Nokia has done a lot of trailing as of late in the smartphone space.  While we doubt the Nokia N8 will change that predicament, it is an interesting phone with solid specs and a heaping of features.

Physically, the handset continues Nokia's tradition of producing great hardware with high quality construction.  We love the size - big enough for a spacious display but slim enough to be pocketable.  Display is a 3.5-inch AMOLED capacitive touchscreen (640 x 360 resolution), with excellent brightness and rich colors.

As a phone, the Nokia N8 makes for good calls, with clear sound and very little background noise.  Those on the other end reported similar audio quality.  Speakerphone was great - definitely better than the standard hardware you can find in other smartphones.  Battery is rated at 5.8 hours of talk time and actually lasted well over a day of regular use.

The device runs the all-new Symbian^3, which offers a definite improvement over the tedious UI of S60 5th Edition.  Suffice to say, this is the best user experience I've ever had with a Nokia phone, although it still trails in comparison with the more polished usability of both iOS and Android.

At a time when most high-end offerings come with a 1GHz processor, Nokia's decision to use a 680MHz ARM11 CPU is a bit disappointing.  As a result, the phone performed sluggishly on occasion.  A couple of times, in fact, we thought it was crashing, but was merely taking its time.

The N8 is a quad-band world phone with a whole host of calling features, a number of PIM tools and your typical messaging features.  One thing of note is that Symbian^3's phone book only pulls and syncs contacts from Exchange - you'll have to use other methods to get them from Gmail and Facebook.  Like other Nokia phones, messaging is a serious strength - it can work with Exchange, Lotus Notes, IMAP and POP3, along with HTML and folder support.   All connectivity protocols are well-represented, too, with five-band 3G, WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth.  The web browser has Flash Lite support.

Media player is great, with a Cover Flow-style interface and support for a wide range of formats.  The best feature here, though, is the 12-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and Xenon flash.  It offers a lot of editing options and takes some of the best photographs we've seen from any cellphone camera.

Overall, the Nokia N8 is a great reboot for Symbian.  While we doubt it's the smartphone that will change the cards for Nokia, it is an excellent effort with arguably the best phone camera available now.  Unlocked price is around $550.

Had enough of the usual racing titles on your iPhone?  Fumes Stunt Racer adds an extra element to the genre, putting your racing vehicle on a highly-acrobatic track.

Obviously, this game pays homage to the classic Stunt Car Racer (of the PC and Amiga fame), although the developer tries to veer away from the comparison.  After a few minutes of playing, we realized why: it really doesn't live up to the fond memories of the old cult favorite.

In Fumes Stunt Racer, you drive a suspension-heavy vehicle in a race against the clock.  The elevated tracks are filled with twists, turns, humps and jumps of all sorts, which you will attempt to clear through clever steering, braking and acceleration.  To its credit, all 15 tracks in the game are well-designed.  You can see that much thought has been poured onto each one to make the game as challenging as possible.

A game that heavily focuses on stunt driving will, naturally, rely on excellent physics.  That's the first big problem here, as the driving controls are just downright off.  Throughout the levels, you'll find your car slowing down too fast during curves that a decent recovery is impossible; refuse to hit the brakes and you go flying off with just a slight nudge.  It almost feels like there's only one way to clear a track and, if you don't get it right, you'll have to start over.  And over. And over.

After a while of this, you just don't want to bother.  It's one of those games that's so devoid of enjoyment from being so difficult that you won't even want to launch it again.  Plus, there appears to be very noticeable frame rate issues, despite the graphics being rather simplistic.

For now, Fumes Stunt Racer isn't that fun of a game to spend $1.99 on.  That doesn't mean it can't be the start of something great, though.  Maybe, they can do better on the next version.

[Sector 3]

Unlike what the name might imply, the Samsung Transform doesn't shape-shift from a cellphone to a robot.  What it does have, though, are a solid set of midrange smartphone features that run on Android 2.1.

Physically, it's a great-looking handset.  It has rounded corners, glossy finish and a nice design, topped with sturdy construction and a solid feel in hand.  Display is a 3.5-inch capacitive touchscreen (480 x 320 resolution), with good brightness and excellent touch response.  A slide-out QWERTY keyboard slips out of the side, with wide keys and ample spacing, although we could have done with a slightly more raised profile.

As a phone, the Samsung Transform makes for superb calls, with clear sound on both ends and no interference whatsoever.  Speakerphone was pretty good, too, adding just a slight echo to the conversations.  Battery is rated at six hours of talk time, which should make this good for a day or more of regular use.

It comes with Sprint ID, which you can use to customize the stock Android UI.  Frankly, it's something I could do without (the thing is cumbersome and slow on the handset's 800MHz CPU), but it does differentiate the device from the mass of Android devices out there, albeit, in a bad way.

You get all the typical phone capabilities here, including a range of calling options, the full connectivity suite (Bluetooth, WiFi, 3G and GPS) and Android's usual roster of features.  It's only running 2.1, though, so no Flash 10.1 until the promised firmware update.

As a messaging device, this is solid, with a wide range of options for email and IM.  Business users should find the Exchange support, Outlook syncing  and VPN support quite handy.  Media player is standard, so don't expect anything more special than most Android users are familiar with.  The 3.2 megapixel camera is serviceable, but is decidedly average.

Overall, the Samsung Transform lives up to its billing as a midrange Android phone. We'd like to see $50 slashed from its current price of $149.99 from Sprint, though.

Rumors of both a new Palm device and an updated version of webOS have been swirling for weeks now.  Today, HP decided to come clean and unveiled the Palm Pre 2.

As rumored, the new handset comes with HP webOS 2.0, a revamped and renamed version of the much-lauded (well, for a time) mobile platform.  Everything good about it just got better, too, with the promise of "true multitasking" (probably like Android's been doing this whole time), along with new features, such as Stacks (for organizing open apps), Just Type (for accessing a variety of functions without opening a single app), HP Synergy (a web service aggregator) and Exhibition (apps designed to run while the handset charges).  It also comes with beta support for Adobe Flash Player 10.1 right in the browser.

Details of the Palm Pre 2 include a 3.1-inch capacitive touchscreen  (320 x 480 resolution and encased in glass), a slide-out portrait QWERTY keyboard, a 5.0 megapixel camera module (with LED flash), aGPS, 3G with HSPA, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, 16GB of built-in storage and a battery module with 5.5 hours of talk time.  Dimensions remain similar to the original Pre, although it's slimmer and more streamlined.  A 1GHz processor drives the action.

SFR customers in France get first crack at the GSM version of the Palm Pre 2 starting this Friday.  Verizon Wireless and an undisclosed Canadian carrier will get the first CDMA versions, although exact availability dates have not been announced.

You can check out the rest of the details at the Palm Pre 2 press release, where they outline a good lot of the webOS 2.0 features.

[HP]

Samsung has announced a new dual-SIM feature phone.  Called the Samsung Chat 322 (actually, they spell it as Ch@t, but we'll spare you the hassle), the company bills it as their first QWERTY candybar handset with dual SIM bays.

Instead of TouchWiz, the handset runs Samsung's DUOS UX.  According to the company, the enhanced interface features a customizable home screen, allowing for quick access to your favorite apps and functions.

The Samsung Chat 322's specs are scarce, at the moment.  Known details include a TFT display of an unspecified size, a four-row QWERTY keyboard, a 1.3 megapixel camera module, Bluetooth 2.1, a 3.5mm audio jack, three color models (black, white and pink) and microSD card expansion.  There's no GPS, no WiFi and no 3G.

Like other QWERTY candybars, the handset comes with great messaging talents.  Aside from the usual SMS and MMS, it has preinstalled IM apps ( MSN, Yahoo and Google Talk), auto pull email (which supposedly mimics push email) and round-the-clock access to social networking sites (Facebook and Twitter).

As with all dual-SIM devices, the Samsung Chat 322 won't be coming to US carriers.  It's dropping in Russia this November, with Southeast Asia, India, China, Middle East, and Africa following shortly after.  No pricing has been announced.

[Korea News Wire]

Want your Blackberry in a clamshell form factor?  You're about to get it with the Blackberry Style, which brings all of the platform's  features in a compact flip design.

Running Blackberry OS 6, it brings all of RIM's latest updates in tow, including universal search, the new Webkit-based HTML browser and striking UI enhancements.  Paired with the familiar Blackberry QWERTY keyboard (four rows with 35 backlit keys) and the platform's much-lauded messaging strengths, it gives clamshell fans a different option in their ever-expanding smartphone choices.

Details of the Blackberry Style include a 2-inch external LCD (320 x 240 resolution), a 2.7-inch internal display (320 x 240 resolution), a 5.0 megapixel camera module (with autofocus), aGPS (with Blackberry Maps), WiFi, CDMA/EVDO Rev. A support, Bluetooth 2.1, 512MB of internal storage and microSD card expansion (8GB preinstalled, expandable to 32GB).  Phone dimensions are 175.5 x 60 x 18.5 mm (open), with a weight of 131 grams.  It has a 1,150 mAh battery module, which is good for 4.5 hours of talk time and 10.5 days of standby.

Pre-orders begin tomorrow, with actual ship date slated for October 31st.  It comes in two colors (Steel Grey and Royal Purple), priced at $99.99 on a two-year agreement with Sprint.

[Blackberry Style]

HTC announced a sleek-looking new handset today.  Billed as the HTC Gratia, the smartphone sports mid-range hardware, paired with Android 2.2.

Possibly the biggest news for this release is that it will come in a choice of colors that include "forest green." No, really, as in a lovely dark shade of green, as pictured above.    Wouldn't that be awesome as a regular colorway for everything else HTC releases?  That's aside from the usual blacks and whites, of course, in case your tastes run more towards the familiar.

Details of the HTC Gratia include a 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen (320 x 480 resolution), a 5.0 megapixel camera module (only with VGA video, though), 3G with HSPA, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1 and microSD card expansion.  Core hardware consists of a 600MHz processor, with 512MB of ROM and 384MB of RAM.  There appears to be no GPS radio.

Phone dimensions measure up at 4.09 x 2.27 x 0.46 inches, with 4.06 ounces of weight.  It runs Sense UI over the latest version of Google's mobile OS, along with the usual set of preloaded apps (from both the Android and Sense UI side of the spectrum).

American fans hoping to get some of that striking color will have to bow their heads in sadness, as the HTC Gratia is only slated for a European release (for now, at least).  Pricing will vary depending on carrier deals when it drops across the continent starting November.

[via Gizmodo]

It's surprising how long it took for the original Android phone to get its proper follow-up.  Fortunately, the T-Mobile G2 does its predecessor proud, coming in with a sleek design and outstanding performance.

Physically, the handset does a complete turnaround of the G1's uninspiring looks.  The design is very professional, with stainless steel parts and a soft-touch finish, all while staying adequately pocketable.  Display is a 3.7-inch capacitive touchscreen (800 x 480), with superb brightness and sharp details.  A landscape QWERTY keyboard also slides out from the side, offering four rows of raised buttons with adequate spacing for a terrific typing experience.

As a phone, the T-Mobile G2 makes for great calls, with very clear audio and little distortion.  Those on the other end reported similar quality, although they did detect a slight tinniness.  Speakerphone is a bit hollow, but usable enough with plenty of loudness.  The 1,300 mAh battery is rated at 6.5 hours of talk time, which should make for a full day (or even more) of regular use.

Despite the fact that it uses an 800Mhz processor (instead of the standard 1GHz for current high-end smartphones), everything ran smoothly to the point that you won't even detect any difference on a side-by-side comparison with a handset packing more power.  It uses T-Mobile's HSPA+ infrastructure, which, in actual testing, did perform noticeably faster than typical 3G networks, making excellent use of Android 2.2's full Flash support.  Do note that they disabled the tethering and WiFi hotspot features, so you're stuck enjoying all that bandwidth for your phone use.

The G2 runs stock Android 2.2 with no overlay, so you get the full experience of Google's mobile OS.  Aside from the usual features the platform brings, it offers quad-band world roaming, a plethora of voice calling options, WiFi, Bluetooth and aGPS.  It can merge contact information from various social networks, as well as support advance messaging options (e.g. Exchange).

Multimedia capabilities are stock, though, so don't expect much on that end.  The 5.0 megapixel camera module offers plenty of options and takes decent shots outdoors.

Overall, the T-Mobile G2 is an excellent offering, armed with plenty of power and one of the best QWERTY keyboards we've seen on an Android device.  It's available now, priced at $199.99 on a two-year contract with T-Mobile.

Do you regularly use Filemaker on your computer?  Well, you can now access and edit your databases while on the move with the FileMaker Go, a lighter version of the long-running desktop application.

Being a mobile version, the app doesn't have all of FileMaker Pro's wide range of features.  There's no facility for creating and modifying database structures and scripts, for instance, so you'll have to do all the admin stuff on an actual computer.

What FileMaker Go lets you do is access any database created using FileMaker 7 or later, which you can load onto your iPhone via iTunes.  You can also connect to databases on a live FileMaker Server over 3G or WiFi.  From there, you can search, view, add, modify and delete records right from the handset, as well as display information in table, form and list formats.

Most scripts will work on the mobile version (you'll have to test to find out which ones will), too, allowing you to really extend what the database can do (very useful, considering the limitations of most mobile applications).  A few extra features also managed to make their way, including support for portals and web viewers.

Do note that you may need to adjust the layout of your forms so they don't look messed up on the iPhone's small screen.  Overall, though, the benefits far outweigh those limitations, making FileMaker Go for a must-have app for people who depend on the popular software's desktop version.  The caveat?  It's very pricey at $19.99 from the App Store.

[FileMaker Go]



Just when you thought Nokia was finally done with S60 5th Edition, they go ahead and announce a new handset running just that.  Except they're now calling the OS, Symbian^1 -- as if that really changes anything.  The new phone is billed as the Nokia C5-03, an affordable touchscreen device with the platform's same old feature set.

Sporting rounded corners, two-tone colors and a clean design, it's actually quite gorgeous for an entry-level smartphone.  It measures 5.8 x 51 x 13.8 mm and weighs a light 93 grams, so it's quite the compact bundle, too.

Details of the Nokia C5-03 include a 3.2-inch resistive touchscreen display (640 x 360 resolution), a 5.0 megapixel camera module, aGPS (with free Ovi Maps Navigation), 3G with HSPA,  WiFi, stereo Bluetooth, FM radio, a 3.5mm headset jack, 40MB of onboard storage and microSD card expansion (with 2GB in the box, expandable to 16GB).  Battery is rated at 4.5 hours of talk time.

As it's running the longstanding OS, it gets all of Nokia's usual features, including Nokia Messaging (with Mail for Exchange), Ovi Music and Ovi Store.  There's apps for social networking, too, specifically for Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.

The Nokia C5-03 will be available during the fourth quarter, priced at €170 (around $240) before taxes and subsidies.

[Nokia]