Steve Litchfield suggests that choosing a 3rd party plain white theme for your smartphone can give it a subtle boost in usability.

Like many editorials and how-tos on AllAboutSymbian, this piece started with an 'I wonder' moment...

"I wonder how much RAM is used by the different themes available for my smartphone? On a RAM-limited device like the 6630 or 6680, an extra few hundred kilobytes could make a significant difference..." (By the way, if you're not sure what RAM is and why it's different from what Nokia calls 'memory', see my diagram and text here)

Using the Nokia N70, as just about the best selling and most typical S60 device in the world, and using the freeware TaskSpy, and starting from the baseline of a newly-booted device with the N70 default 'blue/green spotlight' theme:

Applying the S60 White theme (from www.s60.com): 100K less RAM available
Applying the free XMen 3 theme (typical of most novelty themes, from www.symbianthemes.com): 400K more RAM available
Applying the free 'Simple' theme (plain white, ultra simple, from www.symbianthemes.com): 400K more RAM available

   
Which do you think is most readable? The default S60 2nd Edition FP3 theme, on the left, does well, but it's closely matched by the 'Simple' theme on the right. The 'S60 White' and 'XMen 3' theme are, essentially, just novelties and the look detracts from day to day usability.

Things to note from the figures above:

1. The default and 'official' S60 themes use up to half a megabyte more RAM. This is undoubtedly because they've been professionally designed to within an pixel of their lives, with every possible screen element and font digitally present and correct. Amateur themes tend to have far less theme elements, sometimes with just a backdrop and wallpaper. This gives the operating system less to store and less to do, freeing hundreds of kilobytes of RAM. Because there's less to do and because there's more RAM to work in, the operating system itself should run a little faster and more efficiently.
2. There's (surprisingly) little difference in RAM use between a graphically rich 3rd party theme (such as 'XMen 3' above) and an ultra-simple 3rd party theme, such as the 17k 'Simple' theme shown.
3. On all devices from the N70 onwards (e.g. the N90, N72 and all 3rd Edition devices), there's so much RAM free (typically around 20 to 30MB) that even a 500K saving in RAM use will make no difference whatsoever. On previous S60 2nd Edition devices (e.g. the 6630, 6680), a RAM saving is more important, although the default themes for these seem to be less complex and the saving is more of the order of 200K. Still, every little helps!

So for every smartphone from the N70 onwards, the RAM saving isn't really important, but that's not where my wondering ended. I noticed that I was really enjoying using the 'Simple' theme. There's the fact that more pixels are set to white and not to a darker colour, making the display itself appear far brighter. And there's the fact that text is more readable in many screens, without distracting background patterns.

Yes, I love messing around with different themes as much as the next guy or gal, but day to day I think I'm going to settle for the 'Simple' life. Why not try it for yourself?

Footnote: the 'Simple' theme has some issues on S60 3rd Edition devices - if anyone completes a 100% working 3rd Edition equivalent, please get in touch!