Diaries of a Nokia Fan Boy

Seems that there are a number of hands-on videos out on the interwebs now, and while most of what they show isn’t anything new, there are some that show neat tid bits of information.

In the X6 hands-on the reviewer shows an interesting function of the music player that allows you to select your mood and plays the corresponding music from your library. Actually seems like a really useful feature, sort of reminds me of a similar music player for Android (see my earlier Android reviews). The X3 doesn’t actually seem to bring anything new to the table.

The Booklet 3G doesn’t show anything new either, however it does provide a nice overview of the hardware and shows you the relative size. The device does look quite attractive, although the screen could have been bigger. You can also see the size of the battery at the bottom, and to be honest, my hopes are up that it will be able to run for 12 hours of decent usage, not just a 12 hour standby sort of thing.

The N900 preview is actually quite interesting, even if the preview is more of Maemo 5 preview than the N900 itself . The OS has multiple desktops, and kind of reminds me of Android, which was my first interaction with that sort of system. The dashboard shows running programs and appears to be well designed, but of course only time and usage will tell. Anyway, I won’t spoil anything for you so just take a look at the video.

The N97 Mini preview is also somewhat telling, but more so because I would like to see the Maemo 5 UI on the device instead. Besides that there isn’t anything new on the video.

- Nokia FanBoy

via: Engadget (read)

So Nokia finally released the official spec’s to the N97 Mini. Since I’ve covered the phone a couple times already I’ll just say what I’m thinking:

First of all, the phone sports a Quad-band HSDPA!! I’m pretty sure that’s a first somewhere along the lines, and even if it isn’t, its still damn impressive. The screen is smaller, sure, at 3.2″ you won’t be able to see things as clearly, but the phone itself is nicely smaller, with dimensions of 113 x 52.5 x 14.2 mm and a weight of 138g, the phone should make the original N97 feel like a beast. And finally, the phone sports a smaller battery at 1200mAh, which is a down-side, but not an overly large one. The phone still sports decent talk and standby times. The biggest downfall, however, is the price: 450 Euro (or $710 CAD). Especially considering that I can pick up the full sized N97 for less than that. Lets just hope the price falls quickly and more people can afford it.

So would I pick up the phone? I might, if the price was more reasonable, but its certainly going to give the original N97 a run for its money. Wait… is that a good thing?

-Nokia FanBoy

via: GSMArena (read)
and: Engadget (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)

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)