Technknowledge

If we can think of one reason to take being told "to mind your own business" with a smile it would be the Nokia Eseries. A household name for enterprise users, it's hardly a surprise that each E-series update is greeted with plenty of excitement. The Nokia E75 is no exception, even if it doesn't really put anything new on the table.

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Nokia E75 official photos

The side-sliding QWERTY form factor lands on Symbian turf following a reasonably successful spell on the WinMo side of the yard.

The major novelty of the Nokia E75 is the form factor and we're about to see if this is enough for it to carve a niche out for itself in a crowded market.

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Nokia E75 lifestyle photos

There's no denying that if a side-sliding QWERTY is good enough for a teenage-targeted music phone (the Nokia 5730 XpressMusic), it must be more than at home in a full-featured business phone. Welcome to the Nokia E75.
Key features

* 2.4" 16M-color TFT display of QVGA resolution
* Four-row side-slide QWERTY keyboard
* Quad-band GSM and tri-band 3G (with HSDPA) support
* Symbian OS with S60 3.2 UI
* 369 MHz ARM11 CPU
* 3.5mm standard audio jack
* microSD card slot, 4GB microSD card prebundled
* 3.2 megapixel auto focus camera with a dedicated shutter key, geotagging and VGA@30fps video recording
* Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g with UPnP technology
* Built-in GPS receiver and Nokia Maps with 3 months of free voice-assisted navigation
* USB and stereo Bluetooth (A2DP) connectivity
* Steel battery cover
* FM radio with RDS
* Remote Wipe functionality
* Carrier-independent VoIP support
* Office document editor
* User-friendly Mode Switch for toggling two homescreen setups
* Smart dialing

Main disadvantages:

* Rather expensive at this point (more than 350 euro)
* Controls around the D-pad are too tiny
* Mediocre camera performance
* Fingerprint-prone cheap-looking front
* Wiggling cheapo camera key
* Limited battery life (in comparison to the E71)

Even if we leave aside the scores of competing business handsets, the Nokia E75 still faces quite stiff competition from within the E-series range itself. It's unreasonably close to the E90 as far as pricing is concerned and is quite uncomfortably cloning most of Nokia E71 functionality. The side-sliding QWERTY keyboard and FP2 are pretty much all the E75 has over the E71.

They don't get any bigger than that. A launch of this caliber can aptly be called inauguration day. The release of Nokia N97 is the Nseries counter-move that geeks have been waiting for since November. Easily one of the most complete smartphones ever created, the N97 has been haunting Symbian buffs' dreams for quite a while.

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Nokia N97

We're about to see if this feature-loaded son of a gun is the stuff dreams are made of and if it has the gut to stand up to the best on the market. The 5800 XpressMusic was cheap enough to easily be forgiven a couple of shortcomings but the N97 is not the begging type. Nokia-faithfuls are used to only getting the best treatment, so they won't settle for less with the Nseries skipper.
Key features

* Slide-n-tilt 3.5" 16M-color resistive touchscreen of 640 x 360 pixel resolution
* 5 megapixel autofocus camera with dual-LED flash and lens cover (VGA@30fps video recording)
* Symbian OS 9.4 with S60 5th edition UI
* Slide-out three-row full QWERTY keyboard
* ARM 11 434MHz CPU and 128 MB of RAM
* Quad-band GSM support and 3G with HSDPA support
* Wi-Fi and GPS with A-GPS (plus 3 months of free voice-guided navigation via Ovi Maps)
* Digital compass
* Class-leading 32GB onboard storage
* microSD card slot with microSDHC support
* Built-in accelerometer
* 3.5 mm audio jack
* TV out
* Stereo FM Radio with RDS, FM transmitter
* microUSB port and stereo Bluetooth v2.0
* Web browser has full Flash and Java support
* Nice audio reproduction quality

Main disadvantages

* The S60 5th edition UI still has poor ergonomics and is not as thumbable as expected
* Camera features are so two-thousand-and-late
* No DivX or XviD support out-of-the-box
* No smart dialing
* Somewhat limited 3rd party software availability
* No office document editing (without a paid upgrade)

Obvious from the list above, the Nokia N97 hardly puts anything new on the table. It is however a bold try to fit all of today's top features under one hood and offer a nice ride at that. This certainly is an ambitious task by itself but the ever-expectant Nseries fans, who always want something new on their next handset, make it even harder. The Nokia N97 will need to be near flawless to get a warm welcome.

You probably already know all there is to know about Sony Ericsson's upcoming HD-video-flaunting Kurara. Well, instead of posing for small-time opportunists, this time Kurara is starring in a real blockbuster shot and directed by no other but Mobile-Review's Eldar Murtazin.

Unannounced phones do get a lot attention but it's quite rare to see one star in a preview by a serious online media so long before its official announcement. Most of those pre-announcement meets are usually governed by some sort of non-disclosure rules (written or not). We guess Mr. Eldar Murtazin has been bitterly disappointed by Sony Ericsson - enough to break his own promises of not publishing any information harmful to the company (as mentioned here).

Anyways, it's back to the star of the show - Sony Ericsson Kurara. We've uploaded several preliminary specs in our rumor mill section so you can learn more about it even at this early stage. Kurara is a Symbian S60 5th edition smartphone, akin to the Sony Ericsson Satio. It does have the 8MP camera of its sibling, but the HD label on the back hints of even more. If you guessed 720p video recording, you're right.

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Sony Ericsson Kurara • Notice the 256MB RAM in the last screenshot

That would put the Kurara in direct competition to the Samsung i8910 OmniaHD. The 720p video recording club is about as elite as the 12MP club. Anyway, it's a nice sign of change for Sony Ericsson, whose phones are notorious for their low-resolution video recording.

Not to mention that the Kurara has a 3.5mm audio jack and a microUSB port. Now Sony Ericsson seem truly hard at joining the band of other manufacturers, which use standardized accessory ports.

But back to our news topic, you can find the Sony Ericsson Kurara preview here at mobile-review.com. It doesn't offer much information about the phone but there are plenty of photos, screenshots and camera samples, and of course a video sample (which is good 213MB large). And here's a spoiler for you: next time we see a leaked HD recording smartphone, we really would prefer some real world live action as a video sample instead a video capturing a YouTube video shot from a computer screen.

The XpressMusic family has walked a long way – and shed a great deal of weight – since the 5700. The music-centric Finns have always felt at home on Symbian ground though, and the Nokia 5630 is the next step for them and they’re getting smarter and faster. A sharp mind in a fit body, the latest XpressMusic smartphone packs the quickest processor Nokia have offered to date.

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Nokia 5630 XpressMusic official photos

XpressMusic is not the Nokia 5630’s only virtue. The subdued exterior reveals little of the talent that lays beneath. Along with the music perks go Wi-Fi, a 3-megapixel snapper, N-Gage support, and S60 FP2 to open the door to a whole world of extra apps.

Of course, it’s not without its flaws but think again before casting the first stone. The 5630 XpressMusic is slim enough – both in girth and price – to dodge its critics.
Key features:

* ARM 11 600 MHz processor
* Quad-band GSM support
* 3G with HSDPA
* 12 mm slim
* 2.2" 16M-color QVGA display of excellent sunlight legibility
* 3 megapixel camera, enhanced fixed focus and dual LED flash
* VGA video-call camera
* Symbian OS with S60 3.2 UI
* Stereo FM radio with RDS
* Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g with UPnP technology
* Bluetooth (with A2DP) and microUSB port
* microSD card slot (16 GB supported, 4GB included)
* Standard 3.5mm audio jack
* Dedicated music keys
* N-Gage support
* Ovi Contacts integration
* Contacts bar on the homescreen
* N-Series-like gallery
* Carrying pouch supplied
* Text-to-speech Message reader system application

Main disadvantages:

* Cheap plastic build
* microSD card very hard to eject
* Screen is on the small side for comfortable web browsing or video watching and has inaccurate color reproduction
* Camera has no autofocus and tends to oversharpen images
* Video recording quality is poor and the framerate – low

We quite like the nice little twist the Nokia 5630 XpressMusic brings in terms of looks and substance. Behind its youthful and playful disguise, there is indeed a power smartphone (along the lines of Nokia E52) to meet all your media and connectivity needs.

Only a week ago Carphone Warehouse pulled out the Satio from their stores due to software issues. Now the not-so-touchable Aino followed its Symbian sibling with complaints about touch performance.

Carphone Warehouse along with the Phones4U have withdrawn their remaining supplies of Sony Ericsson Aino. They are hoping Sony Ericsson will fix the bugs soon, otherwise the company’s holiday earnings are seriously threatened. That's the second Sony Ericsson phone causing issues lately and we can't quite remember the last time. It makes you wonder what's going on.

It seems that the affected Aino handsets are not that many and taking care of those won't be hard.