Have Nokia finally caught up with Windows Smartphones?

[Guest akarno]

You may notice from my profile that I have been a member of the Forum since December 2002. I have also been to a number of the MoDaCo events, which are always worth while. This is because I was one of the first people to start using the original SPV. When this phone came out, it was miles ahead of anything else on the market. I remember a Nokia advert showing someone watching a movie on a phone and the voice over saying not yet but that this technology was coming soon. This was a about a month after I had upload my first complete movie onto my SPV. Since then I have not really taken great interest in other types of phone, they are always playing catch-up with the Windows equivilants. OK, they have had better cameras, but generally are only offering features I had over 4 years ago.

I kept the SPV until the C500 came out. I then got one of those and it is still my current phone, basically because I have not see any phone form device that gives me much more.

My C500 is coming toward the end of it's life now and joystick bar is only just working (I think that is down to playing too much Doom on it). Looking around, the O2 XDA Graphite seems to offer significant benifit over my C500 (3G, faster processor, new OS) and had it been available last month, I would probably already have one. Then, by chance I saw some information on the Noika N95 which is out in March. For those of you, like me, have not taken much interest in non Windows phones, the highlights of this phone are:

3G (Actually 3.5G for data)

5 Mega Pixal camera with Carl Zeiss lens and flash

30 fps video, direct TV out and built in Video editing

FM Radio

WiFi

Built in GPS with maps (of some sort) and route finding software (of some sort)

Email with POP3 etc

Readers for Word, Excel, Powerpoint and PDF

Web Browser

Media Player

Real Player

microSD slot

You can see more here: http://www.nokia.com/nseries/index.html?la...=GB#product,n95

or here: http://blip.tv/posts/?topic_name=n95

All this has taken the wind out of my Windows Smartphone sails and I may well have to go back to Nokia next month. I am sure the product is not perfect, but it seems Nokia have finally got their act together. Maybe after over 4 years I am coming to the end of my time at MoDaCo.

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

I've played with the N95 and it is nice (although the version I used was pre prod and didn't work properly).

I anticipate the N95 being launched late and being buggy at first. :)

Here's hoping a Windows Mobile equivalent comes out soon... fingers crossed for 3GSM announcements :D

P

[Guest akarno]

I've played with the N95 and it is nice (although the version I used was pre prod and didn't work properly).

I anticipate the N95 being launched late and being buggy at first. :)

Here's hoping a Windows Mobile equivalent comes out soon... fingers crossed for 3GSM announcements :D

P

Of course the original SPV was late and buggy, that is always the downside of being an early adoptor.

I have not seem the N95 in the flesh so no final decision yet. From what you did see, how would you compare it to a Windows equivilent?

[Guest mikeeey]

Of course the original SPV was late and buggy, that is always the downside of being an early adoptor.

I have not seem the N95 in the flesh so no final decision yet. From what you did see, how would you compare it to a Windows equivilent?

damn. if they just put windows on their phones then i would buy it and it would be great.

or if htc made their phones have 5+ mega pixel cameras /w flash, gps, and fm radio + tv then i would love htc even more

[Guest jimbouk]

As Paul said, I had a play with an N95 and it was a well put together piece of hardware with impressive features - but (and it was obviously pre-production) it hung and crashed and was very slow. Now I am sure they will fix a lot of the problems by the time its on general release - but I also tried the N70 and 73 yesterday and again they slowed up the more you used them.

It is a pity there isnt a WM5 smartphone with worthwhile 3g etc available on the UK networks....