Great Gadgets: Nokia E71 Smartphone

Last week, we talked about the Nokia N95 8GB and how it has arrived in Canada courtesy of Rogers Wireless. While the N95 is quite the powerful smartphone with its high-speed data connection and multimedia capabilities, the lack of a full QWERTY keyboard could prove to be a deal-breaker for many mobile business professionals.

Although not yet formally available in Canada, the Nokia E71 smartphone looks to be a formidable candidate for people who need mobile email access but are looking for an alternative to Windows Mobile handhelds and BlackBerry devices. The Nokia E71 runs on the Symbian operating system and has a full QWERTY keyboard for ease of text entry. The form factor is similar to the Motorola Q9h and most BlackBerry handhelds.

In addition to the keyboard, the Nokia E71 also has high-speed 3G connectivity, integrated Wi-Fi, autofocus camera, and GPS navigation. It also appears to be remarkably thin. If you like some of its predecessors, like the Nokia E61 and E62, then you’ll feel right at home with the E71.

Great Gadgets: Nokia N95 8GB from Rogers Wireless

Earlier this year, I wrote a post about how the Nokia N95 could be coming to Canada. That has now been confirmed by Rogers Wireless and they are set to launch the 8GB version of the Nokia N95 starting tomorrow. This would mean that Rogers is the first North American carrier to officially support the Nokia N95, which has only been available as an unlocked phone from Nokia up until now. Rogers beat American GSM providers AT&T and T-Mobile to the punch.

The flagship Symbian S60-powered smartphone comes with a slide-out numeric keypad, but you can also slide the phone the other way to reveal dedicated media controls. The version selling through Rogers Wireless will be the black Nokia N95 8GB, meaning that it comes with 8GB of internal memory for all your multimedia needs. Other specs include 3.5G HSDPA connectivity, integrated Wi-Fi, stereo Bluetooth, and a 5 megapixel camera.

The price for the Nokia N95 8GB has been set at $399 with a three-year contract. Seeing how it’s a smartphone, the availability of the $7/month unlimited on-device web browsing option is great value. It’s incredibly unlikely that the iPhone, when it launches through Rogers, will be offered the same monthly option.

500GB LaCie Rugged Portable Drive

It might not be the most aesthetically pleasing portable hard drive on the market, but this offering from LaCie appears to outdo many of its direct competitors on two fronts.

First, this is a rugged portable hard drive, being able to withstand a lot of pain and abuse. According to LaCie, the shock-resistant orange rubber bumper will allow the drive to survive some nasty drops and spills. There is internal shock protection as well, because shock and vibration are two of things that can seriously damage a hard drive.

Second, this portable hard drive comes with a whopping 500 gigabytes of storage capacity. That’s half a terabyte in the palm of your hand and LaCie is saying that this is “the most protected 500GB you’ll ever hold.” Use that space to store pictures, videos, important documents, or whatever other digital information you need to stow away and carry around. The LaCie Rugged Hard Disk connects via USB 2.0 and is completely plug-and-play.

The retail price on the 500GB LaCie Rugged Portable Hard Drive is $339.99. The same drive is also available in 80GB, 160GB, 250GB, and 320GB capacities.

Great Gadgets: Asus M70 Notebook Computer

Compared to their desktop counterparts, laptop computers have typically come up short with the level of internal storage capacity. That’s about to change with the arrival of the Asus M70, the first notebook to come with a full terabyte of storage right of the box. In order to reach this major milestone, Asus outfitted the M70 with two 500GB Hitachi Travelstar hard drives. Yes, it’s not a single drive with a terabyte, but it’s the next best thing.

Now, you wouldn’t expect Asus to create the world’s first laptop with a full terabyte of memory and then equip it with a series of sub-par parts, right? Asus keeps the good stuff going with a large 17-inch WUXGA display, four (!) Altec Lansing speakers, HDMI output, and Blu-ray support, making the M70 a great entertainment-minded computer. This also means that it would be great for presentations and other business applications.

Rounding out the specs are a biometric fingerprint reader, Intel Core 2 Duo processor, Windows Vista, integrated webcam with facial recognition, and up to 4GB of RAM. There’s no indication regarding pricing or availability, but I’d imagine that the Asus M70 will fetch quite the pretty penny when it hit shelves.

Great Gadgets: HP 2133 Mini-Note PC

There’s a good chance that you’ve heard about the Asus Eee PC. It seems like the public has fallen in love with the subnotebook, because it offers a great level of productivity in an incredible compact package. Asus is getting ready to release a nine-inch version of the Eee PC soon, but they’re not going to alone in that segment of the market anymore.

Competing devices are starting to pop up from all sorts of companies. We’re getting ready for devices like the Everex Cloudbook, but one of the more notable upcoming releases is the HP 2133 Mini-Note PC. Taking on a form factor similar to the 9-inch Asus Eee PC 900, the HP Mini-Note is a mini notebook PC.

On an official level, HP is saying that this small computer is targeting the student population, but it will surely win over a few fans in the general population as well. The anodized aluminum shell helps to keep the sub-notebook safe and the 8.9-inch WXGA display is scratch-resistant too.

Features include integrated Wi-Fi, security and multimedia applications, and a “clear coating over the Durakeys to protect the printed characters.” Look for the HP 2133 Mini-Note PC to launch soon with a starting price of $499.

Great Gadgets: Quad-Band HTC Touch Dual

Late last year, I mentioned the HTC Touch Dual, a Windows Mobile smartphone that combines a touchscreen display with a slide-out keyboard. There are two versions of the phone available, one of which gets a standard numeric keypad whereas the other gets a SureType-like keyboard that maps two letters to each key. The trouble with both of these versions is that they only have tri-band GSM (900/1800/1900 MHz), lacking the 850 MHz band that many North Americans desire.

Thankfully, it has now been announced that a quad-band version of the HTC Touch Dual will soon be available in North America, adding that 850 MHz GSM frequency for optimal reception. Beyond the regular GSM radios, the new HTC Touch Dual will also have HSDPA that will work with North American providers like AT&T and Rogers Wireless. You’ll need to do a little configuration yourself, naturally, but at least you can enjoy some high-speed wireless data.

They’ve also upgraded the operating system to Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional and the interface will be overlaid with HTC’s TouchFLO technology. The rest of the specs are pretty similar to the existing unit, meaning you get a 2 megapixel camera, microSD expansion slot, and Bluetooth. There is still no Wi-Fi.

The plan is to sell the unlocked Windows Mobile phone at (American?) Best Buy stores some time this quarter. No announcement has been made about price, but I’m guessing that it will be in the $500-$600 range.