How good were the good old days? Over on the ‘Obstacles can Kill’ blog, Eric has put away his N95 8GB and switched to his old N-Gage QD for 24 hours to see just how well it would compare to today’s feature packed phones. The result is mixed; while the gaming experience was still unsurpassed, the improvements in the S60 interface render the QD’s v1 interface lacking massive number of tricks and tweaks he has come to rely on.

Regardless of its amazing build quality, one handed navigation on this thing is ridiculously tough. Especially while driving (not saying I condone that or anything). With the dial pad being on the right, the navigation and OK buttons on the left, and the send/end keys and soft keys at the bottom, I found myself adjusting the way I held the phone multiple times just while trying to compose and send an SMS.

I remember a time where people commended how fast the QD was when navigating around. However, after all the advancements we have seen, the QD is now way too slow. Almost to the point of unusable.

[The] N-Gage platform was still a satisfying experience. Playing Tony Hawk was just as fun for me as it was four years ago when I got my first QD. Nokia had done the platform right when it came to user interaction.

Overall, the Nokia N-Gage QD was an amazing device for it’s time. It is one that helped streamline the path towards greater advancements in the s60 community… But the blast from the past was definitely one that made me clearly see how far Nokia, s60, and technology in general has evolved.

The full article is available at Obstacles Can Kill.