I went for Nokia’s current “flagship” phone the N97 last year. Initially, I was pretty unhappy with it, but after two major firmware updates, it’s finally usable. The two things I still hate about it, however, are the bleeding of the flash into the camera lens and the horribly back-lit keyboard. I had pretty much decided to go with an Android phone and settled on the Nexus One. But the lack of a WiFi tethering app has kept me from pulling the trigger. Sure, you can hack it to get that feature, but that is no long term solution…new firmware gets released and you’re back to square one. There is talk that it may be coming, but who knows.
Anyways, although I used to think that a physical keyboard was absolutely necessary, my iPod Touch has convinced me otherwise. As such, the upcoming Nokia N8 has me very intrigued. Frankly, I don’t really care if Symbian looks long in the tooth. Those types of software quirks I can live with. You just get used to them. The camera lens seems to be adequately separated from the flash to preclude the terrible flash bleed that hampers the N97’s (Nokia can’t be stupid enuf to repeat that mistake!). It also doesn’t have a physical keyboard, so that issue is solved as well and also allows a slimmer device. I’m very hopeful the N8 will finally be the true successor to my trusty N95!
So why stick with Nokia and, I suppose, Symbian? Joikuspot, the Symbian WiFi tethering app. Despite my strong dislike of the closed iPhone ecosystem and Apple’s heavy-handedness, there are some cool apps and to take advantage, without switching to an iPhone, I have a 2nd gen iPod Touch. Joikuspot gives it 3G access to the Internet. It’s also nice in a pinch if I need to connect my laptop. The only other phone I know of that supports this is the Palm Pre and we all know where that company is headed. I also like the Telexy suite of cool tools that let me work with network shares. These are power features we’ll likely never see on an iPhone. Maybe Android at some point in time, so I’ll continue to keep an eye on that platform.
UPDATE 4/25/10:
I just found this video of the upcoming Symbian^3. I hope it’s this good. This site is reporting (as of April 23), that Symbian^3 is being delayed, and I’ve read other “official” reports that says the N8 has been delayed until July. I’m sure Nokia does not want to repeat their mistakes made with releasing the N97 too soon. That said, Nokia is playing catch up with iPhone and Android already, so they can’t wait too long either. Guess I need to stay patient for another few months. By then we should see what the next gen iPhone looks like, but I highly doubt anything there will change my mind about that platform. Still, it may cause me to splurge on a new iPod Touch =)
UPDATE 4/27/10:
New Nokia site introducing the N8! Looks damn cool!