Diaries of a Nokia Fan Boy

Well it hasn’t even been half a day since its announcement and a couple, rather interesting, reviews and opinions are already out on the blogosphere.

Mirror.co.uk
seems to be comparing the Booklet 3G to your everyday cheap-o netbook. And they’re right, since this is likely to be their direct competitor. What is interesting in this comparison, however, is that we don’t even know if the two devices will be in the same price range. The only reasons this comparison has come up, in my opinion, is mostly due to the Atom processor, and has been confirmed by the 10.1 inch screen. But really, that doesn’t mean anything. Regardless, the comparison is rather interesting, and I must admit that I too think the Booklet 3G will be a fancy, slightly more expensive, netbook.

10 9 ways the Nokia Booklet 3G beats a netbook

1. The Nokia Booklet 3G is an HD netbook
2. Epic battery life
3. Hot swappable SIM slot
4. GPS on the go
5. It’s made by a mobile player
6. Small but sturdy
7. MacBook looks
8. It syncs with your mobile
9. It’s a home media player

The comparison is quite valid and draws a number of good points, so do go take a look through it if you’re considering this device. And especially if you’re like me and thinking whether to get this or the Always Innovating Touch Book.

Symbian-Freak
has some pretty strong feelings about the Nokia Booklet 3G, but his opinions are more closely related to the company. SF believes, and I agree, that Nokia’s entrance into the netbook market is their attempt at diversification and derisking the company. This is especially obvious when considering that their mobile phone market share has been decreasing slowly. Don’t get me wrong, they’re still the major player here, but the fact that they’re falling behind isn’t exactly comforting. The Booklet also strengthens Nokia’s stance as an “Internet Company” versus just a cell phone manufacturer as the device really is better suited for browsing the web compared to their Internet Tablets (of course we don’t know how good the N900 is yet, so we’ll have to wait and see). Finally, the Windows operating system shows just how deep the Nokia-Microsoft alliance is going, I just hope that WinMo doesn’t make it to Nokia devices, although it would be interesting to see UI variations such as HTC’s TouchFlo and Sense or Samsungs TouchWiz.

Take a look at SF’s review for more details.

-Nokia FanBoy

via: Mirror.co.uk (read)
and: Symbian-Freak (read)

Well it looks like the Nokia N900 just can’t sit under wraps. The 32GB, 5MP, GPS-equipped, Maemo 5 Internet Tablet just had to get all prettied up for its press release shot. However this time its a French blog that got the shot, and not our favourite Russian Mobile-review. However something just occurred to me: Why is it that Nokia is still putting 5MP shooters on its devices? I mean don’t get me wrong, the camera quality of my N95 8GB is superb, its just that the N86 is so much better and it would be nice to see that camera on more devices. Well anyway, the device will be announced at Nokia World 09 and we will get to see the full spec list and a plethora of images flooding the net shortly there-after. As for now, we just get to sit in our chair, wondering what it would be like…

-Nokia FanBoy

via: BeGeek (read)

Yet again we see Mobile-review with a copy of a device which not only hasn’t been released, but hasn’t even been announced yet! This time he got a hold of the Nokia N97 Mini. With this we see the confirmation of the device’s existence as well as a glimpse at the differences in the spec list:

• Smaller overall size
• No D-pad on slide-out keyboard
• Smaller keys on QWERTY keyboard
• Metal battery cover
• No camera slider
• 8GB internal memory (vs 32GB on N97)
• Approx. 100 Euro cheaper

The difference in the spec list isn’t exactly all that amazing. In fact, for a difference of only 100 Euro’s I wouldn’t consider this over the original N97, however it would be nice to see a comparison shot (M-R doesn’t provide one). My overall feeling about the device is quite similar to Eldar’s – the device isn’t all that impressive, and while the build quality is better than the N97, I would prefer the N97 still.

Read the review for more details.

N97 Mini vs 5730

N97 Mini vs N900

-Nokia FanBoy

via: Mobile-Review (read)

Ok, so we all know that Nokia was planning to enter the netbook/notebook market, and apparently it did so by creating a “Booklet”. The Nokia Booklet 3G is basically a slightly more powerful netbook (for an unknown price). Nokia’s Exec. VP for Devices, Kai Oistamo, had this to say about the Booklet 3G:

A growing number of people want the computing power of a PC with the full benefits of mobility. We are in the business of connecting people and the Nokia Booklet 3G is a natural evolution for us. Nokia has a long and rich heritage in mobility and with the outstanding battery life, premium design and all day, always on connectivity, we will create something quite compelling. In doing so we will make the personal computer more social, more helpful and more personal.

I must admit, the device itself looks quite appealing, with a very understated yet elegant simplicity. Indeed the device does remind us of a somewhat older, more classic, Nokia design. The Booklet 3G has some fairly impressive specs to be competing with the netbooks of today:

Nokia Booklet 3G

• Atom CPU
• 10.1″ HD Display
• Built-in Webcam
• HDMI Out
• Bluetooth/Wi-Fi/3G/HSDPA
• Several USB ports, 3.5mm audio out
• SD card reader (SHDC? SDXC?)
• Integrated A-GPS with Ovi Maps!
• 12hr battery life
• 2cm thick
• 1.25kg
• unconfirmed: Windows 7

The specs look really promising, in fact this would be the perfect in-car computer, depending, of course, on what kind of hard-drive it has. For the complete spec list and price info we’ll have to wait until Nokia World 09.

I was just thinking about the target market for this, and I realised that the potential is quite large. Students that prefer to have an always-on internet connection or that require GPS in their laptop could definitely use this. Of course while most universities now offer campus-wide Wi-Fi, this would be great for completing projects on the bus. And just like for exchange-students that would be greatly helped by GPS when navigating strange cities, travelling Businessmen would also find this feature quite helpful. However for the businessmen the built-in 3G would be more helpful for accessing internet en-route to a client’s location or at the client’s location during, say, a presentation (basically same reason someone would get the USB 3G stick).

The battery life in this beast is also quite impressive, and even more so considering how light it is. However, I would be quite interested to find out just how HD the Booklet’s 10.1″ HD screen is.

As for now, we have a video and a gallery for you to peruse.

Nokia Booklet 3G Back	Nokia Booklet 3G Blue	Nokia Booklet 3G Camera
Nokia Booklet 3G Colours	Nokia Booklet 3G Group	Nokia Booklet 3G HDMI
	Nokia Booklet 3G Open

-Nokia FanBoy

via: Nokia Conversations (read)
and: Engadget (read)
and: Symbian-Freak (read)
and: GSMArena (read)

So Nokia released a new version of the 5800 XpressMusic – Navigation Edition. It appears that the software is all the same, its just a touchscreen, XpressMusic version of the 6710 Navigator. Comparing to the 5800 XpressMusic, the phone appears to be identical with a couple differences in what’s included in the package:

• Regional maps
• Lifetime pedestrian and vehicle voice-guided navigation licenses
• Car mount and car charger in retail package

So really its the same phone with a different color variation, included license, and some extra plastic for an extra $110 USD ($299 for XpressMusic and €285 or about $410 for Navigation Edition). It appears that the firmware version is the same, and the piece of plastic being available on eBay for $10, we’re really getting the license for about $100 USD. We can take a look at the Nokia website, and we find that the license for North America is €50, or $70 USD, per annum. Assuming that the license is transferable to other phones and includes future versions of Nokia Maps software and maps, this is actually quite a deal. Especially if we consider that dedicated GPS systems don’t come with maps upgrades!

But of course we have to ask ourselves if its really worth it. That is, is the application itself worth the license in the first place. There is Google Maps that is available for free (and indeed, Nokia Maps is free too so long as you don’t want guidance). There is also Garmin Mobile, and hopefully TomTom will release a new version of their software eventually which would work with touch screen devices and integrated GPS chips. To be honest, I think that TomTom is currently the best GPS guidance software out there. I had a chance to directly compare it to Garmin and Nokia on my E60 and N95, and out of the trio, TomTom came out the clear winner. The software was able to give me directions at the exact time I needed them (Garmin was a bit late), and when I made a wrong turn the recalculations took only 1-3 seconds. Also, Garmin likes to take me through small streets with speed bumps which does not make the trip any faster, and TomTom always takes the larger streets first and ends up getting me to my destination via the faster routes.

While I wasn’t able to compare Nokia Maps based on driving instructions, I was able to compare the maps themselves, and again, TomTom came out on top. The maps were easier to read, loaded faster, and seemed to provide more information without cluttering the screen. The interface on TomTom was much more intuitive and took a lot less time to get used to. And the last, but very important point – TomTom just seemed to load faster than the other two. And when you’re trying to figure out where to go, that matters.

Of course, I have to give it to Nokia Maps, they did develop arguably the first GPS system for navigating during walking. In that case voice guidance is not really required, as there is no traffic to keep your eye on. And the fact that the maps include pedestrian streets and walkways is also quite important. However I have not used that part of the software in a long time and so I’m not sure just how good it is in the North American cities.

So to conclude this: Nokia released a new device, its a great value, but you have to be sure that you want it.

-Nokia FanBoy

press release
via: Engadget (read)

Well I was ready to be upset that the N900 is merely an internet tablet, but by the looks of it its more a cross between the N97 and the N810. That is, its an internet tablet that runs on Maemo and can make phone calls. Mobile-review seems to have managed to get their hands on the device and shed some light on it for us.

Here are the specs of the device that are currently known:

• Maemo 5: Freemantle
• Large resistive touchscreen
• 800×480 resolution
• Cortex-A8 CPU
• 32GB on-board storage
• MicroSD expansion up to 32GB
• 5MP camera, Carl Zeiss optics
• Dual LED flash
• On-bard GPS

Expected price: 550 EURO, so a lot. Lets just hope it drops to that sweet 400 CAD price point where more people can afford it.

The device looks amazing, and the interface is pretty need too (see review).

-Nokia FanBoy

via: Mobile-review.com (read)

Nokia N900 Body

Nokia N900 Camera

Nokia N900 Body

Nokia N900 CPU & Storage

Well here’s a video worth watching. Some Italian blog took 6 of the best devices of the year (except that Nokia seems to missing… grr…) and compared their displays under indoor, outdoor, and pitch black conditions. The iPhone does win out in outdoor legibility, and is very close to the top indoors, but when the lights go out, so does the impressiveness of the iPhone screen. I was, unsurprisingly, impressed with Samsung’s i8910 Omnia HD and i8000 Omnia II devices. They were at the very top indoors, and while they were a fair bit worse than the iPhone outdoors, they both fared very well. Nor did they disappoint in pitch black conditions, beating pretty much all of the others there.

Really, the clear winner of the whole comparison was the AMOLED technology. During any conditions it outperformed its LCD/TFT rival, displaying bright, more vivid colors, and giving excellent sunlight legibility. It would, however, be quite interesting how it fares against the Nokia N97, which I think is a big let down on the part of the blog, since Nokia’s are very well known for their excellent displays.

In the Apple iPhone vs. Samsung i8910 Omnia HD comparison photo you can also see how much of a difference a higher resolution plays on the display of the screen – 165 dpi vs 199 dpi, respectively. I first noticed this with my Nokia E60, where the pixel density was 260 dpi; images looked fantastic, text was easy to read, and best of all, I didn’t see any pixelation, it was like looking a high quality printout. I’m not sure if this effect is clearly visibly in the video, however the picture shows it quite clearly.

Another, although smaller, winner is the 16M color spectrum when compared to 65K color. You did notice the deficiency of the 65K color spectrum in color reproduction, however it was bearable, and I’m sure wouldn’t strongly impact most users. Surprisingly, this even affected the sunlight legibility, with the i8910 Omnia HD, for example, outperforming the i8000 Omnia II, even if just barely.

Personally, I felt that it was pairs of phones going up against each other:

• My personal battle of Symbian vs. iPhone: Samsung i8910 Omnia HD vs. Apple iPhone 3G S
• Windows Mobile devices: HTC Touch Pro2 vs. Samsung i8000 Omnia II
• Android devices: Samsung i7500 vs. HTC Hero

Of course you notice that the last two are also an HTC vs. Samsung battle, which Samsung does seem to win out using AMOLED and 16M color screens.

Well watch the video and tell me what you think. note: view in full screen to see in HD

-Nokia FanBoy

via: GSMArena (read)

I’m not sure if anyone’s actually heard of Modu. Its a neat phone if it actually ends up taking off (and coming to NAM!!!). The idea behind it is that you have a single phone which contains your SIM card, memory, processor, as well as speaker, mic, basic screen, and some buttons. The phone itself isn’t very user-friendly however you can also buy several different “Jackets” for it. The jackets can be whatever you like, since the port is standardized. Basically its a modular phone with infinite expansion options, and since the phone itself is tiny, the expansions aren’t going to be over-sized either.

Well it seems like Modu has announced a successor to its original modular phone, and the biggest update is the addition of a touchscreen (see picture below, left-most phone). Now sadly this thing is coming to UK and only in 2010, so who knows when it will get to see the light of our NAM sun, but hopefully it won’t take too long.

Personally I love the idea of a modular phone like that, and would even go so far as to say that the module shouldn’t even have an ear piece, mic, screen or buttons, that everything UI-related should be on the “Jackets”, and that the module should only contain the SIM, memory, and “brains” of the phone. That way the module can be extremely small (I’m guessing a little larger than a Compact Flash card, if including the battery and cellular, WiFi, and Bluetooth antennas), and the jackets can still be quite cheap. Of course there are some other design elements that would have to be included in one or the other, such as camera and GPS chip. Of course we could modularize even further and say that the camera and GPS and other pieces can be broken down into their own modules, but I think then we’ll have more plastic encasing the modules than we will of actual functional pieces, and the phones will get very large.

This would also greatly appeal to teenagers, who may want to switch from a QWERTY jacket for school for messaging, to a big screen or big speaker jacket for being outside of school, and a big battery or awesome camera jacket for traveling.

-Nokia FanBoy

via: GSMArena (read)
and: EngadgetMobile (read)

Ok, everyone knows that the EXIF information recorded on Jpeg’s and other image files includes the camera model that the picture was taken on. Everyone should also know that when you’re PhotoShopping your image and you copy/paste and create new files, that EXIF information gets deleted! Thus, we must take the following with a grain of salt. Namely – professional and prosumer photographers that use DSLR’s are likely to edit their photo’s before posting to Flickr, often erasing their camera model information from the image! On the other hand, the iPhone “photographers” out there likely don’t care about editing (and why should they, the camera is incapable of anything decent anyway) and will likely use a built in program that will upload the photos automatically, thereby preserving the camera model information.

Thus, I move that the stats depicted in the screenshot do not correctly depict the true stance of cameras being used on Flickr. Of course I understand that other aspects affect the stats also. For example Flickr is used more in North America than in other places, thus it makes sense for iPhone to be on top as opposed to Nokia N95 (for example), which is more likely to use Ovi since its built in and Nokia is more of a European manufacturer.

On the other hand, it is nice to see that out of the 5 most popular cameras, Canon DSLR’s take the first, third and fifth places, and not some cheap Point & Shoots!

-Nokia FanBoy

read

Well I’m not entirely sure just where they came up with this, but the Wireless Power Consortium has chosen a logo for themselves, and of all the things the logo could have been, they chose: “Qi”

The Wireless Power Consortium has chosen the logo “Qi” (pronounced “chee”, meaning “vital energy” in Asian philosophy – an intangible flow of power).

Ok, fine, when they explain it that way, it seems to make sense. But they’ll face some issues while consumers get used to it, and I’m not sure its going to be the easiest thing to get used to. Although frankly, I’d prefer they were working on the standard itself and getting it out there – the logo could have waited a while.

-Nokia FanBoy

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