Hasta La Gadget!

As QWERTY-equipped Nokias go we’re having a hard time taking our eyes off the N900 (and the E72, come to think of it) — but it might be worth keeping the N97 hanging around on the back burner, because Nokia certainly hasn’t moved on yet. In fact, the company is crafting a rather hefty new update that’ll be available next month, and on video, it seems to directly address a few areas that should immediately make the phone more usable, chiefly kinetic scrolling which makes lists behave in a way that’s more natural and obvious for a full-touch device. There’s also a smattering of bug fixes and performance improvements, more stock widgets available, alternate keyboard characters are now available via long press, and amazingly, they’ve managed to do all of this while still leaving more phone memory available. We’d venture to say it’s still not an “N900 killer” by any stretch, but it’s definitely a new lease on life. Follow the break for a video demo of the new firmware in action.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Nokia N97 firmware 2.0 looks to squash major pain points

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Nokia N97 firmware 2.0 looks to squash major pain points originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Sep 2009 20:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

While Nokia wouldn’t invite us to Nokia World this year, we were fortunate enough to discover a pair of its new X6 handsets on the IFA floor here in Berlin. On hand were two engineering prototypes, one of which was peeling away from its plastic shell while the other seemed less responsive to our finger-taps. Still, it’s clear that the capacitive touchscreen is far more responsive to human touch than the resistive screens found on its N97, or the 5800 XpressMusic especially. This was made abundantly clear when using the on-screen keyboard although some of our swiping gestures were inexplicably ignored in other elements of the interface. But given the choice of the screen being awesome or super-awesome (remember, we’re comparing it to Nokia’s resistive touchscreen legacy), we’ll have to settle on the former for now. Of course, underneath you’ve still got S60 5th, for better or worse, pumping away inside a chubby little candybar — no screen tech can change that. See the action in the video after the break then jump into the gallery to see it sized up with a few of its S60 cousins five times removed.

Continue reading Nokia X6 video hands-on: proof that capacitive touchscreens are better

Filed under: Cellphones

Nokia X6 video hands-on: proof that capacitive touchscreens are better originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 05 Sep 2009 09:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Well, maybe Nokia recently announced a 66 percent yearly drop in Q2 profit. And perhaps N97 reviews have been, how we say, less than stellar. But there definitely seems to be a fan base for the handset: according to Mobile News, sales of both this guy and the 5800 XpressMusic combined to total 10 million in the last 10 months, with sales for the former adding up to a whopping two million since its launch three months ago. In fact, half of the XpressMusic sales were generated since the launch of the N97 — certainly suggesting that the younger sibling successfully raised the company’s profile and brought its fellow handset along for the ride. Does this make Nokia the “undisputed leading player in the smartphones space,” as the company’s chief executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo put it? By sheer volume of devices, perhaps — but mindshare continues to be a problem that we’re guessing they’re eager to see if Maemo 5 and the N900 can solve. The CEO of Nokla could not be reached for comment.

[Thanks, David D]

Filed under: Cellphones

Nokia N97 sells two million units in three months, Nokla sells two dozen originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Sep 2009 17:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Keepin’ It Real Fake industry has become so good, so fast, so well-tuned to market trends that we knew it was just a matter of time before it’d be consistently beating the real phones to market. What we didn’t expect, necessarily, was for Nokia to start making its own fakes. We can’t tell what’s going on exactly, but it appears that the twisty E81 that we saw a while back could’ve very well been a genuine article — either that, or it was scooped up well ahead of release in China and cloned ages before Nokia had intended the phone to be announced. Anyhow, this thing is launching as the Twist for Nokia, the bizarre swivel phone that’s been rumored for a while now. Alongside the Surge, the Twist proves that Espoo’s committed to releasing totally customized gear for US carriers, and we’ll be especially curious to see how well the swivel works in practice here. It’ll run $149.99 on a two-year deal before rebate, featuring a 3 megapixel autofocus cam with flash, full HTML browser, so-called “Habitat Mode” (like the Intrigue before it), EV-DO Rev. 0, and a full QWERTY keyboard that swivels away to turn the phone into a near-perfect square. It also features replaceable faceplates and is said to have some sort of lighting arrangement around the swivel ring that’s user-customizable — perfect for your next fog-filled rave. The interwebs and “select NYC locations” all get it on September 13 with everyone else following on come the 21st, so go ahead and make some square-shaped room in your pocket right now, why don’t you?

Filed under: Cellphones

Nokia Twist launching on Verizon starting September 13 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Sep 2009 12:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Nokia fans know the drill — if you happen to live in the vicinity of the New York or Chicago flagship stores, you’re almost certainly better off holding out and camping in front of the store as the launch date draws near — but now that they’re being taken, the rest of the States might strongly consider filing an preorder with Nokia USA’s official online store if they want an N900 as soon as humanly possible. That’s a good deal less than the US equivalent of $860 currently being asked by the company’s German and Italian outposts, so we guess we should be thankful — provided, of course, that the US launch isn’t delayed into oblivion by some combination of T-Mobile drama, firmware issues, distribution problems, or swarms of locusts destroying trucks as they attempt to make deliveries. A pessimistic way to look at it, yes, but remember: a pessimist is never disappointed.

[Via Cell Phone Signal]

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Nokia N900 now up for $649 preorder in the US of A originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments