Nokia N73 vs. Samsung D900 vs. SE K800

Source of camera pics & details: http://www.gsmarena.com/n73_d900_k800_photo-review-102.php



The three contenders in this article are some of the hottest phones on the market. Each of them has a 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera and almost similar features. Which one to choose? We'll go by the main question - which one takes the best photos?

Sample photos

To be completed...

Nokia N90 vs. Sony Ericsson W800: Camera test

Source : http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_n90_vs_sonyericsson_w800-review-46.php
For a complete comparison with the pictures & videos, please check out the above link



Which one of the current photo mobiles is the best one? We offer you a direct comparison between pictures taken with the two of the biggest competitors amongst the modern photo mobiles - two megapixel Nokia N90 and Sony Ericsson W800, respectively K750. In addition we have tested the external flash for the new Sony Ericsson.

Let these endless arguments stop! Today, at last you may convince yourself which of the two best contemporary photo mobiles on the market is better. Nokia N90 or Sony Ericsson W800 (K750)? We have aimed exclusively at photo quality; the comparable photos are taken at the same time and at the same lighting conditions.


Exactly the three Best
In this article we compare the pictures taken by Nokia N90 with the pictures taken by Sony Ericsson W800. The W800's camera is just the same like the one of Sony Ericsson K750. So, the test is valid for comparison between Nokia N90 and Sony Ericsson K750 too, in case that you may hesitate between these two phones and you care about the photo quality.

We haven't adjusted any of the image settings; we have always chosen the highest resolution and the highest quality (lowest compression). The automatics cared for the rest. You may judge between the two models in the article below. We express our opinion after every photo session and this could help you to make a choice.


Picture - Quality
Sony Ericsson has more authentic color rendition. The pictures of Nokia are slightly under-exposed in comparison to Sony Ericsson ones, this is well shown in the first picture. The sharpness is comparable.

Nokia N90 had problems with the red color, the red car on the central photo had the same paint tint like the one that Sony Ericsson had caught. The Nokia pictures are again little darker and more contrast; while they might look more attractive, the Sony Ericsson W800 color rendition reflects reality more precisely.

Verdict : The pictures talk clear in favor of Sony Ericsson W800, but by a small margin.


Video recording
We have shot video clips with the two phones. At the same place and time simultaneously. The winner in this discipline is Nokia N90, because of its fluent record and its higher quality; in addition it has higher resolution. The Sony Ericsson video records are unusable in practice. They are good only for MMS sending.

Verdict : The N90 shoots ahead!


Night pictures
We have tested the external flash type MXE-60, which is made for Sony Ericsson K750 and W800 photo mobiles. It is very small and space saving and uses a xenon light tube. The moment when you connect it to the Fast Port of the phone, the camera menu ads support for the new device - you can enable, disable the flash or set it to auto.

Now pictures were taken using the N90, W800 (without the external flash), and then W800 with the flash.

Verdict : Sony Ericsson not only won the night duel due to the quality of its photos, but was easier to operate with. In the dark we had to take pictures with Nokia N90 blindly. The scene is lightened just for a moment only when you press the shutter release button. When you use Sony Ericsson with flash support the support diodes light up first, so you can see roughly what you are photographing; the phone focuses itself on a closer distance.



Red Eye Reduction Issue : Although in Nokia N90 menu exists a red eye reduction option you won't achieve the desirable result after its activation. Sony Ericsson has this function automatically. The red color in eye of the man shot can still be seen when using the lightening diode; everything is all right after you turn on the external flash.



Final Verdict : We can't do anything but announce the winner - Sony Ericsson W800, respectively K750. Nokia N90 creates simply lower quality pictures which could be seen in the samples above. Nokia N90 however managed better with video recording. In short, we have to say that the two manufacturers had produced high quality photo mobiles which might convince some of the current fans of the dual equipment - a phone and a compact digital camera - to switch to a single device.





Apart from this comparison, which mainly focuses on the camera front, the K750/W800 has a fantastic mp3 player, which I point out with extreme sorrow (being a Nokia fan!) is far too better than that of any nokia phone!

Nokia 6600 :- The start of a new era!

When i say "the start of a new era", it means the commencement of your entry into the world of Symbian Operating Systems, coz this mobile is the best "tool" to learn, understand and utilize the Symbian technology.

Before I embark into the Symbian world, let's get thru the pros & cons of the 6600.

+ve Points :-

--> Attractive Look : Although you'll find enough no of people to go against this point, yet I say this on a collective effort, this mobile has the fair looks! Although the camera boast of only 0.3 Megapixel, (760*480 = 0.3M! Hopefully now you should understand what that Megapixel term means! :-)) )
the big screen gives it a nice look!

That's all! Surprised? Coz all the other good features this mobile gives comes due to symbian technology!

-ve Points :-

Before venturing into the cons of this mobile, please keep in mind that this mobile was released years ago, at a whooping cost of 25k+ (Current price is around 8k+) in an era when people were content with Nokia 3315 and motorola C100. At that time the features it provided are a gem of all sorts!

--> No FM! : What to say? No fm!

--> Mono Output : I can't figure this out why Nokia missed this point out. Such a good mobile with mono output completely spoils the usage of this mobile as an mp3 player...

--> 10 second video + No mp3 player! : Is it so? Looks can be deceiving! Read on!

Apart from this, it has the regular features, expandable memory(SD Memory - Cheapest), bluetooth, infrared, 64k screen...


Symbian OS :-

Why the hell are we discussing OS and stuff in a mobile review? Coz an OS runs the mobile, every mobile; even your old 3315 or C100! The difference here is in most normal mobiles (non-symbian) all the required applications are hardcored into a read-only memory into ur mobile. Result? You can't change or remove the basic applications. But here comes the change in Symbian phones. Just like in a normal operating system, we can install various 3rd party applications, games, themes, and other utilities.

For e.g. as we have Winamp for Windows, similarly we have the highly successful Ultra Mp3! The basic phone has only 10 seconds of video recording, and no mp3 player one would say. But CamcoderPro & Ultra Mp3 applications overcome this handicap.

A few examples of applications available are :
1. SeleQ
2. Ultra MP3
3. PVPlayer
4. CameraXPro
5. CamcoderPro
6. pExtender
7. SmartMovie
8. Stacker
9. JJLkeylock
10. PhoneSecurity
11. PhotoID
12. AvantGo
13. Ringtone Studio
14. Hair Style
15. Mate Finder
16. PhotoSMS
17. sVCard
18. Mumsms
19. eBibile
20. Handy File
21. Handy Shopper
22. RS60
23. Mp3Player
24. Ogg Player

Most of these applications are third party, i.e. you need to buy them. But some of them are freeware (for e.g. the last one "Ogg Player" is a very good open source music player which uses the "ogg" format (a format similar to mp3). An alternative to all this would be searching for cracked versions, most of them are easily available in the net. The final decision lies with you! :-))

A very good feature of symbian mobiles (which all these third party applications use in their applications) is it's internal setup as an normal computer hard disk. Just like in our computers, the main operating system is setup in the main drive (C drive usually), and the other drives are to keep other data, similarly in the mobile all the basic applications are setup in the main (C) drive. Now if you want to replace some of the internal function, (Say you want the mobile to play a video instead of a ringtone when a call comes) you need to add the required files at the exact path but on the memory card (E drive generally). (for e.g. if the ringtone player is at C://System/Apps/Ringtone/, then the video player should be at E://System/Apps/Ringtone/)


Final verdict you would ask? Well from a staggering 25k this mobile is now available at a handy 8k. If you don't have the cash for high end (1-2 megapixel) mobiles, then definately go for this mobile. It's worth that 8000 bucks!

W800 (& K750i) : A Class Apart!

When my room-mate first started comparing this mobile with 3230 & others, I thought "Is he nuts!!! Who ever heard of good mobiles from Sony??!!
But man! Was i wrong! This phone has carved a niche for itself!


Plus Points:

--> 2 Mega Pixel Camera : Mobile cameras have never been this good! I compare my roomie's k750i's pictures with a normal digicam, and the color rendering is too good! Yes, mobiles with 2MP have mushroomed all over, yet this leads them all with it's almost perfect color rendering. The camera can take photographs at three resolutions: 1632x1224, 640x480 (VGA), and 160x120, with Standard and Fine quality settings at each resolution. It has five shoot modes - Normal, Panorama, Frames, Burst, and Night. All this not making sense? Dood, pick up the phone and try it, you'll understand then!!!

--> Auto Focus : When i point this out to people, nobody realizes the importance of it! When you click pics with a normal camera phone, 8 out of 10 chances it will be a bit blurried bcoz of some or the other movement. But the auto-focus feature solves this problem effortlessly!

--> Flash Light Most camera phones (and digicams) fail to capture the scene during night-life. This phone has an amazingingly bright flash light to capture night photos almost as good as the day ones.

--> Walkman Phone : Give importance to this name! Coz this phone is to replace all your ipods & digital mp3 player, coz the sound quality (of the headphones plz!) is mind blowing. And here comes the only difference between the K750i & W800i; coz the W800 has two additional features:
One, it has a "Walkman" profile which essentially means you can run the mobile as an stand-alone mp3 player, rest all facilities switched off.
Two, you have an external connector by which you can connect any type of headphones/earphones to this mobile (God know's why!! The provided ear-phones are the best one could get!!!) :-)

--> Powerful Java Virtual Machine : What is a JVM doin out in an mobile review you would think?! Critics would complain that one thing this phone lacks is a Symbian Operating System ( Check out my Nokia 6600 review) I say, check out the free java applications(and games!) available for this phone! This mobile has a seperate section for games/applications which are basically java applications. This mobile loads all these games and applications with such speed, it would put any symbian phone to shame!

Apart from this, it still has the basic features: Extended memory option (free 64MB card, max upto 2GB), 262k screen, FM (stereo output), Bluetooth (2.0), Themes, Infra Red, MMS facility, MP3 as ringtone, etc, etc...

Negative Points:

--> No Flip Screen : Not all would agree with me on this, but still there should have been a variant model with a flip screen. Also a flip phone would have provided a larger screen, which would have brought out the advantages of the 2MP camera.

--> Slightly weak Joystick : Users beware! The joystick is not of the strong type, extensive usage might cause problems. But this is true for all joystick-phones!


Final verdict? Do you need one? If you have the cash, get one for yourself! :))

x700 : Points to ponder!!

My colleague has this mobile; and myself being a big fan of mobiles I got on to the task of understanding the niceties of this beauty and at at the same time identifying the "defects"

+ Points

--> Memory Card Slot : Samsung has always been producing world class mobiles, but there was always a sore point (as seen in the case of the Best Mobile of the Year 2005; D500) they never gave an option of a memory card. Although the D600 boasts of this, it's high price puts it in a different group. This mobile fulfils the slot for the middle ranged priced group. Unfortunately a MicroSD memory (bit costlier than SD memory card used in nokia phones), but still a memory card slot

--> Hot Swap Option : When u think of memory cards, the hot swap slot gains a lot of importance which unfortunately is not provided in all mobiles, but this mobile has it! No hassles in retrieveing the data, just plug out the memory card and do it

--> Auto Focus Option : I was kinda surprised, as this option is present in very few mobiles (mainly sony k750i, w800 and the nokia N series). Click away excellent pics... no tension!

--> Stereo LoudSpeakers : The Motorola E398 till date can boast of one thing, excellent twin stereo speakers, no other mobile has come near that. But this mobile does give it a fairly good run.

-ve Points

--> No flip case (as samsung are famous for that)

--> Interface still same as prev samsung mobs, no new themes


Apart from this; 262TFT screen, 1.3M camera, 35MB internal memory(4 MB for Java appln), FM, MP3 support, Bluetooth, USB cable support, etc etc all at a price of 13k!!!

Doods, go for this!!!