Jonathan Mulholland here!

I just got to have a 10 minute play with an HTC Hero, and I’m impressed.

First impressions - it feels great in the hand. It’s a very angular shape but is very comfortable to hold.

The material is a soft plastic. It seems to resist finger prints and feels much nicer to hold than my iPhone - it doesn’t get slipery or greasy like the back of the plastic iPhone’s can. It also feels quite small to hold - it’s not as big as the pictures I’ve seen suggest.

The UI is ‘whizzy’. Feels more consistent than the vanilla version of Android. Didn’t get much time to play with it but it does look good and felt reasonabley fast.

The grey colour that Orange will be selling this in looks very smart, really makes it look like a desirable handset.

I had planned to be getting a Samsung i7500 (if it ever shows up) at some point over the summer but now I’m not so sure!

(You can catch more of my posts here).

I didn’t think I’d like the Nokia N97.

When you stick the device next to the likes of the iPhone 3G or the Palm Pre, it just feels 2004.

I haven’t written much on the N97, deliberately so. I remember reading the specifications, announced (if memory serves) some time late last year. I wasn’t impressed.

This was, after all, meant to be the Marquee handset for Nokia. The top-of-the-range device. The one that *everyone* should be thirsting over.

When I saw pre-release versions, I ran away. I ran FAR away. In the opposite direction. I didn’t want to see just how bad it was.

And after Nokia phoned up and said ‘we’d like to send you one’, I gave serious thought to saying ‘no thank you’.

Even as I observed the devices in the wild at Nokia’s recent blogger party in San Francisco (the day before the iPhone 3GS launch), I couldn’t help but being totally and wholly underwhelmed.

I remember Noah from Phonedog arriving for a drink in the East Bay a few days afterwards. He brought out the N97 and asked what I thought. I had to do my best to stand up for Europe.

“It, errr…. it does background applications!” I explained.

Noah didn’t look at all convinced, pulling off the battery cover and commenting on the quality.

“Right, but I’ve been to their test lab,” I said, “They put their devices through hell. They make some brilliant hardware, they really do.”

My thoughts drifted to the thrashing the N97 has had on many-a-blog.

In today’s iPhone age, the N97 looks positively old.

And when you try and use the device for the first time, it’s a total arse. Trying to learn just how the touchscreen performs is painful. For those accustomed to an iPhone screen that simply… works, it’s very, very easy to write off the N97 has a bollocks device — an archaic — powerful, yes — but unusable monstrosity.

Well, no.

I’ve made it my main phone for almost a week. Here’s what I’m liking, in no particular order.

1. I left the phone on for a full day, doing nothing. I took it off the charger at 7am and did nothing to it. I let it sit on the network, updating my contacts/calendar every 30 minutes, and doing nothing else until midnight. Guess what? All six bars of battery power were undisturbed. This is unusual for a ’smartphone’. My Android G1 would have switched off through lack of power by about 7pm.

2. The camera is excellent. The device handles pictures and video quickly and easily — the processor and memory has clearly been tuned. If you remember the arse of having to mess around with the N95 (and even N95 8GB) waiting for it to catch up with your actions, well, the N97 has evolved beyond this. I installed the 5800 ‘tube’ version of ShoZu on the device and it’s 3.5G connection was sending pictures and video up the Vodafone data pipe extremely quickly.

3. Kudos to Rafe Blandford from All About Symbian — the Nokia God that he is — for pointing out that you can use the N97 with one hand. I had been using the device’s QWERTY keyboard for my typing up until then. The N97 sports a really useful numeric on-screen keyboard that lets you use T9 input. Brilliant. Absolutely tip-top brilliant for testing. I can text as fast as I can on my N95 8GB with this function.

4. The haptic feedback from the touchscreen is pleasing. Very pleasing.

5. You get used to the stupid interface. I’m no fan of Nokia’s bollocks interface. They really need to sort out the structure. But I got used to it after a day. I now navigate around the device with lightning speed.

6. There’s a little pull-down switch thing on the left hand side of the device that switches the screen off and puts the phone into ‘locked’ mode. I love it. It feels really nice. Pull it down to switch off the screen and lock it… then pull it down once more and tap to reactivate.

7. The touchscreen is… actually… pretty good. You need to learn how to use it. It’s not as reactive, obviously, as the iPhone or similar. I find myself tap-tap-tapping all across the device swiftly.

8. Background applications are brilliant. I thoroughly enjoy swapping between apps — Google Maps, for example, and the browser. (Yes the browser is outdated but you can install an alternative).

9. The power of the device makes me feel good. I like that it’s fast. 32GB of space too.

10. The little Facebook widget on the front screen is pretty nifty. I’d like to see more widget support for the N97.

11. Sync. I sync my calendar and contacts flawlessly with Google using the Mail For Exchange functionality. It is simply brilliant.

12. Setting up my Google Mail for Apps account on the device took 5 seconds. I literally had to type in a username and password. Done. Nokia took care of the rest. That was super.

13. Audio quality. It’s simply fantastic.

I’ll stop there. I don’t see any glaring problems with the device. If you’re a Nokia fan, I think you’ll enjoy the N97.

There is an element of me that feels a bit.. held back, with the N97. There are precious few applications available for it at the moment so the Ovi Store experience is rather limited.

I do feel that I’ve got power. I feel like it’s a proper, solid, top-of-the-range device for the mobile geniuses. Super quality video, ultra fast 3.5G connection, nice, powerful processor, background applications galore… I feel good with it. I certainly like my iPhone app and music experience. But I don’t feel like I’m missing out too much with the N97.

If anything I’m feeling pretty smug with the N97. I don’t think there’s anything that can touch it’s raw capabilities on the market.

It’s not a consumer handset though. I wouldn’t recommend it for my mother. It’s definitely power-user territory.

I’m giving serious thought to getting one free on contract from 3 here in the UK.

Don’t write off Nokia.

Their hardware is simply fantastic and their experience and determination to continue to succeed in the mobile sector is second to none.

And they’ve announced a cooperation agreement with Intel. This could, of course, go absolutely nowhere.

Or it could mean that we may well see some stonkingly excellent devices sometime soon. It’s potentially game-changing.

I was sent this rather interesting perspective from Adam Leach, the Device Principal Ananlyst at Ovum — I wouldn’t normally publish the whole thing but I reckon it’s relevant enough:

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Nokia signs agreement with Intel
An endorsement for Intel’s Atom processor for mobile devices
Since Intel’s launch of its Atom family of processors it has made no secret that it intends to make a serious play in mobile. The company hopes that taking a slice of the mobile device market will provide an engine for growth outside of its traditional PC and server markets. However, the current family of Atom chipsets is not suitable for use in handsets and instead Intel has developed a new market segment for larger form factor mobile internet devices (MIDs) positioned above smartphones and below notebooks. To reach further down into the volume part of the mobile market and start reaching the expanding high-end smartphone segment, Intel needs to produce a chipset which can match the power/performance ratio of processors based on the designs of ARM Ltd. This week’s announcement is a sign that at least Nokia believes that Intel’s roadmap is credible and that the company can in time provide a competitive offering against ARM-based alternatives.

Nokia and Intel to collaborate on open source software
This announcement follows Intel’s acquisition of Wind River, a supplier of operating systems for embedded devices. The Wind River acquisition has given Intel a significant foot-hold in embedded and mobile devices, it provides them with the expertise to ensure that its chipsets are optimized towards embedded devices and gives the company access to a wide range of existing Wind River customers in this space. Intel understands the strategic advantage of maintaining control of the software stack that sits above its processors; this acquisition is a kin to Intel buying Microsoft in the early days of the PC market.

The agreement with Nokia continues Intel’s focus on software and strengthens its position. The two companies have agreed to cooperate on key open source projects and use these common technologies in Moblin (Intel’s Linux-based software platform for Atom) and Maemo (Nokia’s Linux-based software platform for its Internet Tablet products). This is good for Nokia as its platform will become more suited for the growing segment of mobile internet devices and netbooks; good for Intel as its platform will become more suited for smaller mobile devices and good news for developers as it will, to an extent, reduce fragmentation in Linux-based devices. However, the real opportunity here is for Nokia and Intel to combine their efforts and back a single Linux-based platform for mobile devices. This could provide device vendors with a credible open alternative to existing smartphone and netbook platforms.

Intel to license Nokia’s 3G modem technology
To date, Intel has focused on WiFi and WiMax radio technologies. The announcement gives Intel the capability to produce 3G capable chipsets that will make its products more relevant the wider mobile market. It may also be the first sign that Intel is prepared to work with alternative 4G technology in addition to WiMax. It should be noted that this is not the first agreement between Nokia and Intel; in 2006 Nokia agreed to supply a HSDPA module for Intel’s Centrino platform, however, it never resulted in any commercial products. The fact that the current agreement to supply HSPA modem technology is in the context of a broader agreement, should increase the likelihood of commercial success this time.

Agreement provides Nokia with opportunity in MID and netbook markets
For Nokia this announcement also makes sure that it can compete on equal terms with PC and notebook vendors entering the mobile market with Atom-based mobile internet devices and netbooks.

- - - - -

We shall see, eh? Bring it on Intel, bring it on Nokia!

I just met with some chaps who will, they tell me, have a dual sim Android handset hitting the marketplace “in the very near term.”

I pressed them further, but they would only commit to “quite a few weeks away” and in terms of cost, “it will be very competitively priced”.

“Sub $200?” I pressed, “Well [nodding] it’ll be very competitive priced.”

So this is very exciting news for the handset marketplace.

The company in question is an independent manufacturer — and they’re seriously innovating.

I can’t wait to see what they deliver.

Dual Sim will be, I reckon, a magic bullet for a heck of a lot of people. I am hugely attracted by the concept of being able to walk about with both a Vodafone UK and a T-Mobile USA sim in my phone. And then choosing which I want to use currently. Or using the likes of MAXroam or a PAYG sim.

I’m also interested as to whether it will be possible to have both sims running concurrently on the device. Or if that is going to confuse the operating system.

On the grapevine I’ve heard of a few other independent small companies planning their own Android handset launches soon. So as well as the megabrands such as HTC, Samsung and so-on, we should be seeing quite a healthy Android marketplace over the next 6-9 months.

Can you see yourself buying an Android handset with Dual Sim capability for a few hundred US dollars?

I got this note in from a reader by the name of Richard and wondered if you’ve got some perspective. It’s been a long time since I played around with Bluetooth headsets — the last time I did, every time I switched on the device I felt terrible.

So I’ve stayed away from them and thus, there’s a bit of a blind spot.

Have you got some suggestions:

Hi Ewan, Can you recommed a bluetooth head set that can be used on pc and for my blackberry. also with the feature it can run both systems at the same time. let me know your thoughts. Thanks

Any ideas?