2 posts tagged “mobile world conference”

It seems the full crop of new mobiles phones at the MWC '09 is in. While The Symbian-Guru Guru was pretty excited and had big expectations of the MWC `09, I on the other hand did not expect anything really wowable. Merely more megapixels and more/bigger touchscreens. And sadly I was mostly right.

Touchscreen developments

Yep, almost every company came with more touchscreens. Only Nokia introduced no new touchscreen devices, showing contentment with their 5800 ExpressMedia and the yet to be released N97. Note that I am not counting the new Nokia navigator with a touchable area for zooming. An interesting development is that Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.5 has become more finger oriented, finally. And very promising Samsung used Symbian S60 5th edition for their latest and greatest touchscreen: The Omnia HD.

Samsung Omnia HD

The Omnia is a very promising media phone. OLED screen, 8 MPixel photo's. Video upto 1280x720p@24 fps, even GPS and a compass. Specificationswise it completely blows the competition out of the water and with S60 5th edition being among the more pleasant touch interfaces. it should do well. Sadly there is no Xenon flash, only a single led. However neither the Nokia 5800 nor the N97 can match its hardware specifications. And with all of them running S60 5th edition It seems Nokia's only advantage over this Samsung will lie mostly in OVI's additional internet services additional software and regular firmware updates/improvements. Which BTW are not to be dismissed lightly. All in all the Omnia HD looks very impressive.

Nokia N86

Though SonyEricson presented a 'concept' of 12 MPixels, Nokia's N86 is currently perhaps the most promising cameraphone announced. The multi-aperture and a mechanical shutter will improve the image quality. Expect enhanced image depth and sharper images. Compared to a N82 the N86 lens setup has a similar amount of light per pixel while at the same having 60% more pixels. In comparison The E71's lens collects 30% less light per pixel and 36% less pixels.

The N86's lack of a Xenon flash will no doubt annoy staunch photographers. However if the LED's are of high quality they could still approach the colorspectrum Xenon well enough, that flashed photo's don't look off-color. Though the significant longer flash duration of LED's will cause more motion blurring in your photo's. The latter is less important, particular if as compensation the double LED's can be used as a torch and for filming in the dark.

No phones for social bloggers

No real combinations of a quality media phone (photo and video) with a decent mini-qwerty were expected by me. The announced E75 has a qwerty but only 3.2 MPixels, with a single LED and no mention of a Zeiss Tessar lens. No doubt it will fall in the same quality category as the E71: Only nice for sunny holiday pics. However the E75's video is specified at 640x480@30 fps compared to the E71's 22fps despit the phone's smaller size. On the other hand the E75 design does not even come close to the stylish curves of E71. The E75 looks flat and squared. A shade of polished ugliness, particular in the colors red and yellow.

Acer came with the M900. It main features are a 5 Mpixel camera, GPS, fingerprint scanner  and QWERTY! Making it the sole competitor for the Nokia N97. With Windows Mobile 6.5 as the OS choosen for the Acer M900, it will no doubt do well in buisiness circles. Though wether WM6.5 will be really that more userfriendly than WM6.0, I doubt it. I do hope the Acers'  photo's and video options will compare favorable to what we are used from Nokia's N-series devices as the N97 is in need of decent competition in that aspect. No doubt a qwerty version of Samsung's Omnia HD would give the N97 stiff competition. Indeed I hope they do. For now the N97 seems the only phone suited for a social blogger's appetite.

Conclusion

Samsung's Omnia HD was the most exciting annoucement, I guess. Though without qwerty I doubt I'll go for it. As such my N82 has little fear of being replaced. The N86 would be a nice upgrade to the N82, but the difference is simply not big enough. Which in my eyes sums up the MWC '09. The N97 is still looking to be the best choice in the near future. Though I'd prefere a slightly smaller device. And yes, the E71 is still my most wannahave-because-it-looks-so-very-cool-phone. Still the new E75 is a better choice with the 3,5 mm audio connector and the larger keyboard for big-thumbed geeks like me. I guess I have to be a little more patient for my next dream phone.None seem as much a step forward as the N95 did.

The Mobile World Conference is coming up in 6 more days and I am not feeling any worthwhile amount of anticipation. Why? As a consumer I feel misunderstood. There is no real phone that does it right for me, while could have been in the market for a year. We have touch phones, we have mini-qwerty phones, we have cam phones. But that thing in my pocket that still fits my needs best is already over two years old. In other words, I am saying all the new stuff is wannabe crap. Awake now?

There is quality and there is functionality. But where are the smart combinations? Quality calling, SMS, e-mail, webbrowsing, photos and satellite navigation. These are today's essential phone functions.

- Calling, I want calling with a decent sound quality.
- I want SMS and e-mail with a decent (qwerty) keyboard. So my screen space is used for composing and reviewing my message. No more frustration on a numeric keypad entering mixed language and struggeling with odd lexicographical tokens. No annoyance by tiny touch buttons or having your screen space completely absorbed for touch-qwerty data input.
- webbrowsing. Yeah I want to access the essentials either on a mobile site or the original. We are talking news-websites, RSS-feeds and stuff like youtube and other interesting internet video-feeds.
- I want quality photo's at low light and a decent flash. Image quality please! Not useless high numbers of insensitive MegaPixels.
- Satellite navigation. This means A-GPS support for speed and accuracy and some decent navigation software. Traffic information and more!

There are currently no decent phones on the market that take good pictures, have gps and a qwerty input. Touch or without touch. Even Nokia has been missing the point for more than a year. There is the N-series with 5 MPixels cameras and all the goodies one wishes except a qwerty keyboard. And there is the E-series with the E71 and the upcoming E75 that have decent qwerty but no 5 Mpixel camera. Nokia could have built an S60 3rd edition j71 (between E and N) over a year ago to fill that painfully empty spot in the market. And none of its competitors seemed to be bright enough to do it either. Not that I would go windows mobile.

The N97 seems the only upcoming phone with a sensible mix of quality and functions, though its size and weight tell me it is a bit of a brick and it's touch interface is yet still unproven. At the moment I would still prefer a phone with a decent compact  form factor and a qwerty on my next phone running a reliable S60 3rd edition FP2. Though I would not mind some nifty N97-ish widgets available for on the stand-by screen. But I expect that none of this will pop-up on the MWC '09. No it will be all 8 MPixels and more sub-standard touch-interfaces and lack of qwerty.

And the current phone in my pocket? A N82, in other words, a revamped  version of the two year old N95-model in stylish black. Still the best for now and likely for months to come.