| Author |
Gizmodo verdict on dumbphones and the W995. |
mobse
Joined: Nov 11, 2006
Posts: 305
PM |
The review may have essentially touched the nerve and pinpointed an issue worth discussing, but it's still way too arrogant.
Not everyone wants or can, for that matter, lock themselves in the fruit phone walled garden. People in many countries around the world do not have the opportunity to buy Apple's handset on contract or otherwise legally and thus have no access to the fabled app store, which in turn, dims the lustre of the device, at least to a degree.
More importantly, there's no doubt that not everyone needs a smartphone of any description. Some people just won't be bothered. Though I sure would like one (still steering clear of full touch solutions) as much as the next geekish person.
Cheers!
 T100 Icy Blue  850i Golden White T650i Eclipse Black M600i Crystal White | |
|
>500
Joined: Jan 24, 2006
Posts: > 500
PM |
$600, where?
You can already buy it for $490usd, http://www.mobilecityonline.c[....]=txtlink&utm_campaign=GSMarena
and its only been out a week, the price will drop even more in the next week.
|
NightBlade
Joined: Jul 29, 2007
Posts: > 500
From: Nessebar, Bulgaria
PM |
On 2009-06-05 18:06:28, blerk wrote:
It's not a review it's just a blog post, rant or column however you want to call it. But definitely not a review.
One of the tags say "lightning review".
|
gtr83
Joined: Sep 27, 2008
Posts: > 500
From: Indonesia
PM |
I admire the iPhone in some departments but I won't ever buy it because some of the features it offers (or lack of, actually) are dead meat for me. Some of what it can do are already covered superbly by my (nevertheless slow) other phone - which is also a fruitphone. |
carkitter
Joined: Apr 29, 2005
Posts: > 500
From: Auckland, NZ
PM |
I think he was a bit harsh on the  UI which is top notch. The commonly used functions can be reached by
- Dedicated buttons
- D-pad shortcuts ^ V < >
- Activity menu shortcuts
- Using the menus and typing numbers to make selections
- Using the menus and typing ^ V < > to make selections
Plus you have Voice Dialing, Voice Answer, Magic Word, speed dialing, it is infinitely customisable and this should be recognised by the reviewer. I really like 's Rotating menu but I have to admit that I'd never see it because I put everything I use on D-pad shortcuts and the Activity menu. And who DOESN"T use the camera button or media button - come on...
However, I see his point about $600 phones should be better than this and thats why I'm so enthusiastic about the Aino. I think its the template for all feature phones going forward - combined use of Touchscreen and hidden keypad / D-pad is a stroke of genius that will take off with people wanting more than a 'dumbphone' but not wanting to commit to an entire OS ecosystem that comes with a Apple/Android/WM smartphone. Getting the touch v button control balance will be the key to its success but the potential audience for this combination is huge - I think aspects of this should reach down to the 3xx models of the S/C/F and should be mandatory in G/W series.
Smartphones were supposed to be a smaller version of your PC in your pocket but in reality they just brought the complexity and geekiness of Windows to mobile phones. Apple got it right by making the iPhone a simplified Mac in your pocket but in truth feature phones have been eating away at the smartphone advantages for years to the point where my V640i could do everything I needed (modem, browsing, email, calendar appointments, PC sync, USB document storage, etc) except connect to wifi, at 1/6 the price of an X1.
[ This Message was edited by: carkitter on 2009-06-06 12:06 ] |
AbuBasim
Joined: Nov 04, 2005
Posts: > 500
PM |
On 2009-06-05 16:58:41, se_dude wrote:
Imagine clicking a picture with a 2mp iphone cam and with an 8mp w995 cam and displaying the pic in 600x400 pixels.
That makes you the opposite of all those people here at Esato who feel that displaying photos at full size is not a good thing.
. . .
I agree with the review to 110 percent. I use my phone as a filofax and for this purpose WM, UIQ3 and S60 work very well. But SE's dumbphones have very limited PIM features. What is the limit of a calendar entry description? 160 characters? Some of my entries are almost one KB in size (entered with a QWERTY keyboard or stylus on an onscreen keyboard) and these will not sync to any of the SE dumbphones I've tried so far.
|
SloopJohnB
Joined: Oct 28, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: the blue planet
PM |
Sorry, but I agree with gizmodo. The UI may have shortcuts but it's still the same UI that they keep throwing more functions to it, making it longer and more complicated and then they try to make up for it by creating shortcuts or extra keys. Shortcuts aren't very good when you have to figure out how to use them and adding extra keys is no real UI improvement since you won't be able to add more keys forever plus it's another hardware piece to get loose, dirty or just non-functional with time. The point of the review goes actually even further because smartphones are actually getting easier to use them dumbphones and sometimes they are even cheaper. Why would you pay so much money for a device that's harder to use, dumber and has fewer functions? The debate between dumber/easier-to-use phones versus smarter/harder-to-use phones is totally changing with smartphones becoming just as or even more accessible to anyone. I agree. Dumbphones like w995 have to die. Not the hardware but the software. needs a wake-up call. |
estatophan
Joined: Jan 16, 2009
Posts: 23
PM |
@GUCCI:Please tell me,how opera mini is resource hungry |
gtr83
Joined: Sep 27, 2008
Posts: > 500
From: Indonesia
PM |
@estatophan
A proof of that is the way it eats through our battery in low coverage areas. But it's still a superb browser. |
carkitter
Joined: Apr 29, 2005
Posts: > 500
From: Auckland, NZ
PM |
On 2009-06-06 06:55:11, AbuBasim wrote:
...But SE's dumbphones have very limited PIM features. What is the limit of a calendar entry description? 160 characters? Some of my entries are almost one KB in size (entered with a QWERTY keyboard or stylus on an onscreen keyboard) and these will not sync to any of the SE dumbphones I've tried so far.
My V640i came with a PIM java app built in - I never used it so I don't know the character limit. I used the Notes function a lot and posted them to the Standby screen which is something I believe most smartphone owners do as well. Notes for feature phones can also be entered via MPE which is probably quicker than a half qwerty or a stylus. 
[ This Message was edited by: carkitter on 2009-06-06 12:22 ] |
jmcomms
Joined: Mar 12, 2002
Posts: > 500
From: Jonathan Morris
PM, WWW
|
The article has a bigger problem than whether the author liked the W995 or not (and it was stated that it is an excellent, perhaps the best, dumbphone).
My problem is that the author simply assumes that touchscreen is the future, no, the ONLY future. It most certainly is not, and some manufacturers have realised that touch works well with real keys too.
The irony is that, if Apple announced later today, or in a year from now, a new iPhone with slideout keypad or keyboard - all these people will suddenly start to say how useful the combination is for allowing easy text entry with finger tip control!
That's the bias that makes this article flawed. I really can't see the point it is trying to make. Far better to have done a comparison feature to give the pros and cons of touch vs traditional input. Touch allows large screens, but tricky input when you're using the phone one handed on a commuter train or walking down the street -- the list goes on.
And, I know that not everyone gets on with T9, but Sony Ericsson is one of the few manufacturers that fully complies with the spec and once you master T9 - you can enter text as quick, even quicker, than a normal phone keyboard (which is never quite as quick as a full sized standalone keyboard for a computer).
Jonathan Morris
Editor, What Mobile magazine - the UK's leading mobile phone magazine
www.whatmobile.netforum.whatmobile.net
Twitter @jmcomms |
anonymuser
Joined: Dec 17, 2002
Posts: > 500
PM |
I don't agree that the article is about pushing touchscreens, in fact touch doesn't even get a mention. The point made about the iPhone is that Apple innovated with their UI and produced something new, making best use of today's technology to produce something that simplified the whole process of using a modern feature-packed mobile. Others such as Sony Ericsson, Nokia and the rest need to do the same, but that does not mean copying the iPhone, it means (or I take it to mean) actually applying a little innovation themselves and coming up with interfaces for their similarly-specced phones that can be as simple to use and engaging. Relying on outdated UI conventions that essentially date back to a time when "text messaging" was a new idea on a phone - that's not good enough anymore.
Maybe the future for phones like the W995 is some combination of buttons and touch (and lets not forget that with capacative screens, many of the supposed "disadvantages" of a touchscreen don't exist anymore), maybe it's having a wheel on the side or a lever on the back, maybe it's (shock) something else that we haven't even thought of before? The point is, it's not the menu structure of the T68.
[ This Message was edited by: Boinng on 2009-06-08 10:33 ] |
jmcomms
Joined: Mar 12, 2002
Posts: > 500
From: Jonathan Morris
PM, WWW
|
But the iPhone is purely touch, and has an excellent UI design that works well with that input method.
I happen to think the SE user interface is pretty decent - and you can't keep changing it for changes sake. People get used to a UI, whether it's Windows or OS X, and wouldn't stand for Microsoft or Apple making radical changes.
When Nokia tried to tweak S60 to make it touchscreen, they ended up with a mix of apps that were designed for touch and those that were for a keypad that have been adapted (mostly with big icons that you can touch). There's little consistency and THIS is where the other manufacturers fall down. What Nokia needed to do was start from scratch, and even the Symbian Foundation OS stuff looks set to continue on from S60 5th Edition.
Android is perhaps the best suited to compete, or webOS, which are both built from the ground up, but I have my doubts as to whether Android will ever really catch up with Apple - especially as the best of Google is available on many/most other platforms. Palm? Well, they could do very well - especially in the USA - if they get their devices right and accept they're going after a different market. Ditto RIM and BlackBerry, who tried (and I think failed) to take on the iPhone with the Storm. I think Android will ship loads of devices (like Nokia did by putting S60 on devices that weren't actually bought by people wanting a smartphone) but although that will look good for marketshare, it won't really make the OS a success - and people may not remain loyal to the OS when another phone comes out at upgrade time (Apple owners will almost certainly stick with Apple no matter what).
For a non-touch (or partial-touch with the Aino) UI, and the fact that SE will soon allow third parties to develop their own user interfaces and applications with Capuchin, I fail to see what the problem is. If you don't want a touchscreen device, why aren't these people moaning about Apple not giving them a product they can use?
For the record; I love my iPhone and am a sucker for fast, fluid, user interfaces that are highly responsive and look good. My I8910 HD is super quick, but has the problems of a mish-mash of applications that don't follow a uniform design, and I know the Satio will suffer the same problems. Nowhere near as bad as Windows Mobile, but still not able to compete with Apple. I've also come to accept that S60 will never offer an amazing choice of interesting applications, as with Apple, and looking on the likes of my-symbian.com at the latest 3/5th Edition stuff shows the usual array of task managers, calendar replacements, alternative web browsers, weather forecast apps and little else. The App Store is packed full of apps, to suit every possible need, and they're priced well too - or even free - unlike the S60 developers that seem to always want big money because sales are generally low, despite the number of users. Ovi Store isn't likely to change that either, in my humble opinion.
[ This Message was edited by: jmcomms on 2009-06-08 11:42 ] Jonathan Morris
Editor, What Mobile magazine - the UK's leading mobile phone magazine
www.whatmobile.netforum.whatmobile.net
Twitter @jmcomms |
anonymuser
Joined: Dec 17, 2002
Posts: > 500
PM |
On 2009-06-08 12:39:40, jmcomms wrote:
But the iPhone is purely touch, and has an excellent UI design that works well with that input method.
Yes it is, but nowhere in the article does it suggest the W995 (or other dumbphones) should be purely touch like the iPhone, it just notes that the iPhone took its own direction and created something new that worked.
I happen to think the SE user interface is pretty decent - and you can't keep changing it for changes sake. People get used to a UI, whether it's Windows or OS X, and wouldn't stand for Microsoft or Apple making radical changes.
In all fairness, I think that's the answer of someone who's used a great many phones and has gotten used to all the quirks of a particular interface, so much so that as a seasoned user you don't even notice all the hoops you're jumping through half the time - but that doesn't mean to say something can't be better, or that change is necessarily a bad thing. It doesn't mean that change = iPhone's touch UI either.
When Nokia tried to tweak S60 to make it touchscreen, they ended up with a mix of apps that were designed for touch and those that were for a keypad that have been adapted (mostly with big icons that you can touch). There's little consistency and THIS is where the other manufacturers fall down. What Nokia needed to do was start from scratch, and even the Symbian Foundation OS stuff looks set to continue on from S60 5th Edition.
I agree completely. I think Nokia were blindsided by this whole thing, and their subsequent efforts with S60/Symbian show just how little they really understand even now about what's happening, and how slowly they're moving towards any kind of solution. I suspect these are the death throes of Symbian, sadly - Android will take its place, and Nokia will take a very real battering in the process, unless they change course soon.
|
jmcomms
Joined: Mar 12, 2002
Posts: > 500
From: Jonathan Morris
PM, WWW
|
I don't see the need to jump through hoops at all with the SE interface. I have used most UIs on handsets, so I am rather spoiled, but I find that it is good for SMS (esp. with conversation mode), email (esp with IMAP PUSH for Gmail), the web (although Opera Mini is even better) and, as long as it's the newest hardware, multimedia playback with no delays.
I suspect people will get bored of the iPhone UI in time and demand more, because people simply get bored and want something new. I think the user interfaces can add transitions, new fonts and other things to inject a bit of life - but the core should remain the same. Newer handsets get newer features, from HD video recording, to integrated BBC iPlayer or whatever - and these are the things that differentiate one handset from another. The form factor is another vital factor; as some people want touch, some want a slider, others a candybar ... and you need that choice.
The Aino, to me, is a fairly good crossover - and the UI will be a lot better than the TouchWiz used by Samsung that disappointed me a little after using the Tocco Ultra Edition for some time.
If SE or Nokia started from scratch with a non-touch UI, would they really come up with something that different? I think this a red herring; an all-new interface could alienate the many existing, loyal, customers and still not steal sales from Apple, especially as the person that wants an iPhone wants THE iPhone, not something trying to mimic it.
Jonathan Morris
Editor, What Mobile magazine - the UK's leading mobile phone magazine
www.whatmobile.netforum.whatmobile.net
Twitter @jmcomms | |
|
Access the forum with a mobile phone via esato.mobi
|
Posted: 2009-06-05 18:36
T100 Icy Blue 
850i Golden White 
