Mobile-Review took on the exhausting task of reviewing the new Symbian^3 Nokia system, an evolution off of their touchscreen-based S60 5th Edition. A new system at a time when Nokia announced that their high-end N-series phones won’t run Symbian anymore, but MeeGo.
Symbian^3: A Review
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
seems that when Nokia asked the stolen prototype from a “certain blogger” he got very bitter.
Anyway, a friend works for Nokia and I had the chance to try it N8. Symbian3 is totally different from S60, performance wise. This is the first Symbian phone that I consider buying since the N95. Just camera, maps, real multitasking, battery life it is worth… But I will wait to see if they launch it with Comes With Music.
But one thing is for sure, if Nokia wants S4 to be a new OS they better remake those icons. This is the first thing the average Joe looks like. For fckz sake, just ship the damn phone with few themes…
at a time when Nokia announced that their high-end N-series phones won’t run Symbian anymore
They never announced that, in fact they flat out denied it.
…until today apparently (just read it).
Edited 2010-06-24 18:16 UTC
UI-wise it is very much like s60v5 (5800 XM), which really isn’t all the surprising since symbian3 mostly has low level improvements i’ve heard while the ui improvements will come in symbian4. It might very well be that things like speed and responsiveness has improved a lot through, i certainly hope so. Combined with faster HW it could turn out well, but it’s not going to be revolutionary in any way.
Hopefully the Qt transition will help with the number of apps as well.
It has hw accelerated animations, which is pretty much what makes for wow-compliant ui these days. N97 & older phones have absolutely no eye-candy, and it shows.
Symbian^3 UI is pretty impressive if you consider the fact that it’s built on the same Avkon class library as the previous S60 phones.
I own the Nokia 5800 MusicXpress so I’m not part of any anti-Nokia club, but to me this “new” interface is the same old Nokia.
It may be “practical” but it’s utterly boring, is uninspiring and definately has no sex appeal.
I think they need to gut the whole thing and start fresh from the ground up.
That’s what Symbian^4 is about.
You could also consider MeeGo a fresh start.
Hope they haven’t horribly murdered keyboard usability on Eseries. If they do that, I’ll definitely give up on smartphones and go back to lower-end phones ^^
E series are prolly going to be the same