We have often said here at MobilityNigeria that there is little functionality that the newer crop of smartphones offer that the older generation (up to about 3 years ago) don’t. In this interesting article, MobilityNigeria contributor, Brym, presents why the Sony Ericsson P1i, a Symbian smartphone released back in July 2007, is still very much his beloved.

After 27 months of usage the Sony Ericsson P1 is still my device of choice. This is obviously one device I have used the longest, beating the i-mate Jam by two months. So, why I am finding it difficult giving up the P1?

Four reasons:

1. Dimensions: For me, it still has the best dimensions and weight for a touch screen smartphone with qwerty keypad . At 124gm, it is about the lightest and most compact touch device out there.

2. Excellent multimedia/enterprise co-efficient: good camera, music and video playback on an equally effective business phone with strong PDA functions.

3. Mods: Ah, since I hacked it, I can’t do without the mods (Torch and Notes mods from SE G900, Walkman 3.0 from SE W960, clock, sound mods and more).

4. Gdesk: I am still crazy about this customizable UI application which enables me to use different UI designs for different days of the week. See screenshots:

So, how much longer do I intend to use the P1? Dunno, maybe until it totally packs up or when a truly revolutionary device is released.

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From the Freewarepocketpc.net site:

OpnMarket is compatible with most of the Windows Mobile Professional devices with touch-screens, once installed it lets you browse, download and install FREE applications directly on your device. OpnMarket will use you mobile network connection or a WiFi connection to download softwares to your phone. It’s simple, instant and FREE!

I downloaded it and working well on my i-mate 8502. OpnMarket is available for download from the Freewarepocketpc.net website.

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Glo is at it again! Now you can send and receive a video message for FREE.

Experience one of the advantages of 3G on Glo Video Mailbox. It is an experience you have been waiting for. Simply dial 151 as a video call to activate and 154 as a video call to send a video message.

Call 121 or 200 for any assistance.

It is essentially the same announcement made backin October, but will it fly this time?

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While waiting to speak to a Customer Care attendant, the hold voice prompter passed this info, amongst others:

“Dear customer, due to overwhelming migration of millions of subscribers to the Glo Big Dash package, many of whom engaged the network more than we anticipated, we are discontinuing this package for now. Not to worry, we will wow you with a new package very soon. Thank you for your patonage”

The Customer Care attendant I spoke to also confirmed this. That’s it, folks. It is over!

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Dear customer,

Very soon we are launching “Biiig Dash” on post paid so that you can enjoy unlimited Glo to Glo free calls on your existing post paid line. Happy talking.

Glo

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Glo is at it again… Now you can send and receive a video message for FREE. Experience one of the advantages of 3G on Glo VIDEO MAILBOX. It’s an experience you’ve been waiting for. Simply dial 151 to activate and 154 to send a video message. Call 121 for any assistance.

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To get Windows Mobile 6.5 when released, you have to buy a new WinMo device or upgrade if you have a compatible device released in 2009. But if you are desperate and impatient like me, you can get the various leaked WM6.5 ROMs floating in the WinMo community and flash them to your device.

One good reason for trying out WM6.5 ROM is the improved user interface which comes with finger friendly menus. Another reason is the new pocket internet explorer, referred to as IE6. It sports a revamped web browser built on the same code that runs the desktop version of Internet Explorer 6.

I flashed my HTC wizard with a ROM named “CR96 Touch HD”, a cooked job by Cracing of XDA Developers site.

Here are screen shots:

Lock Screen

Today Screen on WM 6.5

Start Menu Screen on WM6.5

Connections Screen on WM6.5

Internet Explorer homescreen on WM6.5

Internet Explorer menu on WM6.5

WM6.5 About Screen

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The big fear of hacking and installing (flashing) ROMs on your device is the possibility of bricking it and rendering it completely useless. In our climes, this fear is bigger because WinMo devices are very expensive and there are no WinMo service centres to fix a bricked device. In my case, I chose to use an old HTC Wizard running Windows Mobile 5 (which I got for free) as my guinea pig.

Following a series of steps carefully outlined on the XDA Developers site (the haven of WinMO ROM flashing), I was able to prepare my device for flashing ROMs by CID unlocking it.

What is CID? CID stands for Carrier ID and devices come with either a carrier or manufacturer’s ROM. To enable flashing of ROMs other than your carrier’s ROMs you have to CID unlock your device with a software.

Thereafter, you can flash your device with several compatible ROMs. There are so many of them to choose from. The beauty of these “cooked” ROMs is that several irrelevant customised programs are removed while better programs are inserted to optimise performance and user experience on your device.

I installed a WM6.1 ROM successfully but when I tried another WM6.1 ROM, I bricked my device. Did I panic? Yes, big time!

For 2 hours, I desperately looked for a cure on the XDA site and eventually got one that asked me to reflash my device with my default ROM since it was already unlocked. I did just that and I got my device working again.

One good advantage of flashing my old device with WM6 ROMs is that it is now possible to install WM6 applications like Facebook on it.

Below are some screenshots of my HTC Wizard powered by Hornet’s WM6.1 ROM.

Homescreen on Hornet ROM

Start Menu on the Hornet ROM

Facebook application running on Hornet

About Page on the Hornet ROM

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Full features:
- Brilliant 2.8 inch TFT display with 320×240 pixel resolution;
- Very compact form factor;
- Alloy casing;
- Fast 416MHz Intel XScale processor;
- WM 2003 phone edition OS;
- WAP/ Web browser;
- Email Client support;
- Standard mini-USB sync port;
- 1.3 megapixel camera;
- Bluetooth, Infrared, USB and GPRS connectivity
- SD/MMS memory slot with support for SDIOs;
- 57.4 MB usable RAM, 7.6 MB usable ROM.

Form Factor, display and Keys
Encased in smooth alloy with rounded corners to give it a sleek look
the I-mate Jam is a compact device that just feels good in your palm. This Pocket PC Phone has a brilliant QVGA resolution on a 2.8-inch screen. The 65k colours TFT display also features a touch screen for commands and data input.

Below the screen are four keys (buttons). These are the red and green phone buttons, a Contacts button, and a Calendar button. These four basic buttons are arranged around the square navigational pad and can reconfigured. The directional pad works quite well, and in the center you will find an Enter button.

The Jam has no keypad and so it uses a virtual input panel that includes several options: a keyboard, Phone Pad, transcriber, block and letter recognizer. A stylus is supplied to aid data input.

OS, Installed Applications and Memory
The I-mate JAM runs on Windows Mobile 2003. This platform includes the standard Windows Mobile applications and utility suite( Pocket Word, Pocket Excel, Pocket IE, Pocket messenger, Notes, Tasks, Appointments, Email client, etc) WM2003 supports portrait and landscape display orientations for most applications. This OS also supports compatible third-party applications including older WM 2002 third-party applications and Java midlets.

WM 2003 Pocket IE now supports screen rendering but still lacks multiple windows browsing and a function to save images on web pages. Other browsers like Opera for Windows Mobile, Netfront and Muilti IE can be installed to enhance your browsing experience.

Built-in e-mail client supports POP3 and IMAP4. Downloading of attachments is also possible. Configuration of settings is easy and simple. You can set your device to check for new mails as it suits you: at intervals of 2 minutes, 5 minutes or every hour.

Other programs like Notes, tasks, appointments are available. Tasks, Contacts, Emails and Appointments can be syncronised with Microsoft Outlook on your laptop or PC using ActiveSync program. This program also enables you to browse or explore the phones directories and folders from your PC. You can browse the net on your device if your PC is connected to a LAN by ActiveSync. Conversely, the Jam has an installed application called Wireless Modem that enables you browse the internet on your PC using the device as a modem.

With all these installed applications and third party options, multi-tasking with the Jam is enjoyable because of the fast and powerful 416 Mhz Intel Xscale processor. Though RAM is 57Mb, it is never a problem for running programs if you have installed your applications on a storage card.

The SD slot on the topside of the phone supports memory cards of up to 2GB and a wide variety of SDIO add-ons or peripherals.

Connectivity
Bluetooth, Infrared and USB connections are seamless with other devices. The device can synchronise with your PC through any of these connections. The standard mini-USB port serves as sync port and charge port. The device charges automatically when connected to a PC through this port.

Multimedia
On the back you will find the 1.3-megapixel camera for still and video recording. Windows Media 10 and Album applications handle most of the media playback functions like audio players for wav,mp3, midi and WMA files and video players for WMV, 3GP, MP4 and AVI files. The audio from the speaker is decent and clear, and stereo headphones are included for better listening experience.

Battery Life
The removable Li-on battery is of decent capacity (1200 mAh) for such a small device, and I found it lasting more than trice as long as my Toshiba 2032 does inspite of the Jam’s powerful 416Mhz processor. It takes 90 mins to fully charge the battery and this power can last for a whole day of reasonable multi-tasking.

Other features/programs
- Games – solitaire and Jaw breaker
- Calculator
- Calender
- Truefax
- Midlet Manager
- SIM Manager
- Backup

Conclusion
Though the phone could do with more RAM and integrated Wi-Fi, the I-mate JAM is an incredible device, and I resorted to staying with this compact form factor for a long time.

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1. 3G, Quad-band with support for EDGE
2. Symbian OS: v9.1 for S60 v3
3. 3 megapixel camera with comprehensive multimedia player
4. Slider form factor
5. Bluetooth, Infrared, USB, UPnP, & Wi-Fi connectivity
6. Nokia WAP/Web browser and Email client support
7. 40mb shared memory + 128mb card included

Introduction

I had this handset with me for just over 24 hours and I was very impressed with the features. The N80 is biased towards multimedia and connectivity, and really has no direct competitor now, only the specifications of the Sony Ericsson P990 come close. Time was not enough to try out and properly assess all the loaded features of this smartphone.

Form factor, Display, and Keypad

The Nokia N80 is a thick slider phone with a great 352 x 416 pixel TFT display. The display measuring 2.1” features 262k colours. Images on N80 display are crisper and sharper than the N90 I tested late last year. Under sunlight, the display is still brilliant.

Just below the screen are the control keys; the 5-way navigation pad, call keys, soft keys and menu keys. These keys are all on the upper part of the slider enabling access to most of the functions of the smartphone without the need to slide up to use the keypad.

The alpha-numeric keypad is located on the lower part of the slider and there is nothing special about it. Perhaps, this is the only plain thing on this phone.

Multimedia

The Nokia N80 multimedia features are awesome. Let’s start with the dual cameras. The front VGA camera is essentially for video calls and self portraits while the main 3 megapixel camera at the back is for capturing still shots and video clips. By default, objects are captured in landscape mode with the megapixel camera.

With rich features and settings that include a 20x digital zoom and a flash, the 3 megapixel camera captures high quality pictures in various resolutions; the highest resolution being 2048 X 1536 pixels.

Also brilliant video clips can be captured and saved in mp4 and 3gp formats. Supported resolutions for video clips include 352×288 and 176×144. The length of the video clips is limited by available memory on phone.

As with previous smartphones, the Nokia N80 employs Real Player to playback video files in mp4, 3gp, and Realvideo formats. It may sound funny but the Real Player didn’t play some mp4 and 3gp files I transferred to the phone

The Audio Player handles mp3, AAC and WMA file formats. An equalizer is available to enhance your audio experience. The quality of sound from the speaker is impressive, although listening through the stereo headphones is better. There is a proper playlist layout as seen on most stand-alone mp3 players.

The N80 also comes with the Nokia FM Visual Radio player. Up to 20 stations can be selected and stored. The added features of the FM player are not supported by local FM stations and require internet connection.

One good feature is that music or from the audio player/radio can be played in the background while you use the phone for other tasks.

Internet/ Email client

The N80 unlike other series 60 smartphones uses the new Nokia Mobile Browser V.3.0. It has a nice interface and accesses WAP and web sites. The screen rendering is excellent. It employs a pointer to move around the web page and select links. Previous pages in the browser cache, displayed as thumbnails, can be accessed on pressing the back softkey. I couldn’t test it for speed because my device was connected to a very slow network (Vmobile). I actually tried posting from the phone but it was bad evening for Vmobile Internet.

Configuring the phone for browsing using Vmobile full Internet settings was quite easy using the connection wizard.

POP3 and IMAP4 email clients are supported. Attachments to email can be fully downloaded. N80 also has an auto message retriever that searches for new mails at set intervals and announces new mails with a tone/note.

Operating System and Memory

The Nokia N80 is a series 60 version 3 phone and runs on Symbian v9.1 platform. Though I am not very familiar with Nokia OS, I was quite impressed with the new user interface and configurable short-cut icons on the Standby Screen. The fast response and friendly interface makes it very easy to browse through Menus, sub-menus, folders and files horizontally or vertically.

The OS supports Offline mode. This enables you to operate the device without the presence of a SIM card or without connection to a network.

So many applications, but the one that caught my fancy is the enhanced Log feature that monitors all communication events on the phone; calls, messages, data sessions, and more.

On board memory on the device I tested was approximately 43MB and this is shared by all applications for storage and running of programs. A 128MB miniSD card is included in the package, not a RS-MMC card or standard size MMC card as employed in prior phones. The card slot is at the side of the phone, making it possible for the device to support hot swapping.

Organizer and Office features

The phone has elaborate organizer applications for managing contacts, calendar, to-do tasks, dual clock and alarms. The Office applications include Notes, a comprehensive converter, calculator, voice recorder and Quick Office. The Quick office application opens files of Word and Excel for viewing only. Opened files cannot be edited.

The Nokia transfer application allows transfer and synchronization of contacts and organizer applications between compatible Nokia phones

Connectivity

Here N80 offers all connectivity:

Networks Connectivity:- 3G, Quad Band GSM, EDGE on GSM, Push-to Talk(where supported), and Wi-Fi(WLAN).

Devices Connectivity:- Bluetooth, Infrared, USB and Universal Plug n Play(UPnP).

I tested the Bluetooth and USB connections and they both connected well with my PC. The Wi-Fi discovered about four hotspots around my office at Ozumba Mbadiwe in V.I. The strengths of signals were weak so I couldn’t connect to the net or use it to retrieve emails.

On connection to your PC by USB cable, the phone’s memory card can be accessed and employed as a mass storage device. When connected, the phone goes offline offering three options to choose: PC Suite, USB Mass Storage, or PictureBridge printing. I couldn’t try the UPnP for lack of compatible device.

Battery Life

If you are into multimedia and crazy about connectivity, you’ll have to charge your phone twice daily because all the loaded features of this phone including the great display take their toll on the 860mAh Li-on battery that comes in the package. The battery can last a whole day for average users and more days for those who plan to use the phone for calls only.

Other features:

- VoIP
- Voice Dialing/Commands
- Nokia’s LifeBlog
- Flash Player
- Games
- Video Steaming
- Image and video editors

Conclusion

The shortcomings of this phone are:

- Bulky size (in an era of slim sliders)
- A slider that doesn’t lock into position ( opening battery cover becomes difficult)
- Low capacity battery

Despite these shortcomings, this is a great smartphone and so I agree with Nokia that it deserves a great introductory price. The least price for this phone in Lagos last week was N130, 000. Infact, one reseller offered it for N156, 000. The price is down to N120, 000 this week.

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