The Up And Coming

Nokia, once again have done it. The specifications for the N8 were breath-taking enough, but the tech specs for the E7. The E7 also uses the same Symbian^3 OS that the N8 uses, along with a 4” touchscreen that supports multi-touch. The E7 has an 8Mp camera with an LED flash, not as incredible as the Xenon flash on the N8, but then again this is an E series phone, for the business sector. The camera should provide them with a camera that is of incredible quality. The E7 also has the same HDMI and Dolby Surround Support. The QWERTY keyboard and the camera are the two things that differentiate the E7 and the N8 in the hardware aspect. The weight difference is noticeable as well; the E7 weighs over 50g more than the N8. (The N8 weighs less than the iPhone 4 by the way).

Another of Nokia’s new rage is the Nokia C7, with a 3.5” touch-screen. This Nokia is just a smidge (1.2mm of a smidge) thicker than the iPhone 4. With the new Symbian^3 OS, it supports an 8Mp camera that can record at 720p. It has a 3.5 mm headphone jack with 8 GB of internal storage. Some may say that this phone sounds a lot like the N8, yet it does not support the multi-touch that the N8 does. It has half the storage space and less RAM. This phone would be aimed at the mid-range phone for consumers who enjoy music and a touchscreen. It does not have the HDMI and the Dolby Surround Sound support that the N8 and the E7 have. This is probably because it was aimed at the mid-range consumer.

Last of the Nokia’s is the C6-01; this phone also has a touchscreen, that comes in at 3.2”. this phone is also quite a bit thicker than the C7. This phone is the cheapest of the three, with only 340Mb of internal storage. The C6-01 also has a 3.5mm headphone jack, 8Mp camera and the capability to record video at 720p. This phone has 3G connections and Wi-Fi as would be expected.

These phones are all incredible and Nokia deserves a lot of recognition for making the game that much harder for everyone. 

The new generation of smartphones

How do we define a smartphone? A phone that can access an email, write a word document, present a slideshow and of course play games.

To do this, these phone are having to ramp up their specifications, a phone use to be able to run on a 200 MHz processor, now however, there are phones running off of a 1 GHz processor. Soon, the major mobile processor manufacturers will be supplying us with dual core processors that mean our phones will be capable of a lot more than just reading and composing mail, using the internet and making our lives simpler just through the menial tasks that our phones do for us now.

What comes next? The next step to the new generation of smartphones has to be the operating system that they run off. Microsoft is in the process of manufacturing their new OS which has a minimum hardware recommendation of 1GHz processor. This operating system is said to be the OS that brings everything together. For Microsoft, this could be one of the very last times that they get a chance to infiltrate the mobile market, as their past OS have been ugly and not very simple to use.

Simplicity has been the key to success as we can see with Apple’s own OS, the newest being the iOS4 which finally gives us the ability to multitask on their OS. Another up and coming OS is the newest Symbian. Symbian^3 OS, will provide a newer and much better basis to run all the incredible hardware that is being developed on. For example, it will enable a more responsive multitouch function, improved memory management with a balance between power and battery life.

The first device to run the new Symbian OS will be the Nokia N8. This newest Nokia will provide the user with a huge amount of functions that surpass anything the world has ever seen. You cannot even compare it to the iPhone as this new Nokia is in a league of its own. For all of you who do not believe me, the N8 will have a perfectly sized 3.5” AMOLED capacitive screen that will support multi-touch. An accelerometer for the UI auto-rotate and a proximity sensor that should work properly! For those who want their music on their phone, the N8 will have a 3.5mm headphone jack and 16 GB of internal storage that will be expandable up to 32Gb. Connectivity wise, the N8 supports 3G, WLAN b/g/n, Bluetooth v3.0 with a microUSB. This microUSB actually allows the user to plug in their USB’s and import their important files onto the phone. With many ways to connect your phone, what are you going to have to share? With the 12Mp camera with Carl Zeiss optics and full Xenon flash there will be plenty of opportunities to take brilliant pictures that are of impeccable detail. The video features are equally impressive with a 720p recording mode. Sharing all of your videos and pictures is incredibly easy through the HDMI port on the phone.

What are the drawbacks? Perhaps the phone is too big? Not a chance! It is only slightly bigger than the new iPhone 4.

This phone ladies and gentlemen, is the new generation of smartphone.