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Nokia 5250 gets official: €115 for a 2.8-inch touchscreen with 16:9 display ratio (updated)
Nokia is being coy this morning by revealing a trio of pictures of what it only describes as its "new device." Of course, being a devoted Engadget reader, you'll instantly recognize the visage above as that of the Nokia 5250 -- the already leaked successor to the 5230 ( aka the Nuron). Specs are promised for later today, so contain your excitement until a more civilized hour. For now, you'll find one more pic -- of the bodacious, camera-adorned back -- after the break. [Thanks, Adam B.] Update: That wasn't a long wait. Nokia Conversations has the scoop on the 5250, including confirmation of the name. The real headline here is the eminently frugal price of €115 ($146) before taxes and subsidies. For that handful of change, you'll get your old favorite S60 5th OS with a mobile version of Guitar Hero 5 pre-installed, along with an FM radio and a media player slap bang in the middle of your 2.8-inch homescreen, all to underline this new phone's musical inclinations. The touchscreen panel fits 640 x 360 pixels (16:9 display ratio), and battery life is rated for 18 days of standby, seven hours of talktime, or 24 hours of music playback. Not bad at all. Shipping in Q4 [Thanks, Keith!].
Nokia N8 benchmarked against N97, makes it look old and busted
Nokia's new hotness, the N8, is starting our week off in fine style. Finest Fones, what looks to be a Symbian-only mobile news site, is reporting its own tests done with the handset that show it comfortably outpacing its predecessor. Of course, in these fog of war-obscured times (before proper hardware is dished out), we can't really be sure of the veracity of what we read, but Symbian^3's newfound ability to exploit graphics hardware seems to be paying off relative to the more primordial ways of the S60 5th software on the N97. The intrepid investigators found a 180 percent performance delta between the two phones in Speedy Go! tests, while the N8 ran through a cycle of FPC bench 3D with perfect 60fps scores each and every time. We won't be convinced by the purported 680MHz CPU inside till we test it out for ourselves with a load of widget-heavy homescreens, but early signs seem to be encouraging.
Samsung i8910 HD runs 62 apps at once, multitaskers bow their heads
While iPhone 3G owners and would-be Windows Phone 7 buyers sit in the corner, quietly weeping over their lack of true multitasking, webOS and Symbian continue to point and laugh. In mid-January, a Palm Pre Plus was seen cackling with joy over its rivals' misfortune even as the device staggered under the weight of 50 simultaneous applications, and less than a week later, a Samsung Omnia HD performed the very same feat, despite having only half the Pre Plus' RAM (i.e. 256MB) to work with. Now, in what we can only interpret as a large middle finger and "come here" gesture to all who aspire to the cell phone multitasking heavyweight title, we have a video of the i8910 running no less than sixty-two applications thanks to a custom ROM by HyperX. Watch in stunned silence as a finger scrolls through them, right after the break.
Sony Ericsson Vivaz review
Sony Ericsson's no stranger to phones with decent cameras, and the Vivaz with European 3G frequencies aims to be one of them; after all these months we've finally got hold of this S60 device, which is the first phone capable of continuous autofocus on 720p video recording courtesy of its speedy 720MHz Cortex A8 and PowerVR GPU. Compared to its predecessor, the Vivaz bears a similar button layout and GUI to the Satio's, but lacks a front-facing camera, Fast Port (replaced by a micro-USB port and 3.5mm headphone jack), and a slide cover for the camera. The resistive touchscreen (sigh, more on that later) has been downsized from 3.5 inches to 3.2 inches but retains a similar resolution (640 x 360), while the camera sensor is also scaled down from 12.1 megapixels to a more sensible 8.1, possibly for the sake of picture quality and component cost. But enough with the comparison -- let's get cracking with the review.%Gallery-88325%
Nokia adds Skype to Ovi Store, foreshadows death of regular phone calls
Skype for Symbian. A freely downloadable application that allows you to converse with your Skype-equipped friends over a WiFi or 3G connection. Seriously, why would you ever make another cellular call again? Nokia's just announced the addition of the online communications client to its Ovi Store, meaning that now more than 200 million users worldwide have access to essentially free calls over their beloved Symbian S60 5th handsets. You knew there was a reason to stay loyal to that stale user experience and here it is. There's not much else to say here, we're off to sell whatever stock we have in mobile network operators while you should click the source links for the full list of compatible handsets. High fives all around.
