Tag: WomWorld

Laymans take on Nokia BH-217, the big review

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A few days back, I took a trip to Nokia Priority and noticed that a cute and sleek Bluetooth handset, about which we talked about in Nokia World 2010 days, finally has made its ways to market. Nokia BH-217, very sleek, very catchy to the eyes and well matching the build quality of Nokia N8 like some natural buddy . Being active in the blogosphere, I already knew that beyond the looks, it also is a very capable handset and made the decision of purchase, in fact made the order.

But some of your days really get lucky, when you have folks around like @womworldnokia. An innocent tweet, I made to ask friends that if anyone might have used Nokia BH-217 and was almost jumped from the seats, when my most favorite and WOM God father @_ODoG_ replied via a short tweet “Check your mail”.

Like always been, two three days more and the shiny kid of the block was right in my hands with usual DHL packaging.

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I was like in hurry to open the box and to see, the one that came all the way to me for review, which I was just about to buy. The blue box and what first appeared to my eyes is the silver Nokia BH-217 with the doc.

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After opening the DHL’s yellow parcel, I was greeted with the usual baby blue packet and what I found more interesting was the green sweet box kind of casing for the headset and related accessories (though my green box was damaged a little, may be delivery damage).

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It was the first time, when I seen some kind of dock with a bluetooth handset and then the headset itself… what a beauty …. lovely piece of work

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I will come over details of doc later on, but before that presenting you the glorious and all classy

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Nokia BH-217

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I really loved the fact that now I will not be needed to keep my headset in ears always due to presence of handy dock provided with it, which can be hooked into cloths (pocket etc) very easily like wired headset.

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The Nokia BH-217 box was full of goodies, containing much much more things than I ever would have seen in any other headset package (except BH-905).

Full content of the package

  • Nokia Bluetooth Headset BH-217 Silver
  • Carrying clip and car cradle (both white)
  • Nokia Charger AC-3E
  • Three earplugs (size S, M and L)
  • Two ear hooks made of transparent plastic (size M and L)
  • User Guide

Technical specs

  • Dimensions 50.5 x 17 x 6.2 mm, Weight 7.6 g
  • Single Operating keys to remove/replace the headset in the clip or car cradle to power on/off and answer/end calls, Multifunction key for power on/off and answer/end
  • Nokia 2 mm charger connector interface, 45 mAh Li-ion Polymer rechargeable battery
  • Talk (Bluetooth): Up to 5 hours ( I found it better than specs while using) and up to 3 months in clip or car cradle
  • 10 m (Bluetooth use), DSP noise reduction, Adaptive volume adjustment
  • Unique voice guidance to assist in pairing the headset, and for battery and connection status indication

Now going into closer details …

Headset exteriors

When we look over the headset itself without the earplug, then not only the built is kind of one-piece, but they have taken an extreme minimalistic and slim approach.

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There is no buttons except the one for call receiving and ending. You find a tiny quad-color LED on the top side in back (green when the charge level is sufficient, red when charge level is low, yellow means you may need to recharge the battery and blue when in pairing mode). 

14122010885In the bottom, you find one tiny screw, one 2mm charging port and a pair of metal contacts to switch it off, when kept in any of the two docks.

While some might miss the volume button, but I found it perfect with the fact that what a slim build they are providing.

The Ear buds with headset

Well! I must admit that in the first sight the shape was odd to me and I was thinking that why this D shaped hooks over the simple shape we known about the ear buds till now.

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Still not sure about the exact reason, but one thing is sure, due to their shape, you don’t need to use the hooks at all, which been a pain in ear since long. I know many of you will feel that how its possible to carry the headset in ear without using the hook, but I assure you that I am using it without hook since last three days and it didn’t dropped for even a single occasion. You just need to choose the right size for you, might be a little trouble in finding exact fit place, but once fit, you will not even feel it on your ear. I am using size S.

Carrying clip and Car cradle

I am not sure that if there are other Bluetooth handsets, which come with such clip and cradle, but as I am concerned, I am like loving it a lot. The package is kind of full value of money (the best price quoted to me is 1750 INR in Delhi, but I am expecting it to go more less)

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The cloth clip is simple enough and yet holds the headset very firmly. You will notice that on the bottom, there is place for 2mm charger, which will be exposed  only if you put the headset front facing toward the open side. Much handy, if you want to keep it in charging and will save any kind of scratches, which were sure there over time, when you were keeping it over surface like some table.

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Similar about the build of the car cradle, which I am not using at the moment due to absence of car, but one of our friend @sachin_malhotra, who recently bought a black one, just loving it.

Ear Hooks

Though I am not using the hooks and one of my oldest headset Nokia BH-204 went useless only because of loosing the hook, so I am happy with it.

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But for people, who like to use it for the safer side (like in situations of running etc), there are two of them. Glossy transparent white ones. Not sure, how the black ones are, but will soon check out, when I will buy one for self.

The charger

The Ultra-compact charger is lightweight, rapid charging and has a smaller plug so you can carry it around with ease.

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Obviously it is the universal 2mm one, which could be used to charge other Nokia handsets as well.

Unique things about Nokia BH-217 usability

For the details of features, you can take a look over the Official page, but let me tell you about things that I noticed.

  • The handset comes with adaptive volume adjustment and DSP noise reduction inbuilt (software based I guess, unlike BH-905, which uses multiple microphones for the same), which I found not making enough difference while hearing songs, but was very well noticeable while on some call. Calls are crisp and clear on both the side and I am not saying this just for saying, they really are.
  • The second unique thing about the headset is Always Ready feature. It automatically connects with the handset within a second at most, once you take it out from the holder. Keeping the headset in holder will come into your habits soon when you will know that it provides over 3 months of battery life while kept in holder (because its in  stand by there).
  • The third and most important lovely fact about this tiny piece of magic is “It can connect two devices simultaneously”. I tried even third one, but it just remember the last two connected devices and will leave the first one and if already connected with two, then wont connect with the third one.

    It also co-ordinates well with both the connected devices, like if you are on call via one handset and receive call on second one, then it puts the first one on hold, similar about if you were hearing the music over one handset and the call came over other handset, then it will pause the player.

  • Get helpful voice guidance from your headset to help you pair it with your phone, and to indicate battery and connection status though I will say that I found the volume of guiding speech a little low or might be we Indians are used to of high volumes 😉

It was interesting to note that while connecting to Nokia N8, it didn’t asked for a password and same about Nokia E5-00 (which is with me now days, thanks to @womworldnokia), but while connecting to Nokia N82, it asked for the same and I was to use the default “0000” one. Look like something changed with Symbian that I didn’t noticed before.

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So, this was all about Nokia BH-217, which you might wanna know, if looking for some really sleek and light weight Bluetooth headset that should be surprisingly cheaper and yet at the finest edge of features.

Drop me your  comments, if any questions about it.

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Santa, Can I have a Nokia N900 this Christmas?

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Yes you heard it right. I am not talking about Nokia N8, so its technically not related the Ovi competition, but sure the post from Rita made me think that if I wish something for this Christmas then what it might be (as I bought a Nokia N8 myself and very proud of my purchase already). As much I think about it, then like always, nothing crosses my mind than almighty Nokia N900, which I could wish to be appear in one of the boxes that Santa may deliver at my home.

There are so many things in the world that might have crossed you once, made you happy for a while, you started living with good or bad habits of the very same and then one day it leaves you … to never return. Of course, if you want it back badly then you can move forward and pick it back but like some lost girlfriend, you just don’t know… what to do.. what not to do. Want help to bring it back in your life, can’t do yourself.

Why it still haunts me in dreams?

Nokia N900, my first trial unit from @WomWorldNokia and probably the best stimulus that one might have got to be dragged into this mobile blogging world and the rest of the story, you all know about, million of hits within months and so many friends to catch up with.

There was really a lot geeky to miss about the same, not only geeky but little things that one would have so much wanted from a bunch of devices around him and Nokia N900 was something like all in one.

  • An ultimate tool for communication Nokia N900 was not only a device to make calls but it was the ultimate way to do IMs either it be Yahoo/ MSN/ Gtalk/ Ovi (without even installing any third party app) and either it be video calling as it was and is the only phone in the world with in-built Skype support. The spacious keypad on it was perfect in every sense to me and probably after living with Nokia N900, I was kind of forgetting that how one could do IMs via PCs.
  • An ultimate tool for blogging Not only I had the best mobile browsing experience on Nokia N900, but MaStory like ultimate blogging client with plenty of options to do all kind of basic formatting and Picasa and flicker like picture sharing options in built into the operating system core itself, what more you could have asked for? Catch up with the web with Flash 10 support, take excellent snaps with the 5MP AF camera that will be even geo-tagged if you wanted so.
  • An ultimate tool for control freaks like me Unlike others, unlike some Tom and Dick’s phone, this one really was in its own league, where it was and is unchallenged even now. Being a pure Debian Linux, this one has all kind of powerful means that we geeks could go by ways of some Linux based laptop. Just a matter of few packages and I was on root access, able to SSH from the very device, was able to experience touch on Windows XP based PC by accessing them through Rdesktop. It was all divine and lovely to my office tech team, who knew that I could take care of their stuff or guide them dammn well even if I might be in some movie theater. Not only that but you can find the logs etc related to almost everything and could know that what’s happening around in your phone like never before.
  • A superb multi-tasker I know Symbian also does multi-tasking and with Symbian^3 like card based task manager, its easy as pie, but somewhere I loved the way Maemo deal with it. Small cards and task manager icon always ready in top left corner for your service. Live Preview windows and small popup notifications for IM or SMS. Ohhh!! I so much love the Maemo UI. Symbian might be doing it more efficiently, but if we talk about convenience, naturalness and wow factor, then Maemo does it all.
  • A wild tiger groaning in your hands Nokia N900 used ARM Cortex 8, 600 MHz as its processor inside. The best any Nokia device might have got till today. Even Nokia N8 might have got 680 MHz processor, but its not cortex and people who know the processor tech understand that what the name cortex stands for. Wild size of RAM and Virtual memory make sure that you never complain on performance point ever and this beast has 32 Gb inbuilt memory. Wooohhhaa huge that is.
  • An ultimate tool for hackers, who like to experiment a lot Admit it, the Linux been heaven for hackers from years and when you get such a compact device in your hands with full power of Linux then it was like OOOO LA LA … You can write native programs like you have been writing for your Linux PCs, those same shell scripts, those similar file systems, those regular cron jobs and all what you can not even imagine, that too without learning something extra, but the same regular things which you might have been doing with your lappy in all these days. You are always online without even doing some dialup or something (GPRS\ 3G\ Wi Fi, everything is right there out of the box).
  • An ultimate tool for Artists I loved the paint app on Nokia N900 that was an ultimate tool in your hands to sharpen your skills. Not only the app was free, but the fact that you are making use of a stylus (N900 has resistive screen) makes you enough precise as well. That we wont ever be able to be on Capacitive screen despite of their all other advantages. I am sure that if it stays in hands of mine again, then I could polish my skills a little more for mobile devices too.
  • An ultimate media player Though it has no HDMI support like Nokia N8 neither it matches the quality output Nokia N8 provides me, but in one thing Nokia N900 does beat Nokia N8 that is codec support. Not only this supports some extra codec like Ogg Vorbis and FLAC, but presence of VLC Player and MPlayer also assure you that it wont hit you back wrongly, whatever format you throw on it.

There are many many more reasons to crave for one of those gadget lover’s dream, Nokia N900 and I could have written on and on. You can understand the craze by one fact only that Nokia N900 is such a device that even after absence of apps has a real huge fan following behind it. This is the one, which brings Nokia fanboyism this side because there were things like you never seen before.

If I loved it so much then why I didn’t buy it?

You will ask me that if I wanted Nokia N900 so much then why I didn’t went for buying it straight out and if I made another well thought choice (that was a marvelous device like Nokia N8) then why I want it now back again in my hands?

I had my reasons for holding my temptations to buy it and I posted them on my blog too but later on appearance of Nokia N8 caught me so much with it that I could have skipped some of my other priorities that were possible with Nokia N900 only (check my post here with more than hundred comments).

But if I would have thought to purchase Nokia N900, then at a lesser price Nokia N8 was so so much value for money and due to presence of perfect Ovi Maps/ Media playback and unforgettable camera, it was a sin, if I would have missed to buy that one. N8 over N900 was still a right and valid decision, but still ….

Then why I want it now?

If @WomWorldNokia was allowing me a second trial of Nokia N900, then I was so ON for it. It was my first trial unit and though I posted so much about it than any other device I might have posted about (except N8), but still I find that it was so little.

I was not an experienced blogger, didn’t made even an un-boxing post, just a couple of photos of the same device, so little number of screen shots and almost no walk through of the Maemo OS that I loved so so so much. Always felt that I didn’t did justice with the device, which was best suiting to the geek inside me.

Moreover, I tried the device back in February 2010 and since then many things have been changed and so many updates and apps have arrived to Nokia N900 to close many of the issues and to make it so much more better. It even got the much needed Ovi Suit support finally and even Maps have improved a bit. So, there are so many reason to assume that if it comes back to me again then it was going to be a very new experience than the RAW one which still was enough to blow me off.

I guess, for once I even tried other Nokia PR agencies in India, but probably there is no luck for common man bloggers like me, so given up. Was almost pushed to buy one for self recently, when money came in my hands, but somehow holding myself and saving money for upcoming MeeGo device with huge support of developers that was missing a bit with Maemo at the moment.

I guess you can understand my eagerness by the fact that even my younger brother promised me to buy one next year though I still don’t know if that would be a good decision or not, but I really wanted N900 in my hands once again.

photo of Nitish KumarNitish Kumar

 
 
 

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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?

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Some of the random shots in day light

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

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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?

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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 ….

photo of Nitish KumarNitish Kumar

 
 
 

Nokia World – A 3D story about it

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I thought to come back to write something about those 3D glasses that great people at Womworld/Nokia sent me just one day before the Nokia World 2010. Truly awesome people they are and so are their ideas. I loved them last time with Everyone Connect and loved them more this time too.

As UK falls in a different time zone than India, so it was a late evening here, when bloggers around the globe started receiving mails about those 3D glasses they received one day back.

Following was the mail …

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Like anyone could have expected, we all ran to that secret part of Events Nokia page

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I am really thinking that why we all were not able to spot this before, if anyone of us could have been able to find our this before the official mail, then it would have been more spicy.

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After entering the password, a new theater was in front of our eyes, show casing Nokia N8, Nokia C7 and Nokia E7. Interestingly, there was no mention of Nokia C6-01, why this partiality? There must be some reasons behind that, but I am not able to find out yet that what’s common in these three devices except the 3.5” screen that Nokia C6-01 didn’t had. Is something like 3D viewing coming soon for the three and not for Nokia C6-01?

After pressing the button Start your experience, the show was on …

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Blurry? Yeah!! it was the time for those 3D glasses …

As there were few lucky around with those 3D glasses, so Nokia also managed to put the show on without the 3D effects, but I must praise and thank Nokia for providing us 5 Glasses in place of just one. It was more fun watching those 3D presentations and videos with friends and family around.

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First in the row was Nokia E7 ..

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And  there were videos available describing it both in 3D and non-3D, but they were not in youtube, so it’s not possible for me to bring them here in this post 😦

Second one was the super slim Nokia C7 …

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And the last one was our well known giant Nokia N8 ..

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Some things get recognized by their own potentials, even if Nokia not calling N8 as their Flagship model, this is actually bearing the flag of Nokia right now.

I guess, you all should watch those videos in real 3D, but as you all are not out there with those ‘special’ 3D glasses, then ?? Don’t worry those glasses were no special and even you could make few of your own and enjoy the show.. wanna know how.. check out

This was a very old uploaded video, somewhere from Feb 2009, just to show that its not the technology, but its what we do with it. Awesome way of showing the message with style.

Nokia N8 page also shown of the amazing movie of smallest animation character Dot …

And also the making of it. …

But don’t why, we always find ourselves hooked even on tiniest new thing about Nokia N8 and there was a whole new ad …

So, don’t you think that its only Nokia, who knows how to involve we like Laymans in to such awesome things?

photo of Nitish KumarNitish Kumar

 
 
 

A closer look over N86 exteriors and hardware

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You must say that I am late to the party to take a trial of Nokia N86, but being with this beast for just a few days, sure make me realized that it was a sin to be lost in amazing world of Nokia N82 only. Its nothing to offend Nokia N82 and its Xenon flash, but sure N86 seems to be a worthy successor for Nokia N82 and amazingly on each ground. Thanks WomWorld/Nokia, I really wanted to get in touch of advanced camera feature before Nokia N8 arrives itself.

Even since the rumors, the focus has been on wide lenses and high megapixels though a closer look over Nokia N86 features really makes you thrilled that how much thoughts were given over the making of Nokia N86.

Nokia N86 was always compared to Nokia N82, even when it was close of being a proper successor of Nokia N95 (dual slider with GPS and 5MP, which once broken new grounds for Nokia and been a longtime success story). It was beautiful to watch how Nokia was learning from experiments like Nokia N96 and Nokia N85 to put itself back on the charge of camera phone fight again, a journey to beat itself for the first spot.

Since I own Nokia N82, so it was more relevant for me to compare it with and to understand that what it got more …

Size and shape: Like Rafe from AAS said, I also would agree that Nokia N86 got just a very different world than the one, which made Nokia N95 form factor a huge success once. After Apple and Google, the market was being dominated with slimmer and touch oriented devices and when there were less of physical buttons, people were asking for slimmer and slimmer devices. Sure, the heavy shape was not that much welcome than it would have been then.

Though it looks opposite, but it was thinner and shorter device than Nokia N82 except extra width to incorporate 2.6” screen.

Nokia N86 dimensions: 103.4 x 51.4 x 16.5 mm, 69 cc
Nokia N82 dimensions: 112 x 50.2 x 17.3 mm, 90 cc

There were many other exterior changes for good like dedicated unlock key, removal of kind of extra gallery key (not needed actually), card slot was pushed under the battery cover and with metal piece covering the body, we got a tiny charging light as well… ye!!!!!!

And who could forget that kickstand that was wonderful when one wanted to enjoy the movie play.

Not only that it was also possible to define some app to be fired when you open kickstand, probably due to the small ‘click’ under the kickstand as shown

Screen: Nokia N86 was probably the second device from Nokia to feature an AMOLED screen (N85 first), when Nokia N82 had only a TFT screen, not only that but it was a 2.6” screen than earlier 2.4” screen of Nokia N82.

Lovely were those brighter colors and even if there were words of poor performance in direct sunlight, for me, it was sure much much better than my Nokia N82 screen. But sure, it wasn’t something comfortably usable under direct sunlight thing.

Keypad: The keypad of Nokia N82 was something unique about that device, I really don’t remember any other with similar keypad. Even if smaller and of more height buttons were annoying to some of people, they were proven to add blind typing much better than anything else in the smart phone world.

In comparison of that, Nokia N86 keys were also a much better improvement from flat keys of Nokia N95, Nokia N96 or Nokia N85. Very very good tactile feedback and amazingly spaced, Nokia N86 were sure a dream for even normal candy bar shaped non-slider devices and it was impressive that how slider was working even after leaving almost no visible spacing.

Speakers and music keys: Specs says the same about both, but I found Nokia N86 seriously louder. Someone asked me that if its louder than Nokia 5800 or Nokia N73 and I said it is. The incoming calls or SMS seriously surprises people with a loud tone, when you are with a Nokia N86.

Though its not the same with the loudspeakers. I tried to took some calls on loudspeakers and it was sure not that louder than even cheaper Nokia phones might have been. Music is enough loud, but not sure if that is reaching as high as people told me about Nokia N95, but for me, its louder than Nokia N82 for super sure.

Scratch resistant: The word was attractive to me, but I got disappointed when seen the scratches on my trial Nokia N86 on very first day. Hold your breaths, its not against the claims, but actually was the lamination on the screen that got the scratch, not the screen itself nor the other parts (lower parts around navigation keys, call, end call buttons also have a the same scratch glass surface as screen). Sure a must thing for any mobile you going to purchase.

I am not removing the lamination as its a trial device, but sure could assure that its pretty strong thing when it comes to resist scratches.

Internal build and back cover: I must say, I am hugely disappointed with the back covers that take much scary physical pressure to open them. I mean its plastic and you place a mechanism that need pressure and nails? It will break, may be not today, not in few months, but its always susceptible for the same and its not a good thing.

Though what’s likeable  is the camera cover that is sure a good improvement than Nokia N82. A metal slider (plastic beneath) that slides over a glass surface, smooth, light and protective. Something like people even wishing in Nokia N8.

When we dig more deeper then there are two things, one that I like and one I hate. What is like is battery is loose and easy to remove and what I don’t like is SIM slot is something like those Blackberry models that needs you to slide in the SIM card, sure prone to scratches and ultimately destroying the SIM, if you have habit of changing the SIM frequently.

But there is something that I am still wondering about what that might be. May be readers will suggest something. There are two metal points just in side of SIM slot that seems to be pushed by the back cover, may be some way to tell the phone that battery cover is open or close. But the question is where this thing is being utilized in software?

Processor, RAM, Internal Memory and Card: This must have been one of the fastest processor in non-touch, when it was released. An ARM 11 343 Mhz processor, which was same with Nokia N97 and N97 mini, sure does an impressive job, specially with the camera itself.

RAM is on the same point with 128 MB, which has been considered adequate since long until touch screen and whole new world of heavy apps arrived.

Interesting was to see that even if it has 8 GB internal memory, the C: drive or the phone memory itself seems to be going lower than Nokia N82 (last snapshot). Strange!! Isn’t it? Though one could not expect every device to have application memory as high as 1 GB, but still less than N82? I must say Nokia N82 showing an impressive 81 MB free, while just 54 MB in case of Nokia N86. Haven’t seen any performance issue or memory full till now but …

The biggest missing thing been 3D Graphics HW Accelerator that Nokia forgotten after Nokia N82. Really Nokia was some extra generous, when making Nokia N82. Has the same guy sacked out from Nokia?

GPS Unit: You would be surprised that Nokia N86 is probably one the very few lucky ones (in fact the last one) among S60 3rd version to receive life time free ovi map navigation (Ovi Maps 3.03 here). Not sure why, but I find the GPS performing lesser than Nokia E52 in low signal areas, while in open both perform similar. I found it similar to GPS of N97 Mini or Nokia E72 as it was locking in half a second when I was trying tweets from Gravity from a cold start and that too over edge connection, not over 3G connection.

FM Transmitter: A thing that I came to know about only when was with Nokia N900 and still wonder that why Nokia doesn’t implement a way that you might enjoy the music while transmitting it … Use cases are infinite. I was happy to feel it again with Nokia N86, think you are in hostel and could broadcast your channel on daily basis or exciting things like that.

Camera: I am talking in last, making it short, but it doesn’t mean that camera is one of the features of Nokia N86, its the whole N86. Superbly quick camera and turnaround time, inbuilt geo-tagging, fine tuned and more intuitive panorama mode now, macro shots now more closer and sharper and not to forget variable aperture that’s changing the entire game about colors and low light performance.

Is it hard for you to spot the differences between the four pics above? Two are from Nokia N82 with Xenon Flash and two with Nokia N86 with dual leds. No prizes for guessing…

Though front camera is crap like always.. just VGA. Hope Nokia will read someday that Facetime and video calling like things might need a better camera at par with the growing data speeds on Smart phones now days.

Well! I was thinking to finish it in one shot, covering camera and software details, but its sure a big task to cover the tiny details and will be also boring for readers if the post goes around 5-6 pages. So though to take a break here. Will be back with the words over Nokia N86 camera and improvements it got from Nokia N82 (Sure the most exciting part as it was not easy to win a Nokia N82 fan) and then finally the software tweaks like new home screen (people might not notice the change initially).

So, keep tuned in, if wanna know more about Nokia N86 and sure send the suggestions in my way that what you wish to see in my posts more.

photo of Nitish KumarNitish Kumar

 
 
 

Unboxing Nokia N86

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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?

photo of Nitish KumarNitish Kumar

 
 
 

Welcome Nokia N86 in Layman’s house

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Yes! finally Nokia N86 got delivered to me like past device, straight in 48 hours.

First time, we really find the DHL guy as God, but when he comes again after 15 days? Yeah felt the same again after the quick un-boxing, when seen this … Return documents

It was just two days back, when they announced that I didn’t made it to Nokia N97 Mini. Yes! I tried to make me understand that I didn’t deserved this time, but it was hard, very hard that …… will not count on some competition again. #NokiaDATE Anyway, I should cheer up, I have 15 days … dammmn you DATE.

For the first time, I have got a white beauty

Oh Sorry!! Princess is feeling little shy … take the view again …

Its just a preview post. Un-boxing pics with details will follow soon.

So… what’s more?? She is eager to tell everything you want to know about it, wont you ask?

photo of Nitish KumarNitish Kumar

 
 
 

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