As reported last week, Proporta's just launched a bike mounted version of their popular Beach Buoy waterproof case for all touchscreen phones - and I couldn't resist giving it a real world test. Here's my review - is it worth the five minutes set up time to have your smartphone always to hand in all weathers? Maybe - I'd say a more definite yes, if you live in the rainy UK and get lost a lot!
Released last year, this is the 'Nokia Digital Radio Headset DAB', a (now) £23 accessory that turns any 'USB on the go' Symbian handset into a full-on DAB radio. It works surprisingly well, too - amazing, given the size and cost of the first DAB radios. For the confirmed digital radio fan with a modern Symbian smartphone, at this price it's something of a must-buy, in my opinion. And you get a decent in-ear headset with full multimedia music controls into the bargain...
Power hungry smartphones are always looking for a recharge. So a car charger is going to be high on the priority for a lot of people. But which one should you get? One option is Nokia's DC-20 unit, which initially draws the eye with its twin USB charging ports. And while USB car chargers are never going to generate much excitement, the Nokia DC-20 is a diamond amongst the rough competition.
I remember getting into heated debate in 2009 around the pros and cons of resistive vs capacitive touchscreens - one of the biggest pros for 'resistive' was that phones like the Nokia N97 and 5800 could be used with gloves on, out in cold weather. Over the next year, the market swayed decisively towards capacitive technology, and rightly so, but now we have an accessory that brings back gloved, cold weather use to all capacitive-screened smartphones...
It's a problem, to be sure. You're on holiday and you want to take your Nokia N8 or X7 or similar onto the beach. But, rightly, you're utterly paranoid about sand and splashed seawater ruining your expensive smartphone. Or perhaps you like hiking - or canoeing or any other outdoor pursuit that involved water in any quantity. What you need is this, the BeachBuoy Waterproof Case - I have to say that I'm enormously impressed.
Continuing my run of cases for the Nokia E7 Communicator, I here review the Noreve Tradition Leather Case, a luxury design that again sees the E7 staying in situ. With some of the best-smelling(!) leather I've yet experienced, this is definitely a top end case design and beautifully crafted, with only one or two minor quibbles.
Professional cases for the Nokia E7 Communicator continue to trickle in - here's OtterBox's 'Commuter' accessory. Fresh from the triumph of the N8 design, how on earth did OtterBox cope with the sliding, hinged E7? And how bulky and/or useable is the end result? Is the form factor a bad 'fit' (pun intended) with the idea of an all encompassing, totally protected phone?
I'd originally planned another case review roundup for the Nokia E7, but several of the possible cases have failed to materialise, so I'm going to tackle a few of the best cases individually. Starting with the Nokia CC-3009, a simple, yet superbly made shell that both protects and enhances daily operation.
In one of those "why the heck haven't we reviewed this before?" moments, I look at Nokia's really rather spectacularly useful DC-11 universal charger. Talk about hiding its light under a bushel, the DC-11 has several rather unique benefits - though if you want to avail yourself of one you might have to shop around, since at full RRP it's on the expensive side!
Following my review of the comprehensive (but very expensive) OtterBox Commuter case, I thought it only fair to round off 'accessory week' with a look at its vastly cheaper sister case, the Impact. Living up to its name, it provides significant drop protection and is superbly constructed - I think we may have a winner, especially in the value for money stakes.
