Quote:
Originally Posted by MH
I used to have symbian phones...some of the flagships from Nokia and i must say that android devices are way better.
Currently i own Samsung and in terms of smoothness and functionality it beats Nokia in every possible way.
|
Regarding Symbian, I really feel that it is sad, really.
There used to be a time when Symbian was the best. (pre iPhone, when everyone had the Razr or Blackberry, or Treo) The n95 blew my mind when I first saw it. I mean, compared to everything at the time, it had everything. GPS, Camera, WiFi, EVERYTHING!
But than the iPhone came out and changed everything. Suddenly touchscreens were all the rage. Nokia made some HORRIBLE decisions at the time, resulting in the DISASTER that was the n97. It has a pathetic CPU, with a reactive touchscreen, and charged you an arm and a leg. Around the time, the best Symbian device was actually the Samsung Omnia HD. But because Nokia ran Symbian, the Omnia HD was screwed from the start. Nokia even refused to license the app store to Samsung.
Than, Nokia finally got their crap together(on the hardware front), and released the Symbian ^3 generation. Nobody can deny that the N8, E7, C6-01, and C7 were impressive hardware wise, and at the core, the software was pretty good too. But Nokia ruined it again by releasing it with a ton of bugs, and the UI was crap.
Finally, Nokia kicked out their CEO, hired Elop from Microsoft. Elop saw that Symbian was doomed, for the period from 2008 - 2011, every Symbian device was crap, or at least highly flawed. The Symbian name was unsalvageable.
Thus Symbian was renamed Nokia Belle (Belle was originally the codename, like Vista or Ice cream sandwich). Symbian was pretty much also put on life support, Nokia promised support until at least 2016, with at most one new device a year.
However, Nokia Belle is actually pretty damned good!
and most of all, Symbian at its core has several core advantages against Android or iOS.
Symbian does not require much specs to run smoothly. My dad's Atrix (with a duel core NVidia Tegra II, and 1gb ram) barely runs smooth. Yet Symbian devices with 1ghz CPU and 512 RAM can run buttery smooth.
Symbian supports USB On the Go. This was one of the most amazing features I ever saw, and I truly wished that other phones can do it too. What it is, is that you can simply plug in your USB stick onto your phone (with a USB to Micro-usb adapter), and your phone can recognize it and interact with it.
Finally, Symbian's kernel model is different compared to Android or Windows or iOS. It is special, in that it supports hardware interrupts at the kernel level. So for the user, you see that Symbian phones are the only phones that support Xeon flash. Aka, the pro level flash that are used on real cameras, not simply a lightbulb.
Thus what I am saying is, if you are willing to look past the "Symbian" name (not really even named Symbian anymore), the latest Symbian flagship is a pretty good choice. The Nokia Pureview 808 is a stunning device.
review:
http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_808_pu...review-776.php
The camera is the number one cellphone camera, no debate there, its 41 megapixels! Plus it has USB OTG, FM transmitter, NFC, and everything you can want. Plus, the Belle UI is pretty damned good too!
PS, if anyone here is a phone connoisseur like me, here are some devices that you might want to try just to experience them:
The Palm Pre 2, HP veer, or the HP pre 3 is something you have to experience. WebOS is an AMAZING OS, just constrained by the horrible hardware on the original pre.
The Nokia N9 is also something to look out for, the Device itself is stunning, and the OS is Meego (not Symbian). Meego is dead, Elop killed it, but it is a pretty damned good OS, at least worth a try.