Nokia MD-11 mini speakers..

The fine folks at WOMWorldNokia also gave me the MD-11 mini speaker to try out as well. Now this little monster actually packs quite a punch. Powered by just 3 AAA batteries, you can actually go quite loud before you start to experience any distortion.

sound machine..

The 3.5mm jack means you can plug it in almost anywhere. I tried it on my desktop, ipad and the N8 and the sound quality is excellent. I know its mono but i think if you have two of them you can turn it to stereo. Couldn't really try as i only had just the one to try.

The small form factor also makes it a bit easy to carry around on your travels. Who needs a big boombox when you can carry your phone and the MD-11 for all your musical entertainment needs.

Nokia N8 - your every day wonderphone..

Okay so I’ve used the N8 pretty much on and off again for the last 2 weeks. And I must say the phone has quietly impressed me in more ways than one. I don’t know if its just phone envy but during the testing period my xperia x10 phone just keeps acting up. Which leads me to believe that it might just be scared of the competition. Hehe yeah right.

Another bit of clever function being introduced by the N8 is the whole USB  on the go thingy. USB on the go basically enables the phone to become a USB host for your thumbdrives and other USB based peripherals. Now I was curious as to what other things that you can plug into the USB host cable. I tried a mighty mouse, it powers up but the phone can’t detect it. A 4GB thumbdrive was detected quite easily and u can open files as if its on the phone. The N8 can also power a USB fan. That would come in handy on a hot day.

usb on the go

nope that won't work..

time to cool off..

The USB on the go function basically cut short the need to use a dedicated computer to transfer files into the phone. And it would definitely be much faster than Bluetooth or email.

hdmi adapter..

Another handy function that the N8 packs is the HDMI display out. Just plug in any normal sized HDMI cable to the adapter included and u can project your phone display onto a big screen tv.

just plug in baby..

37inch display anyone?

video on the big screen..

angry birds??

now here's an idea. hook up your N8 to a decently sized hdmi enabled tv. hook up a bluetooth keyboard and hey presto you have a computer for you to do your work. How handy is that eh?

email anyone?

so there you have it. My review of the Nokia N8. I wanna thanks the fine folks at WOMWorld for giving me the opportunity to test the wonderful phone. If u need an allrounder that can perform when u need it, the N8 might just be the phone for you.

Nokia N8 - Media and Maps

One handy function that almost all high end Nokias have is the FM transmitter. Its pretty handy when u have all your music collection in the 16GB storage and you're to lazy to bring all your cds in the car. You just set the transmitter to an unused frequency and tune your radio to it.

pretty handy

Its pretty convenient and the sound quality is okay too. Well its just like listening to the radio.

gallery..

I've taken a bunch of pics already and i must say i'm quite satisfied with how the pictures turned out. Can't seem to find any panorama options though. Even the E72 had that function but it was hampered by the lack of memory on the phone that most of the time when I wanted to take a panorama pic the phone just runs out of memory and pretty much ruins the shot. So far I haven't encountered any such problems on the N8 though.

Another hallmark service that nokia provides is the navigation functions offered through ovi maps. One of the reasons i still kept the E72 was because of the maps. Ovi maps are convenient because u can download maps offline and save a lot on data downloads if u were to use other online maps offering.

Maps..

Point to point voice navigations works quite well. Downloading the maps through ovi suite is also not complicated. There's a mark difference between the maps version on the E72 and the one on the N8. There's the 3d buildings and also online services like the lonely planet guide and other bits and bobs.

3d buildings..

You can also download voice packs to customize the navigation guidance. Try the surfer dude and get irritated in zero to 10 seconds. 

maps..

online services..

I didn't try however run the navigation whilst transmitting the music to the car radio though. Can it be done? Well we just have to try and find out eh.

Nokia N8 - battery life and camera..

So I've been using the N8 as my main phone for the last couple of days. In terms of battery life, its better than my xperia x10 but not as good as my e72. Haven't really done an actual usage comparison but i typically have push mail running over the course of the day and the N8 goes down to half batteries by the time i arrived home around 8 or 9 pm. But i guess this depends on ur actual usage patterns. If you listen to mp3s, use wifi extensively, gps and all that jazz u should expect the battery to run out faster than u can say i'm flat.

Don't let the non user replaceable batteries scare you. Google and u can easily find guides on how to replace the battery if the need arise. But i believe the battery life would be enough for most users.

lil jj..

tada..

I have been taking snaps with the 12 mp camera and the xenon flash is fairly handy in low light conditions. Can it replace ur normal digital camera? Perhaps. I've seen some beautiful pics being taken with the N8, in fact they ran a competition or something on it. So it is definitely a contender for one of the best camera u can find on a phone.

The N8 also takes excellent videos. All in glorious HD. And the HDMI output makes it easier for you to share your videos on a big screen. Which reminds me i should probably try that out too. Transferred a rip dvd of Inception onto the phone at it plays smoothly enough. But i guess that's down to how u encode ur video right? The phone is truly a multimedia powerhouse.

For more sample pictures u can click here.

Nokia N8 - initial views..

So the first thing i noticed when holding the N8 is its excellent build quality. Design quirks aside, the phone itself is a fine piece of crafted machinery. It feels solid in the hand and you'll either like or hate the pronounced camera bump.

alternate home screen..

The N8 is running Symbian 3, for someone familiar with Symbian the look and feel is pretty similar to the one you're used to from the N97 or even the 5800. You could easily find the list of improvements from the Symbian s60v5 if u Google for it.

Anyway, the first thing that you notice when u start up the phone is how closely integrated it is with Nokia's Ovi service offerings. If you sync your contacts on Ovi i guess it'll be easy for you to transfer your contacts into your new phone. I chose to sync the phone using Mail for Exchange. My primary contact list is on my PC and i have it synced to my iPad, my xperia x10 and my e72. Keeps everything sync in the clouds. Hehe as long as the office server is up and running, I’m sorted.

Setting up MFE is easy. It’s integrated in the whole email set up process. You just need to know the settings. In a few minutes I had my contacts, calendar and email synchronized. Symbian 3 has three customizable home screens which u can populate however which way u want. It’s not as customizable as an android home screen but it works how it is supposed to...

home screen

For business users, the phone comes with quickoffice and adobe pdf. The quickoffice version is just for viewing only and u need to upgrade enable the editing functions. If you’re coming from the E series phone, quickoffice comes free with your phones. That pretty much sorts your business needs.

business apps

Next up, we’ll take a look at the N8’s multimedia capabilities.

Nokia N8 - preview

i know this review comes a tad bit late, but i only received an offer to test the phone just recently. so will be taking the phone through its paces and be testing it's business capabilities and its fun multimedia side.

thanks to the fine folks at http://www.womworld.com/nokia/

Nokia E72

I love my E72. I think it is a dream phone for me, that can do everything I want of a phone and more.

I think those who’ve been reading me since years back would know my history with phones. Yes, I did stray to two other brands but I found that I would always come back to Nokia. It’s the best for me – you know what to expect of a Nokia phone, their capabilities are reputable, and what’s more important is that their application/software/programmes are easy to figure.

I’ve always wanted to own the E71. When I let go of my E90 to the one once I left the employment industry, the one thought I should try out those phones with amazing camera capabilities. Hence, he kept buying me phones with cameras in high megapixels but I found that my soul has always felt void (heh!). No matter how good those phones were, I still always admired the sleekness of the E71 with those shortcut work buttons I’ve always been familiar with when using the E90.

So, when the E72 reached our shores, I didn’t hesitate to dream and dream big ☺. Waddaya know, dreams did come true hehe… and so glad that I waited as the E72 is a marked improvement from its predecessor.

not just for serious users, you could always pimp it to your taste ;)

Seriously, I love it. Yes, the camera functions fall short from the N86 and N82 that I’ve used before, but all I wanted was a mobile ‘PC’ that I could use even in my visits to the loo (oopps!). I love the qwerty keyboard that fits just nicely in my small palms and I enjoy doing whatever typing work I needed to do on the move – be it while waiting for little jj's playschool to be over, or while waiting for my lunch to be served if I am eating out – whenever, wherever. Best of all, Nokia rewards all its E72 users with a free download of the latest Quickoffice application so that you are able to do your work on any Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents. That’s not all… I am able to get all my emails as well. Therefore, this toughcookie is well connected, in the most sleek and sexy way ☺

Don't get me started on its other useful functions like optical trackpad, free ovi suite, flash camera, video calls and more! It's many shortcut buttons is perfectly suited for busy mommies like me.

Now, ff you’re 18-30 years of age, loves a little challenge, is not currently employed and would want to get your hands on this charming mini-machine, Nokia is currently doing a reality 'recruitment' drive in the form of internships at four high-profile companies.

As I am way over the age limit (*sigh*) I am unable to submit my application. Hmmm… now, I do look 21 (ahahh!) but unfortunately, I am not able to falsify the details in my identity card *sigh again*

I reckon that the E72 will be put to a test – a highly fascinating one, too, as you will be armed with only the handsome gadget, taking on various challenges and a champion will be picked. As the champion, The Rookie will win a RM10,000 cash prize and bring home the E72. Well actually, all 12 interns chosen for this project will get to bring home the E72.

A valuable experience is offered in 4 corporate organisations who are leaders in their industries - Nokia, Universal Music, Standard Chartered Bank and 8TV. Registration closes 28 April 2010 and more details can be found here.

Oh, but to those of you who’s young at heart like me who are not able to participate in this project, you could still get a RM100 voucher against your purchase for a brand new E72 just by following all the webisodes and promotions. I would like to get it for the one but that gadget freak even surprised me when he decided to lay off his highly gadget-ey, high-tech HTC hero for the E72 this afternoon.

Hurrah to E72!

iGo, uGo, weGo - the perfect foldable keyboard on the go!

Ok... I am in my excited mode now... I should already head to bed but do not feel sleepy at all, partly due to coffee but partly also due to this one universal bluetooth keyboard that arrived today.

on the go, with igo.

Frankly, I never thought myself a gadget person. Never. I was just happy with a normal phone and although I got an ibook G4 years ago, I just liked it functions but never used it beyond the usual microsoft office applications and frequent blogging sessions.

Well, that seemed to change after I met the one and him spoiling me with my first cute, white Palm Zire on our first Valentine :) From then on, he kinda unleashed the techie side of me and although I won't be able to compete with his knowledge of technical stuff, there are some techie side of me that even he cannot compete with :)

Throughout the years, I bought many many phones, all due to his 'smart' suggestions. They were partly due to him wanting to try the phones as well but rather have me be the guinea pig... many of the phones he suggested have those imperfections that I couldn't live with. But, the best buy was definitely the E90 that I so loved... it even has a blackberry capability which allowed me to reject the boring blackberry set I got at work as I was able to integrate the blackberry account with my phone account. The best part was being able to view microsoft office and pdf documents when the blackberry set the office gave me then could not even retrieve. But... gone are the corporate heydays for me and the phone was too 'big' for my housewifey image.

From then on, the one got me new phones almost annually so that he could indulge in other techie stuff like the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS, without me trying to stop him hehe... it was like an effective bribery. But, in my defense, I would not have stopped him from buying them as I always believed that once in awhile, a man's gotta indulge in the things he love and reward himself for a hard day's work... of course, within means :)

The phones that I use should always have a cosmetic appeal and feels good to the touch - the key pads must be sleek and the phone should look sexy. But when the baby was born, the one thought I should get a camera phone for those priceless moments with the baby's developments. And since I had used a SonyEricsson and a Motorola briefly before, I was adamant to maintain with Nokia, at all cost. Hence, the N82 was the best choice albeit moi not really liking it for its lack in appearance and feel - it was black, plasticky, its key pads were weird and the body was no where near sexy. Heh. But... I guess, the baby was most important and I happily (and reluctantly) chose the N82 over the E71 or E66 and boy, did it capture all those sweet and important moments of little jj, without fail.

Now that Nokia came up with the N86 with an 8-megapixel camera, the one thought it was time for me to upgrade. Well, I was again reluctant because I was eagerly awaiting that sleek E72, a much sexier upgrade from the E71. Plus, it has a 5-megapixel camera which is about similar to the N82. What I like most about the E series is its business-friendly function. I love the shortcut keys and I love it for the thin alloy-like body. But... somehow or rather, I had a quick switch of mind just before little jj turned 1 as I seriously thought an 8-megapixel camera would produce better images of her. Don't get me wrong... I know a separate digital SLR would definitely be 100% better than a camera phone but I am being practical here... I would like my gadgets to be easily accessible rather than realising I have too many cables and wires, and that I need to plug in so many appliances to charge them. Worst of all, I hate having so many things to carry and as much as an SLR would have me looking oh so chic, practicality is always a priority.

So, there. It came to me all of a sudden and the one was more than pleased when I told him I might actually consider the N86 - only if it comes in white. Hehe. What do you know... the shop that we usually go to actually had the last set and it was in white... as if the phone was really made for me, huh?

Finally, I thought I had everything I need with the phone looking sleek, sexy and as white as my Mac... and, it also meets the one's requirements, for him to feel that it was all worth the spending on his other half ;).

Anyway, to backtrack a little... once my ibook G4 displayed a faulty screen a few months back, I started to browse for a new computer. And since an iMac was parked on my desk for an editing job I was doing, I instantly felt I needed a desktop, not a laptop. Furthermore, I was only working from home and do not need to lug a laptop around. So, after much deliberation, the one suggested that a Mac Mini was a perfect choice for me since the 19" LG flatscreen that I won in a lucky draw 2 years ago was still intact in its box and collecting dust... and the fact that a Mac Mini is energy-saving, I guess I got so much value from the purchase even after upgrading its RAM and all.

little jj exploring her techie side as well :D

However, the recent power failures at the condo kinda left me frustrated and I needed something on the go... I know I really do not need a laptop because all I need is a function to type documents and I do not want something so heavy especially when I also have a baby to carry with me when I seek refuge at my parents' house during the power trips. Thus, I suggested getting a Nokia-compatible bluetooth keyboard. Although the one didn't think I would really need it, he seemed to have changed his mind immediately when the keyboard we ordered on ebay, arrived today.

The key pads are excellent! They're so smooth and fits just right for my fingers to move so eloquently. Best of all, there are 2 types of Function key as shortcut and once you've mastered it, you can go typing away quickly while you save, delete, cut, paste, whatever it is you need on the keyboard.

So, yes, I am excited... and I can foresee myself blogging away, anytime, even when I am at my parents' place, while the baby sleeps :)

a small wonder could do so much... what'll I do without gadgets??

Hehe... quite a lengthy history to justify why I need a bluetooth keyboard for my Nokia, eh?