Nokia N97 - A cellphone on steroids!

Nokia had kept all gadget enthusiasts guessing with the mysterious countdown timer that they had put up the Nokia website for quite awhile now. Nokia promised a true 'mobile computer' like we've never seen before but refused to give out any more details to the prying media!

On 2nd December Nokia ultimately revealed the spanking new Nokia N97 at the Nokia World Conference 2008, leaving everyone thrilled! The N97 is the first N-Series device to enjoy the new Symbian Series60 5th Edition OS introduced to us first by the Nokia 5800 a.k.a. the Tube. Well, I'd say, Nokia came through with its promise!



The Nokia N97 has got a ton of features crammed into its little 150g body! It combines a dazzling 16M color 3.5" touchscreen display that has a resolution of 360 x 640 pixels with a full slide-out QWERTY keyboard which is a boon for heavy texters! It sports a cool 5MP camera with high-quality Carl Zeiss Tessar optics which deliver complete DVD quality videos.

The 16:9 wide home screen of the N97 is completely customizable with widgets. You can access news feeds, social networks & friends at the touch of a button...oops!...I mean screen! The N97 makes it convenient to update social networking sites on the go. It also supports all Ovi features making it easier to share and stay connected with the world.

This smartphone is high on connectivity. Its got every form of mobile connectivity that exists...GPRS, 3G, HSDPA, Bluetooth, Wi-fi. It also has full support to display flash videos on the web. It is like a browser that always online!

The N97 is the first Nokia phone to introduce the concept "social location". It has integrated A-GPS sensors so that it intuitively understand where it is. The system works on the Nokia mapping technology with a built-in virtual compass that points the user the direction he should go when using turn-by-turn navigation. One thing's for sure...with this phone, you will never get lost!

Gaming fans can rejoice as the N97 has full support for the N-Gage platform. Widescreen gaming on a Nokia phone has now become a reality. With the built-in accelerometer, touch and tilt based gaming will soon be on the cards.

The N97 has a whopping 32 GB internal storage and can further be expanded with a 16GB microSD card adding up a nifty 48GB which is more that enough to store all sorts of media- photos, videos, songs, docs....just everything! The battery life is pretty impressive. The BL-4C provides about 400 hours of standby time, 320-400 hours of talk time, 4.5 hours of video playback and over 37 hours of audio playback...so you can blast songs on the stereo speakers for 1.5 days! That's enough to bring the house down, I must say!

This phone definitely contends for the top spot of the iPhone killer!!

Here's the official video of the N97 to get you drooling!


The N97 is expected to start shipping in the first half of 2009 with a price tag of around €550.

iPhone Killers - Cells That beat the iPhone!

The iPhone!! ....yeah....the most hyped device of our time!! With Vodafone & Airtel starting pre-registration of the iPhone, the craze is soon gonna engulf the Indian market. Till now, the iPhone was a novelty available only if you could shell out big bucks in the grey market. With the official launch, the price is rumoured to be about $199 that translates into just Rs.8000. I'm pretty skeptical about the price being so low, but, I'll save that incredulity for an article when the iPhone actually launches in India.

Anyway, most people who've got their eyeballs firmly affixed on the iPhone are unaware of the other options available in the market. In some cases, these alternatives have better features than the iPhone also!

HTC

HTC Touch Diamond

This is one handset I'm absolutely in love with! The stunning aesthetics are only enhanced by the enviable Touch screen interface. The Touch Diamond incorporates an intuitive TouchFLO 3D technology that is really cool! Its got an awesome 2.8-inch screen with Touch-sensitive navigation control.

An impressive 3.2MP camera with autofocus takes nice shots in comparison to the 2MP on the iPhone. A secondary camera is also included which the iPhone lacks. The Touch Diamond is great on connectivity with a built in A-GPS that you can use with your choice of satnav software and 3.5G data high download & upload speeds with HSDPA. There’s also built in WiFi [which the iPhone lacks again], Bluetooth 2.0. Wi-fi is not included in the 3G iPhone.

The Touch Diamond operates on Windows Mobile 6 also comes with 4GB internal storage & extendable memory.

Here's a video of the touch-flo technology that's second only to the iPhone!



A non-3G version of the Touch Diamond has already been launched officially in India for Rs.27,500. Its cheaper in the grey market. But expect a major price drop once the iPhone releases.

HTC Touch Pro

The HTC Touch Pro is similar to the Touch Diamond in all specs. The only part where it differs is that it include an entire keyboard with it. So for QWERTY aficionados, its a perfect choice!


Sony Ericsson

Sony Ericsson Xperia X1

The much expected Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 QWERTY has finally been launched. s the first SOny phone to work on Windows Mobile6 complete with Outlook Mobile & Office Mobilemaking this a good business phone. The 3 inch touch screen has a neat 800 x 480 resolution with 9 customizable layouts .It is accompanied by a full QWERTY keyboard and also has handwriting recognition..

You can't go wrong with the 3.2Mp camera with photo light.
Again, even this cell sports bluetooth, Wif-fi, HSDPA & a-GPS with location tagging.

It has 400MB onboard memory with a micr-SD slot. This a new development for Sony which has refused to budge from its trusted memory stick since ages!

Nokia

Nokia Tube

A touch user interface on a Nokia is something I've yearned for a long long time! It couldn't have been long since Nokia has also jumped into the Touch screen phones bandwagon. The only other Nokia touch screen devices like the 6708 & N810i havn't created too much furore atleast in the Indian market. This highly hyped touch screen will be Nokia's attempt to take on the iPhone. Its the first Nokia touch screen to run on the Series 60 Symbian interface & is touted to be the flagship for a new line-up. The Tube also called the Nokia 5800 XpressMedia is expected to have a 16M TFT display with 360 x 640 pixels resolution and 16:9 aspect ratio.
Nokia has kept this device under wraps & isn't letting on too much info , but, have stated that the device is gonna have a nice big screen with camera better than that of the iPhone. Of course, connectivity features include the usual Bluetooth, 3G, Wi-fi,a-GPS that I've come to expect from high-end Nokia's.Nokia Tube runs on the latest Nokia 5th generation S60 full Touch.

Samsung

Samsung Instinct

The Instinct is Samsung's response to the iPhone. Its been added to the alreaady existing Samsung Line up comprising the Voyager & Glyde It has 3.1-inch touchscreen with localized haptic feedback, plus three hard navigation keys. The home-screen is highly customizable so that you can access your fav applications with a single touch. The interface is simple and easily adaptable.The 2MP camera is decent enough but doesn't match up to the likes of HTC, Sony & Nokia. It also offers Visual Voicemail & audible caller ID

Samsung F700

Another Samsung entry is the Samsung F700 which has a 3.2MP cam is equipped with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. It has a 2.78-inch color TFT screen with 440×240 pixels resolution. Specs similar to other devices though this one lacks Wifi .In addition it also sports VibeTonz technology which allows users to feel the buttons accompanied by responsive vibrations. The touch interface is the proprietary Samsung OS with a unique drag and drop system for easiermenu navigation and media playback.

Samsung i900 Omnia


Okay, the newly announced i900 makes even the Instinct seem kinda extinct! The litte brother of the F700 in size, it sports n ambitious 5 MP camera, bringing it up to par with the current high-end offerings from Nokia and Sony Ericsson. The cam has auto focus snapper with auto-panorama shot plus face and smile detection that automatically clicks the photo when the subject smiles!

This little baby has a 240X400 screen with 8 gigs of internal storage! A 16GB version will also be available in the market. It runs on Samsung had also imported their TouchWiz technology on this Windows Mobile phone .

LG

LG-KE850

LG-KE850 also known as the LG Prada Phone is a wannabe attempt by LG for a iPhone killer. Its got an elegant look about it though and relies wholly on the touch interface.

But, without 3G & Wi-fi it doesn't make its presence felt much against competitors. It'll satiate your hunger for good looks though.

LG Dare

The LG Dare is yet another LG hit at the iPhone.

Its a good enough cell with a 3.2MP cam, 3G & 240X400 screen.

Its been launched for just $200 so actually it its quite affordable as compared to other phones in its league.

The only hiccup is the absence of Wi-fi.

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This list is still not complete. The iPhone has propelled the Touch Screen revolution to new heights! Nobody wants to be left behind in this race. All manufacturers are battling big time to catch the attention of the touch screen loving market. Other noteworthy iPhone killers include the Philips X800, the Blackberry Thunder & the O2 XDA Orbit.But I think, the Touch Diamond and the Sony Xperia will give the iPhone the toughest competion.

Well now to be fair to the iPhone, the touch interface of the phones mentioned above doesn't come close to the iPhone. When it comes to the design, UI & navigation simplicity the iPhone wins hands-down. But then, once the novelty of the touch-screen wears off, users like me who bank on the features rather than the design of the phone, are gonna be disappointed because the iPhone lacks lots of stuff that the "iKillers" have!

But still, I don't believe that the iPhone will really get "killed". When the iPod launched, there was a flurry of music players launched in quick succession claiming to be iPod killers. However, as we all know, the iPod is still very much alive & kicking! I'd say that these other phones do offer alternatives to the iPhone & also give them tough competiton. Hopefully , Apple will take a hint from the "killers" and incorporate all the missing features in its next release. That'll be something to look forward to!

New Sony Ericsson Mobiles

8 MP Sony Ericsson Cell phone!

Yeah!...You read right! Just as I thought that a 5MP on a camera phone was gonna be the standard for a while, Sony Ericsson has gone ahead and announced the 8MP

Sony
Ericsson C905

code-named Shiho.

This phone which had been kept under wraps for long has finally been officially announced by Sony on 17th June.

This 3G and EDGE enabled little wonder, sports a cool 8.1MP camera which boasts of auto focus , image stabilization, xenon and a photo flash , BestPic, red-eye reduction, face detection and a new feature called Smart COntrast. The cam is capable of producing a maximum image resolution of 3264 x 2448 pixels.The shocking resolution will give you brilliant A3 size prints as well! The cell also has some cool pre-installed applications like Cam Plus which adds some shooting modes to the camera.

The C905 is honoured with the presence of built-in WiFi with DLNA-support, so all media in your home can be shared. It's also got a GPS with geo-tagging, TV-out, stereo bluetooth, the Netfront 4.5 web browser...so its a complete wireless networking device.

It also has an acceleromater. This means that the the pictures will change to landscape mode when you tilt the phone. [similar to the way the iPhone does]

The battery is good for 380 hours of standby or 9 hours of talk on GSM networks.

Besides that, all standard features like a nice audio & video player, FM, card slot, etc. are obviously included.

The only thing I was not so keen on was the size and the look. At 136g and dimensions of 104 x 49 x 18, its quite bulky. Its as big as the Nokia N81. But, if your used to carting around a bulky handset....the size wouldn't be too much of an issue, I think.

There's no info as yet about the possible price of this phone. It'll be available in the 4th quarter of 2008 in different colours like Copper Gold, Ice Silver & Night Black .

Here's a demo of the phone to get you more excited:





Sony Ericsson Gaming Phone

The

Sony Ericsson F305

is a normal mid-range quad-band GSM/EDGE device. But wait! Its not that boring. It offers an interesting gaming feature to the market.

The display is a 2-inch TFT with a standard 176X220 resolution. It has a 2MP camera [lacks autofoucus], FM, stereo bluetooth, music & video player.

Now, the interesting part! The speciality of this phone is that it is has an accelerometer which is a built-in sensor that is utilised while gaming. [This made me think of the Wii actually] . The F305 comes with three pre-installed games on the device (Bowling, Bass fishing and Jockey. So, if you feel like playing some bowling for example you can do that by simply swinging the handset as if you are to throw a bowling ball. Or if you feel like fishing, you can just swing the phone like a fishing line! Just don't end up throwing the handset in the bargain!

Additional motion games developed by Gameloft can be downloaded at PlayNow.

Some of the games can be played in multiplayer mode via bluetooth. This phone also has some special keys on its console which are to be used for gaming.

All in all, its a nice handset...especially for those looking for a new gaming experience. Also, its not expensive and that increses its attractiveness. And yeah....you can pimp the look of this cell using Style-Up covers. Two covers are included in the retail box itself!

The Sony Ericsson F305 in the 3rd quarter of this year in Polar White and Mystic Black colours. No details about tentative price as yet.

You can check out the official F305 promo here-

These handsets already have me drooling! I think we'll see even more innovative cellphones in the future.