It seems the full crop of new mobiles phones at the MWC '09 is in. While The Symbian-Guru Guru was pretty excited and had big expectations
of the MWC `09, I on the other hand did not expect anything really
wowable. Merely more megapixels and more/bigger touchscreens. And sadly
I was mostly right.
Touchscreen developments
Yep,
almost every company came with more touchscreens. Only Nokia introduced
no new touchscreen devices, showing contentment with their 5800
ExpressMedia and the yet to be released N97. Note that I am not
counting the new Nokia navigator with a touchable area for zooming. An
interesting development is that Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.5 has become
more finger oriented, finally. And very promising Samsung used Symbian
S60 5th edition for their latest and greatest touchscreen: The Omnia
HD.
Samsung Omnia HD
The Omnia is a very
promising media phone. OLED screen, 8 MPixel photo's. Video upto
1280x720p@24 fps, even GPS and a compass. Specificationswise it
completely blows the competition out of the water and with S60 5th
edition being among the more pleasant touch interfaces. it should do
well. Sadly there is no Xenon flash, only a single led. However neither
the Nokia 5800 nor the N97 can match its hardware specifications. And
with all of them running S60 5th edition It seems Nokia's only
advantage over this Samsung will lie mostly in OVI's additional
internet services additional software and regular firmware
updates/improvements. Which BTW are not to be dismissed lightly. All in
all the Omnia HD looks very impressive.
Nokia N86
Though
SonyEricson presented a 'concept' of 12 MPixels, Nokia's N86 is
currently perhaps the most promising cameraphone announced. The
multi-aperture and a mechanical shutter will improve the image quality.
Expect enhanced image depth and sharper images. Compared to a N82 the
N86 lens setup has a similar amount of light per pixel while at the
same having 60% more pixels. In comparison The E71's lens collects 30% less
light per pixel and 36% less pixels.
The N86's lack
of a Xenon flash will no doubt annoy staunch photographers. However if
the LED's are of high quality they could still approach the
colorspectrum Xenon well enough, that flashed photo's don't look
off-color. Though the significant longer flash duration of LED's will
cause more motion blurring in your photo's. The latter is less
important, particular if as compensation the double LED's can be used
as a torch and for filming in the dark.
No phones for social bloggers
No real combinations of a quality media phone (photo and video)
with a decent mini-qwerty were expected by me. The announced E75 has a
qwerty but only 3.2 MPixels, with a single LED and no mention of a
Zeiss Tessar lens. No doubt it will fall in the same quality category
as the E71: Only nice for sunny holiday pics. However the E75's video
is specified at 640x480@30 fps compared to the E71's 22fps despit the
phone's smaller size. On the other hand the E75 design does not even
come close to the stylish curves of E71. The E75 looks flat and
squared. A shade of polished ugliness, particular in the colors red and
yellow.
Acer came with the M900.
It main
features are a 5 Mpixel camera, GPS, fingerprint scanner and QWERTY!
Making it the sole competitor for the Nokia N97. With Windows Mobile
6.5 as the OS choosen for the Acer M900, it will no doubt do well in
buisiness circles. Though wether WM6.5 will be really that more
userfriendly than WM6.0, I doubt it. I do hope the Acers'
photo's and video options will compare favorable to what we are used
from Nokia's N-series devices as the N97 is in need of decent
competition in that aspect. No doubt a qwerty version of Samsung's
Omnia HD would give the N97 stiff competition. Indeed I hope they do. For now the N97 seems the only phone suited for a social blogger's appetite.
Conclusion
Samsung's
Omnia HD was the most exciting annoucement, I guess. Though without
qwerty I doubt I'll go for it. As such my N82 has little fear of being replaced. The N86 would be a
nice upgrade to the N82, but the difference is simply not big enough.
Which in my eyes sums up the MWC '09. The N97 is still looking to be
the best choice in the near future. Though I'd prefere a slightly
smaller device. And yes, the E71 is still my most
wannahave-because-it-looks-so-very-cool-phone. Still the new E75 is a
better choice with the 3,5 mm audio connector and the larger keyboard
for big-thumbed geeks like me. I guess I have to be a little more
patient for my next dream phone.None seem as much a step forward as the N95 did.