Nokia Symbian reviews and news

6700 looks so beautiful and feels to be bullet proof when you take it to your hands. However when you start to use it, you encounter with hopeless unreliability. Nokia seems to be cheating on us.

This phone is kind of replacement for 6500 Classic. Their size is almost similar, but 6700 is a little bit thicker and heavier, like it was really made of steel. This handset’s style is classic, however it doesn’t look bad when compared to the latest touchscreen phones.

You are enabled to create SMS and text easily with a flat keypad and T9 predictions. Menu also appears to be very simple and comfortable to use with a great navigation button making your using of the phone faster. 6700 has a bigger 2.2 inches screen with the same 16mln colors and  240 x 320 pixels like in Nokia 6500.

6700 has a greater camera with 5 megapixels, autofocus and LED flash. Those features make this handset above average between other it’s class phones. Video camera works with VGA resolution and you are enabled to make video calls with another front-mounted camera.

MP3 player supports a limited number of formats, such as MP3 and AAC. You can also enjoy FM radio and see current station thanks to RDS.

Only Nokia stereo headphones and Bluetooth stereo headset can be plugged in as there’s no 3.5mm audio jack. MP3, video ringtones and 64-voice polyphonic can be also played with phone.

One more great feature as for this phone is A-GPS. 6700 has a HSPA feature which is a faster kind of HSDPA. So you are enabled to transfer data with 10 Mbps.

6700 has a 170 MB of built-in memory and a possibility to purchase memory card with 8GB. You will find a 1GB card in the box supplied.

In general, 6700 appears to be a handset which represents an updated 6500. The previous one had it’s problems with poor 830 mAh battery so the 6700 is supplied with 960 mAh. The quoted standby time increases about 50% in such a way. However such things can’t be said about software which constantly encounters various problems such as switching and freezing. Moreover, don’t be cought with this handset’s steel image, it can crack very easily. Be careful with this item as you use it.

It’s a pity that Nokia don’t learn from their mistakes. You can choose 6700 if you like risks. However if you want something with 6700 features but not so dangerous to use, try Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Samsung Jet or Sony Ericsson W995 if you don’t prefer touchscreen phones.

6303 is kind of updated 6300, which was one of the most popular Nokias of all times and best sold phone during past few years. 6303 updates technology and the styling of the 6300 and fixes it’s problem of a poor battery.

Nokia 6303 is a little bit larger and rounder than 6300. It’s also a few gram heavier and has a larger screen at 2.2 inches across, with 16.7 million colors and 320 x 240 pixels. Despite it’s heaviness, 6303 is very comfortable to hold in a hand. You will have a good experience while using this phone with a large screen, well-designed keypad and familiar Nokia menu.

A very significant improvement is the camera with 3.2 megapixels, autofocus and a dual LED flash. It appears to be quite good enabling you to take pictures of print quality. You can also record video. The resolution of  640 x 480 is quite high however it allows only 15 frames per second. This phone doesn’t support 3G so you won’t be able to make video calls.

All standard formats are supported by the music player with a stereo radio including RDS. As a consequence you can see various details of music played. One more great improvement is that now you can plug any standard-fit headphone due to the 3.5mm headphone jack.

It’s a pity about the amount of memory for music player which is only 17MB. However, you can add a 4GB Micro SD.

A great improvement is a longer battery life of 7 hours talktime, however it seems that it hasn’t been tested standing next to a mobile mast.

6303 provides you with a quite good connectivity, including 3.5 mm audio jack, USB and Bluetooth 2.0.

Don’t expect a great variety of high-end features from this handset as it’s price was around £100 mark at launch. On the other side, you will still find some interesting features such as Nokia Maps, however without GPS, web browser, e-mail support, voice commands. While buying phone you will get a micro-USB cable, stereo headset and 1GB memory card. The 6303 is a great update of beloved 6300. If you are searching for something solid, reliable and not expensive, try Nokia 6303.

You can also try Nokia 6303i which has improved social networking and a more powerful battery.

This one is the first from Xseries, however it’s not based on the Nseries phones. Nokia X6 runs the Symbian operating system. This touchscreen smartphone is more robust as it’s branded as XpressMusic phone rather than bug-ridden from Nseries.

It’s not cheap handset as X6 appears to be 5800 pimped to the max. It’s size is similar to 5800 except a few millimeters slimmer. You will be surprised how it’s nice to hold. Moreover, it’s  a little bit bigger in weight what makes this phone more solid and purposeful. It’s not such bulky as other touchscreen phones and has the advantage operating it with one hand.

X6 has capacitive touchscreen display which is very responsive. The size and resolution is the same as in 5800- 3.2 inches with 640×360 pixels. Thus it appears to be compact form factor being quite small size among phones with high-end touchscreen. So the price paid goes for X6′s compact form. The screen lets you to do your job while being not very big. Display rotates automatically and you can choose from virtual alphanumeric and QWERTY keypads. You are enabled to access friends on your home screen with the help of contacts bar. X6 has quite nice user interface. You can dial, call records and texts up to 20 friends. It’s so great to use this phone due to the responsive capacitative touchscreen.

What’s for music, this phone appears to be a great choice as it’s branded as XpressMusic phone. X6 includes Nseries music player and an FM radio. You will be able to listen to songs in MP3, WMA and AAC formats. Moreover, it will provide the selection of song by artist, composer, album and genre. Album graphics are also displayed. You will enjoy a great sound of your favorite songs with dedicated audio chip, 3D surround stereo sound when with bass booster, stereo widening and loudness effects in addition.  8-band graphic equalizer for additional control and 3.5mm audio jack are also included. You will be able to plug in your own headphones and enjoy the 32GB of built-in memory. Finally, download music all year using optional Comes With Music feature.

X6 has also a very good camera with 5 megapixels. As for a phone, that’s quite impressive. Moreover, it includes  Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus and dual LED flash and also can punch above 5 megapixels weight. X6 also offers video recording capability with 640 x 480 pixels and 30 frames per second. As you know this is standard definition TV quality. This phone enables you to make video calls with another front-mounted camera.

You will be able to use assisted GPS with Ovi Maps. X6 offers a great connectivity, so that you will be able to use your phone in almost all places with it’s quadband GSM and triband 3G. This phone has HSDPA which gives the speed of data transfer up to 3.6 Mbps. You can get faster downloads in a WiFi zone with WLAN.  Bluetooth, USB cable, TV-Out socket and a  3.5mm audio connection are included so you can choose from different connections.

As already mentioned, the screen is 3.2 inches what makes web browsing just satisfactory. However responsive touchscreen and fast speeds makes web browsing quite good. You are also enabled to download a great number of applications form Ovi store due to the fact that X6 is runs Series 60 5th Edition Symbian version 9.4 OS/interface.

The 1320 mAh Li-Ion battery is quite impressive and should let you 8.5 hours of talktime or 35 hours of music playback. However, it’s much less in reality- about several days.

In general, X6 is a great phone of a great quality and durability.  It’s compact and solid-looking with  a great camera and music player. You are enabled to use all the connectivity boxes. A huge memory, great battery and stable operating system. It’s screen doesn’t appear one from those biggest, however 3.2 inches is respectable. X6 is kind of phone which represents taking Nokia and making it even better. 5 stars for X6!

Finally Nokia released 5800 3G  touchscreen smartphone branded as an XpressMusic phone which can be titled as catching up with Apple, LG and Samsung.

5800 appears to be extra stylish phone worth waiting. However all touchscreen phones seem to be good- looking to say honestly. What impresses most about it’s look is that 5800 is very sleek and appears to be narrower that iPhone 3G. Maybe it’s even the narrowest between touchscreen handsets with it’s width of 52mm and lets you to use it with one hand easily. User interface can be much greater due to a big screen and high 640 x 360 pixels resolution. It lets you to enjoy  finger touch, stylus and plectrum with a virtual alphanumeric keypad, full and mini QWERTY keyboards and handwriting recognition. 5800 also includes automatic rotation when you rotate the phone. You can quickly access music controls, gallery, web browsers with virtual media bar as it’s like other XpressMusic handsets. 5800 has physical keys too:  send and end, menu, screen lock and volume. Sad to say, but it’s touchscreen isn’t as good as iPhone’s. On the other hand, it’s not as bad as it could seem- using stylus sometimes will bring you a great experience while using the phone. Important to mention, that 5800 beats iPhone in a lot of cases, so think carefully before purchasing.

What about camera, it isn’t the best one included in a phone but beats iPhone for sure with Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, a double LED flash and respective 3.2 megapixels. Video camera is quite good with ability to record at up to 640 x 480 pixels and at 30 frames per second, with stereo sound. It also lets you to make video calls on a 3G network with front- mounted video camera.

5800 can also boast an excellent music player. Touchscreen controls appear to be very easy with various features, such as  8-band graphic equalizer and a 3.5mm headphone jack. You will be provided with 8GB memory card which lets you to store up 2000 tracks in MP3 format or 4000 tracks in AAC. If it’s still too small for you, take advantage of upgrading it to 16GB. Download music whole year without any limits with optional Comes With Music features! Use built-in FM radio. Any bad thing can be said about 5800 in terms of music.

Enjoy a quick web browsing. 3G HSDPA implementation gives you incredibly fast download speeds.  It also supports Flash meaning, beating iPhone here also. 5800 is WiFi compatible what enables you to transfer data with super fast speeds in the vicinity of a WLAN network or a WiFi Hotspot.

5800 includes GPS with Nokia Maps in addition. Apart from 3G and WiFi, this phone has  Bluetooth and USB, plus a TV-Out connection. Cable is also included in the box.

5800 is a Series 60 phone. You can enjoy a great number of applications which can be easily downloaded. A couple of games, standard Series 60 organizer applications, document browsers and a good organizer are also included in the phone.

What about the battery it does it’s job despite the fact that such phones with so many features are very hungry for power.

You can choose from red, black and blue colors with all the cables, stereo headphones, 8GB memory card, case, stand and stylus included.

5800 has the occasional bug like all smartphones, but there are only few of them and they should be ironed out quickly with firmware updates. This phone is great because of it’s touchscreen benefits and Nokia is worth applause due to their attention for details. Nokia doesn’t seem to create just another copy of iPhone. Maybe it’s not perfect, but it’s really good. 5 stars for it.

One important footnote: 5800 doesn’t include Comes With Music service and then it turns out to be standard XpressMusic handset.

This cellphone is kind of similar to Nokia 5530. Sometimes it can be thought that 5230 is below 5530 but that’s not true. It’s quite interesting how they complement each other: if you won’t find some feature on one phone, be sure that you will find it on the other one. For example, Nokia 5230 has 3G, A-GPS receiver and a larger display, but doesn’t have WiFi, the camera is poor and it’s bigger and heavier in comparison with 5530. What about the price, it’s the same on contract.

But now the basics. Nokia 5230 is for those who want to pay less than £15 a month or pay as you go users. It is  S60 smartphone and is expected to be relatively high volume handset. The firmware has been ironed out from bugs as it’s the latest phone from similar series.

5230 has almost similar to 5800 look- like. Nokia 5800 is known to be the greatest model of this type of phones. That’s a great thing as 5230 offers you 3.2 inch display with 640 x 360 pixels resolution. It’s not like iPhone in terms of inches but it has more pixels so you can tell this to your friends owing iPhones. 5230 has a resistive touchscreen and stylus. The display enables you to browse the Web and work with menus very easily. Moreover, it’s ideal for multimedia. What about size, it appears to be larger than 5530, but it’s due to the fact that it’s screen is larger and the battery is bigger too.

5230 offers a 3G while 5530 supports WiFi. So decide what is more important for from these two features. If you are interested in having both of them, purchase 5800 which also has Bluetooth and USB connectivity. Having 5230 enables you to download data with speeds of up to 3.6 Mbps due to  high-speed HSDPA.

Important to mention that 5230 doesn’t include stereo speakers as it’s not XpressMusic. It includes FM radio, music player and a 3.5mm audio jack. Moreover, it has A-GPS receiver, with Ovi Maps in addition.

The worst thing about 5230 is it’s camera with only 2 megapixels. So you can only make quick snaps. Its video camera is better but doesn’t allow video calls. If you are interested in better camera just choose 5530.

Talking about the memory it’s quite big at 70 MB. However, if you will decide to expand it to 16GB, it won’t be included and you will need additional money to purchase it. Moreover, you won’t find USB cable in the box too.

As it was mentioned earlier, 5230 is bigger in weight due to it’s battery however you can enjoy it’s great life in exchange.

In general, 5230 with all it’s advantages of  large touchscreen display, Ovi Store for apps, 3G, GPS, great battery and disadvatages of rubbish camera,  no WiFi, no video calling and poor music player is not a bad choice if you are searching  for a touchscreen smartphone with affordable price.

Nokia has just released We:offset, a Symbian CO2 emission offsetting calculation tool for your mobile. Visit http://www.nokia.com/A41039027 to download it .

Google’s mobile team has launched two innovative services today which will make your life much easier for the summer if you’re planning on travelling.

First up is the new Olympics update mobile site by Google. Just type google.com/m/summergames on your mobile and you’re ready to stay up to date with the latest Olympics stuff. Although the page will give you a 404 Not Found error at the moment, they will fix it soon and the 404 error should not disappoint you since there’s already a link to the current Summer Games page at the bottom of the page.

The other service is Google Translate for iPhone and though unfortunately there’s no S60 support for this service, you can go to translate.google.com on your iPhone or iPod touch and use the translate service. It is optimized for speed, written using the AJAX Language API & uses a client – side data – store on the iPhone for storing data and hence once translated, you’ll always have access to those words even when you’re away from a data connection. S60 users can also use Google’s normal translation service at translate.google.com and make it fit to the screen by pressing # and zooming in to 75% ( or 50% if you wish, by double pressing the # key ) for easier use. I think someone with iPhone UA script installed on their phones should let us know whether the iPhone translate service works fine for you guys.

This version has been bumped to version 1.04 from 1.02. There was an issue with the first release of 1.04 where the program would crash when searching stations but this has now been updated with a newer refresh. Note: It will install 2 instances…first being Internet Radio Update and then the actual Internet Radio application.

FreeTimeSync is a S60 3rd’s time synchronization application, it is based on the NTP (Network Time Protocol), which provides high-precision time correction (on LAN less than 1 ms, on Internet dozens of milliseconds), and only causes little network flow. FreeTimeSync also supports GPS time sync and SMS time sync.

FreeTimeSync supports following phones:
3250、5700、6110N、6120C、6121C、6220C、6290、E50、E51、E60 、E61(i)、E62、E65、E70、E71、N73、N75、N76、N77、N78、N80、N8 1、N82、N91、N93(i)、N95、N96

FreeTimeSync needs to sign before installion. You can sign it with your dev cert. If you don’t know about cert and sign, please visit www.symbiansigned.com and follow the instructions to get FreeTimeSync Open signed.

What’s new in v1.00:
1. Add: Time server list(But only one server will be used)
2. Add: Server in domain url support
3. Add: UI resorted
4. Add: Information display in main tab

SlideHelper is an S60 3rd Edition App made by S60soft.ru for S60 3rd Edition *SLIDER* devices which enhances your device’s slider functionalities and helps you set it to do various tasks like switching off/on backlight and hanging up by sliding your device. The developers suggest that the app is for Nokia N95 & N95 8GB only, but I wonder whether it works fine for other S60 3rd slider devices too.