Ok, our society is always bigger, stronger, faster. Mates compare the size of their respective flat screen televisions like their significant others compare the size of …other things.  The more we demand out of our smart phones, the more features the handset makers cram into the devices. In fact, most leading edge smart phones are more powerful and capable than our desktop computers of not too many years ago.  Once one makes the decision to buy either a Android, Apple, Blackberry or Windows Phone from there features are the only way for one handset carrier to distinguish itself from another. Even Apple and RIM, the maker of the Blackberry, differentiate their respective offerings based on price and capabilities.

There is a price for all of this power in our hands. That price is of course paid by the battery.  The more we demand of smart phones, be it bigger screens faster processors, LTE data (someday Ofcom willing), or better streaming media all extract increasing demands on the battery of a mobile phone. Alas, Moore’s Law has not made it to battery size and power, so the  demand is always outstripping the supply as it were.

The result is either frequent charging, battery swapping; or bigger batteries.  Smartphone makers, and users, on the whole usually dabble in all three. However, with the increasing demands on a smartphone to replace a computer, many carriers are moving to kill two birds with one store and make bigger screens that in turn allow for bigger batteries. Even Apple, whose iconic co-founder the late  Steve Jobs derided over sized smart phones as undersized tablets, is credibly rumored to be coming out with a larger screen with the iPhone 5.

The question remains:how big is too big for a smart phone? Many say that anything over four inches is too big. Much larger than that and the phone no longer easily fit in a shirt or jacket pocket or purse. Not only size but weight is also a factor, past a certain point going over email on a heavy phone is less like being connected and more like working out. That is what people have said about devices  with screens up to 4.7 inches. Then you have the Galaxy Tab, a monster at 5.2 inches and widely held out as the current size champ.

When the Galaxy Note came out, I for one was convinced that it would fail miserably in the market. The specs are pretty good and the screen is first rate abet at the cost of poor battery life. But the size. How many of us want to ride a train or walk down a street looking like we are talking to a copy of National Geographic?  However, if sales numbers are to be believed, talking to copies of National Geographic is an up and coming fad. Samsung reports excellent sell through on the device and the American carrier AT&T is particularly pleased.

iPad, Galaxy Note and Blackberry

Something I found interesting was a post from American Internet curmudgeon Mike Cane. (Note: @mikecane is well worth following on Twitter. He has a take no prisoners attitude in his posts and blog that is more than a bit refreshing) Mr. Cane lives in New York City and in his meanderings about the city notices that the Note was being embraced by the  every man rather than the tech elite and suits. This set me to wondering if people were buying into the Galaxy Note (and by implication other oversized) phones instead of buying a smartphone and a tablet. If that indeed is the case, then the rumored “mini-tablets” may find getting traction in the market to be a hard slog indeed. Why buy a mini tablet when you can buy a slightly smaller Galaxy Note or its like?

Tells us what you think is too big in a smartphone. Or do you want your smartphone super sized?

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Can a smartphone be too big?

Nokia’s new hero phone, the Lumia 900 is up for pre-order in the UK and will be released April 27th . The new Windows Phone has been available for a little over a week in the United States and has hit a bump or two in the road over data problems with its LTE data system.  Of course, UK users need not be concerned about any LTE issues, thanks to Ofcom and the squabbling  wireless carriers we arn’t likely to see the new data standard in this green and pleasant land till 2014. Instead Nokia offers the 900 with the well used DC-HSPA data .  Other than that, the phones have identical specifications Indications are the Lumia 900 will debut at least initially on the O2, Orange and Vodaphone networks and O2 and Orange are offering the phone free as either an upgrade on its £36 and up plans or signing up for twenty four months. The phone can be had SIM free for £486 (inc.VAT).

Early US reviews have been positive for the Lumia 900. Nokia got special notice for aggressively responding to the LTE data glitch by issuing a $100.00 USD credit for all current and future purchasers, effectively making the phone free on contract. The Lumia 900 launched with a $99.99 USD  price with a two year contract with American wireless carrier AT&T. The Nokia largess was not only a shrewd bit of damage control but necessary as the Nokia brand was all but forgotten by the USA cell phone users. The 900 is Nokia’s first major foray into the American market in several years. Even so, the company , along with Microsoft seem to be making similar investments in the UK to gain market share.

The specifications of the Lumia 900 are not spectacular by any means. However, apparently they get the job done, and the industrial design is outstanding according to the review of the leading American tech site, The Verge.

In the US buyers had a choice of blue or blue. The UK has been blessed with a the additional color white as well

The Verge review author,  Joshua Topolsky was one of the few reviewers to call out the phone on its most glaring shortcoming, the lack of Windows Phone apps. The situation with the Windows Phone app ecosystem is the thing that anyone who is considering a jump to the Lumia 900 from another platform should consider long and hard before you leap.  If you have already gone to the new os, the phone is an excellent upgrade from the first generation Windows Phone handsets. New users should consider carefully however.

Whenever you consider changing to a new smartphone operating system, first look at how you use your existing phone. What are your apps that you can not live without? What are the apps you use the most? Then see if those apps are on offer in the Windows Phone app store. If the exact app is not represented, is their an easy work around? The tech media constantly reports that Microsoft is spending a lot of quid to jump-start developers, but the proof is what you see in the store, not what is coming soon. For example, there is currently no Audible audio book app for Windows Phone. Rumors and a YouTube video claim that it is beta and will be released “soon”. However, it has been a month since the video and there is no firm release date.

Is it time to put a wager on the Windows Phone operating system? What do you think?

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Will the Lumia 900 light the way for Nokia and Windows Phone?

Ok their not smartphones by any means but Samsung and Nokia have two new budget phones for the pay as you go market, the cheapskates and the technophobes. Smartphones they are not but they certainly do the job of ringing people and texting with the added bonus of some basic features.

Firstly we have the Samsung Corby II.

• 3.14” Touchscreen
• EDGE connectivity
• microSD up to 16GB
• Bluetooth 3.0
• WiFi
• Samsung TouchWiz UI
• Social Networking Functions

As you can see it is pretty basic but obviously the price will reflect it’s lack of “smartness”. Available first in Germany of all places first we should see it appear on our shores soon afterwards although we don’t have a retail price for it just yet.

Secondly there’s the Nokia X1-00. Nokia are really good at making the ultra-budget phones and have made some in the past cheaper than anyone else but still with that Nokia build quality you expect from the Finnish mobile makers. This is even more basic than the previous phone however. It doesn’t even have a touchscreen It does have its own stand out features though although i think the market they’re aiming for are the annoying kind that make public transport unbearable

• Colour screen
• Series 30 software
• microSD support to 16GB
• Speaker on the reverse (increased frequency range so the sound quality is better than your average phone loudspeaker, “it’s for your chooooons innit”)

The upside to this phone is that it will be available next month at a super cheap £29 SIM Free.

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Couple of Budget Phones for you

Nokia, the top dog in mobile phones for so long, finally seeing it’s majority hold on the market slumping with the successes of Apple, BlackBerry and Android mobiles. Many have put this down to the fact it stuck with it’s Symbian mobile platform which didn’t improve as greatly as the other 3 companies operating systems. It took Intel on board to create the MeeGo operating system which hasn’t really surfaced despite being talked about some time ago. All this finally came into perspective a few days ago when figures showed how much Nokia’s market share had slumped. Still up there with the big boys in terms of numbers but the others about to overtake a senior exec within them sent a damning memo which got out around the internet saying Nokia staff were “standing on a burning platform,” and were falling away from it’s rivals

So what can Nokia do to sort it out. As said MeeGo was supposed to be the start. An OS for Nokias new smartphones and even Tablet PCs but we haven’t seen anything of it. Nokia have said they still plan to release a MeeGo smartphone by the end of this year but mainly aiming it at a certain market as Nokia have said that MeeGo will only be “an open source mobile operating system project. So swallow some pride Nokia, what about Symbian? Nokia says it will become, “…a franchise platform,” saying it wants to, “…retain and transition,” existing users. That sounds to me like the once popular OS will be dying out.

So from there what’s next? FINALLY they’re going to bite the bullet and have entered a strategic partnership with Microsoft so that their future phones can turn to the ever growing Windows Mobile operating system. Nokia have said “Nokia would adopt Windows Phone as its principal smartphone strategy.”, opting for Bing search options, Xbox Live compatibility and Zune media playback functions. However Nokia will be keeping it’s very successful and great Nokia Ovi Maps.

Soon as the first Windows Mobile phones by Nokia get announced, we’ll be sure to let you know

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Nokia and Windows 7 get friendly.

Mobile phone’s used to big. That couldn’t be helped, the technology in it’s youth could only mean that phones had to be big. Then they got small, real small. You can get a phone in your watch. Recently however it seems ok for phones to be big again but the new Nokia E7 is more than a big phone, it’s a big “business” phone.

Like the old Nokia business phones the E7  has a slide out QWERTY keyboard which makes the phone a portly number like it’s brother N8. Again this a new Symbian 3 operated phone and has a 4-inch screen with the same Clear Black Display as the C6. It has an 8MP camera, again capable of shooting 720p video but also has HDMI out and Dolby Digital Surround sound just like the N8. It will also have 16GB of onboard storage. For the people who actually will use it for business, the Nokia E7 has full Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync support for all your business needs and no doubt when Symbian 3 is in full flow, there will be plenty of new apps for you to sink your teeth into.

In a way you could say the E7 is the mature version of the N8 with less of a camera. Available by Christmas it should be just over £400.

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Nokia E7 : Four Inches of Business!

On first glance the C6 seems a lot like the C7 but Nokia is pulling out some more stops for this phone. With iPhone 4’s Retina Diaplay and the Super AMOLED of the Galaxy S it’s Espoo’s turn to get our eyes onto something better than the rivals.

This will be achieved via what Nokia is calling CBD. ClearBlack Display to you and me. Basically what it is, is a top end touchscreen which provides much better contrasts than current screens on the market. How does it do this, well here’s what Nokia said “the background of the ClearBlack Display is blacker than black, because we have used a polariser to remove unwanted reflections for important outdoor visibility. It has lower power consumption too. It’s not only blacker, it’s also greener.”

The phone itself is housed in a sleek stainless steel casing and is small in comparison to the giant smartphones like the N8 or Xperia X10. Again another Symbian 3 phone, it will have an 8MP camera and will be bundled with a new and improved Ovi Maps. No information on an exact release date just expect later this year probably around the same price as the C7.

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Nokia C6 : New screen to match Retina Display

Nokia this week has had a conference (Nokia World 2010) held in London and from it have come a few new phones. With the delay on the N8, Nokia haven’t been busy with other phones, but it appears secretly they have and so have announced 3 new phones that we at MightyGadget will talk about today.

The C7 appears to be slimmed down version of the N8. The N8 certainly is a brute of a phone and Nokia have scaled it down. The C7 is a Symbian 3, 3.5” AMOLED screened affair which is a tiny 10.5mm thick. On the flipside is an 8MP camera, ok not as good as the N8’s 12MP camera but like the N8 this will shoot 720p video. You’ll get 8GB of onboard storage which can be expanded via microSD by a further 32GB. What’s interesting is that Nokia has added Active Noise Cancellation to the phone, to deliver clearer calls. The other interesting point to make is the battery life…….. 27 days on standby, crikey!

The main thing Nokia is pushing with this phone is it’s social networking capabilities. Obviously the new OS should improve things but they’re adding support to several other “foreign” networks that a used more in other countries. It’s obviously not all about Facebook and Twitter. Available in Blighty later this year it should retail around the £280 mark or most likely a fair price on a subsidised contract.

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Nokia C7 : Slim and Sociable

Well its been on the cards for a while and now we have the news. The N8 is coming and lets hope and pray Nokia have realised the mistakes they’ve made with the N97 and N900 and get back to being the top dog at smartphones, and looking at the specs, this shouldn’t disappoint.

• First Symbian 3 mobile from Nokia.  Will still look and feel like a Nokia phone yet add extra features like multi-touch yet still keep its functionality with social networking and Ovi store.
• AT LAST A CAPACITIVE TOUCHSCREEN!!! With stylus support, the pinch zoom and everything else Nokia phones of old have lacked.
• The first phone to bundle a 12MP camera : Capable of 720p video the camera features the largest camera sensor on a Nokia device, improving the quality of images and light received. not to mention the speed of the lens capable of taking pictures faster than most digital cameras.
• N-standard WiFi. Yes thats right increased range and increased speed making streaming, surfing and sharing all that much quicker.
• HDMI output with the ability to output surround sound with Dolby Digital Plus technology.
• Full Flash Support – nuff said
• Web TV – pre-loaded feeds from CNN, National Geographic and E!, hopefully BBC iPlayer will return.
• A brand new music player with improved UI and cover-flow interface not to mention an improved sound quality.
• 16GB of internal memory upgradeable to 48GB via microSD
• Improved battery life : 50 yes 50 hours of music playback and apparently it’ll last 16 days on standby(will have to see that to believe it)

Due out in Q3 it’s believed to cost around £320. Check this video to see the N8 in action.

Nokia N8 YouTube video

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PhoneFest continued : Nokia N8 revealed

Yes that’s right Espoo revealed yesterday 3 half decent phones that are very friendly on the old pocket so if you’re a scrooge or just don’t want a top of the range phone then look here. What they have revealed are the E5(cheaper version of the popular E72), the C6 (an N-series-esque slider)and the C3(a super cheap Blackberry style messaging phone).

We’ll start with the E5. Running Symbian S60 3rd edition on a 2.4” QVGA screen it lacks the style of the E72 but still packs the connectivity. HSDPA, WiFi and a-GPS are all available. It has Exchange support so is a great little emailer, a 5MP camera, microSD slot and a 3.5mm headphone socket. Not bad eh?? Well how about all that for £160? Bargain.

The C6 is a lot like the N series phones but on the cheap. 3.2” 640×360 touchscreen this time with Symbian S60 5th edition this phone has a slide out, landscape, 4 line keyboard to type away those texts or update your facebook status. It also has a 5MP camera and a front mounted camera. Connectivity wise it’s got HSDPA, WiFi and a-GPS and also has an FM Radio. Memory comes in the form of a microSD slot. Price? £195. Again a bargain.

The C3 is the cheapest of the three and as it comes in beige, black/blue and bright Pink we’re guessing its aimed at the Pay as you Go market mainly due to the measley price of £79(yes thats right). Unfortunately though its specced at £79. Running Symbian S40 on a 2.4” 320×240 screen. Again microSD is the memory although it will playback music and has the usual 3.5mm jack. With a full QWERTY though you should be able to fly those messages out and it also has WiFi for hotspot surfing.

All 3 will be available over the next few months.

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Looking for a half decent cheap phone : NOKIA!!!

The hotly anticipated N900 phone from Nokia has been unveiled on the Vodafone website under the coming soon bracket making it the first network to be selling what will hopefully be Nokia’s comeback phone against the iPhone, when it hits our stores in January.

The sequel to the N97 and what looks to be a more robust, better working phone(gutted because i got the N97…..typical)  had been rumoured to be on Vodafone Ireland recently but now its got the “officialness” now on Voda UK. Similar to the N97 in looks and size this powerhouse of a phone can multitask like no other. using the Maemo 5 OS which is based on Linux this will allow the phone to operate with ease and speed, add to that an ARM Cortex-A8 processor and 1GB RAM you can really see this phone will work wonders.

Usual features like a 3.5” high res(800×480), resitive touchscreen(which although not as good as a capacitive one like the iPhone, but Nokia really has got this one working quite well), 32GB of internal storage, 5MP camera, WiFi, Firefox based browser with Flash 9.4 support and Ovi connectivity for all those apps.

Not too sure of any price ranges as of yet as it’s still “coming soon”

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Nokia N900 : On Vodafone in January