Nokia N85 outshines N96

While the Nokia N96 holds a better ranking in the Nseries hierarchy as opposed to the yet-to-be-released N85, a review has confirmed our earlier suspicon that the N85 is better than the N96.

True, the N96 migh have DVB-H and a larger 8GB internal memory, but these two features aren’t necessarily deal breakers in the greater context of things. DVB-H usage, particulary, is limited to a particular network locally and has very little application internationally. The 16GB capacity, on the other hand, can be addressed by available memory cards in the market. Meanwhile, the N85 does have something that everyone will immediately appreciate and the N96 sorely misses; a brilliant OLED display. Apart from that, they more or less are the same in terms of deisgn and features which makes the N85 seem like a better choice.

However, since the N85 is yet to become available locally, the N96 is still currently the best option as far as Nseries phones go. Nevertheless, if you can muster up enough patience, it would be advisable to wait for the N85’s debut before making any impulse buys at the moment. Provided, of course, that the N85 won’t be more expensive than the N96 when it does go on sale, then it would be definitely be a more suitable alternative to the hyped N96.

Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1: Available Nationwide starting Nov. 15

I’ve got great news for all those Sony Ericsson loyalists and techies who have been patiently waiting for the arrival of the XPERIA X1 locally. We’ve received confirmation that the XPERIA X1 will hit Sony Ericsson concept stores nationwide on Nov. 14, 2008.

Sony Ericsson Philippines will also be putting up a dedicated site for the XPERIA X1 which will go live on November 1 for those who wish to make an advanced reservation to be guaranteed a unit when it becomes available. Of course, this is still on a first-come first-serve basis so it still pays to sign up early. As for its price, let’s just say that P40K will be enough to get you one. For our part, we’re cooking up an XPERIA X1 review as we finally got our grubby hands on one, but it’ll take a little bit of time since this baby’s got a ton of features we’d like to go through first before releasing our take on this long awaited smartphone.

Is it worth the long wait? We’ll soon find out.

Nokia E71, E66 now comes with free WiFi

Nokia Philippines is giving you more reasons to get their latest Eseries phones. Aside from featuring all the modern connectivity features and a bundle of productivity tools housed in a very compact and elegantly designed body, buying either a Nokia E71 or E66 phone will entitle you to two months free WiFi usage in Airborne Access hotspots.

Not good enough for you? Well, there’s more. Users with the most number of login times for the week will win an additional 6 months of free WiFi access. Now if that doesn’t win you over, I don’t know what will. For more details, check out Nokia Philippines’ website.

Both the Nokia E71 and E66 are available now with a suggested retail price of P23,690 and P22,890 respectively. This is one offer that will surely bring out the best in these new Eseries phone at no added cost.

LG Viewty, HTC Touch Diamond gets new colored variants

Apparently, LG has more plans in store for their 5-megapixel touchscreen phone, the Viewty , as they’ve just released a white version of it.

The bad news is for hopeful owners is that it’s currently limited to the Korean market, but don’t be surprised if it become available in the local market as I’m sure importers and resourceful individuals will find a way to get this baby as it definitely looks way cooler than the orginal Viewty. Anyway, if you think the Viewty is a bit on the hefty side, the thinner successor to it, the Renoir, has been anounced already so you can just watch for that one to become available locally.

While we’re on the matter of new colored iterations, HTC has likewise released several new colors for their Touch Diamond. Aside from the original black, now there’s white, blue, red, yellow, orange, violet, purple, and brown. I guess they’ve seen how successful Apple has been with their colorful iPods, so why not apply the same principle to mobile phones, right?

No word though on when and where these will become available, but I have a feeling that it’ll hit online stores first and in time for the holiday shopping rush.

Samsung M8800 Pixon

Samsung has officially announced its brand new M8800 Pixon mobile phone. It’s another touchscreen-enabled device that features a 3.2-inch 400×240 display, 8-megapixel camera with a host of imaging features such as face recognition, smile detection and a bunch of others, triband HSDPA, GPS, Bluetooth, FM radio, DivX playback and an accelerometer as well. Unlike its other touchscreen brethren, the M8800 runs on a proprietary OS as opposed to more popular systems such as Windows Mobile and S60, and lacks WiFi. However, with so many imaging features, one can probably look past those shortcomings.

It’s expected to start shipping in November with a price of 550 Euro, roughly $800 in US currency. It’ll probably make an RP debut in early 2009 that is unless Samsung Philippines decides to push it for an earlier release which we’ll surely appreciate.

Asus S101: The ultra-slim netbook

Say goodbye to the toy-like Eee PC, and say hello to the more luxurious looking Asus S101.

Aimed at providing the mobile techno-warrior with an affordable yet compact netbook solution, the Asus S101 features everything you can expect from an ultra-portable of today and then some. It’s wicked thin measuring a mere 18mm in thickness and has an Intel Atom processor at its very core. Rounding up the rest of its specs are 1GB RAM, 10.2-inch wide LED-backlit 1024×600 252K display, WiFi 802.11n compatible, Bluetooth, multi-touch touchpad, non-removable 2450 mAh battery, and a variety of SSD storage options to choose from. The 16GB SSD variant will come with Windows XP and is expected to cost $699, while the Linux-based 32GB SSD and 64 GB SSD versions will fetch for $699 and $799 respectively.

It may not be as affordable as the first batch of Eee PCs, but with its ultra-slim form factor, users might find its more expensive price worth it. Besides, its still a whole lot cheaper than the Macbook Air, but then again, the Asus S101 isn’t a Mac. No word though on when it will be released locally so just stay tuned for future updates.

Asia’s Top 10 Internet Countries

In the latest report by InternetworldStats, the Philippines took the #10 spot with the most number of internet users at 14 Million, just 900k lower than Malaysia at #9.

That number represents 15.1% of the total population of the Philippines {via}. That’s still a low internet usage density though.

China tops the list at 253 Million followed by Japan at 94 Million and India at 60 Million.

As for internet penetration, the Philippines is still way down the line, esp. in South East Asia:

Japan: 73.8%
South Korea: 70.7%
Hong Kong: 69.5%
Taiwan: 67.2%
Malaysia: 59%
Singapore: 58.6%
Macau: 51.6%
Brunei: 46.2%
Vietnam: 23.4%
Thailand: 20.5
Philippines: 15.1%

What’s surprising again is that Vietnam (86M), which has almost the same population as the Philippines (92M), has higher number of users and internet penetration.

No wonder why Vietnam took the top spot in SEA during the Firefox 3 Download Day.

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic touchscreen phone launched

Nokia officially joins the likes of Apple, Samsung, HTC and LG in the touchscreen mobile phone biz when they finally unveiled the much-talked-about Nokia 5800 XpressMusic phone.

It was previously referred to as the Tube, but I guess the XpressMusic name is more apt to its features. So, aside from its moderately-sized 3.2-inch display, what else can we find on the 5800? Well, there’s a 3.2-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens and LED flash, stylus input support, WiFi, 3G/HSDPA, GPS, 8GB of internal memory and microSD card support up to 16GB. It’s expected to cost 279 Euros or $392 when it hits select markets before the year ends.

With its reasonable price, one would easily wonder what the drawbacks are in this phone, and that’s what we’ll probably look for once it does become available to the public. For now, we can just add the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic phone to our growing list of devices we’re looking forward to in the months to come.

Asus Eee PC S101 Ultraslim Netbook

And just when we thought Asus could no longer outdo itself in the Eee PC line, they’ll come up with a new model just to show off they’re still king of the netbooks. So they’re bringing out a thinner but a little expensive Asus Eee PC S101 Ultraslim Netbook.

Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz
Intel 945GSE
10.2” wide active matrix LED-backlit TFT, WSVGA 1024 x 600
Genuine Windows XP Home/GNU Linux
WiFi 802.11n
Bluetooth 2.0
1 GB DDR2 RAM
16GB, 32GB & 64GB SSD
20GB Eee Storage
4-in-1 MMC, SD, Memory Stick and MS-PRO card reader
0.3 megapixel webcam

Even at 10.2 inches, Asus maintained the weight at 1kg plus a 5-hour battery life. The 20GB Eee Storage is an Internet-based encrypted account (much like Box.net of Dell).

Since it’s using SSD though, they go a bit more expensive than usual.

• 16 GB SSD, Windows XP, inclusive of an additional 16 GB SD card: $699
• 32 GB SSD, Linux operating system: $699
• 64 GB SSD, Linux operating system: $799

Not sure how slim this could be but it will be somewhere between 18mm at it thinnest and 25mm at its thickest base. In comparison, the Macbook Air is 19.4mm at its thickest base.

Belco Alpha-400 Laptop: Simpler than others at .70 kgs.

Alright, here’s the deal.

I want a laptop that’s small in size. And I mean very small... like half of a Letter-size paper. And it will allow me to surf the Internet and check my mail.

Forget the webcam, I’m shy when it comes to showing my face online but I do love to chat so include that. Make sure that it has Wi-Fi ‘coz I love free Internet access while I take my morning coffee at Starbucks and others... I hate bringing with me a huge power adapter. I don’t want to carry around that gold-bar-like adapter. Make it small... like those ones for mobile phones? Oh, and don’t forget the USB ports."

Do you think we just made up a script? Maybe. But consider all the specs mentioned above, make it tangible, and it works. Would you be impressed if there was a laptop measuring half the size of a bond paper?

That’s the Alpha-400 pictured above. Like most netbooks, it is small and easy to carry. If that doesn’t impress you, then maybe the supplied power adapter would. Because unlike conventional power adapters for laptops and netbooks, this one has a mobile-phone-charger-like power adapter.

If you are familiar with earlier types of Nokia phone chargers, the Alpha-400’s power adapter looks very much like it, but a little bigger in size. The whole package contains only three items, the netbook, the power adapter, and a miniCD (which you may not use afterall). Heck, even the battery is built in.

The size of the Alpha-400 is a bit thicker than the EeePC. It has a 7-inch "Digital A Grade" LCD display, three USB ports, an SD card slot, and built-in speakers, Wi-Fi, and Ethernet port. This specifications is just what a person needs for Internet surfing, photo sharing, and for personal entertainment.

Perhaps one notable drawback of the Alpha-400 is the built-in 2-Gigabyte NAND Flash drive. That’s what the SD card slot and USB ports are for. To expand disk space, just plug in an SD card (of up to 32GB) or an external hard drive (of whatever size as long as it doesn’t exceed 160GB).

"So you get a portable adapter and an ultra-portable PC. But what can it do?" you may ask.

Well, the simplest answer to that is what the EeePC primarily offered - Surf, work, & play. Running on Linux, the user interface looks similar to that of the Linux-based EeePC. You will see five tabs - Internet, Work , Play, Settings and Others - in that order.

On the first tab, this is where you connect to the Internet using Firefox as your default (and only) web browser. Click the Wi-Fi icon to connect to access points, and Xip chatting if you want to chat.

Although you have to set your account first before you start chatting and it’s not that hard to do. All it will ask is where you want to chat (like Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, AIM, etc) provide your account name and password, and your done.

The email box is actually your POP3 mail, which you can setup so that you don’t have to open your browser, go the your email site, and log in. There’s an included FBReader if you any ebooks that you want to read on the Alpha-400.

The Work tab has basically an Office applications suite, so if you looking for apps for Word, spreadsheets, and PDF viewer, it’s here. There’s a pre-installed dictionary, calendar, and calculator also. On the Play tab, is where the pre-installed multimedia apps are. Yes, there’s no games but the media player, Xip Flash player, and Paint Brush apps. You may find the default theme boring so just change it by going to the Settings tab. Other things you can change here are the sound settings, date and time, and netbook’s profile (or your profile as the owner).

If you happen to connect the Alpha-400 to your office network, check the network settings here, too.

The last tab contains the Xip Tar (much like WinZip) and the voice recorder apps. You need a mic though to use this application. Perhaps that, and a nice carrying case is all the Alpha-400 need and you are ready to go.

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic announced

Earlier dubbed as Nokia Tube, the just announced Nokia 5800 XpressMusicmay appeal to many Nokia fans with its touch screen interface that comes with a pen stylus.

Here’s what Nokia fans will get with the release of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic:

3.2 inch touch screen display (640×360)
3G/HSDPA 3.6Mbps
GPS with Nokia Maps 2.0
WiFi 802.11 b/g
3.15MP autofocus camera with Carl Zeiss optics and dual flash (2048×1536 pixels)
secondary camera for video calls
Pre-loaded with an 8GB microSD card (max 16GB)
81MB internal memory
Proximity Sensor (auto turn-off)
Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate
Handwriting recognition
Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP
Stereo FM radio with RDS
TV Out
3.5mm audio output jack

Surprisingly, the price $392 is pretty attractive (just around Php18,000) considering you also get the 8GB microSD card in it.

What’s more surprising is that Nokia is also introducing the “Comes with Music” in this handset — that’s 12 months of free unlimited subscription to the Nokia Music Store.

Not only is the Nokia 5800 a potential iPhone-killer, it’s more like an iTunes-killer too. See Nokia PR page.

Nintendo unveils the new DSi game console

Nintendo made sure that with their new DSi they won’t suffer the same criticism that their rival Sony got when they unveiled their new PSP.

The DSi may generally look similar to the DS, but bring out your measuring tape and you’ll discover that this one’s 2.6mm thinner. It also has larger screens measuring in at 3.25-inches, enhanced audio capabilities, an SD card slot, and comes with two cameras. The GBA slot, however, got the boot, but I guess that’s a worthy trade-off for the added specs. A DSi shop is also in the works where users can download DSiWare using accumulated Nintendo points (formerly known as Wii points). New DSi owners automatically get free 1000 points to use until March 2010.

It will become available in Japan starting November 1 for ￥18,900 (USD$180). Other markets, including the Philippines I suppose, will get it early next year. It’s about time Nintendo updated their DS console, and by the looks of it, they’ve done a pretty good job so far.

Samsung Armani Night Effect: Perfect for Armani fanboys

It seems that Armani isn’t quite satisfied with just releasing one mobile phone under its brand name and has come out with a follow up dubbed as the Night Effect.

It’s still in collaboration with Samsung and from the looks of it, every angle will showcase the Emporio Armani brand on it. As for its feature set, it isn’t bad at all as it comes with a 2.2-inch AMOLED display that’s reinforced with glass, 3.2-megapixel camera, quad-band EDGE/HSDPA, FM radio, dedicated music controls on the side, Bluetooth and 120MB internal memory expandable through a microSD card slot. It also stylishly integrates a wrap-around lighting system which should serve as additional style points, but as evidenced in this video, it’s a little bit too cheesy for my taste with all the blinking and color-changing lights.

Anyway, if you’re one of those brand-conscious individuals who consider the name more important than the overall performance of the phone, you can head on over to Europe as its expected to debut in that region in November, or you could wait for it to hit South East Asia and the Middle East thereafter. It’ll be available in white and black, and is rumored to have a selling price of €300 which is roughly $439 when converted.