Nokia N9 Meego OS based Smart Phone

The Rise Of Meego: Nokia N9 Goes Public

Nokia N9, Meego OS based smart phone everyone was waiting for is finally a reality. Meego is Nokia's Linux based last resort, which may save the sinking Titanic of Nokia (perhaps we should call it "NokiaTanic").  There are no hardware buttons on this device except power & volume control, looks like Nokia has realized the bitter truth finally thanks to iPhone.

There is no doubt that Finland based Nokia was a huge success before the arrival of iPhone. It stayed relevant in "post-iPhone" and "pre-Android" era as well. But now we clearly see it desperately struggling to survive the one and only almighty iPhone and  a barrage of Android smart phones. Anybody remember WP 7 tag line? Well it was something related to things people do commonly, and hubs and home screens etc etc. Nokia is trying to sale the same slogan once again, although in a different packaging. We got 3 home screens here, I wonder if it will make life easy or maybe complicate it for dumb iPhone users(as Android fans say), hence scaring away anyone who's thinking to join in from that club.

Nokia N9 Pre-loaded Application Software:

Be glad!!! your N9 sports a whole lot of application software out of the box!!! For example Vimeo, Twitter, and Skype. Vimeo is an increasingly popular video sharing service, although it lacks the financial support Youtube is enjoying. But still it's doing a good job, its inclusion in Nokia N9 can be considered Nokia's battle cry against Google. Although Nokia has already joined anti-google camp by joining hands with Microsoft Windows Phone 7.

Nokia N9 contains 3G for internet connectivity, and it lets other friendly devices to use its capabilities. It can become a Wi-Fi hotspot whenever you want. Many other smart phones can do the same by installing 3rd party software, but Nokia N9 is built with wi-fi Hoptspoting in mind. Nokia is giving us a free game as well, i.e. your's truly "Angry Birds".

We see google Latitude bundled with every Android device out there, Nokia is packaging Foursquare as a response. You could let your friends know your location anytime with your brand new Nokia N9 Meego OS based smart phone. Associated Press is always in your reach, as soon as you turn on your Nokia N9. Because it is pre-installed in this beautiful smart phone. Nokia N9 also brings daily weather reports to your pocket with AccuWeather application.

Nokia N9 is a device with killer looks, as you can see in the image above. It's available in blue, pink, and black colors.

They say the maps application on Nokia N9 will turn your smart phone into "the only guide you'll ever need". Most probably it will remain true until unless you got an iPhone or Android in your pocket.

 Nokia N9 heavily relies on Qt SK for application development. Applications can be easily downloaded from Nokia Ovi store. 
There are many more applications already available for Nokia N9 on Ovi store. But still we can't see many developers going mad writing Nokia N9 Qt based apps. Maybe TrollTech(the company which originally created Qt) should have never sold itself to Nokia. After all Nokia has got a bad repute for half baked love affairs with so many technologies (Sun Java, Adobe Flash). I don't think there will be any improvement in situation, because maybe Apple will launch its much rumored iPhone 5 shortly. Which will short circuit all the plans Nokia has got for sure.

At first they've made Angry Birds available with Nokia N9 but you know Angry Birds is out there for almost any platform, they even got a Google Chrome Application. And I'm damn sure we'll get a port for Nokia 3310 very soon :p ha ha ha just kidding friends.

Nokia N9 Upside:
Battery life is no doubt the best feature of Nokia N9, 50 hours of music playback is truly impressive. Nokia N9 video playback time is also wonderful, I can't believe N9 can keep on playing 720p video for 4.5 hours. Androids seriously need to improve on that.
Here's a nice Nokia N9 youtube video, it's got a point to make.



Nokia N9 Specifications:
Nokia N9 Memory:

1. 16 GB or 64 GB
2. RAM 1GB

Nokia N9 Talk Time and Battery Life:

1. GSM Talk Time 11 Hours
2. WCDMA (3g) Talk Time 7 Hours
3. GSM Standby Time 380 hours
4. WCDMA (3G) Standby Time 450 hours
5. Video playback time 4.5 hours (720 p)
6. Music playback time 50 hours

Nokia N9 Display:

1. Screen size: 3.9"
2. Resolution: 16:9 FWVGA (854 x 480 pixels)
3. AMOLED display
4. 16.7 million colours
5. Capacitive touch screen
6. 2.5D curved glass
7. Anti-glare polariser
8. Scratch-resistant Corning® Gorilla® glass
9. Orientation sensor (Accelerometer)
10. Compass (Magnetometer)
11. Proximity sensor
12. Ambient light detector

Nokia N9 Data Networks:

1. GPRS/EDGE class B, multislot class 33
2. HSDPA cat 10 maximum speed up to 14.4 Mbit/s, HSUPA cat 6 up to 5.7 Mbit/s
3. WLAN IEEE802.11 a/b/g/n

Nokia N9 Camera:

1. 8 megapixel camera, Carl Zeiss optics
2. Wide-angle lens
3. True 16:9 imaging
4. Large lens aperture F2.2 for better and faster photos in low light conditions
5. Dual LED flash
6. Digital shutter
7. Continuous autofocus
8. Touch-to-focus and exposure lock
9. Focal length: 3.77mm / 28mm
10. F number/Aperture: F2.2
11. Still images file format: JPEG/EXIF/XMP
12. Digital zoom up to 4x for still images and video

Games:
Preloaded

1. Angry Birds Magic with NFC support
2. Galaxy on Fire 2
3. Real Golf 2011

Graphics Features

1. Support for OpenGL ES 2.0 enables 3D graphics
2. Use the accelerometer to play games

Package Contents

1. Nokia N9 all-screen smartphone
2. Nokia Fast USB Charger AC-16
3. Nokia Charging and Data Cable CA-185CD
4. Nokia Stereo Headset WH-901
5. Get started guide
6. Product information leaflet

Nokia N9 price in Pakistan?
We'll give you a price pretty soon, its not available as for yet.

Nokia C7 Astound Review and Specifications

T-Mobile brings Nokia C7 Astound to US, a Symbian smart phone offering by Finnish Cellular giant Nokia. Nokia C 7 Astound is an interesting move, and it is apparently one of the few last Symbian gadgets by Nokia Corporation. Nokia has established a good reputation with their Nokia N8 camera phone which Nokia claims is the best camera phone of the world right now, Nokia has definitely injected some of their N8 expertise into C7.

Apparently Nokia fused  Nokia C6-00 and Nokia N8, added a dual LED flash on the back and boom!!! came out Nokia C7 Astound. C7 is fully capable of shooting 720p HD video, and it's also got On Demand Web TV plus GPS.Nokia has been in love with Qt development platform for quite a while now, we know the "relationship" became more fiery after Nokia's acquisition of Troll Tech, the software company that gave birth to QT.Nokia C7 Astound is powered by Symbian^3 Operating System, everybody's well aware Symbian's future is a huge question mark now. The fog seems to be dissolved(and unleash a not so favorable result for Symbian) after Nokia shaking hands with Microsoft and agreeing that Nokia will create hardware for Microsoft Windows Phone 7.
Wi-Fi quality is expected to be good, but I don't have real user stories related to it yet. I hope we'll get a good deal of reviews soon. Maybe this phone will be a choice for people annoyed poor battery life of high end smart phones.

C7 contains a 680 MHz processor, and dedicated hardware for graphics with OpenVG1.1 and OpenGL ES 2.0 support. C-7 Astound also contains Accelerometer Sensor, Ambient Light Sensor, Compass (Magnetometer Sensor).Looking at standard 3.5 mm jack I sometimes think why, why in the world were mobile hardware vendors inventing their own audio out connectivity standards? This nice touch phone won't be complete without a stereo bluetooth, in an age of wireless everything :) therefore Nokia has wisely included stereo bluetooth to the package.
The capacitive touch is pretty good than previous Nokia offerings, but still AMOLED display is not comparable to many Samsung Super AMOLED based devices.

OVI store is definitely present in this device, and maps are there as well. But the raw processing power inside this small stainless steel box is insufficient in my opinion. You know dual core smart phones like LG Optimus 2x, and Samsung Galaxy S2, Motorola Atrix are making the competition tough.

Specifications of Nokia C7 Astound

Screen Resolution	360 x 640
Screen Color Depth	24 bit
Screen Size	3.5
Display Technology	AMOLED
Device Size	117.3 x 56.8 x 10.5[2] mm
Weight	130 g
Display Touch Technology	Capacitive Touch
Maximum User Storage	350 MB
Mass Storage Memory	8 GB
NAND Memory	1 GB
SDRAM Memory	256 MB
WLAN	Wifi 802.11b/g/n
GBPower Management	2.0mm Charger Connector
USB ChargingBattery model	BL-5K 3.7V 1200mAh
GSM Talk Time	up to 9.6 hours
WCDMA Talk Time	up to 5.3 hours
Handsfree, audio out	3.5 mm

Price of Nokia C7 on T-Mobile USA is yet to be decided, its not listed on T-Mobile web site on time of this writing. But Amazon is selling unlocked Nokia C7 in $209.
What is the Price of Nokia C7 in Pakistan?
Price of Nokia C7 in Pakistan is 29000 rupees at the moment. This price of Nokia C 7 was quoted on a phone call, maybe if we go to market by ourselves we could get a deal around 27000/27500/28000. This was the price of brand new Nokia C-7 with one year warranty.


Concluding Suggestion:
Price of unlocked Nokia C7 Astound was $389 on time of this writing, which makes me think if you're spending $389 on a Symbian phone then why not get a better HTC Windows Phone 7 or Motorola Android phone by adding just $100 and spending a total sum of $499? Its nothing that would create thrill in market, its just another smart phone. So just wait for couple of months, and let the prices come down.
Apparently Nokia's somehow pulling itself together with models like Nokia E5, Nokia C3-00, Nokia X2-01, Nokia C6 which is pretty interesting though.


More blog posts you may find interesting:

• Review and Specs of Nokia C6-00
• Nokia C3-00, and Samsung Corby Line Up The Mid Range Hot Shots
• Personal Review of Samsung Vibrant T959 And Specifications