A quick look at the the 5800 XpressMusic’s sales package shows that it’s just filled with accessories. This will of course vary by region, but most of the time you get exactly what’s mentioned on the product page. In some cases, like the APAC region devices, you get even more stuff! (Remember the classic N95 from the APAC region, with it’s leather case and screen protector?) The 5800′s product page show that you’re supposed to get:

Update: The DT-29 can be seen in this 5800 XpressMusic unboxing video.

As a quick update, I had a few small issues with the Nokia Guide feeds, but in the mean time it has been sorted out. The URL for the feed has been changed to fix the problem, now that everything is up and running, feel free to subscribe to the new feeds and as always, enjoy!

Yesterday Nokia announced  that the 5800 XpressMusic is now, or soon will be, available in select markets globally, including Russia, Spain, India, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Finland, etc. Lucky for us outside of these regions, the 5800 XpressMusic already seems to be available from popular online stores like Phonesource-USA, X1387 (on Ebay) and CTI Miami with prices ranging from $590 to $650. Knowing that these prices will fall soon, the 5800 will be going for  just above the original suggested price. While it’s not quite the 279 Euros mentioned at the 5800 launch event, but it’s much cheaper than what we expected.

Hardware acceleration of 3D graphics has been a much debated topic and rightly so, just look at the difference it makes on the System Rush Evolution. Notice how the (3D Accelerated) Demo version looks much better than the final versions which uses the CPU to emulate the 3D chip?

The difference in quality can be best described by this post at the TamsS60 – the S60 Blog: “The main work for the developer is to reduce things like drawing distance and/or the number of on-screen objects in order to achieve higher/playable frame rates on software emulated devices…which usually is a manageable task.” Software emulated devices are basically devices that use their CPU.

It is for this reason; the question whether the N96 had a 3D accelerator, has been hotly debated.

Does the N96 offer 3D acceleration? It’s still a bit unclear. The official word that CNET was able to get was that: The Nokia N96 is designed as flagship for many experiences. While it doesn’t have 3D hardware acceleration we opted to include hardware accelerators for video and music as well as a mobile TV chip and 16GB of internal memory. Nonetheless, the Nokia N96 is fully N-Gage compatible, supports games with 3D graphics, has dedicated gaming keys and ships with a voucher for a free game in many markets.”

But on the other hand, the N96 uses the STn8815 chip and it’s a fact that it does have dedicated video and audio acceleration and they mention this on the official site: “A smart video accelerator for SDTV video encoding and decoding, with MIPI and SMIA camera interfaces.” And “smart audio accelerator containing a comprehensive set of digital audio decoders and encoders, and offering a large number of 3-D surround effects”, but strangely they also mention: “A smart graphics accelerator”

And here they seem to indicate the inclusion of a 3D accelerator: “The new imaging accelerator joins the smart-video and -audio accelerators established in earlier Nomadik devices, and the new graphics accelerator intended to support 2D/3D graphics-intensive applications.”

I decided to do a few tests on my own by trying to run 2 3D apps that I know for ceratin use 3D accelerated graphics: the System Rush Evolution DEMO and the Nokia E3 benchmark created by FutureMark. In the case of the FutureMark E3 Demo , the program won’t even run and in the case of the System Rush Evolution Demo I get the following message: “Could not find suitable GL config”

Personally I think Nokia should implement 3D accelerators in future devices, the reason why is clear: better graphics. Well, that’s until the CPU is capable enough of doing this by itself.

Does the N96 have 3D graphics? Is the dedicated 3D accelerator dead? Is the writing on the wall in the sense that the CPU will do most of the work, including 3D graphics?

Image: Allaboutsymbian

For some time now Nseries users have been complaining about the slow speed when transferring files using the USB cable.  As indicated in this previous post, this slow performance was caused by the 0.8MB/s transfer speed when reading/writing to either internal memory (N95 8GB, N81 8GB) or memory card (The rest of the Nseries). Even The Symbian Guru indicated this in this post right here. Stating that: “Unfortunately for the N95-4, syncing media is usually a torturous experience. This is primarily due to its inability to transfer data above USB 1.1 speeds. What that roughly translates into is a “slow as a slug” data transfer rate. USB 1.1 data syncing through the mini-USB cable is single handedly the most crippling aspect of the N95-4 and Nokia should’ve known better than to release a Flagship Nseries handset with such limited data syncing bandwidth.”  In comes the N96, which reportedly has improved performance quite a bit. Let’s find out if any of this is true.

First up is the N96’s built-in 16GB memory. Using HD Tach, this is what we get:

This clearly shows how dramatically the N96 has been improved when it comes to transfer speed, beating even the Internet Tablets. With an average speed of about 8.5 MB/s  and even a burst speed of 9.2 MB/s , it’s fast!

Let’s see what type of numbers we can get once we use a microSD card.  I used the 2GB microSD card that was included with the N82, since my N96 sample didn’t come with the included 8GB microSDHC card. I also didn’t have my  16GB microSDHC card with me, but this test will be updated soon.

Even with the slow 2 GB microSDHC card, we still see the N96 lead the pack at 5.2MB/s. My guess is that with faster cards you will actually see higher number. So, with the N96 it actually makes sense to buy one of those faster “Ultra” branded cards.

Conclusion

Nokia has dramatically improved the N96 data transfer speed via USB, this is for both the internal 16GB and memory card, beating all previous Nseries devices, including the Internet Tablets that, that until now held the performance crown. If your planning on getting the most out of  the N96,  it actually makes sense to buy one of those “Ultra” branded cards as the N96 will definitely squeeze every drop of performance out of it. Hmm, I wonder how the N85 will perform…

What happens when you take the ultra successful Nokia E71 and offer it at a lower price level? You get the newly released E63 of course!  The E63 joins the 5800 XpressMusic in being  capable devices offered at a reasonably low MSRP. Could it be that Nokia is starting a trend here? High on features, low price? I certainly hope so. Just like the E71, the E63 sports the S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1. At the low 199 Euros you do give up on some of the features.
The E63 is actually thicker and you do lose that metal body found on the E71. Obviously at this price range a few things had to  taken out, these include: the GPS, infrared, Auto focus and HSDPA. The camera is now 2 megapixel instead of the 3.2 Megapixel found on the E71.  On the other you it’s the first Eseries with a 3.5mm audio jack and the flash light can now be used as a torch. The keyboard has reportedly been redesigned.
The Nokia E63 also includes Files on Ovi, a service where people can get remote access to their PC files even when their computer is offline. Anyone buying the handset will have access to 1GB of online file storage for free.

Via: Allaboutsymbian

A true Ninja not only masters the his or her fighting skils, but also the other arts. In this case Ninja Devin uses the power the N96’s imaging capabilities to showcase how the N96 masters video and how Ninja Devin masters the Arts.

Channeling a few ancient Ninja powers, Ninja Devin performs with the help of his trusty N96 a feat that most Ninjas won’t even dare doing: the Levitation Act. For those wondering, the help of the Photoshop Gods has not been used; in fact no digital trickery has been used. Take a closer look at the images and behold the power the ancient power of the Ninjas.