As handsets have come and gone, mobile OS' are born and progress, some live and evolve whilst others die I have found myself unable to quite grasp a handset which will captivate me like my trusty Nokia N95 has ever since I purchased it. The mobile market is now a much more competitive place than it has ever been, there are choices upon choices to be made. Whilst there are those that always need to be on the forefront of tech, and those that are content with basic features of a mobile phone, we all have our own unique individual needs and expectations from a handset.
On Monday, I made a choice (or was actually forced into making a choice) to take a step forward into deciding which handset I wanted and more importantly I NEEDED as a primary device. The N95 has served it's time, it's the longest I've ever held onto a handset. I find there are a few key factors which made this possible;
Growing Up
I no longer feel the need to be in the front of THAT queue, I don't necessarily need the top end handset with all the latest and best features, something I've realised whilst maturing as a person. I realise now, having the best, most mega-pixels, the slickest looking and latest device isn't always what it's promised to be.
I no longer feel the need to be the early adopter, in fact I no longer tolerate having a buggy handset which will be fixed with a firmware update, I no longer tolerate companies trying to justify putting out handsets with buggy firmware and charge a slice of the moon. Hence why I've never purchased a device on release since the N95.
N95 Is Still A Workhorse
No matter how many people commented in the last 6 months why I still carry it around, it still does everything I needed it to do. Browser - yes, camera - yes, e-mail - yes, what else is there? Even now, the camera is not such an issue for me. I can't see how many handset's which can boast a feature the N95 still can't do to this day? Is it worth spending all that money just so I can get a handset which has more apps or games? Whilst the N95 still supports a fair share of apps and games, focus is clearly moving away from it, but the main reason I'm moving along is because of the battery life. My N95 is knackered, and after more than 3 years of service, it deserves a holiday.
One Handset To Rule Them All
This handset doesn't exist, well not on a large scale. What is a perfect handset for one person's needs or desires, can be totally different to someone else's. This is what makes the mobile space so interesting. Conflicting views, different needs, and affordability.
So what's next for me? Well I have a few criteria which I need filled before deciding on my next handset;
- Great Browser - this needs to be native and built in, I'm not a fan of installing a 3rd party browser, I need it to be integrated into the OS, deep integration with full web functionality.
- E-Mail - this is important to me, this also needs to be supported natively and quite extensively. I have 3 accounts which I'm always connected to, keeping up with e-mails is a major factor.
- Battery Life - This is the major decision why I'm moving on, the N95's battery life isn't adequate enough. My usage since purchasing has increased, dramatically. I need a handset which can cope with a full days usage, constantly. Not like the lame examples of "typical" usage demonstrated by manufacturers, the real life isn't a few hours of this, and a few hours of that. The real life is always on, always connected and always in usage. That's my real life.
Looks like a perfect example of a Blackberry? Perhaps, but I haven't had too much exposure with Blackberry handsets so I can't make a decision on that. My other choices are the Nexus One or the latest iteration of the iPhone. As I will be buying SIM free a fairly affordable handset is also required, something the iPhone will not be if we look at previous and current price points.
For now I have a Nokia 5800 XpressMusic handset to play with until I decide, why? It runs the latest Symbian version, which gives me a few more choices to play around with Apps from the Ovistore, something the N95 was hindered with - a clear indication Symbian S60 3rd Edition will be dead within 1 year or so. Whilst I play with it and wait to make a decision I'll try and post up a few of my impressions of the handset and the services it has to offer.
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