The Mobile Technology Blog

Nokia has updated its ever expanding portfolio of N-series handhelds with two new phones - the N79 and the N85. The N79 is touted to be a compliment to the N78 while the N85 is said to be a replacement for the aging Nokia N95. Interestingly, we have been calling the soon to be available N96 as the replacement for the N95 series all the while.

So what does the N85 bring to the table? To start with, the Nokia N85 is the first mobile from the Finnish giant to feature an AMOLED display. According to Wikipedia, AMOLEDs displays do not require a back light as in case of LCD displays. Each pixel in the AMOLED display can emit light on its own, which helps to reduce the power consumption. The display also tends to be more thinner, though it may not make much of a difference in a mobile phone device. The screen size is only 2.6″ though. The N85 also features the 5MP auto-focus camera which we first saw on the N95 and later on the N82. Though there is no xenon, the N85 features a dual LED flash. It also supports Triband HSDPA and comes with a bundled 8GB MicroSD card in a dual slider form factor. To sum it up, the N85 is a thinner and a slightly improved version of the original Nokia N95.

The N79 shares many of the features with N85. Notable are:

* 5MP auto focus camera with dual LED flash
* FM Transmitter
* A-GPS
* Accelerometer
* TV-out
* Dual Cameras (one on the front for 3G video calling and self portraits)

The screen is slightly smaller at 2.4″ and the phone sports a candy bar form factor. One unique feature of N79 is the changeable strap-on back cover which comes in 3 colors already. But the long list of common features between these two handsets indicate the feature convergence that is taking place on the N-Series of devices from Nokia.

On the one hand, it is very confusing for an end user to make a decision on which handset to buy. On the other hand, it gives them a lot of choices. Overall, these two handsets add to the chaos already prevailing in the N series line up. Just visit the N series official website and take a look at the handset list on the home page. You will understand what I am talking about.

In the current lineup, there are only few features that differentiate a handset from another. What Nokia needs to do is to decide on the three major form factors which the market is interested in (for example - slider, dual slider and candy bar). Then release three handsets in these form factors every year with incremental upgrades to the feature set. That should be more or less sufficient if the features are carefully planned among these three. People will instantly know which one to buy. Nokia needs to decide on this before they run out of numbers for the N-Series handsets. With the introduction of N85, the difference in features between the flagship N96 is already blurring.

Update: Dotsisx from Symbian-Guru echoes similar sentiments.

PS: This post participates in the latest group writing project from Problogger on killer titles.

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After causing a major heartbreak for consumers who were eagerly awaiting for the iPhone, Apple India and its carrier allies are now out to screw the 47 customers who already bought the iPhone 3G. (Yah, don’t believe the “we sold a few thousands of them” crap thrown by one of the Airtel spokesman. A friend in mobile phone retail business has confirmed that there is very little interest to buy the iPhone, though many people want to see a demo).

Airtel and Vodafone are mulling a Rupees 2000 price drop, which brings the 8GB iPhone below the psychological 30,000 barrier. This price drop may come anytime in the next few days, which will surely disappoint the people who bought it after standing in a non-existing queue for less than 5 minutes. If this price drop is materialized, please do not expect a letter from Steve Jobs and a discount voucher for Rupees 1000 which you can use only in the AppStore. My dear Indian Apple fan, you will continue to be screwed in this country.

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When I plugged in my iPhone today, this message came up:

I innocently clicked on “Update Settings” and my data connection stopped working. Seems like Airtel is using a different APN setting so that only authorised iPhones can be used with it. Since the APN settings are hidden in iPhone firmware 2.0 onwards, the only way you could modify that is by using the iPhone configuration utility. I took the easier route of restoring the firmware.

Related: Reducing the iPhone 2.0 backup time.

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Set to launch in 2 days, Vodafone India has announced the pricing of Apple iPhone 3G. The pricing is almost similar to what many of us including yours truly was expecting. The 8GB model will be priced at around Rs 31000 and the 16GB will cost not less than  Rupees 36000. I think this is a fair pricing considering the cost of unlocked iPhones in the world market. With no history of contract or subsidized pricing in this country, this is the best one can hope for.

This high pricing will make the iPhone a niche product in this country. The obvious targets could be the high earning youth among the IT sector. The iPhone 3G will go head to head with the Nokia N96 which is priced under the same range. What one should note is that Nokia phone prices keep falling once they are launched in the market, which is not true in the case of Apple products. This means that by the end of November 2008, you will be able to purchase a Nokia N96 24GB (16Gb internal + a bundled 8GB micro SD) for less than 30,000. With the right marketing, Nokia will be able to make a dent in the iPhone 3G sales.

Update: Vodafone India has done a Rogers by announcing some outrageous data plans. Stay tuned, I have a post on this later today.

Related: iPhone 3G Alternatives

Nokia N96 launched in India

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In a surprising move from Nokia, India becomes the first country to get the mother of all smartphones - the Nokia N96! In the launch event today, Nokia unveiled the much awaited handset which is a HSDPA enabled QVGA phone with a 5 megapixel autofocus camera. The phone also features the dual slider,  which was first seen on Nokia N95 - a very successful n-series handset launched last year.

The Indian N96 will come pre-loaded with plenty of Bollywood content, which includes the Shah Rukh Khan starring “Om Shanti Om”.

The launch date seems to have been pre-poned since the iPhone is all set to launch on August 22 in India. The unlocked handset is priced at a hefty Rs. 36000, which is around US $850 by today’s exchange rates. Believe me, there are people in this country who are ready to shell out this kind of money for a mobile phone. Incidentally, the predecessor N95 too launched at a similar price point.

The handset will be available from the first week of September, but you can pre-book it now with an advance payment of Rs. 4000. I feel this is just a gimmick as I have never seen people queuing upto buy mobile phones in India, as they do in certain other countries.  You will be able to purchase it comfortably on the day one of launch.

Related News: iPhone 3G India pricing announced with outrageous data plans!

[via The Economic Times]

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Nokia N82 is one of the top end, feature packed n-series phones from Nokia. It is a cross between the N73 and the N95 - form factor of the N73 combined with the features of N95. The highlight of the N82 is its excellent camera. It can easily replace one of those pocket digital cameras people carry. When compared to a stand-alone digital camera, the only thing you will miss from the N82 is perhaps the optical zoom.

Now for the important question - should you buy the N82? Hmmm, before I try to answer this question, let me list the Pros and Cons of this phone.

Pros

• N95 in a pocketable size
• Excellent digital camera
• On board GPS
• Expandable memory with micro SD card slot
• S60 v3 FP1
• Choice of great applications

Cons

• Tiny keys on the keypad.
• Plasticky feel
• Small screen size

Surely, Nokia doesn’t believe in ‘one size fits all’ theory compared to some other mobile phone vendors. Looking at the spec sheet, it is hard to tell the difference between the N95 and the N82.

When it comes to the buying decision, choose the N82 if you are looking for a good camera phone with decent music support. On the other hand, if you want a good internet, movie watching and music listening experience, go with the N95 8GB.

If you are on a budget, choose the N82 as it  costs significantly less than the N95 8GB. If you have the cash, then perhaps you can even the skip the N95 8GB and wait for the mother of all phones, the Nokia N96 - which is just a few weeks away from reaching a retailer near you.

Read the entire series here:

1. Life with N82: Hardware walkthrough
2. Life with N82: The camera
3. Life with N82: Rest of the features
4. Concluding thoughts

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What Else you can do with the N82

The GPS

N82 is another n-series handset which has an onboard GPS. The assisted GPS implementation on the N82 is fast and sensitive. Most of the time, I could get a fix within 10 seconds. I never lost the fix when I tried the sportstracker application for a 40 km stretch while driving in my car.

When I tried the Nokia Maps, I could see that the Digital Cartography situation India has not improved much since I tried it about 6 months ago on my N95. The maps still need a lot of work before they become useful in this country.

Office Chores

The Nokia N82 comes with QuickOffice read-only versions which are quite useful if you just want to carry and read your documents on the go. The keypad is not so helpful when it comes to typing lot of text, so I would recommend not to upgrade to the paid version. Because of the smaller screen, the viewing comfort is also not so good on the N82 (Hmmm.. I am really spoiled by my N95 8GB).

For corporate mail, you can use the Mail For Exchange application which is available through Downloads. Mail composing and reading are quite usable on the phone.

Music

Though mostly regarded as an imaging phone, the N82 is no slouch when it comes to music. The 3.5 mm jack on the top makes it easy to carry the phone when your earphones are plugged in. There are no dedicated keys to control music playback though.

The sound quality is top notch and can easily replace your mp3 player if you have a large capacity mini SD card. I could sync music quickly from my mac to the N82 through the Nokia Multimedia Transfer utility. The N82 is a lethal musical combo when combined with my V-Moda vibe earphones:

The N82 is truly an all-rounder mobile!

Conclusion: Sadly, my trial is coming to an end tomorrow. I wish I could have the handset for a couple more days as I will be coming across many photographic moments during this independence day weekend.

I will publish my final thoughts on this handset tomorrow.

Read part 1 of this article: Nokia N82 hardware walk through

Read part 2 of this article: The camera

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The camera on Nokia N82

In terms of hardware specifications, there is hardly anything that differentiates the Nokia N82 from the N95, except for the form factor perhaps. But if you read the specifications closely, you will notice a difference in their camera specifications. Yes, both of them share the same 5MP Carl-Zeiss optics - but for the on-board flash.

Yes! The N82 comes with a Xenon flash - the same type of flash you find on your digital camera - whereas the N95 features a pretty ordinary LED flash, which I found to be of use only when you are shooting videos under low light conditions.

The xenon flash on the N82 is very powerful and takes very acceptable pictures even in zero visibility. Here is a comparison of the same object shot with the LED flash on Nokia N95 and N82. Settings on both the cameras remained the same.

Shot with N95 8GB (LED Flash)

Shot with N82 (Xenon Flash)

The camera application is invoked by sliding the mechanical shutter on the camera face. This is the way it should have been on the N95 8GB too, but unfortunately that is not the case.

Here are some screenshots from the N82 camera application, which will show you the kind of features you can expect from it.

White balance settings:

Exposure compensation:

Contrast settings:

Sharpness settings:

Light Sensitivity:

Scene Modes:

Flash settings:

Self-timer:

Image sequence mode:

Color tones:

That reads like a digital camera walkthrough isn’t it? Yes, Nokia camera phones are approaching the levels of usability and functionality of a standalone digital camera.

What makes the N82 camera phone much more useful than a normal digital camera is its ability to share the videos and pictures directly from the camera itself. You can configure the built-in “Share Online” application to automatically upload pictures as and when they are taken to your favorite photo sharing service like Flickr or even Nokia’s own Ovi.

In my experience of using several mobile phones, I would rate the N82 as the best mobile camera phone. It is a shame that even the upcoming Nokia N96 does not sport a Xenon flash, which makes a world of difference as far as the picture quality is concerned.

Read part 1 of this article.

Read part 3 of this article.

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Vodafone and Bharati Airtel have officially announced that they will be launching the iPhone in India on 18th and 22nd of August respectively!

Interestingly, both the companies have not announced the pricing or the plan details for the iPhone 3G. Because of the one week lead of Vodafone, it is very unlikely that Airtel will announce its pricing plans before that.

Historically, contract plans are not so popular in India and whenever they were introduced, they failed invariably. Who will forget the INR 500 phones from Reliance which were plagued by the huge monthly expenses, called “club charges”. Nevertheless, in order to reduce the huge entry costs, Airtel and Vodafone may subsidise the handsets and may decide to charge higher monthly rentals,  which may not come as a surprise.

Since both the companies are tightlipped on the pricing, it gives me a feeling that the handsets are bound to come with higher initial price tags.

To read other iPhone articles published on Digital Rover, click here.

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