I was introduced to plenty of cellphones until the age of mobile phones reached the digital era. I used to own a Sony Ericsson P8800, and I was amazed at its touch screen capabilities even if I have to use a stylus that I misplace every two months. The small 128MB Memory Stick was enough to carry 20 Mp3 songs, a few videos and applications. After that, I was given a Nokia 6630, since I complained it's way too difficult to send SMS using the P8800 due to its dependence on its crappy touch screen.
At that point, I experienced the sluggish speed of the Symbian OS. The interface was bland, unorganized, and slow. It takes more than two seconds to load an SMS message, and it usually hangs for a sec when you open an application or a folder that contains virtually nothing. At least it doesn't weigh like a small fitness dumbell unlike the ancient 6150.
During my first year in high school, I was given a Nokia N93, since my dad was too overhyped with his new Sony Ericsson. It was then that I experienced a true camera, and the 1GB of memory we installed was more than enough to carry all the digital tidbits I carry on the way (which made my old iPod obsolete). But the interface was still slow, and the N93 was suprisingly huge for a folding mobile phone. At that time there were the Motorola Razors that dominated the phone scene.
After my N93 lost its battery's usefulness, I was given an older Nokia N70 just as a temporary phone. It was crappier than the N93 but I was happy with it even if I only had 61MB of memory (that's the flash, not internal).
Finally my dad bought himself an iPhone which made him give his Nokia N95 8GB to me. The N95 was a really awesome phone which had enough memory to store a lot of shit that needs to be brought with me all the time. Even today, I've used only 3.5GB of the memory (that already includes half of my music library and a few save Youtube videos).
Now a new N-Series phone has invaded the market, and it is challenging the overhyped iPhone. The Nokia N97 took some ideas off the iPhone (I think every phone coming out is trying to resemble it) and then modified it with a physical QWERTY keyboard and 32GB of flash memory. And like most modern phones, it has Wi-Fi, 3.5G capabilities, a 5Megapixel camera, the new Ovi suite, and plenty of other features.
I would love to check out the N97, but there are some factors that keep me from doing so:
- The Symbian OS. And yes, even today when they modified the OS for multi-touch capabilities, I still have my doubts on the Symbian OS getting any faster. In my opinion, it has gone slower the more and more development has been put into it.
- Software available for the phone. The iPhone app store is overflowing with various applications, useful or not. Nokia announced they would be releasing a SDK for app developers soon, and they will probably use the Ovi suite to download and install applications on the N97.
- The hardware. The Nokia N97 has awesome features like a 32GB storage (with additional 16GB for SD), a 5MP camera and others, but it lacks its bare bones power like RAM and processor speed. I've heard rumors that the N97's processor doesn't seem to compare with the iPhone's, together with its RAM, which might make it a whole lot slower than the iPhone.
- Price and availability. It's absolutely expensive at the moment, much much more expensive than the iPhone. And it hasn't even arrived in the Philippines yet, so I guess I still have to wait for a bit.
