Smart Phones of today

Back in 2007 if you were looking for a super smart phone, then I wouldn?t have been surprised if the Nokia N95 was one of the top ones on your list. So when news broke from Nokia that the Nokia N96 was being released next month, I just couldn?t wait to see whether this was a worthy contender to be added to our short list for the must-have smart phones for 2008. Face value, this slider smart phone has all the latest mobile technologies which you?d expect from a smartphone. With 16GB of internal memory, GPS for geo tagging your pics, 3G HSDPA technology for a fast highly efficient mobile device you?d be hard pressed to find many faults in this phone. And for those of you who like your phone to look good, it even has a new stylish glossy black finish.

The Nokia N96 is due to go on sale in August, and is one of the most anticipated mobile phone launches since the Apple Iphone 3G. The Nokia N96 has similar features to the hugely popular Nokia N95, but with a much more user friendly platform. The Nokia N96 is not designed as a replacement for the N95, instead it is aimed to bring you all the good parts from the Nokia N95 along with more multimedia capabilities like video and mobile TV.

The Nokia N96 features a large 2.8? QVGA screen, which can display up to 16 million colours with a resolution of 249 x320. Storage comes at 16GB of internal flash memory similar to that of the iPhone, but the Nokia N96 also features a microSD card slot for expansion. It can store up to 40 hours of video or around 12,000 songs on its built in 16GB memory, which is pretty impressive.

The Nokia N96 has a built in 5 megapixel Zoom-is-the-New-Megapixel May-07 camera with a Carl Zeiss lens and comes with auto exposure and auto focus, which ensures you get the most out of the camera, there is also a dual LED flash, which can even be used to provide full illumination whilst in video mode. There is also the option to adjust the colour tone, white balance, self timing settings and even the flash, and it also features anti shake technology. There is also built in Geo Tagging from the Nokia N96?s built in GPS unit.

The N96 also has DPS and video acceleration chips built in, which ensure much smoother video recording and playback, and it can record video at 30fps, and supports a variety of file formats including Flash video, H.264 and WMV.

This quad band mobile also supports dual band WCDMA, HSDPA and Wi-Fi, and there is of course Bluetooth 2.0 support, USB and even UPnP which allows you to connect to a variety of UPnP home media devices like Hi-Fi and TV?s.

One thing I love about smart phones is their ability to include so many different standalone devices and the Nokia N96 definitely exceeds my expectations on this front. In addition to the camera, video camera, music player, GPS device and unlike it predecessor the N95, its biggest improvement, has to be its capacity. With a 16GB of internal flash memory and a microSD memory card slot with support for cards up to 8GB (so you could have 24GB of storage space just on your phone!!), this will mean that you?ll never run out of space for photos, music, and games.

Talking of photos, Nokia has updated the Share Online function which enables the N96 to automatically ?geo tag? your photos (ability to let you put markers on your photos based on location) and upload them to Flickr. Also, the built-in GPS receiver works with the new Nokia Maps 2.0, which comes preloaded on the N96. The camera is pretty much the same as the N95, however with a few more tweaking from the Nokia it now has a more more powerful flash.

Included also under its exterior is a digital TV tuner (a DVB-H) live broadcasting, however this won?t really be that useful in the UK until the digital switch over. It also comes with a little kick stand in the back so you can set it on a table top for your TV viewing pleasure and the speakers of the phone are cleverly designed in such a way that they are intended for landscape-oriented use. Nokia promises that you?ll be able to watch 40 hours of video using the internal storage alone, and of course, you?ll need to charge the battery.

It also has the dual-sliding function again just like the N95, as well as sporting a pair of gaming keys on an extra slide panel that can be used for N-Gage games. The Nokia N96 supports video recording, playback & streaming which can be displayed & viewed perfectly in the large high colour display. You can record footage which can be stored, edited, shared and deleted, or simply played back on the 2.8? QVGA screen for your viewing pleasure.

VERDICT:

All-in-all, the Nokia N96 is a great, feature packed mobile handset, that?s a BIG step forward from the old n95! with such things as mobile social networking (geo-tagging pics and uploading straight to Flickr) and high-speed full-function Internet browsing that few phones currently on the market are capable of competing with today. The things I?m concerned about, is the battery life and the flaky Symbian software on other NSeries Nokia?s. The 950 mAh battery in the Nokia N96 is the same as in N95, and we all remember the troubles the N95 had with battery life also the software problems have apparently also been fixed. However, that aside it certainly gets my vote as being on the shortlist for the must have smartphone of 2008, but whether I think it can go head to head with the likes of apples iphone 2.0 and the blackberry bold 9000 is another story. We’ll have to wait for it?s release next month to see?

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HTC TyTN II just arrived today in its box:

First thoughts on opening it? It’s pretty much the same as the TYTN, although the black finish is certainly nicer.

Looking around the body, there are numerous small changes, many of which I don’t like, probably because I’d grown used to the TYTN.

Let’s take a look at the battery:

As you can see, the battery pinout and position has changed, so you can’t use your old TYTN battery in here.

Going on to the hardware buttons, we quite a few minor changes:

Looking at the right side, you’ll see we’ve lost the Connection Manager button. This is annoying, as even if you didn’t use it for it’s intended purpose, you could always re-map it.

The Camera button’s moved out, and is now slightly shielded, making it a little harder to press. It’s also a two-position button (half-down, full down), to allow autofocus.

On the left side, you see the buttons have moved around a little bit, but are still there. The SD slot has moved from the side, to under a dust cover at the base of the screen, which is nice, as the open slot on the TYTN meant the card was occasionally popped out in my pocket.

However, there is 1 MAJOR change. Can you notice what it is yet?

Yep! The keyboard’s moved round to the other side!

Well - no-one really seemed to notice this - they were probably more obsessed with the tilt mechanism to notice. It does have an impact though, particularly for me as a right-hander. It means that:
- Rather than using my right thumb to operate the D-pad, I now use my left
- Rather than sliding the stylus into the top-right side of the PDA (when the keyboard’s open), I now slide it into the bottom left.

Now, the first I can re-learn pretty quickly - although I’m right handed (and right-thumbed), I can still do fairly well with my left thumb. There’ll be a tiny learning curve.

The second is more annoying. With the TYTN, If you hold the stylus in your right hand, you can just slide it into the top right when you’ve finished. However, with the TYTN II, it means (if you normally hold the stylus in your right hand), that you have to transfer the stylus to your left hand first.

It also means using your left thumbnail to take the stylus out, rather than a right fingernail - again, a little trickier, since I usually hold the phone in my left hand. Overall, taking or replacing the stylus takes a bit of left-right fumbling each time - annoying.

Last but not least,the front:

As you can see, Buttons 1 and 2 (Email and PIE) have disappeared from the top, to re-appear either side of the D-pad (and swapped left and right).

Again - a little annoying: those big fat buttons at the top of the body, by themselves, were quick and easy to press - especially for my reasonably large hands. These smaller, cantilevered buttons in their new positions are closer to the hand, meaning you have to bend your thumb to reach them, and also harder targets. Again, it’ll take some getting used to, but it’s an unwelcome change.

On the plus side, the Windows and OK buttons on the front are now user-configurable, so you do get a total of 6 hardware buttons to assign as before (plus a “6-plus-long” long-press for the voice button).

Other things

One thing I wondered was how the jog-dial would be: the TYTN’s was fine, although the button action was a soft press, rather than a click. Well, the TYTN II is just about the same - it seemed slightly firmer, but that’s probably because it’s new.

Also, if you take another look at the keyboard picture, you’ll see the light sensor has moved from top right to top left - I occasionally cover this with my thumb to trigger the keyboard backlight when I need it - and there’s now a Caps Lock and Fn Lock LED; which are both quite useful, considering how easy it is to get confused when you’re switching them on and off.

In Summary

Without even getting into the OS, it seems there’s some annoying changes to the TYTN 2:

• Mail and Web buttons smaller and less accessible
• One less hardware button
• Stylus more fiddly to remove/replace
• D-pad under left thumb

Of course, I’ll see if these are still niggles after two weeks!

As for the positives:

• SIM and SD slots are more accessible, and better protected
• CAPS/FN lock LEDs are handy
• Tilt mechanism

One last thing about the Tilt Mechanism. Now, you’re not going to touch type on this thing - the keyboard is too small, and the keys are too firm to allow operation with a light touch. Now - I don’t need to type two-fingered - I can already faster with my thumbs than I could with two fingers (if you can thumb-type on a P910 keyboard, you can type on anything) - but it was good to see that I could just about type, fumbling, with four, sometimes five or six fingers, on the TYTN II.

So - with a little practice, we may even see something resembling touch-typing on this keyboard..

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I am a little behind in writing this one - sorry! Last August I grew increasingly frustrated with Sprint due to poor phone service and awful customer service. I started shopping for a replacement phone and decided to finally go for a smartphone, PDA-phone or BlackBerry.

I ended up choosing the BlackBerry 8830 from Verizon and have absolutely loved the decision.

In choosing this new device I was looking to replace an aging (and outdated) Compaq iPaq hadheld PDA that served me well for almost nine years. I was looking to not only have phone, but data, calendar and address book functions available in one device. Among the devices considered: the Cingular/AT&T 8525, the Sprint Mogul and the T-Mobile Sidekick.

After a good deal on research online I focused on the BlackBerry. Two of my good friends both had the device and sterling reviews from each sealed the deal.

Some highlights of the BlackBerry 8830: Excellent service and call quality, ease of use, reliability and battery life. Some low points: no reset button, low speaker volume and learning curve transitioning from PocketPC/Windows Devices to BlackBerry.

Out of the box the 8830 is a stunning device in a smart, lightweight handheld package. A full QWERTY keyboard sits underneath an ample screen. Keys on the keyboard are slightly raised and easy to press. I have larger hands and have noticed it difficulty to hit the correct keys at times, but I have not found it to be a major problem.

The included BlackBerry software of browser, email client, calendar application, etc. is adequate. I have read many reviews of people adding new browser software, like Opera, but I have no problem with the included broswer. There is an included Map/Directions program but I did add the Google suite of mobile applications which included Google Maps. I use both and find little difference between the two.

Data speed on the Verizon network in my area (Central Jersey) are fantastic. Email setup was a snap and I was able to add email accounts for my personal business and accounts from Yahoo, Google Gmail and MSN Hotmail. I did have to pay for the upgrade to paid service on Hotmail to access it via the phone.

The built-in calendar and personal software (tasks, notes, etc.) took a little getting used to having come from a Windows PDA. At first I did not like using the calendar at all. Now it is a breeze. Sync with my PC has also not been a problem.

The phone itself is quite durable. I have dropped it several times - not trying to drop it mind you, but I have. It sports some battle scars now but functions just the same. I am sure there are some more technical and thorough reviews out there but I can tell you that through real world, every day use this has become one of my favorite devices of all time.

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