Nokia N96

A new multimedia computer has been announced by Nokia during the GSMA Mobile World Congress 2008, held in Barcelona, Spain. The Nokia N96 is the successor of the popular N95. The Nokia N96 is a multimedia computer which is truly optimized for video and TV. With a large 2.8" screen, 16 gigabytes of internal memory and support for high-quality videos in a wide range of formats, the dual-slide Nokia N96 represents an exciting new chapter in mobile media. Accessing internet videos is quick and simple. The Nokia N96 supports common video formats including MPEG-4, Windows Media Video and Flash Video, making favorite videos easy to view. Transferring and accessing videos is even faster with the high-speed USB 2.0 connection and WLAN and HSDPA support.

Nokia N96 Internet, Video & TV

"In 2007, the Nokia N95 became an icon of convergence of Internet and mobility. With over 7 million units sold to date, the Nokia N95 has changed the way people use their mobile device. The Nokia N96 we introduced builds on the success of the Nokia N95, further enhancing the experience," says Jonas Geust, who oversees Nokia's Explore category. "Through the power of the Internet, video and TV are becoming even more prevalent in people's lives. With its large, bright screen, and a range of high-speed connectivity options and the enhanced Nokia Video Center, the new Nokia N96 is a personal window to entertainment."

Nokia N96 mobile phone storage

In select markets, the integrated DVB-H receiver offers live broadcast TV with an automatically updating program guide. The massive memory can store up to 40 hours of video content. The storage capacity of the Nokia N96 can even be further expanded with an optional microSD card, such as the new Nokia 8GB microSDHC Card MU-43 which increases the available memory of the Nokia N96 phone to a total of 24 GB. For added convenience, the Nokia N96 features a 'kickstand' on the back cover that allows for hands-free viewing.

N96 Nokia Video Center - YouTube videos

The Nokia Video Center offers one place to discover and access a variety of mobile content ranging from movie trailers and comedy to news from world-leading content brands such as YouTube, Reuters, and Sony Pictures. The catalogue of internet video feeds is continually expanded with more regional and country specific content.

Nokia N96 phone with Nokia Maps

For a superb music experience, the Nokia N96 features media keys, a 3.5 mm headphone connector and built-in 3D stereo speakers. The Nokia Maps application offers richer maps with urban details and satellite views and has upgrade options such as City Guides, turn-by-turn pedestrian mode and voice-guided car navigation.

Nokia N96 Digital camera & A-GPS

The Nokia N96 mobile phone boasts a 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, flash and video light. It allows DVD-like quality video capture at 30 frames per second. Further, with the integrated A-GPS, consumers can now 'geotag' their pictures with location data and share them with their online communities. The Nokia N96 naturally supports the Ovi family of Nokia internet services, including maps, music, media sharing and more. The Nokia N96 multimedia computer is expected to begin shipping in the third quarter of 2008 with an estimated sales price of approximately 550 euros, before subsidies or taxes.

Nokia 5310 Xpress Music

Oh yes! Nokia's XpressMusic range has moved up a gear and Sony Ericsson had better watch out. The Nokia 5310 XpressMusic is a classic-shape music phone available in a choice of red or blue. It's an ultrathin phone, at just 9.9 mm, and has a lovely practical design with a good sized conventional keypad and a 5-way navigation key (Sony Ericsson take note!) There are three dedicated music keys placed at the side of the screen and volume keys along the edge.The bevelled edge makes it easy to hold in your palm, and the red or blue stripes are funky but not over the top. We like the look, we like the feel. This is definitely a phone that you can enjoy even when it's switched off, and it's small and light enough to carry anywhere - jeans pocket, shirt pocket or handbag.

This is primarily a music phone, and it's equipped with a full function music player and FM radio. The music player has support for playlists, album art and an equaliser. You can listen to your music using the built-in loudspeaker (which is a bit on the quiet side), or preferably using the stereo headset supplied or a Bluetooth wireless headset (optional extra). The 5310 has a new upgraded audio chip, and the audio quality is impeccable. Really, the music player is just as easy to use as one of Sony Ericsson's Walkman phones, or even a dedicated MP3 player. We like the fact that there's a decent amount of memory built in (30 Mbytes), but you'll definitely want to kit the phone out with a memory card: the 5310 supports microSD cards up to 4 Gbytes, which is enough for around 1,000 songs. MicroSD cards are really cheap these days (around £25 for 4GB), so really there's no reason not to go for the maximum size available.

But the 5310 is not just a music phone. As well as making calls and playing music, it will do everything that you'd expect from a mid-range non-3G phone. The camera is a respectable 2 megabytes. It lacks a flash, which is a shame, but in good light it'll take decent pics. The display is outstandingly good, with a high-res screen that's as good as anything in this price range. Although the phone isn't 3G, it supports fast downloads using EDGE and has the Opera Mini Browser built-in, so you can still browse the web, and the screen is large enough to make this feasible. The phone comes with 3 games, and you can download Java games too. The UI is quite customisable, with animated screensavers, wallpapers and downloadable themes.

If there's one thing wrong with the 5310 (and at Mobile Phones UK we love to find things wrong!) it's the battery life. Nokia quote 300 hours standby - that's 12.5 days. Forget it! You'll get 1-2 days use from this phone, depending on how much you use the features. Since it's a music phone, you'll probably use it a lot and will need to charge it most days. Get over it - this is an ultrathin phone with a large LCD screen and tons of features. This is what the battery life is like in this kind of phone. If a longer battery life is essential for you, then buy a different phone (not an ultraslim one - maybe the SE W810i or SE W910i.) A number of users are also reporting that their phone freezes or restarts. This is unacceptable, and if this happens to you, return it to the shop. If it happens again, ask for a different phone.

Features of the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic

• 2 megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom
• Video camera
• Display: Active matrix LCD, 240 x 320 pixels, 16million colours, 2 inches
• Music player (MP3, MP4, AAC, eAAc+, and WMA music files / OMA DRM 2.0 and Windows Media DRM)
• Stereo FM radio with Vidual Radio support
• Ringtones: Video ringtones, MP3 and MP4 tones, eAAC+ tones, AAC tones, WMA tones, 64-voice polyphonic MIDI, message alert tones, and alarm clock tones
• Integrated handsfree speaker
• Voice commands
• Voice recorder
• Messaging: SMS, MMS, email (SMTP, POP3 and IMAP 4) with attachments, Nokia Xpress audio messaging
• Games: Music Guess, Snake III, Citybloxx, downloadable Java applications
• Animated screensavers, wallpaper, themes
• Internet: Opera Mini Browser, Yahoo Go!, Nokia Mobile Search, WAP 2.0, HSCSD, EDGE up to 177.6 kbps
• Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.0, USB 2.0, modem
• Memory: 30 Mbytes plus microSD card (up to 4 Gbytes)
• Organiser: Alarm clock, calendar, to-do list, notes, calculator, stopwatch and countdown timer
• Flight mode
• Size: 104 x 45 x 9.9 mm
• Weight: 70g
• Talktime: 5.4 hours
• Battery standby: 300 hours
• Music playback: up to 18 hours

Motorola ROKR E8

The Motorola ROKR E8 is a stylish and trendy handset which is adorned with various innovative features to enhance the wireless communication of the users. This tempting handset weighs just 100 gms and has a dimension of merely 115 x 53 x 10.6 mm. Its touch sensitive keypad would help you to access the menus very comfortably. The intuitive navigation scroll wheel has been beautifully embedded in this gadget. With the enhanced connectivity options like GPRS, EDGE, Bluetooth etc, one can enjoy the liberty of receiving and transferring the multimedia contents from other compatible systems. A 2 mega pixel camera is embedded in this handset which can efficiently capture images with a resolution of 1600 x 1200 pixels. With the 2 GB internal memory you would never face the storage capacity constraints. The built in handsfree, music player, calculator and FM radio are some of the efficient features incorporated in this mobile phone. The standard Li-Ion 970 mAh (BK60) battery can support upto 5 hours of talktime and 300 hours of standby time.

Music, of course, is a central theme here but the E8's real news lies with its unique "ModeShift" technology. Instead of traditional keypad and navigation array, the Rokr features a smooth "glasslike" surface with touch-pad controls that digitally "morph" depending on how the handset is used. As you shift from phone to music to imaging modes, the backlight on the control changes to illuminate only the relevant buttons for your current function. The E8 also features Motorola's first Haptics keypad with vibrating feedback and a "FastScroll" navigation wheel that makes it pretty seamless to navigate through long playlists. It's not a complete circle but it's pretty user-friendly.

Loading songs on the E8 is also supposed to be fast and easy via a USB connection to a PC. Moto said that over the next year it would introduce more music phones like the E8 that would be better than standalone music players. That's a bold prediction, we can't wait to test it out. We have to say, however, that Moto seems to have succeeded at integrating the ergonomics of an MP3 player and a cell phone into one device.

Other features on the candy bar device include a Linux/Java OS, support for Windows Media Player 11, a large (2-inch) 262,000-color display, 2GB internal memory, stereo Bluetooth, USB 2.0, Moto's CrystalTalk technology (like we saw on the Razr2 series), an external memory card slot, a 2-megapixel camera, a digital-music player, and a full HTML browser. The quad-band world phone supports GPRS and EDGE networks, and it offers a "talking phone" to read your text messages while dialing a number or receiving a call. We haven't had the chance to test that particular feature yet, but it looks fun.

Key Features

• Weight : 100 g
• Talktime : Up to 5 h
• Standby : Up to 300 h
• Colour Display : TFT, 256K colors
• Ringtones : Polyphonic (64 channels), MP3,AAC
• Camera : 2 MP, 1600x1200 pixels, videos
• MP3 : Yes
• Bluetooth : Yes, v2.0 with A2D
• GPRS : Class 12 (4+1/3+2/2+3/1+4 slots),32 - 48 kbps
• Video Recording : Yes

Motorola RAZR2 Espresso

The Motorola RAZR2 Espresso is a classy and clamshell shaped handset which has astounding music oriented features. This handset is adorned with dual screen which has the capability to display images with 262k colour shades and with a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels. The external screen is of 2 inch size while the internal screen is of 2.2 inch in size. The external screen is very perfect to view the coloured photographs and video clips. This quad band GSM gadget can help the users to enjoy world wide roaming facilities. With the EDGE technology one can experience high speed of data transference and downloading rates. The touch sensitive music controls can help the users to shuffle their favorite music tracks and manage them at ease. The 2 mega pixel camera which is fitted at the back of this handset can record video clips very comfortably. This camera phone is further enhanced with 8X digital zoom which will assist you to capture far off images with distinct clarity.

Key Faetures

• Weight : 117 g
• Talktime : Up to 7 h 50 min
• Standby : Up to 330 h
• Colour Display : 256K colors
• Ringtones : Polyphonic, MP3
• Camera : 2 MP
• MP3 : Yes
• Bluetooth : Yes
• Infrared : No
• GPRS : Yes
• Video Recording : Yes
• 3G : No