This new mobile phone from Nokia is an upmarket and compact smartphone, which is set to replace the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. The Nokia X6 features the new capacitative touchscreen and comes equipped with 32GB memory, plus the impressive 5-megapixel, Carl Zeiss opic camera, video calling, HSPDA and a 3.5mm jack point.
The X-series has redesigned the casing and essentially based it around the 5800 but increased the specifications tremendously. This phone is slightly slimmer but crammed with technology giving it a comforting solid weight. The 3.2 inch screen is very responsive and has good high resolution. It is not the biggest format but sufficient for the virtual keyboard or keypad set up.
Coming from the XpressMusic series, you would imagine the sound system is good and it lives up to its billing. It includes a good quality music player supporting most common formats, FM radio and the dedicated audio chip pumps out a high quality sound.
The camera is also as impressive as you would expect of a top of the range phone. It features LED flash, auto focus and functions very well as a stills camera, or 30 frames per second video camera.
Systems and apps include GPS, which works really well with the new Ovi Maps, good connectivity, fast data transfer, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or USB connections and good quality web browsing.
The Nokia X6 comes out on top across the board in various mobile phone reviews, but this all comes at a price and the X6 is not a cheap mobile phone, but is a high quality and versatile one.
The Nokia N95 has been lauded in mobile phone reviews as a great smartphone, so can the new Nokia N95 8GB build on that? More than that, is it a major revamp of a classic or just an upgrade?
It’s a bit of both, really. The biggest difference is the increase in memory, now with 8GB on board, although sadly there’s no card slot to let a user to add to that, which seems like a major omission in today’s market, where features demand a lot of memory.
What else is new? The battery is much better. The original N95 wasn’t too good on battery life, but this is greatly improved, allowing users to take full extended advantage of all the smartphone capabilities.
About the only other difference is a slightly larger screen. That’s an advantage for both pictures and video, although it’s really just a case of keeping up with the competition. So it’s really more a case of tweaking the phone than making any radical alternations – and given the success of the N95, perhaps that’s all that’s really necessary.
Those who love the old N95 and are looking to replace it will be very pleased by the Nokia N95 8GB. Others, however, might not be as easily convinced. It’s a good phone, and does everything well, but it’s been outdistanced by offerings from other handset manufacturers. With just a little more work, especially offering a card slot for more memory, it could have been a really outstanding offering from Nokia.
Given all the features that come with the latest mobile phones, it’s sometimes easy to forget what the devices are really supposed to be – and that’s mobile phones people can use for calling, texting, and sending pictures. We give full marks to Nokia then for remembering that some people just want the basics, which is what they’ve provided with the Nokia 6300.
The entire approach is back-to-basics, but done with style. The candy bar design is easy on the hand, and about as old school as anyone can imagine these days. Quite conventionally, the keys are below the screen, responsive and easy to use, while the display on the screen is sharp, and navigates quite intuitively (to be fair, there’s not a great deal to navigate). However, in a nod to today, users can customise the phone a little, adding both ringtones and wallpapers.
With just a two megapixel camera built in, and no flash, it’s definitely not a phone for camera enthusiasts, but in many ways that’s the point. This handset is for being in contact with people; anyone wanting all the modern extras will need something more upscale and expensive.
That simplicity is what has won over critics in mobile phone reviews, and made the Nokia 6300 a big seller. For all those who want to constantly upgrade, there are also many who just want a phone to be a phone, and keep their lives uncomplicated. They want something good and reliable, and the Nokia 6300 fills that bill perfectly – and at a reasonable price.
There’s been a lot of anticipation about the N96. After all, the N95 was such a great handset, a gem among Nokia mobile phones, that following it was always going to be tough. Could Nokia top that?
The answer is, not by much. In fact, in some mobile phone reviews the N96 has been seen as not quite as well designed as its predecessor and certainly not the radical overhaul a new model designation might warrant. Those who own an N95 would be unlikely to want to go for it, simply because it doesn’t offer that much more.
So what is new on the Nokia N96? The big thing here is memory, and lots of it. There’s 16GB of memory on board, and a card slot that lets users add up to 32GB more – a massive amount for a mobile phone. That makes it great for video and music, aided and abetted by the 3.5mm headphone jack that’s on this model.
The screen is very crisp and clear, with video a standout, and for users wanting to catch up on television viewing, there’s a client for BBC iPlayer, allowing streaming or downloading of programmes. There’s even a stand that lets the phone rest at an angle on the table for ease of viewing.
Beyond that, it’s essentially the same as the Nokia N95, with Wi-Fi, GPS, 3.5G and a camera that weighs in at a very decent five megapixels. But unless an N95 owner really needs lots more memory, it’s not worth the switch.
