Nokia Nseries and Eseries vs. iPhone: CPU and Battery Life

* Updated 09/09/2009 - Added iPhone 3GS, Nokia E72, N86, Nokia N900. Merged the many tables into one table.

* Updated 10/22/2008, 10/1/2008

After almost a year since the iPhone was announced and more than half a year since it was launched, the iPhone to some other phone comparisons have started to die down. So just to add some wood to the dying fire, I'm here to state:

Current Nokia smartphones can't match the general computing performance of the iPhone

CPU

Nokia N82/N95	Texas Instruments OMAP2420	330 MHz ARM1136 + 220 MHz TI TMS320C55xDSP + PowerVR MBX 2D/3D Graphics Accelerator + IVA
Nokia E71, E66, N79, N85	32bit Freescale MXC300	369 MHz ARM1136JF-S + 220MHz StarCore SC140 DSP
Nokia N96	32bit STMicroelectronics Nomadik STn8815A12	264 MHz ARM926EJ-S
Apple iPhone	Samsung S5L8900	620MHz ARM1176JZF (downclocked to 412MHz)
Apple iPhone 3G	Samsung S5L8900	835MHz (downclocked to 412MHz)
Nokia N86, N97	32bit Freescale MXC300	434 MHz ARM1136JF-S + 220MHz StarCore SC140 DSP
Nokia E72	32bit Freescale MXC300	600 MHz ARM1136JF-S + 220MHz StarCore SC140 DSP
Nokia N900	Texas Instruments OMAP3430	600MHz ARM Cortex-A8 + PowerVR SGX graphics core + IVA 2+
Apple iPhone 3GS	Samsung S5PC100	600MHz ARM Cortex A8 + 100MHz PowerVR SGX 530 graphics core + VPU

Source: Semiconductor insights, Engadget, PDAdb.net
BoingBoing, iPhone 3G FCC filing

More after the jump.

From the configuration we can see that Nokia has placed a higher importance in call performance (probably from the inclusion of 3G video calling) with the use of a dedicated Digital Signal Processing (DSP) unit, namely the Texas Instruments 220 MHz TMS320C55xDSP).

Does the iPhone lag behind because it lacks a DSP?

No, not really.

In the following chart you will see the ARM1176 perform almost as good as the C55x:


Moreover you can see the ARM1136, found in the Nokia phones, perform almost as good as the ARM1176 with a similar clock speed. Too bad the iPhone packs a ARM1176 with almost double the clock speed.

Two is always better than one right? It could be if you're using both CPUs at the same time. With the flexibility of the Symbian S60 operating system on Nokia phones, you can initiate a video call while editing Microsoft Word/Excel documents in QuickOffice and seamlessly switch between them. The Apple iPhone hides the multitasking from the user and you don't have video calling so you will likely have the iPhone to your ear where you can't really do anything else simultanously. And that's when you realize 1 CPU on the iPhone is good enough if it could handle both DSP operations and general CPU usage as you rarely get to do both at the same time.

So when you're only using the general computing CPU, say for watching a video, the iPhone can process more frames and provide a snappier interface than the Nokia phones.

Battery

So here comes a drawback to the two processor set up on Nokia phones. They're power hungry compared to the iPhone since it has to power two CPUs. Even though each of them uses less power than the high clocked iPhone CPU, putting them together in a package creates a higher power usage situation since one is powering the UI while the other is handling cellular operations.

Now to add the nail to the coffin, Nokia has equipped their phones will less powerful batteries:

N95 - 950mAh
N82 - 1100mAh
N95 8GB - 1200mAh
iPhone/iPhone 3G - 1400mAh

Conclusion

The Nokia phones are equipped with a dedicated DSP CPU and a general ARM CPU while the iPhone makes due with a higher clocked general ARM CPU. The iPhone user interface doesn't emphasize the multitasking capability by hiding it from the user so a single processor design works well enough for it. Nokia equips their phones with two CPUs with one focussed on heavy DSP tasks like 3G calling while the other handles all other CPU tasks. The preferred design is based on how you use your phone. But with a more powerful battery and a single chip design, the iPhone will win in the battery life competition.

Reference:
Use a Microprocessor, a DSP, or Both?, BDti, 2007/04/04
DSP Design Line

---

Update 10/1/2008
Nokia's latest S60 phones (E-series and N-series) have switched from the Texas Instrument dual core N82/N95 to a Freescale single core in the E66/E71/N79/N85. Oddly enough, a single chip design was used in the N96 like the iPhone. However, the Nokia N96 phone use an older ARMv5 instruction set architecture as opposed to the ARMv6 of the iPhone and other Nokia phones. The iPhone continues to overshadow the Nokias with a higher frequency.

Nokia E71, E66, N79, N85	32bit Freescale MXC300	369 MHz ARM1136JF-S + 220MHz StarCore SC140 DSP
Nokia N96	32bit STMicroelectronics Nomadik STn8815A12	264 MHz ARM926EJ-S
Apple iPhone	Samsung S5L8900	620MHz ARM1176JZF (downclocked to 412MHz)
Apple iPhone 3G	Samsung S5L8900	835MHz (downclocked to 600MHz) ARM1176JZF + 100MHz PowerVR SGX 530 graphics core + VPU

Source: iPhone 3G FCC filing

My original article wrote about the benefits of having a CPU with DSP combination and Nokia continues this with most of their latest phones except the N96. The latest Nokia phones do not have the 3D graphics accelerator as the N82/N95. It's too bad Nokia didn't outfit all their N-series devices with 3D graphics accelerators so N-gage games can stand out from standard Java games. Nokia's switch from a dual core to a single core design and leaving out graphics acceleration will improve battery life.

Nokia continues to outfit their phones with smaller batteries:
E66 - 1000mAh
E71 - 1500mAh
N79 - 1200mAh
N85 - 1200mAh
N96 - 950mAh

It is surprising that Nokia's next flagship phone, the N96, has such a low frequency and uses a single chip design compared to other Nokia devices. Out of all the Nokia phones, only the E71 has a larger battery (1500mAh) compared to the iPhone. I think it was a bad decision for Nokia to include low powered phones (like the N73) as being N-gage compatible when they could've differentiated their N-gage games from other games if 3D hardware acceleration was part of the N-gage platform.

Source:
MXC300-30: 3G Single Core Modem Platform
ARM1136JF-S - ARM Processor
ARM926EJ-S - ARM Processor
ARM1176JZ(F)-S - ARM Processor

---

Update 10/22/2008 notes: Revised clock speed for iPhone 3G, mentioned downclocking for iPhone, revised to refer to 3D hardware acceleration

Additional note: The Nokia N96 does support DSP and hardware video acceleration for 2D/3D with its STn8815A12 chipset. Read more at STMicroelectronics. Oddly enough, the JBenchmark scores for the N96 in the 3D category do not come close to the N82/N95 which feature a separate chip for 3D acceleration. The benchmarks more closely resemble the N85 that does not have 3D hardware acceleration.

Source: Mobile88, Mobile Arsenal

---

Update 09/09/2009
It's been almost a year since I updated this posting and things have only slightly changed with Nokia putting out Nseries and Eseries devices with a higher clock speed. Apple, not to let any competitor catch up, gave the iPhone 3GS a thorough updating with the new ARM Cortex A8.

Nokia N86, N97	32bit Freescale MXC300	434 MHz ARM1136JF-S + 220MHz StarCore SC140 DSP
Nokia E72	32bit Freescale MXC300	600 MHz ARM1136JF-S + 220MHz StarCore SC140 DSP
Nokia N900	Texas Instruments OMAP3430	600MHz ARM Cortex-A8 + PowerVR SGX graphics core + IVA 2+
Apple iPhone 3GS	Samsung S5PC100	600MHz ARM Cortex A8 + 100MHz PowerVR SGX 530 graphics core + VPU

Source: PDADB.net, Nokia N900

As I had suspected, the 32bit Freescale MXC300 used by Nokia in their Nseries and Eseries phones for the last year and a half had more capability than Nokia was using which explains the jump from 369MHz to 600MHz.

Since this post is about CPU to battery life I decided to look up the battery life of the Nokia E71 and E72 because they both use the same Freescale solution and same battery but the E72 uses a higher clock frequency.

Phone	E71	E72
Battery	BP-4L 1500 mAh	BP-4L 1500 mAh
Talk (GSM/WCDMA)	10h 30min/4h 30min	12h 30min/5h 42min
Standby (GSM/WCDMA)	17 days/20 days	20 days/24 days

Source: Nokia E71 Specifications, Nokia E72 Specifications

Very oddly, even though the E72 has a higher clock speed and same battery as the E71, the E72 has a much better life so there is much more to battery life than just CPU and battery capacity. Influences could be better firmware and hardware design.

Unfortunately, 600Mhz is the upper limit to the Freescale solution so Nokia had better find a better solution to keep up with their high-end competitors. I suspect Nokia will continue to use the Freescale solutions in their mid-tier devices, for its good balance of speed and battery life, well into 2011.

This is where Nokia's latest smartphone, the N900, comes in. The N900 discards the pathetic Freescale solutions and returns to the more powerful Texas Instrument solutions to provide the necessary speed to run today's applications and rich multimedia. This extra power puts it inline to compete with Apple's iPhone 3GS. If you don't believe me about how pathetic the Freescale solution is, try comparing the playability of Vampent vBagX on a E71 to the older N95.

The Nokia N900 will be a very exciting product for Nokia. I'm hoping to see a performance comparison between the N900 and the iPhone 3GS to see which will take the crown as the most powerful consumer smart phone.

Vampent vBagX Review: Gameboy Advance on your S60

http://www.vampent.com

While Nokia is trying to build creditibility to their N-gage mobile gaming platform, much of the portable gaming market was and continues to be held by dedicated gaming systems like Nintendo's DS and Sony's PSP. Just the number of top rate games available on one of these systems far outweigh all the games available on the S60. One way to quickly increase the number of top quality titles is bringing it onto the S60 through emulation.

The power of S60 phones have dramatically increased in the past few months and software like vBag make emulation of yesterday's dedicated portable gaming systems like the hugely popular Nintendo Gameboy Advance possible. With vBag your phone can play any number of games from the GBA's huge library of portable games. Imagine classic like Super Mario Advance 2, Super Mario Kart, and the Legend of Zelda on your phone:


It may sound impressive so find out if the claims are true that you can really get the GBA experience on your S60 phone by following the jump to read the full review...

For this post I will be reviewing vBagX x1.20 S60v3 on the most common Nokia S60 architectures:

Architecture	Details	Phones
32bit Freescale MXC300	369 MHz ARM1136JF-S + 220MHz StarCore SC140 DSP	E63, E66, E71, N78, N79, N81, N85
Texas Instruments OMAP2420	330 MHz ARM1136 + 220 MHz TI TMS320C55xDSP + PowerVR MBX 2D/3D Graphics Accelerator + IVA	N82, N95

I don't have all of these phones so I'll be testing on both a N82 and a E71 to cover both of these architectures on vBag 's performance. A SanDisk 8GB microSDHC class 4 on the N82 and a Nokia 2GB microSD on the E71 memory card were used during this review. vBag was installed on the memory card in both cases because all GBA ROMS (.gba) must be placed in \Data\Others\vBag\

Graphics
vBagX gives you the option to use Bitmap (software rendered) or Direct (hardware rendered) but Direct has never worked for me on either the N82, E71, or even other Vampent products on my 6682.

From my experiences, the E71 renders games exactly as they are on the GBA but some games do run into issues with sprites not appearing in the right spot (see compatibility).

Super Mario Kart Advance runs smoothly with all image layers on the Nokia N82

vBagX comfortably handles the portrait layout found on most S60 phones like the N82 and the landscape layout like the E71. It can also handle screen rotations but the rotation must be done before starting a game otherwise the rotation will cause a screen problem. You can also manually change the screen orientation under Graph > Size (you can rotate the screen 90 degrees left or right, keep it at original reolution or expand to fill the screen).

You do encounter some frame drops here and there even on the higher powered N82/N95. The E71 is more choppy. You can adjust how much frames (0-9) you're OK with vBagX skipping to keep a consistent game speed.

Sounds
vBagX supports full stereo audio on the GBA. However there is a very very minor lag in audio on the N82 but the audio was very out of sync on the E71 by about 0.5 seconds.

Performance
This is highly dependent on the model and firmware of your phone.

My E71 encountered choppy frame rate and lagged audio. There was no way I could play Street Fighter II the same way as I did on a GBA.

I didn't experience any of the lag with the dual core architecture of the N82. But there were a few dropped frames here and there in high speed games like Super Mario Kart. It was very playable but not as smooth as playing on a real Gameboy Advance.

Compatibility
There is currently a running thread of compatible games on Vampent's forum. Here is a list of games I've tested and played:
Super Mario Kart
Super Mario Advance 4 (Super Mario 3)
Super Mario Advance 2 (Super Mario World)
Contra Advance (Contra 3)
The Legend of Zelda - The Minish Cup
Final Fantasy Advance Tactics
Mario Pinball Land
Super Street Fighter II

All of them worked for me running on compatibilty mode 1. That's the scary but powerful thing. Vampent thought to add a compatibilty setting that goes from 1 to 3 (where 3 is slowest but closest compatibility with GBA) in vBagX so some games work in one setting but not others.

The single core architecture used in the Nokia E71 lends itself better to RPG games like Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

Phone keypads for gaming
You're playing games designed for the GBA's keypad. First off you're losing out on the left (L) and right (R) buttons at the top of the GBA since no S60 phone features these. Secondly, the ring D-pad of most S60 phones don't lend themselves well to diagonal (ie. left-right) presses. Similar to the keyboard on computers, a certain combination of simulataneous key presses can register an error on the phone and thus ignoring the key press. It's annoying when you have to hold one key while tapping another like flying in Super Mario Advance 4.

If you can get past all those physical limitations, vBagX allows you to map any GBA key to almost any phone key. Unfortunately only the volume up/down media keys are currently supported for N95/N96.

I've frequently referred to vBag, vNes, or vBoy under the keypad sections in my reviews as these games were designed for the highly comfortable, high quality, and dedicated to gaming keypad of the Nintendo Gameboy Advance. More often than not, the keypads of a phone aren't built with gaming in mind so button placement is compromised and button quality isn't high on the priority of phone manufacturers. If you plan to game a lot on the road then I highly recommend bringing along a Wii-mote and downloading Mobipad so you can use the better Wii-mote controller for gaming.

Playing GBA games with a Wii-mote paired to your S60 phone via Bluetooth is a lot more enjoyable and comfortable

Overall
vBagX delivers high quality gaming to the S60 platform by giving users access to Gameboy Advance's library of games. Most of my Gameboy Advance games ran fine on vBag with an acceptable framerate, little to no graphical errors, and mostly synchronized audio playback. Since most games require quick reflexes and timing, you need to get either a N82 or any flavor of the N95 to fully enjoy vBagX. I highly recommend downloading the trial vBagX to your phone to test before purchasing it to ensure it runs your favorite games smoothly and you're confortable with the keypad on your phone. If you do decide to purchase vBagX, Vampent offers lifetime upgrades of the vBagX product and I've heard their customer service is really good.

Software rating: Highly Recommend

Which uses more power? WiFi or 3G?

I had that same question on my mind after Ziostilon posted that question on HowardForums. Fellow HoFo member jessi3k3 showed that WiFi consumes a little more energy than EDGE. Another HoFo member, RogerPodacter, brought up some good points to suggest that WiFi should consume less power than 3G because the cell towers are further away and it'd require more energy to move the same amount of data in longer distances. But an argument against that is WiFi was developed without mobile devices in mind so power consumption wasn't of the highest concern which is why Bluetooth was developed and that 3G is designed with mobile devices in mind so it should be optimized for limited power consumption.

So we ran Nokia Internet Radio at 128kbps and used Nokia Energy Profiler just to see for ourselves what really consumed more power...

802.11G with WPA-PSK (WiFi):

Test #1


Test #3

AT&T 3G:

Test #2


Test #4

From my test with Nokia Energy Profiler, it shows that 3G does consume more power than WiFi in streaming the 128kbps.

This is how I tested (so you can try it too):
I'm using the same Nokia E71-2 running firmware 100.07.76 for all the tests. I used a Linksys WRT54G with 802.11G WPA-PSK. According to this map of AT&T's 3G network from this summer, I'm in the blue area so I have strong 3G support. I wish I knew where the tower is so I could write a better post.

Software used:
Nokia Energy Profiler 1.1 (1-May-08)
Nokia Internet Radio 1.06 (or get it through Download! on your device)
Screenshot for Symbian OS (S60) 3.01 (just to take those pretty screenshots)

1. Open Energy Profiler
2. Turn on Internet Radio
3. Options > Settings
4. Set access point (if you change this value, you need to restart Internet Radio for the change to take effect)
5. Set all the bitrate to Best Quality (128kbps)
6. Choose a radio station and wait for it to finish buffering
7. Go to Energy Profiler and click Options > Start

I alternated tests between WiFi and 3G (which is why the screenshots go from Test 1, 3, 2, 4) to rule out the case that earlier runs might produce more favorable results than later tests and tested each connection more than once because one test is never enough.

This test really changed my perception that WiFi is a power hog. Even with the burden of WPA-PSK, WiFi consumed less power for me. HoFo member oddsocks gives a pretty good explanation on why 3G consumes just by the specs. I guess this explains why Steve Jobs of Apple added WiFi to the iPhone and complained about 3G chipsets not being ready for mobile devices.

Going beyond games with TV-out: Doing a Business Presentation

A useful yet not widely exploited feature of the Nokia N82 and N95 is the TV out functionality through the Nokia AV. You may have read about the impressiveness of connecting your phone to your TV to play some ngage games like Fifa 2008 but what else can you do with it? How about something productive, say give a presentation!

Wouldn't it be great to not need to lug around a 4+ pound laptop?


Most projectors offer the VGA input and the RCA input. Luckily some of Nokia's latest smartphones include Nokia's A/V plug offering RCA video and audio output. Before we go further, I'd like to mention that I found this set up to work best with simple presentations (no animation or embedded objects). As well, it's important to give this set up a couple tries before using it in an actual business presentation and I highly recommend bringing your laptop as a back up. We're pushing the S60 smartphone to the limits so there's bound to be technical glitches.

So let's get started with putting our presentation. What you'll need:

Hardware
N82/N95 (you'll need it for the TV out and faster processor)
Nokia Video Connectivity Cable (CA-75U)
Nintendo Wii controller

Software
Quickoffice 4.5.14.8+
mobiPad 1.0

Creating and Editing Presentations

It's best to start with a presentation template. Since I'm doing a business presentation, most companies already have a standard template available. Upload it to your phone and start editing it with QuickOffice. This is also gives you a great way to make those last minute quick changes to your slides.

With Quickoffice you can:
Insert images, textbox, and tables


For each of these elements you can perform the following:
- move
- resize
- resize evenly
- Rotate (only text and images and at any angle)
- Flip (only text and images)
- reorder
- properties
Color: fill color, line color, dash style, line weight
Position: Horizonal position, Vertical position, Width, Height, Tech anchor point

You also have the ability to change the order of slides and insert new slides.

Remote Control
Once you have your presentation complete and ready we should set up your wireless control. To set up the Nintendo Wii controller to control your phone while you're standing, turn on Bluetooth, open mobiPad, and click the red button under the battery cover on the Wii controller to sync the Wii controller with your phone. Once connected you will get a connected message.


Displaying the Presentation
We want to turn on screen rotation on the N82 so we can display it in landscape while on the N95 you can open the Media keys.
Go to Settings > General > Personalisation > Display > Rotate screen > Automatic


Now to open up the presentation in Quickoffice and click Options > Full Screen.


Connect the N82/N95 to the projector via the Nokia TV out cables (CA-75U).

Presto! You're ready to give a presentation with your phone while navigating your slides wirelessly.

Large text and simple shapes displayed well:


Displayed on the N82 screen


Displayed by the project

Small details don't show up so well:


Displayed on the N82 screen


Displayed by the projector

Conclusion
Creating my presentation on my N82 felt very cramped because of the low resolution and the limited movement with a d-pad. The lower resolution of the phone output was unacceptable so I had to resort back to a laptop for my actual presentation. For this instance the N82 couldn't do what I wanted but if I had bigger text and images I would consider giving my N82 another try at giving a presentation.

Here is what I found while putting together my presentation with my N82. Let me know if you've found anything else to add to this list:

Advantages:
Bluetooth remote to control your presentation
Look high tech giving a presentation
The N82/N92 have just enough power to move through each slide smoothly

Disadvantages
Not all Nokia phones support TV-out (not even the E-series phones support it)
The 320x240 pixel display makes TV-out look blocky. Avoid small graphics and text on presentations.
Powerpoint editing on S60 is not yet mature with limited functionality
Editing documents on the small display is frustrating
Does not support embedded objects

Nokia N95, N82 Turn Off Camera Sound

Since there are a number of people out on the web searching for turning off camera sound or shutter sound, I thought I'd post an entry on how to do it.

First try changing your phone to silent mode. Try taking a photo with the camera. If that didn't work then your phone's regional firmware probably doesn't allow silencing or disabling the camera sound so you'll need to read below.

Note: I do not endorse this but if this makes you happier with your Nokia S60 then it's worth it.

Warning: This involves updating your phone firmware so it's a risky procedure. Updating your phone is at your own risk.

Pre-requisite:
- Installed Nokia Suite Software that came with your phone
- Installed European Nokia Software Updater
- Phone
- Nokia USB Cable

First Part: Changing the product code on your S60 phone

Warning: This first part voids your Nokia warranty

Update 10/06/2008: 1.0.38.14 fixes a bug that prevented NSS from comunicating with the new Nokia Connectivity Cable driver
Download Nemesis Service Suite Beta 1.0.38.12 1.0.38.14 from B-pheaks (NSS103812.exe, 6,629,190 bytes) (NSS103814.exe, 6,514,081 bytes)

Note: Updating Nokia Software Updater will override your USB drivers and prevent NSS from properly reading your Nokia phone. I would suggest using the European Nokia Software Updater 1.4.23. - fixed in NSS 1.0.38.14

1. Install NSS and restart computer


2. Connect your phone to the computer via USB cable and set to PC Suite mode.


3. Open nss software click on magnifying glass in top right.
   
   
   
   


4. Click phone info and scan your phone just to make sure its connected
   


5. To the right, click read to bring up your product data.
   


6. Write down your product code.


7. Change the product code one for EURO 1, 2, or 3 (see here for a listing of product codes for your S60 phone, I use EURO 3 - N82 RM-313 = 0551521) and check enable box then click on write.


8. You must reset the phone in NSS software. Click on tools tab then factory settings tab.
   
   


9. Check the full factory circle and click reset.


10. Restart your phone (I don't think this step is necessary but let's do it just in case)

Second Part: Update Phone Firmware

1. Update your phone as you normally do and remember never to turn off your computer or phone. And remember it's normal for the phone to blink a couple times. Don't do anything to it and don't run anything on your computer at the same time.

That's it! Try out your camera now.

I would suggest changing your phone's product code back to the original value using the first part of this, just in case.

MobiPad - Control your S60 with a Wii Controller

So you have an S60 phone and a Wii with a bunch of controllers, what can you do with all that?

Use your Wii controller to play Super Mario World (or any other Gameboy Advanced, Super Nintendo, Nintendo, or Gameboy game) on your phone of course!

Download and install mobiPad from http://mobi-pad.com/download.html (mobiPad_1.0_S60_3rd.zip at 67,045 bytes) to your S60 phone.

Turn on Bluetooth and mobiPad.

Pair your Wii Controller to your S60 by selecting "Discover Wiimote" in mobiPad and hitting the red button inside the battery compartment of the Wii controller:


Fire up the emulator of your choice (mine is vBag):


Rememeber to re-map the buttons to the wii mote in your emulator.

I have my N82 in portait mode right now but emulators look a lot better in portait view. It also lets you turn your Wii mode on its side and handle it like a NES controller with the D-pad under your left thumb and 1/2 buttons under your right thumb. One trouble is hitting the -/+ buttons if you have them set to L/R in SNES or GBA emulators. I found myself accidently hitting the Wiimote's trigger button under the D-pad a few times which pauses the emulator.

The phone-wiimote set up is really stable and fast. The controller is confortable enough for me to perform Ryu's fireball in Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo and fast enough to perform combos in the same game. Super Mario is no problem on the Wiimote.

Note: For Vampent emulators, such as vBag and vNes, remember to rotate the screen before running the emulator because they don't handle the screen rotations well (i.e. screen positioning is all wrong and cropped)

Note: I was really surprised to learn that the Wiimote uses Bluetooth.

Note: You can not re-map wiimote buttons in this version of MobiPad.

Source: http://mobi-pad.com

"Phone start-up failed"

I was updating QuickOffice on my phone when it stalled and hung my phone. I did a restart and the unthinkable showed up right after the Nokia hands:

"Phone start-up failed. Contact the retailer"

I first tried removing the memory card and restarting. Failed.
I tried removing the SIM card and restarting. Failed.

You can't re-install the firmware because it doesn't get into any of the data modes. I wasn't going to send my N82 back to Europe for servicing and be without it for a long time. I was cringing at what it would cost at an independent store.

Thankfully Nokia added a fail safe. You can wipe out the phone memory (lose all your contacts if you have it set to phone memory, notes, etc.) and restore it back to the last firmware on the phone by (a method commonly known as the 3 finger salute):

Hold the green call button, the "3" key, and "*" key all at the same time while starting up the phone.

If you have 5800 (firmware V. 20.0.012), hold the green call button, the red hang up button, and the camera button all at the same time while staring up the phone.

If you have N97, hold the "Caps" key, "Space bar" key, "Backspace" key, and "Power" button all at the same time while staring up the phone.

The phone will slightly flicker and prompt you for your country. Now my N82 is back to a factory clean state.

*UpdateYou can also do this on S60 5th edition like the 5800 (firmware V.20.0.012 or higher): hold the green call button, red end call button, and camera key all at the same time while starting up the phone.

Note: I'd only use this as a last resort.

Note: This doesn't save you from a botched firmware upgrade using Nokia Software Updater.

Note: Be careful with your phone.

Note: Although I did this with a N82, I'm sure it'll work on other S60 phones like the N95.

Ripping DVDs to your iPod, iPhone, or Nokia S60 phone with Free Software

The latest series of Nokia S60 third edition phones, such as the N95, N82, and E90, and iPods, such as the iPhone, iPod classic, and iPod touch, support the latest MPEG4 video encoding called H.264/AVC, also known as MPEG-4 Part 10, or MPEG-4 AVC (for Advanced Video Coding). H.264/AVC brings good video quality at a relatively small size to your phone.

For the small screen size of a phone, the quality and size of a H.264/AVC video is on par with DivX but with one major advantage: the iPhone/iPod and built-in Real Media Player in S60 will play H.264/AVC videos.

How to convert your DVDs into H.264/AVC using free software

Screen Resolution:
Most Nokia S60v3 phones, iPod nano (3rd generation), iPod classic (5th, 6th generation): 320 x 240 pixels
iPhone (1st generation) and iPod touch (1st generation): 480 x 320 pixels

Software you'll need:
DVD Decrypter (unofficial site)
Videora iPod converter

For my tutorial I have DVD Decrypter 3.5.4.0 (setup file size: 899,414 bytes) and Videora iPod converter 3.07 (setup file size: 7,151,050 bytes) running on Microsoft Windows XP SP2 and converting for 320x240 pixels.

Ripping video from DVD to VOB

• Open DVD Decrypter and place DVD into DVD drive (DVD Decrypter will automatically detect the largest video on the DVD and select it)
  


• Click Mode -> IFO


• Click Tools -> Settings -> IFO Mode (Change File Splitting to None) and click OK


• Change the destination of the export file as needed


• Click the DVD -> HD icon (Decrypt)

Converting the VOB to H.264/AVC

• Open Videora iPod converter
  


• Click Settings, select iPod_5G
  


• Click New Profile, enter a name and select "iPod 2-Pass - FFmpeg VINB". 1-pass is faster but videos can come out "blocky".
  


• Click Video and fill in below:
  Video Codec: H.264
  Profile: Baseline Profile
  Level: Level 1.3
  Mode: ABR
  Bitrate: 256
  Width: 320 (iPhone/touch: 480)
  Height: 240 (iPhone/touch: 320)
  Aspect Ratio: Original
  Framerate: 30
  Max Resolution: 320x240 (iPhone/touch: 480x320)
  Mod16 Size: unchecked
  Total Pixels: unchecked
  


• Click General 2 and fill in below:
  (values here depend on the aspect ratio of the DVD)
  
  Wide screen DVD (16:9)
  Crop Top: 0
  Crop Bottom: 0
  Crop Left: 40
  Crop Right: 40
  
  TV-series DVD (4:3)
  Crop Top: 0
  Crop Bottom: 0
  Crop Left: 0
  Crop Right: 0
  
  iPhone/touch: Leave above all 0
  
  Additional CLI parameters: -async 1
  


• Click Audio and fill in below:
  Codec: AAC-LC
  Mode: ABR
  Bitrate (kbps): 128
  Channels: Stereo
  Sample Rate (Hz): Original
  Volume (%): 100
  


• Click OK


• Click Save Settings


• Click Convert, click Video File, click Power user
  


• Select file, browse output directory, click "Start Converting"

Typical file size: 350MB for 2 hours at 320x240

List of phones that support H.264/AVC (all S60v3 with FP1 or higher are supported):
N71, N73, N75, N77, N80, N91, N92, N93, 6110, 6120/6121, 6290, E51, E66, E71, E90, N76, N79, N81, N81 8GB, N82, N85, N95, N95 8GB, N96
Source: Forum Nokia Feature Table

List of Apple Support:
QuickTime, iTunes, iPod nano (3rd generation), iPod classic (5th, 6th generation), iPhone (1st generation) and iPod touch (1st generation)

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