The G1?

With the G1 I have a smooth, clean, and fast experience that was designed from the start to be a touch screen interface to be used with your fingers (i.e. without a stylus). Combine that with the 5-row keyboard and I’ve got a device where I can type out very fast text messages and happily browse the internet.

Biggest negatives? The battery life is poor and the camera isn’t too hot.

The N97?

Within days of owning the N97 I had constructed a hefty list of niggles – fairly major problems that I was having with the device. There were 28 of them!

My main outstanding issues are simply summed up like this: the S60 operating system is terrible for a touch phone. A bit harsh? Maybe. The underlying issue is that Nokia have taken their usual OS and added a few touch features to it, ending up with an inconsistant mess that’s frustrating to use. Really, so bad that I packed the phone back in it’s box two days ago and wondered if I should sell it.

All is not lost though – the N97 really does kick G1 butt when comparing both the camera and battery.

Is that enough?

Today’s decision

The N97 simply does have better hardware. It may be frustrating for me to use but that doesn’t mean it won’t eventually do what I want. The G1 on the other hand will never take as good photos or remain charged for as long – it physically can’t.

That’s settled then, for now, the N97 has it’s new home in my right pocket and the G1 will stay in my rucksack, available as a backup and for any moments where I need the extra Google connectivity with it’s better GMail and GTalk clients.

Here’s a start of things that bug me so far. Please feel free to tweet/comment and set me straight on any of these issues:

1. I miss the HTC “back” button.
2. I don’t like the keyboard. There aren’t enough symbols easily accessible.
3. The on-screen input has no qwerty options like the 5800 has.
4. The browser refuses to remember my cookies. Something must have fixed this but now appears to work.
5. There’s no threaded SMS. There’s a third party app that can do threaded SMS (with some extra effort to sign it etc)
6. I miss Gmail. There’s an app for Gmail.
7. I can’t figure out if I should be single tapping or double tapping things – ending up with lots of times where I have to hit back.
8. Scrolling is inconsistent. The whole phone should use kinetic scrolling. Updated firmware has made this worse. Tiny unscrollable lists are now scrollable. And paging down by press below the scrollbar now skips many lines. It’s even more of a nightmare now.
9. The music player has less buttons than Android – specifically the ones I want to use without clicking through nested menus.
10. There’s no native YouTube app. Native YouTube app “coming soon”.
11. Nimbuzz, the IM client I was recommended does not automatically reconnect (it should by default).
12. The GUI elements around the active window are excessive. More so in widescreen mode. Notably: the browser and google maps.
13. The calendar should default to a month view, or make it easier to access. Clicking the date on the home screen opens month view. Clicking the calendar widget opens day view.
14. I miss the “Menu” key from the G1. Much more elegant than using up screen space.
15. I don’t like in-your-face dialogs all over the place telling me vital information such as “unplug your charger to save electricity”. Especially when the handset knows I just unplugged from Nokia suite, not a charger.
16. I don’t want to be harassed by countless network prompts. I just want the internet to work and switch behind the scenes when wifi is around.
17. I expect more default desktops, although I did like being able to switch to a black UI.
18. A recommended screenshot app took a vertical screenshot of a horizontal screen – missing out what I needed. Apparently I must start Best Screen Snap in the orientation I want to take screenshots in.
19. The phone crashed when I tried to enable a mysterious “offline mode”.
20. The video player could not play an MP4 I had downloaded from YouTube (via PC), which plays fine on G1.
21. Contacts with multiple numbers should allow one-click dialling, not yet another menu. Contacts can be given Defaults to speed up the process of calling and texting them.
22. I shouldn’t be constantly given the option to send a text message to someone’s house phone. See above
23. I don’t want to see a “Show open apps” menu item throughout the whole OS.
24. I really miss the (currently) much more standard mini USB port. Seems I need to stock up on micro USB leads/adapters.  At MWC 2009 in February a lot of operators all agreed micro USB was the way forward.
25. Error dialogs appear out of context. I just had an error on the home screen telling me to go to a non-existent Profiles menu.
26. When I get a text message, the screen turns on but gives me no indication that the screen is locked.
27. If I click a web link in a text message nothing happens. I have to use a menu to get to it.
28. The buttons in the browser decided to vanish during one browsing session (just the bookmark / go to URL buttons row). Had to restart the browser to get them back.

All is not doom and gloom! I do really appreciate:

• The hardware build quality feels better than the G1.
• The camera is much better.
• The FM transmitter is my new best friend.

… but that’s all. Really nothing else about the N97 impresses me so far.

1. Nokia 5120 – My first handset. It worked. It made calls. It sent texts. It was enough.
2. Nokia 3310 – It was smaller, cooler, played games, and was my first contract phone.
3. HTC BlueAngel (MDA III) – Windows Mobile, music, camera, big colour touch screen, WiFi, bluetooth and infrared. Amazing.
4. HTC Elf (HTC Touch) – While the BlueAngel rocks, it’s a brick. This phone is half the speed but also much smaller. I accepted that compromise but always hated the slowness.
5. HTC Touch Diamond – Still HTC, still Windows Mobile, but this time the screen was beautifully clear, I had 3G, GPS, a reasonable camera, and a much faster processor.
6. HTC Dream (T-Mobile G1) – Oh no, another brick! I debated with myself quite heavily about whether this was worth getting. The Android OS finally convinced me I wanted to switch. I’m a huge Google fan so this phone suits me really well.

In all I have 4 Windows Mobile devices. When upgrading between them I thought in terms of a PC: Processor speed, RAM, screen, etc. Sure they’re phones (except one), but they act very much like small PCs. The CPU and RAM were really important. I mention this because my ideal handset right now would be an Android phone that has a faster hardware and more memory. I don’t mind the size but I would prefer a better battery.

Now I’ve won a Nokia N97 and I don’t know how much I’ll like it.

Here’s the theory:

• it’s slower (434 MHz vs 528 MHz)
• it’s got less RAM (128 MB vs 192 MB)
• … but has a completely different OS
• a better camera (5MP carl zeiss lens vs 3MP)
• and a fairly kick-ass battery (1500 mAh compared to 1100 mAh)

The S60 operating system is going to be the deal breaker.