I’m Getting Two New Nokia Handsets
I didn’t think I was going to get a new Nokia handset anytime soon, but a funny thing happened. Shortly after I wrote my comparison about Android and iOS, I found out I was getting two new Nokia handsets. One is a Nokia E7 (as a “trade” for a couple of older Nokia handsets I have, so it will be mine outright) and a Nokia E6 to review from WOMWorld.
The handsets I am trading for a Nokia E7: a Nokia E71 and a Nokia E61i. The Nokia E71 was by far my favorite Nokia I’ve owned to date, but it is a few years old now, and runs S60 3rd Edition FP1. The E61i, the precursor to the E71, runs S60 3rd Edition (without FP1). As part of the trade I worked out, I had to reconfigure these devices with certain software, etc. This meant going through the devices, of course. Since I was giving away my primary go-to Nokia handset while I travel, I also decided to dust off my Nokia N95 8GB and set it up again with the necessary software.
The main issues I had with all these devices were mostly hardware limitations (CPU speed, RAM, and a non-standard headphone jack on the E71 and E61i), but everything else was mostly manageable. Major functionality worked, though web browsing was sometime difficult due to the RAM/CPU issues. There are apps for the major functionality I need on a mobile handset. Ovi Store, which had major issues back when it first launched, is now rock solid and works nearly as well (or better) as the Android Marketplace and iOS App Store (lack of apps for my handsets notwithstanding).
In any case, I realized just how much I actually liked these handsets. Nokia made–no, makes–good, solid hardware. While there is plenty to complain about in these older versions of Symbian–and believe me, I have–it gets the job done. It occurred to me that with all the handwringing that has occurred about Nokia’s choice to dump Symbian in favor of a partnership with Microsoft and Windows Phone 7, Symbian wasn’t as far back as everyone thought. There are several passages in fellow Nokia alumnus Tomi Ahonen’s recent posting declaring Nokia CEO deluded that reminded me that, from a functionality standpoint, Symbian had a lot of what Android and iOS brought to the table well before either of these operating systems were on the market. The issues, from my point of view, were underpowered hardware and usability.
In any case, I concluded that the supposed “problems” Symbian had, at least from my point of view, were fixable. I even tweeted about it:
The tweets ultimately got picked up by the folks from WOMWorld, and, well, I’ll be getting a Nokia E6 to trial shortly. While the E7 reminds me of the Nokia Communicator-style of devices, albeit with a touch screen, updated hardware, and Symbian^3, the E6 reminds me of my beloved Nokia E71 and it also runs the newest Symbian–Anna. The E7 will supposedly get Symbian Anna “in the coming months” but it will be nice to see the current evolution of Symbian and compare it with iOS and Android.
