Nokia N70 - Internet on the move?

I've just received the Nokia N70 together with the Web'n'Walk package from T-mobile promising the Internet on your mobile phone.

We've all heard this before with the launch of WAP in the late 90's, where we received a very slow, very expensive service that displayed differently (if at all) on different hand sets and provided you with snapshots of the information you actually wanted.

I developed a number of these sites resulting in very limited usage from our target audience. A user would typically connect a couple of times, probably because they had just received a new phone capable of WAP browsing, were down the pub with their mates and were showing off. Suffice to say that we didn't bother keeping the service after a couple of months.

Fast forward to 2006 and the mobile operators have made, and are continuing to make, new promises based on the much hyped 3G networks they spent billions buying. 3G in theory allows speeds to your mobile comparable with broadband, allowing information to be sent quickly and in large volumes, making video on your mobile a reality. You can now get video highlights on your 3G enabled phone, initially for free while they try and make you an addict before hiking the prices up a la the TXT messaging strategy of the mid 90s - do you remember when it was offered free as a buisness gimmick by the likes of Orange?

So, back to the Nokia N70 - quite a nice piece of kit, with a 2 mega pixel camera (and a flash, usefull for up to 1.5 metres!?) and 3G capabilities. So, how is the Internet on the move experince?

Supprisingly good, in fact - mainly because you are not limited to WAP style sites, although these work very well at high speeds. You can actually browse the web with this device, i.e. go to actuall web sites and see them on your phone.

OK, you think, but the screen isn't nearly big enough with most web sites at at least 800 pixels wide, but the N70 gets around this by giving you the option for it to fit the page to the screen, which sometimes works very well, sometimes not so well. If it doesn't work, the N70 steps up to the mark and allows you to switch off the optimisation so the page loads normally, obviously much bigger than the screen, but you can scroll around the screen using the "joypad" on the phone.

The browser supplied on the phone is Opera, and it does a pretty good job of rendering the pages. It has a number of shortcuts you can use to speed up your browsing, e.g. press 7 to bookmark a page.

So, overall, I'm very impressed. I'm also impressed by the T-mobile price plan which allows me to use the Internet for a fixed monthly fee, although I'm not allowed to use the connection to connect via my laptop, but, as the service is pretty good on my mobile and my laptop has built in WiFi which is almost omnipotent in my daily life, I'm not bothered. I can check my e-mail very easily via hotmail mobile (most of the big web based services will automatically redirect you to mobile optimised pages) and make sure the sites I manage are functioning OK, as well as get all the news, results, weather, traffic reports etc. that I need to get my daily fix.

Get on the Internet when you're on the move - it's arrived.