Asus M10 Nuvifone

Let me start by saying that I have been a Nokia guy for a long time and this is my first windows mobile phone. So all this review is head-to-head against a Nokia E series phone.

Reason for switching over from Nokia: I saw that Nokia dropped support for my E series phone (E60) just because it was an older model. The new ovi maps don’t install on it. After a lot of search, I realized that no one other than Nokia can continue supporting any Symbian phone. Windows mobile is a lot more  flexible. XDA Developers rock.

Now to the M10 Review .

Features / Pros:

1. Full integration of navigation with contacts. I have been looking for this for a long time. I save all contact info in phone including postal addresses. My father’s Chennai contact info is on my phone. To navigate, I go to  contacts, click on name, click on the map location icon! That’s it. Wow! It found the address (please look at the note on address format below).

   
   




2. Hi res 5 MP camera including video recording. No flash though. I use the phone camera to take quick snaps. Bad lighting requires a full camera flash anyway.

   
   




3. Fastest GPS lock I have ever seen! Garmin knows how to make its gps devices. I have to give them that. I have a MapMyIndia Vx140. The M10 beats it too.

   
   




4. Wifi. Works great. no issues.

   
   




5. Hi res screen. 800x480. Love it. It is a resistive screen though. But I don’t think a resistive screen is bad. I always have a tough time typing on my wife’s itouch capacitive screen. Resistive screen + stylus is best for typing, right now, in my opinion.

   
   




6. Windows mobile. The choice of applications is way better.

   
   




7. 600MHz processor. No interface lag issues. I like multi tasking. The M10 comes wih a 3D process manager. Until now I have never faced an issue with low memory / slow speed.

   
   




8. Ability to record conversations! I was surprised to find this feature. I don’t know if it is specific to M10 or if it is comes with Windows mobile 6.5. No beeps during recording too!

   
   




9. Battery. I don’t know much about reading into battery specs. But a full 2 day battery life even after using all the features. That surprised me.

   
   




10. 4GB built-in storage + extra micro SD memory slot if you need to add more memory. A part of the built-in 4GB is used by maps.

    
    




11. Skype works great. You will need to download skype though.

    
    

Storing addresses in contacts:

This requires a section. Indian addresses are not suited to most GPS UI. What worked for me was

1. Store the street name. (Forget Ashok Nagar, KK Nagar etc in Chennai)

   
   




2. Specify the city name correctly

   
   




3. Specify the zip code. The zip code defines the locality (Ashok Nagar, KK Nagar or whatever)

   
   

Now address search, hopefully, should work. I tried only Chennai addresses.

Cons:

1. The UI is not very intitutive. My wife had a tough time to get to the numeric keypad for typing a number to call! But this may be a Windows mobile issue unrelated to M10.

   
   




2. I miss the "turn on phone" alarm in Nokia. This was very useful during travel. But windows mobile has a phone offline / online timed turn off/on. This should be good enough.

   
   




3. There are two interfaces to Contacts. I don’t know why! But you will get used to it.

   
   




4. Slightly bulky.

   
   




5. Micro usb charger plug (not mini usb). Mini usb would have been better.