Your take on Symbian?

E

Hi,
I have been a Symbian device user since 2005 and have never looked back since then.
Currently the state of Symbian is not well perceived. There is lot of negative press related to Symbian. I would agree that there are inherent flaws in the user experience, but still there are positives as well. IMHO the Nokia N97 was truly a awesomely dreadful device which was released in the market. Since then the device and the total user experience has improved leaps and bounds.
Agree or disagree?

One word: Veteran!

That name has become so stale that even if Apple releases iOS renamed as Symbian OS, people will stay away from it. From what I have seen, those who say bad about Symbian without using OS like iOS or WP7 or android are just following word of mouth and they have no idea that Symbian could very well be more than enough for them.

Had Nokia continued Maemo (about a year or two ago), renamed it to S^4 or what ever and published a note that Symbian is designed from groundup and pushed for the total ecosystem, Stephen Elop would've never made into Nokia now.

I was once a nokia fan boy but now once i ate apple.. its all about apple. Seriously what turn me down was n95 8GB. Not the feature but the build quality. 30k phone, in 6 months trackpad color gone and in 1yr sold for 6k. Before that n80IE took for 21k, 5months slider gone, sold in 1.2 yrs for 5K. I am actually afraid from nokia. Last one i liked from nokia was n900. But not symbian.

G

I'm a still a Symbian lover.. it does all the basics very well. The social aspect is decent using third party apps. Monster battery life and great optics. Over all good package.

R

I am totally a Nokia fan and so of Symbian OS. I am now waiting for Nokia's windows phone. Let us wait and see.

G

rajeevk said:
I am totally a Nokia fan and so of Symbian OS. I am now waiting for Nokia's windows phone. Let us wait and see.

Hell Yea !

R

GERMZ said:
Hell Yea !

Sorry but I am 100% satisfied with Nokia phones. So Give Me A Hell Yeah!

Although iOS and Android are now the current heavyweights of the Mobile OS market [ not surprising , so many Apps being made by independant programmers ] , Symbian still has more than decent applications , i bet i can use a Nokia phone more productively than a Samsung Android phone or a Apple iPhone.

I owned 3 symbian phone...and currentlly using 5800 but seriously I am using it just for its usability and not anything else...5800 is fat and not so good looking...touch response is slow and waht not...but its very useful device

I always liked SE cool looking phones and UI but sadly SE never made a good smartphone..I am still hoping to get SE NEO or Arc soon

Last sunday in zee business or some channel 'Mobiles and More' show told that Maemo is the most difficult OS to use and normal public would be in utter confusion soo keep away from it :smile:

My take:

1. Symbian^3 is supremely optimized
2. No frills OS
3. Simplistic UI (problem lies with multi-layering)
4. Sufficient necessary quality apps
5. Amazing HD games
6. All apps and games supported across every Symbian^3 phone
7. Continual updates, received by every Symbian^3 phone

Point 2,3,6,7 apply for Symbian S60 and S40 too.

well, I'm still using a Nokia 5800. I want to get a new Android phone bigtime, but honestly, at the moment I'm satisfied.

Nokia 5800 does the job for me just like my Nokia 1108 does with good battery life.

G

sujoyp said:
I owned 3 symbian phone...and currentlly using 5800 but seriously I am using it just for its usability and not anything else...5800 is fat and not so good looking...touch response is slow and waht not...but its very useful device

I always liked SE cool looking phones and UI but sadly SE never made a good smartphone..I am still hoping to get SE NEO or Arc soon

Last sunday in zee business or some channel 'Mobiles and More' show told that Maemo is the most difficult OS to use and normal public would be in utter confusion soo keep away from it

Don't believe everything you hear.. Maemo was absolutely THE best OS. Amazing operating system.. just wish it had some more consumer level interest.

Maemo wasn't marketed proplerly! Well, it definitely had the power to rule... Nokia even abandoned MeeGo!

Linux will continue to be the dominant player in mobile market! Android has got market share because it has practically got no competitor! There is no Linux based OS like Android currently in market!

Symbian is a dying OS. But the old makes way for the new, right? Unless they completely revamp their approach to designing UIs, implant them on good smartphones, and create a USP that is lucrative from the customer's point of view, we won't be seeing it around much longer.

G

There is a brand new UI coming ! Its called Belle and there are screenshots n all floating around everywhere.

They do have a USP.. excellent hardware , great camera !

I think symbian is still a good OS and others are quickly catching up though. Let me first tell you I have experienced Java(Samsung), Symbian S30, Moto razr(no idea what it ran), S60v3 Nokia N85(by far the best I have used), Blackberry OS6 on 9000series (month), Symbian S60 touch ver N C7(month), iOS 4.0 on ipod and Android 2.3.3 on my Xperia arc [current]

I would put Symbian, Android and iOS equally or in that order. Followed by the other OSes.

But the UI was lacking in appeal. Although that never bothered me. Since it let me do everything.
I remebering tethering it to my ipod to DL free apps from app store and surf net.
Then opening a torrent and putting an overnight DL of my fav anime.
A Carl Zeiss 5MP gave me decent photos. A good music player. It had everything.

My latest android 2.3 for some reason doesnt feel like a huge jump from my prev one especially considering its more than 2years old.

Lets not even talk about the iphone. I cant even transfer a photo to my friends phone.

I think those people should have brought out maemo for they already had in Symbian what is being offerered now in the other OSes. All they needed was to improve the UI which they didnt. Bad move!

H

I have the Nokia N8 and the Nokia E7. Avid Nokia user here. This doesn't necessarily mean that I am fanboy.

Why I love Nokia phones.

1. Sturdy
2. Battery Life
3. Praiseworthy camera
4. Good music options
5. UI - I see people using this term very flaccidly. I think they are referring to UX - User experience - I love it.
Yes there maybe some hiccups but those are easily resolvable issues.

Every device has some

Now from a neutral point of view - why is the American media/blogger/tech reviewers so hell bent on demeaning Nokia. Any one over here who follows Engadget would know what I mean. Are they simply a subtle marketing cog?
You can't even do basic things such as send files over Bluetooth. C'mon man for Christ’s sake it 2011!

I do like the Android though but again the battery issue.

Honestly I am keeping my fingers crossed for the Nokia WP7 device also AF only

Any mobile techie would have been intrigued by the WP7 Mango. At least by the video

Keeping my fingers crossed.

A

Agree with Harm here. UX over UI. The UI in itself does everything which the closes competitor ie Android does.

Widgets - Yes
Multiple Homscreens - Yes
Multiple levels of menus AND folders support - YES !

What it lacks however is the fluidity which i can see that they're finally working on.. i can only hope that with the coming updates this minor niggle gets fixed.

Other than that the top notch cameras , battery life , free offline navigation make it the best buy for me !

Really looking forward to see what they do with WP7 now !

Wish they had stuck on to meago a little longer.

Lets not even talk about the poor Americans. They cant even switch sim cards.

symbian OS never felt smooth and attractive anyways...they claim it needs less hardware requirement but actually I have to put all the animation swicched off or else phone works just too slow..

If anybody have used SE phones in 2006-07 they can easily say that their UI was far smooth and animated then symbian..

I advice to nokia...put 1.2GHZ procc + Adreno graphics and make the UI hell fluid and animated...I would love it :razz:

Symbian is all time favourate OS of mine....
used it years ago with no complaints while using it...
have used my apps,games etc
ngage was my favourate + coreplayer was awesome too

A faster proc means lower battery life.

My 333mhz N85 S60 showed the same amount of sluggishness as my new 1Ghz Xperia arc does. And did the same things too.

We have enough speed in our pockets. We want that speed for longer now. Better battery life. Sigh!

Sarath said:
Wish they had stuck on to meago a little longer.

Lets not even talk about the poor Americans. They cant even switch sim cards.

hahahahahahahahaha!

too rightly said!

desiibond said:
One word: Veteran!

That name has become so stale that even if Apple releases iOS renamed as Symbian OS, people will stay away from it. From what I have seen, those who say bad about Symbian without using OS like iOS or WP7 or android are just following word of mouth and they have no idea that Symbian could very well be more than enough for them.

Had Nokia continued Maemo (about a year or two ago), renamed it to S^4 or what ever and published a note that Symbian is designed from groundup and pushed for the total ecosystem, Stephen Elop would've never made into Nokia now.

looking forward to what Intel does with Meego/Maemo and it's partners, SE, LG

No doubt this page is more of users who used only symbian, wanted to see some more open response. I really liked what nokia did with n900. Because of windows 7 they dumped it. SAD!

@harm064 Nice video shared! LIKED IT

U

symbian is a good OS IMO... but it's greatest downfall is the lack of improvements in OS... 3 year old 5800 and the recent symbian phones all look the same... it's necessary to be a step ahead in the cut throat mobile OS competition.. good is not enough.. you have to be the best..

But I totally agree with harm.. american media have launched an all out attack on nokia and symbian which looks suspective to me..

the.kaushik said:
No doubt this page is more of users who used only symbian, wanted to see some more open response. I really liked what nokia did with n900. Because of windows 7 they dumped it. SAD!

@harm064 Nice video shared! LIKED IT

They dumped it because of lack of direction. Had they continued with Maemo, Microsoft would've never got hold on Nokia.

Ya right! you know what i still dont feel they will succeed with Win7. They need to start working on there brand now like Apple and HTC. Enough with cheap phones.

A

the.kaushik said:
Ya right! you know what i still dont feel they will succeed with Win7. They need to start working on there brand now like Apple and HTC. Enough with cheap phones.

i agree ! i really doubt the success with win 7

with Win Phone7 they mayn't have good sale figure but now they no longer need to spend million on developing apps & updating their own OS. so in a way they will make more profit now. full focus on H/W only.

also if they offer vanilla WinPhone7 then it'll be even better. as others (HTC, Samsung, Moto) customizes Android before sending out = wasting more cash.

Sam said:
Also if they offer vanilla WinPhone7 then it'll be even better. as others (HTC, Samsung, Moto) customizes Android before sending out = wasting more cash.

That's not called wasting cash... They make the UI more appealing to the end user... which may even lead to increased sales!

HTC Sense is preferred by a large number of people over Vanilla Android..

Sam said:
with Win Phone7 they mayn't have good sale figure but now they no longer need to spend million on developing apps & updating their own OS. so in a way they will make more profit now. full focus on H/W only.

also if they offer vanilla WinPhone7 then it'll be even better. as others (HTC, Samsung, Moto) customizes Android before sending out = wasting more cash.

kunal.d said:
That's not called wasting cash... They make the UI more appealing to the end user... which may even lead to increased sales!

HTC Sense is preferred by a large number of people over Vanilla Android..

Right now, skins like Touchwiz, Sense, Motoblur might seem like a waste of resources and time. We miss out on updates and the skins suck and make phones laggy and drain battery...

But the phone companies are improving their skins rapidly... and they have all begun diverging and becoming better, more unique... Compare the old Touchwiz interface with the new Touchwiz 4... the difference is staggering... Phone companies are learning fast...

IMO, in a couple of years, these skins will become real brands, truely differentiating these phones from each other.

Cheers!

N

I've used 3 S60 phones (1 each of S60, S60 v3, S60 v5) In chronological order the Nokia 3230, Nokia 5230 and the C5 all 3 of which are still with me and my parents. I use the 3230 and the 5230. Battery life and the decent multitasking is what ticks the boxes for me. I've used the 5230 and 3230 to download torrents etc and my 3230 is now 4 years old but it still gives me 3-4 days of total battery life with about 1 hour of calling daily. or 5 days if used sparingly. The 5230 is a very trusted companion during my trips b/w Chennai and Cochin. My usage of the 5230 involves 30 min of browsing daily and 30 mins of calls and lasts about 3 days before I've to charge it. For my usage I'd prefer a Nokia smartphone considering the cost (7.2k for the 3230 in May '07 and 8.3k for the 5230 with Data Cable and 4GB mem card in Feb '10). The C5 cost 7.5k in Dec '10 but is a fast responding phone compared to most other phones, with its 600MHz processor also, where else do you get free voice guided navigation for a low(ish) price. For me Nokia still rules.

S

Nokia's always been with symbian since the smartphone era started, i rememeber the first touch phone by nokia 7710, what a beauty, it had a good UI, maybe not to today's standard, if only they had continued the touchcreen UI project which was abandoned by Nokia in early years we've had a different UI, I've used many different symbians, tried all in the s60 and s40 series, simplistic and productive OS, did the job..Symbian has everything,(symbian 3) it has the ability to run HD games, play multi format songs, and now the Os has been even touch optimized, I've never seen better multitasking then symbian's, even though in android, it just suspends, u need advanced task killer or something to kill it, symbian was made as in such a way that the resources are less, and the phone has to use available hardware 50% less..no wonder, it's the most efficient OS in the market, I cannot imagine if we users are gifted with 1.2 ghz procc, Adreno or tegra gpu, the phone would be ultimate, i've used wildfire, and c7 at the same time, android is a power sucker and a battery sucker too, those mid end andro's are not even capable of handling the Os, whereas in symbian 3 or anna, run 3-4 hd games simultaneously, you still won't see any lag or slowness,maybe the UI's outdated, but i guess belle will fix and give the proper attention it's been needing.Qt also has lot of flexibility and power, apps can also be ported, symbian would have been the king of smartphone os's if they had more apps, better UI, and source codes development to community and developers....Let's hope symbian survives, and hails again