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My three favourite Nokias, ever – Rafe Blandford, AllAboutSymbian.com

Conversations — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 11:50:20 +0000

LONDON, England - The first Nokia I used for any length of time was the ubiquitous 5110. However the first Nokia I had fresh out-of-the-box was the 3650. Thinking about the bright yellow fascia and retro-style circular keypad still brings a smile to my face. Of course, the real highlight was the MMC memory card slot, which let you expand the 4MB of internal memory… Subsequently I moved on to the more conventional Nokia 6670, which had a ‘proper’ camera and captured the first couple of hundred or so photos in my digital library. In the intervening years I’ve used many mobile phones and picking out three favourite Nokias has been extremely difficult.

The N95 (2006) is an obvious choice, but I just couldn’t help myself. Attending the launch event in New York I can remember being rendered almost speechless by the spec sheet. With its five megapixel camera, integrated GPS and dual-slider form factor it felt like convergence had finally come of age. It was my primary device for more than a year and relegated my standalone digital camera to the desk drawer. It is testament to its ground-breaking nature that even now, three years later, its basic specifications still measure up well to today’s high-end devices.

I was tempted to pick the 5800 as a favourite, partly to be a little controversial, but then I remembered an older Nokia touchscreen device. The Nokia 7710 (2004) was a big device and its user interface was a little quirky. However decent email, PIM, music and camera functionality made it a powerful tool, but what really stood out, thanks to its big screen, was the web browser. Its direct descendents are the touch enabled Maemo and Symbian Foundation devices of today. The Nokia 7710 was under-rated and under-appreciated – born too soon. Looking at its fundamentals it seems that, at least in part, the more things change the more they stay the same. Picking it as a favourite is one part hindsight and one part admiration.

I often carry around more than once device, especially when traveling. Over the last five years one of these has almost always been an Eseries device, so I knew something from the range had to be one of my picks, but which one? The E61 has a special place in my heart as my first Eseries, but design wise it didn’t quite feel finished. The E51, in a time when the majority of smartphones were still big beasts, was hard to beat for its pocketability and robustness. However, having to choose just one means I’m going to opt for the E72 (2009). I’m might be falling prey to the ‘latest is the greatest’ trap, but for me the E72 marries business practicality, great battery life and multimedia convergence into a beautiful and elegant design. We’ve only been together for a short while, but I think it’s going to a long and beautiful friendship!

* Rafe Blandford is the editor and guy behind All About Symbian, one of the world’s most-read and best respected independent sites dedicated to exploring and commentating on the world of Symbian-powered smartphones.

My three favourite Nokia devices, ever – Younghee Jung

Conversations — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 22:16:28 +0000

GLOBAL – I’m originally from South Korea, but left the country before its mobile obsession had begun. I remember my first encounter with a mobile phone was my father’s analogue model. I saw a Nokia phone for the first time visiting my hipster friend in New York. I never saw a monoblock phone before, closest kin being the wireless home phones. Its streamline contour left the most memorable impression on me. I was living in Silicon Valley when I got a job offer from Nokia. I accepted it through a text message to the recruiting manager who was in Helsinki. I asked him if I could choose my first Nokia phone, as a mobile phone is part of ‘employment benefits’ working for Nokia.
The Nokia 8890 was my first ever Nokia. It was a tiny – at the time, and still is – metallic slider phone, which is an old ancestor of Nokia 8800 series of the present. It was one of the first phones that worked both in Europe and in the US. There was a vague sense of psychological comfort, knowing my phone would work in many places at the point of moving to another continent where I knew no-one except my recruiting manager. My Nokia 8890 spent the first winter in Helsinki with me, through the coldest and longest nights I had ever experienced since I was born. With its small size yet heavy build it was almost always in my hand. Finding the right gloves became an important mission that winter so that I could easily use my phone when I was out and about without getting frostbite. I ended up wearing two pairs of gloves: a thin inner pair was thin enough to use the phone without taking them off. Thanks to my colleagues and friends who were already so used to texting, I could rapidly develop my typing speed with the predictive text input on the mobile phone keypad as well as friendships.

I have a very nostalgic memory of the Nokia 9210 Communicator. It was strange in many aspects: it was always referred to as a ‘brick’ for its size, with full Qwerty keyboard and the little foldable antenna. I hated it at first as it was huge for my hands but quickly got very fond of its functionalities, which was definitely a novelty at the time. When I started to work on a project to build a very first prototype of what had become later ‘Nokia Lifeblog’, Nokia 9210 Communicator became very close to me. As I was designing the prototype, I had to install numerous development versions of the prototype over a few months. When you work as designer for a prototype application as proof of concept, you get to know more than you ever want to know about the phone. Even as my Nokia 9210 Communicator was aging, it continued to serve as data collection centre for pilot studies I ran with various concept prototype applications for a couple of more years. I never tested the maximum limit, but the device stored at least five thousand text messages containing application usage log data. I am quite sure that device will survive the rubbles and tumbles over time, will eventually be discovered by future archaeologists excavating the world we live in today, and serve as important evidence of human life on earth. Nokia 9210 Communicator does have that kind of robustness around it, making its nickname ‘brick’ actually quite cute.

I have been often asked what my favourite Nokia phone is, but there is no easy answer. Symbian operating system came out in the world embodied in the Nokia 7650. Since then, I have been always using one of the contemporary Symbian phones with an average changing cycle of six months or so. I have a very vivid, enjoyable memory of Nokia 7650. It was one of the very first phones with an embedded camera and Bluetooth. For my work, it was really exciting to have a camera phone: it marked the start of an era when mobile phone was no longer just a communication device. I have handled and set up dozens of Nokia 7650s for running the pilot studies of experimental applications, including early concept prototypes of what later became Nokia Sensor application.

On my research trips, I get to see many Nokia phones living their lives with other people even though I personally never used their sibling models. Most impressive are our entry range phones, especially the Nokia 3310 and its family surviving years of use by their affectionate owners, regardless of the fact that their keypads may be completely worn out.

Younghee Jung works in Nokia’s design team. Check out Younghee’s blog.

My three favourite Nokias, ever – Mariano Amartino

Conversations — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 07:30:22 +0000

GLOBAL – My history with mobile devices is a long one, as I started to work in the industry in 1989. I’ve tried every mobile device imaginable, at least any worth its salt in its time, in a country where AMPS was the standard. I am almost a mobile phone freak because of their ability to bring people together and keep us always connected. Incredibly, my first Nokia phone was one of those life’s coincidences because I was given a Nokia 1100 and couldn’t help becoming almost addicted to the brand. I have tried almost all Nokia smartphones, especially the E and N ranges. It’s hard for me to choose just 3, but here it goes:

Nokia 1100: Who cannot bow down, in worship, to a phone that can stand shock, water and many days without charging its battery? Who can forget… the device’s flashlight? I remember saying “my phone has a flashlight, SMS and Snake. I don’t need anything else…” Weird times

Nokia 6131: Can Nokia manufacture a high-quality clamshell? That question was answered by the Nokia 6131, a model I own since 2006 and which has stood all my abuses and those of my son, and which now is my mother’s phone. The fact that in 2006 a phone would have FM radio, a browser supporting XHTML and, on top of that, MP3 as ringtones for a ridiculously low price… made up for any bugs the device might have. Hey, I can today use Gmail on the phone, even over mediocre networks…

Of course, after this phone, my transition to a smartphone was very natural. And using Symbian, one would think of a Nokia N80, which captivated me since its launch. But something I cannot resist is a good keyboard or a good camera. So, when I chose my latest favorite Nokia, I seriously thought of a N82 with one of the best cameras and optics on the market, or of an E71, which has some perfection in its “business phone” keyboard… But I won’t go for any of those. I’ll go for the future…

The Nokia N900 with Maemo 5 is the future of Nokia. It’s the future of mobile phones with always-on connectivity and on-the-cloud services we all think of when sitting in front of a PC. But this is evidence of the mobile world’s potential. This phone, after just one week in my hands, seriously persuaded me that it is the fourth screen, and that I should choose it because of that. Cool keyboard, clean and inconspicuous design, and a clearly up-and-coming OS.

So I think my list marks my relationship with Nokia – the distant past with a monochrome phone and SMS; a mobile device that made me understand my need for a smartphone, and finally, a phone that ushers in the future of mobility.

* Mariano Amartino is a blogger based (whenever not inside an airplane) in Argentina. He runs celularis.com and uberbin.net, two of the most read technology blogs in Spanish. He is a long time leading voice in the Spanish world whenever the subject is internet, technology, entrepreneurship or anything surrounding his ears.

My three favourite Nokias. Ever – Matt Miller, NokiaExperts.com

Conversations — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:19:04 +0000

USA – I met Phil Schwarzmann a few years ago in Madrid at the S60 Summit and have been a big fan of his work at Nokia. Phil asked if I wanted to put together a post listing my favorite three Nokia devices. I started using Nokia S60 smartphones with my free Nokia 3650 back in 2001 and then when I was invited to participate in the Nokia Nseries Blogger Relations program in 2005 my usage and adoption of Nokia smartphones took off and Nokia created a monster who just couldn’t get enough of these devices. I have owned or used extensively over 25 Nokia devices and thus choosing the top three took me a bit of time. I know we get the latest and greatest devices and think they are the best most of the time, but I tried thinking back to my entire history to see which devices excited me the most and truly were the most useful and enjoyable to me at the time. I could easily pick 10 out of the 25+ I have used and say they were my favorite, but here is the top 3 for me.

Nokia E71
No matter how hard I try, I just can’t stop loving devices with hardware keyboards and the E71 is arguably the BEST front facing QWERTY device on the market. The stainless steel casing and super slim form factor is unbeatable and anyone who holds this device will fall in love with the form factor. Nokia has the best notifications, shortcuts, and status updates available on the E71 standby/home screen and it has been an extremely useful and sexy device. My wife has finally started using a Symbian device and it took the E71 to have her try one out and she loves the form factor, durability (she is hard on phones), long battery life, call quality, and notifications. The one weakness we both find is the lack of threaded SMS that Nokia needs to get figured out soon.

Nokia N95-3
I was immediately impressed with the dual slider form factor, loud stereo speakers, and high quality camera on the N95 when it arrived through the Nseries Blogger Relations program. I then bought my own NAM N95 (the N95-3) to take advantage of the AT&T 3G network and couldn’t have been happier with a Nokia device. It was fast, the keypad was quite usable, and I enjoyed being able to capture high quality images and video anywhere I went.

Nokia N97 mini
I was very excited to purchase my first touch screen Nokia S60 device and jumped on the preorder offer for a Nokia N97. Overall, I was pretty happy with the device, but did not appreciate the low amount of RAM and thought the form factor was a bit chunky for a 2009 device. Nokia then sent me a Nokia N97 mini to try out and just a couple days later I sold my N97 so I could buy my own N97 mini. Even though the N97 mini has a smaller display and much less internal memory, the better keyboard design (more key travel and more useful directional arrows), much more solid and sleeker form factor, and latest operating system version sold me on this device and I LOVE the N97 mini and it is currently my FAVORITE device. There could be more RAM included to be just about perfect, but there is so much else I enjoy about the device (good camera, usable touch screen, small form factor, excellent keyboard, and awesome 3rd party app support) that I am completely happy at the moment.

The other devices that were almost picked as a top three were the Nokia N73 and Nokia N86 8MP. The N73 had a beautiful display, sleek form factor and took some great photos. The N86 8MP takes everything I loved about the N95 and made it better with a nicer form factor with more solid design, bright OLED display, and latest OS, but the N95 was a real game changer and impacted my life more at the time.

Matt Miller runs NokiaExperts.com

My three favorite Nokia devices ever, Tommi Vilkamo

Conversations — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 08:02:37 +0000

ESPOO, Finland – Our recent run on spotlighting our favourite Nokias here on Conversations has gathered a bit of pace. So much so, that we’ve decided to go beyond our own little corner of Nokia House and get other folks in on the act. Over the coming weeks we’ll have columns from people both within Nokia (but outside of Conversations) and folks outside Nokia.

To kick things off, we went to a man who really needs no introduction. As the guy who’s watched Nokia Beta Labs grow and grow over the last couple of years, Tommi Vilkamo is well known to those in the Nokia community. Now we’re chuffed to introduce him on Conversations, along with his pick of his three favourite Nokias, ever.

Nokia 3310. Oh boy, has it been already a decade from this? I loved it. It was sleek, enjoyable to use, and impossible to break (sidenote: I’m infamous in Nokia for mistreating expensive gear). Unluckily, it was stolen from my backpack pocket during a flight from Phnom Penh to Kuala Lumpur in late 2001. Bought another one. Lost it in a cab a week later. Bought yet another one with my last pennies. Never regretted.

Nokia N95. Ever since joining Nokia in 2002, I had seen bold visions about the future. This time, I felt this future finally becoming into reality. Nokia N900. I’ve seen the light. All in.