Why India gets things late, Nokia?

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So, the wait seems to come an end by Friday Noon as it being  reported once again on few blogs and tweets that a device that (Biggest bet is a Nokia N900) been long awaited finally reaching the land of Taj Mahal. As far as the hints tell, Desktop like browsing, Huge storage and still left way to expand more then out of the box DivX support, Is something remains to tell more?

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I posted the same news on May 11, 2010 already in clear words, when it was told to be arriving within week but then I got mention from @NokiaIndia itself that it wont be the date (in a week), but at the same time, it wont be too far as well. You should check the post for sure that on what basis of the news was.

Anyway, coming to the point. Nokia N900, a device that has a place, which even Nokia N8 not gonna surpass that easily. The device, which makes you think twice about buying a netbook … the magic that engages you for full time, whether it be office or hone or travel, a device that calls for some addiction like people called for iPhone only.

Yes!! even if late, we are excited about the arrival of it in India and even if now days people are pretty glued over twitter and blogs to know about the launch dates of Nokia N8, I am dead sure that they are many out there, who will make their purchases without  waiting for upcoming most advanced symbian experience. You think, I am stupid saying this… ??? You didn’t have touched a Nokia N900 then.


Sometimes heart asks that why best of the technology like this come to India much after being release everywhere in the world? Sometimes, we Indian thinks that why the second biggest market for mobile handsets get a second grade treatment from Nokia or likes?

The mind answers, “With the great power comes the great responsibilities”. Perhaps Indian market is the meanest one in the world, where people don’t run behind the things in name of buzz. A thing gets a place, when it actually worth it, the reason it failed iPhone badly and Nokia 5800 rocked here. The price is kind of biggest factor here and sometimes asks companies to dive much below their actual costs.

Obviously a huge market like this puts much pressure over companies as European or American customer could buy something for the buzz around the device or if its a tech icon or status symbol kind of, but luring a Indian Customer is hard. More of it, if some device fails here on Indian Standard in first attempts, then even if it get improved, it gets difficult to gain momentum again.

Still the question with Nokia N900 (if it’ll be launched here) will be of Price coz perhaps only that is the thing that matters most for consumers here. Are we going to see some features stripped to make the price point dipping to go below Rs. 25, 000/- ? Like 32 GB could be stripped to be 16 GB … lets wait till friday.. will you buy if its a Nokia N900 with price point under 25k?

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

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.

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

So, finally its July 2010 for Nokia N8

If you have your eyes on a new Nokia N8, the time is getting close. The countdown timer at the Helsinki HQ of Nokia reads 44 days and 7 hours until launch.

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Yahoo and Nokia joins hands

No I am not late to the news, thanks to Twitter, I was well aware of the same announcement once it was made about the deal between two major players Nokia and Yahoo, but at that time I was in journey and now after reaching home, was busy with parents and purchases, didn’t got a moment to comment on the same. So, joining in now ….

For the people, who don’t know about the news, here are the words …

May 24, 2010, Nokia and Yahoo officially spoken about the deal that was already being speculated with code name Project Nike. While earlier it was expectation that Yahoo! will come up with things like revoking old relations like Yahoo! Go Mobile (which were once backed by Nokia and later were vanished from the screen), it came out something bigger than that when both of them announced that from the second quarter of the year Yahoo! Maps will be branded as powered by Nokia while Ovi Mail and Chat etc will be branded as powered by Nokia.

For the simple logic, I must say that it seemed making some sense. Currently only Ovi Maps seems to handling the tag of being only competitor of Google’s Map offerings and perhaps in a way seems to be best selling point for Nokia Smart phones now days on the other hands, even if facing tough competition and somewhat getting weaker day by day, Yahoo! mail and some of its services still has a firm presence in market (In fact, in America still Yahoo is the most visited site) and definitely capable of doing much better than currently Ovi Mail is doing, which only seems to serve purpose of news only till now.

But the question is that what change does this deal going to make and is anyone excited about the same? Why not? Why not deal  between such two big companies making a huge buzz that would have been here if Google and Nokia might have signed a pact?

I come to read somewhere that someone said that two losers don’t make a winner. Sounds true as Yahoo! loosing big time on grounds of maps and Nokia struggling at its best for pushing Ovi Mail, contacts and chat to its customer base. Both already have tried on their level best, but didn’t got some improved results themselves. But still their joining hands doesn’t excite, at least for Nokia fan base.

Is the deal of some worth to Nokia?

Yahoo! is getting irrelevant day by day, but its not the case with Nokia.

People might have been saying that Apple and Google eating up share much faster than anyone could have expected and soon Nokia will be forced to remain mute from Smart Phone market, but neither me nor many of likes will find it reasonable. Nokia still getting strong by providing best value of money at all the level, still they are the biggest manufacturers in the world and release of sets like Nokia N900, Nokia E72 and Nokia N8, nothing seems to stopping them in near future as well. Ovi Maps have became part a normal Smart Phone user’s life, while Nokia Messaging after some early hickups now seems to getting steady to beat RIM offerings.

Yes! the only places their Ovi services seem to be failing are mail and chat. Its been long since they tried hard to push these two services (their chat app only enable Ovi for Voice talk or Avtar showing capability), but it doesn’t made any sense till now. But is a pact with Yahoo going to solve any issue? Does Nokia really needs Yahoo at this point? Are you announcing your weakness in loud words?


Nokia Yahoo

What’s the problem?

My voice is not new. Many might have been disappointed with this deal. Many voices have sent negative concerns. What innovative one finds in this decision? If Nokia might have taken over Yahoo! completely then it would have made sense, but now it seems that Nokia thinking to keep itself limited to manufacturing Smart Phones and leaving the whole of its internet offerings on its new experienced partner.

Definitely a big disappointment as we have not much hope left as far as Yahoo is concerned. With Yahoo! Go, yahoo was ahead of its time, thinking more seriously about the mobile services and this new emerging market but their miserable failure pointed that they lacked of innovations somewhere, only which is badly needed to Nokia right now. No one is expecting neither anyone assured them that this deal will offer users something entirely new. Ok! people are not using Ovi Mails, but how many are using Yahoo! till now? or even if some then will anyone new will start coming toward it when Gmail and Hotmail still offering best of the things?

The deal might give some life to Yahoo but for Nokia, it seems to end up as a bad joke only. Definitely its not that what Nokia is looking for.

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

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.

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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.

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

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


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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.

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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 …

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Oh did I mentioned about the shiny Car Holder ..

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Next noticeable difference was the charger and adapter ..

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Rest are some usual accessories with missing ear buds

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

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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).

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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?

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.

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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.

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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).

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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?

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