101 smartphones and I can't recommend any of them. Even the ones I use myself!

Published by Steve Litchfield at 19:06 UTC, April 11th 2010

Tim Salmon and I (in Phones Show Chat) often remark that if the perfect smartphone came along then we'd have nothing to debate and nothing to write about - but the current situation in terms of what I've tried and rejected is starting to get ridiculous. Am I too fussy in wanting something that's remotely close to perfect? Having seen, tried and rejected 101 smartphones, what the heck do I recommend to others?

Tried and rejected

Let's get the '101' number out of the way first - OK, I made it up to get the headline in, but adding up every phone I've tried in the last 4 years does get me well up into the fifties, believe it or not. The high number is explained by me being in the privileged position to have had just about any device I've wanted to try delivered to my door, on loan. Almost all have gone back, though as you'll see below there have been a few 'keepers', devices I've begged to be allowed to hang onto because I like them so much....

This being All About Symbian and not All About Phones, I should dispense with the non-Symbian aspect of the aforementioned trials quickly. Yes, I've had a decent few weeks with the iPhone and then iPhone 3GS (plus I still have an iPod Touch). And yes, I would actually recommend this to many of my non-geek friends, as something which just works and which won't cause them any headaches. But it's costly and things like the non-removable battery, lack of multitasking and restrictive file handling ("File system? What file system?") still stick in my throat when it comes to getting one for myself or recommending the iPhone for anyone with tech hobbyist leanings.

I've had Android devices for the last six months, too. T-Mobile G1, then Google Nexus One, then Motorola Milestone. And yes, Google are doing some great and innovative things with their software, but the OS still feels unfinished, the Android Market still has holes, and there has yet to be a killer Android device in terms of hardware (though there are a few contenders appearing shortly).

I've also had the Blackberry Curve, Bold 9000, 9700 and Pearl come for review. Apart from the Bold 9000, the hardware's always uninspiring, while the software has had more facelifts and bits bolted on than Joan Collins Windows Mobile. And, as Tim found out, the world of Blackberry can be a world of pain if you're not already a member of its club.... 

Then there's Palm and Web OS, neither of which are long for this world, plus Microsoft and Windows Mobile Professional Phone 7 Series, which effectively killed all its children, Jedi style, a month ago, before betting the farm on something which is arguably more restrictive and 'flatter' than iPhone OS and which won't be here for almost a year anyway. 

What about Maemo? Or should that be MeeGo now? Nokia's N900 is a super little bit of kit, but it's far too complex, configurable, hackable and generally malleable to recommend to anyone who doesn't want to spend his life tweaking/fiddling/updating (some do).

Then there's Symbian, the worldwide marketshare leader, my speciality and, arguably, the all-round strongest contender in the smartphone world, having more functionality built-in than any of its competitors. The trouble has been that in recent years Nokia (the chief culprit) has been severely underspecifying the internals (processor(s), RAM) of its smartphones, leading to devices with otherwise great hardware but which flounder the moment you start pushing them. Samsung put a lot more into their Symbian hardware but then are incredibly patchy at how they support the devices or in how they think through the updates that eventually get pushed out. And Symbian stalwarts Sony Ericsson, having only just made the move from the troubled UIQ 3 to S60, have taken up a band-aid tactic, patching over interface deficiencies in S60 5th Edition rather than helping fix them.

So, given the above criticism, what on earth do I use day to day? Well, again there's a degree of privileged luxury in always having a number of devices around. And there's also the almost magical ability of my Mac's built-in iSync to keep any number of Symbian-based phones in perfect sync with itself and each other - which means that I can have a group of phones, all more or less ready to go when needed.

Steve recommends uses

Here's my current set, the hardware on which my digital life currently depends. The galling thing, as you'll have gathered from the headline and text above, is that in all honesty I can't recommend any of these to newcomers. Too many caveats, too much fiddling around. But, since you've read this far and are interested:

Nokia E61i: acquired recently as test hardware for a major article, it has been great to reacquaint myself with this form factor. With wider keyboard than the E71/E72 and large 2.8" screen it's a superb form factor for a smartphone. And it's almost indestructible, so it'll be there for me if ever I need it in a hurry.

Reason(s) not to recommend it to others: it's also very old, which means slow processor, limited RAM, limited storage (2GB max), poor camera - but as a 'back up' device it's fine.

Nokia N82: the original AAS test N82, still going strong after numerous adventures. Again almost indestructible, with still great camera, especially at night (Xenon flash), plus oodles of RAM and good stereo speakers. 

Reason(s) not to recommend it to others:  the small (2.4") dim screen and having to go back to pokey T9 text input. Still, a super phone to have on standby for parties and evening events.

Nokia E90: again very tough (getting to be a theme? I'm not really that tough on my phones - honest!), almost entirely made of metal, the E90 is renowned as the latest in the Communicator series. Aside from the obvious (huge 4" internal screen, row of dedicated app shortcut keys and large qwerty keyboard), there's also lots of free RAM (85MB or so after booting), which means never having see a 'Memory full' error or have apps closed down in the background. I've been off and on the E90 a lot over the last few months, amazing for a 2007 device, and it's going with me to the grave. 

Reason(s) not to recommend it to others:  there's the bulk and weight. And Gallery is tortuously slow at thumbnailing and displaying media, which is why I went with Resco Photo Viewer, which works much faster. In addition, the audio jack's 2.5mm, which can cause problems sometimes.

Samsung i8910 HD: as you'll have seen from reading my HX firmware adventures, the deficiencies of Samsung's own firmware (critically low disk space, loss of focussing in video capture, buggy Podcasting, incompatibility with Nokia-written apps) have all now been addressed by enterprising 'modders' (e.g. HyperX) and programmers (e.g. the guys behind Podcatcher), meaning that the i8910 HD has gone from being a stellar-but-flawed flagship to a simply stellar device. With these additions, the i8910 HD is still very much competing with even the latest top end 2010 smartphones in terms of specs (3.7" OLED screen, fabulous speakers, capacitive touch, fast processor, graphics acceleration, 160MB free RAM, etc.) and function. And all the while staying within the cosy and familiar world of Symbian. 

Reason(s) not to recommend it to others: the downside should be obvious - you're completely on your own from the moment you crack open a non-official firmware. There are numerous little things that don't quite work right - and yet there's no one to complain to and noone looking into fixing things. (Cynics would say the same is true of the official Samsung firmware, but I couldn't possibly comment....)

So - if I can't even recommend my own choices of smartphone to others, what hope is there? There's an iPhone 4 being announced in the summer, no doubt. And Android phones are getting better pretty rapidly, though none yet have the raw hardware to tempt me away from the HX-ed i8910 HD. In the Symbian world, there's light on the horizon with new Symbian^3 hardware, highly specced (RAM/camera/processor) and coming out of Nokia this year, hopefully putting an end to their smartphone annus horribilus (Spring 2009 onwards). And we can desperately hope for Sony Ericsson to finally get it right with their third generation S60 implementation (also probably Symbian^3 and hopefully presenting a more consistent UI to users) again later in the year, bringing them out of the dunce's corner.

In the meantime, for a tech-head I'd recommend the Motorola Milestone or Nokia N97 mini. For a photo-centric phone user, the N86 is still a good option. For those (probably not AAS readers) who want to have more fun with the apps and less with the phone hardware and its internals, then the iPhone is probably still king. And for those on a strict budget then the Nokia E63 and 5800 are my two top picks. But the fact that none of these are represented in the four phones I've actually chosen should indicate again how fragmented and imperfect the phone world is right now!

Steve Litchfield, All About Symbian, 10 April 2010

PS. For more of these sorts of deliberations, listen each week to Tim Salmon and I talking about our wrestles with phone technology!

News Discussion

Quote:

Originally Posted by Duncan J Murray .... go with the market leader (i.e. the iphone).....

iPhone is NOT a market leader.
and iPhone is NOT a phone for every lad and gal out there.

if you live in a country that data is quite expensive or you don't want to waste your battery life with constant on GPRS, then you know that iPhone would not sell.

And also, each phone user is unique. Some want touch phone but no qwerty (not a bulky phone), others wouldn't mind if the phone 3mm thicker as long as it have QWERTY. And the 1 phone will concur all of the iPhone definitely means that's phone really not for all of us (not me).

Anyway.
Good article steve.
I also find myself in this situation.
I wanna upgrade my old E61i, and the only choice I would be worthy is the cheaper 5800 or the more expensive N97mini. and I finally choose to wait for a couple of more months for those C6/E7/N8 to come out.
Nokia really entering the dark age of their device.
Amazingly, Nokia entering the darkness and still the king.
If they really do it right, I think all the fruits company will be history before anyone heard it.

PS.
Kudos for trio 5230/5530/5800.
I believe this phone really priced right.
I've already seen more 5230 owner than iPhone owner in Indonesia.
I believe in 2010 the sale number of sole type of Nokia 5230 will beat all the iphone model combined together.
Now, this is what a market leader is.

Quote:

Originally Posted by cdx The 5xxx touch series (with latest firmware) Had most Nokias from 6800 to n70 (still have) to n86 which I still have but now not being used. Why ? The Nokia 5230! Surprised me too. Poor camera,cheap construction, yada yada but... It is light, sturdy with a rubber case, and the UI is actually very good. Again this surprised me a lot. Nokia are normally not very good at this but I am really enjoying this phone! Kinetic scrolling everywhere (almost ;) it actually just works IF you are a Nokia user. If you come from a different environment then YMMV. A very pleasantly surprised (dont need no stinking touch convert) :

Totally agree, although cheap construction isn't really too much of a problem - its easily strong enough to take normal usage.

Shame that kinetic scrolling isn't there in the menus - have to use the right hand scroll bar. Irritating. The UI isn't at all bad (its definitely better than the 5800 I had a year back), but it is very inconsistent, and the designers obviously didn't have the time to actually make it intuitive.

And I've managed to get more creative pictures out of the 5230 than I ever did out of the N95 or N85. Change pics to B&W, high contrast, and you can get some fantastic results. Still prefer the camera on the N73 though ;):D

Quote:

Originally Posted by clonmult One thing that darned near every smartphone lacks these days though is battery life - its the one area that has actually gone backwards over the last few years. 1gHz processors, VGA (or higher res) screens, 8mp camera, HD video recording, bluetooth, wifi, HSDPA, all great. But what about a phone that you can take away for a week on a business trip and not have to charge every other day? Look at the venerable Nokia 6310i - 7 days on a charge. I used to use a BB 7230, that would last 7 days of being connected up and pulling through mails. Nothing comes close these days :frown:

Unfortunately, given the amount of features contained in most smartphones and the fact that battery technology is not moving at the same rate, battery life is inevitably going to be an issue. You can replicate an older phone by disabling many features to reduce battery drain, but that kind of defeats the point....

Quote:

Originally Posted by clonmult Shame that kinetic scrolling isn't there in the menus - have to use the right hand scroll bar. Irritating. The UI isn't at all bad (its definitely better than the 5800 I had a year back), but it is very inconsistent, and the designers obviously didn't have the time to actually make it intuitive. ;):D

Got vMENU to get Apple like kinetic scrolling on menus :)

Full thread: 28 Comments / Post New Comment