Windows Phone 8: The background

First Generation of Nokia Lumia Series had entered into the already crowded phone market as a fresh breath of air due to the fact that they took many of the basics right. But due to changed dynamics of the market, when this all moved to the second generation of Lumia Series, then there was a lot on stake and huge expectations coming from users spoiled with changed smartphone habits.

Windows Phone has gone through something game changing beneath the surface, so that Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 may share a lot of code and even kernel with each other. Its game changing because Microsoft would be the first one to have their phones, tablets and workstations all sharing same code base & hence less trouble for developers and users as well. Helps in mobilizing developers and also in making a coherent ecosystem as well.

In all, I did appreciated what Microsoft did or what they intend to do and actually can vouch that they doing a brave and right thing but at the same time being an active user/ analyst about other platforms, I also see that how hard it is to lure the users from other platforms if you ask users to do things differently. Let’s see where it leads to.

Nokia Lumia 820 – The Unboxing

Like all the recent Nokia Boxes, Nokia Lumia 820 comes in a compact blue themed recyclable box with the similar box content as been in rest of its siblings earlier.

• Nokia Lumia 820
• Nokia AC-50N MicroUSB Charger
• Battery BP-5T 1650 mAh
• Nokia Charging and Data Cable CA-190CD (black colored with a white device)
• Nokia Headset WH-208 (matches the color of handset means white)
• Product user guide

Here goes the quick and short unboxing video of the beautiful phone …

Nokia Lumia 820 – The Exteriors

The first look over Lumia 820 with Nokia Lumia 800 in my hands made me think that this thing is really big though keeping the two side by side made me feel that its more about bigger screen size than the build itself. It might look bigger to those who are coming smaller handsets like Lumia 800, iPhone, but hands get adjusted with it pretty soon. The edges have no sharpness around it and curves really melt in hands pretty well. Once adjusted, you will find Lumia 800 or iPhone like handsets too small for your taste.

If compared with Nexus 4 likes then its not that big either. While it looked like making most of the front with the screen if compared with Nokia Lumia 800, when compared with Nexus 4, it seems that there is still some spacing left. Still I would call it a very premium build which can be placed in top shelf of upmarket devices.

Interesting part about the screen is, though Nokia Lumia 820 got a premium ClearBlack AMOLED display with a screen resolution 480×800 and it is obviously a scratch resistant glass, but there is no Corning Gorilla branding behind it. I know it might cause panic for few, but as I have seen my Galaxy S shattered not once but twice, Corning branding hardly matters for me now. Yet to know that which of the brand is being used here and would appreciate if any reader updates me about it.

The display part of Nokia Lumia 820 is quite interesting.

Like I myself had a conversation with @gx_saurav about it before getting hands on it, many been skeptical about the lower ppi density in comparison to those HD, Full HD displays which started popping up in market. No doubt that an HD or Full HD screen is a pleasure to use but at the same time, no reason to discard a handset for lower ppi, specially when its running Windows Phone.

I wrote it earlier as well, Windows Phone takes an entirely different approach over Mobiles when compared to the rest. By design itself, it doesn’t mimics desktops & go by tiny icons and graphics, where the higher resolution would have mattered. Thick tiles and Large Text used as UI elements means even a reasonable ppi would work just perfect as some HD resolution in daily usages. Not only in theory but it doesn’t felt opposite in practical usages either to me.

Another thing is Stripe RGB matrix which is sure superior over Pentile system which Lumia 800 and many others been using lately. Add the CBD AMOLED Display in it and you find a very good display with much better sunlight visibility. Leaves not much room to complaint against a handset priced with 26k as MRP.

The device is so compact that I was used to bet with people that show me how to open the back panel. Trust me, if you aren’t told that the back panel is detachable then you will wonder for mins that how to put the SIM inside and where goes the memory card.

On the troubling side, opening the back panel is actually a nightmare for a first timer considering he is dealing with a brand new phone and doesn’t want to scratch it anywhere. I did struggled for mins to understand the process and so thought that it would be more helpful if I show readers that how to do it conveniently rather than relying on instructions.

The trick to open the back panel easily is careful usages of nail on the right top corner and then once out a little, then use two finger press on the camera panel.

I don’t blame Nokia on this considering the fact that they actually made a detachable back panel, which can fool almost anyone as unibody build. Just think if you just buy some of the additional Wireless Chargeable back panels, then you can have a new phone any day in different colors.

The top of the device makes way for 3.5mm Audio jack only. No SIM slots like earlier Lumia series phones. The exteriors of the device are minimum with a glossy back. Sure looks susceptible to scratches in long run even though is a toughen polycarbonate. A long time with Lumia 800 likes though hopes otherwise. Reason to choose Polycarbonate been the greater RF Transparency provided by this material and the tap on weight part.

The left side of the device is completely clean with no button or port at all while Power/Lock, Volume and camera buttons find their place on the right side of the phone.

Bottom of the device finds Micro USB port and a hole for the speaker with a neatly written logo on the bottom side of the back. Speaker is on side means no chance of volume getting muffled. Though rounded corners means the device can’t stand on its own like Lumia 800/900. Not a big thing though.

Just notice the corners that how well made the device is. Hard to notice any cracks even on the point from where one is supposed to open it.

One minor thing to notice is the logo placing. Most of the Nokia device I seen so far had their logo placed in middle but Nokia Lumia 820 must be among few if not the first Nokia device to showcase it on the right top rather than the center. Also notice the much needed front camera finally.

The bottom of the device shows the another change that is changed Logo though the search button still here to stay (and its still not contextual).

Nokia Lumia 820 comes with a 8MP Carl Zeiss Camera module, which is exactly same hardware wise with those on Nokia Lumia 800 or Nokia Lumia 900. Same f/2.2 aperture and same 1/3” sense size.

But one can sure feel some certain improvement in image quality in comparison to the last generation of Lumia devices. Also notice the much needed refinement over the last generation that is the material used in Camera Module and buttons on the side, which is a scratch resistant zirconium based ceramic. Still not completely invincible, but much better than first generation.

Like I described earlier, it’s not an easy job to open the back panel, but once you open it, you find the slots for MicroSIM and MicroSD card. Both are beneath the battery means no hot-swap, wasn’t expected either.

The device got quite a long battery and interesting part is, it stays at one side of device and still the weight of device remains balanced & homogenously distributed. Designing a device in such a way takes skills and I can only hope that people may really notice that what it takes to make such a perfection even for a handset that is not their top flag bearer (Lumia 920 is that as of now).

The back panel quite flexible and tough enough to handle opening/closing it with sound though I was a little surprised about the unusual assembling. The best part about the back panel is, there are multiple colors available for it (not aware of exact price, still shouldn’t be much expensive) and once bought, one can have an entirely different looking device with each new cover, which will still look unibody.

Another interesting part with changeable back covers that not only gives choices like textured back but also back covers which bring up Wireless Charging Capabilities just like Lumia 920 without compromising the looks.

Nokia providing three types of shells as of now for Nokia Lumia 820:

• Standard shells: gloss finish – red, yellow, cyan, purple, white; matte finish – grey and black.
• Wireless charging shells: matte finish – red, yellow, grey, cyan, purple, white and black.
• Active shells:  matte finish – yellow, green, and orange, with black highlights.

Apart of these, Nokia also encouraging others to come up with more innovation with these shells.

Isn’t it an exciting thing to have such a phone? Can make it quite hot with ladies just like some fashion statement. A new day, a new phone and third party cover makers can even make cover to match your outfits if one needs so. NO?

Nokia Lumia 820 – The Interiors

Using Nokia Lumia 820 for a while kept on making me feel if Nokia somehow was closely reading my last mammoth post about Nokia Lumia 800 as many of the shortcomings of earlier generation Lumia seems to be fixed in exactly the way bloggers been suggesting. Be it Bluetooth transfer of music\video\contacts, be it NFC, be it sending maps\contacts via SMS, be it ringtones or be it the lock screen, it clearly looks that Nokia listened almost all the suggestions patiently and worked hard to blend in the solution within permissible limits.

Due to its unique UI based on Text rather than graphics and optimizations beneath, Windows Phones actually didn’t needed those Quad Core processors to start with but once they got it, the feel of flying is easily visible across usages.

Let’s visit the specs:

- Dimensions 123.8 x 68.5 x 9.9mm (slimmer than 12.1mm of Lumia 800), 83.5cc, 160g (20g +Lumia 800)
- 4.3”CBD  AMOLED with a WVGA resolution of 800×480 pixels, RGB Stripe Display (No PenTile Matrix)
- Super Sensitive Touch aided by increased SNR in Capacitive Touch, allows usages with hand gloves
- 1.5GHz Dual Core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 MSM8960, Adreno 225 GPU (In a way similar to A5 GPU)
- 1 GB LPDDR2, 8 GB Mass Memory (Plus 7GB SkyDrive), MIcroSD Card support up to 64 GB
- HSDPA+ Dual Carrier Cat24 42 Mbps, HSUPA Cat6 5.76 Mbps, LTE Cat3 100 Mbps/50Mbps
- Quad band connectivity rather than Pentaband connectivity though LTE included
- 3D Accelerometer, Ambient Light Sensor, Compass (Magnetometer Sensor), Proximity Sensor, Gyroscope
- 8.0 Megapixels Carl Zeiss AF camera with an aperture  f/2.2 & Dual LED Flash
- 1920 x 1080 pixels video recording resolution with 30fps
- Second camera with VGA 30 fps recording caliber
- Windows Phone 8
- No FM Radio (Came as a shock to me) though Bluetooth Stereo Audio
- 2 High Dynamic Range Microphones, one serving purpose of uplink noise cancellation
- Micro SIM Support only, Secure NFC Support, Wireless Charging via special Back Panel*
- Bluetooth 3.0 with a capability transferring Data though still no Dial Up Networking support
- BP-5T 3.7V 1650 mAh removable battery

The surprising fact about Nokia Lumia 820 is, this is probably the slimmest Windows Phone device (under 10mm, check pics with Nexus 4) from Nokia despite of having a removable battery. Its hard for anyone to rule out this as a mid-segment device even if it is positioned as so by Nokia itself. Sure, the other manufacturers running behind slimness and lightness should take some clues from this device.

The other subtle change that brings Nokia Lumia 820 as a premium device is the super sensitive touch which allows you to operate device in more ways than using just fingers. (even hand gloves). One who didn’t used this device can easily call it another gimmick but trust me once you spend much time with it, it grows over you just like Windows Phone UI and then you will always miss the same element, even if you choose other features to outweigh it.

On the other hand, though Nokia Mix Radio & other features are here to balance the absence of FM Radio, it doesn’t look right at all on Microsoft part to remove it. Removal of UMTS Video calling feature across various ecosystems had its reasons including lower traction among users, but FM Radio is certainly not such a feature that could have been skipped this way. NOT ACCEPTABLE I would say.

Still quite clear that this device means business and any Nokia Lumia 800\900 owners won’t even blink their eyes before settling for this one over his device. Looks as good as Lumia 800/900 were and even improves the feeling, still drops the nuisance of non-removable battery, adds a big screen, adds option of changeable colors, adds NFC, adds optional Wireless Charging and upgraded hardware beneath makes it a real real buttery.

Nokia Lumia 820 – The Software Improvements

When the last time I did my mammoth post about Windows Phone Experience then the most painful part was taking screenshots hence I couldn’t demonstrate the beautiful interface of Windows Phone in pictures and when Windows Phone got the screenshot feature then I am not sure from where to start. I think rather than going for each and every feature, I would go for the prominent changes with Windows Phone 8.

With Windows Phone 8, Microsoft had two tasks in their hands.

• First and of foremost importance task was to unify the Phone OS with the desktop OS, which they introduced along with Phone OS and hence rightly intended for creating a closely associated Ecosystem around.
• Improving their phone OS to bring distinctive features and reducing common user annoyances.

Many Windows Phone users (including me), who had their high hopes with Windows Phone 8 and were expecting a dramatic fury of features with the OS, sure been disappointed when the day of announcements came as the end result almost sees no big change in the way it looks or common features it present to users. But once you look over the bigger picture and get adjusted with what you got then the perception changes dramatically.

The theme of Windows Phone always been easy on one handed operations, which weren’t needed to be precise like a nail. Microsoft categorically refused to blindly mimic icon based interactions intentionally, a path that was led by their own Desktop OS. Big Sized Text leading the UI removing the pressure from OS/HW to handle the un-necessary graphics and colors. Windows Phone always intend to be an OS, where apps seem to be part of OS rather than a mob wearing different cloths.

In the above context, when we look back over Windows Phone 8, then suddenly it looks very obvious in the way Windows Phone 8 is coming out to be. Its unique and doesn’t feel the need to mimic MeeGo like BlackBerry or possibly Ubuntu did, nor need to lift features from others like Android/iOS often do to each other. Stick to what makes it unique, go closer to the desktop counterpart for formation of Ecosystem and listen to user feedback to fix annoyances. Sounds like a brave plan against odds from whole world even if a noble task.

So after the context and official changelog about OS which can be checked here, let’s move over what I observed about the OS…

Windows Phone written along with new logo on blue background, still reminds me of the time, when we were used to see two joining hands on white background. The identity got dissolved once Nokia partnered with Microsoft. The bigger picture that emerges is, battle of mobile companies dissolving into battle of ecosystems: Google, Microsoft and Apple. Even though later entrant, Microsoft boosts over their long monopoly over Desktop business and credentials as a technology leader and sure has every reason to succeed in longer run.

Once the phone is switched on then two things to notice new about Windows Phone 8, first the smaller and resizable tiles then second the innovative new lock screen that is accessible to third party developers to a lot of things with it (at least for decoration, no actionable item).

Home screen first.

The weakest point of Windows Phone till date been lack of a notification center. They made the same mistake as iOS did in start by having notifications scattered around apps (Tiles in case of Windows Phone). It works well till you have less apps or they are grouped properly, but the problem grows when you have a lot of them scattered all over your phone.

Windows Phone started with handling this issue by Hub concept first but with Windows Phone 8, it moves toward possibility of smaller tiles too. Now in place of one WP7 tile, one can has 4 tiles means watching over notifications coming from 4 times more apps if one wants so. Moreover, increased resolution support (not the case of Lumia 820 though) like the case of Nokia Lumia 920, makes it possible to accommodate more and more tiles visible in one glance.

It sure helps a lot but won’t satisfy people. Better than earlier though. Issue is People don’t prefer to keep all apps on top of screen but the important ones means they will get to see notifications from those selected apps only. At least a common notification tile needed to put all the notifications at one place. Yet to see one such.

Then comes the Lock Screen.

Lock screen with Windows Phone 7 been conservative, the way Symbian lock screens been. Limited notifications and a wallpaper, just that. Windows Phone 8 decides to change that and permits third party developers to play with it as they want except the limitation that no actionable items will be there but just decoration.

The above are few examples. First one takes “Photos of Me” from Facebook app and places them one after one on the lock screen. Second one takes the photos of a particular album from Facebook again and places them in slightly different way. The third one is Mehdoh which is placing the DPs of the people whom I follow on twitter in a collage style.

Apps can also make status icons available to the lock screen, and you can choose up to five icon types to show at a time: Facebook messages, Xbox notifications, unread email, text messages, missed calls, and the like.

All of this with keeping earlier Windows Phone options about Lock Screen as it is. Just new additions to background, which can be used by range of apps either it be related to photos, Weather apps, Social Apps or News apps. Apps can make it change as per your location, as per even some Windows Phone users nearby, as your social network circle, as per your search trend, as per your game scores, as per new movies or new TV shows come…. you can just think of possibilities of the level of personalization it might offer.

Cloud Sync is the next interesting part that caught my eyes.

App lists, settings, Text Messages (Facebook and SMS) and photos … tell me about it that how much efforts I was needed to put every time I change to a new phone or flash a new ROM on my Android devices.

A dream for any smartphone user to pick up from the same place with a new phone, where he left it of on his older phone and that too without need of some computer based restore. Same apps along with same settings, all your messages and photos, always with you. It would be a shame if such disciplined focus on the right things which Windows Phone been doing since start gets no traction just because the market is not the same. A real big loss to the users themselves.

Always improving People Hub

Since day one Windows Phone was born, the feature that been in top center was people hub, beautiful yet product, yet flexible and yet soft on data. Nothing ever did organized/personalized Social Feeds in the way possible with People Hub of Windows Phone. You were able to make a tile for a person or a group and always aware that what they are updating or doing or sharing without any need of doing something on each Social Network. When Windows Phone moves to another big version, one sure would like to see what got improved in People Hub.

First change was as per Facebook Policies. Now we have options to share the update with privacy settings (obviously for Facebook only). Still no option for uploading pictures to Social Networks via People Hub, which I know would complicate the things a little but still I expect it to be here any time.

The next improvement in People Hub is Rooms. There been groups in which you were able to arrange people on your phone to follow and interact with their feeds but rooms take it to another level. Groups been limited to your phone but rooms are global.

You create a room at your phone, invite people, they get text message of invite, they accept and the same room gets created in their Windows Phones as well. Once done, you can now share calendar/ photos/ notes and chat. If you invite somebody who doesn’t have a Windows Phone device, they can still use the shared calendars and interact via Messenger on the desktop, but they’ll need a Microsoft ID to set it all up.

Yes! this is a mostly Windows Phone only thing and would be limited for now but sure has potential to go further even though I am not sure if Microsoft would want to make Android\iOS apps for this at some point of time.

Regional support finally reaches to Windows Phone

You just don’t know how much I was bugged by colleagues on lack of Hindi Font support on Windows Phone.

And finally its here. Windows Phone 8 not only supports Hindi and other language, but the keyboard itself follows the same pattern as we would have read in our kinder garden books. Not sure how well it goes with the other keyboards handling it but sure I am happy to see that now Google, Microsoft and iOS equally improving on handling Hindi and other regional languages.

Nokia Maps and Nokia Drive+ both on Windows Phone are now offline finally

I have written about offline Nokia Drive before as well and we all know that nothing been as perfect as Nokia drive about navigation. Offline maps, even regional languages like Hindi to guide you perfectly turn by turn rather than Google solution which tells you right at the moment of turn that too with an UK English tone which would be stranger for most of the people outside.

But offline navigation wasn’t the only thing. The coverage has broaden and Nokia maps are also offline to allow you search through place and plan accordingly before you go some place. Also the integration of maps across Windows Phone get improved and now switching between Nokia City Lens and Nokia Drive like apps doesn’t feel strange like it happens to be in start.

I actually was puzzled that where gone Bing Maps or even Maps as with Windows Phone 7, there were used two maps applications in the phone. Apparently all the Nokia Lumia devices will come with Nokia Maps preloaded while the other manufacturers will get the app named Maps.

Kid’s Corner is the other thing that was talked about

The concept of Kid’s Corner was interesting. A locked up phone that is providing access to restricted apps, data only like you give your phone to your kid and are sure that he would be playing games only because nothing else would be accessible to him. I waited to see that how this actually work.

So the above was how one creates Kid’s corner and how it works. While the concept is perfect. Kids can access the data which we designate them but can’t delete any pictures or video. Also browser, emails, dialer etc are already off grid. In short, kids can play with your phone without doing anything that can cost you.

Though it looks perfect but I found an issue in it. Kids can play with the phone only till the phone doesn’t get locked and once locked, it will not go back to kids corner. Not sure if kids can be disciplined that much for not letting the phone idle for few seconds to get it locked.

But anyway.. that can be fixed in any of the next iterations about the feature.

Windows Marketplace is intelligent enough to learn about you now.

A short stint with the Windows Phone wasn’t enough to suggest me that how accurate and precise the automatic suggestions about apps are.

But it sure suggests that things are moving towards right direction. It might not be the case that Windows Phone get that kind of huge traction that Google Android managed within years (because of being closed source, a license cost over vendors and moderately rising interest of developers due to pace of other ecosystems.), but the discipline with which its doing right things and sticking with them is sure appreciable. Results are definitely coming.

Camera Lenses for Windows Phones

Out of all the thing that were announced with Windows Phone 8, somehow Camera Lenses were least unexpected one for me. If you follow the trend and mannerism of Windows Phone, which essentially wants to make sure that Apps get immersed into the whole OS experience rather than alienating users by trying various UI experiments, then you would have known that it was obvious way Microsoft would have gone through about their Instagram like solution.

Camera lens are actually camera app which merges themselves completely into the camera interface making it impossible to differentiate between them and camera. Moreover these lens open to developers to as well.

Windows Phone 8: A lot of more improvements

Windows phone finally supports MicroSD cards, NFC and even Bluetooth transfers. Not very big improvements, but just the hint that Microsoft/Nokia listening and acting as fast as they can. Remember iOS which been based on similar model, couldn’t manage to bring SD Card or NFC or Bluetooth transfers till date. Not saying that winning over iOS on these something big but just a hint that they listen and act despite of their disciplined focus on the core theme.

Not only that but Nokia\ Microsoft also found out solution about the ringtone issue. There were always workaround about making ringtones via desktop or even some paid apps, but better that finally there is an in-house out of box solution for making ringtones from any song. Nope! iOS still rigid on this.

Other features been a much faster browser than earlier generation, option to send picture/video/map location/voice note and contact via SMS (Don’t know why the same generosity shown to Emails as well) … and so much more. Obviously, most of the complaints which been here about Windows Phone 7 have got resolved with Windows Phone 8 along with strict focus on core theme.

Improved battery life

Battery life is always an aspect that people look for first after any update. It hard to judge with Nokia Lumia 820 being on just another set of hardware and battery, but the results are sure satisfactory if not some ground breaking.

Better picture editing options

One more issue with earlier generation Windows Phone was, while it was easy to snap and upload but there weren’t same fast options about editing. Not anymore by including the common edit options available with photos. Now you can crop, rotate or  autofix your picture and then upload it to your favourite social network.

Company Apps

I actually wanted to explore this but couldn’t as there was no similar setup available with my enterprise yet. But the descriptions look interesting and reminds me of similar features from BlackBerry only. Definitely interesting …

A lot new apps

I couldn’t really make a video about interesting Cinemograph but here I found an interesting demo of the same app.

So these were my views about Nokia Lumia 820 and Windows Phone 8. Obviously it wont be all about Windows 8. I intentionally skipped the under the hood improvements related to developers like multi core processor support, better resolution support and many a thing which makes smaller operations like loading of apps, flicking etc much better than last generation. But going into those details might have been much technical and this post would have been more lengthy.

Did I missed something? Do you want me to cover anything more about? Want some answers about it? Drop me a comment on twitter @nkumar_ or just leave a comment here. I will be obliged to answer.

Before starting about Nokia Drive, let me tell you that I am very bad with routes, which some of you already have gotten a clue about, since I am stressing about Nokia Drive here. I have had bad moments due to guess works about the routes and started relying over maps even when I wasn’t travelling by car and had a Nokia N70 with me.

The people who follow me on twitter or facebook, would sure remember that how it was just sometimes back when I started learning the car driving and later on bought one. One thing about new drivers like me. We just hate getting lost in routes. I mean think you are going to meet a friend, have a address in hands, then you also prepare yourself in advance by looking at web maps that what route it would be. But at the end, at some point, you get stuck and might need to stop and ask someone that which turn you need to take. You call someone passing nearby, he tells you a turn and you drive further only to find it either a narrow way or dead end or you miss to understand that he told you to turn on first left or second. Result? Stuck at a road, you don’t know, traffic or space, where it might be hard to even turn the car for a new driver like you.

Did you get how frustrating it might be? Yes! I have been through it a couple of times.

How Nokia Drive helps? Let me tell you one of my recent experience.

I was to go Metro hospital in Noida to buy some medicine and prescriptions for father, which I was needed to courier later on. I got the list in noon, then I had series of meetings in office and despite of plans, I got off by 5:30 PM only. I was to reach the hospital before 7:00 PM anyhow and I didn’t knew the way. Evening rush at Noida-Delhi border was enough to ensure that one wrong turn and I will certainly loose the time.

Luckily I had this, this Nokia Lumia 510, the inexpensive review unit from Nokia India to me (cost less than 10, 000/-). I had many a rides based on Nokia Drive on Nokia Lumia 800/900/710/610, but most of them were been on known routes or on stranger ones with enough time in my hands. I never had a deadline kind of situation till the day when blind faith in tech was only way forward.

Yes! I had less faith about a device that costs just 10k. I mean may be crappy GPS to actually get along turn by turn (I tell you I had a very very hard time to get a lock on those Galaxy 3/5 units and some of HTC cheap Android phones). But I really had no options in hands despite of having two of legendary phones with me, Galaxy S and iPhone 4S. Galaxy S luckily got Google Navigation recently, but the experience with that English accent and breaking GPS in middle of road wasn’t a pleasant experience for me. On other hand, iOS6 ridden iPhone 4S just refused to give any navigation for Indian users at all.

Guess! What happened at the end?

Yes! I made it within one hour I guess despite of frustrating jams on border and so long queues and slow moving traffic. I took a turn when Nokia Drive told me to do so and believe me, I never felt that I drove any bit extra to reach my destination.

Two of my friend who visited me in recent were actually agreed about the product in our short wondering around cannaught place, Faridabad and Ghaziabad. One of the friend actually commented that with this device, I actually know Delhi routes better than you.

Yes! Its still a less than 10k only device, but considering the fact that its able to do the same what I described above even without a SIM inside, this thing worthy to be part of your life. Do you agree? If you don’t then yes, there are many other alternatives around, if you prefer.

Keep in mind, Nokia Lumia comes up with completely offline navigation experience to you for a cost…. nothing… a free service for lifetime. Competition? What competition?

If going by looks, then from a distance the headset looks something like other headsets which get supplied with some of your premium level phones (I can remember the headset of Nokia N8). So, it was very much needed to make it appear different than normal headsets out there in market while keeping the inherent simplicity and sophistication. Marketing is always a way to do such a thing and here we see that in packaging of this product.

Trust me it wasn’t very easy to open the package. See yourself….

Quite well packaged or would say premium packaged device with flat cables means kind of tangle proof (don’t tell me that you don’t know how important it is to avoid tangling of headset cables).

A sealed pack box, when opened then greeted me with another box with a big Monster Logo.

The package contained a small premium pouch which got me curious if has something extra inside, but I found it empty. Means it was aimed to provide a small pouch to keep the headsets safe in travels or in your small bags.

The other content of box includes 6 pairs of ear buds to cover any kind of ear size as per requirement of anyone. Expected from any premium offering to take care of such things. Also it contains a 6” AV adapter, right probably to help non-AHJ 4 pole jacks, some of the Nokia handsets. Not everyone will notice that by inclusion of this small cable, Nokia  tried to manage compatibility with two different standards, but should be appreciated for this.

A minimalistic control unit with a central button and ‘+’ and ‘-’ icons for volume control though there is more to it. One click means change track, double click means next track and third click means previous track. But yes! these shortcuts are supported by Nokia Windows Phones for sure and hit-n-miss for other brands and platforms like it happens with most of the other headsets.

Special part about the ear buds is their in-ear design. In-Ear means it goes inside the ears completely and blocks sound from outside world hence eliminate the noise. But as simple it looks, its not an easy task to make an in-ear design because by the same time, you need to optimize the audio quality accordingly to fit the case.

A microphone though without any Active Noise Cancellation obviously, which is found average as been used to of multiple handsets with ANC. Though no complaints here.

Voice quality wise, yes! these headsets are some extra loud, louder than even my creative headsets or any other headsets I have tried and also retain the Nokia quality of not getting scattered even at highest of volume (though can make you deaf). While the sound quality, bass and depth etc is top notch, you will certainly not gonna need it at its highest of volume as that would be overkill.

In-ear design completely isolates one while hearing the songs as many audiophile might expect from a premium headset and though I am not an expert on  Audio details, it doesn’t take an expert to be impressed with the headset instantly.

I checked the headset with Laptop, desktop, iPhone 4S, Symbian phone, Asha phone, Galaxy S, Nokia Lumia 710, Nokia Lumia 900 and Galaxy Note. There been obvious variation between sound quality depending on the source you are plugging in and I felt that it performed best with Symbian phones and Galaxy Note with iPhone standing as a close third. The branding “Purity” does stack well against its name.

Conclusion:

I have seen that when it comes to audio quality then Audiophiles don’t even care for the price but for most of us Indians, the first thing about any gadget is pricing. Obviously, a premium headset won’t cost you cheap (remember 905 was costing more than 10,000 INR), but managing a solution like Nokia Monster Purity WH-920 can sure helps attracting those customers who otherwise won’t go for a premium headset. I seen best price of this headset around 4000-4200 INR, which should be considered decent.

What you say?

It was one of those events, when we were already informed about the product in well advanced and that too for certain. Thanks to Facebook Status of Nokia India saying 610 – 100 = …. The thing that was surprising about the event, was Diana Penty launching Nokia Lumia 610.

Let’s go into some backgrounds about the device.

After Feb’11, Nokia hasn’t had much market success with their Symbian Devices not because of capability or quality of devices itself but because of the negative buzz around its future.

There might be debates around the timing of Symbian announcement, but the recent success of Asha series and the way Nokia placed Windows Phone as a viable platform for Indian buyers in such a short time span, sure deserves some big credits.

I have reviewed Asha Series and low end Lumias on this same blog and shown that what they are capable of or why they can be distinguished from the crowd of mediocre Chinese handsets. How they are selling can be measured from the fact that I got more than 10 Lumias (610/710 only) on display on a small mobile phone shop in small city like Faizabad which had a maximum of 40-50 handsets in total at the shop including many of Chinese phones. Obviously it might be different for different cities but enough to hint.

Nokia knew that there is a low end market of India that still can be penetrated well, they had only Asha series to go guns with as Nokia Lumia 610 was still 12k+ and was already having the least specs as Microsoft can allow.

Nokia wasn’t in position to lower the processor, RAM as they are already least, same goes about screen size. They couldn’t pull back premium offerings like Life Time Navigation, Nokia Music Unlimited or Nokia Mix Radio or a decent camera or a top notch Touchscreen as these elements been part of core Lumia experience.

Nokia Lumia 510 was the answer. Compromised on LED Flash and Internal memory but gained in size and build quality.

The flat front of the device was a treat to look at when you think of the price point it gonna be selling at. Edge to Edge display glass front with negligible bezel around.

If we compare Nokia Lumia 510 with two grade bigger sibling Nokia Lumia 710, then this one doesn’t only gain on display size that is 4” now in place of 3.7” of Nokia Lumia 710 but sheds away the physical raised keys in favour of capacitive keys. Preferences might vary but a flat surface front looks definitely classy over the other.

No matter in what way you look at it, if going by looks alone then Nokia Lumia 510 looks far better than Nokia Lumia 710.

While the back is more or less same, the slimness of the new entrant only adds up the point.

The back of the device that is actually the detachable battery cover that decides what colored device you call it as with the change of color, the front of the device doesn’t change.

Like the above device is a white model. You get my point?

While Black and Red remain my favorites, there would be a total of five colors in which this good looking device gonna be available.

The top of the device doesn’t has the usual MicroUSB slot because that has been moved to the bottom. No front camera obviously and I am not sure about the sensors though I expect it to be the same as Nokia Lumia 610.

The right side of the device contains the lock-cum-power button, physical camera shutter and volume keys.

The display doesn’t look CBD to me neither does it have an Anti-reflective coating like those premium handsets but none of the handsets around even 15k get that kind of display, so that’s not even a valid complaint here.

The camera on the back might be assumed to an average performer but in my small time with it, I found it fairly decent (couldn’t take out pictures, damn you no bluetooth transfers with Windows Phone). Touch to focus and capable of making those Bokeh kind of pictures for fun, this is definitely a camera that won’t disappoint to the buyers at that price point.

MicroSIM and a 1300 mAh battery inside. Should do enough for a decent battery life as it got the same firmware as I had on Nokia Lumia 900 in my last review.

The biggest pain about the device is the Internal storage available to user with it that is just 2.88gb. Way lesser than today’s standard about storing songs and apps on it. Nokia counting on  cloud storage to make up for it while some say that the users buying a low end handset won’t pay the high Data charges to operators.

Thing is, they could have compromised either on camera and screen quality or on Internal storage and they chose the later as many other manufacturers did. Only difference, Windows Phone doesn’t support SD cards yet, so no other way out as well.

So, this was all about Nokia’s Diwali Gift handset that is launched in India first before any other country in the world and would be priced at around Rs. 11,000/- that is somewhere sub 200$. Availability in first week of November.

While it looks fantastic in pictures (Come ‘on!! praise me a little for the clean shots), you definitely want to see it into action. Here we go …

Did I tell you Nokia Lumia comes with an Airtel offer for 500mb 3G data free for a month, Nokia Music Unlimited Download subscription for 3 months, Nokia Drive Free Navigation for whole lifetime and Nokia Mix Radio available to you. Obviously software goodies like Camera Extra, Nokia Creative Studio etc too.

What do you feel about this handset? Will you tell?

While it was the most prettiest Nokia handset ever that would have came to my hands, the questions were still fierce:

1. Is Nokia Lumia 900 is just an enlarged Nokia Lumia 800?
2. Does the biggest screen from Nokia till date makes it hard to handle?
3. How the different build feels better than Nokia Lumia 800 or Nokia N8 likes?
4. The new display in Lumia 900 any different than Lumia 800? For good or for bad?
5. Is it worth to buy Nokia Lumia 900 when you can get a Lumia 800 for cheap?
6. Is it worth to buy a high end Nokia Lumia 900 when Nokia Lumia 820/920?

So, let’s read ahead to know that how I found out this beautiful Nokia Lumia 900?

Nokia Lumia 900 – The unboxing

When the review unit is as tempting as Nokia Lumia 900, its hard to contain self from opening it and the same was the reason that I needed to do a simulated unboxing for your pleasure.

The white beauty contains the following contents inside Indian Retail Package:

• Nokia Lumia 900 Handset
• Nokia Fast USB Charger (AC-16U) (My box had UK charger I guess)
• Nokia Charging and Data Cable CA-190CD
• Nokia Stereo Headset WH-902
• Quick Guide, User Guide and Product information leaflet
• SIM Door Key

The Indian Retail package also adds up Nokia J Bluetooth headset as festival gift.

One thing that is missing here is the cover for the device as it been part of package with Nokia Lumia 800 and Nokia N9.

One thing that I would like to convey about the retail package that Nokia should try to match the accessories with the device itself in color as well means white cables, white headsets and white charger and white leaflets with white handset and similarly for other colors. May be they already doing it but it was not the case with my review unit.

Nokia Lumia 900 – The Exteriors, the legacy

One tragedy with Nokia is, people often miss to give them their due credits. Let’s revisit some of the things which been heritage to Handset industry by Nokia. The things which would have been probably separate industries if Nokia didn’t took them as philosophy.

• Internet to mobiles which led the foundation stone of what we call smartphone.
• Making Camera Phones mainstream (Nokia actually is responsible of making Kodak go bankrupt).
• Bringing Maps to Smartphones at Zero cost & adding another dimension in Smart.
• Continuous enhancement & innovation around build quality of phones starting from first Internal Antenna to uni-body builds to wireless charging capable back.

While here I am not mentioning about the R&D in GSM Tech that led foundation stone of entire industry and still ongoing research about NFC Tech. Apple is always credited for making Touch phones as main stream, bringing simplicity & world of apps to mobiles, but is only that aspect defines a Smart phone? Think about it while I am ending this short rant here.

Coming over the build quality, then look at the handset in white and remember how rest of the world is fighting over Square/ Rectangles and launching flagship handsets with “elastic” back panel.

You will say that we have seen the same build with Nokia N9/ Lumia 800 already and its just enlarged version of it. But trust me, you have see both the devices from the front of believe that what difference the bigger size makes.

Little noticed fact but this is the biggest screen that Nokia has ever bring to their Mobile Phones market till date (820 & 920 are not in market yet). Even though there are even more bigger screen phones around (some of which even elephants can operate), I was curious that how it would feel like in hands with that bigger screen and not that negligible weight (160g). Trust me, it feels divine. Neither too light like my Galaxy S nor way heavy like Nokia Pureview 808. Smaller bezels around and 5:3 aspect ratio along with very well  balanced weight fits perfectly into hands. Initially I didn’t expected this to go well with one handed operations but compactness of this device surprised me.

So, one of the question get answered that its not hard in handling and can be used easily with one hand. If the weight was a little more then it would have been an issue to slippery ends.

Now, the other question, is it just an enlarged Lumia 800?

In a way, yes, it is an enlarged Lumia 800. I am not saying this on the basis of design cues otherwise all of iPhones would be termed as the same. But saying this on the basis of no differentiator between the two expect the size. We have a better screen tech here and a front camera, but that’s a mere enhancement and not some separate identity. It would have been so if Microsoft\Nokia at least would have integrated Skype within or would have promised a WP8 update for the same device or something that sort of.

Despite of similar looks, there are difference on the top side of the devices and I would say Lumia 900 stands on rather negative side due to absurd mechanism of opening the SIM slot and open MicroUSB slot despite of having a valid alternative presented by the precedent.

Apart from the difference in top and visible screen bump, rest of the device looks exactly same in shapes and placement though the large screen definitely changes entire experience which can be believed only when a Lumia 800 takes the device in hand for a while. I already seen lots of envy users in my office as we recently distributed around 20 Nokia Lumia 800 handsets to some employees. Nokia Lumia 800 actually pales down badly when stands next to Nokia Lumia 900.

So, yes! its an enlarged but the extra size and better screen tech makes the experience go way better, either it be typing or viewing pictures/movies or reading web.

Now the next question, How the different build feels better than Nokia Lumia 800 or Nokia N8 likes?

Its convincing that Nokia couldn’t have used the metal for uni-body construction & probably we won’t see full uni-body metallic builds for more than 4” handset due to the weight, it would have added. So, only solution for current generation handsets is to go with hardened plastic or to use some other durable materials which don’t interfere with signals.

While rest of the colors come with same matte finish as was of Nokia Lumia 800, the glossy ceramic finish is with the white model only and that too for a reason. The matte finish with White color would have been hard to keep clean.

Now coming over the new display, despite of having lower ppi than Nokia Lumia 800 due to a bigger size and still the same resolution, the display looks better over its smaller sibling due to the change in screen tech. In place of PenTile, now it uses full RGB and hence the real pixels. Also the colors are 24bit now in comparison to 16 bit of Nokia Lumia 800 means more vivid colors.

The people who have sharp eyes can see that what difference that does make in the above picture.

Also the other difference is, the glasses are not curved anymore like Nokia N9 or Lumia 800 as you can see from the above picture, means not that seamless when it slips through your hands which been prime attraction about Nokia N9 and Lumia 800. But on the other hand, Windows Phone OS wasn’t making any profit from that either, in the way MeeGo was pulling. Still, some of people who might have hands on the Nokia Lumia 800, will feel a little sad as it was one of the attraction.

The other difference from Nokia Lumia 800 is the front camera. We have a 1MP camera in the front of the device that is capable of capturing 720p video at 30fps. Gone those Nokia days of insisting on a VGA camera only.

We still have the buttons at one side of the device.

The top is no more push and pop out kind of but you need a pin to pull it out in a weird way. Obviously, I hate this because one definitely can’t be carrying that pin with him all the time and what if he needs to change the SIM in emergency somewhere?

The bottom of the device remains the same as Nokia Lumia 800.

Coming over the back, we have a DUEL LED Flash and an 8MP Carl Zeiss camera at the back in the similar ways as it been on Nokia Lumia 800. The camera is exactly the same specs by specs.

Nokia Lumia 900 – The Interior, the bumped up specs

Nokia Lumia 900 is quite an upgrade from Nokia Lumia 800 if we compare the specs:

• Dimensions: 127.8 x 68.5 x 11.5 mm, 90 cc,160 g (slimmer than Nokia Lumia 800, 12.1mm)
• Windows Phone 7.5 Refresh a.k.a. Tango (OS version 7.10.8779.8)
• 4.3” AMOLED, ClearBlack Corning Gorilla Glass Screen with a WVGA resolution of 800×480 pixels, 24 bit RGB Display (Lumia 800 had 16 bit colors and also PenTile display)
• 1.4 GHz Single Core CPU, APQ8055 Snapdragon S2 chipset, Adreno 205 GPU
• 512 MB RAM, 16 GB Mass Memory (Plus 25GB SkyDrive), no Micro SD Card support though
• HSDPA+ Dual Carrier Cat24 42 Mbps, HSUPA Cat6 5.76 Mbps, WLAN IEEE 802.11 b/g/n
• It got Penta band connectivity while Nokia Lumia 800 had Quad Band connectivity. LTE in AT & T variant
• 3D Accelerometer, Ambient Light Sensor, Proximity Sensor, Gyroscope and Compass
• 8.0 Megapixels Carl Zeiss AF camera with an aperture  f/2.2
• 720p video recording resolution with 30fps
• 1.0 MP front camera with capability of 30fps 720p recording
• FM Radio (with a very simplistic UI)
• 2 Microphone inside, one serving purpose of active noise cancellation
• Micro SIM Support only
• Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR (without capability of Dial up connection or Data Transfer)
• BP-6EW 3.7V 1830mAh removable battery

Not only processor and display are upgraded but also the addition of front camera and Gyroscope fills the gaps that were remained with Nokia Lumia 800. We also got the first of 720p front camera from Nokia finally. Higher speed connectivity and for AT & T, its been first Nokia LTE device.

We have a bigger battery though the bigger display compensate for the same and screen on time is not exactly more than Nokia Lumia 800, not less than that either. Though the standby battery is definitely superb, better than any of other Lumia device.

So, the flagship device now ticks all the boxes except NFC that is obviously untouchable due to lack of OS support as of now. Finally we can do the Skype video calls in the way, it should be. Let’s see if Integration of Skype reaches to first generation Lumia devices like Nokia Lumia 900.

Nokia Lumia 900 – Software Impressions

As I covered Windows Phone OS extensively in my giant Nokia Lumia 800 post, so not much is left to talk about that side. Only difference, now we have a bigger space to play with, little bit larger keyboard means easy to slide the fingers, more room for viewing movies and pictures and that too with much better vividness.

Its easy to spot the difference in picture quality if you keep both the handsets side by side.

More room for keys keeping the same one handed use ability.

Can be felt more easily when you use it in landscape mode.

With Gyroscope, now the phone can be utilized in some more ways and games can be more interactive. Like the above app checks the inclination of the car while driving.

The biggest beneficiary of Nokia Lumia 900 is Skype, which now can do video calls utilizing the front camera, which is more natural with 720p recording.

Also there are some fun new apps, but which look good over bigger screen only, like the above SilveOS. Not much productive but very much fun.

The Offline Nokia is great fun with the bigger screen.

You get the information about the next coming turn, information about the expected time to reach and the current speed. Only thing that is missing with Nokia Drive is estimation of traffic in correct sense which would make this thing much more awesome.

Some of the features like My Commute which automatically learns your daily driving habits and suggest accordingly is not available in India right now. Also somehow my review unit couldn’t enable Nokia Music Unlimited though that should be available with retail units.

The disappointment from the OS to me still been some of following mainly:

• No central notification system.
• Flicking through apps is not that simple if you use too many apps.
• No smart Dial in Dialer. You need to go to contact or type complete number.
• It didn’t sync to my car’s Bluetooth, otherwise it would have been a flawless companion.
• Awesome Mail experience but only pictures can be attached to mails not docs, which is a cruel joke.

Update:

As confirmed by Juan Donis,

• We can have Tiles for notifications and prioritize the notifications.
• The jump search may help a little though yes it’s a new paradigm to flick through apps.
• We have a number of apps to replace the Dialer. Just install the app and pin it to the Tile.
• Car BT Sync issue might be with individual models as Juan reports that it works with FIAT.
• Docs can be attached via Office App though no doc attachment (only pictures) from the Mail App itself.

Nokia Lumia 900 – Front and Main Camera skills

While the Main Camera has the same skills as Nokia Lumia 800, the front camera left me very impressed about it.

Do you feel that the above picture is taken by the front camera of Nokia Lumia 900?

Check out the video sample as well which is again taken from the front camera only. Impressed?

Now coming over Main Camera, rather than describing anything from my side, I leave it to readers to check out the pictures and judge themselves.

The above is a shot taken from front camera of Nokia Lumia 900 with use of Dual LED Flash.

The above shot is taken in proper light. Not sure but I always found Windows Phone shots a little bit over-processed about colors if I compare them with Nokia N8 or Nokia N9.

The above is a low light shot from the Main Camera of Nokia Lumia 900.

A macro shot from Nokia Lumia 900 focusing over the object and blurring the rest.

One more Macro Shot from Nokia Lumia 900.

A rough video sample from Main Camera of Nokia Lumia 900.

Nokia Lumia 900 stands a best companion for travelling

While there might be differences about other aspect but one thing that no one can deny is, Nokia Lumia 900 stands as one of the best travel companion. Here is why?

1. Head turner: It is a head turner for sure. People are bound to notice you with this beautiful device which stands out due to its unique design than other phones. Its something that might help people to start communicating with you in trips and what’s better to find like minded friends at new places while travelling?
2. Awesome navigation experience: First day of the device and I didn’t had the MicroSIM with me. I connected the phone with Laptop, updated it with latest maps of my region and in the evening, I was able to search the nearby Landmark to my home even though phone was in offline mode. Opened Nokia Drive and the phone was perfectly guiding me through all the way back to home without a single glitch.

   No accented voice for navigation, I was using Hindi as language and literally no need for any Data link (no SIM in phone, no Wifi). The same thing saved me once I was to drive around 45km in night on an unknown route and neither its feasible nor safe to ask strangers about the route in that much night. Only thing that it lacks as of now, is Real time Traffic info merged seamlessly into the Nokia Drive app otherwise, it would have been flawless and must have for this thing alone.

3. Nokia City Lens: Nokia City Lens represents the Nokia Tagline in true sense that its not the technology, but its what one does with it. Nokia had the excellent maps, Nokia had the information related to various venues and had interesting UI with Windows Phone, all it was needed to utilize the same for the community. This was how Nokia City Lens born.

   Just open the app, point over any direction and you know that where your point of interests lie. Nearby restaurants, nearby movie theaters or historical monuments. You can check which malls are nearby and for what they are famous for. You can check nearby Restaurant and know in advance that what you should ask them from their menu. A stranger city suddenly becomes too familiar and you start behaving like locals. Don’t tell me that a service like this wasn’t in your wild dreams.

4. Carl Zeiss Camera: Nothing accompany you better in travelling places than a proper camera always in your pocket. Nice pictures and fastest phone to share them to your network with Tags and all. A physical camera key to fire up the Camera Interface from anywhere (lock screen or from some app) means you are always ready to capture a moment without missing anything. What else you need from your travel companion?
5. People Hub keeps you updated without much efforts: People hub keeps you updated with whatever happening around without even flicking through various social networks as it brings all those notifications and updates at one place to make the information compact. What’s important to you, which Social Network your friend is on or what he is doing? Nokia Lumia 900 with its large clear black screen concentrate over the later only.
6. Nokia Music Unlimited: Features like Nokia Music means lakhs of songs are always available at your disposal and you just have to search them and download for free if don’t want to stream. Music always been the best companion to travel (only if Car Bluetooth Sync was available then it was more fun).
7. Internet Sharing: Many a time we travel with multiple gadgets and even though your phone does it all for you in simplest ways, one definitely might feel the need of Laptop for some of tasks etc. Internet Sharing by your phone might be a bliss in such situations.

Conclusions:

Its no hidden fact that change to Windows Phone from Symbian been a big transition for Nokia and Lumia 710/800/610 been early place holder products of the same despite of all their attractiveness. Nokia Lumia 900 can be called somewhat the first proper flagship for Nokia Windows Phones, but somehow, this beauty didn’t got its due because of being caught in a time when winds are blowing against it and a big wave of change is about to come from Microsoft-Nokia that is Windows 8.

Nokia Lumia 900 will be remembered for its position in holding the transition, a warrior who fought the wind when nothing seemed to be going in favor of its king, but yes! its days are numbered because once Windows Phone 8 devices will hit the market with a big bang, Lumia 900 will be left for living in mid range only. This phone has lived with its glory but soon will require to leave the place for a storm.

If one wants to buy this, then it is a worthy product for the things that it does, the way it looks, but yes! the equation will be changed in few weeks.

The highest specs Asha Phone had a lot of tricks of its own and surprise is that NOT all of them are related to Hardware alone. The redesigned S40 is something very different from what you would have expected from S40 ever.

I reviewed two of Nokia Asha phones in past and while I knew about the new hardware inside them, there were some of the pain points like resolution etc with them, which always been a pinch to me. When I heard about Nokia Asha 311 which was the first full touch Asha phone in front of me, then it was hard not to get excited about it because I seen some genuinely good things in UI approach of such a low priced handset. So, let’s proceed with the traditional detailed Layman’s Take on Nokia Asha 311.

Nokia 311 – The unboxing of the cutest Asha phone before 308/309

You might have encountered many of friends who come to you for suggesting them a phone and tell you that their budget is strictly under some 7k or 10k. They would ask you to tell a phone with loads of gaming like some Galaxy S3 or Nokia N8 would have but don’t even want to raise the budget up to some 13-14k because as they say, they are not that tech savvy.

So what you suggest to them? This is exactly where Nokia is hitting nowadays and for the same reasons, Asha phones actually been a huge success in market even if you don’t read a lot of sweeping reviews about them.

As I mentioned in last Nokia Asha reviews as well, its been interesting to notice that Nokia knows that what are the strength about these phones and been stressing on it even on the packages itself.

The package itself shows off the gaming potentials, promises loads of EA Games (40 of them comes free with it, not preloaded though). Also the package doesn’t misses to make a mention of two strong assets that WiFi capability and Nokia Music.

Also it doesn’t misses to make a mention of its new UI and support for regional fonts as well.

The box also shows off the other capabilities in short and tells us about its nature friendliness too.

So, its been a lot about the box now, let’s open it.

The trend continues and we miss the MicroUSB cable in this sub 6000 Rs phone again like we missed it in other Asha phones. Here goes the content of the box:

• One Nokia Asha 311 Handset
• One Nokia WH-102 Stereo Headset
• One Nokia AC-11N Smart and lightweight charger (though Nokia India site mentions AC-3 Charger)
• Some usual help manuals etc

While the quality headset and top notch charger will get an applaud from me, the absence of a just 200-300 Rs USB cable pinches. But on the other hand, I can understand that what is the target audience for the phone.

Nokia Asha 311 – The Exteriors

As I said this is the most cute handset of the Asha Series (till 308/309). Small, slim and smooth in hands like Nokia C5 etc would have been.

The 3” screen of Nokia Asha 311 have a resolution of 240×400 (WQVGA) which though posses a lower ppi (155) than regular smartphones, but the colors and screen actually look a lot better than those earlier Asha models. Still the pixelation is not that hard to notice. The presence of Corning® Gorilla® Glass means you can expect this device to be a lot sturdy than any other low price device.

You can see that how better it might be even in close looks when it comes to display. Same icons like Symbian^3 has nowadays and minimalistic UI without menus. Even though colors are 16bit only but somehow they manage to look more richer on this phone. Way to go S40.

No sharp corners at any side and then just 3” of screen go very handy with each other.

Two raised buttons in the bottom. It would have been more smoother if they would have gone for capacitive buttons, but in a way, I am glad that they chosen the physical buttons instead. Tiny physical buttons on metal strip go so well with the overall look of the phone. The microphone lies under the green call key at the left side.

Proximity and Ambient sensor in a 6k INR phone is something that one couldn’t have believed till some time before. Presence of them denotes that this tiny phone can handle change in surrounding just like those smartphones.

The glossy back contains a moderate 3.15 MP Fixed focus and VGA recording camera without any flash.

Even if some might not like the glossyness of the back, there should be no denial of the fact that the build look so fab for such a low end phone. The speakers at the bottom are well louder like rest of Asha series phones, actually much better than any of them.

The side of the device contains the lock keys and volume buttons in the same color as rest of the body with right amount of tactile feedback.

The bottom has a camera key as well not two step press, but one step only as the camera is just fixed focus.

The other side of the phone seems to have the lanyard eyelet on the side while rest of the side is plain.

The top of the device contains 2mm power point, 3.5mm Audio jack and one open MicroUSB slot without any covers. Durable I would say.

I actually tried to figure out that what’s this shiny piece is at the back panel, but couldn’t figure out. It is not metallic like some of the Asha devices but all I can say that the back panel is a lot more stronger than the recent flagship phone from Samsung (actually I think this phone will mind it if we even compare it with that kind of back cover).

Nokia Asha 311 – The Interiors

This is a section which usually stands as boring part when it comes to feature phones, because one doesn’t expect much from sub 10k phones when it comes to flaunting specs sheet. But Nokia Asha 311 beg to differ on it.

• 1GHz processor, 128 MB RAM and 256 MB ROM. No GPU
• WiFi 802.11b/g/n: 2.4 GHz, MCS7, 20MHz bandwidth (WEP,WPA,WPA-E,WPA-P, WPA2 (AES/TKIP))
• Quad Band GSM and Pentaband 3G connectivity, HSDPA Cat10 14.4 Mbps, HSUPA Cat6 5.76 Mbps
• Lightweight shiny compact build (106 x 52 x 12.9 mm) with a volume of just 64cc and weight 95g

• Capacitive Multi-Point Touch Corning® Gorilla® Glass 3” Display with 240×400, 155 ppi, 16 bit colors
• MIcroSD Support up to 32Gb, 2Gb Card shipped with the package
• Cell ID, Wi-Fi positioning though no GPS or compass
• Bluetooth Stereo, Stereo FM RDS Radio, Internet Radio
• Accelerometer sensor, Ambient Light Sensor and Proximity Sensor
• 3.15 MP camera with F/2.8 & focus range from 30cm to infinity, 25fps VGA recording
• Rich Bluetooth than even Windows Phone devices (DUN, FTP, GAP, GOEP, HFP, HSP, OPP, PAN, PBAP 1.0, SAP, SDAP, SDP, SPP 1.0). Dial up Networking support. Can be used as Bluetooth Modem
• 2mm charger connector, USB Charging, BL-4U 3.7V 1110 mAh with 40 hrs Music Playback
• FOTA updates and well populated App Store

So, you can see that if Nokia Asha misses something from some smartphones, then it would be lack of GPU, 24bit colors and GPS otherwise it beats many of higher priced models too. For some strange reasons, I am unable to see USB OTG in feature list though I don’t think many would notice the same.

Nokia Asha 311 – Swipistic S40 which can make even Symbian phones go jealous

I seen many debates on twitter claiming whether Nokia Asha phones stand as “Smart” or not and while I might have agree on some opposite points, I would like to state that running multiple tasks at the same time should be termed as Multi-Tasking but capability to do multiple things seamlessly should be called as “Smart”. There is a big difference between the two things, which should not be confused with each other. My point would be more clear when I would explain the UI further.

The new innovative Full Touch UI inspired by N9’s MeeGo is basically divided into five parts.

1. MeeGo inspired lock screen with Clock in big fonts and then date under it in small fonts
2. Shortcut screen on left, which contains Alarm/Calendar shortcuts by default & more shortcuts and contacts can be added.
3. App launcher screen in center, which contains all the apps (icons show notifications as well).
4. Major Action screen on right, which can be made either Dialer or Music or FM Radio
5. Drop down menu in Nokia Belle Style, which contains four toggles and three permanent action menus apart from notifications

The home screen is a resemblance of what we seen with Meego just like the icons and even functional in the similar way.

After the home screen, you meet with the App Launcher screen, which looks like MeeGo app launcher and in some ways behave like iOS by displaying alerts over the app icons themselves.

Not only that but there are some nice touches as well like in first set of screenshots, you would have noticed the green chat icon (Gtalk, Facebook, Yahoo etc) and the above shows off that how the drop down keep on hanging with the number after a missed call.

* Thanks GSMArena for screenshots

The four toggles on the drop down bar denote Mobile Data, Bluetooth, WiFi and Volume. Then three common actions like Call Logs, Music and Messaging are always accessible anywhere in UI just a drag away via the same drop down menu. You still feel this new Series 40 OS is not smart, just because of no conventional multi-tasking? Think again.

Also though there is no folder support, you can rearrange app as your choice. No drag and drop though but hold an app first and then when shows select, then just tap over the location, where you want to put it. Rest will be rearranged automatically.

The next interesting section is the shortcut screen that looks like standby screen in first sight and provides you a click link to Alarm & calendar apps. But when you tap and hold your fingers on it, then provides you options to add lots of shortcuts and contacts on the same screen for quick access.

Quite interesting and rivals even Symbian\ Android Home screen experience apart of  widgets.

The last screen on right that I called Action screen, can be configured to be any of three options. Either it can be the Dialer or be the Music Play or FM Radio. Some might prefer it to be Dialer only, though I would prefer it to be FM Radio because Dialer can be accessed by the physical key any time and Music player is just a pull down away.

You can access your notifications any time while doing any other task, you can move over any of your favorite action quickly, you can install variety of apps, you have an experience that is very seamless across various options and you have a literally full touch OS for just around 6,000 Rs. If this doesn’t stand for smart, then I doubt the very definition of smartphones.

Nokia Asha 311 – Richness of app world

There are a lot of apps for earlier not that app friendly S40 OS. Let’s introduce me some of the bundled apps.

Nokia Browser: Nokia Asha 311 has quite convincing browser for most of the needs. It doesn’t support Flash but for the rest of things, it just works perfectly fine. UI is quite interesting and feature rich.

The browser even have a download manager, single column view and rest of the usual things like favorites and bookmarks.

Lots of settings and even a dedicated data counter, just for the browser. I am sure even Symbian^3 browser doesn’t have such richness in start if we talk of UI.

We even have option of sharing the pages to Social Networks as well.

Camera: Obviously one shouldn’t expect much from a fixed focus camera (30cm to infinity) without flash 3.15 MP camera, but the UI is interesting and settings are simplistic.

Tapping into settings gives some more options as well.

I obviously won’t talk much about photo quality of Nokia Asha 311 as one doesn’t expect much from a 3.15MP fixed Focus Camera neither does it have trickery like ground breaking iPhone 5’s Panorama but it does a decent VGA video at a frame rate of 25 fps than the regular 15 fps video that phones of similar price range used to do.

Contacts: Contacts app actually looks better than its MeeGo or Symbian siblings due to full screen images..

Only issue is, I couldn’t find a way to Sync in with the Cloud even though there seems to be a setting for Synchronization. May be like the calendar, this also doesn’t support some server side synchronization.

Emails: Honestly speaking, due to some bug in my SIM or WiFi, I couldn’t manage to configure the Emails myself but considering the fact that they ran well for others and ran for me on other Asha handsets, I would treat it as a separate issue with my unit only.

Though we still don’t have Exchange Emails for S40, but Nokia has promised an update soon.

Video codec support: One thing that will surprise people about this low end phone is the extensive codec support. This tiny phone can handle almost all popular video codecs including XVid, Divx and even mkv if lower than 720p. This is something even high end smartphones might struggle on.

Counter App: It got a counter apps as well that covers a lot of things at same place.

Weather App: A nice weather app along with ads

Whatsapp works: Yes! Whatsapp for S40 works as some of the friends on twitter asked me about. Only one need to care that they should not close it but hide it only. I don’t really know that how they manage to run it in background if S40 doesn’t support multi-tasking.

Nokia Internet Radio: I am not sure if people use such services that much in India and if this is more profitable than Nokia Music service that downloads the song to phone for permanent.

Nokia Music: I actually have started liking Nokia Music and want to see this service on each phone I own.

Latest songs for free, to keep and to share legally.

Timer App: Not a big one but was interesting to see the implementation of Timer app in this way. Innovative.

Nokia Chat App: The chat app supports Google Talk, Facebook Chat etc and runs in background while doing anything else (green icon on the top).

Music Player: The music player got the nice UI, Presets etc

The UI is a little different than the one in Nokia Music and Music Player has the ability to play over Bluetooth.

Games: Like I mentioned earlier, Nokia Asha 311 allows you to download 40 EA Games on it and they actually work very well. Let’s check out a video demo where I chosen the racing game as I found Angry Birds for S40 a little hit and miss on scale of perfect touch.

So this was about Nokia Asha 311, which might be a cheap phone in price, but worth every penny spend. It would be long after Nokia C5, when I would actually recommend some low end phone. Do you agree with me that this thing actually something?

The reason was both set of the devices were available only a premium price point means capable hardware. Not only with Apple iPhone (talking of current ones), but with Windows Phone as well, either it be Lumia 800 or Lumia 710 or Omnia W, we always had 1GHz Processor, 512MB RAM at minimum because these were part of minimum specs from Microsoft.

So, it was really getting interesting when unlike Apple, Microsoft/Nokia decided to push for the even lower price point, the sub 200$ bracket, which was totally occupied by junk Android Touchscreen devices with smaller screens and pathetic experience as time passes by with them.

Nokia Lumia 610: the first budget Windows Phone courtesy Nokia and Microsoft which exploits the lowered required minimum specs from Microsoft (I can only remember ZTE Orbit as the other 256Mb RAM WP device). Let’s proceed to see if it compromises the otherwise fabulous experience with Windows Phone like Android does with it low end devices.

Nokia Lumia 610 – The Unboxing

Being a budget phone, I wasn’t expecting a load of accessories and for the fact, we didn’t got much of accessories with even premium Windows Phones either (except Leaflet cover for Lumia 800), but it was good to see the headphones and charger at the same level as one might have expected from a premium phone, not to say the phone build quality as well.

The minimal Nokia Lumia 610 Sales Package contains the following

• Nokia Lumia 610 Handset
• Nokia AC-50N MicroUSB Charger
• Nokia Battery BP-3L 3.7V 1300 mAh
• Nokia Charging and Data Cable CA-190CD
• Nokia Headset WH-208
• Quick Guide, User Guide and Product information leaflet

A better charger than the one provided with Nokia Lumia 710 and the same headset as was with Nokia Lumia 800 or with Nokia Lumia 710.

Same cable as we seen with other Windows Phone Devices, I wonder if there is anything specific about these cables.

Not sure with which other low price handset, I might have seen a stereo headset along with ear buds. There are reasons that I given the post a title as “A premium budget phone”.

Nokia Lumia 610 – The Exteriors, The Design

When I first heard about the news that Nokia Microsoft bringing a budget Lumia at around $200, then I was quite skeptical about the looks and build quality of the new handset, because its been Nokia, who maintained a specific premium build across the Lumia brand and I feared if the premium tag “Lumia” going away like Samsung did their “Galaxy” tag.

That feeling was gone in an instant, when I seen the press pictures of Lumia 610 with a nice build quality and metallic bezel around it and then it was just about the moment when it gets launched in India for me to get hands on it. Trust me, the feel of the device in hands was even better than Nokia Lumia 710 that I reviewed sometimes back and is priced a little more than this one.

The metallic bezel covering the device by sides and surrounding the screen not only makes the device look premium but also give assurance about its durability. Then the capacitive keys and hardened plastic makes the assurance complete.

The first comment that I got from a Nokia Lumia 710 owner from office that he actually liked the capacitive keys on Nokia Lumia 610 very much instead of those raised keys on Nokia Lumia 710. He said that its strange that Nokia decided to give that premium looks to a lower priced device rather than their mid range Lumia 710, but that’s it, the capacitive keys really gives an upmarket feel to it.

The top of the device doesn’t have any front camera, but one shouldn’t have expected that from the sub $200 Windows Phone device either.

The another thing that catches your eye about the front of the device is the tough Gorilla Glass screen of the phone. Sad part might be 16 bit 800×480 resolution without any CBD AMOLED screen that works so well as a mirror in daylight but that’s still much better than any phone available in that price segment. Still the 3.7” looks gorgeous for a sub $200 device.

The volume rocker, lock key and physical camera key, all three resides on right side of the device and in the same color as bezel.

The top of the device contains MicroUSB port (used for charging as well), an additional Microphone for Active Noise Cancellation (yes! ANC in the low price range phone), 3.5mm Audio Jack and hanging hook.

With a price as low as Nokia Lumia 610, I am sure you wouldn’t have expected a Carl Zeiss or Pureview with it, but for the good, we got a 5MP Auto Focus camera with single LED flash. Video is only VGA, but still you get video light assistance with it due to LED flash.

The back of the device is curvy and fits in hand perfectly. The plastic is shiny and fingerprint magnet but still toughen up plastic still feels good in hands.

Then comes to sore point, the MicroSIM. If I am right, then Nokia Lumia 610 is the only phone at its price point offering a MicroSIM only arrangement. I mean, I am all for MicroSIM for new and premium devices, though I doubt if people, who might be coming for an upgrade from their dual SIM phones or some other cheap phones, would adapt them that easily. On the positive side, once I see that all the operators/ manufacturers adapting MicroSIM, it will change and having a MicroSIM allows manufacturers to have that extra space used somewhere else.

If you are not satisfied with pictures then you can see some close angles over the smart handset via the above video as well that I taken when the phone was launched.

Nokia Lumia 610 – The Interiors, the power within

Not sure if many care for the deep down specs when it comes to low price handsets, but Nokia Lumia 610 sure likes to speak about its specs:

• Dimensions: 119 x 62.2 x 11.95 mm, 77.6 cc,120 g (even lighter than Nokia Lumia 710)
• Windows Phone 7.5 Refresh a.k.a. Tango (OS version 7.10.8779.8)
• 3.7” TFT Corning Gorilla Glass Screen with a WVGA resolution of 800×480 pixels, 16 bit RGB Display (Lumia 800 had 16 bit colors while Lumia 710 had 24 bit)
• 800 MHz Single Core Cortex A5, 7227A Snapdragon S1 chipset, Adreno 200 GPU (Graphics performance is definitely lower than Lumia 710)
• 256 MB LPDDR2, 256 MB ROM, 8 GB Mass Memory (Plus 25GB SkyDrive for RM-849), no Micro SD Card support though
• HSDPA Cat10 7.2 Mbps, HSUPA Cat6 5.76 Mbps, WLAN IEEE 802.11 b/g/n
• It got Penta band connectivity like Nokia Lumia 710 while Nokia Lumia 800 had Quad Band connectivity
• 3D Accelerometer, Ambient Light Sensor, Proximity Sensor and no Compass
• 5.0 Megapixels AF camera with an aperture  f/2.2 (No Carl Zeiss like Lumia 800 but better low light performance than Nokia Lumia 710)
• VGA video recording resolution with 30fps
• FM Radio (with a very simplistic UI)
• 2 Microfone inside, one serving purpose of active noise cancellation
• Micro SIM Support only
• Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR (without capability of Dial up connection or Data Transfer)
• BP-3L 3.7V 1300 mAh removable battery

So it has a lower processor, lower chip, considerably lower GPU, half of RAM/ROM, no Magnetometer Sensor and lower HSDPA speed, if we compare with Nokia Lumia 710. But we are paying 4-5k lesser as well.

Lower RAM/ROM makes it untouchable for memory hungry Angry Birds and skype like some of the apps (5-10% of the marketplace). Sometimes even though app is supported, some of the advanced settings might not be supported. But same time you should note that its only Windows Phone ecosystem, which openly admits the weakness, otherwise they don’t even tell you about it if it’s a low price Android.

Nokia Lumia 610 – The software impressions

There might be a lot back and forth accusations between Android and iOS about innovation and UI, but as I see it from here, then apart from MeeGo and WebOS, probably Windows Phone was only third OS that made people say WOW in its first appearance. A UI that was truly innovative, different from others from the very first moment it made its appearance in front of world.

There been a lot of buzz about the this low priced Windows Phone that how it can’t run the apps like Skype and Angry bird, but that’s only due to high marks set by Windows Phone. Till now there been actually no differentiation between two of Windows Phone apart from the exclusive apps from Manufacturers. If there is any disappointment with Lumia 610 then that’s only due to the fact that people expect Windows Phone to run the same way on each hardware as its been until now.

Trust me, Lumia 610 hasn’t changed the way, we have seen Windows Phone till now. No lags in scrolling and things are still same level fluid in flicking or any other operations. Despite of lower price, the UI or the way it functions, hasn’t changed.

The above video can help you in understanding Nokia Lumia 610 better, if its slow anywhere or takes more time than Lumia 800 in some of the operations. Yes! its not hard to notice the difference, but same time, do you really feel that it’s a 12, 000/- INR phone in my hands in the above video.

If you are a corporate user, then you still get the same Email Experience that is better than any of the other platforms out there. Easy to navigate mails, easy to separate Unread Emails, easy to pin one particular folder on home screen as a tile for easy access and that folder related notification, easy to read and edit word documents, easy meeting requests, beautiful calendar. Though the limitations like “Only Photos can be attached with Email not docs” still exists like other Windows Phones.

For the users addicted to Social Networks, Windows Phone always been good due to its simple yet effective People Hub, which you might have heard many praising about, but if you thought that its less on gaming just because you don’t have Angry Bird on it, then you are wrong.

Its only about some of the less optimized games that wouldn’t be able to run on Nokia Lumia 610 but many of the Gameloft titles still run same way on Nokia Lumia 610 as well and still look same beautiful.

Not only that but you have XBoxLive on your phone in the same way as you had them on other Windows Phone devices whom you can customize as per your likes and find yourself into Social Gaming as well to compare scores with other friends.

The other perks of buying a Nokia Lumia 610 are Unlimited DRM free Music Downloads for an year via Nokia Music service that will need only a Nokia Account to get activated on your phone.

Even streaming of songs is so good that you wont be even needing to download them to phone if you don’t need them later on. I never felt if any song got stuck in buffering in middle while being played on.

Perks of owning a Nokia Lumia 610 doesn’t stop here. You get exclusive Dark Knight Rising Apps to download (if you care for those) and more importantly, free 3G Data for four months (2GB each month) courtesy Airtel and Idea.

Nokia Lumia 610 – The camera performance

I shouldn’t be reviewing camera performance of a low priced device but the camera with Nokia Lumia 610 is worth the mention. Not only the camera is 5MP and Auto Focus, but it actually does fare very well.

Not only the awesome apps like Creative Studio, Camera Extras and Photosynth available with Nokia Lumia 610, but the camera itself doesn’t disappoint either. I mean I have had other phones at this price point and seen the photos taken from them, but do you think that photos like above are just casual shots from a sub $200 phone?

In addition, check the LED Flash performance.

And a Panorama shot courtesy Nokia Creative Studio (somehow I didn’t find Camera Extras at par with Nokia Creative Studio, when it comes to Panorama shots).

Not only the stills, but even video recording, despite of being just VGA can be termed as quite cool enough as it takes full advantage of 5MP available with the camera. Not very great but the color reproduction is good enough and the Auto Focus bit completes the experience.

Did you check the macro performance while taking the video?

So this was all about Nokia Lumia 610 and I hope I am able to convey that why I called this phone as a “Premium” Budget Phone. Despite of price, one hardly finds some major compromise when it comes to every day use of Nokia Lumia 610. Many a times, it may make Nokia Lumia 710 owners by its look and build quality.

When it comes to the price, then I hardly see any of other manufacturer offering these many features at such a price. Though Aircel offered iPhone 3GS at a similar price, but it was operator bound and limited stock (Not available now) otherwise it would have been a serious contender. I already see a few around me have made up their mind for buying this handset, specially because of price despite of premium feel.

What you feel about this handset, do tell me your views via comments or tweets @nkumar_

After Nokia N8, there wasn’t any Symbian handset that would have been waited for this much in market and blogosphere as Nokia Pureview 808. After two short encounters with the same in one workshop first and then in Launch event, the legendary device finally decided to pay a short visit of 7 days to Layman’s Take itself. So, without wasting any time, let’s move further to know about the device.

Just when it was becoming a fashion to bash Symbian on every next handset and no one was thinking that some big biased blogs would get lined up in front of Nokia ever again to get a preview for a Symbian handset, then there came a day, when Nokia 808 PureView announced itself with a bang at this year’s Mobile World Congress at Barcelona.

Trust me, it was a sight to watch the reactions of crowd and reading reactions on twitter. People like me who were online that time and were following the announcements, could still remember those goose bumps when they heard the words “41 Megapixels”. Instant reactions were like “WHAT THE FUCK”, “HOLY SHITTT”…

In an instant, all those announcements of first set of Quad Core Android handsets were looking so irrelevant and each & everyone was looking to know more and more about Nokia Pureview 808 only and why not? This was the best ever Mobile Camera that ever happened to planet earth and even when the best second was its own sibling Nokia N8, it doesn’t seem to allow anyone to come even close to the legacy that it will own for next coming years.

When I took it for review, till then a lot been said and shown about its camera, so I was to look over other aspects as well and was to review a Smartphone rather than a camera phone. Let’s see how it went …

Nokia Pureview 808 – The Unboxing

Honestly speaking, its hard to wait and shoot an unboxing video when the thing in front of you is as exciting as Nokia Pureview 808 was to me at that moment. So, no unboxing video but I can present you pictures of the content inside the retail box.

Keeping the box design same as Nokia N9\Nokia Lumia etc, the in-box contents of the Nokia 808 are the usual and include the following :

• Nokia 808 PureView
• Nokia AC-50 MicroUSB Charger
• Nokia Charging and Data Cable CA-190CD
• Nokia stereo Headset WH-209
• NFC info card
• Nokia Wrist Strap Black
• Quick Guide, User Guide and Product information leaflet

Sad part was, after Nokia N8-00 and Nokia E7-00, Nokia seems to have forgotten those USB OTG cables or HDMI out cable from their retail boxes. Don’t exactly blame them but being a premium device, I was expecting same.

Nokia Pureview 808 – The Exteriors, The Design

Much before the launch of Nokia Pureview 808, we seen a design leak, which was called as Nokia 803 right then. Honestly speaking, the design didn’t impressed many right then. Though once the design took a real world shape, then its really watchable that how beautifully Nokia translates a design to real world.

Mine review unit was a white one though I loved the backside of black Nokia Pureview 808 more with the polycarbonate material as we seen in recent Nokia phones. This time it has a ceramic like finish. The texture of the hardened plastic around the device makes a lot difference when you take it in hands. It doesn’t look that shiny and cheap while assures you about it durability at the same time.

It’s not that the white unit looks any less fab. The whole front is covered from glass only for most of the part. The black strip on the bottom side  of the back makes a comfy place for your hand while holding the device. Nice eye on details here Nokia otherwise it would have been a little slippery with its own weight.

If you are annoyed from the fact that why its not built by anodized aluminum like Nokia N8-00, then I must tell you that despite of being a Touch Phone (No keyboard) and plastic built, its weight is almost close to Nokia E7, which was already in heaviest of he range. Just think how feasible it would have to put metal on Nokia Pureview 808.

Before taking the phone in hands, my main point of concern was the doubts about the camera positioning on the back and yes the position of the speaker on the backside, so it was one of the first point that I checked about the build. The camera module has a stainless steal bezel and was curvy on the corners/sides unlike Nokia N8 that seems to be the logical evolution over Nokia N8. It has an open camera like Nokia N8 (without lens protector built-in), so the next point to check was if the glass over camera is Gorilla or not. Relaxed that it is Gorilla Glass means not that much prone to scratches.

A more powerful Xenon Flash and probably for the first time on a Nokia, we see Xenon Flash and one LED flash together means no compromise about either still shots or if you wanted that tiny video light courtesy to LED Flash.

One of the other important thing that many might skip is it’s capability to do Automatic Fill-Flash. For people who are not aware of this jargon, in simple words, Fill flash is a photographic technique used to brighten deep shadow areas hence protecting your pictures from un-necessary over exposure and giving well brightened shots even in uneven light scenarios. Many of dedicated point-n-shoot camera had it, but I am not sure if I seen in on mobile cameras that commonly.

Also as about protection part, I heard some of the early devices in India received a plastic cap in the package content as lens protector like the one found in most point-n-shoot cameras.

The other odd thing about the design part was the Call/End buttons at the bottom, which even though are better but quite similar to those on low priced Nokia 5800 or some other similar phones. As you would have noticed, the call end key works as power key as well. I welcome the decision of keeping the familiar Red/Green combination but unable to understand the logic behind not provided them as capacitive keys (like they were on Nokia C7/Oro etc) and keeping them as single plastic strip.

The top of the device contains usual Front Camera (still VGA), Ambient sensor, Proximity sensor and earpiece in middle.

The top of the device contains 3.5mm Audio jack, an open MicroUSB port and a covered HDMI port that is quite different from Nokia N8-00. Nokia N8-00 had HDMI Mini C Connector while Nokia 808 has HDMI micro Connector at the top. While functionality wise, it doesn’t matter for the end user (technically both has 19pin but different layout), the thing that will matter for most, is the fact that they can not use their old HDMI Mini Converter from Nokia N8-00. I would say, I hated this kind of cap over HDMI port, why not slider like the one in Nokia N9/Lumia 800?

The bottom of the device is curvy means the device can not stand on a flat surface on its own, same about the sides. Middle of the bottom has the usual earpiece with strip hole at the left corner.

The right side of the device has a physical camera key, a lock button and volume key. Somehow I liked the way, Nokia didn’t tried to mix the keys with the device color and kept it metallic only on their red and white versions. The left side of the device is plain without any buttons on it.

From the front of the device, one notices the CBD display only as there are no prominent bezels like Nokia N8/E7 etc. The CBD AMOLED Gorilla Glass screen is convex with curves at the corners, even though curves are not that like those on Nokia N9 or Nokia Lumia 800, but still it gives a nice feeling while swiping the fingers on it.

There been some doubts over ancient nHD resolution in days of 720p displays and I won’t deny that I would have liked a higher resolution for viewing those magnificent pictures that it takes, but good thing is, the display is RGB rather than some Pentile screen. Add that with ClearBlack technology and you get deep blacks, well saturated colors and superb sunlight visibility. GSMArena Review even calls it the best contrast ratio on any mobile screen they would have ever seen while Galaxy S3 is a far second.

I will still say that the display won’t seem new to people who might have seen Display of Nokia E7 with Nokia Belle on it.

In the defense of ancient resolution for the high end device, I would say that considering the fact that no more new resources being allocated to Symbian by either Nokia or developers means, it would have been officially last nail for Symbian if Nokia would have tried to up the resolution in the way, Apple gone recently with retina. It was safe to remain with same resolution and it was a good thing for older products too.

The sore point with Nokia Pureview is definitely its thickness along with weight. With 123.9 x 60.2 x 13.9 mm dimensions. Though the same actually will make those users feel good who like their phones as substantial.

Spec sheet might make you feel that Nokia Pureview 808 is just 1mm thicker than Nokia N8, but let me remind you of the fact that at camera bulge, Pureview 808 is around 18mm thicker. Let’s some more pics of these two legends together to understand the difference better.

The above image shows that despite of plastic in place of metal, how much better Nokia Pureview 808 looks from front over Nokia N8.

The two legendary cameras. On one side, Nokia N8 has a camera that matches the color to rest of body, while looses the edge with the fact that the bulge is abrupt in nature rather than smooth curves on Nokia Pureview 808.

And finally you can yourself see that how big the camera bulge is for this time.

Now after opening the back and removing the battery, you see two easy places for microSIM and microSD card. The slots are similar to what I have seen in my Nokia N82 and I find them much more easier to interact  with than any other slot mechanism so far.

The battery this time is BV-4D 1400 mAh that is not only supposed to last longer than 1200 mAh Nokia N8 battery, but coupled with Belle Feature Pack 1, it actually prolongs the battery life by at least more than 50% than Nokia N8 that too when we talking about surfing etc. If we talk of just snapping pictures, then I seen it running for more than one day which never been the case with Nokia N8.

Nokia Pureview 808 – The Interiors, the power within

When we compare Nokia Pureview 808 with Nokia N8, then we find it one step up on every spec.

• Dimensions 123.9 x 60.2 x 13.9 mm, 95.5 cc,169 g (while N8 had 113.5 x 59 x 12.9 mm, 86cc,135g)
• Nokia Belle Feature Pack 1 (while N8 recently been updated to Nokia Belle)
• 4” CBD AMOLED Corning Gorilla Glass Screen with a nHD resolution of 360×640 pixels, 24 bit RGB Capacitive Multi-point touch display
• Texas Instruments 4377622 1.3GHz Single Core ARM11 CPU, Broadcom BCM2763 GPU @ 250 MHz with 128 MB (N8 had 680 MHz ARM11 CPU with Broadcom BCM2727 chip, GPU @ 200 MHz with 32 MB)
• 512 Mb RAM, 1 Gb ROM, 16 GB Mass Memory, MicroSD Support up to 32 Gb
• HSDPA Cat10 14.4 Mbps, HSUPA Cat6 5.76 Mbps, WLAN IEEE 802.11 b/g/n
• Same Penta-band connectivity as Nokia N8
• 3D Accelerometer, Ambient Light Sensor, Compass (Magnetometer Sensor), Proximity Sensor
• 41 Megapixels AF Carl Zeiss camera with a huge sensor size like 1/1.2”, ND Filter, up to 4x lossless zoom
• A bigger Xenon Flash with Fill-In Flash along with one LED to assist in low light video recording
• 1080p @30 fps video recording along with Nokia Rich recording audio
• FM Radio, FM Transmitter, Composite TV-Out
• 2 Microphones inside serving purpose of Stereo Audio Recording
• Micro SIM Support only
• DLNA Certification, Bluetooth Stereo Audio, HDMI Micro Connector, NFC Support
• BV-4D 3.8V 1400 mAh removable battery

So, you can see Nokia decided not to leave any part of experience that you have had with Nokia N8 and upped almost everything.

Better Screen Tech, Better processor, Better RAM, Much Bigger & Advanced GPU, Better Still Shots, Better Video, Better Audio Recording, Better Xenon Flash with Fill-In Flash, Inclusion of LED Flash, Smaller MicroHDMI connector, Better HSPDA/HSUPA speeds, official DLNA certification, NFC Support on board, bigger battery and MicroSIM to stay updated in tech.

Don’t look at other handsets in market and consider yourself coming from just Nokia N93\N82\N8 and tell me that why you should not go crazy about Nokia Pureview 808 if you loved Nokia N8? Nokia has proven themselves as big daddy of imaging again when none of the competitors were even ready to challenge their 2 years old Nokia N8 yet.

Nokia Pureview 808 – The Camera, The Industry Shaking Megapixels for a mobile

I remember the discussions at Nokia Conversations & in blogger circle when we were discussing about the logical successor of Nokia N8 and the possibility of optical zoom. I remember many a people who said at that time,

Dear Nokia! Please give us a Camera Phone without any compromise and we will buy it, no matter how thick it is, no matter how bulky it is. Do not compromise on sensor, Do not compromise on Carl Zeiss, Do not compromise HDMI, Do not compromise Xenon Flash, Do not compromise ISO capability, Do not compromise the underlying imaging tech, Do not compromise the turnaround time between two snaps.

At that time, people were even ready for movable components in the mobile to achieve a real loss less zoom. We even debated about the possibility of Liquid Lens for lengths though little idea we had that what great people at Nokia Imaging Team have in their mind.

First of all, Nokia took the same theory forward that they experimented with Nokia N9 and Nokia Lumia by using a bigger sensor that gives almost close resolutions for both the aspect ratios 4:3 and 16:9.

As you can see that it allows them to make most of the sensor size for either of aspect ratio.

While most smartphones in market use 1/3.2" size sensors with 1.4µm pixels size, Nokia had two options; either to use a smaller pixels size like some 1.1µm to achieve more pixels for marketing gimmicks or to simply raise the Sensor size (resulting in big bulge on the phone) to achieve the real thing beyond just megapixels. Being a Nokia, the first option was simply a NO GO.

So what we seems to see in Nokia Pureview 808 is a Toshiba HES9 CMOS image sensor (CIS), featuring a 41 MP resolution along with analog Devices AD5814 (suspected lens driver solution for the Carl Zeiss lens assembly). (Ref: Link). The SOC used here is some custom solution developed by\for Nokia only coz even latest of SOCs doesn’t support such a big resolution that Nokia have managed with their chip.

There are five lenses inside that one lens that are stacked over each other to make the biggest lens from Nokia side till date.

Getting a big sensor and fitting it inside a Mobile Phone wasn’t the least of the challenge when you think of the challenges ahead to it. You need to have a GPU that is fast and capable enough to handle not only 1088p video recording, but the kind of high frequency CD Quality Rich Stereo Audio Recording, post that you need a faster NAND ROM to write the produced photos and quickly process them within milliseconds. You also need to have a mesmerizing Camera UI so that user might not be confused into plenty of options offered by the very capable camera and forgetting enjoying the fun of just capturing what he wants (happens often with DSLR users).

Above all were not some simple tasks and if any mobile company could have done it better then it was the one who introduced Camera to mobile phones for the first time and were makers of Nokia N90, Nokia N82 and Nokia N8 likes. Nokia Pureview 808 Camera wasn’t only an achievement for Nokia, but it was an achievement for the big name Carl Zeiss as well.

*Image courtesy AAS

But then for Nokia, it wasn’t about the hardware only, there are two more things that play a prominent role in this truly unreal camera experience; Pureview Tech and Nokia  Rich Recording.

1. PUREVIEW TECH

Best way to know about Pureview tech is to go through this white paper but I will try to put some bits and pieces here as well in layman terms.

Pureview means oversampling of high resolution images and making one superpixels out of 7-8 pixels which helps in 3 objectives: Best of image quality, excellent low light performance, lower image size and then lossless zoom.

The camera shoots at full resolution that is around 38MP and then in Pureview mode, rather than providing the biggest size of picture, provides you the best quality of picture at either of 3MP, 5MP or 8MP Pureview mode. Not only that but you get an amazing feature that is lossless slide zoom. Just pinch zoom on some part of your viewfinder and the camera silently zooms to the object without loosing any of the pixel coz the camera just utilizes the large sensor available.

Didn’t get it? Check it by above graphs. If you are shooting in 38MP mode then you don’t get any lossless zoom, if you are in 8MP Pureview mode, then you get 5x lossless zoom, if you are in 5MP Pureview mode, then you get 8x lossless zoom and if you are in 3MP Pureview mode then you get 14x lossless zoom. Obviously, full zoom in any mode means real pixel rather than Pureview pixel.

2. NOKIA RICH RECORDING

While Nokia already stunned the pundits of industry by providing a 1080p video recording with a single core handset, they didn’t missed to complement the best the image sensor with the best of audio sensors as well. The end result was Nokia Rich Recording.

The above official video explains the Nokia Rich Recording and if you still don’t believe then see the same in action yourself.

The above video was taken when I attended a Nokia Workshop about Nokia Pureview 808 in Delhi.

One more amusing thing about Nokia Pureview 808 is the combination of a large sensor allowing long focal length and large f/2.4 aperture. Check out the above shot, such shots were a reality for DSLRs only earlier, not any more. Additionally, aperture is kept at a maximum when you zoom in, so you get faster shutter speeds and reduced noise.

Nokia has managed to prove yet again that Its NOT the technology, but its what you do with it.

Nokia Pureview 808: Nokia Belle FP1 – What it got in sleeves

Many like me always wished that what if our Nokia N8 also had some 1GHz or more processor in place of those Asha devices, wished if some camera like N8 skills would have had some Cortex A8/9 like processor too. So, finally we have a top end Symbian device equipped with all the bullets and with one 1.3 GHz Processor. Considering the reputation of Symbian to even multitask very well with less resources, with 1.3GHz Processor and 512 Mb RAM, this thing should fly and it does.

From the above video demo, you can get an idea that how snappy the interface is with a plenty of animations brought in. A number of new widgets for your home screen now.

One of the noticeable UI change is the new Task manager. Animations are butter smooth now considering the fact that we have got around double processor over Nokia N8 and similarly doubled RAM while the software got more polished with FP1.

While rest of the UI and apps seems more or less, there are some changes in the Gallery which seems to have gotten kind of oversimplified. No albums, no multi-select and no way to check details of a picture. Albums are gone and only way to organize pictures is image tags (by default pictures would be tagged with Dates). The reason behind this simplification of Gallery is the performance considering the fact that many might wish to take shots in full 38 MP mode only and that might make the Gallery pretty heavy to scroll through so the optimizations were needed and look like some of the well known features taken a shot here.

I seen options for Facebook and Flickr upload, but couldn’t find if any other service can be added as well. Also for cropping some picture, one doesn’t need to go into image editor but the same can be done from the Gallery itself. Overall, one will find the Pureview 808 Gallery performing butter smooth despite of having such large size images inside.

Nokia has bundled some of the interesting apps with Nokia Pureview like Silent Film Director and ColorizeIt, which might be some big fun for anyone using them.

After Gallery, the other app that has got simplified is the Video App. Gone those days with options to check properties of the video. Just a capable app which performs like a dream on various codecs and doesn’t let you down even on high bitrate 1080p videos.

Now comes the Camera Interface that got very much needed makeover for Pureview 808.

Did you notice the option of ISO 1600 – ISO 50?

Also some new options to provide native assistance for HDR or slow motion photography.

Nokia 808 PureView has a focal length of 8.02mm, which combined with the f/2.4 aperture makes some really DSLR likes pictures, though the downside is, you need to be steady and accurate about your shots to get the best out of it (still far from hard enough like those DSLR). The same fact seems to be responsible for my complaints with its Macro Mode, which I definitely felt less closer than my Nokia N8. Even Macro Mode doesn’t allow Pureview 808 to focus more close than 20cm. Obviously you can still zoom-in to get your desired results and easily beat 12mp closeups of Nokia N8, but still its not that easy to utilize full 38MP for a super close shot like 10cm.

Some of my shots with Nokia Pureview 808

I will always regret that why the review period of device was just 7 days or why I had so little time to play with the device myself due to other engagements. Now when I look back then I feel that I could have done so much with the Nokia Pureview 808 Camera. May be next time, when I buy one for self. Still I managed to take some nice photos and a video.

The above shot was taken at sunset time with still some light remaining, focused over leaves.

The above shot was taken at a similar lighting level while focusing on single object and defusing the background.

The above shot were taken from the same position, just by using tap to focus to focus on foreground once and then focus on background in second.

Light getting more lower and still you can see plenty of details in the shot.

One more low light capture.

This is an example of panning shot where the person taking the shot remain static and moves the hands holding the camera with the speed of object. As you can see that the light is very low so the shots are taken with ISO 800 (Nokia Pureview 808 can go max up to ISO 1600).

This shot was taken at the moment as the last one, just used ISO 1600 this time.

Also checkout the above shot that was taken in a dark night with ISO 1600 from a long distance (2nd floor of my apartment and at least 3-4 houses away)

Once again the magic with Touch to Focus and Bokeh Effect, this time at India Gate.

Now making use of full zoom. Not happy with the first shot (crop of the original) as I earlier pointed that sometimes you may struggle with Macro Shot if not careful. But second shot taken with full zoom gives satisfaction.

Now the above is what makes Nokia Pureview 808 special for any person. Such lovely shots of loved ones.

Now its time for video. The above is not the best one to demonstrate the capabilities of Nokia Pureview 808 video recording caliber or even Nokia Rich Recording, but still it should give you an idea that what a beast this small device is.

Conclusion – To Buy or Not to buy

Its very hard to say NO for any device like Nokia Pureview 808, even though rest of the experience feels seriously outdated in reference with changed habits of users over the time. Apple failed to make an impact over emerging markets but Android has hit the ground level at there too. Best in class camera is still important for people but the same time, other sharing services too. They need Instagram, they need their Social apps to be at par with other platforms once they finish shooting. Nokia Belle FP1 sure ups the game a little but its still insufficient to pull people back who have given themselves to other platforms.

But if we look back over positives, then considering the fact that Nokia N8 kept its legacy till now, it doesn’t seem that there would be any challenge to Nokia Pureview 808 in coming years (including even Pureview Lumia) and if you are not with it then you will be living with a compromise on that front even after knowing that the solution is out there. There will not be any mobile Camera at par with Nokia Pureview 808 in coming 1-2 years for sure considering the fact that Symbian is optimized for such Camera and other platforms still in learning phase.

In addition, Symbian offers real multi-tasking, most accurate voice navigation in industry and some other special benefits like Nokia Music unlimited downloads of DRM free music. So, if you decide to buy Nokia Pureview, then you are assured of some big perks that are definitely not available with others.

What could be a better travel companion for one other than a Camera Phone like Nokia Pureview 808 that does provide world’s best voice based navigation for your car without using even Data services, remains connected all the time due to strong signals & Penta Band, doesn’t make you miss any moment due to the details it capture with each shot, allows you to share them effortlessly (due to lower size of Pureview shots, <1mb each), entertains you with music via either services like Nokia Music or even saved songs via USB OTG or SD Card support and during all this time runs longer than any of other platform due to prolonged battery life of Symbian.

At the end, again its on you to buy it or not coz considering the premium price, if you buy it then you will miss a few things and if you don’t then you obviously miss the best Mobile Camera in the world.

So this was my views about the devices, now its your time to express your views about it. I would awaiting for your comments, friends.

Finally June 20, 2012 happens be the day and it arrived.

The arrival was delayed due to my change of mind about color at the last moment, which was silver earlier but changed to white at the end. Its over you to tell me if I made a right choice about color.

As about the model, then the choice is Tata Indica Vista VX Quadrajet Refresh (Sedan Class). Ufff… long name.

Nokia and its commitment toward the music (just like camera part) is nothing new for the people, who might been following the developments, they would know that how Nokia has been synonymous with digital music in India at least. I seen their initiatives with officially pre-installed songs (DRM) when bought Nokia N70 or Nokia 5130 in past, we see launch of music albums on mobile phones and then there was Nokia Music Unlimited for many a hi-end phones.

The offering of Nokia Music Service on feature phones like Nokia Asha Series takes this commitment to just another big level where Nokia seems to be unsettling many of the trends and habits. Think of the situation, if you are allowed to download any number of songs for free and then can share it with any of your friends freely? That too in perfectly legal way?

Why you need such a service?

I know, I know, many of you would say that why they need such a service when they can download the music freely from internet or can even ask their neighbour shop for loading songs in their phones for a nominal charge?

But do you know that as per Music Copyright laws, Copyright infringement is a criminal offense in India. The minimum penalty for knowingly infringing upon a copyright is six months in jail and a fine of 50,000 rupees. So, is it worth taking the risk, when there are really some ways out at a nominal price?

Nokia Music Unlimited:

Let me introduce you with Nokia Music Unlimited service that provides you songs at such dirt cheap that you actually start doubting if you are downloading it legally.

Nokia has already launched free music subscription from the Nokia Music Store for a number of its Symbian devices. The duration of these free subscriptions vary from device to device. According to the category of the device, the duration of the free subscription lasts for 3, 6 & 12 months. There are a total of 13 Nokia phones through which these free music subscription of the Nokia Music Store can be availed which are as follows:

Note that these are not the streaming options but you are downloading actual DRM free songs or entire albums. You can download them via web or even via your feature phone and they are DRM free means you can share your songs with any of your friends having any kind of mobile or devices (Android, iPod, anything).

Wanna see it in action? Here you go

And as about availability of songs, then Nokia Music Store includes extensive catalogues from major global labels like Sony Music Entertainment and EMI Music and Nokia’s local partnership with Indian Music Industry (a consortium of more than 150 music companies), Hungama that represents major labels including Yash Raj, Tseries, and SIMCA (South Indian Music Companies Association), amongst others. There are some 45 Lakhs+ songs already, can you imagine?

But its only for the new devices, no? Renewing subscription would be costly, right?

Nope! Not at all.

Its true that the service is for only those devices which came with Nokia Unlimited Music Offer, but renewing a subscription is not a big deal any more.

Once the free music subscription gets expired, an easy recharge of Rs. 113 (including service tax) can be availed which then lasts for a month. And the other denominations are : Rs 57 voucher(including service tax) for a week & Rs 281(including service tax) for 3months. After the recharge Full access to the Nokia Music Store is restored and downloading of songs can be continued. These recharge coupons are also valid and can be bought by anyone who was bought any of the listed mobile phones last year.

The recharge procedure is pretty easy and the vouchers can be bought on the Oxicash website www.oxicash.in or Oxicash booths at selective NPP’s, NPD’s or Nokia CARE outlets. This is aimed at making the procedure to renew subscriptions to the music store an easy process and continuously give access to the ever increasing huge collection of songs on the Nokia Music Store.

So what do you think? Giving it a try?

I was very impressed with Lumia 800 that time but one thing I knew that it would be Lumia 710, which will come out to be real VFM for Indian market.

It proves to be right, when during my short review period of Nokia Lumia 710, I seen four people around me ending up buying the same. The last maximum for me was Nokia E5 that also happened to be bought by four people around me coincidently (obviously different four ).

While we already know that how attractive Windows Phone might be, let’s see what I found about Nokia Lumia 710 here.

Nokia Lumia 710: The Unboxing

As I had reviewed Nokia Lumia 800 package earlier, so I was kind of well aware that what’s gonna be inside the package of Nokia Lumia 710 and nothing came up to surprise me either …

The minimal Nokia Lumia 710 Sales Package contains the following

• Nokia Lumia 710
• Nokia AC-10 MicroUSB Charger
• Nokia Charging and Data Cable CA-190CD
• Nokia Headset WH-208 (With 4 set of ear buds)
• Quick Guide, User Guide and Product information leaflet

The headset is the minimal one, good on quality though not great on addons like play pause buttons with headset itself. Additional Ear Buds sure caters variety of people.

The USB cable shipped with the package is also feels to be the same (though it’s a different cable in make and model) as we have seen in case of Nokia Lumia 800.

The charger is different than earlier one and in fact very different than the devices that I might have reviewed recently. Not a slim one but a rather big one, I would say awkwardly big one. Though positive part is, its still falls into fast charger category.

Nokia Lumia 710: The Exteriors

Nokia Lumia 710 is no stunner like its big brother Lumia 800, but its not any ordinary mid range phone either, when it comes to looks. The material used is not the polycarbonate one like Lumia 800, but still the plastic used is not that filmsy either. The one piece removable back panel seems prone to dirt, but overall phone fits your hand very well with its very simple design. The phone actually feels much more premium than any of the other handset in the same price segment (sub 15k INR).

The colour scheme is interesting part about it. While officially its available in only two colours: White and Black, this official part refers to the front part only. You can have total five different colours for the rear panel and even exchangeable ones (not included as a part of the package like Nokia 500 though. I wish if it was).

The front is fully covered with Corning Gorilla Glass from top-to-toe, with making room for the 3 traditional Windows Phone buttons in the bottom, microphone, earpiece, ambient light sensor and proximity sensors. The transparent keys at the bottom keep the looks still premium in white colour at least.

The back houses a 5MP AF shooter that can take 720p videos at 30 fps without breaking a sweat. Having a physical camera key available and ability to open the camera even if the phone is locked, makes the functioning of the same as super quick, thanks to optimization within the OS as well. Who can forget this funny video featuring my friend @Bharadc23

Though specific tasks can never evaluate a mobile phone as a whole but they certainly make a good impression over n00b who might be watching you from a distance apart using the handset. Trust me, I myself felt people watching me in Delhi Metro while I use Lumia 710, not because the design of it but because the way it functions and feels super responsive in nature.

At the right side of the phone, the upper side has Volume rocker while the lower side has a camera key. Left side of the phone provide just a small place for pulling out the back panel (Battery cover). There are no lock buttons in this minimalistic design and that task is left to power button on the top. The camera key takes a little time for getting used to if the person is coming from some two step shutter button handset as despite of being 2-step, it feels one step only.

The bottom of the phone has slot for hook while the top hosts an unprotected MicroUSB port, a 3.5mm Audio Jack and one power key. All traditional design, no fancy sliders like Nokia Lumia 800 and as usual, I would thank Nokia for not giving a plasticky or rubber cap over MicroUSB port.

The ClearBlack 3.7” TFT Screen with a resolution of 800×480 might not be that high end like ClearBlack AMOLED display on Nokia Lumia 800, but the good news about it is, its WVGA display with Nokia’s ClearBlack circular polarizer arrangement and a Gorilla Glass front plate means sharper images.

The display fares ok under the sunlight, but lack of oleophobic coating makes it prone to fingerprints. Still I will give it full marks for the fact that its just a mid-range phone and its display still stacks up with high end smartphones extremely well on the common parameters like contrast, viewing angles and colours.

Nokia Lumia 710: The Interiors and where it stacks against its big brother Lumia 800

It might be jst formal to many but some of you actually want to go through the specs sheet when it comes to any review, so here you go:

• Dimensions119 x 62.4 x 12.48 mm, 81.1 cc,125.5 g (Should be considered as light)
• Windows Phone 7.5 a.k.a. Mango (Some Nokia apps inside but no Nokia specific changes in Core OS)
• 3.7”CBD  TFT Corning Gorilla Glass Screen with a WVGA resolution of 800×480 pixels, 24 bit RGB Display (Lumia 800 had 16 bit colors)
• 1.4GHz Single Core MSM8255 CPU, Snapdragon /Scorpion S2 chipset, Adreno 205 GPU (Exactly same as Nokia Lumia 800)
• 512 MB LPDDR2 (Same as in iPhone 4S), 512 MB ROM, 8 GB Mass Memory (Plus 25GB SkyDrive), no Micro SD Card support though
• HSDPA Cat10 14.4 Mbps, HSUPA Cat6 5.76 Mbps, WLAN IEEE 802.11 b/g/n
• It got Penta band connectivity like Nokia N9 while Nokia Lumia 800 had Quad Band connectivity
• 3D Accelerometer, Ambient Light Sensor, Compass (Magnetometer Sensor), Proximity Sensor
• 5.0 Megapixels AF camera with an aperture  f/2.4 (No Carl Zeiss like Lumia 800, no f/2.2)
• 1280 x 720 pixels video recording resolution with 30fps
• FM Radio (with a very simplistic UI)
• 2 Microfone inside, one serving purpose of noise cancellation
• Micro SIM Support only
• Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR (without capability of Dial up connection or Data Transfer)
• BP-3L 3.7V 1300 mAh removable battery

So as we can see, though general conception is, Lumia 710 is a trimmed down Lumia 800, its not exactly the case.

• It offers you a sharper display being a non-PenTile RGB display with 24 bit colors
• Penta Band connectivity (though it wont matter for most of Indian users)
• Camera is non-Carl Zeiss and also has f/2.4 means less light in, lesser low light performance and sharpness than f/2.2 Lumia 800.

Nokia Lumia 710: The software impressions

I already been through the software specific details in my Lumia 800 post with complete details and as its exactly same with Nokia Lumia 710 as well. For the same reason, I didn’t felt the need to repeat the same here again. You can check the link for the same. Will write about the differences here in short.

What changed in these one two months was the fury of apps. I loved new version of Twitter Client Mehdoh with its Streaming timeline and got totally impressed by the outrageously innovative Twitter Client Twabbit. Liked the Carbon Twitter client as well but restrictions on Market free version annoyed me.

In other welcome changes, a well deserved Nokia Creative Studio, about which I actually wrote in my last Lumia review that it was badly needed even though in-built auto-fix does a good job for causal snappers.

Also the release of a beautiful Linkedin for Windows Phone client, came in to fill the another gap for me as it was awkward to see that LinkedIn is baked into the core of operating system but there was no official client for it and hence not that full fledge use cases.

It was lovely to meet the new version of Facebook and amazing Photosynth.

Check out the above sample from Photosynth. Amazingly speedy and accurate stitching. Though uneven borders are annoying but on the other hand 3D mode is superb.

I was a little sceptical about the non-Carl Zeiss 5 MP camera with Lumia 710 but the above unedited picture should clear any doubt about it.

Though still Camera part leaves a lot to desire when it comes to handling uneven lights.

It might be software updates or may be a different product, it was good to see the absence of battery bug of Lumia 800 here that was leading to a dead phone if fully discharged (only way out was USB recharge).

Nokia Lumia 710: Top Five Things that I liked about it

I keep on reviewing many a products and its not like that if I feel some emptiness once they leave me but when it comes to Lumia, then there are a few things that I miss badly when I use any other phone than Nokia Lumia 710:

1. Amazing People Hub: You might have read praises about it via every person who might have used Windows Phone for considerable time and trust me, there is a reason that it impresses literally everyone.

People Hub not only aggregate all your social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin, but allows you to interact with each of those networks without the need of leaving the People Hub experience.

For example, you can update your own status on twitter/facebook or both, post comment\likes on Facebook status\ photos, reply\retweet Twitter statuses. This all feel very convenient as don’t need to go into some other app and still you know who liked your status or replied you on Facebook or Twitter.

And this is not all. People Hub can be divided into Groups or even Individuals and you can have tiles for each accordingly, which solves the issue of missing the updates from special ones. Like in my case, I am following some 800+ people on twitter and some 500+ people in my Facebook friendlist, obviously, I would miss if my wife who is very less active on twitter/facebook comparatively, updates something. But having a tile in her name or a tile in name of Family (a small group) solves the issue.

Top of all, this all happens with fabulous metro UI with animations and silky smoothness all the time. Yes! there is no alternative of people on any of the platform yet.

2. Amazing Windows Phone Keyboard: I remember the time, when in start of Windows Phone, people were talking a lot about Windows Phone keyboard and I was thinking that what’s big deal in that when it don’t even look like of my taste, neither do I have any flexibility to change it like I do have in case of Android. I don’t even have swipe on Windows Phone.

Trust me, Windows Phone keyboard came as a big surprise to me once I given it some time to grow over me. You can think of the impression by the fact that I own Samsung Galaxy S myself which have gone through all kind of rooting, custom ROM, CM9 and multiple keyboard apps etc, but despite of using that since an year, I feel myself typing two-three fold faster on Windows Phone keyboard within a week. Yes! two three fold.

Not really sure that what is the magic about it, the amazing auto-correct without overdoing it or right amount of audible feedback on key presses without any mechanical looking feel, but it works and works better than any keyboard that I might have used either on Android, Symbian, iOS, BlackBerry or WebOS.

3. Beautiful Email Experience: I have said it multiple times that even if there was no other features as good as other platforms, I would have loved Windows Phone on the basis of its Email Experience alone.

The UI is awesome, the speed is unmatched, Exchange Address lookups feel instant and the dealing with HTML formatted Email is just too perfect. Windows Phone is the only place where I know that mails will be displayed on small screen with the right amount of picture size or fonts. It just scales the mails so nicely that I feel like cursing my Symbian and Android phones that why they want to make a big fuss about it.

4. Microsoft Office for mobile: Having an office suit is another thing and having an office suit that handles heavy abuse like the desktop one is other, this is where, Microsoft Office Mobile scores.

Either it be Excel, PowerPoint or Microsoft Word files, it handle even bigger than average files without a sweat, which is something that always been a desirable on other platforms.

5. Speed of operations and always responsive UI: Each manufacturer just feel like looking for an excuse to raise the processor cores or RAM on slightest of possibility and we are in an age where some mobiles have came with Quad Core and 2Gb RAMs with them. It really hurts when you see some 1GHz or 1.5Ghz phone giving you a slightest of lag in responding when you touch over any icon, but it happens and I have seen it on some “Dual Core” Androids even.

Despite of being limited to Single Core till the moment, Windows Phone is designed to keep user engaged with the UI in a manner that everything feels responsive, no matter what’s going on in background.

Either you pick a high end like Nokia Lumia 900 or pick a Nokia Lumia 710, you don’t feel ashamed in showing off speed of your mobile operations to others coz somehow it feels same speedy over both of them in exactly similar ways despite of hardware differences.

Trust me, its not some magic but so many rounds of R&D and optimizations in background. There is a reason that you feel your phone faster in uploading photos and posting statuses even no 2G networks otherwise like many  of the friends already said, an Android with a 2G Internet connection is an Android without an Internet connection. Nothing like that in case of Windows Phone for sure as I experienced.

Nokia Lumia 710: Top Five Things that I didn’t like about it

1. Horrible Notifications system: This is one of the painful part for Windows Phone as of now. Windows Phone has no single screen, drop down or a page for unified notification from various apps. It either sends the notifications to top of the screen in form of one liner or just will put them on some tile.

It definitely doesn’t feel that convenient for a user perspective when you don’t see multiple of notifications at once neither can control that for how many moments it should stay on top interfering the experience. Also it feels like sheer ignorance from Windows Phone design part that there is no always visible status bar at top showing battery life, network signals or any other such thing.

Though I seen that many a times, its possible to tap on top and see the status bar but it seems that most of the apps just want to override the same. So, its more of guidelines part I guess.

As raised by some of the friends on Twitter, there are privacy concerns as well like you can not limit if the part of message should be displayed on top or not. Strange to see that why Microsoft decided this part of user experience this lightly just like Apple was dealing with notification lately.

2. File management and its worse implications: When I heard about it for the first time, then I couldn’t believe it and was needed to check myself. Yes! you can’t send a document as Email attachment via Email App itself. I mean in name of holy God what kind of logic behind it? If I am a Business person, then do you think that emailing photos is more important or emailing excel, word files are?

Though yes, you can send any such file via share menu and it can  go as an email attachment, but most of the use cases of business or even personal emailing don’t work like that. You usually find yourself replying some email and all of sudden feel that you should attach something. If Email App wont let you do that then what’s point of such a fantastic Email App otherwise or fabulous Microsoft Office Mobile in it.

So, its again seem to be sheer negligence rather than some limitation of platform itself.

3. No file download in browser, not a perfect fit to screen either: First of all, there are not many choices for browser in app store and then native IE browser on phone won’t allow you to download any kind of media file. If you wanted to download a MP3 then it would rather stream it than downloading to phone.

In next, I have no issues if it doesn’t give me Flash Player abilities but what about a better implementation of fit to screen? If I double tap a page then it will zoom in or zoom out as one step toggle, but it doesn’t fit the page if you are doing a pinch to zoom for zooming the page a bit further.

4. Bluetooth: Nope.. I wont start the debate that one needs the option of sending files over Bluetooth or not even though I feel the need, but the story doesn’t end here. As of now, Windows Phone can’t stream audio to your car/ other devices over Bluetooth either, thanks to absence of rSAP protocol support.

Here goes my excitement about having the same feature in my coming car if I buy a Windows Phone.

5. Not great Phone operation handling: To start the conversation, this is a phone after all and smart dial like essential features should not be a luxury or some rocket science to implement into. Come on, its 2012, you make a Phone OS and tell me that I can’t just type a name and dial? I need to remember the full number or go via contacts to dial it? Get a life.

You know what? You don’t have ability to filter out online and phone contacts either. That should be icing the cake, no.

Conclusion:

So, this was Layman’s Take about Nokia Lumia 710 and as usual, if I am vocal about the good things in it, then I wont stop my voice from commenting over its negatives either. Still one needs to use his own mind and weigh the pro’s and con’s depending on his/ her own use cases. As much I use Windows Phone, I find it hard to ignore and really addictive. As about Style, then you can think of appeal when I see four people buying it just after watching it in my hands in last two weeks.

When I see a Lumia 710 at sub 15k INR price, then its sure a recommended deal considering the other goodies that are on offer with it being a Nokia. Did you know, you have Offline lifetime voice navigation with it?

So what’s your take?

They all do visit if the product is not functioning properly, repeat problems or in certain cases they are negative towards the company itself.

When you look at things in this way (specially the last point), then it becomes very important for companies to curate a top class Care/ Service Center experience to tackle the aggressions and disappointments of consumers.

As customer experience and customer service increasingly become a strategic priority for companies looking to differentiate themselves, most of them are realizing that some of their consumer interactions (face to face or contact centers) represent more than just costs; they’re moments of truth for customers, points in time that significantly impact customer loyalty.

If we sit back and recall our last Service Center experiences, then I am sure that we can sure remember one of those worse ones a few years back and we can sure remember that how we talked about those experiences with our friends. It clearly shows that much important Customer Care is. Are companies really doing something about it now in recent years?

Luckily, I got a chance to visit and see the process followed by Nokia Care Centers in general and would like to share the same with you so that you can understand that why Nokia remains consumer’s favourite.

Nokia Care: the process

As about the looks and process inside a Service Center, it changes as per the user base and type of handsets change city by city, area by area, time by time, so its not exactly possible to keep each Service Center in the same way as a metropolitan city would have. Yes! there might be alterations in minute details in comparison but more or less, Nokia Care Centres catch the consumer eye. They are easy to locate & give a comfortable feeling once you enter. The basic amenities like seating space, air-conditioning, cleanliness, decent branding are common to all Nokia Care Canters.

Let me now share the different elements of a Nokia Care Center:

1. The reception:

   The reception in a traditional Nokia Care Center has been replaced by a Token System that generates token on the basis of task category & also sends this information to Care Center manager. You get a touch based, ATM like looking token machine with different task categories from which customer can select the relevant option.

   

   As you can see, this system removes the middle man carrying up your tokens and subsequent order no. The new system is very transparent in its functions. While the centralized reporting helps Nokia in further improvements, but it also improves the turnaround time with per call. Along with token, you also needed to fill Customer Information Slip for record purpose, so that Nokia may contact you about your experience if required.

2. Waiting area: Comfortable seating at the Waiting area makes it relaxing. An LCD TV is showing the latest Nokia promotions about products as well as valuable Consumer Information like (Do’s & Don’ts, Consumer Awareness initiatives like Recycle etc.). Another LCD displays token allotment and also the average waiting time.
   
3. Monitoring and tracking the tokens: It sounds too good to be true but gone are those days when you were needed to sit for long in Nokia Care Centers to get your number. While efforts are made to attend to customer at the earliest, in case any customer is waiting for long, the Center manager would attend to the customer himself. The company monitors the Average Waiting Time centrally to take corrective actions.
   .
4. Product & Accessory Display: One thing that has always been part of a Nokia Care Center and that is Accessory Display. It’s still the same though Nokia Care Centers in certain cities might have the latest products on display too.

   

5. Service Desks: The number of service desks depends on the location & number of customers visiting the Care Center and the one that I visited was at Delhi, it had larger number of desks.

   The Service desks are not only equipped with common accessories like covers, headphones etc. but also keep catalogue of protection plans as well.

   

   Like the one, you see here, Nokia Care Protect plans extends your warranty for 12 months more (Obviously after inspecting your device once and if found perfectly fine), which will be exactly same as the normal warranty. Unfortunately, only those users that are covered in warranty can enjoy this benefit, not the one who are left with expired warranty.

6. Technical Desks: Not all the issues are as simple that one expert can solve without doing dirty things like opening your device or opening screws within mins, so all the cases that require further work beyond just an expert inspection, will go into technical section.

   Obviously consumers are not allowed to enter into technical section as it requires some form of Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) protection, though all such technical desks  will always have a transparent glass front. Logic behind the transparent glasses is, people out there can have a view if the technical desk want to show them the exact problem with their handsets.

    
7. Feedback Section: I am not sure if I would have come across a cute feedback section like this in some Service Center. It was pleasing to see the openness & transparency at Nokia Care Centers to collect customer feedback.

   

   And more better is, this is not just namesake. Put a negative feedback and you can be assured that someone will personally meet you or call you about that feedback.

8. Collection Counter: Obviously not all issues can be resolved within mins or even in hours, many a times, you need to come to Care Center on a later date, just for the collection purpose. Obviously, it doesn’t make sense to put a customer coming for collection into the same queue as of people with complaint. Obviously, a separate desk for collection.
9. Accessory Replacement: Nokia Care Centers maintains a stock of commonly used accessories batteries, headphones etc. Let me remind you, you will never get a repair of headphones and batteries in case of Nokia as such items get instantly replaced with a new one rather than doing some ad-hoc solution (obviously when in warranty).. 

   Nokia ensures adequate stock in all Care Centers to avoid disappointed customers coming for service. The stock in Nokia Care Center varies as per patterns of consumers visited there.

10. Internal Training & skill enhancements: We were very excited to know if those technical desk people were given chance of having hands on over latest upcoming gadgets before the marketNokia keeps on training each one of them about handsets throughout the year.
11. Outcall to customers about their experiences: This is another feat that Nokia seems to have adopted from the best practices of service industry. Random calls to Customer to know if they have been satisfied with their experience with Nokia Care Center. Also if they have any suggestion in mind for further improvements. All of such calls get well documented and forwarded to concerned authorities for further decisions if required.

So, this pretty much sums up what a Nokia Care look like and functions like. When I was asked, for me it was actually hard to come up with a suggestion to bring further improvement.

Do you find the process good enough or do you have some of your own suggestions? Do you have any good or bad experiences with Nokia Care recently? Please share them with me, I hope you will be listened by right ears.

Do you know what was the last time when Gravity got its last update? It was March 08, 2012 means exactly two and half a month before. Not exactly the longest period between two successive Gravity updates but still it was quite a long gap and people like me who been following Gravity updates since long, knew that longer period between successive updates always been leading to some great new features. So let’s see what new features are on card this time?

Before starting to talk anything about it, let me warn you, this time this update is a real Alpha means a premature build and you must be ready for some bugs while trying it (though like always, I didn’t found many of show-stopping kind of bugs).

So, are you ready for a walkthrough of new features? Here we go.

The changes that I might have noticed till now are as given below:

1. All New Notification Bar and removal of Full Screen Mode: Many of us liked Gravity in the full screen mode always but this was a big dilemma for people since the Belle update came in with drop down System notification bar. Being in Gravity timeline with full screen mode was meant to miss the status bar altogether.

@Janole decided in favour of removing the full screen mode (as was in earlier version, showing in extreme right screenshot) and introducing an all new notification bar with three sections.

• An either blank or Home icon that will take you back to all accounts screen.
• The middle part of status bar will take you to the top or to Dashboard of particular account.
• The brand new notifications section that will take you to notifications + last visited history section.

For me, the issues in this approach is, Gravity has an option to tap on top to move to top of the timeline and with two status bars (One of system and one of Gravity), it becomes a lot confusing. You have to hit the status bar precisely to get to top because if you hit top most system bar then it might be lead to system drop down that might annoy you. Moreover, the pixel size of the new Status bar is almost doubled means loss of screen space on already low resolution Symbian screens. I think @Janole also agree on it.

All I can say that this approach might be good for many but may annoy many as well. In my opinion, there should be a full screen mode option present and in that mode, the pixel size of the status bar might be lowered as well. Though I wont push more for the pixel part because status bar needs to be in the same size as the search bar to cover it up in other parts of UI.

One of the workaround might be an Auto-Hide search bar along with half the pixel status bar in full screen mode. But let’s see how @Janole will deal with it.

But the better side of this exercise is, you now have access to drop down toolbar, signal, battery, time and system notifications etc.

* Thanks to @HardikLive for some of the screenshots.

2. New Add Account section with a minor change: Not a big change but one may spot a little change in Add Accounts section, where we find two options for Twitter account.

The “Can’t add a Twitter Account?” section is to bring back the old OAuth part for adding a twitter account without going to Twitter website because many a people faced issues via web route. Obviously for getting DMs, you will be needed to authorize via web only if you choose this choice.

3. The Search bar on the top of Twitter/ Facebook section: This is one of the experiments that even @Janole wasn’t sure and delayed it since January even after early implementation because it certainly takes its sweet time to get used to of it.

Only issue might be the screen real estate taken by it, but over the time, people will sure start getting used to it. Thing is, we are so accommodated to traditional UI elements of Gravity that any such change feels awkward in the start.

4. The notifications + History Section: The introduction of brand new Notifications section brings you a single place where you can keep track of notifications and history of the last visited places inside the app.

Not only that but @Janole has planned to make it even bigger in next updates.

5. Anna-Belle type rounded icons across the UI: I am not sure that why it wasn’t here already in last update but finally the native looking icons are here to make the experience consistent throughout the OS.

6. Facelift for Groups and Lists Section for Twitter: Groups and Lists section which was just a list earlier now gets the much needed grouping/

Isn’t it look good enough now.

7. User profile shows if the user following you: The new user profile section in twitter now shows that if the user is following you. So no more, tapping on profile and check if Direct Message option is appearing or not.

8. Image save option in Facebook section as well: It was already there in twitter section via tap on the picture or tap on the button in the middle bottom and it was about time, when it makes to Facebook section and its here now.

One difference here is the absence of the bottom middle button for saving the image but as the place was already taken by Edit button, @janole left it to tap on the picture to save it.

9. Facelift in Foursquare section, comments notifications: Not much significant, but the foursquare section also have got some minor changes in the way a check-in looks or in the way you search for a place.

The left most screenshot is from old Gravity while the middle one is from new one. You can spot the changes. Also the search bar in top is a new introduction. Also now you will get notifications when someone comments on your check in.

Though still we don’t have emphasis on marking system as in Foursquare and it doesn’t notify you that how much last checkin earned for you or where you stand in leader board.

10. New share menu in Gravity: Though as of now, it works only for the links in Browser, Facebook and Google reader section, but finally we have a share menu in Gravity that serves the purpose of saving articles/web pages from one social network to another.

Also now you can edit the title before sharing it in Google Reader menu (share function was there earlier). Though with this share menu, @Janole hasn’t integrated the is.gd or any other url shortener, but may be its for good, because who wants his/her URL getting shrink three times while posting? Twitter already has t.co while Facebook treats URLs other way.

As expected, introduction of Share option means no Tweet it button in Google Reader section anymore.

11. Gravity Browser gets attention again: Since the implementation, Gravity browser seen very less visible changes, but the big update this time decided not to leave it.

The first change is change of share icon that comes back to Symbian style iOS style as earlier and also Readability support for formatting the webpages for mobile screens.

While its a good step in right direction, it has its own share of glitches.

First, its rather annoying to get it back from Full screen mode which it choose automatically once open, then if you tap and hold you finger for 2-3 seconds, then bars appear but they get away once you remove the finger. It should stay for long so that one may come out from browser easily.

Second, Readability support is only for formatting the page, not for using you Readability account as Gravity browser still doesn’t support cookies means no kind of logins can be supported.

Actually this was a feature suggested to @janole long back in 2009 itself which finally got delivered by this new version.

12. Last but not least, option to share status on multiple networks finally: Yeah! finally you can share the same status on multiple social network accounts at once (facebook\Twitter}. All you need to do is to swipe your finger from left to right or right to left on Add Account section and you will get the screen given below:

This was a much needed and heavily requested feature since long. Thanks to @jryap28 for bringing this into my notice

13. Picture size shown while uploading photo to Twitter: As told by @janole, this was actually a debugging feature, but he found it rather useful for public as well and released it with this version.

Though its available for Twitter section only and not available in Facebook section as of now. But should come shortly with new version.

Bug: As of now, Gravity has two of the known bugs with this new version.

1. Push Notifications or User Streams broken Fixed with 7153
2. UI issues with Swype split screen mode Fixed with 7153

Hope that it would be sorted by the upcoming version in next 2-3 days. Already out as build 7153.

So, this was all that I spotted about the new Gravity and now its your turn to tell me if I would have missed anything. Also this time, @Janole has made some important comments about the future of Gravity that you must not miss.

It says the long awaited Picasa (May be even Flickr Integration) might not be too far and may be a complete makeover of Images section may arrive with our long awaited Symbian Imaging Flagship Nokia Pureview 808.

And then the biggest announcement that might bring back many a hopes and smile on faces of people who have left Symbian and missing Gravity very much though @janole has cleared further than no work on Android\iOS right now. Schedule for second half or late of this year.

So this was what I had to say, now its your turn. Download it from here http://bit.ly/7152ALL and comment here if you find any more changes in it or wanna suggest something. Also keep a note of the fact that its a preview version so many a things might get changed in the version that will come shortly.

I am not sure that I ever would have reviewed a product and would have rated it as “An Essential Accessory” but there is always a first and for me, it happened to be Proporta USB Turbocharger.

Smartphones and their battery life, something most of the users talk about, bitch about many a times because of the simple fact of life, if your phone is out of battery, then there is no difference between a 7mm thick phone and a 17mm thick one. But still the temptation of owning a slim phone is something that neither manufacturers nor users are giving up.

Its not that manufacturers and users are not trying for the solutions/workarounds and its definitely not the case that you can’t do anything about it.There are two ways to deal with it; spare batteries and portable chargers. Lets discuss both a little.

Issues with spare batteries

The regular readers here would not have missed my review about Mugen Batteries in past and the friends on Twitter and real life would have seen that how those batteries remained an integral part of my daily routines (and some of the regular issues). As time passes by, you learn about some of the limitations around these extra-power/replacement batteries, like the ones given below:

1. NO HOT SWAPPING: If you are running out of battery then you need to remove that battery and use the spare battery. Obviously, this involves switching off your phone for once even if for half a min only.

2. Battery Calibration: With the spare battery solution, you get two types of spare batteries; either of same power (mAH) or of extra power (more juice). The issue is, most of the time, the underlying OS is not that smart to handle this and you need to calibrate the batteries (many a times, its 2-3 cycles means 2-3 days long process) otherwise you wont be able to take full advantage of the juice that these batteries can provide to you. Obviously a cumbersome thing for the n00bs and for even geeks.

3. The size & shape: Love it or hate it, most of the Smartphone manufacturers nowadays feel like flaunting the slimness of their phones rather than caring for the fact that how much long the “slim” battery lasts for the user. For overcoming the issue, the user either has to use his device less or have to carry a charger with him all the time or have to opt for a thick battery for him that obviously negates the first cause that was slimness. Truth is, people don’t prefer to show their phones as thick stabs.

4. No separate charging: A spare battery can not be charged in separate, it has to be in device for getting charged. Means if you are preparing for some trip, then you first charge your first battery, then you pull out the battery and then charge the other one. Obviously a big amount of time required and when you put it on a scale of daily routine, then it becomes a mess.

5. Multi-usability: The issue with spare batteries, is their being specific for one handset. The smart users who need such things are actually carrying more than one devices with them and not only that but also changing the devices by each year. Is it wise to keep on purchasing spare batteries for each of the device?

6. Price: As of now, if you buy a separate same capacity spare battery then the price remains reasonable but due to the type of tech involved in high capacity batteries, the price remains an issue in the later case. It might be as worse as 4-5 times higher than the stock battery price.

How I got introduced to Proporta?

After going through the first solution in detail, I decided to give the second option a try; the portable chargers like the one I seen in hands of @SamDLaw first (that was a Nokia DC-11 1500 mAh). 1500 mAh was not enough for me, so I was to look for other solutions and the biggest name I heard of in twitterverse was of Proporta; An expert in field of mobile phone accessories, cases and portable chargers.

As it was mostly an online store and there was no way to get it from some nearby store in India, I wrote back to Proporta about my interest in Proporta Turbocharger 7000 and for my surprise, after a few days later, a sweet conversation with Jitender @ Proporta led to a review unit of Proporta Turbocharger 5000 for me (as Turbocharger 7000 was out of stock for the moment).

Proporta TurboCharger 5000: The Unboxing

The wait didn’t took long and within days, I got a call from security of my office that “Sir! you got an Air Mail” and the well packaged accessory was in my hands.

I actually liked the cute gesture of putting a small tea-bag along with package.

And this was how the package looked like from the front with emphasis on the terms: Powerful, Rechargable & Portable. Also notice the fact that it may provide charging for Apple products, Digital cameras and other USB powered devices as well.

While the device itself has a nice rubberised metal texture and looks, we are in for a nice little bag as well.

This is the complete content of the package. One interesting folding wire and six different connectors to serve most of the current mobile devices (except the odd ones or older fat pin Nokia devices).

There is only one button on the device and then you find three blue LEDs denoting the level of charge left in it.

While the idea of three blue LED strips is quite great in concept, in real it appeared as just rough idea of it. It provides rough idea of charging a device or idea of getting charged itself. But many a times, I found it inaccurate though. Also there is no Auto off, once you pull out a device from it and you have press the button manually.

There are three ports in it, two are the USB ports and one is input port. One of USB port is labelled as High and one as Low due to difference in power output they provide.

Apple devices like iPad etc will get charged by High port only though there is literally no issue in charging other devices from the high charging itself.

One of the other thing to notice is the retractable cable supplied (USB to female generic, with a bundle of device-specific tips – microUSB, miniUSB, Apple iPod, Sony Ericsson, Nintendo DS Lite, Nokia 2mm) is quite thin and besides the long time handling part itself, some forums say that it might be an issue for 1A current that is provided by High Charging port.

I actually didn’t use the provided cable for charging my devices and relied on their original USB cables, so it should not be a problem.

The biggest profit of Proporta for me, was the liberty from almost all the issues that I mentioned in first section. This was almost exactly the thing that I or many others might be wishing for. The perfect companion for heavy smartphone users or even those who are preparing for some long outing.

I can start charging a device while I am still on call (Hot Swapping), I don’t need any kind of calibration as I am literally using the same battery in device, the shape of the device will be unchanged, I can charge almost all of the mobile devices I own and last but not the least is the price.

Proporta USB Turbocharger 5000 costs just 34.95 Euro or $50.3 or around 2.5k INR that is also inclusive of shipping charges as Proporta ships it free of cost.

I still want to appeal Proporta for getting into a tie up with local Indian Retailers like Flikpart etc to sell their units directly into Indian market so that people might have more payment options than just credit card because I actually know many out there in my circle who would gladly buy this product if comes with an option to pay by NetBanking or option to Pay on Delivery. That would be really like some dream come true.

Now, where are the cons?

1. The speed at which it charges, which is definitely lesser than those of AC charger but that’s a technology limitation with almost all portable chargers, so it shouldn’t count.
2. The quality of the retractable cable provided with it that is thin and doesn’t provide the same sense of safety as the device itself does. But if you are using mobile device cables then it shouldn’t be an issue already.
3. The option to charge the charger via PC USB only, no AC charging option out of box. Though on researching further, I found that Proporta actually ships a World version as well with an optional AC charger as well. They didn’t put on in box due to the fact that it goes against the concept of a truly mobile charger.
4. The charging capacity is though mentioned as 5000 mAH, but it stands as some 4000 mAh actually and it drains quite a bit if you left the device switched on (no automatic off if no device in charge). Though 4000 mAh still enough.

Conclusion:

As I said in first paragraph, even if it might not be perfect in every sense, I would rate this device as an “Essential” Accessory to have (A first on Layman’s Take for any device I would have reviewed in past) and wont mind putting my money on it. This smart piece of tech not only look good, but comes with a very decent price and because of its versatile nature, is future proof as well. Its not a thing that only you might be using, but it will be useful for your friends/family while travelling and trust me, they will ask you that from where you bought one.

Rest I leave on readers. Do you think I did it right by calling it “An Essential Accessory to have”?

While in the last review, I talked about Nokia Asha 300, now it is the time to talk about the real leader of the pack, Nokia Asha 303: One of the phones, over which Nokia thought to pull it back with low end handsets in Indian market. Let’s see how it is….

Nokia Asha 303 is finally the one to showcase a capacitive screen on S40 Touch and Type genre along with the honour of being a Nokia Touch-n-Type QWERTY at such low price point. In many ways, this seems to be the Nokia Asha handset which should have started the Asha Touch-n-Type Series in first place.

Nokia Asha 303: The content inside the box – the unboxing:

After reviewing Nokia Asha 300 recently, I was aware of the fact that what I should expect to come out from the box of Nokia Asha 303 and it happened to be exactly similar. Neither USB OTG cable nor any traditional microUSB cable. All we got from Nokia Asha 303 box was ..

One Nokia Asha 303 (RM-763)

1. One Nokia WH-102 Stereo Headset

2. One Nokia AC-11N Smart and lightweight 2mm Battery Charger

3. One 2Gb Memory card

As you can see, there are almost no changes in the content, then why the higher price?

The answer lies in its premium looks and big additions like capacitive screen, Wi-fi capability & well built QWERTY keypad. Let’s explore it more in next section covering the exterior of the device.

Nokia Asha 303: The Exteriors:

The unit that I got was Chrome unit and you can yourself see that how different it looks in comparison of the last Asha 300 that we seen lately. The metallic back was a kind of assurance for the durability of the device in the long run.

If you ask me about negatives then somehow the shape of the screen itself didn’t suit the looks otherwise rest of the shape and built quality may rival some of the biggies.

The front of the device showcases 2.4” Capacitive screen with a considerably thick bezel, four buttons under the screen and then an actually nice QWERTY keyboard in the bottom.

A large space button and almost same kind of key layout as its always been with E-Series handsets. Same back-lit keys with right amount of tactile feedback.

The top of the device makes the place for 2mm charging point, 3.5mm Audio jack and a micro USB port (Good to see that there is no creepy cap either).

The right side of the device has the volume keys and one lock key.

Turning the device towards back reveals the fact that we have got a 3.2 mp camera here that too without flash. Though on the positive note, we see a metallic battery cover matching the chrome finish as rest of the body and quite a sized one speakers.

So if I compare it from Nokia Asha 300, then lack of flash in camera continues, though we receive some big updates like a metallic premium finish, a much better speaker and obviously a much better QWERTY.

Nokia Asha 303 – The Interiors

It would be a repeat for people who might have read the specs part in my last post about Nokia Asha 300, but let’s see what this new device has in its sleeves.

The first thing that gets the eyes is 2.6” LCD Transmissive capacitive single touch screen with a colour depth of 18 bits and a resolution of 240×320 pixels. Obviously no Gorilla glass here, neither you should expect some great visuals under the sun. An OK OK performance if we compare from high end though outstanding and accurate, if we go by the standard of feature phones or the phones in the similar price range.

In next, we have 1GHz Processor, 128 MB RAM and user storage up to 100 mb though it can be extended up to 32gb via MicroSD card (it ships with a 2Gb MicroSD card already).

The device also has Pentaband frequency (in comparison of Quad Band of Asha 300) though that part would be immaterial if the target market is Asia alone.

In comparison to Asha 300, Nokia Asha 303 steps back on Camera front and we are provided only 3.2 Mp camera while Asha 300 had a 5MP shooter. Video recordings remains same VGA @15 fps.

We have a BP – 3L 1300 mAH battery and options to charge it via 2mm charger and USB both.

Other additions into specs sheet include USB OTG 1.3, OTA and Dial up networking etc (you can use your phone as a modem for your desktop).

Nokia Asha 303 – The Software experience

With a capacitive screen, Nokia Asha 303 brings a lot of comfort for users when it comes to gaming etc. I made a short video demonstrating that what kind of titles you can expect to be there on S40 Touch-n-Type at a cost of Rs. 5/- (one tenth of a dollar).

Obviously, I was not playing the games in full spirit (just one hand used while other was busy shooting the video), but still I hope you can guess that the dumbphone is not dumb any more.

You can download free music via Nokia Music for an year and if I know right then this music is DRM free as well means you can play the same over your other devices as well. I downloaded two latest of tracks (Rowdy Rathaur & Ishqzade myself.

Notice the loudness of speakers.

Then there are these third party clients like Whatsapp, which doesn’t let you feel that you are on some low end device. S40 Touch-n-Type devices got a client for Whatsapp that is also capable of sending pictures\videos\audios etc and has emocons as well.

Also there are other interesting apps like Facebook Chat, The Hindu, Zyanga etc. Zyanga in particular is a very interesting app that allows you to watch TV channels live on your Asha 303 phone. If you wanna see Zyanga in action, then here goes the video…

As you can see, the video quality seems terrible though Audio quality is top notch and I wont blame the app first as it might be my Wi-fi issue as well.

On the negative side of experience,

I felt Wi-fi management on a weaker side as many of the apps going for GSM connection by default. Also like other Nokia devices, you can not buy or update the apps if the SIM is not inside even if device is Wi-fi capable (though that is by design). Also the Nokia Maps been unable to lock my position all the time even in presence of Wi-Fi and GSM connection both.

But on the other side I think, if I am asking too much of perfection from a feature phone?

Nokia Asha 303 – The conclusion

For a smartphone user, it would not be an easy job to perceive that what value the Asha Series is bringing to this particular feature phone segment and in my view, the same people who are judging Galaxy Series or iPhones should not judge Asha series on same parameters.

With Nokia Asha 303 for a price of Rs. 7000/-, one gets a capacitive screen, wifi, USB OTG, Dial Up Networking, Pentaband capability, a premium build and many other things. Furthermore, the next update will possibly bring Exchange support to this device and will put it into one other league as well.

So decision is yours, if you are looking for it.