Today at the press breakfast, Nokia (NYSE: NOK) unveiled its ticket for the ongoing 8 megapixel race. It’s called the N86 8MP and it’s a slider-shaped Symbian S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 smartphone. As you’re about to see from the images bellow, the device looks quite sexy, but what images can’t tell you is how it feels in the hand. In a word - perfect! I can go that far saying that the N86 8MP is probably the best-built Nokia device to date, feeling as solid as like it was made out of metal not plastic.
Aside from boasting an 8 megapixel camera with wide-angle Carl Zeiss Tessar lens along with what they say is the 3rd generation of dual-LED flash - the N86 8MP also boasts a gorgeous 2.6-inch OLED QVGA screen with scratch resistant hardened glass, HSPA, GPS, WiFi, TV-out, compass, 8 GB of internal memory storage, microSD expansion slot. Like with any other NSeries device released in the near future, Ovi Suite comes pre-loaded with the device, allowing instant sharing of photos and videos.
As for the release date and pricing, Nokia will begin shipping the N86 8MP in Q2 2009 for an estimated retail price of 375 EUR, before taxes and subsidies.
Will and Simon took some real-life shots of the device, which are coming soon. In the meantime, check out official Nokia photos and the official release after the jump.
The Toshiba (OTCPK: TOSBF) TG01’s slim profile, huge touchscreen display, and powerful Snapdragon silicon make it a Windows Mobile smartphone to be reckoned with. Barely unveiled, the Toshiba TG01 has already climbed to the top of our must-watch list. In fact, the TG01 could very well tread on turf carved out by the iPhone and iPhone 3G.
Toshiba has today posted their own official video of the Toshiba TG01 in all its hihg-end glory. We’ve already seen the Toshiba TG01 doing its multimedia-thing on video, but there’s nothing like an official Toshiba TG01 video straight from Toshiba themselves.
The video above doesn’t really tell us anything new about the Toshiba TG01. We already knew it came in at an impressively thin 9.9mm. We knew about the custom Windows Mobile 6.1 UI overlay. The Snapdragon internals running a 1Ghz CPU isn’t a surprise. Still, it’s nice to see the sleek handset in high-quality video.
We had heard Acer was coming out with a new phone for Mobile World Congress, and now we’re getting our first look at it; no specs, no OS, but a rather peculiar form factor. As you can see, this thing has a swivelling QWERTY keypad flipping out from under the touchscreen that makes the whole thing look like an upside-down T. Although it’s hard to see how well this actually works out until we actually play with one, it looks pretty awkward overall. What do you guys think - assuming decent specs, is this something you would use?
There are some changes in store for Windows Mobile. Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) VP of the Mobile Communications Group, Todd Warren sat down with Unwired View at Mobile World Congress 2008 and basically outlined what we can expect from future versions of Windows Mobile.
Apparently, Microsoft is “also working on improving the base of media and picture experiences as part of Windows Mobile. You can expect, I would say, pretty dramatic change to those in future versions of the product,” according to Warren. There are improvements to the HTC TouchFLO interface as well as plans to better integrate Windows Mobile with the TouchFLO interface that made a splash on the popular HTC Touch smartphone.
With Windows Mobile 6.1 on the horizon and the Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE) XPERIA X1 rumored to be rocking Windows Mobile 6.5, we can’t wait to see what Microsoft has in store for us with future WinMo releases. It had better step up to the plate. Apple (NSDQ: AAPL)’s iPhone and S60’s Touch UI’s are banging on the door and Microsoft had better not answer in anything less than its Sunday Best.
Nokia (NYSE: NOK) isn’t the only handset manufacturer that wants to keep making money of its customers after the initial hardware purchase. Samsung announced at Mobile World Congress 2008 in Barcelona that they intend to pursue an Internet-based services model, much like Nokia’s Ovi.
The new strategy would unite all of Samsung’s premium web-services under one roof and put more of that consumer-cash back into Samsung’s coffers. And, with handset manufacturers scrambling to keep the end-user “in-house” even after the customer has paid for the phone and is long-gone from the retail store, Samsung’s new web-services strategy makes sense.
Over the next couple years we’re going to see most big-name manufacturers start to offer Ovi-like web-services integrated into their revenue model.
At the Mobile World Congress, Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) announced that it would launch a money transfer service in Afghanistan to enable its customers to quickly send and receive money.
Back in March 2007, Vodafone unveiled the similar initiative in Kenya where an estimated 1.6 million people are using their scheme. The idea for the mobile operator is to seize the opportunity in countries where there are a lack of bank outlets and ATMs. For instance, in Kenya there are only 400 bank outlets, 600 ATMs and using the mobile money transfer service is certainly way more convenient for the locals, especially for those living in rural areas.
At this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, provider of the unlimited music download services Omnifone launched the MusicStation Max unlimited mobile music handset programme.
Omnifone’s plan, very similar to Nokia (NYSE: NOK)’s “Come with music” initiative, involves partnering with handset manufacturers to give consumers the “freedom to download, play and share unlimited amounts of music, wherever they are.” LG is the first manufacturer to sign up for the Omnifone’s programme, with the first LG (touchscreen equipped and HSDPA enabled) MusicStation Max handsets due to be released in H1 2008.
Naturally, MusicStation Max features a full PC companion product so that users could listen music on both desktop and mobile phones. In addition, changes in tracks, artists, albums, playlists, friends and recommendations are automatically synchronised, without the need for wires or human intervention… Full release is available from here.
Here’s the hands-on gallery for the Nokia (NYSE: NOK) N96. I’m sure this bad-boy doesn’t need any introduction, but for the sake of completeness, here’s a quick rundown of what to expect.
Quadband EDGE
Dualband HSDPA (850/2100 MHz)
DVB-H Class C
125g
103 x 55 x 18 mm
16 GB internal memory AND a microSD slot
950 mAh battery
2.8 inch 320×240 display with 16 million colors
3.5 mm headphone jack
WiFi (802.11 b/g)
A-GPS
5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics
VGA video recording at 30 FPS
Dual LED flash
S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 (Flash Lite 3 enabled web browser included)
microUSB
The glossy-black finish hides buttons that illuminate from below…so cool. The sliding mechanism is much improved over the N95 - springy and snappy at the same time, it’s incredibly satisfying. The music controls illuminate upon sliding the N96 down. A kickstand pops out from the rear, making video and TV viewing convenient. Oh yea, and the TV (DVB-H) is smooth and crisp.
Overall, the Nokia N96 is slightly (emphasis on slightly) longer than the N95, with about the same width and thickness, but feels lighter and more solid. And, speaking of solid, did I mention that much improved sliding mechanism?
If you just bought a Nokia N95, I’m sorry to say that the Nokia N96 is the new hotness. The Nokia N95 is still the cat’s meow, but the N96 gets the lion’s share of the glory. That glossy-black finish might not be your cup of tea, but damn if I didn’t love it.
I’m sure a lot of you are wondering where our Nokia (NYSE: NOK) N78 and Nokia N96 coverage went. I’ve been sitting on the footage all this time, and technical difficulty after technical difficulty just kept delaying your Nokia-gratification. At long last, here is the quick hands-on look from the Nokia booth at Mobile World Congress 2008 in Barcelona, Spain.
The Nokia N78, as you probably already know, is the candybar/monoblock successor to the Nokia N73 and rocks S60 3rd Edition with Feature Pack 2. It’s finished in a glossy-black with buttons that illuminate from below - which gives the N78 a classy, sleek look. The touch-sensitive navigation pad makes slick-work of menu navigation and the 3.2 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics is exactly what you’d expect from a Nokia shooter.
The Samsung Soul was pretty much the highlight of the Samsung booth. The multimedia feature phone (we wish it was a smartphone) packs in a 5 megapixel auto-focus camera with Xenon flash, 7.2Mbps HSDPA, and that context-dependent touch-sensitive navigation panel below the display. Unfortunately, the Samsung Soul is only a tri-band device, so don’t expect this handset to hit the US mainstream. A shame.
The camera quality was very good and the slide-mechanism was slick (expected from Samsung, they really know how to make a slider), but the real interesting thing about the Samsung Soul was the touch-sensitive navigation panel that changed configuration based on what function we were using. Go to the media player and the context-dependent nav panel displays music controls, goto the messaging application and you’ll have access to messaging-related keys, start up the camera and you’ll see camera functions in the nav panel - you get the idea.
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At this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, provider of the unlimited music download services Omnifone launched the MusicStation Max unlimited mobile music handset programme.
