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Nokia N950 MeeGo developer’s platform packs QWERTY keyboard
The long awaited MeeGo device is finally a reality and it turns out it has a brother – the Nokia N950 is a developer’s platform running MeeGo and packs a QWERTY keyboard along with similar specs to that of the N9.
The Nokia N950 is likely one of the leaked MeeGo devices that was rumored to be the official MeeGo handset for this year. The N950 is not a consumer device – it comes with no warranty, beta software (which has issues) and overall may not work as well as a day-to-day device (e.g. some drivers are not finalized, apps may crash and so on).
Nokia N950 live photo (Image source)
Still, the N950 has an aluminum body, which is always a plus and the slide-out QWERTY keyboard will draw the eye of heavy texters. The screen is a 4″ TFT unit with FWVGA resolution (rather than 3.9″ FWVGA AMOLED).
The 8MP camera on the Nokia N950 has “very similar image quality” to the Carl Zeiss branded camera on the N9 but the camera units are different. The front facing camera is in a different location but the same module is used for both devices.
Other differences include the lack of NFC module in the N950 and its digital compass isn’t as accurate and the battery is slightly smaller (1320mAh vs. 1450mAh).
The software on the Nokia N950 isn’t finalized and won’t get an Over-the-Air update (but devs can flash it manually). Still, MeeGo is a very flexible platform and we’re guessing it won’t be long until someone ports the software from the N9 to the N950.
Nokia didn’t specify a release date or price for the N950 model. Still, MeeGo enthusiasts should be ecstatic about this – two MeeGo devices even though Nokia promised only one
Motorola Milestone 3 reviewed, the 4-inch qHD screen is PenTile
The Motorola Milestone 3 is still unofficial but its first full review just went online. The review confirms some specs, has an interesting discovery about the screen and brings benchmarks, camera samples and hands-on impressions.
We’ve seen the Motorola Milestone 3 and the Droid 3 (those should be almost identical save for the GSM/CDMA radio differences) several times before.
Motorola Milestone 3
We’ve known for a while that the Motorola Milestone 3 / Droid 3 has a 4″ qHD LCD screen. The Chinese site that got their hands on the Milestone 3 however claims that it has a PenTile matrix and offer the following photos as proof. If that’s the case, then the screen should the same as the one used in the Atrix, which we didn’t like all that much.
Proof that the Milestone 3 display is a 4″ qHD LCD with PenTile Matrix
The Motorola Milestone 3 is running Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread with MOTOBLUR, uh sorry, we forgot Motorola didn’t like that name anymore. The CPU is a dual-core Cortex-A9 running at 1GHz with PowerVR SGX540 graphics, packaged in a TI OMAP 4430 chipset with 512MB RAM.
The Milestone 3 is running Android 2.3.3 on 1GHz dual-core CPU
Benchmarks put it behind the HTC Sensation, though that’s for a very early pre-release unit, so the results aren’t totally dependable.
Early performance results
The Milestone 3 packs a microHDMI port and an 8MP camera that can record FullHD video. The reviewers snapped a few photos, but unfortunately, they used the 16:9 option, which doesn’t use the full 8MP resolution of the camera. Anyway, here are the photos:
Sample shots from the Motorola Milestone 3
Alas there’s no video camera sample.
Nokia E6 finally hits the UK shelves, X7-00 lands in the US
Two of the latest Nokia Symbian smartphones have just become available. The handsets that started leaving the Nokia factories at the end of last month have finally reached retailers. User in the UK are now able to experience the QWERTY magic of the E6, while those in the US can get their hands on the 4” AMOLED-packing X7-00.
The Nokia E6 has been listed at the Finish company UK website as available. Sold on both Pay as you go for £339 and on a £25/month contract for free the smartphone costs just as much as it did when it went on pre-order. You can also get a “Phone only” deal for £10 above the Pay as you go offer. If you take the plunge, you get to pick between three different colors for your shiny new Nokia E6 – black, silver and white.
Update 14 June: We were contacted by Nokia UK press office to clear out the issue surrounding the Nokia E6 availability. As it turns out, the change in the Nokia E6 status was a technical mistake and the handset isn’t shipping just yet. Well, we guess the waiting for that one isn’t over just yet.
The Nokia X7-00 on the other hand has even managed to cross the Atlantic and is now listed as in stock with several US online retailers. The asking price is $535.95, which is a bit steep, but early adoption fees usually do that to highly popular smartphones.
The Nokia X7 is currently only available in its Dark Steel color version so if you wanted the Silver one you will have to wait a while longer