Nokia Lumia 800: the first few days

The Lumia 800, the Windows Phone 7 powered smartphone is finally on sale in Finland. What could I do but to try to get my hands on one and report back my findings and experiences. Overall, I'm quite pleased, although I see that a lot must still improve for these devices to hit home in a big way.

 
I managed to get my hands on a black Lumia 800 with a fun lime soft casing. This was the combination I had in mind already when getting the N9, but never really followed it through. Lime turned out to be a great colour that complimented MetroUI's funky and fresh look, although I was left hoping for a little extra punch. Theming WP7 doesn't really exist (out-of-the-box anyway), as you can really only change the colour of the tiles and turn the black background into white. If you want to have more control over customisation, I suggest you get the N9.


Glad to see emphasis is on the aesthetics (again)

I won't spend any time describing the exterior of the device, as its the tried and trusty N9 casing with an extra camera shutter button and a differently placed hole for the flash. Everything about the physical form of the device raises feelings of respect, complimenting the smoothness of WP7. Perhaps even a little more than the same casing did for MeeGo-Harmattan on the N9. WP7 and the casing are a great fit, and the Lumia 800 joins the N9 in the league of devices that bombard the senses with the most pleasant sensations. Bravo, Nokia. Once again.

Even though the customisation options of the operating system on the Lumia 800 are practically 0, the customisation on the N9 is also debatable. Sure you can do all sorts of things in theory, but in practice most people have aimed to keep the core look and feel of MeeGo-Harmattan untouched. And its easy to understand why: MeeGo-Harmattan is a beautiful experience as it is. Windows Phone 7 succeeds in the same feat. Screen items swush, slide and stack on your screen with no stutters or hickups, and soft sounds of the keyboard pat your eardrums with the most pleasant sounds. As a comparisant I regard my HTC DesireZ's system sounds as too interruptive, loud and all around cheap sounding. I think this is true for all Android devices regardless of manufacturer. Leave it to Nokia to spice the ringtone selection up with some familiar sounds and melodies, although Nokia fared much better in this category in its devices from around 3-4 years ago.

Half-baked cakes all around

When comparing to MeeGo-Harmattan, WP7 feels much more finalised which might not come as a surprise to anyone. Everything is in place, nothing feels like a placeholder and a lot of functionality MeeGo-Harmattan seems to go for is already place here. On board the Lumia 800 Nokia ships the latest version of WP7, Windows Phone Mango which hasn't really changed since Tango as I last saw it on the HTC Trophy. Undoubtedly 99% of the new features took place "under hood", which is to be expected anyway in a system so keen on its UI design guidelines.

Windows Phone 7 is by no means, however complete. Funnily enough some gripes I had about MeeGo-Harmattan also apply here. For example, I complained about not being able to adjust font size in the browser on the N9. That really can't be done here either. The second gripe was the refitting of the text to fit your zoom level. This doesn't exist either in WP7 or MeeGo-Harmattan. Also, I was quite fustrated with constantly twisting and turning the device, as only a few applications and functions supported landscape mode. Relating to this, I found it odd that the landscape keyboard doesn't stretch out to invade as much screen real-estate as it could, but instead crammed itself into the middle of the screen. Why is it like this, Microsoft? Is it a resolution thing?

 WP7 makes a big deal about location awareness as well, but sadly the Lumia 800 doesn't know what's around to drink and eat, but will give you locations (that might be restaurants and bars) that you can check in to. This seems like a halfway implemented idea. For some reason my initial response to this was the feeling of being sold a product that doesn't even have all the features it was sold on. Funny I didn't get this feeling with MeeGo.Other similar nigglets include (but aren't limited to) app availability in my region, lack of control over autocorrect functions and missing voice recognition in my language.

The killer thing about Windows Phone 7 for me still seems to be the integration of Facebook and Twitter services into the system. I also happen to agree, that "having an app for that" has very rapidly become part of the problem instead of the solution on smartphone platforms. Having a separate app for everything on an operating system that doesn't support multitasking is just madness. Its like being given all the keys to a huge house, but instructed to close and lock each door after leaving the room, even if just popping out to the kitchen to get a cup of tea before you continue reading your bedtime book. With these smartphone platforms it just never becomes possible to leave a door open. Windows Phone 7 attempts to address this problem by allowing you to view your friends' Facebook images and status updates in your address book, in addition to the traditional options of calling or texting them. This is my number one favourite feature of WP7. Bravo Microsoft.


The many faces of WP7

So just how well does Windows Phone 7 fare against the competition? This is an incredibly difficult question to answer, as WP7 is aimed at people moving up from "dumbphones" to smartphones. This means that functionality in WP7 will be limited, although time will tell how much functionality the ever growing selection of apps for WP7 will bring. WP7 is also strongly stylised and focuses to achieve so tightly defined goals that I imagine it might appear alien or plain unfriendly for some people.

The Lumia 800 comes packed with two great music apps, that really bring life to the entire device in a whole new way. Using the Lumia 800 can be like a visually appealing music video, pulsating with youth and trendiness. The downside to this is that older users force-switching over from Symbian with business purposes in mind might feel like they're getting the raw end of the deal here. Many business users will have their contacts and other data synced to one cloud service or another, but for those moving up from Nokia's pre-Symbian3 phones will have a tough time. At the time of writing this, you can only transfer contacts to WP7 over bluetooth if you have a S3 device. Nokia Suite doesn't work with WP7, and Zune can't manage your personal info on your phone in any way. I don't understand why Nokia was in such a hurry to announce WP7 partnership, only to ship a device so totally incompatible with any previous Nokia devices. Way to piss off loyal customers I think.

I wouldn't be surprised if the reasons described above explain why operators are so sceptical about WP7's chances: business customers don't care how much their phone bill is, but they have to feel they're getting services worth paying for. New smartphone users are a huge target market, but the amount of confusion related to transferring your data over from previous devices might be too much of a hassle, as operators certainly believe customers will return to them for assistance.


Final thoughts

For me WP7 is an opportunity for hedonism, so I choose to enjoy all the things I can about WP7 and not feel so bad about the shortcomings. I'm also lucky to not be really affected by its downsides, as I have all my data in the cloud, and I'm a bit of a social media junkie. So it caters to my needs quite nicely. Comparing to MeeGo-Harmattan, I feel there's more to do on me on this device. The ability to view desktop versions of websites has a big influence on this aspect. Windows Phone 7 is something new and different, albeit incomplete. If I had to describe WP7 in a word: its fresh. Let's see how long this impression lasts.

WP7 is a good choice if you aren't too business or productivity orientated (note: I haven't tried out Office365 yet). We just need to hope that big men Elop and Ballmer won't give out any more ridiculous statements about their own fails with the platform, blaming sales staff or marketing or what have you for bumps in the road. They are in my view the greatest threat right now to the credibility of the platform.

A great testament of this CEO tomfoolery is Elop's promise of bringing "added Nokia value" to this product, which sadly is exactly 0. There's nothing especially Nokian about the software in this product, and that is a truly sad thing to realise. Although the reinvention of Nokia Music's mix radio brings some comfort. The bottom line remains, however: If you see another manufacturer produce a WP7 device with a better screen, processor or some other factor, go for it. You won't be missing out on anything.

Sadly he king no longer stands on its own two feet -- contrary to Elop's promises.

From the N900 to the N9, a review

Nokia finally started sales of the N9 mid-October of 2011, and I was lucky to get hold of one for a couple of weeks soon thereafter. Here are my views on the device. I'm a N900 enthusiast and someone who might be called a "power user", so bear this in mind. Please leave a comment after reading if you the least bit feel like doing so.


EDIT: fixes to text made based on readers' comments, thanks so much guys! Oct 23rd
EDIT2: A new firmware upgrade has been released for the N9 to be applied OTA. Twitter, Facebook and various other apps have been upgraded & . Therefore info in this article might be outdated. -- 9.11.11.


MeeGo UI:


Let's start with the most interesting, the User Interface. The N9 is quite a different experience to Maemo (or Android for that matter) as it has no "desktop", but a "three views" -system where you see your apps, events and open applications in views adjacent to eachother. A key component in the UI is the swipe gesture, with which you swipe between these views, shoo away open apps and even close them. There are no "X" icons hanging about, just swipe, swipe, swipe.


Perhaps the most dominant of the views is the apps-list, which received some criticism from me as soon as I saw it in a leaked video. I understood that this kind of "app listing" view was deemed obsolete by Marko Ahtisaari in a conference about Nokia's design ideas (Link, thanks "Anonymous"!), but apparently he really only meant that they thought the iPhone home button was the only thing worth changing there. Windows Phone 7 is in this sense more advanced in design-language I think, as the starting page tiles represent a new kind of approach to using your device. Be what it may design-wise, all your apps will add to the app-list view, with no options for making folders or groups. This appears to be coming in the next update. Thanks to a reader for the tip!

The swipe is however very smooth, where you're able to gradually swipe away a playing video or any other app in action, see what's in the view beneath it and then choose to drag the video back to full screen or shoo it away. This is an example of the sheer technical brilliance Nokia has packed this device with. This is an industry first, but something tells me we're going to see more of it. The N9 doesn't run on the very latest hardware, but features like this make Android feel bloated and messy in comparisant to this kind of smooth, immediate performance --on "dated" hardware. Bravo, Nokia! "It's not technology, its what you do with it" applies here.




Software decisions


The experience on the N9 is very good  and the "3 views" style UI works brilliantly. There are no stutters, and even devices running with almost full memory continue to function smoothly (for the most part). However, some of the design decisions on the software side bother me. I never quite feel as in control over my running apps as I do on the N900, because sometimes a same direction swipe means changing between playing songs, viewing pictures or sending the app to the background. Granted, this will only get better and better as you use it more and more, and will probably be refined in software updates to come.


My biggest gripe with the software, however are the native apps and the browser. The Facebook and Twitter apps open a drastically simplified app of what we're all probably used to. Perhaps this is also due to it being an early software version. On the other hand, they're stylistically so simplified, that I can't help but fear that it is part of the design choice and won't be altered. Or in Nokia fashion its "left to the community to fix" but at the same time they're closed source apps. Please correct me if they are in fact open source! Most of the pages in the stock browser open up as mobile websites by default (if someone knows how to tweak this, let me know!) and pages won't let you change to the full site, probably because of the lack of support for Flash. In worst cases sites offer you to change from "Simplified mobile" to "Text based version". Hrrr, 600€ for a text version of Facebook? This reminds me too much of that other product. Granted this could be due to websites not fully recognizing the N9 yet, or a premature browser software version.

Browser king?


To dwell into the browser issue more, the browser experience is perhaps one of the two biggest dissapointments for me about the N9. One big reason to why the N900 is such a timeless device is its browser. Everything is moving towards web apps, so why not perfect a near perfect browser and thus future-proof the phone? The answer to this is probably in switching over to MeeGo's browser that doesn't and probably will not support Flash, and so its basically a completely different browser to MicroB found on the N900. As Anidel points out in the comments, however, technically it is in a sense very advanced, but until sites decide to make full use of it, it leaves a simple impression.


Totally in-line with the rest of the native apps, the browser is missing some basic functionality. For example, clearing your browsing history is not (at least at the moment) possible inside the browser (thanks for correction) the saving or clearing of passwords is not present, and it doesn't even have bookmarks and making bookmarks could be a bit more intuitive. The browser tries to form "tags" around what you've browsed to or searched on the web, which I couldn't find much use for. Also, this tag system is not incredibly accurate either. For some reason my first search for the nearest swimming halls remains huge in the "tags" and I've only done the search once. Unfortunately also the e-mail app is also lacking in some features that people probably expect to be there by default. For me it was OK, though, I get along with the N900's e-mail app just fine, so I'm probably not so needy as some of you guys.


The browser is also suffering from some text-entry box related oddness I remember first spotting in the earliest MeeGo Developer Edition releases. When tapping on a text box, the view zooms too close to it, the virtual keyboard blocks a huge part of the text box plus the text box isn't completely visible. The end result is that you have to type blind. Pinch-zooming will only confuse the browser more. Sites where I saw this happen were Maemo.org and TweetGo.net.


All in all, though, the performance of the applications on the N9 is superb, Nokia Store might not be filled to brim with apps but makes up for it in quality and stutters of Nokias' past is nowhere to be seen here. It seems that first apps in the Nokia Store have really caught on to the design style of Nokia's MeeGo-Harmattan, and together with the phone UI they make up a wonderful experience.




The Achille's heel


The next thing I'm going to rant about will probably not even matter for 90% of people the N9 is aimed for, but its a showstopper for me. I think you've been waiting for this remark all review long: the N9 doesn't have a hardware keyboard. And it Sucks. Nuts.


It sucks Nuts.


I tried and I tried, but a VKB (virtual keyboard) just can't keep up with me and just can't satisfy my needs. A lot of people seem to get on fine with their touch-only text-entry keyboards, but nobody can pull off sending a SMS with more complex contents than "OK" when on the run. Also, I enter a lot of text on my N900, part of this blog entry is written on my N900. The N900 is my main device for reading and replying to e-mail, I Twitter more on my N900 than on my desktop, and I use IM more on my N900 than on my desktop PC. And I'm also a kind of a blabbermouth of a guy. So it simply infuriates me when a device forces me to get down on my knees and only send "OK" messages around to my friends if I don't have 5-10mins to stop and tap in letters for a message. Swype should be making an appearance in the first software update to the N9. Sadly I doubt that it will allow me to write messages on the run any better.


One thing I must make clear though: the N9's virtual keyboard is NOT a bad virtual keyboard. Nokia's keyboards on Symbian³ are terrible. They're rubbish. The virtual keyboard on the N9 is, ironically, in my view one of the most aesthetically pleasing aspects about the device. The keyboard click sound, combined with the haptic feedback and beautiful screen makes for a wonderful experience. It is the most pleasurable virtual keyboard out there and is perhaps the crucial feature about this device that gives it its premium feel. Expect this to be imitated in competitors' devices.

N9 & the competition


Since the launch of the iPhone Nokia's devices have all been pitted against the iPhone, regardless if these devices have actually targeted the same audience. The N9 however (finally) has an air about it that makes it seem as if it aims to take on the iPhone. This is noticeable from the wy the N9 focuses heavily on user experience, in the good and the bad. 


It seems the N9 was designed with the rule-of-thumb to favour user experience over functionality. INo think this explains the rudimentariness of the stock apps. My guess is functionality is missing in fear of cluttering up the UI. 


The N9 also seems to carry a bit of a grudge over from experiences with people and media criticising the landscape-only orientation of the N900. The N9 strikes back by allowing portrait mode everywhere, but sadly it over-compensates just a little bit. Most of the stock apps, such as the mentioned Facebook and Twitter apps don't rotate to landscape orientation --at all. Not even when you're inserting text. So the portrait qwerty is all you get. Trying to work around this problem is browsing to the website, but then you have to face the shortcomings of the browser.


In general I think the main guideline for the experience was the iPhone, at least in mentality: everything must look good, but there's no way to get to the nitty-gritty and no customizability. This made me feel at times like I'd been thrown back to 2007. On the other hand however, using the N9 is aesthetically an incredibly pleasant experience. The way it feels in your hand, the sounds and graphics add up to a very pristine and classy experience. Not to mention the effect of the VKB. 


Compared to the N9, the iPhone feels like a lifeless and cold slab of metal and glass that you tap and pat. That's it. The N9 responds to every tap, connects with your natural way of doing things, and constantly rewards you for using the device. There's no eye-candy here per se, just grace and intuitiveness. So yeah, the N9 is a better phone than the iPhone.





Final comments


The N9 exceeds in everything it sets out to accomplish and even beats the competition in their own game, so you can't really say its a bad device. What's important to realize here is, that the N9 is in no way a successor of the N900, even if its initial efforts might've been to that direction. The mobile Linux enthusiast is better off somewhere else (but where?).


The N9 led me to realise that there are now two manufacturers in the game that know how to combine what you feel in your hands with what you hear and see to form a comprehensive, wholesome aesthetic experience. And in this sense, the Nokia N9 manages to surpass the iPhone by a hundred miles. It's great to be able to say this about a Nokia device. 


The N9 might not ever have the apps the iPhone has, but all in all at this time, the Nokia N9 is a better device than the iPhone for that crowd that appreciates the iPhone to begin with. If, however you are looking for something along the lines of the N900, the N9 isn't the device for you. If you decide to go for the N9 anyway, many familiar Maemo apps are available in the Nokia Store, such as: Filebox, Twimgo and gPodder.


There's a software update coming to the N9 from Nokia soon, so a lot of what I ranted about might be changed. I try to remind myself also of the fact, that the N9 runs on MeeGo and I know there's a hacker community around this device that will let the rest of us in on tweaking the insides of this device. For me personally though, no amount of modifying the N9 will bring me a hardware keyboard. Without a hardware keyboard, I feel the N9 is only holding me back, not setting me free.

R.I.P.

Do you agree/disagree? Please leave a comment below.


Thanks for reading,
Chris

A Collection of Good Reads on Nokia

Inspired by an article written by Kyron over at Maemofanatics.com, I decided to put together a list of links to interesting articles about Nokia and the mobile industry.

With Nokia World 2010 coming up it's good to stop for a moment and make sure that your perspective of Nokia is accurate. So below I've tried to list the articles that have profound insight or a more holistic view of the mobily industry. All articles below understand that the history of the mobile industry didn't start with the iPhone nor even the Motorola Razr. The articles are in no particular order.

#1) The already mentioned article from Maemofanatics.com recapping the past 8 months of Nokia: http://www.maemofanatics.com/show-and-prove-why-its-too-late-for-nokia-to-be-secretive/

#2) Juhani Risku, former Nokia CEO shares his thoughts on how Nokia should be "rescued": http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/07/22/nokia_manifesto_risku/

#3) Symbian-Freak  Chris McFann: "The truth about Nokia, Symbian, Maemo, Nokia N900 and the Nokia N97", written about a year ago in August 2009, this article still rings true: http://www.symbian-freak.com/news/009/08/chris_truth_about_nokia_symbian_maemo_the_n900_and_n97.htm

#4) Feel that Nokia should adopt Android? Read this to find out why that's completely off: http://www.symbian-freak.com/news/010/07/why_symbian_and_meego_are_best_for_nokia_1.htm

#5) Hear it from the horse's (Anssi Vanjoki's) mouth: Nokia will not adopt Android: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703571704575340543144779152.html

#6) Check yourself in to what MeeGo really is about in this good summary by Kyron over at Maemofanatics.com: http://www.maemofanatics.com/meego-what-it-is-and-what-it-isnt/

#7) A great recap of sir Tomi Ahonen's report on the marketshare situation Q3 2010. Mindhsare, marketshare and the truth about Apple's influence: http://mynokiablog.com/2010/07/23/nokia-cant-compete-in-the-high-end-really

And finally:

#8) What exactly did current Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo inherit? Is the buzz generated by Wall Street Journal really accurate? Another one of Tomi's children gets shortened down, this time by Mobile Industry Review here: http://www.mobileindustryreview.com/2010/07/nokias-fall-from-grace-the-background-story.html


What do you think of these articles? Are there any more like these worth knowing about?

Let's hear about it in the comments.

- Chris

The N8, summary of life so far

The Nokia N8 is bound for the shelves towards the end of Q3 of 2010 and so far the device's journey has been quite colourful. In this post I'll sum up some of the buzz around the device and contemplate on it's future. All this in a strongly oppinionated but I'll try to give some sources along the way!

The N8 first made it's appearance in leaked photos of a leaked prototype. Consequently, by now it seems that the N8 has quite efficiently been blogged to death. It seems that a video showing the prototype N8 has been released every other day since the first leak in March (was it March? correct me here any time) of 2010.

Since then official pleas by Nokia to the blogging public, the Russian authorities and finally legal action against a blogger have coloured the hype surrounding this device. Throw in the leak of yet another (similar) device sporting a physical keyboard and it's remote mid-review wipe, cheap chinese copies sporting a physical keyboard, and you pretty much have the story of the Nokia N8.

The reception

The N8 has been received with mixed impressions. Although the stunning camera quality has been praised everywhere, the rest of the phone has received only lukewarm reviews. Most feel that Symbian^3 simply isn't different enough for the N8 to be something to get excited about.


However, the general attitude has been very anti-Nokia for as about long as anyone can remember, with Nokia's #1 leak man Eldar Murtazin leading the lynch mob. This guy gets his hands on pre-release alpha versions of devices and forms often negative views of the devices. He has been criticized for being too eager to bash Nokia products, as some things he has said prove to be wrong or fixed in the next batch of prototype devices. None of this is about to change, as the man now faces Nokia's legal team in accusations of stolen property.

Click here to read mr. Murtazin's initial thoughts (Google Translated from Russian).

What does the N8 mean?

I've spent some time trying to put the N8 in perspective with everything else that Nokia is (seems) to be doing at the moment. Here are some things about it that I think it stands to mark:

- "At Nokia, we can do slim and attractive devices with huge capacitive touchscreens"
- "At Nokia, we like to stuff our devices full of technical features not present in other devices. "
- "We are adamant about the possibilites of Symbian as a smartphone platform, and so S^3 is present in this device."
- "The N8 is a natural continuation of our strivings to include better and badder camera hardware into our N-Series devices."

( Bear in mind that these aren't actual quotes of Nokia's personnell! )

Here's a few thoughts on Nokia's strategy that they aren't quite as outspoken about:

- This is Nokia's attempt to get a hold on the competition and the trend of things: slapping on a gorgeous camera is something Nokia has been best at for years, so this is Nokia playing hardball at their own game.
- At the same time, the physical form factor is very foreign to be a Nokia device, thus marking that Nokia has subjected to competitors' pressures in this respect.
- The N8 must be a Symbian device, because MeeGo will simply not be ready by the release of the N8.
- Symbian^4 is still lightyears away, that's why the N8 must run S^3.
- The N8 will be sold at a price point, where only Symbian devices will be sold. In other words, Symbian will be the (high)mid range smartphone platform and only MeeGo devices will be sold at the highest smartphone price point.

Will the chicks dig it?

I think there's a chance that the answer is: ... Probably not.

I was tempted to write "Yes." but some field tests with female test subjects have ruled the device to being something between "OK" and "fugly". Why is it important if chicks dig it? Its because I feel that if the chicks dig it, then it has the chance for mass appeal. After all, roughly half of us are girls.

The males of the general public might find it quite enticing, however. It's got great specs, it's got the capacitive screen that everyone seems to want and you can do that pinching gesture. Personally I can say that the latter especially is nothing special. But hey, people come up with features they always want and ask after, whether they really need it or not. For example Bluetooth was a must for many, eventhough they never used BT devices. Of course as a result BT can now be found on every device.

It will come in nice colours, though (again, very unlike Nokia!):

So what do you think? 

What are your expectations and/or predictions for the N8?