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

One of my readers, atul recently asked me question on upgrading their phone:

…planning to move from Nokia E71 (my 4th eseries phone) and have always used a Nokia since ‘92. Do u think it would be sane to move to HTC Magic or should I wait for E72?

This isn’t exactly a question that can be answered with a couple lines, but I liked the question enough that I decided to actually write a post about this.

Choosing between the E72 and the Magic there are a number of factors you have to consider, first and foremost that the two devices are in a completely different class altogether. The Nokia E72 is an Enterprise-class devices. What this means is that the design of the phone, operating system, and software was all done with the requirements of the business world in mind. That also means that the manufacturing process didn’t compromise on quality, however may not have put too much thought into the physical appearance of the phone (granted, the E71 is the first exception to the latter).
On the other hand, the HTC Magic is a somewhat more mainstream phone. Thus the physical appearance was more important than quality (mine scratched in a matter of days and slightly creaks on the sides).

Another part of construction you have to look at is the input method. If you write a lot of emails, the Magic, or any touchscreen phone, is not for you. At the very least not until they have displays that can morph to have actual physical buttons raise up and provide proper feedback. Of course even then, taking up important screen real-estate for a keyboard will never be as good as having a separate screen actual physical keyboard.

Taking a look at the operating system is also important. Symbian is over a decade old and in that has become extremely stable, even if a little outdated. Android, on the other hand, seems to crash applications on a regular basis (3-5 app crashes per day). At the very least, however, when an application crashes Android and other applications continue running. You also have to keep in mind that there’s a fairly large learning curve going from OS to OS, especially when switching from hardware keys to a touch-centric UI (trust me on this one).
Also don’t forget to consider the applications that you are using on your phone now. Going from E71 to E72 you’re pretty much guaranteed that all of the applications will work. Going to the Magic, however, you will need to find equivalents in the Android Market or the online community, and that can take a large amount of time.

Finally, the features of the phone itself are important. The main one, for me at least, is the battery life. The HTC Magic is severely handicapped by its battery, whereas the E71, and likely the E72 as well, is not.

So what does all that mean for you, my dear friend?
Well just think about what you’re doing with your phone now, and what you will be able to do with your future hone. If you’ve gotten used to the E-Series quality then I’m afraid the Magic, and other mainstream phones for that matter, may be disappointing to you. If you’re connected to a MS Exchange Server then I must tell you that Symbian is integrated much more tightly with it. Also, Symbian has Nokia, Garmin and TomTom mobile GPS applications whereas Android is stuck with just Google maps.
So think about whats important to you, and which phone can better support your requirements. Also, take a look at my post on Nokia E71 vs. E72 (Nokia E72 – worthwhile upgrade?), maybe an upgrade isn’t even really required.
Lastly, consider other phones, such as the Nokia N97, or even other operating systems, such as Windows Mobile.

If you have any more questions just drop me a line and I’ll try to help as much as I can.

-Nokia FanBoy

This is just a quick update on the E72 vs. E71 post, I was looking over some of my favourite sites and noticed that someone managed to get their dirty paws on an E72 prototype. (sorry, I’m jealous) Well they not only posted a bunch of comparison photos, but also managed to disassemble the darned thing!

When I just saw the photos I thought I was going to have to reconsider what I first wrote about them, however after taking another look I still feel I was mostly right. The E71 is a work of art, perfectly blending Business and Beauty, where as the E72 just looks like it was designed by an engineer who was told to think “Business”.

Anyway, don’t take my words for it, have a look on Symbian-Guru (read) and judge for yourself.

-Nokia FanBoy

So Nokia just relelased the Nokia E72 as E71’s successor, and I looked at the pictures and thought to myself:

Really?

I mean the E71 was to the business line what the N95 was to the entertainment line! The follow up seems like a bit of a flop. The E71 was a wonderfully crafted piece of machine: unbelievably thin for a QWERTY phone, and looked like it was designed by an architect and a businessman. The E72’s design looks like a follow up to the E63 drawn up by a someone who spent to much time in front of a video game console – a little plain and boring and not enough business sense. To be honest, it looks a little like E71’s young, a little more athletic, assistant.

So the design is a little controversial, but what about the hardware? Could the hardware push an E71 owner over the edge to upgrade?
The major differences between the two phones are:

• Optical trackpad
• 3.5mm audio jack
• Extra 140MB of internal memory
• 10.2Mbps HSDPA
• 5MP camera with VGA video recording
• Extra 2hr talk time / 70hr standby (2G)
• Symbian 9.3 S60 v3.2 UI

Well I haven’t used the optical trackpad, but the cool factor would at least make me consider it
Everyone knows the 3.5mm audio jack is a necessity in today’s phones, which means this wouldn’t be necessarily a deciding factor for me to choose this phone, but may be important for E71 users.
The extra 140MB of built in storage is definitely an upgrade. My N95 8GB has the same as the E71 and I’ve already had to delete a lot of programs and other items.
The 10.2 Mbps download however is overkill I think. I’m using 3.6Mbps and I find that more than enough. In fact, there has been a survey conducted in England which showed that most people are only getting about a quarter of the bandwidth that the technology is able to provide, mostly due to a lack of towers. So if you have an issue with slow speeds, talk to you provider, not the phone manufacturer.
Now I’m not sure what the quality of that 5MP snapper is but if its anything like my N95 8GB’s, then it is a giant step up. And of course, the E71 was known for its unbelievable battery life and the E72 builds on that even further. So longer lifetime using more capabilities? I’ll go for that !
Finally, the operating system. I’m not familiar with the 3.2 UI, however I have heard good things about it, and its quite likely that its the new OS that prolongs the battery life, so its likely a good thing.

So is this worth it?
Well its definitely an upgrade, maybe even a worthwhile upgrade as a couple features are quite welcome, such as extra internal memory and 3.5mm audio jack. So I guess if you can live with the design, its a worthwhile upgrade.

– Nokia FanBoy
Posted from my Nokia N95 8GB

Update:
Shortly after posting this I realised what it is that I dont like about the design… too much plastic.