There's a Time to Tinker and a Time to Stop

[slitchfield]

It's all very well going through the tweak - buy something new - tweak - buy again cycle, but Steve has been musing that sometimes it pays to just sit and enjoy a fully mature, tweaked smartphone without having to keep putting yourself through the bleeding edge agonies of reinstalling apps, settings, tweaks, etc. - for the umpteenth time.

Read on in the full article.

I'm a constant tinkerer and, inevitably, I tinker one time too many and cause some problem that requires hours of fixing. I love my E61 (except for the incredible slowness) and every time I start lusting after something shinier, I have to remind myself of that. :-)

Thanks for the reminder.

[leoni1980]

I'm kind of in the same boat really.

In the past year I've owned an MDA Vario 2, MDA Ameo, Nokia N95, MDA Vario 3, LG Viewty, N95 8gb, Nokia E90 Communicator...and guess what: I went out and bought an N95 classic again a few weeks ago and it's easily my favourite.

Vario 2: Too old; needed replacing

Sony-Ericsson K810: Good camera but a creaky case and limited applications owing to very basic OS.

MDA Ameo: too big, too glitchy, poor speaker quality. I used to get laughed at in public, but I did keep it and use it in-between phones until recently as I liked the big screen.

Nokia N95: glitchy owing to early firmware (camera too slow, out of memory errors)

MDA Vario 3: flimsy, rubbish camera and by this stage I'd gone off Windows Mobile slightly. The QVGA screen is not as nice as that of the two N95s, despite being bigger.

LG Viewty: for a few days in which I got frustrated with the temperamental camera and slow input method. Then I found it was blocked and swapped it for....

N95 8gb: Looked and felt nice at first, then I got fed up of the slow data transfer rate of the internal flash drive and started to long for my fiance's lighter and SDHC-capable classic (such is life)

Nokia E90 Communicator: I really like it, but it was just too big, considering that I usually have an EEE pc with me anyway. There was also the signal glitch - whereby if you put your fingers in the wrong place in open-clam mode the signal drops out. Poor placement of the receiver there I think Nokia.
.....and it crashed a lot....
.....and Nokia seemingly think the 'business' people who allegedly go for these phones want twee, windows 95 backdrops and boring-looking media players and menus - not so Nokia.

N95 Classic: I'm sticking with this for now, it's got the best camera on the market, it's small and now I've got Garmin XT all my Satnav needs are met. I also have a bigger viewing size for Youtube videos than on the E90....I do miss that keyboard though!

For advance users, changing Windows Mobile devices can be very easy. I have a collection of registry entries and application defined in a setup XML file, which can adapt to different devices quite easily. Usually, I only need half a day to familiarise with a new device and another half an hour to get it fully setup with 20 to 50 application ready to use. I've been applying it from WM2003 to WM6 devices

In contrast, I usually spent days and weeks to tweak every Symbian devices :( Hopefully, Symbian can do something to give greater flexibility for advance users...

[jmvdinis]

Hello, I am Jorge, I am happy to be here today, and I want to tell you something: Today I haven't look to any technologic device!

Ok! I am suffering from that illness too...

It started some years ago with a Psion device!!! Some time after arrives Palm, and after many devices I arrive to Nokia from where I will not leave (I've said this before).

When I bought the E90 I said (only to myself) that I will stay away from this world for many months... But I am stucked to sites like AAS and BetaLabs from Nokia.

I have to say thanks to people like Steve Litchfiel and Rafe Blandford and many other, because this guys make an excellent work of compiling a lot of news, tests, and genious articles (like the one that origins this post).

And for me it keeps on beeing time to Tinker: I am looking for a device to substitute my sports phone (N73). I am thinking about N78! What about it?

Thank you all Tinkers don't stop doing this messy thing that is openning this world to other people.

[krisse]

PS. Oh, who am I kidding. It's a disease.

I don't know if anyone else here watches Last Of The Summer Wine, but Steve's article brought to mind an image of Thora Hird's husband always messing around with a car, perpetually covered in motor oil.

[Dogmann]

Hi all,

Been there done that and have at last reached the karma where the device i have really does satisfy my needs. My simple conclusion is there really is no ultimate convergence device and i am beginning to doubt there ever will be. After 22 odd years of using different devices i still have yet to find my Ultimate device my current E90 does do it all bar Music but then i have a iPod for that. It may not be to everyones taste but for me it as good as it gets, personally i will always sacrifice form for function and the price for a 4" screen and the QWERTY is size which is an acceptable trade off for me.
Currently there is nothing announced or around that has my interest in the slightest for once.

Marc

[Richard Ross]

Yeah... that sounds like me too.

I thought the E90 would solve all my problems/wallet-shrinking addictions but, no. Too big, too glitchy and saddled with frustratingly limited apps.

Ho hum. Right now I'm in love with my E51/N810 combination but I can already hear the siren call of the E71...

[The_Fellowship]

I've gone through a few S60 smartphones in the past 12 months...E65, E60, N95, E61i and finally the E90!

I was quite happy with the N95 until I saw the article on the E90 on this website lol It got me thinking about QWERTY mobile devices and after trying the E60 last year and more recently the E61i (both were ok but not what I was hoping for) I decided the E90 was the only real option left.

I am very happy with the E90 (despite it's size and weight). The lovely large internal screen and keyboard make it a joy to use, especially for web surfing and messaging tasks. I don't miss my N95 at all so believe I have made the right decision.

I am planning (hopefully) to stick with the E90 for a while and will try to resist the temptation of buying the latest smartphones lol I will be watching the 3g iPhone very closely when it's launched but doubt I will upgrade to it any time soon (famous last words lol)

I went from SE P900 -> 9300 -> N95 -> N95 + N800 -> N95 8GB -> E90 in the last couple of years.

Even though the E90 is BIG I love the hi res wide screen and qwerty. It is much easier carrying this than the n95 + n800. For me upgrading to the next handset is not exactly expensive. Most of the time it's free on contract anyway and giving that I need the "free minutes+text" anyway I would spend on average £35-£40 /month.

[pintofale]

Steve,

You're right (again!), but I am 'stuck' with my N93. I'm inclined to agree that the N95 is the best around, as far as I can tell from reading about it and lusting over badly damaged phones with keys missing glued onto ropes in Carphone (eh?) Warehouse, but it's not 'better enough' to bother moving, and the same goes for all of the other Nokia offerings. I will move when I can get a 3" VGA screen device, and I will pay plentifully and recklessly for it - go on, Nokia! Now, back to deciding whether to upgrade the 770 to a N810.....

[bills2north]

When it comes to tinkering I can say that enough is enough!

I will dearly hold on to my commie as long as possible...
And try not to fill it to the brim with trivial junk that might bog it down. I'm pretty picky these days.

Umm, having said this I can't wait until 32 gig memory cards come out.
And Here's food for thought.. E90 is newer than the N95 platform.

[bills2north]

@ pintofale..

Hey don't worship N95 all too much. I played with both betas before release.. and I chose N93! It's far more stronger in build. It reminded me of 9300i which I was upgrading from. Being tired of waiting for the next gen commie I chose N93 for the usual reasons ie faster everything & great camera/video & good video editing sw (although I missed the bigger screen & qwerty) .

And you're correct to note that changing to N95 may not bring so many changes in your life except that your wallet might get lighter.
In conclusion don't change yet. So far Nothing can beat your phone hands down that would be financially sound. All you need is a bigger memory card