Changing of the Guard
As the battery on my N80 ran out of juice for the second time yesterday, I decided that it’s settled - I will be getting a new device this weekend. I’ve been toying with the possibility for about a week now but I had made the statement a long time ago that I would wait to see what new devices FP2 would bring before I bought anything else. Am I a liar? Yes.
The simple truth is that I came to the realization that the N80 simply does not suit my needs and expectations as well as another device might. Really? If I had started my S60 3rd experience with any other device I doubt that I would have the enthusiasm for Symbian that I do now. Simply put, it’s a beautiful device. I realized though that for my purposes and daily usage tendencies, it’s just not the right device.
On a fresh boot, I have 100-105 processes running (depending on what apps I have installed at the time) and about 13MB-14MB of free RAM. Thanks to all of the leaks I’m lucky if I have 11MB of RAM left after opening and closing a few apps and if I want to (for example) leave ProfiMail open in the background while I browse the web - well forget it. Beyond everything else, I just can’t cope with the battery life anymore. As I mentioned in the first sentence of this post, my battery actually died twice yesterday because I dared to listen to internet radio at work without leaving the N80 plugged in. So where do we go from here?
If I think about it - excluding the variety of third-party apps that I use, what are the main functions that I perform with my device?
1. Make/receive GSM calls
2. Send/receive emails
3. Browse the web
4. Send/receive SMS
Well from the looks of it, my device model starts with the wrong letter… I rarely take pictures or film video, I don’t watch video very often, I rarely open the music player or even MyStrands Social Player; so basically aside from web, the functions that the Nseries boasts aren’t on my daily usage list. To be honest, I would love them all to be on my list but with the N80 (and even with the N95) ‘convergence’ is still just a word. It would be great if an Nseries device could replace my digital camera, digital camcorder, portable media player, etc but the truth of the matter is that we’re just not there yet.
Will we ever get there? I think that we will (and maybe it will be Nokia that takes us there) but not any time soon. The quality, battery life, capacity and reliability are just nowhere near what we’ve become accustomed to with dedicated devices. Granted I have limited experience with the N95 since I’m still waiting for one, but I haven’t seen or read anything anywhere that contradicts my opinion. It can’t take crisp amazing photos like my 8mpxl handheld, it can’t shoot crystal clear video like my digital camcorder, it can’t play and store a tremendous amount of music like my iPod, and it surely won’t last anywhere as long as any of those devices on a single charge (ok, maybe the camcorder ;) ).
What the N95 is however, is a ‘gateway device’ that is one of several recent and upcoming devices in a “new breed” that will become the model to build on for future mobile devices. It is a glimpse into the future of mobile devices where true convergence will be a commonality rather than a marketing term. But that is a whole different post…
So this weekend I’ll be visiting a local shop to pickup my girlfriend’s new phone and the odds are pretty good that I’ll be walking out of there with a new device of my own…
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Now, of course, there is an e61i with a camera... i've been really wishing I would've waited a bit longer to buy my n73, and just held out for it!
Anyway, I would love a good review by someone like you, who uses their device on a day in, day out basis... been thinking I'd like to buy the wife the n76, and pick up a little present like the e61i for myself as well ;)
-olly
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You'll definitely be seeing some posting about the E61i in the coming weeks. Truth be told, I've been waiting and waiting for the right qwerty device to come along and this is honestly the first one I've seen that has REALLY peaked my interest.
Once I was interested I thought I might wait until the flagship store started stocking them but seeing as they will also be offering the E61 around the same time, my guess is that the price point will be unreasonable in comparison to what shops are selling it for.
So anyway, my expectations are pretty high for this little badboy and I plan to carry it every day - let's see if it can deliver!
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But all the issues you mentioned above (except for the battery life) I've been having on my E61 as well.
Forget about having Contacts, SkyCaller and BestProfiles open while browsing the web!
It is particularly annoying when apps like SkyCaller or Best Profiles close down after starting another app since you don't realize it until the phone starts ringing during a meeting.
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I'm coming from an E50. and I thought the E61i would be too bulky. But when I received it seems to be real slim! fits my pockets real good. The wideness doesn't matter, Thickness does.
Wow I can't keep my Eyes of the Screen :D
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These issues are pretty common among all S60 3rd devices. As far as Skyecaller goes, I have discussed providing the option to make the app a system app to avoid low-RAM closures with them quite some time ago so hopefully this option will be available in an upcoming version. Your mention of Best Profiles is odd though, because that app doesn't need to be open in order to function. It has a background process that runs and should not be affected by low-RAM. Did you mean Smart Profiles?
@Peter Schrijver
It's funny you should mention the 'pocketability' of the E61i, because this was a concern of mine as well. I always keep my phone in the front right pocket of my pants so I was wondering if the E61i would fit well. As you can see below though, I used a very advanced technique a few days ago to get a better ides of the size and alleviate my concerns: ;)
<img src="http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/9765/e61idimnc4.png">
Although I don't mind the thickness of my N80, I can't say I would mind if it went on a diet. It will be nice to have a slim device again... :)</img>
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Funny you should say that. I actually never exited Best Profiles because I thought it was strange that it didn't have Autostart (although it has been signed.) I only noticed that it closed down quite frequently when using other programs, like the web browser.
Didn't know it had a background process running; you learn something new everyday :)
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It's wierd that you mention the e61 memory issues... you are the second person in two weeks to say that, yet for the 5 months I carried it, it never once closed an app on me. Whereas my n73 can't handle even the FM radio app and IM Plus at the same time, I used to have multiple apps on the e61 all the time, including Opera which is a hog, and never had a problem.
-olly
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My colleague has just got his hand on one and I can say it isn't that big. It's slimmer than the N95!
Waiting for your update on this!
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Let me know if you get more weird stuff and I'll ping the Disqus boys...
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