Fone Arena - The Mobile Weblog

Nokia Carbon Arte – tracking the Arte journey

Ritu — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:43:27 +0000

The Nokia Arte 8800 was launched way back in November 2007. Read Fonearena’s coverage of the launch here.

Read full specs of the range here.

Then Nokia launched the Arte Sapphire; a handset with similar specs and features, changing only the look of the handset with a value adding Sapphire gemstone in the centre of the D-pad. If you want to read more on this handset, click here.

Fonearena then followed it up with the news of a probable launch of a Gold Arte 8800. Catch the coverage here.

Now Nokia has introduced the Nokia 8800 Carbon Arte, a new premium mobile phone engineered from carbon fibre, titanium, polished glass and stainless steel.

The latest features of this handset include that it is custom built, has minimalistic and seamless surfaces, slide mechanism and light weight.

The Nokia 8800 Carbon Arte will be available from October/November 2008 with an estimated retail price of EUR 1,100 exclusive of subsidies and taxes. That means upwards of approximately Rs 65,000.

Steep. But whoever said style and luxury come cheap!!

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Vodafone finally releases iPhone prices , not affordable

Varun — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:42:10 +0000

I got this email from Vodafone today which released the prices of the iPhone.

Apple products don’t come cheap.

But how many of you will pay 31,000 for an iphone ?

I don’t think its affordable to most people . Also 3G does not make any sense in the indian context.

Vodafone has released the prices but still no news from my provider Airtel

Please leave a comment on your thoughts about the pricing for the iphone in india.

email after the jump

Thank you for registering for your Apple iPhone 3G™ with us.
We are delighted to announce that the iPhone 3G will be available in India from August 22, 2008
It will be available in 8GB & 16GB models, priced at Rs 31,000 and Rs 36,100 respectively.
Be the first to get the iPhone
We have received a large number of registrations. As there are limited stocks, make sure that you get yours first, by paying an advance of Rs 10,000 to confirm your booking.
Where can you make this advance payment?
The iPhone 3G will be available at select Vodafone Stores. All you need to do is drop in at any select Vodafone Store between August 20 and 21 and make the advance payment by cash or credit card. Don´t forget to show the iPhone booking SMS, which you would have received from us, when you visit the Vodafone Store to pay the advance. To find a Vodafone Store near you, click here
Get an appointment now. No queues for you.
Once you pay the advance, we will immediately give you an appointment date and time, starting August 22 when you can come and experience a full demonstration and collect your iPhone, all ready to use with your contacts and settings, by paying the balance amount.
Hurry! Limited stocks.
Remember, the sooner you confirm your booking, the earlier you´ll get your iPhone. We have limited stocks and it will be on first come, first serve basis.
Happy to help
If you have any queries, log on to www.vodafone.in/iphone or call Vodafone Care on 111 (toll free) and we´ll be happy to help.
Hurry and be one of the first to make the iPhone 3G your own.
Regards
G P Thompson
General Manager - Customer Service
Thank you for registering for your Apple iPhone 3G™ with us.
We are delighted to announce that the iPhone 3G will be available in India from August 22, 2008
It will be available in 8GB & 16GB models, priced at Rs 31,000 and Rs 36,100 respectively.
Be the first to get the iPhone
We have received a large number of registrations. As there are limited stocks, make sure that you get yours first, by paying an advance of Rs 10,000 to confirm your booking.
Where can you make this advance payment?
The iPhone 3G will be available at select Vodafone Stores. All you need to do is drop in at any select Vodafone Store between August 20 and 21 and make the advance payment by cash or credit card. Don´t forget to show the iPhone booking SMS, which you would have received from us, when you visit the Vodafone Store to pay the advance. To find a Vodafone Store near you, click here
Get an appointment now. No queues for you.
Once you pay the advance, we will immediately give you an appointment date and time, starting August 22 when you can come and experience a full demonstration and collect your iPhone, all ready to use with your contacts and settings, by paying the balance amount.
Hurry! Limited stocks.
Remember, the sooner you confirm your booking, the earlier you´ll get your iPhone. We have limited stocks and it will be on first come, first serve basis.
Happy to help
If you have any queries, log on to www.vodafone.in/iphone or call Vodafone Care on 111 (toll free) and we´ll be happy to help.
Hurry and be one of the first to make the iPhone 3G your own.

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New Nokia 3640 fold economy flip phone

Ritu — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:35:28 +0000

Nokia is due to launch the 3640 fold economy flip phone across its markets.

Specs & features at a glance:

• GSM handset
• Internal display of 2 inches with 256K colours
• External 1.36-inch display with 265k colours
• Analog clock exterior screensaver
• 1.3 megapixel camera
• 30MB internal memory
• microSD card support
• Media Player for audio and video
• Bluetooth
• USB connectivity
• GPRS/EDGE

Price:

Rs. 7,910 without applicable taxes and subsidies

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Nokia N96 comes to India!

Ritu — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:33:35 +0000

Perhaps taking into cognizance the growing dominance of India amongst the mobile users of the world, Nokia unveiled the N 96 in India atleast 30 days prior to its UK launch.

Image courtsey: Tech2.com

At Fonearena, we have been predicting the launch of this dual slider since December 2007. Click here to know more.

Fonearena had also reported the slated October launch of the handset. Read the story here.

Catch the full specifications of the super slick handset on Fonearena here.

The price may range between Rs 32,000-Rs 36,000.

Neat !!!! is all we can say at this point.

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Nokia E71 Review

Varun — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 00:47:36 +0000

E71 is the latest fashion statement from Nokia

Its only 10mm thick and is rich in features. We will run through all the important features in this ESeries device

I admit that being a die hard Nokia fan. I just loved to get my hands on the device . Its such a sexy phone.

I would say its the sexiest and most beautiful phone Nokia has ever made .

Form factor , Display and styling

The phone looks damn small compared to the E61i and the metallic body makes this phone feel special and classy.

display has undergone reduction in size only 2.36 inches but it packs a 320X240 resolution and is clear and easy on the eyes

the phone comes with a 2GB microSD card and its hot swappable - port is present on the left.

volume keys are present on the right.

Connectivity

Its a Quadband GSM phone with support for 3G and HSDPA

Infrared , Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP , WIreless LAN a/b/g or WI-fi , A-GPS and 3G support . It’s also got support for HSDPA

There is a also a data cable which comes with the phone and port is below the memory card slot on the left.

Calling

Call handling was fine , no issues .

Keypad

The keypad has improved a lot over the E61i and E62 . As a matter of fact , I traded in my E61i to get this E71 and i am not regretting it

The click and feel of the new keys is great and gives you a good experience overall

There is also support for Predictive Text Input although most QWERTY phones drop this feature.

Frequent Texters / SMS freaks will love this phone for sure.

Theres is the normal D pad which has good response.

there are dedicated keys for home,calendar on the left and for phonebook and messaging on the right

keys are pretty close to each other and occasionally you might press the wrong key.

User modes

This phone has interesting new way of separating your work and personal life

Theres something called Switching modes and you can basically have 2 home screens for the phone.

You can have you personal mail accounts show up in one screen and have you corporate email show up on another.

Its a bold attempt to solve information overload.

Messaging and Email

Emailing has not got better in any Nokia phone. I added my gmail account and I did not have to enter any server information.

I just entered my email and password and chose my Wi-fi connection and it started .

I was up and running in under 30 seconds. Thats pretty good

SMS got a lot better and you can do a lot of stuff with the improved notifications system.

Mobile web browsing

Mobile browsing has got a bit better but not as cool as the iphone. I admit i have been bitten by the iphone bug

But one killer feature all of you would love . you can watch youtube videos within the browser it self .

you can actually watch streaming vidoes within the browser only which is a great improvment.

Nokia might beat the iphone hands down in this league if it improves this feature a bit.

Software , Applications , Performance and Memory

This phone runs Symbian Os 9.2 with S60 Feature Pack 1. There is some software which comes preloaded on the phone - Quickoffice(Quickword, Quickpoint, Quicksheet), Adobe PDF Reader, Active Notes

We installed Google maps , gmail app and youtube app.

It seemed to run much faster than E61i which was damn sluggish.

Theres about 110MB of phone memory and it ships with a 2 GB card, so you might not have to buy one immediately . It supports upto 8GB of memory expansion.
Camera

This e series phone has a 3.2 mega pixel camera with flash and zoom. this is good enough considering the fact that this is not a multimedia phone but a business phone.

[Sample image taken with phone]

VGA video recording (320×240px) similar to VCD quality is possible and fine for capturing great moments. Camera does not have shutter. There is a mirror on the right so that you can look into the phone while clicking your photo. There is a camera on the front but is meant for video calling.

Multimedia

Audio

There is a single speaker on the top left of the screen . Its louder than the E61i and is not bad at all for music playback. Its not perfect. Music gets a bit choppy with bass.

music playback is time upto 18 hours but sadly no 3.5mm port only a 2.5mm

There’s FM Radio too

Video

You can capture upto 1hr of video . Theres Real Player and it supports Flash Lite 3, mp4, .3gp; H.263, MPEG-4 VSP,RealVideo,H.264
Battery

Battery life is great ! 10 hours of GSM/2G talk time is as good as it gets . A 1500 mAh battery is packed at the back for device.

Conclusion

Considering the fact that the Nokia E71 is a business phone competing with the blackberry phones and other enterprise devices,

its a clear winner in most areas. Camera’s not the best but decent enough compared to E61i.

If you are looking for a phone for mainly calling , messaging and plenty of connectivity options and a fast OS plus phenomenal battery life this phone is a great buy for around Rs.20000.

This is a short review , please leave a comment if we have forgot to mention any feature.

We are still playing with the phone

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Independence Day offer from Airtel

Ritu — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 03:39:32 +0000

Airtel subscribers in Delhi and NCR will have another reason to celebrate the 61st year of our Independence.

Subscribers can avail the benefit of full talk time and STD at one rupee per month, minus processing charge or service tax on a recharge of Rs 1947. You also get a validity of 1 year.

1947 is the year of our Independence. Sounds cool!!!

To recharge subscribers can SMS to 170.

Shashi Arora, CEO – Bharti Airtel Ltd. (Mobile Services), Delhi and NCR said, “The Rs. 1,947 voucher, as its name suggests, symbolizes freedom and independence for our valued customers. In keeping with that spirit, it gives us great joy to announce this recharge voucher for the Delhi and NCR circle, which offers full talktime with a 1 year validity. We are sure that this offer will prove to be highly beneficial for our high value customers seeking value for money.”

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Should you buy the iPhone - you tell us

Ritu — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 04:45:01 +0000

As the day draws near, when two leading mobile phone operators in India, Airtel and Vodafone launch the iPhone, here is a low down on the negative aspects of the handset…that we read in an In-Flight magazine of a leading Indian airline.

1. Earphones: The iPhone sports “bland” looking regular earphones that are neither classy not stylish. The sound quality is good but the design is very cheap.

2. Technology: Apart from the touch screen, the handset does not use much technology. Depending on the model released may be missing features such as Java, FM Radio, Bluetooth, GPS, or the ability to forward messages, send business cards etc.

3. Applications: Third party applications must be installed via iTunes App Store and this means that this handset is not really the normal “smart phone”.

4. Touch screen: The touch screen on the iPhone is known to be cumbersome to use due to the scratch guard.

5. Customisation: The themes on the iPhone cannot be changed. So no wallpapers, themes or cover panels etc. Even the ring tones are not changeable!

Now this is what we’ve read. Tell us what you feel!

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Sony Ericsson T700 3.2Mega Pixel Ultra-Slim 3G phone

Srini — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 02:44:47 +0000

Sony Ericsson is stepping in to create buzz with its new feature phone -the ultra slim 10mm thin T700. The stylish candybar from the staples of the Swedish-Japanese handset maker boasts of a 3.2MP camera with slim design, which combines timeless design and premium features for the mainstream market. Sony Ericsson is keen on satisfying the people who take pride in their appearance with the new feature called self-portrait mirror in the T700. It comes packed with easy to use web uploads and you can access Google maps on the go. Although the price is not out its expected to be a mid-range gadget perfect for the design concious community.

Specs

Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) and a UMTS/HSDPA 2100 MHz device,

3.2 megapixel camera along with a self-portrait mirror,

2-inch screen, stereo speakers, stereo Bluetooth, media player,

Memory card slot (512MB memory card memory is included in the box).

Color: Black on Silver, Black on Red and Shining Silver.

To be released in selected markets from early Q4 2008.

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Bond 007 handset by Sony Ericsson

Ritu — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 02:43:30 +0000

It is not such a good looking handset and quite frankly, we are not sure james Bond would be pleased either!

But what can he do when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures/Columbia Pictures release of EON Productions’ 22nd James Bond adventure, Quantum Of Solace, has signed an exclusive partnership with Sony Ericsson.

The C902 Cyber shot Titanium silver edition is the new Bond 007 handset. The phone is used throughout the film by James Bond to capture evidence and assist the agent on his mission. In the last movie, Bond played by actor Daniel Craig was seen using Motorola.

The phone will be available for a limited period and will include a memory card loaded with a host of 007content.

007 content includes an exclusive pre-loaded spy-style game and a full colour trailer of the film, behind-the-scenes interviews with the stars and exclusive content such as wallpapers and screen savers will be available on the phone and the memory card.

Lennard Hoornik, Corporate Vice President and Global Head of Marketing, Sony Ericsson comments, “We are excited to announce the continuation of our relationship with the James Bond films and unveil James Bond’s new phone for this year - the limited edition version of our C902 Cyber-shot phone. With the rich array of content both on the phone and preloaded on a memory card bundled with the C902 Titanium silver limited edition, fans of the secret agent will only get more James Bond with Sony Ericsson.”

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iPhone by Airtel to release on August 22, 2008

Ritu — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 02:42:39 +0000

Just ask your sister to wait 6 days for the ‘Raksha Bandhan’ gift you owe her on 16th August.

Airtel has announced that they will release the iPhone in India on August 22, 2008.

“iPhone has been the iconic technology revelation of this year, “said Sanjay Kapoor, president of Mobile Services at Bharti Airtel. “Airtel has been at the forefront of innovation and customer delight in the Indian telecom sector. Introducing iPhone 3G to India further underscores our commitment to enrich the communication experience of all Airtel users.”

You can book the iPhone by logging into the official Airtel website.

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