VC’s Techie CockTail

For people who want something more than calls / sms from their phone without breaking their bank, here is a colorful alternative from Nokia called 2600 Classic. I was primarily interested in this phone because i thought it would make a nice Mother’s Day gift. But when I came across this phone from my friend , my views on it was somewhat skeptical.

• For starters, the phone was slightly larger than my K550i in terms of height, making it look somewhat ungainly but the slimness and weight was OK.
• The 128 x 160 pixel 65000 color TFT screen was not that bright but OK for a phone costing 3200/- (80$)
• The phone was a extremely slow coach, which my friend told me was the case of this phone from the first day. To even open a empty folder took time. (Might be a firmware upgrade will do the trick)
• Other than these slight niggles, the sound quality was nice and the 10MB memory will hold some mp3’s (if you can shrink it small enough like I do ), pictures, themes etc.
• The VGA camera was also quite good
• The connectivity department is also excellent for this class of phone with gprs/edge, usb, bluetooth
• Extras like FM radio, java games, an extra color panel makes it a value buy

For people who want a more professional looking phone with capabilities to use as a gprs/edge modem you can try Nokia 2630

written by Vignesh \\ tags: Nokia

I’ve tried the original Nokia N95 before and have written about N82 , so when I got hold of a N95 8GB it made me wonder whether this is the multimedia king among mobile / smartphones out there !!!! The N95 8GB is basically a souped up N95 with additional RAM (now standing at 128 MB), 8GB memory, higher capacity battery and with N-gage platform preinstalled and in a sexy black color.

First things first the dual slider seems to be solid enough. And the extra RAM seems to be giving it the extra needed power especially while browsing the picture gallery and multitasking. Yet still there is some lag sometimes. I was impressed by its music quality and with 3.5 mm jack a high quality headphone can enhance your music experience.

When I speak of mutimedia, the video playback in a Iphone is the best I’ve seen, but N95 is very close and outmatches every other phone in camera and video shooting capabilities. Connectivity department is almost 100% covered from GPRS / EDGE to 3G , HSDPA,Wifi, And with its Symbian Series60 platform its a smartphone too. Its only bane is its lack of touchscreen but I don’t there is anything in life that is “PERFECT”, so N95 8GB can be called multimedia king…

What do you think ??? keep your comments coming

written by Vignesh \\ tags: N95, Nokia

At the time, I considered buying K550i one of its major competitors was Nokia 6300. I got my hands on a black 6300 few days back and this is what I think are its pluses and minuses over K550i.

Pluses over K550i

• Its solid build quality. The aluminium or metal finish makes it a phone with no creaks.
• The 240 x 320 pixel 16 million color screen has a clear edge over k550i’s 176 x 220 262K screen.
• As usual the Nokia phone’s speakerphone clarity and volume is excellent.
• The S40 UI provides lots of customization options like changing menu view, icons, organizing icons. And its ability to play Macromedia flash lite files (swf format) directly on the phone is a definite plus.
• In Flight mode the phone has the capability to operate without a SIM which is also a plus.

Minuses over K550i

• As far as I have noticed its 2MP camera module is inferior to K550i camera, not only in its performance but also the camera interface.
• Music quality is on par with K550i , but I feel K550i’s music quality like bass and treble are much better.
• And finally i’ve been used to Sony Ericsson’s User Interface for so long (A100 platform), and I feel its much easier than Nokia S40 3rd edition UI.
• The video playback codecs and framerate support is better in sony ericsson.
• As you might have noticed there are many ways to tweak K550i

6300 and k550i is now almost at the same price of 7000/- rs (175$).  And from these list in CNet Asia and Krusell 6300 it is a proven best seller but I feel K550i is also a worthy competitor

written by Vignesh \\ tags: K550, Nokia, Sony Ericsson

After the very successful Nokia N73, Nokia’s answer to its successor N82 seems to be holding all the aces in the multimedia as well as the smartphone segment. In the last month, I had chances to fiddle around with the N82 and from the owner’s experience here is a brief summary on the “Candybar King”.

• The call reception, audio and speaker quality are Excellent. And the Battery life is also exceptional provided this phone has Wi-Fi built into it.
• The screen size is slightly larger than N73, the display resolution of 240 x 320 @ 16 million colors was excellent. But the keypad was a tad uneasy to use , but a little practice will rectify this situation.
• Another improvement from N73 is the inbuilt RAM, standing now at 128 MB makes the phone response quicker. But still there were times when the phone seemed slow and one time it switched off by itself.
• Audio quality was excellent and loud too. And the presence of a 3.5mm jack makes it easy to plug in any high quality headphone of your choice.
• Even though in India, there is no proper GPS service the Nokia Maps application combined with GPRS was able to point out my town Sivakasi.
• As usual this is a Symbian Series 60 phone, so there is a huge library of softwares for multimedia, office , internet and security needs.
• And its 5 megapixel camera came out with nice stills. (Supposed to be the best 5 megapixel snapper, in the 5 megapixel race according to various mobilephone review sites.) Video recording was also good.
• Connectivity department is fully loaded with GPRS, EDGE, 3G, HSDPA, Wi-Fi. Coupled with the excellent web browser its a very good tool for browsing the internet for users on the move.

Nokia N82 has lots going for it and for people looking for a convetional candybar phone with all the bells and whistles this is a sure choice and will set you back by 21,000 Rs. But there are other 5 megapixel snappers out there like Sony Ericsson K850, LG Viewty (very interesting device according to me), Samsung G600 (cheapest 5 megapixel phone in India) and Nokia N95, which are all competitors in this space. Be sure you check out all these devices if you are out there looking for a “Camera Phone”.

written by Vignesh \\ tags: Nokia