What do people have against S60?

Dankoozy

It seems in the past year or so a lot of people are ganging up against S60, suggesting that Nokia should 'drop' Symbian altogether and whatnot. now my view might be biased because the first S60 phone I used was a 3650 (you know the one with that awful round keypad and looked like a Pokemon). Since then I used S40 phones and S80 but mostly S60

the most recent phone I got is the E63 and I can't really complain about the interface. maybe they *could* have reduced the overall amount of sub-menus and put a few more dedicated keys on it but for the hardware it was given the interface is great. the 'new message' menu always takes a second or 2 to pop up but other than that it's extremely responsive

i have switched off all the animation effects, for some reason manufacturers these days insist on having these switched on all the time but I hate them. To me an animation effect is the same as the phone not being responsive. When i push the menu button the menu should already be there, it shouldn't "swoosh" or slide or expand into appearance but the screen should redraw instantly. none of this gimmicky animated business and S60 is great for this.

its a shame to see the likes of Nokia going down the same road of flashy effects and oversimplification as Apple and Google Android. if thats what sells then so be it, but at least leave in the option to switch off all that nonsense and bring back the 'advanced' menus because some people do actually use them

mobius42

The reason people have started to dislike S60 is, imo, because Nokia fail to understand that it is not about what a phone can do, but how it does it. They care more about ticking off boxes on a specifications sheet than they do about how they implement the various features of their phones.

The prime example of this is browsing the internet on your phone. S60 phones could do this for years before the iPhone came out, but it was so poorly implemented that no-one used it. With the iPhone, you could browse the internet very easily. As a result, iPhone users use the internet on their phones more than any other phone user.

It is better to have a phone that does a limited number of things very well than a phone that does everything poorly.

strecker

Agree!
I've had/used/tried iphones, wm, java, etc ...
S60 works...all the UI-flashyness of the last 2-3 years hasn't produced anything that functions...actually functions better than my 4 year old e61. Yes: better cam here, better sound there yada yada... But it's all mostly cosmetics for overall-packages with serious, and, I suspect, often deliberate shortcomings!
I admit, I love trying all the fancy new stuff, and occasionally sth really works - e.g. SPB's Mobile Shell for winmo.... But in the end I return to no fuss, no fancy theme s60 E-series.

TerrorFirmer

I'm using my old 6600 at the moment, been through about 30 symbian phones. Haven't owned a non-symbian phone since the 7650...6600 remains my favourite relative to the time, N95 would probably be my recent favourite. Can't say I have too many complaints, though the net browser bugs me.

Rsaeire

mobius42 wrote: »

It is better to have a phone that does a limited number of things very well than a phone that does everything poorly.

It's funny you should mention the iPhone, with regard to a phone that does things poorly, as this is how I've felt about it since it's been launched, e.g. it takes pictures, but not that well, it has email support, but it's that not great, you can send messages, but not MMS, etc. Thankfully a lot of this has been made redundant with the iPhone 3GS and subsequent firmware updates, but we shouldn't have had to wait years for these features, amongst others, to mature.

I do agree with your comment about Nokia wanting to "tick(ing) off boxes on a specifications sheet", as while I like their handsets generally, there's not many of them that have me anticipating their release or even looking forward to buying them. S60 handsets do what they're supposed to, but never really excel at anything; this has been my experience.

I hope that with Nokia's push into the touchscreen section of the market, they learn to pioneer features that people actually want, rather than features that simply meet expectations. Over the last few years the N95 and E71 have been handsets that people have adored, yet from one of the biggest, if not the biggest, handset manufacturers, you'd expect more than a just a couple of big hits. A better Nokia is not only good for Nokia, it is better for all of us. Not only will it spur on people to buy their handsets, it will also spur on their competitors to up their game and, in return, strive innovation that we all can benefit from.

One company that seem to be doing a great job with S60 is Samsung. Hopefully Nokia are looking at what they are doing, with regard to features and functionality, and attempting to improve their own future offerings; God knows they need to at this stage.