The year is almost over, maybe you’re located in New Zealand where the year has already turned into 2009. However, I just wanted to recap the year 2008 and make my top 4. The best 4 devices which were available in stores - so we don’t mention the N97. I don’t rank my top four as this is really difficult because every device has its own advantages and disadvantages. However, I also want to mention that this year wasn’t that special. We haven’t seen that much and special devices which blow me and Christian away. Anyway I really look forward seeing what the manufactures will do in 2009. With the new players like the Symbian Foundation, Apple, Google and also Nokia, Samsung and so on we can really expect a lot.

Top 4

Nokia N96:

Announced at the Mobile World Congress 2008 it caused high waves. Featuring everything you can expect in a wide, more or less thin but nevertheless not to big housing.From WiFi, GPS, a 5 megapixel camera, 16GB of internal memory plus microSD slot you can find almost everything. The N96 is focused being a video device. With the 2.8” display, kick stand, multimedia keys, and 16GB internal memory it’s perfect for viewing videos. So, the focus is really multimedia like gaming, music and video. The N96 based on S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2.

Nokia E71:

Like almost every Nserie device also the new E-series flagship, the E71, was long rumoured. After there was no sign at MWC it came out a few months later. The sexy, thin and really handy full QWERTY device is one of the most popular Nokias in this year. It is really thin and really good build. The E71 is of course business focused but also can handle mp3 and features a standard 3.2 megapixel camera. There is no Nokia with such a robustness and style.The E71 based on S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1.

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic:

Finally the Tube hits the world press. After everybody waited for Nokia’s first touch enabled phone Nokia let the cat out of the back and announced the 5800 XpressMusic. This was not a surprise but facts like the low price and the loud stereo speaker really brought lots of discussions into the community. The 5800 isn’t a flagship but more than a middle tier device for music and video fans. Of course it brings all the good and bad you’re used from S60. A good browser, multitasking and more. However, a big minus is the poor 3.2 megapixel camera and the difficult text input. However, this is just the start of Nokia’s touch devices and we will see more devices like the 5800 and N97 soon.The 5800 based on S60 5th Edition.

Samsung I8510 Innov8:

Indeed, besides the launch of the N97 nobody blow me away like Samsung. With their announcement of the Samsung I8510 aka. the Inno8 Samsung really entered Nokias’ spot. It features like the N96 16GB internal memory, WiFi, GPS and a 2.8” display. However, whereby Nokia spots at the 5 megapixel limit Samsungs goes actually 3 steps further and put a 8 megapixel camera on the back of the Inno8.  For video it has a DivX/H.263/H.264/WMV/MP4 player. So it’s really a N96 competitor and in a lot eyes a N96 killer. Like the N96 it also runs on S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2.

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