The Experience of Xperia X1i

Real surprise. One of my dearest friends bought X1i & happen to visit me. after observing that he is not using X1i to its potential, I requested him if I can have hands on it. He was very generous to agree. That's it, without any delay I exchanged my N85 for E66 & gave him E66. For his way of usage E66 is perfect.

The texting in N85 is a pain as I use my corporate email on it. Also I was vary on spending 4K on Quick Office update to edit my Office 2007 documents. Actually I was waiting to trade my N85 for N97 once it arrives(there too have spend for Qoffice upgrade). The concept is more or less the same in X1i. So thought it is better option to make the Best use of this X1i.

My Xperience with X1i:
Initially it was Xiting. I found that there is a fresh firmware available now. I wanted to Xperiment all possibilities before I update the firmware. I must say it is worth Xperience. As it is manufactured by HTC, installed Touchflo3D HD interface. enjoyed it for a day or two. But the enjoyment short lived as it used to hang forever whenever I switch between panels.

Finally upgraded firmware. It was really great to work with panels. It is very new concept for me. Soon had trouble with media panel. As an experiment started doing one by one installation of the programs& checked media panel every time. Nothing wrong with any of the additional installations. Then after two three hours of breaking my head on this found that it starts properly and after few seconds stops (freezes). Ultimately found that my >1000 contacts are the issue with media panel. When I reduced them to <1000 it works like magic. I really like the media panel behaviour.

More in next post.

T9 or QWERTY

I was always confused between whether it should be T9 (predictive Text) or QWERTY keyboard on the mobile phone.

I was also curious to see Half Keyboard. I have not tested though.

Blackberry Pearl, Sony P1i HTC touch Dual were few to name with half QWERTY (2 letters per key). Now Nokia has come up with first time with this keyboard in their E55. Seems to be the best of Eseries phones till now with S60 3rd edition FP2. It has accelerometer, usb charger, half keyboard, HSDPA & HSUPA. 3.2 MP camera with EDOF (Extended Depth of Field), 3.5 mm Audio port, built in GPS with A-GPS, front VGA camera.

I would have traded my N85 for E55, if it had 30fps video and 3.5mm AV port. E55 has only 15fps video. 

In my opinion it is the best business phone ever within Rs.16K budget.

If someone is not satisfied with N85, now you have N86 with 8MP camera and hopefully metallic body. Remaining specs same as N85 such as OLED display etc.

More soon.

At last Nokia N85

At last bought N85 on 26th Oct for the price of Rs. 24100. This is an excellent piece. I could not afford INNOV8 as its price is nearly Rs.43000. N79 looks too basic and I would miss the great AMOLED display.

The things I have observed.
Pro: 1. Excellent display
2. Animated Themes
3. Navi Wheel
4. FM transmitter
5. Nice glossy finish without showing selection and menu keys (while on standby)
6. Better sliding than N95
7. Seems to be stable software
8. Very good keyboard (better than N95)
9. Good position of speakers
10. 8 GB card included
11. Power save mode
12. Dedicated keypad lock key
13. Settings to have horizontal, vertical or basic toolbar on standby screen
14. More settings for screen saver
15. 3 months license for Nokia Maps
16. 10 free games (choice of 10 of 15)
17. Zoom in & out through Volume keys in Camera Mode
Con: 1. Build quality could have been better
2. Chances to slip out of hand (box should have included hand tag)
3. The Navi Wheel does not work in all menus
4. No explanation about how 'Power Save Mode" helps
5. The download tool does not contain many programs that are compatible
6. Could not install Google Search (Later found that it is already included in Nokia Search)
7. Windows Live cannot be installed (Don't know why?)

Over all I am happy with N85. I hope Nokia will correct their download tool to be compatible with FP2.v

Which Mobile?

My factors for mobile are little complicated. Should have business functionalities such as corporate email and contacts, MS Office documents view and edit, multiple entries for each contact, active text, sync with Outlook etc. Also should have good camera resolution both still and video with TV output. Music is features are Okay. Connectivity with GPRS, EDGE, 3/3.5G HSDPA and HSUPA, WLAN Should have longer battery life and preferably with keyboard.

The shortlisted phones are N95, N85, HTC Touch Pro, Sony Xperia X1. On the other hand without much multimedia stuff such as Nokia E71, E66 or E51. N96 seems to be overkill on price and also in India mobile TV is yet to catch up. Personally I like the look and feel of HTC Diamond E71 & E66. Yet to see remaining phones.

When I compared N95 Classic phone that I am using N85 the additional features of N85 I liked are the slim factor, AMOLED display and new set of buttons. The best part is 128MB RAM & 1200 mAh. N95 Classic always had a problem with RAM (64 MB max 25MB available) & battery (950mAh) life even after V30 firmware update.

Mostly swinging between N85 and Xperia.

Nokia Tube is also a good choice without keyboard according to specs. Samsung Innov8 is another mobile to be watched except it's bulky figure.

New Mobile?

I started my mobile phone life with Siemens C35. This was very short as couple of days and switched to Sony J6 and then Sony T610.

However the switchover to Nokia from Sony happened through 6021. It was very tough to get used to Nokia interface from "so easy to use" Sony interface. But the connectivity of Nokia handset was very good.

I started liking E61 from Nokia. I would say this is the best phone I have used till now. I could upgrade the phone firmware twice without any complications over web. However I should admit that Nokia is very poor in keeping spare parts of their mobiles in India at least. The cracked back cover of E61 could not be replaced till now.

Then switched over to Windows Mobile Imate Jaq 3. Fell for it's similar looks of Nokia E61. However I should say the I-mate service is excellent unlike their products. Got this phone exchanged twice but could not resolve the humming noise during the call. Bought O2 Atom Executive a full touch screen without QWERTY keyboard. Had a great tough time while typing with a tiny stylus. Windows mobiles are battery hoggers. The battery used to get over by 14hrs the max after lot of settings. This was a biggest pain in addition to typing through virtual keyboard. But I have to say this was the fastest phone I have used (524 Mhz). I think my first laptop IBM T20 had a 700MHZ chip.

The touch screen of O2 broke accidentally and lost its charm after replacement. The service for O2 (now MWG) is little tricky, as one has to request them to collect the handset. Then they would return it after repairing.

I was in a fix whether to go for my old lover Sony mobile or rugged friend Nokia or fancy Windows Mobile?

After a long research I found there are lot of new phones that are coming up in another quarter. Went ahead and bought N95 from my friend. It had firmware 12. Upgraded it to firmware 20 then 21 and now V30. Initially I thought this phone is only a multimedia phone. Then I realized except sacrificing my QWERTY keyboard this is a complete phone. I started really loving it.

I can shoot videos of my little daughter. I don’t need to be equipped with fully charged handy-cam every time. Snap 5M pixel photos whenever I like to. Check my office emails with latest "Mail for Exchange 2.7". Use automatic screen orientation to play games.

My next post will be what I am looking for next.

ENTADI

Entadi means "What is it?" in Telugu.