To Touch or not to Touch?

[slitchfield]

In contravention of the prevailing spirit of the age, I find myself unconvinced by a touch interface on a phone, having tried using both Apple iPhone and Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, both of which I've rejected as my main device for different reasons. And, for a change, there's survey data (see the postscript) to back up my crazed(!) opinions - it seems that the majority of the great unwashed also prefer physical buttons to touch...

Read on in the full article.

[Micky!]

My only experience with a Touch device is that on the N810, and my experience wasn't great, with my thought process being somewhat similar to your own Steve. I do plan on investing in the N97, but do fear from finding out what flaws you have found above with just the two weeks use of your 5800. You have me thinking N86 next instead too now.

[Jay3gsm]

I am totally unconvinced by touchscreen. I've used the 5800 and even a Samsung Tocco as my main phone, yet neither survived more than a few days. I accept the advantages in having a larger screen, due to no keypad, but the trade off in usability bothers me. For now I'm happy to stick with the traditional alphanumeric keypad.

[Jay3gsm]

Originally Posted by Micky!

My only experience with a Touch device is that on the N810, and my experience wasn't great, with my thought process being somewhat similar to your own Steve. I do plan on investing in the N97, but do fear from finding out what flaws you have found above with just the two weeks use of your 5800. You have me thinking N86 next instead too now.

Not only is touchscreen an issue for me, I don't like QWERTY either, so the N97 is definitely off my wishlist. The N86 is currently top of that list!

I fully acknowledge all the points raised about the 5800XM's touchscreen in particular. The visibility under direct sunlight is not great and I imagine a similar phone to the 5800 would have a much longer battery life.

I've had the first generation iPhone and now the Nokia 5800. I would say the touch interface works quite well for me, with the main disadvantage being that I have to look at the screen while typing messages.

However, for the things I use the phone for (mainly calls, music and going online) the advantages of the 5800's bigger, higher resolution screen outweigh the texting disadvantages. I usually end up using the onscreen alphanumeric keypad as, with its large keys (bigger than some landline phones') I get get my messages out quickly, even faster than with my iPhone's keyboard which I got quite adept with.

'Apples legendary cool' - that made me laugh. Nice bit of sarcasm.

Back on topic, your experience with the 5800 is entirely in contrast to mine. I was a touch screen doubter, I got the 5800 because of its price and I am now a convert. The only worry is the long term durability, but apart from that I suffer none of the problems that you have, but one you haven't mentioned - using with gloves on in the extreme cold isn't great - needs two hands and a stylus.

I think that the 5800 is an extremely successful adaptation of S60 to a touch screen interface, it works intuitively with either the old menus or the new transparent select icon screens and Nokia have succeeded where most other (especially Apple) manufacturers failed, they implemented a touch interface on a device that is a reasonable size.

It's OK in sunlight, responds to a light touch, is brilliant for 2D scrolling of full size web pages and I have no problems using one handed whilst walking. Only gloves give me problems.

If it will lat up to 24 months then it's a bargain and a half.

Well Nokia's touch system is crap, resistive screen with a touch layer piggy-backed to the 8 year old obsolete S60 UI. No surprise it doesn't provide the best touch experience.

[svdwal]

Navigation devices like the TomTom models all have touchscreens. The difference between a TomTom and a S60 touchscreen device is the size of the icons to press. a TomTom has 6 huge buttons, that are almost impossible to miss. A S60 has lots of small icons to press, making it harder to hit the right one (especially in a car).

So the problem is not the touchscreen itself, but the size of the icons on that touchscreen.

[timsalmon]

I promised a bit of feedback on the 5800 Steve, and here seems to be the place as this is the No.1 issue.

There's lots about it I like. I like the quick and easy ways to turn things on and off by a quick peck - example, BT - the E90 has a quick and easy way but I must open the clam first (can't a FW upgrade change the use of the bottom left button on these phones?) - the E71 does too - some of the E Series phones even have that shortcut on bottom left keypad button - brilliant - but most don't - and none of the N series phones seem to have this - I don't think (waiting to be proved wrong!) 5800 - peck the top of the screen and enter dialogue. This is just one example of how the UI works quickly and well - there are loads more.

Back to the topic - the Touch Screen is perfectly usable (with two hands only) if I accept that I need to use the back of my finger (nail) or the stylus. It scrolls, selects and flicks perfectly. Well, maybe not flicks! But that's the deal for me to be able to use it as my main device really - much like yourself, I don't always want to/can't use two hands and when I try to use it one-handed, it's not a good experience. I'm heading back to the E71 at the moment (now that Google have released a quite brilliant Sync support for GMail Contacts - Calendar soon - I wonder how GooSync will stay in business?!) and have the trusty E90 standing by and, like you, the iPod Touch for the best of both worlds!

You're quite right - this kind of Touch just doesn't cut the mustard.

Tim

Definitely not an obsolete OS, but in fact a strong multi-tasking OS for portable devices and definitely much more than 8 years old and good for many years yet. Not as old as UNIX though, the one which iPhone OS is based on.

The interface has new touch selection features along with the old menus and is evolving nicely. It's without doubt the best out there, and the handwriting recognition is superb for me.

As for using in a car, in the UK at least, people shouldn't even be touching a TomTom screen whilst driving let alone using their hands to operate a mobile pone of any description.

I find the 5800 works really well for me, perhaps some don't get along as well - I have large hands and fingers but am reasonably dextrous as I have been a guitarist for 20 years.

Definitely not an obsolete UI either, see how well it is adapted by pressing the button that looks like three horizontal lines whilst in the web browser. That's new to S60 and shows how it is likely to develop. This means two options for input, the old and the new.

[Jaggz]

These phones are fast becoming pocket computers.

I remember sometime back in the early 90's having a similar discussion with some chap about a mouse based UI against keyboard driven one. He pointed out, quite rightly *at that time* that a mouse was overkill for most users. His main problem is that he had no idea of what was about to happen the computing industry, no grasp of the sheer scope of human related tasks the computer would be applied to in the coming years.

I would flip Rafe's estimation on its head. He mentioned that touch based phones will probably max out at about 20%, whereas I would say that it will be more like 80%. Touch has to be done right. But when it is... boy it's unbeatable! Colours and iShred for the iPhone; both impossible without a proper multi-touch interface.

I cannot wait to see the back of physical QWERTY keyboards and these atrocious D-pad clusters. I never liked them in 1999 and I like them even less in 2009.

Do you guys remember seeing those early multi-touch demos on YouTube? You know the ones, those original ones, not the iPhone, but a few years prior to it? I remember sitting there and thinking how this would one day replace ALL other interfaces, I'll admit I was quite emotional at the time, it was like a revelation. It's all about flexibility, multi-touch has the ability to become whatever it needs to become, you simply cannot trump that kind of flexibility no matter how well engineered your physical keyboard is.

James @ Nokia Creative

[snoyt]

Resistive screens vs capacitairy ones have their advantages. Allows one to draw with any object on the screen. Including any glove. Capacitairy screens have trouble with dry fingers...

Also touch can only supplement and enhance. Not only for handwriting/drawing sketching, but also to reduce the threshold for using it. Nothing reduced the computer barrier than the mouse. The same with touch. Sliding qwerty and a touch allows for a great compromise between phonesize and screenspace.

Whereas it has been reported that billions of bacteria can live on a computer keyboard, never seen reports carried out on a mobile phone keypad; perhaps touchscreen devices should not be dismissed too lightly.

After having used the 5800 for a while, I found that touch works quite well for phone control except for heavy text input. Also the on screen QUERTY keyboard occupies too much space (same as iPhone) so little space is left e.g. to follow an IM conversation.

For me the N97 will be the perfect device: Touch for phone operation and occasional texting, full QUERTY for heavy texting and messaging, keeping the screen free for data display. And all this in a package with a decent camera and all the other S60 features. Great device concept!