Database Info

MWC Report: i-mate’s new devices

Now, let’s see what new i-mate devices there are.
First and foremost: much as you may already have read it in my first MWC report, but it’s still worth repeating: i-mate is NOT returning to HTC but keeps on bringing out their own handsets, as opposed to the previous rumors. This is, in my opinion, VERY good news, considering that HTC’s current product lineup is pretty much unimaginative and straight boring (read: no VGA, no multimedia, no gaming).
(i-mate’s booth at MWC)
Now, let’s take a closer look at the four new devices they’ve brought out: the Xscale-based, high-end 8150 and the 6150 (the latter, having a VGA screen, also being high-end) and the Qualcomm-based, high-end 9502 and the lower-spec’ed (QVGA) 8502.
Dale Coffing and the VGA output demo
Windows Mobile (Pocket PC / WindowsCE) longtimers surely remember Dale Coffing and his PocketPCPassion, which, back in 2000...2002, was one of the most lively Pocket PC discussion board. During MWC, he mostly ran a demo of the built-in digital (as opposed to analogue) XGA (1024*768) output capabilities of the i-mate 8150 / 6150, thanks to the GoForce 5500 graphics chip inside. Dale has indeed been really energetic – he kept attracting a lot of people to watch his show.
(in his demo, he presented logging into a Vista laptop via the, in the 6150/8150, built-in Remote Desktop Client [see the Remote Desktop Control Bible for more info on it], displaying the remote desktop on an external screen and controlling it via a Bluetooth (ThinkOutside) keyboard and mouse)
He has emphasized these two models are the first phones with a built-in XGA output. He’s right – for example, HTC (unlike i-mate) didn’t really bother enabling the (analogue, VGA) TV output on the Kaiser (aka AT&T Tilt), even though the Qualcomm chipset does support it (more on the (vast) differences of the analogue VGA and the digital XGA output later). The two other phones with the GoForce 5500 built-in, the O2 XDA Flame and the Toshiba Portégé G900, didn’t have XGA output either. (The Flame only supports VGA-resolution, analogue TV output but not XGA digital. In this respect, it’s way worse than i-mate’s new 6150 and 8150).
Of course, you can still make other models display their contents on an external screen - for example, via Spectec’s new SDV-842 microSD card, which will also be elaborated on in Dale Daniels' article Can a Smartphone Replace a Laptop? in the forthcoming (April 2008) Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine article (also see THIS for a generic overview of all similar solutions). But that’s an external, additional solution, with all its problems:
the SDV-842 isn’t particularly cheap (albeit still much cheaper than the old and no longer supported iGo Pitch Duo -Presentation Device): at Expansys-USA, it costs some $125
it doesn’t contain built-in memory, which may become a major pain in the back, particularly if you only have a device with 128M ROM.
it can’t be used with the (now, very few and low-end) phones that have their memory card under the battery (for example, the HTC Oxygen / s310).
storage card-based solutions are inherently more fragile than solutions based on built-in sockets
These problems aren’t present with the, so far, only Windows Mobile-based solution, the Dell Axim x50v / x51v, also having these.
And, of course, if you don’t mind it lacking a phone (because, for example, you use a Bluetooth external phone instead), you can still use the Dell Axim x50v / x51v as an excellent, digital XGA output without having to pay for anything else. I’ve elaborated on the Axim VGA output cables HERE.
Now, let’s take a closer look at the four models: the 9502, 8502, 8150 and the 6150. These are all pretty much different. While three of them have VGA screens, the underlying hardware is vastly different, making it very hard to choose the right model. I’ve exported (with a lot of manual work) PDAdb.net’s databases into one chart so that you can avoid having to compare these devices in pairs only at PDAdb.net. Incidentally, I really wish the excellent PDAdb.net folks added the ability to compare more than two devices at the same time.
The chart is HERE - DO check it out!
It’s really hard to select the right device. All of them have some disadvantages, while still boasting some really unique advantages.
Let’s start with the 9502, which is, unless you don’t need the built-in thumb board and/or absolutely need the XGA output and/or the FM radio, the, in my opinion, best of the bunch (apart from the major slider and screen design problems, which I'll elaborate later on): the 9502.
The 9502
First and foremost, let me elaborate on the (compared to all the other models except the non-high-end 8502) unique feature of this phone: the built-in thumbboard and my personal experience.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
As you can see in the following comparative screenshot (comparing the 9502 to the HTC Universal / i-mate JasJar), the thumbboard (just like the device itself) is way smaller – I’d say the button pitch is about the half than that of the Universal.
This, unfortunately, means it’s far harder to type on the i-mate. While it’s still impossible to touch-type on the Universal, its thumbboard is, otherwise, excellent and allows for moderately fast text input. Not so with the 9502: with it, the buttons are unpleasantly small.
Compared to the BlackBerry 8800 (which I frequently use for entering e-mails and quick forum posts), I’d say the thumbboard on the 8800 can be used faster and more reliably than on the 9502. (Interestingly, while most BlackBerry fans state it’s the 8800 series that has the worst thumbboard of all BB models, I still find its keyboard speed good).

Another comparative screenshot, now, with the Nokia N95:
As you can see, it’s (only) slightly larger than the Nokia. (Unfortunately, it weighs a LOT more: 200 gramms as opposed to 120).
Let’s go further. The device is based on the 400 MHz Qualcomm MSM7200 chipset. It could be a little bit faster – some of the almost-already (they’re supposed to be released in March) devices like the Toshi G910 and G920 are both clocked at 528 MHz; so is the Sony-Ericsson XPERIA X1; of course, the latter will only be released later), but it’s still OK. I, unfortunately, haven’t had the chance of testing its video / multimedia / gaming / 3D performance so I cannot report on whether it has much better performance than the Kaiser / AT&T Tilt (remember the driver problems with the Kaiser and all the other Qualcomm-based, HTC-manufactured models?). At least, when navigating the OS screens and Internet Explorer Mobile, it was pretty fast – unlike with the Kaiser (without applying the very important, unofficial, IEM speedup CAB available HERE, that is). This also means it has GPS capabilities (not as excellent as with a dedicated SIRFStar III chipset, but still pretty good) and, unlike with the Kaiser, analogue TV output at VGA (640*480) resolution.
Let me a bit elaborate on the latter. Why I’ve emphasized this analogue vs. digital and VGA (640*480) vs. XGA (1024*768) stuff? It’s pretty simple. The two new i-mate devices based on the Qualcomm chipset “only” offer analogue and simple VGA-resolution output, while the two other devices, which are based on the Intel Xscale 270 + Nvidia GoForce 5500 combo, offer digital XGA-resolution output. You can rightfully guess, based on the resolution alone, that plain VGA output is much worse than XGA – unless you plan to play back movies, where VGA resolution is more than sufficient. (Actually, the current Windows Mobile hardware couldn’t even decode higher-resolution video – except for, maybe, the PXA320-based models if and only if they receive third party support from, say, CorePlayer, but 1. there are (and will be) very few of these models 2. it’s still not known what features of the PXA310/320 CorePlayer (will) support(s)).
But the resolution itself is just one side of the coin! The other, even more important difference is whether the output is digital or analogue. If the former (digital), the picture is crystal-clear without any problems. If the latter (analog), then, there will be visible artifacts on the output, which will be particularly visible on high-quality (non-CRT / non-TV-set) displays. Let me present a shot showing this:
(in this setup, the 9502 – more specifically, the TV output signal of its Qualcomm MSM7200 – was the source)
Pay special attention to the letters e, a and s. They are pretty hard to make out, aren’t they? Yes, the vertical resolution is pretty bad. Also, make sure you check out the boundaries of the uppermost, red banner. The red color heavily "blends" in the white background at the rightmost edge; as does the white background at the leftmost one. (The same effect is pretty much visible with the blue-backgrounded banner and inside the red banner with the white-red letter boundaries.) Not because the resolution is just VGA – the same text looks crystal clear on the built-in VGA screen of the 9502 but because of the analogue TV signal’s “blending” and washing consecutive rows / columns together. Now, compare this for example the XGA rendering quality of a digital video output – for example, with the shot above showing Dale Coffing - or the one below, showing the Programs in XGA resolution, via a digital output. WAY different, isn't it?
(note that, in this case, I've used a 1600*1200 image with JPEG quality=90 so that you can see there indeed isn't color blending with the digital output)
This inherent problem with the analog TV output isn’t a problem when playing back multimedia stuff (movies, for example – let me stress again that I haven’t tested playing back videos on external displays to see whether it’s quick enough [old CF/SD-based cards weren’t]), “only” when you plan to make, say, presentations. In the latter cases, you must go for digital VGA output – with as high resolution as possible.
The lack of the digital, XGA-resolution output in the 9502 (and, similarly, the, otherwise, much lower-spec’ed 8502) may be problematic in this respect. In this regard, the 6150 / 8150 are way better.
Major design problems with the 9502
Finally, something MUST be pointed out. In my opinion, the design of the sliding mechanism is VERY bad because it's only a not that large portion of the entire surface that is sliding. This is, among other things, that makes the thumbboard so tiny.
I-mate should have designed a handheld with a sliging mechanism similar to ANY other "sliders" out there. HTC (see most of their sliders: Wizard, TyTN, Kaiser, s710, s730 etc.), Nokia (N95-1 and, particularly on the N95 8GB / N96, where the slider is under the upper plate, as opposed to the N95-1), Sony-Ericsson (XPERIA X1), Toshiba (G900) etc. did manage to implement sliders that don't heavily reduce the dialpad / keyboard size; i-mate should have done the same.
Also, taking the overall size of the device into account (which isn't much smaller than the HTC Universal, which does have a 3,6" screen!), I'm not really satisfied with the screen size either. There are huge margins between the screens and the device edges. With a more clever design, they may even have managed to "stuff in" even a 3"...3.2" screen, which is way more usable on a VGA device, particularly if you're forced to look at small characters - either in true (native) VGA mode or in a program / environment that simply doesn't make it possible to enlarge the characters (for example, the Jbed MIDlet Manager + Opera Mini 4 combo.)
The 8502
Ironically, I find the 8502 much better-designed than the 9502 - except for the lack of VGA, of course. It's, as with all the other two (non-9502) devices, a non-slider device with a BlackBerry-like thumbboard on the front.
(8502)

(the 8502 and the 9502 next to each other)
The lack of the VGA screen, however, means I (an über-geek that does want VGA screens) is a dealbreaker for me. But, probably, not for you (and you may find the 8502 the best) - check out the following section on this question.
VGA vs. QVGA on a 2.8" screen?
While opinions certainly differ on whether VGA is needed in 2.8" screens, I think if you (still) have a 100% eyesight, you'll want to prefer VGA to QVGA. However, you might want to thoroughly read THIS on this subject. Note that probably the best browser today (particularly for people with a slow / non-unlimited connection), Opera Mini 4, will only be readable under the, otherwise, pretty much inferior TAO Intent MIDlet Manager on a VGA device (because you can turn up the character size to any value in there with a hack); with Esmertec Jbed or other MIDlet managers, the characters will be hopelessly small on a 2.8" VGA device, even with the extra large setting. Also, you must be aware of the fact that many games will exhibit slower operation. Not all of them, though - for example, MoreGames Entertainment's great games (Orions, Nanobotz, Enslave) run equally fast on a VGA device than on a QVGA one. Examples are, in general, the not very well written titles from for example Beijing Huike Technology (see reviews any my VGA speed-related comments HERE).
These two devices (the 9502 nd the 8502) also lack the FM radio, which is built-in in both the 6150 and the 8150. Another bad piece of news for (wired) music freaks is their audio output socket size: 2.5 mm, as opposed to the standard 3.5mm jack on the 6150 and the 8150. Finally, both of these devices lack infrared. While many consider infrared a “dead” technology, I certainly disagree. It can come very handy in some situations, particularly when you try to communicate (exchange, for example, contacts) with a lower-end dumbphone not having Bluetooth. Also, the CIR (Consumer Infrared) module in the 6150 and the 8150 can come very handy at remote controlling for example audiovisual devices from far away. I still use my almost five-year-old (and it’s still going strong, except for the loudspeaker’s being burnt down – a typical problem with many iPAQ’s – and a brand new battery) HP iPAQ h2210 as my primary quick note / voice recorder device I always carry with me and countless are the occasions I found its CIR capabilities VERY handy (for example, in the McDonalds, to (secretly) turn up / down the volume of the TV). I’m very sorry for these features not having been included in the Qualcomm-based 8502/9502.
The 6150 / 8150
(6150)
(8150)
(the two next to each other)
Speaking of the 6150 and the 8150, they too have major disadvantages compared to the Qualcomm-based ones (9502 / 8502). First, they don’t have any built-in GPS. Second, they are built on the already-outdated Intel Xscale PXA270 architecture. What is more, it’s only clocked at 520 MHz, as opposed to the maximal 624 MHz; this is definitely very bad news for multimedia and emulation fans. The Qualcomm MSM7200 in the 9502 / 8502 is way more up-to-date, battery-friendly and capable. If I were the i-mate folks, I would have gone straight for the far superior PXA3x0 series. And, of course, neither of them contains a thumbboard. Many won’t see this as a problem, however, as the built-in thumbboard in the 9502 will be too small for most people. Again, unlike the one on the Universal – or even the Kaiser. Finally,
their batteries are slightly smaller than those of the Qualcomm-based models
neither of them support HSUPA, which may be a definite disadvantage if you would upload a lot from your handheld (used it as, say, a HSPA modem). Of course, they do support the downlink HSDPA - that is, if you don't want to upload (much) and/or you don't have access to a HSUPA-capable network, this problem won't be a real one.
their scrollwheels are somewhat less functional than those of the 8502 / 9502.
The 8150 has a numeric keyboard (dialpad) on the front, while the 6150 doesn’t have anything. I would have preferred a slide-out dialpad on the 8150 to keep the size down just like on the Nokia N81/N95/N96 or the HTC Nike 200, but, based on the 6150 (which is pretty much reminiscent of the HP Jornada 52x/54x when it comes to the active percentage of the screen and the controllers on the front of the device), it seems the engineers at Arima (the ODM manufacturing i-mate's devices) just couldn’t make the non-visible electronics smaller; hence the big, unused area on the front.
Speaking of the 8150 vs. 9502 comparison (I consider this the two devices to eventually pick from – if there won’t be better models out there, that is), if you’re a frequent Opera Mobile or Mini user (currently, the two best browsers out there), you might want to go for the 8150 instead of the 9502. The reason for this is very simple: as has already been explained in several of my articles (see for example THIS), if you do learn the dialpad shortcuts of these browsers, they become quicker and easier to operate than Internet Explorer or anything else.
If weight is a concern, then, you need to be aware of the 9502’s weighing 200 grams. It’s considerably lighter than, say, the HTC Universal (the “real” VGA Windows Mobile phone up to now, weighing 285 grams - I don't count in the Toshiba G900 and the O2 XDA Flame in here because they're really-really buggy [click the links for bug reports and what people think of these models]) but is still one of the (if not THE) heaviest model of the current (!) crop of PDA phones – even the VGA ones. In this regard, the 8150 is way better: it only weighs 152 grams – that is, almost 50 grams less than the 9502. BTW, in this regard, the non-VGA 8502 is the best, “only” weighing 140 grams.

As can be seen in the following shot of the 9502,
it’s certain i-mate has gone for Aplix (Jblend) instead of Esmertec (Jbed) as far as MIDlets (like Opera Mini, the Gmail MIDlet or tons of sometimes really high-quality (like Simcity Societies) games are concerned) with the 9502. I am not particularly happy of this decision as, in general, I consider Jbed superior to Jblend. Fortunately, this can be easily fixed (if you’d also like to prefer Jbed if you’re a, say, heavy Opera Mini user or gamer) by just installing Jbed on the device. See the MIDlet Bible and my Opera Mini 4 tutorials HERE and HERE for more info. It's worth pointng out that the Xscale-based 6150 and 8150 are, on the other hand, Esmertec-based, as can also be seen in the following shot (notice the blue "e" "Java" icon.)
This is in favor of the 8150 (6150), unless you don't refuse to install Jbed on your device (or you don't plan to use Opera Mini at all - it'd be a bad decision because Opera Mini rocks, particularly if you master the dialpad shortcuts!).
Camera-wise, none of the new models excel. None of them has any decent lens (the heart of a decent camera - (mostly) NOT the amount of Mpixels the cameras have) or a Xenon flash. That is, don't expect anything comparable to the Nokia N95(-1) or, even better, the N82. I REALLY think Windows Mobile manufacturers should pay more attention to including quality (back) cameras in their models. Nokia's N95-1 is almost a year old and still, none of the new WinMo models can approach its image quality, let alone the mechanical lens protection. This is certainly an area where i-mate (too) should pay more attention to. Along with the other areas Nokia's entertainment-specific phones have always been strong at; for example, stereo, loud and quality speakers with built-in stereo widening (see my dedicated article HERE). Not "plain" SRS but something like the one in the N95 - at least when it comes to stereo widening of the built-in stereo speakers.
Finally, let me quickly elaborate on the question of the 3D hardware acceleration. It’s (still) not known whether the Qualcomm-based models (8502 / 9502) support it or not. The Xscale-based ones (6150 / 8150) (almost) surely do. This support, however, means the latter devices are only compatible with very few games / emulators out there (currently, only with Call of Duty 2 and GeoRallyEX). That is, most programs (again, mostly games and emulators) written for the earlier and much more widely supported Intel 2700G 2D / 3D accelerator (used in the Dell Axim x50v / x51v) will NOT make use the GoForce 5500 accelerator in the 6150 or 8150 – they are simply incompatible. See the current GoForce 5500 compatibility list HERE – as you can see, very few current titles support the chip. (Note that Kokak, the author of DoomGLES / HereticGLES, does promise support for the 5500 in his future DoomGLES / HereticGLES versions.) Also note that, while the Qualcomm is supported (to some degree) by the industry-leader video player CorePlayer, the GoForce 5500 isn’t and, as it seems, won’t be, at least not in the near future. (See THIS for more info on this question.) This mean you probably won't get flawless VGA playback on originally high-resolution videos, unlike with, say, the above-mentioned Axims.
Verdict
I need to admit: I have mixed feelings about i-mate’s new devices. I’m not sure whether I would at all exchange my more than two years old HTC Universal for a 9502 or an 8150 because the Universal is in no way THAT outdated (particularly if you take its EXCELLENT thumbboard into account - if you're a frequent texter and/or e-mail writer, you will just not want to get rid of the Universal, unless you use an external Bluetooth keyboard like that of iGo) and the new i-mate lineup isn't that revolutionary or considerably better than the old Universal. I think I’ll just wait for the newer and, without doubt, more exciting and, even more importantly, in most respects, more capable devices (most importantly, the E-Ten V900, the Gigabyte GSmart MS808 and the Sony-Ericsson XPERIA X1) to arrive. Also, I would keep an eye on the new Samsung SGH-i780, which isn’t a bad device unless you plan to play games (see THIS for more info on the gaming-friendliness of its touchpad) and/or need a VGA screen.
That is, I can't say I'm entirely satisfied with any of these new i-mate devices. This is why I wouldn't switch to either the 8150 or the 9502 from my current setup (Universal for heavy WinMo & touchscreen & VGA & heavy Web browsing / text entering tasks; N95 for everything multimedia, GPS and camera; HTC s310/Oxygen MS Smartphone for pure phoning (and nothing else) and the BlackBerry 8800 for IM / push mail / casual Web browsing). (BTW, just a quick note. Some of you have asked me how come a Windows Mobile fan, MS MVP etc. like me uses BB for push mail / IM. The answer is simple: I must have a BB subscription because I need to be up-to-date with Blackberry-related questions too. For example, I've just offered Microsoft a hands-on, week-long course for enterprise clients on why the Microsoft platform is better for enterprise usage than that of the BlackBerry. [I'm an experienced lecturer; I've led several hands-on, 40+-hour, mostly Java programming courses as a contractor for Sun.] This is why I need to use the BB very actively - to keep me updated about BB, the news, new products, new OS versions etc so that I know what the BB is capable of, even third-party app-wise.)
If you NOW shop for a device because you don’t have any WinMo device already or the one you have is heavily outdated and don’t want to go for HTC’s current devices (because of, for example, the generic lack of VGA screens and/or multimedia / gaming-friendliness on all their Qualcomm-based models), i-mate’s devices may be worth checking out. However, make sure you thoroughly compare the feature sets of each phone to see which fits you the best. Again, there is no clear winner: all of i-mate's phones have lacking functionalities and there simply isn’t “best” of them. You’ll have a very hard time choosing from the 9502 and the 8150 if you want to look for the highest-end models. Hope my pretty thorough comparison of the (dis)advantages of both models will help you a lot in deciding which model to go for.
What next in my MWC Report Series?
(Un)fortunately, I still have a lot to write / report about. I'll post a very thorough report on the new HP iPAQ 210, the already-mentioned Samsung SGH-i780 etc. Also, I plan to post some other, smaller tidbits too. Expect my next, huge MWC article later this week.
UPDATE (02/27/2008):
HowardForums forum member nextel1996 has pointed out PDAdb.net is able to compare more than two devices at the same time; their chart is HERE. You may visit it instead of mine because it'll be kept up-to-date, should be there any changes, as opposed to mine, which I won't update now that PDAdb.net offers a dynamically updated chart.
You might want to check out HowardForums forum member maevro's post HERE. Maevro is an authorized reseller and he reports on his experiences with i-mate.
I've expanded (and partially rewritten) the article; for example, I added the "Major design problems with the 9502" and the "VGA vs. QVGA on a 2.8" screen?" sections.
PPCT frontpage

UPDATE (02/27/2008):
HowardForums forum member nextel1996 has pointed out PDAdb.net is able to compare more than two devices at the same time; their chart is HERE. You may visit it instead of mine because it'll be kept up-to-date, should be there any changes, as opposed to mine, which I won't update now that PDAdb.net offers a dynamically updated chart.
You might want to check out HowardForums forum member maevro's post HERE. Maevro is an authorized reseller and he reports on his experiences with i-mate.
I've expanded (and partially rewritten) the article; for example, I added the "Major design problems with the 9502" and the "VGA vs. QVGA on a 2.8" screen?" sections.
PPCT frontpage

Guys, anothe rupdate. As I don't know how many updates I'll stil have, I found it better to link to the original article so that I can avoid slicing up the article again and again into postable chunks:
http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=2504&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

MWC: Chipset Vendors & New Chipsets - Part II

The underlying chipset in a handheld device or phone has probably the biggest impact on major properties of the device like battery life, the (in)ability to use 3G and overall performance, particularly when it comes to graphics. Even users that don’t know much of of the hardware of these devices know that, for example, at least in the Windows Mobile world (as opposed to Symbian devices), TI OMAP almost exclusively means very good battery life but reduced performance and lack of hardware acceleration of, for example, 3D or video decoding. In this installment of my MWC series, I explain and evaluate most of the remaining, announced new chipsets.
In Part I of my CPU/chipset-related MWC series, I’ve elaborated on the brand new and really-really cool MWC announcement of Samsung. I’ve also introduced the latest technology from Imagination Technologies and have also touched on Qualcomm. Let’s start with the latter.
Qualcomm
In the previous article, I’ve promised I would fill you in on their latest chipset, the QST1x0x (QST1000, QST1100 and QST1105). I’ve already linked to the official announcement in a later, generic article. Now, let me elaborate on the new chipsets a bit more thoroughly.
The new chipset, as you can check it online too, has three submodels: the cheapest and non-connected QST1000, which promises some additional niceties compared to the current MSM7200(A) chipset many Windows Mobile devices are currently based on; for example,
”It’s based on the 65 nm process technology for enhanced battery life and bill-of-materials savings” - as opposed to the 90 nm of the previous generation. 65 nm represents the highest-end technology today with all major chipset manufacturers. (Of course, the lower the number, the better). In this regard, all other major manufacturers are already using (or, have just announced switching to) the same technology: remember the just-announced / released Samsung S3C6410/ S3C6430 from the previous chipset report? They’re both 65nm, as opposed to the previous-generation, 90nm S3C6400. And, the case is the same with the semi-new TI OMAP 3 platform, which I’ll elaborate on later.
”Seventh-generation gpsOne engine with support for Standalone-GPS and Assisted-GPS modes, as well as gpsOneXTRA Assistance technology delivering enhanced Standalone-GPS performance.” - This, hopefully, also means that its performance and sensitivity will be on par with (or even better than) the, currently, most powerful SiRFstar III consumer chipset.
”Rich multimedia features, including camera, video playback at up to VGA resolution, and TV-out.” – Let’s start with the latter. Unfortunately, the pure mention of “TV-out” may show it (still) won’t support digital (VGA) output (only a subpar analogue one), let alone outputting at higher resolutions (which, incidentally, wouldn’t be of much use as analogue output is next to unreadable even at VGA, that is, 640*480 resolutions, let alone higher ones). I’ve already shown some real examples of the downsides of this approach in my i-mate article.
Also, as far as the rest of the statement is concerned, the description completely lacks a list of what video decoders are supported in hardware. (There’s another sentence in the press release, “A comprehensive range of popular audio and video codecs”, but it only refers to software en/decoding, which isn’t of much use as they can’t be accelerated.) As has been pointed out in several of my articles (see for example the H.264 Bible), hardware-accelerated video decoding may dramatically increase performance and battery life. (More on this in the next installment of my MWC device report, when I report on the Nokia N96’s built-in hardware support for video decoding supported by both the operating system and the built-in media player (both out-of-the-box), which is pretty much unmatched in the mobile world. For example, on Windows Mobile, the built-in Windows Media Player doesn’t use the video acceleration features at all on devices that do have hardware video acceleration features – for example, the 2700G-equipped Dell Axim x50v / x51v or the GoForce 5500-based models. On these devices, you can call yourself lucky if you do find a player that makes use of these features: on the Axims, there is (TCPMP / CorePlayer), but on the 5500-based models, there isn’t such an app.)
”Support for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and FM radio.” - Of this, it’s mostly the FM radio that interests me the most. Currently, very few Qualcomm-based WinMo handhelds have an FM radio. Actually, if you recall, I’ve emphasized in my i-mate article that it’s only the Intel Xscale PXA270-based 6150 and 8150 that have an FM radio, not the Qualcomm-based 8502 / 9502. The situation is pretty similar with HTC’s models. Now, with the arrival of an “official” FM radio, it’ll hopefully much easier for WinMo ODM’s/OEM’s to include FM radio in their handsets.
Note the lack of the GSM / 3G support in the QST1000, which isn’t by mistake: it’s meant for, for example, phone-less navigators, multimedia devices (if and only if the QST1000 is indeed has decent video decoding support) and classic (non-phone) PDA’s. It’s the QST1100 that adds wireless WAN connectivity for voice calls and data capabilities.
Finally, the QST1105 also has a hardware-accelerated 2D/3D graphics core capable of performing up to 2.8 million triangles per second for compelling user interfaces and gaming applications. They didn’t really have a demo showing this; the gaming section of their booth,
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
didn’t have any 3D demo; not even a reference design (demo) device.
These three chipsets, as with Samsung’s current (S3C6400) and just-announced (S3C6410/ S3C6430) chipsets, are pin-compatible, which mean (comparatively) easy switchability. (No need to redesign the “motherboard” of the handheld when a manufacturer want to up/downgrade to another chipset.) However, it’s not known whether it’s pin compatible with the MSM7200 (I bet it isn’t) – again, unlike with the case of the (previous generation) Samsung S3C6400 -> (new generation) S3C6410/ S3C6430 upgrade.
NVIDIA
If you’re a desktop PC gamer, you must know what NVIDIA is famous for: the 3D accelerated GeForce video card series. You may also have heard of their GoForce 5500 integrated in (very few) Windows Mobile devices.
(their booth)
(some of the mostly feature phones using Nvidia’s products)
They have, so far, had limited success on the Windows Mobile platform as vendors of stand-alone, additional 2D / 3D chips simply because the platform has been deemed a productivity and not an entertainment / gaming one. Their GoForce 5500 (and its predecessor, which completely lacked 3D acceleration) was only included in few and not very successful devices (the pretty much lackluster, buggy and not any more supported O2 XDA Flame and, now, the two new i-mate Intel Xscale-based models, the 6150 and the 8150) and had even less third-party software support than the Intel 2700G (the other, notable 2D / 3D accelerator ever used in Windows Mobile devices). For example, as has also been explained in my i-mate article, it’s (currently) only two games (!) that make use of its 3D capabilities and absolutely no video player programs. Again, unlike with the 2700G, which has considerably better support.
Their newly-announced APX 2500 (see more info & official homepage HERE), however, seems to be really groundbreaking. No, not only because its 3D and hardware video decoding acceleration capabilities, not in the least.
(their APX 2500 reference design decoding a 720p video)
Not that they would be bad – just not supported by third-party developers, and not NVIDIA themselves, who refuse to open the API to some of the devs like the CorePlayer folks.

They also demoed Quake on with the new chipset, which ran really good. None of the other 3D accelerator folks did the same (they should have done – it’s much more interesting than just some demos). In this respect, Samsung, who, otherwise, has the best-specced chipset announcement, only demoed the 3D capabilities of the S3C6410 with a simple, almost texture-less 3D GPS simulation (which can clearly be seen in the following shot I’ve taken of their tech demo:
; this demo is also visible in the picture you may have already seen). Samsung really should demo their stuff with 3D accelerated games like demos, not just plain GPS navigaton simulation, which, frankly, doesn’t look much better than, say, the 13+-year-old 3D Super FX chipset in the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. At least Imagination Technologies (see PowerVR) used tech demos run on in-production, current (Nokia) models to show the difference between software and hardware acceleration, which was indeed very instructive. In my opinion, NVIDIA’s going for demoing Quake running on their processor in their high-resolution demo device was a nice move. Pretty well, I should add – the animation wasn’t at all jerky.
They have also demoed 720p video playback on both the same device and an external, HD TV:
I couldn’t help noticing the picture being sometimes jerky; however, it was still WAY better than any solely software-based decoding and the occasional stutters in the video weren’t annoying at all.
I can only hope the NVIDIA folks come up with a much more open approach to opening their API and/or making it 100% compatible with, say existing Intel 2700g code (a lot of games, emulators and TCPMP / CorePlayer) so that third-party apps can make use of these features.
Here’re two shots of their reference design device:

Sorry for their being so blurry (hence the lack of a high-res version); check out Engadget’s related article for more shots of it if this is a problem.
Of course, it’s just reference design; real-world devices will be much leaner / prettier; therefore, you won’t really be interested in just a reference design. More in real-world devices if and when they do get released.
3D and hardware video decoding acceleration aside, they seem to enter the mobile business too: their new chipset does much more than “plain” multimedia / gaming acceleration. It contains full support for communications. Again, check out the official specs for more info - its’ certainly worth it. I can only hope their entering the mobile scene as a real mobile chipset manufacturer makes for example Qualcomm spend more time on bringing out better and better products and helping their customers (like HTC) to easily (!) develop drivers that use all of their features. They have even created a VERY nice, 3D phone interface, which is much prettier than that of iPhone. (YouTube demo links below.)
Finally, you may want to check out THIS cellphonenews link collection linking to some other NVIDIA-related articles. Of course, there’re several other resources worth checking out; for example, you will DEFINITELY want to see THIS and THIS YouTube videos on their ‘iPhone buster’ user interface. THIS PPCT thread may be also of interest, particularly my comments in there.
Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments, of course, concentrated on showcasing their new OMAP 3 platform. What’s so special about it? you may ask.
Well, if you’ve ever seen a, say, Nokia N93(i), Nokia N95, Nokia N95 8GB or Nokia N82 running a 3D game, you already know the answer. TI’s CPU’s aren’t as bad as most Windows Mobile users (even geeks!) think. Not in the least. It’s just that HTC is still using the oldest CPU generations (for example, the 130 nm and, therefore, indeed pretty old TI OMAP 850) in their handhelds (other WinMo manufacturers have, in some of their models, have already switched to the 2420 – see the Motorola MOTO Q9h, the Samsung SGH-i617 BlackJack II / Jack, and the Samsung SGH-i616). The second-generation (OMAP 2; all these CPU’s start with ‘2’ as in the 2420 chipset used in most of the N-series Nokia models released in 2007) TI OMAP CPU’s are really-really capable. Their new, OMAP 3 platform and its (then) flagship chipset, the OMAP3430, which was announced just a year ago, is really worth paying attention to. It has specs that are way better than even Qualcomm’s just-announced QST1105. (Note that there’s also a OMAP3440, but I did’t really notice any difference between it and the OMAP3430, so, I don't know in what it's better).
The OMAP3430 is promised to deliver 720p high-definition video playback for mobile phones, while the QST1000 / QST1100 most surely can’t go over VGA resolution. I bet the latter doesn’t support H.264 hardware decoding either. The OMAP3 platform also supports both analog (TV) and digital video output; the latter up to XGA resolution. In contrast to the analog & VGA resolution-only QST1x0x. And the list continues: for example, upon browsing the product data sheet, I realized the OMAP 2/3 series (but, of course, not the OMAP 850 deployed in many Windows Mobile models) are also able to interface with TI’s own digital TV receiver, the Hollywood Solution DTV1000/1001, which is either DVB-H (most of the world) / ISDB-T (Japan) compatible. No such feature is known about the new Qualcomm chipset. (I'll elaborate on digital TV issues & questions in my next article.)
The flagship model, the OMAP3430, is rumored to go into production first half of this year. Hope at least Nokia puts it in the then-to-be-announced models (N97? N98?) so that we can see what it’s capable of. Speaking of Nokia, interestingly, the Nokia N96 (and N78), that is, the two, just-announced MWC models are rumored to run either on the Freecell (as has been explained in one of the post-WMC All About Symbian podcasts) or the STMicroelectronics (more precisely, the Nomadik STn8815 rumoured HERE) platform - that is, most probably not on TI OMAP.
On the TI booth, several third-party companies building on their platforms were present; for example, Ingenient Technologies with their Low Power 3D PND. As their homepage (including their related press release) doesn’t contain almost anything on what their solution is really capable of (as was the case with Samsung’s latest-and-greatest, just-announced 6410 chipset), I ended up having to take a photo of their flyer:
Of course, it’s just an example of the several companies developing system-level support & drivers & API’s for TI.
What next?
Yes, I know you've all been waiting for my article on further MWC devices. Most of the article has already been written, I will publish it tomorrow, along with a thorough explanation of digital (terrestrial / handheld) TV.

(their booth)
(The TI booth – forgot to include in the article, sorry)

UPDATE (03/17/2008): yet another quick note: the OMAP3 architecture, along with Ingenient Technologies' solution, demoed at playing back King Kong in 720p:
(note that the big image is 2500 pixels wide so that you can see a lot of details in for example the flyers)
The video playback was really smooth: I haven't noticed any kind of stuttering, as opposed to the Nvidia APX 2500 demo.

I've heard about okl 4 from open labs allows win mo to recognize omap 3 if so can one hack an omap 3 device to run windows mobile???

qjsmartphone said:
I've heard about okl 4 from open labs allows win mo to recognize omap 3 if so can one hack an omap 3 device to run windows mobile???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You might want to repost your q to the dev & hacking subforum here.

Sony-Ericsson publishes XPERIA X1 white paper! Wowz!

I’ve published several articles on Sony Ericsson’s forthcoming Windows Mobile device, the XPERIA X1. Up until now, little had been known of the capabilities of the phone. Now, the S-E folks have just published a white paper, which answers several (but not all!) questions.
It is available HERE for download as a PDF document. (Just enter the anti-denial of service four characters in the input field for access.) The best news is that, according to InfoSyncWorld, it’s coming in August 2008 – that is, earlier than most have thought.
Some of the most interesting stuff the old, MWC / CEBIT leaflets / presentations didn’t provide an answer to and/or could have been improved upon the first prototypes:
- it has a TFT LCD, NOT an OLED screen (some people stated it’d have OLED)
- it seems to have a traditional D-pad in addition to the touchpad if and only if "Four way key - to navigate menus" (see page 7) is what this means. Very good news for most people (see my generic remarks on the issue in my i780 article on touchpads.)
- the camera has both auto-focus and touch focus touch focus. The latter allows for quick focusing on the object you press on the touchscreen - clearly a clever way of focusing to out-of-focus subjects as quickly as possible. However, it seems it won’t have lens protection, unlike the Nokia N95 / N82 (the current top-end Smartphone camera model) and, generally, seems to be weaker.
- as far as the video recording capabilities are concerned, the video size (resolution) and frame rate are VGA and 30 fps, respectively for the non-US model; for the US model, this is QVGA and 24 fps only. Frankly, I just don’t get the point in so severely a dumbed down US model... Did the Sony people go crazy?! Not that I would except Nokia quality shots from the camera (no lens protector and the lens itself seems to be pretty weak), but 30 fps VGA is, today, a MUST in any decent smartphone; therefore, I just don’t understand why they plan to release a device for the US market with such specs. (Nevertheless, I’m absolutely sure some hackers / ROM cookers will be able to enable the American model to operate in VGA mode – if nothing else works, by flashing an European ROM on it.)
- it supports ("Media sharing is compatible with DLNA." on page 6) DLNA (see THIS), which is the first on Windows Mobile (unless you use a DLNA-compatible client). See my UPnP Bible for more info on it.
- it, in addition to the worldwide 3G bands, also supports most (but not all, as it's only tri-band) of the US 3G bands (but, of course, not the forthcoming, absolutely incompatible T-Mobile one); that is, most people in the US will get HSDPA coverage with either bands. This is definitely good news.
- according to page 27, the US version doesn’t support H.264 playback either. (See the H.264 Bible for more info.) Interestingly, the non-US version supports the H.264 Baseline profile.
- according to Page 26, the built-in music player supports eAAC+; that is, HE-AACv2. (I REALLY hope Sony didn’t mess up with the different versions in here.) This means the music player will be something much better than the built-in WMP in Windows Mobile 6 Professional, which doesn’t support this format. (See THIS for more info on this question.) At last some good news for us HE-AACv2 fans using Windows Mobile devices – I may even stop using my N95 as a HE-AACv2 player? ;-)
Note that
- it’s still not known whether it will have 3D hardware acceleration or not. Page 4, which is almost the same as the one in the original MWC leaflet, only lists “HW 3D Graphics” and, unlike most? all? the other list elements, it’s not elaborated on later either. There's a related remark ("3D fish Panel: A cool panel which will showcase the 3D features of the phone (A fish tank with 3D fishes).") on page 6, which MIGHT mean it indeed has hardware acceleration. Again, it is still to be seen whether it's true and whether it has hardware acceleration or not.
- it’s not known whether the built-in MIDlet manager supports Java 3D or not (see “N/A” in the Java 3D row on page 27). Given that the latest, 3.1+ Esmertec Jbed versions all support Java 3D (so far, without hardware acceleration because of the lacking Qualcomm drivers on HTC’s own phones), this MIGHT mean it uses either a non-Esmertec MIDlet manager or a non-3D-capable one. (Not that it’d be hard to install the latest Jbed on it... Still, it might not have support for the 3D hardware acceleration, if any – unlike, say, the Nokia N95 / N82, where hardware accelerated 3D games work just great.) (See the MIDlet Bible for more info.)

Menneisyys said:
- as far as the video recording capabilities are concerned, the video size (resolution) and frame rate are VGA and 30 fps, respectively for the non-US model; for the US model, this is QVGA and 24 fps only. Frankly, I just don’t get the point in so severely a dumbed down US model... Did the Sony people go crazy?!
- according to page 27, the US version doesn’t support H.264 playback either. (See the H.264 Bible for more info.) Interestingly, the non-US version supports the H.264 Baseline profile.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
These are likely patent related issues.
Surur

I cant see whether its windows 6.1 or 6.1+?

As Surur stated, it's very likely that the difference between the US and European version are related to Patent issues.
As for 3D I've seen a few videos where the SE rep talked about 3D, not to mention having a panel to show off it's 3D capabilities, add to that that HTC says they will have 3D acceleration in future models, it all points to the device most likely having 3D accelerated support.
The most upsetting thing is the touch panel, such a beautiful with an amazing 800x400. For me it's both exciting a and frustrating. The resolution makes pretty much any web site viewable without fiddling with magnification or scrolling around the page. Terminal Services will be even more useable than on a 640x480 display. It's all good as long as you can see it. I guess people will have to wait until the sun goes down
I've said this before but the more I play with an IPhone or Ipod Touch, the more I wish that the Xperia or any Windows Mobile device for that matter had a Capacitive Screen. Not only does it make finger touch cababilities much better. I was playing with an Ipod Touch outside yesterday, it was very sunny. I pulled out my HTC P3600 and compared the screen. The P3600 was unviewable, even with my hand providing some shade, I could still barely see the screen. The IPod Touch screen on the other hand, it was perfectly viewable even with the screen facing the sun.
It's frustrating as hell, I am looking forward to the Xperia, finally a device that isn't missing one feature, high resolution display, 128 megs ram, all radios, even a decent form factor. I'm not a fan of Qwerty keyboards and would like a thinner model (maybe X2) without the keyboard but it's still thinner than my P3600. Still, I'm considering switching to an IPhone. Even with all the limitations and things that I would be missing, the screen and touch goes from frustrating to enjoyable compared to my WM devices.
They should have at least had an OLED display.

MWC: Symbian report: Nokia N97, Samsung Omnia HD, Sony Idou etc.

Let’s take a look at how one of the competing operating systems, Symbian, fares. As you may recall, I use the Nokia N95 as my main phone because of the
• (comparatively) high-quality camera (no Windows Mobile or BlackBerries phone can match it, let alone the, in this respect, even worse iPhone 3G),
• call recording (no such thing on most WinMo phones and all BlackBerries/iPhone models),
• native support for HE-AACv2, the best audio format (no such thing on Windows Mobile without severe problems and drawbacks) and A2DP (nothing like this on the iPhone) and
• the quality stereo speakers especially well suited to listening to music – in a wonderfully wide(ned) stereo.
Fortunately, the Symbian folks have come out with some very nice, new products certainly worth taking a look at if you need a phone (even a secondary one – just like with me, who I prefer gaming / browsing the Web on my iPhone 3G and doing the e-mail stuff on my BlackBerry 8800). In these areas, Symbian certainly excels and well worth considering if you’re fed up with for example the mediocre camera quality HTC’s handsets have. (Speaking of HTC and Windows Mobile, they have just announced they aren’t even trying to replace digital cameras. No comment…)
Note that I only discuss the latest handhelds, not for example the new, announced games for the platform. You might want to take a look at All About Symbian and Symbian-Freak for more info on this. In this article, I mostly speak about my experience with the new handsets, along with my own shots of them.
Nokia
(Nokia’s booth)
N97 – the forthcoming flagship model
The model gathering the most interest at Nokia’s booth was the recently announced N97. I had the chance of playing with it a bit.
While it could indeed be better (for example, 3D acceleration and/or stereo speakers and/or DVB-T/H), I pretty much liked what I saw. Being a pre-production unit, the device I played with wasn’t the fastest.
Unfortunately, it seems the Web browser is (almost?) the same as in Nokia’s previous models. Nokia S60 Web was indeed great about two and a half-three years ago, when the first E-series devices with it (and, later, the N95) were released, but now, it seems to be heavily outdated. My biggest grief was the lack of dynamic text reflowing (something the latest Opera Mobile builds are capable of at any zoom level) when zooming in. The Nokia rep at the booth tried to come up with a pretty bad explanation of trying to stick to the desktop view. This, to a certain degree, is understandable on a (comparatively) high-resolution screen the N97 has; nevertheless, I still lack the ability of Opera Mobile of full text reflowing at any, arbitrary zoom level.
The camera seems to be the same as in the N95 (with a sliding lens cover), which is good news, particularly given that most other handsets (except for some models like Samsung’s Omnia HD and Nokia’s own N86) still have much inferior ones.
Gamers will definitely like the fact that Nokia will also make the N97 N-Gage-compliant – at least this is what I’ve been told by the rep. I’ve found the D-pad next to the QWERTY keyboard pretty gaming-friendly. Note that, as the D-pad is only accessible with the N97 open, you can kiss portrait-mode, one-handed gaming a good-bye. Hope the control methods the games implement will take advantage of the larger keyboard keys (like the space key) located far away from the D-pad to let for controlling games easily, without cramped hands.
Too bad the device doesn’t have 3D hardware acceleration.
The sliding (hinge) mechanism seemed to be sufficiently stable. No wobbling. The two (closed and open) states are both stable and the spring-loaded mechanism greatly helps in the transition between them – that is,
1. don’t expect anything like the HTC Wizard’s spring-less mechanism requiring the same force to switch during the entire transition
2. when closed, it seemed to be much more stable. When operating in single-handled mode, the fingers don’t accidentally cause the upper part of the bezel to wobble and sometimes even start opening the QWERTY – unlike with, say, the HTC Vox (s710), where this problem is so acute that a lot of people prefer keeping their handset always in their left hand in order to avoid this problem.
(Compared to the iPhone when opened. As can be seen, it’s a bit – but not much! – longer than the iPhone. Note that I’ve left my iPhone in its case, which added a bit to its (apparent) length and width. It was a bit thicker too – pretty understandable for a slider.)
As far as S60 5th ed (the operating system running on the N97) is concerned, it does have some shortcomings needing some rework. For example, in the mailer application, the only way to quickly scroll the messages is using the vertical scrollbar in the middle of the screen: you can’t just scroll the list of messages in the iPhone way of scrolling.
Not being a 3D (and, for that matter, 2D) accelerated phone means there were no cool transitions either. As both the other, just announced devices (the E75 and the N86) both have some kind of quick fade in/out application switching transitions (don’t expect anything like on the iPhone, though), I think the same will also be implemented when the N97 finally hits the shelves (around this June).
Finally, it’s pretty hard to say what people the N97 really targets. It’s much more a business model than any of the previous N-series handsets. Gamers and lovers of multimedia, on the other hand, won’t be fully satisfied because of the lack of the 3D acceleration and stereo speakers; two things that made the N95 a must buy (and the latter also makes the Samsung Omnia HD a very tempting device).
Nokia E75
The just-launched E75 is a QWERTY slider as opposed to all the previous, popular E-series devices (note that the E63 and the E71 are still current models; that is, Nokia hasn’t given up on the highly successful Blackberry-alike QWERTY line). Some shots:

This is one of Nokia’s models that are compatible with their DVB-H Bluetooth transcoder, which was showcased this year too.
The DVB-H Bluetooth transcoder
As with last year, no one could provide me any information on exactly which models the transcoder is and will be compatible with. I assume it’s only the (outdated and slow) N71 (as was last year) and the E75 – and nothing else. There are no plans of making it compatible with DVB-T either. Sure I know Nokia is probably the biggest driving force behind DVB-H and (also) providing DVB-T would result in decreasing the pressure on both traditional broadcasting companies and mobile phone operators to implement DVB-H as everyone would just stick with DVB-T, even with the traditional disadvantages of it (considerably lower battery life). However, now that DVB-H is still supported in very few countries (even in Finland, the home country of Nokia, only about 40% of the total population is covered, while the coverage of DVB-T is 100%) and there doesn’t seem to be a breakthrough in the near future, I do think Nokia could also come out with a DVB-T transmitter to please existing customers and to draw new ones to the platform. Why, you may ask? Don’t forget no such transcoders exist for Windows Mobile and it has only been recently that PacketVideo announced the same for the iPhone. And, the case is the same of the DVB-H equivalent in the U.S. and some other countries, MediaFLO – it’s only Qualcomm that offers a chipset (and a reference design) compatible with real smartphone OS’es (I don’t talk about feature phones, the ones that currently are only compatible with MediaFLO). Nevertheless, according to the Qualcomm reps I’ve talked to at MWC, there still isn’t any real manufacturer using the MediaFLO chipset to build a transcoder usable with the iPhone, Windows Mobile or any other smartphone OS. This means you’ll need to wait for at least half a year for such things to become existing. Until then, you will need to rely on traditional, IP-based (non-broadcast) transmissions, which can be pretty pricey if you don’t have an unlimited data plan and, of course, don’t cover all the DVB-T/H (Europe etc.), MediaFLO / ATSC (U.S.) etc. broadcasts available at your area. After all, some TV companies are pretty reluctant to provide a live Internet stream of their programs (they prefer broadcasting them instead); and, if they do, you still need an extensive data plan to watch them. If your operating system is compatible, that is – WMV, the most widely used format used for Internet streaming, isn’t at all supported in most popular Symbian E/N-series devices (I only know of the “flop” N96 as capable of playing them) and, before of PacketVideo’s announcement, on the iPhone.
This (the lack of DVB-T and much wider device support) is certainly bad news; I really hope Nokia acts very soon and.
New A2DP headphones
The Nokia folks have also come out with a new pair of A2DP in-ear headphones, the BH-214. I haven’t tested its audio quality and compatibility (my very thorough tests – see THIS – require at least a day of testing – this was simply impossible at MWC) – I’ll try to do this as soon as possible.
Nokia N86
Nokia’s just-launched N86 sports an 8-Mpixel camera (along with some other goodies like an OLED screen). It’s, as with most (more) recent N8x/N9x-series phones, a dual slider. No matter how hard I tried, I wasn’t allowed to transfer the test shots I’ve taken to my notebook for a more thorough comparison with the image quality of the N95. I have been continuously referred to the “official” demo photos on Nokia’s pages. Of course, this wasn’t sufficient for me – I would have preferred some real comparisons to see whether for example the low-light performance has indeed been improved (as was explained by the Nokia rep I talked to).

Note that the Mobile-Review folks managed to loan a review device and did publish a preview the Mobile-Review review with several (MWC) photos of their own. In general, these are pretty good. There are only two images that shows severe problems because of the limited dynamic range: burnt-in highlights (click the images for the original):
However, some other shots of the same scenery don’t show the same burnt-in highlights:
Also worth checking out is the second image. It shows very strong sharpening (look at the wall in the top left corner or the contours of box’s wood strips / staves). The same kind of sharpening can also be visible in THIS (otherwise, excellent) shot. Here, also take a look at the contours of the upper part of the black shoe in the center right of the shot – they are equally bad. Unfortunately, Nokia’s image processing algorithm has always suffered from oversharpening, resulting in artifacts like this.
In addition, if you look at the image sizes (900…1000 kbyes), you’ll understand some comparatively heavy JPEG image compression is taking place. The situation is exactly the same on the Nokia N95, where the heavy JPEG compression makes the images a little blocky (particularly visible if you take shots of, say, newspaper pages). I really, repeat, REALLY hope Nokia starts to offer a way of setting the compression level –over-compressing JPEG’s can certainly result in considerably bad image quality. (Of course, it’s still way ahead of what Windows Mobile devices or the iPhone are capable of, but still – this could be fixed by a very simple, additional menu item for controlling the JPEG compression quality.)
Also note that, in addition to the over-sharpening, (at least some of) the images also show low-resolution, washed-out low-contrast textures; that is, image smudging. This is quite visible in how the wood strips / staves are reproduced; I bet the situation would be the same with low-contrast greenish areas like a bunch of leaves of a tree. If you take into account that (over)sharpening is needed to “fix” the issues introduced by image smudging, which, in turn, is applied to “remove” noise, then, you’ll understand why there are issues like this with the N86.
Samsung Omnia HD
One of the biggest announcement (and demo) of the show was that of the Samsung Omnia HD: a brand new, touchscreen- and S60 5th ed-based, heavily enhanced version of the former, WQVGA Windows Mobile device. It sports a high-resolution, 640*360 (that is, 16:9) AMOLED screen. It being based on OLED also means really vivid colors and much better viewing range than with traditional TFT.
(Samsung’s booth. Just like with the previous year, most people were not permitted to take photos of anything; hence the lack of anything except for this shot.)
This device is what the true successor of the Nokia N95 should have been: better camera (at least when it comes to video recording: 720p as opposed to the VGA-only N95; note that it “only” records at 24 fps and not 30), much better and higher-resolution screen etc., while keeping one of the greatest features of the N95: the stereo speakers. (Which, again, were dropped for the N97.) What is more, the Samsung rep stated the speakers use some kind of a stereo widening. I couldn’t listen to the stereo 3D space at MWC; I can only hope it indeed can match the quality of the N95. The Mobile-Review folks stated the speakers are very loud, which is very promising – I REALLY hope they can even outperform those of the N95.
Note that it’s not only the 24 fps recording speed that is a bit problematic with the new device, but also the battery life while recording videos: according to the Mobile-Review article, HD video recording chews through the battery in about half an hour (!!!), which is plain unacceptable (for comparison: the Nokia N95 is capable of recording video at VGA and 30fps for a lot more time – I’d say well above one hour. The Canon PowerShot SD950 IS, with enabled LCD and using the 1024*768 at 15 fps mode, can record for about 40-50 minutes. I really hope this will be fixed in the final, production version. Incidentally, the same review also states the battery only lasts about a day under casual use, which is, well, far from perfect. Again, this has been measured on a pre-production unit.
Also note that, while the lens is recessed, there is still no lens protector, which is definitely a minus.
According to the Samsung rep I talked to, the Omnia HD supports not only 720p (that is, 1280*720) video recording, but also playback. I’m not sure whether this also means H.264 playback. The rep stated the Omnia HD has a dedicated video decoder circuitry but was a bit unsure about H.264 720p playback. Frankly, I don’t believe it is capable of flawless, stuttering-free H.264 playback (that would be quite a feat, even when done in hardware); hope I turn out to be wrong.
Visitors to the Samsung booth, unlike with Nokia, weren’t allowed to take the Omnia HD into their hands. This, unfortunately, also means I wasn’t able to give its Web browser (which was stated to be something like Safari on the iPhone) a quick try to find out whether it’s any good. I really hope it’s considerably better than Nokia’s now-outdated S60 Web.
There will surely be no Omnia HD with Windows Mobile, which is definitely bad news for WinMo users. Nevertheless, Samsung will definitely come out with Windows Mobile handsets in the future. It’s still not known what they will be like. I really hope they come out with a matching model (OLED screen, stereo speakers with clever widening algorithms, 720p recording / hardware playback, high-quality camera, call recording just like on the Samsung Omia) so that Windows Mobile users can also have a real multimedia / camera / for people that do need call recording, phoning device – something HTC has always been refusing to deliver (and for which the Toshiba TG01 isn’t the best choice either – again, it has no stereo speakers, no 3.5mm jack, no hardware acceleration, no call recording and no high-quality camera).
Make sure you check out the Mobile-Review review HERE. It has tons of comparative shots (even against the iPod Touch / iPhone screen) showing how much better AMOLED screens render colors.

Sony-Ericsson Idou
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Sony-Ericsson’s Idou is also pretty promising. It’s a Wi-Fi, GPS-enabled phone with a 12 Mpixel camera, Xenon flash (also sporting a lens protector slider) and a (comparatively) high-resolution (640*360; that is, 16:9) screen. See THIS for the official video (the page didn’t work under Opera 10 & Windows 7 – had to use IE to play back the clip).
Other articles
Yet Another Demo Video The Nokia N97 In All Its Glory! (just the official demo from Nokia; nothing closer shown)
Sony Ericsson Idou!??? Highend Symbian Devices With 12.1 MP Cam?! (some additional pics of the Idou)
Productivity comes first: New Eseries devices optimized for efficiency (E55, E75)
Samsung Omnia HD [i8910]: Samsung Unveils Its First S60 Touch Device!
ZEISS CAMERA STORY: Lights... camera... mobile... Nokia N86
Official Samsung Press Release: OMNIAHD Dazzles with Its HD Brilliance
Nokia E75 Gets Unboxed, Handled And Explained (with some videos)
Samsung Omnia HD Gets Reviewed! Eldar's In-Depth Preview Available In English! - links to the mobile-review.com review.
MWC 2009: First Day Summary: Nokia Puts Enhanced Internet Experiences - And Efficiency At The Heart Of New Solutions (a compilation of other news sources)
LG Unveils KT770: Attractive WQVGA 5 MPX Symbian S60 Slider! (as this phone does not have any really outstanding features, I decided not to elaborate on it)
Capture Your Life In More Detail With The Nokia N86 8MP (only the press release)
Nokia N86 Hands On, Promo and Designer Interview Video (better than the previous article; still no comparative shots)
Nokia N86 Eldar's Hands On: Tons Of Live Shots, Camera and Video Samples! - links to the Mobile-Review review.
MWC 2009: Nokia Round-Up
Rafe on the Nokia N86 8MP
Samsung Omnia HD launches - note that the data sheet in this review states the HD has a 1500 mAh battery. The Mobile-Review folks stated they couldn’t determine its capacity.
MWC: The E75 finally official
(Note that the last three articles also have dedicated threads; they are worth checking out.)

UPDATE (02/23/2009 2:09AM CET): Symbian-Freak frontpage with some additional pics

UPDATE: 1. the N97 does have stereo speakers. This is certainly good news - hopefully, they can match those of the N95, let alone the Omnia HD.
2. I haven't emphasized the N97 doesn't have 720p video recording, "only" VGA.

Review, benchmark & comparison: remote controller / presentation suite REDFLY Mobile

Review, benchmark & comparison: remote controller / presentation suite REDFLY Mobile
It was just a few days ago that Celio Corp, manufacturer of the two (C8N and C7) REDFLY Mobile Companions, have released their own REDFLY Mobile Viewer application, which runs on traditional PC’s (as opposed to the netbook-alike Mobile Companions). (There is a comparison of these three products HERE.)
It, at the first glance, is pretty similar to the well-established phone controller applications already available on Windows Mobile: SOTI’s Pocket Controller, MyMobiler, VirtualCE and so on. (See my last roundup of them HERE) However, there’s a major difference between it and any other, previous phone controller solutions: it’s able to show the contents of the phone’s screen in resolutions up to SVGA (800*600) or XGA (1024*768) on phones with less and equal/more than 128 Mbytes of built-in RAM, respectively.
This means if you have a QVGA (320*240) phone, you can still enjoy using (most of) its applications (and even some games) in either SVGA or XGA resolution, depending on whether it has 64 Mbytes of RAM built-in, or more. On top of this, it has excellent screen redraw efficiency and very low CPU utilization – the latter is very hard to measure even on slower models.
This, basically, offers the same possibilities as either a built-in, digital VGA output (like that of the Dell Axim x50v/x51v or the i-mate 6150/8150). Note that these shouldn’t be mistaken for analogue TV output found in, for example, the i-mate 8502/9502 – the latter has far worse quality and, for “real” presentations (unless it’s a showing lower-res videos only), pretty much useless resolution. Several Symbian S60 phones like the Nokia N95, N82 etc. also have analogue TV output only. (See THIS for more info on these questions.) Also note that the VGA output speed will still be much lower than that of phones or PDA’s with built-in video output circuitry: they, in general, are capable to provide 100% speed when driving an external monitor (even the Dell Axim x50v/x51v, at XGA resolution, with disabled internal screen). An external, software-based solution will have much lower speeds – that is, you won’t for example want to demo the video playback or fast-paced action gaming capabilities of your phone using REDFLY Mobile Viewer. Nevertheless, REDFLY Mobile Viewer is still one of the fastest screen displayer applications – in some tests, it has turned out to be even faster than SOTI’s Pocket Controller, the so far, best application in this respect.
Installation
Get both the desktop EXE (REDFLYMobileViewer.exe) and the CAB file from http://www.celiocorp.com/viewer. These must be separately downloaded and require receiving two e-mails with the download links. Note that this is a 60-day trial version.
There are four different client CAB’s available: RFS5*.CAB, RFS6*.CAB, RFP5*.CAB or RFP6*.CAB. It’s pretty easy to find out which is which. After the leading “RF”, the next letter (either S or P) shows whether it’s a phone / PDA is a touchscreen-enabled, professional (P) or a touchscreen-less, standard (S) phone. Similarly, the next digit, 5 or 6, refers to the Windows Mobile version (5 or 6; note that earlier versions aren’t supported).
After downloading the files, install REDFLYMobileViewer.exe on your desktop and transfer the (right) CAB file to your phone / PDA. Install it on the latter by tapping it; let it restart your phone so that the Redfly client service can start listening. (Note that I would certainly have welcome a solution employed by most other remote controllers: upon noticing the client phone doesn’t have a deployed CAB, they could do it automatically. Hope this is fixed in the future.)
After rebooting the phone (PDA) and reconnecting USB so that activeSync / WDMC is started, you can already click the “Connect” button in the desktop controller.
Opinions, comparisons
Indeed the extended resolution works great. I’ve tested it with the following apps:
- Internet Explorer Mobile (on the iPAQ 210, HTC Wizard and HTC s710)
- Opera Mini 4.2 and some games running under Jbed
- Built-in system applications, setting utilities etc.
- Office Mobile applications
All of these applications (and the dynamic resizing-capable games) did sense the non-standard (non-QVGA/VGA) screen resolutions and resized themselves without any problem.
Second, the speed. If you’ve read my previous phone / PDA controller articles, you know it well enough the more data you’re transferring over USB from the comparatively low-powered, slow processor of the phone, the slower the presentation will be; that is, the frame rate will drop.
While certainly not without problems (slowdown being the most important), REDFLY Mobile Viewer certainly excelled in this area too – it delivered a consistently good framerate at even the highest resolutions. In this regard, only the fastest SOTI’s Pocket Controller can be compared to it.
There are some problems with it, though. Should you want to use this suite as a generic PDA / phone controller suite, you’ll find some of the missing functionalities (for example, clipboard synchronization or, at least, emulating pasting text to the PDA / phone via the keyboard) and incompatibility issues (you simply can’t run some games and apps – most importantly, ones that can only work in Portrait mode) pretty restricting. That is, if you’re looking for a traditional PDA / phone controller and you are absolutely sure you won’t make advantage of the resolution enhancement capabilities of the app, just look elsewhere: even SOTI’s Pocket Controller is cheaper – and is much more featureful (except for, of course, the resolution enhancement).
Screenshots
Let me present you some shots of the app controlling several of my phones / PDA’s. Note that the shots are all pretty huge; this is why I’ve only put in low-resolution, low-quality thumbnails in my article. Just click them to see the original, high-quality, large images
Opera Mini running on my HP iPAQ 210 in XGA resolution
On devices with 128+ MByte RAM (like the HP iPAQ 210), you can select resolutions larger than SVGA (800*600)
On devices with less RAM (say, 64 Mbyte), you can only use either WVGA or SVGA (the other two menu items are grayed out):
(taken on a HTC Wizard)
(taken on a HTC s710 touchscreen-less smartphone)
Just like on my WM6.1-based WM Professional Pocket PC phone, the HTC Universal, it didn’t work on my WM5 176*220 HTC s310 (Oxygen) (screenshot here) so I couldn’t test how it fares.
Benchmarks
As far as CPU usage is concerned, while not connected, it’s sufficiently low: 0.2…0.4% (REDFLY.exe) on the 200 MHz Wizard (and even less on faster devices). While actively controlling the phone, it still remains almost unmeasurable – WAY better than most other, comparable solutions.
As far as screen redraw speeds are concerned (see THIS for more info on all this),
- on the QVGA, 200 MHz Wizard, the number drawing benchmark has shown every second frame (and lasted 10s). Video HERE
- on the VGA 624 MHz HP iPAQ 210, the number drawing benchmark has shown every 1.5 frame (but lasted 19s – that is, there has been some lagging). Video HERE.
Note that Nanobotz, the other “standard” program I use to evaluate screen redraw efficiency, didn’t start with Redfly being active. When starting the Redfly client with the already-running game, nothing could be seen on the desktop either – it was all black. Nevertheless, Speed Racer delivered VERY good results – approximately 1 fps on a 200 MHz (!!!) HTC s710 / Vox Smartphone (video HERE).

In a nutshell, compared to other PDA / phone controller solutions
Pros:
- Revolutionary resolution extension on both all devices
- very low CPU usage
- support for special buttons not necessarily present on all models: the two softkeys, OK and the red/green phone buttons (not present on WM Classic models)
- decent screen refresh speed
- no keyboard input problems on WM Standard (no-touchscreen) devices
- no compatibility problems with Windows 7 (tested under build 7000)
Cons:
- No built-in screenshot capabilities
- No clipboard synchronization or paste emulation via keyboard
- No goodies like file synching / registry editor
- Can’t operate in Portrait mode: if you switch to it manually on the PDA, it won’t obey
- Limited compatibility with some? most? games (Portrait only?) – iGo doesn’t work either. Airfadude, in the other hand, works:
so do Java games under Jbed. For example, Speed Racer running in 800*480:
(video, taken in the 800*480 mode on the slow [200 MHz] HTC s710 HERE)
- If you don’t want to take advantage of the screen resolution, very expensive ($39.99) – even more than SOTI’s Pocket Controller
- resolutions over SVGA only available on models with 128+ MB of RAM (note that it will work with far less actual free RAM)
- It seems to be incompatible with some models (like the above-mentioned HTC Universal and s310)