The Pureview 808′s camera boasts a pixel count of… 41 megapixels. That’s right. It’s not a typo. Forty-One Megapixels. It’s a camera resolution that outdoes any other smartphone, all compact cameras, and most of the DSLR cameras too.

The 41 megapixel camera produces still shots that measures 38 megapixels. But the default photo size is 5 megapixels. What Nokia’s trying to do with their new camera is oversampling, so as to produce higher quality images. Each pixel in the 5 megapixel camera shot is made up of 7 pixels on the image senor. This allows the camera is average out the sensor input to effectively remove noise, thus providing image quality that is unprecedented on camera smartphones.

The 41 megapixel image sensor also lets you zoom… without digital extrapolation like other camera smartphones would do. To produce zoomed in photos, less of the image sensor is used, and there is less (or no) oversampling, but every pixel from the resulting image really comes from the image sensor. No moving optics involved, and no digital extrapolation. A key advantage of this solution is that there is no noise from any motorized zoom mechanism like often happens with compact digital cameras.

Is the 41 megapixels overkill? Well, if you care very much about good image quality that you can capture anywhere you go… well, there is no better way to achieve that with a camera smartphone that you can carry around with you all the time.

The Pureview 808, unfortunately, is otherwise a little dated in other aspects. It’s a Symbian phone (yeah, didn’t Nokia already want to abandon Symbian?), has a 4″ display with 640×360 resolution, a single-core 1.3 GHz ARM 11 CPU, and a rather clunky form factor. Oh well, the space is needed to house its amazing 1/1.2″ sensor (yes, beats about all the compact digital cameras out there).

Would you get the Pureview 808?

For me, I’m quite decidedly done with Symbian phones. Regardless of how they rename it. But the 41 megapixels camera with Carl Zeiss lens is quite awesome hardware.

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There had already been some speculation, before their Feb 11 announcement, that Nokia would tie up with Microsoft. Yet, I still found their press release on Friday quite startling. Nokia had, after all, always been standing staunchly behind Symbian all these years. Symbian has very much been a sinking ship, and most people are describing Nokia’s efforts as “rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic”. Well… Nokia’s CEO has taken a bold move: abandon ship.

But, is Windows Phone 7 going to save them? Although Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 seems to be a great leap forward from their previous generation Windows Mobile, it isn’t like Windows Phone 7 is making much of an impact on iOS and Android.

If Nokia wanted to make a bold move… why not jump onto the Android bandwagon? That would be really a big leap. Concentrate their energies on building great hardware. HTC and Samsung are doing very well with their Android handsets. Is Nokia avoiding Android to save face?

Or does Nokia really think that WP7 is their winning ticket? The Android space is already too crowded, it may be difficult for Nokia to differentiate themselves. The software is largely all the same, to Nokia would have to build really superb hardware, better than anyone else, that others would not be able to follow (or at least not follow quickly enough). They probably can’t… so perhaps they’re banking on a combination of factors to stay ahead in the smartphone market.

Can two ecosystems (just counting Android and Windows Phone, since iOS is only going to run on iPhones) thrive together? Windows Phone is like the Mac OS X underdog in the OS platform wars. Is Windows Phone going to be as great as Mac OS X is on their respective platforms?

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The biggest thing for me, though, was the ability to sync with my Mac. I had been previously syncing my N95 8GB via Apple’s iSync software together with a iSync plug-in supplied by Nokia. It allowed me to seamlessly sync contacts and calendars on the phone with Address Book and iCal on the Mac. This was not working with the N97, apparently because of something seriously broken with the internal N97 software. Shortly after the v20 software became available, Nokia also released the N97 iSync plug-in. For me, this is so much better than trying to sync through an intermediary like Google, not the least because it screws up the “first name” and “last name” components of my contacts.

The kinetic scrolling is really cool. It is so much more fun to navigate an interface with kinetic scrolling. This is something that I’m beginning to get addicted to, partly because I’m having so much fun with “scroll with momentum” on my Magic Mouse (it’s the same thing). I was a little upset when I did the flicking motion on my touchpad and did not see the kinetic effect. Kinetic scrolling is not just eye candy. It really makes navigating the user interface less tedious.

Some of the other improvements include more efficient memory management for applications and better battery performance. The video and still camera performance is improved too. I take lots of photos and I feel the camera operations are smoother, although perhaps the overall improvement in the OS has also helped in some way. The touchscreen driver is more responsive than before, which again lends itself to a better overall user experience.

I found the free space gained in the C: drive to be only modest. A little tip I discovered is that you can gain even more space in C: by deleting some of the not so useful applications. In fact, even if you do want some of the applications like, say, Psiloc World Traveller, you can uninstall it (freeing up space in C:), then go to Ovi Store and reinstall the application into E: (and thus not taking up space in C: anymore).

The much anticipated v20 software has lived up to much of its hyped improvements. If you have a N97 without the v20 software, you should really think about updating.

Now, the only other thing I want from Nokia is to fix the Nokia Multimedia Transfer, so that I can sync photos, videos, and music via bluetooth with iPhoto and iTunes. I’m currently making-do with syncing photos via USB cable to iPhoto, but wireless transfer will be so much more convenient.

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What’s so exciting about v20 for many people is that it promises to fix many things that were broken. Although the N97 has by and large been working fine for me, I still think it could do with lots of improvements in terms of performance and responsiveness.

The short and sweet “changelog” posted by jauhis says:

• Improved touch screen scolling
• Ovi Maps 3.1 with 3-D maps
• Nokia e-mail, Ovi Contacts and Ovi Store (who cares?)
• Improved memory and battery performance
• Improved image and video stability

But other sources like this one from AAS provides more details. It seems, also, that the problems with getting the N97 to work with iSync on the Mac has turned for the better. There are reports of success with 3rd party iSync plugins. I’d imagine we could reasonably expect Nokia to release their own official iSync plugin for the N97 in time to come.

I waited 6 weeks for v12. I hope v20 wouldn’t take so long.

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The problem with Nokia software updates is that they don’t get released at the same time. You’d have thought that if there was a software update for the N95 8GB, then all N95 8GB phones should be able to get the update. Nope. In fact, it’s not even the case when you take into account the little variants in the phone model (e.g. N95-2, N95-4, and N95-6 are all N95 8GB phones, but the -4 and -6 variants are for markets in North America and China respectively, with the -2 being for the rest of the world).

It turns out that the availability of software updates is not just dependent on the phone model (including specific variants within the model), but also on telco branding and market channel. You can read about this from my article on Nokia Phone Software Updates. Due to telco branding issues, some phones may see their updates much later than others of the same model. The delay is not just days or weeks, but sometimes stretches for months.

It is really annoying, but that’s how Nokia has been doing things. I don’t know if the same applies to other brands of handphones, but users of Nokia phones are getting really frustrated going by the posts seen in the Nokia discussion forum. Clearly many users are not happy. It’s not just about wanting to get their hands on new features, but sometimes, there are important bugs that need to be fixed.

The funny thing with the current N97 update is that the software seems to be released in two phases, each in a different mode. Those who received their updates earlier had the v12.0.024 software. They had to update their phones through NSU (Nokia Software Updater), i.e. through a PC. Those who got their updates later had the v12.0.026 software, and their software was only available through Over-The-Air updates.

Over-The-Air updates are cool. Phone connects to the Internet, checks for update, downloads update, installs the update, phone reboots, and you have an updated software. It just takes a few minutes. It’s actually a lot faster than updating using NSU through a PC.

I think Nokia should think about how to improve this software update process. The technology itself, like Over-The-Air updates, works well. It’s the processes behind which eventually makes the software available that is upsetting many users.

ps: The next software update coming up for the N97, and which has been much talked about already, is the v20 software. It will bring about several notable enhancements. You can read more about it from several online sources, and a somewhat detailed on which includes video is: N97 Hands-On Experience.

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There is going to be the Nokia N900 “mobile computer”. The product name kind of suggests it is like the N810 or N800 Internet Tablet which runs Maemo Linux.

But while the N800 and N810 are not phones (you can’t make phone calls), the N900 can make phone calls. It actually looks like the N97 too, and on top of that, has hardware specifications that very closely resembles the N97. The notable improvements of the N900 over the N97 include: faster processor (ARM Cortex A8 600MHz), 1GB of application memory (256MB physical RAM, 768MB virtual), 800×480 display, and cellular network data rates up to 10Mbps downlink and 2Mbps uplink.

It will be interesting to see how Nokia Maemo Linux phones stack up against Android phones. Maemo is a more complete Linux environment which might sound more interesting to developers (or at least Linux developers), but even with its top-notch hardware specifications, it might be difficult to port typical opensource applications to the platform. Things like user interface differences would likely force applications to be re-designed. That would negate at least some of the advantages of a familiar Linux development environment.

The next thing is that Nokia has stepped into the netbook market segment with the announcement of their Nokia Booklet 3G. It will have 3G, Wifi and GPS. Physically, it will have a 10″ screen, weight 1.25kg, and its batteries will run for 12 hours. An interesting thing is HDMI port for HD video out.

If you’re wondering what OS this netbook will run… not Symbian and not Maemo. It will be Windows. So the Booklet 3G will really compete head-on in the netbook space. I’m not so sure I would be happy with a Windows-based computer though.

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First of all, as a late entrant into the market, I must commend Nokia for creating a reasonable competition to other old-time online music stores. They still have lots of catching up to do with Apple iTunes Store. But the Nokia Music Store is certainly no weak competition.

I’ve no idea how many songs the Nokia Music Store has or how it compares with Apple iTunes Store. Perhaps someone who knows the current numbers can update me. On the surface it does look like the Nokia Music Store has all the major music labels. It does have an advantage over Apple iTunes Store: Asian music.

But perhaps the inclusion of Asian music is due to the presence of the Nokia Music Store in Singapore. Apple iTunes Store, sadly, was not available in Singapore until the official availability of iPhone here, and then, it was only to offer iPhone apps. I.e., the iTunes Store here primarily sold apps, not music.

In the US, the Apple iTunes Store sells many things: music, video (movies, TV shows, etc), books, apps, etc. You could even rent videos. The Nokia Music Store, on the other hand, sells music only. Nokia’s equivalent of the App Store would be Ovi Store.

The Nokia Music Store features are basic, and those basic things are equivalent to what Apple iTunes Store offers. For example, 30 second track preview, top charts, etc. A nice thing is that you could browse the Nokia Music Store through a web browser. There is also a native application which is needed to sync with phone, burn CD, etc. But otherwise its interface to the Music Store itself looks awfully the same, perhaps it is just an embedded MSIE engine. The whole Nokia Music Store feels slow. Perhaps Nokia doesn’t have so good Internet connection to push their content as Apple do.

Nokia Comes with Music is really fun. This is something that Apple has not gone into. Basically, the Comes with Music service give you one year of unlimited free music downloads from the Nokia Music Store. When the one year is up, your free downloads end, but all the music you’ve already downloaded is yours to keep forever.

However, because the music from Nokia Music Store is DRM protected, there are some restrictions with where you can transfer your music. For the Comes with Music service, you can transfer to one PC and one phone. Sadly, you cannot burn to CD.

If you buy music from the Nokia Music Store (not using the Comes with Music service), you are allowed to burn the music to CD. That would mean you can at least play the music elsewhere by taking the CD around, or even ripping the CD back to a computer.

Nokia Music Store sells music for S$1.99. The Apple iTunes Store, starting this year, has three price tiers for their music: US$0.69, US$0.99 and US$1.29, depending on the popularity of the music. US$1.29 still works out to be around S$1.99, so that means you can generally buy music cheaper from the Apple iTunes Store… except that there is no Apple iTunes Store in Singapore (and ways to circumvent this will usually end up costing more).

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The 5800 XpressMusic comes with a stylus in the phone. There is an extra stylus packaged in the box. There is also a guitar pick style stylus too. The N97 comes with nothing. The N97 doesn’t need a stylus to work, so perhaps that’s why it didn’t come with a stylus. But the 5800 doesn’t need a stylus to work either!

Next, the 5800 also comes with the Nokia AV cables. The N97 is missing that. It is not as if the N97 was any poorer in media playback capabilities.

The 5800 also comes with another handphone strap accessory with a cute little guitar. Sure, it is part of the 5800 marketing to flaunt its music capabilities. But couldn’t Nokia think of something for the N97?

That do I think of the 5800? The handset feels pretty light and plasticky. But it otherwise seems like a very good phone. Somehow other people had complaints about the touchscreen sensitivity and responsiveness, but this one here seems okay, even without the firmware upgrade which others reported to have helped improved the touchscreen.

Opening the back cover, something stuck me: The camera was very ‘exposed’. See photo above. The LED of the LED flash is seen in its raw LED form. I suppose Nokia probably thought people don’t really need to open the back cover very much. It is not like many people buy spare batteries and need to swap them around. The SIM card is inserted from the outside. But removing the SIM card requires to open the back cover and remove the battery. For ICT-going people, swapping SIM card is going to be a commonly executed task.

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This is happening at Nokia’s Remote Device Access website. It is actually a virtual lab. You don’t actually get physical access to the phones, but through a Java applet interface, you have real-time access to the phones in Nokia’s lab. The website includes a system for selecting and reserving phones. If a phone is available, you could access it immediately. If not, or if you prefer to book a later time slot, you can use the reservation system to book your access to the phones. It’s a pretty neat system.

Nokia doesn’t let you make outgoing phone calls, send SMS or send MMS, but you can receive phone calls (though I guess there wouldn’t be anyone to talk to), receive SMS and receive MMS. I’d have expected for such a big multinational corporation like Nokia they would absorb the cost of such outgoing calls/messaging.

They do provide Wifi and Bluetooth access in the lab too. In fact, for GPRS phones, you could discover (as I did) the location of the phone. Of course, I assume that Nokia didn’t muck around with the GPS data to mask the real location of the phones. Nokia Maps reported the phone to be in Finland, as I would expect where the lab would have been.

It is also from this website that I gleamed a little tidbit of the N97′s v12.0.023 firmware. Yes, there is a N97 in the Remote Device Access loaded with v12.0.023 firmware.

Cool, I hope that means a firmware fix is coming for my N97 soon, which I hope will fix a bunch of things that are still broken with the N97. The most important for me, I think, is to get SyncML and iSync working again so that I can sync with my Mac OS X without jumping hoops through Google.

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Previously, help sought on wireless configuration would typically be limited to notebooks. There would be a PDA or two very now and then. But quite significantly of late is the onslaught of smart phone owners.

The nice thing is that in NUS, there is quite pervasive wireless coverage. This is what Wireless@SG really should have been. So it is no wonder that everyone is eager to get their smart phones and PDAs setup to tap on the “free” wireless network. My well-referenced NUS wireless configuration guide for the Nokia N95 has served quite well for just about all modern Symbian based phones (N97, 5800 XpressMusic, etc), and even provided the essential information to setup other non-Symbian phones.

Everyone nowadays wants to be always-connected, always-online. For a period of time, I was always on Facebook, simply because of the Facebook widget on my N97. (Even prior to that, I was like almost always on Facebook too, because the instant messaging client on my MacBook could login to Facebook.) But nowadays the Facebook always-on fad has passed for me. It makes my N97 grab on to 802.11 networks and drains the battery faster.

But more and more phones are being touted with such features as always-on Windows Messenger, Facebook, and Twitter. The phone is not a just a phone. It is as online connection. The Internet is what connects people. (That’s how the technology is evolving anyway. In the 4G network,  IP will be the carrier for voice, data and multimedia applications.)

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