Spice Mi410 is one of the very tempting Android smartphone that is retailing for a competitive price. The smartphone’s original manufacturer is Huawei and was reveled in Dec. 2010. The phone comes in a little package

Below are the key features of Spice MI410:

1. Quad-band GSM /GPRS/EDGE
2. 14.4 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA
3. 4.1 inch Capacitive type TFT, 16 million colors display
4. Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot
5. 1GHz Scorpion processor, Adreno 205 GPU, Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon
6. 512 MB RAM, 2 GB Storage, microSD Card Slot
7. 5 MP autofocus camera, LED flash, geotagging + Front Facing Camera
8. Accelerometer, proximity sensor
9. Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
10. Stereo FM radio
11. microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v2.1
12. 1400 mAh battery.

Below are the main disadvantages :

1. Android OS 2.2
2. Average 5MP camera & Video Recording
3. Loudspeaker performance is weak

Retail Package : 

Spice MI410 came housed in a small box. Inside the box we found the handset (Spice MI410) which is quite big as it possess a 4.1 inch screen display, also came a 3.5 mm audio jack which isn’t very comfortable to wear and you should definitely replace it with better ones if you really want to enjoy the music, charger that doubles up as USB cable when removed from adapter and the user guide.

Design And Construction :

The phone is pretty big, what else can you expect with a smartphone with 4.1 inch display? The phone has dimensions of 122 x 66 x 10 mm and weighs 143 grams. The phone isn’t very pocket friendly going by its dimensions but this is the case with all such phones. Spice MI410 belongs to a league of biggies and thus being big and little heavy shouldn’t be a problem to users looking to buy this phone.

The front of the handset has a big 4.1 inch Capacitive type touchscreen display, above the display is a secondary VGA camera for videocall, earpiece and Proximity sensor for auto turn-off of display while making calls. After the screen, there are four touch sensitive keys (Return, Menu, Home and Search).

The 3.5 mm audio jack is located at the top of the smartphone. Switch on/off button or Quick lock key is present at left side whereas the right side has volume up / down keys which also work as few more functions. The HDMI D-type connector and microUSB connector are located at the bottom of Spice MI410. The speaker is located at bottom on right side and the microphone is present at back of the handset.

The 5MP autofocus camera is located at the back with LED Flash, nearer to which is the place of microphone. Removing the battery cover at back will reveal you the hot-swappable microSD card slot and the SIM compartment.

Android (Operating System) 

The phone runs on Android 2.2 (Froyo) and has all the stuff that you can expect from an Android powered smartphone. The OS isn’t loaded with any customization differentiating the phone from rest of the crowd which is a good thing. There are lots of modifications available at Android market and you can give them a try for free.

UPDATE : Spice has officially released Android 2.3.4 (Gingerbread) update Spice Mi-410. Below are things that you can expect with this new update of Android 2.3.4 :

1. Better battery management increasing battery life of the handset
2. Improved on-screen keyboard with multi-touch keypad
3. New user interface enhancements
4. More responsive menus
5. better copy/paste functionality
6. bug fixes from earlier release bringing more performance and stability.

Here are the instructions on update Spice Mi-410 to Android 2.3.4 (Gingerbread)

1. Download the file (143 MB Approx) from here.
2. Extract the RAR file using WinRar.
3. Copy the file extracted file to your SD card. Make sure it is placed in the root (not saved in a folder)
4. Insert the SD card to your device.
5. Turn off your device.
6. Now, to enter into bootloader mode, press and hold volume up + down + power buttons until you see the image of the Android logo.
7. Press ‘Home’key to show the update utility. Use the volume buttons to select the option “Download nb0 from SD card”.
8. Press ‘return or back arrow” to select and wait for the update process to finish.

Spice has released an official pdf file guiding users about the process of updating, you can download it from here.

Phonebook : As you can expect from a smartphone, there aren’t restrictions on number of contacts that you can create. There are also numerous fields (title, birthday date, email id, etc) that you can assign to a contact. Further, you can assign groups to them for a better management. It is safe to say that you won’t be disappointed.

Messaging : There are three type of messages that Android supports namely SMS (Short messaging service), MMS (multi media message) and Email. Here everything is default with no customization over Android OS. You won’t find anything to complain and if you want to have a threaded conversation style messaging like found on iPhone, there are software such as Handcent SMS available for free from Android Market which can provide you those features. Configuring Emails is not a big deal and its easy.

Telephony : We didn’t experienced any call drop with this phone. The reception and in-call sound were good without much to complain except for loudspeaker being weak.

Though there were ways of installing Android 2.3.4 on Spice MI410, now there is a official Android 2.3.4 update released by Spice. Below are the things that we saw after installing the new update :

1. Better battery management increasing battery life of the handset
2. Improved on-screen keyboard with multi-touch keypad
3. New user interface enhancements
4. More responsive menus
5. better copy/paste functionality
6. bug fixes from earlier release bringing more performance and stability.

Performance

Camera : Spice MI410 boosts 5 MP camera with autofocus and LED Flash. The specs look decent but the performance is average. To take good snaps, you require good lighting conditions. Video capture is little above average and it seems the manufacturer was more interested in filling up specifications rather than implementing them. Below are the two Photos that were taken in a good condition and the images are decent.

If you are looking for a good camera performance, look somewhere else with a little higher budget. If are looking within Android ecosystem, Sony Ericsson phones are a better choice but the prices are significantly higher and will set you back above 20k.

Media Player (Audio / Video)

Audio Player : The default audio player that comes with Android is good enough producing frequencies accurately. The music player doesn’t has any equalization to customize the sound of the music but there are alternatives available in the Android market that you can install. The earpiece supplied with the package is very uncomfortable and you won’t get the desired sound quality that this handset produces. Just invest on an another earpiece. The loudspeaker is weak and won’t entertain you much.

Video Player : The default video player will meet all your necessities. We recommend you installing MX Video player from Android market. This phone runs on Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon chipset that is embedded with single core 1GHz processor and  has Adreno 205 GPU as graphics card. You can safely play all the 720p or 1080p movies safely without facing any freezing and watching them over a 4.1 inch screen is very good. We don’t have anything to complain. Just get a good headset to listen as the loudspeaker won’t be of much help and rescue.

OS Performance (responsiveness) – We have already explained the powerful hardware that this phone uses and with those attributes, you won’t experience any freezing and the menus are responsive.

Connectivity : On the connectivity side, its has got almost everything covered with HSDPA, 21 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth v2. and also supports regulars like GPRS and EDGE. We didn’t face any call dropping or network issues with our testing unit.

Battery Performance : Possessing a big 4.1 inch screen and using touchscreen for your operations, you won’t have a day saver phone. The battery is 1400 mAh Li-Ion that lasted for little less than a day during our normal usage which included checking mails, internet usage for an hour, 2 hours of talking and playing games for sometime. We had to charge the phone twice in a day while using actively.

Conclusion : 

If you are looking for a good camera phone, this is not the phone and you have to spend over 20k, there too Android phones don’t shine much, apart from offerings from Sony Ericsson.

Do we recommend this phone? Yes, we like the performance and there isn’t much to complain performance wise. The hardware is powerful, connectivity options are top-notch and the screen is 4.1 inch which puts it in a big league and menus are responsive. The phone is retailing for around 13k in India and it’s a great deal and with Spice releasing the Android 2.3.4 update, this is more sweet than earlier.

If you will ask for other options in this price league, there aren’t any boosting these specs and size. Critics will highlight the performance of camera and battery but other options are priced much higher. You have to compare a phone with similar offerings from other manufacturers belonging to the same price range.

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Spice MI410 Review : DKgADGET

Intel has launched Core i7-990X processor to push its advantage further, though by only a small margin over Core i7-980x. Still, nevertheless its a beast with some serious components embedded into it.

This processor was originally scheduled to launch last year, however it was later postponed for some unknown reason.

It got stuck behind Sandy Bridge or the processor it was slated to replace, the Core i7-980X, may be stock of 980x weren’t running out fast.

Intel, thus now consists of fewer models as Core i7-990X Extreme Edition, Core i7-970, and Core i7-960. This processor is a simple clock bump for the 32nm Gulftown proc.

The 990X features the same 248mm 2 die and 1.17 billion transistors. It doesn’t differ much from i7-980x processor in this regard.

Also, Intel pushed the clock speed to 3.46GHz, there’s still 12MB of shared Intel Smart Cache, six discrete execution cores with Hyper- Threading for handling up to 12 threads, and the on-chip memory controller with support for triple-channel DDR3-1066 memory.

Turbo Boost can push two or more cores of the 990X to 3.59GHz, or when only one core is active, to up to 3.72GHz.

The Intel Core i7-990X also ships with the DBX-B HSF, which is also present in Core i7-980X, but  this time, Intel beefed it up to accommodate the larger thermal envelope. Intel claims the new heatsink exceeds the CPU’s thermal requirements, even when set to quiet mode, which seemed to be true during our testing phase.

The only other tweak Intel made is the inclusion of new processor instructions designed to improve AES encryption and decryption performance.

Intel’shexa-core CPUs are unmatched when running applications that can scale beyond fourcores. But the availability of such type of applications are still rare and thus your performance gain over other processors doen’st seem to translate into true value.

When we coupled this with Gigabyte DX58SO, we got a overall result of X2032 in 3D Mark 11 Extreme, 1707 in PC Mark Vintage Pro 10 and 7.25 in Cinebench 11.5. There is no other processor with these maksheet, as of now.

Conclusion

This processor is purely for enthusiasts. It offers some great specs but there are hardly any applications, except for few related to audio/video and graphics editing, with exception of games to take advantage of it.

Why go for a six-core processor when you can avail same level of satisfaction with quad-core processor, which also far lesser than this. In our opinion, its better to wait for Z768, which will get launched by end of this year with some serious performance.

number of transistor in Intel core i7

Intel Core i7-990X Processor Review : DKgADGET

Tablet PCs garnered the majority of headlines in 2010, and Micro Star International (MSI) decided to start the year by launching the U130, U135 and U160, its first models based on Intel’s Pine Trail platform. However, the end of the decade saw people fall out of love with the netbook form factor that had revitalised sales for a number of OEMs and brought others into the public consciousness.

Netbooks were introduced to serve a simple purpose, but were being edged towards machines that could do it all, both in terms of physical characteristics and price. MSI seems to have gone back to basics with the Wind U135, using a redesigned chassis to accommodate the new silicon from Intel.

The Pine Trail platform was Intel’s Centrino-like solution for netbooks, moving the memory controller and graphics into the processor package. One of the well-documented problems with the Diamondville platform was the use of the power-hungry 945GC/GSE chipset.

The lower power consumption could have been used in two ways: clocking the processor higher or for better battery life. Thankfully, Intel chose the latter and it shows. MSI chose this year’s CES to unveil its first major update to the hugely popular Wind netbook series with the U130, U135 and “high-end” U160.

The new chassis not only brought the Pine Trail platform, but added other key features like 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, a quality webcam and a new Chiclet-style keyboard. Effort has been taken to make the U135 a little less bargain basement with an exterior available in dark colours and even a pinstripe.

The attention to detail is quite admirable, with stylish, not garish, touches found when the device is opened up. The trackpad has a sandblasted look, the single mouse button isn’t from Apple’s reject bin – it actually has two buttons underneath – and there’s even a fancy asterisk light on the power button should you forget that your Wind is running.

Overall, the build quality is good and, while it’s undoubtedly plastic, it feels a whole lot tighter than a Macbook, which is not bad for a machine which costs almost 75 per cent less. Specifications These Wind models are based on the Atom N450 processor running at 1.66GHz with HyperThreading enabled.

This is coupled to 1GB of DDR2 memory and a 250GB WD Blue Sata disk which showed an average 57MB/s read rate in tests. The specification is very similar to Asus’ Eee PC 1005PE except for the higher quality webcam. Intel’s N450 does have DirectX 9 support, but drawing the frames by hand would provide a better gaming experience. The 10in 1,024×600 screen first championed by MSI is now pretty much standard across the board, but this particular unit is more acceptable than most.

Brightness and contrast in the U135 are above average for netbook screens, thanks to the LED backlighting. There’s also good connectivity with three USB 2 sockets, Ethernet, headphone and microphone jacks, and VGA output. Removable storage comes in the form of an SD Card slot.

The Pine Trail platform enticed us with the ability to go all day without charging, and MSI has tried to push this home by including a bulging six-cell battery causing the U135 to tip the scales at 1.3Kg. The upshot of this is good stamina and a gentle tilt helping typing posture.

Using the CPU at 100 per cent and running a graphics and disk intensive test we managed just two minutes shy of four hours. Obviously this is far from typical use, and we managed closer to seven hours in a work-like setting with web browsing, email, viewing videos and occasionally getting in some real work.

The cooling of the U135 held up well during our intensive tests, and the fan, although audible, still produced a less annoying noise than many an X-Factor contestant. It also helped keep the underbelly merely lukewarm rather than skin searing hot.

Video playback
Watching videos is one area where MSI’s faith in Intel is misplaced. Thanks to Adobe’s announcement that GPU-accelerated Flash will be available, albeit in the second quarter of this year, the Pine Trail platform will be left for dead by nvidia’s ion graphics processor in this important netbook task.

Those looking to upgrade the RAM or hard drive will be disappointed to learn that there are no one-screw hatches that open up the innards of the U135. Access can be had only by completely removing the base plate held with nine screws, one of which is covered by a warranty sticker.

MSI decided to stick Windows 7 Starter Edition on all its new Wind units and, even with the perceived benefits of Windows 7 over the previous Windows XP incarnation, it’s hard not to believe that more could be done with Linux installed.

Thankfully MSI didn’t load the U135 with a load of useless software, and Norton Internet Security is the only real blemish on an otherwise clean preload. However, software to enable multi-touch or even screen scrolling on the touchpad is absent until you pull them off MSI’s web site. With such a large hard disk, there’s nothing to prevent dual booting Windows 7 and one of the many specialist netbook Linux distributions.

MSI U135 XP Home Netbook

MSI Wind U135 Netbook Review : DKgADGET

Aesthetically, Sony Ericsson seems to have struck a nice balance between looks and size. Aside from the camera lens cover rocking slightly from side to side, build quality feels excellent and the materials used are of a high quality.

The spring-operated slider feels firm and well constructed, while the buttons provide reasonable tactility. Particularly impressive is the contrast between the matte black finish and the chrome edging and silver highlights — this gives the C905 a distinctive touch of class.

Slid open, the C905 reveals a flat but well spaced keypad, with a soft white backlight. Although the keys are flat, they are comfortable to type on and the same is true of the basic yet intuitive controls.

A five-way navigational pad does most of the work, with two selection buttons, answer and end call keys and shortcut and clear keys also present.

The C905’s display is bright and clear, but no more remarkable than many other recent releases. Sony Ericsson has stuck to its familiar interface on this handset, ensuring the menus look impressive and have a reasonably easy to use layout.

Unfortunately, the C905 is a little on the slow side. While this doesn’t impact too much on the general usability of this handset, it’s still slightly annoying.

The Cyber-shot branded C905 is obviously first and foremost a camera phone and it does a very reasonable job in this regard.

In addition to the 8.1-megapixel sensor, there is face detection, a smart contrast function that balances light and colour, a Xenon flash and Sony Ericsson’s BestPic function, which takes seven photos as you press and release the shutter button, to ensure you get the best picture possible.

The design of this handset is also user-friendly: rotate the C905 sideways and it feels like a regular camera, with zoom, review, video and shutter buttons.

On the front, blue backlit camera keys appear when the camera is active including exposure adjustment, flash, focus and self-timer shortcuts on the five-way navigational pad. The lens cover is also convenient, as sliding it open automatically opens the camera application.

Obviously an important point to note is that a camera phone isn’t going to produce images to rival a dedicated digital camera. While the C905’s images are pretty impressive for a mobile phone, most camera phone users are still demanding optical zoom, faster response time and longer battery life instead of more megapixels.

That being said, the C905 is definitely an impressive performer. Image noise and questionable colour reproduction are issues, but chromatic aberration is fairly minimal considering this is a camera phone. Also reasonably impressive are photos taken in low-light situations; the dual flash is very effective for night time photography.

The C905 also includes A-GPS and comes pre-loaded with Google Maps and Wayfinder Navigator software. The latter provides full turn by turn navigation, but this comes as an extra subscription cost. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and HSDPA capabilities ensure you’ll remain connected.

The C905’s multimedia capabilities are let down by the lack of a 3.5mm headphone jack. Unlike Sony Ericsson’s Walkman range, this model doesn’t even include an adapter to use regular headphones.

The media menu is excellent though, using the same format as the Walkman range. The C905 has 160MB of on-board memory but Sony Ericsson includes a 2GB M2 (Memory Stick Micro) card in the sales package. Conveniently, a USB adapter to ensure quick transfer of files from a PC is also included.

Sony Ericsson C905 Review : DKgADGET

Boasting the same features as the E71 minus the QWERTY keyboard, Nokia’s E66 is aimed at users who aren’t hell-bent on large amounts of text entry. This stylish E-Series handset has the same internal characteristics as its big brother in a smaller, more pocketable form factor.

Like the E71, the E66 is one of the more stylish smartphones to hit the market. It features the same gloss metal finish as its larger counterpart but does away with the QWERTY keyboard in favour of a regular numerical keypad. Particularly impressive is the chrome rear cover, despite its tendency to attract plenty of fingerprints. Although the E66 oozes style, its build quality is somewhat questionable — the top half of the slider in our review unit didn’t feel as sturdy as we expected.

For those who lament the extra real estate that keyboards occupy, the well-designed keypad of the E66 will certainly be appreciated. Tactile feedback is excellent and the layout is simple yet effective. Unlike the E71 the keys aren’t spongy, generating a firm clicking sound when pressed. The shortcut keys — home, calendar, contacts, mail and delete — are a welcome addition, and the five-way navigational pad, selection buttons and call keys combine to create a pleasant user experience. When in standby mode, all keys except the answer and end call buttons are invisible; they only light up when the screen is active.

The E66 utilizes a 2.36-inch QVGA display (320×240 pixels, 48x36mm), capable of up to 16 million colors. It manages to output a pretty decent picture quality-wise that remains readable in various environments (it doesn’t fade away in the sun at that, all thanks to the mirror underlayer).

On balance, the E66 packs in a likable display and we are pretty much content with it. It can accommodate up to 8 text and 3 service lines (with some modes allowing for up to 14 text lines).

The display is a reasonable size considering the style of the handset, but it’s perhaps a little smaller than the screens of other smartphones. This really isn’t much of an issue as the display is excellent for almost all uses, including displaying videos and photos.

The E66 runs on the popular Symbian S60 platform, so it includes most features synonymous with smartphones. Among these are the ability to read and edit Word, PowerPoint and Excel documents and access PDF files. One of the best features of this handset is its speed — an impressive attribute that we’ve noticed in many of the latest Symbian devices. Applications open and close in a flash and despite running multiple programs we didn’t experience any lag. The default menu interface isn’t as visually appealing as other handsets, but a wealth of Symbian themes can be downloaded to smarten it up.

Enterprise users will surely appreciate the E66′s Intranet application, which comprises the settings of VPN-client. As far as office tools go, the E66 is no revolution – it has had its mail client improved, the phonebook has been tweaked here and there too, along with some other applications. Microsoft Office documents are still handled by QuickOffice, which is a pity (although many will be content with what it has to offer). Also there is a ZIP archiver and PDF reading tool. The Search 4.0 app can be linked directly on the main screen.

The E66 is the first Eseries-branded device ever to boast the Mode functionality. In a nutshell, it’s a mobile version of the latest PC craze – virtual desktops. That is, you make up a couple of screens, where various themes, pictures, applications, plug-ins and other essentials are housed/used. And then you can swap between them in one touch, so that it’s always easy to jump between your setup for work with mail and notifications brought up on the main screen and the home setup with a different theme applied (without your company’s logo or colors) and player controls lined up on the screen instead of email notifications. It takes the E66 around 6-7 seconds to jump between modes.

The major update to this department is the new version of Nokia Maps. Also, we would like to note that the application has become even speedier, the cold start time makes around 4-5 minutes, and we felt that the gears were spinning faster, so to speak. To my mind, the E66 is a tidy navigation-savvy solution, it does the job hands down. But, unfortunately, as far as battery life goes, the E66 doesn’t improve over the predecessors.

The handset utilizes a 1000 mAh Li-Pol battery (BL-4U), as opposed to the Nokia E71′s 1500 mAh cell. The E66 is rated for 7.5 hours of talk time (GSM) and 264 hours of standby. Music time – up to 14 hours.

The device comes equipped with 128 Mb of RAM, after first launch you will get around 70 Mb of free memory at your disposal, which is enough for running a dozen applications and browsing “heavy” web-pages – the word “slow-down” is definitely not in the E66′s vocabulary.

The user almost has 110 Mb of storage available, where any data can be stored.

The E66 deals with microSD memory cards (hot-swappable), the phone comes packaged with a 2Gb unit.

In terms of features, the E66 should satisfy even the most demanding user. In addition to HSDPA connectivity, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth with the A2DP profile are available. The handset works with Microsoft Exchange Server as well as e-mail accounts like Gmail and Yahoo! Mail. Setting up an e-mail account is easy; entering your name and password automatically searches for the settings required, and we were up and running in just a couple of minutes. The E66 also includes a GPS receiver along with the Nokia Maps application.

Wi-Fi. This handset comes armed with Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11 g) support. All security standar

ds are supported, including WEP , WPA , WPA 2, with other advanced settings available. Unlike the NSeries, the E66 doesn’t support Universal PnP (UPnP). Although, it boasts the WiFi Wizard, which can search and tap into available networks in background mode.

Bluetooth. The phone comes with Bluetooth v2.0, with support for EDR. The following profiles are supported:

1. A2DP
2. AVCRP
3. BIP-ImagePush
4. DUN-GW
5. FT-Server
6. HandsFree-AG (1.0)
7. Headset-AG
8. OBEX
9. OPP-Client
10. OPP-Server
11. SIM Access-Server

The ESeries devices have always been worlds apart from other S60-powered devices in the way of software. Some apps and options that were tested on these phones in the first place are now becoming par for the course in the rest of the company’s portfolio, but some still remain the trademark features of the ESeries. A great feature is the ability to switch between business and personal modes.

You can edit a number of settings, including enabled applications, notifications and themes. You can then toggle between the two modes — for example you could block access to your work e-mail while using the personal mode.The desktop mode has been revamped a little – now at the bottom there are three icons standing for missed calls, messages and voice mail. If there are no events at hand, the corresponding icon will vanish. Clicking on each thumbnail will make a pop-up with extra information appear on the screen.

Thanks to its, beefed up memory and a faster CPU (ARM11 running at 369 Mhz, against the E61i’s ARM9 and its 220 Mhz), the E66′s performance has almost doubled compared to the E61i. You can literally soar through all applications and menusm also the handset can have more applications running in the background at a time.

The E66 is a fair but not great device for multimedia. It has a 2.5mm headphone jack, but you’ll need to purchase an adapter in order to use a standard pair of headphones.The E66 utilizes a 3.2 Mpix CMOS camera with auto-focus. I shall say that the quality you get with the E66 is what you’d expect from this type of camera- it is fairly decent for a business-minded phone, but can’t stand comparison to today’s imaging-savvy solutions. The 3.2-megapixel camera with flash and autofocus is handy and you can save your photos to the 2GB microSD card included in the sales package.

You can go for one of the following resolutions:

1. Print 3M – Large
2. Print 2M – Large
3. Print/e-mail 1M – Small
4. Multimedia message 0.3M

The maker doesn’t provide the real image resolutions, so we take this duty in our own hands. The following resolutions are utilized in the abovementioned modes: 2048×1536, 1600×1200, 1024×768, 640×480 pixels. The picture size averages 1 Mb, 600-700 Kb, 250-300 Kb and 75-100 Kb respectively. You can’t adjust the picture quality settings with the E66.

The handset utilizes the digital zoom feature topping out at x20, moreover, there are “normal” and “enhanced” zoom – the latter allows reaching the maximum magnification, yet some artifacts slip into your pictures. When using the standard digital zoom, though, these artifacts are not all that discernible. And since you can perform just the same zoom-in in any graphics editor, using it while shooting is probably not the best idea.

For Web browsing, the Nokia browser conveniently supports flash. Navigation, despite the lack of a touch screen, is excellent. We managed to browse sites like YouTube without any major issues.

Let me tell you one thing no browser comes close to Nokia’s browser due to the various standards it supports, except for may be opera mobile, Iphone safari does’nt support flash and other few standards though the experience is fine.

Some consumers may actually face the dilemma, which phone to go for?  the Nokia E66 or E71. In my opinion if you aren’t sweet on emails and messaging and generally don’t need a full-featured thumbboard, then the E66 is the way to go – its rotating screen will give you the same level of comfort when viewing photos and videos anyway.

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Nokia E66 Review : DKgADGET

Nokia’s most anticipated release of 2008 got recently released worldwide including India, Nokia N96 replaces the popular N95 as Nokia’s flagship N-Series model. A multimedia beast boasting almost every feature which you can think or imaging, the N96 is more than fair handset on the whole and its target audience will be mostly tech geeks worldwide in general.

Aesthetically, the N96 feels looks more polished but can’t say smoother than the N95 8GB due to its size and not being pocket friendly but who will like it to hide when you have got a beast on your hand. The biggest change apart from the glossy casing is the display.

The 2.8in TFT screen is stunning, displaying both basic text and multimedia content with outstanding sharpness. Aside from the screen, the design concept of the N96 continues where the N95 left off — this is once again a dual-slider handset taking cues from its another n series brother called Nokia N81. Sliding up reveals the keypad, while sliding reveals four multimedia keys which morph depending on the application you are using.

The keys in both instances are flat and glossy, but they provide reasonable tactility and are comfortable to press. An excellent feature not seen on the N95 is the keypad lock slider at the top of the unit; the handset also boasts an accelerometer that rotates the orientation of the display when the phone it tilted.

The N96 has a largely plastic build. While this isn’t a huge issue the phone doesn’t feel as solid as we would have liked. The slider is an improvement over its predecessor, but this just doesn’t feel cheap middle bracket range handset to say the least. In addition, the rear battery cover feels flimsy, especially when removed.

However putting metal would have added on weight to the handset but they could have used high quality plastics.

It’s hard not to admire what the N96 has under the hood. Perhaps the biggest step forward over its predecessor is the whopping 16GB of internal flash memory. There is also a microSD card slot which is capable of supporting cards of up to 8GB in capacity, meaning memory can be boosted to 24GB — a sizeable chunk of memory for a mobile phone.

Using the handset is generally a hassle-free experience, though like its predecessor, the N96 does suffer from lag at times. While this isn’t as much of an issue as it was when the original N95 was released, the Symbian Series 60 3rd edition still isn’t as smooth or quick as it could be, especially when opening and closing applications. This will most likely be improved in the near future by updates which Nokia calls as software updates while you know them as firmware updates.

Like most new Nokia handsets, the N96 includes a built-in GPS receiver but it comes with AGPS which is very good in relation to navigation. The Nokia Maps v2 application is pre-installed on the handset, which enables users to search for addresses and locate POIs. Users receive a three month free trial of full turn-by-turn navigation before a subscription fee is required. Conveniently, an in-car charger is included in the sales package.

A 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics is once again present, but this is let down by the lack of Xenon flash. Instead the camera has a dual LED flash. Well to tell you truth this is not a letdown, I have seen many pictures where photographs get blurred by xenon when we take close-up snap and it’s only of use for distance photographs, So I can safely say that Dual Led flash are more usable than Xenon Flash.

Sony Ericsson started the use of Led flash by launching their k850 model and hyped it as the best way to go but now they are also realizing its usability and going for Dual LED’S. By snapping the photographs we can safely say that, it possess one of the better models on the market.

Many told me that the colour production of this model is different in photographs from the original scene. Well, it depends upon your own feeling, what Nokia does is takes the photograph and processes with its own algorithm to provide you with a good saturated colour photograph and by doing this it eliminates the use of PC. While Sony Ericsson models prefer the other way around but i will go for Nokia as with so many photographs we snap, Who will like enhance one by one in photoshop or any other program.

The multimedia capabilities of the N96 are excellent. The external speakers produce good sound, while a 3.5mm headphone jack allows any set of headphones to be connected for the best possible sound. There is also an FM radio present, though you’ll need to use the standard headphones as they include the FM antenna. A particularly clever feature is the built-in kick-stand: flip it out and the N96 can be rested upright on a desk or table, making it ideal for watching video content with its brilliant screen on the go.

Unfortunately, one of the best features of the N96 is only usable in some parts of Delhi in India. The handset is DVB-H capable, meaning it is theoretically capable of receiving live television broadcasts. We were able to watch Doordarshan Channels without any problem and the transmission was very smooth, even in metro it was’nt much of a problem. But this DVB-H feature is usable only in some parts of Delhi while it is unavailable for rest of India and i can’t see implementation of DVB-H gaining pace any soon. The first handset to have this feature was Nokia N77.

Nokia has certainly put plenty of its bells and whistles in the services market of late by seeing what Apple has been able to achieve, and the N96 is a perfect example of this push. In addition to a three-month free subscription to turn-by-turn navigation, Nokia bundles Nokia Music Store and a free N-Gage game(there are fifteen games available on the handset and you have to select one of them for which the key will be given and the rest will be locked), and allows users to download one series of a choice of four BBC programs(Well who cares about this).

The mp3 songs provided on the handset are DRM-protected files. The media content will vary from region to region.

Connectivity is excellent, with the N96 boasting Wi-Fi 802.11 g/b, Bluetooth with A2DP, USB with a standard micro-USB interface and HSDPA capabilities. Call quality is excellent and the hands-free speakerphone is also loud and clear, and the handset’s battery life is fair but it is questionable under heavy usage as with most phones.

Well your can say that Nokia has produced the greatest mobile till date. To
be precise, let me say no. If only it had been launched before Samsung Innova, the award could have given to Nokia N96. Samsung Innova simply excell in its camera department, music quality with a dedicated chip and better build quality while the other features such as operating system, on board memory (16 GB)are same.

edit photoshop n96

Nokia N96 Review : DKgADGET

Now we have the KT520 which as I write is exclusive to O2 and costs £90 on Pay and Go. The phone is tri-band GSM with 3G. It isn’t designed to rock anybody’s world with its fancy and innovative features. Instead it is meant to be a foil to handsets like LG’s Secret, and to be a solidly mid-range mobile.

It certainly has a mid-range ambiance to it. I’m not too delighted with the chunky feel of this mobile in the hand. Even given that this is a slider I’m not happy about its 15mm or so of thickness. It is also a bit tall for my hands at just under 102mm when closed, growing to just over 135mm when opened. Width is OK at pretty much 50mm and it is a mere 97g in weight which is welcome.

The light weight can be put down in large part to the plastic body. LG has gone for a traditional black and sliver livery that works well enough, but even with the rounded corners the feel is just a little on the cost-cutting side. The slide mechanism is smooth, though.

The screen measures 2.2 inches diagonally and delivers a standard 240 x 320 pixels. I’ve no real complaints about it except to say that LG could probably have squeezed something a little larger into the casing – albeit with a concomitant price hike.

Beneath the screen you’ll find a button bank. Call and End keys are very close to the bottom of the handset, which, as they are likely to be the most frequently used keys on this mobile, is a bit of an awkward position for them. I’d have liked them further up. The softmenu keys are a long way below the softmenus to which they correspond.

To be fair this won’t make a difference in everyday use, but it does look a little strange.In between the softmenu and Call/End keys sit a Clear key and a switcher. The latter is very useful as you can use it to move quickly between applications that you’ve already opened on the phone.

There’s another handy option on the left softkey when you are in the home screen. Labelled ‘My stuff’, this takes you directly to a list of folders containing images, sounds, videos, games and apps, downloads and flash and other stuff stored on the phone and on a microSD card.

As usual for LG, menu options are hardwired into number-pad keys, so you can either tap the corresponding number key or use the D-pad to get around. The numberpad keys should suit anyone who does a lot of texting. They are large and give out a little click when pressed. I’m not convinced about their durability, though. There is a lot of flex around the number pad as you press keys, and mechanical longevity could be suspect.

The D-pad has a little trick up its sleeve. A central select button and surrounding directional pad, complete with arrows to remind you about its up, down, left and right functioning can be made touch-sensitive.You can configure this feature to be off, on, or only functional for Web browsing. You can also set its speed to high, medium or low.

Turned on, you move your thumb around the sensor to make selections. It’s not exactly a new idea, and while it is nice to see it implemented on a lower cost mobile I did find it a bit fiddly. The D-pad’s select button has a sensitive area with a circumference of about 8mm, which I found to be pretty small to work with.

The music player is adequate. There is 30MB of on-board memory and a microSD card slot for you to add more. The player automatically found tunes stored all over the place on my microSD card which is just how I like things. Having to put songs into designated folders is a no-no where ease of use is concerned.

Loudspeaker volume is not as high as on some handsets but perfectly good enough. The quality of the provided headset is reasonable, and the equaliser settings, of which there are several, do make a noticeable difference.

LG falls over by not offering user defined equaliser settings and, more importantly, by having a proprietary connector for the headset. This is the same connector required by PC cable and mains power. The player supports the genres tag but not composers.

There is a front camera for video calls, and the lens for the main camera is on the back of the casing. It is a bit of a downer that the lens isn’t kept scratch-safe inside the slide mechanism. It shoots to 3-megapixels and benefits from autofocus, but there is no flash and no self-portrait mirror.

LG KT520 Review : DKgADGET

1. This was not a scientific study or professional lab test.
2. Each browser’s cache was cleared before each set of tests.
3. Load times were measured from the same location (about 12 feet from a 802.11g wireless router) in a one-hour period from the click of the enter key or “Go” button in the browser’s address bar to the complete page load according to the progress bar.
4. Load times vary by location, time of day, ad servers, content, etc., so your results may not be identical to mine.
5. Devices

Archos 5(Running Opera Mobile): 600MHz ARM Cortex A8 (additional processor: 32-bit DSP @ 430MHz)
iPhone 3G: 620MHz Samsung S5L8900 (ARM1176JZF)
Nokia N810: 400MHz Texas Instruments OMAP2420

Load Times

Opera 9             Safari                  Micro B Browser

Amazon      10 seconds        26 seconds         26 seconds
CNET          24 seconds       21 seconds          32 seconds
Digg             18 seconds       29 seconds          36 seconds
Engadget    25 seconds       27 seconds          44 seconds
Google           4 seconds        8 seconds           11 seconds
PC Talk        13 seconds      14 seconds           20 seconds
MySpace      11 seconds      13 seconds          16 seconds
NY Times    19 seconds      29 seconds           36 seconds
Pocketables 16 seconds      31 seconds           39 seconds
YouTube      15 seconds      22 seconds          18 seconds

Browser War – Opera Mobile Vs Iphone Safari Borwser Vs Nokia N810 Browser : DKgADGET