With the new N900 being released this october and the new and shiny Maemo 5 OS, Symbian has another competitor to worry about.

Nokia fans have been asking for a better and improved Symbian, but they have yet to succeed. Symbian has been beaten by Android and Mac OSX. And for the past couple of years has been struggling to keep up with the competition. The OVI Store has been released just this year and with a lot of glitches.

Maemo 5 looks better and is faster than the Symbian 5th. Now, Nokia enthusiasts have a choice, Maemo or Symbian. The hardware battle has stopped now it is time for the software battle to begin. But can Symbian keep up, or is this the final countdown for our beloved OS?

As we all know most mobile devices come with A- GPS, including our beloved E75. A-GPS stands for Assisted Global Positioning System and it is assisted by your Internet connection. Why do you need A-GPS on your mobile device, you might ask yourself. But, if you live in a country that is quite new to this technology (such as mine), you will need Internet to discover nearby satellites.

Actually,  the Internet connection is the difference between the two devices. The traditional GPS has no Internet connection, so at times it might loose connection. But, that is where the A-GPS kicks in downloading your coordinates from the Internet thus boosting your signal. However, this problem can be easily fixed with an external GPS signal booster antenna.

The advantages with the traditional GPS device is that it has a big screen at a lower cost than a GPS phone. The biggest disadvantage is the software. Most of those work on their own software, which can make installing other software very hard, sometimes even impossible.  During such an operation you might just brick your device. I tried to do it and when I saw what it took I installed Garmin Mobile XT on my phone.

Installing a mobile GPS software on a Nokia phone, in our case the E75 is very easy. Even cracked versions of those software can be found on any forum or tracker. Just google what you need and the solution will come. So, after testing the two devices, I was stunned to see that my phone had pinpointed me although I was inside a building. While the traditional GPS showed no signal at all. Even as I stepped outside the no signal. I had to walk 50 meters to get a GPS signal.

To sum up, A-GPS with a decent software is far better that traditional GPS. Losing signal when you need it most can be a bummer. So, my advice to you is o get a GPS software for your phone and enjoy the ride.

What I have been interested in doing for a while is to compare the Symbian OS 5-th vs 3-rd. Well in case you are thinking that one is meant for touch and the other for normal screens, I believe that the fifth is more an updated  third edition. I even thought of three categories to review the two: design, functionality and speed.

DESIGN&GRAPHICS: Well the design is mostly the same but the fifth edition has a few special effects for windows. When switching between them one can enable those from the theme menu by turning theme effects ON. This is what makes the fifth edition better than third when it comes to graphics. Plus the main menu is much easier to use with fewer folders.  All the applications are stored in one folder and the most used ones are available in the main menu. So this round goes to fifth edition Symbian.

FUNCTIONALITY: Basically the two have the same functions and there is almost nothing new in this department. Except, the copy/paste function of the fifth. With this you can copy/paste any text. For example, you might like a message or a quote from the web, just highlight it and select copy, than paste it onto an SMS or even on a site or somewhere else. Again I would have to say that the fifth has more to offer than then third edition.

SPEED: This is something I have tested personally out of sheer curiosity. This test is based on the speed it takes for your phone to start and display a network. The fifth edition is about 10 seconds faster than third. The load time of the later is about 30 seconds while the other takes under 20.  I don’t compare menu navigation because it is roughly the same. Still the fifth has a faster media folder navigation, when I was scrolling through pictures on my 5800 they displayed immediately without any loading screen. While, my E51 displayed the loading screen on every single one of my camera pictures. Yet again the fifth is victorious.

To conclude, the fifth edition of Symbian looks more like an updated version of the third edition. It is slicker, faster and more reliable. Most of the previous versions glitches have been fixed. Lets hope the E75 doesn’t have the same problems as my E51. And from what I have seen it is definitely an improvement.

The new Nokia E75 has just arrived and I think that it is a step forward for the E-series franchise. Gifted with the latest gadgets from Nokia, it is a great follow up to the E71. Of course, it is not an E71 with a slide, it is much more than that.The Release dates for this Nokia E75 is different depending on the country, but it is now for pre-order at Nokia.

DESIGN. The three colors that the Nokia E75 come in are: brick red, black and light brown. Light and slim, it is only 139g, although it features a never before-seen sliding full-QWERTY keyboard.

On the right there are four buttons that unlike previous versions of Nokia phones, are for the camera controls for options such as zoom.

With a 2.4″ screen and a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels (QVGA), also a 16 million color TFT(QVGA) display.

The e-mail shortcut button is also present as we have been accustomed with the new business phones.

On top of the phone we have the power button and a Nokia AV 3,5 mm connector, and on the left side the usual microSD and USB connection slot.

The main appearance is a bit glossy as is the case of the new design for the latest Nokia phones.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS. The guys at Nokia must have thought that all work and no play makes the owner a doll boy, so they gave the E75 N-Gage capabilities and an accelerometer.

The internal memory is 50MB and the phone comes with a microSD HC 4GB included in the package, however the memory can boosted up to 16 GB via microSD memory card.

Here is a thought for Nokia: how about a business phone with internal memory of at least 8GB? I mean, this is a business phone after all, it is going to need all the swap space it can get.

It is useless to talk about the Bluetooth and USB port as they have come to be a common trait on all phones.

The camera on this model is a 3.2 Mp with Carl Zeiss Lens but it is pointless to say that a VGA one would have suffice on a business class phone. Personally, I have had an E51 for almost 6 months now and I haven’t used more that a couple of times.

GPS with A-GPS is also present on the phone and I think that they have done a great job with this feature. Nowadays it makes traveling between countries and cities quite easy and efficient.

Furthermore the Symbian OS of this particular model is the new v9.3 that we have on the E71 with all its business features, such as the home screen with two different menus.

PROS&CONS. As I have said above, the main bug of this phone is the small 50MB internal memory. I am eagerly awaiting for an E-series phone with a much bigger one.

The GPS and accelerometer features are a plus, I guess they have been listening to the rumors about the accelerometer on the E7,1 and said “why not?”

In my opinion the sliding keyboard is a bit too… how should I say this… teeny. As in it makes you look more like teenager texting to his friends rather than a business man/woman. A touch screen or an open up QWERTY keyboard would have been way better and more business like. However, if you have to text a lot to your co-workers or friends, this is the phone for you. It has a very easy to use keyboard, and because it is a slide it is also easy to hold.

All in all it is a good phone and deserves a fair chance, and I think it is a great step forward for the Nokia phones in general, and particularly for E-series models.

Great design and a sturdy build, it is a worthy follow up to the E71, making the phone owner proud of owning such an innovating model.