Not on Vodafone? No 6730 For You!

The 6730 is Vodafone-exclusive.

…but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Nokia announced the Vodafone-exclusive candy bar device today, and by the looks of it, you probably won’t be missing much. The 6730 is a pretty basic Series 60 phone with only a couple noteworthy features: namely, S60, A-GPS and 10 hours of battery life (GSM). It also looks like a 6030.

The other features are strictly minimal. 3.2 megapixel camera (the new standard, I guess), Bluetooth 2.0 (no A2DP), microSD card support (up to 8GB supported, 1GB card included), “enhanced email”, 2.5mm audio jack. Not impressed.

Preview: Nokia Surge Phone [Ouch]

Ouch.

The combination of Nokia and AT&T hasn’t exactly produced fruitful results – look at the N75 and E62, for example.

And just when you thought that things were starting to look up with the release of the Nokia E71x, a phone that’s not *that* crippled compared to its high-powered cousins, here comes the Surge.

I look at this phone and I see a whole lot of ouch. It’s not too hard to see why.

The Surge, at first glance, looks like your typical slider, albeit a little squattier than most. That’s correct, except the slide houses a QWERTY keyboard, and not a dedicated number keypad. There’s no touch-screen either. Ouch.

I’m not too sure how this works. You open the phone to make a call, then talk with the slide open, or you close it again and continue talking as if nothing’s changed. Either way, it’s bad design or bad usability. It also makes no sense. Why not just throw in the touch-screen and release the phone as a cheap N97 wannabe?

I’m also not feeling the bottom portion of the phone, or more specifically the “jutting-out” section. It doesn’t look right, mainly because you’ve got three buttons sticking out like a sore thumb, giving the phone that dwarvish, stout look.

Marketed as a cheap messaging phone, the Surge doesn’t provide a whole lot more than that. There is US 3G, A2DP, and your typical AT&T-branded preloaded junk. But Nokia opted to put in the 2.5mm audio jack instead of the more standard 3.5mm. Hey, who’re you marketing these phones to anyway, Nokia?

The Surge does have two things going for it: price, and the fact that it runs Symbian 3.2. It’s good to see that Nokia is ever-so-slowly bringing out more smartphones to the US market. And at $129.99 (2-year agreement required, you can also get a $50 Visa rebate with a $30+ data plan) it definitely won’t be breaking any banks.

I was going to write about the nice, fat 1500 mAh battery, and the resulting extra-long talk time, but it appears that the battery only provides a talk time of 4.7 hours. Man, being fat sure ain’t easy.

Nokia’s Booklet 3G: Possibly a New Standard for Netbooks

Nokia's first netbook: Nokia Booklet 3G

Well, the rumors were true: a Nokia netbook is coming. Called the Booklet 3G, it’s a super-sleek, super-thin Atom-powered portable PC. Even though it’s almost 2 years late to the game (typical Nokia modus operandi), I have to admit – I’m intrigued.

What I find to be so interesting about this device, versus past Nokia products – is that it feels like Nokia’s finally bringing something substantial to the table. Starting from the top, the Booklet 3G will be running Windows, and not some strange Symbian Netbook Edition. It’s small and light (1.25 kg/2.75 lbs, 10-inch screen), and quite portable, but not necessary cheap: the display is glass, and the device is encased in aluminum.

There’s a wealth of connectivity options abound, too, with support for 3G/HSPA, WLAN/wi-fi, Bluetooth, and HDMI. And a front-facing camera, A-GPS, and up to 12 hours of battery life.

My only concern about the Nokia Booklet 3G is the as-of-yet unspecified pricing (to be revealed on Sept. 2 at Nokia World). The specs look good, the netbook looks good, but I’m still holding my breath: I have a bad feeling that Nokia will price this thing out of the water, leaving it out of reach for most people. My gut is telling me that it’ll be in the $900-1000 range, but I really hope I’m wrong. Update: Pricing is 575 Euros, or $836 is today’s US dollars. Not too far off.

The Nokia N97 vs. N97 Mini vs. N900 Comparison Table

A comparison of the N97, N97 Mini, and the N900.

Considering buying an N900? How about an N97 mini? Yeah, Nokia’s bringing two more touch-screen devices to the table, both suspiciously similar to the original N97 on the surface. But what about underneath?

Let’s see how they stack up. (”winning” features in green)

	Nokia N97	Nokia N97 Mini	Nokia N900
Operating System	S60 5th Edition	S60 5th Edition	Maemo 5
Processor	ARM 11 434mhz	ARM 11 434mhz	ARM Cortex-A8 600mhz
Memory	32GB onboard, 16GB microSD expandable, 128MB RAM	8GB onboard, 16GB microSD expandable, 128MB RAM	32GB onboard, 16GB microSD expandable, 256MB RAM, 768MB virtual memory
Talk Time	6.66 hours GSM, 5.33 hours WCDMA	7.2 hours GSM, 4 hours WCDMA	9 hours GSM, 5 hours WCDMA
Battery	BP-4L, 1500 mAh	BL-4D, 1200 mAh	BL-5J, 1320 mAh
Dimensions	117.2 x 55.3 x 15.9 mm, 150 g	113.0 x 52.5 x 14.2 mm, 138 g	110.9 x 59.8 x 18.0 mm, 181 g
Screen Size	3.5″ widescreen TFT resistive touch-screen, 640×360 pixels	3.2″ widescreen TFT resistive touch-screen, 640×360 pixels	3.5″ widescreen resistive touch-screen, 800×480 pixels
Bands	GSM 850/900/1800/1900, WCDMA 900/1900/2100 or 850/1900/2100	GSM 850/900/1800/1900, WCDMA 900/1900/2100	GSM 850/900/1800/1900, WCDMA 900/1700/2100
Camera	5 megapixel, Carl Zeiss, 30 VGA fps video, dual LED flash	5 megapixel, Carl Zeiss, 30 VGA fps video, dual LED flash	5 megapixel, Carl Zeiss, WVGA 25 fps video, dual LED flash
Bluetooth	2.0, with EDR and A2DP	2.0, with EDR and A2DP	2.1, A2DP
Price	550 Euro, $750 USD	450 Euro, ~$656 USD	500 Euro, ~$729 USD
Release Date	Released Q2 2009	Q4 2009	Q4 2009
X-Factor	The original that started it all.	Smaller, lighter, and cheaper N97.	Runs Maemo and has a Mozilla browser. And a fast processor.
Biggest Weakness	Buggy; subpar interface	Still runs S60 Fifth Edition	No WCDMA 850mhz band, aka no 3G on AT&T

So what’s the bottom line? Is it that the N900 is just a superior phone over the others? Yes and no. Yes, the N900 is the newest and technologically most advanced phone of the three, so yeah – for the most part it’s better overall. But that’s not the point.

The point is that, with these two new phones, you now have choices as to how you like your fairly high-end touch-screen Nokia phone. You can go budget (N97 Mini), go original S60 5th Edition (N97), or go for broke with Maemo (N900).

Personally, I’d love to pick up an N900 and see how Nokia’s improved the Maemo interface and geared the device towards regular users. S60 5th Edition has been a disappointment, and I’m starting to find myself looking in a new direction.

Two New Phones: Nokia X6 and X3 Hit the Scene

The Nokia X6 and X3: One's smart, one's not.

One smartphone and one dumbphone. That’s the ultimate breakdown of the X6 and X3, two new Nokia handsets coming in the fourth quarter of 2009. Both of them are, shall we say, sleek as hell.

The X3 isn’t so much impressive as it is impressive-looking. Compare this to the older Nokia 5610 and 5310 XpressMusic phones, and you’ll probably notice at first glance that Nokia’s S40 phone designs have come a long way since the XpressMusic days.

Under the hood, the X3 is a quad-band slider phone (no 3G, unfortunately) with a 3.2 megapixel camera. There’s integrated stereo speakers, hopefully on par with the 5800XM and not the N97, dedicated music keys, a 3.5mm connector, and Bluetooth 2.1 (A2DP and AVRCP profiles supported). You also get a lighted Navi-key.

Moving on, the X6 is the phone to watch out for. In a nutshell, it’s the next evolution of the 5800 XpressMusic. You get a full touch-screen running Symbian S60 Fifth Edition, 3G, 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and dual-LED flash, A-GPS, WLAN, and a 434 mhz processor. Internal memory matches the N97’s 32 gigabytes but leaves out the external card slots. No real love lost there. The screen size is the same as the 5800XM, at 3.2 inches (16:9 widescreen resolution). Battery has dropped a bit to up to 8 hours on GSM and 5 hours on 3G.

Like I mentioned before, both phones are slated for release in Q4 of this year. Pricing is what you’d expect: 450 euros for the X6, a mere 115 euros for the X3.