The Mobile World Conference is coming up in 6 more days and I am not
feeling any worthwhile amount of anticipation. Why? As a consumer I feel
misunderstood. There is no real phone that does it right for me, while could have been in the market for a year. We
have touch phones, we have mini-qwerty phones, we have cam phones. But
that thing in my pocket that still fits my needs best is already over
two years old. In other words, I am saying all the new stuff is wannabe
crap. Awake now?
There is quality and there is functionality. But where are the smart combinations? Quality calling, SMS, e-mail, webbrowsing, photos and
satellite navigation. These are today's essential phone functions.
- Calling, I want calling with a decent sound quality.
- I want SMS and e-mail with a decent (qwerty) keyboard. So my
screen space is used for composing and reviewing my message. No more
frustration on a numeric keypad entering mixed language and struggeling with odd lexicographical tokens. No annoyance by tiny touch buttons or having your screen
space completely absorbed for touch-qwerty data input.
- webbrowsing. Yeah I want to access the essentials either on a mobile
site or the original. We are talking news-websites, RSS-feeds and stuff
like youtube and other interesting internet video-feeds.
- I want quality photo's at low light and a decent flash. Image quality
please! Not useless high numbers of insensitive MegaPixels.
- Satellite navigation. This means A-GPS support for speed and accuracy and some decent navigation software. Traffic information and more!
There are currently no decent phones on the market that take good
pictures, have gps and a qwerty input. Touch or without touch. Even
Nokia has been missing the point for more than a year. There is the
N-series with 5 MPixels cameras and all the goodies one wishes except a
qwerty keyboard. And there is the E-series with the E71 and the
upcoming E75 that have decent qwerty but no 5 Mpixel camera. Nokia
could have built an S60 3rd edition j71 (between E and N) over a year
ago to fill that painfully empty spot in the market. And none of its
competitors seemed to be bright enough to do it either. Not that I
would go windows mobile.
The N97 seems the only upcoming phone with a sensible mix of quality and
functions, though its size and weight tell me it is a bit of a brick and
it's touch interface is yet still unproven. At the moment I would still
prefer a phone with a decent compact form factor and a qwerty on my next
phone running a reliable S60 3rd edition FP2. Though I would not mind some
nifty N97-ish widgets available for on the stand-by screen. But I expect that none of this will pop-up on the MWC '09. No it will be all 8 MPixels and more, sub-standard touch-interfaces and lack of qwerty.
And the current phone in my pocket? A N82, in other words, a revamped version of the two year old N95-model in stylish black. Still the best for now and likely for months to come.