HTC HD2: The best of three worlds

Yah I know it’s probably too late to review such as a phone but I’ll do it anyway coz it’s that incredible. When it came out it was a monster of a phone and I think it still is. It however ran the old windows mobile 6.5. The windows OS wasn’t so bad on it and due its fast processor (the fastest at the time) browsing the web and swiping through the phone was zippy. But as time moved by developers thought it wasn’t wise to leave all that hardware go to wasn’t and so they came up with the right operating system(s) for it. The HD2 was hacked to run android and impressively it can now run Gingerbread. Well, as awesome as that was, that wasn’t all and it was again hacked to run the latest windows, windows phone 7. I just hope the Mango update hits it too. Again that wasn’t all. It then became possible to run both android and Windows phone 7 on the same SD card. That means you can actually triple boot three operating systems. And for those who care Meego can also work here.
The phone packs a large 4.3 inch capacitive screen. There is 448 MB RAM and 512 MB ROM. The processor is a 1GHz Scorpion processor and there is the usual GPS, Wi-Fi and HSPA. The camera is decent at 5 megapixels with dual LED flash. The battery however is only 1230mAh and that worries me.
The cool thing about this phone is that it has decent features that can compete with the best smartphones at this moment but since it came out much earlier its cheaper. Then you get to replace your old OS with the best operating systems at the moment.

The Samsung Galaxy S 2

This is a phone like no other and calling it a phone just sounds wrong. The name galaxy is appropriate now more than ever. The galaxy S 2 is definitely on a league of its own. In the past all touch screen phones have been compared or mostly contrasted with the iPhone but this is one phone the iPhone looks up to. The galaxy S set the pace last year and even before we got the hang of it the galaxy S 2 set a new standard. This is mostly due to the fact that it has a dual core processor.
Specs wise the Galaxy S 2 has a large 4.3 inch screen with super AMOLED. The processor is 1.2GHz dual core Cortex A9 with 1GB of RAM. Graphics wise there is a Mali-400MP GPU and Exynos chipset. There is an 8MP camera able to record 1080p HD video. The front facing camera is 2MP. There is also full flash support and GPU acceleration for web browsing and the browser can also play 1080p videos. The phone is also extremely thin at only 8.5mm. There is also USB host support meaning that you can plug in your flash drive. Apart from that there is the usual HSDPA, Wi-Fi and GPS.
Just from the specs the phone is clearly a winner. The software given the honor is the latest Android 2.3 gingerbread. Despite all the features battery life is still decent. Web browsing is a pleasure on such a large screen. Gaming is smooth all the way due to the enhanced GPU and Google takes care of the rest when you visit the android market. The ability of the galaxy S 2 to play 1080p video leaves me with no words. This is probably the first phone you don’t need to hack to enjoy it fully. The features out of the box are simply overwhelming.
The galaxy S 2 shines in all departments. It is thin, light, extremely fast, user friendly. It also has excellent audio quality and also it runs android. All that praise has come from a Symbian fan boy so I don’t know what Samsung and android lovers will have to say about this super phone. The Galaxy S 2 will leave a legacy that will live on for years to come. It might take two more iPhones to make us forget the Galaxy S 2. This is one phone you will tell your kids about.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Play

The next time you go to work just carry your playstation and when there is no work in the office just play on. While Sony liked the idea they didn’t prefer you carry your bulky playstation. So they decided to create the Xperia Play. This phone however targets the younger generation but since it’s a phone it can be used by anyone. The Xperia Play is a hybrid phone with playstation gaming including playstation slide out controls. The gaming aspect is closely related to the PSP while the phone is actually a beast of a phone featuring the latest android 2.3 operating system and high end specifications.
The Xperia play has a 4 inch screen just as the PSP. There is 400Mb of internal memory which is small but you can always insert an SD card. It has a 1GHz Scorpion processor, Adreno 205 GPU and Qualcomm MSM 8255 Snapdragon while the RAM is 512Mb. In terms of connectivity there is HSDPA, HSUPA, Wi-Fi and GPS for navigation. A 5 megapixel camera is also included.
In terms of gaming it is playstation one games that are currently available with playstation two games coming soon. There are about 50 games available so far. There are also new games such as the asphalt 6 and FIFA. Games look incredible on the Xperia Play and your phones will probably be always plugged into the mains since you won’t stop playing.
The Xperia play is probably what the Playstation Portable needed to become when it grew up. The Xperia play is one of those phones that you never put away. If you are not playing then you are probably browsing the web or using all the other goodies that the android 2.3 gingerbread comes with. For now the price tag is a bit hefty so you may want to hold on to your PSP.

The fall of Nokia

This has been the most talked about topic of recent times. The company that dominated the phone industry and still marginally dominates is fast collapsing. When Nokia first decided to take up symbian OS it was the most genius of plans and that later on became their undoing.
Symbian is still the number 1 OS and millions of people including me fell in love with it. It was user friendly and so original but as time went by it became old and really needed an upgrade which was never forthcoming. Well, in case you are wondering what symbian is then it is the operating system found in Nokia smartphones. There is the version used in phones like E5, E72, and N95 and so on. There is also the version (symbian 1) used in Nokia 5800, Nokia N97, Nokia 5230. Finally Symbian 3 is used in the Nokia N8, Nokia C6-01, Nokia C7, Nokia E7, Nokia X7 and Nokia E6.
While Symbian did more than enough people were ONLY tired of the same old user interface while android had already brought forth customizable home screens. The android home screens were pretty and you could just swipe along without doing anything constructive. Nokia did try to intervene when they released the Nokia N900 which swept me and everyone else of their feet. It was simply perfect. It offered Unlimited customizable Home screens and it did not run on the tired symbian, instead it ran on Maemo 5 which Nokia promised would be upgraded to Meego. The only problem with Nokia N900 is that Nokia did not support it. As a result there were few applications and few updates. The N900 would have been the resurrection point.
Earlier this year Nokia decided to abandon Symbian and go with Windows Phone 7. I still don’t know how this will turn out but dumping symbian wasn’t the best idea considering Symbian was the heart and soul of Nokia. All Nokia needed to do was re-structure symbian and probably change its name. It was only after Nokia dumped Nokia that they decided to upgrade it. Nokia promised support for symbian until 2014 but Windows Phone 7 is now their new priority. Last week Nokia released the Nokia X7 and Nokia E6 which have the new update and as it turns out people love the update. The update will roll out to other Symbian devices such as the N8 in the coming months and symbian users can’t wait.
So the question arises, would it have been easier for Nokia to just upgrade Symbian than to jump the wagon and join Microsoft? There is also another twist to the story. Nokia had earlier partnered with Intel to make Meego which everyone including Android fans was waiting for. Meego would have been the Nokia priority instead of Symbian and everyone was OK with that but at the last minute Nokia formed a partnership with Microsoft and until now no one understands what happened. However, Nokia promised to make a Meego phone this year dubbed the Nokia N950 and am still waiting. Other companies including LG have seen the Meego potential and it is believed that LG will be making a Meego phone. Some people say that the deal with Microsoft may not be so good and Nokia might as well go back to Meego. Others also claim that Nokia had calculated all this and that Meego is a symbian update but if they had called it symbian no one would have been interested. Meego is a good platform and I will expound on it with subsequent posts and that is why everyone is waiting for it. It seems it’s only Nokia who sees that Meego would be an epic fail.
The way forward would be for Nokia to battle on all fronts. They should continue with Windows Phone 7 and at the same time invest on Meego. There should also be continued support for Symbian since the new Symbian “Anna” update seems to have made symbian users wag their tails in excitement. I am still a symbian/Meego fan and am ready to sink with the ship.

Nokia N8

I have held off reviewing this phone for quite some time since as a Nokia fan I had more to do in terms of convincing people about how brilliant this phones actually is. It is probably a lost cause reviewing this phone but I will give it a try.
Well, well, where do I even start? This phone goes beyond the mere specification sheet that I give to you when I review phones. It’s all about usability. The phone has an AMOLED screen of 3.5 inches and of course it is capacitive. There is 16GB of internal storage, 256MB of RAM and a 680MHz ARM processor. For game lovers like me there is a Broadcom GPU onboard. There is the usual GPS, Wi-Fi b, g and n, Bluetooth 3.0. Additionally there is USB on the Go and amazingly a mini HDMI port for connecting the phone to a HD television and viewing the phones content on the television. I almost forgot about the impressive 12 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and xenon flash. The N8 completely replaced a digital camera.
Specifications aside and hands on experience is even better. The phone has three customizable home screens while android phones have about 5. It all depends on the user, some like many while others are content with just one. The good news is that I managed to hack the N8 and I got 6 home screens but I reverted back to the 3 home screens. Customizing the home screens is easy and you can get social network and email updates on your home screens. This is nothing new really.
The N8 features a new music player characteristic of the new Symbian 3. Scrolling through the Albums is a pleasure just as the sound quality produced by the single speaker at the back. Still on media consumption the N8 can play divx/xvid files so there is no need for long conversion processes into MP4 file format. Playing videos on the 3.5 inch screen is brilliant. Still if you think the display is too small then you can connect the N8 to the television and watch your videos at the comfort of your couch. Playing games this way is also enjoyable and games such as Asphalt 5, Need for speed shift, GT motor racing among others will come to life. You may even replace your playstation for this although I don’t recommend it.
What can I really say about the camera? Photos taken by the N8 continue to impress. The N8 also records and plays back videos at 720p which is impressive. If you are into photography or you just love photos and taking photos then the N8 is the phone for you.
The only drawback of the N8 is that soon Nokia will be withdrawing support for Symbian which is about 3 years from. It isn’t a big deal considering other manufacturers don’t ever support their phones and in any case there are already thousands of N8 applications you can download on the internet. The OVI store is also growing fast and you find all the applications you need including HD games.
In conclusion the N8 is the safest symbian phone to have at the moment boosted by the fact that it has plenty of applications and a life changing update called Symbian Anna will hit the device soon and make it much more appealing.

The Phone of the year 2010

How do I even start this one? This is definitely the hardest article I’ll ever have to write. But I have come up with an ingenious plan. Wait you will see. So here we go. The phone of the year 2010 is the Samsung Galaxy S. We also have another winner ladies and gentlemen…Nokia N900. I know you probably don’t see it yet but that’s how things have to be. I could have picked the Galaxy S but last week something amazing happened to the Nokia N900 and remembered all the amazing things that had happened to that phone. While the Galaxy S is probably the phone of choice for many people the Nokia N900 is definitely the phone for the geeks and I think geeks are cool. Geeks come up with all the cool stuff and we use these stuff to get laid while they get rejected. No am just kidding.
The winner had to be a phone that could do everything so as you’ve guessed the iPhone 4 is already out because of its various limitations, no true multitasking being one of them. Some phones however only missed narrowly and they included the Nokia N8, Nexus one, HTC Desire, Motorola Droid 2 and also the Samsung wave 2. So the winner had to be the Samsung Galaxy S and the Nokia N900.
The Samsung Galaxy S when compared with the iPhone left the iPhone for dead. The phone is just too sexy and the screen is 4 inches of glory and protected by a gorilla glass display. Internal memory is between 8 and 16GB with 512mb Ram and 2GB rom. The Wi-Fi is b, g and also n. The processor is ARM cortex A8 running at 1GHz. There is also the usual GPS. The selling point of this phone is definitely not the features but the usability. It is the most practical phone you will ever get. Opening applications, swiping and scrolling through menus, browsing and also typing via the swipe enabled virtual keyboard is a breeze and simply amazing. The camera is a 5megapixel snapper but is incredible. Samsung simply did what the iPhone does and they did it in style and of course they did it better. Well, the iPhone normally has pathetic features but using it is great. The galaxy S has amazing features and using it is more amazing. Currently it runs android 2.2 but the upgrade to gingerbread (android 2.3 is on the way).
The Nokia N900 cannot be described by a single word. If forced to describe it by a single word I will call it “Rambo”. There is nothing this phone cannot do. It has the same screen resolution as the galaxy S but features a smaller 3.5 inch screen making it better. The internal memory is a massive 32 GB and the RAM is 256mb which seems small but this phone does wonders with it. It also has an ARM cortex 8 processor but at 600MHz. This also seems slow but the N900 does miracles with it. The usual GPS with OVI maps is onboard. The N900 also features a slide out QWERTY keyboard.
So the features seem standard or actually less than standard and we wonder what makes the N900 so special. The first thing is that it runs on maemo 5 and it is the only Smartphone from Nokia that does not run on symbian. The maemo 5 brings multiple home screens and this is the most customizable phone yet. The browser on Nokia N900 is the best browser on a phone. It supports flash and can open any page. There is also Mozilla Firefox but you will find yourself using the phones browser. Yes, that’s how incredible it is. Calling the N900 a phone is usually an understatement. The N900 is more of a tablet than a phone. The phone can run many applications at the same time without slowing down and the iPhone cannot even dream of that.
The geeks have also done something special with the N900. The N900 can run android from 2.1 to the latest 2.3. Currently android 2.2 is very stable and android 2.3 is very promising. Only the nexus S natively runs android 2.3 and the Samsung galaxy S has not received the update yet and can only look at the N900 with envy. The good thing is that you don’t do this at the expense of maemo 5 because you get to dual boot operating systems just the way you can run windows 7 and windows XP or Linux on one computer. I forgot to mention the obvious. The phone will be able to run Meego after it will be released next year.
Gaming on the N900 is a different story. The N900 not only plays android games but also Nintendo games, playstation games and most recently web OS games. There are no words for that.
So in the end the phone of the year deservedly goes to the Nokia N900. Oh and did I mention that the processor in the N900 can be over clocked to 1.3GHz in which case it becomes faster than the Galaxy S? The N900 is a beast of a phone and it has no boundaries in its usability. The geeks and anyone daring enough will definitely go for this one cause the power of this phone is just too much for casual phone users. They might think they have a computer instead of a phone and they would be right because the N900 is more than a phone.

Nokia C6-01: The New Nokia 5800

The resurrection of Nokia has started. While most of the attention is on the Nokia N8 probably the Nokia C6-01 will move most people. The phone is also based on the new symbian^3 platform. The C6-01 will be aimed at the masses and it doesn’t disappoint.
So anyway the phone has a 3.2 inch screen which will now be considered smallish by many. The screen however is AMOLED, yes AMOLED on a Nokia phone and it also has something which Nokia calls the Nokia clear black display. Indeed the screen is really good and it’s capacitive (yaay). Internal memory is 340mb and there is 256mb of RAM. Processing is still done by the ARM 11 chip but now at 680 MHz and there is also a 3D accelerator, wow! There is also an 8 megapixel fixed focus camera and amazingly video recording is at 720p. So far all I can say is good job Nokia.
In terms of connectivity there is Wi-Fi b, g and n. There is also 3G with HSDPA of up to 10.2Mbps. Bluetooth is Bluetooth 3.0 and there is also USB on the go so you can connect your favorite flash drives. There is also GPS and TV-out support though there is no HDMI.
The new symbian^3 also brings major improvements. Now there are multiple home screens. The music player has received a major upgrade and there is support for xvid/divx. These are all very welcome and the web browser will be upgraded soon. In the meantime you can use the ever friendly opera mobile. Gaming has also been improved just that the OVI store still doesn’t measure up to the demands but it is growing fast.
The phone has definitely been released to replace the Nokia 5800. The journey of Nokia 5800 has been a long one and the most popular phone will be happy to leave behind a capable successor. It has been argued that Nokia 5800 is the best touch screen phone by Nokia especially following the V50 update and the Nokia C6-00 firmware port but that’ s a story for another day.
Compared with the N8 the phone has a smaller screen size and there is lack of a HDMI port. The camera has also been scared down from 12mp to 8mp. The N8 will be about 400 Euros while the C6-01 should be about 260 Euros.