Diaries of a Nokia Fan Boy

[caption id="attachment_862" align="alignright" width="164" caption="BlackBerry Curve 8520"][/caption]I was taking a stroll through the mall with some friends over the weekend and I happened across a Rogers booth with some dummies displayed. And me and my friend started talking about the build quality of the two phones.

Immediately after picking up the BB Curve 8520 I felt like I was holding a cheap plastic toy. Sure it was lighter than the E71, but the cheap plastic made me want to turn away from it right away. Then having picked up the Nokia I felt like I was holding a real phone: there was no hesitation as to how long the phone would last, no confusion on the price range of it, it just felt like a solid piece of equipment that could take abuse.

My friend, on the other hand, had another idea. She felt that the lighter phone would benefit her more due to the reduced weight, and complained about the E71 as being “too heavy”. Of course this is also the girl that is regretting having picked a “pink Telus phone” as it is falling apart on her and generally not working as she would like it to.

Of course I understand that I was only holding dummies, and not the real phone. I would be the first to commend BlackBerry on their construction and durability (after all, my 8100 Pearl is still going strong after 3 years of constant use), however I believe that today’s feature phones should be constructed out of metal for its durability, and general appeal. But that’s just my two cents.

-Nokia FanBoy

We’re all quite familiar with Sony Ericsson’s Bluetooth watches, and of the little patch that allows us Nokia users to use SE’s watches on our phones. And of course now we’re getting previews of Blackberry’s own Bluetooth watch. So it begs the question: ‘Why not Nokia?’ I mean its not like there wouldn’t be a market for it. The development of the Symbian application for interfacing with Sony Ericsson’s watches clearly indicates that there is a need amongst Nokia users for such a watch. I know I, for one, would buy it. I seriously considered getting SE’s watch and interfacing it, but decided against it due to the brand. (actually, I’m kind of curious how many of my readers would be interested in purchasing a Nokia Bluetooth watch, but not a Sony Ericsson Bluetooth watch?)

We’ve seen Nokia’s Morph concept which incorporates the entire cell phone into a watch/phone hybrid:

And this is all fine and dandy, but I would like to see something real! Lets start with the new SE phones for instance: they have a Classic, Music and Executive editions. Nokia could come out with something for their X, E, and N-series devices. As for some innovative features come out with a navigation special watch – displaying a map, the next direction, or a compass while navigating to a given destination. Maybe include a basic touchscreen OLED with some gestures so as to reduce the number of buttons and improve sunlight legibility. Use the wrist strap to house an extended battery to keep the watch somewhat slim. And include voice recognition to make calls via Bluetooth headsets, or compose/reply to messages and emails, even start programs and navigate to specific locations. And, of course, control music.

Basically make it so that the phone can sit in the wearer’s pocket for most of the day. I know that SE’s watches are made to provide only the most basic functionality, while BB’s watch is supposed to allow to make a decision whether the message/email can wait 15 minutes or if you need to stop what you’re doing to reply. I think Nokia can provide a watch to go even further and provide some pretty impressive functionality.

As an afterthought, Nokia could even incorporate some interesting notification methods – instead of using small speakers, or noisy vibrations, instead silently contract the wrist strap or provide a small electric stimulation to the hand. Of course the latter would have many implications that would need to be considered.

-Nokia FanBoy

via: my twisted imagination.