Having just got a Nokia N95 8G Black and had a few days to use and play with it, I can say that Nokia have some good technology, but they need to learn a lot about usability - something Sony Ericsson have got right from day Each Nokia appears to work differently and lack the intelligently thought out usability features that SE include, such as highlighting phone numbers within text through to being able to increment numbers by pressing UP or DOWN on the joystick or D-Pad. Minor things? No. When rushing around using your device, you want to be able to get things done quickly. I find the interface on the N95 inconsistent and incomplete. Even the image browser is flawed. There is no way to make it go full screen instantly after the icons appear. You have to wait a few seconds. And the calendar item types are not thought through, and fail to sync properly with my Mac's iCal app. (Am not commenting on the iPhone as it's so sway ahead, it's in a different ball park.) So, if Nokia are going to try to compete with Apple or work with Android (promising) they need to do an un-Microsoft and come up with a Sony Ericsson like standard interface cross all their phones. It can be done!
When I get a text message/email with a number in it, it's already underlined and I can then choose to dial/save/forward/copy&paste that number with from the options.
I don't know why you're praising the SE UI so much, though. I've hated it from day one and feel it to be horrible... It's something that I would have used when I was about 10. It's probably just a matter of opinion though as I've been using S60 for the past 3 years and feel it to be the best mobile OS available, with every new S60 device I got, I never once felt lost because the basic structure is always pretty much the same.
My comments re SE referred to their NONE Symbian devices, such as the K800i that is a pleasure to navigate using it's joystick. Flick to the left or right while viewing a contact to quickly browse through their contact details and then click to send an SMS, an email or visit their website. My N95 does not work so smoothly. These little touches make everyday use a pleasure.
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
Having just got a Nokia N95 8G Black and had a few days to use and play with it, I can say that Nokia have some good technology, but they need to learn a lot about usability - something Sony Ericsson have got right from day Each Nokia appears to work differently and lack the intelligently thought out usability features that SE include, such as highlighting phone numbers within text through to being able to increment numbers by pressing UP or DOWN on the joystick or D-Pad. Minor things? No. When rushing around using your device, you want to be able to get things done quickly. I find the interface on the N95 inconsistent and incomplete. Even the image browser is flawed. There is no way to make it go full screen instantly after the icons appear. You have to wait a few seconds. And the calendar item types are not thought through, and fail to sync properly with my Mac's iCal app. (Am not commenting on the iPhone as it's so sway ahead, it's in a different ball park.) So, if Nokia are going to try to compete with Apple or work with Android (promising) they need to do an un-Microsoft and come up with a Sony Ericsson like standard interface cross all their phones. It can be done!
SE's UIQ interface is a good example of how NOT to design UI's though...
When I get a text message/email with a number in it, it's already underlined and I can then choose to dial/save/forward/copy&paste that number with from the options.
I don't know why you're praising the SE UI so much, though. I've hated it from day one and feel it to be horrible... It's something that I would have used when I was about 10. It's probably just a matter of opinion though as I've been using S60 for the past 3 years and feel it to be the best mobile OS available, with every new S60 device I got, I never once felt lost because the basic structure is always pretty much the same.
My comments re SE referred to their NONE Symbian devices, such as the K800i that is a pleasure to navigate using it's joystick. Flick to the left or right while viewing a contact to quickly browse through their contact details and then click to send an SMS, an email or visit their website. My N95 does not work so smoothly. These little touches make everyday use a pleasure.