I like my old phone, so why should I upgrade?

[slitchfield]

One of the questions sent into the All About Sym

bian podcasts has got me thinking. It was along the lines of "are you looking forward to the Nokia N97 or the N86 more?", and my honest answer, out of those two, was the N97. But reflecting a bit more on the question, and while the journalist in me wants to see the N97 in action (probably around this year's Edinburgh Festival, but more on that in August), the consumer in me doesn't feel the need to step up.

Read on in the full article.

[ManInBlack]

Well said and I completely agree. However, the Nokia N97 has made me return from the Windows Mobile wilderness! (Busy trying to sell an HTC Touch HD and Xperia X1i on EBay! )

I've always loved the Symbian operating system and the way Nokia update the firmware quite frequently. But, until the N97 came along I always felt that there was something not quite right with the build quality. I figured that if I paid £500 for a phone then it should FEEL like £500.

Anyway, I finally feel as though my top of the range phone is..... just about.... built like that! Also, treated myself to an E75 which is built like a tank.

Now, if the little software bugs get ironed out (no major problems here) I may feel Nokia have finally earned my money!

[Hardeep1singh]

When old devices trump the just arrived devices in multiple categories in head to head comparisons, you know there's something not going right. Enough said.

[rvirga]

I can see the power users now pointing at the Samsung iWhateverItsCalledThisWeek, but a few thousand sales to the geeks does not make a market. You need to be able to constantly sell hundreds of thousands of units a month to have a real impact.

If you look at smartphone marketshare data, you'll see that Nokia has lost substantial marketshare last year, and it's continuing losing marketshare this year. At the same time, Samsung has gained marketshare. So it's not a matter of just a few thousand geeks.
On a side note, the above quote sums up what I find really disturbing about this website. Ideally, all reporting should be fair and balanced, but realistically from a site called "All About Symbian" one can expect a certain pro-Symbian bias. What isn't expected, and what instead one constantly finds here, is an extreme pro-Nokia bias, often at the expense (like here) of other excellent Symbian-based phones from other manufacturers. Time to rename it "All About Nokia"? I think it would more honestly portrait what this site is about.

[doonit]

lucky for AAS and other bloggers that get to change handsets often. Most people, myself in particular, only get to see change once in a while with contract upgrades...unless the phone gets trashed in the meantime, that is. The result is that I still don't feel that I've found MY form factor yet and still have a way to go before I do. Best so far for me I think was my E70 (trashed after 2 months), although the screen was too small and the resolution too high for my eyes.

[zyler]

In my case there's the "GottaHaveIt" factor. I've had many devices since I got the E90 (mostly WM admittedly) and in the end went back to the E90. Now that I have an 5800 and the newness of owning it has worn of I'm seriously considering going back to the "Old Faithful" once again.

[Solnyshok]

in other words, wtf Nokia? where is the 8Mpx device with Xenon flash and a decent browser to compete with one on the iPhone, that could entice me to switch from 20months old N82?

[nottmbantam]

I had my N95 for two years and used it solidly and had great respect forit – it was such a breakthrough device. The N95 8gb came, the N96 came along but neither enticed me enough to go buy one. The touchscreen phenomenon came, loved the look and the feel of the iPhone, but it was still nowhere near as good as the N95.

So, along came the N97 and I rushed out and bought it, but in reality, I don’t think it gives me that much more than the N95 does. Yes, its different form, yes, it has a huge storage capacity ( N95 can now go up to 16gb memory card ) ,, but in some ways, the N95 was just simpler to use, and in that respect, I still rate the N95 as a better phone.

Maybe after a couple of software updates, the N97 will become as easy to me as the N95? Maybe it that its still a new phone to me? I dunno, the ‘X factor’ the overall look, feel and usability for me, isn’t quite there yet.

[malerocks]

I agree. My current handset is about 2 years old and I really don't think I am missing that much.

I received my N97 as my upgrade that I had been waiting for for about 3 months. Go it on Monday, set it all up, and by Monday night was bored with it already.

Rang Voda on Tuesday to tell them they can have it back.

I`m just underwhelmed by it, I cant think of any ther word to explain how I feel. Yes I like the qwert keypad, but when I compared the touch screen to a colleagues iPhone, I wasnt impressed. And I found that when using the internet, if you have your hand in the wrong place, you severly cut yor signal strength too.

I think I`m going the iPhone route now.

[nj7]

Agree... I feel the same

agree agree and completely agree =)
unlike the iPhone and N95 at that time..
there isn't really anything revolutionary these days..only add a little stuff to it..
take N97 for example..
the difference i see from my N95 8GB is only the bigger screen, more memory and qwerty..
nothing new in terms of specs such as GPS like before
HSDPA still running at 3.6mbps? and no HSUPA for a flagship in 2009? u gotta be kidding..

[tawalker]

I'm relieved to find that it's not just me who is quite happy with a not-entirely-new smartphone (in my case, the N95 'classic'). It's not some kind of 'Luddite' reaction - IMO, none of the subsequent handsets have been a significant improvement on the N95, or at least significant enough to coerce me to upgrade.

It's partly because the N95 does pretty well everything I could want in a smartphone (photos/videos, video editing, mobile blogging, GPS, e-mail, etc. etc.), but also because I've had it over two years and probably paid for the phone by now, I've been able to downgrade my mobile contract to just what I need and no more, with a significant cost saving.

At this rate, I think I'll stick with my N95 until either it falls terminally to bits (!), or someone comes up with a handset which does everything the N95 can do (but better), and adds some really awesome features to boot. Maybe the rumoured N900 will do it, or perhaps 2010 will bring the 'new N95' of its time?

Until then, I'm sticking with my old (refurbished) N95 :-)

[Ewan]

Originally Posted by rvirga

If you look at smartphone marketshare data, you'll see that Nokia has lost substantial marketshare last year, and it's continuing losing marketshare this year. At the same time, Samsung has gained marketshare. So it's not a matter of just a few thousand geeks.
On a side note, the above quote sums up what I find really disturbing about this website. Ideally, all reporting should be fair and balanced, but realistically from a site called "All About Symbian" one can expect a certain pro-Symbian bias. What isn't expected, and what instead one constantly finds here, is an extreme pro-Nokia bias, often at the expense (like here) of other excellent Symbian-based phones from other manufacturers. Time to rename it "All About Nokia"? I think it would more honestly portrait what this site is about.

Let me address that point. The samusng line in there is purely a reference to their name change on teh device, and historically Samsung S60 devices have always had low S60 sales. They are improving right now yes, and their HD device will hopefully make a big impact in the future... In the future that is.

Time honoured fact - geeks will always buy devices, you can guarantee a certain amount of sales for any device just on 'fanboys' no matter the company. It's getting beyond those numbers where it counts and I do look forward to Samsung telling us when they do.

And I'd also mark that article as Editorial/Opinion as opposed to hard news!

[slitchfield]

Also responding to the 'pro-Nokia' accusation, the reason we've hardly mentioned Samsung's i8910 HD is that it hasn't appeared yet in our sweaty hands. Orange's insistence that noone else is allowed to play with it until their exclusivity period is over has lost Samsung a HUGE amount of press coverage, to be honest. I'm more disappointed than anyone, I was really looking forward to championing this phone.