The Mobile Perspective » S60

Nokia Astound C7 Review

Jeb Brilliant — Tue, 10 May 2011 14:07:51 +0000

I was lucky enough to be chosen to go to CTIA in Orlando last month by WOMWorld/Nokia to participate in the Nokia Astound promotional tour. The Nokia Astound by T-Mobile also known as the C7 is an interesting device. First off let me just say that I really liked it while I had it for review. It is surprisingly comfortable in the hand and nice to look at. I wasn’t sure how much I was going to like using it but surprisingly enough it was kind of a joy. I’m usually a buttons kind of guy, like on the E72 but lately I’ve been trying to “like” touch screen phones and the Astound kept me on track. It is a huge upgrade in terms of software from the N97 (mini) which seems to be a pretty popular phone abroad (I’ve been traveling lately).

I got lots of comments from people about how nice looking the Astound is and questions like “Is it a good Nokia?” and “How’s the camera?”. The answer to both those questions is that it’s good. The camera is great for a phone this size and the UI is much improved. I’m not a technical guy in terms of build numbers and so on but being the newest OS it is a huge step up from it’s predecessor. Battery life was great, it went on for days and days and using it was a joy.

Ovi Maps is excellent, I mean it is the best maps app I’ve ever used. It’s not perfect, the search isn’t super robust but the navigation itself rocks my sox. It’s very nice that I can change the voice that gives me directions, I can’t stand a robot sounding voice on Android phones. Plus it’s nice that I can load the maps in advance and not need to use any data, saving lots of mb and money.

The email experience is VERY Nokia esque. It was perfectly fine and has some nice features but my 1 complaint was the lack of push email. It would check email every 5 minutes (I think) which should be fine for most people.

The carrier data speeds were incredible on the T-Mobile network. In my hotel room where AT&T and Sprint were struggling this little silver beauty was pulling down approximately 3mb/second. I was impressed.

I almost forgot to mention that for some reason T-Mobile is considering the Astound a feature phone so you can get their lowest data plan for only $10/month versus the more expensive smart phone plans.

Lastly and very importantly the in call volume was nice and loud. I was able to hear in noisy situations just fine. It also passed the window down while driving test. The speaker phone and speakers for music were just as nice.

My first thought during the breakfast briefing I attended in Orlando where I was given the Astound was that this will be a great first phone for a lot of young people and women. The price point isn’t painful, it’s thin and super sleek. It’s not for everybody, it would be a step down for an iPhone user for example, but I think there will be a lot of happy Nokia Astound customers. All in all it was a good device and I would recommend it to the “right” people.

Nokia E73 Mode Review

Jeb Brilliant — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 18:29:11 +0000

I was lucky enough to get invited to a party and video shoot highlighting the Nokia E73 recently (thanks to WOM World/Nokia). I was given an E73 Mode to review and review it is what I’m doing. I’m totally enthralled with this device, for the most part it’s everything I need it to be.

I’m a heavy emailer and like to respond to email on my phone if a computer isn’t at hand. I don’t like to have to look at an email twice if I can avoid it.

The E73 is a good business phone. I’ve used many many phones over the years and something I have always wanted was a phone that would work fully (including 3G) here in the US and abroad wherever I go, be it Europe, Israel or anywhere in the US. I’ve always had to compromise on the 3G and it really annoyed me. The E73 runs T-Mobile USA’s 1700ghz band as well as the 2 other 3G world bands. The E73 has other great features as well, the speaker phone isn’t half bad, I’ve been able to have calls in the car while driving. A HUGE plus is the 3.5mm headphone jack on the top of the phone allowing any standard head phones to be used. There’s also the built in flash light and last but not least the 5mp camera. This is all nice and good but let’s not forget, the phone feels great in my hand. I can’t tell you how much I like it. The metal is nice and cold in the summer and the when I press the buttons they feel good but are nearly silent (so I can work in bed). I really like the button set up around the Dpad. I occasionally press the home button instead of the left soft key but I’m getting used to it and doing that less and less.

My favorite feature is the UMA. I use it when I’m in a location with bad reception or when traveling outside the US. UMA is basically wifi calling and it’s something I think all wifi enabled phones should have. Plus on T-Mobile with the E73 and most of their Blackberries you can make calls over UMA for free anywhere in the world.

Bad:
The email shortcut button can’t be configured to open a certain email inbox’s
There’s not nearly enough RAM, but keep in mind I’m a heavy user
I’ve had it freeze up twice in 3 weeks, really not that bad in the big scheme of things

The biggest problem I have with the E73 is the built in email app. It’s the standard Nokia Messaging app you would have expected but according to my sources it’s not run via Nokia but by T-Mobile and they put some heavy limits on it. For one thing push email isn’t available. The biggest problem I have with it is that even though I have it set to check my email every 5 minutes it sometimes won’t check for hours and I mean like 12-24 hours. This isn’t even close to acceptable, it’s as far from acceptable as you can get on a device like this. It’s a phone geared toward messaging and email doesn’t work on it. I had to download a 3rd party app called Emoze for reliable email and it also syncs my calendar and contacts (disclosure, Emoze is a past client).

Also the PIM on all Nokias is so outdated it’s scary. I still don’t get a proper sync with my Google Contacts. It’s amazing that I can’t have 2 mobile and 1 home number for the same contact.

I know this is on the new N8 but it should have already been on the older phones, I need multiple calendar support.

My final thought on this phone is that it’s amazing I love it and would recommend it to almost anybody.

Nokia E72 Quick Review

Jeb Brilliant — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 20:40:36 +0000

Ok, I have the absolute greatest wife ever, she got me a white Nokia E72 as a fathers day gift. I am the luckiest guy ever. Well here’s my review, I love it for the most part.

The Nokia E72 has a great number of benefits like the

3.5mm headphone jack
The flashlight
The newer version of Symbian
A VERY quite keyboard when typing on it
Many many other benefits.

But it also has some drawbacks

I don’t like the fact that it doesn’t auto capitalize the letter “I” when typing messages. It is my biggest annoyance with the device
It doesn’t have enough RAM
The build quality isn’t as good as the E71
The battery life isn’t as long as I would like
The center of the D pad should be white on the white version of the handset that I have
My biggest problem with the E72 is that mine is defective. I wasn’t sure I was going to mention this but I figure I should. The left soft key on my handset has to be depressed extra hard to make it work properly.

I am madly in love with the idea of this device but I’m not sure it’s a big enough step up from my previous phone the Nokia E71. If you don’t have an E71 then I think this is a perfect phone but if you have then you may be disappointed.

That being said, I’ll probably get another one anyways. I do love my Nokias!!! And I’m proud of it @Ew4n.

A call to action for Nokia to get more good apps built

Jeb Brilliant — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 02:02:21 +0000

Hello Nokia, are you there? Are you listening?

Ok now that I have your attention I have something to tell you. Come close so I can tell you in your ear. A little closer. IT’S TIME. It’s time to start pushing apps like never before. It’s time to step up your game like never before. It’s time to start competing on the main stage again. The masses are starting to forget who you are and your name is being trampled in the dirt.

Nokia are you listening? Are you there? I’ve just been given an N97 mini to play with and well it seems like you’re at the very beginning of the right track. But you’re still floundering a bit like a fish out of water. It seems like things are moving along but not fast enough.

Nokia are you listening? Are you there? I have a suggestion for you. Come close so I can tell you in your ear. A little closer. HIRE DEVELOPERS TO DEVELOP APPLICATIONS. Yes you heard me. Hire a developer to create an app for DropBox, a developer to create an app for Evernote, an app for Fandango, an app for Kayak, and app for Layar, an app for OpenTable, an app for TripIt, Urbanspoon, GoogleVoice, ZumoDrive and all the other big apps that don’t yet have a Symbian version.

You’re lucky enough to have apps like Truphone, JoikuSpot, Gravity, Nimbuzz, Fring, and emoze. Give these developers a ton more support.

Better yet, better yet, create web apps and show the world that platform specific apps are silly! Ok ok I won’t get out of hand, just work on making apps for Symbian and lots of them. I’m sick and tired of not having apps for the device I choose to use. Yes I still prefer Symbian over any other platform. But this could change if things don’t get better and I’m sure many other people feel the same way I do.

I suggest contacting as many good developers as you can and putting them on retainer to start developing as many hi profile apps as possible. I’m talking about the apps that will get the big download numbers and keep people interested in Symbian. It’s just not enough to wait and hope developers create their apps for Symbian as well as all the other platforms they’re already developing for. It’s just not going to happen guys, Symbian has lost some of it’s luster in the public eye, this is a way to get some of that shine back.

So Nokia it’s your job to get these apps built, at way necessary. Good luck and if you need some help, I know a few developers.

Back to the Nokia E75 I go

Jeb Brilliant — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 20:43:15 +0000

So as all of my readers know I’m a hard core Nokia E71 fanboy. I’ve been infatuated with the E71 since I first heard about it roughly 2 years ago. Now I’m impatiently waiting for the much anticipated E72 but I decided to whip out the E75 I was graciously lent for review and have been using it for 4 days now. Hot shit, this phone is great. I forgot how much I liked it. It’s not perfect but I’m really digging it. I forgot how much I liked it when I first used it.

S60 3rd edition feature pack 2 is really a nice upgrade to the E71′s feature pack 1. There are so many little things I like more about it, but what the E75 is missing is memory/RAM. The E75 seems to stall out sometimes and needs a reboot but that’s really my only single complaint about the software. Of course it could be a little faster and of course it could have more of this or smarter that, but in general it’s all around solid software.

As far as the hardware goes it’s a candy bar style with a side slide QWERTY keyboard that’s 90% great and 10% ehh because of the lack of tactile feedback on the QWERTY portion. I find it to be very useful and descent to type on. You do need 2 hands to type on it because of the width of the keyboard which is good or bad depending on your preference. Personally it is not my taste but I know quite a few people that are gaga over this style and particularly the E75.

Software wise the E75 does support the 4 apps I can’t live without and of course many many more apps but in particular
emoze – a push email and content client (my companies client)
Truphone – mobile VOIP offering me cheap international calls around the world and to my home country when I’m traveling
JoikuSpot – an app that turns my phone into a wifi hotspot by rebroadcasting the 3G it pulls in
Nimbuzz – an instant messaging (IM) client that supports GChat, Skype, MSN, AOL, Yahoo and ICQ

All in all the E75 is a solid piece of kit that doubles and triples as multiple devices. Regular phone, VOIP, email, IM and wifi hotspot one by one or all at once. This phone won’t disappoint and won’t let you down. I have high regard for it but it’s not perfect because of the minimal RAM. Most people would never miss it but I like to run everything all at once so if you’re a power user hold out a little longer for the E72 or something else otherwise I say pick one up and enjoy.

Truphone is still the top dog in mVOIP

Jeb Brilliant — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 23:30:32 +0000

I got to spend some time with Karl Good of Truphone over the past 2 days at the ITExpo and have been reminded how much I like the best mobile VOIP service available today. Karl gave me an ultra secret briefing, please don’t ask me what we chatted about, I won’t tell you. No amount of sodium pentothal will crack me, I’m not going to share with you how many great things are coming from Truphone. Things are changing and Truphone is staying on top of it all and doing some amazing things along the way.

I’ve been a Truphone user from what feels like the beginning. It’s probably been about 3 years or so. I was one of the early testers and have been enjoying and evangelizing the service to as many people as will listen ever since.

For anyone that doesn’t know about Truphone, it’s a mobile phone service provider at heart. They started as a mobile VOIP service offering, the best in class then and now. They have evolved from supporting Symbian S60 wifi phones only to now being on Blackberry, Android, the iPhone/Touch and of course still S60. They own an international roaming sim card company (Sim4Travel) and have expanded their service offering to include multiple calling options/plans to save money when dialing internationally or if you are abroad. They are also the 1 and only VOIP company I know of that supports sending and receiving sms.

I have so many stories I can tell you about how Truphone has saved me time, money and hard ache. I’ll share just one quick experience. I was staying with family in their guest room in the basement. I didn’t get any reception down there but had to make some plans. So instead of having to be upstairs with all the noise of the kids and TV I stayed in my comfy room and used their wifi to take care of my calls. This is just one example, there are so many more but why don’t you make your own experiences with Truphone, give the service a try. I can almost guarantee you won’t be disappointed.

S60 phones should include a restart option

Jeb Brilliant — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 22:02:26 +0000

I hate to be a complainer about things and I tend to only be the squeaky wheel when it’s necessary. Well this is really annoying. I’m a huge fan of Nokia and they are good to me but there’s something about all their phones that drives me bonkers. Nokia S60 phones are little computers and that’s what I like, but they are computers and as computers go, need to be restarted every so often. Now I install all kinds of beta apps and sometimes even alpha apps. I do a lot of email and just use my phone a great deal, being a computer it freezes and crashes every so often. So what I need Nokia to do is add a restart option.

When I hit the power button to change profiles I would like to see a restart option. Dozens of times I’ve had to restart my phone and forget to turn it back on after shutting it down and putting it down. I can’t imagine that it’s a big deal to add this into the menu and for Nokia to include an app that will restart the phone. This is actually a really big deal for me having a child I have to be reachable all the time.

Does this bother anyone else? Do you ever shut your phone off but forget to turn it back on? I can’t be the only one…

Nokia E72 is missing a few things

Jeb Brilliant — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 22:48:54 +0000

So I just looked up the Nokia E72 on the Nokia website and noticed that it is missing a few things. First off it won’t have included in the packaging a wrist strap or pouch like the E71 had. It’s not a huge thing but come on, this is supposed to be a step up from the E71. I know I know

Second thing is that it is apparently coming in 3 versions, Euro, US and a third I believe is APAC. What’s missing is the 3rd band on all the handsets. They are all 4band GSM but only 2band 3G according to Nokia Europs Spec page. Your options are

E72-1 Quad-band EGSM 850/900/1800/1900, WCDMA 900/2100 HSDPA
E72-2 Quad-band EGSM 850/900/1800/1900, WCDMA 850/1900 HSDPA
E72-3 Quad-band EGSM 850/900/1800/1900, WCDMA 850/2100 HSDPA

Now I was under the impression this handset was going to be tri-band 3G. Am I reading this wrong or or does the HSDPA count as a band? If so what wave length is it? I’m just trying to figure out which model to get.

Alert: This just in: I was told my a Nokia employee that we will not see a US/NAM version of the E72 released anytime soon. I am extremely disappointed about that and don’t really know what to think. I’m now perplexed what to do and what model to get.

N97 Review, it’s not pretty

Jeb Brilliant — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 05:15:01 +0000

I want to start off by thanking WOM World once again for sending me the amazing Nokia N97. It is without a doubt in my mind one of the most technically advanced and good looking mobile phones on the market to date. It blows many handsets out of the water, chews them up and spits them out, in some ways. In other ways it’s inferior to much older phones produced by Nokia also.

To start with it’s beautiful when opened up. I’m a fan of phones with a QWERTY keyboard and this bad boy sports a pretty reasonable keyboard when it’s opened up. The buttons don’t give much feedback at all but sometimes that nice. The phone feels good in your hand and in my pocket, it looks big in some aspects like thickness but it really isn’t all that thick compared to other similar devices. Physically the N97 is just splendid, it incorporates so many aspects and does it well.

Now when it comes to the software it fails miserably in my opinion. It’s not a phone for the meek. I consider myself a well versed and competent Nokia phone user and in so many cases I stumbled around with the N97. I have been able to hand almost any other Nokia S40 or S60 phone to my Dad and he can easily figure it out, I would not even attempt to give this phone to my Dad. He would be lost and frustrated. For example the auto rotation doesn’t always work when the phone is slid shut and going back and forth from vertical to horizontal and back. The response is also quite slow to a point that I’m hitting things again because I think I missed it the first time and then I’m getting into the wrong app when it finally catches up.

I have had the N97 browser crash more times then I can count. I think it may have something to do with the lack of built in Ram. How can Nokia let that happen to a flagship phone? I expected these problems to go away as soon as the first firmware update rolled out. I even waited to write up my review till I had that infamous first firmware update but the update came and went and I continued to have the same issues.

There are a ton of great aspects to the N97 including it’s camera, 3.5mm audio jack, video out, slider lock and many many more points. I have tried giving it chance after chance but it just kept failing me. Battery life and lack of ease of use are two big points without tearing it apart. I can’t in good faith suggest that you go out and buy this phone at this point. I hope that we will see additional updates and I hope I get to give the N97 another try. It has some awsome aspects to it but to many major draw backs.

Apps I loaded on E71

Jeb Brilliant — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:34:36 +0000

I left on vacation a few days back, as I write this I’m in the passenger seat of a giant 12 passenger Ford F350 van. This thing is a monster but I like it. I’ve been preparing my electronic gear bag (I like to call it my toy bag) and I never know exactly what I’m going to bring until I leave. I have also been updating the firmware on some of my phones (N85, N79, and N97) and in the case of my E71 I had to reinstall all my apps and have it ready for this big trip. So I decided to make a list of all the apps I’m putting on my E71.

emoze – push email – 1 email or facebook account is free, then it’s a yearly subscription
Taskman – manage the apps on my phone – 1 time fee
Nokia Email – mobile email – free for now but will start charging for it
Ovi Maps 3.0 – map program -free with option to buy voice guidance
Ovi Contacts – mobile IM – free
Ovi Store – place to download apps for Nokia phones
Qik – Video Capture and instant upload to the web – free
Gmail Java app – mobile email – free
Google Maps – java map app – free
Skyfire – web browser – free
Truphone -mobile VOIP (highly recommend) – free within SIP network and paid for other
Boingo – agrigated wifi service – paid
Nimbuzz – IM and VOIP – free
Fring – IM and VOIP – free

This isn’t a complete list but what I put on for this trip knowing I needed my phone to be my single point of communication at some times.

Update: Truphone is my lifesaver. I had nearly 0 reception in my cousins newly remodeled basement and not very good reception anywhere else in their house and Truphone made it possible for me to conduct a few business calls and conference calls I needed to participate in. I also loved how easy it was to reroute my Google Voice # to my Truphone # in just a few seconds. Once again Truphone combined with Google Voice (previously Grand Central) saved the day land kept me working.