Showdown at MWC 2011

The time has come finally for all those eager Nokia fans around the world who were waiting to see what the world largest manufacturer of mobile phones has in store. And sir they don't let you down. The Finns were fully prepared to steal the show. Nokia had in all five phones and a beast in the name of Nokia Pureview which is capable of giving the DSLR's a run for their money.Packing an astonishing 41MP sensor making even the best of DSLR cameras look like small toys.


Lets start with the expansion of the Lumia family. Nokia released the Lumia 900 and the highly affordable Lumia 610. Powered by a single-core 800Mhz Snapdragon processor, 256 MB RAM, and  8GB internal storage(expandable SD Slot). The Lumia 610 sports a 5MP camera with auto-focus and LED flash. Lumia 610 comes at a highly affordable price of €189. This is the first Nokia WP running the new Tango OS.

The big brother of Lumia 800, Lumia 900 was also on display. Priced at around €480, the Lumia 900 is expected to hit the stores along with 610 by Q2 this year. Both the Lumia phones will receive updates for various  applications including the Nokia Drive, with the addition of speed limits and fully functioning offline navigation. The next is Nokia Reading, which is a news feed app like the Google reader, providing local language support, books and news. And this is totally free!!




In the feature phone end, we have the three more Asha's 202,203 and 302.  While the other two sport  alphanumeric keypad, the 302 has a QWERTY keypad for extensive messaging. The 302 packs a 1Ghz processor with TFT Capacitive touch screen. One extra perk from the Nokia-Microsoft partnership is the Microsoft Exchange Email support which is included in Asha 302.

While 202, 203 have a 2MP camera, the elder Asha has 3.2MP. We hope that the Asha phones get upgraded with Smarterphone OS in near future increasing their functionality and popularity among users.


Now we uncover the beast, truly living upto its name as the elusive successor of Nokia N8, the new heir of the camera phone king, Nokia 808 PureView. The teasers which gave a slight hint as to what can be expected from Nokia PureView is nothing compared to original experience. This a true revolution in the field of photography let alone in smartphones. While others are honing their skills in red eye reduction and naive image processing, PureView captures image in its pristine form. 

PureView imaging technology doesnt represent a step change for camera smartphone performance ,so much as a quantum leap forward.Unprecedented camera control and versatility, combined with truly spectacular-quality images and video. Nokia 808 PureView sets new industry standards — it will give you around 3x lossless zoom for stills, and 4x zoom in full HD 1080p. For 720p HD video, you’re looking at 6x lossless zoom.
 
And for nHD (640x360) video, an amazing 12x zoom!

Being a Nokia fanboy i'd like to keep bragging about this piece of "optical" technological marvel but lets take a lokk at its specs now. The Nokia 808 PureView powered by 1.3Ghz processor, 512 MB RAM and running Nokia Belle. For a camera this powerful, the display is a 4"AMOLED nHD covered with a curved  Gorilla Glass. It is packed with NFC, Bluetooth 3.0, USB OnTheGo and 16GB of on-board storage expandable with MicroSD.


The Nokia PureView is expected to storm the markets by May 2012. Let's hope that Nokia isn't partial in releasing the PureView as was the case with Nokia N9.

Nokia Carla may release by Q3 this year

Nokia Carla, the next edition of Symbian OS might be released by Q3 this year. It is rumored that Nokia Smartphones powered by Carla will hit the stores as early as October this year. Nokia Carla is the successor to Nokia Belle released during Q3,2011.


Though there hasn't been any official confirmation from Nokia, rumor has it that Nokia Belle powered phones might be the first phones to run Nokia Carla. And later by Q4, other Belle powered devices are set to receive an update to Carla(Nokia N8,E6,E7,C6-01 and C7). Though secondary Belle powered devices are set to receive a trimmed version of Nokia Carla since they lack a 1Ghz process and NFC capability.

Also it can be said with certainty that the Nokia PureView will not  be the last Carla device. Nokia Pure View the successor to the best ever camera phone N8 is to be released this Monday at the MWC in Barcelona,Spain. The Pureview is already considered to be the most interesting cameraphone yet.Here's a snapshot from the teaser for PureView to be unveiled at the MWC.

There is however no news on the other platform Nokia Donna. Most probably Nokia Donna will also be released by the end of this year. An official announcement might be expected at the MWC. Stay tuned for more updates.

Nokia Belle update now available for anna users

After a long wait the Nokia Belle update is available for Nokia users formerly using Symbian Anna powered phones. Nokia began rolling out the firmware update for the N8,C6-01,c7,E7,E6 and 500. If you own any of the above phones your device will have a firmware update through Nokia Suite. It is highly recommended that the update is performed through the Nokia Suite rather than try to update it over the air.

This update addresses the concerns for a need to change in the Nokia Smartphones. Nokia Belle expands it horizons.It was formerly available only for three handsets namely the 700,701, and 603. As part of a strategy from Nokia to retain its Smartphone base the update which was released about 7 months later than the original Nokia Belle(previously known as Symbian Belle).


Nokia Belle comes with an array of features such as the number of home-screens, better navigation and widgets, improved interface. Almost all of the so called short comings of previous platforms have been address in this update.

The update is roughly 300 to 400 MB downloaded through the Nokia suite(3.3 or higher) so a secure and fast internet connection is a requirement. We will review the performance of the update in the coming posts