Nokia’s S60 Symbian cellphone collection has a particular place in my coronary heart. The Nokia 6600 launched me to the world of smartphones and fostered my curiosity about smartphones, {hardware}, and expertise. Under are my prime 10 favourite Nokia Symbian telephones!
Nokia 6600
My first smartphone and the system that confirmed me simply how thrilling expertise will be. I keep in mind getting it in late 2004 after I had drooled over my buddy’s Nokia 3650 for months. I couldn’t consider simply how highly effective and feature-rich the Symbian S60 operating system was; you’ve had so many built-in apps, you may set up a music participant and play MP3s on the cellphone, surf the net, switch information through Bluetooth and infrared (Man, I am previous) write notes, and do a bunch of different stuff that merely wasn’t attainable of doing on feature phones of the time.
I cherished its design, particularly the uneven placement of the facet buttons, and that jog dial was a pleasure to make use of. The massive display screen was one other standout component, as was the VGA digicam I largely used to file movies. After only a few days of utilizing the 6600 I used to be optimistic smartphones would topple function telephones in recognition in the end, which proved true, however a lot later than I anticipated it will occur.
I shelled out a substantial amount of money for a highschool scholar on a large, 128MB—yup, that’s megabytes, not gigabytes—MMC card, put in an audio participant app, put greater than 100 songs on the cellphone and turned it right into a fully-fledged MP3 player. Stuff was wild! I used to be even in a position to play freakin’ Tomb Raider, Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater, and Colin McRae Rally 2005 on my cellphone!
These days had been crammed with awe and ignited a spark that finally led me to my present profession as a contract expertise and online game author.
Nokia 3650
The Nokia 3650 was the primary Symbian cellphone I had the pleasure of holding in my fingers, and I used to be hooked after only a minute of taking part in with it. The uniquely daring, signature Nokia design, the large display screen (for the time), the graphical constancy of video games my buddy had on it, the spectacular digicam that was able to recording video, that cellphone had all of it. It’s nonetheless one among my favourite telephones of all time and whereas the Nokia 6600 was my first smartphone, the 3650 confirmed me what smartphones are able to.
Nokia 6260
The 6260 was my second and final Nokia Symbian cellphone. I bought it lower than a 12 months later, after the 6600, following a freak accident that included dropping the cellphone from a buddy’s first ground balcony onto a ceramic tile-floored patio that didn’t injury its outsides—’twas a Nokia, in spite of everything—but it surely did consequence within the mainboard breaking in half.
Now, I’ll be sincere right here, I picked the 6260 for its design. The massive clamshell had a display screen you may flip so it will be on the entrance when the cellphone was closed, which was the principle cause I bought it. The function was tremendous cool on the time. I had a clamshell cellphone with a front-facing display screen and sufficient buttons that I may learn messages, navigate round menus, and even play some video games with out even having to open it.
There was additionally the “wow issue” of the cellphone trying like a camcorder when taking pictures and movies, which meant that I consistently used the digicam and made tons of pictures and movies simply because I seemed dope whereas doing it, or so I assumed—speak in regards to the “blunder years.”
I had used the 6260 for practically three years, after which I switched to a Sony Ericsson W950, one other Symbian handset however with Sony Erricson’s UIQ flavoring. The 4GB of storage was the principle cause for getting it as a result of, again then, I’d put the earbuds on as quickly as I left the home.
Nokia N91
As quickly as I noticed that Nokia launched its multimedia-focused Nseries, I knew I needed to have the music-focused a part of the trio, the Nokia N91. Sadly, the cellphone was too costly, so I settled for the 6260, however oh boy, was the N91 rad. A 4GB mini exhausting disk—there was additionally an 8GB model—2MP digicam, a flashy sliding mechanism with media controls on the prime that uncovered the keyboard when slid down, and the chrome coloration selection had been the whole lot a smartphone fan who was additionally a music fiend wished from a cellphone. Sadly, I’ve by no means had the prospect to carry the factor and listen to the exhausting drive platters spinning whereas music was taking part in.
Nokia N-Gage
The N-Gage was one of many boldest strikes made by Nokia. A smartphone and a handheld gaming console hybrid you may play console-quality video games on, and likewise use for cellphone calls and messages.
A classmate bought one in 2006, I consider, and I cherished it. Sure, it seemed ridiculous, particularly if you took calls on it, however man did I really like its handheld console-like design. The gaming expertise was so significantly better than on my 6260, a lot in order that I attempted to speak the dude into swapping our telephones for every week or two, however he didn’t budge, so the one method of gaming on the N-Gage was throughout recess, earlier than and after college, and sometimes once we’d skip class.
Nokia E51
One in all my finest associates bought the E51 as quickly because it got here out, and he invited me over to his place the day he bought the cellphone. I used to be impressed {that a} cellphone so compact may very well be so highly effective. It even had Wi-Fi! That was the primary cellphone I had the prospect to carry in my fingers that featured Wi-Fi connectivity; I used to be floored. A lot so, in actual fact, that I managed to steer him a number of weeks later to swap our telephones for a weekend.
I cherished the factor. The compact design, spectacular construct high quality, nice digicam, a microSD card slot, full assist for MS Office 2007, the entire bundle. In 2015 or so, my then-roommate bought a Nokia E71, which was a successor to the E51. Regardless of its age, the cellphone labored fabulously and was an honest substitute for budget Androids of the time, except for the digicam high quality. I couldn’t consider a cellphone that previous labored that nicely, one other proof that Nokia made sensible {hardware}.
Nokia N95
Whereas we’re speaking about {hardware}, I can’t make this listing with out together with the Nokia N95. What a cellphone it was! An engineering triumph, the apex of the period when interacting with a cellphone was a tactile expertise, crammed with physical buttons that felt oh so good when pressed. The N95 had an abundance of these. The cellphone was dotted with buttons protruding from the shell, you additionally had a mechanical digicam lens cowl, and a twin sliding mechanism that unveiled a set of media controls if you slid the cellphone down. Perfection.
The cellphone was jam-packed with options. A front-facing digicam, media controls, a 5MP foremost digicam, a frickin’ 3.5mm audio jack, GPS, large display screen with 16 million colours, iGPU with 3D graphics capabilities and a dual-core CPU, the listing simply goes on. The N95 was the fruits of Nokia’s S60 Symbian platform, and all of it went downhill after.
Nokia N97
The N97 had spectacular {hardware}, however by the center of 2009, the software program a part of the equation was lagging behind iOS and Android. The cellphone was, just like the N95, an engineering marvel, however the Symbian S60 OS simply wasn’t on par with its two foremost rivals when it got here to the touch-friendly person expertise. Regardless of its flaws, I nonetheless wished one, however lower than a 12 months after the Nokia N97 launched I switched from my W950 and Symbian to Android and by no means seemed again.
Nokia 808 PureView
The final of its type. The Nokia 808 PureView was one other triumph of {hardware} design with its 41MP digicam that wiped the ground with each different cellphone digicam accessible available on the market on the time. The digicam was so good that it will trump cellphone cameras that will arrive years later.
The remainder of the {hardware} bundle was equally spectacular however, sadly, the closely modified Symbian OS referred to as the “Belle” OS simply couldn’t preserve tempo with the developments we had been seeing within the Android and iOS ecosystems.
By 2012 I had totally moved on from Symbian, however I used to be impressed with the 808 PureView purely from a tech connoisseur’s standpoint, which is to say I admired it from afar however would by no means really purchase it. With it, Nokia’s Symbian story, some of the spectacular tales within the smartphone world, ended and the corporate by no means recovered.
Nokia 7650
As a substitute of ending this piece on a somber notice, allow us to rejoice the Symbian S60 platform with the primary smartphone primarily based on it, the Nokia 7650. Not solely was it the primary Symbian S60 cellphone, it was additionally Nokia’s first camera-equipped handset.
I had the prospect of utilizing it in 2004 and in comparison with the 3650 and later with my 6600, the 7650 felt fairly dated. In 2002, nevertheless, the cellphone provided cutting-edge cell tech and whereas it lacked many options seen on its successors, the power to put in apps meant you may add most of the options seen on by no means Symbian S60 gadgets with third occasion apps.
This was a defining function of smartphones of the time and whereas these days a lot of the developments are served with main working system updates, again then you may add a significant new function present in newer handsets just by putting in an app. These had been the times!
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