Nokia Asha 303 Software Review, The Stylish Entry

The Nokia Asha 303 made a commendable impression on me hardware-wise, its attractive, fashionable and solid, anybody holding it up close won't suspect that its an entry level phone, it feels premium and expensive. To read my full hardware review, CLICK HERE.

Touch and Type UI

The phone is currently the flagship device of the Symbian Series 40 Operating System (OS) running the Touch and Type User Interface (UI). The difference between this platform from older Series 40 versions were that its fully suited for finger touch, had a fully refreshed icons, bunch of added optimization setups, newly created interface commands like side swipes on the menu page, among others.

Being one of the recipients the earliest version of the UI, the phones touch system was yet inept. It wasn't as fluid and smooth like the Nokia Belle devices but more likely similar to the touch responsiveness of low grade versions of Android-running entry level devices, and that its more stable and responsive. The Asha 303 make use of capacitive touch technology mechanized by a 1Ghz processor.

Another drawback of the UI is the absence of multitasking support. Users need to close currently running application in order to use another. This doesn't apply though to the music player since it can be played on the background while using other features. Yes, the phone had some shortcomings but it is core-rooted on a prime and mature Symbian Series 40 thus inheriting the system's simple yet reliable performance.

Homescreen

The Homescreen was typical among all mobilephone platforms, it is full of command shortcuts that can be customize, but unlike others, only one is available for use on the phone, no left or right side swipes. Other prominent features of the Homescreen are the shortcut buttons which by default were assigned for for "Go To" and Names (Contacts) functions. "Go To" brings out another shortcut page to applications that can be modified.
 

Main Homescreen

As I mentioned earlier, the new UI got an icon rehashed, it now had the same design that of Symbian Anna and Belle. I actually like this move of Nokia, aside from platform uniformity, the new icons looks youthful and full of life, more fitting to the market bracket its being positioned to.

"Go To" Page

 Menu

The main Menu is typical among colored Symbian Series 40 variants, its icon base in a Grid format with no option to change its view to Single or List or arranged it to preferred order.

Main Menu

Another outstanding new feature of the Asha Touch UI is the side swipe in the Menu page. Users can now side swipe left or right to bring out two more additional screens. By default, the left screen draws out a Homescreen-like page where users could add application icons, reminders or contacts while the right screen is the application folder. These left and right swipe commands can be change to users preference.

Call and Messaging

Contacts is yet usual on the Asha 303 except that their was now an option to add images as part of the information list aside from the usual names, number, postal or email address, birthday, nickname, among the rest of the possibly needed details for contacts specification. Pressing one of the contacts displays the following options; call, message, email and go to web. The latter will allow users to search information online about the contacts saved webpage data, smart!

Of course, users can fully utilized the mechanical call and shortcut keys, on top of the QWERTY keypad. Pressing the call key will bring out the log file of the phone for easy access to received, dialed and missed calls.

Messaging on the other hand is the strongest feature of the phone being fully design for one. The phone, as mentioned on my Hardware Review, is one of the best mechanical QWERTY set up on its class. Writing messages on the phone is glorious that I just want to text everyone, important or not.

The inbox by default shows a conversations mode but can change to folder mode in the options. Text editor is rather easy to configure and with its lower screen being added with virtual keys for the letter case, left and right arrows and symbols. The arrow keys were very helpful actually since users could precisely point the courser on the writing space where its wanted as compared to Android system where you can only move the courser through thumb, I actually hate this system of Android.

Their is also a shortcut mechanical key for the messaging feature on top of the QWERTY keypad. Nokia didn't leave any stones unturned here for the phones messaging feature, everything is covered.

Web and Email

One of the main selling points of the new Asha range is its web and email connectivity. Nokia created the could-based Xpress Browser which is said to provide a higher speed and more affordable access to the Internet through its compression capability of up to 90% per page. It's very capable indeed in rendering full web pages and navigable enough but I still prefer to use Opera Browser being faster.

Nokia Email works ideally on the phone. Users can add any email accounts on it from different networks like Yahoo, Gmail, Ovi, etc, and it can support multiple accounts. It also supports push eMail. Overall, its not the best but very much capable.

Nokia recognized the growing trend of web connectivity towards social networks and with it a fully configured applications dedicated to such, the Nokia Social and Nokia Chat. The Nokia Social allows users to connect to Twitter or Facebook all under one Social account and all at the same time. Users don't need to log-in or log-out to this social network site every time they'll used one or another. I actually find this very useful being a Twitter fanatic, my problem with this app is its sluggish interface and limited functionality. Nokia Chat on the other hand combines all chat networks into one Chat account but unlike Social, the app supports every possible chat sites from Yahoo@ Chat, Google Talk, Facebook, Ovi Chat, Windows Live Messenger, MySpce IM, etc.

Users can make fully make use of these internet features and functions via the phone's built-in WIFI or through HSDPA, EDGE or GPRS.

Music and Radio

I've used several Symbian Series 40 devices in the past and its nice to discover that Nokia made a massive improvement of the music player on the new Asha Touch UI. One of the prominent is the ability to adjust sound equalizers, preset or not. Then theirs the ability to shuffle songs and repeat songs as part of the options, and the re-sized album image that makes use of the majority of the music player space. The Music Player can play MP3, WAV, WMA and AAC files.

One of the music players biggest drawbacks though is its inability to copy playlist from the Nokia Suite. Users will need to manually create playlists and add or remove songs on it.

Radio player is casual, its capable of detecting and playing stereo FM stations with RDS support. Finding and saving these stations is just a few press away but like any other mobilephone phones at the market at the moment, it wont work without the headset, lame!

Videos

One of the few surprises for this phone is its wide range of video support codecs. It can play MP4, H.264, H.263, WMV player and believe it or not, DivX and Xvid files. Then again due to the phones limited screen, watching video on it is not ideal as compared to tablets or full touchscreen devices.

Camera and Photo

As a still camera, the phone's 3.2MP can take casual images best preferably under bright lighting conditions. It produces the type of images clear enough for Twitter or Facebook uploads. Though camera features were limited being only fixed focus, compared to the previous versions, the Asha 303's overall camera set up was greatly improve with the current one tailored to look like its Nokia Belle siblings. The rest of the phone camera's feature includes face detection, self timer, effects (Greyscale, Sepia, Negative, Solarise) and white balance (Daylight, Incandescent, Flourescent), among others.

Camcorder is capable of capturing VGA of up to 15 frames per second.

                                           Sample images below

Port Pilar, Ozamis City, Philippines

Birhen Sa Cotta, Ozamis City, Philippines

Cotta Beach, Ozamis City, Philippines

Games

Being a phone positioned as an entry level device, majority of its market will be adolescents and young professionals making the Gaming features crucial in the competition. Nokia clearly recognizes this thats why their throwing quite a bunch of premium games with it. Out of the box, it had a full version of Climate Mission and Gedda Heddz and a trial versions of the following games, Angry Birds with 10 Free levels, Asphalt 4 Elite, Brain Challenge 3 and Bubble Bash 2. Tons of free games can also be access and downloaded via Nokia Stores.

Angry Birds

Asphalt 4 Elite

Brain Challenge 3

Concluding Thoughts

The Nokia Asha 303 has a lot of first on its belt, the very first Nokia Touch and Type device with a QWERTY mechanical keyboard, the first entry level device to have a capacitive touch among Nokia breeds and the first to offer the touch optimized Asha Touch UI on top of the Symbian Series 40 platform. I find it more fitting to be called an experimental device in terms of market positioning, an experiment that paid off wholesomely. The device became a benchmark for all entry level devices, that its possible to create a modest device that is hardware adept  and software efficient without compromising much thats why I'm giving it a go recommendation.

Also, the users mobilephone habit also plays a vital part on my overall assessment, the phone is best fitted for people who wants loves texting, chatting and all sociably driven matters with its QWERTY keyboard, on the other hand its not for those who wants bigger screens for playing games or video watching. Balance is key, it just so happen that I like enjoy both worlds.

Read More

Ainol Novo Aurora 2, Software Review

Tablet computers are mobile devices with touchscreens interface which were primarily created to bring a new, convenient and interactive way of web browsing, reading books, playing games, watching movies, listening music, and even telephony for the high breeds.

Ainol Novo Aurora 2 is a typical tablet with a Dual Processor and running Android Operating System (OS) soaked with an Ice Cream Sandwich, a version lower than the latest on Googles stable, the Jelly Bean, but as semi-latest as it may seemed, I still find the overall user interface clunky with noticeable freezing of frames as you navigate, unresponsiveness clicks, delayed swipe, among the rest of Android's systematic issues. This would mean that the problem is in the architecture itself, that no matter how many CPU cores will manufacturers used on their devices, the problem still remains.

The tablet uses the built in user interface of Android, the very much customizable system, yet growing wary through the years. How long had the icon and widget base system exists, decades already, its high time for the Google to create something new and futuristic like what Microsoft did with Windows 8, they were able to defy the norm and edge the competition out being fresh and different. Microsoft will even integrate Windows 8 to multiple devices from smartphones, tablets to laptop and desktop computers creating seamless experience unlike Androids fragmented ecosystem.

On the part of being customizable, its no less than the best in the market making it highly attractive for geeks and the highly imaginative. Users can change launchers which gives varied interactive experience, live wallpapers making the once frigid Homecreen active, add or remove widgets that can be re-size to preference, among others, the possibilities are endless as long as developers keeps on creating applications for the OS.

And speaking of applications, Google play offers hundred thousands of them from games, productivity tools, books, travel, etc., you'll never run out of options but like Apple's, majority of which are senseless and fillers which confirms the study made stating that 40% of Google Play's apps were nuisance.

Of all the system I tried, Android is the most difficult to configure, users have to be very geeky to understand what kernels are, roms, roots, obb, data, etc., to fully enjoy it to the fullest. I'm a degree lower than the super geeks so the system is not for me and so are the rest of the mass market. Forget Android if you get irritated with technical words, you meet them a lot using the system, you could instead go for Windows 8 or iOS if you want your life to be less complicated.

Having produce by manufacturers in China, the tablet has several Chinese blotwares and I find these annoying since I don't speak the language. There were repacked roms though that can be installed to remove these apps but again, too geeky to do at the same time needs a lot of courage from users since one false mistake will turn the precious tablet to bricks.

Screen-wise, the tablet has an IPS LCD screen with 1024 x 600 resolution. If this seemed familiar, thats because its the same screen that iPad and iPhone used. Well, its quite bright all right but not in a natural way, I still find AMOLED screen better in terms of color saturation and contrast. It also doesn't blend well on direct sunlight even in full brightness. Not that the tablet is created to be use outdoors but it will really be best if you can use it in whatever situation, sunny or dim. The high-resolution on the screen would mean that the icon size and widgets will not look awkwardly large than those tablets with lower resolution and that you can add more icons and widgets on the Homescreen.

Connectivity option includes WIFI, HDMI and USB. As essential as it is on a tablet computer, Aurora 2 failed to secure one of its most important feature, web connectivity via WIFI, the tablet's one and only out of the box gateway to the internet. The tablet has the most worst signal connection of all the device I've used that even in a 2 meter distance from the router, I could only capture 2 bars unlike my other devices. My rough estimate, its as good as 4 meters only from the router with walls excluded on the consideration. Good though that this is only a software glitched since there were available roms that could fix the problem, but again, to risky for non geeks. USB port connects fairly with a PC but Ainol doesn't provide PC suite so the connectivity relationship between the tablet and PC is purely copy and paste. HDMI is supported but it doesn't have an HDMI connector. The tablet could reach up to 3 hours of web browsing, very much below average.

Entertainment feature seems to work fine on the tablet. I like to watch movies on it with a headphone on because I find it more convenient compared to my bulky laptop or my smallish screen Nokia N8. Audio on the other hand was mediocre, it doesn't have much of personalization features or settings. Battery life in watching movies or videos is impressive, I could finished up to 3 full length movies on it in single charge. As mentioned earlier, audio player has nothing extraordinary, but what I failed to mention earlier was that the audio quality using the speaker sucks big time. The sound is diminutive and it crackles in high volume. The tablet could last 3 hours as a stand alone music player.

Gaming, the tablet is impressive on this area, it could run heavy 3D games that I've knew of with great graphic rendition for those that were specifically suited up for tablets but worst for with those games that were created for smartphones. An issue that we could relate to the fragmentation of Android ecosystem. Problem here is, there were only few of games for tablet consumption.

And last but not the least, eBook and PDF reader, the main reason why I brought a tablet courtesy of my cousin who showed me how good and necessary a tablet is for students using her iPad. But unlike the aforementioned, Android's pdf reader is only a step higher to archaic that I need to buy a suitable reader to satiate my need. Its high time for Android to improve this area and make it workable for users.

Perhaps I also need to mention the heating problem of the tablet concentrated on the left side. Puzzling because of all the tablets that I've tried, this is the only one that had this issue. Its not overheating because its tolerable but its wearisome. With the tablets plastic back cover, the constant heat might expand the plastic and detach the cover off. And speaking of battery, the tablet performs poorly on this matter. I've already mentioned a few power usage earlier but to give you an overview, I don't think the tablet could last 4 hours if you will use it heavily with 4-5 applications open. That's how poor it is in power management. It could reached as much as 16 hours on standby mode though with no applications open on the background.

To wrap thing up, Ainol Novo Aurora 2 was a dream come true for users who cant afford an iPad or other equally expensive tablets from refutable brands, but having tried the device, I would advice readers to be practical and smart specially in this economically challenging times. The tablet is far from what users expect, its vulnerable first and foremost, it's clunky, buggy and lastly, difficult to configure. Don't be fooled by the aesthetics that Android is showing on the software or Aurora 2's hardware specs that speaks of dual cores and graphics, these were just fronts to attract consumers. What matters most is the experience you get from the product and how dauntless your mind is in using it. Smart devices were supposed to be helping people make life easier, the tablet offers exactly the opposite.

Comments are welcome.

To read the Hardware Review, CLICK HERE!

Read More