3 posts tagged “n97”

To day I checked the Download! application in my N97. To my merry amazement there was only 1 application left in Download!: The OVI store application. I do have to say that the download application does seem a bit overkill on the N97 with both the ovi-store working quite well and the presence of the OTA Software Update application working excellent.

The default v12 N97 firmware has ovi-store version 1.00.  The download application has v1.05 in offer. Upgrading went like blast. Strange though that the OVI-store update is not shown through the OTA Software Update application. Who would ever check Download! out of anything other than curiosity. So please every one check the Download! application on your N97. Most likely the last time you ever need to check it.

I guess it will be gone with firmware 2.0.

Cheers

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.

Nokia did well with the announcements of Nokia World. Biggest news in mobile town being the N97. It has all a n-series phone needs: Wopping battery life, 5MPixel photo, 30 fps 640x480 Video and all the trimmings of the N95-class phones. I have only three complaints.

1. No Xenon flash, let's be honest. Dual led for video simply sucks, and it pales completely in comparison with xenon flash for photo's. At least the current dual led models do. And it will be a while until they get that right it seems. 
2. 12 cm's long? Okay to be precise 11,7 cm. Still it's a bit to clumsy. A smartphone that is not pocketable is not a smartphone, its a netbook/laptop/fancy piece of heavy luggage.
3. 150 grams? Another pocketable size complaint. 120 grams please at the most 130 grams.
   

With the new Symbian v5 touchscreen software, Maps, Ngage and the social contact integration on the standby screen it looks like a winner. Early adopters of the N95 like me will pine about this machine until it's available. Still I think it's current size and weight will make people hesitate to buy it. Time will tell wether the N97 will position itself for as a E90 replacement for buisinessmen or as a anytime, anyplace phone for a larger group of smartphone addicts.

Having said all this I would love to test this phone and see if it can cope with one of my 14x16 hours trips of  satnav, e-mail, phototagging and videorecording. It killed the last two N95 I owned, despite being never dropped. All in all it is pretty close to my personal wish list for Christmas, though it seems Santa will be half a year late ;-)

Nokia

The N97 will likely be the most expected phone for the first half of 2009. Supplemented with the new maps and e-mail integration into OVI. Nokia seems more back on track than ever. The new social contact integration on the homescreen of the N97 could very well indicate further developments in the new Symbian OS. Gearing it more towards the social demands an internetconnected junk has. Like multiple internet identities and syncing per identity as well simple things like as being allowed to cloudtag your e-mail. Who has ever properly used the subject line in an e-mail?

• N97 movie 1
• N97 movie 2