Nokia Needs To Do More, Much More

Finally the N8 is out in the wild. After months of delay, numerous false announcements, Nokia's latest flagship device is available to customers (to be frank there is some doubt if this is actually a release date. Especially since the preordered phones are the ones being despatched).

A lot is riding on the N8. In short, Nokia future will be defined by this device. If it turns out to be an epic failure like the N97, then lets say, its all over for the Finnish giant. If however this turns out to be a success, it will give Nokia another opportunity to prove to the world that they are capable of producing quality phons even now.

Although individual bloggers had already come up with pretty good positive reviews of the N8 (thanks to Nokia's "trial a phone" for free sweetness), Techradar's (a much more reliable source for reviews than individual blogs, and more recently even CNET's) detailed review of the phone has bared it all. From what I understood from the review here are the conclusions regarding the N8 -

Pros: good camera, good build quality, good battery life.

Cons: oh well, the same old ones to be honest. Okay you start checking if I miss anything. Symbian^3 is primitive, not nearly as good as android or ios interfaces, severe shortage of apps, sloppy internet experience, okayish touchscreen and physically "heavy". Apparently its much heavier than the likes of iPhone 4.

And from the look of things, the reviews arent going to get any better for Nokia. As someone said on a personal blog, had this phone been released a couple of years back, it would have blown everything else, but in 2010, there are simply way too many better phones out there for the N8 to even remotely create an impact.

The $35 Tablet

Image via Wikipedia

Yes, its no longer a rumour. There is infact a $35 tablet, waiting to be released to the masses. The minister for human resource and development (HRD), Kapil Sibal, was on Gadget Guru this week where he unveiled the cheapest tablet on the planet.

The tablet is apparently decently powered with 2GB of RAM and running Android. The touchscreen is (perhaps as expected) a resistive one. The OS isnt sluggish and thats mainly because of the hardware that has been put in.

And yeah, it gets better. In time, the minister hopes, due to rising competition and demand, the price of this tablet would come down to $10! Now when did one get last hold of $10 tablet?

All is not hunky dory though. First of all, the tablet, because of its no frills design, does look ugly and dated. Finesse is something which you cannot expect from this device. The device lacks a hard drive and although this is primarily the reason why its prices have been kept low, I doubt if this is something which will be appreciated. The presence of resistive touch also does complicate matters and spoils the fun of the touchscreen experience. Also the tablet in its current form and price is meant for educational institutions and its students. The mass market version might be priced higher.

Finally, its a mixed bag to be honest. Mediocre functionality/quality of hardware vs extremely low price. The choice as always lies with the consumer.

iPad...finally

Image by Getty Images via DaylifeAfter months, no wait, years of rumours about the elusive tablet, Apple today came out with the new iPad. (The name sucks. Doesnt it sound like a feminine hygiene device? iTampon trended on Twitter today for some unknown reason, in case you didnt know.)

It has a super awesome touch screen, uses the same precision techniques as the iphone or itouch. Has a brilliant interface which is totally customisable, has perfect integration with itunes among starters. It has a sleek, sexy, stylish 9.7 inch IPS screen, 0.5 inches thin, weighing at just 1.5 pounds, with 10 hours of battery life, has bluetooth (thank god!), WiFi, 1Ghz Apple A4 Chip, 16-64GB of flash storage, iWorks, iBook Store (which looks pretty awesome!) unprecedented reading and gaming experience...the list goes on!

And the price? Well its amazing how they have managed to price it at just $499 for the 16GB! The 3G version though costs $629. 32GB is priced at $599 and $729 for the WiFi and WiFi+3G versions respectively and the 64GB is priced at $699 and $829 for the WiFi and WiFi+3G versions respectively.

They will start shipping in 90 days time. For the time being AT&T has made a pretty pathbreaking deal with Apple but international deals will be ready by June.

That was the Apple iPad.

Erm, just before I end I think I should mention some of my concerns here. For starters, it still doesnt feature multitasking. Now that might not be a dealbreaker but its a dampener for sure. Next, I really dont think 64GB is enough of a storage really. I mean even a few mp3 files and videos these days take up quite a large amount of space. So, I'm really not sure if the iPad is really a replacement for a netbook. But if you can overlook these shortcomings, I think the sleek, stylish, uber cool iPad is one hell of a device you must own!