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There is a whole lot of chatter on the Internet today after Nokia announced the new N97 at the Nokia World Watch event in Barcelona yesterday.

There is no surprise that this device has people talking though it is a beast of a machine and from initial appearances seems to be the love child of my beloved E90 and the N95.

The phone is to be released in the first half of 2009 and will cost approximately €550.

As you can see from the above image that the phone uses a full QWERT keypad, it also used a 3.5″, 640 x 360 resistive touch screen and comes with 32Gb of internal memory with a microSD slot allowing you to upgrade the phone to 48Gb. Other features include:

• Tri-band HSDPA 3G
• A-GPS and Stand-alone GPS for directions and geo-tagging
• 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics
• Flash Lite 3.0 support and Flash Video in web browser
• Music player up to 36 hours playback time
• Share and Ovi services support

The operating system is Symbian (as usual) and uses S60 5th Edition and is designed to make the most of social networks such as Facebook allowing you to utilise the homescreen for Facebook or RSS widgets.

The phone certainly ticks a lot of boxes for me, though with the release of Android I would prefer to see something a little better than Symbian on the phone. Though there is no surprise there seeing as Nokia now own Symbian. However according to Engadget Linux could become a possibility in the future for high end phones, but I will believe it when I see it.

We previously blogged about possible pictures of the Nokia E91, and we have just posted the internal roadmap of Nokia Smartphones.

So did any of the road details match up with a possible Nokia E91 Specification?

The answer is, possibly. The best possible match I can see for the E91 is the phone codenamed Eitri which is due for internal release in week 17 of 2009 (Mid April).

This is a landscape candybar with QWERTY, 3.5-inch 640×350 display, minimum 8GB ROM, microSD, pressure sensitive touch UI with tactile feedback and gestures, charging via USB, 5MP AF camera with dual LED flash, integrated compass and accelerometer, proximity sensor, FM transmitter.

Some pretty impressive specs there. While it may only be a small thing I am impressed that Nokia have FINALLY decided to go with USB charging.

It may not be the E91 as there is no mention of dual screens, and the screen is actually smaller than the current internal screen with a 3.5-inch 640×350 display compared to the current 4 inch 800 x 352 display. However this could indicate they are releasing a smaller version giving it more mass appeal.

Engadget Mobile have a very interesting post today. Apparently the internal roadmap for Nokia Smartphones has been leaked. This is basically a list of all the smartphones Nokia are working on, however this is not a list of the phones that will be released. Quite a few will be cancelled, others will be re-specced though it does give us a taster of what is to come.

There are quite a few nice sounding phones though including a 8 megapixel, half QWERTY keyboard, 128MB RAM, 8GB ROM phone codenamed Corolla due internally in March 2009.

Also a couple of widecreen touch devices, IP08 and Ivalo with the later having 32GB of storage!

The table of phones is after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

I am due for an upgrade in January, and as always I find myself in a quandary about what to get. There does not seem to be a phone out there that meets my requirements, a lot of phones tick the right boxes but then will miss one or 2 important things off, leaving me with an option I am not entirely happy about.

I suppose the problem is that I want all the bells and whistles and not have to pay a fortune for it, and if a company released the "perfect phone" it would mean people wouldn't bother changing it so would harm the profits.

Anyway what I want from my phone is:

Large internal memory - The iPhone, N96, and Omnia all offer this. I would want 8GB minimum or 16GB would be nice

MicroSD - If I had 16GB internal and a 16GB card I would have plenty of room to play with! I believe the N96 and Omnia do this while also having the internal memory.

Smart OS - I'm a geek, I like functionality, and a smart OS is the best way to get it. Though one issue is that I don't want Windows Mobile. I will try it again if I HAVE to but my experience with my HTC Tytn was not pleasant. Symbian is the most likely option, though I strongly suspect Android will become a strong contender if not the main contender eventually.

3.5G (HSDA) - Thanks to reduced mobile broadband prices and decent mobile browser I find myself using my phone for browsing a lot more. I am sorry Apple but 3G is just not acceptable.

A decent camera with a xenon flash. I don't need a stupid million megapixel camera but 4 or 5 megapixel would be nice, and an LED flash is just CRAP. I believe it is the image sensor that is more important for a digital camera so I would prefer a decent one of them rather than lots of megapixels.

Large touch screen + decent screen resolution - The iPhone may fall down in quite a few areas but you can't fault its screen or the touch screen user interface! If I am going to use my phone online, it makes life a lot easier if you the screen can display a good % of a normal web page, obviously I am not going to get 1280x800 but as much width as possible would be good.

Pull out keyboard - Ok this maybe a little more disputed by people than other features, and I have to admit the iPhone does the best of a bad situation but I still think real keys are important.

Exchange Functionality - Again probably not the most important feature for the average consumer but it is important and quite a lot of phones (iPhone, S60 phones) do it so there is no excuse not too. Blackberry functionality would be helpful (not so much for me though) and decent push email.

Proper media keys / media integration - At the end of the day I am looking for convergence, I don't want 16GB of storage for nothing, I want to play my music on the phone, so I want to access the music easily! I also want it to be able to play the files I put on it, rather than having to convert them via some software.

A 3.5mm headphone jack - Again I want to listen to music, using adaptors is just annoying and proprietary adapters are the most ridiculous thing in the world! i.e the G1 apparently needs a custom ExtUSB adaptor that isn't even available immediately! What are they playing at!

Mini USB charging and PC connection - Again I hate all things proprietary. My E90 even has a mini USB but then wont charge up via it!!

Built in GPS - Not that I use it much, but it is very useful for a lot of people.

Wi-Fi + Bluetooth - Self explanatory really

A decent batter life would also be nice, oh and actually the ability to make calls!

I don't think form factor is that much of an issue, the iPhone is hardly small, nor is the G1, and the N96 is quite fat. Though the iPhone goes to show that people will happily have a large phone as long as it looks good!

I suppose that is quite a lot of phone, and looking at it, it sort of kills off the Music player AND the sat nav market but phones are moving this way anyway but I just wished they hurried up a little!

At the moment I think the Nokia N96 or Samsung Innov8 are the closest to my requirements, though the Samsung Innov8 doesn't appear to be freely available on contract.

What other features do you want to see on a phone? And I mean realistic features, I am sure I have missed a few off

During a recent S60 podcast Nokia did a slide presentation  that included a glimpse of an unknown Nokia device that included a large touch screen on the front and opens up to reveal a 2nd full internal touch screen.

The external screen is said to swivel 180 degrees, allowing the two touchscreens to face each other.

I personally love my E90 so I would love to see a major upgrade like this. I will remain skeptical until I something more solid is released.

Via Symbian Freak

TechRadar reports that the N79 and N85 handsets first captured in spy shots in June have finally become official.

To the left (shown bearing the N00 markings as in the original leaked photos) is the new slider design, the N85. The phone appears to be a baby brother to the new flagship handset, the N96, with a 2.6" OLED screen, GPS, FM radio and 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens. The N85 will be delivered with a free 8GB memory card.

Over on the right is the new "candybar" phone, the N79. Bundled with a 4GB memory card, the N79 packs in all the same features as the N85, and sees the return of the old Xpress-On replaceable covers that owners of the old 3210 handsets will not-so-fondly remember.

Contract-free prices are reported to be €350 for the N79 and €450 for the N85. No word yet on when these will hit the UK networks.