Durability

What's more durable than a Nokia? I have no idea. If you can tell me what mobile phone company produces more durable products than Nokia, do let me know.

During the past week my dearest Nokia N97 mini has been through so much! It's the most unbelievable thing. I'm starting to think technology is rebelling against me despite all the love I have for it. No worries, though! I'm in ownership of a Nokia!

This little piece of tech must be one of the smartest decisions I've ever made (the other being the switch from PC to Mac). My Nokia has taken numerous falls onto hard tiled floors. Numerous.

Last Saturday, it slipped out of my pants' pocket as I was lifting my pair of jeans off of the bed (my bed's about 3 ft high) and fell to the floor with the most unpleasant sound ever. The result: the back cover came off and landed on one side of the phone, and my battery popped right out and landed on the other side. The keyboard shot open and the phone lay open (like the photo above) screen down on the floor. It looked like a disaster had struck. But like with any Nokia that has suffered through such a fall, I just popped everything into place and everything was good as new.

On Wednesday, it slipped off my seat in the lecture theatre at school and landed on the step below. Not a simple slip, fall and land. It went a lot more like: slip, fall, land, bounce off step, fall, land on the step below. Yikes. Two falls. I was devastated. After Saturday's fall, I was afraid it wouldn't work this time. It hadn't fallen apart but it did land on it's screen once more. I picked it up and all was fine. Phew!

As my phone has a touchscreen interface, I was so afraid of what would happen. With hard falls like those, something could crack below and then the touch sensitivity may just go kaput! That was my fear anyway. But no such thing has happened and I'm hoping it never will. This thing was expensive, you know!

Had such things happened to any other touchscreen phone, I'm not so sure I would be happily typing up this post. So, thank you, Nokia, for not making your touchscreen phones that much less durable than all your others.

Nokia, I ♥ you. Please, don't ever fail me.

Here comes another Nokia

The Nokia N97, the N97 mini, the N900 and, now, the N8.

Nokia introduces a new touchscreen baby in the N-series, the Nokia N8. This one, unlike my N97 mini, has a capacitive touchscreen and no slide out keyboard. It's about the size of the Nokia N97. I could deal with the width but it's a little thick for my liking. It comes in different colours (which would vary by region, of course).

If I were to get one of these, I'd take it in blue.

Sneak peak at the N8. The question: What will you do with it?

My answer: certainly not freestyle with it.

To be honest, I just thought this video was adorable.

This phone has gone high-def with an HDMI-output, HD videos, a 12 MP camera and 16 GB internal memory and up to a 32 GB MicroSD to hold it all in. A 12 MP camera phone? My oh my. I'm quite happy with my 5 MP. It takes such exceptional photos that no one would believe was taken with a cellphone. The size doesn't matter so much to me as the quality, and 5 MP is enough size for me.

Maemo 5 and Symbian S60 5th generation run on the N900 and N97/N97 mini respectively. What runs on the N8? Symbian 3 - Nokia's first Symbian 3-based phone to come out.

It's aesthetically pleasing, to my eyes at least. If I didn't have my N97 mini, would I buy this phone instead? I probably wouldn't. I like having a physical keyboard separate from the screen. Given the choice, I would have chosen the N97 mini anyways.

When is this little one releasing? I have no idea, but would you get it?

Minimi

Nokia N97 Mini

This! This is my new piece of equipment. New to me in every way. And I love it.

Not only is it fresh from the factory and new to my hands, it's also the first Nokia device I've owned. It's the first touchscreen smartphone I've operated. The first "garnet" coloured mobile phone that I call mine.

New to Nokia, as well as the Symbian S60 5th edition OS, I've been getting accustomed to the interface. There are still things, probably many things, that I have yet to discover on it but that's ok. Why? Because I like making new discoveries on new electronic devices. Makes me happy every time I find out. Which is why I never read instruction manuals unless I get desperate and impatient.

It's a lovely piece of equipment. The way it slides up to reveal its full QWERTY keyboard. The way the keys feel as my fingers glide over them while typing. The simplicity of the home screen. The surprisingly high quality of the images it captures whether by still or video. It's lovely.

Many features, many technicalities to adjust to. The OVI store may not be the greatest right now but it's building it's way up.

Lots to look forward to.

And by the way, I named it Minimi.