I’ve never been one to take any notice of accessories for your mobile. In fact the only thing I’ve bought that wasn’t included in-the-box is probably a car charger. The fact that in the past mobile accessories just weren’t that appealing. When I think “mobile accessory” I think cheaply made hands-free kits, cases, belt clips and the like. Even in more recent years when Bluetooth Headsets started to hit the market they were mainly cheaply made and looked ridiculous.However at Nokia World this week I had the chance to have a play with some the latest accessories to hit the market. I’d heard about most of these on various sites and feeds in the last few weeks but my interest wasn’t sparked until I had the opportunity to try them out.

The first thing I picked up was the new Power Pack, something I had been wanting since I read the review of Proportas offering on AllAboutSymbian a while back. Nokias version seems to trump Proporta on features though. On a full charge, which takes 7-8 hours, it can recharge you phone 3 times from empty (I assume they tested with a regular BL-5C) . It also has an extra lead built into the base so you can charge 2 devices at the same time, perfect for me as I tend to carry a Nokia 770 (and soon a N810) with me on trips where the Power Pack would be useful.

The new Bluetooth GPS Module also caught my eye mainly because of the size of thing. It really is a slim and sexy and is a great improvement on its predecessor, the LD-3W. The unit comes with a suction cup for your car window and a belt clip and thanks to the loop in the design it can easily be attached to your keys. It’s so slim you could even fit it into the small pocket on your jeans. Not only does it look better than the LD-3W it also works better with an accuracy of 5M. This means it’s accurate enough to be used while walking around not just in your car.

However given this new found enthusiasm for accessories I did find a few that were still a let down. The MD-7W Bluetooth Speakers looked great; They were loud, sounded good and even attached together cleverly so they could be carries round. But Nokia totally dropped the ball by using AA batteries to power the thing rather than a standard rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery. The Xpress Music accessories were also a let down being cheaply made and of poor quality all around. While it’s good to see some improvements it’s also clear that Nokia still need to make more.