The second chink in the N91’s armour is its HD. This isn’t the first portable device to sport a micro hard disc – PalmOne recently released the Lifedrive, which is also gunning for a similar market. The Lifedrive got a mixed reception in the Palm community; while it’s a big innovation, the implementation of it left a lot to be desired. Users report long delays switching between programs and heavy battery drains. There’s also a question mark over the durability of the device. While some of this is speculation, personally I can verify that there is a significant pause whilst a microdrive starts up and it is battery intensive (I used to use an IBM 340Mb Microdrive).

Finally – how much is this thing going to cost? A quote from a Nokia sales rep said that it was going to be roughly the price of a P910i or Communicator i.e. £250-£350 w/ a standard contract. With the X2 rumoured to be £150 handset only, this gives it a remarkable advantage.

The face off

So, we’ve established that the N91 isn’t going to be suited for everyone and costs will mean it wil take people a long time to save up. So what can you do to get more musical mileage from your phone?

Noggin’ the Ogg

The N91 supports a colossal range of file types – MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC, RM, AMR….the list goes on. One file type it doesn’t support is Ogg Vorbis – an emerging music file system that’s giving MP3 a run for its money. The most popular Ogg Vorbis player for Series 60 phones is OggPlay – which sadly is for v1, 1.2 & 2.0 OS only, leaving the N91 out in the cold.

Ogg Vorbis is open source – this means that it is free for people to develop for and work with, without the thorny legal issues of working with MP3. Many high level PC games now use Ogg Vorbis effects and music – Halo and Unreal Tournament 2003 being two high profile examples.

With Ogg Vorbis, songs are rated on quality, rather than in terms of Kbps. For example:

                                   Ogg Vorbis                                        MP3

                                          q0                                                64 Kbps

                                          q2                                                96 Kbps

                                          q4                                                128 Kbps

Ogg Vorbis files also take up less space than MP3 and when working with memory cards, it is vital to use that space to its fullest.

One drawback of converting MP3s to Ogg Vorbis is that it doesn’t handle variable bit rates particularly well – the net result sounding like Alvin and The Chipmunks.

Thanks to wikipedia for the above info – vist www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogg_Vorbis for more detail.

A word in your ear

So, armed with our weapon of choice (either OggPlay or the Sendo’s built in MP3 software) and a big fat memory card, all we need is some way to deliver the sound to your ears.

The standard headset that is shipped with the X and X2 is dreadful. The sheer weight of the microphone often drags the earpiece out of your ear and it’s as stylish as a brick. The Bluetooth version is a little better, being quite small and light. The downside is that all of your music will be in mono and having Bluetooth constantly on is a real drain on the battery. Bluetooth headphones have become available to allow for stereo music but neither the X nor X2 supports this as it requires Bluetooth v1.2 upwards.

All is not lost however. The use of a specific adaptor plug (www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?moduleno=1144&doj=21m6D) , at the princely sum of 99p, will allow the use of normal headphones and earphones with the X and X2. There are a couple of people on the SendoSmartphones forum who have been discussing this recently – They’re the guys to speak to.

A chip off the old block?

When the X was first launched, it had two features that interesed both developers and users; SoniX and GraphiX. These were two special chipsets designed to improve both the sound and graphics of the X. However, both the SoniX chip and the software running it have issues with several pieces of software:

• Smartmovie – Juddery playback but only when sound is encoded
• Viking DVD – Refuses to play at all due to an audio codec error
• Yukiko – Only works with soundless version (not released)

…to name but a few. When contacted, all of the developers were waiting for the Sendo SDKs and Developer page to be reloaded on the Sendo website. It may be that a future firmware release will correct these problems.

Pick a card, any card

With all the money saved from not buying an N91, you can put it towards a large memory card for your Sendo. My suggestions for memory cards are:

• Stick with a well know brand – Sandisk and Kingston are both reliable ones to go for.
• There isn’t a world of difference between a high-speed and standard card – leastways, not when it comes to MP3. Use the cash to get a larger card rather than a faster card.
• *Follow the FAQ on getting the card ready* - once too often I’ve had people reporting problems with their card only to find that it’s not formatted as FAT (not FAT32 or NTFS)
• USB 2.0 is your friend – It takes a long time to ferry over 1Gb’s worth of music via USB 1.1 and even longer via your Sendo. Invest in a USB 2.0 card reader.

 …that actually highlights a rather interesting product for X users only. Sandisk have recently released a high speed SD card with a built in USB 2.0 connector. Available in 512Mb and 1Gb flavours, it is handy little gadget to have.

Summary

The N91 has a lot going for it and it represents a big evolution in phone technology. However, your trusty Sendo X or X2 can do a lot to keep pace. At least, until the X3 comes out, but that’s another story…