From the published spec, the Palm one Lifedrive looked to offer a few advantages over previous models, but would it live up to its promise?

One of the most anticipated PDA phones of the year, the Palm Treo 650 is the hottest Palm OS smartphone on the market. Following on the heels of the very successful Treo 600, the Treo 650 adds several key improvements that address the needs of road warriors and improvements in technology since the release of the 600 over a year ago. Sprint was the first US carrier out the door with the 650, and GSM versions for Cingular, AT&T Wireless as well as an unlocked version for use with any GSM carrier were released early Feb. 2005. We’ll take an in-depth look at the Sprint, Cingular and unlocked offerings in our review.

The Lifedrive screen is the same size as the one on the Tungsten 3. It is clear and bright in daylight and at night, indoors and out. It fits comfortably in the palm, though only just, and has the same springy stylus as the Tungsten range.

At the bottom of the screen is a row of icons (from left to right: home, search, context menu, time, alert, Bluetooth, wi-fi, use entire screen, and Graffiti area). The Grafitti input area (which also has icons for web, mail, calendar and contacts) can now be launched or retracted at the tap of a button.

A major new feature is Drive mode in which the Lifedrive becomes a USB flash drive (with a hefty 4GB of storage) that you can take to any computer and plug it in without need of additional software. This works well and is very useful if you work with large files. The USB sync/power cable is a real plus here. Files copied in Drive Mode can be accessed through the Files application or the desktop Lifedrive Manager.The down side of Drive Mode is that you can’t do anything else with the Lifedrive when it’s on – a weakness in my view.

The Lifedrive tends to freeze unexpectedly, often, in my experience, when using Versamail. If that happens, you’d better make a cup of tea, as it will be about two minutes before you can use the device again.

Motorola which has always been one of the pioneers in mobile services is one such company which is always innovating, reinventing, improving their products, Motorola was the first to launch products like dualband, triband & quadband handsets & the flip top mobile phone. Keeping up with the market, Motorola keeps on improvising on its earlier products and producing new ones. Some of the latest Motorola mobile phones include the Motorola MOTO Q11, Motorola Rapture VU30, and the Motorola W7 Active Edition. Living up to its name in innovation, Motorola has come up with the Motorola Rapture VU30. It features a touch sensitive “vanishing” external display. Though it has a 2-megapixel camera, this Motorola mobile phone has enhanced its imaging to produce an experience similar to a digital camera. It comes with video playback and recording features. It has a 2.2-inch (240×320) main display and 1.6-inch (120×160) external display. Other features include Music player, Bluetooth and Speech recognition. The handset measures 99 x 48 x 17 mm and weighs about 96 grams. Fully charged, it gives a standby time of 470 hours and talktime of 4.5 hours. A clamshell with glossy rounded design, it easily stands out in a crowd.

Moto W7 active is fitted with 2 MP of built in camera which captures images at resolution of 1600×1200 pixels. However, the camera feature of LG GW620 is much better as handset has 5MP of built in camera which offers astonishing resolution of 2560×1920 pixels with added enhancement via autofocus specification. Though the Messaging options, featured in both the gadgets are latest and include SMS, MMS, Email etc., however LG GW620 takes the lead with IM, push Email and threaded texting which are not available in W7. Both the handsets feature WAP 2.0/HTML based web browser. Besides this, both have built in FM radio but in place of simple FM radio, LG GW 620 showcases FM stereo radio. GPS is not available in W7 but is featured in GW 620 (A-GPS support).

3G1 speed provides faster Web browsing, downloading and video streaming. Stay entertained with the integrated MP3 player, FM Radio and up to 8GB optional external memory for more music and media. Keep up to date with the latest music trends using SongID technology1 that finds songs you hear. Check out your captured videos or clips from sites like YouTube™1 in full-screen mode and even make video calls to friends and family with a second VGA camera.

MOTOROLA and the Stylized M Logo are registered in the US Patent & Trademark Office. The Bluetooth trademarks are owned by their proprietor and used by Motorola, Inc. under license. Java is a trademark or registered trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. All other trademark and product or service names are the property of their respective owners.  © Motorola, Inc. 2009.  All rights reserved.

Samsung Skins are known for their brand name and quality in the market. So, if you decide to go for a Samsung device, then you must definitely go for Skins too at the same time. Samsung phone Skins are available both in matt finish or satin finish and gloss coating too. If you prefer to go for matt finish, you just need to pay an additional 2 dollars along with the cost of the skin.

Among the various Samsung Skins, the simplest design comes in basic black and also the commonly demanded gray colors. This basic design does not give a glossy or floral finish of course and if your device is of the same color, then it will actually give a professional look to your Samsung device. These designs give a carbon texture finish with a classy and of course realistic look to the device.

Samsung J700 is a second generation or 2G phone with a 2 inch TFT display and 65k colors. Carrying this phone is not a burden since it weighs 92 grams. Phone book can include 1000 entries; it also has the photo call feature. It comes with an inbuilt memory of 10 mb which can be expanded using a card slot to 2GB. This phone has hi-tech facilities like EDGE, Bluetooth and GPRS and with these facilities you can easily get connected as well as transfer data to other devices. Samsung J700 has a FM radio which can be tuned to relax the mind or when getting bored.

The phone is available in pink color which brings a cool look to the gadget. Using the 1.3 megapixel camera in the cell phone high clarity pictures can be taken, also videos can be taken using this camera. Regular features include BT printing, mp3 player and currency converter which comes handy at many times. Standby duration of battery is 250 hours which helps to use it for a longer duration of time. It can be used with any network providers.

Samsung Skins are all made in the United States of America. Even the production and packing is done in the US itself. Samsung phone Skins protects and safeguards your Samsung device that is your Samsung phone. The kit is removable and it includes phone Skins for the front and back of the Samsung phone. Perfect cut outs are available for the speakers and camera. Due to the tailor made cut outs, you can use your phone without any difficulty and you will not be spending time searching for the provision.

For fans of music and video playback on their mobile phones, storage has always been a problem. Short of installing an upgraded memory card (if your phone is compatible), there are few options to increase the available storage space for files. Nokia have solved this problem to some extent by installing 16GB of internal storage as standard in the X6, creating the X6 16GB.

Nokia is a name that assures quality, their x-series handsets have been a major hit, with its new X6 edition they have crossed another milestone. A classy handset with astonishing features is available on pay a monthly contract deal that helps in buying this handset at a profitable price. Available in two different colors red and black color or white and blue handset has a very different and sleek look. Nokia X6 contract deals are made keeping in mind all types of customers, so that it suits everyone’s requirements.

Discussing more about its features, this handset has a 3.2 inches wide screen with 5 mega pixels camera that has a resolution of 2592 X 1944 pixels that gives crystal clarity while clicking pictures and making videos. Its other features like, GPRS, HSDPA and WAP are very fast in connecting which helps in downloading and sharing files easily. Also equipped with Mp3 and FM radio feature, this helps you listening to your favorite songs and keep tuned to other videos, also you can store files massively as it has a storage capacity up to 32 GB.

With its large amount of storage, media files in a range of video and music formats are supported by the media player. These include video files in WMV, RV, MP4 and 3GP as well as music files in MP3, WMA, WAV, RA, AAC and M4A formats. A micro USB (v2.0) connection allows users to transfer files to and from a PC.

An impressive digital camera is included with the package. It features 5MP (2592×1944) ensuring high quality snapshots and comes with a range of features making the task simple. These include autofocus, dual LED flash and video light. The camera itself features Car Zeiss Optics leaving users with no doubts about the camera’s build quality. VGA quality video can be shot with the camera, and this is at 30 frames per second.

A long list of extra features mean this versatile handset is more than up to the task of coping with everyday tasks. An ideal handset for music fans, the style conscious are also catered for as the handset is available in a range of colours. If you like the Nokia X6 16GB check out the Nokia X6 16GB Pink.

Cell phone applications are bringing in big dollars for both the creators and the onsellers. There are various accessories and paraphernalia to dress up your cell phones. Socks, covers, MP3 tunes and much more. Heck you can even surf the Internet on them. Facebook apps and Twitter apps allow you to connect with friends and business contacts while on the move. There are over 4.6 Billion cell phone users today and this number continually grows. The uses for mobile phones is also growing. Advertising on cell phones will be the next big boom.

The newer phones such as the iPhone and next generation phones have applications for everything. Students can have a ready made dictionary, guitar tuner, even encyclopaedia. Hopefully this will ease the need for carrying a ton of school books to school. Soon computers will be obsolete as the iPhone will be able to access the WWW superhighway of information. Hopefully there will be a way to make the calls cheaper so this hardware is widely available to all students.

As for the iPhone applications, they are diverse. iPhone possesses certain applications that allow this gadget to perform various tasks. In addition, applications display on map the location of your iPhone through the GPS feature. They also help you in selecting local restaurants, play games and display catchy images on your iPhone. The iPhone manufacturer as well as third party organizations develop applications for this device.

Apart from using your iPhone merely as a cell phone to send and receive calls, you may use it as one effective media player. You may easily transfer songs from any home computer to the iPhone’s internal memory. You may also view documents and photographs on the color screen of your iPhone and watch videos in motion.

Today is a great day to start your transition to cell and mobile phone marketing. The ads are going to be showing more frequently on the new generation phones and there is plenty of opportunity to get in now before the rest of the world discovers just how creative this market will become. There is a new saying hitting the internet waves and that is “the money is in the Cell Phone”. Join in the fun and embrace the opportunity. The new wave of cell phone marketing is very passive and uses the 3G phone application. Many people in many countries are relying more and more on their cell phone to access the Internet. It is believed that eventually the PC will be phased out and Internet access from hand held devices will be more popular.

After the iPhone 2G and the iPhone 3G, the 3Gs is the newest third generation Apple iPhone. The new Apple iPhone 3GS is very similar to the 3G having the same looks. However, the major difference is only the software in the phone, the high resolution camera, the digital compass and the video functions.

It has to be acknowledged in the race to keep ahead of your rivals, Apple has the slight but all important edge. First the 2G, then 3G quickly followed by the 3G S, and now the eagerly awaited 4G, Apple has indeed made sure that it stays ahead in the scale of using futuristic mobile technology.

Carrying Apple Phones deals, generally meant that you are in possession of a mobile phone, a high resolution digital camera, an equally high resolution video recorder, a computer that works at the speed of lightening when it comes to emails and internet browsing, playing station all rolled into one device called the Apple iPhone.

2010 has been generally good for the mobile phone industry. But for Apple, it has been nothing short of momentous. What with the Apple iPhone 2G, then the Apple Phone, 3G that was immediately followed by the Apple iPhone 3GS and then the forthcoming futuristic Apple iPhone 16GB deals all releasing withing a gap of a few months from each other, how else can you describe the Apple phones. It has been one latest Apple phone after the other bombarding you.

To buy latest iPhone 3GS, you can visit any online mobile phone store where you can compare some of the best mobile phone deals available with the phone. These online shops help you to make an informed decision by providing the comparision of the deals available in UK that are provided by various mobile phone retailers and service providers.

In many places in the world, many people still have the Nokia mobiles as their first one. There are, of course, several reasons that Nokia has captured these markets and is considered to be the best mobile phones in the market.

Nokia is very hopeful about its future and to secure its coming days it is launching new high end multimedia gadgets at regular interval. To boost its business, it is providing free gifts with purchase of every new handset. The range of Nokia mobile phones contain many stupendous instruments. This range includes Nokia 5800 Xpress music and Nokia 5230. Both these phones are great and give optimum result for your needs. Nokia 5800 Xpress music device is first choice for music lovers as it helps them to download or play music conveniently. Except music feature its other features are also praise worthy. It comprises camera with LED flash and wide touchscreen. Nokia 5230 is also one of the best handsets from Nokia. Unlike, Nokia 5800 Xpress music phone it has 2MP camera and its sound quality does not match Nokia 5800 Xpress music phone. Both the phones are great and you can buy these phones with deals. There are Nokia 5800 Xpress music deals available to buy such phone and Nokia 5230 deals available to own this phone. All the deals are fantastic and you can choose per your wish. These deals are beneficial and can fetch you free gifts like LCD TV, digital camera and gaming console. You can find these deals online on some clicks.

Best Nokia Service:

Nokia has another winner in its service department. If you visit any of the Asian cities, you will find that Nokia has its service centers all around – making it simpler and easier for the Nokia user to have their mobiles checked up if they have issues with the said mobile. In fact, Nokia may have the highest number of service centers and the highest revert rate as compared to any other mobile manufacturer. Also, Nokia offers warranty periods that are at par or more than the other mobile phone manufacturers, which makes it one of the best mobiles that are available in the market today.

Cheap Nokia Cell Phones

Nokia is still offering cell phones full of features that are quite cost effective and even cheap in some cases. For instance, a mobile from Sony with all the works will still cost quite a penny, whereas the same features are available in a Nokia mobile at least half the price. Also, Nokia has had the first mover advantage in several markets; the most visible is the Asia market. Though the Nokia mobile may be economical, it has never compromised in terms of quality and features. Because of the first mover advantage, it can offer its products to the dealers at a lesser price, which basically translates into a lesser cost for the consumer. Therefore, it is said that Nokia owns the secondary markets like Asia, particularly India, etc.

Of course, the resale value may increase drastically if there is a Buy Back offer by the mobile manufacturers. All in all, it is a very good decision to buy a Nokia mobile if you are someone who changes their mobile within just a few months.

Samsung Omnia is for people who expect the ultimate from their mobile devices and who don’t compromise on their desires. Omni offers many PC like features for both entertainment and business. I was impressed with its design and innovation.

Samsung has introduced latest technology like touch screen facility in many of its mobiles. This technology is available at quite affordable price in Samsung mobiles. Most Samsung phones are highly competitive with respect to functions like good camera, music system, contact storage space, etc. But the company has kept the price as low as compared to other mobiles.

All functions of this device including amazing video quality are to be experienced to be believed as they set the next benchmark in the industry. The Omni has a familiar and comfortable PC-like environment.

Many people who can’t afford a brand new mobile opt for second-hand Samsung phone for them. Thus they also enjoy the latest features at almost half the price or as per the condition of the handset. The high end features are available in the mid-segment handsets. For example: a touch screen feature was considered as high end feature but this function is available at much lower price in Samsung mobiles.

More so the company has come out with various products having different configurations in the similar range. This has led to increase in demand for every mobile. Samsung sales have increased incredibly in the past two years. Company has taken some crucial steps to market the products and maintain the presence through various media options.

In the final analysis, despite its faults, the Omni’s strengths vault it to the head of the WinMo class for the moment, particularly in this form factor. Samsung Omnia reviews demonstrate beauty, brains and top-end features. I bought an i90 for my wife, and she loves it, although there is a learning curve due to its many features and settings.

The Dallas, Texas-based carrier has refused to approve SlingPlayer Mobile, which broadcasts bandwidth-intensive TV programming to smartphones over the Web, would slow down its network.

But the company changed its mind about bandwidth-intensive apps after the Federal Communications Commission began a wide-ranging investigating into anticompetitive behavior and industry practices in the telecom sector, including Apple’s decision to block a Google calling program last year.

In October, AT&T started allowing voice software that ran on its 3G network.

There is, without a doubt, much disappointment surrounding the iPad. Bloggers curb-stomped it for its shortcomings:

• No multitasking
• No Adobe Flash (yet)
• No camera or iChat capabilities
• No HDMI port
• 4:3 aspect ratio
• Still dependent on AT&T’s 3G service
• Dependence on adapters

… and the list goes on.

Apple iPad vs Kindle DX: Which is Better for Education?

If the iPad doesn’t succeed as a consumer electronics device–its initial target market–it may find a successful second career as an electronic textbook reader.
Yes, I realize it’s far too early to write the iPad’s eulogy in the consumer market, and I have no intention of doing so. The device hasn’t even shipped yet and, besides, numerous bloggers have already pointed out the iPad’s shortcomings. Still, the iPad does appear to be hard sell to consumers who already own a smartphone and a laptop, and its appeal as a household entertainment machine seems limited.

iPad vs. iPhone: what does 3G cost you？

With the announcement that the iPad would continue Apple’s often-rocky relationship with AT&T to serve up wide-area data, we wanted to know: exactly what does an iPad cost you over the course of a couple years? Granted, the iPad doesn’t support voice calling — nor does it require a contract, unlike the iPhone — but for anyone who uses an iPhone primarily for browsing and gaming, this could make for a serviceable alternative that saves money over the long term. Follow the break for the full rundown.

Apple iPad vs iPod touch

So, it’s finally here – or should I say they – the family of Apple iPads has arrived. For the first time in what was beginning to feel like an age, Steve Jobs reached into his magic hat and pulled out a completely new device for us all to marvel at, upon and about. Yes, the tablet looks hot. It was always going to. Yes, it’s also desirable but it could have been a white painted plank of wood with an Apple logo burnt into it and there would still be a voice deep within everyone’s soul crying out to own.

But before we get carried away any further on this Apple-powered tablet wave, just to blow the Jobs-induced high one second – is what we’ve seen today really that much more necessary than a trusty old iPod touch, a smaller tablet we already know? Sure, it’s slinkier and more specced-up but does it make enough of a difference? Is it really worth the extra $400 and which is the one your life really needs? Let’s compare the two on a few key functions and stats.

Relation Apple Products: ipod nano, iPod shuffle , iPod Classic

Conclusions
It’s hard to see that Apple has created a new kind of device here rather than just an iPod touch XL. It’s certainly an alternative form factor but it’s highly debatable as to whether there really is a viable space between the laptop and the pocket portable media player/smartphone for the majority of users.

Working on the iPad doesn’t look as easy or flexible as doing so on a MacBook and the leisure uses don’t really seem that far in excess of the iPod touch or iPhone either. In the home, it’ll have to fight against the laptop, desktop or TV and on the move it’s either a laptop or pocket portable solution once again.

If you had an iPhone/iPod touch, an iPad and a MacBook sitting on the table and you were about to leave the house, when would you choose to take the tablet? A long plane journey or a business meeting perhaps? Hard to tell. When it comes down to it, the proof of the pudding will be in the eating and we’ll just have to wait for it to make it into the home to see how it performs and what its use will be to know if there’s really been an iPad-shaped hole in our lives all along.

Looks like Nokia is taking on Apple with the N900. The spec sheet of N900 looks more beefy than iPhone 3GS for sure. Lets compare the two monsters just based on the specs.

Apple iPhone 3GS Review

It would be easy to dismiss the Apple iPhone 3GS as an inconsequential hardware upgrade. But to do so would underestimate how much, collectively, the phone’s new features augment the iPhone experience. With the iPhone 3GS, Apple solidifies its leadership position in a crowded smartphone landscape.

On the outside, the iPhone 3GS ($299 for 32GB, or $199 for 16GB, with a two-year AT&T contract, as of 6/22/09) looks and feels virtually identical to the existing iPhone 3G (now $99 for 8GB with a two-year AT&T contract). Yes, it’s disappointing that Apple made no refinements in the external case (see our review of the iPhone 3G for more detail, but it’s simply a minimalist design dominated by its display and the home button beneath that display). And yes, it’s curious that the colors remain the same, black or white gloss (this from the company which made sure its audio players came in every color of the spectrum).

But inside, the iPhone 3GS has been fully redesigned, with new core components (CPU, memory, integrated compass, video recorder) in different locations, no less. And together with the iPhone OS 3.0 upgrade (which makes many compelling features available to existing iPhone customers), the iPhone 3GS stands tall. After pounding on it, I can say that at the full-subsidy prices, the 3GS is a surprisingly worthy upgrade for heavy users of the phone’s Web and gaming capabilities, and for general-use apps–even if you’re only jumping from the iPhone 3G. Read on to learn why.Also I reveivws iPhone 3GS 16GB and iPhone 3GS 32GB

Nokia N900 Review

The Nokia N900 is one of the latest mobile computers to come from the Finnish mobile device maker. It has the same general shape as Nokia’s earlier Internet Tablets: a slider with a large WVGA touchscreen and a landscape-oriented keyboard.

While the N900 has its lineage from previous Internet Tablet models, the addition of a cellular radio and the cohesion of the user interface makes this feel more of an entirely new device that’s bound to gain some new fans, but also disenfranchise some older ones.

iPhone 3GS Nokia N900 Winner

Dimensions 115.5×62.1×12.3 mm 110.9 × 59.8 × 18 mm Tie if u want keypad. iPhone if like compact !

Weight 135 g 181 g iPhone ( but its got no full keypad)

OS iPhone Maemo 5 Linux Tie – till we see maemo apps

Display 3.5 inch multitouch widescreen / Capacitive 3.5 inch touch-sensitive widescreen / Resistive Tie till we touch the N900 next week (most likely that iPhone might grab this title )

Display Resolution 480×320 pixels 800×480 pixels N900

Storage 16/32 GB Inbuilt upto 48GB N900

Camera 3 MP / Autofocus / Tap 5 MP / Carl Zeiss / Flash N900

Video Recording 640×480 @ 30 FPS 848×480 @ 25 FPS Tie till we see samples of the N900

CPU OMAP 600 MHz CPU TI OMAP 3430: ARM Cortex-A8 600 MHz Tie

OpenGL 3D Graphic PowerVR SGX SGX535 + VXD PowerVR SGX – SGX530 Tie while we investigate

Memory 256 MB RAM 1GB App memory = 256 MB RAM + 768 MB Virtual N900

Browser Safari Mozilla based Full flash suppor N900

Networks GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)

UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100 MHz)

Quad-band GSM EDGE 850/900/1800/1900

WCDMA 900/1700/2100 MHz

AT&T or T-Mobile

GPS Assisted-GPS with Digital Compass Assisted-GPS receiver if N900 carries N97’s legacy GPS then , iPhone’s Digital Compass is a winer

Looks like iPhone 3GS is going to have a tough time competing against the N900. and looking at the 3G Frequencies , It’s most likely that T-Mobile gets the N900 and AT&T wont.  Also the N900 will be available only in select markets – Europe, Middle East, North America.

iPhone 3GS or N900 ? Vote now !

Another cool feature is live wallpapers, some of which you can interact with.  The Nexus live wallpaper has TRON-esque lights running through the grid, and when you touch the screen a pulse emanates in four directions and colors from your fingertip.  The Water wallpaper ripples on your touch, and the Spectrum and Waveform wallpapers interact with any music playing on the device.  Some of them, like Magic Smoke, have settings that can be customized.  Our favorite was the subtle Grass wallpaper, and at night (the background changes with time, much like iGoogle themes) there was an astonishing depth of field between the homescreen icons and wallpaper behind them.

The home screen and main menu of the HTC Nexus One

The user now has five homescreen pages to work with, up from the original three.  Motorola’s MOTOBLUR interface already allows for this, and HTC’s Sense UI gives the user unique scenes, each with seven pages to work with.  The stock Android builds have always bored us, but the minor tweaks and improved visuals of 2.1 does a lot to remedy this.  Still, we found ourselves longing for the improved contact handling, visuals and custom widgets of Sense UI.  In our opinion Android was meant to be customized, the stock build is merely a canvas with which to work.

One thing we can say is that 2.1 flies, though we’re sure the 1GHz Snapdragon power plant has more to do with it than any software upgrade.   Everything from 3D effects to animations to opening apps to loading webpages is noticeably faster than the DROID, and much faster than the Hero and ERIS.  Even the Samsung Moment and its very respectable 800MHz processor is significantly slower, but Android 1.5 likely shoulders some of the blame on that one.

Messaging:

One of the standout features of Android 2.1 is the speech to text feature now available in any (yes, any) text field.  This means you can dictate emails, text messages, web searches…you name it.  As awesome as this is, it is still maddening to realize that Bluetooth headsets cannot be used with this service, and can still not be used to launch or control voice dialing on Android.  Google, how can you get so many things right and this basic feature so wrong?

The Gmail app is still the best on any device and since the launch of 2.0 we really appreciate being able to have multiple accounts integrated into it (honestly, who has just one account these days?!)  The email client supports POP, IMAP and Exchange out of the box ensuring compatibility with just about any service out there.  The messaging app remains unchanged.

The onscreen keyboard remains very good, but we found ourselves missing the keyboard options afforded by Sense UI.  Call us crazy, but we still prefer T9 to QWERTY in portrait mode, and there are some people (God love ‘em) who even like the compact QWERTY keyboard.  Whether or not you agree with this, options are always a good thing and HTC’s soft keyboards are the best in the business.

When we first caught wind that Google had something in the works for the mobile space everyone assumed it was a phone, but as we all know the big announcement revealed it was much more, an open-source mobile operating system.  The commercial launch of Android was important, but on the nation’s fourth largest carrier it was also relatively quiet despite selling well.  Last summer a second device- the HTC Magic/My Touch 3G- was added to T-Mobile’s lineup with a major marketing push behind it, and Motorola made its Android debut with the CLIQ.  In the fall Sprint became the second carrier to support Android with the launch of the HTC Hero followed quickly by the Samsung Moment.  Android was gaining momentum, but what really pushed it over the brink was the launch of the heavily-hyped Motorola DROID by the nation’s largest carrier, and alongside it the Hero-esque DROID ERIS. But amid the avalanche of new device launches and public awareness there again were whispers that we would see a Google Phone after all.

Say hello to the HTC Nexus One, sold exclusively through Google.  This phone shouldn’t be new to you however; we first spied it way back in October as the HTC Passion.  The Nexus One is indeed manufactured by HTC, and while the packaging makes no mention of this fact HTC has managed to get its logo directly on the phone.  Specs are impressive: a 3.7” AMOLED display, 5 megapixel autofocus camera with flash, 3G and Wi-Fi and- most importantly- a 1GHz Snapdragon processor.  Oh, and it’s the first device to run Android 2.1 as well.  In the box you’ll find a neoprene carrying pouch, cool-looking stereo headphones, microUSB data cable and AC adapter and an included 4GB microSD card installed.

Design:

We’re going to be upfront about this: the instant we unboxed the Nexus One and picked it up the first words out of our mouths were “We want this.”  After about five minutes with the device we had changed our minds, and here is why: at least in our normal-sized hands it’s just not comfortable to hold.  This is most apparently when navigating the menu in portrait mode, because the device is top heavy and the natural position is to hold onto the bottom half of the phone when using it.  While on a call, where one is more prone to extend the index finger along the length of the back the thing feels great, two-handed use in landscape mode is as comfortable as can be and even holding the device upside-down is pleasing.  But, the truth is that we use our phones most often with one hand and the Nexus One has a tendency to almost jump out of our hands.  We got laughed at for literally dropping it while sitting stationary navigating the interface, but when we handed the phone over the same thing happened and the laughter quickly turned into confusion.

The HTC Nexus One has a tendency to almost jump out of our hands

So, that is our main gripe with the Nexus One, let us move on.  The screen.  Oh my God the screen.  Not since Rachel Bilson’s big brown eyes lit up the OC have we gotten lost staring at something so easily.  It is massive, and it is beautiful.  The colors jump out at you, and while no official spec is listed we have to believe it is capable of 16 million colors.  It has a 480×800 pixels resolution with a 100,000:1 contrast ratio, and a superfast 1ms response rate.  Everything is so vivid and bright it’s almost like looking at a picture frame.  It is without a doubt the best display we’ve ever seen, though like the Samsung Moment the whites have a noticeable blue tint to them.  The display is gorgeous enough when viewed straight-on, but its brilliance really shines when viewed from awkward angles.  Everything is still super sharp, whereas the great displays on the DROID and iPhone lose their mojo.  

Next to Motorola DROID

You can compare the HTC Nexus One with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

Visually the HTC Nexus One looks very similar to Sprint’s Hero, but uses the touch-sensitive navigation keys like the DROID ERIS.  The layout of these keys are identical to the DROID, but the Nexus One adds a trackball (again, the smaller one like the ERIS) for added navigational options.  In terms of feel we prefer the larger ball of the Hero but aesthetically we understand why HTC chose the smaller ball.  The touch sensitive keys worked mostly ok when held in the typical position, though we did find ourselves having to hit the back key multiple times on several occasions.  When sitting on a table in front of us we had issues with all of the keys, leading us to believe that the sensor is closer to the top of the keys than centered or on the bottom.  This was mildly annoying.

Visually the HTC Nexus One looks very similar to Sprint’s Hero

The business-friendly gray comes in two different shades and the pattern strangely reminds us of Motorola’s ic502 hybrid CDMA/iDEN device.  Physical buttons are limited to the volume rocker on the left side and power button up top.  These both have minimal travel but enough to know that the button has been pressed.  The trackball can also be pressed to select items.  The microUSB (finally) charging/data port along with some dock connectors are on the bottom.  We’ve yet to see a dock accessory, but it is no doubt coming as it has passed the FCC (with Bluetooth, no less.)

The back of the HTC Nexus One has a large 5 megapixel camera with a single LED flash to its right.  There is a small cutout for the ample speaker, and almost hidden along the left side is a second microphone used for active noise cancellation.  The housing is Teflon-coated to resist dirt and grime, a trick we first saw on the white GSM Hero.  No “with Google” branding here, the Nexus One is simply branded “Google.”

The Nexus One is a beautifully boring phone.  There is no emphasis on style, yet it still remains an object of desire.  If HTC had evenly distributed the weight, or even made it bottom-heavy, the Nexus One would likely be our favorite phone out there.  The iPhone isn’t the most comfortable thing to hold either, but at least it doesn’t jump out of our hands.  We have a feeling that with a few weeks under our belt this will become less of an issue, but it still holds the Nexus One back from being truly great design-wise.  Still, we do kind of want one.

The Nokia N900 is a mobile Internet device and smartphone, from Nokia based on the Maemo platform, superseding the N810. It runs Maemo 5 Linux as its default operating system and is the first Nokia device based upon the TI OMAP3 microprocessor with the ARM Cortex-A8 core. Unlike the Internet Tablets preceding it, the Nokia N900 is the first Maemo device to include phone functionality (quad-band GSM and 3G UMTS). It functions as a 5 mega pixel camera, a portable media player, and a mobile Internet device with email and full web browsing. It was launched at Nokia World on 2 September 2009 and was released on 11 November 2009 in the United States and 9 European countries.

The N900 was launched alongside Maemo 5, giving the device an overall more touch-friendly interface than its predecessors and a customizable home screen which mixes application icons with shortcuts and widgets. Maemo 5 supports Adobe Flash Player 9.4, and includes many applications designed specifically for the mobile platform such as a new touch-friendly media player.

Context

There are two things that I would like to point out before you read the whole review. First, this N900 unit is a pre-production device, and as such, the pre-installed software that is used might be different from the final product that is shipped. Secondly, the general performance (and battery life) is probably going to improve, to some extent. We are close enough to the launch so that I don’t expect Nokia to ship something that is completely different, but still, you might want to check this page again for a post-launch update.

Also, I’m going to quickly describe how I use the device so that you can extrapolate how your own experience might be. I have been using the Nokia N900 as my main phone. I check my emails from 3 accounts: Exchange (work), Gmail (personal) and Hotmail (random junk account). I keep an eye on my friends’ Facebook updates and email often (I reply moderately). I browse the web several times a day to check on news and the stock market but I don’t call much (about 10mn a day). I have WiFi ON all the time.

Physical Design (Nice, but chubby)

The Nokia N900 design is clean. It has a full qwerty sliding keyboard, which is practical for typing comfortably. However, this also contributes to the thickness of the N900. The keyboard keys remind me of the HTC Touch Pro as they are small and densely packed. The sliding mechanism is solid and that’s good because I feel like this device has been designed to use in landscape mode. Typing speed is on par with the Nokia N97: not optimum, but still better than a virtual keyboard. On the back, there is a 5 megapixel digital camera with dual-LED flash and a lens cover. There is a VGA front camera too.

On the top and bottom, there are two speakers. They are used in games, but also during calls in “speaker mode”. The sound quality is decent, but not as good as the iPhone 3GS.

The WVGA (800×480) touch display is superb and it is surprisingly accurate (it uses resistive technology, so you can use your nails), it’s practical to put the cursor wherever I want. Despite its resistive technology, it is very reactive and doesn’t require a lot of pressure to operate. Unfortunately, it does not support multi-touch, which would have been nice.

Phone basics (Very good)

Searching and finding contacts to place a call is very easy with the Nokia N900. At first, I was worried that an “internet tablet” with phone functions might not cover the basic “phone stuff” well, but I’m glad to see that the N900 is an efficient voice device. If you don’t want to slide the keyboard out, Nokia has implemented a quick way to find contacts: you can quickly go through an alphabetically sorted list. Once a contact is found the N900 will propose to connect via a phone call, or via a VOIP service like Skype. It is possible to place a Skype-to-Skype or a Skype-to-phone (SkypeOut) call from the handset which is awesome to save money, especially when roaming is involved. Make sure that you are not using international data roaming to call though! It is possible to place Skype calls via WiFi and via a 3G network (I’m using T-Mobile’s 3G network right now).

When not using the physical keyboard, there is a virtual keyboard that will appear whenever you are in an editable field. The virtual keyboard is large an comfortable because it takes most of the screen space. Thanks to its size, the error rate is lower, but the virtual keyboard works only in landscape mode. If you want, you can de-activate the virtual keyboard completely in the settings. Personally, I find it faster to slide the physical keyboard out when I need to type something.

Web Browsing (Excellent)

Yay! Flash ads are working too! Err wait… hahaha

The Nokia N900 uses the Maemo web browser, which is built with technology from Mozilla, the foundation behind Firefox. You can find more information about it from Maemo or Nokia, but there are a few things that I would like to point out:

Hulu works, but not fast enough yet

Flash support: The N900’s Maemo Browser is the first mobile browser that I have tried that has Flash 9.4 support. Yes, it means that you can go to Vimeo, Hulu or Youtube (for desktops) and it works… but… video playback in a window is significantly slower than on a desktop machine, so although Flash support is there, the actual experience isn’t (yet). There are good news: in full-screen mode, Youtube videos run fast enough to be enjoyable. At the moment, that’s not the case for Hulu or Vimeo unfortunately. Remember that the Nokia N900 has to manage a lot more pixels (800×480=384000) than an iPhone (480×320=153600). I suspect that the Flash player still needs some work and my sense is that Nokia engineers will have to write the low-level optimizations that take advantage of the hardware. It may come by launch time, but we won’t know until then.

A double-tap in the text zone will make it fit the screen

Zoom modes: The Nokia N900 does not support multi-touch, so pinch and zoom is out, but Nokia came up with a “spinning” motion to zoom. It doesn’t work all that great, but it’s good enough to get the job done. I just feel like my finger has been traveling 10 times the distance, when compared to pinch and zoom. Another way to zoom quickly is to simply use the volume button. It’s convenient, except if you want to change the volume while streaming music in the web browser. Yet a better way to zoom is the double-tap: upon a double tap, the browser will look at the structure of the page and will try to zoom so that you can see the entire element that has been tapped on (image, text block or else). If you double-tap on a zone that is perfectly readable, the browser will assume that you want to zoom out and will do so. In practice, it works very well, but it depends on how the page is formatted. Douple-tap is my preferred way of zooming into content.

Hover mode: Some websites (especially Flash sites) do require a mouse cursor to hover above a user interface item. That thwarts many mobile browsers, but not this one.

A hot question in forums, and the answer is YES, Google Docs works

Web apps: Google Docs and Google Wave work too, although sometimes very slowly. It is fair to assume that most web services and websites will work without any issues, in fact I have not found one site that was not fully functional, but complex sites (heavy use of Flash or Ajax) will often be too slow to use on the N900. Overall, the web experience is excellent, and it’s great that most sites don’t even need zooming, if you have sharp eyes.

Rating: Note that I rate the web browsing experience as “excellent” because all web functionalities work and the page rendering is… excellent. That said, I still consider the web browsing experience on the iPhone 3GS to be more pleasant because the device is more reactive to user input and the (pinch and) zoom feature is better and faster.

Email (Very good)

E-mail is pretty efficient, no complaints there

Out of the box, the Nokia N900 supports a large number of email services like .Mac, AIM, AOL, Hotmail, EarthLink, Yahoo and many more. If you use one of the available mail services, all you need is your account login information. If not, you will be asked for the mail server name, port and so on. It is possible to add several email accounts. In my case, I’m using Exchange, Gmail and Hotmail.

Creating and sending an email is done quickly and efficiently, but the Nokia N900 user interface has not been designed to be email centric: there’s no homepage that tells you how many emails are waiting (and from who). Getting to the email application can require two or three taps, which is a lot if you check email frequently. Of course, that could simply be solved by an “email widget” (not available right now). Overall, it would be nice to have a faster access to email information.

Conversations (Good)

IM and SMS messages are grouped in a single thread named “Conversations”. Currently, the N900 supports the following IM services: Ovi, Skype, Google Talk, Jabber and SIP. I can only assume that more will follow, but that’s what I have today. I like the idea of having all my conversations in a single list, but if I start an exchange with one of my friends by SMS, then continue on Skype, this will show up as two different threads. In short: the N900 is not yet people-centric like MotoBlur or Palm’s Synergy. Android 2.0 will have something like that, so I hope that Maemo will follow.

Photos/video captures (Excellent/Very good)

I’m pretty impressed by the photo quality, fulls-size photos on Flickr

Photos: The Nokia N900 is by far the best camera-phone that I’ve tried. Out of the box, the color balance and contrast are closer to what they should be. I’m very impressed with the photo quality.

Video: Video capture is done in 848×480 pixels (3.4Mbps, 22.3fps, AAC mono 48kHz), which is way higher than any Android phone that I know of, and superior (in resolution) to the iPhone 3GS, which records in 640×480 at 30fps. In good lighting conditions, the videos are really nice and detailed. In dim lighting, you will be able to see compression artifacts, but overall, the video recording is very good – I just wish that we had the option to trade off resolution for faster frame-rate.

You might wonder if it’s possible to use the flash as a flashlight when filming videos: I have not found this function, but I’ll keep an eye open.

Maemo user interface (Simple)

The user interface is reactive and fairly simple

It’s the first time that I have been using Maemo extensively. I’m not going to review the OS here, but the user interface is very responsive, which is definitely a plus. It’s very different from Android, Windows Mobile or the iPhone, but it doesn’t take very long to get used to it. There’s a “close window” icon at the upper-right of the screen just like most desktop OS. It works on app thumbnails too. On the upper-left, there’s a task view icon, which is equivalent to ALT-Tab in Windows. It will show all currently opened apps as thumbnails. If you press the “Power” button, it acts like a Ctrl-Alt-Del and brings a menu that lets you kill the current app, go the phone mode, lock the screen and more…

There is a main dashboard that lists all the applications, but there’s also a panoramic dashboard (up to 4x screens big) that you can customize with shortcuts and widgets. There are arguably not a lot of widgets at the moment, but Maemo has a lot of potential.

I prefer Maemo over the Symbian OS 9.4 found in the N97, partly because it is more reactive (the hardware helps too), but also because the user interface is just better in general.

Performance (Very good)

There is no real benchmark to measure absolute performance from one handset to the next, but I guess that “reactivity” is a metric that we’re all sensitive to. In that sense, the N900 is much better than the N97. It reacts quickly, even when there are multiple applications running in the background. For multitasking, I found the N900 to be superior to many Android phones that I have tested so far (except the Droid).

3D graphics in the game Bounce Evolution

The N900 comes with OpenGL ES 2.0 support and this unit was loaded with “bounce evolution” a 3D game with simple, but relatively fast 3D graphics (somewhere in between the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 3GS). The game doesn’t seem to use any GL ES 2.0 features (it’s more like a GL 1.x game) but the frame rate was around 25 to 30fps. It will be interesting to see what type of games will come out for the Maemo platform. Theoretically, the iPhone 3GS uses a PowerVR graphics processor (the SGX535, versus the N900’s SGX530) that is supposed to be twice as fast at drawing polygons. Updated 12/03/2009: Take a look at the Nokia N900 WebGL demo.

As it is the case with multi-task capable smartphones, having more programs running in the background will slow things down. Fortunately, the N900 is shows you exactly what’s running and makes it easy to shut things down. That’s not the case with current Android phones.

Entertainment (Good, needs content)

At the moment, the best way to enjoy the N900 as an entertainment device is to copy media files to it. There’s ample room (up to 32GB internally+16GB via micro-SD) and that’s how you’ll get the best image quality for the videos. Music is pretty easy to acquire, but videos formatted to the optimum size and bitrate is another story. I hope that Nokia will provide videos via the Ovi Store soon.

YouTube web video (plays very slowly)

Web videos: Of course, there’s always online video services like YouTube or Hulu. At the moment, YouTube works “OK” in fullscreen but could be better. Hulu “technically” works, but it is definitely not fast enough to be enjoyable. Flash is supposed to bring a world of videos to the N900, and I’ve seen some N900 demos showing YouTube working better than what I’ve seen on this particular unit. Let’s wait for the final release to drop a verdict.

Transformers played from the Flash memory

Videos files: The Nokia N900 is capable of playing DVD-resolution videos. The real issue is to find digital video files that have been properly sized and compressed to take advantage of the device’s screen and decoding capabilities. Video playback formats: Video playback file formats: .mp4, .avi, .wmv, .3gp; codecs: H.264, MPEG-4, Xvid, WMV, H.263. Video streaming formats: H.264, MPEG-4, Xvid, WMV, H.263 in .avi, .mp4, .wmv, .asf and .3gp containers.

Music playback interface

Music player: it’s easy: browse by Artist, Songs, Genres or Playlists by scrolling or by typing the first letters. There’s no search function that’s based in keywords. For example, you won’t find the song “Magic Words” by typing “words”. It should be OK if you don’t have thousands of songs. The playback interface itself is pretty classic will all the options that you would expect. The sound quality (tested with Bose Quietcomfort 15 headphones) is very good.

Photo gallery

Photo gallery: it is on par with what you can find on Android, but it’s definitely not as fast as the iPhone 3GS or the Zune HD.

The Nokia N900 (middle, bottom) connected to a 52–inch Samsung TV

TV-Out: The Nokia N900 connects to a TV via an analog video out (it uses the 3.5mm jack). It would probably work best with a 30″ screen. I tested it on a 52″ LCD TV and with the length of the cable (3 or 4 feet), I was a bit too close. Readers, what would you use the TV-Out for? (add a comment at the bottom)

Broadcast the audio output via FM

FM transmitter: The N900 can transmit all audio output on an FM channel (user selectable). That allows you to listen to music (or games) wirelessly on a better audio system, without the hassle associated to cables and Bluetooth. It works in cars of course.

Applications (Waiting for more)

As I said earlier, I’m using a pre-release Nokia N900 and the official app store is not yet open/populated, so it’s hard to judge the quality of the software offering right now – there’s just not enough stuff to look at. I’ll highlight a few apps that I use a lot, and we’ll see what will be available at launch time and shortly after. What I do know is that the Maemo community is very active.

Ovi Maps 1.0 is loaded on my pre-release unit

Mapping: This Nokia N900 is loaded with Ovi Maps 1.0, which is quite a step down from Ovi Maps 3.0 as you can imagine. I have not found a way to download maps and use maps in “offline mode” to avoid map downloads (one of the best features of Nokia Maps to save $$$ while traveling abroad). There’s no Google Maps apps on the N900 (yet) so “street view” is another feature that I sometime miss. Google Maps also has much better coverage for places like Tokyo, Japan. In a pinch that might be very handy. Ovi Maps 1.0 is “ok” to get by, but I can’t wait to see something more robust.

We needs social network apps. Widgets+Sites are not good enough

Facebook Widget: The Facebook widget displays status updates and tells you how many messages there are in your inbox. If you want to take action, it will send you to the Facebook website that is perfectly functional with the Maemo Browser. That is however not as convenient as having a mobile Facebook app, like the ones found on other smartphone platforms. There’s too much bandwidth usage due to the web page download, where a Facebook App would only need to download the actual data (status updates or messages).

No MMS support: The Nokia N900 does not support MMS at this point. I haven’t sent an MMS since I had my SE T68i, but some users do care about MMS, so I thought that it was important.

With the “To Go” series, you can read office documents

Office apps: Word to Go, Sheet to Go and Slideshow to Go are loaded on the N900. I have a trial version which it can read office files, but not edit them. There is also a PDF reader application on the N900. If you want to take notes (text only) or do quick sketches, there are a couple of apps that will do just that. There is no voice recording application on the phone right now.

Misc: Maemo is full of features, and I can’t cover every aspect of it, but I recommend taking a look at this compilation of tips for the power user that includes keyboard shortcuts and all. Check the Maemo applications too.

Battery Life

Just like most phones in its class, the battery life (with WiFi ON at all times) is less than 24hrs with very moderate use (basically sit around and fetch emails/notifications). With intense use, I doubt that you could use it for a full working day. In any case, the N900 will need to be charged at least every day, or you will find a dead phone in the morning. In this video a Nokia employee says that the goal was to get a “one day” of “full usage” (3:20). This might be improved by the time it launches.

Things that could be better

Left: iPhone 3GS, Right: Nokia N900

Left: Motorola Droid, Right: Nokia N900

Form factor: The N900 is on the bulky side, and while this could be justified by how powerful this device is (I’m not so sure of that), the fact is that the form factor might simply be too big for many potential users. Secondly, equally fast devices like the Motorola Droid with full Qwerty keyboards are noticeably thinner. There are sacrifices that need to be made in order to achieve sexiness: stylus, lock button, TV out, high-end lens, dual-flash, infra-red port and front camera: many would happily trade all of that for a thinner device. Apple’s strength with the iPhone is not to have every feature, it’s about adding the ones that matter the most at that time, while preserving the “soul” of the phone. It’s time for difficult choices.

Landscape mode bias: The N900 doesn’t work