Samsung Galaxy S7 First Impressions

The Galaxy S7 and S7 edge have finally arrived bringing incremental upgrades to the well received S6. Gone is the IR blaster but in comes the microSD slot, IP68 certification for water exposure, bigger battery, more RAM, and faster CPU.

Nokia N86 8MP Preview

I'm currently at London's Heathrow Airport (LHR) in Terminal 5 International waiting for a flight back to Canada. Interestingly there is a Nokia store right inside the airport with prices usually 15% off the UK market price and no tax! Not only that - they carry the latest Nokia phones. One of them being the N97 and the other is the N86 8MP!!


It looks similar to the N85 but with a more subdued color scheme.

More photos after the jump.


The OLED screen is almost the same as the N85 but the slight tint makes it easier to see under direct light. I still have to try it under direct sunlight.


Sliding the screen up exposes the number pad.


The side profile is similar to the N85.


Sliding the screen down exposes the multimedia keys that look better than those on the N85.


The number pad looks very retro like those found on phones 5 years ago like the T610but it was very comfortable to use with great tactile feedback.


The 8MP camera exposed.

First impressions: The build quality is a big improvement over the wobbly N85. Nokia has got it right this time and it's almost as tight as the E65. The phone doesn't creak and has a good weight to it. The UI is snappy and uses a theme similar to the 5800. The camera is fast to start up and I will be updating this blog entry with sample photos I took with the N86 compared to my trusty N82. As I mentioned before the keypad looks ugly but it is very functional and nicely spaced. the buttons are a tad small if you have big fingers.

There really isn't anything bad to say about this phone in terms of build and usage but it's a phone that the N85 should've been. With the N97 stealing the spot light, the N86 is actally more exciting for me. After a little price drop, I'm definitely going to pick up this phone. I highly recommend you drop by your local Nokia store to try out the phone. You won't be disappointed!

Nokia N97 Preview

Nokia's most highly anticipated and important phone for this year is the N97. It features a touch screen just like the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic before it and a slide out keyboard too.



I was in Monte Carlo last week attending the Nokia Hackathon 2009 to put together my widget idea and test it on the Nokia N97, so I got the chance to play around with one for a few days...

The N97 features almost the same specs as most other recent Nseries phones such as HSDPA, 5MP Carl Zeiss camera, built-in WiFi, USB charging, dual LED flash and GPS. But it stands out from the crowd with its large touchscreen, use of S60 5th edition, and the slide out full QWERTY keyboard. As of this writing, the N97 sales package should include the phone (N97), Extended Li-Ion Battery (BP-4L), Compact Travel Charger (AC-10), Stereo Headset (HS-45), Data Connectivity Cable (CA-101), and Audio Controller (AD-54)

The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic (left) compared to the Nokia N97 (right)

The N97 has a slighter wider and longer screen than the 5800 but maintains the widescreen ratio.

The N97 closed:


Most people complained that the phone was too long and thick for their taste. It took me a while to get used to the thin silver diagonal button being the home key. For most previous N-series phones, the thin silver button was the multimedia key, which I always avoided.

Front:


Back:


Side:


5 Megapixel Camera with Carl Zeiss lens and dual LED flash:


The N97 opened up:


Close up of the keyboard:


The keys are spaced well apart making them easy to distinguish from each other but makes the keyboard too wide to use with one hand. The Q, A, Z keys are no longer aligned above each other as on other Nokia phones (i.e. the Nokia E71, E61) and the space bar is placed at the far right. These keyboard quirks made me initially annoyed with the keyboard but you quickly get use to it by the second day.

N97 opened and behind the screen:

You can spot the display ribbon in there. I hope it doesn't come loose on production models.

Hands on:


First impressions were very good with a large high quality screen. Build quality is exceptional with a solid spring loaded slide mechanism that had little to no rattle. There was little to no creaking while the phone was closed. The OS was responsive in most cases but still faces a number of lags such as switching the screen between portrait and landscape. Browsing web pages on the N97 was amazing with smooth initiative gestures and a screen able to display full readable pages Unfortunately the rest of the UI suffers from issues found on the 5800 such as a single finger swipe doesn't scroll the length of the swipe but just simulates a single push of the D-pad. I didn't find tapping and double tapping on the screen an issue on the N97. The keyboard buttons were the right size for easy typing and provided just the right feedback. The lack of Xenon flash keeps it from replacing my N82 but my E71 is in danger of being replaced.

Look out for a full review once I can get my hands on a retail unit!

Nokia N85 Preview

More than a year has passed and the N95 has reigned as Nokia's top high volume feature-packed phone. The overpriced and slower N96 didn't do well in the market but the N86 was unveiled to serve as the N95's successor with a lower price point for the masses.



Opening it up:


Packed with almost everything you'll need such as the phone (N85-1), battery (BL-5K: Extended 850 mAh), charger (AC-10), Nokia 8GB microSD card (MU-43), Nokia Video Connectivity Cable (CA-75U), USB cable (CA-101) and stereo headset with controls (HS-45, AD-54):


First impressions are very good with a large vibrant high quality screen. Build quality is much improved over the N95 with a spring loaded side mechanism but still not as solid as the older Nokia E65. There was little to no creaking while the phone is closed.



The N85 isn't groundbreaking as the phone it replaces. It features almost the same specs as its predecessor such as HSDPA, 5MP Carl Zeiss camera, built-in WiFi and GPS, and the dual sliding mechanism. But its stand out feature is the use of an OLED screen that uses less power than a traditional LCD and makes black very black as the individual pixels are not lighted. A few other little upgrades is the addition of a FM transmitter for broadcasting music from the N85 and use of 2 LEDs for the camera flash.



Stay tuned for the upcoming review as I take the Nokia N85 around the block.

Update: I've posted my N85 review

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic Preview

I was in Manhattan this past weekend and dropped by the New York City Nokia Flagship Store just to see what was new. Inside they had the stylish 7610 Supernova powered by S40 on display. Nokia was also showcasing one of their key products to compete in the touch screen cell phone market, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic:



My initial impressions of the 5800 XpressMusic were "this is a really nice screen and I really like the simplistic icons". The phone fits my hand comfortably.

Quick facts:
Name: Nokia 5800 XpressMusic
CPU: Freescale MXC300, 369 MHz ARM1136JF-S RISC + StarCore SC140 DSP
RAM: 256 MB (user accessible: 81 MB)
Network: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 WCDMA 850/1900
Weight: 109 g
Dimensions: 51.7 x 111 x 15.5 mm

Follow the jump to find out if the 5800 XpressMusic is worth buying.

Navigation & Touchscreen
Scrolling throw lists and menus works like any other S60 phone so you have to scroll with the scroll bar and you can't just flick your finger as you do on the iPhone. As most people have mentioned, it's annoying that some buttons require a single click while others require a double tap. This was my thought process when the menu didn't respond: the phone wasn't responsive, didn't catch my click, or I needed to double tap. That left me with an overall impression that the UI was very slow and needed a lot of work. It also incorrectly determined where my finger hit the screen a few times. To be fair, the 5800 on display was still running on initial firmware. Nokia has better get it's phones updated as first impressions are very important and firmware upgrades make a big difference.

Performance
The 5800's CPU is either not up to the task or its firmware needs a lot of work. Rotating photos took more than a second to perform, opening up the Batman Darknight trailer took a few seconds to load, and scrolling through Nokia Maps was horrendously slow. I felt like I was using a S60 phone from 3 years ago. Nokia Maps annoyed me so much with it's slow response times and incorrect gesture sensing that I turned it off after a few minutes of use. Clicking on the top right Media Bar button took a while to pull up the media bar. I came away feeling this phone wasn't ready for prime time.

Display
The 5800 sports a 3.2 inch TFT display. It's narrow and wide. A little more narrow than the 16:9 widescreen format used by most movies so playing the Batman Darknight looks really small on the screen. To me it wasn't much better than watching movies on my E71. Although it's a resistive screen (requiring you to push the screen as opposed to just touching like the iPhone), it's fairly strong so it doesn't distort too much when you push on it.

Camera
The 5800's 3.2 MP camera produces better photos than the E71 but doesn't compare to the N82 I used to take the photo above. It's a decent camera but it's not going to win any awards. One of its strength is its video capture capability that records up to 640 x 480 pixels at 30 fps.

Overall
I was fairly disappointed by the performance of the 5800 XpressMusic. Using the touch screen was frustrating as it was either slow or unresponsive. Rotating a photo required more than a second and playing a video required a fairly annoying loading time. I would never consider this phone a replacement for either of my N82 or E71. After trying out the 5800 XpressMusic, I would never consider recommending this phone to anyone and would likely recommend people to avoid this phone. I just hope the N97 improves a lot over this first S60 5th edition phone.

Nokia 6650 (AT&T) Preview

A month ago I was asked by WOM World to trial the Nokia 6650 and take part in their promotional activity for the AT&T release of the 6650 called Nokia Chronicles (I'm getting featured on Dec 8-14 but you might see some odd photos/videos of myself here just for this activity).

It has been a long time since AT&T has released a Nokia S60 handset to their phone lineup so I was quite eager to see what Nokia has built to cater to American needs and hopeful that this will get S60 in more hands in the US.

I just got the Nokia 6650 in the mail so follow the jump for my initial impressions:


Opening up the box:

The inside felt very empty compared to other phone sales packages I've opened. The Nokia 6650 sales package includes: 6650 phone BP-4L battery wallcharger Manuals It's a very basic sales package that really needs to include a memory card like a 1GB. A pair of cheap headphones wouldn't hurt profit margins too much and meet the needs of most casual music listeners.

The Nokia 6650 out of box:

The 6650 looks really good with the brushed metal exterior. The etched AT&T logo is quite classy too.

With the Nokia 6650 powered up and ready to go:

The 6650 fits comfortably in my hand

The AT&T default theme and wallpaper. I wasn't liking it.

It's really hard to see the standby icons and text with the bright colours and details on the map

The external display is really neat:

There are three touch sensitive buttons below the screen that can launch and control the music player, start/stop timers, view your calendar, and take a photo. In idle an anlogue clock is continuously displayed. I wonder if this screen is OLED.

At first the 6650 felt fairly large but I think I've been spoiled by the Nokia 5310 and the E71. It's still thinner than the blocky N82. The S60 3rd edition FP2 feels slow on the 6650 compared to FP1 on both the N82 and E71. Moving in and out folders and launching applications included a slight delay I never had with the E71 and N82. I really like the external display on the 6650 and the added functionality Nokia gave it. I wished it could display incoming text message but it's a lot better than nothing.

To be truthful, I was initially disappointed by the 6650. It looked big to me, slow, and filled with odd AT&T customizations like the wallpaper. But switching the theme to a basic one sped up the UI and I started noticing the subtle features, like the external screen, really impressed me. The phone also looks really nice sitting on the table too. I'm looking forward to reviewing this phone so stay tuned!

Nokia 5610 XpressMusic Preview

The latest Nokia to join T-Mobile USA's portfolio is the Nokia 5610 XpressMusic. Sporting a similar design to the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic, the 5610 comes
red and white. I got a red one so it feels just like the 5310 I had for review but now in slider form. To think the 5610 is just the same 5310 in a new package would be wrong.



The 5610 has a 3.2MP camera with autofocus (no macro mode however), adds dual LED flash, loses the 3.5mm headset jack for a 2.5mm headset jack (I have NO idea why Nokia would do such a thing on a music oriented phone even though the 5610 is fat enough to fit the 3.5mm), and adds a gimicky slider on the front of the phone (allows you to switch to the music player and radio from anywhere).

The center key felt imprecise and the flush front keys felt spongy. The phone is light. The battery cover is thin, has a very flimsy latch system not typical of Nokia, and made with cheaper plastic. Considering most of the hand touches the battery cover, it's a bad place to put cheap plastic.


The little black square button between the microUSB and charger jack is the battery cover release.

There is a slight lag when navigating around the UI.

Finally a full game in a T-Mobile Nokia handset.

I just had to try this out. I really liked Guitar Hero and Rock Band on the Playstation 3 so I'm hoping I get a similar experience on my Nokia.
The graphics look grainy and dull but accurate to the screen shown in the ad. But it was just disappointing. The music was all done with MIDI (so retro and really bad) and it was very laggy. I stopped playing about half way through the first song.

I'm left very disappointed in the first hour of playing with the 5610. Although this phone is positioned higher than the 5310, I prefer the 5310 over this phone. Let's see if I'll grow to like this phone over the two weeks.

Nokia E71 Preview

On my visit to the Nokia Flagship store, I had a chance to test out the recently released Nokia E71-2 NAM.
The Nokia E-series has been quiet lately with just a release of the E51 late last year. It's time for some excitement as Nokia has just revamped their best selling E-series phones with a replacement for their QWERTY keyboard E61i and slider E65. The E61i is being replaced with the E71 while the E65 is replaced with the E66. Unfortunately they didn't have a E66 onsite so I was left only previewing the E71. I won't have an E71 test unit to do a full review anytime soon so this preview is longer than my usual.

My initial impressions of the E71 were "wow, this thing is really small and thin". The use of dark grey plastic and chrome give the phone a really classy high end look. It makes the E61 look like child's toy. But one very glaringly obvious downgrade is the move from the 2.8 inch display of the E61/E61i to the 2.38 inch display of the E71.

Quick facts:
Name: Nokia E71-2 RM-357
CPU: Freescale MXC300, 369 MHz ARM1136JF-S RISC + StarCore SC140 DSP
RAM: 128 MB (user accessible: 71 MB)
Network: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 WCDMA 850/1900
Weight: 126 g
Dimensions: 114 x 57 x 10 mm
Battery life (stand by): up to 480 hours (WCDMA)
Battery life (talk): up to 270 minutes (WCDMA)

With a fast processor, 3MP autofocus camera, GPS, S60 FP1, and a QWERTY keyboard for quick texting/e-mailing, the E71 looks to be the ultimate convergence phone for professional consumers (prosumers) on paper. I carry both a Nokia N82 for the 5MP camera and GPS and a Nokia E61 for corporate e-mail and word processing. Can the E71 replace both my phones?

Navigation
Scrolling through lists and menus is smooth on the E71 with no lag. It's a big improvement over the E61 and the sluggish E62 (for those of you still using those old clunkers from Rogers or Cingular).

The new theme for the E71 and E66 looks really dull since all the colors are either grey or some pastel color. It doesn't really make the phone's operating system look good. At least you can change them along with the icons.

Keyboard
The most important part of E71 is its keyboard:


Each key is domed giving it the feel of a Treo or HTC Dash. Luckily the keys are bigger than the Dash and spaced equally vertically and horizontally. They're smaller than the usual Treo keyboard however. I must've got used to the Nokia keyboards because I found it easy to type on the E71 and easier to transition to the keyboard than I was with the E61.

The call keys are very narrow and the 4 keys surrounded by the call keys are small too. I don't have big hands but I found myself using my nails to hit more keys than I'd like to. The D-pad on the E71 is tight (no stupid spongy feel like on the N82) and responsive. I didn't try playing any vNes, vSun, or vBag emulator on it but from holding the phone I can tell the keypad will not be ideal for that kind of gaming.

Display
The E71 sports a 2.38 inch TFT display capable of displaying 16M colors. Although it's smaller than the N82 but a little, it feels bigger since it's seated in landscape (wide screen) as opposed to letter (traditional screen). The screen is clear and legitable under direct sunlight. It's protected by plastic unlike the E61/E61i (which expose their display with no protection) so it has a slight reflection and not as legitable as its predacessor. Too bad Nokia has moved from the 2.8 to a smaller 2.38 inch display. The difference is noticable. I still prefer watching a movie on the E61.

Multimedia
Camera
To keep the E71 relevant, Nokia has upped the camera from 2MP to 3MP and even included auto focus. As everyone has reported, the T key will perform the auto focussing. I find the workaround reasonable and autofocussing is actually faster on the E71 than the N82. Unfortunately the camera produces noisy photos and a very noticable lag when taking photos. After you press the shutter key, the screen turns black and you have to stay still for a few seconds before the actual photo is taken. What you last saw on the screen before it turned dark is NOT the photo you've taken because of the lag. This camera has the worst lag of any phones I've recently tested like the Nokia 5310b and 3555b.

Video
The video resolution is horrid. Unlike what Phonescoop says (up to VGA resolution at 22 fps, or QVGA resolution at 30 fps), the E71 is only capable of 320 x 240 (QVGA) up to 15 fps.

Connectivity
The E71 sports Bluetooth 2.0, 802.11b/g (WiFi), GPS (yes, a real one that connects to satellites), and Infrared.

Overall
The Nokia E71 looks great and it works well. Gone are the days that my coworkers laugh at my E61 and call it either a dinosaur or a calculator. The E71 is a snappy performer. Having 3G support on Rogers and AT&T is a major improvement over the N82 and E61. The E71 looks great spec-wise but you definitely feel trade offs were made to keep the phone small such as the smaller display and cramped buttons.

The camera performance won't match the N82, which I use very frequently for taking photos for my blogs, and the 2.38 inch display is a significant step down to watching videos and YouTube on the 2.8 inch E61 screen . However, the UMTS 850/1900 is definitely enticing. The keyboard, although cramped, wasn't a problem for me to just pick up and type at a good rate. The strong points for the E71 are huge and is one of the phones on my short list. If it wasn't for my frequent roaming between the US and Canada and camera needs, I would consider taking up the E71.

While reading on the E71 CPU, the Freescale solution includes the following:

StarCore SC140 DSP (GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz, UMTS 850/1900/2100MHz, GPRS class 12, EDGE class 12, HSDPA)

So why doesn't Nokia enable triband UMTS on their E71? It's just silly there are some E71 with 2100 while others with 850/1900. I wonder if it's a patent reason.

More Information: PDAdb E71 Fact Sheet

Nokia 5310 XpressMusic Preview

Thin is in and Nokia isn't going to let Samsung, Sony Ericsson, or Motorola dominate that field without a good fight.

Introducing the 9.9mm thin Nokia 5310 XpressMusic. The 5310 is targeted to a younger crowd with its vibrant red trim and XpressMusic branding but I'm sure many consumers looking for a thin, light on your pocket phone will surely appreciate the 5310's no non-sense design.



Initial impressions are very positive with a very thin classy design, bright sharp display, and solid no creak build quality. The 5310 is almost 50% of the thickness of the Nokia N82! The screen and matte front attract finger prints, the keypad is slippery and small for big fingers, the D-pad is small, the soft keys are call keys are flush with each other, and the speaker phone produces scratchy output. Things aren't sounding too good for the Nokia 5310 already.

Stay tuned for a full review of the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic!

Nokia E61 Preview

It's been a long time this phone has been on the market, 2 years as of this writing, but it still competes well against current phones - sharing much of its hardware with the current Blackberry-styled E-series phone, the Nokia E61i.

Sporting quadband (850, 900, 1800, 1900) GSM and WCDMA 2100 support, a QWERTY keyboard, and large 2.8 inch screen, the Nokia E61 is a great phone if you're looking for a alternative to Blackberry and Windows Mobile:



Initial impressions are very good with a tight joystick control, relatively thin at the bottom (but a tad too thick at the top), an impressively bright and large 2.8 inch screen, and large battery. The back battery cover creeked so I placed a piece of paper napkin under it and that removed the creek. Nokia should have put some rubber behind the battery cover.

Stay tuned for a full review of the Nokia E61!

Nokia 3555 (T-Mobile) Preview

Coinciding with T-mobile's announcement of limited 3G deployment to a number of large US cities like New York City and Los Angeles, I will be reviewing one of the most affordable 3G enabled handset available in T-mobile's line up, the Nokia 3555b.

Sporting quadband (850, 900, 1800, 1900) GSM and WCDMA 1700 support, a stylish smooth casing, the Nokia 3555b may just be the phone for you:


Packed with the basics such as phone (6555b), battery (BL-5C: Extended 850 mAh), charger (AC-3U), and mono headset (HS-40):


The Nokia 3555b in action:


First impressions are very good with a bright high quality screen (but smallish at 1.8 inches) and excellent build quality with no creeks at the hinge, around the screen, or the keypad area.

The Nokia 3555b is available at T-mobile for $0 with a 2 year contract.

Stay tuned for the upcoming review as I take the Nokia 3555 around the block.

Nokia N82 Preview

After more than a year with the Sony Ericsson W810i, I've upgraded to a Nokia N82 for the added functionality of GPS and WiFi. Improvements are the 5MP camera, S60 operating system, and Xenon flash. The drawbacks are lack of LED flashlight, large camera focussing area, and questionable macro photo quality.

A reflective front that smudges easily:


A glossy back that's slippery to grip:


The impressive 5MP Carl Zeiss with a great feeling spring loaded shutter:


Dreadful keyboard with a spongy feeling D-pad:


Transferring maps via old school data cable:


One handed operation:


More indepth review to follow...

New Toy, Almost

For one grand, it didn't work grand

Pros:

• Amazingly large and sharp screen


• Great soft touch back surface


• Impressive photo quality for images taken in daylight


• Reasonably small size


• Speedy GUI and processor for running Gameboy, NES, and SNES emulators


• Has all the features I want in a phone

Cons:

• Mandatory flash and shutter sound when taking photos with macro mode or regular auto focus mode


• Photo taking is slow so setting up for a photo takes a long time in dim places


• Minimum distance for camera is too large for me to take food pics


• Slow camera start up and auto focus speed


• GPS has difficult locking onto satellites


• Creeky body when the slider is open


• Wi-Fi is touchy even in the browser so when it disconnects it will occasionally have problems connecting back to the same access point


• Freaking expensive and I'm very afraid of getting it scratched in my pockets