Software architect working in Symbian/S60 area since 2000 and still being enthusiastic about mobility. Please visit my introduction page on Forum Nokia Champions web page.
S60 E-phones = ugly phones?
tote_b5 | 14 November, 2006 11:54
We had to purchase a couple of mobile phones recently. We want to use them for business purposes. For that reason, I had checked out what our Hungarian mobile operators offered and what's available in Nokia stores nearby. First, we specified the criterion that an ideal business phone must fulfill (not in order):
- WLAN,
- VPN,
- Easy to handle (keys, menus, etc.),
- Good battery life,
- Has memory card,
- Pre-installed apps.
As a mobile geek and big fan of S60 phones, I have made the drastical step of excluding non-S60 phones. Even more, I wanted to deal only with S60 3rd Edition phones. And that limited the list to E- and N-series phones.
As I wrote, we were originally thinking of business phones, that is, devices from the E-series. Well, I checked them out and found that although each supports most of the features we were looking for, there were NONE that fulfilled each criteria. Okay, that's a natural thing, but what was even more interesting (and sad, indeed) that we found basically ALL of them bad-looking, ugly. Which phones am I talking about? Let me list them along with our arguments:
- E50: conservative shape, relatively big display (at least compared to the keyboard size), but small keys and more importantly small fonts on the display. It was very difficult to find out what is on the display.
- E60: this phone has an even more conservative shape. A bit bigger than E50 and both the display and the size of the keys were okay. However, it was not fancy _in any way_ and the keys were so close to each other that it would have been easy to press more than one button at a time. I did not like it at all, at least.
- E61: very big. It's said that the display and the qwerty-style keyboard is big enough and it's easy to use it. However, the size of this phone is so big (even though it's thin), that it wouldn't have fit into my pocket or belt-bag. And I don't want to talk to a phone of half a brick size.
- E70: fold form phone, which I do not really like even though I used it during development. Perhaps that's the reason why I don't like it? :) Also note that, for some reason, it's not available here in Hungary. I was told that there were issues with the software stability, which I couldn't verify. I don't believe rumours, but there must be some reason for not being available in the country.
So, there were 4 E-series phones, which I (and one of my colleagues) disliked. And it was not neccessarily due to the features they do/don't support (2 of 4 did not have camera, for example), but to their shape, form! You know, I wouldn't like to use a phone that I don't like to hold in my hands, even if it supports each and every feature on Earth.
Who told Nokia phone designers that business users don't prefer better looking phones? I think the shape and layout of these phones is overly simple, so simple that it scares some possible users from them. Like us, who finally decided to purchase a few N73. It also has most of the features we wanted to use and you know what? We've changed our mind and re-prioritized the features that we thought it was essential. Now we have a good phone, which we can use for almost everything. Business purposes included.
Tote
- WLAN,
- VPN,
- Easy to handle (keys, menus, etc.),
- Good battery life,
- Has memory card,
- Pre-installed apps.
As a mobile geek and big fan of S60 phones, I have made the drastical step of excluding non-S60 phones. Even more, I wanted to deal only with S60 3rd Edition phones. And that limited the list to E- and N-series phones.
As I wrote, we were originally thinking of business phones, that is, devices from the E-series. Well, I checked them out and found that although each supports most of the features we were looking for, there were NONE that fulfilled each criteria. Okay, that's a natural thing, but what was even more interesting (and sad, indeed) that we found basically ALL of them bad-looking, ugly. Which phones am I talking about? Let me list them along with our arguments:
- E50: conservative shape, relatively big display (at least compared to the keyboard size), but small keys and more importantly small fonts on the display. It was very difficult to find out what is on the display.
- E60: this phone has an even more conservative shape. A bit bigger than E50 and both the display and the size of the keys were okay. However, it was not fancy _in any way_ and the keys were so close to each other that it would have been easy to press more than one button at a time. I did not like it at all, at least.
- E61: very big. It's said that the display and the qwerty-style keyboard is big enough and it's easy to use it. However, the size of this phone is so big (even though it's thin), that it wouldn't have fit into my pocket or belt-bag. And I don't want to talk to a phone of half a brick size.
- E70: fold form phone, which I do not really like even though I used it during development. Perhaps that's the reason why I don't like it? :) Also note that, for some reason, it's not available here in Hungary. I was told that there were issues with the software stability, which I couldn't verify. I don't believe rumours, but there must be some reason for not being available in the country.
So, there were 4 E-series phones, which I (and one of my colleagues) disliked. And it was not neccessarily due to the features they do/don't support (2 of 4 did not have camera, for example), but to their shape, form! You know, I wouldn't like to use a phone that I don't like to hold in my hands, even if it supports each and every feature on Earth.
Who told Nokia phone designers that business users don't prefer better looking phones? I think the shape and layout of these phones is overly simple, so simple that it scares some possible users from them. Like us, who finally decided to purchase a few N73. It also has most of the features we wanted to use and you know what? We've changed our mind and re-prioritized the features that we thought it was essential. Now we have a good phone, which we can use for almost everything. Business purposes included.
Tote
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Re: S60 E-phones = ugly phones?
tote_b5 | 14/11/2006, 16:14
Of course, I wrote about only my opinion. Nevertheless, it's not only _my_ opinion as all those people I have talked with regardings this issue confirmed that E-series phones are not nice. None of them - according to them. Of course, they don't have to be nice, but it seems to me that Nokia designers treat this question with so low priority as if it wasn't an issue at all.
Re: S60 E-phones = ugly phones?
kevinauthor | 14/11/2006, 16:47
The meeting of design and personal preference is fascinating. I don't envy designers who's job it is to deliver shapes and experiences that appeal around the world.
I happen to love my E61. I admit it's big for a phone, but it's tiny for a laptop, and for me that's the tradeoff. I've got full email, calendar, remote synch on it, and in many cases I can now travel without a notebook computer at all. For phone purposes, I tend to think of my Bluetooth headset as my "voice device", so the bigness of the E61 during a call is not a factor for me. I do sometimes have to remember not to wander very far from my desk while talking though -- I've cut off more than one conversation when I wandered out of range.
As to the E70 -- I'm looking forward to adding that to my collection. Before switching to S60 3rd Edition devices, I carried a Nokia 6820. The E70 is not much bigger. It fits in a pocket well and I prefer the fold-out keyboard to the pad on the E61. If I had one, it's the phone I would probably use during personal time.
I happen to love my E61. I admit it's big for a phone, but it's tiny for a laptop, and for me that's the tradeoff. I've got full email, calendar, remote synch on it, and in many cases I can now travel without a notebook computer at all. For phone purposes, I tend to think of my Bluetooth headset as my "voice device", so the bigness of the E61 during a call is not a factor for me. I do sometimes have to remember not to wander very far from my desk while talking though -- I've cut off more than one conversation when I wandered out of range.
As to the E70 -- I'm looking forward to adding that to my collection. Before switching to S60 3rd Edition devices, I carried a Nokia 6820. The E70 is not much bigger. It fits in a pocket well and I prefer the fold-out keyboard to the pad on the E61. If I had one, it's the phone I would probably use during personal time.
Re: S60 E-phones = ugly phones?
tote_b5 | 15/11/2006, 00:40
Kevin,I don't believe in phones replacing our desktop tools (http://mobileopportunity.blogspot.com/2006/10/will-smartphone-kill-pc.html). Even with a qwerty keyboard, I don't like to spend time on finding the right small key when I have to be fully concentrating on what is said during a meeting. For that reason, I use my laptop not my phone.
And I can't emphasize it enough (if it wasn't obvious): that is *my personal opinion*. Which happens to be the same as other few people's whom I know.
Tote
Re: S60 E-phones = ugly phones?
Archi | 18/11/2006, 23:39
Hello Gabor,
Thank You for writting about this issue, it was a new perspective for me!
Have You and your colleagues surffed the web with an "open" E70 with the 2.x firmware, zooming a web page fully on the screen, by zooming images out and text in?
Did You and the decision makers hold in the palm of your hands an "opened" E70 running Putty or MIDPssh, logged into a unix server, and enjoying a "traditional" sized ssh window on a "mobile phone"?
When I have seen these, somehow I forgot the outlook, and thought the experience itself is a beauty to behold...
But I do respect your taste for the shape of these things, because I must confess... I like them ;-)
Regarding the PC vs. Mobile question... I agree that laptops and the smaller mobiles have their places, BUT!: I would not call an E70 a phone any more. It IS a PC which can make phone calls... or not, e.g.: you just take the sim card out... and initiate a VoIP call ? ... ;-)
Did you notice, that the N73 has about half of the screen of an E70? At least pixel wise...
76800 vs. 146432 ... although, good eye sight is needed to utilize that...
Regards!
Aron
Thank You for writting about this issue, it was a new perspective for me!
Have You and your colleagues surffed the web with an "open" E70 with the 2.x firmware, zooming a web page fully on the screen, by zooming images out and text in?
Did You and the decision makers hold in the palm of your hands an "opened" E70 running Putty or MIDPssh, logged into a unix server, and enjoying a "traditional" sized ssh window on a "mobile phone"?
When I have seen these, somehow I forgot the outlook, and thought the experience itself is a beauty to behold...
But I do respect your taste for the shape of these things, because I must confess... I like them ;-)
Regarding the PC vs. Mobile question... I agree that laptops and the smaller mobiles have their places, BUT!: I would not call an E70 a phone any more. It IS a PC which can make phone calls... or not, e.g.: you just take the sim card out... and initiate a VoIP call ? ... ;-)
Did you notice, that the N73 has about half of the screen of an E70? At least pixel wise...
76800 vs. 146432 ... although, good eye sight is needed to utilize that...
Regards!
Aron
Re: S60 E-phones = ugly phones?
tote_b5 | 19/11/2006, 09:23
Aron,According to what you wrote the bigger the screen size the better it is for us. Following from that it must be the E61 that best suits our needs. And that's true, but please refer to my original remarks about that phone. As well as about E70: even if we had been committed to this phone it would have been nearly impossible to purchase it with a Hungarian subscription plan. :(
And answering your questions: no, we did not take it into account how ssh would work on our phones. This simply was not an issue for us. As to browsing (zooming, etc.): even though yuo're right, I wonder in which company can an employee go to this boss asking for a bigger phone just to "enhance browsing experience". It's definitely not ours. :)
However, VoIP is an issue: the biggest disadvantage of N73 is that it doesn't support WLAN. In constrast with e.g. N80, but we didn't like that phone, either. I think if WiFi support had been built into N73, then simply that would have been *the perfect phone* for us.
All in all: it's all about taste. But I have never claimed the opposite. I just wanted to point out that E-phones are not nice - and I don't understand why.
Thanks for your comments!
Tote
Re: S60 E-phones = ugly phones?
Archi | 19/11/2006, 21:22
Hello Gabor,
I was suspecting that I have wrote a lot without sending the "real" message I have had. Your answer just confirmed that suspicion. I try to rephrase sortly:
Here is my main point:
In my opinion there is an inner and an outer beauty. :-)
"Outer beauty":
It might be that we disagree on the outer beauty of things and that is just fine. I feel it would be totaly useless to try to prove that something you do not see beautifull actually is, and so I do not try to attempt that.
(I just hoped that you and all your colleagues have acctually have hold a working E70 in your hands, when evaluating its "beauty", and as I understood you did that, so you did not look only at pictures.)
"Inner beauty":
Now that is the thing I tried to write about. My examples might have felt stupid - the full screen browsing (actually I meant by wi-fi), the ssh terminal and the amazing "large" screen - but they have been there only to demonstrate the "amazing inner beauty" of all the technology squized into that device.
I hope that clarifies my point on beauty.
It is sad that the E70 is not supported well by the Hungarian operators, although I suspect the reason.
Regarding the E61, it has the same resolution as that of the N73. (320x240)
The largest resolution screen with full keyboard from Nokia is owned by the E70. (416x352)
It has a higher pixel count than the Communicators (9300i & 9500).
About the usefullness of being able to display a full web page, I think not many devices can do web banking or loging into a "real" html company page. The E70, could do that. However I understand and respect your point that the browsing capabilities of the N73 are satisfactory for your company.
I am happy that we agree on the VoIP point.
Thank You for sharing Your thoughts and taking the time to answer me!
Best Regards!
Aron
I was suspecting that I have wrote a lot without sending the "real" message I have had. Your answer just confirmed that suspicion. I try to rephrase sortly:
Here is my main point:
In my opinion there is an inner and an outer beauty. :-)
"Outer beauty":
It might be that we disagree on the outer beauty of things and that is just fine. I feel it would be totaly useless to try to prove that something you do not see beautifull actually is, and so I do not try to attempt that.
(I just hoped that you and all your colleagues have acctually have hold a working E70 in your hands, when evaluating its "beauty", and as I understood you did that, so you did not look only at pictures.)
"Inner beauty":
Now that is the thing I tried to write about. My examples might have felt stupid - the full screen browsing (actually I meant by wi-fi), the ssh terminal and the amazing "large" screen - but they have been there only to demonstrate the "amazing inner beauty" of all the technology squized into that device.
I hope that clarifies my point on beauty.
It is sad that the E70 is not supported well by the Hungarian operators, although I suspect the reason.
Regarding the E61, it has the same resolution as that of the N73. (320x240)
The largest resolution screen with full keyboard from Nokia is owned by the E70. (416x352)
It has a higher pixel count than the Communicators (9300i & 9500).
About the usefullness of being able to display a full web page, I think not many devices can do web banking or loging into a "real" html company page. The E70, could do that. However I understand and respect your point that the browsing capabilities of the N73 are satisfactory for your company.
I am happy that we agree on the VoIP point.
Thank You for sharing Your thoughts and taking the time to answer me!
Best Regards!
Aron
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Re: S60 E-phones = ugly phones?
exzrael | 14/11/2006, 15:51