Diaries of a Nokia Fan Boy

Nokia’s capacitive-touchscreen-wielding, XpressMusic-replacing, 32GB X6 is supposed to come with a mandatory CWM subscription, inflating the price of the phone. Now lets face it, this is a service that most of us will not require because we already have our music collections obtained by “various” means. Thus, having to pay for a service we likely get for free is somewhat “less-than-smart”. So we get a cheaper variant of the X6 to the rescue: one that “Comes Without Music”, but also comes without half of the internal memory. Now the memory won’t be an issue if the phone sports a MicroSD reader, otherwise it may be a sore point. And to be honest, I would rather have the MicroSD reader and have to buy my own memory than have no card reader and 16GB built-in. At any rate, the CWM 32GB X6 is expected to be priced at an insane 530 GBP ($940 CAD), and the CWM-less 16GB variant to be price at a less-insane-but-still-outrageous 345 GBP ($610 CAD). I guess we’ll have to wait and see just how fast that price ends up dropping post-release.

-Nokia FanBoy

via: Symbian Freak (read)
Also check out Engaget’s hands-on.

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 today is the big day of the Nokia World 09 show. And it appears that Nokia officially unveiled the Xseries with two new models: the X3 and the X6. The series is an obvious replacement of the XpressMusic moniker, and the X6 appears to be replacing the 5800 XpressMusic. In an odd move, Nokia went for the single-digit model numbers for the new Xseries, however I expect that will change after a couple more releases.

Nokia X6: the touch
The replacement to the 5800 XM improves on the old model in a number of ways:

• The X6 is slimmer: 13.8mm vs. 15.5mm
• Uses a capacitive touch screen vs. resistive
• Sports 32GB internal storage vs. 81MB
• Upgrades to a 5MP shooter from a 3.15MP
• And adds on a second LED for dual LED flash
• Adds support for geotagging
• Includes Ovi Maps 3.0 vs. Nokia Maps 2.0
• Uses the updated S60 5th UI

On the downside, the phone weighs 13g more (122g), however that’s not too much of an issue. What I did find impressive, however, is that Nokia managed to get virtually identical battery life despite using a capacitive touch screen, which tends to be a little power hungry. The phone does, sadly, lose the microSD card slot, which would have been nice to have on occasion.

Overall, however, the phone looks pretty impressive and I’m sure it will be lots of fun to play with. By the looks of it, the S60 5th UI is the same one as on the cheap-o 5230, so I think I will still go for that as my next phone. Especially considering the X6 is expected to be shipped out at 459 Euros ($725 CAD), which is more than what the N97 is currently worth!

Nokia X3: the slider
The Nokia X3 looks to be replacing the 5610 XM, and the specifications are fairly similar. The phone actually looks to be even a bit of a downgrade from its XM-branded ancestor. The Nokia X3:

• Loses 3G
• Loses the vibrant 16M color screen for a 256K color screen
• Downgrades to a 860mAh battery from 900mAh
• Loses autofocus on the 3.2MP snapper for an enhanced fixed focus
• Is only able to record QCIF@15fps video vs. VGA@15fps

On the upside, the phone

• Sheds 8g for a 103g weight
• And slims down to 14.1mm thickness from 17mm

Besides that the phones are virtually identical. It is interesting to compare the two bodies, as the Xseries line-up seems to bring a complete redesign of the phone’s exterior. Although to be honest, I’m not entirely sure if I like the X3’s look vs. 5610 XM’s; however the X6 does look much better than the 5800 XM. The pricing of the X3 is much more radical however, shipping out at 115 Euros (or $181 CAD).

So what do you guys think? Do you like the new redesigns? And would you get either phone for yourself?

-Nokia FanBoy

via: GSMArena (see X6 and X3)
and: Engadget (read 1 and 2)