Omio News Blog

Nokia E75 versus HTC Touch Pro: It’s Friday Showdown Time

Nokia are the dependable old boys of the phone world. HTC: the rogue newbies, intent on making a name for themselves but out of the two who has came up with the best slider QWERTY keyboard device. It’s a toughie.

It’s Friday, the afternoon is winding down and it’s mobile phone showdown time. We’ve lined up the oh-so-similar HTC Touch Pro with the Nokia E75 to see how they both stack up, relatively speaking of course.

Operating System

Both phones have different operating systems. The Nokia E75 features the Nokia native Symbian Series 60 3rd edition. The HTC Pro has a Windows Mobile 6.1 OS.

Camera

Both phones pack in 3.2 megapixels but the HTC sneakes ahead with its VGA CMOS camera.

Networking

Both models sport WiFi and Bluetooth v2.0 connectivity, quad band GSM GPRS, EDGE and 3G technology. The two are WCDMA are compatible.  The E75 has an integrated A-GPS receiver and support for Nokia maps. While, on the other hand, the HTC Touch Pro has a special integrated GPS antenna to support maps.

Memory

Of the two phones, the E73 has a much larger comparable memory – 50MB. The HTC meanwhile has only 288MB but both phones have an expandable micro SD card for added memory.

Display and Design

With a touch screen measuring a paltry 2.4″ and 240 x 320 pixels, the E75 falls behind in the display rankings. The HTC Touch Pro has a 2.8″ screen with a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels. The E75 does have two different styles of keyboard so it redeems itself slightly. It also has the regular alphanumerical keyboard so you can use the phone like you would with a regular keyboard.

Battery Life

The HTC Touch Pro has the more powerful battery here – just under 7 hours of life for GSM usage and 6 hours for WCDMA usage. The Nokia E75 smartphone offers 5 hours and 20 minutes of battery life for GSM usage and 4 hours & 20 minutes for WCDMA usage.

Dimensions

The HTC measures 102 mm long, 18.05 mm wide and weighs in at 16.5g. In contrast, the Nokia is 111.8mm long, 50mm wide, 14.4mm thick and weighs only 139g.  Six grams – it makes all the difference.

Price

A SIM-free Nokia E75 is the cheaper of the two handsets in this often determining purchase factor.

Which of the two are you pining for?

Firefox Mobile Phone Web Browser Coming Next Week?

In an unusually leaky move from Mozilla, it seems that their mobile iteration of web browser Firefox could be here as soon as next week if internal documents on the net are to believed.

According to freely available Mozilla meeting notes, ‘Fennec’ as it’s known will be available from the first week of February, “targetting the HTC Touch Pro.”

It seems like this WinMo handset (already one of Omio’s personal favourites after the HTC Touch Pro review!) will be receiving an early present in the form of first real competition to the behemoth of Opera Mobile.

What of Flash-happy mobile browser Skyfire? A critic’s darling with a very popular Beta in the US and a low-key UK roll-out at the end of the last year, it looks like the mobile browser market is going to get pretty crowded!

Source: Electric Pig

HTC Touch Cruise 2009 Edition Revealed, Big On GPS Features

HTC’s successor to the HTC Touch Cruise might have been unimaginatively named the HTC Touch Cruise, yet beyond the name little remains similar to last year’s original.

Still powered by Windows Mobile, the Touch Cruise 09 is certainly taking its name to heart, with a heavily reliance on GPS-assisted features. With a new Advanced Navigation System pointing the way quickly and easily with turn-by-turn navigation (problems with GPS on the HTC Touch Pro are still being ironed out), the Touch Cruise 09 also has a  interesting service named ‘FootPrints’.

Footprints provides the ability to take notes and an audio clip of locations of interest by identifying its specific geographical location. In addition to identifying each postcard with its GPS co-ordinates, Footprints also auto-names each postcard with its general location or area.

It is sure to make all of your slides from that holiday to Turkey so much easier for your friends to be subjected to!

The new Touch Cruise has a 2.8″ QVGA touchscreen, 3G connectivity with HSDPA, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (2.0 and A2DP). A 3.2 megapixel fixed focus camera is the order of the day, whilst the user interface is more of the TouchFLO 3D loveliness which we have come to know and enjoy on HTC handsets.

Earmarked for a second quarter release, the HTC Touch Cruise is set to make getting horribly lost a fun experience!

Samsung joins the Pico Projector party

Of all the pico projector buzz that’ s been going down at CES it’s Samsung who’ve managed to make the sleekest and most sophisticated of them all. We were there at their exclusive press launch to get all the details.

The MBP200 has a simple and sleek design with with touch pad controls for easy navigation. The handset transforms the 2 inch screen into a 50 inch viewing platform. You can easily transfer files and project content independent of any attached source via the microSDcard slot as well as being able to create play lists, video, pictures and PDF PowerPoint, Word and Excel files.

It has a 35 mm jack that lets you add headphones or speakers and a small screen holder with a telescopic pole inside to support lots of different projected image sizes, from a standard A4 sheet of paper to a 50-inch screen.

They’ve really nailed the picture quality with the MBP 200 too. Of all the projector developments apps and accessories coming onto the market I’ve not seen picture quality this clear with anything else. The handset’s powered by a miniature version of the imaging technology in HDTVs, home theatre systems and cinema. Hence, why the picture quality’s so good.

The handset should be available later in the year. Prices are yet to be finalised.

Omio’s HTC Touch Pro Competition Results!

Well, the reviews are in, the deadline has passed, and all of the entrants’ names have been put into the official Omio hat for our HTC Touch Pro competition!

And our winner is…

Read more…

Win A SIM-Free HTC Touch Pro: Competition Ends Soon!

A last minute reminder that the HTC Touch Pro giveaway from Omio is into its final week… Everyone is still in with a chance to win this brilliant Windows Mobile-powered device!

All you need to do is register as a user on Omio and write a review of your current handset! If you’re lucky enough to already be a member of Omio, simply add a review of your mobile on the relevant handset page, whether you love or loathe it.

Have a look at some of the mobile phone reviews so far!

We have had quite a good response, but not nearly enough to say that you can’t enter now and scoop the big prize!

Competition closes on Monday 15th December, and we will be announcing the winner shortly afterwards. Best of luck!

Defrost Your Touch HD

It might be the slickest, shiniest Windows Mobile handset ever made, but, if you use an HTC Touch HD you’ll know that it spends more time frozen than a jumbo pack of Turkey Twizzlers.

Thankfully, HTC have recognised the problem and released a hotfix which promises to “enhance the response time for Touch HD”.

We’ve applied it to our handset, and can report a significant improvement.

And of course, if Windows Mobile is your thing, don’t forget that we’re giving away a SIM free HTC Touch Pro in all it’s hi-res, slidey-out-keyboarding, data-lovin’ glory.

Source: MoDaCo

Sony Ericsson Xperia Panels On The HTC Touch HD, HTC TouchFLO on the Xperia!

I suppose, as we covered the fact that the exclusive Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 Panels could be modified to work on an HTC handset, that we should cover more recent developments in the crazy topsy-turvy world of XDA Developers!

Firstly, they managed to get the Xperia X1 running the slick TouchFLO user interface, popularised by its use on the HTC Touch Diamond and Touch Pro handsets. Check out the video below!

Then, they managed to get the Xperia’s Panel interface modded to run on the new humungous screen of the HTC Touch HD! Truth be told, it may be a tad buggy but the Panels seem to run a little bit smoother than on the Xperia itself! Looks pretty creamy on the super high resolution screen of the HD too. Watch the vid below!

Who would have thought that they could get Windows Mobile handsets to run Windows Mobile software? Not me, that Windows is a cruel mistress, wild and unpredictable…

Win An SIM Free HTC Touch Pro : Omio Giveaway Reminder!

Hey! Just a little memory jog to let you know that a quick mobile phone review could bag you an HTC Touch Pro in our awesome Omio giveaway!

All you need to do is register as a user on Omio and write a review of your current handset! If you’re lucky enough to already be a member of Omio, simply add a review of your mobile on the relevant handset page, whether you love or loathe it.

Be sure to stick your name in the entrants thread in our forum too, just so we know who’s involved in the big competition!

Our only rules are that we would like it to be your own work (no stealing), be of significant length (no haikus), and be of an acceptable quality (no spammy spam). That’s it!

The competition closes on Monday 15th December and is open to all and sundry! Join Omio here!

HTC Touch HD vs. HTC Touch Pro: The Video!

Seeing as the HTC Touch HD is now out on Orange, it’s a perfect time to see just how much that glorious 800 x 480 screen handles things in comparison to the humble HTC Touch Pro.

Thankfully, PocketNow have saved us a lot of the trouble and put up an excellent screen battle! Obviously the Touch HD comes out on top in terms of the screen being larger, wider, and crisper, but the contrast on the HD  ‘pops’ a little less and loads certain programs a tad slower.

Check it out here.

I was totally on their side that it comes out on top overall…until they decided to poke the bear and bring out the iPhone for a screen resolution test. Yes, the iPhone’s resolution is lower (‘only’ 480 x 320), but the Amazon site arguably scrolls much smoother and looks ‘whiter’ on it than the HD.

Yes, I am horribly biased.