Symbian in Motion

S60 Active Standby vs WM6 Today Screen

by Zach at 4:23 pm | September 14th, 2007 | Category: Tangents

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’ve recently picked up a few new toys - one of them being the upcoming N95 with US HSDPA. Well I also picked up another nifty little device that I’ve really been enjoying: the HTC Touch.

No I’m not jumping ship and running off and launch WiMo! Despite the fact that I do really like this device, the real reason I got it is to do some comparisons between the two OSes. While Windows Mobile doesn’t have nearly the global market share that Symbian owns, it is pretty big here in the US. Each OS has it’s pluses and minuses and I’ll be posting every so often comparing certain features of each.

To start things off let’s take a look at the first thing you see when you pick up any device - the home screen. We’re all familiar with Active Standby on S60 and we can probably all agree that it’s extremely limited. Beyond the basics, Nseries devices offer a few shortcuts along with calendar entries, tasks and the WLAN wizard on WiFi-enabled devices. With the Eseries you get a few more options such as the Active Standby mailbox which displays the two most recent emails in one mailbox and a few other configurable choices.

In terms of third-party apps integrating with Active Standby, I’m no programmer but the possibilities seem quite limited. Certain apps can place icons on Active Standby (such as TalkPlus as seen above) and pop up little graphical or textual indicators but I’ve yet to see an app add any type of real functionality to the S60 home screen.

Windows Mobile is a whole different story however. Focusing on WM6, each device comes equipped with its own unique Today screen and it is highly configurable in most cases. Beyond that there are a plethora of apps that integrate with the Today screen to provide a whole variety of additional functionality. Let’s take a quick look at the Today screen on my HTC Touch.

The home screen is quite slick and clean with the time displayed in nice big digits near the top. Beneath the clock are unread email, unread SMS and missed call tallys that access the appropriate app when tapped. Finally you have three buttons that access the three different views on the Touch’s Today screen. The second button displays the current day’s local weather (tap on the weather to display the forecast for the following four days) and the third is a configurable launcher.

Third-party developers have the ability to ‘go crazy’ with the Today screen. There are countless apps that add a wide variety of functionality. To illustrate a few examples, below you can see three apps that I have installed with Today plugins. Furthest to the top you will see BatteryStatus. This app displays a variety of information such as remaining battery life, signal strength, free RAM, device temperature, the rate at which the battery is currently being drained or filled, and the processor speed. It also gives you the ability to quickly and easily overclock or underclock the processor (below you can see that I’ve overclocked the 201 MHz processor to 312 MHz).

Below BatteryStatus is the Today plugin of an app called PhoneWeaver. This app allows you to create profiles and switch them based on a time schedule if you choose. The Today plugin lets you easily toggle between any profile (above you can see that I have my “Day” profile selected). It also adds a few useful buttons - any of which can be tapped to quickly enable or disable the associated communications type - bluetooth, WiFi, phone (forces the phone online or offline) and push email.

The third plugin displayed above is PocketAlarm. Here you can see configured alarms, quickly enable or disable them, or tap a shortcut to create a new alarm or note.

As you can see, the home screen on the Touch is all about functionality and you can easily pick and choose exactly what you want to display. Within the Today settings you’ll find the full list of available Today plugins - both stock and third-party additions. You can also arrange them in any order that suits you which is a very nice feature.

The last thing I’ll mention is that there are a variety of integrations between the Today screen and various settings. For example, each of the icons at the top of the screen is interactive. Tap the data or signal icons and you will get a pop-up that displays your current data connection and gives you the option to disable it or enter the comms manager. Tap the battery for quick access to power management. Tap the volume indicator and you can easily adjust the speaker and device volumes or switch the Touch to vibrate-only or silent mode.

Beyond settings, the Touch’s Today screen integrates well with incoming communications as well. Below you can see an example: When a new incoming SMS arrives, a ‘new SMS’ icon appears at the top of the screen and the left softkey changes to “Notification”. Tap either one and after a nifty little transition animation the new SMS will display right on the home screen along with the option to reply.

Thanks to the release of the iPhone I think that Symbian might finally see how important a UI can be to the user. Taking that notion a step further, the home screen is the first piece of the UI that a user encounters and it certainly spends a good amount of time in the foreground. Providing a solid customizable framework and allowing third-parties to integrate with the home screen makes for a far superior user experience. Symbian clearly has their work cut out for them as they develop the next generation of their OS and personally I think that they’re going to impress us all.

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Viewing 25 Comments

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    Nice comparison you've made there. Now I'm even more disappointed that I bought the Nokia E50 a year ago :) The new active standby screen is a nice improvement - since previously there was only a wallpaper - but still Nokia has a lot work to do.

    Well seriously, I was nearly ready to pay 50% more (Nokia E50 ~300€ vs. basic WM6-phone ~450€) just to get a better today-screen. Seemed too much back then, but today I'd make a different choice (although the E50 is still a nice solid phone).
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    Thanks a lot for the comment Tuomas - but keep in mind that this is just the first comparison between these two VERY different OSes. It's true that the Touch's home screen puts Active Standby to shame, but as everyone knows I'm an apps guy. When it comes to apps, S60 is where it's at - PERIOD. :)

    I'll have more "vs" posts coming in the near future including (I hope) a few video comparisons of different functions and how they are achieved on each device.
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    Can you do a comparison on the original N95 and the new US version N95? I was really pissed after I bought the original to find out that it doesn't support the US HSDPA. grrrr
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    Hey Jackie, thanks for the comment.
    There are really only a few main differences between the older N95 and the upcoming US HSDPA version, but they're pretty big ones:
    <ul>
    <li>US HSDPA (of course)</li>
    <li>Internal memory (160MB)</li>
    <li>Big RAM upgrade (about 85MB free on reboot - post apps)</li>
    <li>Slightly bigger screen (I believe)</li>
    <li>No lens cover</li>
    <li>Higher capacity battery compatibility</li>
    <li>A-GPS</li>
    </ul>
    The only item above that I can't really comment on is the bigger battery as my proto was delivered with the old battery. There are probably a few things I missed but that should cover the big ones. Let me know if you have any questions or want me to try anything out. :)
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    Nice comparison of the Standy Screen that the S60 features and WM6 Today screen. I was wondering how your experience with the HTC Touch was? I'm an E61 user who has been toying with the idea of getting a WM6 device (maybe the Kaiser or the S710) and I was wondering if you, as a bonafide S60 guru and user, have any comments on the comparisons of the two platforms.

    Love the site by the way. It's truly a great resource for S60 users.
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    Thanks for the comments Gaston.

    I've haven't had much time to play with it so far but I have to say that I'm liking it a lot compared to WM5 and any WM smartphone edition devices I've used. Comparing it to S60 is a completely different story...

    I'll be doing some more comparisons over time here, but some basic info after my initial impressions: They're both about equally as stable/buggy - each has issues that can only be resolved with a reboot/powercycle. I'd call the WM UI a bit more attractive but that's 100% due to the fact that it's so open and HTC has done a good job with tweaking it and adding some great functionality. The touch interface is nice and there are lots of advantages to it, but I do start to miss buttons when typing long messages. As such, the Kaiser might be a better choice - but I really wanted to embrace the touch UI in my testing and IMO you can't beat the form of the Touch.

    In terms of usability, I'm liking HTC's WM6 UI very much so far -BUT- it should be noted that WM apps are much less "usable" than S60 apps in general. For some reason most WM apps that I've played with so far are almost counterintuitive! They're set up badly and settings are often confusing. I suppose it's related to the programming environment but apps just seem to flow and function MUCH better on S60 devices. I've even been playing with a few apps that make S60 and WM versions to compare them. The difference is often huge and unmistakable...
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    hey Zach, nice comparison (my friend just got an HTC touch, so I got to play with it a little bit too).
    I guess you have noticed what pissed me off the most in my WM vs Symbian post. The Today screen in WM totally blew me away when I got the Qtek, I was so frustrated I didn't have 10% of it's usability on my Nokia.
    But i've got something more interesting to say now.
    Take a look at SPB's (http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com) Mobile Shell and Pocket Plus.
    If you just look at Mobile Shell you will see that it has the same functionality as HTC's home/weather/launcher, except the launcher isn't as configurable. While Pocket Plus adds an extremely configurable launcher and a couple of other goodies like a task manager that "weirdly" reminds of the task manager you have on the extreme upper right.
    Let's add that both SPB's programs have been best sellers, you can check it on Handango.
    Which brings me to my conclusion:
    1 - HTC have seen what was popular and integrated it in their Today (the 3-part home/weather/launcher)
    2 - WM have really noticed that the most annoying part of their platform is that the close button doesn't actually close the programs but hides them and the task manager on WM5 takes 5 minutes to access (horrible), so they implemented the same feature as SPB's Pocket Plus.
    Proof that they listen to their customers and try to make life easier for them :)
    FINAL WORD: I would love to see Symbian implement for free the features of the best-selling apps for their platform... maybe i'm too optimistic.
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    Oh and by the way for people considering buying a WM device, wait for Zach to review the phone utility and the stability issues... I'm pretty sure he will because these are the most flagrant differences between these 2 platforms, even more than apps (there are lots of applications for WM, don't worry).
    I guess then you'll be able to make your choice mre clearly. For me, I wouldn't put my SIM card in the Qtek 9100 for nothing in the world. I love my Nokia!
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    Lol you're definitely correct Rita - I'll be covering the phone interface for sure. (and soon) :)
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    After years of Windows Mobile devices (from PPC2002 to WM5, from PDAs to Smartphones), let me add my 2 cents...

    First of all, Symbian cant indeed compete with WM in terms of home page. WM's today screen is so much configurable with tons of 3rd party plugins, you can build the today page you want to!

    Speaking of PIM, Symbian apps are so poor compared to Pocket Informant or Agenda Fusion! Yes, Papyrus is an alternative of the standard PIM (and also on WM5 for Smartphone devices), but it's not the same... Anyway, I bought it on my N95.

    But, there is a domain where Symbian is much better than WM: connectivity. Using WM devices, if you want to connect to a Wi-Fi hotspot to surf with Pocket IE, you need to first launch the Wi-Fi manager to connect to the hotspot, then to launch PIE. And after closing PIE, dont forget to deconnect from the hotspot... Connection process is so smooth using Symbian devices!! You launch your app and the proper connectivity just pop-up to confirm connection (or even connect directly), and when you're done, the connection is silently drop off. Superb!!

    This connectivity efficency is, for me, far more important than the poor active standby... :-)

    Regards,
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    Thanks for the comment Pierre and I do agree to a certain extent. I really like the way that S60 handles connectivity in most cases - it's nice that each app can have its own configured AP. I also like that in some cases you can configure an AP group that will search for available APs in a specific order.

    Regarding WM however, there's something to be said for maintaining one connection and having all apps with a data requirement automatically use the active connection. In terms of WiFi, I've been using PhoneWeaver's Today plugin and I love that I can tap the WiFi icon and have the phone drop EDGE and connect to my WLAN with minimal or no additional steps. Then apps make use of the WiFi connection until I disable WiFi (again with just a single tap of PhoneWeaver's WiFi icon).
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    I would really like to see a S60 compared to a BlackBerry... Over the past several months there have been a plethora of advancements in the OS and Apps available because of the fact that they are becoming more consumer friendly!

    Perhaps there might not be as many apps, but stability is definitely not an issue!
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    I was wondering were the programs you have in your active standby screen? and how do you get a gmail inbox icon? thanks.
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    Thanks for the comment Pouya. :)

    The programs pictured above on Active Standby ordered from left to right are:

    Palringo, S60 Browser, Handy Weather, Reboot, Papyrus, GSync, and Jaiku Mobile
    As for getting your email do display on Active Standby, this is a function unique to Eseries devices unfortunately. What device are you currently using?
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    Another important factor that should be compared is gaming. Companies like Infinite Dreams make all these gorgeous looking games for the Symbian OS, and with the introduction of the new n-gage platform in November on many s60 v3 n-series smartphones, Nokia seems pretty strong on gaming. One of their announced n-gage games even has nintendo wii like motion sensing, using the phone's camera to detect motion.

    It'd be cool to see how this compares to wm 6.
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    That is another good point Qasim, and that is an area where I'm sure (at least some) S60 devices will shine. Unfortunately I'm probably not the right person to do this comparison as I'm not much of a gamer. I really wouldn't know what games to try and what functionality gamers are looking for. Right now I don't have any games installed on my Touch and my N95 is only sporting a few simple games such as Big 2, Word Craze, etc...

    Hopefully Ricky (symbian-guru.com) or Stefan (intomobile.com) will get their hands on the TyTN II that they've been talking about and we can get some perspective from some more savvy gamers.
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    Thanks for your response. I am using the N95
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    Yeah so unfortunately you can't display your inbox on active standby. :( The rest of the apps mentioned will all work fine for you though!
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    I'm looking at this post and I can't believe it. If you aren't familiar with Symbian please don't comment about it. "Today screen" hahaha what a joke. Symbian UIQ 2.1 has it long time ago with a 3rd party application named "Magic Screen" so I see exactly what I want when I'm looking at my p910i screen :)>
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    Andy we're talking about s60 not uiq
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    Well it's true that UIQ is indeed a variant of S60 but I thought it was pretty apparent that this post was focusing on the most recent S60 3rd OS. Apologies if it wasn't clear. ;)
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    Are you serious?WM has far better applications than symbian!Go to any developers blog,read what sdk they prefer.I cannot believe people write such absolute nonsense.
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    Oh yeah try WM6 on a device like the TyTN II.You will see it is ultra STABLE.
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    thnks
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    The WM homescreen is great,that is beyond doubt.S60 has some advantages over WM6 professional eg one handed use,the way s60 handle data connections and of coarse multmedia,but if you were to compare like for like applications then WM destroys s60.I have yet to see a s60 multimedia application that can play .wmv,.mov,asf etc!Have you noticed how crummy s60 browsers are?Hype about safari is just that.Netfront 3.3 or 3.4 for WM has a multitude of options(netfront on s60 os8 is a poor man's version)Opera 8.65 for WM with flash player 7 installed can stream youtube-s60 are miles behind.Every s60 application pales into insignificance when you see what WM has to offer.Another gripe about the overrated s60.The os is totally closed, you don't even have access to system files,again in total contrast to wm.If you have a problem with WM you can edit the registry or a developer will create a small program to rectify any problems,with the dreaded s60 you have to wait for fw upgrades.Did you know with WM you can make your OWN firmware,try and do that on a s60!!Keep convincing yourself s60 is great,your not alone,infact their's millions of idiots just like you.

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