The Nokia Guide

No Nseries devices with Optical zoom in 2008?

Nokia is really pushing the imaging side of their Nseries line with the N82 probably sporting the best camera in any mobile device. But in my opinion a camera phone is not complete until it has optical zoom. A pretty reliable source has stated that we won’t be seeing any Nseries devices this year with optical zoom. After getting both the N93 and N93i with 3X optical zooming, Nokia has been skipping this feature for way too long and having to wait till 2009 to get this feature is a bit of a disappointment. This type of information is still regarded as rumor until we see the actual products. And hopefully this is one of those rumor will stay just that: a rumor. So Nokia, if you are going to top the N82, the next device has got to have optical zooming.

Nokia N96 specs leaked! DVB-H, 16GB internal memory, microSD slot, FP2 inside.

Stefan over at Intomobile has the scoop on the soon-to-be-released Nokia N96. When I say soon- to- be- released I have a feeling it’s going to be pretty soon, something like next week in Barcelona maybe? It seems like the Nokia.de site has posted the specs of the N96 a bit too early which might either indicate too much excitement for the impending release or that somebody is going to get in big trouble very soon.  Mark at the Nokia blog has translated the entire specs list here. I’m surprised to be honest. Why? Because of several interesting choices made when it comes to the N96. First of all I’m very surprised that they decided to include DVB-H. When it almost seemed like this standard was dead, Nokia puts it back into what seems to be like their next flagship device. Nokia sure seems to believe a lot in this feature to place it in the N96. Are they striking some deals to push DVB-H adoption, enough to put in their next flagship? When it comes to storage I think they sure got it right this time: Built-in 16 GB with the option of adding microSDHC cards: with upcoming 16 GB microSDHC cards this means that pretty soon we are going to hit the 32GB mark on the Nseries, pretty impressive stuff. Especially impressive if you consider that just a few years ago some Nokia devices were bundled with 16, 32 or 64Mb MMC cards. This should be the end of consumers having the unnecessary choice of having to choose between a device with built-in memory or one with swappable cards, like the N81 and N81 8GB. It’s also interesting how closely this resembles the N81. But as always the more questions you answer the more questions pop up. I’m still wondering about the dual slider and the media keys. If the media keys are near the D-pad like on the N81, than what is the dual slider used for?  DVB-H? If you finally add Xenon to N82 and everybody is happy, why go back LED flash? Why dual LED’s? My biggest question is however how the N96 fits into the bigger picture. With S60 touch on the way, what place should a S60 3^rd edition device with FP2 have? Will this be top device of will we see things like the N97 and N98? What about that QWERTY Nseries we’ve been hearing about and how about that device with the optical zooming that looked like N90 and N95 mixed into one? I wish I had the answer, but sadly I don’t. I guess we’ll have to wait and see next week to find out. What do you think will happen next week?

Nokia E66 and E71 on the way?

Images have appeared of what is supposed to be the Nokia E71, the successors to the popular E61 and E61i. The device is said to have Wifi, HSDPA, GPS and a 3.2 megapixel camera. Another device that is said to be released is the E66 as a follow-up to the E65. From what I understand the device in question is described as “not the prettiest” among Nokia smartphones but I will have to wait and see to judge that. Are these devices on the way or wishful thinking? If they do become true I find them a bit boring with no surprises, just an evolution to current devices. In the mean time I'll file these under rumors.

Nokia N82 in Black and White Confirmed!

At the Nokia N82 Launch the product manager confirmed that a white version would be available in 2008 and that black is another color that they were looking into, so news of these two new colors comes as no surprise to us here at The Nokia Guide. But confirmation that they are pretty close to being released comes from other pre-order pages at Mobile City Online for the Nokia N82 in white and black. The expected arrival date of Feb. 15, 2008 also stays true to the Q1 08 time frame that the product manager had given us back in November.

After seeing the N82 8GB popping up at the Nseries US portal I’m hearing consistent rumors of a redesigned N82 with a larger screen, black color, media keys and 8GB of storage. It seems like they are keeping us happy with these sought-after colors just before releasing an updated N82 8GB. I’m really starting to doubt if that that N82 8GB was indeed a typo, but I’m sure I'll get more info soon enough. No word on a possible N82 US 3G.

N95 8GB NAM Confirmed!

Remember the N95 8GB NAM that I wasn’t too sure whether it was a typo or not?  I speculated that after the N82 8GB was removed, the N95 8GB must have been real because it was still left standing on the Nseries US Portal. We can now put the rumors status aside as the N95 8GB seems to be as real as it gets now that a pre-order page has popped upped at Mobile City Online . It’s good news for the US customers that get to use the full US 3G speeds in the sexy N95 8GB package, although it’s kind of unfair for those that already got the non-US 3G N95 8GB. Nokia, next time please release the EURO and US version of your devices at the same time, because this is just unfair treatment to your loyal customers!

Now that this device is confirmed, I’m still left with a few questions. Like: Is the N82 8GB real? Will it have the reported larger screen, media keys and black color? Will the N95 8GB NAM be the Spider Man 3 edition with the included movie?

Thanks to Ricky, from the Symbian Guru for the tip!

Nokia N95 8GB NAM on the way? Not a typo anymore?

Yesterday I found what may be confirmation that a North American Nokia N95 8GB and a Nokia N82 8GB were on the way. I wasn’t too sure about as it easily could have been a typo. Following my post, the device known as the” N82 8GB” has been mysteriously removed from the page, but the best thing of all is that both N95 8GB and the N95 8GB NAM are still there. Basically if they fixed the list by removing all typos, than this N95 8GB NAM they mention here must be real, right? It might seem like Nokia is going all US friendly again by releasing  US based N95 8GB. This is good news for those in the US that wanted the 8GB version, but didn’t get one yet, but not so for those that already got the non-US version. I feel the pain. Nokia how about releasing both versions at the same next time?

Nokia N96 is here: N95 and N81 combined!!!

New pictures have leaked of a new dual slider device, supposedly the N96 with a design that resembles the N81, but with the dual sliding function of the N95. Another familiar design element is the two-coat material used on the back with the lines running across the device, similar to the N82. Inspecting the pictures, there is one odd thing I can pinpoint: if the Media Keys are near the D-Pad, what is the dual slider function used for? If you remember on the N95, this is used to house the media keys. So it remains to be seen what interesting feature they have incorporated here. Compared to the N81 it seems to be much wider to fit in particular the larger screen, which seems like 2.8’’ or maybe bigger? New functions apparent from the pictures included S60 feature pack 2, dual LED flash and some sort of a stand which allows the device to stand upright. Some time ago I suggested  the idea of incorporating the same “stand” that pictures frames have into Nseries devices and it seems this idea has made its way into the N96. Personally I’m thinking that it might seem that this device is not sporting any new features, but logically thinking every N9x device pioneered something new and I don’t think the N96 is going to be an exception. As 5megapixel cameras are becoming the norm and not exception (N95, N95 8GB, N82 and now N96) it would be logical that Nokia would release not only this device, but two others. As you know Nokia has been making it a habit to release just one device at a time. Because of the fact this device “only” sports a 5megapixel camera it would make sense that they have another one or two devices with a higher megapixel count ready to be released. It’s for this reason that I believe that the N96 is not going to be the only devices released when it becomes official. This is all speculation at the moment, you could even say wishful thinking, but in the mean time we will have to just wait and see. What do you think of this device and do you think we will see more devices released at the same time?

Typo or NAM N95 8GB and N82 8GB on the way?

I was browsing on my N95 8GB and decided to check out some of the bookmarks, one of them is the Nokia Nseries US Portal(www.nseries.com/usportal) and went into the Download! section. While looking at the list of supported devices I noticed a few strange names that were unfamiliar to me. Especially interesting were the so called “N95 8GB NAM” and “N82 8GB.” As you know there are no North American version of the N95 8GB or an 8GB version of the N82, so I guess I’ll file these under typo, but just in case I thought I’d mention this. Could there be a North American version of the N95 8GB on the way? And what is this N82 8GB that they speak of? I have no idea about this one. It doesn’t seem that farfetched, what do you think?

New Nokia slider with optical zoom: N98 or N96 maybe?

If the N93 would have a kid with the N95 this would probably be the result. Rather detailed drawings have popped up of a very interesting slider equipped with what looks like a lens barrel to house the optical zooming mechanism and just like the N90 the entire lens barrel is rotatable. On top of that there seems to be a retractable flash assembly, which is able to be hidden into the body of the phone. A mystery still is what this phone would be called if they would actually release it. Is it a 6, 7 or even an 8 Megapixel device? As the article states, I don’t think I have ever seen such a detailed drawing of a device: Up till now I have seen either pictures of the actual device or some drawing showing just the details of the patent. With Nokia World just around the corner this just might be something that sees the light this week. As always take these things with grain of salt. Hoping that the patent gods make this happen ASAP.

Via: s6ty

Source: unwiredview

N82: auto-rotation and microUSB charging added

Apocalypse over at Symbian-Freak has gotten an exclusive first look at Nokia’s upcoming N82. To quickly update you on the story, the N82 is basically the N95 8GB in candybar shape with added Xenon flash sans the built-in 8GB and the huge screen. This should be the third device that comes pre-installed with N-Gage that is also able to get over-the-air music download from the Nokia Music Store. But the Biggest news comes from the fact that Symbian Freak is reporting that: “Also there is one very handy innovation, auto screen rotation is available and it is a bit different than the one in the iPhone. While the iPhone use screen rotation for few specific only, applications like the Safari, image viewer and the iPod (in the cover flow), Nokia UI allows the rotation almost everywhere, from the main screen to the gaming. The rotation is definitely smoother and looks better with the iPhone, actually to be precise with an iPhone you can actually see the rotation while the Nokia just switch from one to another mode without any kind of transition when rotating.” Before I forget it seems that the device supporting charging via the microUSB!!

All variants of the N95 have the hardware to make auto-rotate happen. Upcoming version 2.0 of rotateMe will give the N95, N95-3 and N95 8GB the ability to auto-rate just by re-orienting the device. But now that this is coming as standard on the N82, chances are this will be added to the N95 via a simple firmware update. It’s seems history is repeating: Do you remember when the N93 pioneered auto-rotation? After that third party apps added this features to phones like N73 and N80. By simply selecting this option you could re-orient the screen. Afterwards, the N95 became the first device without a physically rotating screen that could re-orientate the display. Something that was only possible with third part apps has become standard a feature in the firmware. Now the same thing will happen when the N82 is released. The future looks very Wii-esque with added touch…….