Looks like the Nokia sabre will sport a 3.5 inch display, from the looks of it its design is similar to the recently released Symbian  Nokia 603 listed below. It seems to feature hardware buttons, rather than the touch display kind.  No clear indication what this means. but we can ascertain that the Sabre will be a budget Windows Phone devices  on an Entry level basis

Via Wmpoweruser

A lot of smartphone talk these days seems to center around apps – the iPhone is the best phone because it has the largest app store, the N9 is dead in the water because it doesn’t have many apps yet, BlackBerry is a waste of time because it has a small app store, and so on. But how important are apps really? Or, more to the point, is such a plethora of apps really necessary?

The average number of apps the average user installs is between seven and nine. Of these, the basics typically include Facebook, Twitter and a weather app. Some people have others either for work or pleasure, but certainly no one is installing hundreds and hundreds.  All About Symbian article explains, most of the top ten apps installed on the iPhone are natively included in Symbian phones, so the need for that app on Nokia phones evaporates. Similarly, the Nokia N900 has no Skype app, because Skype is fully integrated into the phone so users can get contacts and make and receive calls and IMs without an app. Conversely, the iPhone is extremely limited in its features straight out of the box and so is much more reliant on developers to fill those gaps.

Taking a look through the app store, though, what we see is that of the hundreds of thousands of apps, many are just free crap that are of no use nor interest to most people. There is no shortage of fart or joke apps, many apps are duplicated, others are wallpapers and themes and others are just mobile browsing bookmarks like the Guardian app. In other words, there is a huge number of possible apps to install but it is very much the minority that is worth installing.

Going back to the N900, it doesn’t need mobile bookmarks because it has the option to save a bookmark to any of the multiple desktops. Themes can be downloaded from the native repositories and wallpapers can be downloaded from any website and installed easily thanks to the fact that no proprietary software like iTunes is required to install them.

In any case, apps are largely there to allow a phone to do what it can’t do natively. Therefore, the real question of a device’s status should not be the number of apps it allows, but the number of apps it needs. In other words, the more a device can do by itself, the less the user needs to scroll through endless lists of apps to find something they want to do. Windows Phone 7 negates the need to download any Office software because it already comes bundled in. The Nokia N8 doesn’t need any photo or camera software downloaded because it’s pre-installed and the N9 will be landing with native Twitter, Facebook and RSS clients, so they will not need to be downloaded either.

Moreover, aside from a handful of apps useful to specific people based on their work or lifestyle, it’s fair to say most users spend most of their phone time on social media of some kind, web browsing, the camera, and calls and texts. If a phone can do all those things immediately then that will be more convenient for the user.

When talking about phones and app stores there seems to be a heavy emphasis on quantity of apps rather than quality. I would rather have a selection of 500 useful, quality apps than 250,000 apps of which 249,000 are garbage. I don’t want to wade through fart apps and joke apps and repetitions just to find an app to locate where I have parked my car for instance.

Apple popularised the idea of an app store and created the concept of the app race, chiefly because it was winning it and it can hand out impressive numbers about developers. The truth is, though, that it is utterly meaningless. There will be very little indeed in the Apple App Store that isn’t in the Android Marketplace, or a suitable equivalent in Nokia’s Ovi Store. I would wager money betting that no one has viewed every app in the App Store, which just highlights that having such a large number available really just makes it harder to find what you want, especially if you don’t happen to know the name of the app to do a direct search.

So if apps were created to fill the gap, then the next step is a device emerging to fill those gaps natively. And while Apple hasn’t noticed this, it is precisely what is happening. With Microsoft having Twitter, LinkedIn, Skype and Facebook integrated in the phone there will be a reduced need for the apps. With all the IM protocols natively supported on the N900, there is no need for Fring or Nimbuzz because MSN, AIM, Yahoo!, Skype and Facebook chat can be set up without third-party software. The N9 is all about natural interactions with a phone, hence the lack of a home button, and part of this process is removing the necessity to install apps for certain tasks. So now instead of opening Facebook, closing Facebook, then opening Twitter and closing Twitter, you just have to swipe your finger to see notifications, Facebook, Twitter, RSS and weather all in one view. Instead of needing to install Joikuspot, the phone can be used as a Wi-Fi hotspot natively.

The bottom line is the more a device can do by itself, the less we need apps. The vast majority – in fact I’d say ‘all’ – users only install a relatively small amount of apps, and most people would prefer a device to do the things they need without an app. This would make phones smarter, more useful, and more attuned to the needs of the user.

I’ve been having a lot of discussions lately with many people who think that Symbian is a terrible operating system and because Nokia are moving to Windows Phone 7 they must be correct – if it were any good, Nokia wouldn’t abandon it. The suggestion that bad things can succeed and good things can fall by the wayside falls on deaf ears. Certainly, Nokia’s recent decision has sparked much controversy and debate around the internet and everyday life too, but is Symbian really as bad as people make out?

What I have found to be true in every case someone speaks against Symbian is that they have not used it, and if they have ever used it it was years ago, at the earliest the S^1v5 on the Nokia 5800 or N97, and many even earlier, the Nokia N95 or Ericsson Satio. With scrolling by pulling down the sidebar, rather than kinetic scrolling, double taps to open a menu item, a single static home screen, an anemic amount of memory and RAM, I can most definitely understand that if that’s your only perception of Symbian then it deserves to be scrapped in today’s market. The problem is, Symbian isn’t like that anymore. With this article I will be looking at the finer points of the OS, looking at both the strengths and weaknesses before addressing the new Symbian^3 handsets as all-round devices, not just the operating system. After all, people buy devices on the basis of not just software but the hardware too.

One of the pros and cons of Symbian^3 is that its overall layout is much the same as it has been in the past. This is a good thing on the one hand because it allows for user-familiarity, but on the other hand it can be somewhat confusing to new users. Personally I think an update should put it somewhere in the middle; it would be nice to be able to uninstall an app by just holding it down like in WP7, but having a menu structure is also very useful and, dare I say, important. Having used an iPhone, the ‘settings’ menu is so anorexic it may as well not exist, made even worse by the fact that individual areas don’t have their own settings – in Symbian for example, if you are within the camera app you can bring up camera settings, mail settings from within mail and so on. Moreover, the settings available on Symbian are plentiful, whereas iOS, WP7 and, to a lesser but definite extent, Android. In other words, Symbian allows you to do far more tweaking to get things how you want ‘under the hood’.

Menu structure aside, the process of navigation is now much easier and more fluid: universal kinetic scrolling, single-tap to open anything, increased speed and responsiveness and pinch-to-zoom in the browser, photos etc.

Symbian also has the best mapping available on any device or operating system, without question. With Nokia Maps using Navteq data, the maps on the phones are the same as those found in car GPS systems. Moreover, you can set up your journey on the Ovi Maps website and wirelessly sync to the phone, or use offline navigation so you don’t use GPS – saving both data and battery, and no more worrying about losing signal on a cloudy day or when you go through a tunnel. Currently nothing else offers such services; iOS just has Google maps offering a picture navigation or a list, and Android doesn’t offer offline mapping. Furthermore, ‘Maps’ is a comprehensive app in itself, with Expedia and Trip Advisor built in, as well as the option to check in to social networks, find local events, restaurants, shops and so forth, and you can navigate with ‘drive to’ or ‘walk to’.

A real deal-breaker for me regarding other systems is the fact that Symbian does not track your location, unlike Apple, and doesn’t demand access to your private data or leak it to God knows where, unlike Android.

There are also many subtle intuitive factors at work in Symbian. For example, tap what you see on the home screen and it opens it. If you tap the battery icon you get a pop up menu where you can see battery percentage, activate power-saving mode, open ‘connectivity manager’ to connect/disconnect internet connection, Bluetooth, set APNs or destinations etc. This is a far better system than iOS or WP7, both of which require you to physically open ‘settings’ and change things there, which is a longer, more convoluted process. Missed calls and text messages will also have an icon in this area and in such circumstances tapping the battery will allow you to open conversations or missed calls. Then there are the home screens themselves, which are fully customizable unlike iOS or WP7, and unlike Android you can turn them off if you wish. So while Symbian comes with 3 home screens, you can turn one or two off as desired. They can also be customized freely, with widgets, icons and bookmarks, or you can install SPB Shell for a truly amazing customization experience. Compare this to WP7 where the only thing you can change the background on is the lock screen, the home screen only allows you to change colors. And on the subject of widgets, S^3, unlike previous versions, has social networking integrated complete with an updating widget that sits right on the home screen. One tap and you can view all your feeds individually or on one roll, view photos and comments and update your status.

Symbian not only packs features, but a few ways to use them. For instance, iOS will only be backed up by connecting to iTunes and WP7 will only back up when an update is available, through Zune – the user cannot manually create a backup (the user can backup photos etc to SkyDrive and apps are linked to the user account, but app data is not stored anywhere, so if you use a Wallet app to store sensitive data you’ll lose it all with a restore, and game saves will be lost. Plus, downloading things from multiple locations is a very cumbersome act). In Symbian, however, you can either connect the device to the PC and backup to Ovi Suite, or on the device itself you can perform a backup (or schedule regular ones) to the memory card or, best of all, perform a wireless backup to Nokia’s servers which will automatically download to your PC the next time you open Ovi Suite.

Thus, backups can be performed on the fly, allowing you to install a beta app on the train without worrying about backing it up at home first. Why perform a backup at all? some people ask. There are multiple reasons. Your phone can be stolen at any time. You can leave it on the table in a restaurant or simply drop it and break it. You could install beta software that requires you to perform a hard reset, or your phone may simply need restoring the software to improve performance. Or perhaps it needs to be sent back to the manufacturer for repair or replacing. All of these scenarios will make you want a backup to restore to the replacement phone, and Symbian offers the best options here. If someone is travelling with an iPhone, they can’t back up the phone, so suppose you went on holiday and left the PC at home? Not everyone has the luxury of a laptop so it’s not unreasonable to suggest many people do indeed leave the computer behind. If you own a WP7 device the situation is even worse, because you can’t back it up at all anyway. Mango may resolve this, but no mention has been made of it by Microsoft or developers. With Symbian, however, you can go on holiday and wirelessly sync a backup to the PC across the ocean without a second thought.

Moving onto the nitty-gritty, Symbian has the best multitasking available on any device. There are videos online of the N8 running 40 apps at the same time, and this is real, live multitasking. While it’s true to say Android allows live multitasking, Android also lacks a task killer so you need to install one manually then open menu, find it, and kill apps that way, rather than the intuitive and quick method in Symbian – hold the menu key to display running apps and tap the ‘x’. iOS and WP7, however, don’t offer live multitasking at all, the former pauses apps and allows you to open them again quickly, and the latter pauses apps but uses live agents to periodically poll for updates to certain things, like email and Twitter. The reason offered by these manufacturers is that multitasking kills the battery.

Now, it’s certainly true running five things at once will use up more power than running one thing, but first and foremost, most people won’t leave things open that they’re not using, nor will they tend to leave things open continually – except on Android, where closing apps is impossible without a task killer and difficult with one. Which leads to another problem with Android: if things are left running, Android will close them when it thinks they should be closed, which means the user won’t be running anywhere near 40 apps. Back to the battery then, the problem with that argument is Symbian offers the best battery life on the market. What’s that? Best multitasking and the best battery power? That means either Steven Jobs and Ballmer are lying about multitasking or they don’t have the ability to improve battery life through optimization, either way does not make for a compelling purchase. Indeed, the Motorola Atrix has the largest battery ever put in a phone, at 1900mA, and it still dies within 9-10 hours of medium usage, while the Nokia N8 can easily last a day or more.

Symbian also offers support for a plethora of file formats and codec support, allowing you to play media from the internet or elsewhere, be it movies or audio, without the need to convert the file format. Thanks to S^3 having mass storage mode, the device can be connected to the PC, the user can click and drag a movie or audio to the device and then play it immediately, without the need to open Zune or iTunes to do so or convert anything – this means you don’t need to convert a file to support Microsoft or Apple or have to decide which copy to keep, the original or the one you were forced to make. Symbian also supports 3D graphics, it’s hardware accelerated, the GPU is read by the whole OS including the UI and it is efficient to the point that less strain is placed on the CPU, thus increasing battery life and responsiveness. In other words, Symbian packs in more features than any other operating system, but is more optimized and efficient than the rest too. While Android is needing to put huge processors in its phones to compensate for the nagging lag, Nokia’s on S^3 run great on a 680MHz processor thanks to the GPU, noticed by the user with improved fluidity and amazing battery life.

Then there is the Ovi Store. People routinely complain it isn’t as packed as the App Store or Android Marketplace, and while this is true, it has more apps than anyone could ever need or use and is the second best performing app store on the market, second only to Apple’s App Store, with five million downloads a day. Let’s face it, the App Store does not have hundreds of thousands of quality apps, rather it has many, many ‘novelty’ or joke apps, fart apps, countless copycat apps and a bunch of mobile webpages downloadable as apps, and the Marketplace contains many incomplete, unfinished apps or out-and-out malware.

Next up are two things that Symbian offers that WP7 and iOS don’t: Bluetooth file transfers and a file manager. I have been told Bluetooth file transfers are blocked to prevent malicious files or even software that isn’t supported. This isn’t a valid argument to me. For starters, most people open turn Bluetooth on when they actually want to use it. Secondly, Bluetooth requires the recipient of a file to confirm the transfer, and often both users need to input a code to pair the devices. No one will accept a file that they are not expecting, and we’re not talking about covert terrorist files here – the Bluetooth range is still short enough that you’d need to be in relatively close proximity to find a phone and attempt to share anything. And even if someone did manage to accept a software file, the fact is it simply wouldn’t run if it were unsupported. And even if it did run and corrupt everything, it would be a simple case of resetting the device and using any of the backups you already performed to restore it to the previous state within an hour – and if you did a backup on the phone itself, the memory card data will be intact so you can even restore the backup while on the go. Simple.

Unless you use WP7, which won’t let you do a backup, or easily use a memory card – and if you do get a memory card inserted, you can’t ever take it out and retain the data, nor can you save specific things to the memory card. Which is, frankly, one of the most brain-dead and pointless decisions I’ve ever witnessed in a mobile device. Are Microsoft so unaware that people like to hot-swap the cards, or put it into the computer or printer or a card reader hooked up to a TV so they can copy, print or view photos or other media? Or when people get a new phone they often transfer the memory card? Thankfully Symbian has no such hang-ups and will freely let you swap memory cards all day long. And accept a Bluetooth file and restore a backup if you accepted a virus from a bearded man wearing a ‘down with technology’ t-shirt in the alley behind the porn shop.

What about a file manager? Sure, it’s not the biggest issue on a phone, but it’s important to many nonetheless. If I want to email a file, or just find out where something is saved, I can open file manager and navigate to it, and from there do what I please. In systems without a file manager I have no choice where something is put and am forced to live with the phone telling me what it will do with things. That’s something I’m not happy with. I like folders, I like organizing things in my own way. Have you ever seen the PC desktops of, say, three friends? Have you noticed that they’re usually different? Some have tons of loose files scattered, every ‘setup.exe’ file ever downloaded still there, while others have a few organized folders and others have nothing whatsoever. This is proof that one size doesn’t fit all and we like to organize things our own way.

For instance, in my N900 I have a ‘wallpapers’ folder on the memory card, I can leave the file manager running while I change the backgrounds and if I don’t like it, I can maximize the file manager and select something else. In non-file-manager-permitting systems I would need to go to photos, set as background, go back to home screen, go back to photos, set as background, go back to home screens, and so on. Or if I get new music from a friend sent straight to the device, I can use the file manager to put it in whatever folder I want if I want it in an existing artist folder, or an existing TV show folder. Quite frankly, the reason WP7 and iOS forbid file managers and Bluetooth transfers is nothing to do with anything other them wanting to lock you in with iTunes and Zune. Put simply: Microsoft and Apple want to babysit you as a technology user, while Symbian says ‘here’s everything you could want to do with a phone, go have fun. And if you break it, just restore a backup.’ I don’t know about you guys, but I much prefer the Symbian treat-you-like-an-adult approach.

So what of the hardware? It’s neither surprise nor secret that Nokia offers the best hardware on the market, bar none, and S^3 is getting the biggest reward from this. The N8 for example has the best camera on any phone to date, with a 12mpx camera and the largest sensor ever put in a phone, just look at the following video of ants filmed on an N8

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The N8 also has HDMI, HD recording, notification lights, FM transmitter, USB OTG and so on, making it not only fully competing in today’s market, but also surpassing the competition in many ways.

To sum up: Symbian remains the most feature-packed OS on the market. In an age of smartphones, should the purpose not be making things ‘smarter’ rather than ‘dumber’? Things can be smart and simple, indeed Symbian is by no means complex, so why must manufacturers insist on cutting important features out or limiting important aspects? Why are consumers treated with such contempt as to assume they couldn’t possibly know how to close apps, or possibly want to run a few things at the same time for a specific purpose? When put side by side with other OSs, Symbian is by no means perfect, but it does more than any other, and it is more efficient and optimized than any other.

I own smartphones because I want to do various things, and those things can vary day to day so I need something that is able to suit my needs and whims, not something that tells me I actually don’t need to do that after all, I just think I do. Technology is there to assist us, not dictate to us. And for all those reasons, Symbian remains the Smartphone King – hell, the fact it can do what others do and more and offer unparalleled battery life is impressive enough.

T-mobile Astound has a 3.5” AMOLED display and will coming in at $80 at launch on April 6th. Not bad for an entry level smart phone that has a 8MP camera.

T-mobile Astound Press photos VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Nokia delivers Astounding smartphone for T-Mobile USA customers

WHITE PLAINS, NY, and ORLANDO, Fla., March 22, 2011 – Inspired by U.S. consumers who want an affordable smartphone that offers a simplified user experience and on-the-go entertainment, Nokia today continues to broaden its Symbian smartphone portfolio with the introduction of the Nokia Astound. Offering value without compromise, the Nokia Astound will be available exclusively from T-Mobile USA beginning April 6.

The Nokia Astound’s sleek stainless-steel design features an 8-megapixel camera with dual-LED flash and 720p HD video capture, a brilliant 3.5-inch capacitive touch AMOLED display, free turn-by-turn navigation from Nokia and access to thousands of free and paid apps via Nokia’s Ovi Store. The Nokia Astound makes it easy for consumers to stay connected. The Astound has three fully customizable homescreens, giving quick access to email, and the ability to check the latest from Facebook and Twitter, or just surf the web. Consumers can kick back and enjoy the Astound’s entertainment features by playing pre-loaded games like Fruit Ninja, listening to the lastest music with the Slacker Radio app, or browsing their own music and video collection, right at their fingertips.

"As millions more consumers make the switch to smartphones, Nokia is proud to offer an alternative that is not only easy and fun to use, but is also very sexy and sleek, unlike anything in its price point," said Mark Slater, vice president of sales, Nokia. "With a user experience rounded out by Nokia’s Ovi services, including Maps and Store, consumers will be delighted to discover Nokia’s premium design quality with no compromises on services and apps, made affordable with T-Mobile."

"As T-Mobile continues to make owning a smartphone easy and affordable, we are thrilled to introduce the high-quality design and entertainment experience of the Nokia Astound," said Andrew Morrison, vice president, product management, T-Mobile USA. "Offering the features of a high-end smartphone at a great price, the Nokia Astound is sure to appeal to a broad array of consumers."
Uniquely crafted, the Nokia Astound is an example of the quality and impressive hardware that consumers associate with Nokia. Its AMOLED touchscreen is protected by ultrathin, damage-resistant glass and surrounded by stainless steel, which completes the attractive yet durable design.
Equipped with the latest commercial version of Ovi Maps1, the Nokia Astound provides free voice-guided, turn-by-turn navigation in almost 100 countries in 46 languages. The Nokia Astound comes pre-loaded with automotive grade maps for the entire U.S., Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean2. With more than 8,000 3D landmarks and free premium content like Lonely Planet guides and TripAdvisor, consumers can explore new places and experiences along the way. New features include improved search engines and WiFi positioning, a drive assistance mode for real-time traffic updates, maps of public transit lines, and the ability to check in to places and share great moments with friends on

Facebook, Twitter and many local social networks.
With the Nokia Astound, consumers can visit Ovi Store to discover new apps, games and themes to customize their device. Each week, Ovi Store continues to grow and add more great content that supports 32 languages in more than 190 countries. Currently, Ovi Store sees more than 4 million downloads worldwide per day, including popular apps and games like Angry Birds, OpenTable, Shazam and Galaxy on Fire. As an added convenience, apps and services can be billed directly to a consumer’s monthly T-Mobile bill or credit card.

1 Ovi Maps uses automotive grade maps from NAVTEQ, the leading global provider of maps, traffic and location data. 2 Additional contries and languages are available to download free from Nokia. Data charges may apply.

Visitors at CTIA Wireless in Orlando, Fla., can visit the Nokia Lounge, booth #1626, to experience the Astound along with other Nokia solutions and meet developers who are creating compelling apps and content for consumers to enjoy on Nokia devices.
Availability

The Nokia Astound will be available nationwide starting April 6 through T-Mobile retail stores and online at http://www.t-mobile.com for $79.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate card with a two-year service agreement and qualifying voice and data plan.
The Nokia Astound will also be offered at select third-party dealers, and at leading national retailers including Costco, RadioShack, Sam’s Club, Target Mobile locations and Walmart. For more information, visit http://www.nokiausa.com/astound.

The Nokia C6-00 is a Symbian S60 5th edition device, the C6-00 is an entry level smartphone with a full slide out QWERTY keyboard, 5MP camera with flash, front facing VGA camera for video conferencing and, 3.5mm jack, micro USB connector for data transfer.

As I mentioned the C6-00 is an entry level Smartphone and does have its plus and minus.

Photos Taken with Nokia C6-00

What I liked

• The Keyboard is solid and easy to use
• The 5Mp camera takes some very good pics
• OVI Maps available on the device
• Very Good battery life
• Availability of good apps in the app store

What I didn’t like

• The 3.2” resistive touchscreen
• lack of multiply home screens
• Poor menus system of OS

Nokia C6-00 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

It is very simple we all know how much market share Nokia has lost to rivals Apple and Google in the Smartphone arena. In the last week Nokia’s CEO Stephen Elop has admitted this in an internal memo that suggest a huge shift in Nokia’s operations

Rumors have surfaced of a major announcement brewing with Microsoft as a new partner( Bloomberg also mention this). World has sure faced that a flagship Meego  device has been scrapped.  Google exec dissed both Microsoft and Nokia in a Tweet this week saying ” Two turkeys don’t make and Eagle” In reference to Fridays’ announcement.

So my Question is simple

What Should Nokia DO???????

The Nokia N8 is the latest Flagship smartphone from Nokia Powered by the Symbian 3 OS. The Nokia N8 comes packed with a 12MP camera with flash, 16GB on board memory for storage, full touchscreen display, HDMI out port for streaming your HD content . A sleek Unibody build that gives the device a very sexy slender look.

Overall the hardware is nothing less than what you would expect from Nokia. Top Notch in everyway, feel design, usability and style. The design is true a sexy fit for a smartphone.

OS

Symbian 3 is the latest in the line of Symbian OS’s, while it doesn’t stray from it predecessor heavily, some added features have added in streaming the OS to tailor today’s smartphone needs. From having 3 home screens and the ability to create short cuts to any app or function.  The are still dome downsides to the OS. It still feels a little sluggish, the user interface doesn’t come off as being intuitive and can be a little hassle at times. Though the short cuts to help.

Pictures Taken On Nokia N8 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

The major plus here is the camera and the OS, functionality with it. The Nokia N8 Camera takes some wonderful pictures. The setting are fully robust allowing you to get great usability out of it. Also the editing software is simple yet very and I mean very effective, check out video edit on Nokia N8 below.

Conclusion

The Nokia N8 as a piece of hardware is truly fantastic, sleek, sexy smooth and stylish. The Hardware components are second to non. On the software side, Symbian 3 has a lot of great improvement but it still lags behind and doesn’t tap into the fully potential of the Nokia N8. the N8 is still a great device but surly not for every one. If you love Nokia device  and are familiar with Symbian then this is what you want. Otherwise, I would say the N8 truly shines best with its solid camera and editing software

NOKIA N8 Hardware VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

T-Mobile is billing the Nokia E73 as a phone for “professionals who are looking to balance all aspects of their busy lives and want to try devices to help optimize their productivity.” While this phone likely won’t see the level of success that Blackberry, Android and Windows Phone have already enjoyed, it might entice individuals who have a hidden place in their heart for the golden days of Nokia. Maybe. Coming June 16^th, we’ll find out. Pricing details are unknown but we’ll update you as we find out!

Via Tmonews

Ok here is Nokia’s Flagship N8  and some new features to boot. Will retail at $497, Q3 launch window. Have a 12 megapixel Carl Zeiss lens camera with Xenon flash, 16GB internal Storage expandable to 48HD video recording, multiple home screens, running Symbian 3 OS, built-in widgets, multitouch, HDMI output

The Nokia N8 introduces a 12 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, Xenon flash and a large sensor that rivals those found in compact digital cameras. People can also make HD-quality videos and edit them with an intuitive built-in editing suite.

The Nokia N8 offers a true home theater experience with HD quality film and Dolby Digital Plus surround sound. You can plug the device to your home theatre system with an HDMI cable.

The Nokia N8 enables access to local and global Web TV services that deliver TV programs, news and entertainment from channels such as CNN, National Geographic, E! Entertainment and Paramount directly on the homescreen.
People can update their status, share location and photos, and view live feeds from Facebook and Twitter in a single app directly on the home screen. Calendar events from social networks can also be transferred to the device calendar.

The Nokia N8 comes with free global Ovi Maps walk and drive navigation, taking you where you want to be and showing you what want to see in over 70 countries worldwide.

The Nokia N8 has 16GB of in-built storage space, expandable up to 48GB with a Micro SD card. Large files can be easily transferred to a memory stick with the USB On-the-Go.

•Renewed music experience with cover flow and easy access to albums
•Rich photo experience with large image grid and transition effects
•High quality HD video capture and sharing
•Visual task switcher for fast and easy navigation between active applications
•Streamlined menu structure and far fewer prompts
•Direct access to content such as Ovi store, apps and more.

Pictures from the 12 megapixel Camera

Videos

PRESS RELEASE

Nokia N8. Connect. Create. Entertain.

Espoo, Finland – The Nokia N8, Nokia’s latest smartphone, intuitively connects to the people, places and services that matter most. With the Nokia N8, people can create compelling content, connect to their favorite social networks and enjoy on-demand Web TV programs and Ovi Store apps. Available in select markets during the third quarter of 2010, the estimated retail price of the Nokia N8 is EUR 370, before applicable taxes or subsidies.
The Nokia N8 introduces a 12 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, Xenon flash and a large sensor that rivals those found in compact digital cameras. Additionally, the Nokia N8 offers the ability to make HD-quality videos and edit them with an intuitive built-in editing suite. Doubling as a portable entertainment center, people can enjoy HD-quality video with Dolby Digital Plus surround sound by plugging into their home theatre system. The Nokia N8 enables access to Web TV services that deliver programs, news and entertainment from channels like CNN, E! Entertainment, Paramount and National Geographic. Additional local Web TV content is also available from the Ovi Store.

Social networking is second nature to the Nokia N8. People can update their status, share location and photos, and view live feeds from Facebook and Twitter in a single app directly on the home screen. Calendar events from social networks can also be transferred to the device calendar.
The Nokia N8 comes with free global Ovi Maps walk and drive navigation, guiding people to places and points of interest in more than 70 countries worldwide.

Symbian^3 in action Powering the Nokia N8 is Symbian ^3, the latest edition of the world’s most used smartphone software, which introduces several major advances, including support for gestures such as multi touch, flick scrolling and pinch-zoom. The Nokia N8 also offers multiple, personalizable homescreens which can be loaded with apps and widgets. The new 2D and 3D graphics architecture in the platform takes full advantage of the Nokia N8’s hardware acceleration to deliver a faster and more responsive user interface. Symbian^3 also raises the bar in performance by delivering greater memory management allowing more applications to run in parallel for a faster multi-tasking experience.

Getting Qt for Developers The Nokia N8 is Nokia’s first device to be integrated with Qt, a software development environment that simplifies the development and makes it possible to build applications once and deploy across Symbian and other software platforms. Nokia has also made the powerful and simple to use Nokia Qt SDK available, in its initial beta, to enable developers to start realizing the potential of Qt.
More press materials are available at www.nokia.com/press Broadcast materials are available at http://digitalnewsroom.nokia.com

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The Nokia N97 Mini is the next step in the N97 line of smartphones. Nokia is well known for making some very solid phones with that rivals any other smartphone in the market. We’ve spent some time with the N97 mini, putting it through its paces with its 3.2 inch resistive touch screen, 8GB of internal storage( expandable to 16GB microsd), 5MP Carl Zeiss lens dual flash camera, front facing camera for video calling and reviewing different features to see how well this phone fairs.

Hardware

The N97 mini is a well designed smartphone, starting with size of the phone. Which fits perfectly in your hands. The steel casing for the battery bay gives a very clean professional finish to the phone. Flushed rounded edges give the phone a classic look that says modern, simple, yet power tool. The physical buttons on the devices are well placed and not protruding, keeping the phones overall look flushed and sexy. with just a home/menu button & a Call and end button. The front of the phone is keep clean and simple

The 3 layer keyboard is interesting with its spacebar moved closer to the right side of the board. The keyboard is still very usable ( I grew to like the layout very much), but does take some getting used to with the space bar. Another great design feature is slide up screen, which makes using the 3 layered keyboard much easier and watching videos more casual. Though the slide out mechanism can be a little hard to maneuver at times

****VIDEO REVIEW***

OS

The Nokia N97 Mini runs Symbian OS v9.4, Series 60 rel. 5, for some out there. Symbian OS is like a world in Russian or French. Frankly not many in the US know or understand the OS that well. Nokia’s approach to OS applications is one of in-depth functionality. Once you power on the phone you have a home screen that is full customizability to add what ever widget or Icon you wish to have readily available. You also can access various  other apps by using the option button on the touch screen to access other running apps.

The OS is fully features with full functionality from a fully stocked app store, which allows for creating a highly customized experience.  Email on this phone is a beauty, yes its very simple and doesn’t have cool fancy application but with the new announced Nokia email., you can added up to 10 different email accounts and it works with every major email service out there ( Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, Ovi mail).

Ovi store, though not on the phone, was a very easy and simplistic experience. Navigations was easy and search for apps was sorted out by app category or through an app search. Although the phones does not support T-mobile 3G, I was surprised how effective and fast Edge was on the phone. I could easily check and update my Facebook pages, access email.

What sets the OS back is the round about approach. As I mentioned early the OS is capable of everything any other smartphone on the market. The lack of a unified or structured layout, fragments the phone into compartmentalized unit. Making it hard to find certain setting functions or even access apps. Another point of concern is the on-screen keyboard, which could have used a more modern uptake. Yes its very usable, but all your options for an onscreen keyboard is a T9 variation in either vertical or landscape mode. Though you can download keyboards from the market place and also use the physical keyboard

Camera

There is a reason Carl Zeiss name has been attached to Nokia Series phones for a while. Simple, the pictures come out great and the video quality was solid. I took pictures with the camera indoors and outdoor to give you a good look at how pictures turn out as well as some video recordings both indoors and outdoors.

Indoor Photos

Outdoor Photos

*** Indoor & Outdoor Video***

OVI MAPS

Navigation is big within the mobile space. I personally don’t own a GPS and don’t see the need since I have a phone that has a map and can navigate.With Google have its own version of map navigation on their Android devices. One does have to step back and take not that Nokia does offer maps in 180 countries with navigation in 74 (impressive numbers). The issue remains, does it work well. Answer is: its does. Granted I didn’t have the speak turn-by-turn directions activated. But the GPS navigation functionality worked very well in our video test.

Pros

• Solid phone build
• 8 GB internal storage ( expandable to 16GB)
• Integrated email functionality works well with any email service
• Ovi Maps ( free and good)
• Great camera and video recording
• Phone data services work very well on Edge network
• Battery is exceptional ( 4hr charge, almost two full days of use)

Cons

• Slider hard to open
• OS is functional but cumbersome
• T9 only for onscreen keyboard

Conclusion

The Nokia N97 Mini is a well built  solid and sexy phone. It has all the trimming you would want in say a luxury car like a BMW.  Solid camera integration, excellent battery life, integrated email services, OVi maps and 8GB of internal storage. On the down side the the OS needs your patience to learn all its nooks and carnies. That being said the N(7 mini is and excellent phone to have. Once you spend time with the device you do fall in love with all its features. For a business traveler this is an idea phone with lots of features that adds a quality experience.

**Notes*** I hope a T-mobile America version of this phone is released. I enjoy its functionality especially well on edge let alone a 3G service

SPEC Sheet

General
2G Network
GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900

3G Network
HSDPA 900 / 1900 / 2100

HSDPA 850 / 1900 / 2100 – American version

Size
Dimensions
113 x 52.5 x 14.2 mm, 75 cc

Weight
138 g

Display
Type
TFT resistive touchscreen, 16M colors

Size
360 x 640 pixels, 3.2 inches

- Proximity sensor for auto turn-off
- Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate
- Full QWERTY keyboard
- Handwriting recognition

Sound
Alert types
Vibration; MP3 ringtones

Speakerphone
Yes, with stereo speakers

- 3.5 mm audio jack

Memory
Phonebook
Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall

Call records
Detailed, max 30 days

Internal
8 GB storage, 128 MB RAM

Card slot
microSD, up to 16GB, buy memory

Data
GPRS
Class 32

EDGE
Class 32

3G
HSDPA, 3.6 Mbps

WLAN
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, UPnP technology

Bluetooth
Yes, v2.0 with A2DP

Infrared port
No

USB
Yes, v2.0 microUSB

Camera
Primary
5 MP, 2592×1944 pixels, Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, Dual LED flash, video light

Features
Geo-tagging

Video
Yes, VGA@30fps

Secondary
Yes, VGA@15fps

Features
OS
Symbian OS v9.4, Series 60 rel. 5

CPU
ARM 11 434 MHz processor

Messaging
SMS, MMS, Email, Push Email, IM

Browser
WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML, RSS feeds

Radio
Stereo FM radio with RDS, Visual radio

Games
Yes, DJ Club Tour + downloadable

GPS
Yes, with A-GPS support; Ovi Maps

Java
Yes, MIDP 2.1

- Digital compass
- MP3/WMA/WAV/eAAC+ music player
- WMV/RealVideo/MP4 video player
- TV-out
- Voice command/dial
- Document viewer (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF)
- Video and photo editor
- Flash Lite 3
- T9

Battery
Standard battery, Li-Ion 1200 mAh (BL-4D)

Stand-by
Up to 320 h (2G) / 310 h (3G)

Talk time
Up to 7 h 10 min (2G) / Up to 6 h (3G)

Music play
Up to 32 h

Aka the Nokia 5230 Nuron features a 3.2 inch , 640 by 360 (nHD) touchscreen, Ovi apps and free Ovi maps with turn by turn navigation. Running Symbian S60 5th edition at a Price of $70 with contract and & $180 without contract. Not a bad deal for a good all around phone i think.

Specs

Size

Form: Classic with touchscreen

Dimensions: 4.37 x 2.03 x 0.57/0.61 inches

Weight: 3.98 oz (without stylus)

Weight: 4.05 oz (with stylus)

Volume: 4.75 cubic inches (without stylus) / 5.06 cubic inches (with stylus)

Responsive touchscreen with tactile feedback

Accelerometer for auto-rotate

Proximity sensor to save power and prevent inadvertent touches

Display and 3D

Size: 3.2″

Resolution: 640 x 360 pixels (nHD) with 16:9 picture

Up to 16.7 million colors

Full touchscreen display

Keys and input method

Touchscreen

Dedicated keys for camera, volume, power, send & end, and application launch (menu), plus the media bar touch key for accessing music, gallery, share online, video center and web browser

Homescreen music plug-in for pause/play, forward, back

Voice commands

Memory

• microSD memory card slot, with hot swap max. 16 GB
• 70 MB internal dynamic memory

Power

• BL-5J 1320 mAh Li-Ion standard battery
• Talk time (maximum)
  - GSM 7 h
  - WCDMA 4 h 18 min
• Standby time (maximum)
  - GSM up to 438 h
  - WCDMA up to 458 h
• Video playback time (maximum): Mpeg-4 4.6hours, nHD 3 hours
• Music playback time (maximum): 33 h

Data network

• CSD
• HSCSD
• GPRS/EGPRS Class B, multislot class 32, maximum speed 177/296kbps (DL/UL)
• EDGE class B, multislot class 32, maximum speed 177/296 kbps (DL/UL)
• WCDMA 2100, maximum speed PS 384/384 kbps (UL/DL),
  CS 64 kbps
• HSDPA, cat. 6, maximum speed 3.6 Mbps (DL)
• TCP/IP support

Local connectivity and synchronization

• Bluetooth version 2.0
  - Bluetooth profiles: A2DP, AVRCP
• MTP (Mobile Transfer Protocol) support
• Direct printing to compatible picture printers
• Support for PC synchronization with Nokia Ovi Suite

Via NokiaUSA