Tuesday 30 August 2011
Browsing and emailing with Symbian Anna
The new Symbian Anna software update has brought a new lease of life to many of the existing newest Symbian handsets out on the market, today. We’ve installed the new software, given it a test drive and thought we’d show you what you can expect when it comes to emailing and browsing the Web. Here’s what these two features now look like.
The new Nokia Browser (V7.3) has done away with the old menu bar that used to reside at the bottom of the page. Instead, there’s now two icons sitting in both corners. On the right, there’s the icon that brings up all the options that are available to you, such as: Homepage; Bookmarks; Settings; Add RSS Feed; and the more option, for other information on browser version number and page info, etc.
The new Nokia Browser (V7.3) has done away with the old menu bar that used to reside at the bottom of the page. Instead, there’s now two icons sitting in both corners. On the right, there’s the icon that brings up all the options that are available to you, such as: Homepage; Bookmarks; Settings; Add RSS Feed; and the more option, for other information on browser version number and page info, etc.
The address bar is now a thin sliver that sits at the top of the page, which is where you’d expect to find an address bar. To navigate to a new address, tap on the bar at the top. This will launch the keyboard that takes its place at the bottom half of the screen, ready for your fingers to type. For those that want a QWERTY keyboard, pressing the options icon at the bottom is where you can select the different input method. Switching from alphanumeric to QWERTY with a couple of clicks.
For those of you who like to remain in contact with people all day, every day, Symbian Anna offers some improvements to the email client – particularly for business users. There’s now full support when it comes to meeting requests. If you find yourself on the receiving end of an email with a meeting request, rather than a normal email page, you’ll see a screen with the meeting name, the time and date it’s taking place and even the location – which when clicked, opens up Nokia Maps to show you that location.
When creating emails, you access the email accounts in the usual way. To add a recipient, touch the To field. You’ll see now that a keyboard has opened up in split-screen mode. What this means is that rather than cutting away to a separate window to enter text, like previously, you’re now able to type directly into the field. Another thing you’ll notice here is that as you begin to type a name to send it to, the phone automatically finds relevant people in your phone book, if they match the letters typed. This makes sending emails that little bit quicker.
On the virtual keyboard is an options key, in the middle and at the bottom. It’s here where you’ll find the hotly anticipated QWERTY option when typing. Once pressed, the alphanumeric keyboard will be swapped for the more favourable QWERTY one. This makes replying and emailing people much quicker – should you be a dab hand at two-thumb typing.
Monday 29 August 2011
Nokia 701 – the brightest screen in the world
The second of our smartphone announcements today, the Nokia 701, offers excellent graphics performance, a refreshed UI, great battery life and the brightest screen the world has ever seen. Find out what else makes the Nokia 701 so special after the break.
Like our other new smartphones today, the Nokia 701 is powered by Symbian Belle and a 1GHz processor. It’s got a pentaband radio, with HSUPA 3G, WiFi, NFC and all the other standard features on our new smartphones like Bluetooth, GPS and FM radio. It measures 11 x 56.8 x 117.3mm and weighs 131g.
But it’s the touchscreen display that makes the Nokia 701 stand out. This is a 3.5-inch IPS LCD display with ClearBlack technology, creating a great combination of excellent brightness and contrast – it’s in fact the brightest smartphone screen to date (in terms of NITs). Of course, as with all our new smartphones, it’s wrapped in Corning® Gorilla® Glass, so you don’t need to worry about its sturdiness either.
It’s not all about good looks, though: there’s real horsepower as well. Behind the screen is a brand new graphics co-processor, with a faster clock and four times the graphics memory of previous Symbian smartphones.
There’s an 8-megapixel full focus camera with a dual-LED flash on the back, and there’s a secondary camera at the front for video calling. Inside there’s 8GB of user memory, with provision for up to 32GB extra storage using a MicroSD card.
All this functionality doesn’t mean that you’re left with a phone that can’t see you through a working day, though. The battery is rated at up to 17 hours talktime over GSM or up to 550 hours on standby (8.8/504h over 3G).
Nokia 600 – loud and proud
Today Nokia announces theNokia 600, its third smartphone built for the new operating system update, Symbian Belle. The Nokia 600 is designed to provide an all-in-one entertainment hub and has the (dubious?) honour of being our loudest smartphone to date. All the specs and features after the break.
The Nokia 600 is made to get the party moving with a super loud speaker inside (it’s rated at a window-rattling 106 phon). Option two for music is an FM transmitter so you can blast your music through the nearest radio; and third, the FM receiver has an internal antennae, so you don’t have to plug in earphones to listen.
Like our other new smartphones launched today, the Nokia 600 also comes with NFC, so you can use it with accessories like the Nokia Play 360° speakers, as well as tap to share pictures and use other emerging NFC apps. The free, NFC-enabled versions of Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja included in the package are another way to use the technology.
Running through the specs, the Nokia 600 is powered by Symbian Belle and a 1GHz processor. The display is 3.2-inch nHD capacitive touch screen with a resolution of 640 x 360 pixels. It measures 111 x 53 x 13mm and weighs 100g.
The Nokia 600 comes with a pentaband radio, and supports 3G data rates up to HSUPA standards, as well as WiFi and Bluetooth. As you’d expect, there’s also A-GPS with an accelorometer and magnetometer. There’s 2GB of internal memory on board, with support for up to another 32GB of storage using a MicroSD card. There’s a 5-megapixel full-focus camera on the back, with an LED flash, that can take stills and 720p video. The battery will last for up to 15 hours talk-time on GSM, and up to 550 hours in standby.
Monday 22 August 2011
Nokia E7 Specification Review
| GENERAL | 2G Network | GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 |
| 3G Network | HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100 | |
| Announced | 2010, September | |
| Status | Available. Released 2011, February |
| SIZE | Dimensions | 123.7 x 62.4 x 13.6 mm, 104.9 cc |
| Weight | 176 g |
| DISPLAY | Type | AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors |
| Size | 360 x 640 pixels, 4.0 inches | |
| | - QWERTY keyboard - Nokia ClearBlack display - Multi-touch input method - Proximity sensor for auto turn-off - Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate - Scratch resistant Gorilla glass display |
| SOUND | Alert types | Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones |
| Loudspeaker | Yes | |
| 3.5mm jack | Yes, check quality |
| MEMORY | Phonebook | Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall |
| Call records | Detailed, max 30 days | |
| Internal | 16 GB storage, 256 MB RAM, 1 GB ROM | |
| Card slot | No |
| DATA | GPRS | Class 32 |
| EDGE | Class 32 | |
| 3G | HSDPA, 10.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 2 Mbps | |
| WLAN | Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n | |
| Bluetooth | Yes, v3.0 with A2DP | |
| Infrared port | No | |
| USB | Yes, microUSB v2.0, USB On-the-go support |
| CAMERA | Primary | 8 MP, 3264x2448 pixels, fixed focus, dual-LED flash,check quality |
| Features | Geo-tagging, face detection | |
| Video | Yes, 720p@25fps, video stabilization, check quality | |
| Secondary | Yes, VGA |
| FEATURES | OS | Symbian^3 OS, upgradable to Symbian Anna OS |
| CPU | 680 MHz ARM 11 processor, Broadcom BCM2727 GPU | |
| Messaging | SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM | |
| Browser | WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML, RSS feeds | |
| Radio | Stereo FM radio with RDS | |
| Games | Yes + downloadable | |
| Colors | Dark Grey, Silver White, Green, Blue, Orange | |
| GPS | Yes, with A-GPS support; Ovi Maps 3.0 | |
| Java | Yes, MIDP 2.1 | |
| | - Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic - Digital compass - TV-out (720p video) via HDMI and composite - Dolby Digital Plus via HDMI - MP3/WAV/eAAC+/WMA player - MP4/H.264/H.263/WMV player - Voice command/dial - Document editor (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF) - Video/photo editor - Flash Lite 4.0 - Voice memo/dial - Predictive text input |
| BATTERY | | Standard battery, Li-Ion 1200 mAh (BL-4D) |
| Stand-by | Up to 432 h (2G) / Up to 480 h (3G) | |
| Talk time | Up to 9 h (2G) / Up to 5 h (3G) |
| MISC | SAR US | 0.93 W/kg (head) 1.23 W/kg (body) |
| SAR EU | 0.56 W/kg (head) | |
| |
Wednesday 17 August 2011
Nokia 500 Specification Review
The Nokia 500 comes with the latest Symbian Anna OS, offering a refreshed UI, a better browser and split-screen messaging. As you’d expect, preinstalled you’ll find the latest version of Nokia Maps for free drive and walk navigation, plus you can download every other app you might need from the Store. If you’re anything like us, then your first week with the phone will be occupied filling and then emptying the phone of dozens of apps. The music player is complemented by an FM radio receiver and Internet Radio access to all the music and news you might need, not just from your own country, but from around the world. Social Media is catered for through the Social app, bringing friends’ updates to your homescreen.
Under the hood, there’s the 1GHz processor – allowing for plenty of oomph when you’re multitasking lots of apps or doing something extra-demanding. There’s 2GB of storage memory, plus the possibility of increasing this by a further 32GB using the micro-SD card slot. Like all our recent smartphones, it offers pentaband radio coverage so world travellers need never be out of touch, 3G data up to HSUPA speeds [that’s a whopping maximum speed of 5.8Mbps nowadays, by the way]. There’s also Bluetooth 2.1 and Wi-Fi b/g, as you’d expect. The phone measures 111.3 x 53.8 x 14.1mm and weighs in at 93g – lighter than any other Symbian^3 phone to date.
It’s also worth mentioning the battery, which despite the faster processor, still manages to pull off a very respectable performance. For us, that’s an absolute priority. The battery will see you through 5-7 hours talk time, 450+ hours in standby mode or up to 35 hours of music playback, if that’s your thing.
| General Information | |
| Brand | Nokia |
| Model | 500 Fate |
| Weight | 93 G |
| Form Factor | Bar |
| Dimensions | 111.3x53.8x14.1 MM |
| Operating Frequency | GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 / HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100 MHz |
| Touch Screen | Yes, Capacitive Touch Screen |
| Display Details | |
| Display Color | 3.2 inches, TFT Capacitive Touchscreen, 16M Colors |
| Display Size | Nokia 500 Fate has a display size of 360 x 640 px |
| Sensors | Accelerometer, Proximity, Compass and Light Sensor |
| Camera | |
| Camera | Yes, 5.0 Mega Pixels Camera with Auto Foucs and Geo-tagging |
| Camera Res. | 2592 x 1944 Pixels |
| Zoom | Yes, Digital Zoom |
| Video | Yes |
| Video Recording | Yes, VGA (640x480 Pixels) at 15fps |
| Video Player | Yes, Video Formats : MP4, H.263, H.264 |
| Software | |
| Games | Yes + Downloadable |
| Java | Yes, MIDP 2.1, CLDC 1.1 |
| Browser | Yes, WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML, RSS feeds |
| Operating System | Symbian Anna OS |
| Call Records | |
| Phone Book | Yes, Practically Unlimited Entries and Fields, Photocall |
| Missed Calls | Detailed, max 30 days |
| Received Calls | Detailed, max 30 days |
| Dialed Calls | Detailed, max 30 days |
| Battery | |
| Stand By Time | Up to 500 hours (2G) / Up to 455 hours (3G) |
| Talk Time | Up to 7 hours (2G) / Up to 5 hours (3G) |
| Li-ion | 1110 mAH |
| Memory | |
| Internal Memory | Yes, Internal Memory : 2 GB |
| External Memory | Yes, Up to 32GB |
| Memory Slot | Yes, Micro SD Card |
| Message | |
| SMS | Yes, Threaded View |
| MMS | Yes |
| Email | Yes, Push Email |
| Instant Messaging | Yes |
| Social Networking Services | Facebook, Twitter |
| Music | |
| Ring Tone | Vibration, Polyphonic, WAV, MP3 |
| FM | Yes, Stereo FM Radio |
| Music | Yes, Music Formats : MP3, WAV, еAAC+, WMA with Loud Speaker and 3.5mm Audio Jack |
| Speaker | Yes |
| Headset | Yes |
| Data | |
| GPRS | Yes, Class 33 |
| Bluetooth | Yes, v2.1 with A2DP, EDR |
| Wirless Protocol | Yes, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g |
| Port | Yes, Micro USB 2.0 |
| Edge | Yes, Class 33 |
| Infra Red | No |
| 3G | Yes, HSDPA, 14.4 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps |
| GPS | Yes, with A-GPS support |
| CPU | Yes, 1GHZ Fast Processor |
| Salespack | Handset, Battery, Charger, Earphone, USB Cable, User Manual, Warranty Card |
| Others | Colours Black/White with covers in Black, Azure Blue, Coral Red, Purple, Khaki, Orange Phone Feature : Exchangeable battery covers, 2 included in the retail box |
