The big thing is, of course, battery power. While it’s likely that any journey should be started without a full battery, when it all starts to go wrong (for example, in my case, the train engine breaking down, and an overloaded train that terminates at Darlington instead of Edinburgh) you won’t be on a full battery charge. Assuming you’ve been doing normal use of your phone, that’s a couple of hours already lost.
Given that, I wouldn’t want a phone, such as the HTC Desire HD, that runs out of power halfway through a regular day, because once the journey goes wrong, I’m already on a limited resource. Smart thinking would be to keep your phone on charge in the train, but that isn’t always practical (or remembered). A portable charger, such as the Proporta Turbo Charger, would help here.
In all cases though, the cold weather will decrease the life of your battery, magnifying any issues you might have. Most people don’t carry a spare charger with them, so you’ll have with you only what you have in the battery.
How good is your phone at maximising the battery life? Can you turn the screen brightness right down, kill off all the animated effects and the network connections except when you really need them? One of the things I like about the Symbian^3 devices is you can kick in the low power/power saving mode whenever you want. Useful in circumstances like this.
But Symbian^3, like most modern phones, has a problem. The touchscreen. In day to day use, kicking around the house or in the office, a capacitive touchscreen is a joy to use, compared to the other options available, including resistive screens, miniature Qwerty keyboards and ABC number pads.
But head out into the cold weather, on a public vehicle with no heating, and that touchscreen becomes a bit of a problem. You’re going to have to take your glove off to get some skin that works on the screen. Lower than freezing, with wind chill, makes the air temperature quite scary in the winter wonderland. It’s times like this that the 5800’s stylus or even nicely shaped physical keys which can be felt through a handful of layers of material is desired.
One area that my current day to day favourite, the C6-01, excels at though, is weight. In all the clambering around, thick jackets and warm clothes, there’s not a huge amount of sensation. With the extra weight of the C6-01’s stainless steel casing, I’ve already commented that this is a hefty phone for its size, and one that can be thrown around with little worry.
That sort of weight and construction is far easier to find about my body in this weather. I like to feel when I am carrying a phone and while the fashionable summer shorts mean a svelte C7 is still noticeable, arctic weather needs a little more mass. The C6-01 just about convinces me it's there.
So for a good cold weather phone, I’m looking primarily for something that has a long battery life – and that’s likely to be coupled to a smaller screen (which will extend the life even more). It should be able to be used in gloved hands – almost demanding a keypad or keyboard – and it needs a bit of weight so it doesn’t get lost.
If I know that I’m going to be heading into cold weather, I suspect that, given the choice, the latest Symbian phones wouldn’t be at the top of my list. Neither would the current batch of superphones be in with a chance.
The phone I’d turn to, a long lost friend which can still have its moment in the not-sun, would be the Nokia E75. That doesn’t mean I’m always going to be carrying the E75 just in case, but it does mean that for the next week or two it’s going to stay charged with a Pay as you Go Sim topped up and ready for action. Because sometimes you need the right tool for the job, especially if you're going to be stranded thanks to the weather.
-- Ewan Spence, Dec 2010.
PS. Steve's thoughts: All fair enough, Ewan, but I'd go further and pick the Nokia E72. Not only does it have a battery with 50% more capacity, but it has a LED torch mode built-in - which could also be very useful in a dark and cold emergency situation.