2MBps
• WiFi 802.11 b/g
• Bluetooth v2.1 (w. A2DP)
• microUSB 2.0
• 5MP Carl Zeiss camera
• Dual LED flash
• WVGA (848×480) video @ 25fps
• TV-out (unknown resolution)
• GPS with A-GPS
• Digital Compass
• Stereo FM Radio with FM Transmitter
• 1320mAh battery (for unknown talk/standby time)
• Weight: 181g
• Dimensions: 110.9 x 59.8 x 18 mm, 113 cc
• Expected price: 500 Euro

So this little gem is indeed quite nice, however it also costs quite a bit. Its too big to use as a cell phone, but too expensive to use alongside a dedicated cell phone. It would, I suppose, work well as an in-car computer for music, navigation, etc. but there are some cheaper options out there (with larger screens I might add). But I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. It would have been nice to see the Rogers 3G frequencies on here, but I guess we’ll have to wait for a different version of the device.

-Nokia FanBoy

detailed specs on GSMArena
via: Engadget (read)

Well this was kind of a slow day in the news department until just now. A German website, NokiaPort.de, claims to have reputable information regarding the future Nokia roadmap. Now most of this information should be confirmed on September 2nd, so we don’t have long to wait to see whether this is true, although the information does seem to be logical, for lack of a better word, so I would say that if its not all true, then at least most of it is.

Xseries
This is claimed to be the successor of the XpressMusic line, which seems to make sense, and that the line will be introduced with a new phone released at Nokia World 09. The phone is rumored to be similar to the recently released 5530 XM but with 3G, GPS, and costing about an extra 50 Euros. Quite a fair deal for something that takes the best from 5530 XM and the 5800 XM and meshes it into a better phone.

Honestly, I don’t know how I feel about the Xseries line. I mean I understand that its a natural extension of the Eseries and Nseries line-ups, but I rather liked the XpressMusic line. It clearly indicated that it is not a smartphone, but a music-centric feature phone. I suppose that doesn’t really matter anyway since the XpressMusic line only contains smartphones anyway. And with that, what will be differentiation between the Nseries and Xseries? I guess we’ll just have to wait until NW09 to find out.

Cseries
Sadly, the only news on the Cseries is that it is likely to be introduced (and explained?) at NW09.

Maemo 5
The recently previewed N900 is likely to be the only Maemo 5 device for a while. However N920 is rumored to come out next year, but we may get a chance to see it on Sept 2.

Touchscreens
More touchscreen devices will be announced at NW09, with most of them staying in the same segment as the N97 Mini. To me this means it will be the “high-end-but-not-flagship” segment, and even I don’t know what that means. However speaking of touchscreens, it appears that Nokia will be moving to capacitive screens in the future, i8910 already proved S60’s compatibility. I think this is both good news and bad news, as capacitive is great, but resistive can use styli and consume much less battery power, so its a trade off.

Eseries & Touch
Not news: Nokia is working on a touch enabled, S60 5th Edition device for the Eseries; still not news: the device will be available no sooner than in 2010. Will we see a preview of it at the conference? Who knows.

Xenon flash
Sadly, Xenon flash seems to be an unpopular feature with Nokia, with it appearing only intermittently on its devices. This comes as a disappointment to me as that would have swayed my decision in my next flagship purchase quite a bit. I understand the reasons behind this: expensive on the battery and on the wallet, but it would have been nice to see this on flagship and camera-centric models at the least.

OMAP3 entering the mix
Its nice to see that Nokia is finally starting to use more leading-edge CPU’s in their phones. Hopefully this will bring things like HD video playback and HD TV-out to their models, maybe even higher resolution screens! But I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

September 2nd is looking to be a VERY exciting day!

-Nokia FanBoy

via: NokiaPort.de (read)

Well this is rather strange. There have been quite a number of leaks recently that haven’t come from Eldar (probably because he already previewed and leaked these phones). These ones came from a french blogging site: BeGeek.

Since the PR shot is clearly visible, I’ll just move straight into the spec update. What Eldar didn’t mention, is that the internal memory will be available in 8GB or 16GB (as opposed to N97’s 32GB). The screen has shrunk to 3″ from N97’s 3.5″, and the internal memory has risen to 280MB from N97’s 50MB! And before you say that the internal memory doesn’t matter, think about the fact that programs installed on the internal memory start up much faster and are still accessible when you’re connected to the computer in Data Transfer mode.

Finally the price is being quoted as 170 Euro below that of the N97. This brings the spec comparison to:

• Smaller overall size
• 3″ screen (vs 3.5″)
• No D-pad on slide-out keyboard
• Smaller keys on QWERTY keyboard
• Metal battery cover
• No camera slider
• 8/16GB internal memory (vs 32GB)
• 280MB phone memory (vs 50MB)
• 170 Euro cheaper

Well with this latest spec bump the N97 is beginning to look more attractive, especially with that price drop (presumably that would be for the 8GB model, and not the 16GB). However it would still be interesting to see just what the device looks like compared to the N97 side-by-side, and whether the OS has been changed or tweaked and in what way. Of course the CPU and RAM can make a huge difference. In other words, just wait until Sept 2nd and see then.

-Nokia FanBoy

via: BeGeek (read)

It appears as though making that Booklet was not enough for Nokia, as it seems set on introducing a smartbook to the market come mid-2010. This new “Book” is likely to sport either an ARM Cortex A9 Sparrow, or a Qualcomm Snapdragon. That means that smartbook will be able to handle HD content, as well as conserve battery use. The implication would be either a high resolution screen, or HDMI out (or both). Of course, that also implies that Windows is out of the question and that leaves Nokia with either Maemo, Symbian, or Android. And frankly, as much as we love Nokia and Symbian, I hope that won’t be their choice of operating system.

I would say that we will all have to wait until Nokia World 09, but given the latest round of leaks and spills its quite possible that NW9 won’t be introducing anything new at all.

-Nokia FanBoy

via: DigiTimes (read)
and: Engadget (read)

Well it looks like the seal on the Booklet 3G news is more leaky than a sieve! Some more info coming to us from NetbookNews and UMPC World. Lets leave the best for last and start with the specification update.

First of all, it looks like a safe bet that the CPU is an Atom Z530 (1.6GHz dual-core). That’s not necessarily a bad thing, its a pretty decent processor.

Second, the HDD is going to be 120GB. This implies that its going to be a disk drive, and not a solid state. Which is a shame because the solid state would have fared much better, as well as increased the battery life even further. To be perfectly honest, its a mystery how they’re getting 12 hours considering they have a dual-core processor and a disk drive :S

Third, and this is more of a speculation, the machine is likely to have 1GB RAM, and I am inferring this mostly from the CPU, the HDD and the fact that its a high-definition screen.

Fourth, it is quite likely that the battery isn’t going to be 12 hours, maybe closer to 6 hours with light usage, which is closer to the truth, and sounds like most other netbooks out there.

Since there are a lot more points mentioned I will just go on to the last one: the price. The Booklet is expected to have a price of $799, which, by any standards, is not acceptable for a netbook, even one as nicely outfitted as this. I believe that in order for this device to survive, it will have to be priced in the sub-$500 range, then it will have a fighting chance with the HP Mini’s, Acer One’s, and AI TouchBook’s of the world. Of course, the Booklet is meant to be subsidized by carriers, but the problem is, so are the other netbooks, and some are less than half the price! (the HP Mini 10.1″ is $350 at Costco across the street from me)

So in short, the specs are more disappointing than I would have hoped for, and if Nokia prices it at $799 the Booklet will die rather quickly. Especially considering its only differentiation is aluminum chassis, 3G, Bluetooth, GPS, and HD (720p?) display with HDMI out. In today’s world that just isn’t enough for a netbook to be priced in that range.

-Nokia FanBoy

via: UMPC Portal (read)
and: Netbook News (read) – warning: non-english

Finally, an announcement from Nokia that wasn’t first leaked by Eldar. The cheap version of the 5230 might be exactly what the doctor ordered for those looking for a touch-screen phone on-the-budget. However there are a couple things to consider:

1. Specification differences
2. Lack of XpressMusic moniker
3. Speed of post-release price drop

Specification Differences:
Now, we all know that its not necessarily the specifications that make the phone, however in this case they do have some implications. See here for a full list of specification differences, but here are some of the highlights:

• Identical screen size and resolution
• Identical body size, but 6g heavier
• Less internal storage (and RAM also?)
• microSD card slot, no included memory card
• Similar connectivity, however no WiFi
• Both have GPS and include Nokia Maps 2
• 2MP Camera w/out flash (vs. 3.2MP with flash)
• No TV-out
• Identical battery, but shorter talk time
• Unknown: CPU, RAM

As you can see, the specifications are nearly identical, however there are a couple key differences: lack of WiFi, cheaper camera without a flash, no TV-out. Of course if you, like me, have a good data plan, you do not need WiFi. And the 3.2MP camera was never sufficient anyway, so the downgrade there isn’t a big deal either. And the TV-out functionality was not on a priority list, so that too will not be missed. Besides that, the specifications are so similar that I would almost suggest buying the 5230.

Lack of XpressMusic moniker
And if it wasn’t for this point, I would, without question, go out and buy this device. However this is a bit of a sore point for me. Since I enjoy listening to music on my phone (I don’t have a dedicated MP3 player), audio quality is important to me, and I fear that the lack of the the XpressMusic moniker will be this device’s demise in the audio department. Of course, I’m not prejudiced, this is simply my belief, and I hope that the good people at GSMArena put the phone through its paces and compare the audio quality of the two phones (the other being the 5800 XpressMusic).

Until such a time as a good comparison can be made, the only speculation I can have on the audio quality is that it must be at least decent with the option of inclusion of the Comes With Music service as one purchase option.

Speed of post-release price drop
Just like with the 5530 XpressMusic, the device’s success will lie in its price point. If I was to check the prices right now, I would see that the 5530 XM is either more expensive than the 5800 XM (Plemix – 5530 @ $415 CAD, 5800 @ $359 CAD), or is only marginally cheaper (Mobile604 – 5530 @ $365 CAD, 5800 @ $369 CAD). And that does not bode well seeing as how the 5800 XM is actually the superior device. Of course, the 5530 XM is still dropping price, and much in the same way I expect the 5230 to come out at a slightly heightened price point, and then quickly drop in the following 1-2 months.

The expected price of the 5230 (without Comes With Music) is 149 Euro ($230 CAD), which does not leave a lot of room for the price to drop. Which makes me question will the phone enter the market at something closer to $400 CAD and then drop to its expected price, or will it enter at its expected price and only slightly drop? Really, either one is satisfactory, however I would not pay more than $250 CAD for the phone.

Nokia 5230 Colors

Conclusion
So what is the conclusion of this rather long rant? While the spec differences are of little consequence, it is the missing XpressMusic moniker that may be the demise of this little phone. But of course everything depends on price, and as such, we will have to wait and see when it comes out. As for now, check out the video below:

-Nokia FanBoy

via: press release
and: Engadget (read)

Well it appears as if more information is leaking out about the Nokia Booklet 3G, and its not even September yet. This time we get some more pictures (including a shot with an E71!), and a rumor as to what CPU the booklet uses!

In short, the pictures are below, and the Booklet is rumored to use the Atom Z530. The CPU is the dual core descendant of the Atom family, and would be quite capable of producing 720p content, which is all one can expect from a netbook. Still, it would have been nice to see it introduced with Tegra, but I guess the Windows requirement makes things difficult.

-Nokia FanBoy

via: Reuters (read)
and: Engadget (read)