Nokia has been feeling the heat lately from Apple, Samsung, HTC and LG. If someone asked me to name 1 smartphone from Nokia I wouldn’t be able to name anything except the Nokia N8, which I reviewed a long time ago.

Nokia has seriously undermined a comeback by delaying the phones and betting too much on the Windows Phone operating system. The Nokia phones have had too many “me too” features and have taken a serious beating at the hands of iPhone and Android based phones.

While we still believe that Nokia has a sizable chance due to it’s sheer presence and branding all over the globe, it has to one up it’s phones before people stop and give Nokia another look.

Here’s a small video showing Nokia Lumia 800 at a glance -

I’ll be reviewing the newly introduced Nokia Lumia 800, Nokia’s first Windows Phone based smartphone on the market.

Size: Nokia Lumia 800 has a smaller size than most smartphones you come across these days but we like it because you can easily hold the phone and operate it with one hand. It’s easier using a phone with one hand. Lumia 800 is 116.5 mm long, 61.2 mm wide and 12.1 mm thick.

Form Factor: It has a  very slick form factor. Nokia has really got the hardware design right this time. There are no unnecessary openings in the phone which makes it so much classy. The phone is a little heavy for it’s size at 146 gms (approx 5 oz) that makes it look like it’s more durable and of high-quality.

Display: The Lumia 800 has a curved 3.7-inch AMOLED ClearBlack glass touch screen so it fares pretty good at responsiveness. The colors look vibrant on the phone. The screen is 480 x 800 pixels which is sufficient for checking email, viewing photos and browsing mobile friendly sites.

Operating System:

Lumia 800 is based on Windows Phone 7.5 Mango operating system which mainly includes the Internet Explorer 9 mobile to bring the desktop browsing experience on the mobile, multi-tasking for 3rd party apps, Twitter integration for the Hub (the home screen of the Windows Phone as it is known) and access to Windows Live Skydrive ( free 25GB cloud storage from Microsoft).

Web browsing: With a built-in Internet Explorer 9 mobile web browser you can be sure of running any website that runs on your desktop computer.

Take a loot at the web browsing experience on the Internet Explorer 9 mobile on Lumia 800 phone -

Camera:

Since N8, Nokia has placed special emphasis on it’s phone cameras. No wonder considering the fact that for most people their phone cameras are their first and only camera. While this might not be applicable to smartphone users, they are one demographic that wouldn’t mind taking crisp, high-definition photos and videos from their phones. With the 8 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and 3264 x 2448 resolution you know your ordinary pictures will come out extra-ordinary.

Although it has a powerful camera, some of the photos we have seen are a bit grainy, while in some other pictures the Lumia didn’t handle the lighting well. There could have been better noise reduction for photos.

The Lumia 800 supports high-definition video recording as it supports 1280p x 720p of video recording. Now you don’t have to whip out your bulky SLR for those once-in-a-while moments!

Nokia Drive – At first, I thought the Nokia Drive was some sort of cloud storage provided by Nokia but Nokia Drive is a turn-by-turn voice-enabled mapping service from Nokia.

The good thing about Nokia Drive is that it is available for all over the world and the best thing about this is that you can download maps for whatever place you like for offline access. Great for all those camping and long trips. Also, it’s infinitely more convenient to follow voice-enable directions than to peep in your phone every 30 seconds. Great feature, if you ask me!

Nokia Maps -

Nokia Maps on the Lumia 800

It’s still in beta so expect some changes in the future. You can select map, satellite or traffic modes. While not as extensive as Google maps it can still be a great alternative to Google maps.

Nokia music – the interface looks like Microsoft’s Zune. The music app categorizes all the music into genres. It also enables you to download the songs for listening offline.

Pros

• Good hardware specs
• Powerful 8 megapixel camera – supports high-definition photo & video recording
• FM radio – why always load the radio through an app? isn’t it better (and simpler) this way?
• Voice-enabled turn-by-turn mapping from Nokia – drive without distraction
• Microsoft Office to access Word, Excel, Powerpoint, OneNote and other applications on your phone.

Cons

• Not many apps on the Windows Phone marketplace (although we can expect more in the near future)
• In your face social networking blasting constant updates on the home screen (hub) – but that’s more of an OS problem than the phone’s.
• A bit pricey at €420 and $550 (all prices approx)

If you want to try something other than an iPhone or Android devices you should buy the Nokia Lumia 800. If you like having a lot of apps we suggest you either buy an iPhone or an Android device.

Please rate the review  and if you’re using a Nokia Lumia 800 phone, we’d love to hear your opinion in the comments below.

Amazon Kindle Fire

Amazon recently released the new Kindle family of electronic book readers – the classic Kindle, Kindle Touch and the Kindle Fire. The new kindle family offers the classic Kindle at lowered prices and a brand new table-cum-bookreader the Kindle Fire.

The Kindle Fire is built on top of Google’s Android operating system. What this means is that apps available for Android can be run on the Kindle Fire. It’s a big deal because the huge number of apps available for Android are instantly available for you to download and use.

Note: There were some reports that Amazon was blocking access to the Android Market and instead was redirecting it back to it’s own app store aptly called the Amazon App Store. As of today, Amazon has released an update the let’s you access the Android Market without any redirection.

While the Fire has been compared to the iPad time and time again by tech blogs let me tell you that the 2 are basically very different. The iPad falls somewhere between a computer and a smartphone while the Kindle Fire falls somewhere between a smartphone and a tablet like the iPad. It’s like comparing apples to oranges (or in this case – to kindles). To prove the point, using both an iPhone and an iPad you can check email, watch videos and play games. But you don’t carry an iPad in your pocket or use it to make a call.

The iPad is mainly an entertainment device – you can browse websites, play games, check your email and watch videos. The Kindle Fire on the other hand places a strong emphasis on consumption of content like magazines, books (purchased through Amazon, of course!) and the Amazon Prime video library.

Let’s see if Kindle Fire is really the device you need.

iPad vs Kindle Fire Size Comparison

Small Size – The Kindle Fire is a small tablet device when compared to the iPad. Kindle Fire has a 7-inch screen size compared to 9.7-inch of the iPad. As you can see in the above photo, the Fire is much smaller than the iPad and if you like reading for longer periods of time then holding a Fire would be much easier than the iPad.

Price – In this economy, it wouldn’t hurt saving a buck. The Kindle Fire costs less than half of what the lowest priced iPad will cost your wallet. And if you’re short on cash this holiday season then you could purchase 2 Kindle Fires for lower than the price of an iPad. At $199 this looks like a bargain specially when compared to the Barnes & Nobles Nook Color which has similar specs but would cost $50 more at $249.

Amazon Kindle Fire App Store

Amazon App Store -  Just like the old generation Kindle, you can depend on the Fire to work closely with Amazon’s vast content library. And all the stuff your purchase is available at Amazon’s Cloud storage so that you can access that from Kindle apps for Mac, iPad, iPhone, Android and even Blackberry!  There are thousands of apps for your Kindle Fire  so that you never get bored!

Huge Kindle library -  If there is one thing that blows Amazon’s competitors out of water is Amazon’s vast, vast content library. Want to subscribe to the NYT? the WSJ? sure you can on the Kindle. And guess what, more and more books these days are available for the Kindle and they’re often cheaper if you buy the Kindle edition. Double win!

Weight – The Kindle weighs just at 14.6 ounces. It’s light enough to have a nice read before having to put it down!

Unlimited Cloud Storage (for FREE) -  The Kindle Fire has a “measly” 8GB built-in storage. While this is more than enough if you have a few hundred books, a few movies and some hundreds of songs on the device. But you don’t have to worry about running out of storage for your Kindle Fire because Amazon provides unlimited, free cloud storage for all the stuff you purchase from Amazon.

Amazon Silk -  Tablets aren’t very powerful when compared to the heavy duty desktops and laptops we’re so used to multitask on. If you’re like me, you open several tabs on your web browser. But firing up a website on the tablet can be sloooow. But Amazon has addressed that too with this newly designed web browser. It has been designed from the ground up to work flawlessly and blazingly fast on the Kindle Fire.

Here’s a little demo of the Silk web browser -

Cons

No camera and microphone – In a world of constant texting, emailing and video calling  the absence of a microphone and a camera is acutely felt. While it sure differentiates the Kindle Fire from all the other tablets, it will surely repel a lot of people for whom Skyping their family is an important part of their tablet experience.

I, for one, really like that the Kindle Fire doesn’t have a camera and microphone as having these surely distracts us from longer, immersive reading that has become so rare these days. Remember, the Fire was designed to be a reading device first and then a tablet. Just see how the Kindle has evolved and you’ll understand what I’m talking about.

No GPS – Again, this is such an essential part of our lives that I think Amazon has done a big mistake of not building a GPS in the Kindle Fire. I don’t want to whip out my iPad just to look for directions when I’m holding a Kindle Fire. I hope, you neither!

Small built-in storage – While everywhere we go there is an abundance of free Wi-Fi. But if you travel a lot to places where internet access is a bit flaky then the 8GB built-in storage is really low.

While the Kindle Fire has it’s advantages and disadvantage (like every other device out there), I think considering the form factor, it’s usefulness and the majority of things it can do – it’s a great buy for everyone in the family alike. No wonder, it is the fastest selling product on Amazon this holiday season and a major threat to Apple’s iPad domination. And it doesn’t cost a fortune like many tablets that are not half as good do!

It’s just 2 days for Christmas.  Why not order a Kindle Fire today to have it shipped just in time for Christmas!

What are your thoughts on the Amazon Kindle Fire? Please share it in the comments below…

The Opera Logo

Opera is my favorite browser just after Google Chrome for PC. I really like it the way it looks, the way it loads. You can stop loading images and lots of interesting features that make your browser smooth and steady.

What about the same feeling on your tablet, the iPad? No worry, mate! You have an Opera Mini App for the iPad. Smoothly designed for the iPad and the iPad 2.

Opera has a special feature called the Speed Dial. Just like Chrome, you can click on the page you added to Speed Dial. The newly designed feature is the new social sharing button for the most popular social websites, Facebook and Twitter in just 2 taps.

Whats the best part? Its absolutely FREE!

RIM Blackberry known for its phones at enterprise level, the revolutionary company has brought to us the 1st ever enterprise ready tablet, The PlayBook with its own Blackberry Tablet OS. The name itself surprises me, play at work, PlayBook?

It’s not really all enterprise but those who wish to buy this tablet casually, it’s available at $499 with a 16 GB internal storage.(same as iPad (16GB Wifi) ) But sadly doesn’t have a MicroSD card slot, boohoo.

Talking about the things it can do, let me tell you it plays FLASH. Yeah, I know when a tablet says flash. You can actually work just like your computer in a more stylish way. Running on Blackberry Tablet OS, it supports Flash, HTML5, OpenGL, POSIX.  It has a 7” WSVGA Capacitive Touch Screen.

Just like the iPad 2, it supports dual cameras. The front facing is 3 MP and the back is 5 MP which does support HD video recording capture + video conferencing as well.

Blackberry’s Playbook has HDMI and USB port which I suppose iPad doesn’t. Blackberry Playbook’s Memory (RAM) is unbelievable but true, 1 GB of stunning memory and 1 Ghz of dual core processor.

Full Multi-touch/Gesture Support the Playbook kills all the tablets out there. Enterprise ready tablet for $499, now that’s a catch!

Head to the PROS and CONS

PROS

Dual Cameras

Flash Support

Lightweight

1GB Ram

1Ghz Dual Core Processor

CONS

No 3G

No OS features displayed.

Nokia N8

Nokia announced the launch of Nokia N8 during the last week of April. The world leader in the mobile phone market promised a lot and created too much expectations for people regarding the N8 which would become another crown jewel, just like its predecessors N97. If you’re too excited to get your hands upon Nokia N8 then you’ve have to wait until the 3rd quarter of 2010.

Pros

• Flash enabled
• 12MP Carl-Zeiss auto-focus camera with a large sensor
• Real video format
• 720p HD video playback
• HMID card interface to TV
• Dolby Digital sound
• Xenon flash
• 4000 x 3000 image resolution for crispier and sharper images
• Aluminium body

Cons

• Doesn’t offer anything new and innovative except the powerful camera
• Won’t be available until the 3rd quarter! (A very bad strategy to create a hype around a product that dosn’t exist!)
• Zoom : 2x for images , 3x for videos
• Touchscreen without QWERTY – typing long messages will be a nightmare
• Will be available in very few countries, initially!

Price

The N8 is priced at 370 euros which translates to approx Rs. 21500 in India before taxes! The pricing really confuses the user as to which phone among the N8 and its sibling N97 should be purchased as there isn’t much price difference between the 2 phones! Also, choosing a QWERTY phone in favor of a fancy new toy is very difficult given the price range for both is almost the same.

But as the market has shown N97 wasn’t as glaring a success as Nokia had anticipated. Some even called the N97 an iPhone killer!

While it certanly is difficult for any phone company let alone Nokia to shatter Apple iPhone dominance in the smartphone market given the depth and breadth of the app store.

Comparison of the Apple iPhone and Nokia N8

Whenever any new smartphone enters the market people start comparing it with Apple’s iPhone which is only natural given that the iPhone has become THE gold standard among smartphones.

I find it very difficult to compare N8 and the iPhone because its no Apple to Apple comparison (excuse the pun)!

Some of the hard hitting features to compare that come are -

Flash-support – It’s what made the iPhone notorious. There was a whole fiasco going over in the Flash community over Steve Job’s decision to stop supporting Adobe Flash. Adobe then spent millions in publicity to persuade Apple to take back its decision and start supporting flash again! Well the rest is history…he bottomline is Nokia N8 supports Flash.

Camera – The N8 beat iPhone (or ANY other phone in the market) over its 12MP Carl-Zeiss camera. The iPhone pales in comparison with a measly 5MP! If you’re photographically inclined then the N8 is the phone you must consider getting.

Multitasking – Both the iPhone and N8 support multitasking. Interesting thing to note is that both started supporting multitasking with the new Operating Systems introduced by both the phone giants – iPhone OS 4 started supporting it now and also Nokia’s Symbian^3 also introduced multitasking for N8.

I’d like to ask DailyPandora’s readers to share more comparisons between the 2 phones in the comment box below.

Some lessons for Nokia

Don’t try to fill new wine in old bottles – If you compare Nokia N8 with N97 and X6 you’ll come to realize that all these phone have very similar (if not similar!) feature with regards to -

• Display Size
• Dimensions
• Weight
• Video format support

Should I buy the iPhone or the N8?  ( tips for new buyers )

Both phones are great in and among themselves but when it comes to making a choice between the 2 its a difficult stance to take!

If you’re using a smartphone for the 1st time then an iPhone is definitely a better option. Many iPhone users, majority of them infact, suggest that it’s extremely difficult to switch to another smartphone after using an iPhone. Apple fanboys!

More serious users and reviewers chime that Nokia N8 might be a glaring improvement over the N97 (which was an overall failure) with its memory management, 2D and 3D graphics rendering, more sensitive capacitive multi-touch screen and the grand daddy of all camera phone a 12MP, HD supported Carl-Zeiss optical camera!

Some Lessons for Nokia

• Differentiate the brand – Can you tell me 1 peculiar similarity between Microsoft and Nokia? No It’s NOT software! Both great companies don’t know how to differentiate brands. With Microsoft it was MSN, Live and Passport all at the same time which led to confusion among users. With Nokia, it is the series and obscure, meaningless numbers – N-series, then E-series, etc Which leads to undue confusion and provides little insight to customers when making a decision to purchase phones!
• Popularize Publisize your services – Did you know Nokia provides unlimited photo storage, complete phone backup and sync, offline maps and apps through its integrated service platform Ovi? If you do then kudos to you! That’s because not many Nokia users aren’t aware of the existence of these amazing services!
• Instead of using same old features Nokia should focus on developing its marketplace by providing some sort of incentives for app developers.

I’d personally prefer iPhone although if Nokia’s interested in changing my mind I’d be more than happy to give my address

Edited: Corrected spelling mistakes, thanks to the 1st commenter of this post!