While Nokia wouldn't invite us to Nokia World this year, we were fortunate enough to discover a pair of its new X6 handsets on the IFA floor here in Berlin. On hand were two engineering prototypes, one of which was peeling away from its plastic shell while the other seemed less responsive to our finger-taps. Still, it's clear that the
capacitive touchscreen is far more responsive to human touch than the resistive screens found on its N97, or the
5800 XpressMusic especially. This was made abundantly clear when using the on-screen keyboard although some of our swiping gestures were inexplicably ignored in other elements of the interface. But given the choice of the screen being awesome or super-awesome (remember, we're comparing it to Nokia's resistive touchscreen legacy), we'll have to settle on the former for now. Of course, underneath you've still got S60 5th, for
better or worse, pumping away inside a chubby little candybar -- no screen tech can change that. See the action in the video after the break then jump into the gallery to see it sized up with a few of its S60 cousins five times removed.
posted September 5th 2009 9:54AM
Thats easy...
intomobile.com
techradar.com
"While Nokia wouldn't invite us to Nokia World this year"
I simply cannot imagine why...
I agree with engadget, resistive screens suck. Nokia until lately, as sucked, OVI store is a failure. They just keep making handsets but not supporting them.
Look at how things are currently, you get a nokia phone, maybe 1 or 2 software updates through pcsuite which is windows only, and over 300 megs just to update the phone.
Mac has media transfer, but not pc suite application, same for linux.
My android phone works with all OS's no problem. And can avoid the software issue by updating over the air. And syncing wirelessly
Erm, I know this is adding fuel to the fire but I'm going to say it anyway...
Engadget reports on tech and highlights what they think is bad tech, so they are doing their job by pointing out resitives short comings over capacitive.
I have a resistive touch screen phone and I hate the thing I'm waiting till I can get a new one that isn't resistive. when this day comes i will be burning this phone and never going back to a device with a resistive touch screen. I so for one totally agree with them...
Just saying...
"While Nokia wouldn't invite us to Nokia World this year..."
Can't imagine why that would be. I'll wait for the N900 - resistive screen included.
You have summed up my recent gripes in blog coverage (not just engadget) recently, I salute you eloquent and well constructed retort. It slices to the core, not just touch screens, but apps versus web services.
The market seems to be reacting to American Blogs (which lets not forget belong to a very underdeveloped mobile phone market compared to Europe and Asia) that seem to shout the loudest rather then have quality content.
On general technology, it can pass under the bridge. But I sickens me that a country still in love with the freeking Sidekick are having so much sway on the world mobile phone buying population
...Response to KTR's long comment
Don't attempt to act as though you know about the mobile market here in the states. The Sidekick hasn't been popular in years. The only reason why it was held in such high regard was because they put a QWERTY keyboard on a feature phone, something that hadn't been done with very much success in the US before.
Also, I don't quite understand why the US has a "less developed" mobile phone market than other parts of the world.
Maybe it didn't come over in my writing - but I was having fun with the sidekick comment.
Underdeveloped - Receive phones late,
- paying more for them thus the mass proliferation of advanced devices in the US market is still yet to happen.
-Because this mass proliferation hasn't happened, there isn't the platform for mass consumption of mobile services - thus under developed
That wasn't so hard was it sir, and um... you don't know me, so I'd prefer you withhold you comments on my own personal knowledge of the US market.
Don't attempt to act as though you know about the mobile market here in the states. The Sidekick hasn't been popular in years. The only reason why it was held in such high regard was because they put a QWERTY keyboard on a feature phone, something that hadn't been done with very much success in the US before.
Also, I don't quite understand why the US has a "less developed" mobile phone market than other parts of the world.
...smooth
Some figures for you.
current cell phone usage by country(Number of active handsets in the market) http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0933605.html
China- 547million USA- 255 million
India- 362 million
Japan- 107 million
TOTAL -1016 million = 4 X USA
Number of Nokia phones in circulation right now in India 226 million (62.7% of 362 million) @$300-400 avg(No Subsidy)
Number of iPhones sold all over the world by Apple 17 million @$200-300 avg
I HOPE THIS NUMBERS PUTS THINGS UNDER THE RIGHT PERSPECTIVE.ASIAN MARKETS ARE MORE IMPORTANT FOR MOBILE MANUFACTURERS AND HENCE THE NEED FOR RESISTIVE DEVICES WILL REMAIN.
The biggest advantage I see on capacitative is not usability, but the durability that you can use glass screens which are far more durable than the thin plastic layers required for resistive. Though, I favor resistive touch screens usability over capacitative, since they can almost emulate capacitative, durability is where it has it beat. Making a plastic capacitative screen is just dumb to me, make it both, resistive and capcitative or something, that would be an advantage. I'd rather have a longer lasting screen, than one that dies from too much use later on.
Thats funny.. durable??? you mean it will last even if you drop the phone??
see my post above.. or let me copy paste it for you :
"i own a nokia 5800 and i have accidentally dropped it twice on to concrete floor. guess what no issue what so ever, except for some minor scratches on the top of the device. its still working fine. in fact this has been my experience when using Nokia phones.. the solid build is one reason I go for it.. I don't want to carry around a device in my pocket that I have to watch out for because it will break if I drop it!!
have you ever dropped an iphone?? guess what would happen because it uses capacitive "glass" technology ... :D"
I've dropped my iPhone on several occasions.
Technically the old aluminum casing takes it a little better, but in my 3G took it fine with a few scratches. The screen was still perfectly in tact though and didn't have any scratches on it either. That's without a screen protector too.
The glass is sturdy as hell. Leave it alone.
@JT
That doesn't change the fact that resistive touch screens are more accurate than capacitive touch screens.
"While Nokia wouldn't invite us to Nokia World this year"
awww...poor thing.
This blog is so rabidly pro-Apple and anti- everything else that it is unsurprising that Nokia refused to invite Engadget to Nokia World. Newsflash guys - the world is a much bigger place than the United States and Nokia kicks ass in those other places. The conceited arrogance of Engadget writers is almost intolerable - they write every article as if there is only one way of doing things - Apple, or the highway. What absolute nonsense.
The bias is so ridiculous that even when Nokia's sales figures demonstrate the massive success of the N97 and 5800, they still have the temerity to ridicule the success as still lacking "mind share" - whatever the hell that means. The N97 is selling more units, at a faster pace, than Apple managed to achieve in a similar timeframe when the first iPhone was released. But Engadget, of course, conveniently forgets that little factoid.
Now, this is not meant to be an attack on Apple. The iPhone has certainly managed to trigger a leviathan of change in the industry in terms of application development and distribution and rich, touch-based user interfaces. That is undoubted. But, the success of the iPhone does not mean that it is necessarily a benchmark by which all phones should be judged. That's because there is more than one way of solving the same problem and Nokia, Samsung, HTC and so forth are all positing a variety of solutions to suit a variety of tastes and budgets. Engadget consistently fails to consider these alternative solutions through that prism.
Instead, we get "analysis" that is always banal, predictable and prejudicial. Every phone that is released is judged according to its ability to "live up" to the iPhone. If it doesn't have a capacitive screen, it's an instant failure. If it's running Windows Mobile, it's an instant failure. If it's running Symbian, it's an instant failure. Of course, they never tell you that resistive is much better for Asian language input (Asians comprising several billion of the world's population), they never tell you that Windows Mobile offers far better integration with Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Office, both being pivotal business productivity tools; and they never tell you that Sybmian is the most open mobile platform out there with a superior array of multimedia and connectivity options running on a massive array of devices without a hiccup.
Yeah, why would Nokia ever invite Engadget to one of their events after they posted such a glowing, positive hands-on review of their new phone.
Sure Engadget is a little pro-Apple, but there's reasoning behind it. It's not all just random fanboy-ish crap.
In any case, these guys also love Android and the ideas behind that. They're loving Palm's WebOS and the awesome UI behind that.
The fact is that platforms like WinMo haven't changed very much. Sure 6.5 is awesome, but there really isn't a phone releasing with that until end of Sept. And WinMo 7 is a long ways away. BlackBerry OS is old as hell now and definitely needs a change. S60 doesn't have the most salient of UI's either.
Engadget doesn't care about asian input. They have no need to, because we're a western audience anyway. Heck I'm asian and I don't really care about asian input lol. As a result, we don't care for accuracy. We care for responsiveness. The keyboard shown here was responsive, but there wasn't a good auto-correction to correct for "besr" and the UI is slightly awkward.
(Sarcasm)
Don't you guys get it,
Look, it's simple, any device with a:
resistive screen = sluggish/unresponsive
screen smaller than 3.5" = too small
screen bigger than 3.5" = too big
device thicker than 11.6mm = bulky/chubby
device thinner than 11.6mm = awkward
device longer than 115mm = too long
device shorter than 115mm = awkward
But my favorite:
Device attempts to match these specs (and is not an iPhone) = KIRF!
Meizu M8 = My point
Can't wait for the Nokia n900 (T-Mobile US 3G FTW!)
Currently using HTC touch HD...
WOW. Really amazing. It's funny, because to anyone else reading this article and comments section what it looks like is Engadget praising the new Nokia phone, and all the Nokia fanboys bashing the new phone, yet still complaining that Engadget only says bad things about Nokia. Why don't you guys take a step back and look at the bigger picture here instead of trying to read between the lines. It's a greart phone, the UI looks much more slick with the capacitive screen and it's piqued my interest in it. Just be happy Nokia is giving us options, now you have a choice! And the headline is so obviously just holding up a mirror to you guys after you went crazy on the last article about the X6 having a capacitive screen.
Irony: When Engadget posts two articles praising a new Nokia phone and all the Nokia fanboys bash Nokia for trying something new and possibly better.
Is it just me or is he purposefully making it look bad?
Chris Ziegler, please kick Ricker's butt. Thanks.
Sometimes resistive is simply better. Imagine cold environments (Scandinavia?!) where you have to type on your touch phone while using gloves. I don't think this is possible with capacitive screens.
I think the title is meant to be sarcastic. (watch the video)
This is getting out of hand.There was a article by MR.JOSHUA TOPOLSKY Engadget's editor in chief about how ridiculous it was to use the iPhone as a business phone and he especially mentioned how horrible it was TO TYPE WORDS FULLY without the help predicitve text for technical terms on that capacitive keyboard.
Most commentators over the last few days have overwelhmingly felt that the BEST USER EXPERINCE STEMS FROM THE QUALITY/SENSITIVITY OF THE TOUCH SCREEN AND TYPE OF OS UNDERNEATH and its utterly ridiculous to term resisitive as an inferior technology to capacitive.We all feel that both tech have their pros and cons and both have their own big markets.I request Mr Topolsky to comment on this as his words seem to have been contradicted by his own bloggers.
p.s.We dont care about the presence/absence of apple favoritism.As this is a good blog overall,we learnt to ignore that nonsense and enjoy the rest.
Thank you
the argument here is that the writer of the article failed to even watch or understand the person testing the product. the typing was no different then the 5800 after the most recent firmware update. in fact the perk to the 5800 is the vibrating feel after each touch. the person was asked a question in the end and from the way i understood it it was not super so it was just as good as the 5800/n97. this tells me that some of the staff at engadget are not nokia haters. this tells me that even though the morons writing reviews here hate these new phones there are staff that may actually like these phones...like the majority of those who bought them.
Some figures for you.
current cell phone usage by country(Number of active handsets in the market) http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0933605.html
China- 547million USA- 255 million
India- 362 million
Japan- 107 million
TOTAL -1016 million = 4 X USA
Number of Nokia phones in circulation right now in India 226 million (62.7% of 362 million) @$300-400 avg(No Subsidy)
Number of iPhones sold all over the world by Apple 17 million @$200-300 avg
I HOPE THIS NUMBERS PUTS THINGS UNDER THE RIGHT PERSPECTIVE.ASIAN MARKETS ARE MORE IMPORTANT FOR MOBILE MANUFACTURERS AND HENCE THE NEED FOR RESISTIVE DEVICES WILL REMAIN.
I am a seller of styluses (Not stylii), both resistive and capacitive types for various phones.
It never fails to amaze me how those who sing the praises of the iPhone ignore the fact that phones with a capacitive screen such as the iPhone are virtually unusable by users with large fingers, long nails or with disabilities such as arthritis..
For those reasons the capacitive stylus for the iphone (and ipod touch etc.) was born and it has a huge worldwide market.
Capacitive screens may be better in the opinion of some but the fact that manufacturers do not include a stylus suits me :-)
I would roll over dead if one of the "bloggers" (since according to Ziegler they are not journalists, nor bound by journalistic integrity) ever stopped acting like antagonist and used that "Tech experience" that they convinced some guy at AOL HR they had to use a resistive touch screen properly.
Ole Josh Topolosky himself in his Op-ed piece about the I-phone admitted it was a great media tool but worthless for getting work done, capacitive does not offer the almost limitless array of tools for input nor the ability to operate in subpar environmental conditions with little effect on usability.
Although I think it's hilarious the fact many of us refute your statements with facts and all you have to back up your bratty child notion that you are always right is some review videos that display a distinct lack of ability to operate a resistive touch screen phone properly, not that there is anything wrong with the technology.
I guess it's the case of the Viper vs the low end Ferrari with paddle shifters. Sure the Ferrari is elegant, great looking, expensive and pretty capable in it's own right and about anyone can drive it, but when you put a driver in the viper capable of harnessing it's potential and nearly limitless pool of add-on options, the Ferrari pales in comparison when talking about racing.
The analogy is the same here, resistive might require different operation (which takes about a day to learn if that) but there is nothing you can say that is going to change the fact the resistive screen offers things capacitive is currently unable to. In the majority of the world, (especially the Asian market) this functionality is essential to productivity.
Just because you obviously lack the ability to operate these phones correctly, and the maturity to admit your bias, and the embarrassing way in which you show it to your readers, does not make you right. It just makes you those annoying "elitist" brats that the rest of the world is getting more and more used to tuning out.
Great site though, and good news team as far as getting the story's out there. You guys dwarf the competition in content and other then this childish little tantrum your throwing, I would say you guys are a first class operation.
Engadget has some of the dumbest writers/editors; however I still visit it frequently.
I come here to looks at pictures, not to read the content. To me, what they comment is worth crap.
Proof that resistive is better? What proof? One of the dumbest post ever.
I used the i8910 (cap screen) and N97 (res. screen) both with the latest firmware install and they feel and run the same.
Capacitive and resistive is the same. Resistive screen are capable of multi-touch as well if that's even an argument; however that's not yet available to the mass market).
It's the software and UI on the device that determine the user's touch experience.
It's one thing comment on how a OS is not user friendly and another to make dumb tech statements with no proof.
Resistive is better because you can wear a glove and touch the screen, you can use a toothpick and touch the screen and you can touch the screen with precision.
My comment is based with fact and experience, white this post is based on crap and more crap that stinks like hell.
firstly I do have a resistive phone and I do like it (new WinMo 6.1 rom after being on 2003SE gives it an awesome new lease on life as well)
I just hope that you do not use toothpicks on your screen. Capacitive has served me well, I do like the added durability of a glass capacitive but there is not way in hell that I can type well on them, but give me a capacitive and I can use any number of keyboards for my WinMo phone, even with fingers only and then there is SPB full screen keyboard, I have honest to god typed up a high school assignment on that and thing is there were very few errors, I can imagine doing that on say for example an iphone.
This Thomas Ricker Guy Amazes me. Another way to make the rest of the world see that they are not wrong when they think Americans are so narrow minded, arrogant, and flirt so much along the line of ignorance. Shame on you. Get off Engadget Thomas, you are ruining it. Your last few Posts have all had the same bad taste. Shame on you again, iDIOT.
Capactive or resistive the Nokia X6 definitely looks better.
Of all the phones launched/to be launched in Q3 including Xperia X2, N97 mini or Samsung models, the Nokia X6 definitely looks promising even in the dimensions area it does one better on the Apple iphone. http://www.dexternights.com/2009/09/03/nokias-slim-music-phone-nokia-x6-review/
Gloves aren't only for cold environments. Some arthritis sufferers wear gloves all day long as it helps.
nokia, now days is a piece of crap running crappy old OS till it improves speed and interface wise...
you simply can't bear the products that are not "simplified-and-restricted-for-your-pleasure/laziness" type, huh?
the good thing about N900 is that you will not write using the screen as you have that awesome keyboard sliding out. That is one of the biggest reasons I will go and buy myself a N900
^^Well, fanboy troll same thing IMO, just take a look at the apple fanboys for evidence to support my statement no real fanboy makes a logical statement (I'm not saying all the apple supporters are stupid just fanboys)
Have any of you capacitive inaccurate rejects used the DS? I have been for 3 years. I will NEVER consider capacitive touchscreens an "improvement".
gotta love a nokia. oh wait....
gizmondo
intomobile.com
techradar.com
guess I'm switching had enough of the ifanboy blog