Diaries of a Nokia Fan Boy

One of the best mobile web sites around, Mobile-review.com has just posted a review of a pre-production version of the Nokia E72. The review is in Russian, so for those of us who do not speak it, I am copying a Google-translated version of the conclusion:

There were no differences from the Nokia E71 on the quality of work I could not miss. Another trend affecting the location, in different situations, the phone is heard differently. To explain this, I will say so. Nokia E72 on the table sounds louder in the pocket of my jacket – quieter, but in general the problem with the speaker volume is no. The question of habit, since the Nokia E71 does not complain at that. Vibrocall remained exactly the same.

Apply a different design of the rear cover. It is fastened securely, there is no backlash. What changed the design – is unclear, the previous was also reliable.

From the pleasant moments worth noting that the increased speed, faster-sensitive apparatus. On the other hand, and the work has grown by 20 percent, in the same mode device is longer than the Nokia E71. Thank you for this is to say FP2. The camera does not produce stunning impression, it is ordinary, but the clear winner of the Nokia E71.

In the dry the rest want to point out that a model Nokia E72 got a damned good. This update Nokia E71, which completed most of the functions, and if the choice between these two devices, it is worth taking a novelty. Of course, if we are not talking about the minimum value of the product. Excellent solution, in all senses. The cost of August, when the model will go on sale in Europe amount to about 350 euro, with the same starting point a year ago and Nokia E71. In Russia, the model can be expected in September by the initial price of about 20,000 rubles. Then it will be slightly adjusted to the lower side. In my opinion, if you are looking for a QWERTY-decision, the choice may lie between the Nokia E71 and Nokia E72. This is the most interesting devices on the market today, all the rest to some extent a compromise (on the single question, of course, in other form factors there are many models). Full review of the device, we do have on the commercial version of the device, it will appear in August. Express their thoughts about the models on the forum, also you can keep it wishes for Nokia to read them.

If you’re interested in the phone this is one review you do not want to miss:
Read: Russian and Google-translated English. Word of caution, Google Translator didn’t work for me for the web page, so you may have to go to the Russian version and translate the text by copy-pasting into Google separately.

-Nokia FanBoy

So recently I decided to find myself a good Sense UI (HTC Hero’s version of Android) port for my Magic. The process was pretty straightforward and actually quite simple. I will have to post some of the steps and give my thanks to the appropriate developers, those guys really are amazing! I am using Fatal1ty’s Rogers ROM, v1.4.

I will say right away that the ported OS was a little bit more buggy than the original, so if you’re looking to get rid of those “Force Close” messages, this ain’t the way to do it. Also, it seems to be unable to work with WiFi, and I haven’t tested Bluetooth yet. So again, if those features are important to you, holding off for a bit might be a wise choice. Mind you there are a fair bit of improvements as well, and you’ll see those following.

Home Screen:

Well lets start with the main menu then. I’m sure you’ve seen renders of the screen, or screenshots using the SDK, however since I’m running Win 7 64bit all you get is photos, which should be a nice change .
The home screen is broken up into 7 screens, with the middle screen being the main one. Moving between the screens can be done by moving the current screen left or right, or by scrolling right or left (note that the directions for moving the screen and scrolling are reversed – don’t know why but they are). The screen position is identified by the white line marker just about the menu/phone tab at the bottom.
You start out with some basic configurations, and you have 6 “Scenes” to choose from: HTC, Social, Work, Play, Travel and Clean Slate. Each of the scenes has the 7 screens set up in its own way, with some emphasis on each of the parts. I decided to start with the HTC scene and customize it. Any customized scenes can be saved, and I’m not aware of any limitations.
The screen is populated with widgets, which HTC was nice enough to provide plenty of their own, such as music, weather, stocks, etc. I won’t go over all of them, but the following is basically an overview of the widgets that I use. Note that while HTC have done a wonderful job of making their own widgets, all originaly widgets still work flawlessly.
Starting with the home screen, when adding a widget you can usually choose which one you want to add. For example when adding the Clock widget there are some clocks which display times from different regions of the world. For some, the size also changes, such as in weather, you can add a small weather widget, or one that takes up the entire screen (see below).
Moving to the right, you will see the miscellaneous screen. Here I want to point out the GPS and Bluetooth toggles. You can also toggle Airplane mode, Mobile Network (2G/3G), and Wi-Fi. These toggles are in the HTC Widget menu, under Settings. They work quite well and I find myself using the GPS toggle quite often. Although I suppose what would be more useful is if I could state that program X can toggle Y when Z happens. That would prevent some programs from automatically enabling some settings, but at the same time would bypass some unnecessary steps.

The other widget you will see here is the People widget. I haven’t used it a heck of a lot, but I do imagine it would be useful for many people. The people that go into this widget are customizable, however it would be nice to see an automated, statistics-based method of adding people to the widget. For example, if I talk to some four people more than the rest, then add them to the list automatically.

Next up is the Music widget. To be honest I find the music application included here to be much more useful than the original one, but more on that later. The widget comes in two sizes, and here you will see the full screen one. The smaller one takes up half the screen, and allows the same functionality. Of course, selecting the widget brings up the music player.

The Weather widget is also quite nice. You can add multiple cities and move between them by flicking up or down on the big weather icon. The icons themselves move, and while I haven’t seen the “windshield wiper” from Windows Mobile 6.1 widget, I haven’t been through any rain either . Again, just like the music widget, this too can come in half-size and display the same information.

The Messaging widget is kind of neat in that it displays the latest message from each of the contacts. You can scroll between the contacts by flicking up or down on the message, same as the weather widget. The name of the contact, picture (if applicable), time, and message content are displayed, and you can delete the message right away (by clicking the trash can). You can also view all messages (by clicking the list button) or compose a new message (by clicking the pencil).

The Email widget is almost identical to the message widget except that it gives you more space for the email, and allows you to flag the email right away. As you can see, MS Exchange ActiveSync is fully supported, which goes for contacts and calendar as well.

There are many more widgets available, but I just haven’t had the time to look over all of them. I will, however, note that the Stocks widget seems to be very nice, and displays the stocks quite nicely. I’m sure someone out there has a screen capture of it

Screen Lock:
Although I do not have a screen shot of the new screen lock, I don’t think I like it quite as much the previous one. To unlock the screen you simply drag a tab down the screen. I find myself unlocking the screen without realizing it on a regular basis, since turning on the screen is as simple as pressing any button and then you just have to slide the tab down a tiny bit to unlock.

Music Player:
The music player is a nice improvement over the original one in Cupcake. The improvements are mainly: more touch-friendly interface, some nice UI additions, and a lock-screen addition.

When choosing between listing albums, artists, playlists, etc. you simply slide your finger over the horizontal tab bar (which I am covering with my finger currently ). You could actually click on the icons too, but this is so much more fun. This interface actually reminds me of the home screen slider on the HTC Touch Windows Mobile 6.1 build that I have – makes sense given that its the same company. Actually I’m kind of surprised they didn’t do the same thing on the home screen as this tends to be more efficient, but I guess they wanted a different look.

The artists list is very similar to what you would see on the original music player, except that HTC uses a white background and black lettering, which I find easier to read.

When viewing the playlist, or any list of songs, if the MP3 is embedded with album covers then those will be displayed on the icon on the left. The same goes for the list of albums.
The full list of tabs is: Albums, Artists, Playlists, Songs, Genres, Composers, and Purchased. I don’t really know about that last one, I guess it has to do with DRM, but I know that on my phone it says “No music found”.
Going back to the Now Playing screen for a moment, you will find two icons on the top: left – shuffle on/off toggle, and right – repeat toggle.
The nicest addition to Android, one that I, ironically, did not get a pictures of, is the music controls on the lock screen. When you start playing a song in the HTC Music Player and then lock the screen, the lock screen will show the album icon, as well as previous, pause/play, and next controls. Also, where before the volume controls worked at any time, now the rocker is only active when the screen is on (whether in lock mode or not).

Applications List:
The application list in Sense UI is mostly the same as in Android’s home screen, however here when you close the screen and open it again, you will find that the applications did not move to the top, but stayed in the same position as before. Also, to open this window is not a touch-and-slide motion as in the standard home screen, but a simply touch of the up arrow on the bottom left.

Flash in Browser:
Unfortunately, the flash that comes with the browser does not work all that well. I am not sure what the issue is, however streaming videos seem to not want to play. This really isn’t too much of an issue for me as I don’t really use YouTube all that much, more often relying on SMS or games to keep me entertained. However, I must say, websites in general display very well, I was quite pleasantly impressed. The only down side is that when I go to my online Rogers account, I am unable to download the PDF version of the bill.

Problems:
Since this is a developer build, and not an official HTC build, it is bound to come with some problems. For instance, where before the text messages would time-stamp exactly three hours ahead, now the time-stamp seems to change from 2 to 4 hours behind. Also, I have been having a lot of problems of people sending me text messages that I did not receive. Since SMS is my main mode of communication, this is a big deal for me and I will attempt to get Rogers Tech Support to resolve this issue for me. Also, WiFi (and I think Bluetooth) don’t work. This isn’t too terrible, however I am quite upset that I cannot control VLC with my phone; I was really hoping to play with that application.

Conclusion:
All in all, its an improvement, hands down. I am very impressed with the work the developer community performed with this build and my hat goes off to all of them. While the rom does have a number of flaws, they are counteracted by the improvements brought forth over the old versions. Some flaws are big enough to force people off of this build, however the improvements for others will make this a no-brainer. I will try to get the SMS problem fixed for mine, but will be on the look-out for a new version that will hopefully fix these problems if Rogers Tech Support can’t.

UPDATE:

Battery:
I must apologize that I completely forgot to include the most important improvement of all: the battery life. This one caught me by surprise the most as I did not expect this at all. Not only that, but it doesn’t even fit in with the specs for the Magic and Hero, as the battery improvements in Hero are marginal at best. But after installing this ROM my phone lasts some 20% longer. Granted, maybe half of that is attributed to the mere excitement of a battery life increase, but even 10% improvement is quite large.

Multi-touch Input:
Finally, the added multi-touch support for browser and gallery. This isn’t a major improvement, but it is a proof-of-concept and I think the most that will be taken away by this is that we can now expect 3rd party games and application to provide us with amazing and breathtaking applications for this. As for the browser and gallery, its a nice touch, but I would have rather seen it for Google Maps.

Hope everyone found this helpful, and drop any comments/questions you may have about this.

-Nokia FanBoy

One of my readers, atul recently asked me question on upgrading their phone:

…planning to move from Nokia E71 (my 4th eseries phone) and have always used a Nokia since ‘92. Do u think it would be sane to move to HTC Magic or should I wait for E72?

This isn’t exactly a question that can be answered with a couple lines, but I liked the question enough that I decided to actually write a post about this.

Choosing between the E72 and the Magic there are a number of factors you have to consider, first and foremost that the two devices are in a completely different class altogether. The Nokia E72 is an Enterprise-class devices. What this means is that the design of the phone, operating system, and software was all done with the requirements of the business world in mind. That also means that the manufacturing process didn’t compromise on quality, however may not have put too much thought into the physical appearance of the phone (granted, the E71 is the first exception to the latter).
On the other hand, the HTC Magic is a somewhat more mainstream phone. Thus the physical appearance was more important than quality (mine scratched in a matter of days and slightly creaks on the sides).

Another part of construction you have to look at is the input method. If you write a lot of emails, the Magic, or any touchscreen phone, is not for you. At the very least not until they have displays that can morph to have actual physical buttons raise up and provide proper feedback. Of course even then, taking up important screen real-estate for a keyboard will never be as good as having a separate screen actual physical keyboard.

Taking a look at the operating system is also important. Symbian is over a decade old and in that has become extremely stable, even if a little outdated. Android, on the other hand, seems to crash applications on a regular basis (3-5 app crashes per day). At the very least, however, when an application crashes Android and other applications continue running. You also have to keep in mind that there’s a fairly large learning curve going from OS to OS, especially when switching from hardware keys to a touch-centric UI (trust me on this one).
Also don’t forget to consider the applications that you are using on your phone now. Going from E71 to E72 you’re pretty much guaranteed that all of the applications will work. Going to the Magic, however, you will need to find equivalents in the Android Market or the online community, and that can take a large amount of time.

Finally, the features of the phone itself are important. The main one, for me at least, is the battery life. The HTC Magic is severely handicapped by its battery, whereas the E71, and likely the E72 as well, is not.

So what does all that mean for you, my dear friend?
Well just think about what you’re doing with your phone now, and what you will be able to do with your future hone. If you’ve gotten used to the E-Series quality then I’m afraid the Magic, and other mainstream phones for that matter, may be disappointing to you. If you’re connected to a MS Exchange Server then I must tell you that Symbian is integrated much more tightly with it. Also, Symbian has Nokia, Garmin and TomTom mobile GPS applications whereas Android is stuck with just Google maps.
So think about whats important to you, and which phone can better support your requirements. Also, take a look at my post on Nokia E71 vs. E72 (Nokia E72 – worthwhile upgrade?), maybe an upgrade isn’t even really required.
Lastly, consider other phones, such as the Nokia N97, or even other operating systems, such as Windows Mobile.

If you have any more questions just drop me a line and I’ll try to help as much as I can.

-Nokia FanBoy

This is just a quick update on the E72 vs. E71 post, I was looking over some of my favourite sites and noticed that someone managed to get their dirty paws on an E72 prototype. (sorry, I’m jealous) Well they not only posted a bunch of comparison photos, but also managed to disassemble the darned thing!

When I just saw the photos I thought I was going to have to reconsider what I first wrote about them, however after taking another look I still feel I was mostly right. The E71 is a work of art, perfectly blending Business and Beauty, where as the E72 just looks like it was designed by an engineer who was told to think “Business”.

Anyway, don’t take my words for it, have a look on Symbian-Guru (read) and judge for yourself.

-Nokia FanBoy

So Nokia just relelased the Nokia E72 as E71’s successor, and I looked at the pictures and thought to myself:

Really?

I mean the E71 was to the business line what the N95 was to the entertainment line! The follow up seems like a bit of a flop. The E71 was a wonderfully crafted piece of machine: unbelievably thin for a QWERTY phone, and looked like it was designed by an architect and a businessman. The E72’s design looks like a follow up to the E63 drawn up by a someone who spent to much time in front of a video game console – a little plain and boring and not enough business sense. To be honest, it looks a little like E71’s young, a little more athletic, assistant.

So the design is a little controversial, but what about the hardware? Could the hardware push an E71 owner over the edge to upgrade?
The major differences between the two phones are:

• Optical trackpad
• 3.5mm audio jack
• Extra 140MB of internal memory
• 10.2Mbps HSDPA
• 5MP camera with VGA video recording
• Extra 2hr talk time / 70hr standby (2G)
• Symbian 9.3 S60 v3.2 UI

Well I haven’t used the optical trackpad, but the cool factor would at least make me consider it
Everyone knows the 3.5mm audio jack is a necessity in today’s phones, which means this wouldn’t be necessarily a deciding factor for me to choose this phone, but may be important for E71 users.
The extra 140MB of built in storage is definitely an upgrade. My N95 8GB has the same as the E71 and I’ve already had to delete a lot of programs and other items.
The 10.2 Mbps download however is overkill I think. I’m using 3.6Mbps and I find that more than enough. In fact, there has been a survey conducted in England which showed that most people are only getting about a quarter of the bandwidth that the technology is able to provide, mostly due to a lack of towers. So if you have an issue with slow speeds, talk to you provider, not the phone manufacturer.
Now I’m not sure what the quality of that 5MP snapper is but if its anything like my N95 8GB’s, then it is a giant step up. And of course, the E71 was known for its unbelievable battery life and the E72 builds on that even further. So longer lifetime using more capabilities? I’ll go for that !
Finally, the operating system. I’m not familiar with the 3.2 UI, however I have heard good things about it, and its quite likely that its the new OS that prolongs the battery life, so its likely a good thing.

So is this worth it?
Well its definitely an upgrade, maybe even a worthwhile upgrade as a couple features are quite welcome, such as extra internal memory and 3.5mm audio jack. So I guess if you can live with the design, its a worthwhile upgrade.

– Nokia FanBoy
Posted from my Nokia N95 8GB

Update:
Shortly after posting this I realised what it is that I dont like about the design… too much plastic.