Nokia 5250 review: Back to basics

Introduction

They made a promise and kept it. What can we say – nice phone this Nokia 5250, but not an N8. Yeah we know, we need to be respectful and professional. But it’s easy to be a jerk to a 100-euro smartphone.
The Symbian-powered Nokia 5250 is bottom of the smartphone barrel. The low price suggests the feature set is going to be pretty spartan. Which doesn’t mean it’ll fight in the shade. It’s rather going to get into brawls with some pretty basic dumbphones.

Nokia 5250 official photos
The question here is who’s ready to sacrifice most of the features that make a smartphone, to save a few bucks. Alright some of Nokia’s touchscreen smartphones have been going around for peanuts but the 5250 is the lowest bidder by far. Some of the value-adding options don’t cost that much any more. But the Nokia 5250 encourages exactly the opposite kind of thinking. No budget is too tight and no feature is too important.

Key features

• Quad-band GSM, EDGE support
• 2.8" 16M-color 360 x 640 pixel resistive touchscreen
• S60 5th Edition (a.k.a. Symbian^1)
• ARM 11 434 MHz processor; 128MB of RAM
• 2 MP fixed-focus camera
• VGA (640 x 480 pixel) video recording @ 30fps
• Stereo Bluetooth v2.0
• microSD slot, microUSB port
• Accelerometer and proximity sensor
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• FM radio with RDS
• Stylus tucked inside the phone's body
• Excellent loudspeaker performance
• Good audio quality
• Web browser has Flash video support

Main disadvantages

• No 3G, Wi-Fi and GPS receiver
• Poor screen quality
• Doesn’t charge off USB
• No preloaded Office document viewer
• No support for DivX/XviD videos out-of-the-box
• Gets sluggish as the memory card starts filling up
• No USB cable or memory card in the retail package

Being affordable is a big plus for a product and a short but focused spec sheet can be an advantage as well. After all, some people get confused by too many features while others just don’t need them. And they might be glad to have the 5250 around. So, the Nokia 5250 is the right phone for the right person. As indeed every other phone out there is designed to be.
There is no Wi-Fi, even 3G is missing from the specs sheet. And you won’t find an inbuilt GPS receiver either. But the bare minimum is covered. You still get quad-band GSM support and stereo Bluetooth and a decent 2.8 touchscreen.

Nokia 5250 live shots
The 2 megapixel snapper lacks autofocus, LED flash or geotagging but it can at least shoot VGA videos. There is a great music player, an FM radio with RDS and a reasonably stocked app market.
Now, let’s see what’s inside that tiny retail box. And then we’ll take a look at the phone’s build and finish.

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Nokia World 2010 live coverage: Nokia E7, C7, C6, N8, C3

Introduction

Nokia World 2010 has already started and we are reporting live from the event. We will be publishing the live photos and videos of the newly announced devices in this article along with our first impressions so make sure to keep an eye on it.This year's Nokia World 2010 started a few hours ago. Here's a video from the grand opening:The official announcements of the Nokia new business flagship - E7 and the mid-range touch-driven Nokia C7 and NokiaC6-01. All three new devices run on the Symbian^3 OS so unless we see another announcement tomorrow MeeGo fans will leave London disappointed.

The progress Nokia has made from the first Communicator to the E7 and the rest
As the Nokia Executive Vice President in charge of Nokia's Mobile Solutions Anssi Vanjoki put it the new OS keeps the familiar interface but performs a lot better and adds plenty of new features. Well we will see about that soon, after we spend some quality time with each of the new phones.

A few photos to give you a feel of the Nokia World event
Oh and we'll have a chance to check out that N8 monster of a cameraphone so there's every reason for you to stay tuned. The first portion of live images follows after the break.

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HTC 2010 event coverage: The droids are coming

It's HTC's turn to announce their new phones. As expected, HTC announced the Desire's successor, the HTC Desire HD, and the QWERTY-packing HTC Desire Z. The new droids will expand HTC's portfolio in the high-end and are sure to become a common theme in geek dreams.There have been plenty of leaks and we feel like we already know these phones. The HTC Desire HD is the GSM version of the HTC Evo 4G - 4.3" inches of touchscreen, 8MP of camera with 720p video recording.The HTC Desire Z already launched as the T-Mobile G2 - bringing Android back to its QWERTY roots and succeeding the first ever droid, the T-Mobile G1. Both will launch with Android 2.2 Froyo. The Desire Z has an S-LCD screen, while the Desire HD has a regular LCD. In some regions, the HTC Desire HD and Desire Z should be available as soon as next month.

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HTC Aria Review

Introduction

First we were hit by a Wildfire, now we’re being soothed by an Aria. The HTC Aria shares a lot of DNA with the HD mini, but makes the jump to Android and is ready to take on compact touchscreen midrangers.

HTC Aria official photos
The HTC Aria goes against the current trend of ever growing touchscreens. HTC are already pushing the limits with the 4.3” display on the Evo 4G. The Aria settles for a more compact 3.2” screen and it opts out of the gigahertz race too – with a 600MHz CPU inside.
But it doesn’t show – the software on the HTC Aria is ticking fast and smooth, no lags and speed bumps. And that’s on Eclair – when Froyo arrives it will make things even smoother.
Here’s how much (or how little in fact) the Aria has changed since the HD mini.

Key features

• 3.2" 256K-color HVGA capacitive touchscreen with multi-touch input
• Compact body and bold industrial design
• Android 2.1 Eclair with Sense UI
• Qualcomm MSM7227 600 MHz CPU and 384MB RAM
• Quad-band GSM support with dual-band HSDPA 7.2Mbps and HSUPA 2 Mbps
• Wi-Fi b/g connectivity
• Built-in GPS receiver with A-GPS support
• 5 MP autofocus camera; touch focus, geotagging and face detection
• VGA video recording at 30fps
• microSD card slot (32GB supported, 2GB included)
• Office documents and PDF viewer
• Optical trackpad
• Standard microUSB port and Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP
• Standard 3.5mm audio jack
• Stereo FM radio with RDS
• Flash support in the browser
• YouTube client, Facebook and Twitter integration
• Very good audio quality
• Excellent loudspeaker performance
• Handwriting recognition
• USB tethering

Main disadvantages

• Poor display sunlight legibility
• Patchy Flash support in the browser
• Card slot under the battery cover
• No DivX/XviD video support out-of-the-box
• No secondary video-call camera
• No voice dialing
• No dedicated camera key, no lens cover and no camera flash

The front has changed a bit – mostly the keys and the fresh addition of an optical trackpad. The signature screws on the back are here again – they serve both a decorative and a practical purpose, not to mention they make the HTC Aria look tough and rugged.

HTC Aria live shots
Other than that, the HTC Aria promises the same solid user experience as the other HTC droids with Sense UI. It comes with a great software package out of the box (Office document viewer, social networking apps) so we don’t anticipate any problems on that score.
The HTC Android genealogy is getting quite tangled up – the Legend is Hero’s successor and the Wildfire is a bite-sized Desire, with the HTC Aria sitting somewhere in-between those two.
The devil’s in the details though. Its specs are very close to both the Wildfire and the Legend, so it’s going to be the minor differences that decide which one you get. So, pay attention as we open up the box and examine the hardware of the Aria.

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Samsung P1000 Galaxy Tab hands-on

Samsung P1000 Galaxy Tab is Samsung’s move onto the tablet warfield and luckily we are right here in the battle fray to give you first-hand scoop from the announcement event. Some might argue that it’s rather a step down from laptops but the Samsung Galaxy Tab smartphone DNA is obvious from the moment you touch it.

Samsung P1000 Galaxy Tab official photos
The 7-inch Android tablet has full phone functionality and the only thing that separates it from being called an insanely oversized cell phone is the fact that you cannot make phone calls by holding it next to your ear. The rest of the specs sheet looks like it belongs to a cell phone if you don’t mind the oversized screen.

Samsung P1000 Galaxy Tab at a glance

• Form factor: Tablet
• Size: 190.09 x 120.45 x 11.98mm, 380g
• Display: 16M colors 7” TFT LCD capacitive touchscreen of WVGA resolution
• OS: Android 2.2 Froyo
• CPU: 1 GHz Hummingbird CPU with PowerVR SGX540 graphics accelerator, 512 MB of RAM
• Camera: 3.2 MP autofocus camera with D1 video recording; LED flash
• Memory: 16 GB internal memory, expandable through a microSD card slot
• Connectivity: quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and tri-band (900/1900/2100 MHz) UMTS with HSDPA 7.2 Mbps and HSUPA 5.76 Mbps support, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Assisted GPS, Bluetooth 3.0, 30-pin connector
• Battery: 4,000mAh (Up to 7 hours of video playback)
• Extra features: Gyro sensor, accelerometer sensor for automatic UI rotation, ambient light sensor, Adobe Flash Player 10.1 support

However the Samsung P1000 Galaxy Tab specs don’t have the privilege to be considered in isolation. With the biggest player in the tablet world also belonging to the phone OS tablet category, the Tab will always be compared to it. The Apple iPad has quite a head start and it will be hard for a newcomer to steal the spotlight, but so was the iPhone back in the day and that didn’t stop Samsung from trying.
So here’s a brief look at what the two big guns hold as advantages over each other.

Samsung Galaxy P1000 Tab over Apple iPad

• Lighter and smaller, easier on the pocket
• Telephony (including 3G video calls)
• 3.2 MP camera with D1 video recording @ 30 fps and LED flash
• Android OS v2.2 Froyo
• Proper multitasking (though the iPad is getting that too in couple of months)
• microSD card slot for memory expansion
• Uses regular size SIM card
• 16:9 widescreen display
• Adobe Flash player 10.1
• Bluetooth 3.0

Apple iPad over Samsung P1000 Galaxy Tab

• Larger screen
• Better viewing angles of the display
• Metal body
• iOS 3.1.3 with more than 25 000 apps written for it
• Larger internal storage (iPad 64GB)
• Longer battery life

There’s something we would like to highlight in the lists above. The first items in each of them turn this into a choice between handling and functionality (because a tablet’s main feature is its screen), which boils down to picking your priorities, rather than picking the better of two.

Hands-on photos with the Galaxy Tab
And that leads us to suspect that it may not be a battle for survival between those two. There might just be a spot in the sun for both of those cool gadgets after all. But it’s still too early to tell as we have a whole lot of touching to do before we make any conclusions. And even if those two do eventually settle in their own corners of the ring, punches will fly quite heavily at one stage or another.

Samsung's hall 20 at IFA 2010
So let’s not waste any more time and see what the Galaxy Tab does in real life. After all specs are a good place to start but they don’t even begin to tell the whole story.

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BlackBerry Bold 9780 gets reviewed before getting official

BlackBerry Bold 9780 still exist only in the rumorland, but it already has its review and even a video walkthrough. It's safe to say the secrets of the Bold 9780 broke loose and there is nothing left for RIM to surprise us.
When we first met the BlackBerry Bold 9780 three months ago, it was still rumored to be called Onyx II. Well, it seems the 9780 is keeping the Bold tradition and will succeed the previous Bold 9700.
The new Bold 9780 looks similar to its predecessor, but comes with 5 megapixel camera, 512MB RAM and runs on the latest BlackBerry OS6. The rest of the specs are pretty much the same – HVGA display, full QWERTY keyboard, an optical trackpad, Wi-Fi, 3G with HSDPA, GPS and microSD card slot. There is no word on the processor yet.

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Apple sells 14.1M iPhones, scores another record-breaking quarter

Oh, boy, is this a good time to be an Apple shareholder or what! The company has just published its financial report for the quarter ending in September and things just couldn't be better. The company posted revenue of 20.34 billion US dollars, of which 4.31 billion were net profit.
Not only are those the best results ever achieved by Apple, they are also immensely better than the one for the same period last year. In Q3 of 2009 the numbers stood at 12.21 billion and 2.53 billion dollars respectively.
The main driving force behind this spectacular success is the iPhone 4, which generated more than 14.1 million sales (a 91 percent year-on-year growth). In other words, they've almost doubled their iPhone sales. Now Apple has a worldwide market share of over 5.5 percent, which is really something considering the average selling price of 629 dollars. Plus, shortages have been plaguing the iPhone 4 ever since it was launched.
In fact Apple has just surpassed Sony Ericsson figures in terms of sheer number of units sold and depending on the LG, Motorola and RIM results, Apple might has just secured itself a place in the world's Top 5 mobile phone manufacturers.
The other Apple products did impressively over the past three months too (save for the iPods that recorded an 11 percent decline in sales). A total of 3.89 million Macs were shipped, a 27 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter, but the real success story is the iPad, which sold in 4.19 million units. Yep, Apple has sold more iPads than Macs.
In his speech at the Apple's earning's call, Steve Jobs confirmed that a 7-inch iPad isn't in the works as the company doesn't believe that a screen that small would be enough for high-quality apps to be created. So a direct battle between Samsung and Apple won't happen until early next year, when the Koreans will, presumably, launch their 10-inch slate.
In the Q&A session following the official presentation, Peter Oppenheimer, the Apple's CFO, shared that the free-bumper program has so far cost them "just over 100 million [USD]".

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Palm Pre 2 official, available this Friday, runs webOS 2.0

Meet the Palm Pre 2. This time officially. The thing showed up a few days back but now it's as official as it gets. And it's due this Friday. Along with some great new features, the Palm Pre 2 will arrive with the brand new webOS 2.0.
There aren't that many improvements brought by the Pre 2 but the ones listed may as well be enough to make upgrading worthwhile (if you happen to be a Pre or Pre Plus owner). The plastic screen is now gone - it's been replaced by a durable glass one. Unfortunately, contrary to rumors, the screen size and resolution remained untouched - 3.1 inches and HVGA (320 x 480 pixels), respectively.
While the amount of built-in RAM and storage (512MB RAM and 16GB of non-upgradeable storage) are the same again, the processor got way faster (as expected). The new Palm Pre 2 has a zippy 1GHz CPU.

Palm Pre 2 official photos
The sharp edges are gone as well and so is the 3MP snapper. You get a 5-megapixel one instead. Unfortunately, as before, there is no autofocus.
As for the HP webOS 2.0, it brings a handful of improvements (including even better multi-tasking, Just Type with Quick Actions, etc.) but the greatest thing about it is that Adobe Flash Player 10.1 Beta is finally here allowing you to watch videos, play games and more while web browsing.
The Palm Pre 2 will run the webOS 2.0 from day one while the older webOS-driven devices will get an update at some point in the near future.
The GSM version of the all new Palm Pre 2 is said to first hit the SFR stores in France on Friday and tad later its CDMA-compatible twin should become available at the Verizon Wireless stores across the US. There is no word on the Palm Pre 2 pricing yet.

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HTC Desire HD now available in UK online stores

The HTC Desire HD has been featured in numerous pre-release articles but it's only now that you are finally able to go and actually buy it. It's just you won't have to go anywhere as it's available in the online UK stores for several carriers, as well as a SIM-free version, too.
The beefy droid topped performance benchmarks, as it should - it has more RAM than some netbooks (768MB), and it's a champ at booting too. The Desire HD also features the latest Sense UI with HTCSense.com integration.
The site uSwitch has the HTC Desire HD on sale with a handy configurator to choose your plan (carrier, cost, minutes, texts, mobile Internet, etc.), starting from free. They have it SIM-free as well - it will set you back 465 pounds (that works out to 530 euro).
Expansys offer the Desire HD as well - 499 pounds (570 euro) or on a two-year Vodafone plan for free (35 pounds a month). On some other sites like Play.com, the HTC Desire HD is still on preorder but is expected to go on sale next Monday (October 25).

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BlackBerry Bold 9780

The highly rumored BlackBerry Bold 9780 is almost official - it has just been spotted on the Vodafone Netherlands web page and should hit the market soon. And while we've already seen the smartphone before, its specs sheet was still missing. Up until now.
Now, thanks to Vodafone Netherlands, we can finally take a closer look at the BlackBerry Bold 9780 specs list and see what's under the phone's hood.
Sadly, there is still no information on the thing's processor, but the rest is all there on the Vodafone website. Even the price - the Bold 9780 is expected to start selling for 509 euro commitment-free price.
The BlackBerry Bold 9780 is powered by the recently introduced BlackBerry OS 6.0 and packs a hardware QWERTY keyboard, 512MB of RAM, a built-in GPS receiver and support for 3G with HSPA, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
The Bold 9780 screen measures 2.44 inches but Vodafone is mum on its resolution (rumor has it's an HVGA display). As for the camera, it is capable of taking 5MP stills.

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Eclair-running Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10

The Android 2.1 Eclair update for the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 is still cooking, but their product blog is letting us have another taste with another video of the new firmware running on an X10 and all the goodies that it brings.
The first videos, showed off camera update - 720p video with continuous autofocus - and didn't spend much time on the UI changes. This new video digs a little deeper - the custom Timescape on the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 is first.
It's reportedly more responsive and now auto-scrolls the text in tiles (e.g. Facebook), so you don't have to open up the dedicated app just to read longer messages. Android 2.1 itself brings goodies - Live Wallpapers were shown off in the first videos, Quick Contacts and the SNS-enabled phonebook are the stars of this show.
The in-call interface on the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 has been improved too. Check out the video in question to see how it works (the video is shot with another updated X10).

Like last time, you can leave a comment at the Sony Ericsson Product Blog if you're interested in seeing some of the other new stuff the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 will get once the Android 2.1 Eclair firmware passes the testing phase.

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LG C900 with QWERTY muscle leaks next, WP7 ticks inside

Remember those two LGs leaked yesterday? Here is another one. The Windows Phone 7 running LG C900 is the QWERTY brother of E900 offering the same power, but on a smaller screen.

LG C900
LG C900 is rumored to pack a 1GHz QSD8650 Snapdragon core, which is supposed to be the same as the E900's one. The rest of the known specs are a 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen, all-round connectivity, 3.5mm audio jack and microUSB port. And one more thing, the device should be heavy because its body is seriously all-metal.

LG C900

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Palm reveals key webOS 2.0 features, beta now available

Palm's webOS 2.0 is coming by the end of the year but today's big news is that the first webOS 2.0 beta has just been released. Sadly, it's only made been available for developers. They are getting the webOS 2.0 SDK beta as well. At least we get a sneak peek at some key webOS 2.0 features - there's no word (or rumor) of a new WebOS device just yet.
One of the major advantages of the webOS over its rivals is the way it deals with multiple apps running at the same time. Thanks to the webOS cards, multi-tasking is easy and fun. But as of version 2.0 the cards are taken to a whole new level with Stacks. Now, related cards are grouped together in stacks so it's easier to move between multiple simultaneously running apps.
Another news brought by the webOS 2.0 is the Exhibition feature. With its help the device transforms into a portable entertainment and information center once it's docked on the Palm Touchstone Charging Dock.
Thanks to the Node.js runtime environment support, which is built into the new webOS 2.0, developer will be able to create not only webOS applications but JavaScript web apps that will run as the native ones. The webOS 2.0 will also bring some new HTML5 features and enhancements.
Palm will also encourage developers to release more webOS compatible apps by helping them seamlessly port apps from other platforms to the webOS.
Another new features, the Universal Search, is not simply a search tool anymore. Instead it's renamed to Just Type and it will allow for Quick Actions, which let you quickly write an email or a text message, update your status or search the Internet. And what's more important, you won't have to open a new app to do any of those - you can do it straight from the screen - just type!
Synergy, another webOS feature that we like, is expected to get even better.
So, the webOS lives on. HP kept its word and continues the hard work on the webOS even after the acquisition of Palm. The latest and greatest webOS version should be released by the end of the year - it's just not clear on what devices it will ship.

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Apple reveals iOS 4.1 for iPhone, promises 4.2 in November

Tonight at its annual music-centric event Apple dropped the bomb on a handful of iPhone news as well. Most of all, it's the iOS 4.1 update for iPhone. The Apple iPad will sit this one out but will join in on the fun with iOS 4.2 in November.
iOS 4.1 for iPhone is mainly a bug-fixing update but it introduces several new features as well. The bugs we're talking about here are well-known - issues with the proximity sensor and Bluetooth functionality of iPhone 4 plus the dismal performance on the iPhone 3G. Beside that iOS 4.1 brings about the much awaited Game Center functionality, some in-camera HDR magic, and HD video uploads (plus TV show rentals, if you care).

iOS 4.1 update is mainly a bugfix release but has a few new features up its sleeve
While iOS 4.1 will hit only the compatible models of the iPhone and iPod Touch, the next version of the iOS - 4.2 - will make sure the iPad gets up to speed as well. iOS 4.2 will be available to iPhone, iPod and iPad all at the same time - but you'll have to wait till November to get it. iPad users won't be happy.

iOS 4.2 update is coming to both iPhone and iPad in November
Besides showing the iPad some love, the iOS 4.2 update will bring along a new feature to the iPhone just as well. AirPlay will allow you to stream multimedia to and from your iDevice.
But back to iOS 4.1 update, the star of tonight's show. If you don't remember Game Center from the initial iOS 4 announcement, we'd be happy to remind you it's a way to add a social, multiplayer element to all compatible games in the AppStore. Besides the obvious benefit of displaying overall rankings and scoreboards, Game Center will also allow you to invite friends to a quick game or play in multiplayer mode with total strangers.

Game Center has been eagerly awaited since Day 1
The next new feature, HDR photography, is not exactly new to the iPhone. We've had apps do real HDRs on iPhone 4 before, but it's nice to have the HDR engine straight in the default camera interface. HDR on a cameraphone is not a new concept but it's only recently making its way to other smartphones. Anyway, we're sure you'll enjoy it. Just remember - use it, but don't abuse it.

In-camera HDR is sure lots of fun
Here's a nice HDR shot we made with the iPhone 4 using the dedicated, paid HDR Pro application.

A HDR shot we took with the iPhone 4
iOS 4.1 update will be available next week. We really hope it gets jailbroken fast enough.
Apple also announced a new iPod Touch among other things this evening and though it bears the iPhone 4 specs, it's impressively thin. And it shoots HD video. We'll cover that and all the rest of announcements tomorrow in our more general tech blog.

The next generation of iPod Touch is impressively equipped and still cutting edge thin

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