The Nokia n900 incorporates the two essential factors of a mobile phone and a computer to generate the ultimate hand held device.

The display is a WVGA touch and needs little force to activate as it is ultra sensitive however on the downside Nokia have NOT opted for the Multi touch function often found in iPhones and some HTC models

The N900 if you havent held one yet is quite thick as it posseses a sliding qwerty keyboard. There is a 5 Megapixel camera with the usual nokia style camera lens and a handy LED Flash, the computer phone is also complimented with a camera on the front aswell although very discreet.

The Nokia N900 runs on a linux based system and is powered with a 600Mhz Processor. Using the internet on the N900 is very much like on a laptop or pc as it uses a browser called Maemo  produced by Mozilla. The browser supports flash which means you can use Youtube and it will be fast enough too.

Nokia’s ovi store can also be used on the N900 and now offers around 4,500 applications.The Nokia N900 is available now on Vodafone, O2 and T-mobile with a range of free gifts

At only 12mm thick the touch does look similar to the Palm Pre however comes in yellow and offers changeable “Fashion Jackets” to match who you are and what you do. It seems until now the LG Cookie and Samsung Tocco Lite were dominating the “cheap but amazing” phone league and now the Genio is here to show us why its the budget phone of the century! The exterior is quite impressive with a 2.8” touch screen and weighing only 92g so we took a look at what’s inside :

2 megapixel camera offering digital zoom, Panorama Shot and smile detection. Internal memory is 90mb and you it takes up to 8gb micro sd cards to store all your photos and music on. The Genio has an mp3 player and fm radio and comes pre installed with a music recognition application found in most Sony Ericsson Walkman phones.

The new Samsung S3650’s main screen can be customised to your needs with widgets such as Facebook and Youtube easily accessible. Connecting to your social networks such as Myspace or even Twitter have never been so easy with the Genio, the pop up SNS never lets you miss an update where ever you might be and with this kind of integration you can upload your photos and videos straight to Facebook.

The Samsung Genio is definitely not a phone for boring people with no lives but then again if you do require a new social life, the phone has the tools for the job and you can get it for under £80 on Pay as you go.
You can get the Samsung Genio Touch free on a variety of networks with discounted line rental or even a PS3 Slim or a new laptop.

The Nokia N97, the long awaited flagship model is finally here! Its taken months to get to us and the question we’re asking here is whether it will still lives up to the expectations from many months ago? Read our short review to gain a glimpse into the workings of the N97.

The N97 boasts an excellent assortment of various qualitative features, most notably an incredible 3,5’’ display and full sized, slide out qwerty keyboard. The device provides an interesting user experience through the combination of implementing a liberating array of multimedia elements, an abundance of business features and all with unique touch user interface functionality, as well as the additional benefit of having a fully customizable home screen. The latter seems to be the USP from Nokia’s perspective as recent television adverts have focussed on the availability of live internet feeds shown in real time on the N97’s home screen – a must have for social networking devotees!

The N97 has a multitude of features, which can be utilized to engage in a plethora of activities.  Use the N97 to connect to mobile broadband using WLAN or HSDPA (3.5G). Find directions and locations with the integrated A-GPS and included maps.  Enjoy the benefit of having a fully integrated music player. Record high quality videos in DVD like quality. There are also many additional features including advanced gaming through N-Gage which contain some very impressive graphics, a 5 mega pixel camera with dual LED flash and automatic geotagging of images and videos. Furthermore, users will have the luxury of having a massive 32Gb onboard storage .

It’s S60 5th Edition that provides perhaps the biggest usability frustration, though  Nokia’s OS is, in the face of attractive and modern platforms like that the iPhone or Samsung, looking a little visually tired, and the touch enabling they’ve done feels half-hearted. Not only is there little in the way of visual gloss that users have come to expect, such as screen transitions or animations, but the way touch has been incorporated seems much like an afterthought. There are no gestures or similar controls, instead buttons have merely been made chunkier and menus larger. The reason behind this is that the Symbian Os has simply been  modified for touch usuability – a purpose it was never created for. What Nokia should have done is started from scratch, from the bottom up and otimized the touch usuability first and incorporated the Symbian after, then perhaps they could have had something worthy of the Iphones OSX or even the S-class of LG…

Nokia’s flagship is harldy anything to be amazed by, especially with rivals stepping up the mark since the phone was first announced in November of 2008. None of the features and revolutionary or outstanding – the camera, screen size, form factor etc, have all been seen elsewhere and have been surpassed by the competition, the Iphone has an incredible touch interface, the N97 doesn’t; the Omnia HD has better screen and much faster processor; the Sony Ericsson Idou has 12 mega pixel camera, the N97 simply does not – the list is extensive. To conclude it is clear that Nokia’s rivals have taken a step forward in many aspects of mobile telephony, however, very few have been able to achieve what the Nokia N97 has and that is an excellent all rounder that has almost every feature imaginable – in one phone, not bad, not bad at all, very good in fact.

Check out the full tech specs here: http://europe.nokia.com/find-products/devices/nokia-n97/specifications#hardware-kim

We put the HTC Hero and iPhone 3Gs head to head to find out if the all powerful iPhone has finally met its match.

HTC have launched a new addition to their touch screen range and their most advanced android powered mobile to date. The hero may have matched the iPhone with a full multi touch screen display and a gateway to all the applications in the mobile market (Android Market) but why should you take a second look at the HTC Hero, when you could have the immense power of the 3Gs in your pocket? Here at Mobile Breeze we compare the two:

Software
First of all we took a look at the software, The iPhone runs on its new 3.0 os which is 2x faster than its predecessor and includes a copy and paste feature, a fascinating voice control function and a long list of functions. The iPhone offers minimal customisation to the main screen. Tiny rounded squares that represent applications can be drag and dropped wherever you want them and of course background wallpapers can be changed from a range of high quality images that the 3Gs displays brilliantly. HTC have finally dropped windows mobile and the Hero has inherited a fully customisable main screen running on its new android software. All you do is swipe across to 7 different screens which are covered in widgets of your choice such as calendar, favourite contacts, stocks, twitter bar, weather and a choice of 7 clocks. The hero allows you to change the layout of your phone to suit your lifestyle.

Winner: HTC Hero

Applications and Games
We all have that annoying friend that loves to show off their newest application whether it’s a game used to flick a fishing rod around a lake to catch fish with your finger or a device that turns your phone into a supermarket scanner! But which applications store offers the most for those days when you don’t feel like using your mobile to call people?
The iPhone offers an application store which recently hit 1 billion downloads. Applications are addictive and can soon end up costing you more than your monthly line rental. The iPhone offers a range of free applications also and you would normal expect these to be a 2d Pacman demo with one level however they really do push the boat out and free games are released very frequently. The graphics are great and the multi touch screen is very responsive which is perfect for game play. The Android market is still growing and may not have as many applications as the iPhone but everything is free! Which is great for us but lacks the developer skills that have been put it into the 3Gs. Applications are a lot more advanced on the iPhone and although on the Hero they are fast and free, the android market doesn’t match the applications store the iPhone offers but the future is looking very good for them and for us would be android converts.

Winner: iPhone 3Gs

Camera
The iPhone has had many criticisms for its camera, the guys at apple probably thought chucking us a video camera on the new 3gs would make us happy but it’s a flash function we all needed for all those grainy, dark images outside in the dark and in nightclubs.

The iPhone offers a 3 megapixel camera with an impressive touch to focus function which allows you to tap where you want the camera to focus and magically it will happen. Video camera has a helpful edit device which lets you select which part of the recording you want to keep and discards the rest.
The HTC hero has been presented with a camera with autofocus and lacks flash also however offers 5 megapixels. Both phones lack a shoot button on the side so you will have to use two hands if you want to take a photo without dropping your phone across sticky nightclub floor. (that’s if you even attempted it, without flash of course)
Conclusion is: Most of us are really vain and judge mobile phones solely by the amount of megapixels they have, show me a woman who means it when she quotes “size doesn’t matter” and I’ll show you a liar.

Winner: HTC Hero

Memory
You can’t carry your bulky external hard drive around with you everywhere so having a decent amount of memory on your mobile is an essential, especially when your phone boasts all the features of a computer anyway. The iPhone 3Gs comes in 16gb and a 32Gb variant which allows you to use it as a iPod also and give your old one to your dad who will never understand how to switch it off without leaving it on full blast until the battery eventually runs out. 32gb is a lot of internal memory, which brings me to the Hero: a mere 512mb. I didn’t know they still used Megabytes, you ask yourself? A microSD slot allows the HTC to be expanded up to 16gb which is helpful but doesn’t compare to the enormous internal storage capacity the iPhone offers.

Winner: iPhone 3Gs

Browser
Loading up web pages on the iPhone 3Gs is significantly faster than the previous 3g and images generally take seconds to display. The safari browser allows you to keep multiple web pages open at the same time. Zooming into pages is easy using a tap or pinch technique on the display and loading up YouTube videos are a much better experience than on the 3g however some people may not like the wait while its buffering to watch a music video. Rotating the phone allows you to turn the screen landscape but sometimes takes a few seconds to realise the 90 degrees. Sadly no flash support for the iPhone 3Gs.
The android browser takes the mobile web experience to a completely new level, supporting flash content, loading up pages quicker and displaying them faster than any previous HTC mobile. (we all fell asleep waiting for the G1 to load its pages.) We tried out the expedia.com on the Hero to test out the flash map they have on their site with the hero’s new flash supporting browser. In comparison, the iPhone does a good job of presenting web sites quick and visible but the HTC Hero has taken a bigger step in allowing us to view the full real web on our mobile phones.

Winner: HTC Hero

After comparing most of the important aspects of these mobile giants, we realised that although the iPhone 3Gs has everything you need in a mobile (well, almost Cough ‘Flash’ Cough) The Hero does an amazing job in competing with it so take a long stare at your iPhone and just think if HTC keep improving like this for their next mobile phone launch, will you be sending your precious iPhone away to get recycled ?

If you find we have missed anything important out or you to vote for your preferred out of the two then comment below.

Weight vs. Battery

iPhone 3GS Weight: 4.8 ounces

HTC Hero Weight: 4.76 ounces

iPhone 3GS Battery Talk Time: 5 Hours on 3G

HTC Hero Battery Talk Time: 7.8 Hours on 3G

iPhone 3GS Standby Time: Up to 300 Hours

HTC Hero Standby Time: Up to 440 Hours

The look

The first aspect to consider is the aesthetics. The E72 sports a sleek black brushed metal appearance. This is lined with a silver finish around the edges creating a nice contrast of dark and light. It is easily inferable that the phone will be encased in a stainless steel body, similar to its predecessor, the Nokia E71. The metal body always adds to the quality of the phone. The rest of the E72 deviates little from its bloodline, retaining almost identical dimensions and screen size, (114 x 58 x 10 mm & 2.36”). However, one poignant change is the keypad – the functional keys are now in keeping with the brushed steel visuals, creating a more subtle appearance as opposed to the obvious look of the keys on the E71. This is also in keeping with the newer Eseries models.

Image courtesy of symbian-guru.com

More changes lower down the pad with the space button dramatically shrinking to accommodate two new buttons, although a similar design was adopted in the E63. An interesting feature of the E71 was its breathing light, which was a faint white light behind the D-pad, it was nice as is rapidly flickered if there any new communication to the phone – a nice touch which has hopefully been adopted by the E72. However, and it’s a big however, the E72 is very reminiscent of certain Blackberry models, a deliberate design decision – we think so. Nonetheless, there are a choice of three colours available, a black, grey and brown, which should create some scope for individuality, especially when considering that Eseries QWERTY’s are the slimmest within the niche.

The hardware

Right, now on to hardware functionality. Nothing in the E72 is a major technological advancement, as in there is nothing revolutionary and unique specific to this model, everything has been seen elsewhere. Although, the E72 does incorporate some much needed upgrades. The processor for instance has been up rated from the tiresome ARM 11 369 MHz chip seen in the E71 to a more up to date ARM 11 600 MHz processor – essential for rapid shifting between apps. However, it is a shame the RAM remains at 128mb, this may well detract from the usability of memory hoarding applications running simultaneously. Internal memory has been increased to 250mb, which is always welcomed. Other hardware upgrades include the camera, which now comes in the form of a respectable 5 mega pixels, with LED flash and autofocus; the video recorder too has been promoted to the ranks of VGA. A 3mm headphone jack is finally included, something of a novelty in Nokia phones of old. Of course the indispensable features which we all take for granted remain, the GPS module, WIFI, Radio, hot swap memory card, miniUSB port etc. However, perhaps we have finally seen the death of infrared with the E71 as its big brother has succumbed to the newer technologies.

The software

So now we come to the much loved Symbian OS. This new E72 will boast OS 9.3, version 3.2 UI, which now has full compatibility with Flash Lite 3.0 – thus we can be expecting some interesting visuals to this business orientated phone, the extent to which this will be appreciated is dependent on the individual user, although generally it’s always pleasant feature to have. The E72 should be an excellent device for the corporate user, with a superb email client allowing the E72 to become the recipient of two email addresses. Obviously the great Opera browser remains for fast, seamless surfing of the web. There will also be an extensive list of PIM functions available, including MS Office 2007 support (with editing), a PDF viewer, active notes, dictionary…the list goes on. One great feature is the active display on the phone’s homescreen, this collates a range of desired information and displays it prominently ensuring nothing is ever missed. The organiser will be most users point of reference, it was great in the E71, so we can guess that little will change here! Furthermore, since it’s a Symbian handset there are hundreds of thousands applications for your every desire.

The conclusion

Well, on paper the E72 seems like a very nice phone – it’s great to see that design has been modified and now looks more aesthetically pleasing; furthermore, it is now in line with its competitors in terms of looks – on this front it is certainly worth paying the extra money. Moreover, Nokia has seemed to have accomplished an excellent all rounder, improving on the short comings of the E71. The extra power of the processor will be enough to sway the most demanding users, that is if the stylish design hasn’t already.