New Mobile

Nokia announces E73 Mode QWERTY smartphone

2011-09-10T20:59:00.000-07:00

Today Nokia announced the E73 Mode, a QWERTY smartphone that is making its U.S. debut on T-Mobile.
The E73 Mode offers WiFi, a 5 megapixel camera, a 3.5mm headphone jack, GPS, a full WebKit-based web browser, and support for Mail for Exchange, IBM Lotus Traveler, and more. The device also supports Nokia's Ovi Maps for free voice-guided turn-by-turn directions. For business users, it comes preloaded with Ovi Files, QuickOffice, Adobe PDF Manager, and ZIP manager, so that files and email attachments can be opened quickly right out of the box.
The E73 Mode has a function that allows users to switch between two defined themes on the fly. Corporate users, for example, can have one setting show their work email and calendar on the homescreen while they're at work, and then switch to a homescreen that provides shortcuts for the media player and chat clients when they go home.
The Nokia E73 Mode will retail for $70 on T-Mobile USA beginning on June 16th with a 2-year contract.

Specifications for the Nokia E73 Mode
Band	GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz, UMTS 900/1700/2100MHz
Data	GPRS/EDGE/WCDMA/HSDPA
Size	113mm x 58mm x 10.1mm (4.48in x 2.30in x 0.40in)
Weight	127g (4.5oz)
Battery	1,500mAh
Battery Life	Up to 13 hours talk time (GSM)
Battery Life	Up to 16 days (GSM) standby time
Main Display	2.4-inch 320 x 240 pixel resolution
Camera	5 megapixel
Video	Record/Playback
Messaging	SMS/MMS/IM
Email	Nokia Messaging/IMAP4/POP3/Exchange
Bluetooth	v2.0
Memory	250MB internal, microSD card slot for up to 16GB
Availability	Manufacturer estimates June 2010
Other	3.5mm audio jack, Music player, aGPS, WiFi

Nokia C6-01 Symbian^3 touchscreen smartphone unveiled

2011-09-10T20:57:00.000-07:00

Nokia C6-01

Nokia announced the C6-01 today, a new version of its C6 smartphone. The latest version offers the Symbian^3 operating system and drops the QWERTY keyboard found on the original C6 for a 3.2-inch AMOLED capacitive touchscreen display with a 640 x 360 pixel resolution.
The C6-01 offers live feeds from social networks, an 8 megapixel camera with autofocus and dual-led flash, and a secondary camera for video calling. The phone also features an FM radio, 802.11b/g/n WiFi connectivity, Bluetooth 3.0, aGPS, USB-on-the-go, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. It's worth noting that the phone's camera is capable of recording 720p HD video that can be stored on microSD cards as large as 32GB.
The C6 measures 103.8mm x 52.5mm x 13.9mm (4in x 2in x .54in) and weighs 131g (4.62). It's expected to launch during the fourth quarter, but pricing for the device wasn't announced.

Nokia C6-01

Specifications for the Nokia C6-01
Band	GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz UMTS 850/900/1700/1900/2100MHz or 900/1700/1900/2100
Data	GPRS/EDGE/WCDMA/HSDPA
Size	103.8mm x 52.5mm x 13.9mm (4in x 2in x .54in)
Weight	131g (4.62)
Battery	1,050mAh
Battery Life	Up to 11.5 hours talk time (GSM)
Battery Life	Up to 15.5 days (GSM)
Main Display	3.2-inch 640 x 360 pixel resolution
Camera	8 megapixel
Video	720p HD Record/Playback
Messaging	SMS/MMS/IM
Email	IMAP4/POP3
Bluetooth	v3.0
Memory	340MB internal memory, microSD card slot
Availability	Manufacturer estimates fourth quarter 2010
Other	3.5mm audio jack, Music player, aGPS, Nokia Maps, Ovi Store

2011-09-10T20:54:00.000-07:00

Nokia N8

Today Nokia announced the N8, the company's first smartphone to run Symbian^3, the latest version of Symbian.
The N8 measures 113.5mm x 59.12mm x 12.9mm (4.46in x 2.32in x .5in) and offers a large 3.5 inch 640 x 360 pixel resolution capacitive touchscreen display. Symbian^3 provides three homescreens that you can customize to your liking with widgets and more. The N8 also comes equipped with a 12 megapixel camera with xenon flash, 16GB of storage as well as a microSD card slot, an FM radio, 802.11 b/g/n wireless connectivity, and a GPS chip. Nokia claims the 1200mAh battery is good for up to 5 hours and 50 minutes of talk time.
The N8 will also come loaded with Nokia's services, including Ovi Maps, which provides free turn-by-turn directions, as well as the Ovi Store for finding and installing applications. The N8 is the first device to work with Nokia's Qt software development environment for making app development easier to deploy across Symbian and other platforms.
Nokia says the N8 will be available in select markets during the third quarter of 2010 with an estimated price of 370 EUR ($494) before taxes and subsidies. It will be available in dark gray, silver white, green, blue, and orange

Specifications for the Nokia N8
Band	GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz UMTS 850/900/1700/1900/2100MHz
Data	GPRS/EDGE/WCDMA/HSDPA
Size	113.5mm x 59.12mm x 12.9mm (4.46in x 2.32in x .5in)
Weight	135g (4.76oz)
Battery	1,200mAh
Battery Life	Up to 5 hours 50 minutes of talk time (GSM)
Battery Life	Up to 16.6 days (GSM)
Main Display	3.5-inch 640 x 360 pixel resolution
Camera	12 megapixel
Video	Record/Playback
Messaging	SMS/MMS/IM
Email	IMAP4/POP3
Bluetooth	v2.0
Memory	16GB, microSD card slot
Availability	Manufacturer estimates third quarter 2010
Other	3.5mm audio jack, Music player, aGPS, Nokia Maps, Ovi Store, Xenon flash

2011-09-10T20:51:00.000-07:00

Nokia X7

Today Nokia officially unwrapped its new X7 smartphone, the first device on the market to run the new Symbian Anna smartphone operating system update. The X7 features a bold new look that makes heavy use of stainless steel and glass. The 4-inch, 640 x 360 pixel AMOLED^(INFO) touchscreen display is protected by super strong Gorilla Glass, to ensure it can survive impacts as well as look good.
Nokia believes the X7 to be perfectly suited for mobile gaming, and to make its case it has included both Galaxy on Fire HD and Asphalt 5 HD for free on the phone. Also on-board the X7 is a 720p HD capable, dual-LED 8 megapixel camera as well as support for Adobe Flash Lite 4 - to make sure the device stays entertaining.
As a Symbian Anna device, the X7 offers a few tweaks not seen on other Symbian smartphones. There's an updated home screen with new icons, a brand new, faster web browser, and a newly enhanced version of Ovi Maps that offers both driving and walking navigation for free. Another benefit of Symbian Anna is the addition of a portrait-mode QWERTY on-screen keyboard, as well as support for hardware encryption and better enterprise email security and meeting support.
The Nokia X7 features a micro-USB charging port and quick charger, and has a 3.5mm headphone jack for use with the music player or FM radio. Bluetooth 3.0 support also means that wireless stereo headphones can be used with the music player, when you wish to cut the cord. Software features on the X7 include the Nokia Email messaging client and new Web TV widgets for the Symbian home screen.
This new 5-band 3G HSPA smartphone (offering both AT&T and T-Mobile USA support) measures 119.7mm x 62.8mm x 11.9mm in size and weighs a solid 146g. The X7 can connect with 802.11b/g/n based Wi-Fi networks for data, and features an included 8GB microSD memory card for storage. A 1200mAh battery powers everything, and should be good for 9.5/4.5 hours of 2G/3G talk time or up to 18 days of standby time.
The Nokia X7 is expected to be available for purchase during Q2 of 2011 in light steel and dark steel colors. No pricing information has been supplied at this time.

Nokia launches the 700 with Symbian Belle, says its the smallest smartphone in the world

2011-09-10T20:46:00.001-07:00

Nokia 700

To go along with the announcement of the new Symbian Belle operating system, Nokia has launched some new smartphones that make use of it. The Nokia 700 is said to be the smallest slate-style smartphone on the market, yet it still has some of the higher-end specs that one would expect to see on a larger smartphone.
The diminutive 700 measures only 110mm x 50.7mm x 9.7mm (4.3in x 2in x 0.38in) and weighs a scant 96g (3.39oz). It is powered by a 1GHz processor and has GPS, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi support, plus an FM radio. It has a 5 megapixel "full focus" camera with LED flash and 720p (1280 x 720 pixel) HD video capture, and comes equipped with 2GB of internal memory to store your images. You can expand the memory with microSD cards up to 32GB in capacity. The Nokia 700 sports a pentaband cellular radio, and its 1080mAh battery is claimed to offer 7 hours of talk time or over 19 days of standby time.
The 3.2-inch display on the 700 is a ClearBlack AMOLED unit, with nHD (360 x 640 pixel) resolution and Corning Gorilla Glass. The 700 also features deep NFC capabilities, thanks to the Symbian Belle operating system. Nokia claims that the 700 is the greenest smartphone that it has produced to date, as it is free of PVC, RFR, and BFR, and is 100 percent recyclable.
The Nokia 700 will come in cool grey, silver/white, coral red, peacock blue, and purple color options, and will arrive in the third quarter. It is expected to retail for 270 EUR (US$390).

Nokia 701 Symbian Belle smartphone has brightest display in the world

2011-09-10T20:45:00.001-07:00

Nokia 701

The second of Nokia's new smartphones to launch with Symbian Belle, the Nokia 701 features the brightest screen in the world according to the Finnish phone maker. Additionally, it sports a plethora of wireless connections and a fast processor.
Cutting to the chase, the 3.5-inch, IPS LCD with ClearBlack technology has the most NITs (a rating for brightness) of any smartphone display in the world. The display features Nokia's common nHD (360 x 640 pixel) resolution. The extra brightness should make it easier to see the display in direct sunlight, and the IPS features should provide great viewing angles. It also features Corning Gorilla Glass for added durability.
Dimensionally, the 701 is larger than its 700 brother, as it measures 117.2mm x 56.8mm x 11mm (4.61in x 2.24in x 0.43in) and weighs 131g (4.62oz). It is powered by a 1GHz processor, and has 8GB of internal storage. A microSD card slot supports cards up to 32GB in capacity. In addition to the processor is a new graphics co-processor that has faster speed and four times the memory of older Nokia graphics chips. The 701 sports a pentaband cellular radio with HSUPA 3G, plus Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, NFC, and an FM radio. An 8 megapixel "full focus" camera with LED flash is found on the rear, and a secondary front-facing camera is available for video calls. The 701 is capable of recording 720p (1280 x 720 pixel) HD video, too. A 1300mAh battery provides up to 17 hours of talk time or almost 23 days of standby.
The Nokia 701 comes in steel dark, silver light, amethyst violet, and white color options and will hit European markets in Q3. Pricing is expected to be 290 EUR (US$419).

Nokia 600 is the Symbian Belle smartphone for the music fan

2011-09-10T20:29:00.000-07:00

Nokia 600

Rounding out the launch of Nokia's Symbian Belle smartphones is the new Nokia 600. The 600 is aimed towards the music lover, and is the loudest smartphone that Nokia has ever produced.
The Nokia 600 is equipped with a 106 phon (a measurement of loudness) loudspeaker for blasting your Justin Bieber tunes at everyone in your vicinity, and it has a built-in FM transmitter for broadcasting music to a car stereo or other FM receiver. The 600 has an FM antenna built into the body, so it does not require headphones to be plugged in in order to function. It also has NFC capabilities, so it can be easily paired with Nokia's external speaker options.
In terms of specifications, the 600 sports a 3.2-inch nHD (360 x 640 pixel) display and a 1GHz processor. It measures 111mm x 53mm x 13mm (4.37in x 2.09in x 0.51in) in size and weighs 100g (3.53oz). It has a pentaband 3G cellular radio, and supports GPS, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi connections. There is 2GB of internal storage on board, and the 600 supports microSD cards up to 32GB in capacity. A 5 megapixel "full focus" camera with LED flash and 720p (1280 x 720 pixel) HD video recording is found on the back. A 1200mAh battery provides a claimed 15 hours of talk time or almost 23 days of standby power.
The Nokia 600 will come in black, white, pink, and lime "flavors," and will hit markets in Q3. It is expected to be priced at 180 EUR (US$260). Take a look at the video below to see the Nokia 600 in action.

2011-09-10T20:19:00.000-07:00

Nokia 101

Popularity

Daily interest: 14%

Total hits:: 105794

Voting results

Design: 7.0
Features: 6.9
Performance: 7.0

General	2G Network	GSM 900 / 1800 - SIM 1 & SIM 2
	Announced	2011, August
	Status	Coming soon. Exp. release 2011, Q3

Size	Dimensions	110 x 45.5 x 14.9 mm
Size	Weight	69.6 g

Display	Type	TFT, 65K colors
Display	Size	128 x 160 pixels, 1.8 inches (~114 ppi pixel density)

Sound	Alert types	Vibration; MP3 ringtones
	Loudspeaker	Yes
	3.5mm jack	Yes

Memory	Phonebook	500 entries
	Call records	Yes
	Card slot	microSD, up to 16GB

Data	GPRS	No
	EDGE	No
	3G	No
	WLAN	No
	Bluetooth	No
	Infrared port	No
	USB	No

Camera		No

Features	Messaging	SMS
	Browser	No
	Radio	FM radio
	Games	Yes
	Colors	Phantom Black, Coral Red
	GPS	No
	Java
		- Dual SIM - Flashlight - MP3 player - Organizer - Predictive text input

Battery		Li-Ion 1020 mAh (BL-5C) - India market
	Stand-by	Up to 768 h
	Talk time	Up to 8 h 30 min
		Li-Ion 850 mAh (BL-5CB) - Worldwide market
	Stand-by	Up to 600 h
	Talk time	Up to 6 h 40 min

HTC EVO 3D Review: Does a third dimension belong in the EVO line?

2011-09-10T20:09:00.000-07:00

The second glasses-free 3D device is now in our hands, and this time around it’s from HTC. Known for its eye for design and solidly built handsets, if anyone could make a desirable 3D-enabled phone, it’s HTC, right? The first real successor to the EVO line brings solid upgrades across the board and throws in a few nifty new features, but can HTC make a bleeding edge technology worth-while? Read on to find out!

Hardware

The EVO 3D is a lot of things but ugly isn't one of them. The overall look and feel to the EVO 3D looks similar to the original but there are some subtle (and not so subtle) design changes made to the handset that give the handset a very unique look.
The front of the device is mostly covered by its beautiful 4.3 inch qHD display that looks better than most we've seen before. The Droid X2 has the same resolution display but you can still see pixels and color saturation seems off. The display on the EVO 3D is perfectly saturated, has great viewing angles (in 2D, at least), and is plenty bright.
Below the massive display are the four standard Android buttons for home, menu, back and search, and above you'll find the proximity and ambient light sensors, as well as the notification LED and front-facing camera. Of course, you'll find the Sprint and HTC branding on the front, but do you care?
The left side of the handset only sports the charging port, and is otherwise clean. The top houses the power/lock switch and the 3.5mm headphone jack, and the bottom you'll find the microphone hole and a tab for remove the battery cover. The right side of the EVO 3D is where the volume rocker, dedicated 2D/3D switch for the camera, and the large camera shutter button are. The shutter button is very large, rounded and downright ugly, but gives great feedback when pressed.
The back of the device is where you'll find the stereoscopic cameras, which are 5 megapixels each. In between the lenses is the dual-LED flash and, "3D HD Imaging" below it. The entire camera setup is raised, and you'll notice that the device isn't all that grounded when you sit it on its backside, but that's just a minor annoyance. Surrounding the cameras is a red, metallic trim that you'll find the speaker grill in as well. The trim is very nice on an otherwise bland backing.
The back side of the EVO is done up in a matte finish on a quarter of one side, and textured on the rest. This look is interesting, and we're not really sure what we think of it, but we're leaning towards, "neat." However, the materials used for the back feel down right cheap, and is really a turn off. For a company who is known for making solid handsets, HTC really missed the mark with the battery cover material.
Opening the battery cover is a pain since it feels like it will snap into two pieces at any moment. Once you do get it opened, you'll find the massive 1730 mAh battery and a 8GB microSD card that's sadly not hot-swappable.

Design

The entire design of the EVO 3D is beautiful and you can tell HTC put a lot of attention to detail when making this EVO follow-up. The back side of the device could be made of better material, but looks amazing from an aesthetics standpoint.
HTC managed to keep the weight of the device the same as the original EVO 4G, which is definitely a good thing, but it still feels lighter. We love the red trim around the cameras, and the textured backing is a nice touch.
The only thing we're turned off by is the camera shutter button, which sticks out like a sore thumb. A lot of people may like the larger button for taking pictures, but we'd like to see a smaller button. Having this sit next to the dedicated 2D/3D camera switch is almost distracting, as they are the only metallic pieces on the device.

Build Quality

Build quality of the device is acceptable, but we're not sure just how the EVO 3D would fare if it took a tumble. Between the raised cameras and the cheap battery cover, the handset needs a case to ensure you don't break either one.
HTC is known for making solid handsets but this isn't one of them. It's not the cheapest phone we've ever touched, but it's probably one of the cheapest handsets we've seen from HTC. The cheap feeling comes from the battery cover as we've said before, but otherwise the handset shows the expected HTC brilliance. We wish that the power/lock button and the volume rocker weren't built into the backing as the little plastic tabs may not hold up as well as real buttons.
Despite our qualms with the back of the EVO 3D, we do believe it will endure regular wear and tear and should hold up in the long run, but we do suggest grabbing yourself a case for it.

Software

Screw 3D, Sense 3.0 is the real reason to grab this phone. HTC has updated its Android software in so many ways that its easy to forget about the 3D aspect of the phone. Yes, it's still the Sense you've seen before, but it has several tricks up its sleeve.
The best new addition to Sense 3.0 is the lock screen. It's been redesigned in a way that we've never seen before and tops very other phone out there. Instead of the slide to unlock, Sense 3.0 basically gives you a home screen on your lock screen that is heavily customizable. There are six different lock screens you can choose from; some better than others. For example if you choose the Friend Stream lock screen, every time you hit that power button you'll be greeted with the latest updates from you social networks and other will be floating behind it. From there, you can easily swipe through the updates. Easy and brilliant.
On the bottom of the lock screen is a circle that you drag to the middle of the screen to unlock, which is quite different than your standard Android lock screen and even previous versions of Sense. Four customizable applications line the bottom of the screen, right above the circle. You can easily jump into one of these applications by dragging the apps into the circle on the bottom, and away you go. Honestly, I'd like a developer to rip the lock screen from Sense and allow it to be on any device, because not only does it look amazing, it's quite functional, too.
After you get past the amazing lock screen, you'll be greeted by your standard Sense home screens, but you may have noticed that the animation is different from other version of the custom skin. Sense 3.0 introduced a 3D carousal-like setup for the home screens, and if you swipe fast enough the screens will zoom out and spin in a loop until it eventually slows down. Thanks to the blazing fast 1.2GHz dual-core processor, these heavy animations move across your screen like butter.
Other useful updates in Sense 3.0 are in the notification bar, which has a separate tab at the bottom for Quick Settings. It doesn't get in the way, and you can easily access WiFi, Hotspot, mobile networks, 4G, Bluetooth, GPS, how much memory you have in the phone, or go straight to the settings menu.
Even with the nice amount of updates in version 3.0, Sense is still easy to navigate. You're given seven home screen panels to customize with applications and widgets, and many of the widgets are provided by HTC. These widgets range from clocks to stocks, weather, Twitter, other social networks, and more.
Sense also has a good amount of bloatware on it that is just unnecessary. Apps like Footprints are nice to have, but you'll likely never use it. HTC also provides you with an application called mirror, which basically uses your front-facing camera to use as a mirror. We know it's not that hard to use the front-facing camera in the camera application, and it's applications like this that made devices like the Desire not get the Gingerbread update. Luckily, if you bitch enough, HTC will strip out some of its bloatware so it can fit in the latest update of the OS and its Sense UI.
Unlike the Optimus 3D, the EVO 3D doesn't have a dedicated 3D UI packaged along with the phone. This is a bit disappointing because the superior screen likely showcase the technology better, but that's not the case. You're given The Green Hornet in 3D, along with a 3D Spider-Man game, and an app called 3D games that's basically a link to Gameloft's website. This is another place where the Optimus 3D bests HTC's offering, as it has many more games available. For a glasses-free 3D device, HTC could have done a much better job at showcasing the technology. While it would get a bit old after a while, we'd love to see the Sense UI in 3D.

Benchmarks

The EVO 3D ships with a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, so we put it to the test to see just how powerful the chipset is. We ran the tests three times each, and the averages are below.
Quadrant (System Benchmark) - 1978
Neocore (Graphics Benchmark) - 60.4
Linpack (Processor Benchmark) - 43.093

Web Browser, Multimedia And Camera

Web Browser

The web browser for the EVO 3D hasn't changed at all from earlier versions of the Sense UI, and we're just fine with that. HTC has customized the browser and it looks better than most you'd find on Android devices today and many more features that provide of one the best experiences.
The vibrant qHD display allows for a great browsing experience on the device, and 720p HD Flash video plays just fine within the browser. When it's not constantly buffering, that is. While the browser itself is heavily skinned like the rest of the software, underneath you'll still find the blazing fast Android browser that rivals everything out there today.
There are certain elements that we wish Google would implement into the stock Android browser, like multi-select for bookmarks, and we definitely wouldn't mind if we saw the slick thumbnail bookmark view that HTC provides for you. While the stock Android browser is known for it's speed, HTC's browser has everything stock Android can tout, and makes it look great along the way.

Multimedia

There's a hefty amount of media apps on the EVO 3D, and because of the 3D aspect you'll always be entertained.
Watching YouTube 3D is generally better on the EVO 3D than the Optimus 3D, as the viewing angles are wider, but that still doesn't make it a great experience. Unfortunately, there's no dedicated application for YouTube 3D, and you'll have to manually search through the standard YouTube application.
HTC provides ones of the best skinned Android music players around, providing a slick UI that's terribly easy to use. That said, with the new Android music player available in the Market, some may never use it.
The EVO 3D ships with an app called Media Share, which is a DLNA application that allows you to stream media to your HDTV or to other DLNA-compatible devices.

Camera

One of the main attractions of the EVO 3D is that you can take pictures and videos in 3D, and it does an admirable job. You can record up to 720p in 2D and 3D, and while we did hear that the handset could record in 1080p in 2D, the option was nowhere to be found.
The 2D camera takes some nice shots, and to better show color saturation, most of the pictures were taken are of flowers. Of course, the camera performs great with about any subject, but flowers show of 3D much better, and if you have the right hardware to view 3D images (or an MPO file viewer) then feel free to download this to file view the 3D pictures taken with the handset.
Here is a link to the 3D video sample.
Some shots do look like they should be brighter than they are as you can see below.

Pretty Flowers Evo 3d Style

outdoors, sunny, default settings

Call Quality And Battery Life

Call quality is a solid experience that most will have no qualms about. There were only a couple of times that background noise was apparent during a call, but the receiving end said that the call was loud and clear. While you'll probably be using the EVO 3D as a media device more than a phone, at least you know it makes a good call.
Battery is what you'd expect from a device of this kind: pretty bad. 3D is to blame for the most part, and since there's little 3D content to view on this device it should probably last you through the day. Even with the massive 1730 mAh battery, the EVO 3D just barely gets through the day, but you can definitely manage to do so.

The Final Take

So you're wondering if you should grab this thing, eh? Well, it depends on what's more appealing to you. If you're in the market for a 3D phone, and don't want to grab the Thrill 4G (Optimus 3D) when it lands on AT&T, sure, grab the EVO 3D. But the 3D aspect isn't what makes this phone a good phone. In that respect, the Optimus 3D provides much better use of the technology, even with its inferior display. We usually don't see HTC throw together a phone, especially when its had a year to work on this device, but that's exactly what seemed to have happened with the EVO 3D.
With the lack of 3D content available to the device, and the questionable build quality, HTC missed the mark with this phone. That said, we still can't say it's a bad phone, as the hardware is solid enough and Sense 3.0 is simply awesome. 3D technology has a long way to go and it shouldn't be a deciding factor any time soon when you're choosing a new phone. As a regular smartphone, the EVO 3D is a solid device that should definitely satisfy, but if you're not looking to use 3D on your new phone, we'd suggest the Sensation 4G over this phone.
If HTC showcased 3D better like LG has done with the Optimus 3D then we may be more inclined to choose it. Right now, we're not choosing either of the two. Still, the EVO 3D is a solid successor to the original, even if it has some parts that don't work as well as they could.