VC’s Techie CockTail

Whew !!!! I am astounded by my “CockTail Poll” showing overwhelming wish for a “mobilephone” this festive season of Diwali !! So Gals who are looking for a stylish phone and Guys who are thinking of gifting their mother, sister ….(Oops) & Girl friends …..without breaking their bank account can look at the Candybar styled Nokia 7310 SuperNova.

To start off the 7310 is the cheapset of the SuperNova series so far and to put it mildly is a Nokia 6300 in disguise. To briefly put it,

• The phone came with a Blue Cover but to change the look there is a “Pink Express-on” cover.
• It also has a TV out cable which the 6300 didn’t have in the box, but there was no USB cable or Micro SD Card inside (might be to save the cost)
• Measuring 106.5 x 45.4 x 12 mm and weighing 85grams it was easy to hold and operate. The keypad with its glossy stainless steel finish was quite easy to type but keeping it clean will be quite a task.
• The 2″ 240 x 320 , 16 million color TFT screen was pleasant to look at
• The phone runs on Nokia’s Series40 5th Edition, so the interface is easy to operate with.
• The 2 megapixel is ok and there is a video recording option too
• Music quality is quite good and there is a FM radio too. But the headphone is 2.5mm jack so you can’t plug in your high quality headphones directly.
• Connectivity is also well looked after with GPRS,EDGE,USB,Bluetooth with A2DP

At 7,700/- bucks (155$) is a no non-sense phone with quite good value for money. Those who think they can stretch their budgets little bit farther can conside the 7610 supernova _ a slider phone.

written by Vignesh \\ tags: 7310, Nokia

Nowadays phones equipped with music players & extendible memory are a rage among students, teens and even a ordinary Joe. So when I came across the Nokia 5310 Xpress Music phones I was quitely impressed by what a mid-range music phones these days provide the buyers with,

• On the spec sheet, this phone is very much similar to Nokia 6300 for which you can read my post here.
• According to me the phone is quite attractive and stylish with its black carbon like finish with its slim profile and weighing just 71 grams
• Some of the features which gives its Xpress Music branding are the side mounted multimedia keys to control the music , a 3.5mm headphone jack to plug in your favorite headphones, a capable multimedia player to organize and play your music, a FM radio, bluetooth with A2DP for wireless music.
• As I mentioned earlier the other things are same as the popular 6300 with its 16M display with resolution of 240 x 320 running on the Series40 platform.
• But the thing I observed from the phone and from the phone’s owner were that its ringer volume was not loud enough, the phone has certain bugs like it restarts automatically in the middle of a call and it 2 megapixel camera is a gimmick.

People looking for a music phone can try it as its quite well priced at 8,000/- bucks (190$).

written by Vignesh \\ tags: Nokia

At the time when I first started writing in my blog a budget phone in the price range of 125$, will have  a maximum specification of a basic color screen at 128 x 128 pixel (STN - basically dull), polyphonic ringtones and might be a VGA camera and Infrared.Nowadays this segment has seen a dramatic makeover with VFM phones emerging left, right & center from all the mobile phone manufacturers.

This time I came across a Nokia 3110 classic. Its a typical Nokia Series 40 candybar phone. But beneath its somewhat bland exteriors its feature packed for a phone costing around 4750/- rs (110$). Let me list out some of its notable features,

• First & foremost its reception and call quality are excellent making it a nice phone importantly
• The black plastic body weighing around 87 grams is nice to hold and quite sturdily built
• The 128 x 160 pixel 65,000 color TFT screen was nice & crisp to look at.
• A good phonebook system with multiple contacts, calendar, reminders, alarms make it a handy PIM
• A media player which supports mp3 / wma / aac / 3gp / mp4 playback with micro sd card slot to expand memory makes it a capable portable multimedia player
• A camera with 1.3 megapixel is quite a good one at the current price range and will be useful as a snapper in well lit conditions and when you don’t have a digital camera in your hand
• Connectivity department is well stocked up with GPRS,EDGE, USB, Infrared (one of the few phones to still have it), Bluetooth with A2DP
• With extras like FM, Java games and apps it will be a ideal companion on the road or in your free time
• Last but not the least the Nokia Series 40 UI is quite easy to work with and there are lots of ways to customize it.

Its quite a impressive phone , the only downer was the ringtone volume which I felt was not that audible (it might be that a louder mp3 file could have made it better). But at this time, I think its just a step ahead of its competitors like SE W200i, LG KG 195 & Samsung E250

written by Vignesh \\ tags: Mobile Phone, Nokia

A month back, one of my friends asked me my choice between a Nokia 5610 and 6500 slide. My preference was to go for a 6500 slide mainly because of its positive reviews over the net and some reported problems on 5610. A week back I got to play with this black, solid , somewhat stylish 6500. First things first, even though the metallic slider with its rectanglish look was ok to look at its finish and build quality was premium. Weighing at 125grams it was solid to say the least. Here are some other points of mention,

• The screen with a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels with 16M colors at 2.2″ was a real beauty but under sunlight it tended to dim a bit
• Music player and audio quality was good and loud. With a micro sd slot you can store music and videos as much as you want.
• The 3.2 Mpx autofocus camera with Carl Zeiss optics is supposed to be good. I didn’t test it but some of the snaps captured by it looked good on the phone screen
• Based on S40 UI the user interface was friendly but still somewhat laggy and not as intuitive as of Sony Ericsson’s non-smart phones
• Connectivity is well covered with quad band,3G, USB, Bluetooth with A2DP and even a TV-Out.
• Call quality and network reception are upto Nokia’s excellent standards.
• It has regular PIM features like a 2000 contact address book, calendar, notes, alarm, stop watch.
• You can extend functionality via Java apps and games.

At 13,000/- bucks (310$) its a stylish phone with business looks suited for individuals mainly for calls, sms, occassional multimedia and internet/email usage.

written by Vignesh \\ tags: Nokia