Comparing Xenon Flash and dual LED - N8, N82, N900 Low Light Showdown - Part 2!

After two years, and much to the delight of Nokia euthusiasts, Nokia has finally brought back Xenon flash to its camera-centric phones. The only two other Nokia devices with Xenon are the N82 and 6220 classic.

As most people know, Xenon flash provides brighter and faster flash than dual LEDs which are popular for phones. Some reviewers have tried to say dual LEDs is a good compromise for phones but my comparison between the N82, N86, and N79 nicely showed off the ability of the N82's Xenon flash to light up a room and stop objects in motion and put the dual LED N86 to shame.

Nokia N8, Nokia N82, Nokia N900

It's been almost a year since my last review and Nokia has put out a lot of impressive devices so it's time to do another Xenon flash and dual LED showdown. This time I'm pitting the venerable N82 against Nokia's latest superstar, the N8, and the powerful N900.

According to Nokia program manager, Damian Dinning, the "N8 has virtually the same flash power as the N82" (source). So we should expect similar flash results from the N8 but, hopefully, better details with the N8's larger sensor and higher resolution.

The N900 did really well against the N82 in outdoor daylight shots but I have a strong feeling the dual LED is going to put the N900 out of the contest.

Finally, the N82, Nokia's night photo champion for a whole 2 years. Will it finally lose its crown to the sleek stylish N8? Let's find out!

FCamera N900 Review

FCamera is an advanced camera application for the N900. It is based on the highly touted FCam (short for Frankencamera) photography platform develped in collaboration between Nokia, Stanford, and other partners. Is it good enough to be worth replacing the built-in camera application?


Updated 8/19/2010 with comments from FCamera 0.1.6
Originally posted on 7/23/2010

Nokia N900 Review - Hardware

After experimenting with touch-based tablets since 2006, Nokia finally merges cellphone capabilities with their tablets to create the N900. Not to be outdone by other manufacturers, Nokia also includes common Nseries features like 5MP camera, wifi, and integrated GPS with the N900.


I've had the N900 for over 3 months now and I want to share with you my experiences with it. I wanted to make this one big review but there was just too much to talk about the N900 that I'm breaking it out over 2 posts: Hardware and Software.

More after the jump!

Niko the Robot

I've been away from the blogging scene for a few weeks to work on the Niko the robot. It's almost time to put him live on Twitter so if you're on Twitter, you can change your status to @N900Niko followed by one of the following commands:

move forward
move backward
turn right
turn left
turn around
photo

Here's an example Twitter command to Niko:

@N900Niko move forward

This little robot will perform your command and send you back a reply with a photo from his camera:


Niko has been featured on numerous blogs!
Engadget
Gizmodo
MAKE
SlashGear
Jim Baker's Ephemera