Canadian smartphone maker Research In Motion launched its Curve model BlackBerry, Curve 8520 in the Indian market at a price of Rs 15,990.
The handset would be available across India on Airtel service from August 7.
Research In Motion Vice President (India) Frenny Bawa said that the new BlackBerry Curve 8520 will help appeal to a much wider audience of customers in India including young professionals and students.
The BlackBerry Curve 8520 represents the Canadian phone maker’s first offering with dedicated media keys, which are incorporated along the top of the handset, replacing the classic trackball navigator with a touch-sensitive optical trackpad.
Additionally, it also offers powerful multimedia features, useful applications to help users stay organized and productive, full HTML browsing and seamless Wi-Fi support.
The BlackBerry Curve 8520 measures 109 mm x 60 mm x 13.90 mm and weighs 106 grams.
Unlike other BlackBerry models, the Curve 8520 will be available in five different colorful skins.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Monday, August 3, 2009
Nokia E75 review
The Nokia E Series of business devices has certainly evolved since the handsets first began to appear late 2005- into a range that caters for all.
This most recent addition is a full Qwerty keyboard model. Where the previous E65 model could be seen as a junior version of the E71, the E75 stands breaks away from the series' previous trajectory of development.
However, Nokia has fully admitted that it has taken “a lot of inspiration from the Nokia 9300”, which was its very first Communicator. This return to roots can be clearly seen throughout the E75.
The E75 main difference from the classic 9300 is in the screen, which is very much a key factor to the Communicator series history and its build.
In the past, the main screen to the Communicator has always been a fairly large one, matching the keyboard's length once the handset is fully opened. There’s also a second smaller screen on the front, which comes into play when the Communicator is used as a regular mobile phone.
Nokia has taken a more regular approach on the E75, and implemented only one screen on the front, above the T9 keypad. It's understandable that the relatively diminutive screen may well put off previous Communicator users.
In reality, the much smaller overall size and convenient shape of the E75 make up for the lost screen inches. It’s comparable to a regular mobile phone, except that it still packs-in a full Qwerty, hidden away.
Communicators in the past were synonymous with being rather bulky and rather heavy. As an example, the E90, which was the last model, weighed in at 210 grams, with dimensions of 132x57x20 mm. The E75 is only 139 grams and 111.8x50x14.4 mm – roughly the same size as the E71
We shouldn't forget that the E90 did open out to produce an 800x352 4-inch screen, where the E75 now only has a 2.4-inch 320x240 display, with its flat keyboard sliding out from the case.
In terms of usability, it’s a good size to type, the keyboard being a tad wider than the BlackBerry Storm's in landscape mode. Plus it’s a physical keyboard rather than a 'virtual' onscreen one, which brings its own tactile advantages.
Nokia has bundled a software suite similar to that of the E71 and E63, including all the usual business office tools, plus access to all the recognised corporate and personal email systems. There’s a new email interface seen in this model, with a simple three-step setup process which we tried and found very easy to use.
Charging the handset can be done using the microUSB port, which is a welcome change to the regular Nokia charging methods as it can now be recharged from a computer too. Also very welcome is the bundled 4GB microSD card- very useful for those larger files, or even music and video.
As smartphones go, the Nokia E75 has everything arranged onboard to make it a very successful and welcome addition to the E Series range. The Qwerty keyboard may be a slide out one, but it otherwise ticks the functionality boxes compared to other phones of this generation. However, we can’t help but think that the upcoming full screen Qwerty keyboard Nokia N97 would have been better suited if it was itself branded as the new Communicator, or perhaps even become the basis for a separate E-series SKU.
**Price- Rs 22,500
This most recent addition is a full Qwerty keyboard model. Where the previous E65 model could be seen as a junior version of the E71, the E75 stands breaks away from the series' previous trajectory of development.
However, Nokia has fully admitted that it has taken “a lot of inspiration from the Nokia 9300”, which was its very first Communicator. This return to roots can be clearly seen throughout the E75.
The E75 main difference from the classic 9300 is in the screen, which is very much a key factor to the Communicator series history and its build.
In the past, the main screen to the Communicator has always been a fairly large one, matching the keyboard's length once the handset is fully opened. There’s also a second smaller screen on the front, which comes into play when the Communicator is used as a regular mobile phone.
Nokia has taken a more regular approach on the E75, and implemented only one screen on the front, above the T9 keypad. It's understandable that the relatively diminutive screen may well put off previous Communicator users.
In reality, the much smaller overall size and convenient shape of the E75 make up for the lost screen inches. It’s comparable to a regular mobile phone, except that it still packs-in a full Qwerty, hidden away.
Communicators in the past were synonymous with being rather bulky and rather heavy. As an example, the E90, which was the last model, weighed in at 210 grams, with dimensions of 132x57x20 mm. The E75 is only 139 grams and 111.8x50x14.4 mm – roughly the same size as the E71
We shouldn't forget that the E90 did open out to produce an 800x352 4-inch screen, where the E75 now only has a 2.4-inch 320x240 display, with its flat keyboard sliding out from the case.
In terms of usability, it’s a good size to type, the keyboard being a tad wider than the BlackBerry Storm's in landscape mode. Plus it’s a physical keyboard rather than a 'virtual' onscreen one, which brings its own tactile advantages.
Nokia has bundled a software suite similar to that of the E71 and E63, including all the usual business office tools, plus access to all the recognised corporate and personal email systems. There’s a new email interface seen in this model, with a simple three-step setup process which we tried and found very easy to use.
Charging the handset can be done using the microUSB port, which is a welcome change to the regular Nokia charging methods as it can now be recharged from a computer too. Also very welcome is the bundled 4GB microSD card- very useful for those larger files, or even music and video.
As smartphones go, the Nokia E75 has everything arranged onboard to make it a very successful and welcome addition to the E Series range. The Qwerty keyboard may be a slide out one, but it otherwise ticks the functionality boxes compared to other phones of this generation. However, we can’t help but think that the upcoming full screen Qwerty keyboard Nokia N97 would have been better suited if it was itself branded as the new Communicator, or perhaps even become the basis for a separate E-series SKU.
**Price- Rs 22,500
Nokia E51 review
The Nokia E51 has been designed keeping the business class customers in mind but it has attracted non-business users in India as well with the same enthusiasm.
The E51 is a sharply crafted candybar-design mobile, with a refined, elegance about it that we can see having plenty of appeal for business execs. On the surface it may be understated, but beneath the slimline, stainless steel-encased shell its in fact a strikingly well equipped smartphone that covers all the bases as far as corporate email and messaging requirements are concerned.
It supports a businesslike spread of corporate push email and remote synchronisation solutions, and is equipped to support VoIP voice over internet applications too.
The E51's functionality is built on the Symbian S60 operating system, with all the flexibility for adding software and applications this enables. The phone features high-speed 3G HSDPA as well as Wi-Fi connectivity, with the flexibility to configure its internet-based voice calling to be part of an in-house corporate wireless PABX system as well as a high-speed messaging device.
Its appearance isn't going to catch the eye of the fashion-phone buyer, but it has an attractive slim but solid appearance and feel. The sleek look is emphasised by tthe metal back plate and front edging - available in a chrome, black or bronze finish. It's weighty in a good way, at 100g, giving a substantial feel despite its 12mm thin waistline.
Nokia has attempted to get the work-life balance right in this device. Unlike some security-conscious corporate-preferred mobiles, the E51 has a camera - an average 2-megapixel shooter without a flash or autofocus system. The E51's multimedia agenda includes a multi-format music player, FM radio and a welcome RealPlayer application for video playback. Alas, if you're a fan of face-to-face video calling, that's not up for discussion - there's no specialised video calling camera on the front.
A suite of office-orientated applications keep the emphasis on serious stuff; Quickoffice document reader software will bring up Word, Excel and PowerPoint files onscreen (and you have the option to upgrade to full editing versions over the air), while there's an Adobe PDF viewer and a ZIP file manager app.
Nokia's standard wide range of personal information management apps are augmented by additional Team apps, enabling you to organise multiple messaging and calling groups together, which will be useful for any level of group management. A new Active Notes application allows you to attach images, video and sound clips and attach to contacts or send to others.
The Nokia E51 hasn't got an integrated GPS receiver like some recent Nokia high-end devices, but it does still feature the Nokia Maps navigation solution, enabling you to carry out searches for a huge variety of locations, look up routes and so on, using Nokia's over-the-air information service. To add true satellite location finding, you need to employ an optional standalone Bluetooth-enabled GPS receiver, connected wirelessly. It's a welcome addition to the out-of-the-box software package, nonetheless.
In addition to a well-balanced out-of-the-box spread of applications, Nokia has geared up the E51 for personalisation via a typical Nokia Download! tool. Click on this and you're presented with a catalogue of software you can choose to download with a few phone button clicks.
Whether you need games to liven the day, an eBook reader, WorldMate travel information, widgets from WidSets or mobile anti-virus software from F-Secure, you can download a variety of apps for free. There's also a Windows Live Messenger and Hotmail application you can add to the phone from here. And of course, there's plenty of other third party software available for the S60 platform.
While there's much to like about the spec list, the way it's all so accessible is also admirable. Although the E51 is loaded with sophisticated messaging and office-related abilities, it has a remarkably straightforward set of controls to take you into these. You can quite comfortably use it as a simple voice and text phone without being daunted
by the smartphone functionality, and similarly keep abreast of your email without having to worry about what lies beneath.
The controls on the front panel are well designed, improving on Nokia's previous business smartphones such as the E50 and E65i. A central navigation D-pad takes centre-stage for menu controlling, but on either side, Nokia has arranged neatly labelled fast access one-touch keys for priority features.
The abstract S60 symbol previously used to indicate the main menu button has been replaced by a more sensible 'home' icon, while there are buttons with symbols for calendar, contacts and emails. Simple really, but smart too.
To speed things further, a longer press of these keys takes you straight into the most likely function you'll want to use under that category - a new calendar entry, new contact or new email, or with the menu button, a list of open applications. These keys do the business, quickly and fuss-free - you really don't have to be a tech-savvy high-flier to feel familiar with them.
A pair of regular softkeys sit above and wrap around the side of the one-touch keys. The softkeys are a touch too narrow at the top, which can initially get your thumb straying on to the button below, but you get used to it and avoid slippage quickly. The numberpad below this means business too. Keys are large, well-separated and responsive. The plastic finish used here certainly doesn't feel cheap either.
Helping navigate the menu system is Nokia's useful Active Standby screen layout. The 2-inch, 320x240 pixels 16-million colour active matrix display is smaller than on most recent Nokia smartphones, and you do notice the difference in text size - even if it's still bright, sharp and readable.
A string of icons on the top of the screen provide shortcuts to six applications or functions of your choosing; some are pre-set, but you can set your preferred batch from dozens of options across all features - including one-button access to web links.
The Active Standby screen also has handy plug-in wizards for initially setting up email and VoIP apps, and helping you to serach for and log on easily to Wi-Fi networks. Plus you can get calendar appointments, notes and message alerts onscreen (a flashing notification light on top of the phone also makes sure you don't miss any).
The messaging functionality of this device is excellent for a phone that doesn't have a BlackBerry-style Qwerty keyboard. Email is easy to set up and use, and is central to the attractions of the E51. And if you want to use an optional Bluetooth keyboard, the E51 naturally supports that too.
The multimedia functionality of the E51 deserves a mention too. The music player is capable of a pretty impressive audio performance, using a regulation Nokia S60 interface that's akin to a standalone MP3 player. The internal 130MB user memory can be supplemented by hot-swappable MicroSD cards. The slot, hidden away on the side under the back casing, can take cards of up to 4GB. This gives plenty of tune-room.
Audio quality is comparable to other Nokia Nseries smartphones, and the supplied earphones are acceptable if not outstanding quality. With a 2.5mm socket for earphones, you'll need an adapter if you want to upgrade to a better quality set that use a standard 3.5mm plug. Stereo Bluetooth streaming is another option - or you could rock the room/annoy your work colleagues with the loudspeaker.
High speed downloading and streaming of audio and video is possible using the phone's 3G HSDPA or Wi-Fi connectivity, although Nokia Music Store isn't supported on this particular handset yet.
The presence of a camera is welcome, as some corporate models prefer no snappers for internal security reasons. This phone isn't designed to wow with its shooting abilities, though. It produces reasonably good quality shots for a 2-megapixel camera in good lighting conditions, though in dull and low-light conditions, results aren't quite so good. There's no flash or autofocus system and a limited range of shooting options and controls. These are presented in an austere user interface, and the lack of a fast access camera button doesn't encourage you to get clicking either. Video quality is typically limited mobile-grade at maximum QVGA resolution (320x240 pixels).
Web browsing is quick and easy, thanks to the E51's connectivity options. You can choose the most convenient access point, and enjoy browsing the full internet on the Nokia Web Browser, with Mini Map technology to help navigate pages.
Syncing the E51 locally with Microsoft Outlook or Lotus Notes is straightforward too, using the supplied Nokia PC Suite software and USB cable. SImilarly, copying music or video from a PC across to the phone can be done via the in-box software.
Battery life is serious business if you want to woo the big corporate mobile buyers. Nokia claims optimum talktime of up to 4.4 hours on a full charge, or 13 days of standby time. How long you get in real life will depend on your particular phone habits, but in our tests we found no shocking, out-of-the-blue 'battery out' moments following our regular usage patterns. That's obviously a crucial issue if you're taking, making or waiting for important calls.
So too is call quality and signal holding, and the Nokia E51 shines on both counts. There were no worries on signal strength, and call performance was exemplary.
The Nokia E51 is designed to appeal to a particular job as a mass-market business phone that delivers a high quality messaging experience. It feels solid and looks like a serious, quality mobile phone without tipping over into flash.
While it's properly suited and booted to fit the business profile, its excellent build quality, spread of serious features, ease of use and nods to downtime usage give it plenty of appeal across the board, not just in the boardroom. It doesn't try to do absolutely everything - there are other Nokia phones that can tempt you with the full multimedia works, keyboards and suchlike - but it fulfills its role perfectly, with plenty on top. A job well done.
The E51 is a sharply crafted candybar-design mobile, with a refined, elegance about it that we can see having plenty of appeal for business execs. On the surface it may be understated, but beneath the slimline, stainless steel-encased shell its in fact a strikingly well equipped smartphone that covers all the bases as far as corporate email and messaging requirements are concerned.
It supports a businesslike spread of corporate push email and remote synchronisation solutions, and is equipped to support VoIP voice over internet applications too.
The E51's functionality is built on the Symbian S60 operating system, with all the flexibility for adding software and applications this enables. The phone features high-speed 3G HSDPA as well as Wi-Fi connectivity, with the flexibility to configure its internet-based voice calling to be part of an in-house corporate wireless PABX system as well as a high-speed messaging device.
Its appearance isn't going to catch the eye of the fashion-phone buyer, but it has an attractive slim but solid appearance and feel. The sleek look is emphasised by tthe metal back plate and front edging - available in a chrome, black or bronze finish. It's weighty in a good way, at 100g, giving a substantial feel despite its 12mm thin waistline.
Nokia has attempted to get the work-life balance right in this device. Unlike some security-conscious corporate-preferred mobiles, the E51 has a camera - an average 2-megapixel shooter without a flash or autofocus system. The E51's multimedia agenda includes a multi-format music player, FM radio and a welcome RealPlayer application for video playback. Alas, if you're a fan of face-to-face video calling, that's not up for discussion - there's no specialised video calling camera on the front.
A suite of office-orientated applications keep the emphasis on serious stuff; Quickoffice document reader software will bring up Word, Excel and PowerPoint files onscreen (and you have the option to upgrade to full editing versions over the air), while there's an Adobe PDF viewer and a ZIP file manager app.
Nokia's standard wide range of personal information management apps are augmented by additional Team apps, enabling you to organise multiple messaging and calling groups together, which will be useful for any level of group management. A new Active Notes application allows you to attach images, video and sound clips and attach to contacts or send to others.
The Nokia E51 hasn't got an integrated GPS receiver like some recent Nokia high-end devices, but it does still feature the Nokia Maps navigation solution, enabling you to carry out searches for a huge variety of locations, look up routes and so on, using Nokia's over-the-air information service. To add true satellite location finding, you need to employ an optional standalone Bluetooth-enabled GPS receiver, connected wirelessly. It's a welcome addition to the out-of-the-box software package, nonetheless.
In addition to a well-balanced out-of-the-box spread of applications, Nokia has geared up the E51 for personalisation via a typical Nokia Download! tool. Click on this and you're presented with a catalogue of software you can choose to download with a few phone button clicks.
Whether you need games to liven the day, an eBook reader, WorldMate travel information, widgets from WidSets or mobile anti-virus software from F-Secure, you can download a variety of apps for free. There's also a Windows Live Messenger and Hotmail application you can add to the phone from here. And of course, there's plenty of other third party software available for the S60 platform.
While there's much to like about the spec list, the way it's all so accessible is also admirable. Although the E51 is loaded with sophisticated messaging and office-related abilities, it has a remarkably straightforward set of controls to take you into these. You can quite comfortably use it as a simple voice and text phone without being daunted
by the smartphone functionality, and similarly keep abreast of your email without having to worry about what lies beneath.
The controls on the front panel are well designed, improving on Nokia's previous business smartphones such as the E50 and E65i. A central navigation D-pad takes centre-stage for menu controlling, but on either side, Nokia has arranged neatly labelled fast access one-touch keys for priority features.
The abstract S60 symbol previously used to indicate the main menu button has been replaced by a more sensible 'home' icon, while there are buttons with symbols for calendar, contacts and emails. Simple really, but smart too.
To speed things further, a longer press of these keys takes you straight into the most likely function you'll want to use under that category - a new calendar entry, new contact or new email, or with the menu button, a list of open applications. These keys do the business, quickly and fuss-free - you really don't have to be a tech-savvy high-flier to feel familiar with them.
A pair of regular softkeys sit above and wrap around the side of the one-touch keys. The softkeys are a touch too narrow at the top, which can initially get your thumb straying on to the button below, but you get used to it and avoid slippage quickly. The numberpad below this means business too. Keys are large, well-separated and responsive. The plastic finish used here certainly doesn't feel cheap either.
Helping navigate the menu system is Nokia's useful Active Standby screen layout. The 2-inch, 320x240 pixels 16-million colour active matrix display is smaller than on most recent Nokia smartphones, and you do notice the difference in text size - even if it's still bright, sharp and readable.
A string of icons on the top of the screen provide shortcuts to six applications or functions of your choosing; some are pre-set, but you can set your preferred batch from dozens of options across all features - including one-button access to web links.
The Active Standby screen also has handy plug-in wizards for initially setting up email and VoIP apps, and helping you to serach for and log on easily to Wi-Fi networks. Plus you can get calendar appointments, notes and message alerts onscreen (a flashing notification light on top of the phone also makes sure you don't miss any).
The messaging functionality of this device is excellent for a phone that doesn't have a BlackBerry-style Qwerty keyboard. Email is easy to set up and use, and is central to the attractions of the E51. And if you want to use an optional Bluetooth keyboard, the E51 naturally supports that too.
The multimedia functionality of the E51 deserves a mention too. The music player is capable of a pretty impressive audio performance, using a regulation Nokia S60 interface that's akin to a standalone MP3 player. The internal 130MB user memory can be supplemented by hot-swappable MicroSD cards. The slot, hidden away on the side under the back casing, can take cards of up to 4GB. This gives plenty of tune-room.
Audio quality is comparable to other Nokia Nseries smartphones, and the supplied earphones are acceptable if not outstanding quality. With a 2.5mm socket for earphones, you'll need an adapter if you want to upgrade to a better quality set that use a standard 3.5mm plug. Stereo Bluetooth streaming is another option - or you could rock the room/annoy your work colleagues with the loudspeaker.
High speed downloading and streaming of audio and video is possible using the phone's 3G HSDPA or Wi-Fi connectivity, although Nokia Music Store isn't supported on this particular handset yet.
The presence of a camera is welcome, as some corporate models prefer no snappers for internal security reasons. This phone isn't designed to wow with its shooting abilities, though. It produces reasonably good quality shots for a 2-megapixel camera in good lighting conditions, though in dull and low-light conditions, results aren't quite so good. There's no flash or autofocus system and a limited range of shooting options and controls. These are presented in an austere user interface, and the lack of a fast access camera button doesn't encourage you to get clicking either. Video quality is typically limited mobile-grade at maximum QVGA resolution (320x240 pixels).
Web browsing is quick and easy, thanks to the E51's connectivity options. You can choose the most convenient access point, and enjoy browsing the full internet on the Nokia Web Browser, with Mini Map technology to help navigate pages.
Syncing the E51 locally with Microsoft Outlook or Lotus Notes is straightforward too, using the supplied Nokia PC Suite software and USB cable. SImilarly, copying music or video from a PC across to the phone can be done via the in-box software.
Battery life is serious business if you want to woo the big corporate mobile buyers. Nokia claims optimum talktime of up to 4.4 hours on a full charge, or 13 days of standby time. How long you get in real life will depend on your particular phone habits, but in our tests we found no shocking, out-of-the-blue 'battery out' moments following our regular usage patterns. That's obviously a crucial issue if you're taking, making or waiting for important calls.
So too is call quality and signal holding, and the Nokia E51 shines on both counts. There were no worries on signal strength, and call performance was exemplary.
The Nokia E51 is designed to appeal to a particular job as a mass-market business phone that delivers a high quality messaging experience. It feels solid and looks like a serious, quality mobile phone without tipping over into flash.
While it's properly suited and booted to fit the business profile, its excellent build quality, spread of serious features, ease of use and nods to downtime usage give it plenty of appeal across the board, not just in the boardroom. It doesn't try to do absolutely everything - there are other Nokia phones that can tempt you with the full multimedia works, keyboards and suchlike - but it fulfills its role perfectly, with plenty on top. A job well done.
Nokia N82 review
When Nokia introduced the N82 in the Indian market, it had already two 5 megapixel camera phones in its stores. And the N82 did not seem to have anything new but it fared better than the other models of Nokia in a short span and users felt its the best Nokia phone available to them till date.
Let's see what makes the N82 so hot.
The Nokia N82 is one finely equipped smartphone. The latest candybar handset to emerge from the Nokia Nseries production line also happens to be its most heavily featured 'classic' design so far, sporting a 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss crafted optics for high quality images, a GPS receiver inside for satellite navigation, a music player, web browser, Wi-Fi connectivity, plus a full selection of 3G functions including video calling and HSDPA high-speed data capability.
And, underpinned by the Symbian S60 smartphone operating system, the N82 can be customised with many more applications that are readily available to download. It's not just for multimedia fun, either, with a good selection of messaging and productivity tools, including support for emails with attachments and a suite of personal information management apps.
The candybar design of the N82 gives a nod to its N73 direct predecessor, although its spec is more like the Nokia N95 8GB - albeit without the 8GB of internal storage and sliding keypad of that Nokia flagship mobile.
Not that storage capacity alone should necessarily be an issue; the N82 has 100MB of internal capacity but supports MicroSD cards up to 8GB capacity, and these cost under 1K, so upgrading to match the N95 8GB's onboard memory is quite an affordable option.
It may feature similar core specs, but the N82 isn't simply based on the N95 blueprints, redrawn for a candybar design. This is a very different looking handset - and a bit of curious one too.
The front panel is very un-Nokia like, but not in a good way. There's a belt of controls buttons - including the navigation D-pad - on chrome-effect plastic spread across the middle of the phone, plus a numberpad that's made up of thin, tightly arranged keys no bigger than rice grains - also backed by silver plastic. That plasticky feel to the lower half of the front extends to the paterned back panel too - possibly Nokia's way of keeping down the price of this high-end specified device. A shame, as a high-end finish would have been welcome too.
While some people may disagree about the look and love the N82's slightly retro design touches, the numberpad is an issue. It's unclear why the keys should be so finger-unfriendily small and cramped - the phone is no ultra-tiny handset; there's plenty enough space below the 2.4-inch QVGA display to have fitted in a more manageable set of keys if Nokia had decided to. Similarly, numbers and controls could have been marked a bit clearer, as white on silver can be tricky to make out.
The navigation D-pad on the N82 is also a touch too flush with the adjoining panels containing the other control. Pressing the left or right control risks accidental thumb-creep onto one of the other keys, which are positioned in pairs on either side. As well as standard-issue Nokia softkeys, menu access button and clear key, there's a thin Multimedia menu key squeezed in on the right of the control pad too.
Cosmetic and finger-tapping niggles aside, the Nokia N82 is a delight as a platform for enjoying multimedia content. Nokia has enabled this smartphone with a neat bit of auto-rotating screen technology that uses a motion sensor to swap between portrait and landscape mode as the phone is tilted. It's a nice touch, adding to the general high-end feel and simplifying the way you can view content to maximum effect.
The phone's size - it measures 112(h) x 50.2(w) x 17.3(d)mm and weighs 114g - may be hefty, even for a candybar-style mobile (it's larger than the N73), but it certainly becomes a plus point when you're using the N82 as a camera.
The added bulk means you have a digital camera-like handful to hold onto while you're composing shots or capturing video images. The camera can be activated by switching open the lens cover slider on the back, bringing the 5-megapixel, Carl Zeiss Optics-armed camera into play. Buttons on the side of the N82 become the camera shutter control and zoom keys when the phone is held sideways, like a camera. That's typical for any phone with camera pretensions.
However, the performance of the N82 could definitely not be classed as typical. The quality of the images you can capture is hugely impressive. You can achieve remarkable results for a cameraphone, with exceptional detail and precision. Images are sharp and the internal metering system is quick and agile in responding to changing lighting conditions. The autofocus system works effectively too, with a 2-step shutter system helping you to finesse focusing satisfactorily.
The N82 also introduces to Nokia's Nseries a Xenon flash instead of an LED light to illuminate low light shots. This offers a big improvement in quality for night-time shots, murky indoors images and other poor lighting conditions. The Xenon flash provides strong, full fill-in lighting, but is integrated well enough with the camera tech to avoid swamping images with light or whiting out shots.
The user interface used here is the same as employed on the N95 8GB. There's a macro mode which helps you capture sharp close-up images, at up to 10cm from the subject. There's a good selection of settings controls too, so you can adjust white, balance, exposure control, light sensitivity, contrast, sharpness and so on to suit your creative tastes or override the auto system.
Video shot on the N82 is higher quality than the norm too. You can capture footage at VGA resolution at 30fps frame rate, giving smooth playback that's relatively detailed for a cameraphone. This can be enjoyed on a PC screen or fed via a supplied TV-Out cable to home television via phono inputs. This cable also allows you to project pictures on to the TV screen, or maps, websites, games and pretty much anything you'd normally see on the phone's display.
If you want to tweak captured images or edit video, the N82 is equipped with some onboard software to give you some useful image manipulation tools. They're not hugely sophisticated, but welcome in a phone. Another image-orientated option others will welcome is the ability to add pics directly to Vox or Flickr online from the phone as one of the standard options.
Having maps of the entire UK and Republic of Ireland in your pocket is pretty useful too. The Assisted GPS (A-GPS) system on this phone utilises a built in GPS receiver plus network location information to ensure fast fixes on your pocket and accurate pinpointing on onscreen maps. The N82 's supplied 2GB MicroSD memory card is pre-loaded with UK and Ireland mapping information, points of interest and addresses. Nokia Maps software on the phone can home in on your position and pull it up onscreen rapidly - satellite fixes are quick and reliable, usually taking 30 seconds to a minute from activation.
You can plan routes and search for locations quickly and easily and get instructions for navigation. Full voice turn-by-tun navigation is normally an upgrade, but Nokia is supplying N82 buyers with a free three month trial of the service, after which users can choose whether to subscribe or not.
The full voice navigation package makes it perform much more like an in-car sat nav system, although mapping information and detailed search facilities can be useful in themselves. The system enable you to get sat nav instructions for either on-foot or in-car modes and view maps in 2D or 3D. We found the system straightforward to use, accurate and responsive, and it's certainly a worthwhile mobile phone extra to have. We expect a whole lot more Nokias to come with GPS this year.
Using GPS on the phone will have an impact on battery life, so it's worth making sure you have a full charge if you're expecting a long route guidance session, or an in-car charger to maintain power as you go along. It's also possible to upgrade mapping info online, by purchasing downloadable guides or getting mapping updates for free automatically in areas where you don't have mapping coverage.
The multimedia functionality of the N82 is similar to the N95 8GB, although there are no dedicated music or video player controls on this model. The music player inside is Nokia's latest S60 standard device, while RealPlayer software takes care of video playback.
Again, Nokia's music player is functional, neatly designed without being eye-catchingly innovative. Tracks are arranged in standard categories, and playback is operated by the D-pad.
You can easily sync tracks with a PC's Windows Media Player using the supplied USB cable, or copy tracks over using Nokia's Nseries PC Suite software. Alternatively, dragging tracks over using the MicroSD card as a mass storage drive will do the trick too.
Audio quality can be excellent if you swap the run-of-the-mill earphones Nokia supplies with higher quality ones of your own; usefully, there's a 3.5mm jack on the top of the phone to accommodate any regular set. Our Bose in-ear set tested on the N82 really banged up quality levels, revealing more lower frequencies and smoothing out some of the harsher top end the supplied earphones gave. There are stereo speakers on the side too, so you can crank out sounds to entertain/annoy others too - they're loud but lacking in bass. Plugging in headphones also give you the option of tuning into the onboard FM radio.
The N82 has a full Nokia Web Browser onboard, so you can browse the full internet fairly easily - and quickly too using Wi-Fi or 3G. The N82 is also geared up to support Nokia's latest online content applications and services that are collectively grouped under the 'Ovi' umbrella. It's one of a handful of Nseries handsets that currently supports the Nokia Music Store over-the-air and PC-based music download service. Nokia Video Centre, a streaming video service bringing together a number of online video sources, is also supported, while the N82 is N-Gage gaming enabled too.
While N-Gage is yet to launch, there are impressive-looking preview games loaded on the phone, plus a download option for the full N-Gage app when it goes live.
The N82 caters for work as well as play. There's an easy to set up and use email client that can handle a variety of attachments. Zip manager, Quickoffice and an Adobe PDF reader application give you full viewing rights to documents received or copied to the phone, while you can pay to upgrade to editing using the Quickoffice viewer software. With the tricky numberpad, you may be inclined to connect up an optional Nokia Bluetooth Qwerty keyboard to help with typing - there is support for this upgrade too.
As is normal with Nokia smartphones, the N82 comes with sufficient organiser functions to keep you busy, including calendar, to do lists, and comprehensive contacts, which can be synced with a PC using Nokia's standard software. Stereo Bluetooth and UPnP connectivity are also on the spec list.
The N82's battery pack isn't the same upgraded power unit that's been packaged with the N95 8GB. Quoted battery life is consequently slimmer than you can expect with Nokia's top-of-the-range sliderphone. Nonetheless, Nokia estimates a best-case scenario of up to 225 hours standby when using the phone on a GSM network or 210 hours on 3G networks. Talktime is reckoned at 260 minutes on GSM or 190 minutes on 3G. Music playback, with the mobile connectivity switched off, can roll for up to 10 hours, according to Nokia, while video playback alone can reach up to 200 minutes.
Every multimedia-packed 3G phone has to negotiate power trade-offs, and with added A-GPS and Wi-FI in the mix, there are extra potential demands on resources with the N82. While personal usage patterns will determine individuals' specific power handling experiences, with moderate gadget-bashing we found the N82 to cope for 3 days comfortably between charges. Take more pics or surf on Wi-Fi or a while, and you'll get less. But overall the battery rundown wasn't bad at all for a handset that has so much functionality to occupy your time.
The N82 puts in a superb performance as a cameraphone, producing some of the best pictures you're currently likely to get from a mobile phone. The handling of the camera is straightforward and the automatic metering system onboard is very accommodating for casual snappers. The N82's other GPS headline-grabbing function works admirably well too, and is a useful addition to any pocket phone's armoury.
We were a bit frustrated by the keypad layout - too small for a big phone - and a bit disappointed that the phone's too-plastic finish wasn't improved to match the stunning device inside.
The N82 is still, however, a remarkable mobile phone that offers a top range of features, excellent connectivity and fine imaging qualities. If you're after a candybar equivalent of the N95, you've got it with spades.
** Price- Rs 21,000
Let's see what makes the N82 so hot.
The Nokia N82 is one finely equipped smartphone. The latest candybar handset to emerge from the Nokia Nseries production line also happens to be its most heavily featured 'classic' design so far, sporting a 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss crafted optics for high quality images, a GPS receiver inside for satellite navigation, a music player, web browser, Wi-Fi connectivity, plus a full selection of 3G functions including video calling and HSDPA high-speed data capability.
And, underpinned by the Symbian S60 smartphone operating system, the N82 can be customised with many more applications that are readily available to download. It's not just for multimedia fun, either, with a good selection of messaging and productivity tools, including support for emails with attachments and a suite of personal information management apps.
The candybar design of the N82 gives a nod to its N73 direct predecessor, although its spec is more like the Nokia N95 8GB - albeit without the 8GB of internal storage and sliding keypad of that Nokia flagship mobile.
Not that storage capacity alone should necessarily be an issue; the N82 has 100MB of internal capacity but supports MicroSD cards up to 8GB capacity, and these cost under 1K, so upgrading to match the N95 8GB's onboard memory is quite an affordable option.
It may feature similar core specs, but the N82 isn't simply based on the N95 blueprints, redrawn for a candybar design. This is a very different looking handset - and a bit of curious one too.
The front panel is very un-Nokia like, but not in a good way. There's a belt of controls buttons - including the navigation D-pad - on chrome-effect plastic spread across the middle of the phone, plus a numberpad that's made up of thin, tightly arranged keys no bigger than rice grains - also backed by silver plastic. That plasticky feel to the lower half of the front extends to the paterned back panel too - possibly Nokia's way of keeping down the price of this high-end specified device. A shame, as a high-end finish would have been welcome too.
While some people may disagree about the look and love the N82's slightly retro design touches, the numberpad is an issue. It's unclear why the keys should be so finger-unfriendily small and cramped - the phone is no ultra-tiny handset; there's plenty enough space below the 2.4-inch QVGA display to have fitted in a more manageable set of keys if Nokia had decided to. Similarly, numbers and controls could have been marked a bit clearer, as white on silver can be tricky to make out.
The navigation D-pad on the N82 is also a touch too flush with the adjoining panels containing the other control. Pressing the left or right control risks accidental thumb-creep onto one of the other keys, which are positioned in pairs on either side. As well as standard-issue Nokia softkeys, menu access button and clear key, there's a thin Multimedia menu key squeezed in on the right of the control pad too.
Cosmetic and finger-tapping niggles aside, the Nokia N82 is a delight as a platform for enjoying multimedia content. Nokia has enabled this smartphone with a neat bit of auto-rotating screen technology that uses a motion sensor to swap between portrait and landscape mode as the phone is tilted. It's a nice touch, adding to the general high-end feel and simplifying the way you can view content to maximum effect.
The phone's size - it measures 112(h) x 50.2(w) x 17.3(d)mm and weighs 114g - may be hefty, even for a candybar-style mobile (it's larger than the N73), but it certainly becomes a plus point when you're using the N82 as a camera.
The added bulk means you have a digital camera-like handful to hold onto while you're composing shots or capturing video images. The camera can be activated by switching open the lens cover slider on the back, bringing the 5-megapixel, Carl Zeiss Optics-armed camera into play. Buttons on the side of the N82 become the camera shutter control and zoom keys when the phone is held sideways, like a camera. That's typical for any phone with camera pretensions.
However, the performance of the N82 could definitely not be classed as typical. The quality of the images you can capture is hugely impressive. You can achieve remarkable results for a cameraphone, with exceptional detail and precision. Images are sharp and the internal metering system is quick and agile in responding to changing lighting conditions. The autofocus system works effectively too, with a 2-step shutter system helping you to finesse focusing satisfactorily.
The N82 also introduces to Nokia's Nseries a Xenon flash instead of an LED light to illuminate low light shots. This offers a big improvement in quality for night-time shots, murky indoors images and other poor lighting conditions. The Xenon flash provides strong, full fill-in lighting, but is integrated well enough with the camera tech to avoid swamping images with light or whiting out shots.
The user interface used here is the same as employed on the N95 8GB. There's a macro mode which helps you capture sharp close-up images, at up to 10cm from the subject. There's a good selection of settings controls too, so you can adjust white, balance, exposure control, light sensitivity, contrast, sharpness and so on to suit your creative tastes or override the auto system.
Video shot on the N82 is higher quality than the norm too. You can capture footage at VGA resolution at 30fps frame rate, giving smooth playback that's relatively detailed for a cameraphone. This can be enjoyed on a PC screen or fed via a supplied TV-Out cable to home television via phono inputs. This cable also allows you to project pictures on to the TV screen, or maps, websites, games and pretty much anything you'd normally see on the phone's display.
If you want to tweak captured images or edit video, the N82 is equipped with some onboard software to give you some useful image manipulation tools. They're not hugely sophisticated, but welcome in a phone. Another image-orientated option others will welcome is the ability to add pics directly to Vox or Flickr online from the phone as one of the standard options.
Having maps of the entire UK and Republic of Ireland in your pocket is pretty useful too. The Assisted GPS (A-GPS) system on this phone utilises a built in GPS receiver plus network location information to ensure fast fixes on your pocket and accurate pinpointing on onscreen maps. The N82 's supplied 2GB MicroSD memory card is pre-loaded with UK and Ireland mapping information, points of interest and addresses. Nokia Maps software on the phone can home in on your position and pull it up onscreen rapidly - satellite fixes are quick and reliable, usually taking 30 seconds to a minute from activation.
You can plan routes and search for locations quickly and easily and get instructions for navigation. Full voice turn-by-tun navigation is normally an upgrade, but Nokia is supplying N82 buyers with a free three month trial of the service, after which users can choose whether to subscribe or not.
The full voice navigation package makes it perform much more like an in-car sat nav system, although mapping information and detailed search facilities can be useful in themselves. The system enable you to get sat nav instructions for either on-foot or in-car modes and view maps in 2D or 3D. We found the system straightforward to use, accurate and responsive, and it's certainly a worthwhile mobile phone extra to have. We expect a whole lot more Nokias to come with GPS this year.
Using GPS on the phone will have an impact on battery life, so it's worth making sure you have a full charge if you're expecting a long route guidance session, or an in-car charger to maintain power as you go along. It's also possible to upgrade mapping info online, by purchasing downloadable guides or getting mapping updates for free automatically in areas where you don't have mapping coverage.
The multimedia functionality of the N82 is similar to the N95 8GB, although there are no dedicated music or video player controls on this model. The music player inside is Nokia's latest S60 standard device, while RealPlayer software takes care of video playback.
Again, Nokia's music player is functional, neatly designed without being eye-catchingly innovative. Tracks are arranged in standard categories, and playback is operated by the D-pad.
You can easily sync tracks with a PC's Windows Media Player using the supplied USB cable, or copy tracks over using Nokia's Nseries PC Suite software. Alternatively, dragging tracks over using the MicroSD card as a mass storage drive will do the trick too.
Audio quality can be excellent if you swap the run-of-the-mill earphones Nokia supplies with higher quality ones of your own; usefully, there's a 3.5mm jack on the top of the phone to accommodate any regular set. Our Bose in-ear set tested on the N82 really banged up quality levels, revealing more lower frequencies and smoothing out some of the harsher top end the supplied earphones gave. There are stereo speakers on the side too, so you can crank out sounds to entertain/annoy others too - they're loud but lacking in bass. Plugging in headphones also give you the option of tuning into the onboard FM radio.
The N82 has a full Nokia Web Browser onboard, so you can browse the full internet fairly easily - and quickly too using Wi-Fi or 3G. The N82 is also geared up to support Nokia's latest online content applications and services that are collectively grouped under the 'Ovi' umbrella. It's one of a handful of Nseries handsets that currently supports the Nokia Music Store over-the-air and PC-based music download service. Nokia Video Centre, a streaming video service bringing together a number of online video sources, is also supported, while the N82 is N-Gage gaming enabled too.
While N-Gage is yet to launch, there are impressive-looking preview games loaded on the phone, plus a download option for the full N-Gage app when it goes live.
The N82 caters for work as well as play. There's an easy to set up and use email client that can handle a variety of attachments. Zip manager, Quickoffice and an Adobe PDF reader application give you full viewing rights to documents received or copied to the phone, while you can pay to upgrade to editing using the Quickoffice viewer software. With the tricky numberpad, you may be inclined to connect up an optional Nokia Bluetooth Qwerty keyboard to help with typing - there is support for this upgrade too.
As is normal with Nokia smartphones, the N82 comes with sufficient organiser functions to keep you busy, including calendar, to do lists, and comprehensive contacts, which can be synced with a PC using Nokia's standard software. Stereo Bluetooth and UPnP connectivity are also on the spec list.
The N82's battery pack isn't the same upgraded power unit that's been packaged with the N95 8GB. Quoted battery life is consequently slimmer than you can expect with Nokia's top-of-the-range sliderphone. Nonetheless, Nokia estimates a best-case scenario of up to 225 hours standby when using the phone on a GSM network or 210 hours on 3G networks. Talktime is reckoned at 260 minutes on GSM or 190 minutes on 3G. Music playback, with the mobile connectivity switched off, can roll for up to 10 hours, according to Nokia, while video playback alone can reach up to 200 minutes.
Every multimedia-packed 3G phone has to negotiate power trade-offs, and with added A-GPS and Wi-FI in the mix, there are extra potential demands on resources with the N82. While personal usage patterns will determine individuals' specific power handling experiences, with moderate gadget-bashing we found the N82 to cope for 3 days comfortably between charges. Take more pics or surf on Wi-Fi or a while, and you'll get less. But overall the battery rundown wasn't bad at all for a handset that has so much functionality to occupy your time.
The N82 puts in a superb performance as a cameraphone, producing some of the best pictures you're currently likely to get from a mobile phone. The handling of the camera is straightforward and the automatic metering system onboard is very accommodating for casual snappers. The N82's other GPS headline-grabbing function works admirably well too, and is a useful addition to any pocket phone's armoury.
We were a bit frustrated by the keypad layout - too small for a big phone - and a bit disappointed that the phone's too-plastic finish wasn't improved to match the stunning device inside.
The N82 is still, however, a remarkable mobile phone that offers a top range of features, excellent connectivity and fine imaging qualities. If you're after a candybar equivalent of the N95, you've got it with spades.
** Price- Rs 21,000
Nokia 7310 Supernova review
The Finnish telecom giant Nokia is best known for its large scale mobile phone production and user friendly devices which makes it the leader in the mobile phone business. But it has never been serious about the style quotient, however it seems with the Supernova series mobile phones, it wants to cater to the fashion conscious section who want the mobile phone's looks to change depending on thier own looks or mood. And Nokia 7310 Supernova is a testimony of that.
Although slightly reminiscent of its predecessors including the 7210, the 7310 Supernova still has a slight wow factor to its appearance.
Feature-wise the handset could be placed between the low-to mid end of the market, flaunting a now industry standard two-megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom, and FM Radio with RDS, this Supernova handset appears to be suitable more for the ladies, who might be more interested in the style of their phones rather than somehting that'll throw the competition out of the water.
The 7310 is part of Nokia's Supernova range, which has been designed to be altered in looks depending on your moods or wardrobe. The Supernova range should easily change with you. Being one of Nokia's first candybar handsets to reintroduce the interchangeable cover since the days of the classic 3210 and friends, the 7310 can change from Steel Blue to Wasabi Green and a firm favourite with the ladies, Candy Pink simply by changing the Xpress-On covers.
Taking inspiration from the likes of the LG Shine, Nokia has hidden the screen of the Nokia 7310 Supernova beneath a mirrored surface. Once the handset is on and not in standby mode, the 240x320 QVGA screen appears as if by magic. This does cause some problems when it's sunny outside as it's hard to see exactly what's on your screen. What is really needed here is a light sensor to adjust the screen brightness as the ligh changes outside. However, if you're in optimum lighting conditions, the screen is bright and vibrant thanks to the 16 million colours.
The camera can be considered as adequate for fun snaps, as this is what the Supernova range is intended to be. Without a flash or autofocus, photos won't be anything special. The same goes for video capturing, great to quickly record funny moments but its not so great for playback or YouTubing.
It's a shame though that Nokia fitted the phone with a 2.5mm headphone jack instead of the universally used 3.5mm. Just like any other Nokia S40 handset, the music player is standard and plays backs a number of files such as MP3, AAC, eAAC and WMA with the added ability to add album art too.
To store all that music on your going to need a micro SD card because there isn't a capacious internal memory on this 7310 Supernova.The slot is once again hidden beneath the Xpress-On Cover next to the sim card. We must add that the actually getting to the battery and sim/memory slots is frustratingly annoying as the case if hard to get off.
With many low to mid-end competitive handsets now coming equipped with 3G, it's a shame that the Nokia 7310 Supernova only features GPRS. To make this blow a little lighter, the Finnish king of telecoms has bundled in Opera Mini and Yahoo Go! With Opera Mini pre-installed, mobile browsing is made less painstaking as the app renders sites for mobile use.
Another application hidden in the collections folder is Nokia's WidSets, first introduced on the Nokia 5310. This application simply allows Nokia 7310 Supernova users to use access customizable widgets from their chosen sites such as Wikipedia, eBay, and BBC News. This is a great app for the latest info and news as it is pushed to your phone rather than you having to look for the sites on the browser.
Its great to see 'old skool' swappable fascias being phased back in with the Nokia 7310 Supernova, but is it to late for feature-hungry consumers? We defiantly rate the 7310 Supernova as a stylish handset for style-conscious people! It's a sleek phone for low/mid end users that don't want to spend much to have a decent phone.
Although slightly reminiscent of its predecessors including the 7210, the 7310 Supernova still has a slight wow factor to its appearance.
Feature-wise the handset could be placed between the low-to mid end of the market, flaunting a now industry standard two-megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom, and FM Radio with RDS, this Supernova handset appears to be suitable more for the ladies, who might be more interested in the style of their phones rather than somehting that'll throw the competition out of the water.
The 7310 is part of Nokia's Supernova range, which has been designed to be altered in looks depending on your moods or wardrobe. The Supernova range should easily change with you. Being one of Nokia's first candybar handsets to reintroduce the interchangeable cover since the days of the classic 3210 and friends, the 7310 can change from Steel Blue to Wasabi Green and a firm favourite with the ladies, Candy Pink simply by changing the Xpress-On covers.
Taking inspiration from the likes of the LG Shine, Nokia has hidden the screen of the Nokia 7310 Supernova beneath a mirrored surface. Once the handset is on and not in standby mode, the 240x320 QVGA screen appears as if by magic. This does cause some problems when it's sunny outside as it's hard to see exactly what's on your screen. What is really needed here is a light sensor to adjust the screen brightness as the ligh changes outside. However, if you're in optimum lighting conditions, the screen is bright and vibrant thanks to the 16 million colours.
The camera can be considered as adequate for fun snaps, as this is what the Supernova range is intended to be. Without a flash or autofocus, photos won't be anything special. The same goes for video capturing, great to quickly record funny moments but its not so great for playback or YouTubing.
It's a shame though that Nokia fitted the phone with a 2.5mm headphone jack instead of the universally used 3.5mm. Just like any other Nokia S40 handset, the music player is standard and plays backs a number of files such as MP3, AAC, eAAC and WMA with the added ability to add album art too.
To store all that music on your going to need a micro SD card because there isn't a capacious internal memory on this 7310 Supernova.The slot is once again hidden beneath the Xpress-On Cover next to the sim card. We must add that the actually getting to the battery and sim/memory slots is frustratingly annoying as the case if hard to get off.
With many low to mid-end competitive handsets now coming equipped with 3G, it's a shame that the Nokia 7310 Supernova only features GPRS. To make this blow a little lighter, the Finnish king of telecoms has bundled in Opera Mini and Yahoo Go! With Opera Mini pre-installed, mobile browsing is made less painstaking as the app renders sites for mobile use.
Another application hidden in the collections folder is Nokia's WidSets, first introduced on the Nokia 5310. This application simply allows Nokia 7310 Supernova users to use access customizable widgets from their chosen sites such as Wikipedia, eBay, and BBC News. This is a great app for the latest info and news as it is pushed to your phone rather than you having to look for the sites on the browser.
Its great to see 'old skool' swappable fascias being phased back in with the Nokia 7310 Supernova, but is it to late for feature-hungry consumers? We defiantly rate the 7310 Supernova as a stylish handset for style-conscious people! It's a sleek phone for low/mid end users that don't want to spend much to have a decent phone.
Nokia 3120 Classic review
Nokia's NSeries phones may be a cult above the rest but its classic series phones are no lesser Gods and the Nokia 3120 Classic, a simple yet stylish candybar 3G phone is one of its best.
We shouldn't forget the Finnish giant built its numero uno manufacturer rep on easy-to-use bread and butter blowers and the 3120 Classic is a prime example of Nokia's uncanny knack for rolling out well groomed everyman handsets.
In fairness, the 3120 Classic has lot more to offer than just the basic 'bread and butter' talk and texter, punching around the lower mid-range level with a tidy set of features including original flavoured 3G download speeds, microSD card slot, built-in music player and FM radio plus a two-megapixel camera complete with LED flash.
Like its fellow Classic clan members, the 3120's design is clean and uncluttered, if a little unremarkable, although its rounded tapered bottom makes it more elegant than some of its more rigid stablemates.
At 13.4mm thick and a nimble 85 grams, the 3120 is also very trim and lightweight, slipping easily and unnoticed into the pocket. Naturally, for a phone of this ranking there is a little creak and groan of plastic but the 3120 is, in general, soundly built.
The 3120 is clearly drunk on Nokia's famed user friendliness. Your thumbs will love the spacious keypad and sturdy joypad and it's brilliantly geared for speed texting. Similarly, the Symbian S40 UI is intuitive to work through with the homescreen highly customisable.
An exhaustive amount of popular functions (57 was the last count) can be added to the shortcut bar while there's even space below this carousel for three other features like calendar, appointments and web search.
Of course, if you want your homescreen free for photo wallpapering then you can just deactivate the shortcuts. To round off this personalisation party, the two soft keys can be customised to pretty much whatever function you desire.
With maximum 384Kbps 3G speeds onboard, web browsing is pretty nippy. It's made easier by the preloaded Opera Mini web browser that probably ranks as one of the better mobile browsers on the scene. It brilliantly repackages full fat web pages to load quickly and neatly fit smaller screens and with the 3120 only sporting a bright but average-sized QVGA-quality 2-inch display, its skills are very welcome.
If you don't know your outgoing server deets or proxy settings from your elbow then setting up email accounts can be a pain in the proverbial. Thankfully, the 3120 does all that tricky donkey work for you and setting up your personal POP and IMAP email client is a breeze. After we gave up our email address and password, our Google Gmail account was up and running in a flash.
The 3120's basic two-megapixel snapper is only really good enough for MMS, blogging and wallpapering. With no dedicated shutter key you'll have to set one of the soft keys to fire up the camera and keen snappers may be disappointed, but unsurprised, by a lack of autofocus.
If you like to play Mr. Tinkerman it does offer a sprinkling of photos modes including picture effects, brightness levels, self timer and a rather crude LED flash but really we wouldn't bother. Its video capturing capabilities are equally feeble, shooting in a maximum resolution of 352x288 pixels at 15fps.
The built-in music player and FM radio are decent performers and probably the best features on the 3120. Unfortunately we weren't able to really gauge the music player's true sonic talents because, criminally, no stereo headphones were bundled with the phone. If you want to hook up a pair via the 2.5mm socket then you'll have to visit the Nokia shop and shell out 15 quid for a pair of HS-47 earphones.
But overlook the headphone headache and the music player seems very capable with simple access to all of your tunes via the standard playlist, artists, albums, genres arrangement. A seven-strong equaliser, including two customisable settings, gives you options to funk up the audio while support for A2DP stereo Bluetooth means you can stream your music wirelessly via a compatible set of headphones or speakers.
The 3120 Classic brilliantly keeps up Nokia's winning tradition of solid 3G handsets like the 6233, 6151 and 6120 Classic. Not everyone craves the latest and greatest whizz-bang mobile innovations, so if you're in the market for a dependable, user-friendly but sleek 3G blower with a smattering of cool mobile features then the 3120 Classic definitely has your name on it.
We shouldn't forget the Finnish giant built its numero uno manufacturer rep on easy-to-use bread and butter blowers and the 3120 Classic is a prime example of Nokia's uncanny knack for rolling out well groomed everyman handsets.
In fairness, the 3120 Classic has lot more to offer than just the basic 'bread and butter' talk and texter, punching around the lower mid-range level with a tidy set of features including original flavoured 3G download speeds, microSD card slot, built-in music player and FM radio plus a two-megapixel camera complete with LED flash.
Like its fellow Classic clan members, the 3120's design is clean and uncluttered, if a little unremarkable, although its rounded tapered bottom makes it more elegant than some of its more rigid stablemates.
At 13.4mm thick and a nimble 85 grams, the 3120 is also very trim and lightweight, slipping easily and unnoticed into the pocket. Naturally, for a phone of this ranking there is a little creak and groan of plastic but the 3120 is, in general, soundly built.
The 3120 is clearly drunk on Nokia's famed user friendliness. Your thumbs will love the spacious keypad and sturdy joypad and it's brilliantly geared for speed texting. Similarly, the Symbian S40 UI is intuitive to work through with the homescreen highly customisable.
An exhaustive amount of popular functions (57 was the last count) can be added to the shortcut bar while there's even space below this carousel for three other features like calendar, appointments and web search.
Of course, if you want your homescreen free for photo wallpapering then you can just deactivate the shortcuts. To round off this personalisation party, the two soft keys can be customised to pretty much whatever function you desire.
With maximum 384Kbps 3G speeds onboard, web browsing is pretty nippy. It's made easier by the preloaded Opera Mini web browser that probably ranks as one of the better mobile browsers on the scene. It brilliantly repackages full fat web pages to load quickly and neatly fit smaller screens and with the 3120 only sporting a bright but average-sized QVGA-quality 2-inch display, its skills are very welcome.
If you don't know your outgoing server deets or proxy settings from your elbow then setting up email accounts can be a pain in the proverbial. Thankfully, the 3120 does all that tricky donkey work for you and setting up your personal POP and IMAP email client is a breeze. After we gave up our email address and password, our Google Gmail account was up and running in a flash.
The 3120's basic two-megapixel snapper is only really good enough for MMS, blogging and wallpapering. With no dedicated shutter key you'll have to set one of the soft keys to fire up the camera and keen snappers may be disappointed, but unsurprised, by a lack of autofocus.
If you like to play Mr. Tinkerman it does offer a sprinkling of photos modes including picture effects, brightness levels, self timer and a rather crude LED flash but really we wouldn't bother. Its video capturing capabilities are equally feeble, shooting in a maximum resolution of 352x288 pixels at 15fps.
The built-in music player and FM radio are decent performers and probably the best features on the 3120. Unfortunately we weren't able to really gauge the music player's true sonic talents because, criminally, no stereo headphones were bundled with the phone. If you want to hook up a pair via the 2.5mm socket then you'll have to visit the Nokia shop and shell out 15 quid for a pair of HS-47 earphones.
But overlook the headphone headache and the music player seems very capable with simple access to all of your tunes via the standard playlist, artists, albums, genres arrangement. A seven-strong equaliser, including two customisable settings, gives you options to funk up the audio while support for A2DP stereo Bluetooth means you can stream your music wirelessly via a compatible set of headphones or speakers.
The 3120 Classic brilliantly keeps up Nokia's winning tradition of solid 3G handsets like the 6233, 6151 and 6120 Classic. Not everyone craves the latest and greatest whizz-bang mobile innovations, so if you're in the market for a dependable, user-friendly but sleek 3G blower with a smattering of cool mobile features then the 3120 Classic definitely has your name on it.
Nokia 7610 Supernova review
When the Finnish giant Nokia announced the Supernova range back in June 2008, it claimed it wanted to “let consumers express their personal styles on a number of levels ranging from stylish designs, to personalisation through vibrantly hued exchangeable covers.”
The vibrantly hued exchangeable covers we received with our review 7610 Supernova were of the red and ‘steel’ blue variety. The blue one was already attached and trying to get it off to sort out the SIM and change the cover was like trying to steal candy from the giant sized baby in Honey I Blew up the Kids. Much like the film, it was also quite painful to watch.
After reading the instructions printed on the box itself and in the handbook and despite prodding and poking the casing for the best part of half an hour I was still none the wiser. At one point, the phone’s innards nearly came off with the back casing. In a nutshell, its problematic to take off the casing.
Once I’d overcome the casing debacle, attention was turned to the rest of the phone’s aesthetics. At just 99g with dimensions of 48x15x98mm, this slider handset is pretty compact and lightweight.
The 2-inch QVGA screen (320x240 pixel resolution and supporting up to 16.7 million colours) is ample and I found the mirrored screen (which becomes a normal screen when in use) a bit quirky although highly prone to greasy finger marks. I can imagine it’ll have the magpie effect for those who apply lipstick several times an hour, however.
Alas, the keypad is cumbersome to text due to the fact that the keys (particularly on the right-hand side) kept dipping into the recess. Textaholics beware: This keypad is likely to make you very angry.
I’ve reviewed quite a few high-end handsets in recent months so, unfortunately, I was looking at this handset with higher expectations than perhaps I should. Having said that, the 7610 isn’t overtly marketed as a budget handset (it's free on even the lowest monthly price plans) which means I was within my rights to be slightly disappointed.
On the bright side, and to be fair, there’s nothing really I fervently disliked about the 7610 Supernova’s features.
The 3.2-megapixel camera isn’t going to win any awards – especially with bigger megapixel boys currently on the block – but it’s not bad either and boasts a dual LED flash, auto focus and 8x digital zoom. Our only real gripe camera-wise is the fact that the screen's a tad misleading prior to taking pictures, making our subject appear a bit dull and grainy. Thankfully, the final photos are clear and fairly good quality given the stats. Video recording is a simple process and there aren't any complaints in terms of quality.
The dedicated music player key on the right of the handset is a useful addition from a non-music centric handset and the bundled headphones – although not the coolest-looking buds on the market - deliver top notch quality sound even at a fairly low level of volume.
The rest of the UI (the phone is running 5th gen S40) was pretty easy to use and navigate if a little basic compared to other handsets on the market. That said, browsing the web is fairly pain free thanks to EDGE and we think the bundled ‘Collections’ folder of applications like a clothes/shoe size converter and Flickr shortcut button are likely to prove big hits amongst the so-called YouTube generation who like to shop, upload pictures and spend time of Facebook et al.
The whole theme colouriser malarkey (which involves taking a picture of something and peppering themes with similar tones) was a bit niche for me but I can see it being a massive hit with the teens.
All in all, what Nokia has tried to achieve with the 7610 Supernova is a great idea, well presented in theory but unfortunately a little bit poorly delivered in reality. If this were a classroom, the mobile maker would currently be in detention preparing for exam re-sits.
**Price- Rs 11,000
The vibrantly hued exchangeable covers we received with our review 7610 Supernova were of the red and ‘steel’ blue variety. The blue one was already attached and trying to get it off to sort out the SIM and change the cover was like trying to steal candy from the giant sized baby in Honey I Blew up the Kids. Much like the film, it was also quite painful to watch.
After reading the instructions printed on the box itself and in the handbook and despite prodding and poking the casing for the best part of half an hour I was still none the wiser. At one point, the phone’s innards nearly came off with the back casing. In a nutshell, its problematic to take off the casing.
Once I’d overcome the casing debacle, attention was turned to the rest of the phone’s aesthetics. At just 99g with dimensions of 48x15x98mm, this slider handset is pretty compact and lightweight.
The 2-inch QVGA screen (320x240 pixel resolution and supporting up to 16.7 million colours) is ample and I found the mirrored screen (which becomes a normal screen when in use) a bit quirky although highly prone to greasy finger marks. I can imagine it’ll have the magpie effect for those who apply lipstick several times an hour, however.
Alas, the keypad is cumbersome to text due to the fact that the keys (particularly on the right-hand side) kept dipping into the recess. Textaholics beware: This keypad is likely to make you very angry.
I’ve reviewed quite a few high-end handsets in recent months so, unfortunately, I was looking at this handset with higher expectations than perhaps I should. Having said that, the 7610 isn’t overtly marketed as a budget handset (it's free on even the lowest monthly price plans) which means I was within my rights to be slightly disappointed.
On the bright side, and to be fair, there’s nothing really I fervently disliked about the 7610 Supernova’s features.
The 3.2-megapixel camera isn’t going to win any awards – especially with bigger megapixel boys currently on the block – but it’s not bad either and boasts a dual LED flash, auto focus and 8x digital zoom. Our only real gripe camera-wise is the fact that the screen's a tad misleading prior to taking pictures, making our subject appear a bit dull and grainy. Thankfully, the final photos are clear and fairly good quality given the stats. Video recording is a simple process and there aren't any complaints in terms of quality.
The dedicated music player key on the right of the handset is a useful addition from a non-music centric handset and the bundled headphones – although not the coolest-looking buds on the market - deliver top notch quality sound even at a fairly low level of volume.
The rest of the UI (the phone is running 5th gen S40) was pretty easy to use and navigate if a little basic compared to other handsets on the market. That said, browsing the web is fairly pain free thanks to EDGE and we think the bundled ‘Collections’ folder of applications like a clothes/shoe size converter and Flickr shortcut button are likely to prove big hits amongst the so-called YouTube generation who like to shop, upload pictures and spend time of Facebook et al.
The whole theme colouriser malarkey (which involves taking a picture of something and peppering themes with similar tones) was a bit niche for me but I can see it being a massive hit with the teens.
All in all, what Nokia has tried to achieve with the 7610 Supernova is a great idea, well presented in theory but unfortunately a little bit poorly delivered in reality. If this were a classroom, the mobile maker would currently be in detention preparing for exam re-sits.
**Price- Rs 11,000
Nokia N81 8GB review
Nokia's N-Gage and N-Gage QD platforms had been very popular in India, mostly among Indian youths and gaming enthusiasts. However these two handsets were poorly developed then and Nokia wanted to bring some new blood to its gaming devices. Then came the Nokia N81 with 8GB onboard memor
The Nokia N81 8GB is a slider phone, and one of Nokia's many Symbian S60 multimedia smartphones. It boasts Wi-Fi and 3G mobile connectivity, though it doesn't support t high-speed HSDPA technology for broadband-speed mobile connections.
The N81 is one of the first Nokia phones geared up for downloading tunes directly over-the-air from the Nokia Music Store. It is also equipped for Nokia's N-Gage advanced mobile game download and interactive gaming service - so having Wi-Fi onboard for high-speed downloads is a welcome option.
The N81 8GB is no pocket-pleasing slimline phone, however, weighing in at 140 grams - heavier than the GPS-enabled Nokia N95 - and measuring 102(h) x 50(w) x 17.9(d)mm. It doesn't have the high-end camera functionality of the N95 either, making do with a standard issue 2-megapixel camera. It does though mean room for a gorgeously detailed display - an active matrix 2.4 inch, QVGA (320 x 240 pixels) screen resolving up to 16.7 million colours.
With 8GB waiting to be filled up with tunes, the music functionality is obviously the headline grabber with this device. The N81 8GB comes with a set of music player control buttons arranged around the phone's main Navi scroll key D-pad; these can't be seen in regular use, but start glowing when the music player's activated.
Nokia has also introduced a new option for the Navi scroll key pad to aid music finding - an iPod-alike Navi wheel function. This turns the silver ring of the Navi scroll key the into a touch-sensitive speed scroller that works with the music player and the multimedia gallery.
The Navi wheel option has to be activated by delving into the menu system - curiously, it's not the default option that you'd expect. While it's useful, it's not as responsive or fast as an iPod wheel, and not such a smooth experience.
Another new Nokia control button option debuting on the N81 8GB is a multimedia key - an unlabelled silver key that's next to the D-pad. This slips users straight into a multimedia menu carousel system, pulling up options for the music player, gallery, internet browser and so on.
It's part of a new interface being developed by Nokia, and looks rather swish. You can also get the regular Symbian S60 menu system by pressing the standard squiggle-marked key on the bottom left of the keypad.
Sound like a lot of button-action going on here? You're right. For a slider phone, the Nokia N81 8GB has a whole heap of buttons cluttering up the area beneath the display. The two call/end keys are positioned on the edge of the control array, as if they've been squeezed to the side. Nokia might be congratulating itself on fitting so many controls into such a small area, but combined with the smooth surface, it actually ends up creating too much potential for mis-pressing keys. And that's even before we start talking about large-fingered folk...
The music player in itself does an excellent job of playing tunes. Tracks can be transferred from a PC using a variety of methods; the N81 8GB can sync with Windows Media Player 11 software when connected via its USB lead, or users can use supplied Nokia PC Suite software to manage and load content.
Alternatively, it's simple to drag and drop tracks by slipping the device into mass storage mode. They're arranged into various standard categories for playback, and support cover art too.
The stereo speakers on the side of the N81 8GB do a fairly decent job on playback - much better than most mobiles, with enough volume and lack of harsh tinniness. Still, there's virtually no bass to speak of. The supplied headphones reveal the full sound, and impressive it is too. You can upgrade to better headphones easily, as the N81 8GB has a standard 3.5mm headphone socket on top. Listen to tunes through decent in-ear phones or over-ear 'phones and you will really appreciate fully the excellent quality of the music player - we'd recommend giving it a go.
You can supplement your side-loaded tunes by browsing and buying at the Nokia Music Store. This is a quick internet link away in the Music apps folder. If you access this in Wi-Fi coverage, you'll save yourself potential mobile network operator data charges, as well as speed up the download process. It's still acceptably quick on standard 3G if you're out and about, but if you're not on a flat rate data deal you could end up paying a lot more of top of Nokia's per-track charge.
For free music and more, you could also try the built in FM radio - it's another welcome extra. You can also subscribe to audio and video podcasts over the air too, using a Nokia Podcasting app.
As well as the button fest on the bottom half of the N81, the device sports a couple of additional 'hidden' keys at the top of the screen - on either side of the earpiece, next to the secondary video-calling camera. These come into play when the N81 is in gaming mode. They're designed to be part of the console-style keypad arrangement for N-Gage gaming, with some of the main control keys also doubling up as gaming controls.
Our review N81 8GB came with sample N-Gage style games - Space Impact, FIFA 07, and Asphalt 3 Street Rules - to give an impressions of the graphical complexity of the platform, although the full N-Gage gaming application was not available to download when we tested the phone. it will be available later.
On top of the music and games, the Nokia N81 8GB offers a nicely featured, if not state-of-the-art, main camera. It's a 2-megapixel shooter with flash, so it's not one of Nokia's best, but it can produce good detailed shots. There's a decent spread of control options, for exposure and white balance, light sensitivity and there's even red-eye reduction. But autofocus is absent, as is a macro shooting mode, limiting close up performance.
The camera user interface is well constructed, though a touch slow to respond. Snaps can be stored or sent as messages, and also uploaded at a click to Flickr or Vox online blogs. Video footage can also be uploaded as an option; footage can be shot in VGA quality at 15 frames per second, so it's reasonably good quality for a cameraphone. Downloaded videos can be played back using the onboard RealPlayer
Among the other features, the N81 8GB has a full Nokia Web Browser, and is loaded with Nokia Maps software; this can be used with an optional external Bluetooth GPS receiver to get mapping and satellite navigation instructions sent over the air to the phone. Email support is included, with document viewers for attachments.
Nokia also supplies the N81 8GB with extensive personal information management apps, including calendar, contacts, to-do lists and so on. There are plenty of other apps, including voice memo and voice commands, plus a neat text-to-voice reader for texts and other messages.
The huge storage capacity (for a mobile phone) carried by the Nokia N81 8GB is obviously going to attract some mobile buyers, particularly as this phone is considerably cheaper than the 8GB-packing iPhone. Wi-Fi is a bonus too for fast downloading of tracks and other content.While it does have a pretty good set of features, the controls aren't the best arranged Nokia has ever produced, can be fiddly and invites mispressing buttons. The camera is another weak point too. Anyone considering this device are advised to look at the more expensive but much better specified Nokia N95 8GB.
**Price- Rs 23,000
The Nokia N81 8GB is a slider phone, and one of Nokia's many Symbian S60 multimedia smartphones. It boasts Wi-Fi and 3G mobile connectivity, though it doesn't support t high-speed HSDPA technology for broadband-speed mobile connections.
The N81 is one of the first Nokia phones geared up for downloading tunes directly over-the-air from the Nokia Music Store. It is also equipped for Nokia's N-Gage advanced mobile game download and interactive gaming service - so having Wi-Fi onboard for high-speed downloads is a welcome option.
The N81 8GB is no pocket-pleasing slimline phone, however, weighing in at 140 grams - heavier than the GPS-enabled Nokia N95 - and measuring 102(h) x 50(w) x 17.9(d)mm. It doesn't have the high-end camera functionality of the N95 either, making do with a standard issue 2-megapixel camera. It does though mean room for a gorgeously detailed display - an active matrix 2.4 inch, QVGA (320 x 240 pixels) screen resolving up to 16.7 million colours.
With 8GB waiting to be filled up with tunes, the music functionality is obviously the headline grabber with this device. The N81 8GB comes with a set of music player control buttons arranged around the phone's main Navi scroll key D-pad; these can't be seen in regular use, but start glowing when the music player's activated.
Nokia has also introduced a new option for the Navi scroll key pad to aid music finding - an iPod-alike Navi wheel function. This turns the silver ring of the Navi scroll key the into a touch-sensitive speed scroller that works with the music player and the multimedia gallery.
The Navi wheel option has to be activated by delving into the menu system - curiously, it's not the default option that you'd expect. While it's useful, it's not as responsive or fast as an iPod wheel, and not such a smooth experience.
Another new Nokia control button option debuting on the N81 8GB is a multimedia key - an unlabelled silver key that's next to the D-pad. This slips users straight into a multimedia menu carousel system, pulling up options for the music player, gallery, internet browser and so on.
It's part of a new interface being developed by Nokia, and looks rather swish. You can also get the regular Symbian S60 menu system by pressing the standard squiggle-marked key on the bottom left of the keypad.
Sound like a lot of button-action going on here? You're right. For a slider phone, the Nokia N81 8GB has a whole heap of buttons cluttering up the area beneath the display. The two call/end keys are positioned on the edge of the control array, as if they've been squeezed to the side. Nokia might be congratulating itself on fitting so many controls into such a small area, but combined with the smooth surface, it actually ends up creating too much potential for mis-pressing keys. And that's even before we start talking about large-fingered folk...
The music player in itself does an excellent job of playing tunes. Tracks can be transferred from a PC using a variety of methods; the N81 8GB can sync with Windows Media Player 11 software when connected via its USB lead, or users can use supplied Nokia PC Suite software to manage and load content.
Alternatively, it's simple to drag and drop tracks by slipping the device into mass storage mode. They're arranged into various standard categories for playback, and support cover art too.
The stereo speakers on the side of the N81 8GB do a fairly decent job on playback - much better than most mobiles, with enough volume and lack of harsh tinniness. Still, there's virtually no bass to speak of. The supplied headphones reveal the full sound, and impressive it is too. You can upgrade to better headphones easily, as the N81 8GB has a standard 3.5mm headphone socket on top. Listen to tunes through decent in-ear phones or over-ear 'phones and you will really appreciate fully the excellent quality of the music player - we'd recommend giving it a go.
You can supplement your side-loaded tunes by browsing and buying at the Nokia Music Store. This is a quick internet link away in the Music apps folder. If you access this in Wi-Fi coverage, you'll save yourself potential mobile network operator data charges, as well as speed up the download process. It's still acceptably quick on standard 3G if you're out and about, but if you're not on a flat rate data deal you could end up paying a lot more of top of Nokia's per-track charge.
For free music and more, you could also try the built in FM radio - it's another welcome extra. You can also subscribe to audio and video podcasts over the air too, using a Nokia Podcasting app.
As well as the button fest on the bottom half of the N81, the device sports a couple of additional 'hidden' keys at the top of the screen - on either side of the earpiece, next to the secondary video-calling camera. These come into play when the N81 is in gaming mode. They're designed to be part of the console-style keypad arrangement for N-Gage gaming, with some of the main control keys also doubling up as gaming controls.
Our review N81 8GB came with sample N-Gage style games - Space Impact, FIFA 07, and Asphalt 3 Street Rules - to give an impressions of the graphical complexity of the platform, although the full N-Gage gaming application was not available to download when we tested the phone. it will be available later.
On top of the music and games, the Nokia N81 8GB offers a nicely featured, if not state-of-the-art, main camera. It's a 2-megapixel shooter with flash, so it's not one of Nokia's best, but it can produce good detailed shots. There's a decent spread of control options, for exposure and white balance, light sensitivity and there's even red-eye reduction. But autofocus is absent, as is a macro shooting mode, limiting close up performance.
The camera user interface is well constructed, though a touch slow to respond. Snaps can be stored or sent as messages, and also uploaded at a click to Flickr or Vox online blogs. Video footage can also be uploaded as an option; footage can be shot in VGA quality at 15 frames per second, so it's reasonably good quality for a cameraphone. Downloaded videos can be played back using the onboard RealPlayer
Among the other features, the N81 8GB has a full Nokia Web Browser, and is loaded with Nokia Maps software; this can be used with an optional external Bluetooth GPS receiver to get mapping and satellite navigation instructions sent over the air to the phone. Email support is included, with document viewers for attachments.
Nokia also supplies the N81 8GB with extensive personal information management apps, including calendar, contacts, to-do lists and so on. There are plenty of other apps, including voice memo and voice commands, plus a neat text-to-voice reader for texts and other messages.
The huge storage capacity (for a mobile phone) carried by the Nokia N81 8GB is obviously going to attract some mobile buyers, particularly as this phone is considerably cheaper than the 8GB-packing iPhone. Wi-Fi is a bonus too for fast downloading of tracks and other content.While it does have a pretty good set of features, the controls aren't the best arranged Nokia has ever produced, can be fiddly and invites mispressing buttons. The camera is another weak point too. Anyone considering this device are advised to look at the more expensive but much better specified Nokia N95 8GB.
**Price- Rs 23,000
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Nokia 6500 Slide review
The Nokia 6500 Slide is a rugged, stainless steel slider phone with a sturdy frame, decent camera and a nice line-up of multimedia features and applications. And its Rs 13,500 price tag puts it in the upper middle range of the Indian market.
It's not cheap, and its 3G connectivity is yet to get used for a while over here, but you get what you pay for: a solid all-round package.
Like its sibling the 6500 Classic, the 6500 Slide looks like a quality phone as soon as you open the box. Its brushed stainless steel casing is a vast improvement on the usual plastic models, and large selection keys and a big rectangular navpad will please even the fattest-fingered users.
The final feature on the front of the 6500 Slide is a small front-facing camera, to be used for video calling if your provider permits it. Read more
It's not cheap, and its 3G connectivity is yet to get used for a while over here, but you get what you pay for: a solid all-round package.
Like its sibling the 6500 Classic, the 6500 Slide looks like a quality phone as soon as you open the box. Its brushed stainless steel casing is a vast improvement on the usual plastic models, and large selection keys and a big rectangular navpad will please even the fattest-fingered users.
The final feature on the front of the 6500 Slide is a small front-facing camera, to be used for video calling if your provider permits it. Read more
Nokia 6233 review
The Nokia 6233 is a solid all-round performer, comfortably meeting all business needs but with strong multimedia assets and EDGE/3G capabilities to boot.
For the Indian market Nokia has downplayed the 3G capability and positioned the phone as a multimedia device - 'the Nokia 6233 Music Edition'.
The music player supports a wide range of formats, the built-in speakers are stereo and there's an integrated FM radio too. Sadly any pretensions to being an iPod killer are hampered by the lack of included memory: just 70MB in total.
The candybar design of the 6233 makes all its features easily accessible, the front fascia boasting the selection buttons and call and end keys of its predecessor, the 6230. The 6233's central selection key is surrounded by a four-way navigation key which you use to navigate the phone's animated menu system.
The phone itself feels sturdy, its glossy front face and 240x320-pixel screen backing onto a rubber-coated back fascia which adds to the grip and protects somewhat against drops and shocks.
The large keys on the 6233's keypad have no metal dividers between them, making it easy to text at speed or dial numbers quickly.
Powered by Nokia's Series 40 system, the 6233 offers voice calling, texting, internet access and email, as well as the ability to run applications written in Java and Shockwave formats.
As with all Series 40 models, the animated menus are easy to use, and additional productivity features include the usual calendar, calculator, to-do list, notes, alarm clock and stopwatch tools.
The phone can be customised to your own taste by installing ringtones, wallpapers and screensavers via Bluetooth, internet download and MMS, or via a USB cable connected to a PC running Nokia's bundled PC Suite. You can also download or create themes for your phone - small packaged files that add all such desktop enhancements in one go.
The back of the phone features the Nokia 6233's 2-megapixel camera along with a handy self-portrait mirror. The camera is activated by pressing a button on the side of the phone; this key doubles up as the capture button. The camera takes clear shots at a choice of five resolutions from the full 1600x1200 down to an icon-sized 160x120, and the phone's video capture resolution is a healthy 640x480 pixels.
Various quality settings are available so you can compromise quality with memory space - the 6233's own built-in 6MB won't hold much, but the standard 64MB MicroSD card is enough for around 100 top-quality images or a handful of your favourite music tracks. And its built-in music player plays imported tracks to a high standard.
The phone also features an FM radio and voice recorder, which will record until the phone or card memory is full, should you choose. Large buttons for controlling both voice calling and music player/radio volume are conveniently located on the right side of the phone.
The Nokia 6233 is a decent phone which, while it is probably overshadowed by the more recent XpressMusic models, is more than enough for users who want to use their phone for a bit more more than just calls and texts.
For the Indian market Nokia has downplayed the 3G capability and positioned the phone as a multimedia device - 'the Nokia 6233 Music Edition'.
The music player supports a wide range of formats, the built-in speakers are stereo and there's an integrated FM radio too. Sadly any pretensions to being an iPod killer are hampered by the lack of included memory: just 70MB in total.
The candybar design of the 6233 makes all its features easily accessible, the front fascia boasting the selection buttons and call and end keys of its predecessor, the 6230. The 6233's central selection key is surrounded by a four-way navigation key which you use to navigate the phone's animated menu system.
The phone itself feels sturdy, its glossy front face and 240x320-pixel screen backing onto a rubber-coated back fascia which adds to the grip and protects somewhat against drops and shocks.
The large keys on the 6233's keypad have no metal dividers between them, making it easy to text at speed or dial numbers quickly.
Powered by Nokia's Series 40 system, the 6233 offers voice calling, texting, internet access and email, as well as the ability to run applications written in Java and Shockwave formats.
As with all Series 40 models, the animated menus are easy to use, and additional productivity features include the usual calendar, calculator, to-do list, notes, alarm clock and stopwatch tools.
The phone can be customised to your own taste by installing ringtones, wallpapers and screensavers via Bluetooth, internet download and MMS, or via a USB cable connected to a PC running Nokia's bundled PC Suite. You can also download or create themes for your phone - small packaged files that add all such desktop enhancements in one go.
The back of the phone features the Nokia 6233's 2-megapixel camera along with a handy self-portrait mirror. The camera is activated by pressing a button on the side of the phone; this key doubles up as the capture button. The camera takes clear shots at a choice of five resolutions from the full 1600x1200 down to an icon-sized 160x120, and the phone's video capture resolution is a healthy 640x480 pixels.
Various quality settings are available so you can compromise quality with memory space - the 6233's own built-in 6MB won't hold much, but the standard 64MB MicroSD card is enough for around 100 top-quality images or a handful of your favourite music tracks. And its built-in music player plays imported tracks to a high standard.
The phone also features an FM radio and voice recorder, which will record until the phone or card memory is full, should you choose. Large buttons for controlling both voice calling and music player/radio volume are conveniently located on the right side of the phone.
The Nokia 6233 is a decent phone which, while it is probably overshadowed by the more recent XpressMusic models, is more than enough for users who want to use their phone for a bit more more than just calls and texts.
Nokia 6300 review
Once, every few years, a phone company comes up with a classic design that will outlive trendiness or feature-fixated considerations: the Nokia 6300 is one of those timeless designs.
Nokia had launched the 6233 phone two weeks before it launched the 6330 in the Indian market. The hurriedness in launching the Nokia 6330 tracks back to the failure of the 6233. And Nokia as the market leader could not afford to sit long over a not-so-successful model. Then it brought the 6330, and its a classic phone.
It follows the tried and tested path forged by the 6310 and 6230i business phones - it does the basics exceptionally well, looks good and has exceptional battery life.
Of course the Nokia 6300 is not 3G, but then if you're still using a 6230i or a 6310, web access is unlikely to be a priority, and 3G is still for most of us in India a dim and distant concept.
It's a lightweight, slimline candybar which does the everyday tasks well and includes most of the current in-vogue features - camera, music player, web browser, Bluetooth - for users who want to do more than phone and text.
The 6300's build quality is excellent, and the brushed metal casing feels like it'd really go the distance. It's light but not flimsy, and the stainless steel battery cover is so rigid that it's a struggle to get it off and on again - and is unlikely to loosen over time like so many of today's plastic cases which rarely seem to see out their contracts.
The keypad follows the metallic theme, and the keys are responsive and return a healthy click. They seem a little small at first, but you'll soon be hitting all the right buttons with a little practice. The four-way navigation and main selection keys are large and equally responsive, and the other selection keys are far enough apart that you won't hit the wrong one in error. Best of all, the 6300 is small and light enough to fit neatly and comfortably into the palm of the hand.
The screen isn't huge, but the 240x320 resolution lets you view texts, web pages and photos comfortably. The Series 40 operating system is the standard efficient and intuitive Nokia fare, although the camera application is a portrait-only mode - the lack of a dedicated shutter button on the 6300 reflects the fact that the 2-megapixel camera is a useful extra rather than a primary selling point. The results are sharp and bright, though. There's also no flash, although today's LED flashes are largely ineffective anyway, and usually only reflect an ugly blue glare back off the subject.
Two LEDs on the edge of the phone flash bright blue every few second when you have an unread text or missed call. It's a subtle reminder and a useful addition to the design of the 6300.
A built-in loudspeaker is loud and distinct, and a microSD slot safely stowed away beneath the metal casing means you could store up to 2GB of music; a 128MB card comes in the box to complement the 7.8MB of on-board memory.
Standard USB connectivity means you can connect the Nokia 6300 to a PC to back up data to Nokia PC Suite, to print directly to a PictBridge printer, or simply to use the phone and its media card as a data storage device. In an industry long hampered by proprietary ports and cables, it's refreshing to see Nokia embracing an industry standard, and although no mini-USB cable is supplied in the box, if you have a digital camera or GPS device, chances are you'll have a cable lying round the house.
The Nokia 6300 is a full-featured, good looking and well-built mobile phone that will satisfy the needs of most users - including those seemingly glued to their 6310s. Quite simply a joy to use.
Nokia had launched the 6233 phone two weeks before it launched the 6330 in the Indian market. The hurriedness in launching the Nokia 6330 tracks back to the failure of the 6233. And Nokia as the market leader could not afford to sit long over a not-so-successful model. Then it brought the 6330, and its a classic phone.
It follows the tried and tested path forged by the 6310 and 6230i business phones - it does the basics exceptionally well, looks good and has exceptional battery life.
Of course the Nokia 6300 is not 3G, but then if you're still using a 6230i or a 6310, web access is unlikely to be a priority, and 3G is still for most of us in India a dim and distant concept.
It's a lightweight, slimline candybar which does the everyday tasks well and includes most of the current in-vogue features - camera, music player, web browser, Bluetooth - for users who want to do more than phone and text.
The 6300's build quality is excellent, and the brushed metal casing feels like it'd really go the distance. It's light but not flimsy, and the stainless steel battery cover is so rigid that it's a struggle to get it off and on again - and is unlikely to loosen over time like so many of today's plastic cases which rarely seem to see out their contracts.
The keypad follows the metallic theme, and the keys are responsive and return a healthy click. They seem a little small at first, but you'll soon be hitting all the right buttons with a little practice. The four-way navigation and main selection keys are large and equally responsive, and the other selection keys are far enough apart that you won't hit the wrong one in error. Best of all, the 6300 is small and light enough to fit neatly and comfortably into the palm of the hand.
The screen isn't huge, but the 240x320 resolution lets you view texts, web pages and photos comfortably. The Series 40 operating system is the standard efficient and intuitive Nokia fare, although the camera application is a portrait-only mode - the lack of a dedicated shutter button on the 6300 reflects the fact that the 2-megapixel camera is a useful extra rather than a primary selling point. The results are sharp and bright, though. There's also no flash, although today's LED flashes are largely ineffective anyway, and usually only reflect an ugly blue glare back off the subject.
Two LEDs on the edge of the phone flash bright blue every few second when you have an unread text or missed call. It's a subtle reminder and a useful addition to the design of the 6300.
A built-in loudspeaker is loud and distinct, and a microSD slot safely stowed away beneath the metal casing means you could store up to 2GB of music; a 128MB card comes in the box to complement the 7.8MB of on-board memory.
Standard USB connectivity means you can connect the Nokia 6300 to a PC to back up data to Nokia PC Suite, to print directly to a PictBridge printer, or simply to use the phone and its media card as a data storage device. In an industry long hampered by proprietary ports and cables, it's refreshing to see Nokia embracing an industry standard, and although no mini-USB cable is supplied in the box, if you have a digital camera or GPS device, chances are you'll have a cable lying round the house.
The Nokia 6300 is a full-featured, good looking and well-built mobile phone that will satisfy the needs of most users - including those seemingly glued to their 6310s. Quite simply a joy to use.
Nokia N78 review
Nokia N78 as Nokia claims is the slimmest NSeries phone that the company has brought to Indian market. Also, when the company launched the handset in India, it has preloaded digital maps of eight Indian cities with information about various points of interests like ATMs, banks, pubs, bars and others.
Also, the phone has come up with a new feature this time, the "Location Tagger" application that automatically tags location data to pictures, allowing users save pictures by date plus geographical co-ordinates.
Keeping the above features aside, let's go step by step on review. The Nokia N78 is an extremely sleek looking handset with a keypad that at first glance resembles the touch-sensitive minimalism of LG's Chocolate series, with illuminated symbols shining out from behind a flush black fascia.
But the similarity ends there, because in use it turns out that you have to physically depress the edges of the plastic fascia to access the buttons underneath. It certainly lacks the wow factor of the touch sensitive option, but, actually, it works very well indeed, and is more accurate and less prone to accidental pushes than most touch pads.
Another familiar touch is the Nokia N78's square D-pad which features a touch-sensitive Navi-wheel‚ run your thumb around the edge and it will move the cursor around the screen, skipping through the menus with ease. It might not look like an iPod scroll wheel, but it behaves exactly like one. And like Apple's innovation, the best thing about it is that it works intuitively and extremely well.
The numeric part of the N78's keypad is another matter however. Four thin strips of raised plastic underline the minimalist look (as well as the numbers) but you'll need pinpoint precision from your thumb to get the most out of it, which kind of takes the fun out of texting.
A final design nod comes with the dedicated applications button next to the D-pad. This takes you to a virtual page-style menu which you can then flick through with the N78's Navi-wheel - not unlike the scrolling system of album covers on the iPod Touch.
Sat nav and camera
The Nokia N78 comes with a built-in assisted GPS transmitter which will not only tell you where you are, but with the Nokia Maps feature (plus a goodly selection of world maps included on the supplied 2GB microSD card) you can use it to plan routes and get info about landmarks. Voice navigation is also available though you'll need to pay an upgrade fee after the first three months.
Also, the incorporation of eight Indian city data to the phone enhances the interactivity between the user and the device. And, slowly India is catching up with GPS technology.
Cleverly, the A-GPS will automatically add location metadata to any photographs you take, otherwise known as geo-tagging, which will be included when you upload the pics to Nokia's Share On Ovi online sharing service or indeed any other sharing site such as Flickr, YouTube or Facebook.
The dedicated shutter button on the side gets you into camera mode in a couple of seconds and the 3.2 megapixel snapper with Carl Zeiss lens takes a perfectly good picture - sharp and clear with pretty good colour tone - plus there's plenty of settings to play with. The LED flash works rather better than the average camphone photo light but you'll still need to be close to your subject to get the most out of it. The N-series editing suite is all present and correct offering effects, text, cropping and pic rotation as well as red eye reduction.
Music player
The N-series music player has been a consistent winner for Nokia, and this one has a couple of tricks up its sleeve. It displays cover art if available and scrolling through the menus is made easy with that iPod-style Navi-wheel. There's an FM transmitter that allows you to beam your music to your car radio, iTrip style, and Nokia's class-leading FM radio is included as is a new internet radio service, with access to several hundred stations around the world. Best to use it with Wi-Fi though, if you don't want to run up some obscene data charges.
The supplied headphones are okay but fortunately there's also a 3.5mm jack plug so you can add your own. The stereo speakers meanwhile are on either side and at opposite ends of the handset, which looks a bit strange, but the theory is that by keeping the speakers as far apart as possible the stereo image will be enhanced. The sound is certainly better than most phone speakers, though of course a bit light on bass.
There's 70MB of memory onboard, and incidentally that 2GB microSD card comes preloaded with ten so-hip-it-hurts tracks from the likes of Matthew Corbett, Sarah Howells and the James Taylor Quartet.
Performance
We didn't have many problems with the Nokia N78 and generally found it a delight to use but there were a couple of niggles. For one thing, the keypad, while never looking anything less than gorgeous, is rather fiddly to use. Pressing the bars rather than the numbers requires pinpoint dexterity - those with builder's thumbs need not apply.
Also, the need to press right at the edge of the handset to hit the call end and cancel buttons (if you're holding the phone in your right hand) makes the handset awkward to hold and we dropped it more than once (sorry Nokia - it seems pretty sturdy though).
And while we're complaining, the N78 doesn't appear to have fixed the well-established Symbian issue of running slowly when you've got several apps open. It's easy enough to shut down any apps that might be running in the background by using the applications button but still, why should we have to?
But these minor carps aside, the N78's a lovely phone to use. Especially the N-series‚ speedy zoom-assisted browser which allows you to switch between landscape and portrait modes while using a fast 3.6Mbps HSDPA connection. And if that's not nippy enough, you can also connect to broadband via Wi-Fi.
Battery life was respectable rather than stellar, giving us a little over three days with moderate use.
Nokia may well have been inspired by its competitors for some of the best bits of the N78 but it's integrated them beautifully into an eye-catching handset that combines good looks with a wealth of practical and genuinely useful features.
** Price- Rs 19,000
Also, the phone has come up with a new feature this time, the "Location Tagger" application that automatically tags location data to pictures, allowing users save pictures by date plus geographical co-ordinates.
Keeping the above features aside, let's go step by step on review. The Nokia N78 is an extremely sleek looking handset with a keypad that at first glance resembles the touch-sensitive minimalism of LG's Chocolate series, with illuminated symbols shining out from behind a flush black fascia.
But the similarity ends there, because in use it turns out that you have to physically depress the edges of the plastic fascia to access the buttons underneath. It certainly lacks the wow factor of the touch sensitive option, but, actually, it works very well indeed, and is more accurate and less prone to accidental pushes than most touch pads.
Another familiar touch is the Nokia N78's square D-pad which features a touch-sensitive Navi-wheel‚ run your thumb around the edge and it will move the cursor around the screen, skipping through the menus with ease. It might not look like an iPod scroll wheel, but it behaves exactly like one. And like Apple's innovation, the best thing about it is that it works intuitively and extremely well.
The numeric part of the N78's keypad is another matter however. Four thin strips of raised plastic underline the minimalist look (as well as the numbers) but you'll need pinpoint precision from your thumb to get the most out of it, which kind of takes the fun out of texting.
A final design nod comes with the dedicated applications button next to the D-pad. This takes you to a virtual page-style menu which you can then flick through with the N78's Navi-wheel - not unlike the scrolling system of album covers on the iPod Touch.
Sat nav and camera
The Nokia N78 comes with a built-in assisted GPS transmitter which will not only tell you where you are, but with the Nokia Maps feature (plus a goodly selection of world maps included on the supplied 2GB microSD card) you can use it to plan routes and get info about landmarks. Voice navigation is also available though you'll need to pay an upgrade fee after the first three months.
Also, the incorporation of eight Indian city data to the phone enhances the interactivity between the user and the device. And, slowly India is catching up with GPS technology.
Cleverly, the A-GPS will automatically add location metadata to any photographs you take, otherwise known as geo-tagging, which will be included when you upload the pics to Nokia's Share On Ovi online sharing service or indeed any other sharing site such as Flickr, YouTube or Facebook.
The dedicated shutter button on the side gets you into camera mode in a couple of seconds and the 3.2 megapixel snapper with Carl Zeiss lens takes a perfectly good picture - sharp and clear with pretty good colour tone - plus there's plenty of settings to play with. The LED flash works rather better than the average camphone photo light but you'll still need to be close to your subject to get the most out of it. The N-series editing suite is all present and correct offering effects, text, cropping and pic rotation as well as red eye reduction.
Music player
The N-series music player has been a consistent winner for Nokia, and this one has a couple of tricks up its sleeve. It displays cover art if available and scrolling through the menus is made easy with that iPod-style Navi-wheel. There's an FM transmitter that allows you to beam your music to your car radio, iTrip style, and Nokia's class-leading FM radio is included as is a new internet radio service, with access to several hundred stations around the world. Best to use it with Wi-Fi though, if you don't want to run up some obscene data charges.
The supplied headphones are okay but fortunately there's also a 3.5mm jack plug so you can add your own. The stereo speakers meanwhile are on either side and at opposite ends of the handset, which looks a bit strange, but the theory is that by keeping the speakers as far apart as possible the stereo image will be enhanced. The sound is certainly better than most phone speakers, though of course a bit light on bass.
There's 70MB of memory onboard, and incidentally that 2GB microSD card comes preloaded with ten so-hip-it-hurts tracks from the likes of Matthew Corbett, Sarah Howells and the James Taylor Quartet.
Performance
We didn't have many problems with the Nokia N78 and generally found it a delight to use but there were a couple of niggles. For one thing, the keypad, while never looking anything less than gorgeous, is rather fiddly to use. Pressing the bars rather than the numbers requires pinpoint dexterity - those with builder's thumbs need not apply.
Also, the need to press right at the edge of the handset to hit the call end and cancel buttons (if you're holding the phone in your right hand) makes the handset awkward to hold and we dropped it more than once (sorry Nokia - it seems pretty sturdy though).
And while we're complaining, the N78 doesn't appear to have fixed the well-established Symbian issue of running slowly when you've got several apps open. It's easy enough to shut down any apps that might be running in the background by using the applications button but still, why should we have to?
But these minor carps aside, the N78's a lovely phone to use. Especially the N-series‚ speedy zoom-assisted browser which allows you to switch between landscape and portrait modes while using a fast 3.6Mbps HSDPA connection. And if that's not nippy enough, you can also connect to broadband via Wi-Fi.
Battery life was respectable rather than stellar, giving us a little over three days with moderate use.
Nokia may well have been inspired by its competitors for some of the best bits of the N78 but it's integrated them beautifully into an eye-catching handset that combines good looks with a wealth of practical and genuinely useful features.
** Price- Rs 19,000
Nokia N73 review
Nokia N72 has been quite popular among Indian users, for its smart looks, user friendliness and functionalities. Then Nokia India brought the N73, the proud successor to the N72, to the Indian market which retains all the features of a N72, plus a lot of advanced features including 3G. Battery life has also been worked upon.
Nokia’s N73 is the follow up to the popular N72. It is a very capable phone that makes light of all the goodies inside by coming in a pretty plain, ‘candybar’ style casing.
The N73 has a huge front screen measuring 2.4 inches corner to corner, and a smallish number pad. It is relatively light in the hand at 116g, and not oversized for the pocket at 110mm tall, 48mm wide and 19mm thick.
But look closer and you’ll see the front facing camera that caters for video calling using its built in 3G capability. 3G lends itself to fast Web use too, and there is very a capable browser built in.
One of the browser’s neat features is that if you scroll around quickly within a page a thumbnail of it appears on screen. This is really useful for pinpointing which bit of a Web page you want to get to and going there fast.
Another is that you can view browsing history as a series of thumbnail images, making it easy to get a visual cue of what pages you’ve visited look like, which helps you go back and forth easily.
Web pages and other information gets displayed in the superb 320 x 240 pixel screen which also shows itself off nicely when you are using the main camera, another star features of this handset.
This shoots stills at 3.2 megapixel (that’s 2048 x 1536 pixels), and has a Carl Zeiss Optics lens that allows it to autofocus on its subject. It’ll shoot in macro mode as close as 10cm from the subject.
The lens is on the back of the N73 and is protected by a sliding cover. Uncover the lens and the camera software swings into action. The phone’s display rotates into wide screen mode, and you can use the two softmenu keys and the mini joystick to select options while side keys that are on the top edge of the phone zoom, shoot and flip over into the phone’s picture gallery where you can view images as well as send them via Bluetooth, MMS or even upload them to the Web.
There is plenty more including a very good music player and FM radio, a slot for miniSD cards so you can add to the 40MB plus of built in storage, mobile email, calendar, voice recorder, calculator, PDF reader and even viewers for Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel documents. Oh, and it is Quad band.
When you come across a phone which feels good in the hand and packs a great number of features, you know you are onto a winner.
Nokia’s N73 is the follow up to the popular N72. It is a very capable phone that makes light of all the goodies inside by coming in a pretty plain, ‘candybar’ style casing.
The N73 has a huge front screen measuring 2.4 inches corner to corner, and a smallish number pad. It is relatively light in the hand at 116g, and not oversized for the pocket at 110mm tall, 48mm wide and 19mm thick.
But look closer and you’ll see the front facing camera that caters for video calling using its built in 3G capability. 3G lends itself to fast Web use too, and there is very a capable browser built in.
One of the browser’s neat features is that if you scroll around quickly within a page a thumbnail of it appears on screen. This is really useful for pinpointing which bit of a Web page you want to get to and going there fast.
Another is that you can view browsing history as a series of thumbnail images, making it easy to get a visual cue of what pages you’ve visited look like, which helps you go back and forth easily.
Web pages and other information gets displayed in the superb 320 x 240 pixel screen which also shows itself off nicely when you are using the main camera, another star features of this handset.
This shoots stills at 3.2 megapixel (that’s 2048 x 1536 pixels), and has a Carl Zeiss Optics lens that allows it to autofocus on its subject. It’ll shoot in macro mode as close as 10cm from the subject.
The lens is on the back of the N73 and is protected by a sliding cover. Uncover the lens and the camera software swings into action. The phone’s display rotates into wide screen mode, and you can use the two softmenu keys and the mini joystick to select options while side keys that are on the top edge of the phone zoom, shoot and flip over into the phone’s picture gallery where you can view images as well as send them via Bluetooth, MMS or even upload them to the Web.
There is plenty more including a very good music player and FM radio, a slot for miniSD cards so you can add to the 40MB plus of built in storage, mobile email, calendar, voice recorder, calculator, PDF reader and even viewers for Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel documents. Oh, and it is Quad band.
When you come across a phone which feels good in the hand and packs a great number of features, you know you are onto a winner.
Nokia 5320 XpressMusic review
Finnish handst maker Nokia announced the launch of its new music-enabled device Nokia 5320 XpressMusic as additions to its XpressMusic range in India on October 7 last year.
The Nokia 5320 XpressMusic fits into the range well; it's a little chunky (well, compared to other Nokia devices), features brightly coloured edging and external MP3 player control keys.
Other features are pretty low budget with only a two-megapixel camera and plasticky casing, but with new added features, it's probably the best XpressMusic launched to date.
The first thing that struck us when we removed the 5320 XpressMusic out of the box was its chunkiness. It doesn't feel particularly uncomfortable, but is certainly sturdier in the hand than previous XpressMusic handsets.
Like its predecessors, the 5320 features either blue or red edging and a matching eight-way navi-key. Other than that, the whole handset is black. The shiny black finish does, as is normally the case with shiny surfaces, mean that your phone will be a greasy splattering of fingerprints within seconds of taking it out of the box.
Because the 5320 XpressMusic is also an N-Gage compatible device, the button layout has been designed to accommodate this. The 2, 4, 6, 7, 9 and 0 buttons are all separate, while the remainder are joined together in threes.
Although this makes the handset great to use for gaming, using the device as a phone is challenging, especially when trying to dial a phone number or write a text.
So, onto the feature that is the real point of the Nokia 5320 XpressMusic; the music functionality. On the side, you'll find the external music control buttons that launch a mini player on the standby screen. If you'd rather get a full screen of tunes, you can open the media player function.
The newest XpressMusic function on the 5320 is the 'Say and Play' button that takes its place at the top of the screen. If you want to get to a track quickly, you simply tap this, and say the artist or song name.
All great in practice, but like most voice recognition technologies, it really is hit and miss (unfortunately, mostly miss). Quite often, the handset chooses random music that doesn't sound anything like the track I dictated.
Although there's no capacious memory onboard the 5320, there is a 1GB memory card included in the box, and you can of course upgrade this if you're prepared to part with well-earned cash. The speaker (not stereo) is extremely loud and although there is sometimes a little distortion when it approaches 10.
The 5320 runs on the Symbian 9.3 OS with Series 60 3rd Edition user interface, which is a first for an XpressMusic device. This means you have much more flexibility when multitasking and as usual with the S60 interface, the device is easy to use.
Apart from its decent music features, the Nokia 5320 is a little too mid-range to get tongues wagging. The two-megapixel camera is somewhat scarred by lack of autofocus, and the dual LEDs make photos very washed out, as it over-compensates in darker environments. Video's nothing to brag about either, with a top frame rate of 15fps.
The size of the screen is quite a let down, especially if you want to surf the net. OK, so 2-inches may not be tiny when you compare it to lower-budget devices, but considering the browser is pretty decent, it's a shame Nokia couldn't cram in a few more milimetres. However, the clarity of the screen is impressive, with 16 million colours being squeezed into a 240x320 pixel resolution.
The Nokia 5320 XpressMusic is most certainly the best in the XpressMusic range, although that might change when the Nokia Tube arrives. Although some features are omitted, it's what's present that counts and with a 3.5mm headphone jack, a decent speaker, plus quick access to your tunes, the 5320 is a winner for music fans on a budget.
The Nokia 5320 XpressMusic fits into the range well; it's a little chunky (well, compared to other Nokia devices), features brightly coloured edging and external MP3 player control keys.
Other features are pretty low budget with only a two-megapixel camera and plasticky casing, but with new added features, it's probably the best XpressMusic launched to date.
The first thing that struck us when we removed the 5320 XpressMusic out of the box was its chunkiness. It doesn't feel particularly uncomfortable, but is certainly sturdier in the hand than previous XpressMusic handsets.
Like its predecessors, the 5320 features either blue or red edging and a matching eight-way navi-key. Other than that, the whole handset is black. The shiny black finish does, as is normally the case with shiny surfaces, mean that your phone will be a greasy splattering of fingerprints within seconds of taking it out of the box.
Because the 5320 XpressMusic is also an N-Gage compatible device, the button layout has been designed to accommodate this. The 2, 4, 6, 7, 9 and 0 buttons are all separate, while the remainder are joined together in threes.
Although this makes the handset great to use for gaming, using the device as a phone is challenging, especially when trying to dial a phone number or write a text.
So, onto the feature that is the real point of the Nokia 5320 XpressMusic; the music functionality. On the side, you'll find the external music control buttons that launch a mini player on the standby screen. If you'd rather get a full screen of tunes, you can open the media player function.
The newest XpressMusic function on the 5320 is the 'Say and Play' button that takes its place at the top of the screen. If you want to get to a track quickly, you simply tap this, and say the artist or song name.
All great in practice, but like most voice recognition technologies, it really is hit and miss (unfortunately, mostly miss). Quite often, the handset chooses random music that doesn't sound anything like the track I dictated.
Although there's no capacious memory onboard the 5320, there is a 1GB memory card included in the box, and you can of course upgrade this if you're prepared to part with well-earned cash. The speaker (not stereo) is extremely loud and although there is sometimes a little distortion when it approaches 10.
The 5320 runs on the Symbian 9.3 OS with Series 60 3rd Edition user interface, which is a first for an XpressMusic device. This means you have much more flexibility when multitasking and as usual with the S60 interface, the device is easy to use.
Apart from its decent music features, the Nokia 5320 is a little too mid-range to get tongues wagging. The two-megapixel camera is somewhat scarred by lack of autofocus, and the dual LEDs make photos very washed out, as it over-compensates in darker environments. Video's nothing to brag about either, with a top frame rate of 15fps.
The size of the screen is quite a let down, especially if you want to surf the net. OK, so 2-inches may not be tiny when you compare it to lower-budget devices, but considering the browser is pretty decent, it's a shame Nokia couldn't cram in a few more milimetres. However, the clarity of the screen is impressive, with 16 million colours being squeezed into a 240x320 pixel resolution.
The Nokia 5320 XpressMusic is most certainly the best in the XpressMusic range, although that might change when the Nokia Tube arrives. Although some features are omitted, it's what's present that counts and with a 3.5mm headphone jack, a decent speaker, plus quick access to your tunes, the 5320 is a winner for music fans on a budget.
Nokia N95 review
When Nokia launched the N95 in India, it was like love at first sight. Even the most pessimistic mobile critic in India took a pause and pour in a bit of praise for the two way slider phone from the Finnish maker.
Everyone was very excited about getting the N95 in the office. Oooh, it’s got GPS, a 5-megapixel camera, a Video Centre, Lifeblog access, Wi-Fi connectivity and every other kind of application you could possibly wish for on your mobile phone, as well as some you’d never even dreamt of. But despite all the bells and whistles, I had my doubts about whether it would live up to the hype.
The N95 is a phone that aims to deliver a fantastic multimedia experience, and the innovative double-slide action is testament to this. Sliding the phone’s front panel upwards gives the user access to the conventional and easy-to-use keypad; sliding the phone downwards reveals controls for the Multimedia player and immediately rotates the phone’s screen to a landscape view.
The Multimedia section of the phone’s menu also has its very own special button located to the right of the directional keys. Whereas the Main Menu’s interface is set out in the Series 60’s usual tabbed manner, the multimedia section is set on a 3D wheel that spins round as you tab up/down or left/right to access different options - very swish.
With such a large screen, the N95 lets users enjoy a great Internet experience. Wi-Fi capabilities make getting online simple and much more cheaply than going via your network provider. Applications like Maps, Video Centre and the Lifeblog add new dimensions to the mobile web experience, ensuring that the N95 is up there with the more complicated smart phones in terms of Internet usability.
Sound on the speakerphone is clear, but unless you really want to annoy your fellow bus passengers you are best off investing in some decent headphones as the bundled set are pretty poor and fail to do justice to the Music Player. You may not want to be listening to tunes on the N95 too much either, as its battery life is not great. The wealth of applications suck all power out of the device, and if you are using the Maps application or Music player regularly, you will need to recharge almost every day.
The camera does take excellent images thanks to all those megapixels and the quality is reflected in the amazing 2.6-inch colour screen. All the usual camera effects are in place, and the N95 also features a secondary camera on the front of the phone for video calling. Pictures in natural light came out looking spectacular and when viewed on a larger screen still looked fantastic. Saved images and videos are also viewed on a 3D wheel-style gallery, adding to the overall slickness of the N95.
As with all modern mobile phones there are a number of applications that are particularly difficult to use. It took a good while to get to grips with the Video Centre application and after a long hard slog, it is still unclear who would use this feature on an everyday or even a weekly basis.
A number of applications available on the N95 are rendered redundant by a lack of support from Indian operators. The Visual Radio function which enable users to access an interactive element to their radio experience can not be used now as no operator in India offers a similar service. The group calling feature is also seen as a hapless chap as compatible services are not present in the Indian market.
This makes the N95 a real beast of technology unable to fulfill its potential as of yet.
As the mobile phone market moves faster chances are, if and when these applications are ever supported, a bigger and better phone would have left the N95 languishing in the bottom drawer. Nevertheless it’s a powerful and stylish phone that lays down a marker for future models in the forthcoming Nokia portfolio.
**Price- Rs 20,000
Everyone was very excited about getting the N95 in the office. Oooh, it’s got GPS, a 5-megapixel camera, a Video Centre, Lifeblog access, Wi-Fi connectivity and every other kind of application you could possibly wish for on your mobile phone, as well as some you’d never even dreamt of. But despite all the bells and whistles, I had my doubts about whether it would live up to the hype.
The N95 is a phone that aims to deliver a fantastic multimedia experience, and the innovative double-slide action is testament to this. Sliding the phone’s front panel upwards gives the user access to the conventional and easy-to-use keypad; sliding the phone downwards reveals controls for the Multimedia player and immediately rotates the phone’s screen to a landscape view.
The Multimedia section of the phone’s menu also has its very own special button located to the right of the directional keys. Whereas the Main Menu’s interface is set out in the Series 60’s usual tabbed manner, the multimedia section is set on a 3D wheel that spins round as you tab up/down or left/right to access different options - very swish.
With such a large screen, the N95 lets users enjoy a great Internet experience. Wi-Fi capabilities make getting online simple and much more cheaply than going via your network provider. Applications like Maps, Video Centre and the Lifeblog add new dimensions to the mobile web experience, ensuring that the N95 is up there with the more complicated smart phones in terms of Internet usability.
Sound on the speakerphone is clear, but unless you really want to annoy your fellow bus passengers you are best off investing in some decent headphones as the bundled set are pretty poor and fail to do justice to the Music Player. You may not want to be listening to tunes on the N95 too much either, as its battery life is not great. The wealth of applications suck all power out of the device, and if you are using the Maps application or Music player regularly, you will need to recharge almost every day.
The camera does take excellent images thanks to all those megapixels and the quality is reflected in the amazing 2.6-inch colour screen. All the usual camera effects are in place, and the N95 also features a secondary camera on the front of the phone for video calling. Pictures in natural light came out looking spectacular and when viewed on a larger screen still looked fantastic. Saved images and videos are also viewed on a 3D wheel-style gallery, adding to the overall slickness of the N95.
As with all modern mobile phones there are a number of applications that are particularly difficult to use. It took a good while to get to grips with the Video Centre application and after a long hard slog, it is still unclear who would use this feature on an everyday or even a weekly basis.
A number of applications available on the N95 are rendered redundant by a lack of support from Indian operators. The Visual Radio function which enable users to access an interactive element to their radio experience can not be used now as no operator in India offers a similar service. The group calling feature is also seen as a hapless chap as compatible services are not present in the Indian market.
This makes the N95 a real beast of technology unable to fulfill its potential as of yet.
As the mobile phone market moves faster chances are, if and when these applications are ever supported, a bigger and better phone would have left the N95 languishing in the bottom drawer. Nevertheless it’s a powerful and stylish phone that lays down a marker for future models in the forthcoming Nokia portfolio.
**Price- Rs 20,000
Nokia 6220 Classic review
Nokia Classic 6220 is the first non Nseries mobile phone with 5 megapixel camera to be launched in India. It is also the first Nokia phone to be introduced in this market which does not belong neither to Nseries, Eseries or Navigator series and still don a-GPS feature.
Perhaps the earlier success of Nokia's navigator series phones having local city maps prompted Nokia to include GPS capability to its Classic series too.
Some mobiles turn heads with their looks but don't appeal so much with the features beneath the bonnet. The Nokia 6220 classic is a mobile that takes the opposite tack. From its unassuming outside you might expect a standard-issue set of features on a mid-table device - but what you actually get is a high-spec smartphone, loaded with A-GPS satellite navigation kit, sporting a high quality 5-megapixel Carl Zeiss lens-equipped camera, and powered by high speed HSDPA 3G connectivity.
Nokia has effectively taken much of the best bits of its recent high-end Nseries handsets and packed them into a more mid-tier handset chassis. It's a no-fuss design, but like many Nokia workhorse handsets before it, it's aimed more at the mass market than niche fashion phone buyers.
As well as Nokia spreading its GPS technology and camera gadgetry down the range, the 6220 classic is underpinned by the Symbian v9.3 smartphone operating system, using Nokia's S60 3rd Edition SP2 user interface. It's packed with the multimedia capabilities you get from the likes of the N82 - video calling (there's a secondary low-res camera up front), video and music players, high speed downloading and streaming of content, a full web browser, plus the capability to upload and share your own content online.
Unfortunately, despite high speed mobile connectivity, there's no Wi-Fi capability - which is a shame, as it would have offered another low cost, higher speed option for uploading as well as downloading content.
Still, for a mid-tier handset, the Nokia 6220 offers a stack of features, both for entertainment - including an FM radio and VGA quality video recording with TV-Out option - and more office orientated productivity, including document viewer software to deal with email attachments, plus extensive organiser and synchronisation tools.
Design and handling
Although the functionality is Nseries-like, the build quality feels much less so. It's a lightweight 90g, but has the plasticky feel of a low cost handset. The front panel is made of the glossy plastic we've seen on several Nokia mid- and high-tier models, and this gives the casing a creaky feel when pressing buttons.
The conventional button layout is mostly OK, although we'd have preferred more differentiation between keys on the smooth numberpad. The positioning of the S60 menu 'squiggle' key, on one side of the large navigation D-pad, stuffed between a softkey and the Call button, is a bit cramped but is raised slightly to deter accidental pressing.
Although texting is OK with the smooth numberpad, the softkeys under the display have a stodgier action than most Nokia smartphones. This impression isn't helped by the way the user interface is fractionally slow at responding to button presses - there's a slight hesitancy as apps are opened or commands carried out. Nonetheless, the smooth transitions implemented in this version of the software, and additions to selection options are nicely implemented
The display is a reasonable 2.2-inch screen, a lovely bright 16-million colour array offering QVGA (320x240 pixels) resolution. There's no accelerometer auto flipping of the screen, as you get on some Nseries models, but the screen does auto-flip to landscape when the camera is fired up.
Some may feel that the display is too small for in-car GPS requirements, compared to standalone dedicated Sat Nav kits. But as a phone with Sat Nav as an extra, we found it perfectly acceptable; in addition to viewing navigation and positioning instructions, you can upgrade the onboard Nokia Maps software to add voice guided navigation, and Nokia includes a 3-month trial as part of the 6220 classic package.
Camera quality
The high quality Carl Zeiss-branded 5-megapixel camera on the back doesn't weigh down or bulk out this phone. It adds minimal bulge to the body, which measures in at 108(h) x 46.5(w) x 15.2(d)mm. There's a sliding lens cover built into the bodywork, with a slider toggle that's just a little too easy to shift accidentally in a pocket. Still, it offers some welcome lens protection. Beneath the lens is a powerful Xenon flash, adding considerably to the snapper's low-light shooting capability.
The main camera is capable of some very impressive photography. Its software is similar to Nokia's N82 and N95 8GB 5-megapixel cameraphones, and includes the option for geotagging pictures - adding precise location information that can be used later on mapping applications.
It features a responsive 2-step autofocus system, with a range of shooting controls and modes, including macro option for close in shooting. The camera can be launched by sliding open the lens cover (as well as via the menus and shortcuts), and there's a neat onscreen flipping transition of the display into landscape viewfinder mode.
The camera is great to use; it's images are sharp and detailed, with the autofocus and metering system very responsive and pleasingly precise. There's an excellent level of detail and crisp definition, plus fine colour rendition. We were extremely pleased with the results in good and moderate light conditions. Indoors shooting and low light imaging benefits hugely from the Xenon flash, which is more powerful and fills in more precisely than an LED flash in darker shots.
These impressive results are complemented by a fine set of typical S60 camera settings controls, so you can tweak your images before shooting, or introduce effects or edit them afterwards. Shots can be uploaded directly to image sharing sites, blogs or other websites using Nokia's sharing software.
The 6220 classic's video shooting capability is higher quality than you'd normally expect in a cameraphone too. It captures footage in VGA (640x480 pixels) resolution at 30 frames per second, so looks unusually smooth and watchable for mobile-shot clips. These can be easily uploaded online too.
For video viewing of copied or downloaded clips, the onboard RealPlayer multimedia player software does an excellent job, and you can switch to full screen mode for a wide landscape viewing. In addition, a TV-Out cable is included for sharing video and other media content on a TV set or via other AV gear.
Location finding
A fast key on the side of the phone is pre-set to activate the onboard A-GPS (Assisted Global Positioning System), which uses both an internal GPS receiver and network cellsite tracking information to provide quick and accurate location finding.
Outside of your onboard mapping coverage, you can download additional maps to use with the phone, or simply use a data connection to get over the air mapping updates as you go along (although this could quickly rack up your data roaming bills).
The 6220 classic's A-GPS system locks on to satellites reasonably quickly to pin-point your position, and we found the system reacted as swiftly to movement as you need for an in-car Sat Nav location tracker.
The trial voice guidance system worked well too for driving, with loud, clear vocal instructions, and as standard there's a good choice of viewing options for both daytime and night driving. Pedestrian search and directions options are available, too, and you can opt for extra services such as live traffic update services and detailed city guides.
One concern we had was that our review phone would occasionally freeze when we tried launching Maps from the side button - requiring a reboot to get the Sat Nav system working again. It could be an individual handset glitch so we'll be checking on another model, and will update you with our findings.
Besides this, we found the A-GPS system and Nokia Maps effective and easy to use - it's a real bonus to have such an application in a mid-tier handset like this. The latest version of Nokia Maps software has improved user-friendliness too, and is really very intuitive and useful.
Multimedia playback
We've come to expect a decent standard for the music player software used in Nokia smartphones, and reassuringly the 6220 classic doesn't disappoint. The latest S60 software is straightforward to use, and a wide range of music file formats are catered for, including DRM-protected downloads - the Nokia Music Store over the air music download service is supported on this handset, too. You can also search for and download podcasts easily straight from the phone's Podcasting software.
The player user interface is familiar, easy to use stuff, with straightforward categories and simple controls operated by the D-pad. It's easy too to sync tracks with a PC using Windows Media Player, copy tracks using the Nokia Music Manager software and USB cable provided, or you can simply drag and drop music files into the phone's memory card when hooked up to a PC. Bluetooth transfer is supported too, and on top of the onboard 120MB of user memory, MicroSD and MicroSDHC memory cards up to 8GB capacity are supported.
Music quality is more than acceptable, with a pleasant, well-balanced audio performance. The supplied earphone headset is reasonable, though not outstanding; you can add your own headphones to improve matters - provided you get hold of an easy to find 3.5mm to 2.5mm adapter to fit the phone's 2.5mm socket. The onboard loudspeaker is pretty good for a mobile phone too - nice and loud without the usual ear-shredding mobile tinnyness.
The HSDPA-fuelled Nokia web browser is fast and slick at resolving pages, and provides an efficient browsing experience. It has the usual S60 zoom and pan options to check out full pages, or view parts of pages. You can select a widescreen landscape view too, or full page overview. RSS feeds are supported too, plus there's room in the internet applications for both Nokia's WidSets and Yahoo! Go widget-based applications.
Additional software
It's impressive how much software Nokia has included in this phone; you do feel you're getting almost all of an Nseries package in a cheaper handset. And on top of the office tools, calendar functionality, document readers, text to voice reading software, voice recorder, FM radio and so on, the S60 operating system on which the 6220 classic is built means you can customise it by adding additional applications as you like. There are plenty available, and you can browse for some directly from Download links the 6220 classic itself.
Performance
The 6220 classic's battery performance will inevitably be affected by how much you use the onboard A-GPS, music player, video, web browser and other power hungry features on this multi-talented device. Nokia estimates best-case battery performance giving up to 2.5 hours talktime on 3G networks or 5 hours in GSM coverage, and 280 hours standby time with 3G connections or 300 hours on GSM networks - a fairly average sort of 3G smartphone performance. Alternatively, you can get up to 13 hours of pure music playback or 4 hours of GPS mapping from the device. In our average usage tests, we managed just over two days of action (with some GPS activity) between charges.
Standard voice call performance was uniformally high throughout our tests, and the phone gave consistent network reliability too in a variety of locations.
Conclusion
The 6220 classic is an attractive addition to the Nokia lineup, simply on the basis of so much eyebrow-raising smartphone functionality packed into such an unassuming body. The lack of Wi-Fi, which will scrub it off some buyers' shortlists, however, and that squeeky plastic casing with cheap-feel buttons does little to reflect the high quality nature of the features inside. We also hope Nokia updates the firmware soon to speed up its laid-back S60 user interface - its nicely presented, but a touch slow to respond.
Nonetheless, with its excellent 5-megapixel camera, very able A-GPS sat nav set-up, HSDPA high-speed data connectivity, and extensive smartphone multimedia capabilities, the Nokia 6220 classic has a stunning amount going for it at its mid-tier price.
**Price- Rs 16,900
Perhaps the earlier success of Nokia's navigator series phones having local city maps prompted Nokia to include GPS capability to its Classic series too.
Some mobiles turn heads with their looks but don't appeal so much with the features beneath the bonnet. The Nokia 6220 classic is a mobile that takes the opposite tack. From its unassuming outside you might expect a standard-issue set of features on a mid-table device - but what you actually get is a high-spec smartphone, loaded with A-GPS satellite navigation kit, sporting a high quality 5-megapixel Carl Zeiss lens-equipped camera, and powered by high speed HSDPA 3G connectivity.
Nokia has effectively taken much of the best bits of its recent high-end Nseries handsets and packed them into a more mid-tier handset chassis. It's a no-fuss design, but like many Nokia workhorse handsets before it, it's aimed more at the mass market than niche fashion phone buyers.
As well as Nokia spreading its GPS technology and camera gadgetry down the range, the 6220 classic is underpinned by the Symbian v9.3 smartphone operating system, using Nokia's S60 3rd Edition SP2 user interface. It's packed with the multimedia capabilities you get from the likes of the N82 - video calling (there's a secondary low-res camera up front), video and music players, high speed downloading and streaming of content, a full web browser, plus the capability to upload and share your own content online.
Unfortunately, despite high speed mobile connectivity, there's no Wi-Fi capability - which is a shame, as it would have offered another low cost, higher speed option for uploading as well as downloading content.
Still, for a mid-tier handset, the Nokia 6220 offers a stack of features, both for entertainment - including an FM radio and VGA quality video recording with TV-Out option - and more office orientated productivity, including document viewer software to deal with email attachments, plus extensive organiser and synchronisation tools.
Design and handling
Although the functionality is Nseries-like, the build quality feels much less so. It's a lightweight 90g, but has the plasticky feel of a low cost handset. The front panel is made of the glossy plastic we've seen on several Nokia mid- and high-tier models, and this gives the casing a creaky feel when pressing buttons.
The conventional button layout is mostly OK, although we'd have preferred more differentiation between keys on the smooth numberpad. The positioning of the S60 menu 'squiggle' key, on one side of the large navigation D-pad, stuffed between a softkey and the Call button, is a bit cramped but is raised slightly to deter accidental pressing.
Although texting is OK with the smooth numberpad, the softkeys under the display have a stodgier action than most Nokia smartphones. This impression isn't helped by the way the user interface is fractionally slow at responding to button presses - there's a slight hesitancy as apps are opened or commands carried out. Nonetheless, the smooth transitions implemented in this version of the software, and additions to selection options are nicely implemented
The display is a reasonable 2.2-inch screen, a lovely bright 16-million colour array offering QVGA (320x240 pixels) resolution. There's no accelerometer auto flipping of the screen, as you get on some Nseries models, but the screen does auto-flip to landscape when the camera is fired up.
Some may feel that the display is too small for in-car GPS requirements, compared to standalone dedicated Sat Nav kits. But as a phone with Sat Nav as an extra, we found it perfectly acceptable; in addition to viewing navigation and positioning instructions, you can upgrade the onboard Nokia Maps software to add voice guided navigation, and Nokia includes a 3-month trial as part of the 6220 classic package.
Camera quality
The high quality Carl Zeiss-branded 5-megapixel camera on the back doesn't weigh down or bulk out this phone. It adds minimal bulge to the body, which measures in at 108(h) x 46.5(w) x 15.2(d)mm. There's a sliding lens cover built into the bodywork, with a slider toggle that's just a little too easy to shift accidentally in a pocket. Still, it offers some welcome lens protection. Beneath the lens is a powerful Xenon flash, adding considerably to the snapper's low-light shooting capability.
The main camera is capable of some very impressive photography. Its software is similar to Nokia's N82 and N95 8GB 5-megapixel cameraphones, and includes the option for geotagging pictures - adding precise location information that can be used later on mapping applications.
It features a responsive 2-step autofocus system, with a range of shooting controls and modes, including macro option for close in shooting. The camera can be launched by sliding open the lens cover (as well as via the menus and shortcuts), and there's a neat onscreen flipping transition of the display into landscape viewfinder mode.
The camera is great to use; it's images are sharp and detailed, with the autofocus and metering system very responsive and pleasingly precise. There's an excellent level of detail and crisp definition, plus fine colour rendition. We were extremely pleased with the results in good and moderate light conditions. Indoors shooting and low light imaging benefits hugely from the Xenon flash, which is more powerful and fills in more precisely than an LED flash in darker shots.
These impressive results are complemented by a fine set of typical S60 camera settings controls, so you can tweak your images before shooting, or introduce effects or edit them afterwards. Shots can be uploaded directly to image sharing sites, blogs or other websites using Nokia's sharing software.
The 6220 classic's video shooting capability is higher quality than you'd normally expect in a cameraphone too. It captures footage in VGA (640x480 pixels) resolution at 30 frames per second, so looks unusually smooth and watchable for mobile-shot clips. These can be easily uploaded online too.
For video viewing of copied or downloaded clips, the onboard RealPlayer multimedia player software does an excellent job, and you can switch to full screen mode for a wide landscape viewing. In addition, a TV-Out cable is included for sharing video and other media content on a TV set or via other AV gear.
Location finding
A fast key on the side of the phone is pre-set to activate the onboard A-GPS (Assisted Global Positioning System), which uses both an internal GPS receiver and network cellsite tracking information to provide quick and accurate location finding.
Outside of your onboard mapping coverage, you can download additional maps to use with the phone, or simply use a data connection to get over the air mapping updates as you go along (although this could quickly rack up your data roaming bills).
The 6220 classic's A-GPS system locks on to satellites reasonably quickly to pin-point your position, and we found the system reacted as swiftly to movement as you need for an in-car Sat Nav location tracker.
The trial voice guidance system worked well too for driving, with loud, clear vocal instructions, and as standard there's a good choice of viewing options for both daytime and night driving. Pedestrian search and directions options are available, too, and you can opt for extra services such as live traffic update services and detailed city guides.
One concern we had was that our review phone would occasionally freeze when we tried launching Maps from the side button - requiring a reboot to get the Sat Nav system working again. It could be an individual handset glitch so we'll be checking on another model, and will update you with our findings.
Besides this, we found the A-GPS system and Nokia Maps effective and easy to use - it's a real bonus to have such an application in a mid-tier handset like this. The latest version of Nokia Maps software has improved user-friendliness too, and is really very intuitive and useful.
Multimedia playback
We've come to expect a decent standard for the music player software used in Nokia smartphones, and reassuringly the 6220 classic doesn't disappoint. The latest S60 software is straightforward to use, and a wide range of music file formats are catered for, including DRM-protected downloads - the Nokia Music Store over the air music download service is supported on this handset, too. You can also search for and download podcasts easily straight from the phone's Podcasting software.
The player user interface is familiar, easy to use stuff, with straightforward categories and simple controls operated by the D-pad. It's easy too to sync tracks with a PC using Windows Media Player, copy tracks using the Nokia Music Manager software and USB cable provided, or you can simply drag and drop music files into the phone's memory card when hooked up to a PC. Bluetooth transfer is supported too, and on top of the onboard 120MB of user memory, MicroSD and MicroSDHC memory cards up to 8GB capacity are supported.
Music quality is more than acceptable, with a pleasant, well-balanced audio performance. The supplied earphone headset is reasonable, though not outstanding; you can add your own headphones to improve matters - provided you get hold of an easy to find 3.5mm to 2.5mm adapter to fit the phone's 2.5mm socket. The onboard loudspeaker is pretty good for a mobile phone too - nice and loud without the usual ear-shredding mobile tinnyness.
The HSDPA-fuelled Nokia web browser is fast and slick at resolving pages, and provides an efficient browsing experience. It has the usual S60 zoom and pan options to check out full pages, or view parts of pages. You can select a widescreen landscape view too, or full page overview. RSS feeds are supported too, plus there's room in the internet applications for both Nokia's WidSets and Yahoo! Go widget-based applications.
Additional software
It's impressive how much software Nokia has included in this phone; you do feel you're getting almost all of an Nseries package in a cheaper handset. And on top of the office tools, calendar functionality, document readers, text to voice reading software, voice recorder, FM radio and so on, the S60 operating system on which the 6220 classic is built means you can customise it by adding additional applications as you like. There are plenty available, and you can browse for some directly from Download links the 6220 classic itself.
Performance
The 6220 classic's battery performance will inevitably be affected by how much you use the onboard A-GPS, music player, video, web browser and other power hungry features on this multi-talented device. Nokia estimates best-case battery performance giving up to 2.5 hours talktime on 3G networks or 5 hours in GSM coverage, and 280 hours standby time with 3G connections or 300 hours on GSM networks - a fairly average sort of 3G smartphone performance. Alternatively, you can get up to 13 hours of pure music playback or 4 hours of GPS mapping from the device. In our average usage tests, we managed just over two days of action (with some GPS activity) between charges.
Standard voice call performance was uniformally high throughout our tests, and the phone gave consistent network reliability too in a variety of locations.
Conclusion
The 6220 classic is an attractive addition to the Nokia lineup, simply on the basis of so much eyebrow-raising smartphone functionality packed into such an unassuming body. The lack of Wi-Fi, which will scrub it off some buyers' shortlists, however, and that squeeky plastic casing with cheap-feel buttons does little to reflect the high quality nature of the features inside. We also hope Nokia updates the firmware soon to speed up its laid-back S60 user interface - its nicely presented, but a touch slow to respond.
Nonetheless, with its excellent 5-megapixel camera, very able A-GPS sat nav set-up, HSDPA high-speed data connectivity, and extensive smartphone multimedia capabilities, the Nokia 6220 classic has a stunning amount going for it at its mid-tier price.
**Price- Rs 16,900
Nokia 6210 Navigator review
The Finnish mobile manufacturer launched its first GPS-enabled handset 6210 Navigator in Indian market in August this year. The phone which has an integrated in-map compass was also showcased in Mobile World Congress 2008 in Barcelona in February 2008.
The 6210 Navigator uses the Nokia Maps 2.0 application and comes pre-loaded with maps of 8 cities in India including Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Delhi.
Nokia is very keen to spread the message when it comes to Sat Nav in phones, and it's once again swelled its GPS-enabled mobile ranks with the release of the nifty 6210 Navigator.
Having recently acquired leading Sat Nav mapping data company Navteq in a multi-billion dollar deal, no one can question how serious Nokia's intentions are for GPS-packing handsets, and it continues to set the pace among the top-line mobile makers with a fast-growing portfolio of location-finding phones.
Following on from last year's 6110 Navigator, the 6210 Navigator is another solid sliderphone design, powered by the Symbian S60 smartphone operating system that's also used on Nokia's high-end Nseries lineup. It has A-GPS (Assisted Global Positioning System) technology onboard and comes equipped with Nokia Maps software, including mapping information for eight Indian cities currently on an in-box 1GB MicroSD card. A six month license for its voice guided drive and walk services are included too, delivering out-of-the-box turn-by-turn instructions, like a standalone in-car Sat Nav kit.
The handset is priced at Rs 18,000 and comes with the maps, free for six months.
Design and handling
The 6210 Navigator bears a close family resemblance to the recently released Nokia 6220 classic, with similar design characteristics and bodywork materials. It has plenty of similar smartphone traits too, although the 6210 Navigator sports a 3.2-megapixel camera rather than the fancy Carl Zeiss lens-equipped 5-megapixel shooter on the 6220 classic. This, though, is still an improvement on the original 6110 Navigator's 2-megapixel affair.
With high-speed HSDPA 3G data connectivity, and S60 functionality, the 6210 Navigator has much of the high-grade multimedia functionality Nokia includes with its latest Nseries models, such the N78, in a more affordable package. There's no Wi-Fi support on this model, but you do get 3G video calling (there's a secondary front-facing low-res camera), high-speed downloading, streaming and browsing, and a generous helping of S60 applications. Multi-format music and video players are naturally included, plus an FM radio, and there's a good selection of organiser tools, and support for web-based services such as Nokia Music Store and Share Online.
The Nokia 6210 Navigator's no svelte sliderphone, measuring 103(h) x 49(w) x 14.9(d)mm and weighing in at 117g, but it feels substantial enough in-hand without being a pocket-sagger. Its use of glossy black plastic on the casing and numberpad is similar to the 6220 classic. but it somehow doesn't feel as creaky.The fkeys feel responsive too for speed texters, and the control pad buttons - including the main menu 'squiggle' button and central navi-pad - are effectively arranged for no-fuss operation of the typical Nokia S60 menu system.
The large 2.4-inch display, a QVGA (320x240 pixels), 16-million colour screen is ample for checking out routing info, while giving a decent platform for viewing snaps and video content, and for browsing using the full Nokia Web Browser. This is another Nokia to have an accelerometer motion sensor onboard, too, shifting the screen view automatically between landscape and portrait for certain apps (including menus, the browser, image gallery and video player, though not the Sat Nav), depending on how the handset is held. This facilitates a couple of bonus motion features - automatic call silencing simply by turning the phone face down when a call comes in, plus a motion controlled game.
Features
As the Navigator's name suggests, the phone's direction finding functions are at the key selling point of this handset. Centred below the navi-pad is a compass-shaped button for firing up the A-GPS operated Nokia Maps function, which glows blue while the function is active (useful if you want to keep tabs on unnecessary power sappage).
The Nokia Maps application loads up quickly, and initial position finding is reassuringly rapid - we got our fix from start-up usually within 30 seconds, though it can take several minutes, according to Nokia, depending on conditions and where you're using the phone. The system fared well compared to other GPS phones; the Nokia Maps application has a user-friendly interface and provides the sort of detailed mapping information you get on standalone kits, and its performance was spot on in our tests.
As well as having A-GPS (using cellsites as well as GPS to lock on to your position), there's a very useful magnetic compass inside to help with direction finding when walking, orientating the onscreen map to suit the direction you're travelling in. The Sat Nav system has a wide selection of search options for hunting down points of interest, from restaurants, bars, and cinemas to petrol stations, ATMs and railways stations - plus much more. A search panel on the home screen is a nice touch too.
The route planning options are very intuitive to use; you can get driving or pedestrian directions to a location you've searched for or marked on the map, while the voice guidance option provides turn-by-turn instructions accurately and clearly (and suitably loudly from the speaker) - just like on an in-car Sat Nav kit. You can choose between 3D and 2D or satellite views of maps, and adjust a variety of settings to help route planning, get night mode, avoid congestion charge zones and so on.
With the combination of mapping on the memory card and online searches for locations, it's a slick and responsive system to have in your phone. We found it worked efficiently and accurately, and maintained its performance even with other functions operating in the background.
As well as the boxed package and 6 month Drive and Walk license, you can pay for additional options including city guides and traffic information. Maps for other countries can be downloaded too, using supplied Nokia Map Loader PC software.
Camera snapshot
The main 3.2-megapixel camera puts on a decent show too. Its autofocus system is capable of capturing sharp images as close ups as well as detailed mid-range shots. It deals with variable lighting conditions pretty well, and also handles subtle changes in texture and tones precisely.
Colours are generally good, though we did notice occasional shots in moderate light where the auto metering system produced slightly washed out tones. Overall, though we were pleased with the performance. Low-light shooting is aided by the LED light, but it's not as powerful or balanced illumination as the xenon equivalent on the 6220 classic. Its image sensor won't get you as much detail as Nokia's top-line 5-megapixel models, either but within its limits, you get a very acceptable camera performance.
Video shooting is is reasonable, capturing footage at VGA quality at up to 15 frames per second, which is higher res than average, but it still has some typical mobile phone jerkiness to it.
Images and video clips can be tweaked using some basic in-phone editing tools, and can be speedily uploaded to sharing websites, including Flickr, Vox and Nokia's Ovi service, using Nokia's Share online application.
Web-based apps
With HSDPA offering data download rates of up to 3.6Mbps, downloading video and audio clips over the air takes a matter of seconds; and as well as network operator services, you can browse the own-brand Nokia Music Store fro downloading tunes.
The full Nokia Browser onboard does a pretty good job at rendering web pages, and slipping it into landscape mode, plus the zoom and pan options make it pretty easy to get an overview and negotiate pages. You can get RSS feeds on the phone too, which is handy for swift hassle-free updates on your favourite sites and blogs. Nokia's WidSets widgets application, and Yahoo! Go are pre-loaded on the phone too, while you can also search for and download podcasts using a Podcasting application.
As standard with with S60 Nokias, there's a decent quality music player included too. Nothing fancy in the interface, it's straightforward to use with tracks arranged in regular MP3 player categories. The supplied earphones are average mobile phone ear-fare, and don't really lift the music performance above average. Unfortunately, this phone uses a 2.5mm jack socket for earphones rather than a standard 3.5mm headphone connector, so if you want to get the best possible sound quality out of the 6210 Navigator with some decent headphones, you'll need to buy a 2.5mm-to-3.5mm adapter plug.
In-phone user memory for tracks and other content is 120MB, although MicroSD cards are supported, and Nokia includes a 1GB card in the package. Although this has mapping info pre-loaded, there's still plenty of spare room for loading up enough music to get you started. There's also a good quality FM radio built into the phone.
Complementing the entertainment, the Nokia S60 personal organiser and office tools functionality on the 6210 Navigator are typically generous. Besides the calendar, notes, active notes, calculator and convertor apps, there are Quickoffice and Adobe PDF document viewers, and a Zip file manager, for standard format files copied to the phone or received as email attachments. A dictionary application is included too, plus standard voice recorder and text reading functions.
When it comes to the basics of voice calling, the 6210 Navigator ticks all the right boxes too, with a clear, reliable performance in our test calls. Battery life will depend on how much the various multimedia functions, and particularly the Sat Nav system, are used. Although Nokia estimates standby time of 231-244 hours and talktime of 3-5 hours, regular Sat Nav usage will reduce battery life quickly; if you anticipate using it for long road journies, we'd recommend investing in an in-car charger.
Conclusion
With its 6210 Navigator, Nokia has produced another very impressive Sat Nav-equipped smartphone. The A-GPS technology and software have been smoothly integrated into this handset, performing well, and offering an intuitive and effective way of finding your way around.
There's plenty more to impress here too, with a fine spread of multimedia gadgetry and smartphone features. If you want Wi-Fi or a higher quality camera, you'll have to look further up Nokia's Nseries range, but otherwise this handset delivers a high quality set of applications in an attractive slider phone package.
**Price- Rs 14,500
The 6210 Navigator uses the Nokia Maps 2.0 application and comes pre-loaded with maps of 8 cities in India including Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Delhi.
Nokia is very keen to spread the message when it comes to Sat Nav in phones, and it's once again swelled its GPS-enabled mobile ranks with the release of the nifty 6210 Navigator.
Having recently acquired leading Sat Nav mapping data company Navteq in a multi-billion dollar deal, no one can question how serious Nokia's intentions are for GPS-packing handsets, and it continues to set the pace among the top-line mobile makers with a fast-growing portfolio of location-finding phones.
Following on from last year's 6110 Navigator, the 6210 Navigator is another solid sliderphone design, powered by the Symbian S60 smartphone operating system that's also used on Nokia's high-end Nseries lineup. It has A-GPS (Assisted Global Positioning System) technology onboard and comes equipped with Nokia Maps software, including mapping information for eight Indian cities currently on an in-box 1GB MicroSD card. A six month license for its voice guided drive and walk services are included too, delivering out-of-the-box turn-by-turn instructions, like a standalone in-car Sat Nav kit.
The handset is priced at Rs 18,000 and comes with the maps, free for six months.
Design and handling
The 6210 Navigator bears a close family resemblance to the recently released Nokia 6220 classic, with similar design characteristics and bodywork materials. It has plenty of similar smartphone traits too, although the 6210 Navigator sports a 3.2-megapixel camera rather than the fancy Carl Zeiss lens-equipped 5-megapixel shooter on the 6220 classic. This, though, is still an improvement on the original 6110 Navigator's 2-megapixel affair.
With high-speed HSDPA 3G data connectivity, and S60 functionality, the 6210 Navigator has much of the high-grade multimedia functionality Nokia includes with its latest Nseries models, such the N78, in a more affordable package. There's no Wi-Fi support on this model, but you do get 3G video calling (there's a secondary front-facing low-res camera), high-speed downloading, streaming and browsing, and a generous helping of S60 applications. Multi-format music and video players are naturally included, plus an FM radio, and there's a good selection of organiser tools, and support for web-based services such as Nokia Music Store and Share Online.
The Nokia 6210 Navigator's no svelte sliderphone, measuring 103(h) x 49(w) x 14.9(d)mm and weighing in at 117g, but it feels substantial enough in-hand without being a pocket-sagger. Its use of glossy black plastic on the casing and numberpad is similar to the 6220 classic. but it somehow doesn't feel as creaky.The fkeys feel responsive too for speed texters, and the control pad buttons - including the main menu 'squiggle' button and central navi-pad - are effectively arranged for no-fuss operation of the typical Nokia S60 menu system.
The large 2.4-inch display, a QVGA (320x240 pixels), 16-million colour screen is ample for checking out routing info, while giving a decent platform for viewing snaps and video content, and for browsing using the full Nokia Web Browser. This is another Nokia to have an accelerometer motion sensor onboard, too, shifting the screen view automatically between landscape and portrait for certain apps (including menus, the browser, image gallery and video player, though not the Sat Nav), depending on how the handset is held. This facilitates a couple of bonus motion features - automatic call silencing simply by turning the phone face down when a call comes in, plus a motion controlled game.
Features
As the Navigator's name suggests, the phone's direction finding functions are at the key selling point of this handset. Centred below the navi-pad is a compass-shaped button for firing up the A-GPS operated Nokia Maps function, which glows blue while the function is active (useful if you want to keep tabs on unnecessary power sappage).
The Nokia Maps application loads up quickly, and initial position finding is reassuringly rapid - we got our fix from start-up usually within 30 seconds, though it can take several minutes, according to Nokia, depending on conditions and where you're using the phone. The system fared well compared to other GPS phones; the Nokia Maps application has a user-friendly interface and provides the sort of detailed mapping information you get on standalone kits, and its performance was spot on in our tests.
As well as having A-GPS (using cellsites as well as GPS to lock on to your position), there's a very useful magnetic compass inside to help with direction finding when walking, orientating the onscreen map to suit the direction you're travelling in. The Sat Nav system has a wide selection of search options for hunting down points of interest, from restaurants, bars, and cinemas to petrol stations, ATMs and railways stations - plus much more. A search panel on the home screen is a nice touch too.
The route planning options are very intuitive to use; you can get driving or pedestrian directions to a location you've searched for or marked on the map, while the voice guidance option provides turn-by-turn instructions accurately and clearly (and suitably loudly from the speaker) - just like on an in-car Sat Nav kit. You can choose between 3D and 2D or satellite views of maps, and adjust a variety of settings to help route planning, get night mode, avoid congestion charge zones and so on.
With the combination of mapping on the memory card and online searches for locations, it's a slick and responsive system to have in your phone. We found it worked efficiently and accurately, and maintained its performance even with other functions operating in the background.
As well as the boxed package and 6 month Drive and Walk license, you can pay for additional options including city guides and traffic information. Maps for other countries can be downloaded too, using supplied Nokia Map Loader PC software.
Camera snapshot
The main 3.2-megapixel camera puts on a decent show too. Its autofocus system is capable of capturing sharp images as close ups as well as detailed mid-range shots. It deals with variable lighting conditions pretty well, and also handles subtle changes in texture and tones precisely.
Colours are generally good, though we did notice occasional shots in moderate light where the auto metering system produced slightly washed out tones. Overall, though we were pleased with the performance. Low-light shooting is aided by the LED light, but it's not as powerful or balanced illumination as the xenon equivalent on the 6220 classic. Its image sensor won't get you as much detail as Nokia's top-line 5-megapixel models, either but within its limits, you get a very acceptable camera performance.
Video shooting is is reasonable, capturing footage at VGA quality at up to 15 frames per second, which is higher res than average, but it still has some typical mobile phone jerkiness to it.
Images and video clips can be tweaked using some basic in-phone editing tools, and can be speedily uploaded to sharing websites, including Flickr, Vox and Nokia's Ovi service, using Nokia's Share online application.
Web-based apps
With HSDPA offering data download rates of up to 3.6Mbps, downloading video and audio clips over the air takes a matter of seconds; and as well as network operator services, you can browse the own-brand Nokia Music Store fro downloading tunes.
The full Nokia Browser onboard does a pretty good job at rendering web pages, and slipping it into landscape mode, plus the zoom and pan options make it pretty easy to get an overview and negotiate pages. You can get RSS feeds on the phone too, which is handy for swift hassle-free updates on your favourite sites and blogs. Nokia's WidSets widgets application, and Yahoo! Go are pre-loaded on the phone too, while you can also search for and download podcasts using a Podcasting application.
As standard with with S60 Nokias, there's a decent quality music player included too. Nothing fancy in the interface, it's straightforward to use with tracks arranged in regular MP3 player categories. The supplied earphones are average mobile phone ear-fare, and don't really lift the music performance above average. Unfortunately, this phone uses a 2.5mm jack socket for earphones rather than a standard 3.5mm headphone connector, so if you want to get the best possible sound quality out of the 6210 Navigator with some decent headphones, you'll need to buy a 2.5mm-to-3.5mm adapter plug.
In-phone user memory for tracks and other content is 120MB, although MicroSD cards are supported, and Nokia includes a 1GB card in the package. Although this has mapping info pre-loaded, there's still plenty of spare room for loading up enough music to get you started. There's also a good quality FM radio built into the phone.
Complementing the entertainment, the Nokia S60 personal organiser and office tools functionality on the 6210 Navigator are typically generous. Besides the calendar, notes, active notes, calculator and convertor apps, there are Quickoffice and Adobe PDF document viewers, and a Zip file manager, for standard format files copied to the phone or received as email attachments. A dictionary application is included too, plus standard voice recorder and text reading functions.
When it comes to the basics of voice calling, the 6210 Navigator ticks all the right boxes too, with a clear, reliable performance in our test calls. Battery life will depend on how much the various multimedia functions, and particularly the Sat Nav system, are used. Although Nokia estimates standby time of 231-244 hours and talktime of 3-5 hours, regular Sat Nav usage will reduce battery life quickly; if you anticipate using it for long road journies, we'd recommend investing in an in-car charger.
Conclusion
With its 6210 Navigator, Nokia has produced another very impressive Sat Nav-equipped smartphone. The A-GPS technology and software have been smoothly integrated into this handset, performing well, and offering an intuitive and effective way of finding your way around.
There's plenty more to impress here too, with a fine spread of multimedia gadgetry and smartphone features. If you want Wi-Fi or a higher quality camera, you'll have to look further up Nokia's Nseries range, but otherwise this handset delivers a high quality set of applications in an attractive slider phone package.
**Price- Rs 14,500
Nokia 5310 XpressMusic review
The Nokia 5310 XpressMusic is sharpened up, shaped up and slimmed down successor to Nokia's original fun and funky XpressMusic music mobles, the 5300 and 5700. The Nokia 5310 XpressMusic is pitched at the affordable end of Nokia's music mobile range, and is a quad-band GSM/GPRS model rather than a 3G handset.
The earlier music-centric mobiles from Nokia were a huge hit among the Indian youth, and to provide a better and glamorous experience, Nokia India brought out the Slimline 5310 XpressMusic quite fast than usual.
The 5310 inherits some of the striking design traits of its predecessors - notably the contrasting red or blue strips next to the screen on which dedicated music player controls are ranged. But the 5310 XpressMusic is a much sleeker and more stylish proposition.
Thin is still in for mobiles, and the 5310 cuts it at 9.9mm slim, weighing a pocket-friendly 71g. It's designed in black and graphite grey, with the coloured contrast strips given a metallic sheen by aluminium side panelling. The control keys are raised slightly, with diamond cut symbols giving them a tactile feel. With a straightforward plastic keypad layout, and bright 2-inch QVGA display, this has a classic candybar feel with just a little twist.
The music player is obviously the star of the show here, although there is also an FM radio onboard which works in conjunction with the supplied stereo headphones. Following its usual music phone philosophy, Nokia has usefully built in a 3.5mm headphone socket for this model, allowing users to upgrade the supplied headphones to any standard pair.
The internal memory on the 5310 is a modest 30MB, but Nokia supplies the 5310 with a hefty 2GB MicroSD memory card in the box, providing plenty of track room to be getting on with. Additional cards, up to 4GB in capacity, can be added (the MicroSD slot is hot-swappable, but tucked away on the side under the back panel).
The 5310 also features a standard-issue 2-megapixel camera on the back panel, which has a 4x digital zoom at lower resolutions, and shoots video clips at a low res 176x144 pixels maximum resolution.
Switch on the music player, by either heading into the Media section of the main Menu or by using one of the shortcuts on the Active Standby page. The familiar Nokia Series 40 3rd Edition user interface allows you to configure shortcuts yourself, and the D-pad menu navigation control and softkeys can also be set for fast access to functions of your own choosing. Tunes can be browsed in familiar music player categories - by songs, playlists, artists, albums genres and also videos. The music player here supports MP3, MP4, AAC, eAAc , and WMA file formats, plus you can add album art too.
And Nokia doesn't drop the ball when it comes to all-important music performance. The music player here can produce excellent quality. Trying it out with a standard pair of in-box Nokia stereo headphones, you get a reasonable enough sound, but we'd recommend taking advantage of the 3.5mm jack socket on the top of the phone to upgrade to a better set than the ones Nokia supplies - like most MP3 player in-box 'phones, they're limited. Plug in a decent set of heaphones and you'll hear a fine quality audio performance, well balanced with plenty of bass and sonic range. It's a treat to the ears, particularly coming from such a competitively priced handset.
The 2-megapixel camera built into the 5310 can produce perfectly acceptable shots, although overall its snaps are fairly average quality, as you might expect at this price point. Colours can appear a bit subdued and the lack of autofocus or macro limits the flexibility of the camera for close ups. Low light conditions don't suit this camera either. Images take a few seconds to process and save after pics have been snapped, too. You can see examples of shots in our article Nokia 5310 XpressMusic camera samples. Video recording is OK for basic fun shots, but playback is in low quality resolution.
There's a spread of other appealing features slotted in the 5310. Some Nokia standards include an email client, organiser functions, voice recorder and an XHTML full web browser (though running on GPRS rather than 3G, it's obviously not particularly speedy)
To improve browsing options, though, Nokia has tucked away an Opera Mini browser in its Applications folder. This is optimised for small screen rendering of web pages, delivering them quickly in scroll down fashion.
Without 3G, using only GPRS speed data, downloading tunes over the air or videos would be a relatively lengthy business, but Nokia has provided some additional web-based services for 5310 owners.
Nokia has loaded the 5310 with Yahoo! Go software, which provides a mini suite of customisable Yahoo! applications and services set up on a home screen. These include news, sports and weather updates, access to Flickr and Yahoo! Mail and local maps and guides, plus more.
Within its applications folder Nokia has also introduced its WidSets installer app, enabling you to download the WidSets mobile widgets application from Nokia.
WidSets allows you to view a wide range of tailored widgets arranged on your phone screen. These are effectively handy mini apps that deliver updated information from blogs and online services straight to your phone, using feeds from the web. It gives you the option of pulling updates for some of your favourites sites or blogs together on one page (see www.widsets.com for more information), and getting regular updates pushed to your phone rather than having to use the browser to go online. It's a neat app we're sure you'll be hearing much more of in the near future.
Nokia has installed a couple more apps, including a Wallpaper creator application, My Nokia text updates service, and an interesting Bluetooth-range social networking application, Sensor. Sensor enables 5310 owners to interact with other Sensor users in close proximity (around 10 metres), by creating folios users can browse and guestbooks users can write messages in. Three games are included too - City Bloxx, Snake III, and Music Guess (using your stored tracks to play name-that-tune).
While Nokia has been making much recently of its multi-gigabyte music mobiles at the top end of the market, it's not really hit the style mark before with the sort of handsets Sony Ericsson has been pumping out in its mid- to low-end Walkman range. With the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic, though, Nokia is offering a thinline alternative, with a fresh look and novel feature set - and an affordable price - that will certainly grab much more attention from music phone buyers.
** Price- Rs 12,450
The earlier music-centric mobiles from Nokia were a huge hit among the Indian youth, and to provide a better and glamorous experience, Nokia India brought out the Slimline 5310 XpressMusic quite fast than usual.
The 5310 inherits some of the striking design traits of its predecessors - notably the contrasting red or blue strips next to the screen on which dedicated music player controls are ranged. But the 5310 XpressMusic is a much sleeker and more stylish proposition.
Thin is still in for mobiles, and the 5310 cuts it at 9.9mm slim, weighing a pocket-friendly 71g. It's designed in black and graphite grey, with the coloured contrast strips given a metallic sheen by aluminium side panelling. The control keys are raised slightly, with diamond cut symbols giving them a tactile feel. With a straightforward plastic keypad layout, and bright 2-inch QVGA display, this has a classic candybar feel with just a little twist.
The music player is obviously the star of the show here, although there is also an FM radio onboard which works in conjunction with the supplied stereo headphones. Following its usual music phone philosophy, Nokia has usefully built in a 3.5mm headphone socket for this model, allowing users to upgrade the supplied headphones to any standard pair.
The internal memory on the 5310 is a modest 30MB, but Nokia supplies the 5310 with a hefty 2GB MicroSD memory card in the box, providing plenty of track room to be getting on with. Additional cards, up to 4GB in capacity, can be added (the MicroSD slot is hot-swappable, but tucked away on the side under the back panel).
The 5310 also features a standard-issue 2-megapixel camera on the back panel, which has a 4x digital zoom at lower resolutions, and shoots video clips at a low res 176x144 pixels maximum resolution.
Switch on the music player, by either heading into the Media section of the main Menu or by using one of the shortcuts on the Active Standby page. The familiar Nokia Series 40 3rd Edition user interface allows you to configure shortcuts yourself, and the D-pad menu navigation control and softkeys can also be set for fast access to functions of your own choosing. Tunes can be browsed in familiar music player categories - by songs, playlists, artists, albums genres and also videos. The music player here supports MP3, MP4, AAC, eAAc , and WMA file formats, plus you can add album art too.
And Nokia doesn't drop the ball when it comes to all-important music performance. The music player here can produce excellent quality. Trying it out with a standard pair of in-box Nokia stereo headphones, you get a reasonable enough sound, but we'd recommend taking advantage of the 3.5mm jack socket on the top of the phone to upgrade to a better set than the ones Nokia supplies - like most MP3 player in-box 'phones, they're limited. Plug in a decent set of heaphones and you'll hear a fine quality audio performance, well balanced with plenty of bass and sonic range. It's a treat to the ears, particularly coming from such a competitively priced handset.
The 2-megapixel camera built into the 5310 can produce perfectly acceptable shots, although overall its snaps are fairly average quality, as you might expect at this price point. Colours can appear a bit subdued and the lack of autofocus or macro limits the flexibility of the camera for close ups. Low light conditions don't suit this camera either. Images take a few seconds to process and save after pics have been snapped, too. You can see examples of shots in our article Nokia 5310 XpressMusic camera samples. Video recording is OK for basic fun shots, but playback is in low quality resolution.
There's a spread of other appealing features slotted in the 5310. Some Nokia standards include an email client, organiser functions, voice recorder and an XHTML full web browser (though running on GPRS rather than 3G, it's obviously not particularly speedy)
To improve browsing options, though, Nokia has tucked away an Opera Mini browser in its Applications folder. This is optimised for small screen rendering of web pages, delivering them quickly in scroll down fashion.
Without 3G, using only GPRS speed data, downloading tunes over the air or videos would be a relatively lengthy business, but Nokia has provided some additional web-based services for 5310 owners.
Nokia has loaded the 5310 with Yahoo! Go software, which provides a mini suite of customisable Yahoo! applications and services set up on a home screen. These include news, sports and weather updates, access to Flickr and Yahoo! Mail and local maps and guides, plus more.
Within its applications folder Nokia has also introduced its WidSets installer app, enabling you to download the WidSets mobile widgets application from Nokia.
WidSets allows you to view a wide range of tailored widgets arranged on your phone screen. These are effectively handy mini apps that deliver updated information from blogs and online services straight to your phone, using feeds from the web. It gives you the option of pulling updates for some of your favourites sites or blogs together on one page (see www.widsets.com for more information), and getting regular updates pushed to your phone rather than having to use the browser to go online. It's a neat app we're sure you'll be hearing much more of in the near future.
Nokia has installed a couple more apps, including a Wallpaper creator application, My Nokia text updates service, and an interesting Bluetooth-range social networking application, Sensor. Sensor enables 5310 owners to interact with other Sensor users in close proximity (around 10 metres), by creating folios users can browse and guestbooks users can write messages in. Three games are included too - City Bloxx, Snake III, and Music Guess (using your stored tracks to play name-that-tune).
While Nokia has been making much recently of its multi-gigabyte music mobiles at the top end of the market, it's not really hit the style mark before with the sort of handsets Sony Ericsson has been pumping out in its mid- to low-end Walkman range. With the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic, though, Nokia is offering a thinline alternative, with a fresh look and novel feature set - and an affordable price - that will certainly grab much more attention from music phone buyers.
** Price- Rs 12,450
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