Previous: Part 1
The user interface
Whether you would like to call it Series 60, S60 or Symbian^3 it still looks pretty much the same. This is a comfort in the one hand. As an established Nokia user the culture shock is limited when you upgrade. New users expecting the world’s best selling mobile phone company to produce a more modern looking user interface may be disappointed. Nokia seems to be moving a little too slowly to simple people’s liking. Symbian^1 has been around a while and even Symbian^3 represents little movement towards a new UI. At least they have removed the confusing need to double tap in some spots where a single tap worked in others.
This doesn’t really bother me. The UI works for me. Besides I think the Android interface is uglier!
Screen
The N8 has a capacitive touch screen and it supports multi touch. OK all this means pinch-to-zoom works. I was surprised by how bright the screen is in direct sunlight. The screen is very responsive unlike the Nokia N900 for example.
Home screen widgets
I believe more could have been done here. The layout is still restrictive with fixed size widgets in fixed slots.
Memory
Nokia really got this wrong with the N97. The amount of space on the C: drive was limited and to top it all many of Nokia’s applications insisted on installing to C: despite the limited space. Then there was the 128MB of RAM. Nokia made a point of reassuring users that subsequent firmware updates would use less memory and allocate it more sufficiently. At least they gave users 32GB of flash memory and the option to add a memory card.
Nokia have addressed the C: disk size issue and upped RAM to 256MB with the N8. Then they showed us once again that even intelligent people can make baffling decisions. The “hi def” N8 has 16GB of flash and the “low def” N97 has 32GB. So now you have less storage for you more space hungry video files. Go figure.
Nokia Music and Ovi store
As a South African this is one area where I would sing Nokia’s praises. The Android Market still offers us only free apps. The Apple App Store doesn’t offer us the variety that US citizens get and last time I checked the iTunes store still wasn’t available in South Africa. Now there are workarounds but they are legally questionable.
On the other hand the Nokia Music store and the Ovi store are available in all their glory. When I go to the Nokia Music store it presents me with local content; a nice touch.
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