Nokia X6 Review

So here comes the X6. As the de facto sequel to the surprise hit of the 5800 XpressMusic, the X6 has a lot to live up to in the eyes of the media and the consumers. Actually, being honest, a touch screen device, with music support, operator backing and a stylish black look such as the 5800 had all the indications of being a successful device even before launch. Shall I cut a long review short and simply say that the X6 doesn't (yet) manage this, but if Nokia apply themselves, it could do so in the future?

And now, the longer version, over multiple parts.



The X6 doesn't have the first mover advantage of being Nokia's first touch screen S60 device, but you can't help but fail to notice the biggest change in Nokia's touch screen devices with the X6, and this is the switch from a resistive touch screen to a capacitive touch screen. No more stylus needed (or in fact, able to be used), the X6 screen will only pick up on the touch of human skin on the screen (normally your finger).

This has an impact on the S60 UI, and I'll come onto that in a subsequent part, but in general this change to the interface has made the X6 a much more tactile and gorgeous device to handle. You don't need to struggle with a stylus, aim a fingernail at the screen, or even be pixel perfect accurate – a glancing stroke with a finger or a thumb swiping across the screen is more than enough to have your touch picked up and acted on.

Just to give you a heads up that the S60 5th Edition changes in the X6 lack one word – consistency – but this is nothing to do with the physical hardware of the screen. Not only is it excellent and responsive, but the colours and sharpness give the X6 a wonderful clarity; I'd go so far as to say that it demands to be held and touched.



Also on the front of the machine are the call/end call/app buttons. Unlike on the 5800, which had these as three raised buttons, a strip of plastic that takes up all the space at the bottom of the screen carries the three buttons here. Rather than being touch sensitive, this is a physical set of buttons where the whole strip pivots slightly depending on which button you press. It suddenly takes away from the glorious screen and dumps a cheap plastic phone back in your hand. Not good mojo.

This bendy and cheap plastic feel also applies to the back cover. It's a single sheet of moulded plastic, and instead of slides, catches and runners to hold it in place, you just bend it up at the bottom edge and pop it off. It makes for a smooth construction (and lower production cost) but again, adds to the tacky feel of the phone.



And then you have a SIM card slot cover which is little more than a plastic wedge over a push in slot – there's nothing seamless or tactile about these buttons and covers. Okay the SIM slot is a thing that the average user might only use once, but it has an impact on perceptions of the machine.

Which is a shame because the X6 is more stylish than the 5800. With the two long edges nicely curved, it sits comfortably in your hand, while the slight off-vertical surfaces at the short edges give an almost trapezoidal shape. The curve fits my hand, it's easily picked up from a table,and perhaps my only complaint is that with no lip around the screen (as the 5800 has) it's very easy in this thin candybar format to have your fingers stray into the touch screen area.



Right then, let's address the biggest issue I'm having with the X6 – and it's a physical problem. The key-lock slider on the side of the unit, which unlocks the touch screen has two problems. It's far too stiff and the sliding key needs far too much pressure when pulled towards the base of the unit to be at all comfortable. Also, unlike the similarly functioning key on the 5800 which was heavily ridged, there's a tiny raised padlock symbol which gives almost no purchase on the key. This is a backwards step from the 5800 and one that seems to be more a lack of oversight than anything else.

Yes, there should be some style, but this is a step too far.



The top edge of the X6 carries all the connectivity and power options. There's a microUSB connector hiding under a plastic grommet that seems securely fixed to the X6 body, the 3.5mm headphone/headset socket, an charging socket and the power/profile button. That button seems to have a huge amount of play before it actually does anything, which isn't particularly reassuring; and the inclusion of the charging socket is required as the X6, amazingly, does not charge over USB.



The volume buttons and camera buttons are in the expected place, on the right side with volume at the top and the two stage camera shutter button at the bottom. This is Nokia's design language and not something you would expect to see changed. What's interesting is that these two buttons are a different style to the key lock and power buttons. Much like the software of the X6, the outside seems to be two different ideals running into each other and compromising as best they can.



On the opposite long edge to the volume buttons are the speakers – one at the top and one at the bottom. I like this positioning, both of them are on the left long spine of the X6. This makes little difference when the phone is thrown on the kitchen worktop as I bake another masterpiece (really? - Vikki Spence), but the benefit becomes clear when you watch video on the 16:9 ratio screen, you've got yourself some stereo separation for the latest feature film (or in my case Question Time on the BBC iPlayer). They're also a substantial set of speakers for such a small unit. You won't get high fidelity from them, but you will get enough noise to fill a hotel room as you get ready in the morning. That'll do for me.



One problem with the diagonal styling on the top of the unit is around the 3.5mm headphone socket. Because the socket is at right angles to the screen, but the plastic moulding around it carries the angle. With certain cables that need to fit flush, they're pushed very slightly out of the socket, which is just enough in some cases to cause connection problems, especially for audio playback.

Plugging in a generic peripheral to the socket and you're asked to confirm what you've just put in... every time. A default setting here would be nice. What would also be nice is if the Music Player paused when something is removed from the headphone socket, or at least have another option to set this, because it's really useful. Of course a certain company already does this – and if Nokia were to add this usability feature would they be hit with another patent/copying lawsuit? Who knows, but I wish they would take the chance.

The X6, once it gets into the supply chai,n either on a hugely subsidised contract or in a version which removes the Comes with Music addition and brings the SIM free price into the 'disposable' range, should be a popular phone. And anything that makes the X6 punch above its RRP is to be welcomed. That's why some of these styling faults are going to be disproportionately punishing on the fortunes of the X6. People don't want to be seen with a 'cheap' phone; and the little niggles in the construction detailed above move the X6 away from 'stylish' to 'tacky.' It's not insurmountable – the screen and front style is lush and modern, but someone needs to get a grip in the factory and break some knuckles before the X6 breaks too many hearts on the High Street.

Source: allaboutsymbian

How to Hard reset your Nokia N97

If you’re unfortunate enough to encounter a problem on your Nokia N97, a hard reset maybe what you need to do. This wipes the entire phone memory and settings fresh to how it was (or should be) when you bought it. It’s also useful if you’re also unfortunate enough to have to send away your Nokia N97 for repair or exchange, or maybe in future you maybe selling it and don’t want your information/details/media stored onto your device for someone else to access.

The traditional method won’t work as the N97 doesn’t have the old keypad. After you’ve backed up your data onto memory card/pc/ovi, turn your phone off and simultaneously press these four buttons circled in red.

* Caps shift * Space bar * Delete button * On button

You’ll know it’s worked when you see the initial set up screen, asking country of origin. I haven’t actually tried this, but I’ll be doing so when I return the trial N97.

* wiped phone memory but did not touch the mass memory (you’ll have to format that separately via File Manager) – got 61 MB back
* Applications installed onto the memory card are still present
* Fixed voice dialling, but after restoration from memory card, voice dialling was disabled again
* Hasn’t Fixed broken GPS. Refuses to get a GPS fix
* Restoring from memory card doesn’t put back widget/applications from phone memory you would have hoped to have been backed up on memory card – e.g. facebook/Nokia Messaging/N-Gage is gone
* Restoring from memory card does not restore the menu to how you may have reconfigured it (extremely annoying)



Press the Red Button at once

How do I reset the Nokia N97 phone

There has been a number of people having problems with their N97’s and having to totally reset the phone to fix different issues, so I’ve decided to put together this guide on the best way to go about the task and have the N97 back to full optimum usability.

Prepare for Reset
1. Phone contacts is the only thing I really backup, best way I use is to copy all contacts to mass memory for quick reinstall later:.

Within Contacts application:
a) Options \ Mark/Unmark \ Mark all
b) Options \ Copy business card \ To other memory
c) Select ‘E: Mass memory’ and ‘Yes’ to remove existing contacts from selected memory.

NOTE: You could use Backup in File Manager to copy Contacts, Calendar and Bookmarks to a memory card?

2. Other Application Data depends on what applications you have installed, have a look yourself and save on mass memory. I have Profimail & SplashID which I export the settings/data and save on Mass memory for importing later.

3. Goto Menu\Settings\Application mgr.\Installed apps. and uninstall all applications installed on the Mass Memory.

4. Hard Reset the phone my dialing *#7370# from the homescreen and entering Lock Code 12345

Phone with now hard reset to the original firmware and factory settings. Once finished it will restart and ask you to enter region, date, time, etc. as if you just took the phone out the box when you first purchased it.

Installing from Fresh

You now have a clean phone ready to load your data and install your applications back on, so this is the time you need to be careful what you do, where you install things and what you install. Personally I’ve got a list of the best application I like for Nokia phones and will only install these on a non-test phone, i.e. personal phone.

5. Reclaim back phone memory before installing by uninstalling any firmware pre-installed applications you don’t use. I removed Facebook, weather apps, most of the widgets. etc.. If you’re never going to use them, then get rid of them, you can always reinstall from OVI Store or the nokiAAddict downloads page later :)

6. Reinstall Phone contacts.

Within Contacts application:
a) Options \ Copy business card \ From other memory
b) Select ‘E: Mass memory’.

7. Install all new applications to the Mass Memory, there might be a few apps which can only be installed on phone (Python & Wordmobi), but most should work okay installed on the Mass Memory. What applications to install is up to yourself, but I’ve found the main memory hugger is email. For Email the best application I’ve found is LCG Profimail which installs and works great on Mass Memory, unlike Nokia Messaging which only installs to phone memory. Although Profimail isn’t FREE its well worth the money for heavy email users.

How do I hard reset/format the n81 8GB or N95 phone?

N95 and N81 codes
*#06# ............ IMEI number (International Mobile Equipment Identity)
*#0000# ......... Firmware version and date, Phone Model and Operator Variant
*#92702689# ... Life timer (W A R 0 A N T Y) - Total time your phone has spent sending and receiving calls.
*#62209526# ... Wireless MAC Address (M A C _ W L A N)
*#2820# .......... Bluetooth MAC address (B T A 0?)
*#7370# .......... Format phone (R E S 0 ?)
*#7780# .......... Factory Reset (R S T 0 ?)

Note:
Format phone restores phone to as if it was out of the box. Retains firmware version and operator Variant changes but wipes all applications you have installed. Does not format the memory card so any apps on there may reinstall once powered back up again.

Factory Reset resets all settings to defaults but keeps any applications you have installed and photos etc. Both need the Security code, which, by default, is 12345.

Another way to format some symbian phones: Power off phone. Press and hold Green, * and 3 and keep them held whilst powering on and for a few seconds after, if kept pressed this formats without asking for Security Code confirmation.

Shortcuts
N95 picture viewer:
2 – Scroll up (when zoomed)
4 – Scroll left (when zoomed)
5 – Zoom in (12.5%/25%/50%)
6 – Scroll right (when zoomed)
8 – Scroll down (when zoomed)
0 – Zoom out

Press the Power button briefly to bring up the list of profiles to select one.

Press and hold (in Standby):
Right selection key: Voice commands
Multimedia Key: Now Playing
1: Voicemail
2-9: shortcuts to address book (you need to set these up first)
0: Web
#: Switches between General and Silent modes - not supported by all Operator Variants (when composing messages will switch between character and number input when held down)

Tips
If your operator does not support normal SMS delivery receipts (like UK O2) put *0# at the beginning of a text message to get a receipt (the recipient will not see it)

12# (etc) in standby will dial the number held in location 12 on your SIM card address book.

When texting using T9 predictive text you can generate smileys by pressing the 1 key twice or three times and modify the smiley using the * key:

Pressing 1 twice :) then * > > :* > .. > ., and so on
Pressing 1 three times :-) > :-( > ;-) > :-* > ... and so on.

The 0 key gives you a space, then 0, then a carriage return.

the factory codes: *#XXX# definitely do work on the n81--these are codes that work on all nokia devices (and i did have to use the *#RES0# to fix the mess that Mail For Exchange created )

The short cuts for picture viewing are different, as now you have the gaming keys which are used to zoom in and out. also don't forget the navi-wheel. the navi wheel is AWESOME! i use it all the time. i just wish that it was enabled in more parts of the phone.

multimedia key is the same--it brings up the now playing page on the cool new multimedia menu. And i do wanna saw a few words out the new multimedia menu. the current "application button" (looks like a yin-yang). brings up the menu of all the applications. some people are confused by this and the multimedia button, as you can also access these things from the multimedia button. The difference though, the application button allows you to access by application. the multimedia button seems to be arranged around content. so i think it is kind of neat that nokia has 2 different arrangements for accessing functionality on the phone.

These are the same:
1: Voicemail
2-9: shortcuts to address book (you need to set these up first)
0: Web
#: Switches between General and Silent modes

This doesn't work:
To see the time when the keypad is locked without unlocking, just press and release the power button.

Usually what i do is just press any button, and the screen displays very dim, but remains locked. but is bright enough for me to see the time

Facebook comes to the Nokia E71 and E72

The Nokia E71 and Nokia E72 now has a Facebook application, available right at the Ovi Store.

The application is pretty nifty, and lets you use all the basic features of Facebook.



There are still a couple things missing like the Facebook “like” feature, etc but hey atleast there’s finally an official app now.



It’s basically a non-touch version of the S60v5 Touch app.



To download the app, go on over to the Nokia Ovi Store on your Nokia E71 or Nokia E72 and search for “Facebook” to find the application.



No doubt more S60v3 devices will get the application soon.

Nokia 5730 express music - Review

The consumer-focussed sister phone to the successful Nokia E75 has now appeared and we tracked one down to explore what's different, what's good and what's bad. Is the 5730 really a case of 'fashion over functionality'? Or is it one of the most feature packed, and yet relatively cheap smartphones in the world?

Comparisons with the E75

The very first thing you should know about the Nokia 5730 XpressMusic is that 98% of it is identical to the Nokia E75, the side sliding business smartphone that debuted in Spring 2009 and which has been reviewed extensively here on All About Symbian (reviews part one, two and three + long term review) - it's tempting to simply think of the 5730 as the 'consumer' version of the E75 and, indeed, it's fairly easy to summarise the differences between the two: see the table below listing the 'advantages' of each, relative to the other. However, there's more to it than this, as we shall see.

All of which does seem like quite a list, and indeed there's a lot to discuss below, but don't let the table above kid you into thinking that these aren't, at heart, the same phone. If you look at the positioning of all the ports and side keys, if you look at the qwerty keyboard layout and spacing, if you compare audio and multimedia results, if you look at the recesses for ribbons and mechanism on the underside of the main keyboard, you'll quickly deduce that the E75 and 5730 are twins, separated at birth and led down slightly different life paths.

It's slightly odd that the 5730 XpressMusic has appeared so much later than the E75, and galling considering that there's nothing cutting edge in its firmware that might provide a clue for this timing - after all the 5730 still has Nokia Maps v2 and the 'old' version of S60 Web. There's not even an Ovi Store link. Clearly, the 5730 was designed and specified concurrently with the E75, but the timescales for either production or marketing slipped and then the summer break got in the way. Well, that's my theory anyway. (One compensation for the wait is that a digital compass got added to the GPS chip in the meantime, of which more later.)

But almost all potential buyers won't have seen an E75 in the flesh, so for the bulk of this review I'm going to treat the 5730 standalone, as a smartphone in its own right. For the guy or gal picking this up on a modest monthly contract in the High Street, what are they going to love and what are they going to hate (if anything)? I will put in some E75 comparison quips where needed, but I'll try not to let these dominate!

The Nokia 5730 XpressMusic

Essentially, the 5730 is a candy bar S60 smartphone with a hidden side-sliding qwerty keyboard. Such side-sliders aren't totally new to the High Street, with devices like the budget LG KS360 leading the way, bringing full qwerty to the masses. But the 5730's keyboard is in a different league. It's got four rows of characters, meaning that most symbols don't need shifting, and the key spacing is large for a phone. In fact, it's just about the perfect mobile keyboard for typing while standing up, using both thumbs, and it's lot faster than that in a typical Blackberry.

And it's the keyboard (and the main keypad) where the styling of the 5730 starts to hit home, both in a good and a bad way. The key legends are all printed in a 1980's-esque dot matrix font, adding a unique character to the phone. In bright light, readability's not too bad, but in murky conditions (say, a badly lit office) it can be hard to see which key is which. Compared to the striking clear white key legends on the E75, it's tempting to dismiss the 5730 XpressMusic out of hand, but doing that misses half the point of the phone.

This is aimed at the 15 to 25s market, targetting those with enough money to afford the 5730 and to also be able to afford the time and money (pre-raising a family) to have a night life. And it's at night that the 5730 XpressMusic shines. Almost literally. The dot matrix font, when backlit in a dark pub or club, looks extremely cool and is about the right visibility for bashing out texts, instant messages or social network status updates. In addition, the media control keys glow attractively and the translucent red strip around the 5730's frame catches spot lights and also glows, rather warmly. So, while it's tempting to lambast the design team for producing something with style over function, you can at least see how it might work in a typical user's (night) life.

Staying with the Nokia 5730 XpressMusic's keys, there are several aspects of note (other than the already mentioned opinion-polarising font):

* The number pad has discrete keys, which is good (the E75 has plastic strips, each with three 'keys'). And they're all domed for easy finger location. But, as with the E75, cramming the keys into such a small area does make for cramped input. Luckily, the presence of the qwerty keyboard means that such a restriction is easily forgiven.

* The d-pad has the lightest 'feel' of any that I've ever used. Which either makes it a delight (I'm in this camp) or a right royal pain (Rita el-Khoury's in this camp), with some finding that a direction gets pressed when you simply mash down on the centre. It all depends on the size of your fingers and whether you're using the pad of your thumb or the thumbnail - yet another personal choice for this polarising phone!


# The function keys (left and right) are at a level of at least 1mm below the surface of the screen, meaning that each appears somewhat sunken. As a result, you again have to approach them with the thumbnail rather than the pad of the thumb if you don't want the surrounding keys to get activated.

# The music control keys are large enough to hit accurately when you're looking at the phone, but they take some getting used to for controlling music playback 'unseen', e.g. when the phone's in your pocket. A degree of physical demarcation would have helped here - maybe a slight doming of each key, or perhaps a raised dot in the centre of each?

The gaming keys, on a plastic rocker above the screen, are quite firm to press - for sensitive gaming, they're a little too 'hard' in their feel. The keys (circle=A, square=B) only light up and respond when you're in an official N-Gage game, but it's quite cool when they do - with the 5730 held in landscape mode, with the d-pad on the left, the gaming keys are perfectly placed for traditional gaming, e.g. Fire/Jump/Strike.

The main qwerty keys are ever so slightly textured, giving good grip when needed.

The main display is the same as that on the E75 - limited to 2.4" diagonal by the form factor and the need to fit in a numeric keypad on the front of the phone. Visibility is good though, with the transflective backing making it easy to read even in direct sunlight. The resolution's the 2007/2008 standard QVGA and, while this looks a little small compared to some of the smartphones being released, it's fine for a 2.4" screen and it'll be fine for the target market here.

On the 5730's left are flush-covered ports for microUSB (for connection to a desktop, for filling with music, principally) and microSD, an improvement on the weird covers on the E75, which stick out awkwardly. Also good to see is the inclusion of a 8GB card to get new users started. Indeed, for many casual users, 8GB may be enough for all their needs. On the downside, extracting the microSD is quite tricky, harder than on the E75 because of the extra 1mm width of the plastic casing - the card is just that little bit further inside the hatch and is hard to grab hold of.

On the 5730's top is a 4-way (i.e. smartphone) 3.5mm audio jack. Supplied in the box are a great set of stereo, in-ear (complete with spare rubber seals) headphones with hands-free microphone pod a third of the way down the main cable. Perfect. Sound quality is very good through these headphones (though E75 owners should note that this device sounds identical through the same headset, more evidence that the internal electronics are the same.)

On the device's right are a volume up/down rocker (which also works in Photos, to zoom in and out) and a functional two-stage camera shutter button.

As with the E75, there's the (fairly unique) option to charge in two completely different ways. Either via the supplied 2mm mains charger, or via microUSB, from either a data cable or (indeed) a microUSB mains charger. You can even plug in both at the same time, though the 5730 doesn't actually charge twice as fast! It's good to have this dual charger compatibility and a very flexible arrangement.

Bringing up the rear - oh dear

Turning the 5730 XpressMusic over brings several more points of note, most of them bad. Most obvious is the one piece plastic back of the phone, which hooks into the right side of the device and then clicks into place in 'landscape' fashion - don't worry if that sounds tricky, as Nokia helpfully attach a sticker to every new phone, with a diagram! On the plus side, the matt plastic is immune to greasy fingerprints and it's also very light. On the minus side, presumably in order to keep enough tension in it to keep the cover in place, Nokia has bowed it slightly, meaning that the 5730 is at least 1mm thicker than it needs to be - in fact, there's enough space inside the bowed cover that the battery physically rattles if you shake the phone. I've stuck a folded Post-It note in there to pad out the battery a bit.

Also reeking of 'designed this on a Friday afternoon' is the way the 5730's loudspeaker is muffled by the cover. The device's speaker has a pretty good raw frequency response, as can be heard in the E75, which positions a nice little metal grille over the right spot, with plenty of tinkly cymbals in music and crisp voice overtones in podcasts. The 5730 XpressMusic's solid plastic back cover has no such openings, other than a little sound leakage through the extreme top right corner, completely ruining the frequency output from the speaker. There's a simple fix, of course, more DIY(!), and (risking Rafe's wrath) I'm going to be taking my drill and making my own 'grille' of holes - watch this space for photo proof 8-)

Last, but by no means least, on the Nokia 5730 XpressMusic's rear is the camera, identical in specification to that of the E75 and more than its equal in terms of quality. Which is saying something, since the E75 has just about the best 3 megapixel camera I've ever seen in a phone. The 5730 adds a Carl Zeiss-branded lens, bringing slightly sharper detail and slightly better colours. The difference is marginal, to be honest, but it can be seen. There'll be more on the 5730 XpressMusic's camera in part 2 of my review, but in the meantime, have a look at these blow-ups of the same sunny scene: the E75's photo is on the left, the 5730's on the right. Note how the red play equipment is redder, the green leaves are greener and the blue sky is bluer. The railings are also slightly sharper, if you look closely enough.

Although not quite capable of semi-pro photos and dubious for printed blowups of more than 7" x 5", 3 megapixels, combined with this lens and sensor, is certainly enough for good casual photography. As you might expect, the unit struggles in low light, but even here it performs a lot better than, for example, the camera in the Nokia 5800 (and sister devices) and miles better than the mountain of 3mp camera phones from many other manufacturers.

Wireless matters

The number of aerials in each phone that comes out these days just goes up and up. In the 5730 XpressMusic we have GPS (complete with an integrated magnetometer - i.e. a digital compass), an FM radio, Wi-Fi (b and g variants), quad-band GSM and tri-band 3G. Some people have reported network reception problems in the E75, but I've seen none in either that device nor this one - signal strength has been excellent.

I also had no problems with GPS lock, when taking Nokia Maps 2 out for a spin. Yes, version 2, a little disappointing, although plugging the 5730 into Nokia Maps Updater on a PC upgraded things to Ovi Maps 3.1 and brought me bang up to date for free. I'm guessing that an official Ovi Maps 3 update will slip into an upcoming firmware.

Sadly there's no FM Transmitter, something which I'd been starting to take for granted in recent S60 smartphone launches. Still, at the current £250 and at the predicted £200 price point, it's fair to say that something had to be left out. Having GPS and Wi-Fi and Carl Zeiss optics in the camera are already most welcome!