Nokia N9 mega review part 2

Camera

The Good:

• Good quality imaging
• 720p video recording
• Simple UI and loads of settings

The Bad:

• Lack of dedicated camera key
• Nothing in particular

We really liked the UI of Camera application. The transparent keys wont interfere with the subject and finding and changing setting is very easy. Also, the layout is minimalistic. This is the camera main layout. Clicking on the strip on the left side opens settings menu. On the right side, there is Image viewer at the top, capture button at the center and a toggle switch below capture key using which you can quickly toggle between still image capture and video recording.                         The above images show complete list of settings available for still imaging. As you see, the settings range from flash settings to changing filters, white balance, add Geo-Location etc.And the below images show how you can change settings like White balance and filters etc.                       Comparatively, the options are much less for video recording. You can opt for 720p or VGA quality and there are few more settings Image quality in ideal lighting conditions is very but in low light conditions, it is average. The below three images are taken in three different conditions. 1. Without flash and without lights on (on an evening, not much light but just enough to not make the pictures too grainy. Do notice the amount of noise in the picture 2. With tubelight on 3. Flash on. What I liked most in this camera app is ‘touch to focus’. By selecting an object on the display, you can make the camera focus on that object. Check how clear the area with Malborne logo (helmet manufacturer doesn’t have funding to pay to Marlboro for original logo, hence this) on the helmet is in below picture: The same concept is demoed in the unboxing video that was added to the first part. Have a look and you will understand what exactly ‘touch to focus’ means. Overall, I liked the camera application very much. The interface is very good and this phones takes decent photos. Video recording on the other hand is okayish.

Image Gallery

The Good:

• Clean layout
• One click to favorite
• Timeline slider
• Share to social network
• Face recognition (added with PR1.2)

The Bad:

• No native image editor (loved the one that comes with Symbian Anna/Belle)

The home screen can be viewed in landscape mode or in portrait mode. All the images are listed in tiled layout and the bottom bar lets you view

• All images in the phone (don’t get confused with macro icon)
• Snaps taken using this phone
• Favorites
• menu options

You can scroll down using swipes or scrolling along the right edge scrolls across the images based on time (month and year) Once you open the image, you can share it to friends using NFS/email/MMS/social networks or you can set is as your avatar or edit tags, set wallpaper etc. Unlike in Symbian Anna/Belle, there is no native image editor and you have to download one from the store. You can add this image to favorites by clicking on the ‘*’ (star) icon. Yes, it is that simple. The image is then automatically added to the favorites list and in the main list, the image is shown with a star on top right corner. PR1.2 has added face recognition to Image Viewer and we shall cover it later, in a post dedicated to PR1.2

Email

The Good:

• Superb UI
• Favorites feature
• Multiple mailbox support
• Time based scrolling saves lot of time
• Dual style (unified and separate)

The Bad:

• Nothing in particular

This is interesting. The home of email app is divided into three categories. First part lists all your unread email (across all mailboxes), second part lists your mailboxes and the third part lists favorited folders.The bottom bar has options to send a new mail or to sync mailboxes.   Once you click on the mailbox, you will see a list of emails with each email showing subject, sender name, date and part of email body. This way, you can quickly go through the mails without actually opening them and open only those that are necessary. The bottom bar gives you options to go back to email home, send a new email, sync mailbox, open folders and open menu options.       Email body is clean and is definitely among the best I have seen. Once you open email, you can either delete it, reply to the mail or forward the mail. Below images give you a glimpse of email editing options available (including styling) If you are using folders, the same are synced to the mailbox and you can also move your mail into folders and also you can add these folders to email home by tagging them as favorites. Also, scrolling across the right edge of the display enabled time based scroll as shown below Before wrapping up the email part, check this screenshot of an email containing a picture. It shows how clean and crisp looking email app is  

Web Browser

The Good:

• None in particular

The Bad:

• No bookmarks. Bookmark means an icon on home screen
• No Adobe Flash support
• Lack of tabs
• Disappointed

There is not much to talk about web browser. This is one of the most featureless browsers that we have ever seen on smartphones. No support for tabs, no Adobe Flash, no option for bookmark, homepage looks clunky. The web browser homepage lists titles of most opened pages/sites. No, there are no bookmarks. All you need to do is either open one of these pages or open your favorites from the main home screen or enter full page URL (and pick one from the listed items). The bottom bar lets you share the page or add the page to home screen or open new window                       You can share a web page to your friends via social networks or using email and SMS That is all there is w.r.t web browser. It’s too simple and thereby is unusable for those who open many pages at a time or have a huge list of bookmarks categorized by folders. Continue to next page