Layman’s Take Unboxing of Nokia 500

[tweetmeme source=”nkumar_” service=”is.gd” hide_in_rss=”true” only_single=”false”]

It might feel odd for a few, but low price phones like Nokia C5, Nokia E5, Nokia 5800, Nokia 5233, Nokia 7230 etc always had a special place for me and I given them a due whenever got a chance. In past, there been many of the readers mails been of similar kind of questions that “what to choose if want to buy a phone under 10k-15k?”. So, it was obvious to be excited when I heard about a Nokia phone coming at a price less than 10k with 1GHz processor, 256 mb RAM and most importantly a capacitive screen. May be the same was the reason that Paul @WomworldNokia decided to give me one of the units for reviewing it and here it goes the unboxing video of the same..

 

 

I must admit that for many like me, Nokia 500 is an odd man out there due to no 3D Acceleration support and only Symbian Anna as an OS on it, but still if you think reasonably and think of the fact that what options were out there for people under 10k range and compare this 1GHz capacitive phone with earlier Nokia 5800, Nokia 5233, Nokia C6-00 etc, then you will know that why this is a welcome step.

Sure, one can’t help but get impressed that how Nokia managed to keep the premium feel in such a low price device as well. Remember the designs of Nokia 5800/5233 and just look at this… lovely for its price, isn’t it?


If you think that its just another Nokia/Symbian, about which we are hearing a lot of negative buzz in recent, then watch the video given below and think again, if you have seen it anywhere else and then remind yourself that it’s just a <10k device…

What you say?? Tell me on @nkumar_ or at nitish@nitishkumar.net that what more you wanna know about this.

Advertisement

The power in hands of mass-Nokia E5-Unboxing and first impressions

Sir! you got a parcel” – I got a call from the security in-charge of our office and I knew that it came.

27112010761

It would be wrong to say that I was not expecting the same. Great people at @WomWorldNokia and DHL both are transparent in their operations and being in New Delhi always come as advantage because I never had to wait for more than 4 days, once WomWorld people give it a go.

Happy to see a review unit back in house after a little pause. Thanks WOM people, thanks again.


This time, I thought to ask my friend Krishna to come up, so that I could get a fresh hand opinion from someone else as well. So, all the back ground stuff ends here …

 

So this was the shiny and slim blue box, we got for Nokia E5-00 and this time it was a white one. So it was the second white device to me in a row after Nokia N86.

27112010750 27112010756

After opening the box, I was greeted with the regular Nokia Accessories with white Nokia E5-00 taking the middle place.

27112010758

If you go by the specs, then a 600 MHz processor with 256 MB RAM that too with such a nice QWERTY, so reliable S60 V3 FP2 OS and an extended battery life with 1200 mAh battery sure deserves a price. Still for keeping the prices down, I was not expecting much of the goodies inside the box.

28112010786

Again that small tiny USB cable. I bet no other manufacturer would have been shipping such small cable. Oh! Com’on Nokia, it wouldn’t kill you if you keep on shipping those longer length USB cables.

28112010781

Matching with the colors of the device, we got the white stereo headsets as well, though for a surprise, those adjustable ear buds are not included in the package. May be price compromise. Fine with it.

28112010789 28112010791

The charger was a UK one (Indian package would be different), but with a socket as well.


When taken out of the box, the white color was a real piece of beauty for my surprise otherwise, I always been a fan of Black/ Dark Gray devices due to rough nature of my work most of the time.

28112010779* Obviously the pics was taken after setting it up but this was a beauty, isn’t it?

28112010818

The front of the device has a nice speaker in front top and a light sensor at its usual place.

28112010817

At the bottom, there is a tiny microphone and obviously none of you might be asking for some noise cancellation second microphone here considering the price of the device that is around 11.3k INR.

A richer and comfortable QWERTY with a longer space key in the middle and a metal plate featuring six buttons namely Left and Right Selection Keys in first row, Home keys and Messaging key in second row and finally Call key and End\ Power key in last row.

28112010795

I am trying to avoid the comparison, but let me mention few differences between Nokia E72 and this one. For me almost all of them been very positives.

  1. It removes Calendar and Contacts buttons (I wasn’t using them much in Nokia E72 either)
  2. It brings green and red colors to Call and End Call keys, which were plain in Nokia E72.
  3. It brings extra width for space key

If we rest of the device, then Nokia seems to have taken a very minimalistic approach in design.

 2811201081528112010811

Not many buttons are around and as we already have seen power key been already merged with the Call End key (though I Haven’t been favour of this compromise, but its about habit only). There are two plastic buttons on the sides, which pushes the battery cover out, when pressed. There is no camera/ Gallery buttons neither many would have preferred so for not camera centric device. The Navi Key works as a Camera button as well.

28112010812

Upper portion has the volume key on the right side, for which I will say that the feedback could have been better as current one feels a bit extra tougher.

2811201081301122010047

While there is nothing on the curvy bottom side, the top has the 2mm power jack, 3.5mm headset jack and one MicroUSB port covered with a plastic cap. Did I told you earlier that I always preferred devices without the plastic cover as such caps are always susceptible to be broken, but still I understand that many wants this to be in place as well.

28112010808 28112010807

The back of device features the 5MP Full Focus Camera, a single LED flash (works as video light too) and a stereo speaker. Though I would have argued over the placing of speakers on the back, but the volume is such crisp that I still doesn’t mind it. We also find Nokia E5-00 engraved at the bottom of battery cover, that’s cute.

2711201076030112010035

The same 1200 mAh battery that I criticize up to some extent in Nokia N8-00 and E7-00, I seems to be loving in Nokia E5-00 for sure. You can really really rely on this device for the whole day and night too.

30112010033

And may be many don’t stress over it, but for me placing of SIM slot always been important. We got exactly the same SIM slot as was there in Nokia N82 means no scratches over the SIM or struggling to put it right at first instance.

28112010800

While there are many arguments over the Full Focus cameras, but one thing is sure. Some casual snappers seems to be even liking it as I took opinion of some. No wait for getting focus right and you just have to keep the hands straight while taking pictures. Unbelievable for me, but many seems to be liking it. By the way, being a S60 V3 FP2 device, it also has advantage of having panorama mode inbuilt in camera.

30112010014

Some of the random shots in day light

28112010006 28112010004

And in night light. Yeah I will post Flash reactions later on.

30112010019

And at the end, let me tell you guys, just for sake of getting exact feeling of Nokia E5-00, I am keeping my Nokia N8-00 as retired and Nokia E5-00 has taken the driver seat. You know its not an easy job, is it?

28112010006

So, these were some of my first impressions on Nokia E5-00. All I can say is, this is a brilliant piece of hardware in a superb and very very well justified price. A device that you could live with for sure and still never regret like you never regretted with most of the E-Series devices.

You should expect some more coming in next coming days. Be tuned in ….

Layman take on Nokia N8 – Part 1 – The detailed unboxing

[tweetmeme source=”nkumar_” only_single=”false”]

Sorry guys I am late to come up with the post, while had my Nokia N8 since few days now. lots has already been said, lots of videos you seen, lots of pics and many of you even had your Nokia N8-00 in your hands by now. But still will try to make that up here.


Nokia N8-00: The box

It is the same eco-friendly blue box, like I had seen in case of Nokia Booklet 3G, plain and simple.

DSC01611

And while the picture above doesn’t give the exact idea, it was the slimmest box of any Nokia I seen recently. Check out the pics given below …

DSC01625 DSC01627

Hardly taking much of the space, the box also speaks in same minimalistic language as the design language of Nokia N8-00 is. (I missed my Nokia N82 box at the moment, I was taking snaps). Though if I remember right, then only Nokia N97 mini’s packaging was somewhat similar thickness, but that was much bigger than this.

DSC01624

One more noticeable thing is, they are not stressing over the camera part only by covers, like it was the prime focus in Nokia N82 or like some of the recent handsets focused on Ovi Maps neither on Ovi Music Unlimited that comes with it. They just say “It’s amazing technology, what will you do with it?

DSC01612 DSC01613

DSC01616DSC01630


Nokia N8-00: The content inside the package

When you open the box for the first time, then for the first time, it reckons about its camera by the engraved image on the last fold ..

DSC01631

The glass side facing your face, probably this was the first Nokia device I seen without any plastic/ paper wrapper on it. May be to symbolize the robustness of materials, Nokia N8-00 is made of. And yes! Black/ Dark grey is my color. There are four more colors also available, if you prefer anything else. Like one person on the shop asked me, there is no option like changing cases, due to integrated one piece build.

DSC01632

Inside the box, the pleasing part is to have the proper long USB cable back instead of the one, they shipping that 6” in most of other packages now days.  It shows that Nokia didn’t wanted to give any chance of complaint with this one.

Its a capacitive, so there is no stylus packed with. Though we seen a stylus in videos, but probably India is not among the regions, where it gonna shipped with stylus.

DSC01634

You get the following inside the box:

DSC01636

1. Nokia N8-00 Handset
2. Nokia AC-15N Battery Charger
3. Nokia CA-179 USB Data Cable
4. Nokia CA-157 USB OTG Adapter
5. Nokia CA-156 HDMI Adapter
6. Nokia WH-701 Stereo Handset
7. 3 Pairs of ear buds
8. 1 Nokia Ovi Suit/ Player mini DVD
9.  A quick start guide, a getting started with Ovi Services guide and one Ovi Music guide
10. A slimmer Nokia N8-00 Manual

 
 
I thought that manual would be thicker (remembering the earlier PDF Manual), but was slim just like the quick start guide. No battery outside as Nokia N8-00 comes with no user replaceable battery.
 
The device also come with Ovi Music Unlimited subscription, which people in India understand very late due to non-availability of free wi-fi spots out here. Downloading the pirated MP3 is so common here that it will take time to make people understand that how big thing Nokia is offering to Indian people.
 
This device also comes with life time navigation support with Ovi Maps 3.04 installed and life time Nokia Messaging on subscription on board.
 

Nokia N8-00: Detailed description of content

At first glance, you feel that you got the regular package with added USB OTG and HDMI Adapter, but there is much more improvements behind the prints..

Nokia AC-15N Battery Charger Known as Nokia Fast Charger, this charger come up with user retractable third pin. With less than 50 gm weight and standby power consumption: ≤30 mW, this 5-star rate charger stands for all reason that you wont be wishing to charge with your older 2mm Nokia Chargers. Obviously, the same series chargers will be part of all other coming high end devices as well.

 DSC01651 DSC01655

Nokia CA-179 USB Data Cable While I do not remember that this particular cable has ever been used in any of the past Nokia handset, it seems to be part of many new coming Symbian^3 handset like Nokia E7-00 and Nokia C6-01 (except C7 that has CA-101D). Though I am unable to find any info on it yet as they seems not selling it outside the package, but best thing people will find about it will be the length. Nokia seems to finally acknowledging the fact that still there are many, who don’t have laptops or netbooks.

DSC01646

Nokia CA-157 USB OTG Adapter I found some idiots saying that what’s new in USB OTG, some PDAs been doing it since years. Let me tell you, this part alone really changes the way, we were using the smart phones till now. People who keep on complaining if they have to tap on one more menu, should think that how much of their efforts are being reduced, when they are able to connect their other phones or flash drive directly to Nokia N8.

DSC01644

You might be surprised to know that Nokia C7-00 might be shipping without this cable even if that has USB OTG.

Nokia CA-156 HDMI Adapter While many saying it a HDMI cable in common, technically its a HDMI-C to HDMI-A adapter, with 19 pins and bandwidth to support all SDTV, EDTV, and HDTV modes. As per wiki, type A is electrically compatible with single-link DVI-D. It provides you the female connector for your type A HDMI cable coming from the LCD. And don’t go by the size only, if you lost this, then you might end up paying around 2000 INR for this adapter (and you were saying that N8 is over priced).

DSC01643

Nokia WH-701 Stereo Handset With 1350 mm long cord and all required buttons to control music and call, Nokia continues their legacy of shipping high quality of headset with their smart phones. This is the same headset, they shipped with Nokia N97 Mini and Nokia X6 in my knowledge, so you are already very much aware about its quality output. Like usual, it also include three pairs of ear buds, to choose from suiting your ears.

DSC01647DSC01648

Nokia Ovi Suit/ Player mini DVD  Most of us might not going to even open it, but its a surprise in the package otherwise, many of the devices were being shipped with Ovi Suit kept on the MicroSD card.

DSC01657

DVD version

Presence of five available language in installer might be due to regional presence, we get Ovi Suit Installer version 3.1.452 here and Ovi Player version 2.1.10304. With size of 462 mb, this DVD comes up with Ovi Suit version 2.2.0.241while the current version is 2.2.1.23.

Oviplayer

Ovi Player inside has its own set of requirements, of course bundled with. While I doubt that many might be using this one, but it has excellent options like iTune import, common music format support and a cool UI.

Ovi Player

Worth checking out.


Nokia N8-00: Price and only bad experience on Nokia N8

While escalated prices, no trials to hold back the esteem, it was a wild goose chase to find the Nokia N8-00 in right price, when Nokia dealers were inclined to sell it in MRP itself. Definitely, I didn’t enjoyed the situation even when I was a pre-order customer (though that’s being dumb ass, if you talk about India). After holding for 4 days, finally I given up and ended up buying the same from Nokia Priority Dealer.

191020101007 

Was this really a right decision to buy something from Nokia Priority Dealer ever? I must say this became the worse part of Nokia N8-00 purchase. Same dealer S.D. Enterprises, Gita Colony, New Delhi was stuck on 26k price since October 13, 2010 and when I finally got time to check other priority dealers from Rohini area and got to know that other selling it easily on 24k, only then he somehow agreed on 24k.

DSC01697

Within two days, one mate from my office informed about his Nokia N8 purchase in 22k… I was like WTF. Same city price and I was a pre-order customer … JACK ASS if you are a Nokia pre-order customer in India. And you know what, the same dealer still quoting that 26k price to new customers.

My friend of twitter suggested me to ask the dealer for extra amount returned, but I don’t expect Nokia to be like DELL, who returned extra amount of Rs. 2174/-after months, when I had no idea on my side that I was over charged on some tax regulations. Nokia has a good repute country wide, might be its a local issue, but sure it hurts faith.

I had purchased  more than a dozen Nokia Handsets and headset .. all from retail market. This was my first from any Nokia Priority Dealer, just to get this awesome device early and I got my lesson.

Never buy a device from a Nokia Priority Dealer, no one is retail market going to charge you more than them.

Definitely, its not like the device doesn’t worth 24k INR that I paid, but knowing that its already out in lesser and I would have saved at least 2000 INR (for some good bluetooth headset or 16 Gb MicroSD Card) … I feel like why I pre-ordered.


I am sorry for not including the unboxing video as the settings were not all right now days and probably, I need to learn some of many things about un-boxing yet, so skipped that part.

Keep tuned in.. I have many things to share on Nokia N8-00 … the game has just begin.

A full detailed Interactive Nokia N8 Unboxing-All Videos

Do you know what we Nokia fans do on twitter now days? Most of the timeline of mine goes on talking about Nokia N8 and why not.. where else we have something like a 12 megapixel mobile camera with Xenon, where else we have a gorgeous 3.5” screen with capacitive multi-touch, such a superb anodized aluminum body and where else many more things like this come at a price of under 25k INR? If you could hold yourself not talking about such a thing, then you must be brave for sure.

I guess one day back, I said that I wont be writing anything over Nokia N8 till I wont get the same in my hands as was really feeling jealous with my mate bloggers of the gang, who had their hands on this shiny new toy of town. Moreover, the whole blogger world is buzzing this much about Nokia N8 that it leaves really little for you to talk about Nokia N8, when you might have not seen it in real yet.


That was what I decided one day back, but here comes Nokia, here comes Womworld and 1000Heads, here comes the bonding they make with us in way like no one else does. You might have seen stories of many trial devices from Nokia to bloggers in past and some very exciting competitions .. but hold your breath, something most amazing happened today…

While I was already watching the interactive videos being uploaded by Nokia since Mondays and controlling my excitement about Nokia N8 somehow (I must say, no other smart phone from the past might have excited we Indians this much) , but it was till 1954 hrs of today …

After a stressing day at office, when I was really tired after reaching back to home crossing the terrible, rainy traffic and checked my mail box on my Nokia N82’s Nokia Messaging account, there was a mail from our very own Lydia and the WOMWorld/Nokia team

Hey Nitish!
Hope all is well over on your side?

Thought we’d drop you a quick mail to let you know the guys over at Nokia put a little surprise together for you 🙂

Not only are you the first person to see this, but you’ve also got a personal introduction to it all!

Let us know what you think, and feel free to share.

The intro:
http://www.luxusonlinesg.com/unboxing/FinalVideo/blogging_100831/Brenda_nitish_mp4.mov.zip

The unboxing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VPxntuYwVA

Lydia and the WOMWorld/Nokia team

 

This all got me suddenly much excited and excitement crossed the boundaries once, I downloaded the video from the link given in mail. Promise you guys @1000Heads, if ever, I owned a company, then you will be my marketing team, only you .. no one else.. you are beyond magic… just awesome.

Wanna know, why I am this much excited about the video? Check out the video yourself ..

 

Whoaa!! She took my name… how come Nokia came to know that out of those three people, I liked her most. I am still like dreaming… should say.. awesome was just a word before today.. now its a real feeling. Thanks Guys thanks.. you got me.. you totally got me.


People talk about Apple’s marketing and say that Nokia should learn a thing or two from them, but today I really think that if Nokia really need such marketing?

You need marketing to sell something ridiculously higher priced device that come to change your habits and leaving you constrained about features without pouring extra bucks at each step. You can’t make a complain as people will ask that why you bought something in double price and you become fanboy.

Nokia never been into such marketing and that’s the reason, you even find many negative words over bad products from even we like bloggers, whom people many times call Nokia fanboys, but still we are family, yes!! family… a word that is too easy to be spoken and used, but making people part of your family is something that is beyond marketing. Nokia is part of lives of ours… isn’t it?


Let me introduce you all something that really don’t need any kind of marketing to sell it … Nokia N8 unboxing in most awesome way, you might have ever imagined.

The blue boxes, as I seen with Nokia Booklet 3G, but so many of them… it feel really itchy and we feel like even begging from Womworld for our share from it.

We got three amazingly hot unboxers here presenting three streams …


1. Brenda the elegance: Brenda, whom I liked most among the three even before receiving the mail, is here to unbox the Blue Nokia N8. A color, which I would like chose if someone says that Black is dangerous to my life (otherwise Black is my color). I wonder that how come Womworld guys there knew that I liked her most?

 

Brenda represents the sober and elegant class, who weighs any product just not by exteriors, but by its features, its elegance … in short in most sensible way of judging. Truly speaking, she is so sober that it was hard to decide that what to look.. her face or Nokia N8.. LOL

In first part, she talks about things inside the box, which we will see in next videos as well. She shows each and every component of the Nokia N8 box and the first thing that relieves us is … yes!! we do have a proper length USB cable here (Thanks God! Nokia got the point finally). She shows the special stylus for the capacitive screen with the note that its available in select regions only and we really pray that it will arrive in India too.

Let’s see other part of the unboxing videos by Brenda that could be navigated to from end of the last video.

Five Vibrant colors of Nokia N8

 

After the unboxing get over, she demonstrates the five different colors of Nokia N8 here. While at one side, people are still waiting after months for white colored version of something… here Nokia coming with five brilliant colors from the day one. Yup!! for many, it’s hard to decide, which one to go for.

Multiple Home screens to choose and customize in one Nokia N8

 

Multiple home screens provide one a much better and larger space to put their priorities in their own unique ways. I loved the fact that Nokia kept the implement up to three screens only as it didn’t make sense to have like some dozens screen. Think you could have hundreds of icons on your desktop, but is that a good idea?

720p HD Recording

I still remember the days, when we were hiring professionals to shoot our videos in functions and not many were able to afford Digicams to record their precious moments. Then came the era of mobile camera and life really changed. I really think that youtube wouldn’t been such a big site, if there were no mobile cameras around. May be exaggerated my statement look like, but man.. look at the resolution.. where are we…  its not the resolution, but its the revolution. 

Social Networking

It really surprises you that how social networking has became an integral part of our lives. Its not long that when internet was meant to be Yahoo messenger and mails only. But today twitter and facebook like sites became bigger than anything. Facebook and twitter has as many users as not even many country might be having citizens in total. Sure the credit is to smart phones and when someone like Nokia N8 comes with Integrated Social Networking then..

Seamless Multi-tasking

There is a big world of apps out there when we talk about other operating systems and it looks like they have apps for everything.. even making a call also an app for them, I guess and may be even Antenna … what’s profit of having apps for little things which we never thought that should be separate thing from OS itself? What’s part of installing hundreds of small apps in your memory and keep on moaning that we have millions of apps out there for bucks, when you can’t run and navigate through even 12 together. That’s where you say..

Nokia is Nokia and Symbian still rules when it comes to Multi-Tasking.


2. Ryan the Geek: Geek.. someone on twitter said that when it comes to Nokia, then every Tom and Harry become Geeky and expert on mobile technology. I guess that should be taken as a compliment that how natural and simplified the technical innovations of Nokia are. Ryan here presents a Geek’s perspective about Nokia N8.

He goes with same unboxing as Brenda gone through or might be with some geeky little details and then let’s zoom in, what more details, he wanted to share about Nokia N8…

Bright AMOLED Screen and tough body

Definitely that gonna be some divine experience, when such a live and talking AMOLED screen with play with our fingers and we thought that big screens are meant to better view only. The scratch resistant body really assures us that its same robust Nokia we lived with since decades.

Ultra-Sharp 12 mp Camera

When I talk about Camera of Nokia N86 some days back, then I mentioned that its not only about Megapixels, when someone make a camera and it really make us proud that no one knows it better than Nokia itself. Definitely Nokia N8 is beyond that whatever you might have expected from a successor of Nokia N82 and Nokia N86 likes. Your phone is much much more bigger and important thing now and you are very much ready for handling anything instantly.

Flash Support

 

“Flash website are just way cooler to look at” – it really made me smile that Nokia chosen to make an entire heading over it. We all know that whom are they referring to and we are all with them. Flash is here to stay and no one could keep on deciding that what way we choose to live with.

Flexible Keyboard

 

Definitely this is the most important part, I am looking for. I already said once that its gonna be hard for me to live with some only touch phone, so it become so much of important that how touch keyboard of Nokia N8 gonna feel in my hands. Though still not demonstrated anywhere, I would really like to see that how swype will perform over it and also a request from Nokia for coming with idea of transparent keyboard as well. Still proper support for Landscape and Portrait modes delights.

High Speed Symbian OS

 

May have faced much criticism with touch devices, Symbian been a real Gladiator when it comes to mobile phones and Symbian^3 really really have a lots of expectations from it. We really expecting that Nokia has removed all the annoyances, people might be complaining till now. Each video seems solid and smooth… itching to feel myself.


3. Suzy the sizzling hot: She alls herself sizzling hot and even we don’t deny the fact as while playing all the videos, our eyes kept slipping from Nokia N8 sometimes. When she talks about Nokia N8, then she really talk about entertainment, looks and compactness of things.

After her own way of un-boxing, she talks about going under skin of Nokia N8

12 Mega Pixel Camera

 

It might have a different meaning for a Geek like Ryan, while for fashion conscious people like Suzy, it opens up another vibrant world of colors.

 

HDMI Output

I really wonder, if Nokia N8 will push up the sales of HDMI monitors, which are really down in prices here in India up to an affordable level (I have seen 48” in 44k). My Nokia N82 been a personal digicam for me since years and I always challenged even professionals, really wonder that how the world will fall in front of me, once Nokia N8 arrives.

Two ways of charging up

Definitely its cool to have feature of USB charging if all of sudden your phone is low on battery and you have no 2mm chargers around (Though unlikely keeping Nokia’s popularity in mind).

Faster Micro USB Output

Nothing was frustrating you more, when your smart phone was taking too much time, when you wanted to get ready for some trip and wished to fill up your phone with Gbs of songs and movies at the last moment. Not only USB OTG has arrived to forget such worries forever, but the enhanced speed of Micro USB sure gonna blow your mind, when you will experience it.

Crisp Call Quality

When we talk about Call Quality and signal reception, then there were never other names and its always been the most pleasant part that while making design decisions like keeping the battery locked down, Nokia never even dreamed of making compromises like Antennagate.

Though still we will be wishing for a better front camera always. May be that will arrive when our network will be capable of providing better speeds (even 3G is not everywhere in India).


So, these were the details about the huge flood of videos from Nokia side in last two days and at the end, again I would like to thank Womworld Team to make me feel close to them, when I was wishing much lonely without any trial device like C6, E5 or without any plans of going to Nokia World.

Whatever I do.. I am with you guys.. always. People please join with my voice, if wanna say something.

By the way, whose unboxing you liked most? My heart goes on for Brenda… what about yours?

 

Unboxing Nokia N86

[tweetmeme source=”mrnitishkumar” only_single=”false”]

Like Apple fanboys, there always been many Nokia N82 fanboys all around the globe, those who never given up over this device and same keeping the legend alive even after three years when people have completely forgotten that how first iPhone was. Living three years straight and still roaring to continue the journey that could be only some brave heart, that was our beloved Nokia N82.

Collecting fanboys all around the world, with Nokia N82, all of sudden, Nokia, who always liked to challenge its own device with new variations, found itself against its own device as ‘a rival’ that seemed to be invincible to get challenged. Was hard to challenge the legacy of Nokia N82, but Nokia given a try with Nokia N86 with high pixels and so many other features. Before getting hands on Nokia N8, I thought to just get familiar with evolutions of camera technology with a new trial from WomWorld/Nokia, a successor of the legacy, Nokia N86 and ….. I was not knowing that this going to surprise me this much.

Lets see… Layman’s un-boxing today and some boring blah blah…

After a long wait after requesting a Nokia N86 from Katie, finally yesterday was the day, when that DHL guy arrived at the gate of my office. I am sure that he and my office colleague might have started to think that I am some kind of import/ export guy or smuggler 😉

That’s a tough thing to be a office person. You get a trial device delivered and you know that out of all excitement, you wont get time to open it before the late eve, when you reach home. But, thanks to WomWorld and my office routines, I feel myself much patient person now 😉


 

The package: The package shouts camera first even if Nokia N86 now have free ovi navigation as well. All around the name was mentioned as Nokia N86 8MP, sure the first new thing in comparison of Nokia N82 package.

The strange thing was the mention of N-Gage as I didn’t found any N-Gage game icon in the phone, while it was there in my Nokia N82 as well. Is the free game offer with Nokia N86 discontinued? Not sure!! Will try to look into it.


The contents inside the package: A slimmer box than Nokia 5800, Nokia N86 comes with all the usual accessories, we have been familiar over the years except two possible missing components; TV-Out cable and might have been important traditional to USB power converter (it has a mini-USB port for charging).

But there was one thing, I was most happy about … it was the first time, I was trialing a pure white device (I wished to have hands on while Nokia E72 in past). What is beauty to watch …

Matching white stereo headphones and upgraded battery 1200 mAh (in comparison of N82) sure going to be treat to me 🙂


Specs: If you start comparing on specs sheet, then you will find that Nokia N86 wasn’t only ahead of Nokia N82 on megapixels, but there were many new things in this worthy successor.

Connectivity

GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
HSDPA 900 / 2100
HSDPA 850 / 1900 / 2100 – American version

Size

103.4 x 51.4 x 16.5 mm, 69 cc

Weight

149 g

Display

AMOLED, 16M colors
240 x 320 pixels, 2.6 inches
– Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate
– Scratch-resistant surface

Speakers

Yes, with stereo speakers
– 3.5 mm audio jack
– Dedicated music/gallery keys

Storage

8 GB storage Internal , 128 MB RAM

Card slot

microSD, up to 16GB

Data

GPRS Class 32
EDGE Class 32, 296/ 177.6 kbits
3G HSPDA, 3.6 mbps
WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, UPnP technology

Bluetooth

v2.0 with A2DP

USB

v2.0 MicroUSB

Camera

8 MP, 3264×2448 pixels, wide 28mm Carl Zeiss lens, autofocus, dual LED flash
Variable aperture, geotagging, ISO 800
Video VGA@30fps
Secondary Camera VGA videocall camera

OS

Symbian OS v9.3, S60 rel. 3.2

CPU

ARM 11 434 MHz processor

Radio

Stereo FM radio with RDS; FM transmitter

GPS

A-GPS Support, Ovi Maps 3.03

Others

– Dual slide design
– Digital compass
– WMV/RV/MP4/3GP video player
– MP3/WMA/WAV/RA/AAC/M4A music player
– Document viewer (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF)
– Voice memo
– Kickstand
– Flash Lite 3.1
– TV-out

Battery

Standard battery, Li-Ion 1200 mAh (BL-5K)
Standby Up to 312 h (2G) / 264 h (3G)
Talk time Up to 6 h 18 min (2G) / 3 h 54 min (3G)
Music Play Up to 25 h


Build: Complaints first …

Call it raised expectations due to E72 and N97mini like premium devices, but now I have started expecting more metal in Nokia devices. So, it was disappointing to see a hard to open plastic back.

The other complaint was from the SIM slot. The mechanism of inserting and removing SIM seems prone to scratching SIM due to pure mechanical nature. I was really more happy, if they would have placed the similar tray mechanism as was in Nokia N97mini or even slot mechanism like Nokia N82.

The good points ….

First is the beauty

 

Though it feel almost the same bulky as was Nokia N82, but addition of kick stand was a fantastic decision and same was the metallic border.

 

Same way, I think that the new keypad design was to answer the complaint of tiny keys in Nokia N82 (but I loved that design) and dedicated music keys were sure a wish granted people demanding for the same in Nokia N82.

No pen key as its already discontinued withy almost all Nokia phones, but notifications lights on Menu key and a tiny charging light was absolutely making the design ticking all boxes.

The placement of Memory card is under the back cover seems fine, because for inserting/ removing card, you wont be needed to remove battery and also protects from dust etc.

Same way, we find a smooth and improved camera cover with Nokia N86 here


Nokia N82 and Nokia N86

Leave the build and superb camera a side, geo-tagging and FM-transmitter are something that making me excited enough. It looks like Nokia was thinking to remove all the complaints from Nokia N82, when they made Nokia N86.

Though processor and RAM specs are the same, but we got a huge 8GB internal storage than 100 mb internal storage of Nokia N82. With upgraded OS, option of geo-tagging, complaint of dedicated music keys, metal casing, better camera cover mechanism and addition of un-lock button in side.

What I liked after starting the device was the screen saver… well I am sure that there might be a screen saver like this for Nokia N82 as well, but where you will get an Amoled Screen like Nokia N86. I agree with all the talks that might be going around super amoled and all. It rocks.

 scr000007

I also placed both the devices into a macro test and below were the result. Guess yourself that which one is of Nokia N86 and which one is of Nokia N82?

 

Any differences here?


Though one thing that made me worried was scratches over the lamination of screen. If it was my own device then I should have changed the lamination, but now I have to live with it in next two weeks. Again mind asking the same question, how safe the big screen touch device are from such scratches??

So, this was it … there gonna be many talks around this new member of the family, keep tuned in and guide your questions/ suggestions in my way. What I should do more with Nokia N86?

Nokia Booklet 3G Mini Review-Thats something lovely to unbox

[tweetmeme source=”mrnitishkumar” only_single=”false”]

This was probably the quickest delivery from @WomWorldNokia to me. It was just evening of June 2nd, 2010, when Katie informed me that they could manage a trial Booklet 3G for me, I sent back the filled trial agreement only by late eve and it was delivered to me by June 5, 2010, first half of the morning straight from London to New Delhi. Dammmn fast!!! Cool.

Yes!!! Nokia Booklet 3G, the cutie pie is in my hands and that too before the weekend, its a joy that’s been hard to digest. Yippppiieee!!!!!

31[1]


 

0506201015205062010153

It was a pleasant weather since morning and like me, whole of the New Delhi was expecting the first rain of this season. It’s been teasing us a lot in last many days.

But I’ve been waiting for something else as well; the Nokia Booklet 3G DHL shipment. The suspense was killing as it was a Saturday and if it would have missed the day, then it was meant to miss a Sunday without this shiny toy. I am sure most of the office going people could understand my eagerness.


The rain got delivered to city by late eve only, but the shipment came before time 🙂 9:30 AM and a colleague of mine Arjun smiled while saying congr8s to me. The shipment was at the gate.

0506201015405062010155

0506201015605062010158


I would have thought that its similar box like other vendors like Dell use to deliver their Laptop, but as I already seen some un-boxing of the same thing, so sure was waiting for the beautiful blue box inside and here it came ….

0506201016105062010163

0506201016705062010171


The beautiful blue box had not many colors or pictures on it like older Nokia boxes would have been in past, but this one follows the same tradition as was with Nokia N900; the easy disposable nature friendly material. But don’t you think that the blue has its own class? For me, its much sober.

05062010168


Ok. Enough hooking up with beautiful box now, its time to open it up.

05062010173

No folds and a solid tray like box to hold Nokia Booklet 3G, I wonder why not other Laptop or Netbook vendors follow the same trend? That’s some solid box for real.

One complaint, why Nokia doesn’t include a carry case with Booklet 3G?


Anyway, here is the real thing, presenting you all Nokia Booklet 3G (I kept a CD in side, so that you could get some idea about the size).

0506201017505062010178

I know, even now, just from pictures, its not possible to imagine the exact feeling, but I bet  you will start loving the 10” size, once get something like this in hands. I am really wondering that do we really need those 15” Laptops or soon then will be old fashioned?


13

024

So, what you find here, speakers on both the sides, two USB Ports on left along with HDMI port (no HDMI cable provided though) and Headphone slot (thing to notice was there is no microphone slot, while its been part of all Laptops, I have seen). Right side has SD Card slot and SIM card slot covered with one flap, then a USB port next to it and finally the power cord slot.


56

Oh!! Did you thought that I will miss the back and battery details? Here you go …

06062010276

Probably after the compact size, longer lasting batteries been the most important selling point for Netbooks. Laptops always been blamed for poor battery lives, I mean you can’t even watch two movies back to back on the same, then what’s purpose of thinking it a entertainment device? And if you have to carry such a big device that makes just the same bulk of baggage as your normal cloths one, then what’s mobile in it?

Netbook segment answered the questions with a battery that could serve you for more than 8 hours.


Now, what about other accessories in the package …??

78

Can you imagine, I was much happy over finding the cleaning cloth inside. A must have for the device coz of its shining surface, but it also make me think that even if its a Aircraft grade material, but seems susceptible to scratches over the front at least.

Rest accessories are AC-200 charger, WH-205 Headset, CA-126 USB Cable (surprisingly special one) and of course a user guide. No DVD for OS or other things neither do any HDMI cable.

Will cover accessories in more details.


01011[1]

12013

Accessories of Booklet 3G are special in their ways. Look at the AC-200 Charger, what a piece of beauty it is in itself. I liked the same. Though the US plug given me a headache in first look as the same was here in case of E72 I got last time and in India, we don’t find matching plug for the same. But Nokia Booklet 3G do include the Socket matching the country. Even if Booklet 3G is not been released in India yet, but it was pleasant and relaxing to see the socket included in the package.

014


The next comes the headset, WH-205 …

15

The stereo headset WH-205 seems similar to those, we seen with packages inside other Smartphones, but the difference was inclusion of three difference sized ear buds means you need not to stuck with standard sized ear buds and actually could have one to suit your ears from three differently sized sets of them.


Are you missing something? The usual data cable shipped with Smartphones, you were used to see in un-boxings? But what’s point of having a data cable with  a Netbook? I am not sure, but Nokia decided to include one and more surprising its the best one, I have seen till date.

16

Nokia Charging Connectivity Cable CA-126, it must be available in some price in stores, but I wonder that why this amazing thing is not being included in Nokia’s Flagship Smartphone models? Not even Nokia N900 or coming Nokia N8 has it. Why so??

It does provide you high speed connectivity over USB to Micro-USB, but also provides you a way to charge your Smartphone with standard 2mm charger point. A must have for people, who like to keep their Smartphone connected to their Desktops or Laptops, specially useful for those, who use their Smartphones as modems to connect internet.

I think its a cool thing to buy even in a price.


1817

Ok.. enough about the package, lets get inside of the thing. The first thing to notice after switching it on was the very familiar Nokia Hands (didn’t got a clear picture of the same though). So, as the BIOS says, processor is Intel (R) Atom (TM) CPU 2530 1.66 GHz with system memory of 640 KB and RAM as 1GB.


First thing to see was the size comparison

24

Though it looked odd that Nokia didn’t utilized the screen space well. There is plenty of room left below the screen and even on the side of screens. I just felt something like Nokia N97 classic and Nokia N900, where as N97 leaves much space unutilized, N900 seems making use of each mm. Perhaps that we would have loved, if if either it was more compact or if screen size should have increased to at least 11” to fit the bill otherwise from the front, it sure look like some toy rather than an extreme efficient and serious device that it was intended to be.

Am I being overly rude over screen? I guess so, but I wrote what I expected from a 10” device, make full use of space provided. But sure the screen has many positives, colors were sure brightest and though I didn’t included a snap outdoor yet, but taken it outside once to show some of my friend and sure it was very much visible under even sunlight. The resolution of screen was 1200+ that’s sure amazing for a 10” device. I am sure no one would have any visibility issue or text reading difficulties with this.

By the way, which posture of the device will suit you, the one given below or the one after the same? Check out

21

022

I liked the later look for reading books or blog over it. Now it really got me thinking that devices like Apple iPad should be feeling awesome. I will still wait for other vendors like Nokia or Dell coming up with their iPad versions, coz greedy Apple is always a No No to me till they don’t change their ways of paid upgrades or such other bullshit kind of things.


Next thing to notice was keypad. As I had my hands on Nokia N900, so I knew that Nokia knows how to make keypads in little space and sure it reached up to my expectations. For me, my benchmark of keyboard was that Dell XPS M1530 and it sure touched that about comfort to type on.

 

1920

Though there are issue with keypad as well. I guess many of you, who might have their hands on it, will agree that there is something wrong with placing of ‘Enter’ and ‘#’ keys in the right and similar way, left ‘shift’ and ‘\’. At least for me, its been confusing till now.

I guess Caps lock keys (that’s a beauty due to blue light over it for indicating status) could have been a little small give Enter Key little more space on the other side and similar way, right shift could have been little smaller in size to make room for left shift.

The other problem (?) with keypad, there is no backlit keys, which makes typing in dark a trouble for people uncomfortable with blind typing. I don’t know how much that thing costs as I seen backlit keys only in premium devices till now, but I guess the price tag Nokia Booklet 3G holds is a premium one in itself and should have deserved that feature.

I find rest all things perfect at their places, but Nokia please bring one more version to get these minor glitches right.


025026

Even after bringing some of the nicest things on board, there are a few things that will be keeping Nokia Booklet 3G behind the competition. The biggest of them is the price tag. Dell Alien ware M11x has the same price tag of 36k+ and brings you much more value for the money than this and here we find, Nokia stuck with a stupid edition of Windows & Starter. Sure a huge disappointment in itself.

I guess at least MeeGo is a must now, if Nokia really wanted to sell this thing, Windows 7 Starter Edition is just not there in anyway.


Coming back to positive side again, the name Booklet 3G, sure the first thing to do for me was to push my MTNL3G SIM inside it to see if it works. It didn’t. I thought some problem with the 3G band in India, but soon found out the issue, I was to press Fn+F10 to bring the Menu and then choose 3G on.

speed

Can you imagine this? A speed of 2.51 mbps @MTNL3G in New Delhi on a Netbook without hooking it with any Smartphone or ay available Wi-Fi. I just love it and demand it from all the vendor to make it a standard to include Pent band 3G SIM slots in their Netbooks or Laptop. 

23

After reaching to my home from office, I also got to read that someone got it running over EDGE as well. I didn’t had an idea about that and for checking I inserted Aircel SIM inside and whooooaa!! it worked and connected me to internet, I checked Vodafone as well and it was same. Sure a good news to know.

Nokia Booklet 3G works over EDGE as well. see pics below

aircelbrowsing on aircel1


I don’t know how the battery meter of this calculate the remaining time, but what I seen is sure impressive. Check out yourself.

battery life

Will see more of it in action in next day usages.


Ok.. I guess its been kind of really long un-boxing or could say I almost went for a Mini review here. Will try to find more and more time with it and thinking that what I need more to buy … keep tuned and sure take a look over the last three pics that I placed after finding a similar colored Dell Inspiron at a friend’s place. Shiny na!!!

02930

028

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.

23052010079

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.

2305201010123052010102

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

2305201010423052010103

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


2305201010923052010111

2305201011223052010139

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.

2305201010723052010113

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 …

2305201011523052010116

Oh did I mentioned about the shiny Car Holder ..

2305201011423052010131

2305201013323052010136


Next noticeable difference was the charger and adapter ..

2305201012323052010118

Rest are some usual accessories with missing ear buds

2305201012423052010122

2305201012023052010100


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

2305201012723052010128

2305201012923052010130


2305201008223052010092

2305201009323052010099

2305201008323052010081

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).

scr00000723052010067

scr00001323052010066

scr000002scr000017


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.

scr000016


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.

photo of Nitish KumarNitish Kumar

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