Dual Slide CDMA from Nokia

High end CDMA phones from Nokia are as rare as hair on chickens teeth. Naturally I was delighted to come across this.

Meet the 8208. The newest CDMA (EV-DO/1Xrtt) based handset from the Finnish giant.

Designwise, the 8208 bears uncanny resemblance to its GSM based cousin N96 and from what it seems, would end up as the first phone from the Series 40 stable to sport a dual-slider design.

There is a Chinese version as well, the 8208C.

On the features front, the Camera is a 3.0 megapixel unit with flash and 6X digital zoom. The 2.2 inch screen displays 16 million colors and sports a decent QVGA (240 x 320) resolution. The internal memory of 150MB can be expanded upto 8 GB with Micro SD cards. For music buffs, there is a 3.5mm jack, FM Radio, and a dedicated music co-processor. A GPS module is a part of the standard accessories list. The phone also supports Brew 3.1.5 for browsing. There is a mini USB port and Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR.

Nokia claims the phone is good for 20 hours of music playback on a full charge. Also, the dual slider design means dedicated music keys. Apart from this, the phone has a 11 day standby and 4 hours of talktime.

As of now this is still listed as “Coming Soon” on the Nokia Website: http://master.ncomprod.nokia.com/link?cid="PLAIN_TEXT_1005864

N73 - A Long Term Review

For a change, here’s a review with a difference. It’s easy writing a review looking at a device, playing with its features for a few days and jotting down a few words describing the product. The real testament to a products quality is a “long term” review.


If we have some auto buffs amongst us, they might be fairly well versed with the concept of “long termers”. The term is used to describe cars that the auto magazines use for a fairly long amount of time and the result is a much more detailed look in to the product than a review or a preview where little nuances and features or even downsides might be missed out on.


That brings us to the current review here.


Lets talk about the N73 here. Outdated? Well, it seems fairly outdated considering the fact that we have the flagship N95 and now the N96 in sight.Also, cousins N78 and N82 have stolen the limelight from the good ol N73 which was once upon a time the flagship, if not the best phones from the Nokia stables.As of now,the feature packed music edition retails for considerably less than its well endowed cousins and it still is a steal at this price. We’ll talk about the music edition here.


Looks and Screen:

A quick look on the design front - it is a fairly conservative approach. The massive screen dominates the front and surprisingly, there is still space left for a larger screen had Nokia wanted to add more real estate.

The 240*320 , 2.4 inch screen is bright and crisp. Visibility in daylight is great.. But not exceptional.


Camera:

On the imaging front, the phone sports a decent 3.2 mega pixel camera. The Image Quality is great for a phone although there was an issue with the previous firmware version with a blue haze during night shots. At 3.2 megapixels, the camera is still better than the “standard” 2 mega pixel count which almost all mid end handsets sport these days.


I will delve straight into the main part of the review now. Almost everyone has seen or used the N73 once. How does the handset fare on a long term basis? Read on:



The year that was:

Having used this phone for over an year now, here are the things I have noticed. The build quality is good. I have had four or five falls and on one occasion, the memory card popped out! There is still a scratch to be seen even after these falls and for starters, I am not very careful when it comes to phones. I do not even have a screen protector on. Apart from these, there ae no squeaks or issues with the moving parts -especially the flimsy camera cover.

I'd give an 9.5 on a scale of 10 for build quality.


Being a heavy user, I wanted the phone to have a good keypad and joystick. The keypad is not bad but is a tad slippery. The major problem I have faced with this phone is the joystick. The joystick has been giving me problems since the second month I got this phone and as lazy as I am, I did not bother to take it to the Nokia Service Centre. The problem is interesting it itself, the joystick tends to “jam” and looses tactile feedback when the temperature drops! Funny as it sounds, it works fine in normal temperatures.

As for other daily use wear and tear, there is nothing much to speak about. Apart from the joystick issue, there has been no issues with 11 months of heavy usage.


Firmware Updates:

The Nokia Online Update service is an easy way to upgrade a phones firmware, I was not to be left behind and am always on the latest version. The previous version had rendered the equalizer useless and was full of issues. Thankfully, we have an update now. The online upgrade is fairly simple to use. Make sure you have a good internet connection and steady power supply so that the process is not interrupted – or a visit to the Service Center is imminent!


Overall Experience:

Apart from the irritating joystick issue, the phone has been excellent. No hanging, slowness and technical issues have troubled me. From my experience, the music edition is still a good buy with the 2GB Micro SD! Smartphone buffs on a budget – look no further!

For any further queries or if you want to know something more, just post a comment and I will answer.

Iphone 3G vs Blackberry Bold!

As reported yesterday, Boy Genius Report gave us a detailed first review of the Blackberry Bold, scheduled to hit the stores next month.

What they also did was to pitt the Bold against the iPhone 3G and the result is the first ever iPhone vs Blackberry story. They did have interesting results as far as some of the features are concerned.. but who takes the crown? Read on..

Design wise, both the phones are quite dissimilar. The iPhone has the sleek, mimimalistic approach to design while the Blackberry adds the already rich corporate touch to the phone with the excellent QWERTY kwyboard and the great screen. Even though approach to design is different, its clear that the iPhone takes the crown easily if there were a phone beauty contest.

We did report some issues with the Blackberry build quality yesterday; the screen is easily scratched and does not have the confidence inspiring feeling of the iPhone which feels sturdy and durable – even with the fragile looking glass screen.

As for the screen, the blackberrys 480x 320 screen betters even that of the iPhone! It is brighter and is better for everything from watching videos to photos. However, the larger size of the iPhone screen tilts the balance slightly in favour of the device – However as far as the question of which screen is the best arises, the answer is clear. It’s the Bold.

The iPhone OS has been sort of a dark horse. Even though it is based on the MAC OS, it lacks some basic features like copy-paste. That’s a shame for a smartphone. Anyway, the matter is open for debate. But with the eye candy and functionality that the iPhone OS gives, it still takes the crown as one of the best smartphone platforms available today. As for the Blackberry, it is well known that Blackberry loyalists swear by it., BUT there is little change from the previous versions. To keep it simple, you won’t find a guy buying the Bold just for its OS. On the contrary, most people get the iPhone for that same reason. Additionally, the number of apps for the iPhone, with the App Store and the new SDK will increase exponentially. As BGR put it, “the iPhone wins over any other handset in the world in regards to applications.”

As for the other facets, no device can come close to the Blackberry whe it comes to e-mail. Not even the iPhone with MobileMe and exchange server support. E-mail has always been RIMs domain and it seems it will be like that for quite some time. Call quality wise, there is little to choose between the two.

On a final note, it is clear that the Bold is an effort to enhance the multimedia abilities for a device known for its corporate affinity if you can call it that. The iPhone on the other hand is a consumer friendly device which in its latest avatar is much more corporate friendly.

The First Blackberry Bold Review surfaces.

Boy Genius Report has managed to pull of a Blackberry Bold Review out of nowhere and boy!, it has revealed never before heard facets about the Blackberry Bold – scheduled to hit the stores this August. The successor to the Curve, the phone was in the making for almost three years till it saw the light of the day this year.

This is just a basic roundup of some of the features that the latest iteration from the RIM stable has to offer.

To start with, the folks at BGR did face some issues with starting up the device. But a quick call to one of their “Blackberry ninjas” and post a software update, things fell into place and they were able to check out the device in detail.

The 480x 320 screen is said to be one of the best seen on a mobile device. The vibrant, colour rich screen is however prone to scratches and even the most careful users can end up with a scratch on the screen – thanks to the flimsy plastic quality that RIM chose for the screen.

Designwise, the phone may look a tad iPhonish, but the comparson ends there. Like the plastic on the screen, there is a flimsy chrome strip (plastic again), which is prone to scratches.

The keyboard is similar to earlier models and ex Blackberrians would have no issues graduating to the 9000 in case they upgrade. No learning curve!

Connectivity wise, the 9000 has all you can think of. 3G, GPS and Wi Fi. There is also a brand new browser which works extremely well to display web content in the intended format. In all, a pretty good upgrade over the previous versions. Although still not in the league of the iPhone, its much much better now.

As for battery life, the 1500 MAh mill lasted almost 18 hours under the following usage pattern: 300 -500 e-mails, an hours worth of web surfing over 3G, Wi Fi on, Bluetooth Off and yes, an hour of calling. That is pretty good may I add?

Sound quality is nothing exceptional, but still better than the older versions. Call quality is extremely good as well. Although the speakerphone lpudness nees to be worked upon.

Overall, the Blackberry Bold 9000 seems well worth the wait and hopefully, RIM can needle out the plastic quality issues as well as the overall build quality which now, is a notch below that of the Curve.

Google bucket testing Digg like feature.

Most of us must be aware of Digg – the social content website where any interesting news/story can be submitted and voted for. Only the most popular stories make it to the front page. Voting up is called digging and if a story is not worth the hype, it is buried.
Visit Digg for more on that.

Now, according to reports, apna Google is working on a similar feature for its search results. Prima facie, it seems Google is “bucket testing” the application. Bucket testing is nothing but making the feature available to select randomly chosen users. While most may just miss it, there are some who do notice this and send in screenshots!



Adrian Pike is one such user and he has sent some screenshots which does suggest that Google is working on similar feature. From the screen shots he has sent to TechCrunch, an up and down arrow can be clearly seen – along with an X. When the up arrow is clicked, it turns green and it adds to the total vote count. This was reported earlier as well by the folks at Tech Crunch – the only difference this time being the option to change your vote.

Once the testing is complete and all goes well, Google will move this to the Google Experimental Area where this can be added by any user.