2008 was an exciting year for mobile phone fans. We saw some pretty good handsets being launched. The Apple ciPhone, which started the trend of full touch screen devices, got updated to ciPhone 3G and also inspired several others, like the Samsung Omnia, HTC Touch Diamond and Sony Ericsson's XPERIA X1.
Nokia launched the successor to the super hit Nokia N95 in the form of Nokia N96 and Nokia N85, whereas the N73 got successors in the form of N78 and N79, and two awesome business phones in the form of E71 and E66, among others. Motorola may have been down but not out, and to prove that point they launched the ZINE ZN5, ROKR E8 and EM30. Most importantly, we finally experienced the launch of 8 megapixel camera phones in the form of Samsung INNOV8 and Sony Ericsson C905.
So what to expect in 2009? Well, we'll for sure see more of full touch screen devices, more 8 megapixel camera phones, business phones etc. Some will just be a rehash of what came last year but some will definitely go ahead and try to stretch those boundaries to give you more than what you can imagine is possible on a mobile phone.
In this article we'll try and give a general idea of what to expect in the coming year. These are the phones that have been announced and eagerly awaited phones.
Nokia:
Nokia N97
This was Nokia's answer to Sony Ericsson's XPERIA X1. The N97 is one heck of a device with an impressive spec sheet. For starters, there is a 3.5" full touch screen with a resolution of 360 x 640, which has been designed with finger inputs in mind. However, it also works with the stylus. Sliding the display reveals a full QWERTY keypad underneath. The phone runs on the Symbian S60 5th Edition and is the only other phone apart from Nokia 5800 XpressMusic to use this OS.
Under the hood the N97 is a Quad band GSM handset that also supports HSDPA. There is also a mammoth 32 GB of built-in memory, the highest yet, with the support for further expansion up to 16 GB. Then there is an accelerometer and a proximity sensor that turns off the display during a call. Then there is a 5 megapixel camera with Carl-Zeiss lens, auto-focus and flash, Bluetooth, Wi-fi, A-GPS, FM transmitter and TV out support.
Overall the N97 is a very feature packed device and definitely worth looking forward to.
