Now, if only Nokia included in NFC to the Lumia 900 and it would be perfect!

Nokia Lumia 900

What Has Changed?
The design is almost the same as the Nokia Lumia 800 except it has bigger screen 4.3″ vs 3.7″ while maintaining the same resolution of 800×480.

The processer speed is the same at 1.4GHz, but the Nokia Lumia 900 uses a newer Snapdragon S2 processor, which I think should give it some performance boost over the Nokia Lumia 800.

When it comes to camera, the back camera remains the same while a 1MP front-facing camera has been added.

Gyroscope has been added to the Nokia Lumia 900 which was missing in the Nokia Lumia 800.

According to My Nokia Blog, the SIM tray design has been changed as well, now it requires a SIM Door Key (as what Nokia calls it, similar to iPhone’s SIM Tray Eject Pin) to open the SIM tray. Because of this change, the microUSB port is now exposed.

The battery capacity has also been increased from 1,450mAh of the Nokia Lumia 800 to 1,830mAh of the Nokia Lumia 900.

In the same post, Nokia Lumia 900 vs Nokia Lumia 800 – what’s changed by My Nokia Blog, it states that the Nokia Lumia 800 has a cured screen with no bezel while the Nokia 900 has a flat screen with raised edge bezel.

The Nokia Lumia 900 will only be available in 2 colors (Black or Cyan) instead of 3 like the Nokia Lumia 800.

Technical Specifications

• Operating: Windows Phone Release 7.5 – Mango Commercial Release 2 (Mango + LTE)
• Processor: 1.4GHz Snapdragon APQ8055 + MDM9200
• Networks: GSM/EGSM 850/900/1800/1900, WCDMA 850/1900/2100, LTE Band 4 (1700/2100) & 17 (700)
• 4G/LTE – up to 50Mbps down/25Mbps up, HSPA – up to 21Mbps down/5.76 Mbps up
• 4.3″ ClearBlack AMOLED display with WVGA 800×480 resolution
• 512MB RAM
• 16 GB internal memory (14.5GB user memory)
• Primary (Rear-facing): 8MP with f2.2/28mm Carl Zeiss lens and dual LED flash, Auto Focus, 720p, 30fps video capture
• Secondary (Front-facing): 1MP with f2.4, 30fps video capture (VGA video call resolution)
• A-GPS, Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n), USB 2.0 high-speed, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, 3.5mm headset connector
• 1830mAh battery
• Accelerometer, Proximity, Magnetometer, light sensor, Gyroscope
• Volume: 90cc
• Weight: 160 g (5.6 ounces)
• Dimensions (max): 127.8 x 68.5 x 11.5 mm (5 x 2.7 x .45 inches)

Nokia Conversations: Nokia Lumia 900 – Born for the USA
Engadget: AT&T Nokia Lumia 900 Hands-on at CES 2012 (video)
My Nokia Blog: Nokia Lumia 900 vs Nokia Lumia 800 – what’s changed

They are:

• Julian Chow with the picture Sunset at Bedok Reservoir
• Sajnikanth with the picture Bright Side of the Moon

Congratulations guys!

I will be handing over your details to Nokia Singapore for them to courier you the Nokia Purity HD Stereo Headset worth €200 (SGD$346) directly. It should take approximately one to two weeks to reach you.

For those who did not win, thanks a lot of your participation and please do try again in my next contests/giveaway. =D

Julian Chow – Sunset at Bedok Reservoir

Sajnikanth – Bright Side of the Moon

The Nokia Lumia 710 will be available in Singapore in the coming weeks for a RRP of SGD$505.

All three local operators in Singapore (SingTel, StarHub and M1) will be offering the Nokia Lumia 800 and Nokia Lumia 710.

Nokia Lumia 800

The stunningly social Nokia Lumia 800 features head-turning design, vivid colors (cyan, magenta and black) and the best social and Internet performance, with one-touch social network access, easy grouping of contacts, integrated communication threads and Internet Explorer 9. It features a 3.7 inch AMOLED ClearBlack curved display blending seamlessly into the reduced body design, and a 1.4 GHz processor with hardware acceleration and a graphics processor. The Nokia Lumia 800 contains an instant-share camera experience based on leading Carl Zeiss optics, HD video playback, 16GB of internal user memory and 25GB of free SkyDrive storage for storing images and music.

Nokia Lumia 800

Specifications

• CPU: Single Core Qualcomm MSM8255 @ 1.4GHz
• RAM: 512 MB SDRAM
• Storage: 16 GB mass memory (no slot for micro-SD cards)
• Screen: 3.7″ AMOLED Capacitive Touch Screen (480×800) with ClearBlack Display, Curved Glass and Corning Gorilla Glass
• Camera: Carl Zeiss optics, 8 MP camera, wide angle lens (no secondary/front-facing camera)
• Connectivity: WiFi, Micro USB, Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR, USB 2.0 High-Speed, 3.5mm AHJ Connector, Bluetooth Stereo Audio
• GPS: GPS, A-GPS, CellID, WiFi positioning
• Dimensions: 116.5mm (L), 61.2mm (W), 12.1mm (T)
• Weight: 142g
• Battery: BV-5JW 3.7V 1,450mAh
• SIM Slot: Micro SIM

Nokia Lumia 710

The purposely built, no-nonsense Nokia Lumia 710 can be personalized with exchangeable back covers and thousands of apps to bring the Lumia experience to more people around the world. The Nokia Lumia 710 is designed for instant social & image sharing, and the best browsing experience with IE9. It is available in black and white with black, white, cyan, fuchsia and yellow back covers. With the same 1.4 GHz processor, hardware acceleration and graphics processor as the Nokia Lumia 800, the Nokia Lumia 710 delivers high performance at an affordable price.

Nokia Lumia 710

Specifications

• CPU: Single Core Qualcomm MSM8255 @ 1.4GHz
• RAM: 512 MB SDRAM
• Storage: 8 GB mass memory (no slot for micro-SD cards)
• Screen: 3.7″ TFT Capacitive Touch Screen (480×800) with ClearBlack Display and Corning Gorilla Glass
• Camera: 5 MP camera, auto Focus, LED flash (no secondary/front-facing camera)
• Connectivity: WiFi, Micro USB, Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR, USB 2.0 High-Speed, 3.5mm AHJ Connector, Bluetooth Stereo Audio
• GPS: GPS, A-GPS, CellID, WiFi positioning
• Dimensions: 119.0mm (L), 62.4mm (W), 12.5mm (T)
• Weight: 126g
• Battery: BP-3L 3.7V 1,300mAh
• SIM Slot: Micro SIM

All you have to do is the following:

• Capture a photo or video of an ‘Amazing Everyday’ moment and share it with me via Twitter (@gamerz), Instagram (@gamerz), Facebook (facebook.com/lesterchan.net) or even email (lesterchan AT gmail)
• Submit your entries to Nokia Singapore’s Facebook Page – Win A Lumia 800 Page

‘Amazing Everyday’ is the millions of little adventures that await you out there and it comes to life in the Nokia Lumia series. The new Nokia Lumia 800 is the perfect device to find these moments, get into them, capture them and make them yours, to live adventure everywhere.

If you need some ideas of an ‘Amazing Everyday’ moment, head down to Orchard Road (outside Knightsbridge and The Heeren Shop) this weekend on the 3rd and 4th December 2011 between 12pm and 7pm for the Nokia Lumia Amazing Weekend! DJ KoFlow and Xiaxue will be there, for entertaining music and fashion activities!

Also if you are available on the 7th December 2011, join us at the Nokia Lumia Launch Party happening at Clarke Quay to find opportunities for more amazing everyday moments that you can capture!

This contest will end on 11:59pm on Wednesday, 7th December 2011.

About Nokia Purity HD Stereo Headset

Nokia Purity HD Stereo Headset

• Key features
  • Feel the music with high performance speakers
  • Premium materials, designed for your style
  • Ultra comfort for long listening sessions
  • Sleek, lightweight and superior design
• Technical profile
  • Weight: 180 grams
  • Dimensions (LxWxT): 290mm x 40mm x 200mm
  • Cable length: 1300mm
  • Operating keys: Answer/end key, volume control
• Compatibility
  • Fully compatible with Nokia Lumia 800 and Nokia Lumia 710
  • Compatible with other Nokia handsets with 3.5mm Nokia AV connector
  • Compatible with other audio devices with standard 3.5mm audio jack

Fine Print

• This Giveaway is open to all readers of lesterchan.net who are based in Singapore.
• Li Xiang and I will be the judges for this contest, entries will be judged based on creativity and originality.
• Winners will be announced 1 week after the contest closes.
• Winners will be contacted via the respective channel (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or Email) in which they submitted their entry.
• The prizes will be sent out 1 week after the announcement of the results has been made.
• Nokia Singapore will be sending the prizes to the winner directly.
• There will not be a choice of colors for the prizes, Nokia Singapore will decide on the colors for this giveaway.
• Details of winners such as name and the captured photo/video will be posted on lesterchan.net.
• My decision on all matters related to this giveaway is final and no correspondence will be entertained.
• I reserves the right to amend these terms and conditions at anytime without prior notice.
• This giveaway ends on 11:59pm (23:59), Wednesday, 7th December 2011 (GMT+8 Singapore Time).

I will focus on different areas (mainly software related) not covered in the previous 2 reviews after using it as my work phone for almost a week.

The Nokia N9 has been available in Singapore since October 2011 for SGD$799 (16GB) and SGD$899 (64GB).

Nokia N9 Official Specification

• Networks: Pentaband WCDMA 850, 900, 1900, 1700, 2100, Quad band GSM/EDGE 850, 900, 1800, 1900
• Speed: HSDPA Cat10: 14.4Mbps, HSUPA: Cat6 5.76Mbps
• Display: 3.9″ WVGA (854×480) AMOLED display with curved Gorilla glass, no air gap, anti-glare polarizer
• OS: MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan
• Memory: 1GB RAM, 16GB/64GB storage
• Camera: 8Mpix auto-focus Carl Zeiss, wide-angle lens, 2x LED flash, Video capturing MPEG-4 SP 720p @ 30fps, 2nd camera for video calls
• Size / Weight: 116.45 mm x 61.2 mm x 7.6–12.1 mm (L x W x T)/ 76 cm3/ 135 g
• Connectivity: BT 2.1, GPS, A-GPS, WLAN 802.11abgn, NFC, 3.5mm AV connector, uUSB connector, USB charging
• Processor:ARM Cortex-A8 OMAP3630 1 Ghz, PowerVR SGX530
• Audio: MP3 player, Audio jack: 3.5mm, Supported codecs: mp3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA, FLAC
• Battery: 1450 mAh
• Talk time: (GSM/WCDMA) up to 11 h / up to 7 hours
• Standby time: Up to 450 hours (WCDMA), up to 380 hours (GSM)
• Video playback (720P): up to 4.5 hours
• Music playback: up to 50 hours

Box

Box Contents

Nokia N9 (Front View)

Nokia N9 (Back View)

Nokia N9 (Top View)

Nokia N9 (Right Side View)

Events Screen

Application Screen

Multitasking Screen

Accounts
The N9 has a Accounts app that manages all your accounts that you have connected with the N9, similar to what Windows Phone 7 is doing. When I first got my hands on the N9, I went straight up and connect all my social networking sites with the N9.

Accounts App

I connected 10 accounts with the Nokia N9. They are: Facebook, Flickr, Google, Google Sync (MS Exchange), Office Email (MS Exchange), Nokia, Picasa, Skype, Twitter and YouTube. I notice that my the N9 has become very laggy once these accounts are connected and sometimes the lag is unbearable. At first I thought this would be fixed in the Nokia N9 PR 1.1 Software Update, but apparently it does not. I do hope that future software update will fix it.

Contacts
Once your accounts are connected, your contacts in your social networking sites will appear in your Contacts app, similar to that of Windows Phone 7. I am using Google Sync to sync my personal contacts over to the N9. If your contact’s email matches a Facebook contact, it will merge them together and your contact’s display picture will be his/her Facebook Profile Picture. Pretty seamless here.

Contacts App

One nice little touch to the Contacts App is that it will have an icon that represents your contact initials. I store the names of my contact only in the first name field to avoid conflict when syncing to multiple devices and hence you will see only a single letter “D”.

Contacts Category

If you are like me that links many accounts to the Nokia N9, you will notice that scrolling through the contacts is a little laggy. One nice feature but rather a buggy one is it allows you to filter your contacts based on account. As you can see from the above screenshot, I got 102 contacts in Facebook, 126 in Skype and 6 on Gtalk, by tapping on any of them will only show the contacts in that respective account.

If you notice my phone book has 378 contacts, I have no idea how they arrived at the number, my Google Sync has 349 contacts so technically I only expect to see 349 of them. I also realized that some of my Skype contacts sneaked into with my Google Sync and got sync back to my Google Contacts and I have to manually delete it. I am still figuring out how that happens. This is sometime the reason why I love iOS sandboxing because often the app can’t mess with your contacts.

Calendar
The Calendar app in N9 was pretty alright, it allows you to rename the calendar and even allow you to choose your own color label. No complains here.

Manage Calendar

Email
The Email app is not that bad, once you have new emails, it will sent a notification to your Events Screen, my only complain is that you can’t rename the email account. I have 2 Mail for Exchange accounts initially but I have no way of differentiating between them as both mailboxes will just write “Mail for Exchange”. So I dropped the Mail option for Google Sync and switch it to Gmail, so at least now I can differentiate between my work mail and personal email.

Manage Email

Syncing Schedule
Similar to all Symbian devices, I love the syncing schedule as this allows you to fine tune the polling time to the server to get new contents. A good use case is for my work email. When I am at work, I do not need the device to keep polling the Exchange server for new emails/calendar events/contacts as I will get a prompt by Microsoft Office 2011 on my Mac. However, once I finished work, I need to be kept up to date with emails and meeting invites. The sync schedule allows just that!

In the screenshot you see below, it is the settings for my Google Sync, I need it up to date no matter what day and time is it.

Sync Schedule

Twitter

Twitter App

There is a lack of Twitter clients in the Nokia N9 and the built-in Twitter app is the best Twitter client you can get on a N9. It works as advertise without any settings that allows you to customize it. I can’t get retweet and photo upload to work.

For retweet, when I tap on it nothing happens despite the retweet icon being lighted up and for photo upload, after I pressed the photo button, it just gives me a black screen with the button “Done” at the top. I hope this is also address in the next software update. Pretty disappointed in this 2 areas as I use both of this features pretty often.

Facebook

Facebook App

The built-in Facebook App is pretty good despite not having all the features as compared to the iOS/Android version, but it is acceptable. UI is smooth and responsive and all the features work as expected unlike the Twitter App.

My wishlist for both Facebook and Twitter App is for Facebook’s notification and Twitter’s mentions/direct message to be pushed as notifications to my Events Screen. Right now, I have no way to know who have mentioned me on Twitter or replied to my post in Facebook without going into the respective app itself.

Nokia Store
The apps on Nokia Store is pretty limited and the User experience design (UX) needs more work. As it is my first time visiting the store, I would like to get free apps first, preferably most popular free apps to see what others are downloading. To do that, I need to tap on the 2nd icon at the bottom, go to applications and tap again for “All Applications” before it allows me to see the top free apps or another way is to scroll down to the bottom of the home aka featured page and tap on “All Applications”. I reckon they should have a popular apps shortcut to allow users to discover popular apps easily.

Nokia Store

I hope to see more apps on the Nokia Store for the N9 but that is provided that Nokia do not kill it.

Multitasking
The Nokia N9 boost true multitasking which I really like! When in the app just swipe to the top, left or right and the app will be brought to the background and you can see all apps in the background in the Multitasking screen. Just press and hold on the preview and you have the option to close all apps! This is brilliant and the iPhone needs this feature. Also, when you restart the phone, the background apps will no longer be there unlike the iPhone.

Multitasking

Wi-Fi Hotspot
Nokia N9 has a built in Wi-Fi hotspot feature which is good for Internet sharing! Right now only WEP64 and WEP128 encryption is supported.

Wi-Fi Hotspot

Software Update
When I first heard of the Nokia N9 PR 1.1 software update, I was looking all over the phone to find out where I can upgrade it via Over The Air (OTA), after searching high and low for the options, I finally found it and it is under “Settings -> Applications -> Manage Applications -> 2nd Icon At The Bottom”. I was expecting it to be under “Settings -> Device” or “Settings -> About”. But too bad the PR 1.1 update is not yet available via OTA in Singapore, so I have to use Nokia Software Updater to update my N9 firmware.

Software Update

After updating, it seems that all the passwords for my linked accounts got wiped and I have to enter it again. I wonder is this for security reason or a bug in the software update process. But nevertheless, it is not a big deal.

Camera/Video
The N9 camera takes pretty impressive pictures but when it comes to low light, it is a little grainy. I also love the continuous autofocus when taking video!

Taken With N9 (Click To Enlarge

Taken With N9 (Click To Enlarge)

Taken With N9 (Click To Enlarge)

The front facing camera is a little useless right now, I can’t seem to find any Apps within the N9 itself that activates the front facing camera, you only can rely on 3rd party app from the Nokia Store like Simple Mirror.

NFC
Nokia N9 has NFC capabilities for you to transfer contacts and photos to another NFC enabled phone and even stream music to the Nokia Play 360° Speakers. Unfortunately I can’t test that as I do not have any other NFC devices. I do wish that a developer will create a app that allows us to read the contents of our EZ-Link card similar to the one they have in Android called FareBot.

Battery Life
The N9 has a 1,450mAh battery and the battery life is pretty decent, I got about 2 days of standby time (not touching the phone at all) and about a day for normal usage. Normal in the sense that I check my tweets and Facebook often which averages to once per hour and I get pushed emails for my personal Gmail account instantly and pushed email for my work account happens instantly only after office hours.

The battery life easily last twice that of my iPhone 4S.

Conclusion

• Pros:
  • Fantastic screen with clear visibility under direct sunlight
  • NFC supported
  • True multitasking
  • Unique UI
  • Great Camera with continuous autofocus for video taking
  • Decent battery life
• Cons:
  • Laggy user interface once you have many accounts linked
  • Limited apps available
  • Price a little steep as compared to competitors

Links

• Blog Post: Nokia Connection 2011
• Blog Post: Nokia N9 Blogger Event
• Official Site: Nokia N9

The first stop was London Eye, but instead of seeing it from the outside, this time we really went into it. The queue was still insanely long, but luckily the guys at 1000heads managed to get the fast track tickets!

London Eye

London Eye Capsule

Awesome View From London Eye

We did some filming inside the London Eye’s Capsule, I was giving a basic introduction of Nokia Mix Radio. Nokia Mix Radio gives you locally relevant music for free that can be downloaded or streamed to your Windows Phone 7. You can download up to 4 playlist to your phone and each playlist is about 3 hours long.

It takes about 25 minutes to complete a circle on the London Eye, which is 10 minutes lesser than the Singapore Flyer, the world’s largest observation wheel.

After the London Eye, we went for a river cruise along River Thames passing by the London Bridge, Tower Bridge and the HMS Belfast (C35) which is a decommissioned Destroyer permanently moored in River Thames.

London Bridge

Tower Bridge

HMS Belfast (C35)

We alighted at Tower Millenium Pier and headed back to 1000heads office to collect our luggage.

1000heads Sign Board

1000heads Certification

I left the office at 4pm and I reached Heathrow Airport Terminal 3 at about 6pm. Traffic was pretty bad. I did some shopping at the terminal as my flight is at 8.30pm. The Longchamp bag there is cheap selling for €60 (SGD$120) for the long handle medium size. It is at least selling for SGD$200+ in Singapore!

Resources

• Blog Links
  • Nokia World 2011 – Pre Event
  • Nokia World 2011 – Day 01
  • Nokia World 2011 – Day 02
  • Nokia World 2011 – Post Event (This Post)
• Flickr Gallery Links
  • Nokia World 2011 – Pre Event
  • Nokia World 2011 – Day 01
  • Nokia World 2011 – Day 02
  • Nokia World 2011 – Post Event
• Youtube Video Links
  • Nokia World 2011 Opening Video
  • Nokia Lumia 800 Advertisement #1 @ Nokia World 2011
  • Nokia Lumia 800 Advertisement #2 @ Nokia World 2011
  • Nokia Kinetic Device Demo #1 @ Nokia World 2011
  • Nokia Kinetic Device Demo #2 @ Nokia World 2011
  • Nokia Nano Magic @ Nokia World 2011
• Nokia World 2011 Products Data Sheets
  • Nokia Asha 200
  • Nokia Asha 201
  • Nokia Asha 300
  • Nokia Asha 303
  • Nokia Lumia 710
  • Nokia Lumia 800
  • Nokia Purity Stereo Headset (In-Ear)
  • Nokia Purity HD Stereo Headset (Over-Ear)
• Nokia World 2011 Products Pricing & Availability
  • Nokia Asha 300 – €85 (SGD$148.60) – 4th Quarter 2011
  • Nokia Asha 200 – €60 (SGD$104.90) – 4th Quarter 2011
  • Nokia Asha 201 – €60 (SGD$104.90) – 1st Quarter 2012
  • Nokia Asha 303 – €115 (SGD$201) – 4th Quarter 2011
  • Nokia Lumia 800 – €420 (SGD$734.20) – * See Below
  • Nokia Lumia 710 – €270 (SGD$472) – * See Below
  • Nokia Purity HD Stereo Headset – €99 (SGD$173) – * See Below
  • Nokia Purity Stereo Headset – €199 (SGD$347.90) – * See Below
  • * Nokia Lumia 800, Nokia Lumia 710, Nokia Purity HD Stereo Headset and Nokia Purity Stereo Headset will be available in November 2011 for France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK, December 2011 for Hong Kong, India, Russia, Singapore and Taiwan and early 2012 for the remaining countries.
• 20 Bloggers From Nokia Connect
  1. Lain – doitdifferent.wordpress.com – @the_accidental
  2. Jon – pocketgamer.co.uk – @pgbiz
  3. Lester – lesterchan.net – @gamerz
  4. Edward – nokiamobileblog.com – @mobile_ed
  5. Sursur – wmpoweruser.com – @wmpoweruser
  6. Jay – mynokiablog.com – @jaymontano
  7. Dani – dani2xll.com – @dani2xll
  8. Joao – nokia-news.com – @joaoluisc
  9. Stefanos – pestaola.gr – @titanas
  10. Michael – thoughtsfromhell.net – @michaelxhell
  11. Varun – fonearena.com – @varunkrish
  12. Arun – nokiasaga.com – @arun8gb
  13. Aditya – worldofphones.net – @adityasinghvi
  14. Vaibhav – thehandheldblog.com – @v4ibhav
  15. Vinu – myportableworld.com – @vinuthomas
  16. Clinton Jeff – zomgitscj.com – @clintonjeff
  17. Siraj – lovemynokia.com – @sirajsoft
  18. Dominique – nokiablog.ch – @nokiablogch
  19. James – tracyandmatt.co.uk/blogs – @jpr7373
  20. Sara – getpalmd.com – @getpalmd
• Useful Links
  • Nokia
  • Nokia Connects
  • Nokia World

I would like to thank Mala (Nokia), Katie (Nokia Connect), Meg (Nokia Connect) and the rest of the 1000heads team for the awesome, super awesome hospitality! Thanks for making my first visit to London an enjoyable and memorable one! THANK YOU GIRLS!

Colin Giles

Since this is the second and last day of Nokia World 2011 and nothing new will be announced, the crowd was a little lesser and we are able to take more pictures of the product and hence this post has more pictures than words!

The first booth I went to is to see the Nokia N9 in White, the phone is beautiful! It is finished in glossy white instead of the normal Nokia N9 which has a matte finishing.

Nokia N9 White (Front)

Nokia N9 White (Back)

The Nokia N9 White will be priced the same as the regular Nokia N9 and it will be available in both 16GB and 64GB variant and it should be released sometime in December 2011.

Headed up to the 2nd level to take a tour of the revamped physical Nokia Store for the promotion of the Nokia Lumia 800.

This will be the glass display you will be seeing in official Nokia Stores all over the world.

Glass Display

It’s literally bring your focus from the window all the way to the phone.

Focusing On Nokia Lumia 800

Just beside it, is the Nokia’s Future Lounge, where Nokia showcase some cool prototypes like flexible display screens, 3D positioning, nano water repellent technology, NFC gates, etc.

Nokia’s Future Lounge

The flexible display screen is known as Nokia Kinetic Device. You twist the side of the screen backward to scroll up, twist it forward to scroll down, bend it backward to go back and bend it forward to make a selection. Take a look at 2 of the videos I have taken as a demo.

Nokia Kinetic Device

Nokia Nano Magic is a coating that you can apply to your mobile phones to make it water repellent. When in contact with water, the water droplet will not spread instead the coating makes the water droplet stay together and hence it can just flow off the surface. Take a look at the demo video below which I have took.

Nokia Nano Magic

Went back down to take more photos of the announced phones and it’s accessories. Below are some highlights from the gallery!

Nokia Asha 200 & Nokia Asha 303 Display

Nokia Asha 201 Display

Nokia Asha 300 Display

Nokia Asha 200

Nokia Asha 201

Casing For Nokia Asha 200/201

Nokia Asha 303

Casing For Nokia Asha 303

Angry Birds Pouch To Go With Nokia Asha 303

Nokia Asha 300

Casing For Nokia Asha 300

Feminine Pouch For Nokia Asha 300

And of course the highlight of the whole show is the 2 new Nokia Windows Phone 7 handsets.

Nokia Lumia 800 Display

Nokia Lumia 710 Display

I Like The Blue Nokia Lumia 800!

Back Plate For Nokia Lumia 800

Casing For Nokia Lumia 800

The White Nokia Lumia 710 Looks Good As Well

Interchangeable Back Cover For Nokia Lumia 710

3 Additional Covers To Choose From (Excluding White & Black)

Rubber Cover For Nokia Lumia 710

They Even Have Angry Birds Cover For The Nokia Lumia 710

Nokia Lumia 800 Floor Art

I had took quite a lot of photos of the products, too many to put them inline in this post, so check out the embedded gallery below or visit this Flickr Gallery link!

Data Sheets
I have uploaded the official data sheets for all the products announced during Nokia World 2011. They are in PDF format.

• Nokia Asha 200
• Nokia Asha 201
• Nokia Asha 300
• Nokia Asha 303
• Nokia Lumia 710
• Nokia Lumia 800
• Nokia Purity Stereo Headset (In-Ear)
• Nokia Purity HD Stereo Headset (Over-Ear)

I left the place at about 4pm and headed back to the hotel for rest before joining the rest of the bloggers back at 6pm for a open-top bus tour around London!

Open Top Bus Tour Around London

Dinner was at Altitude 360 which has a gorgeous view of London at night and it is a 3-course dinner!

View Of London From Altitude 360

Starter: Cured Beef Fillet

Main: Roast Chicken

Dessert: Rich Chocolate Tart

Stay tuned for my last blog post for Nokia World 2011 which is the post event where we took the London Eye and went for a river cruise along River Thames!

Western Breakfast

@malathy From Nokia Giving A Briefing

ExCeL London

We reached there just in time for the keynote and boy it is crowded!

The Crowd

We were told to take our seats and shortly after the Nokia World 2011 opening video is played.

The screen projection is just fantastic, it is huge and spectacular, wonder how much money is spent just on the screen alone.

We all had problems connecting to the wireless network which I heard from the bloggers, the same thing happened at the previous Nokia World, and this time round, Nokia spent even more money to ensure that the wireless network works, but apparently it still does not work. The poor access point just got hammered like nobody business. I guess professional bloggers like Engadget relies on 3G instead, but the 3G signal inside the hall wasn’t that great either as I guess the base station is overloaded as well.

Colin Giles, Executive Vice President of Sales was up on stage first to give the welcome speech followed by Stephen Elop, CEO of Nokia.

Blanca Juti, Vice President of Mobile Phones Marketing took the stage after and that is where the real deal starts. She introduces 4 new phones to the new Asha family.

The name Asha is derived from Hindi – meaning ‘hope’ and Asha signifies Nokia’s focus on positive user experiences and connecting millions of people to new opportunities that help them reach their aspirations.

Nokia Asha 300 – Touch Screen & Keypad

Nokia Asha 300 Press Release Snippet

The beautifully designed Nokia Asha 300 is a touch device which also offers the convenience of a keypad. The Nokia Asha 300 has a powerful 1GHz processor and 3G to deliver a faster Internet and social networking experience. The Nokia Browser allows for fast, affordable and localized Internet access by compressing web pages by up to 90%.

Users have fast access to messaging, email and instant messaging from the home screen and can swipe to access apps, music or games from the Nokia Store. The Nokia Asha 300 also arrives preloaded with the popular Angry Birds Lite game.

The Nokia Asha 300 comes with a 5 megapixel camera, a music player, FM radio, Bluetooth connectivity and can handle memory cards up to 32GB. The price will vary by market and operator. The estimated retail price for the Nokia Asha 300 will be approximately 85 EUR, excluding taxes and subsidies. It is expected to start shipping in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Nokia Asha 200 – Dual SIM & QWERTY Keyboard

Nokia Asha 200 Press Release Snippet

The Nokia Asha 200 is Nokia’s latest dual SIM phone with Easy Swap functionality, allowing consumers to easily change their second SIM without switching the device off.

It is a fun and colorful QWERTY phone designed to meet the needs of young, urban consumers who want to constantly stay in touch. The Nokia Asha 200 features integrated social networking, email and IM, adding RenRen, Orkut and Flickr support. Nokia Asha 200 makes it possible to carry thousands of songs with support for 32 GB memory cards and providing a battery for an amazing 52-hour playback time. The price will vary by market and operator. The estimated retail price for the Nokia Asha 200 will be approximately 60 EUR, excluding taxes and subsidies. It is expected to start shipping in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Nokia Asha 201 – Live Status Updates & QWERTY Keyboard

Nokia Asha 201 Press Release Snippet

The single SIM version of the Nokia Asha 200, the Nokia Asha 201 is ideal for young consumers who wish to stay socially connected, are price conscious and like listening to music. The Nokia Asha 201 has great music features including a high performing loudspeaker, enhanced stereo FM radio and ringtone tuning. With the Nokia Browser you get even faster, even better and more affordable access to the Internet. It supports up to 32 GB memory cards and provides a battery for 52 hours of music playback time. The Nokia Asha 201 also supports push email as well as the popular Whatsapp messaging app. The price will vary by market and operator. The estimated retail price for the Nokia Asha 201 will be approximately 60 EUR, excluding taxes and subsidies. It is expected to start shipping in the first quarter of 2012.

Nokia Asha 303 – QWERTY Keyboard & 2.6″ Touch Screen

Nokia Asha 303 Press Release Snippet

The Nokia Asha 303 is a stunning phone designed with sophisticated materials and metallic finishes. It combines a large 2.6” capacitive touch screen with a high quality QWERTY keypad. The Nokia Asha 303 is built with Internet and social networks ease in mind.

The device harnesses a powerful 1Ghz engine, 3G and WLAN to deliver a fast Internet experience. Social networks, email and IM are at the center of the experience, easily accessible from the homescreen. The Nokia Asha 303 is powered by the cloud-based Nokia Browser, which by compressing the web by up to 90%, provides higher speeds and a more affordable access to the Internet.

Entertainment and applications are also a core part of the Nokia Asha 303 offering. Angry Birds Lite, the popular mobile game, comes preinstalled, together with support for other globally relevant applications such as Facebook Chat, Whatsapp messaging and the latest release of Nokia Maps for Series 40 (in selected markets). The price will vary from market to market and operator to operator. The estimated retail price for the Nokia Asha 303 will be approximately 115 EUR, excluding taxes and subsidies. It is expected to start shipping in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Stephen Elop was back on stage and pictures of the Nokia Lumia 800 was at the background and everyone was taking out their cameras/phones to take pictures and the race is on to be the first one to tweet about it.

Nokia Lumia 800 Teaser

Stephen Elop introduces Kevin Shields, Senior Vice President of Program & Product Management for the Smart Device up on stage.

Kevin Shields With A Long Title

And the Nokia Lumia 800 was announced!

Nokia Lumia 800

Nokia Lumia 800 Press Release Snippet

The stunningly social Nokia Lumia 800 features head-turning design, vivid colors (cyan, magenta and black) and the best social and Internet performance, with one-touch social network access, easy grouping of contacts, integrated communication threads and Internet Explorer 9. It features a 3.7 inch AMOLED ClearBlack curved display blending seamlessly into the reduced body design, and a 1.4 GHz processor with hardware acceleration and a graphics processor. The Nokia Lumia 800 contains an instant-share camera experience based on leading Carl Zeiss optics, HD video playback, 16GB of internal user memory and 25GB of free SkyDrive storage for storing images and music. The estimated retail price for the Nokia Lumia 800 will be approximately 420 EUR, excluding taxes and subsidies.

They are not done with just 1 Windows Phone device, Nokia Lumia 710 is announced next!

Nokia Lumia 710

Nokia Lumia 710 Press Release Snippet

The purposely built, no-nonsense Nokia Lumia 710 can be personalized with exchangeable back covers and thousands of apps to bring the Lumia experience to more people around the world. The Nokia Lumia 710 is designed for instant social & image sharing, and the best browsing experience with IE9. It is available in black and white with black, white, cyan, fuchsia and yellow back covers. With the same 1.4 GHz processor, hardware acceleration and graphics processor as the Nokia Lumia 800, the Nokia Lumia 710 delivers high performance at an affordable price. The estimated retail price for the Nokia Lumia 710 will be approximately 270 EUR, excluding taxes and subsidies.

Nokia differentiate itself with the rest of the Windows Phone 7 makers by having exclusive apps like the Nokia Drive, Nokia Maps, Nokia Music and ESPN. I love the Nokia Drive app, it is a free voice-guided turn-by-turn GPS navigation app and it allows you to preload any supported countries map into it as well.

I am not a big fan of sports, but I guess if you are, the ESPN app is suitable for you. It supports Windows Phone 7.5 Mango deep pining feature that allows you to keep track of your favorite teams in various sports right in your home screen via Live Tiles.

Nokia Drive

ESPN App

Nokia Exclusive Apps Press Release Snippet

Both smartphones include signature Nokia experiences optimized for Windows Phone, including Nokia Drive, which delivers a full-fledged personal navigation device (PND) with free, turn-by-turn navigation and dedicated in-car-user-interface; and Nokia Music introducing MixRadio, a free, global, mobile music-streaming application that delivers hundreds of channels of locally-relevant music. In an update delivered later this year, Nokia Lumia users will also gain the ability to create personalized channels from a global catalogue of millions of tracks. Also integrated in Nokia Music is Gigfinder, providing the ability to search for live local music for a complete end-to-end music experience, as well as the ability to share discoveries on social networks and buy concert tickets also coming in the Nokia Music software update delivered later this year.

World Premiere Of The Nokia Lumia 800 Advertisement

Nokia announced their partnership with Monster to produce Nokia line of headsets, the on-ear Nokia Purity HD Stereo Headset and the in-ear Nokia Purity Stereo Headset.

Nokia & Monster Partnership

Nokia Headset Made By Monster Release Snippet

Completing the ultimate mobile audio offering, Nokia also introduced the on-ear Nokia Purity HD Stereo Headset by Monster and the in-ear Nokia Purity Stereo Headset by Monster, co-designed and co-developed by Monster, a recognized leader in high performance audio. Both products provide a fresh listening experience and are the first output of the exclusive long-term partnership between Nokia and Monster, intended to introduce a range of premium audio accessories to reflect the outstanding quality and bold style of the Lumia range.

Once nice touch by Nokia is when they announced the shipping date of the Nokia Lumia 800, they showed a live feed to one of the factory packing and getting ready the Nokia Lumia 800 for shipment! I thought that was pretty cool. And that means that Nokia Lumia 800 will be available before year’s end!

Live Feed

Stephen Elop Is Back On Stage To Wrap Things Up

Nokia World 2011: New Now

And that is the end of the opening keynote! After that we are being invited to the Experience Area which is just opposite to play with the devices.

Experience Area

It Is So Crowded

The experience area was crowded, can’t really take proper pictures without people behind you pressurizing you to hurry up (in a silent manner). The food catered was pretty good, it is unlike Singaporean style buffet where you help yourself with the food. For this, you take an empty plate and walk past the food and the server will put the food on your plate and that is exactly what they do in army cookhouse! Surprising the queue was not long despite a huge crowd and only 2 dinning areas. I guess people are more interested in the products than lunch, which is a good thing!

They have cans of Pepsi, Fanta, and some other soft drinks for you to take from the fridge. They also have an area for proper coffee like americano, espresso, latte, and even smoothie! The Optimsim Smoothie is awesome!

Smoothie Menu

After lunch, we gathered in a room where they loan us the Nokia Lumia 800 for the remaining 2-3 days to play with and they even got us a prepaid MicroSIM card so we can use it on the go! Thumbs up for that!

Nokia Lumia 800 Box

O2 Prepaid MicroSIM

Something not many people are aware, Nokia also announces Nokia Pulse, I think of it as a mash up between Yammer and Google Plus. Yammer for the closed network and Google Plus for the sharing of content with this close network.

Here is the official statement of it:

Nokia Pulse brings your everyday conversations to life by automatically tagging photos and updates with your location.

Every conversation, from pickups and drop-offs to meet-ups, is as instant, private, and simple as sending a text, but far more useful and engaging. Nokia Pulse is integrated with Maps, so finding people nearby, discovering new places, and getting directions is a snap.

Nokia Pulse App will be available on Windows Phone 7, Symbian and Series 40. It is also available on mobile web as well on the web, check out pulse.nokia.com.

We left the conference about 6pm and headed back to the hotel for some rest before going back to ExCeL London again for the Nokia Party at 7pm!

Pricing & Availability Of The Announced Products

• Nokia Asha 300 – €85 (SGD$148.60) – 4th Quarter 2011
• Nokia Asha 200 – €60 (SGD$104.90) – 4th Quarter 2011
• Nokia Asha 201 – €60 (SGD$104.90) – 1st Quarter 2012
• Nokia Asha 303 – €115 (SGD$201) – 4th Quarter 2011
• Nokia Lumia 800 – €420 (SGD$734.20) – See Below
• Nokia Lumia 710 – €270 (SGD$472) – See Below
• Nokia Purity HD Stereo Headset – €99 (SGD$173) – See Below
• Nokia Purity Stereo Headset – €199 (SGD$347.90) – See Below

Nokia Lumia 800, Nokia Lumia 710, Nokia Purity HD Stereo Headset and Nokia Purity Stereo Headset will be available in November 2011 for France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK, December 2011 for Hong Kong, India, Russia, Singapore and Taiwan and early 2012 for the remaining countries.

Stay tuned for the next blog post for Nokia World 2011 – Day 02, where I will cover the ground of the Experience area!

I flew by British Airways (BA012). It is the longest flight I ever taken (13 hours) and I will get to experience jet lag due to the 7 hours time difference in London. My flight departs Singapore at 10.50pm and I arrived at London at 5.05am. I was lucky that the flight I am on was pretty empty so I manage to occupy 4 seats, lifted the armrest and sleep horizontally!

It took me about 90 minutes to get to my hotel, Premier Inn at London Docklands (Excel), from Heathrow Airport despite it being 5am in the morning as there are already some traffic!

Upon entering my room after checking-in, there are 4 little surprises already in my room! That was very thoughtful!

Tibits Basket

Blue Rubber Duckie

Sketch Of Me

Nokia Bag

The pre-event dinner will start at 5pm and I got almost 8 hours to explore the shopping/sightseeing area in London. Without wasting any time, I took a shower and left immediately. I did not have the hotel’s breakfast because I figured I am going to have the same breakfast for the next 3 days. My hotel is about 5 mins walk away from the Prince Regent DLR station.

The first time I saw the tube map of London, I was like WTF! Which station I am in now. I was so overwhelmed by it, but eventually I managed to digest the information.

London’s Tube Map

I headed for Oxford Circus station as I heard it is like the Orchard Road in Singapore. Surprising at almost 9am, most of the shops are already open for business.

Saw many adverts of the new breakfast (Breakfast Wrap) from McDonald’s all over London and decided to give it a try. It tastes pretty good and it looks exactly the same as advertised!

McDonald’s Breakfast Wrap

After breakfast, I walked around the area, I love the buildings in London, they just look gorgeous and most of them are preserved and transformed into shops. The weather is also fantastic, at 10°C – 12°C, it is perfect weather to do shopping!

I came across a public toilet and it seems interesting so I went in and it cost me SGD$1, it’s got to be the most expensive toilet I have ever been to! And it is totally not worth it! The toilet bowl is choked and the water tap is spoiled! I was like WTF!

Public Toilet

I walked all the way to London Eye from Oxford Circus, passing by some very nice buildings/shops.

Nike Town

Apple Store At Regent Street

M&M’s World

The National Gallery

Crumpler EU

After about an hour walk or so, I finally reached the London Eye! There are quite a few people busking on the walkway leading to the London Eye. The London Eye looks smaller than what it looks on the pictures and the queue is insanely long!

Queue At London Eye

It also seems that the Aquarium located just beside the London Eye is insanely popular as well judging from the queue.

Aquarium

Close by to the London Eye was the iconic Palace of Westminster and beside it was the Clock Tower which the world knows it by it’s bell name, Big Ben.

Palace of Westminster

Big Ben

My leg is aching from all those walk, and I decided to head back to hotel for a rest before dinner with the rest of bloggers and Nokia Connect people at Waterloo Bar & Grill. Food there was awesome!

Starter: Hot Smoked Salmon with Pea Puree & Potato Bread

Main: 6oz Bavette Steak with Rosti Potato & Creamed Spinach

Dessert: Apple Crumple with Vanilla Ice Cream

After a sumptuous dinner, we went to watch Transformers 3: Revenge of the Fallen in 3D at IMAX! This is the first true IMAX cinema that I have been too and it was huge, freaking huge. Transformers 3 is no longer showing, but since Nokia booked the whole cinema, I guess they can choose what film to screen. I also think the reason they chose Transformers 3 is because of the Nokia X7 being used in the movie!

BFI IMAX

Stay tuned for the next blog post for Nokia World 2011 – Day 01!

I was invited to Nokia N9 Blogger Event back on Wednesday to preview the Nokia N9. The Nokia N9 will be launching in early October 2011 in Singapore. The recommended retail price is SGD$799 (16GB) and SGD$899 (64GB). All 3 operators in Singapore (Singtel, Starhub and M1) will be offering the Nokia N9.

I got to play with the Nokia N9 more extensively during the blogger session and found more interesting things that I want to highlight in the pictures below.

Slide Down To Close The Current App

Pull Down To Refresh For Twitter App

Not All Facebook Features Are Supported

Ovi Store Now Known As Store

Angry Birds Magic (Exclusive For Nokia N9)

Unlocking Levels In Angry Birds Magic Using NFC

You can unlock all levels in Angry Birds Magic by pairing with 4 different Nokia N9s using NFC.

Sending Contacts Via NFC

The Near Field Communication (NFC) in the Nokia N9 aids the Bluetooth pairing tremendously. Sending photos, contacts and even streaming music is just as easy as tapping on another NFC device and tap “Allow”

Data Limit Warning In Settings

Profile/Volume Details

Lots Of Nice Covers For The Nokia N9

Overall I am very impressed with the UI as it is extremely polished and shows no sign of sluggishness. The firmware loaded in the Nokia N9 that we played with is closed to the final version that will be shipped. Personally, the Nokia N9 is better than Android with regards to the UI design and performance. I really hope Nokia will continue to maintain it and not make it Dead On Arrival (DOA).

Nokia Play 360

I also played around with the Nokia Play 360 speakers and found its connectivity options impressive. You can pair it via NFC and use Bluetooth to stream your music to it (Nokia N9), or you can use Bluetooth to stream music to it (Apple iPhone 4) or just simply connect the 3.5mm auddio cable directly to your audio device. If you have 2 Nokia Play 360, they can even pair between themselves to produce Stereo sound. The only downside is that the Nokia Play 360 doesn’t come cheap, each cost SGD$248 and will be available about at the same time as Nokia N9.

Android, iOS, MeeGo, Windows Phone 7

Official Site: Nokia N9
Official Site: Nokia Play 360

At the event, Nokia Launches Nokia 700, Nokia 701 & Nokia 600 which is powered by Symbian Belle (successor to Symbian Anna).

Nokia 700: Nokia’s smallest smartphone

Nokia 700

At only 50 cubic centimetres, weighing 96gm and at 110 x 50.7 x 9.7 mm, the Nokia 700 not only becomes Nokia’s most compact smartphone in the Symbian range, it is the most compact touch monoblock smartphone in the world. What it lacks in size it makes up for in functionality, with single-tap NFC sharing and pairing capabilities, a 1Ghz processor, 3.2 inch AMOLED screen ClearBlack display, 2GB of internal memory (with the option of using a 32GB microSD card for a total of 34GB), HD video capture and 5MP full focus camera with LED flash. The Nokia 700 is also Nokia’s most eco-friendly smartphone. With a long battery life, extensive use of eco-friendly materials and features to minimize battery consumption, it is the perfect smartphone for any environmentally-conscious smartphone user.

Nokia 701: Nokia’s brightest smartphone

Nokia 701

The Nokia 701 is a sleek, slim smartphone incorporating the world’s brightest ever mobile phone display, based on a 3.5 inch ClearBlack display that makes it perfect for indoor and outdoor use. It also has active noise cancellation for the clearest sound quality and, like the other new smartphones, provides single-tap NFC pairing and sharing capabilities, allowing content to be shared and sound to be streamed wirelessly to headphones and NFC-enabled speakers.

Based on the popular Nokia C7 design, the Nokia 701 smartphone also has a 1GHz processor, 8MP full focus camera with dual LED flash and 2 X digital zoom, 2nd front-facing camera and HD video capture. It comes with 8GB internal memory and the possibility to increase to 40GB by installing a 32GB microSD card.

Nokia 600: Nokia’s loudest smartphone

Nokia 600

The Nokia 600 smartphone delivers a big sound and a big personality in a small package and is Nokia’s loudest at 106 Phons. With built-in FM radio antenna for listening to radio without headphones and FM transmitter that makes it possible to broadcast music from your phone to any FM radio, the Nokia 600 is a music-lover’s dream. With 60 hours of music playback time, an incredibly powerful external loudspeaker and the ability to also stream music wirelessly to NFC-enabled accessories, it is the perfect smartphone to get the party started.

Available at a lower price point than the Nokia 700 and Nokia 701, the Nokia 600 still comes with a 1 GHz processor; 5MP full focus camera with LED flash and HD video capture, and 2GB of internal memory with ability to increase to 34GB using a 32GB microSD card.

Symbian Belle

Symbian Belle is the latest in a series of planned software updates to the Symbian platform, which started with Symbian Anna and will continue into 2012. Symbian Belle increases the number of home screens from three to six providing more room to display applications and services. Live widgets, now come in five different sizes, making the home screens come alive and giving users more flexibility to personalize the user experience. It also includes a pull down menu and taskbar to access notifications from any of the home screens and further enhancements to the Web browsing experience. All in all, Symbian Belle provides Nokia’s most competitive, seamless and intuitive Symbian experience so far.

One of Symbian Belle’s most exciting features is the single-tap NFC sharing and pairing capability. This allows contacts, videos and images to be shared with other NFC-enabled devices and smartphones, as well as pairing with NFC-enabled mobile accessories such as speakers and headsets. Gaming fans also benefit from the NFC capabilities of the new handsets with the ability to unlock additional levels in Angry Birds or find a hidden blade in Fruit Ninja just by touching two NFC-enabled devices together. On the Nokia 701 smartphone, which comes preloaded with Asphalt5, two friends can even pair to compete on the same racetrack.

Symbian Belle will be available on the Nokia N8, Nokia E6, Nokia E7, Nokia X7, Nokia C7, Nokia C6-01 and Nokia Oro as well in months to come.

Links

• Official Site: Nokia 700
• Official Site: Nokia 701
• Official Site: Nokia 600
• Official Site: Symbian Belle
• Press Release: Nokia launches three no-compromise mass-market smartphones powered by Symbian Belle

Singapore, 22 August 2011 – Symbian Anna – the latest software update for Symbian smartphones – is available for download from 2nd September 2011 onwards. Symbian Anna significantly enhances the user experience on the Nokia N8, Nokia C7, Nokia C6-01, and Nokia E7. A new user interface, virtual QWERTY keypad in portrait mode, enhanced Nokia Maps, better web browsing and stronger security are just a few of the improvements that people will be able to enjoy. Symbian Anna can be downloaded using the latest version of Ovi Suite (version 3.1.1) on a PC or over-the-air directly to your smartphone.

“Nokia’s Symbian smartphones are used by millions of people around the world every day, addressing specific consumer needs and providing choices at many price points,” said Ilari Nurmi, Vice President at Nokia. “Symbian Anna represents a significant update to the experience those users have and demonstrates our ongoing commitment to Symbian, which will see up to 10 more phones introduced over the next 12 months, further updates to the user experience and support for the software until at least 2016.”

Key features with Symbian Anna:

• User interface: Symbian Anna brings a fresh new look and feel to the Nokia N8, Nokia C7, Nokia C6-01, and Nokia E7 with crisp icons and multiple usability enhancements. Typing on the virtual QWERTY keypad is now available in portrait mode.
• Maps and navigation: Symbian Anna enhances Nokia Maps with better search functionality, new public transportation routes and the ability to check-in to favorite geo-social network sites like Facebook, Foursquare and Twitter
• Browsing: A faster, easier-to-use browser, delivering quicker page loads and improved device navigation allowing people to connect more easily to their favorite sites on the go.
• Better for business: Symbian Anna brings true business-grade security with improved data encryption on Nokia smartphones. Business users with a Nokia N8, Nokia C7, Nokia C6-01 or Nokia E7 can now easily and securely access their company intranet with IPSEC and SSL VPN enablers.
• Near Field Communications (NFC): The Symbian Anna software update also activates the NFC hardware in the Nokia C7, so people can now simply tap their Nokia C7s together to share contacts, photos, videos and play games; easily pair with NFC-enabled accessories from Nokia and others; and read NFC tags to check-in and more

Official Site: Nokia Singapore: Symbian Anna

I went for the Nokia E6 after I played with it during the blogger’s preview (Nokia E6 Blogger Preview | Nokia X7 Blogger Preview) back in May 2011. One of the reasons I went for the Nokia E6 is because of the full QWERTY keyboard. I am still not used to typing on the virtual keyboard of Symbian OS.

I am intending to use the Nokia E6 as an upgrade to my Nokia E72 which I won last year during Nokia’s Christmas Draw. I still need to use a Nokia as my secondary work phone (my primary work phone is an Android) because my company, mig33, application runs on Symbian as a Java App. As our user base are from emerging markets, they do not have the luxury of having iPhone, Android or Windows Phone 7 (though Android is catching up very fast over there).

The first thing I noticed when comparing with the Nokia E72 is the screen of the Nokia E6 is ultra sharp screen boasting a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels in a 2.46″ screen. The UI also has a major overhaul running on Symbian Anna. It supports both “touch and type” which is good as these days I am too used to touching screens. The upcoming Blackberry 9900 also supports both “touch and type”.

After playing it for a day, I find the OS sluggish which I think is pretty common to all Symbian phones, the Nokia Social App has been improved tremendously since I last played with it on my Nokia N8. The 8MP camera takes pretty good pictures as well considering this is a business phone. Overall I find the Nokia E6 worthy to be a successor to the Nokia E72.

The Nokia E6 is retailing for SGD$460 at Mobile Square or SGD$188 for a 2 year contract over at SingTel Shop.

Box Front

Box Back

Nokia E6 vs Nokia E72

I will not be touching on the OS aspect as it is still based on Symbian^3 which is exactly the same as Nokia N8. This short review is mostly a comparison with Nokia N8.

Box Front

Box Back

Package Contents

Package Contents

• Nokia E7 mobile computer
• Nokia Battery BL-4D (embedded)
• Nokia Connectivity Cable CA-179
• Nokia Stereo Headset WH-205
• Nokia High Efficiency Charger AC-10
• Quick start guide
• Nokia Micro USB On-The-Go Cable Adapter CA-157
• Nokia HDMI Cable Adapter CA-156

The build of the E7 is as solid as the N8 and the internal processer and ram is the same as well. Both the E7 and N8 boost a 680 MHz ARM 11 processor and 256MB of RAM. The E7 because of the screen and keyboard is slightly bigger and heavier than the N8. E7′s 123.7 x 62.4 x 13.6 mm – 176g vs N8′s 113.5 x 59 x 12.9 mm – 135g.

4″ AMOLED Screen

The screen of Nokia E7 is slightly bigger than Nokia N8. Nokia E7 boost a 4″ AMOLED capacitive touchscreen of 16M colors with 360px x 640px resolution, while the Nokia N8 is only 3.5″. Another difference here is the clear black display on the E7 which when compared to the N8 screen, you will notice the black on the E7 is really black. I also find that the E7 screen visibility is slightly better than the N8 under direct sunlight.

Back Of E7

The camera of E7 is not as good as the N8. The E7 boost a 8MP camera while the N8 boost a 12MP Carl Zeiss optics camera. The N8 camera works very well under low light conditions thanks to the 1/1.83″ censor and the Xenon flash light while the E7 only has dual LED flash which is not too shabby either.

Do also note that the E7 does not have an expandable storage unlike the N8′s MicroSD slot and hence it has only 16GB of storage, but it has a 1GB ROM instead of the N8′s 512MB.

Keyboard

The E7 comes with a full QWERTY keyboard which is my personal favorite. The tactile feedback is good and the spaces between the keys are adequate for my fingers and most importantly I have no problem accessing the keys on the top row. Some phones just cramped their keys togethers and pressing the keys on the top row is an issue.

Left of E7

The slider on the left of the E7 is to lock your screen which takes some time to use to since the N8 one is on the right.

Right Of E7

The slider on the right of the E7 is to control the volume which I think is poor design. The N8 volume up/down button wins hand down in this aspect. When I first saw the 2 sliders of the E7, I was wondering which is for volume and which is for lock having come from using the N8.

The E7 is targeted towards business users because of the keyboard while the N8 is targeted towards the casual users. Personally, as a power user, I will go for the E7 because I like the keyboard and 4″ screen. The camera/expandable storage does not really matter to me because 16GB is more than enough and the camera of the E7 is not that bad either.

Check out the gallery below as it includes comparison shots with the Nokia N8.

Links

• Nokia Singapore: Nokia E7
• Nokia Singapore:Nokia N8
• GSM Arena: Nokia E7
• GSM Arena:Nokia N8

Nokia N9

Nokia N9 Press Image

Nokia N9 is running on MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan (finally). It is powered by ARM Cortex-A8 OMAP3630 1 GHz and PowerVR SGX530. It has a whopping 1GB of RAM and comes with either 16GB or 64GB of storage space. It’s screen is a 3.9″ WVGA (854×480) AMOLED display with curved Gorilla glass, no air gap, anti-glare polarizer. It’s body is made up of one piece polycarbonate and comes in three colors (black, magenta and cyan).

Nokia N9 Camera

The camera of the Nokia N9 is a 8MP auto-focus Carl Zeiss with wide-angle lens and large lens aperture of f/2.2 and comes with 2x LED flash.

The Nokia N9 also comes with NFC which in the demo, they used it to pair with speakers (brilliant idea) by just tapping your Nokia N9 on the speakers instead of pairing it with Bluetooth. Of course the music is stream via Bluetooth once it has been paired by NFC.

3 Buttons On The Nokia N9

There are only 3 buttons in N9, Volume Up, Volume Down and Power/Standby Button. There is no “home button” on the Nokia N9, to wake up the N9, just double tap the screen when in standby mode.

Nokia N9 Applications Screen

Nokia N9 Multitasking Screen

Nokia N9 Events Screen

All the menus and mutiltasking features are access via swiping. You swipe to get to the “Applications” screen, you swipe again to get to the “Multitasking” screen and if you swipe again, you will get to the “Events” (think Notifications) screen.

Despite it being a prototype unit for the demo set, the UI is extremely fast, responsive and intuitive. I am an iPhone 4 user and it only took me 15 minutes to get the hang of the UI. The Nokia N9 is a good phone, but I wonder how long before it gets replaced by a Nokia’s Windows Phone 7.

I think the Nokia N9 is a stepping phone for the consumers to transit into a Nokia’s Windows Phone 7 with regards to the UI as most of WP7 UI are swiping left and right which is very similar to the Nokia N9.

Nokia N9 MicroSIM Slot

Nokia N9 MicroSIM Tray

Did I mentioned that the Nokia N9 will be using MicroSIM? Apple is no longer alone in this MicroSIM bandwagon!

The Nokia N9 will be available later this year and it will cost about USD$660 for the 16GB variant and USD$749 for 64GB variant.

I took quite a number of pictures of the Nokia N9 (including the main apps of Nokia N9) and uploaded them to my Flickr Set: Nokia Connection 2011. You can check them out or view them in the Flash slideshow below.

Specification:

• Networks: Pentaband WCDMA 850, 900, 1900, 1700, 2100, Quad band GSM/EDGE 850, 900, 1800, 1900
• Speed: HSDPA Cat10: 14.4Mbps, HSUPA: Cat6 5.76Mbps
• Display: 3.9″ WVGA (854×480) AMOLED display with curved Gorilla glass, no air gap, anti-glare polarizer
• OS: MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan
• Memory: 1024MB RAM, 16GB/64GB storage
• Camera: 8Mpix auto-focus Carl Zeiss, wide-angle lens, 2x LED flash, Video capturing MPEG-4 SP 720p @ 30fps, 2nd camera for video calls
• Size / Weight: 116.45 mm x 61.2 mm x 7.6–12.1 mm (L x W x T)/ 76 cm3/ 135 g
• Connectivity: BT 2.1, GPS, A-GPS, WLAN 802.11abgn, NFC, 3.5mm AV connector, uUSB connector, USB charging
• Processor:ARM Cortex-A8 OMAP3630 1 Ghz, PowerVR SGX530
• Audio: MP3 player, Audio jack: 3.5mm, Supported codecs: mp3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA, FLAC
• Battery: 1450 mAh
• Talk time: (GSM/WCDMA) up to 11 h / up to 7 hours
• Standby time: Up to 450 hours (WCDMA), up to 380 hours (GSM)
• Video playback (720P): up to 4.5 hours
• Music playback: up to 50 hours

Official Site: Nokia N9

Symbian Anna

Symbian Anna

Symbian Anna will ship as an update to existing Symbian^3 phones like the Nokia N8 in August 2011. New Symbian^3 phones like the Nokia N8 sold in July 2011 onwards will include Symbian Anna as well.

Nokia C2-02/C2-03/C2-06

Nokia C2-02 (Single SIM)

Nokia C2-03 (Dual SIM)

Nokia C2-06 (Selected Markets)

The Nokia C2-03 is the first “Touch and Type” dual SIM phones to feature easy swapping of 2nd SIM card. Nokia C2-02 is the single SIM version of C2-03. Nokia C2-06 is the Nokia C2-03 but with clean and smooth finish and come in colors such as Graphite, Golden Buff and Lilac but it will only be available in selected markets like India, China, Eurasia and Brazil. I think this whole Nokia C2 series is extremely confusing.

The estimated retail price of the Nokia C2-02 and C2-03 is approximately €75 (USD$105) and for the Nokia C2-06 it is €80 (USD$112).

Official Site: Nokia C2-02
Official Site: Nokia C2-03
Official Site: Nokia C2-06

Nokia Browser

Nokia Browser

Nokia Browser Press Image

Nokia Browser is essentially Nokia’s version of Opera Mini.

Features:

• Data compression saves time and moneyfor consumers by speeding up page downloads, and is more efficient for operators by reducing over the air traffic on bandwidth constrained networks.
• Makes favorite content easy to find with locally relevant information, the latest highlights and a list of popular web content that matters to you.
• Web apps take the Internet and optimize it for your phone, making the content easy to see and use.
• Makes the mobile web familiar by presenting country or operator specific start screens.

It also supports web apps:

• Series 40 web apps are a new and optimized way users can access their favorite Web content on their Series 40 phones. Web Tools for Series 40 makes it quick and easy to create web applications.
• Through web apps for Series 40 phones, developers can now access a much wider consumer base for their applications, driving even more revenue opportunities.

Nokia Browser for Series 40 is available in 87 languages and Nokia C2-02, Nokia C2-03 and Nokia C2-06 will come pre-installed with it.

Nokia Life Tools

Nokia Life Tools

Nokia Life Tools is designed to address information gaps so that consumers in emerging societies can be better informed and improve their livelihood, with targeted services for Healthcare, Agriculture, Entertainment and Education.

• Agriculture: Plan ahead, be more productive and make the most of the market with the weather forecast information, agriculture tips & techniques and regular updates of local market prices of seeds, fertilisers and pesticides.
• Education: Improve your general knowledge and English through educational services delivered directly to mobile devices in your own language to boost your confidence.
• Healthcare: Improve your health and get to know more about motherhood and childcare, health & fitness and diseases.
• Entertainment: Personalise your phone with the latest ringtones, stay entertained with trivia such as jokes and check your astrological predictions with a daily astrology service.

A large selection of Nokia Series 30 and Series 40 devices offer the Nokia Life Tools services. Device compatibility is country specific. For example in Indonesia, the language available will be Bahasa Indonesia, all the 4 categories (Education, Agriculture, Entertainment and Healthcare) will be available and all GSM operators (Telkomsel, Indosat,XL, Hutch (3) and Axis) supports it.

Maps for Series 40

Maps for Series 40

1 liner to describe this, Nokia Maps is now also available for Series 40 mobile phones.

Features:

• Find your route, search and explore exciting places around the world.
• No download or installation needed: market relevant street maps and places shipped with the device.
• Low usage cost: search and plan your route offline and at zero cost.
• Broad reach: network-based positioning, no GPS required.
• SMS-based location sharing.
• Easy-to-use home screen to access all key features with one touch.

Nokia Play 360

Nokia Play 360

The Nokia Play 360 is a speaker that supports NFC and Bluetooth. Nokia has done an excellent job in using the NFC in the Nokia N9 to pair it with an NFC speaker and once it is paired, the sounds is stream via Bluetooth. Pairing is so simple using NFC as compared to Bluetooth. Just tap your Nokia N9 onto the top of the speaker and it is paired almost instantly and now the music can be stream wirelessly via Bluetooth.

Features:

• Loud and clear: 360 audio with deep bass and crisp details. Wireless stereo with two speakers.
• Party speaker: works with any device, yours and theirs. Bluetooth/3.5mm and NFC.
• Portable: 20+ hour play time with a rechargeable battery. Premium aluminum build for light weight.

Official Site: Nokia Play 360

Nokia Wireless Music Receiver MD-310

Nokia Wireless Music Receiver MD-310

The MD-310 is a wireless music receiver that comes with NFC and Bluetooth as well. You can play music from your phone, laptop or any other Bluetooth device on your home stereo, wirelessly and with high audio quality.

Features:

• CD quality audio with apt-X and SBC codec support
• Up to 100 m range with long range Bluetooth Class 1
• Simple to install and use

Official Site: Nokia Wireless Music Receiver MD-310

Press Releases:

• Affordability without compromise in three new Nokia phones
• Nokia shows its new strategy in action
• The Nokia N9: a unique all-screen smartphone

Worth a read =)

Much of what Elop had to say wasn’t news to his audience, but it was still distressing. In his measured telling, Apple and Google (GOOG) had changed the industry from handset-focused to software-focused. Symbian had fallen too far behind to have any hope of catching up. Worse, the company’s great hope for the future—a software platform created with chipmaker Intel (INTC), called MeeGo—wasn’t ready to pick up the slack. He tried to negotiate a deal with Google to run Android, but Google refused to give the world’s biggest phonemaker any advantages over its smaller partners, meaning Nokia’s corps of 11,600 engineers would have next to no ability to add their own innovations to Google’s software. “It just didn’t feel right,” Elop says to the crowd. “We’d be just another company distributing Android. That’s not Nokia! We need to fight!”

Silence.

For a moment, Elop, 47, lays into the complacency he sees settling over the company. When he asks how many people in the crowd use an iPhone or Android device, few hands go up. “That upsets me—not because some of you are using iPhones, but because only a small number of people are using iPhones. I’d rather people have the intellectual curiosity to understand what we’re up against.”

Full Article: Stephen Elop’s Nokia Adventure

The Nokia X7 is not really an upgrade to any existing model, similar to the Nokia E6, it felt solid. It has a 4.0″ AMOLED capacitive touch screen and the body is made up of stainless steel. It will be the second mobile phone running on Symbian Anna after Nokia E6. It’s battery is non-removable.

Software Versions

The unique design about the Nokia X7 is the 4 corners of the phone. The 2 corners on 1 side contains the speakers and the other 2 corners on the other side are just dummy placeholders just to make it look more proportionate/even. The sound output from the Nokia X7 is pretty loud.

Side Of Nokia X7

It has 2 colors available, Dark Steel and Light Steel and is targeted for launch in June 2011 as well. Local pricing is not out yet but the RRP in Euros is €360 (~SGD$632).

Front – Light Steel (Left), Dark Steel (Right)

Back – Light Steel (Left), Dark Steel (Right)

Technical Specifications

• System: WCDMA 850/900/1700/1900/2100 and GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900, HSDPA Cat9, maximum speed up to 10.2 Mbps, HSUPA Cat5 2.0 Mbps
• OS: Symbian Anna
• Dimensions: 119.7 x 62.8 x 11.9 mm (L x W x H)
• Weight: 146 g
• Display: 4.0 inch AMOLED capacitive touch, widescreen 16:9, 640 x 360 pixels, 16M colors
• Memory: comes with 8 GB memorycard (support up to 32 GB) Internal user memory up to 350 MB
• Camera: 8 MP camera with dual LED flash, HD video
• Video Capture: HD video (720p, 25fp)
• WLAN: IEEE 802.11 b/g/n
• HSDPA cat 9 up to 10.2 Mbps, HSUPA cat 5 up to 2.0 Mbps
• Bluetooth: Bluetooth 3.0

Not really a huge fan of this phone with regards to design, I still prefer the design of my Nokia N8.

Official Site: Nokia X7

Was invited to a blogger event for the preview of Nokia E6 and Nokia X7 (next post). The Nokia E6 will be out in June 2011 and with a RRP of SGD$570. For sales launch only the Black and Sliver color will be available. The White will be launched at a later date. Wonder does it face the same problem as Apple having “white” color, but of course the “official” answer I got from the product manager is no.

All 3 Colors Of Nokia E6 (Black – Left, Grey – Center, White – Right)

The Nokia E6 is an upgrade to my Nokia E72. The built remains the same (solid because of stainless steel), the battery cover is still made of metal and the screen is made up of scratch resistant glass.

The screen size is slightly bigger. The E72 is 2.36″ while the E6 is 2.46″ but one added improvement to it is that it is now a capacitive touch screen and it cramps in 640 x 480 pixels (325 ppi). Just for reference, iPhone 4 Retina display is 960 × 640 pixels (326 ppi).

Technical Specifications

• System: WCDMA 850/900/1700/1900/2100 and GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900, HSDPA Cat9, maximum speed up to 10.2 Mbps, HSUPA Cat5 2.0 Mbps
• OS: Symbian Anna
• Dimensions: 115.5 x 59 x 10.5 mm (L x W x H)
• Weight: 133g
• Display: 2.46″ TFT LCD, 640 x 480 pixels, 16M colors
• Battery: 1500mAh BP-4L
• Media Storage: 8GB mass memory, with up to 32GB with micro SD card
• Memory: RAM: 256MB, ROM: 1024MB
• Camera: 8 MP full focus, dual led flash
• WLAN: IEEE 802.11 b/g/n
• Bluetooth: Bluetooth 3.0 with support for stereo headsets
• GPS: Positioning with GPS, A-GPS, WLAN and Cell-ID
• USB: Micro-USB 2.0 high speed for file transfers and charging, USB On-the-Go
• I/O: Nokia AV connector 3.5 mm for audio input/output and TV out
• Video capture: HD 720p @ 25 fps
• Video Playback: Video recording, Performance: encoding 25 fps, decoding 30 fps, File Formats: H.264, MPEG-4, VC-1, H.263, Real Video 10, ON2 VP6, Flash video
• Music Playback: FM radio, music player, Supported codecs: MP3,AAC,eAAC, eAAC+,WMA,AMR-WB- AMB-NB, Supported DRM: WM DRM, OMA DRM 2.0

Symbian Anna

It will be the first phone in the market to run the updated Symbian Anna.

New Icons In Symbian Anna

You Can Now Type URL In The “Always Visible” Address Bar

If you notice Anna starts with the letter “A”, I wonder will the next update be called “Betty” as what DK calls it.

Nokia E6 (Left), Nokia E72 (Right)

If you have been waiting for an upgrade to Nokia E72 because you need to stick to Symbian for some reasons, the Nokia E6 is definitely for you.

Official Site: Nokia E6

Here is the full Microsoft’s press release:

LONDON – Feb. 11, 2011 – Nokia and Microsoft today announced plans to form a broad strategic partnership that would use their complementary strengths and expertise to create a new global mobile ecosystem.

Nokia and Microsoft intend to jointly create market-leading mobile products and services designed to offer consumers, operators and developers unrivalled choice and opportunity. As each company would focus on its core competencies, the partnership would create the opportunity for rapid time to market execution. Additionally, Nokia and Microsoft plan to work together to integrate key assets and create completely new service offerings, while extending established products and services to new markets.

Under the proposed partnership:

• Nokia would adopt Windows Phone as its principal smartphone strategy, innovating on top of the platform in areas such as imaging, where Nokia is a market leader.
• Nokia would help drive the future of Windows Phone. Nokia would contribute its expertise on hardware design, language support, and help bring Windows Phone to a larger range of price points, market segments and geographies.
• Nokia and Microsoft would closely collaborate on joint marketing initiatives and a shared development roadmap to align on the future evolution of mobile products.
• Bing would power Nokia’s search services across Nokia devices and services, giving customers access to Bing’s next generation search capabilities. Microsoft adCenter would provide search advertising services on Nokia’s line of devices and services.
• Nokia Maps would be a core part of Microsoft’s mapping services. For example, Maps would be integrated with Microsoft’s Bing search engine and adCenter advertising platform to form a unique local search and advertising experience
• Nokia’s extensive operator billing agreements would make it easier for consumers to purchase Nokia Windows Phone services in countries where credit-card use is low.
• Microsoft development tools would be used to create applications to run on Nokia Windows Phones, allowing developers to easily leverage the ecosystem’s global reach.
• Nokia’s content and application store would be integrated with Microsoft Marketplace for a more compelling consumer experience.

“Today, developers, operators and consumers want compelling mobile products, which include not only the device, but the software, services, applications and customer support that make a great experience,” Stephen Elop, Nokia President and CEO, said at a joint news conference in London. “Nokia and Microsoft will combine our strengths to deliver an ecosystem with unrivalled global reach and scale. It’s now a three-horse race.”

“I am excited about this partnership with Nokia,” said Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft CEO. “Ecosystems thrive when fueled by speed, innovation and scale.The partnership announced today provides incredible scale, vast expertise in hardware and software innovation and a proven ability to execute.”

Here is a snippet of Nokia’s press release:

Nokia plans to form a strategic partnership with Microsoft to build a global mobile ecosystem based on highly complementary assets. The Nokia-Microsoft ecosystem targets to deliver differentiated and innovative products and have unrivalled scale, product breadth, geographical reach, and brand identity. With Windows Phone as its primary smartphone platform, Nokia would help drive the future of the platform by leveraging its expertise on hardware optimization, software customization, language support and scale. Nokia and Microsoft would also combine services assets to drive innovation. Nokia Maps, for example, would be at the heart of key Microsoft assets like Bing and AdCenter, and Nokia’s application and content store would be integrated into Microsoft Marketplace. Under the proposed partnership, Microsoft would provide developer tools, making it easier for application developers to leverage Nokia’s global scale.

…

As of April 1, Nokia will have a new company structure, which features two distinct business units: Smart Devices and Mobile Phones. They will focus on Nokia’s key business areas: high-end smartphones and mass-market mobile phones. Each unit will have profit-and-loss responsibility and end-to-end accountability for the full consumer experience, including product development, product management and product marketing.

Smart Devices will be responsible for building Nokia’s leadership in smartphones and will be led by Jo Harlow. The following sub-units now in Mobile Solutions will move under Smart Devices:
- Symbian Smartphones
- MeeGo Computers
- Strategic Business Operations

To support the planned new partnership with Microsoft, Smart Devices will be responsible for creating a winning Windows Phone portfolio.

…

Press Release (Nokia): Nokia outlines new strategy, introduces new leadership, operational structure
Press Release (Microsoft): Nokia and Microsoft Announce Plans for a Broad Strategic Partnership to Build a New Global Mobile Ecosystem

The Nokia C7 is powered by Symbian^3 and features a 8 MP camera with dual LED flash and is capable of recording HD video. It has a 3.5″ AMOLED capacitive touch screen of 640 x 360 pixels. Standard connectivity includes WLAN 802.11 b/g/n with Bluetooth 3.0 and HSDPA cat 9 speed of up to 10.2 Mbps and HSUPA cat 5 speed of up to 2.0 Mbps.

It has 8GB of built-in storage space and an additional MicroSD slot for expansion. It uses the same processor as the Nokia N8 which is the ARM 11 680 MHz processor with 3D Graphics hardware accelerator. The RAM is also the same as Nokia N8 which is 256MB. The Nokia C7 has a total ROM of 1GB which is 512MB more than the Nokia N8.

Metal was used extensively for the phone and hence in terms of built, it is as solid as the Nokia N8, but it is thinner and lighter.

I am going to repeat myself again, Nokia makes great hardware but it is the software they need to put in more effort into and when it is time to let the OS go, it is time to let it go. Holding on to it will do you more harm than good! I mean you can continue to support Symbian, but move on with a new OS!

When I setup the phone, it detects my Nokia account automatically (I am amazed) and I just need to enter my password for it. After keying in my password, it sends an SMS (I am guessing it is an activation SMS) back to the phone. But the problem is, I am on MultiSIM and the SMS will never be receive by the Nokia C7 because it is not my primary phone instead I received the SMS on my iPhone 4 instead. Because of this I can’t get my Nokia account to activate on my Nokia C7! I spend like 15 minutes to keep trying but to no avail!

Not a good first experience! But other than that, it is pretty much the same Symbian^3 experience like the Nokia N8.

Box Front

Free Speaker

Box Open

Box Content

Nokia C7 Front

Nokia C7 Back

Nokia C7 With Symbian^3