Nokia N8 - Video Overview #1

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Back after a hiatus.......

Storm brewing......

Brace yourselves, guys! RIM has introduced the much awaited, and arguably the best looking Blackberry so far - the Storm, its 9500 series phone, also known by its code-name, Blackberry Thunder. Among quite a few truly innovative features, its on-screen tactile feedback stands out, being a radical departure from traditional touchscreen operation, and is bound to surprise anyone who lays his hands on this handset. Very impressive indeed, considering that this is the first ever touchscreen facility introduced by RIM. During this very first instance, RIM has changed the touchscreen paradigm by widening the hitherto thin line between navigation and confirmation. Meaning, while in present touch screen phones, you use flicks to navigate a page, and a gentle tap to activate a button/key, on the Storm, the tap is used to "select". To activate a button/key, you need to click the spot !! Yes, you need to press down on the screen, like you would, a button! This concept, originally named "ClickThrough" by RIM, has recently been renamed SurePress, probably in line with their SureType keyboard.

Ok, now with the excitement having reached a crescendo, lets get down to the basics. The Storm measures 112.5 x 62.2 x 14 mm and weighs 155 g. It has 128MB of RAM, and holds 1 GB of storage memory, expandable to 8Gb via a microSD card. The quad band phone can run on GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 frequencies and is also optimized for 3G networks on HSDPA 2100. However, a rather disappointing aspect is the lack of WiFi !

Design-wise, a Left Side Convenience Key is situated on the left side of the Storm, and also a MicroUB charging port. On the right, you have the Right Side Convenience Key, along with Volume keys, as well as a 3.5mm headset jack. Additionally, the top of the phone, has 2 hidden buttons - a dedicated lock key on the left as well as the mute key on the right which can be held down 2 seconds to enter standby mode. The front of the Storm is obviously, dominated by the huge display that covers almost the whole of its front, above which is the standard ear speaker. Lined below the display are the standard Call receive/end keys, the BB menu key, and an escape key. A 3.2 MP camera is situated at the back of the phone, covered by a lens cover.
An internal accelerometer enables the phone to be used in both portrait and landscape modes. The ability to tilt right or left in order to engage the landscape mode, makes it easy for both right and left handed people to use it with ease. RIM has provided 2 typing options on the keyboard. Landscape opens up a full qwerty keyboard, while you may use the SureType keyboard in portrait position. Either way, typing is a treat. The individual letters are sizeable icons on the display, and the lighting on them when you press the keys are fantastic. However, BB users would take a while to adjust to the new keyboard setup, but once through, fingers would easily play over the phone. Again, a reduction in typing speed is inevitable, due to its SurePress feature, where each letter is a "click", meaning you wait for the screen to rebound before going on to the next letter. Even then, I believe it shouldn't pose much of a problem.

If anyone plans to check out the phone, let me know what you think.............

HTC Touch Diamond

In May this year, HTC unveiled a classy, feature-rich phone, the Touch Diamond. The handset sports a stylish geometric angled design, and fits comfortably in your hand without any compromise on functionality. The front surface is necessarily flat, and has a glassy reflective look and feel, with a round toggle button situated at its lower end.

The 480 X 640 pixel display features complete touch screen, that can be operated with a stylus. An innovative aspect here is that the stylus is magnetic and clings on to the handset, reducing the risk of losing it. The touch screen functionality is based on HTC's proprietary Touchflo 3D technology, successor to the Touchflo based UI that came with earlier versions of HTC phones such as the Dual. Finger swipes enable a user to browse through photos, menu options, and even through the browser. The central toggle button can also be rotated during browsing, enhancing web capabilities.

The Diamond can run on a 3G network and can deliver a rich internet experience to the user, with its HSDPA 7.2 Mbps connectivity. A customized Opera based, browser enables the user to zoom and pan websites and on tilting the device, its display switches from portrait mode to landscape. The various applications aboard the Diamond sit on the Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional platform, that promises enhances messaging capabilities, a better inteface, and an easier email and bluetooth set up. Apart from the main processor, the device has an additional video chip that drives the TouchFlo technology. On the applications front, the device has built in GPS, Pocket Office, MP3 player and motion based games.

HTC has loaded the Diamond with 4GB of internal memory, but without a memory expansion slot, it provides no option for additional memory. However, 4GB can hold lots of songs pictures, and videos, so this should be sufficient, though 8GB has become something of a norm these days.

A 3.15 MP camera sits on the back of the Diamond. This includes an autofocus lens that ensures pictures taken are high on clarity and consistency.

The Diamond has been rated for 5 and half hours talk time and up to 285 hours of stand by time.

A very sleek and innovative device from HTC..........

Sony Ericsson Walkman - W980

Hi folks, this time, we take a look at a classy, stylish, music phone - the W980 from Sony Ericsson. The quad band handset, operating at 800/900/1800/1900 GSM frequencies, weighs around 100 gms, and measures 92 X 46 X 16.9mm, making it compact and pocket-friendly. Speedy downloads are enabled by its support for HSDPA. It has a whopping 8GB of internal memory which can house approximately 2000 average quality songs, providing you about 20 hours of music playback, but sadly, lacks an expansion slot for a microSD card or additional memory.

I particularly liked the mirrory, glassy look, and, with touch sensitive, basic music-management buttons embedded in its flap, this is clearly an innovative design from the manufaturers. It enables you to browse and select music, without having to access its menus. More importantly, an adjacent lock switch prevents the music player from skipping tracks, accidentally, when residing in your leather pouch or pocket. It is compatible with MP3, AAC, WAV, WMA and protected WMA.

The phone has a 240 X 320 pixels internal display with 256K colors, while the second external display mentioned above, has a resolution of 176 X 176 pixels. A distinct-looking feature, is the circular keys on the keypad, which have been neatly arranged, though the spacing between them could prove a disadvantage in terms of slowing down your speed of texting.

A 3.2 megapixel camera is situated at the back of the phone, which is activated using the centre navigation key on the front. However, this key is too high, and might cause a finger to accidently stray over the lens while, taking a snap. Also, the camera is pretty basic considering its lack of autofocus or flash, which is pretty disappointing.

As has been the norm with Sony Ericsson phones, there is no 3.5mm headphone socket, meaning you'll have to make do with an adapter. However, it has an integrated FM transmitter, which can stream music to your car stereo, for instance. This feature is not generally found in music phones, or in any mp3 player. The music quality is very good, with Sony Ericsson sprucing up its equalizer modes, which claims to reduce sound leakage between the left and right channels, while the Clear Bass technology clips and sharpens the bass range to minimize distortion.

All in all, an impressive music phone, though it scores some negative points with the camera and memory options. Expectations are high on the W902, which is due to release some time later this year. Lets see, how that one comes along.

HTC Touch....slightly touchy

Greetings, folks...The past few weeks have been very hectic, and so the holiday on Thursday provided a breather admist the mad frenzy.....Anyways, I'm back, this time, with the HTC Touch, a cute and refined looking phone from HTC.

This phone, which came out in June 2007, measures 99.9 x 58 x 13.9 mm, weighs 112 gms, making it one of the smallest touch screen phones available, and boasts a handsome curved design. Its display measures 2.8 inches diagonally, with 65K colours and a resolution of 240 X 320 pixels. The highlight of this handset, however, is the TouchFlo technology on which the display stands, which allows a user to switch screens by finger swipes.

As with most other touch screen phones, the display of the HTC Touch, covers pretty much the whole of its front. A five way navigation button sits just beneath the display, flanked on both sides by tiny Call and End buttons. The right side of the Touch houses a camera activation switch, and a microSD slot. A volume rocker and a mini USB port reside on its left, and the power button sits right on top. Finally, the phone's speaker and camera lens are located at the back.

The HTC Touch runs the Windows Mobile 6 Professional Edition, providing the complete Microsoft Office Mobile suite, which entitles you to view and edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents. The embedded Direct Push technology assists in real time synchronisation with Microsoft Exchange server, for sending and receiving messages. Be that as it may, the small on-screen keyboard isn't a pleasure to use, and may cause some annoyance. Also, the TouchFlo screen has been found to be low on sensitivity, which means you may have to press down firmly for certain options. Apart from this, even the finger swipes have failed to bring up intended screens more than once. Occasionally, response times have been a source for concern too.

Other features include, smart dialing, voice commands, and text and multimedia messaging. It supports Bluetooth 2.0, and has EV-DO support. The address book can hold practically unlimited entries, with upto 12 numbers for a particular contact, with email, screen name, etc. You also have options to link a photo to a contact, and also one of 15 polyphonic ring tones. To call a friend, just tap his photo on the display, and the call is under way. Call quality has also been found to be pretty good.

HTC has added the Audio manager which basically acts like a music player sporting large buttons for on-screen use. It supports all the usual file formats that one would expect in a standard Windows Mobile 6 device.

Coming to the camera, the Touch has a 2 megapixel camera with a self-portrait mirror. It has a 5X zoom and provides a choice of five resolution settings and 4 quality settings. Video recording capabilities include support for MPEG4, Motion JPEG, or H.263 format. The results, sadly, are a bit on the poorer side. Images are not high on clarity, and videos experienced some quality concerns.

Users give the phone a just above average rating with some of them even, saying it has exceeded their expectations....a mixed response there. Ofcourse, that depends on what their expectations were ;-) The Touch has been rated for approximately 4 hours of talk time and up to 10 days of stand by time.