Category: Technology

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A journey with Nokia E52

Un-boxing done, few pros and cons done, now it must be time for detailing things a little and time to share my journey experience with Nokia E52.

Nokia E52, the latest member of E-Series might surprise to many because in now days, when everyone seems to running behind the QWERTY keypads, Nokia decided to come up with a T9 Keypad. The reason … as I think sometimes business people like to use cell phones more with one hand only rather than using both the hands as QWERTY keypads might be forcing them to do. Definitely it feels solid in your hands with its metallic finish and compact looks.

The official specification page reveals all the details one might wish to take a look up on but I am listing here the things I liked most about the device and taken the decision to buy the same for my youngest brother. Feeling same about this device as once I felt about Nokia N82, a decision that I would never regret.

The best points about the device …

The Monoblock form factor with dimensions 116 x 49 x 9.9 mm. A lightest package, just 98 gm (54 cc) to hold such powerful features.

Quad-band GSM 850/900/1800/1900, HSDPA 900 / 2100, HSDPA maximum speed: up to 10.2 Mbps, HSUPA maximum speed: up to 2 Mbps

Powerful ARM 11 600 MHz processor (same as Nokia E72 or Nokia N900 has)

A-GPS Support with free lifetime voice navigation for walk & drive on Ovi Maps 3.04 that too surprising with Digital Compass built in.

Same E Series Wi-Fi support, Bluetooth 2.0, MicroUSB 2.0 and Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate.

Symbian 9.3, Series 60 v3.2 UI, Same Operating System as Nokia E72, means same home screen switching, same panorama mode available in camera UI, same Chat application supporting Gtalk, Yahoo, MSN and Ovi Chat and same browser capabilities.

Nokia Messaging (not sure but two years subscription probably) Though Indian version seems not having the support for Lotus traveller thing, but for rest all kind of email services it works like just a charm.

Same Full Office support with PDF.

Dedicated Camera keys and without the useless cover on MicroUSB port.

Indian package now days contains the Car Holder as well.

Definitely fitting best of the powerful features in such a reasonable price might not have been a simple task. I should say that its more value to money than Nokia 5800 been once coz best of connectivity and best of battery life is the only thing that matters at the end of everything.

Some might even feel like praising the T9 Keypad as well, which feels very solid in your hands more solid than any other T9 keypad from Nokia I think.

If compare with Nokia E72 then other than QWERTY, you have lost the Optical Navi-wheel here and also a dedicated key for contacts, but its brilliant that they managed to keep total eight buttons with Five way scroll in such a small place. Good job Nokia!!

I should also be honest about my opinion here as well. It doesn’t have all the things as excellent as CPU, Connectivity or OS is. There are some minus point as well.

Minus points about the device

60 MB memory seems much pathetic decision though it has not penalised the performance in front of my eyes till now, but still if you are providing such a powerful 600 MHz processor and 256 MB NAND flash, then it doesn’t make sense in any case to have only 60 MB available user memory. Unfortunately that’s something beyond repair now.
3.2 MP camera with standard Nokia lens has no Auto-Focus, which counts as second biggest failure about this device. Though business series phones before Nokia E72 never been branded as best of camera phones, but still no auto focus makes it difficult to snap docs in clear print for sending that might be pretty handy for business users in some cases. Though I must say in rest all use cases I found it performing much better than Nokia 5800.
Nokia removed the camera cover and provided camera key as an improvement but noticeable late in opening of Camera seems to wasting the effort in design. Hoping that next firmware update might improve it.
Considering earlier T9 keypads people might be used to of, it will be troublesome in start understanding the Call and End Call keys, provided the fact they are not coloured in traditional green and red (inherited exactly from Nokia E72).

I wanted to repeat again, mention of only 60 MB ‘available’ user memory (even if it doesn’t affect the performance that badly as it might sound) will keep potential buyers thinking many times before buying the same otherwise, it must have been a great news for people waiting desperately for Nokia E5.

In all, this is a superb device for the real users, who want their work done at best rather than just showing off and want to keep it economical at best. I could assure you that in current date no one is providing such a power packed device in this price (Rs. 11, 900/-). For demanding users who can’t live with only one device, if earlier Nokia 5310 XpressMusic was my best bet for a backup phone, then now I will recommend this only.

Nitish Kumar
https://nitishkumar.wordpress.com
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http://nitishkumarsays.blogspot.com

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Welcome Nokia E52 to the family- The unboxing

As mentioned in last post, today become the day, when I got Nokia E52 in my hands finally. There were fears related to low memory, suspicions over camera performances but that high level of connectivity and battery life, I just experienced few days back with Nokia E72 finally became deal breaking and here am I, welcome Nokia E52 to the family.

I visited shops on last day as well, but got more confused about prices as they offered Nokia E52 in Rs. 11, 950/-, Nokia E71 in Rs. 13, 500/- and Nokia E72 in Rs. 17, 500/-. Definitely Nokia E72 was the best choice and price was at least Rs. 1, 500/- less than expected, same time Nokia E71 had a legendary reputation and also a close price tag with QWERTY. For me, connectivity was deal breaker as bro was to use the same only and so E52 won due to its upto 10 mbps download capability.

Second trouble was related to Navigation Accessories. As per recent announcements, now many navigation devices are coming with Car Holder or Car Charger etc and Nokia E52 was supposed to have Car Holder in package, but what packages all the shop owners shown (including Nokia Priority Dealers) were without the same. I thought to confirm more shops today, but luckily one HotSpot got the Ovi Package by today morning only and saved me from doing a compromise.

Coming back to Un-boxing.. I really think I should have gone for un-boxing all my devices with blog posts in past. I never did one for Nokia N70, Nokia N82, Nokia 5310 XpressMusic and even Nokia 5800. Thanks to my article over Nokia 5800 and later on trial devices from @WomWorldNokia that started this habit in me.

So, as shown the purchase location was local HotSpot and the price was Rs. 11, 905/-

Thought to add more spice in joy of brother with 8 GB Transcend Card.

This was a different blue colour package than the earlier available one for Nokia E52 on the same shop and as clearly mentioned, was going to include lifetime free walk and drive navigation.

While the sales package seems to be ordinary and I missed mention for any carry case, but the most strange thing was absence of any CD/DVD with the same. More strange was absence of any ear buds of the provided excellent quality headphones. I wonder why Nokia did this? Definitely all these things were no where costly.

Anyway, leave the negative things apart, here comes the beauty … the opened package with all accessories inside …

Oh did I mentioned about the shiny Car Holder ..

Next noticeable difference was the charger and adapter ..

Rest are some usual accessories with missing ear buds

Now this is the time to present the pages and manuals with device …

A nice T9 Keypad, dedicated Camera key, hot plug but covered memory card slot, metallic volume keys and power key and no cover MicroUSB port like Nokia N82 that’s what exterior of Nokia E52 showcases for you. The solid feel of body with unique texture on back and near five way scroll key adds in to the quality that an E-Series device should posses.

With any new Nokia Device, the first thing to be done always goes to be updates, got firmware update v34 and also an update for Ovi Suit. Also who was going to miss the famous 3.04 Ovi Maps and other my kind of basic apps (Chat, Fring, Skype, Google maps etc).

Interestingly, the screen size and resolution didn’t bothered me and I felt it like bigger than what I expected. Though technically I know its the same size as my Nokia N82 screen, but I didn’t expected that it will deliver exactly the same experience as I had with Nokia E72. Definitely, camera performed better than I expected, but I found myself complaining about the GPS (though didn’t given a full try under open sky which I will do tomorrow), its sure not like 5800 or N97 Mini or E72. Unhappy a little.

Oh!!! didn’t I mentioned that this handset I bought for my youngest brother not for me, but even then I thought that it deserved my ‘own special test’. Downloading a big file within the Smartphone and as CJ mentioned, its indeed exactly like Nokia E72 in terms of software.

So, first impression of the device are pretty solid and definitely delivered the same experience like I had with Nokia E72. Thumbs up E52, I am sure my bro gonna love it. In all, its an impressive device with a powerful 600 MHz CPU and insane 15 mAH battery in such a little price.

Nitish Kumar

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All set to buy Nokia E52

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May 24, a special day for my youngest bro, his birthday. Thought to give something special to him, a handset suiting to his requirements, long texting, longer talking, accessing web, social sites, mails and still wishes to have a slimmest of all. Here you go bro.. all set to buy a Nokia E52 for you.

Ok!! Admitting it, its not my choice look-wise even if it has a solid and slimmest build, not because its not good, but because I am used to of something else. QWERTY!!! Yes!! here it lacks what E71 and likes of that have, but leaving that aside, see what it got.

Best of connections; HSDPA, 10.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 2 Mbps, Bluetooth 2.0, microUSB 2.0, Free Ovi Maps Navigation via A-GPS coupled with Digital Compass (means all that I just seen in Nokia E72)

Best of meat; Got ARM 11 600 MHz, the same which E72 got. 128 MB Ram might be lesser than Nokia E72’s 256 MB, but still enough for keeping your experience more than smooth. Though 60 MB Internal memory kind of disappoints.

Best of battery life; That’s what even normal people love about ESeries devices, the battery. It got the same almighty 1500 MHz, which completely floored me while experiencing on Nokia E72. Hoping to get more of it on a slimmer device.

More of it, I have heard that it works perfectly fine with 16GB cards, nothing get slowed down or buggy. Will see for sure, got offered of 8GB card in Rs. 1200/-. I was worried about 60 MB Internal memory but most of the reviews rating the experience smooth enough (except mediocre camera performance, not that much issue).

The price I got of it was Rs. 11, 905/- and at the same time, they given me price of QWERTY champ Nokia E71 as Rs. 13, 500/-, while Nokia E72 available in Rs. 17, 500/-. Confused!!!! Which one should I go for???

Nokia E72 was not a question at all as wasn’t willing to put more expense neither did bro required such price as of now. Most of the confusion was around E71 and E52 and the deal breaker was HSPDA 10 mbps over QWERTY and improved OS looks of E71. Hope I didn’t made a wrong choice and bro gonna love this.

Still trouble remained otherwise, I would have bought by today only. As per Nokia India’s website there are Navigation Accessories included in package, while Priority dealer here in Laxmi Nagar, New Delhi seems to have no idea at all about that. Is it not available till now? Trying hard to confirm from @NokiaIndia, hope will get an answer before tomorrow.

What you think.. a smart choice??? What else you will like to present your tech bro?

Nitish Kumar

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Do I need a NetBook? Which one? Dell Mini or Booklet 3G

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One and half year back, when I thought to buy my first laptop, then there were sure many constraints to look for and definitely I went for the details in brief before buying (was a mean consumer for sure). I feel proud that the choice I made then, still wont disappoint me, if I get a chance to buy the same again. But yesterday, when a friend asked me for buying something that might be really portable and still good enough to hold his requirements, then my mind flipped once that are the requirements I thought then still stands? …

At that point of time, my aim was to have as much power I could have in most compact and economical way, but now requirements seem to have changed a lot. After one and half an year, thought to take a re-look over requirements changed over years …

I must say my Dell XPS M1530 was the finest piece of work among my other PCs and though later I bought a Compaq one as well, but remembrance of that form factor never left my mind. After playing with that for a while (lost the same in a theft very soon), more than the powerful hardware, the things I found most important for me, were the comfort to type, comfort to carry with and the comfort to stay connected fro anywhere.

But still after playing with Nokia N900 a while, I thought to add one most important comfort into the next portable device I would like to own, the longest of battery life, whatever the limits may go through. What’s point of carrying a big laptop with you whole day, when you can’t play with it for even more than 4 hours?

May be my requirements might have changed over years or I got more mature with my choices, but when I remember that where I really used my laptops most, then I find myself surfing the web, posting the blogs and watching the movies only while travel or when friends were busy on my comp. Surprisingly, gaming for which I went to buy a much high price then (60k+ was sure some high), was never been my choice in whole time. Finally, I was to admit the fact that Laptops were never meant that for gaming and heavy gaming is not gonna your favourite choice while travelling, so that’s not a thing that should have been meant to be deal breaking.

Probably now after one year or more, this explains to me and me like others that why a market for Netbooks emerged, why I see more 13”, 11” mobile machines around. May be you never imagined about working over smaller screens, but trust me, it takes you completely in it once you try it. Having such a lightweight thing and feeling assured that it has all what you want, sure a satisfying experience.

First of Netbooks I heard of, were Accer ones. Heard of their 8 hours and more performing capabilities. Sure a luring thing but didn’t excited me much once I heard of limitations like NO CD/DVD drives. Might be I was still not that into Netbooks.

Today till now, I seen a few of Dell Mini and this time it sure got my attention big time. A performance wise beast in price of less than $400 with built in GPS!!! In the same time, hearing of Nokia Booklet 3G with even a slot of 3G SIM with built-in GPS on same pattern as their Smartphones have, you could even make calls through it, adding to more there is legendary battery life as well, but this all with a higher price than expected.

Vs.

Question is which one to choose? Both are compact, both are good looking, but what more to look for? I have to see more.. comments required…

Nitish Kumar

Now you could download the app for this blog on your Nokia (Symbian5) via this link or widget via this link.

Nokia E72 Diary-The last day and some stress tests

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This was apparently the last day of trial, but unfortunately (?) DHL guy didn’t shown up, no call from their side and I was just waiting with huge mess at office. Anyway, the day ended and I thought to post a few moments with addictive Nokia E72.

After Nokia N900, this was Nokia E72, which really taken me under its spell. A device that spread itself into each moment of your daily life. Though their were points of complaint like not that loud speakers (could say that like just little bit higher than ‘normal’ of NSeries) and poor video recording performance perhaps, but two places, where this device is legendary is its battery performance and strongest of connectivity.

Battery: I must say that this monster didn’t failed a single stress test of mine about the battery. I already posted about my first test about that. My next tests were even more mean.

1. Inspired by one fellow WomWorldian post, I thought to drive the bike and record the moments from bike, but at next moment, I was to get embarrassed as roads between my office to home is not that hilly neither too glamorous to show off. What’s attractive in that to show? But still.. I kept Nokia E72 in my right front pocket (though later only I come to know that using spy cam is not just that easy, should have more experience) and drove back to home in late eve from office.

I was in doubt about the light that if it would be able to capture anything, I was in doubt that after heavy use in whole day, will the battery survive for at least 45 mins from Badarpur Border to Laxmi Nagar? 45 Mins of video recording and still it didn’t heated up, didn’t dried down or didn’t hanged. That’s something incredible. I just wish if the video quality was like my Nokia N82.

So, here comes a view of daily traffic on delhi roads in camera of Nokia E72. Did I mentioned it survived the whole trip and recorded around 46 mins. Obviously couldn’t have uploaded all of it. 😉

2. In continuation of my first stress test, I given it another test. Downloading three 700MB+ files back to back. Can you imagine? More than 2 GB download over a power consuming 3G connection and still it survives till the end. Yes!! barely but it survived. Obviously, I remembered only Nokia N900 that was alive with me even after watching two movie back to back on it.

You must be thinking na that how much download I might have done? Check out my data usages during the trial period (Note that today’s usages are not added as I was to reset the device to factory setting before sending, its another case that DHL guy didn’t shown up).

Just 13 day usages.. I am maniac na?? Just think if I was able to use it during the office hours as well? I was just using it after 8PM usually except the stress test that was taken during 2PM-5:30 PM. For people asking about the connection I am using, its MTNL 3G in New Delhi with data recharge of Rs. 2, 500/- per month. Obviously, I have to make something of this much amount, isn’t it?

Nitish Kumar

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NGPay for mobiles-Redefining the way you live your life

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Note: This is for Indian readers as I am not aware if NGPay is available in overseas

Mid of the night, you are talking with a friend that suddenly find that you are about to go down on balance. Bye dear!! will talk you in morning? why? You cant recharge at this time?

A happy weekend, you decide to go movie with a friend. Which movie? What are show timings? What are rates? How to book them fast? Lucky if you are at home and could surf sites over Laptop or computer, but what if you are in a restaurant with friends? There are so many malls, how many numbers you could remember for booking through SMS?

Got a few days off from office. Thought to visit your native place. Booked train/ flight ticket somehow, but didn’t got a return ticket, thought will buy from home side (In Tatkal may be). But there you find that only Internet Cafe is half a kilometer and that too suffered with full of virus infected computers and also power cut most of the time. What now? Will you join the queue on Railway station?

Yes!! you guessed right from the title, I am about to talk on NGPay; also known as India’s Largest Mall on Mobile. For people already knowing a little about it, its a confirmation post that it works flawlessly and for people new to this, here comes something to redefine the meaning of your Smartphone. Its mCommerce.

ngpay is India’s largest mall on your mobile, end-to-end mCommerce service. It is a convenient solution interface between the consumers and merchants. You can shop, bank, buy tickets, pay bills and more easily and securely from your mobile handset. A solution for all situations like I mentioned in start and much more to it.

How to start with: The service is not SMS based, it requires just basic GPRS functionality enabled on your Handset. You thus need to subscribe to basic GPRS plan from your Mobile operator (a rent free plan is available with most operators). And since it is a Java based application, it would work on most handsets (Sorry about Nokia N900 though). Just a 63 kb download from NGPAY.com (from your mobile) and you are ready to go, alternatively you can SMS “ngpay” to 56767 to get the link.

What you can do with NGPay? Not only the above three situations mentioned, you can go for more and more and the comfort will go on as the other services keep on adding into the catelouge. So its your one stop solution for all.

I have posted just a few screenshots to show that you can not only book move tickets, buy pizza, buy recharge PINs or Book railways/ flight tickets but can do much more than it. Sure amazing that how many services it covers. Personally it’s been lovely for me for recharging at odd timings and once life saviour for booking a train and a flight ticket.

How do you pay for your transactions here: ngpay is absolutely safe and has certified financial grade security. You can pay using a variety of payment instruments. Currently your regular MasterCard / Visa credit cards, HDFC Bank Account, and ItzCash cards are supported (yeah!! still not all debit cards, but I hope soon it will). For your convenience and quicker check-out, you can store your payment details in secure ngpay wallet.

I am using my credit card for the payment as currently it doesn’t support my IDBI Bank Account.

So, what are you thinking? Give it a try and tell me back, if its cool.

Nitish Kumar