I have now had my nokia 5800 for 3 weeks but it has been an up road struggle.
I have always enjoyed touch screen phones where my first was a p800. Before this I had a catalogue of touch pdas such as the psion 5,7 , the palm v, the handspring visor, hp jornada 629, compaq ipaq, hp jornada phone/pda so I have some experience when it comes to tapping a screen.
I got an iphone last year shortly after they came out in the uk to see if I would like it. For me, this felt like a heavy weight boxing game as I hadn't had an apple device before, I have big expectations from mobile devices as I am a heavy user and there was a question if the iphone could cope with me. Lets just say it was short lived and after 2 months it was back on eBay.
I loved the interface, the web browsing was perfect and it was great to type on. I hated the closed environment where you were locked into Itunes and the Apple way of doing things. With my other devices such as Windows Mobile or Symbian I am somewhat free of this and can choose my own route on how I want to accomplish things. I jailbroke my iphone, installed a web server with php, ssh server and ftp server so I could shuttle files forwards and backwards. The only other issue I had was Linux where I would have to connect both the PC and iphone to a wireless network, ssh onto the iphone then mount the iphone filesystem over ssh in order to copy files onto it. Sounds great technically but a total headache in reality. I eventually got rid of the iphone after it decided to wipe my data from its disk even though itunes knew it had several gigabytes of "other data", but could not access it. Only a reflash would fix this issue and this is when it was packed up and flogged on ebay.
The thing that Apple got right and set a bench mark was the touch interface. They have always been at the forefront of GUI interfaces with MAC OS X and carried this over to the iphone. I have to admit after years of using point and click interfaces on psion, palm and windows mobile with a stylus, it was both novel and practical to be able to use a finger and thumb to get things done.
I enjoyed my time using Palm PDAs such as the Handspring Visor because I loved the simplicity of Graffiti for the entering of text. This was carried over onto the Sony Ericsson UIQ phones such as the P800 - P990 (this was a total disaster) . However both UIQ and Palm have totally dried up in terms of current hardware and Windows Mobile is the old elephant on top of a mini and it just a fudge. Even with the current crop of phones such as the HTC Touch or Touch HD whilst the Flow interface masks most of the windows mobile junk underneath you still cannot get away from the legacy interface.
As I like symbian, I needed a phone then S60 was a good choice. I previously had an S80 device such as the Nokia 9500 which if used today is like putting a shoe to your ear. I upgraded to a N95 running S60 which got me used to this new OS and its limitation in time for me getting my Nokia E90. This to date is my favorite all in one device with a keyboard and whilst it does not have touch it is a great workhorse. Because Nokia have been slow to bring out further high end devices - the N95 8GB and N96 weren't really upgrades in terms of hardware I got a Samsung Innov8. In terms of spec 3G HSDPA, GPS, 8M Camera, WIFI 3" screem and 16GB on board all running under S60 then this is the dream phone. However the big mistake here is the compatibility with current Nokia S60 software that is free due to the certificates not being available. All About Symbian have recently discussed this on a podcast and have said that they are looking to developers to provide the correctly signed software so it runs under Samsung S60. This has been an issue since the phone came out in August 2008 and it is still not resolved. Needless to say this phone is now on ebay as I had enough of contacting suppliers just to ask when are they bringing out a version for the Innov8. This coupled with samsung#s reluctance to release firmware to fix annoying bugs was too much and this is when I began looking elsewhere.
So in summary, I now want a device that has a keyboard, is compatible with S60 and a touch screen. ........
Now enter from stage left the Nokia 5800XM aka Tube. I got mine from ebay which originally had been sourced from Hong Kong. The phone has already been reflashed by me with the new v11 firmware and the product code changed. Again, I cannot understand why Nokia insist on phase releasing firmware at different times and areas across the globe. Again, take a leaf out of Apple's book who just get on with it and release it worldwide at the same time. I understand Nokia have a huge catalogue of phones but why should I wait several months for something.......
Since having the phone it has been hard reset four times and now I can reinstall it under two hours. However it does refuse to boot with the memory card in so this has to be removed and inserted when the phone has booted. I know there is something on the memory card stopping it but cannot be bothered to fault find as I just want it to work and have a workaround. Also the Web Feeds within the browser have screwed up with no fix in sight other than to wipe the phone again. Luckily Google reader works quite well albeit the touch interface on the web browser sometimes finds you reaching for the hammer!
So do you touch or point? Well with S60v5 it is a question of both. Whilst it is S60 underneath and the menus and buttons have been resized so you can use your finger there is still a lot of work. The S60 browser might be able to show flash unlike the iphone, however it is both slow when zooming in and out with your finger and rendering a page. Thus when you try and move the page about the screen with your finger it frequently does not happen and will move when it is ready to catch up.
The onscreen keyboard is great but I miss the auto correct feature as on the iphone. It is also
annoying to have to keep rotating the phone to type on the full size qwerty keyboard. There are occasions you need to resort to using the stylus (point) that comes with the phone to select things or use the tip of your finger nail if you have any!
But looking past these small things that can be fixed in software upgrades it has a better camera, and can record video and is more open so I can do more with it. For example SymSMB allows me to both connect to Microsoft networks or share folders on the phone. This means I can hook up my linux laptop and copy my podcasts over wifi, access my pictures or MP3s all without a cable or pc suite. It will be great when they finally get the OTA updates working so finally the cables can be burned other than for charging.
This phone will be a transition similar when I went from the 9500, to N95 to E90. I will be moving to the N97 where I am hoping this should do me as an E90 replacement. It has the keyboard, the camera, the capacity and the screen/interface.
If it will be the iphone killer, all I will say is - there is an opportunity but at the moment Nokia have a lot to fix and need to start innovating rather than following. Palm have recently done this with the pre - another contender of which I will be looking at
Lets hope they can remove the need to point and improve on the touch.
I have always enjoyed touch screen phones where my first was a p800. Before this I had a catalogue of touch pdas such as the psion 5,7 , the palm v, the handspring visor, hp jornada 629, compaq ipaq, hp jornada phone/pda so I have some experience when it comes to tapping a screen.
I got an iphone last year shortly after they came out in the uk to see if I would like it. For me, this felt like a heavy weight boxing game as I hadn't had an apple device before, I have big expectations from mobile devices as I am a heavy user and there was a question if the iphone could cope with me. Lets just say it was short lived and after 2 months it was back on eBay.
I loved the interface, the web browsing was perfect and it was great to type on. I hated the closed environment where you were locked into Itunes and the Apple way of doing things. With my other devices such as Windows Mobile or Symbian I am somewhat free of this and can choose my own route on how I want to accomplish things. I jailbroke my iphone, installed a web server with php, ssh server and ftp server so I could shuttle files forwards and backwards. The only other issue I had was Linux where I would have to connect both the PC and iphone to a wireless network, ssh onto the iphone then mount the iphone filesystem over ssh in order to copy files onto it. Sounds great technically but a total headache in reality. I eventually got rid of the iphone after it decided to wipe my data from its disk even though itunes knew it had several gigabytes of "other data", but could not access it. Only a reflash would fix this issue and this is when it was packed up and flogged on ebay.
The thing that Apple got right and set a bench mark was the touch interface. They have always been at the forefront of GUI interfaces with MAC OS X and carried this over to the iphone. I have to admit after years of using point and click interfaces on psion, palm and windows mobile with a stylus, it was both novel and practical to be able to use a finger and thumb to get things done.
I enjoyed my time using Palm PDAs such as the Handspring Visor because I loved the simplicity of Graffiti for the entering of text. This was carried over onto the Sony Ericsson UIQ phones such as the P800 - P990 (this was a total disaster) . However both UIQ and Palm have totally dried up in terms of current hardware and Windows Mobile is the old elephant on top of a mini and it just a fudge. Even with the current crop of phones such as the HTC Touch or Touch HD whilst the Flow interface masks most of the windows mobile junk underneath you still cannot get away from the legacy interface.
As I like symbian, I needed a phone then S60 was a good choice. I previously had an S80 device such as the Nokia 9500 which if used today is like putting a shoe to your ear. I upgraded to a N95 running S60 which got me used to this new OS and its limitation in time for me getting my Nokia E90. This to date is my favorite all in one device with a keyboard and whilst it does not have touch it is a great workhorse. Because Nokia have been slow to bring out further high end devices - the N95 8GB and N96 weren't really upgrades in terms of hardware I got a Samsung Innov8. In terms of spec 3G HSDPA, GPS, 8M Camera, WIFI 3" screem and 16GB on board all running under S60 then this is the dream phone. However the big mistake here is the compatibility with current Nokia S60 software that is free due to the certificates not being available. All About Symbian have recently discussed this on a podcast and have said that they are looking to developers to provide the correctly signed software so it runs under Samsung S60. This has been an issue since the phone came out in August 2008 and it is still not resolved. Needless to say this phone is now on ebay as I had enough of contacting suppliers just to ask when are they bringing out a version for the Innov8. This coupled with samsung#s reluctance to release firmware to fix annoying bugs was too much and this is when I began looking elsewhere.
So in summary, I now want a device that has a keyboard, is compatible with S60 and a touch screen. ........
Now enter from stage left the Nokia 5800XM aka Tube. I got mine from ebay which originally had been sourced from Hong Kong. The phone has already been reflashed by me with the new v11 firmware and the product code changed. Again, I cannot understand why Nokia insist on phase releasing firmware at different times and areas across the globe. Again, take a leaf out of Apple's book who just get on with it and release it worldwide at the same time. I understand Nokia have a huge catalogue of phones but why should I wait several months for something.......
Since having the phone it has been hard reset four times and now I can reinstall it under two hours. However it does refuse to boot with the memory card in so this has to be removed and inserted when the phone has booted. I know there is something on the memory card stopping it but cannot be bothered to fault find as I just want it to work and have a workaround. Also the Web Feeds within the browser have screwed up with no fix in sight other than to wipe the phone again. Luckily Google reader works quite well albeit the touch interface on the web browser sometimes finds you reaching for the hammer!
So do you touch or point? Well with S60v5 it is a question of both. Whilst it is S60 underneath and the menus and buttons have been resized so you can use your finger there is still a lot of work. The S60 browser might be able to show flash unlike the iphone, however it is both slow when zooming in and out with your finger and rendering a page. Thus when you try and move the page about the screen with your finger it frequently does not happen and will move when it is ready to catch up.
The onscreen keyboard is great but I miss the auto correct feature as on the iphone. It is also
annoying to have to keep rotating the phone to type on the full size qwerty keyboard. There are occasions you need to resort to using the stylus (point) that comes with the phone to select things or use the tip of your finger nail if you have any!
But looking past these small things that can be fixed in software upgrades it has a better camera, and can record video and is more open so I can do more with it. For example SymSMB allows me to both connect to Microsoft networks or share folders on the phone. This means I can hook up my linux laptop and copy my podcasts over wifi, access my pictures or MP3s all without a cable or pc suite. It will be great when they finally get the OTA updates working so finally the cables can be burned other than for charging.
This phone will be a transition similar when I went from the 9500, to N95 to E90. I will be moving to the N97 where I am hoping this should do me as an E90 replacement. It has the keyboard, the camera, the capacity and the screen/interface.
If it will be the iphone killer, all I will say is - there is an opportunity but at the moment Nokia have a lot to fix and need to start innovating rather than following. Palm have recently done this with the pre - another contender of which I will be looking at
Lets hope they can remove the need to point and improve on the touch.
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