Nokia’s N95 Smartphone
Nokia has released a complete specification sheet on the S60, a smartphone in the N95 family.
It includes a 5 megapixel digital camera, integrated GPS, 802.11g WiFi, HSDPA, microSD, and 150MB of internal memory. A good set of features, though the internal memory could have been a bit bigger.
The 2.6-inch QVGA screen should be just as good as the iPod with video for watching movies, and there’s a full-on 3.5mm audio jack to enjoy your multimedia.
The downside, though not as bad as some of the competition, is its 550 Euro pricetag, or approximately $700 USD, but you have until the first quarter of 2007 to save up.
Check out all of what Nokia has out at Digital Advisor.
Joel Spolsky Reviews the LG Fusic From Sprint
Joel Spolsky of joelonsoftware fame reviews the LG Fusic from Sprint, and frankly, this is one strong and very straightforward review. Now Joel is know for his knack for design and usability, particularly when it comes to user interfaces. He should–he’s into software design and development. So you can expect him to feel strongly about the shortcomings of a device and the network’s mobile service when it comes to usability.
Joel was actually reluctant at first to review the phone. After all the marketing people were having a field day sending off (free) review units to bloggers, hoping to start some buzz about their music- and video-download service. It turns out that they were in for some negative publicity.
The phone they sent me, an LG Fusic, is really quite awful, and the service, Power Vision, is tremendously misconceived and full of dumb features that don’t work right and cost way too much. So I’m going to review the dang phone anyway, even though if anybody from Sprint is paying attention they’re going to lose their lunch and some executive bonehead over there is going to go nuts and I sincerely hope that this doesn’t put an end to the entire free-phones-for-bloggers boondoggle, because I’d hate to get beaten up at Etech next year by all the other bloggers who would hate me for spoiling all the fun.
So what’s wrong with the phone and service, anyway? Joel thought the phone’s built was too cheap, and the interface unintuitive. The Fusic is supposed to be an MP3-capable phone, but it does not offer the usual functionalities one would expect from an MP3 player such as bookmarking and even basic capabilities like playing music with the clamshell closed.
Joel found the video aspect lacking, too, with no decent movie titles and a screen too small for viewing. The pricing for both music and movies was prohibitive, too, especially in light with the de facto standard that Apple had set, at $0.99 a pop (for songs).
I consider Joel to be quite fortunate. For one, he’s a blog A-lister. Secondly, companies are sending him freebies for review (hey people, if you’d like me to review some of your gadgets, I’d be glad to send you my postal address). But Sprint was probably wrong to send him a Fusic for review. The phone might have been considered decent and even cool by a younger, less tech-savy user, but it wasn’t meant for a tech- and design-savvy individual.
Here’s a lesson to companies who are starting to turn to blogging and bloggers for word-of-mouth marketing. Do your research first. And make sure the product you plan to market thru blogs are aptly targeted.
What is a SIM Card?
A SIM Card, or a Subscriber Identity Module is just a tiny rectangular memory card that acts like an identification for the phone. Usually located behind the battery, a SIM card stores your phone number and it is required for activating a phone for mobile use.
From Wikipedia:
A Subscriber Identity Module is a smart card that securely stores the key identifying a mobile phone service subscriber, as well as subscription information, preferences, text messages and other information.
The advantage is that you can switch your phone number from one mobile phone to another simply by swapping out your SIM card, as long as both phones are made for the same carrier, the switch is usually relatively easy.
Also, if your phone is not locked to one carrier, you can buy prepaid SIM cards when travelling, allowing you to always have a local number for your destination.
BlackBerry Pearl 8100 Review
Pocket-lint has a review up on the BlackBerry Pearl 8100. This is one device that I would love to have.
Small, thin and compact are the best way to describe the sleek mobile phone. It’s the company’s thinnest yet and almost half the size of Nokia’s N70 handset. Showing it around the office and to hardened BlackBerry fans most seemed to like the gloss black finish with chrome trim and the small white iridescent “Pearl” looking control dongle situated just under the screen.
In the end the Pearl 8100 gets a 9 out of 10 from Pocket-lint and 9.1 out of 10 from readers. This is the BlackBerry to have it seems. They do list some negatives though. They found the screen a bit too small to read longer e-mails on, and the keypad takes a bit of getting used to. The last small knock against the device is its lack of 3G support.
Nokia E70 Smartphone Review
MobileBurn has a review on the Nokia E70, a foldable QWERTY smartphone.
The Nokia E70 is the ‘other’ QWERTY keyboard equipped phone in Nokia’s latest E-series range, sharing the feature with the E61. Designed in a similar way as the old Nokia 6800 and 6820, the E70 has a full QWERTY keyboard hidden in a fold open design. For the uninitiated, this means that the E70 will look just like a normal phone with numerical keys when the flip is closed, but opens up to provide a full QWERTY keypad when needed.
Armed with a 2-megapixel camera and WiFi capabilities, the E70 seems like a very good alternative for those who prefer a smaller form factor than the E61. The Nokia E70 is a dual mode phone, featuring WCDMA/GSM operation (GSM 900/1800/1900MHz and WCDMA 2100MHz).
I don’t really like the way this one folds open to reveal the keyboard, but MobileBurn did not seem to mind it, though the reviewer, like myself had a hard time getting used to the split keyboard design, as it can be faster when thumb typing to move your “free” thumb to the next key, and if the two letters are on one side of the split, it can slow down typing.
In the end they give the Nokia E70 a highly recommended rating due to its QWERTY keyboard, high resolution display and capable camera.
Digital Advisor Nokia Listings
Samsung SGH-P310
The SGH-P300 was a rather decent success for Samsung, and so it was expected they would follow up on it, and now they have with the recent announcement of the P310, also known as the “Card Phone II”.
The P310 has a newly designed exterior, and upgraded features, but still the same super thin look at just 8.5mm in thickness.
In that small form, Samsung was able to fit a 2 megapixel camera MP3 music player and MP4 video player. You can expect 80MB of included internal memory, as well as an expandable memory slot.
There’s a 1.9” 262K QVGA color screen that uses a new touch sensor soft key. An included case provides extended battery life to power the P310.
If you are expecting to see the SGH-P310 in North America any time soon, you may be disappointed. It looks like it will be launched in the European market later this month, and then the Southeast Asian market later in October.
The Samsung SGH-P310 Specs:
- EDGE, GPRS Class 10 (900 / 1800/ 1900MHz)
- 2.0 Megapixel Camera (Flash, x4 digital zoom)
- Display: 1.9” 262K Color QVGA TFT LCD
- Video Recording and Messaging (MPEG4, H.263)
- MP3 / AAC / AAC+
- Bluetooth 1.2 / USB 1.1
- BT Printing / PictBridge / Stereo BT Headset
- TV out / Email Sync (Outlook)
- Memory: 80MB Embedded / External: MicroSD
- Size: 86 x 54 x 8.5 mm
- Weight: 75g
LG Chocolate VX8600
It looks like an “accidental” slip has let smoe details and images for the LG Chocolate VX8600 out into the web.
This is the clamshell counterpart to the existing VX8500 Chocolate that recently launched.
Features include:
- EV-DO high-speed data
- Stereo Bluetooth
- 176×220 main screen with 262k colors
- 128×128 external screen with 65k colors
- Music player with external music controls (WMA/MP3)
- microSD card slot
- 1.3 megapixel camera
You can probably expect to see Verizon Wireless carrying these before the holiday shopping season, but no official word on that yet.
HTC Libra
Over that the CTIA show in LA this week, a new Windows Mobile device was revealed from HTC, and the executives confirmed several key details about the device code-named Libra.
Libra has both a traditional numeric keypad and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The phone is significantly smaller than current HTC devices with a slide-out keyboard; it is closer in size to a typical bar-style feature phone.
The QWERTY keyboard has only three rows of keys, to accommodate the smaller device size. The Libra will be available in a CDMA version in Q1 next year, with support for EVDO Revision A high-speed data. A GSM version is also planned for next year.
Nokia 7390
Nokia is releasing the 7390, an update the L’Amour 7380. The new 7390 can play mp3 and mp4 formats, has a 3 megapixel camera and, a second VGA camera for video calling and self portraits.
The 7390 is a clamshell phone, and the companies first 3G fashion phone.
This GSM triband phone also offers broadband-speed video calling and audio/video streaming.
Expect to pay a pretty penny for this phone though as its powder pink and bronze black units have a list price of $576 USD and they will be available sometime this fall.
Samsung SGH-X820 Review
The World’s Thinnest Cell Phone, that is what the Samsung SGH-X820 is marketing itself as currently on the marketplace, as it looks to show how thin a cell phone can really go. Mobile Burn takes a look at it.
The first thing that caught our attention is the claim of the thinnest phone in the world. Some say that Samsung has cheated, as the camera module at the back protrudes out slightly, bumping the thickness to 9.9mm (0.39″). When you take into account a two megapixel camera module measures at least 6mm in thickness, Samsung really has already done a remarkable job.
So how thin is the X820? What do these numbers mean? To make it easy for everyone to understand, I can say that the X820 is as thick as an iPod nano. A lot of us are still a haunted by build issues with slim devices; the X820 weights 66g (2.33oz), and apparently, there is not much metal reinforcement in there. It would be just too ambitious to test how much pressure the phone can handle, since it doesn’t come free, but I haven’t scratched or cracked anything carrying the X820 in my jeans pocket for a week.
In the end they conclude that the X820 is a highly recommendWed device including excellent portability, good multimedia functions for its size, good keypad, excellent build. Some of the things that Mobile Burn was not as impressed with is the lack of a vibration mode for a ringer, average battery life, lack of USB Mass Storage mode, and absence of ringtone profiles.
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