Nokia's newly launched phones with the Xpressmusic series tag have been the talk of the town for quite some time. Luckily for Nokia, the decision to remain low profile on the marketing strategy and market hype has worked wonders. Sort of like the underdog, the phones have generated enough curiosity in the consumers' mind.
In a change from the dozens of phones that Nokia floods the market with, the 5610 does seem a refreshingly different, and pretty stylish.
The phone, available in red and blue color schemes, features a sliding form factor, with an interestingly useful music dial that slides to either side and offers a change from the norm (2-way spring loaded Music Slider music key). The phone is quite sleek in its own right, boasting dimensions of 98.5 x 48.5 x 17 mm. It's pretty lightweight too.
The five-way D-Pad that also makes up the play/pause button is surrounded by the open keys and the call, cancel buttons. This flat-surface touch given to these keys really feels nice. The keypad on the inside is equally easy to use and responsive.
The fact that it uses a microUSB adhering to the protocol of the newly adopted "industry standards" gives you the feeling of staying in the loop. The rear of the phone has a black rugged look, and has the camera, a flash and the Nokia logo in blue (or red, if that's the color of the phone).
Nokia N82
**Update** Nokia requested that I remove the images, so I did. You can find them easily just about anywhere around the internet. It tells me 2 things, though:
1. They're real (otherwise they wouldn't care)
2. Nokia reads my site. :) **Update**
The second juicy bit of information from my friend Blue Blazer Regular today is of the Nokia N82. This is a candybar device to followup the N73. Similar to the N81, it has quad-band GSM and 2100 HSDPA, BT 2.0 (w/ A2DP), WiFi (b/g w/ uPnP), but also adds built-in GPS, TV-out, FM Radio, and a MicroSD slot. The kicker is VGA, 30 fps video recording and a 5MP shooter with Carl Zeiss lens and auto-focus, similar to the N95. However, the N82 packs an awesome XENON flash for ultra-brightness.
The N82 is designed for style, but packing the features to make it worth the $$. Still running S60v3 FP1, the N82 lengthens the life-span of the S60v3 FP1 platform, and should be available in Q4 2007. It is targeted towards "tech-stylists 20-35," with a female skew, but not enough to dissuade males of its power.
Full Specs:
Dimensions: 112 x 50.2 x 17.3 mm
Weight: 120 g [Target]
Memory: Up to 100 MB in-build, support for hot swappable MicroSD card (1GB in-box)
Talk time: GSM: 280min, WCDMA: 180min (Target)
Standby time: GSM: 270hrs WCDMA: 250hrs (Target)
Display Specification
Main Display: 2.4"QVGA 240x320, 16M colors
Camera Specifications
5MPix, Autofocus, up to 20 x digital zoom. Real Xenon flash. Integrated camera protection
Secondary camera: CIF
Nokia N81 8GB
In this age of high-end mobile phones (or should I say handheld computers and communication-cum-entertainment devices?) Nokia is a household name. Its latest addition to the stable is the N81, whose USP is a whopping 8GB of internal memory. Here’s my take on the 'Next Episode' in mobile technology. Form FactorI’ve decided to call this model 'Li'l Fatty' – its dimensions of 102 x 50 x 17.9 mm will explain why. At first sight (or second), this plain rectangular slider doesn't look impressive at all. On the top is a slider switch to lock the keypad, a 3.5mm earphone socket (good placement) and the power/profile switcher button. It has a set of stereo speakers on either side, and on the right are the volume/zoom keys and a dedicated camera key as well. At the bottom you’ll find the charging port and the new standardized microUSB port.I do like the brilliant 2.4 inch display and the fact that in landscape mode, if you’re playing games, two buttons on either side of the earpiece become active. NICE! Since it’s 3G enabled there’s also a secondary VGA camera in front in addition to the 2 megapixel (WHAT?) camera with an LED flash in the rear.
The five way nav-pad under the display also doubles as a navigation touch-sensitive navi-wheel, which is a disappointment if you’re an iPod fan… or not. It only works with when the new shortcut menu (activated by a little gray button near the nav-pad) is on or when you’re scrolling through your music. Not the gallery, just the music files. There are four keys around the nav-pad that are dedicated to the music player. The top two are the track skip keys and the the bottom pair are the stop and play/pause keys.
The problem is the placement of these keys is absolutely ridiculous. You’ll more often than not end up activating the music player rather than deleting a word while typing and it won't activate the music player menu, just the last song that was playing. Trust me, you too will be startled when a song blares out really loud when you least expect it. The buttons are overly sensitive.
On the plus side, the slider is extremely smooth and responsive, and the large keypad is great. But I must admit I was quite disappointed by the overall design.
