The Nokia BH-503s were announced at Nokia’s Go Play event back in August of 2007. Understandably, the BH-503’s spotlight was stolen by the announcements of the Nokia N81 and Nokia N95 8GB. Was it worth it waiting for so long after the BH-503’s announcement for it to finally appear in the shops? Read on for the review.
Box contents:
The BH-503 comes packaged in a sturdy, clean and simple box. Inside the box, you can expect to find:
The Nokia BH-503 Bluetooth headset.
A small Nokia travel charger.
A multilingual. Manuals.
A Carrying pouch.
Design:
The BH-503 is available in 2 colour schemes: Black and grey or Black and Red. Both look very pleasing aesthetically, but I personally prefer the Black and Red variant.
All controls of the Nokia BH-503 can be found on the right side of the headset, Forwards, backwards, play/pause and the multi-function call button. The left side of the headset features only a small Nokia logo in the centre. The markings for the controls of the BH-503 are slightly raised, making it easy to find the correct button.
Like the BH-501s that came before the BH-503, the headset’s neck band ‘floats’ above the back of your head/neck
Here are just a few comparison shots so you can get an idea of the size:
Charging:
The BH-503’s charging port is located on the bottom of the right speaker. It charges via the standard Nokia 2.5mm charger which, as mentioned, comes in the sales package.
The included manual claims that the Nokia BH-503 will take a maximum of 1 hour 15 minutes to fully charge from empty but in my experience the headset was fully charged within 45 minutes. A full charge will give you 13 hours of talk time, 13 hours of music playback, 10 days standby time(While the headset is paired to a device. When there’s no phone/laptop paired to the headset, it will automatically switch off after about 15 minutes). If you don’t have 45 minutes to fully charge the BH-503, I’ve found that a measly 10 minute charge will give atleast a few hours(about 3-4 in my case) of music playback.
Pairing:
If you’re already familiar with Nokia’s Bluetooth headsets, pairing should be like second nature to you. Holding down the multi-function call key for about 5 seconds while the headset is off will place it in pairing mode, when in pairing mode the indicator led will quickly flash blue and you’ll be able to discover the BH-503, connect and pair with the 0000 passcode.
Sound:
These headsets, like the BH-604, produce great, clear sound. They’re pretty loud at the maximum volume but not too loud. I found that they blocked out the majority of ambient sounds but louder noises like the engine of a bus can still be heard ever so slightly.
If you like your bass, you’ll love the BH-503.
Call quality:
As I’ve found with all of Nokia’s Bluetooth headsets that I've used, calls are crisp and clean. The microphone does a great job at picking up your voice, even in the loudest of conditions.
Comfort:
The speakers on the BH-503s go over and behind your ears. This means that they fit in place snugly and even in the most vigorous of activities, this headset isn’t going anywhere. Seriously, you can try shaking your head around as hard as you possibly can, yet the BH-503 will stay perfectly in place.
The foam padding on the BH-503 really is nice. It helps you to forget that there’s anything on your ears. However, I found that after extended periods of time(5 hours+), you may start to notice that your ears have become rather warm.
Annoyances:
I really cannot see any major faults in the Nokia BH-503. If I were to be really picky, the one thing that annoys me the most in Nokia’s Bluetooth headsets like the BH-503 is those annoying beeps! I wish they would just get rid of them; one instance that could make your blood boil is when receiving a text during music playback. The music pauses for your message alert tone but as the music fades back in, you’ll hear numerous beeps as the volume increases. This only happens when you’re on maximum volume, though.
Other people’s opinions:
The BH-503 generally got good receptions from my friends/family. The most praised aspect of the design was the red highlights that go around each of the BH-503’s speakers. One person did mention that they felt the headset was still too big, even after seeing the BH-604. I feel that the size of the BH-503 is excellent, especially considering the sound quality.
Conclusion:
If you’re looking for stylish stereo Bluetooth headsets that are relatively small in size but still produce great sound, look no further than the BH-503. They really are a joy to use and are the perfect compliment for your A2DP enabled device.
The Nokia BH-503 can be bought directly from Nokia for £64.
Wednesday, 30 July 2008
Nokia Stereo Bluetooth Headset BH-503 Review
Thursday, 24 July 2008
New Samsung i8510 INNOV8 eats N96 for breakfast
Samsung have just announced their heavily rumoured S60 super-phone, the i8510. The Samsung i8510 features an 8MP camera with lens cover, 7.2mbps HSDPA, 16GB internal memory aswell as a microSD slot, a 2.8" QVGA screen and even has an optical touchpad for easy navigation. Needless to say, this baby totally kills the N96 and if what I'm hearing is correct, it may even be out in the UK before Nokia's supposed "successor" to the N95....
The Samsung i8510 runs on S60 FP2. If you've previously used one of Samsung's S60 devices, you should know that not all applications are installable. That's not a problem.
Here's the full feature list of the Samsung i8510, taken from Symbian-Freak:
Network: HSDPA 7.2 Mbps (900/2100), EDGE / GPRS (850/900/1800/1900)
OS: Symbian OS v9.3, S60 v3.2
Display: 2.8” QVGA 16M TFT LCD
Camera: 8 Megapixel CMOS with AF and Dual Power LED
Smart Reader, Image Stabilizer, Auto-Panorama Shot, Smile Shot,
Blink Shot, Wide Dynamic Range (WDR), Face Detection
Video: Video Player (DivX / H.263 / H.264 / WMV / MP4)
QVGA 120 fps Video recording, VGA 30 fps recording
Video Editing
Audio: FM Radio with RDS
DNSe 2.0
Music Player (MP3/ AAC / AAC+ / eAAC+ / WMA / AMR/ RealAudio)
Bluetooth Stereo Headset (A2DP)
3.5pi output
Other features: A-GPS
Optical Mouse, Accelerometer
Embedded 3D Games : FIFA 2008, Asphalt
Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA)
Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.0 / USB 2.0 / Wi-Fi
Memory: 16GB Flash + External Memory slot : microSDHC™ (up to 16GB)
Size: 106.5 x 53.9 x 17.2 mm
Battery: 1200 mAh
Talk time: up to 300/510 min (3G/2.5G)
Stand-by time: up to 330 / 310 hrs (3G/2.5G)
So, who's getting one?
Tuesday, 22 July 2008
One day only: Quick Office Premier 5.0 available for 1$
Ladies and Gentlemen, that was not a typo. Lynchy Of Symbian Freak has just made the community aware of an amazing offer on Quick Office Premier 5.0! For one day only, Quick Office can be purchased for just $1!
The key features of Quick Office Premier 5.0 include:
Complete Editing of Word®, Excel® and PowerPoint® files
Advanced Editing of text, lists, tables, style, and formatting
View documents in multiple views
Performance optimizations for handling documents
ZoomView™ lets you pick the display size that’s best for you
Support For complex formulas
Complete graphical editing
Advanced email integration with Mail for Exchange 2.0
Free spell check dictionaries available in multiple languages
Add images to Word and PowerPoint documents
Supports the following file formats; DOCX, DOC, XLSX, XLSM, XLS, PPT, PPS & TXT
Microsoft Office version support; 97, 2000, XP, 2003, & 2007
Compatible with all S60 3rd Edition Devices
All of that for $1. Grab Quick Office NOW.
Nokia N85 revealed in XML file, Nokia still lovin' QVGA.
The Nokia N85 has just been let out of the bag by Nokia. Its XML file can now be viewed by anyone with access to the internet.
Koblih posted the link to the XML file in the Mobile-Review forums and also noted that the phone's screen resolution is QVGA... From what I can see so far, the N85 is just another FP2 Nseries device with HSDPA, WLAN and A2DP connectivity.
Note: The above image may or may not be the N85 that is described in this XML file. No solid information is currently available on the above device's index number.
When are we gonna get some VGA S60 goodness?! Please Nokia, sooner rather than later.
Friday, 18 July 2008
Nokia Tube seen in The Dark Knight!
Many reports are coming in that the Nokia Tube can be clearly seen in the new Batman movie. What are Nokia playing at?...
The Tube has not even been officially announced yet. So, if they're showing it off in a Movie as highly anticipated as The Dark Knight it's easy to assume that the official announcement isn't too far off.
Awesome_Aleks caught a glimpse of the Tube and gave a brief description, saying "Bottom keys seemed touch sensitive in the way they lit up, but they could have been like the N81 keys. The front was glossy black and the side had a orange ring around it like the N78/N81/N96. The back was black."
Have you seen The Dark Knight? What do you think of the Tube? Unfortunately, The Dark Knight isn't out in the UK until the 24th of July so I'll still have to wait a while before I can form my own opinions on the Tube.
Thursday, 17 July 2008
New updates coming for Nseries?
If you're registered with my Nokia, you probably received an email telling you that your phone has a software update available. In My Nokia, I have my N95 8GB's IMEI entered and if you can still remember, the N95 8GB last received a firmware update in April, so why are Nokia sending out this email a good 3 months after the update came out?
Some are saying that this could be a sign that Nokia are planning to update a slew of Nseries devices sometime soon and that My Nokia were a bit quick to jump the gun on sending out the emails.
It does make sense, right? The N81 recently got an update adding menu transitions and mentions of TAT's Kastor have been found buried in the firmware of some phones. Maybe these updates will bring new, revamped UIs?
UPDATE: I just received another message from My Nokia (this time as a text message) saying that my phone had a software update. WTF, Nokia?
Maybe we'll all be getting some update love soon?
Saturday, 12 July 2008
Backing up settings on your S60 device
Over at Symbian-Guru, Rita has posted her 'Ultimate guide to switching devices' which has some helpful tips for your standard user with a locked down S60 device. At the end of her guide, Rita mentions that there are still some things that she couldn't transfer over from one phone to the other. I'm here to fix that.
Note: To perform these back ups you will need full access to C:\. See my video guide here on how to do so.
Access Point settings? Piece of cake:
To back up your access point settings navigate to C:\Private\10202be9\persists. Scroll down until you find a file called cccccc00.cre and copy it to your memory card. When you need to move your access points to a new phone, just send over the .cre file, paste it into the appropriate directory and restart.
Profiles? As easy as 1-2-3:
To back up Profile settings navigate to C:\Private\10202be9\persists. Scroll down until you find 101f8798.cre and copy it to your memory card. When you need to move your profile settings, just move the .cre file to the appropriate folder and restart.
Web Cookies? Here you are:
To back up your web cookies, navigate to C:\Private\101f8530. Copy the file called cookies.dat to your memory card. Whenever you need to restore your cookies, just copy them to the above location and restart.
Notes? pfft, give me a challenge:
Notes are stored in a file named as DBS_101F8878_Notepad.dat. This file can be found in C:\Private\100012a5. Copy the file to your memory card and your notes will forever be safe. Tip: If you can't delete the original file, this is because the system is using it. To get past this just go to Tools>Utilities>Memory and from the options choose to make a backup of the phone memory. While this is being done, you can delete and replace files as you wish!
Ngage data? Sure thing:
Backing up Ngage saves is slightly more difficult. To back up your Ngage saves, go to C:\private\20007b39. Here you will see a bunch of other folders. Copy the folders that start with 200 to your memory card as these contain the game data for each game you've downloaded. Whenever you need to restore your saves, just copy these files back over!
Bluetooth? Oh come on!:
For Bluetooth settings, there's two files. In C:\Private\10202be9\persists, you'll find 10204dac.cre. This file contains your bluetooth name. If you want to save your paired bluetooth devices, copy over DBS_100069CC_btregistry which is in C:\Private\100012a5.
Browser Bookmarks? *Yawn*:
Browser bookmarks are saved in a file called DBS_101FD685_BrowserBookmarks.db. It can be found in C:\Private\100012a5.
Menu Layout? I'm falling asleep here, guys:
The settings for your menu layout(for FP1) are stored inside appshelldata.xml which is located in C:\Private\101F4CD2\Content. If you have a pre-FP1 device for example the N73 or N80, your file is located in the same folder but it's called Applications.dat.
Text Messages stored on memory card? *Zzzzzzzz*:
If you backup the mail2 folder that can be found in E:\Private\1000484b you'll never need to worry about the safety of your text messages again.
Any requests?
If you would like to back up some settings/information that I haven't listed here, just post a comment and I'll see if I can find the corresponding files.
Enjoy!
Friday, 4 July 2008
New Nokia N81 firmware brings FP2 style transitions!
The almost forgotten Nokia N81 has _finally_ received a firmware update to version 20.0.056. As is the norm these days, the update brings Flash Lite 3 support and Demand paging. What is new however is that the N81 has been given some of the slick menu transitions/animations from Feature Pack 2! Check out the video(courtesy of 'NokiaN81' from Nokiateca) after the break.
Thursday, 3 July 2008
Nokia Bluetooth headset BH-604 review
The Nokia BH-604 Bluetooth headset was announced back in June of 2007 at the same time as the BH-602 and BH-803. The BH-604’s size certainly doesn’t help in enticing the average, non-audiophile phone user but as with most things, they shouldn’t be completely disregarded prior to actually trying them.
Box contents:
• Nokia BH-604 Bluetooth headset
• Nokia 2.5mm pin charger
• Carrying pouch
• Manuals
Design:
The BH-604 is (as said by Nokia) a DJ-Style Bluetooth headset. Kitted out in black and silver (the only colours available), the BH-604 will be able to go with most phones and dare I say it, outfits without clashing too much. The play/pause, forwards, backwards and multifunction button symbols are all set on a contrasting background colour for maximum visibility.
The headband and cans are padded with what seems to be leather which really adds an extra touch of ‘classiness’ to the headset.
The BH-604 features two hinges on each side, one for up and down adjustment and the other for side to side.
Charging:
I was very pleasantly surprised with just how quickly the BH-604 goes from flat to fully charged. After about 40 minutes plugged in, they were already displaying the green light which indicates that it’s fully charged. Nokia claims that after a full charge the BH-604 will be able to endure 19 hours of constant music playback, 18 hours of constant talk time and a very respectable 2 weeks of standby time. From my experiences, I believe that these official figures should be accurate.
Pairing:
Pairing is really very simple. Holding down the multifunction (call) button for about 4 seconds while turning the BH-604 on will put it into pairing mode, making it discoverable to other devices. Just search for new devices from your device and pair with 0000 as the pass code and you’re good to go.
Sound:
The sound from the BH-604 is great. When paired with the N95 8GB/W660i, music was clear and loud with very good bass. These things literally vibrate on your ears in such a manner that with some songs I could feel the cans moving around slightly on my head. If you REALLY want to see what the BH-604 is capable of, it is recommended that you pair them up with an A2DP enabled computer/laptop. The sounds produced become even more rich and vivid; it really is possible to lose yourself in the music.
The BH-604 is seriously loud. Play some music at maximum volume with the BH 604s on a table and you’ll still be able to hear what is being said in a song from many meters away, the volume is comparable to some of Sony Ericsson’s inbuilt phone speakers. Because the cans completely swallow up your ears, they’re pretty good at blocking outside noises... Be careful on the roads if you’re listening to music while out and about, but if you can wear these on the streets you probably already have no fears anyway.
Call quality:
Conversations sounded clearer than with the standard phone-to-ear position. There were no complaints about voice clarity from callers.
Comfort:
The BH-604 weighs in at 250g according to Nokia, so they aren’t the lightest of Bluetooth headsets. Despite their weight, I found them to be incredibly comfortable, even more so than the 30g Motorola S9. The leather padding really helps in trying to forget that you’ve got the headphones on.
After periods of about 4-5 hours with the headsets on, my ears felt noticeably warmer but apart from this the BH-604s still felt great.
Annoyances:
Although I really liked the BH-604s, there were some things about them that REALLY started to annoy me after a few days. On changing tracks with the control buttons on the side, there is ALWAYS a little bit of a lag and then a very small amount of the track still plays before the next track starts, meaning that a few seconds of the new track are wasted.
Another thing that was unbelievably annoying was when setting the BH 604 to the maximum volume using the headset’s volume control. Every time you push the volume rocker up, if it’s already on maximum a beep will interrupt your music and then eat up about 2 seconds of the song.
Others' opinions:
It’s not every day that you see someone walking about with headphones as big as the BH 604s in London so quite understandably it garnered quite a bit of extra attention.
I must say, my friends didn’t really like the BH-604 except for the quality of sound. On at least one occasion, the BH-604 caused spontaneous eruptions of laughter from my associates.
Conclusion:
The BH 604s are a great choice if you’re not a very fashion conscious person and are looking for a pair of wireless headsets that sound great. They fit well on any head and will stay firmly fixed whilst exercising so maybe the BH 604s could also be suitable for joggers, you know, joggers who jog indoors... On treadmills.
The BH-604s can be had for £69 directly from Nokia.
Check out the gallery here for some comparison shots.
Thanks again to WOMWorld for allowing me to trial the BH-604s.
Tuesday, 1 July 2008
How to increase the brightness of your Nokia N82's screen!
Many a N82 user have complained about the limited brightness in the Nokia N82 compared to much brighter phones like the N95 8GB. This is something that Nokia are surely aware of but have not fixed with a firmware update. Thanks to P@sco, it's clear that once again the hacking community has done what Nokia simply can't be arsed to do... Video guide after the break.
GUIDE:
Download (right click, save link as) the 10200c8c.txt file HERE, then copy it to the 'others' folder on your memory card.
YOU WILL NEED A HACKED PHONE. Instructions below.
If this is the first time that you'll be hacking your phone, follow these simple instructions:
1) Download and install hellocarbide from HERE, DO NOT OPEN IT YET.
2) Open Y-Browser and send it into the background by hitting the menu button.
3) Open HelloCarbide, press options and then select menu1... When the pop-up message appears just press yes.
4) Open Y browser again.
5)Copy the 10200c8c.txt file from where you've saved it to C:\Private\10202be9\.
6)Check if there's a 10200c8c.cre file in C:\Private\10202be9\Persists\, if there is one, delete it.
7)Restart your phone.
If you've previously hacked your phone and have CapsOff installed, start from step #5.
Please note that after performing this hack, the only way to lower the brightness settings of your N82 is to delete or move the txt/cre files in C:\Private\10202be9
Enjoy.
