Nokia N97 mobile phone review

As we take our first look at the Nokia N97 it certainly comes off as an impressive device. Despite being only the second device by Nokia to sport a touch-screen and the first ever in its N-Series it is no less of a finished product. Like all phones of the N Series it is a class above the other Nokia phones, with a 3.5-inch screen, a 5MP camera, and a slide-out full QWERTY keyboard. Apart from the keyboard, the number of physical buttons are minimal, at just three. 

The first thing that strikes you after you start up the device is a new widget-oriented home screen, where you can  add / remove widgets to personalize the display. The widgets appear as six horizontal bars, of which the first is fixed as a time, date and profile display, and the other five can be moved around. With preloaded widgets for News, email, weather, Facebook, and so on it is easy to get relevant content at a glance.

The touch screen isn't all. The phone also comes with an inbuilt GPS, and a magnetic compass for a wonderful navigation experience along with Nokia Maps, which comes preloaded with data on Indian Cities. Also included is a proximity sensor which turns off the touch screen when you are making a call, and an accelerometer for auto-rotation of the screen. Storage comes in the form of 32GB memory which can be expanded by up to 16GB, yes, that's 48GB on a mobile! Enough for the phone to run out of digits to show how many pictures can be taken. WiFi support enables a faster internet experience and lower costs when at home. A TV-Out feature is also present, but even with a device which costs as much as this one, a TV-Out cable hasn't been provided.

While the phone doesn't support  multi-touch, the touch features themselves are utilized quite well, and with a handy QWERTY keyboard around, available for use along with the touch screen, you wont miss much.

For a widget-centric design though, having just five predefined bars for widgets is a limitation. With Android's rather more powerful support for widgets, Nokia will need to do better in this department. The interface does have a few glitches, such as new menus items sometimes popping up out of place. These all are more of software issues, which we can expect Nokia to hopefully fix with firmware updates, which with their Firmware Over the Air feature, should be a trivial task.

The Nokia N97 doesn't take much getting used to, and most people will be able to immediately start working (or playing) with it, and even with the default suite of applications available in it you will be able to get enough done. As we get more familiar with the Nokia N97 we will take a deeper look at some it its key features and functionality.

This article is adapted from Thinkdigit.com

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This site presents a thorough comparision between Nokia N97 and iPhone 3G. Have a look.

Nokia N97 vs. iPhone 3g Head To Head! How Do They Match Up?

Delhi Welcomes 3G

Delhi has become the first Indian city to officially go 3G with MTNL’s soft-launch of its 3G services, branded ‘Jadoo,’ in the capital. However, not the entire area of Delhi is being covered and only in some areas such as Connaught Place, Sanchar Bhavan, Rajaji Marg, India Gate, Pragati Maidan, Delhi gate and Minto Road can the service be accessed.
MTNL will not be charging anything extra right now but after the commercial launch, we can expect a new tariff plan to be revealed. A similar limited launch of 3G services is also expected in two months in Mumbai which would cover the areas between Prabhadevi and the airport. January will also see the services being launched in Chennai and further down the line in Kolkata.
MTNL will be adding an additional 15 lakh 3G lines in both Delhi and Mumbai. The introduction of this technology will also help the under-fire security agencies by helping the process of public surveillance. MTNL will be integrating close-circuit camera technology with 3G for surveillance with the help of Wi-Fi devices or mobiles.

HTC's real iPhone rival stands up: the Touch HD

High Tech Computer (HTC), the world's largest maker of smartphones that use Microsoft's Windows Mobile software, launched the Touch HD handset in Taipei on Wednesday, a 3.8-inch touchscreen mobile phone that more closely matches up to the iPhone 3G.

Earlier this year, HTC launched the Touch Diamond, a sleek 3G (third generation mobile telecommunications) handset meant to rival Apple's hit handset, but its screen is much smaller at 2.8-inches. The iPhone 3G sports a 3.5-inch screen.

HTC teamed up with network operator Taiwan Mobile to launch the Touch HD next month, and the retail price suggested by HTC is NT$25,900 (US$776, or approx Rs. 38,500). HTC representatives at the launch also could not give a time frame on when the Touch HD will launch in other parts of the world. Reports say the U.K. and Singapore will see the handset shortly.

The touchscreen on the Touch HD is the most responsive yet in the Touch series, but HTC representatives were unable to say why. The processor on board, a Qualcomm 7201A, is the same as that on the Touch Diamond, and both handsets use the Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system.

The Touch HD was quicker and more responsive than the Touch Diamond, and more closely matched the touchscreen on HTC's latest development, the T-Mobile G1 (also known as the Google phone).

The Touch HD also sports a better onboard digital camera, with 5-megapixel resolution, than the Diamond.

The HD has on board GPS (global positioning system) and works with Google Maps. The 3G handset allows users to video chat, download information over mobile networks or via Wi-Fi 802.11b/g. The smartphone works on WCDMA 900/2100MHz signals and supports quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE.

The Touch HD weighs 147 grams, and measures 115 millimeters by 62.8mm by 12mm.

3G Auction for private telecom operators delayed

The auction for 3G spectrums to be held for private telecom operators has been postponed for almost a month. Earlier, the auction was supposed to be held on January 15th but now in an announcement made by the Communications and Information Technology Minister A. Raja, that date has been pushed back to 9th February. The official memorandum on the auction process will be released on December 8th and operators can finalize their decisions to bid by December 31st.

The minister further revealed that the North-East and Rajasthan would not be able to avail of 3G services because of unavailability of spectrums. However, among other regions, West Bengal will get two operators, Delhi and Gujarat will get three operators each and Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh will get four operators. All other circles will be getting five operators.