We’ve just received the Nokia N900, courtesy of WOM World/Nokia and let me tell you, we’re pretty excited about it! We’re not only excited because availability is pretty limited, yet we were lucky enough to score a sample thanks to WOM World/Nokia, but we’re also excited about the experience with the N900 so far. I’ve always believed that the first hour with a device pretty much tells the story of what is to be expected in the long run. Some might say that this is too short, but till this day, this rule still holds true for me. This first impression is based on the findings during the first hour and than the past 24 hours with the device. Using the Nokia N97 as the benchmark, I will try to compare these two devices as much as possible to give you and idea of what the N900 is all about.

The N900 feels much thicker than the N97 and at first sight it looks much bigger, but it’s not. In fact it’s even shorter, certainly much heavier and a bit wider. This width also gives it extra screen real estate when compared to the N97, but also helps in giving it a secure feeling when holding  it in your hand. However, for tiny hands it might be another story. Chances are those with small hands will find it a bit of stretch when just holding the N900.  Looking at it from the side, it looks a lot thicker than the N97, but in fact it all comes down to a difference of a couple of millimeters. The secret to the N97’s much thinner looking side profile, is greatly due to the use of a two-color scheme. For example the same effect was used on a device such as the N95.

In terms of design’s the N900 is a man’s phone, utilitarian and simple. It’s the Smartphone equivalent of a hotrod with black instead of chrome rims. Design wise it can be best described as an ultra wide Black Nokia N80 with a QWERTY keyboard slapped at the bottom. I can also see its N810 roots in the design. Its most stand-out characteristic is the lack of any design features: no Chrome Rims, no metal buttons, no decorations, nada. Even the “Nokia Nseries” logo on the battery cover is barely visible. The only piece of chrome found on the N900 is actually a small, rim hidden at the back, around the camera. That’s it. It’s almost as if the Nokia designers didn’t want to distract you with design,keeping all your attention to that oh-so-wonderful Maemo OS, like an artist using an all-black canvas and black paper, drawing your attention to the  landscape painted in the middle. Speaking of canvas, when the screen is turned off, it becomes virtually invisible, behind the single piece of glass (or plastic?). Even with the screen turned off, you could still  tell where the screen ends and where the edges begin on the N97. On the N900 is basically invisible when turned off, making the entire device one unidentifiable small black box. I simply love the design of the N900, although I don’t think it’s a design that will be a hit with women. When it comes to design, women will prefer the N97 and N97 mini.

Even the sliding mechanism follows this “simple” philosophy. The N97’s assisted sliding action, that opens the screen at an angle with its loud “click”, is almost an event on it’s own. The N900 goes  the opposite direction with a simple upward movement. The sliding mechanism isn’t assisted, requiring you to push the screen al  the way up, where you are greeted by a more discrete clicking sound. The N900’s approach isn’t as sophisticated as the N97, but I think I prefer the N900’s approach. The N97’s sliding mechanism is cool, but I did notice that opening momentum can sometimes knock the N97 out of your hand. The N900’s slider is simple and solid, now wobbles.

And than there’s the kickstand. I really wanted to like it, but it simply doesn’t work well in a tablet design. The N900 is one of those rare devices where there isn’t much to complain about and the kickstand is pretty much the only thing I didn’t like. Tablets like the N810 and N800 worked amazingly well with a full-width metal stand and the same should have been done with the N900. If you put it on a hard flat surface, the stands works pretty well, except for when you touch the right part of the screen (near the edge). Because the stand is located on the left, there isn’t much support on the right, pressing an icon on the right part of the screen will slightly push the device backwards. It’s not enough to make the N900 topple over and fall backwards, but it’s enough to be annoying. On top of that, a small kick-stand simply doesn’t give the same level of confidence as a full-width metal stand like the one found on the N810. Put it on a soft or uneven surface and it all goes downhill. The N97 can be put on just about any surface, the same can not be said about the N900. A plus for the kick-stand however is that the lens cover and camera module never touch a surface, collecting dust in the process.

Maemo 5 brings a much a needed breath of fresh air to Nokia’s smartphones. It uses a much darker UI (compared to Symbian) with plenty of eye-candy. The UI is simply beautiful with elegant transition, light, motion-blur and depth-of-field effects, with some pretty bright colors scattered all over the place, like for example the soft  Red End Call key. It manages to find just the right amount of balance between the dark and color buttons and can be best described as futuristic Gotham City. With so many effects you’d expect it to be one big slide show, but surprisingly it’s not. The N900 runs Eseries fast, if not a bit faster. Even more amazing is that it can keep its lightning fast reactions with all this eye-candy turned on and several apps running in the background, including several browser windows with flash heavy content. Those Symbian days where the lack of RAM caused apps to close on their own are now officially over. I couldn’t be any happier.

The UI seems to be genuinely made from the ground up for touch, without ever pushing you into tight  uncomfortable spaces. Here simplicity reign supreme. There’s been a lot of complaints on how changing a simple setting requires many button presses when using the Symbian OS. With Maemo all options can be found in “Settings” or a drop down menu available to most apps. It’s that simple. If that wasn’t enough the UI designers still managed to use those familiar icons found in all Nokias making it all look very familiar. It all felt familiar enough to without ever needing the manual. The browser is crazy fast and powerful. Its support for web standards is second to none and brings a a level confidence that you’ll be able to open just about any page out there, is only known in the desktop world . This is easily the best mobile browser on the market. The only problem I see with such a powerful browser is the possibility that many will try to create web apps instead of going the dedicated app route. Speaking of apps, the current state of available apps is pretty limited. The basics like radio, podcasting, Twitter and IM are there, but currently there isn’t much more than that. As developers get their hands on this thing, I expect them to catch up fairly quickly. With such powerful hardware and software, there is a lot of room of creativity and crazy multi-tasking.

I’m simply amazed at how beautiful it all looks  bringing Maemo 5 to Apple’s level of eye-candy, ease-of-use and elegance, but in a more dynamic and powerful package.

Now back to the hardware. One small but important detail is the new notification light. It’s finally clearly visible and a lot more informative, able to show three different colors: blue, green and orange. The N97’s notification light on the other hand was barely visible.

I can keep going on and on about the N900, but I will leave some of the details for the final review. I won’t judge things for the limited amount of available apps, OVI store or the lack of portrait view as these are coming down the pipe. I absolutely love the N900 and it’s one of those rare devices where there’s little to complain and a lot to love. That one complaint is the kick-stand. Some will like and think it does the job just fine, but if you’re like me you’ll think that it doesn’t do the N900 justice.

Leave your comments below and I will try to answer your question with the N900 coverage coming this week.

The Nokia BH-905 is a Bluetooth Stereo headset with active noise cancelation and is one of Nokia’s most expensive accessories to date, coming in at a hefty $300. The BH-905 has a few interesting characteristics, that are worth mentioning. One of its unique features is its ability to use either a Bluetooth or the standard 3.5mm audio connection when listening to music. The other peculiarity is that it has 10 (!) microphones, out of which 8 are used for noise cancelation and 2 are used for capturing speech in noisy environments, achieving noise cancellation, but this time when making calls.

Expectations: Considering the high price and 10 microphones I expected the BH-905 to deliver outstanding noise isolation, have great build quality, use quality materials like leather and thick but flexible cables(a sure sign of quality). I also expected it to be a bit heavy, comfortable to use and smaller than other similar headsets.

As for the audio quality, I expected a great performance, with a deep and detailed bass, punchy midrange and less-than-ideal, dull high-end and plenty of audio headroom. The audio performance of the BH-905 would be judged based on comparisons made with my reference In-Ear Monitor: the Shure SE530 PTH. I also wondered if there would be a discernable difference when comparing the 3.5mm connection to Bluetooth. As always, I thought that the 3.5mm audio jack would have an edge. Considering the 10 microphones used, I had high hopes for the noise cancelation and expected it to out-perform other popular headphones on the market.

First Impressions:

-Plenty of useful accessories: The BH-905 comes with a beautiful case with included strap. The overall design, it’s heft, the stitched Nokia logo all scream quality and serves as a nice way to carry every single accessory, including the charger. I really love how everything has its own place and strap inside the case, keeping everything nicely in place. Nokia has included several adapters to connect the BH-905 to just about anything you can think of. Included are even a  2.5mm and airplane audio connector.

-Understated design, funny looking hump, but very comfortable: The BH-905 looks a bit like the Bose QuietComfort, but but at the same has it own Nokia DNA, like the square instead of rounded cans.  Unlike other headphones that nicely arch downwards, the BH-905 has like humps on both sides and than arches inwards. I think this decision was done in the name of comfort, with the idea being that the “legs” touching the sides of the face can cause discomfort. The idea works brilliantly with only the cans touching your ears giving an almost a floating feeling. I could use these for hours.Easily the most comfortable over-the-ear headphones I’ve used, but it kind of looks funny when wearing them.

The design can be described as understated elegance and should feel right at home next to a N97 or N900. Even the shiny parts of the BH-905 add an interesting touch to the overall design and manages to keeps things from looking too bland or too “bling.”

-Thin cables are never a good sign: For such a high-end accessory, Nokia used pretty thin 3.5mm audio cable. While this didn’t affect audio quality, at this price point we expect thick, but flexible cables that can stand up to daily usage. What worries me that is the fact that Nokia doesn’t sell these separately, and that these cables have a different 2.5mm to 3.5mm design. It might be possible to buy third party 2.5 to 3.5mm cables, but I’m not sure how or if the BH-905 would work with these. If you do buys, just be sure to be a bit careful with the cables.

-Impressive Noise Cancelation: These headphones are impressive when it comes to noise cancelation and are right up there with the very best active notice cancelation systems. Only passive In-Ear-Monitors (IEM) deliver better noise isolation, but this doesn’t come as a surprise as IEM are basically earplugs.

-Best Stereo Bluetooth performance, but definitely not audiophile grade: Simply put, these are the best sounding over-the-ear stereo Bluetooth headsets, but audiophiles will be better served by high-end IEM like the Shure SE530 PTH or the various Ultimate Ear models.

There’s no denying however the kind of quality sound the BH-905 was pushing over stereo Bluetooth. While walking around in my room it felt strange seeing the N97 on table a few meters away, yet I was getting a solid performance from the BH-905. If your familiar to stereo Bluetooth audio like us, we usually wouldn’t use the words “quality” and “Stereo Bluetooth” or “A2DP” in the same sentence, but these manage to do this with ease.

As expected it has a punchy bass, but lacking in the high-end and delivers a solid midrange performance. Strangely, there didn’t seem to be any difference when using Bluetooth or the 3.5mm audio jack, a sure sign that BH-905 is good, but not audiophile grade. I did wish however, that it more audio headroom for those instances when I would really like to push the audio.

Works just like a giant Bluetooth headset: As a Bluetooth headset the BH-905 works just like the more traditional BH-804 and BH-904, although I doubt people will buy this primarily for calls. The BH-905 a bit more range when compared to other more traditional Nokia headsets.

In a previous post I asked myself why “doesn’t the auto-rotation work when you turn the N82 to the right?” When you turn the N82 and other devices with the built-in accelerometer and auto-screen rotation to the left, the screen automatically adjust to the correct landscape position. But trying the same thing with device facing the right, it stays stuck in portrait mode.

You would think that after months, they would implement this on the newly released N96, but sadly this is not the case. It is now confirmed that currently, the screen auto-rotation does not work when you turn the N96 to the right, but it does work nicely when turned to the left. Hopefully, this is something a new firmware can fix and while they are at it, they should fix this on older devices.

Is this a useful feature for you? Or are you happy with having the screen rotation work only on the left?

Confirmed: N96 screen auto-rotation doesn’t work on the right

Remember the N80’s cool (and handy) Blue notification light? Or what about the one on the N800? The recently released E71 has this same function, but with an added touch of class. The notification light actually serves a dual purpose. Once the phone has entered the power-saving mode it tells you that the phone is On by slowly flashing the notification light: it gradually turns the light On (once every 8 seconds) and gradually turns the light Off. If that wasn’t enough it also serves as well, a notification light. You can set it to notify you of new Missed calls, New Text messages, New SMS messages and New e-mails received. While none of this is really new to us here at The Nokia Guide, I have to say that the way it gradually turns on and off when in power-saving mode adds a touch of class and somehow a gives it an almost organic feel to it. Dare I even say a bit of personality? Have a look at the short video and let me know what you think.

The Nokia E71 has arrived here at the Nokia Guide and having just a weekend to play with the new enterpriselicious QWERTY device so far, it’s not enough to write a full-blown Mega Review, but how about a few random thoughts and opinion based on my usage for now? The E71 arrived in a box similar to what we are used to with Nseries devices, except for two interesting things: a much much smaller box and using the color red as an “accent color”. Normally we are used to the grey, white and even pinkish Nseries, but red for the Eseries?! As you’ll soon see, it’s not only a part of the box that’s red.

The sample received was a  “Grey Steel”  E71-1 supporting Dual mode WCDMA (900/2100 HSDPA) and Quadband GSM (EGSM900, GSM850/1800/1900MHz) with the v100.07.76 firmware. The standard retail package comes with:

·         Nokia E71

·         Nokia Battery (BP-4L)

·         Nokia Charger (AC-5)

·         Nokia connectivity cable (CA-101)

·         Nokia Headset (HS-47)

·         Nokia Eseries Lanyard

·         Nokia Eseries Pouch

·         User Guide, Quick Start Guide and other documentation

·         2GB microSD card

-Build-Quality is exceptional. Coming from something like N95 8GB, N95 or even the N82, the E71 stays true to Eseries tradition by delivering outstanding build quality that only gets better with the use of metals and the tight gaps between parts.  The E71 leaves the N95 and N95 8GB far behind when it comes to build quality.

-The textured metal on the back adds a surprising amount of grip, yet adds an interesting and sophisticated design element.

-The E71 has a layout that’s the closest thing to perfect I have ever seen from Nokia, everything from the QWERTY keyboard, the overall size, the space between the elements, the buttons, it all just works perfectly, if only they could make the screen bigger: 2.8 or even 3”. The Nseries definitely should get such a device with such a layout and QWERTY keyboard.

-The included 2.5 mm Nokia AV connector is a disappointment and believe me it’s a big one.  You truly appreciate the 3.5mm audio jack when a device lacks it. This is probably the biggest negative side of the E71.

-No TV-Out.  With full-office editing and viewing functions, having this would have been the ultimate “leave your notebook at home” feature. Doing presentations via a TV-out function would have been ideal for the business user.

-The E71’s keys remind me of the excellent N93 keys, only slightly smaller and not as “spongey”, with the same rounded shape pointing upwards. The keys on the E71 work really well and are a positive change from flat keys we’ve seen so far from the likes of the N78. N93i. Even though the keys on the N82, N95 and N95 8GB worked, they should have been like the N93 and W71. Every key on the E71 exudes a quality feel, including the solid feeling Naviwheel.

-The new Nokia Tune is an interesting change, but where’s the original one?

-The addition of a lanyard and a pouch is nice touch and Nokia should this every Eseries and Nseries device. Too bad the pouch doesn’t have a belt loop or clip.

-Remember the red color on the box? This color is again repeated on the power button, lanyard and even the inside of the pouch. Red isn’t the accent color I would think of using when designing a business device, but it sure works well. This leads me to believe that the E71 and slider E66 are despite their business roots, they seem to have robbed a few ideas from Nokia L’Amour and Super Nova fashion devices.

-Despite the inclusion of a fairly decent (on paper atleast) 3.2 Megapixel Auto-Focus camera, the E71 falls behind other 3.2 MP devices like the N73 and N93 or even 2 Megapixel devices like the N70. The reason why the camera falls behind is due to the noisy sensor and poor dynamic range. This is expected from a business oriented devices, but this probably means that unlike devices like N82  that can double as a camera, the E71 should be left for emergencies only. In the case of the N82 you could leave the camera at home, in the case of the E71 you’ll probably need to carry more devices to cover the multimedia side of things.

-The breathing light is a cool, yet functional touch.

-The E71 is smaller in person than what I expected and let’s not forget how thing the device is, especially when you realize that the battery takes quite a bit of space.

-Speaking of batteries, the E71 battery life is quite impressive.

-Devices like the N76, N800 and even N93i screen were almost unreadable in direct sunlight, luckily just like the N95, N95 8GB and N93, the E71’s screen stays readable even in the brightest tropical sun.

-The E71 is a finger print magnet, especially the back. This is probably caused by the abundant use of metals and shiny surfaces. Just in case you were wondering the E71 should double as a signaling device in case of any emergency due to the shiny surfaces. Even when taking pictures of yourself, the back can be used as a giant mirror.

-The menu is very responsive and apps open up very quick.

What would you like to know about the E71? And if you were lucky enough to score an E71, what interesting things have you noticed?

Every now and then a product comes a long that is just good at what it does. Sometimes it does one thing specifically and sometimes it’s many things at once. In other cases it does something totally new or in a new way, while in others it doesn’t do anything new but does it in such a manner that it still becomes famous. Such products become objects of desire and in some cases even reach an iconic status. We don’t have to search very far for such an example: The classic N95. It did many things at once and did them very well.  It sold in large quantities despite its relatively high price and without any doubt it will reach iconic status. But the product I’m talking about today is in many ways a complete opposite to the N95: it doesn’t do many things, in fact it only does one thing. I also doubt it will reach iconic status or sell in large numbers. But the reason why I think it deserves so much attention is because it does what it does so well, rivaling products twice its price.

Read the rest of this entry »

  As I’m going to be part of the Nseries Urbanista, I was recently looking into different ways of informing my readers of my whereabouts.  A reader informed me about this cool service called Bliin, a type of real-time location-aware social network.  It basically allows you to follow other Bliin users in real-time as they move around, provided that they have the software running in the background on their cellphone or laptop. The mobile Bliin application is a Java-based app and honestly I hope that they come with a native Symbian S60 3^rd edition app soon, but for a Java app it works pretty well. The idea is that you can be at a certain spot of interest or you just want to let others know that you’ve been there, you would than share pictures, videos, sounds etc and tag it with the appropriate info. This way you can see who’s been in the area and what they have been doing. It also allows you to create “trips” which uses the GPS data to record a certain route and again tag it with the appropriate info. A real-world scenario would be that the native people of a vacation spot would use Bliin to record the route they take to reach a secluded beach and tourist could than look this up using the PC Bliin and follow the same route. The pocket Bliin also helps you to see who’s in the area. While using the software I did notice however that some features aren’t ready yet, but this ofcourse has to do with the fact that the software is still in BETA.

If a user doesn’t really want to let other knows of his or her location, they could just create an account and login into it,watch others move around and end enjoy the sights and sounds. The web based interface uses Google Maps to shows others as they move around. There’s also a mobile web interface and a PC app.

Bliin looks quite promising and it should be interesting to see how it will all work once more users join the network and more features become available. Again I do hope they are working on a native Symbian S60 app.

Go to the Bliin website and get your own account and software and let me know what you think.

This is a bit of news that I kind of forgot to share with you guys, but The Nokia Guide is going to be part of a 2 week BETA testing of Nokia’s upcoming gaming and music oriented smartphone: The N81. As you can see from my previous Mega Reviews I like to thoroughly test just about everything on these phones and I would like to do the same with the N81. I’ll be reporting my findings to you guys in an early first look of the N81. If you’re looking into getting the N81 for the holiday season feel free to ask me questions.  Just leave them in the comments section and I’ll try to answer these once I get my hands on the N81. I’m expecting the N81 pretty soon.

I’ve had some time to play with the latest search feature on the N76 and basically it’s an update to the one found on many 3^rd edition devices like the N95, which also could be downloaded from the Nokia Mobile Search page. At first I thought that this feature ads some kind of text box where you could enter your search term from the standby screen, but it doesn’t. It’s basically just a shortcut to the updated search program. It sure would be handy if they would add a “search box” right on the standby screen, but I guess this is a step in the right direction.

The updated UI is exactly what we will see on the N81 and N95 8GB and has a side sliding animation that looks similar to the one found on the 5^th generation iPod. It’s divided into two main search areas: Internet and My content. The My Content allows you to search specifically in Music, Contacts, Calendar, Messages, E-mail Messages, Bookmarks, Images, Videos, Landmarks, Applications and Notes. You can search in any of these areas or you can just enter a text and it will automatically search for text entered and it will identify the files with the appropriate icon. You can see this by my search for the letter “A”.

What other features have been added? The N76 now sports the same Nokia Maps app from the N95, including the latest enhancements like the built-in world clock and updated look. In device manager there’s also a new Nokia firmware profile that might be new, but maybe I just didn’t notice it before. It’s interesting that the profile is editable and all the info in there is up for grabs. Maybe we can even use the profile settings to add FOTA on other Nokia devices.

So far so good: the phone seems stable and fast. No crashes as of yet. I really like the new search feature as it’s really handy. All I could ask for right now is the addition of a search field in the next release and that other phones get this update, including the classic N95. I’m still looking for the change log, so if you find it let me know.

Taking a closer look at the new N76 search feature

With a mere 950mAH battery no wonder N95 owners are complaining about the battery life. Here’s a great solution that I’m reviewing very soon at Gadgetnutz. The guys from Proporta just send me their Gadget Bag and the USB Mobile Device Charger. The Gadgetbag is a great solution to carry and protect all your devices or accessories. It consists of individual compartments allowing you to keep each of your mobile devices separate or take just the compartment you need. All the sectional areas have a plastic opening, allowing headphones and charging cables to be fed through each section. This added feature allows you to charge your device whilst on the go with the Proporta USB Mobile Device Charger, or listen to your MP3 player whilst it is safely concealed and protected in the bag.

The Proporta USB Mobile Device Charger (USB Rechargeable Battery), charges from any standard USB port and stores an impressive 3400 mAH of power which is about three complete charges for the N95. Perfect for camping trips or when you’re on the road and no mobile charger in sight. It not only works with phones but also any USB powered mobile devices like iPod and digital cameras. You can also use the supplied adapters if your device doesn’t charge via the USB connection.
From my first inspection both the Gadgetbag and USB Mobile Device Charger look and feel well-made. The Gadgetbag is cleverly put together and especially the Mobile Charger will come in handy as I’ve had my N95’s battery die on with no charger to recharge. I will use them a bit more as I just got them and will report more in my final review. Is there something you would like to know or would you like me to include something in the review? Just leave me a comment? In the mean time here are a few pics of these must have accessories!