I’ve decided to take a different approach. Forget about the specs, software, first impressions, etc.  Rather, I will focus on what I’ve done with the n900.  I will report what works well and what doesn’t as well, all from the perspective of a committed Windows Mobile user for much of the last decade.  Since I’m also a T-Mobile customer, I’ll share my experiences with the device on a 3G network.

As has been written elsewhere, I absolutely agree that:

• the n900 has the absolute best browser ever available on any handheld device.  Yes, it is that good!
• the n900 is not for everyone.  It is a device for “tweakers” and has enormous potential.

The phone is not an iPhone competitor.  As stated in the Brighthand.com review, “…it’s just not a device for mainstream or prosumer smartphone/mobile computer users. This isn’t a knock on Nokia, they announced the device not targeted to these types of users. The N900 is meant to be pushed, tweaked, and built on.”  By way of example, there have been two over-the-air (OTA) updates in the short time that I’ve had the device.  The first of these updates was a major update and the second was a minor update.  For what it is worth, I’ve never experienced an over-the-air update for Windows Mobile.

As an old UNIX hack and since Maemo, the OS of the device under the hood of the Nokia n900, is a version of LINUX, I’ve been right at home doing my share of tweaking.   The list of apps available for Maemo and the n900 is compelling and growing.  I started using the device by first trying to see if I could replicate everything that I liked best about Windows Mobile.  As you might guess, not everything is yet there.  However, what surprised me is much, if not most, is there.

What works comparably to Windows Mobile

• Connecting to a Microsoft Exchange Server – e-mail, contacts, calendar and tasks sync out-of-the-box.  Notes do not sync.  While tasks and calendar entries do sync, they are blended together rather than being fully separated.  Push e-mail does not work, but the n900 can be configured to sync in as little as every 15 minutes.
• Virtually everything that you can do with your browser on a PC can be done on the n900 browser that is included with the device.  In addition, FireFox Mobile v1.0.0 has recently become available for the n900.
• Tethering (connecting to and using the T-Mobile internet access on a laptop) – after installing Nokia’s PC Suite, tethering over a USB connection works.  However, I prefer Bluetooth wireless tethering and and that too works after installing an app called “Bluetooth Dial-Up Networking” v1.1-1
• Remote Desktop control of a Windows PC (RDP) works with the installation of the “rdesktop” v1.6.3-maemo3 application.
• Over the years I’ve learned to rely upon Windows Mobile apps (like MyMobiler) to control my Windows Mobile devices from a Windows PC and to be able to take mobile device screen captures and immediately and directly store them on the controlling and connected Windows PC.  Such remote control functionality is also available on the n900 by installing, using and starting “x11vnc” v0.9.3-maemo7 on the n900.  Then, connecting via WiFi to the n900 IP address from a VNC viewer on the Windows PC.  I found that lengthening the n900 screen timeout helps when used in this manner.  In addition, I found that using “Personal IP Address” v0.3-6 helpful to show my IP address on my desktop, allowing me to easily know the IP address to enter into my VNC viewer on my Windows PC.
• WithUNIX tools that have been ported to Windows and are freely available, the n900 can browse files on networked PCs and vice versa.
• I also learned that the device can perform its own screen captures directly by pressing [Cntl][Shift]P. Screen capture images are stored in the “~/Images/Screenshots” directory each time this key combination is pressed.
• MSN chat – to get this working, go to Maemo.org and search for the “Maemo Extras” or “Maemo Extras Devel” repository settings.  Once you add these catalogs, look for “MSN (pecan) protocol plug-in” to add MSN.

What’s missing compared to Windows Mobile

• I’m a big user of a subset of the functionality in Microsoft’s Voice Messenger for Windows Mobile.  Specifically, I like to enable the automatic text-to-voice of high priority messages so that they are read aloud to me.  Unfortunately, I could not find similar functionality in Maemo for the n900.  I did find an app, “eSpeak Speech Synthesizer” v1.43 that does simple text-to-voice, proving that the n900 device has the capability.  Unfortunately, is does not yet integrate with other apps.
• I also use Microsoft’s Live Mesh (beta) regularly and have become quite dependent on it.   There is no Live Mesh app for the n900.  I thought that I might be able to do what I needed from within the n900 browser but was unsuccessful.
• The Live search (now called Bing search) application with the included ability of voice recognition is similarly not available.

What’s included that’s not in Windows Mobile

If you’re not familiar with DLNA, you should be.  According to Wikipedia, the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) “…is a standard used by manufacturers of consumer electronics to allow entertainment devices within the home to share their content with each other across a home network.”  When I first connected the Nokia n900 wirelessly via WiFi to my home network, I got my first real world experience with DLNA.  Without doing anything else at all, my entire library of music, video and pictures was accessible from the Nokia n900.  Needless to say, I was very impressed.  DLNA simply and easily allowed me to listen to my music and watch my videos that had been previously stored on my Windows 7 computers.

3G on T-Mobile

While I’ve been a long-time T-Mobile customer, this was the first device that I’ve used with T-Mobile’s 3G data services (3G in Northern Colorado just got turned-on a couple of months ago).  Not only was I able to use the 3G service with my existing Total Internet plan with T-mobile on my post-paid account, I was pleasantly surprised to also be able to use it with a T-Mobile prepaid SIM as long as I changed from a regular prepaid account to a SideKick prepaid account.  Such capabilities should give lots of people lots of options! 

Downloads are quick with 3G, but they are even quicker with WiFi.  One of the nice features of the n900 is to configure WiFi networks with a higher priority than 3G.  When you’re able to connect to a remembered WiFi access point, WiFi is used rather than 3G.  When no remembered WiFi access point is available, a 3G connection is used.

The Cameras

The 5MP camera with the Carl Zeiss lens and dual LED flash takes pictures that to my eyes are simply gorgeous.  I take long walks every day around a lake adjoining a state park with my dog and have always enjoyed the convenience of a cell phone camera to take pictures of the wildlife that I see.  The camera on the n900 has made that habit even more pleasurable.   To see a sample of some pictures taken with the n900, click here.

Other apps and capabilities

I’ve been using these apps regularly:

• OVI maps with the GPS radio – I‘ve found that also installing GPSJinni makes OVI maps work more robustly.
• Bluetooth dialup networking
• The FM radio player
• ForecaWeather
• Freoffice to view Office documents
• the Firefox browser
• StockThis – for monitoring the stock markets
• listen to music with the included wired headset
• listen to music with a Bluetooth A2DP Headphones
• watch a videos and movies
• talk on the phone using a Bluetooth headset
• make & receive calls over the Bluetooth “hands free” function in my Honda Accord
• use the ussd-widget for determining my cell phone usage

I’ve used these occasionally:

• fbReader for e-book reading
• MGutenberg for e-book reading
• Skype
• Google Talk with DialCentral
• video out to TV
• JoikuSpot – turns the device into a mobile WiFi hotspot
• Integrated FM transmitter and listen to my music collection through my car radio
• Vim – the UNIX visual editor
• eSpeak – the speech synthesizer I mentioned above

I noted and need to try these:

• QIK: uploads video to Youtube
• Maemo Wordp & MaStory for blogging
• iNES – a NES emulator

If you are interested in adding any of these or other such application, you will need to learn how to use Maemo repositories.  This site has the directions clearly laid out for adding new catalogs to find such apps.

Some tips and tricks

There are few ways to zoom in and out with the browser:

• Circular gestures for zooming in and/or out
• double clicking in an area  zooms to the column width of that area
• the volume control button can also be used

The Nokia n900 does not come with a case.  You should be aware that cases with magnet latches awaken the device.  My work-around for this issue has been to place the device in “secure” mode with an unlock code.

Mugen Power Batteries has announced a bigger battery for the N900 that should give more hours of use when it is released next month.  The details on the battery can be found here.

A couple of problems

I’ve not had perfect success with everything.  In fact, I’ve experienced two challenges that I’m still working to resolve:

• I occasionally like using a Bluetooth keyboard (specifically an iGo StowAway) with phones when I need to do a lot of typing.  I’ve been able to pair my keyboard with the n900 but have not yet successfully gotten it to work.  Others seem to be having similar problems and there is a discussion here that I’ll be trying.
• I’ve also had some problems with the GPS, but I think it’s been my fault.  The difficulty began after I tried to move the maps from internal memory to my 16GB microSDHC card.  I may need to re-flash to get things working again.

Conclusion

As I stated at the opening, the Nokia n900 is not for everyone.  But since I am a tweaker and comfortable with Linux, this is a phone for me.  Even though it may be missing a few of my favorite capabilities of Windows Mobile 6.5, I plan to use the n900 as my everyday device for the foreseeable future.

Finally, the n900 has just had an official list price decrease.  It had been $649 but is now $569.  In the last couple of weeks I’ve seen it for as low as $429 at Dell.com.  If you decide to get one, I hope that you’ll enjoy it as much as I do!

©2010 Richard A. Bilancia – All Rights Reserved

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• Is this the successor? I hope not!

© rabilancia at Mobility Site, 2010. | Permalink]]> http://www.mobilitysite.com/2010/03/getting-used-to-the-nokia-n900/feed/ 3 http://www.mobilitysite.com/2010/03/motorola-devour-unboxing-and-1st-impressions/ http://www.mobilitysite.com/2010/03/motorola-devour-unboxing-and-1st-impressions/#comments Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:58:04 +0000 Chris Leckness http://www.mobilitysite.com/2010/03/motorola-devour-unboxing-and-1st-impressions/

Verizon’s newest Droid is coming real soon. It’s the Motorola Devour. It is very similar to the Motorola Droid, but this one is running a slightly older Android build (1.6), a weaker camera, and the screen isn’t quite as nice. The main differences are that the Devour is running MotoBlur, a custom version of Android focusing on social media and in my opinion, a much better design and keyboard. Read on for my 1st impressions and a quick unboxing and hardware 1st look video.

(...) Read the rest of Motorola Devour, Unboxing and 1st Impressions (441 words)

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© Chris Leckness at Mobility Site, 2010. | Permalink]]> http://www.mobilitysite.com/2010/03/motorola-devour-unboxing-and-1st-impressions/feed/ 6 http://www.mobilitysite.com/2010/03/redeye-mini-all-the-ir-goodness-in-a-much-better-package/ http://www.mobilitysite.com/2010/03/redeye-mini-all-the-ir-goodness-in-a-much-better-package/#comments Fri, 05 Mar 2010 02:18:29 +0000 Adam Wyss http://www.mobilitysite.com/?p=36200

A while back I had the opportunity to review the ThinkFlood RedEye and it was a great device but for “John Doe” to justify the price was a bit much in my opinion.  Now with the new RedEye Mini, you can get in on the fun for roughly 1/4 the price.  The new RedEye Mini plugs in to your headphone jack and uses the same software that I reviewed a while back and loved.  I can’t promise that I’ll get to take a look at the Mini in person but if it as good as it sounds, I think I’ll  change my recommendation to wait from buy.  In my opinion the only real drawback of the original RedEye was finding a place for it in a crowded living room.  The Mini solves that problem very easily.  Hit the break for the press release!(...) Read the rest of RedEye Mini: All the IR goodness in a much better package! (633 words)

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© Adam Wyss at Mobility Site, 2010. | Permalink]]> http://www.mobilitysite.com/2010/03/redeye-mini-all-the-ir-goodness-in-a-much-better-package/feed/ 2 http://www.mobilitysite.com/2010/03/bling-your-iphone-audrey-charm-swarovski-bezel-faceplate/ http://www.mobilitysite.com/2010/03/bling-your-iphone-audrey-charm-swarovski-bezel-faceplate/#comments Fri, 05 Mar 2010 01:55:49 +0000 Chris Leckness http://www.mobilitysite.com/2010/03/bling-your-iphone-audrey-charm-swarovski-bezel-faceplate/ Looking to put a little bling around your iPhone without spending a fortune? I have a possible solution. It’s the Audrey Charm Swarovski Bezel Faceplate. It puts some bling on your iPhone for only $66.

Don’t laugh at the video, ok laugh if you must… You can grab one of these from their website for $66.

(...) Read the rest of Bling your iPhone – Audrey Charm Swarovski Bezel Faceplate (49 words)

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© Chris Leckness at Mobility Site, 2010. | Permalink]]> http://www.mobilitysite.com/2010/03/bling-your-iphone-audrey-charm-swarovski-bezel-faceplate/feed/ 2 http://www.mobilitysite.com/2010/03/mippin-buzz-deck-for-android/ http://www.mobilitysite.com/2010/03/mippin-buzz-deck-for-android/#comments Thu, 04 Mar 2010 06:16:51 +0000 Marilyn Torres http://www.mobilitysite.com/?p=36183 Even though Greed is my main Android feed reader, another fabulous app that compiles feeds by category from major online sources like TechCrunch, Perez Hilton, et cetera, is Mippin Buzz Deck. Mippin has collected their Buzz widgets into one slick application that utilizes smooth scrolling “cards”, much like the Palm Pre, to display news articles. Surprisingly enough, Buzz Deck doesn’t include a widget but is an elegant and versatile feed app nonetheless.

(...) Read the rest of Mippin Buzz Deck For Android (324 words)

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© marit at Mobility Site, 2010. | Permalink]]> http://www.mobilitysite.com/2010/03/mippin-buzz-deck-for-android/feed/ 0 http://www.mobilitysite.com/2010/03/blackberry-slider-leak-legit/ http://www.mobilitysite.com/2010/03/blackberry-slider-leak-legit/#comments Wed, 03 Mar 2010 23:00:46 +0000 Sam Hobson http://www.mobilitysite.com/2010/03/blackberry-slider-leak-legit/

The rumors were floating around quite a bit, and this may be a piece of confirming evidence.  According to BBLeaks.com, this is the new BlackBerry slider device: a device which combines the touch features of the BlackBerry Storm with the keyboard (which slides out) and 5-way navigation of traditional BlackBerries.

Unfortunately, there is no way to know if these photos are real or not, or, if they are real, if they will be heading to market.  This could be a device that has already been scrapped.

Well, there’s no way to know for sure.  Just wait and see, I suppose.  I was actually hoping for a side slide out keyboard, but meh.

**UPDATE**

As it turns out, these photos are not only real, they are of a device that will be hitting shelves in due time.  According to CrackBerry, the device will NOT be the Storm 3, and will most likely become a new product line.  It is also known to run RIM OS 6.0 and support WiFi.

via CrackBerry

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• The new kind of HTC Slider… Wow

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© Brother Sam Joseph at Mobility Site, 2010. | Permalink]]> http://www.mobilitysite.com/2010/03/blackberry-slider-leak-legit/feed/ 8 http://www.mobilitysite.com/2010/03/windows-7-usbdvd-download-tool/ http://www.mobilitysite.com/2010/03/windows-7-usbdvd-download-tool/#comments Wed, 03 Mar 2010 02:32:25 +0000 ctitanic http://www.mobilitysite.com/2010/03/windows-7-usbdvd-download-tool/ Creating a USB Bootable Memory Stick was not an easy task until now. With W7 USB/DVD Download Tool you can copy your W7 ISO into a USB Memory and makes it Bootable.

When you purchase Windows 7 from Microsoft Store, you have the option to download an ISO file or compressed files. The Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool allows you to create a copy of your Windows 7 ISO file on a USB flash drive or a DVD. To create a bootable DVD or USB flash drive, download the ISO file and then run the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool. Once this is done, you can install Windows 7 directly from the USB flash drive or DVD.

Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool

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© ctitanic at Mobility Site, 2010. | Permalink]]> http://www.mobilitysite.com/2010/03/windows-7-usbdvd-download-tool/feed/ 0 http://www.mobilitysite.com/2010/03/apples-lawsuit-why-i-think-its-wrong/ http://www.mobilitysite.com/2010/03/apples-lawsuit-why-i-think-its-wrong/#comments Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:06:19 +0000 Stephen Borders http://www.mobilitysite.com/2010/03/apples-lawsuit-why-i-think-its-wrong/ Ok Now that I have posted the news I want to share my opinion and hear yours. I usually don’t post on such things but I personally think this epitomizes the problems with the legal system and the patent system in this country. It’s all over the internet so I won’t post any more links, but most of the comments by readers seem to think it is either completely bogus or only being done to stop the progression of Android in the US and i think probably WP7S as well since HTC will be a primary manufacturer of those phones.

I won’t offer my thoughts on the validity of the suit for I am neither a lawyer or a patent expert. Nor can I understand all the techno-legal wording of the patents themselves. I will however share my opinion as to why I think this system has run amok.

Obviously this has been in the planning stages for a while because while I didn’t read all the documents, I did see where the latest patent was awarded in Feb. of this year and the offending phones were purchase some in November and December and includes phones like the Tilt/Kaiser, and for thing like how data is handled such as highlighting a phone number from a text file of which I am sure has been around longer than the iPhone.

For what ever else it accomplishes (making Apple richer or bankrupting a innovative hardware company or both comes to mind), this suit and others like it (it seems to be the norm in the phone industry lately) serve to damage the natural progression of technology and the resulting user experience. We have had touch screens for some time and I am certain that Apple didn’t invent them, nor did they invent the capacitive screen or multi-touch (which is seems to be one of the patents in question) for that matter. We started out with a stylus and the natural progression would be to move to a finger friendly screen and a OS that supported it. So to be permitted a patent on the implementation of an existing technology on a existing technology sounds silly to me.

Now I won’t deny the fact that Apple with it’s iPhone was the first to implement these progressive technologies into a package that works smoothly, and that some of the features they are talking about seem to be found first on the iPhone. But to me this seem to be more of an attempt to lock down the developmental progression of already existing technologies and it hurts every one. I am not talking about copying a chipset or the obvious knock off industry in china, I am talking about the progression of how such things are implemented in a device. Think about it, if someone comes up with an idea for a feature on an existing type of device, patents it, but never uses it or never allows progression of it, what good is it.

For what it’s worth I think this proves the patent system needs an overhaul. If you have a special insight post it in the comments, I would like to hear it.

Picture from WMpoweruser

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© badersk at Mobility Site, 2010. | Permalink]]> http://www.mobilitysite.com/2010/03/apples-lawsuit-why-i-think-its-wrong/feed/ 17 http://www.mobilitysite.com/2010/03/apple-sues-htc-for-patent-infringement/ http://www.mobilitysite.com/2010/03/apple-sues-htc-for-patent-infringement/#comments Tue, 02 Mar 2010 23:08:28 +0000 Stephen Borders http://www.mobilitysite.com/2010/03/apple-sues-htc-for-patent-infringement/ From Engadget:

Looks like Apple’s going on the warpath, kids. Just a few months after Cupertino got into it with Nokia over phone patents, Apple’s filed suit against HTC, alleging that the company is infringing 20 patents "related to the iPhone’s user interface, underlying architecture, and hardware." Steve, you have something to say?

(...) Read the rest of Apple Sues HTC for patent infringement (97 words)

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© badersk at Mobility Site, 2010. | Permalink]]> http://www.mobilitysite.com/2010/03/apple-sues-htc-for-patent-infringement/feed/ 2 http://www.mobilitysite.com/2010/02/its-not-the-hp-slate-but/ http://www.mobilitysite.com/2010/02/its-not-the-hp-slate-but/#comments Mon, 01 Mar 2010 05:12:10 +0000 Rich Bilancia http://www.mobilitysite.com/2010/02/its-not-the-hp-slate-but/ …HP has just announced their first business touch-enabled convertible tablet.  It’s called the HP EliteBook 2740p.

Like other touch-enabled Tablet PCs already available from Dell and Lenovo, the EliteBook 2740p with both a pen digitizer and a capacitive multi-touch digitizer allows both input and navigation from a keyboard, a pen/stylus and/or fingers.  After reading the specs it appears that the entry model does not include the capacitive multi-touch digitizer.

• Preinstalled with Windows 7 Professional but with support for Windows XP Tablet Edition and Vista Business.
• The WXGA (1280 x 800) screen is 12.1 inch LED with an option for a less reflective and higher contrast outdoor-view display.
• The battery is 6 cell lithium ion prismatic that provides up to 5 hours of use, but there is an option for a supplemental battery that provides up to 11 hours of use when used in conjunction with the standard battery.
• Multiple Intel Core i5 and i7 processor options are available in standard voltage for performance and low voltage for “increased flexibility.”

The device is scheduled to be available in April and have a starting price of $1,599.  Looks like it’s time to consider buying an HP TouchSmart tm2t as it’s now on sale starting at $849.99.

HP also made other laptop announcements:

“PALO ALTO, Calif., March 1, 2010 – HP today introduced the company’s first multi touch-enabled tablet for business users as well as notebook PCs tailored for both enterprise and small and midsize businesses (SMBs).
Additions to the new HP notebook portfolio include:

• HP EliteBook 2740p – an ultra-thin, multitouch-enabled convertible tablet that provides an interactive experience for businesses in health care, education, sales and more;
• HP EliteBook 2540p – the company’s lightest EliteBook notebook PC, starting at only 3.3 pounds, is ideal for global and large corporate enterprises, the public sector and other businesses in need of a rugged, high-performance notebook; and

HP ProBook standard series (s-series) notebook PCs – four new models of the high-performing series provide a new design and sophisticated colors for everyday use. The HP ProBook s-series is available in four HD LED-backlit display choices: HP ProBook 4320s (13.3-inch diagonal), HP ProBook 4420s (14-inch diagonal), HP ProBook 4520s (15.6-inch diagonal) and HP ProBook 4720s (17.3-inch diagonal).”

Technorati Tags: HP,Tablet PC

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© rabilancia at Mobility Site, 2010. | Permalink]]> http://www.mobilitysite.com/2010/02/its-not-the-hp-slate-but/feed/ 0 http://www.mobilitysite.com/2010/02/nokia-e72-review/ http://www.mobilitysite.com/2010/02/nokia-e72-review/#comments Mon, 01 Mar 2010 03:57:27 +0000 Dan H. http://www.mobilitysite.com/?p=36164

When the Nokia E71 launched a while back, it was popular and it was hailed as the thinnest full QWERTY smartphone on the market. It made it’s way to AT&T as the E71x, and the successor, the E72 is here.

What’s inside the box:

• Nokia E72
• Nokia BP-4L battery rated at 1500mAH
• Wall charger (microUSB based)
• USB cable (microUSB based
• Case
• Cleaning cloth with Nokia E-series printed on it
• Earbuds with an in-line mic and also some additional ear gels

Hardware

The hardware on the E72 is exceptionally good. It packs a full QWERTY keyboard, a 2.4” screen, and a 5MP camera in a body that’s 10.1mm thin. My main complaint about the hardware is the screen. It’s a 2.4 inch screen with the resolution of 320 x 240, which is kind of disappointing since smartphones these days have screens that are larger and higher resolution. You can navigate the E72 with the d-pad, and the center select button doubles as an optical trackpad. The QWERTY keyboard is quite good, the keys are raised and domed, and they have a nice click to them. In the areas that aren’t made out of stainless steel, they used a matte finish which is ok, although I would have liked it better if they used a soft touch finish.

Nokia FINALLY moved away from their proprietary port, in favor for a standard microUSB slot, and they also added a 3.5mm headphone jack. The microSD card slot is externally accessible, which is awesome and it comes with a 4GB card pre-installed. It has a 1500mAH battery and the battery life on the E72 is really good, it could get me through a day or two. Build quality is sturdy, I wouldn’t worry if I dropped it. Not that I would try it….

Software

Instead of going into the S60 OS in-depth, I thought I would give you my overall impressions and thoughts about S60. The E72 is loaded with S60 3rd edition Feature Pack 2. It has some great features like Modes, which means that you can set up two different home screens with different application shortcuts, and with one click, you can switch between the two modes.

The email experience is good, although when you scroll through emails, you get a kinetic scrolling effect, which is annoying at times when using the trackpad. I had some problems setting up Gmail at first, but overall setup is fast and easy. The browser is just average, there is support for inline YouTube playing, although the screen isn’t large enough to view a video without being it slightly cut off. I also noticed the cursor was kind of jumpy when scrolling with the trackpad, but worked realy well with the d-pad. The Ovi Store works great, although it took a little bit to create an account, Ovi Maps also worked pretty well. The E72 comes preloaded with some nice applications such as Quickoffice for editing and creating Microsoft Office documents, Dictionary, Adobe PDF, Realplayer. The music player isn’t attractive, you control it with the d-pad/trackpad and the album art would appear to the side of the controls. It gets the job done, but I would have liked it better if it had a little more eye candy.

Some of the more recent smartphones have OSes that integrate Social Networking like Twitter, Facebook, mySpace. No integration here, all I found was links to mobile YouTube, mobile Facebook, and mobile mySpace. It would be nice to have features like Happenings on MotoBLUR, or Friend Stream on the most recent (upcoming) build of HTC Sense, but I guess the E72 is all about business, and they probably thought it would have been a better move to leave those out.

My overall comment on S60 would have to be it needs a revamp. The fonts look old fashioned, the UI is relatively clunky and way too complex for the average user. There were some visual aspects of the OS that were quite nice, such as the Ovi Maps UI, but the main UI of the core apps wasn’t that great.

Camera

The 5MP sensor on the E72 isn’t bad at all. The autofocus takes a while to focus, and it’s hard to make it “focus” on an object, and I noticed a 3-4 second lag when taking a picture. When it’s focused correctly, photos looked really good. There is a secondary camera on the front of the E72 since the Europeans have video calling capabilities, quality isn’t as good as the 5MP sensor on the back, but that’s expected since it’s just used for video calls and the occasional picture of yourself. Flash was bright, no complaints there.

Call quality

Call quality on the E72 was amazing. Caller sounded crisp and clear, and the caller said I sounded really good. Similar to the earpiece, the Speaker was loud and clear, could make conference calls with ease. In Philadelphia where I tested the E72, AT&T 3G wasn’t too bad, signal was strong and data speeds were pretty zippy.

Pricing

The E72 is not available on any US carrier as of now, but you can get it for $359.00 from Nokia online. Nokia priced this pretty well, it’s not as expensive, considering it’s unlocked.

Conclusion

In a couple of words, the hardware is great, and the software needs work. I really like the candybar form factor, but it would have been much better if it had a larger and higher resolution display. S60 needs to be revamped with a newer and more modern UI. If you don’t mind a slightly lower-res display, and if you don’t mind S60, the E72 is really a great smartphone.

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• Another Review of the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet
• Pocketables.net: Sony mylo 2 vs Nokia N810
• Nokia N90 Review
• Nokia N95 Review from Gizmodo
• Nokia E71 is on the BGR Doorstep

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