Write touch

GIZMO GALLERY

The feature-rich Nokia 6708 is based on a new platform but has to smoothen a few hiccups.

Nokia and Sony Ericsson have been the two big promoters of the Symbian OS (operating system). While Nokia swears by the Series 60, 80 and 90 user interface when it comes to smartphones, Sony Ericsson is content with the UIQ (formerly known as User Interface Quartz) platform. And the 6708 smartphone is the first from Nokia's stable to adopt UIQ.

UIQ is a software platform based on the Symbian OS. Version 2.0 and 2.1 are pen-based and used in many 2.5G and 3G smartphones. UIQ 3 is the latest version of the platform and, in addition to the pen-based UI, it will also support one-handed operation and a number of significant enhancements.

The Nokia 6708 is a triband (900/1800/1900) phone that has a touch screen and stylus. It has a striking resemblance "� both in terms of features and physical appearance "� to the BenQ P31 smartphone. It weighs around 150 grams "� certainly not the lighest smartphone and uses the Symbian OS 7.0 with UIQ 2.1 that simply makes the entire screen a writable touchscreen.

Storing information in this device, if only in the form of scribbling in a calendar appointment or a new contact's details or perhaps to write a few emails or text messages, is made easy with phone dimensions of 118 x 52 x 18 mm. In the above-mentioned cases, the speed at which a user can get text into the device is a deciding factor. Nokia 6708 disappoints if the user is a fan of disjointed (running script) writing. The 6708 allows you to write anywhere on the screen (which is a great thing) but you must write each alphabet separately. However, one can write entire sentences at once, and the handwriting recognition is decent once you get used to it.

Needs memory

Why Nokia washed its hands of the alpha-numeric keypad is both strange and puzzling. You can't thumb in any text; you need to use a stylus or the virtual keypad. You can't thumb-in any text. You need to use a stylus or a virtual keypad. Most smartphone users type in anywhere between 250-300 words per day, that comprises of half-a-dozen appointments, a couple of new contacts, a new note, three to four SMSs and six emails a day. Ease of text input should top Nokia's 'to do' list.

Second, an 18 MB RAM (which makes programmes run smoothly) does no good for Nokia 6708. In a perfectly normal S60 smartphone, messaging, contacts, calendar, camera and gallery "� all run in the background. Each can be switched to more or less instantaneously, with no start-up delay. Each of these programmes is designed to use the precious RAM very efficiently. But it is not surprising to see web or Opera web browser or maybe your favourite J2ME (Java) game (on this smartphone) hitting the RAM hard. For instance, the newer Nokia N70 has 32MB of RAM, the Nokia 9500 has over 24MB free, while the Sony Ericsson P910i has a little over 20MB, which ensures that one never comes to face with this kind of problem.

The smartphone has a 128MB miniSD card with an SD adapter, but there's no miniSD slot. The memory can be expanded up to 2GB at best. The thing it does lack is Wi-Fi. But at a price point of Rs 21,559, we are yet to see a phone that offers Wi-Fi. However, one expects Nokia to lead the race. Imagine to be able to just scribble text and send it across using Wi-Fi.

Not cutting-edge

A less-than-cutting-edge smartphone, Nokia 6708 has at least a decent camera of 1.3 mega pixels that can capture video clips and save them in as .3gp "� a file format specially developed for third generation mobile devices and based on the MP4 file format. Images (JPEG, BMP, GIF,) and videos are displayed on the large 65K high-resolution screen via the built-in image viewer and video player. Bluetooth and infrared are supported. but an outdated Symbian OS v7.0 mars the flexibility of this phone.

There are some wonderful applications like a programme called 'Recon' on the phone can change it into an universal remote (with abilities to rule the idiot box). Can you imagine what you can do? Change channels of television sets in public places like clinics, airports or even a friends place, and get away smoothly. The P990, P910i that has been the flag bearer for Sony Ericsson, and for all the Symbian OS fans who have come from a PDA background. Nokia has to act fast if it intends to capture the enterprise consumers with its UIQ-based smartphones.