In the first of a two part feature, Steve Litchfield looks outside the Symbian world to ask if the current Android flagship could replace a Symbian-powered smartphone. In the process of answering the question, he starts to analyse (in order) the 15 essential functions which devices like the Nokia N97 perform for him - how easy would it then be for a non-Symbian device to step up to the plate?

"Now don't worry, this isn't Steve abandoning the Symbian world. But, as I say often, it's important not to be locked in a bubble, pretending the competition doesn't exist. 2010 sees a frighteningly competitive smartphone world, with no less than eight (first one to get all eight right in the comments wins a prize) different phone operating systems – and that's without even considering the multitude of proprietary 'feature phone' OS. Then, upon these eight (or more) platforms, we have a multitude of hardware offerings with numerous different form factors.

In this context, there's always one huge question that goes through my mind whenever I come across something new and shiny that runs on a platform other than Symbian:

Could this replace my current Symbian-powered favourite? I mean, really replace it?"

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