Archive for the ‘news’ Category

Nokia E55 passes the FCC – E55 Release date

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009

The long awaited Nokia E55 just hit the FCC. We have all been waiting to hear something about the E55’s release for quite some time now since the phone was supposed to be released in the second quarter of this year. Now half a month into the third quarter of 2009 it is the first time that there is some confirmation that the E55’s will be released soon. The report about the E55 passing FCC is actually the only news related to the E55 release since the announcement of this E Series device.

The news we got were related to the Nokia E55 release and approval, no news yet regarding the yet famous Nokia E72.

Unbenannt Nokia E55 passes the FCC E55 Release date

So what is the FCC actually and what exactly does it mean when we talk about devices passing through it?

The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) is an agency of the US government. As the name indicates the FCC is heavily involved into communication devices which are supposed to be released in the US market. Before a device is allowed to be sold in the US it has to pass the FCC which means it has to pass many different kinds of tests related mainly to the hardware. The FCC journalizes every fact related to those tests on their webpage like SAR ratings, used accessories, connectivity tests and much much more which is hardly of use the normal cutomer.

So after a device passes the FCC it means that it will definitely be available on the market soon. But sometimes it can take weeks from passing the FCC and the official release to the open market. There are also cases where a device got through the FCC but never was released because of the cancellation of the device by the manufacturer or other complications.

All in all this just means that we are closer to the E55’s release but it is still unknown how close we actually are.

You can get the whole FCC report here.

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Nokia Game Services: N-Gage and Ovi-Store

Friday, June 19th, 2009

untitled 1 copy 300x204 Nokia Game Services: N Gage and Ovi StoreSince the Ovi Store service has started some while ago and games started to appear on it, some of the Nokia cell phone users wondered what actually would become of N-Gage which has been Nokia’s gaming service for quite a while now. Because of the availability of N-Gage on the N-Series and recently the E-Series (e.g. E55) and Xpress Music phones this gaming service became quite popular for mobile gamers throughout the last year.

At the beginning the Ovi Store mostly had non N-Gage games. But recently trials from N-Gage games are available on the Ovi Store. On the Ovi Store itself there are no indications of N-Gage while downloading the trials. They are available under the gaming category just like the other games. When you download the trials it will open N-Gage so that you can install them. Buying the game isn’t done over the Store but with the N-Gage service.

It looks like Nokia isn’t letting go of the N-Gage service just yet. But over the upcoming months it is quite possible that the Ovi Store will completely merge with the N-Gage service. The availability of the trials through the Ovi Store seems to be an indication just for this.

If Nokia manages to combine the N-Gage service and the Ovi Store successfully the end user should benefit from it. It should be less of hassle to try out and buy the game if it is within just only one service rather than split in two services.

Discuss this further at our forum.

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Nokia E-Series Comparison: E55 and E72

Monday, June 15th, 2009

e72 copy 297x300 Nokia E Series Comparison: E55 and E72Today Nokia announced a new E-series smart phone. It is the successor to the E71 and is named E72. The front of the E72 looks very similar to the E55. The main difference here is the full QWERTY keyboard on the E72 which makes it considerably wider than the E55. The landscape screen and QWERTY keyboard are responsible for the extra width. It is also because of this fact that the E72 is 2.5 mm shorter than the E55 but at the same time it is slightly thicker than the E55.

The design around the d-pad of the E72 is the same as that of the E55 but the major difference is that the E72 has an optical d-pad which should come pretty handy while scrolling through the menus and pages. Besides the brushed metal around their d-pads both the E55 and E72 have a steel frame going around their whole front. The battery covers on both devices are also made out of metal and both use the same battery (1500mAh).

Some major upgrades in the E72 over the E71 and E55 are the 5MP camera with LED flash and the support for up to 10.2Mbps HSDPA. A very nice thing is that the E72’s LED flash can be used as a torch by simply pressing the spacebar. The camera and its LED of the E72 are surrounded by a silver frame. Video recording capabilities seems to be the same on both phones. The hardware platform (CPU+RAM) should also be the same.

Even though both devices are based on the same software (Symbian S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2) the E72 will have a range of new software improvements over the current devices. The E72 will be available in the 3rd quarter of this year and at a price of 350€ without taxes and subsidies. Therefore it will cost about 100€ more than the E55.

Overall the E72 seems to have better hardware and software than the E55 but it will come with a price. Besides that the E72 should also appear later in the market than the E55.

To get more info on the new E72 please visit the official Nokia Forum.

Discuss this further at our forum.

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Nokia E55: Supposed Delay In Release?

Sunday, June 7th, 2009

nokia e55 white front Nokia E55: Supposed Delay In Release?Both the E75 and the E55 were announced together at the Mobile World Congress this year. Software wise they hardly differ from each other but the E75 has already been released in many countries. Meanwhile there is still no word on the release of the E55.

There is a possibility that the E55 has been delayed since we are already in the last weeks of Q2 which is actually the official time frame of when the E55 should arrive at the shops. The reason why the E75 was released so much earlier and the supposed delay of the E55 could be because the E75 is partly based on the older hardware platform. It still uses the old CPU clocked at 369MHz while the E55 is based on the newer CPU with 600MHz like the most recently announced Nokia cell phones i.e. Nokia 5630 XM, Nokia 6720 classic/navigator etc.. But since the 5630 XM was also released a while ago the hardware optimization doesn’t have to be a reason for the supposed delay.

More appropriate reasons could be that Nokia wants to release both the E52 and E55 at the same moment or that Nokia is too busy with the N97. After all they announced a simultaneous June release of their flagship smart phone in more than 75 countries which even for a company like Nokia is a big feet. Besides that Nokia’s long awaited 8MP camera phone the N86 is also supposed to be launched this month. All in all Nokia should have many things on their hands in the upcoming weeks. Therefore the launch of the E55 and E55 in this month is questionable.

You can discuss the release date of the E55 in our forum.

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Nokia E55 vs Nokia E71

Tuesday, April 7th, 2009

As we promised here is a comparison of Nokia’s thinnest smart phone to date and the arguably most popular Nokia E-Series device, the E71. We already mentioned one or two differences between the E71 and the E55 in the Hardware and Design post.

img 5816 Nokia E55 vs Nokia E71

The major difference you will notice between those two devices is the screen and the keypad. The E71 has a 2.36-inch landscape screen while the E55 has a 2.4-inch portrait screen. Due to its portrait screen the E55 is much narrower than the E71. With a measure of 114 x 57 x 10 mm the E71 is wider and slightly thicker than the E55. But the E55 is a bit taller.

While the E71 features a full QWERTY keypad the E55 comes with a compact QWERTY. Therefore typing with the E71’s keypad should be easier than with the E55’s keypad. The full QWERTY keyboard seems to be a worthy sacrifice since without it the E55 would be much wider and not as much pocket able as it is now.

img 5820 Nokia E55 vs Nokia E71

The E71 and the E55 use the same 1500 mAh battery namely the BP-4L. In the case of the E55 the battery is charged through the micro USB port which is very convenient. The E71 meanwhile has to fall back on its 2 mm charger connector. Even though both have the same battery the E55 has a much higher GSM standby time and WCDMA talk time. But the E71 wins in WCDMA standby time and GSM talk time.

Though I personally think there won’t be a big difference in battery life between those two phones once the E55 is on the market.

The cameras of both E-Series phones seem to be almost the same but there is a difference in the video recording department. While the E55 records videos in VGA resolution at 15fps the E71 records its videos in QVGA at 15fps.

There are also some other features that the E55 has which the E71 is missing like a dedicated camera key, Nokia’s mobile gaming platform N-Gage, a 3.5 mm audio jack and an accelerometer. However the latter wouldn’t make much sense in a device which natively has a landscape screen.

The E71 is powered by an ARM11 CPU clocked at 369 MHz while the E55 is powered by an ARM11 CPU clocked at 600 MHz.

Besides having a faster processor than the E71 the E55 comes also with a newer mobile operating system. The E55 is based on S60 3rd Edition FP2 while the E71 is based on S60 3rd Edition FP1.

It seems like the E55 excels in many areas compared to the E71 but if it will be as successful as the E71 is still hard to tell. We will know more when we can get our hands on a retail version of the E55.

Discuss this further at our forum.

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Welcome to the E55 blog!

Thursday, April 2nd, 2009

42706 nokia e55 black 051 Welcome to the E55 blog! This blog will be dedicated to the recently announced Nokia E-Series smartphone, the E55 which is based on Symbian S60  3rd Edition Feature Pack 2. The “world’s thinnest smartphone” as Nokia likes to call it has a sleek and compact design. It is Nokia’s first cell phone to come with a compact QWERTY keyboard and the new e-mail user interface. Both features  emphasize its messaging abilities.

One of the E55’s selling point could be its standby time of 28 days in GSM mode and 19 days in WCDMA mode which is really impressive especially if you consider how small the phone actually is. Besides the astonishing battery life the newest addition to the Nokia E-Series comes with every feature you would expect a smartphone to have like HSDPA, HSUPA, Wi-Fi and a-GPS. The E55 is also N-Gage compatible which should provide a satisfying mobile gaming experience. It will be available in this summer for 265€ unsubsidised in the colors of black, white and red.

There are seemingly many small and big updates in the E55 in comparison to the current E-Series line up. We will try to look into these in the  coming days and weeks and serve you with as much information as possible.

So stay tuned for more details on the E55’s hardware and software! Occasionally we’ll be presenting E55 compatible software,  games  and themes to you. We will also do some comparisons to similar E-Series devices like the E71 and the E55’s actual successor the E51.

Next up is the hardware and design of the E55 .

Discuss this further at our forum.

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