A second video of Nokia’s “Sea Ray” Windows Phone has been leaked online. We first saw the Sea Ray during a company presentation by Nokia CEO Stephen Elop. In that video, Elop described the “pillow shaped” backing of the “top secret” device and discussed its Gorilla Glass display. The new video leak gives us a full 360-degree tour of the Sea Ray and we’re definitely impressed with what we see so far. The phone has a thin form factor, a large display, and metal accents on the volume controls and around the phone’s camera. If you look close enough it looks like there’s the typical Carl Zeiss branding around the camera lens, too. The videographer even powers on the Sea Ray and gives us a quick tour of Windows Phone Mango running on the device. Hit the jump for the video.

Read

Nokia took the wraps off its first MeeGo-based smartphone early Tuesday morning in Singapore. The Nokia N9 features gorgeous, elegant hardware and software that Nokia has already announced it will dump in favor of Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform. The decision to move forward with the N9′s release is an interesting one, though we have a feeling this sleek smartphone will see limited distribution once it finally reaches market. Pricing and availability are still a mystery, but the N9 features MeeGo 1.2, a 3.9-inch OLED display, an 8-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, NFC support and either 16GB or 64GB of internal storage. The phone is beautiful and the software looks intuitive and modern, but it’s not easy to get behind a phone running an OS that Nokia deemed not suitable for its devices moving forward. Nokia’s full press release and a video can be found below.

The Nokia N9: a unique all-screen smartphone

Published June 21, 2011

Singapore – Nokia today announced the Nokia N9, built for people who appreciate a stunning blend of design and the latest smartphone technology.  To learn more about the design of the Nokia N9 visit: http://swipe.nokia.com

One swipe and you’re home
The Nokia N9 introduces an innovative new design where the home key is replaced by a simple gesture: a swipe. Whenever you’re in an application, swiping from the edge of the display takes you home.

The three home views of the user interface are designed to give fast access to the most important things people do with a phone: using apps, staying up to date with notifications and social networks, and switching between activities.

The industrial design of the Nokia N9 is an example of extreme product making and craft. The body is precision-machined from a single piece of polycarbonate and flows seamlessly into beautiful curved glass. The laminated deep black display means that the user interface just floats on the surface of the product.

The Nokia N9 also packs the latest in camera, navigation and audio technology for a great all-round experience.

“With the Nokia N9, we wanted to design a better way to use a phone. To do this we innovated in the design of the hardware and software together. We reinvented the home key with a simple gesture: a swipe from the edge of the screen. The experience sets a new bar for how natural technology can feel,” said Marko Ahtisaari, Nokia’s head of Design. “And this is just the beginning. The details that make the Nokia N9 unique – the industrial design, the all-screen user experience, and the expressive Qt framework for developers – will evolve in future Nokia products.”

Innovative all-screen design
With no need for a home key, the all-screen Nokia N9 makes more room for apps to shine. The 3.9-inch AMOLED screen is made from scratch-resistant curved glass. The polycarbonate body enables superior antenna performance. This means better reception, better voice quality and fewer dropped calls.

Camera, maps and multimedia
The 8-megapixel Carl Zeiss autofocus sensor, wide-angle lens, HD-quality video capture and large lens aperture enable great camera performance even in lowlighting conditions. This makes the Nokia N9 one of the best camera-phones ever produced.

The Nokia N9 features free turn-by-turn drive and walk navigation with voice guidance in Maps. With the new dedicated Drive app, you can get in your car and start navigating to your destination right away.

You can watch videos in true 16:9 widescreen format. And because the Nokia N9 is also the world’s first smartphone with Dolby® Digital Plus decoding and Dolby Headphone post-processing technology, you get a surround sound experience with any set of headphones.

Touch just got better
Fitted with the latest in wireless technology, Near Field Communication (NFC), the Nokia N9 allows you to easily share images and videos between devices by touching them together.  Pair it with Bluetooth accessories like the new NFC-enabled Nokia Play 360° wireless music speaker only once, and you get a great surround sound music experience with just a tap.

Colors and Memory
The Nokia N9 will be available in three colors – black, cyan, and magenta with storage options to accommodate plenty of content: 16GB and 64GB. The Nokia N9 is scheduled to be in stores later this year, with availability and local pricing to be announced closer to the sales start.

More information about the Nokia N9 can be found at: http://swipe.nokia.com.

Nokia’s N9 handset has made a brief cameo via a one-minute, official-looking video clip. What do we learn from said video? Not a heck of a lot. What we do see is a 12-megapixel camera complete with Carl Zeiss optics flash before our eyes, and the iconography seen suggests that the device will be a Symbian offering complete with the Anna software update. The rumor mill states the N9 will be a pentaband GSM handset that could make an appearance stateside, although… since Nokia is going all-in with Windows Phone, we’re not sure what the fate of this handset is. The video is after the break. Have a look for yourself.

Read

Here it is ladies and gentlemen, Nokia’s latest and greatest Symbian handset, the N8. The N8 got a bit of a late start in life, with production and shipping delays a plenty, but the handset is now starting to propagate itself the world over. Available in five different colors, the full-touchscreen device — which is powered by the Symbian^3 operating system — is a sleek, compact handset that packs plenty of hardware features. Capacitive AMOLED display? Check. 12-megapixel camera? Check. HDMI interface? Check. Now the only question becomes: how does this hardware synergize with the device’s software and, ultimately, your work flow? Hit the jump to read our full review.

Specifications

There really isn’t a single negative thing to say about the Nokia N8’s hardware. Seriously. The device packs the aforementioned  3.5-inch AMOLED capacitive touchscreen display with a 16:9 (640 x 360 pixels) aspect ratio and supports up to 16.7 million colors (or colours if you’re buying the European version). The handset has a penta-band UMTS radio supporting 850, 900, 1700, 1900, and 2100 MHz frequencies as well as a quad-band GSM radio supporting 850, 900, 1800, and 1900 MHz frequencies. Bottom line: in whatever corner of the globe you happen to find yourself, this phone will, in all likelihood, be picking up some sort of radio signal.

Other notable specs: Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, FM Radio receiver, FM Transmitter, Micro-USB port, Nokia 2mm charging connector, 256MB RAM, GPS, aGPS, HDMI-out port, 3.5mm audio video connector, front-facing QVGA camera (640 x 480), 16GB of built-in storage, microSD card slot with support for up to a 32GB card, and a 1200mAh battery.

The only lackluster vital on the N8 is the unit’s 680MHz ARM 11 processor; although, to be completely honest, this isn’t really an issue for the handset. The statistically-challenged processor ushers Symbian around with relative ease and, aside from a few isolated instances, we did not feel that the device was underpowered… in terms of the hardware, at least. 680MHz might not look impressive when compared to 1GHz on paper, but it suits the N8 just fine.

It seems like we’re forgetting something… oh, yes… the Finnish engineers who built this little fella also found room inside the chassis to stuff a 12-megapixel camera with a two-stage shutter, Xenon flash, and Carl Zeiss lens; the 12-megapixel shooter is capable of capturing video in sweet, sweet 720p HD at 25 fps. We’ll cover the camera more later, but here’s the teaser: it’s ridiculously good.

Hardware

The first thing you’re going to notice when you pick up the N8 is that it is light. Eerily light. As we said, the handset has a 1200mAh battery — which is on the smaller side for smartphones these days — and we’re assuming some weight was saved there. After you get over the weight you’ll immediately notice the sheer amount of things present on the outside of the phone. On the front of the device is a precariously placed “home” button, a small mic opening, a front-facing camera, and a proximity sensor (which is oddly visible). On the right of the device is the volume up-down rocker, a spring loaded screen-lock switch, and the dedicated two-stage camera button. On the left of the device — again from top to bottom — is a two-piece plastic flap that covers the microSD card and SIM slots, and just below that is a micro-USB charging port. The bottom of the device contains a centered, 2mm Nokia charging connector. The top of the device has a 3.5mm headphone jack, an HMDI-out port (which is covered by a plastic flap), and the power button. The rear of the N8 has a protrusion to house the 12-megapixel shooter, xenon flash, and Carl Zeiss lens; there is also a small hole at the bottom to attach one of those wrist-strap thingies (which we will never understand or support).

The front and rear housing of the N8 are constructed of metal and the rounded top and bottom sections of the device are constructed from plastic; the device’s radio antennas are located at both the top and bottom.

The device is available in five colors: silver white, dark gray (or grey), orange, blue, and green. If you are one of those people with a discerning eye, you’ll notice that the top and bottom portions of the phone (the rounded parts constructed of plastic) have a slightly different color than the main housing (made of metal). It doesn’t really bother us all that much (re: at all) and we’re glad to see Nokia didn’t go all white iPhone 4 and hold the handset back to perfect the paint.

Battery

The battery life on the N8 is what you’ve come to expect from Nokia — very good. By default, when you power-on the handset, the screen saver is set to display the time. This means that after that 3.5-inch AMOLED screen times out it doesn’t actually shut off; rather it goes dark and displays a nice analog or digital clock. The way the device is shipped you’ll be lucky to get 12 hours from the battery. If you go ahead and disable the screen saver, however, you can nearly triple that. Bottom line: buy a Timex and disable the screen saver.

As we alluded to: with two push email accounts set up on the device and the screen saver off we easily could get 36-hours of battery life out of the device. Obviously, your mileage will vary depending on usage.

Calling

As a long-time iPhone user, I know a thing or two about dropped calls. With all of the empirical knowledge I’ve accumulated over the years, I would go as far as to say I am an expert on dropped calls, especially when on AT&T’s network in the Boston area. Taking into account my past experiences — combined with the fact that I have little to no faith in AT&T’s network — I was shocked to find that I did not once drop a call while testing the N8 with my AT&T SIM. This little, Finnish, herring-loving handset was covalently bonded to Ma’ Bell’s network. It was, to say the least, very impressive. Call quality coming from the set is great — no buzzing or white noise in the background — and the speakerphone is both loud and clear. Say what you will about Nokia handsets, the folks from Finland know how to build a smartphone that earns the latter half of that name.

The handset is also capable of making video calls, a feature that is fairly useless in the U.S., but since Nokia was kind enough to build it in we thought it was worth a mention. You can use the front facing camera to make VoIP video calls using services like Fring in both the U.S. and abroad.

Camera/Video

The camera is by far our favorite part of this device. Is it as simple to use as the shooter on the iPhone or DROID X? No. Does it take amazing pictures? Yes.

From the home screen you can fully-depress the N8’s dedicated shutter button to activate the camera, and the camera UI gives you the pertinent information you need without being too crowded. You have “options”, an on-screen capture button, and the “exit” key along the bottom of the screen when holding the device horizontally; this might be a good time to mention that all the camera’s on screen menus stay in the landscape orientation even when you hold the phone vertically (portrait).

Along the top of the screen you are presented with the current shooting mode — your shooting options are automatic, manual, close-up, portrait, landscape, sport, night, and night portrait — along with how many images the device can store with the memory available, what resolution the camera is set to (the camera can shoot in 12, 9, 3, 1.3, or 0.3 megapixel modes), and a battery meter. The right side of the screen presents you with the option to switch to video-capture mode, flash settings (on, off, automatic, and red-eye reduction), and settings. The settings key, which is a picture of a little wrench, is used to select scene mode, face detect, self timer, color tone, white balance, exposure, ISO, contrast, sharpness and has a shortcut to the photo gallery.

The camera is set to shoot in 9-megapixel mode by default but if we know you, and we think we do, you’re going to go ahead and ratchet that resolution right on up to a full 12 megapixels. With the built-in 16GB of memory in the N8, you can store well over 6,000 12MP images (obviously this will depend on how much else you load onto your N8 in the way of music and programs).

To get the very best images out of your N8 you really do have to utilize the preset modes – again: automatic, manual, close-up, portrait, landscape, sport, night, and night portrait. Leaving the camera in automatic can result in grainy photos when inside or shooting close up, however adjusting the mode to portrait or macro respectively did yield clearly better results. As with most cell phone cameras, and point-and-shoot cameras for that matter, shooting outside is never really an issue due to the abundance of natural light.

When you flip the switch on the camera in order to capture 720p video, you are presented with a similar on-screen setup, though your options are much more toned down. Available video modes are automatic, low light, and night; you can also manually adjust the white balance and color-tone if you so choose. You can record in three video qualities as well: high, TV high quality, or sharing quality. High is a full 720p in the 16:9 aspect ratio, TV high is in the 4:3 aspect ratio, and sharing is setup with a limited time and bitrate for MMS. Both the high and TV high aspect ratios record in MP4 format and the sharing settings records in 3GP.

Software

All right, here is where things start to get a little dicey: Symbian^3. Don’t get us wrong, we like Symbian and we understand its function and utility in the marketplace. But when you bring a full-touchscreen device to the U.S., you’re instantly going to be matched up against the iPhones, EVOs, and Incredibles that already exist in the marketplace. And to be frank, those are fair comparisons to make. The N8 was not birthed into a market absent of other devices, and for that reason it can’t be treated as such. We’re not going to go as far as Gizmodo and declare the device “irrelevant before it launched,” but, to put it mildly, Symbian^3 is a huge disappointment.

Let’s start with some of the things Symbian does right. The device allows for multiple home screens (a la Android), utilizes functional widgets to display pertinent information, and makes accessing phone controls very easy. Just as in Android, swiping left and right on the home screen will take you to a second or third home screen; you can only have three. From there you can add up to six widgets to each screen. Unfortunately, the widgets can’t be resized to display more information and the default size only allows for two or three lines for information to display (e.g. the email widget can only display the first two messages in your inbox). In the upper right and left of the device’s screen are the battery meter and profile selector, respectively. Tapping on the device’s signal meter instantly gives you access to the device’s available connectivity options (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, FM, Video sharing, etc.), exact battery percentage, alarms and world time, and available WLAN networks. We’ve got a short video demo of this below. We like the quick access to some of the controls that you often have to go diving through the phone to get to.

The HDMI-out on the device (big props to Nokia for including the adapter with the phone) also works really well. When you hook up your N8 to your television via a HDMI cable you actually see the phone’s entire OS right on your screen. Home screen, emails, widgets, whatever… it’s all there. When you play a properly encoded video through the N8, the quality is ridiculously good. We did our viewing on a 42-inch 1080p LG set and the experience was awesome. You will not be disappointed.

Okay, now it’s time to take the gloves off. The real beef we have with the device is how utterly complicated it makes simple tasks. Let’s start out with an easy one: typing. There is no full-QWERTY soft-keyboard layout on the N8 when you hold the phone in portrait mode. Let me repeat that, no QWERTY in portrait. Your options are to use a T9 style predictive text keypad or the real old-school method of just hitting the number key as many times as you need to in order to get your desired result. When we began using the phone, T9 was like a fun trip down memory lane. After about 90 minutes, when we just wanted to get stuff done, it became a huge bottleneck. At 3.5 inches, the phone’s screen might be a bit small for an on-screen keyboard, but we would have at least liked the option to try it. We prefer to use our phones in portrait mode so flipping the phone 90-degrees every time we had some serious typing to do became a nuisance.

We’ve have never really appreciated the whole addressing system in Symbian. Open an email or text message, start typing someone’s name… nothing. You can either hit the “To:” button and be presented with your contacts; try to search and you’re presented with a keyboard that is, for whatever reason, in alphabetical order A-Z. After you finally get your contact in the “To:” line (you better hope you only need to send your message to one persons) you’re presented with the message body. Flip the phone horizontally for a full keyboard. It just seems like work and doesn’t flow.

The one thing the email application does seem to do right is attachments. There is a clearly visible button for it and the options of what you can attach are pretty much wide open… if you ever manage to finish typing your email.

Another huge annoyance is the limited selection of applications for the device. Want a decent — not good, just decent — Twitter client? You better be ready to fork out $10 for Gravity. The only applications we found moderately acceptable were WhatsApp, Google Maps, and Foursquare. Most of the device’s applications don’t utilize notifications in any way, you have to either turn on email notifications (for service like Twitter and Facebook) or just manically open the program to see if you have new data. This isn’t the most efficient way to use a smartphone.

After a week and a half with the device it finally hit us: the overall flow of the device is just very primitive. There isn’t anything really integrated or sexy about how Symbian gets things done. Can you get the device to do what you want? With enough time and effort, yes. Is it attractive when there are other options in the market place? No.

Summary

The N8 really does sadden us. I mean, come on… read that hardware stat sheet again. Slap Maemo or MeeGo on this puppy, call it a work-in-progress, promise frequent updates, and you might — repeat might — have a winner. As is, with Symbian^3 as its OS, the N8 is unacceptable when compared to other available handsets in the States.

We are fairly sure that outside the U.S. this device will be the best-selling Symbian set Nokia’s ever made. Those who are used to (or actually like) the ebb and flow of Symbian will see the device as a true high-end handset and a successor to their current phone. However, as we said before, we’re a U.S.-based blog and our reviews compare like devices, at like price points, that are available in the U.S. market. Taking all that into account, the N8, at $549, is a disappointment. It pains us to see Nokia spend time, money, and talent on a device that we can guarantee will have no appeal to U.S. consumers.

Click on over to our Nokia N8 Gallery!

Thanks to Eldar Murtazin we had our less-than-favorable first look at the Nokia N8 earlier this week and today Nokia has made the handset official. The N8 will be Nokia’s first Symbian^3 handset and will be the flagship for its new and improved Symbian OS. The Nokia N8 has a knock-out set of specs that include:

• 3.5 inch capacitive multi-touch touchscreen with gesture support
• Multiple homescreens with widget support
• 12 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and Xenon Flash
• HD recording and on-phone editing
• Facebook and Twitter integration via homescreen widgets
• HDMI support
• 16GB on board storage
• WebTV, Ovi Store
• Ovi maps with walk and drive navigation
• Symbian S^3
• Anodized aluminum casing

Folks looking to get their hands on the new hotness from Nokia will have to exercise patience as the N8 is not slated to launch until Q3 2010. When it finally hits the retail shelves later this year, the N8 will debut in select global markets with a price tag of €370 ($494 USD).

Read

As CTIA 2010 kicks off this morning, a Chinese blog has leaked images of what it alleges is to be Nokia’s first Symbian^3 offering. If genuine, this device is almost definitely what we know to be the N8-00, a phone we learned about just prior to MWC 2010. Specs are currently as fuzzy as the pics, but from what we’ve seen and read it looks like this device is made of a single piece of aluminum and features a high resolution (likely WVGA) capacitive display anywhere from 3.5″ to 4″ alongside a 12 megapixel camera with Xenon flash, HDMI-out and 3.5mm headphone jack. Now, we’re not totally sure what Nokia has planned for today, tomorrow and the next day, but we’ll be sure to keep our sure to keep our eyes peeled for this and other mysterious devices during our stay in Vegas.

[Via Engadget]

Read

A somewhat tame version of the X6 has been announced by Nokia today and will become available this quarter. The new 16GB X6 has half the memory capacity of the 32GB version, and it’s also missing the Comes With Music feature. If you think you can live with that, the 16GB X6 has an impressive battery life of 11.5 hours talk time and 18 days of standby, 4.5 hours of video playback and 35 hours of music playback. Of course, Nokia doesn’t cut any corners with cameras on its high-end devices, and this one features a 5 megapixel shooter with Carl Zeiss optics and a dual LED flash — pretty much par for the course on Nokia devices these days. The new X6 also has in-phone video editing capabilities and TV out support so you can watch your amateur cinematography on a big screen. No details on pricing, but we’d imagine it to be less than the full-fledged 32GB version.

Read

Where the heck was this thing during Nokia World? Some interesting images popped up in the Flickr stream of mobile video game and UI designer Marcelo Eduardo over the past few days. A few images of the just-announced Nokia N900… An iPod touch… An N97… Oh yeah, and a shot of an unannounced Nokia handset sporting a 12.1 megapixel camera. Now of course we cannot verify the authenticity of the shot but it’s only logical that Nokia, disputed king of the camera phone, is working on a higher resolution shooter to catch up to the likes of Sony Ericsson. Beyond the carbon fiber-look battery cover (classy) and the clear presence of “12.1 megapixel” on the back, we really have no details about this handset — which brings us to the one stand-out oddity here. Nokia’s higher-resolution camera phones are typically not overly subtle in conveying the presence of sweet optics.The N86 8MP for example, has “Carl Zeiss – Tessar 2.4-4.8/4.7 – Wide-Angle Lens – 8MP/AF” printed on the lens cover. Perhaps this is an early prototype without the finishing touches present, or perhaps Nokia is going a different route with this little guy. Or, you know, the pic might be fake.

UPDATE: Eduardo updated the title of his image to confirm that this is, in fact, a fake.

[Via CellPassion]

Read

News flash: Nokia managed to keep a pair of handsets a secret leading up to official announcements at Nokia World! Alongside the oft-talked about N97 Mini, two previously unknown music-centric devices, the X3 and X6, became official — but we’ll get to them in a moment. The N97 Mini, as we’re sure most of you know by now, can be summed up pretty quickly: Slightly smaller than the N97, tilting 3.2-inch resistive touchscreen display, sliding QWERTY keypad, 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens and dual-LED flash, Wi-Fi, aGPS, 8GB of internal memory with microSDHC and UMTS/HSPA connectivity. Not great, not bad, but we’re also not too sure exactly who would take it over the N97, which is already free on contract in many countries.

As we said before, the X6′s announcement came as a total surprise — one that is actually quite nice. It’s a full-touchscreen (capacitive) candy bar that can pump out tunes from its 32GB of internal memory for up to 35 hours. It runs S60 5th of course; shame it isn’t Maemo-powered. Beyond that you’re looking at a 5 megapixel camera with a Zeiss lens and a dual-LED flash and as far as connectivity goes, the X6 has that lovable trifecta of HSPA, Wi-Fi and aGPS. The X3 is the alphanumeric slidin’ baby cousin of X6 that runs on S40 and has a 2.2-inch QVGA display, 3.2 megapixel camera, 46MB of internal memory, FM tuner and quad-band EDGE. Both the X3 and X6 will ship in Q4 for 115€ ($163 USD) and 450€ ($640 USD). As for the N97 Mini, it will be released next month for 450€ ($640 USD). Hit the jump for videos of each of these three handsets and let us know what you think.

Read

Well look what finally decided to grace us with its pictorial presence: Nokia’s Rover aka N900 aka RX-51. With the T-Mobile version having just passed through the FCC, the Rover just made its first live appearance and we have to say that we really like what we see of the upcoming Maemo 5 smartphone with apart from the fact that the Z key is not offset — oh and yes, Nokia’s design team is still smoking space key crack. Just in case you don’t recall, it was way back in May when what appeared to be the entire specs for the Rover leaked out. It looks like May’s leak was pretty accurate as here’s what we have today:

• 3.5-inch resistive touchscreen
• 800 x 480 pixel resolution
• 32GB internal memory
• 5.0 MP Carl Zeiss camera with dual-LED flash, auto-focus and sliding cover
• MicroSDHC support
• FM transmitter
• Quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE, WCDMA 900/1700/2100, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth with A2DP
• GPS
• CPU: ARM cortex A8 @ 600mhz up to 1Ghz (similar to iPhone 3GS and palm pre)

Yes, we wants. Hit the jump for some more pics.

Thanks to everyone that sent this in!

Read

If you’re a Nokia fan who lives in Canada and just so happens to have $199.99 burning a hole in your pocket, it might interest you to know Rogers has released the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. Available nation-wide as of today, the 5800 XpressMusic is a multimedia-centric S60 5th Edition smartphone with specs that include a 3.2-inch 640×360 resistive touchscreen display, 3.2 megapixel camera with a Carl Zeiss lens, auto-focus and dual-LED flash, 3.6Mbps HSDPA connectivity, Wi-Fi and aGPS. An 8GB microSD card also comes in the box to help pique your interest, though after playing around with one ourselves we’re not exactly convinced many Canadians are going to be picking up this device considering how many other awesome options there are in the same price range.

Read

In what has to be one of the sloppiest undertakings we’ve seen in recent history, Nokia has officially announced the N86 8MP today at Mobile World Congress. First it was presumed to be a leak, then it was revealed to be a bungle and now Nokia has finally decided to show off its first 8 megapixel camera phone in Barcelona. In other words, a company that has openly complained about leaks on several occasions went to Singapore and publicly displayed an unannounced handset, allowing it to be handled and photographed by the public. While you try to wrap your head around that one, let’s move on to the specs…

Aside from the 8 megapixel shooter with a shutter speed of up to 1/1000 of a second, f-stop range of 2.4-4.8 and a wide-angle lens that Nokia absurdly states is equal to that of a wide-angle 35mm SLR, the N86 8MP runs S60 3rd Edition FP2 and features a 2.6″ AMOLED QVGA display, 8 GB of internal storage, Wi-Fi and aGPS with Nokia Maps 3.0 pre-installed. Thankfully, it will indeed be available for use in North America by way of our very own tri-band HSPA model though we can’t say for sure if it will launch around the same time as the Euro model. Battery life isn’t terrible with a rated talk-time of 3.9 hours 3G / 6.3 hours EDGE and standby falling in at 11.5 hours 3G / 13 hours EDGE. Last but not least we have the dimensions and the N86 8MP a big boy indeed, coming in at 103.4mm x 51.4mm x 16.5mm and 149g. All in all it’s a handset with a great camera, above average specs and horrible display resolution – Nseries up and down. Expect to see the N86 8MP begin shipping sometime in Q2 for €375 ($474 USD) and hit the jump for some pics and the obligatory press release.

Capture your life in more detail with the Nokia N86 8MP
February 17, 2009

Barcelona, Spain – When Nokia set out to make the best mobile imaging device, it combined wide-angle Carl Zeiss optics and an 8 megapixel sensor, resulting in performance comparable to a stand alone digital camera. The Nokia N86 8MP is designed to excel in both bright and low light conditions, and it’s optimized for both video and still imaging. Its high-speed connectivity ensures easy and convenient sharing. The Nokia N86 8MP is expected to begin shipping in the second quarter of 2009 with an estimated retail price of EUR 375, before taxes and subsidies.

“People demand mobile cameras that take excellent pictures in all light conditions,” says Juha-Pekka Sipponen, Director, Nokia Nseries. “That’s why the aperture of the Nokia N86 8MP is comparable to that of a high-quality, stand-alone digital camera. Whether it’s running with the bulls in Pamplona or capturing the panoramic beauty of a sunrise over Sydney, the Nokia N86 8MP will take brilliantly clear, wide-angle images that are instantly geotagged to be uploaded onto sites like Ovi Share or Flickr.”

Easy enough for a novice to use, the Nokia N86 8MP packs enough punch to impress an experienced photographer. This includes a wide-angle Carl Zeiss Tessar lens for panoramic pictures, shorter latencies and variable aperture for super sharp photos in challenging bright and low light conditions. The fast mechanical shutter ensures pictures with less motion blur while the dual LED camera flash is powerful enough for excellent photography and video capture.

“When it comes to taking the best digital photos, it’s the quality of the lens and the sensor that count, not just the quantity of pixels. The Nokia N86 8MP is the first mobile device with variable aperture, adding to the Carl Zeiss Tessar lens for excellent results. It has never been easier to capture special moments in such a great quality,” says Helmut Heier of Carl Zeiss.

Every detail of the metal-framed Nokia N86 8MP is thoughtfully designed with photography in mind, including 8 GB of internal memory for up to 4,000 images. Like any high-end digital camera, the memory can be increased with an exchangeable 16 GB microSD card. The device also offers a bright OLED screen with scratch resistant hardened glass, easy photo management, full sync capability with a PC and TV-out support for slide shows.

Shipping with the latest version of Nokia Maps and full Ovi integration, the Nokia N86 8MP gives a personal dimension to photos and videos. People can share their location with personal content like geotagged photos. The Nokia N86 8MP comes with a built-in compass, along with an integrated 3-months license for full voice and pedestrian navigation so that happy snappers don’t lose their way when capturing life through the camera lens.

Multimedia features – music, games, video
The Nokia N86 8MP, with its integrated kick stand, is ideal for watching videos and playing games. Each Nokia N86 8MP can play up to 25 hours of music on one charge which can be enjoyed with the Nokia Bluetooth Stereo Headset BH-214 also announced today. People can build a personal music collection from the millions of tracks and playlists available from the Nokia Music Store, where available.

Read

Sheesh – handset manufacturers really can’t get away with anything these days. The image above was originally posted on Nokia’s Nseries site as an example of a “pretty picture [taken] with a Nokia device.” The actual quality of the image is open to debate thanks to some pretty clear blurring around edges when viewed at fill size, but that’s hardly the story here. An inquisitive Nokia fan examined the EXIF data attached to the picture and has made some pretty interesting discoveries. First and foremost, the dimensions come in at 3264 × 2448 pixels — 8 megapixels. What’s more, the model field reads Undisclosed (Carl Zeiss). With MWC just around the corner, this could be a pretty good indication Nokia finally plans to debut its first 8 megapixel camera phone in an effort to catch up with the like of Samsung and others. Nokia has been the long-standing king when it comes to high end camera phone image quality, so to say our expectations are high is an understatement. Wow us, Nokia! Hit the jump for a screen shot of the EXIF data attached to the skater image and stay glued to your computer next week as MWC kicks off with what should be some pretty exciting announcements.

[Via The Nokia Blog]

Read

We mentioned it a few days ago and rumors were true, something big has come from the Finnish mobile manufacturer. Nokia has just announced in Barcelona, Spain during Nokia World ’08 that it will be launching the N97. This feature-packed phone is guaranteed to please Nokia fans and general phone geeks alike. Apparently, product managers are calling this the “Facebook Phone,” and while it is a little silly, the name doesn’t just come from nowhere. The device is geared toward social networking and multimedia but it doesn’t seem like the business user has been left out, either. Here are some specs to get your appetite going:

• 3.5″, 640 x 360 resistive touch screen (No! Why not capacitive?! Fail.)
• QWERTY keyboard
• Tri-band HSDPA 3G
• 802.11 b/g WiFi
• A-GPS and Stand-alone GPS for directions and geo-tagging
• 32GB Built-In Memory
• microSD expansion support for ADDITIONAL 16GB
• 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics
• Flash Lite 3.0 support and Flash Video in web browser
• Music player up to 36 hours playback time
• Share and Ovi services support

Holy cow, this phone is loaded! Is there anything else you can ask for? 30 frames-per-second video and tons of on-board storage! It has 3G, WiFi, a touch screen and a full QWERTY keyboard and a fully customizable home screen. We’re not going to call this an iPhone killer just yet, but Apple has some serious competition. The biggest feature for a lot of you will be Flash support and Flash video – bonus! This is going to be a killer phone for sure. The N97 will be released in the first half of 2009 and will go for €550, or approximately $695 – maybe. Hit the jump for more images and a video.

Read

Like Sony Ericsson’s Paris P5, bloggers managed to get their hands on a recently-cancelled Nokia handset and give it a quick once over. Unlike the Paris however, this is likely one that won’t be missed by many. Mobile-Review dropped a handful of images in a recent post of a peculiar purple handset that looks like it took several design cues from both Nokia’s Vertu and Prism lines. The result, a less than stunning angular device that Nokia may have been wise to move to the chopping block prior to production. While many mobile users enjoy a device that separates them from the pack a bit, Nokia’s Prisim handset has not been overly successful as many simply can’t stomach the look of it. This mystery device, as you can see above, likely would have suffered a similar fate. Very little is known about the handset but we can assume its functionality would have been on par with many of Nokia’s more capable devices thanks to the presence of a 5 megapixel Carl Zeiss shooter which can be seen on the back. We can also assume it would have fallen into Nokia’s numbered device range as it lacks any semblance of an Nseries. The rest may remain a mystery forever but Nokia has plenty in store for us in the coming year so we won’t exactly be shedding any tears. What do you guys think – would this purple people eater have been on your handset purchase list?

Read