Now, to clarify, I'm not necessarily ranking devices by good design, although quite often good design and good build quality are linked at the hip. Some of the phones listed below aren't beautiful (though, again, some are) - but all of them are built like tanks and pretty much guaranteed to survive numerous drops, scrapes and even drenchings, without missing a beat.

So, with a hefty dose of first hand experience, a dollop of anecdotal evidence and a tinge of humour, here are the Dozen Best Built Symbian OS-powered smartphones EVER. And, yes, I did do something similar a year ago - guess this chart is becoming an annual event!

[Honorary mention to the Nokia 7650, which is just about built to mil-spec. It would have been no. 1 but it was disqualified by me by being so early and so primitive that it couldn't really do anything!]

1. Nokia E51. My wife has one of these. It's sleek, it's metal-backed and it's indestructible. We've tried. It has been submersed in water at least twice now. It has been dropped, stepped on, abused in the bottom of more shopping bags that you've had hot dinners, and it just refuses to die. Apart from the smallish screen it's in many ways the perfect smartphone.

2. Nokia E61. This is what you get if you basically build a candy bar phone out of aluminium. The E61 is incredibly robust and my early example has survived being played with by 4 years of my daughter's friends. And has come out still looking like new (after a dust down with some detergent!) and working perfectly. Amazing. And the battery goes on for a week.

3. Nokia E61i. Essentially the E61 but thinner and with a camera, the E61i is almost as robust and mine was sold as-new after a year of use. Still a great find on eBay if you're looking for something that will just keep on going.

4. Nokia N73. No metal here, this early Nseries camera-centric candybar was all plastic - but the number of people who've abused it and seen it shrug everything off is impressive. A worthy inclusion here.

5. Nokia N82. Again Nseries, again candybar and again all plastic. And, famously, the subject of one of my own real world robustness tests - what a trouper. Again, will go and go and go....

6. Samsung G810. One of the forgotten S60 devices, this is chunky but built like a Terminator. It's what the Nokia N95 would have looked like if it had been designed by 1960s USSR in their fight against the capitalist Americans. It's a mean camera phone too, with 5mp camera with Xenon flash and optical zoom. I'm proud of mine and no, I'm not going to sell it to you on eBay!

7. Samsung i8910 HD. Ah yes, the current smartphone of choice for the real Symbian zealot. But there's no denying the solid hardware. And the one piece design is beautiful too, in a way - and not just when you turn that big OLED screen on!

8. Nokia E71. The slimmed down, smaller-screened version of the E61, and with GPS on board this time. And build quality's almost up to the same standard, every second hand E71 I see looks almost as good as it did new out of the box. The one piece design makes this another great bet for buying second-hand.

9-. Nokia N86. A device rather out of its time, this is the dual-slider par excellence that doesn't really fit in the 2009 smartphone world. Yet there's no denying that it's both beautiful and solid, with a metal chassis and sliding mechanism - and the tempered glass front and discrete buttons make it a joy to hold.

10. Nokia N97 mini. The metal backed redesign of the infamous N97. Of course, it's still a bit early to decree that it's a robust champion, but let's just say it's looking good so far!

11. Sony Ericsson P900. The original P800 was an outstanding physical design, I reckon - but was let down by everything being so plasticky. The P900 was a step backwards in terms of design elegance, but was three steps forward in terms of materials used, style and build quality, and so the P900 gets the nod here.

12. Nokia E90. A device set apart in terms of form factor, the use of lashings of metal and industrial strength hinges make the E90 also a long-live competitor.

With only a handful of current devices in the top 12, it's tempting to bemoan the lack of industrial design flair in 2009. Are more fashionable materials winning out over long-term-better-choices? But, as the N86, N97 mini and i8910 HD prove, it is possible to produce something both stylish and well-built, so the current generation of designers aren't totally without flair.

Steve Litchfield, All About Symbian, 22 Nov 2009

It's interesting these numbers are coming out through a personal blog rather than a full blown Nokia press release, although it does indicate that Nokia are happy for Ovi to be just there, rather than actively promoted. Maybe telling people about the success of Ovi requires a large army of success stories and they only have a handful at the moment who are happy to go public?

Of course without knowing what the September numbers were, we don't have a fixed number, but any service that can gather a 70% growth is going the right way, so let's acknowledge that something is going right.

Thanks to CJ for the link.

-- Ewan Spence, Nov 2009.

 "Swiss Manager Pro is compatible with all Symbian S60 smartphones by Nokia, Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson, working equally well on keypad-based phones and on the latest touch-screen devices, like the Nokia N97 and X6, the Samsung i8910 (Omnia HD), and the SE Satio.

Major features:

Yes there are (arguably) operational reasons for these omissions. Each design team for each model is going to make their own call on what their user group will want, what they'll be using the machine for, and they will also have a budget (of time and money). Put all that in balance, and choosing which 50 or so applications ship on a device isn't always a clear-cut decision.

But it shouldn't need to be this way. There is a lot of effort put into the customisation options on a device, from your wallpaper and ringtones to the application icons and screen fades and wipes. So why not have the same ability for your second line applications?

It's a given that apps like the web browser and messaging are going to be included – I'm more interested in what happens with apps such as Podcasting. The long term users looking to upgrade are going to notice the missing items and will likely be put off from moving; while the new users may not even know that these other apps exist. Whether that's a good or a bad thing can be discussed but it's not as if Nokia want people to think that their modern phones do less than previous designs.

So let me point out something and then suggest a way forward. It's not too difficult for programmers to handle one application running over a number of 3rd Edition and 5th Edition handsets. So why does it appear to be such a traumatic problem from the Nokia design teams?

Here's my suggestion. When you first switch your phone on, there already are some set-up things that have to be done. The date and time are obvious ones, as is setting up email. So why not have a (likely widget-driven) application that lists all those optional components, such as Podcasting, Nokia Messaging, Ovi Chat, and so on. You could even use it to promote the Ovi Store and certain third party applications – all with the requisite disclaimer. And behind it you have 'generic' versions of these not quite core applications which you know will happily run on all the devices out there. 

Yes there would still be people at the manugfacturer going “we've not tested this to the nth degree so let's not flag it up as an option” because they know users won't read the disclaimer... but sometimes you have to make a bet when you don't have a perfect hand.

If you remove an application, you diminish the phone. Why you would want to do that remains a mystery to me. But by putting these applications back in, and via a customisation option that puts the user not only in control of their own hardware, but gives them the personalisation choices that make a phone into their phone, you create a far stronger emotional bond than a simple cookie cutter approach to the built in apps.

A small team of developers, sitting alongside each handset development team, checking compatibility and ensuring the widget used to drive this stays up to date – it shouldn't be too much to ask. Should it?

-- Ewan Spence, Nov 2009.

Listen

Skyhook has been around for a while,  I interviewed them a couple of years ago, for AAS. Essentially, they maintain a (somewhat) self-healing up to date database of Wi-Fi access points across parts of the developed world, which they then make available to mapping software on various platforms. Try to get a mapping fix on an Apple iPod Touch and you're using Skyhook's system, for example.

They've now made this system available to S60 phone owners, via Maps Booster (support web site here), now available for selected devices (listed below) in the Nokia Ovi Store. The unique selling point is that the Skyhook system excels in dense urban environments, where GPS systems struggle to get a fix - the two location technologies thus complement each other well.

I live in a suburban area, but decided to give Maps Booster a try anyway:

After installation, confirmation that Maps Booster is installed and working

Within the standalone Maps Booster config utility - confirming accuracy (left), quite impressive and GPS comparable in a middle class UK suburban street with about 10 WiFi access points, and 'About' (right)

On the left, Google Maps with just Maps Booster enabled; on the right, with just GPS/Assisted-GPS enabled

You can see that, in suburbia anyway, the GPS fix is generally more accurate than the Skyhook/Maps Booster fix, in which case, the mapping software (Ovi Maps/Google Maps/anything else) will use the more accurate of the two. In covered areas (e.g. malls) and in dense areas (e.g. city centres), I'd expect Maps Booster to be much more reliable, and it's great to see it integrated so tightly into the Symbian Location system.

It's also worth noting that the Skyhook system doesn't work as well as GPS once you're moving (since the WiFi-scanning operation takes a finite number of seconds) and so is better suited to pedestrian use or in slow-moving urban traffic.

There are also caveats in terms of device support (see FAQ below) and database coverage (ditto, see the link), but Maps Booster is certainly something I'm going to keep loaded for those trips into The Big Smoke.....

From the Maps Booster FAQ:

Coverage and phones

1. Q:

    

   Where will Maps Booster work?

   A:

    

   Maps Booster will automatically be utilized in areas that have Skyhook Wireless coverage. In general, you will see the biggest improvement when you are in cities and urban locations. Maps Booster also works when you are indoors where your GPS normally struggles. Check out the Maps Booster/Skyhook coverage map for more information.

2. Q:

    

   What phones is Maps Booster available for?

   A:

    

   Maps Booster is currently available for the following Nokia phone models: Nokia E71x, Nokia 5730 XpressMusic, Nokia N79, Nokia E55, Nokia N95, Nokia N86 8MP, Nokia N85, Nokia E52, Nokia E63, Nokia N96, Nokia 6710 Navigator, Nokia E66, Nokia N78, Nokia E72, Nokia E71, Nokia E75, Nokia N82, Nokia N81 8GB, Nokia N81, Nokia E51, Nokia N95 8GB, and Nokia 5630 XpressMusic. 
   
   We are currently waiting for Ovi store approval for the following S60 5th edition phones: Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia N97, Nokia 5530 XpressMusic, Nokia X6, and Nokia N97 mini. These five phones should be added within a week or two.

You can download the new version by opening the application and choosing Help -> Check for updates now, or by going to the Nokia Music website.

Nokia Ovi Player is essentially a re-brand of Nokia Music (PC Client), although there have been a few UI enhancements.

Nokia Music Store (Nokia Ovi Music Store soon?) is available as a tab in Nokia Ovi Player

There is now a post on the Ovi Blog about the name change.

"Ovi Player contains some new views to help you navigate and enjoy your music collection. The ‘recently added’ view is used by many people as a way of keeping track of their new music. This enhanced view shows your recently added music grouped by albums together with cover art. In addition, the introduction of a ‘filter column’ on the detailed view will also help you browse your music collection more easily."

SEE 2009 is a heavily developer and platform community focused event. If you're looking for consumer coverage you may prefer the Nokia World 2009 tour videos.

Further SEE 2009 multimedia content is available in our podcasts from the show floor.

I would like to thank the man behind the camera, Ewan MacLeod, for his assistance (filming and editing) in making this video. Ewan's recently launched the Mobile Industry Review newsletter, which is well worth subscribing too.

Part 1 covered around two third of the show floor. Part 2 of the video covers the remaining part of the show floor and draw some show conclusions.

Changelog:

In this podcast we cover:    

• SEE 2009 Extras - Nokia 6788 and EKA2 kernel
   
• Ovi Store re-downloads
  
  
• Google Mobile Search with voice recognition
    
• Opera 10 Mobile Symbian release
   
  
• Symbian UI concept video
   
  
• iPlayer update to version 2.5
   

Got a question or a topic you would like us to ponder and discuss in the next podcast? Got some feedback from us (love it or hate it)? Get in touch and let us know.

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You can also follow the coverage on @aas on Twitter.