This article is mostly counting angels on pins given that Nokia has months and not years left, but their Lumia hardware designs really are excellent.
They're beautifully tapered, the colors are distinctive, and the feel in the hand is lovely. I wasn't delighted with the sicky Pentile displays they used for the first run, but the new IPS displays should put that to bed. They're strongly reminiscent of the 2nd Generation iPod Nano, one of the most fantastic pieces of Apple design.
Despite all of Nokia's profound failures in the last few years, they found a distinctive and appealing design for their "flagship" phones that didn't mindlessly ape the market leader and they should be commended.
Honestly, I'm amazed that Nokia are the only ones doing this. I read that every Android manufacturer except Samsung is losing money, yet they all continue to pump out uninspired black plastic blobs (Samsung included, actually). HTC showed a little spark with their One phones, I hope it continues.
I got the N9 here in New Zealand a couple of months ago. It is absolutely brilliant.
By absolutely brilliant, I mean $200 cheaper than the Lumia 800 (which I also got for my wife); A mile better than the crappy samsung gio I previously had; beautiful hardware design; very hand front facing camera and auto adjusts screen brightness to ambient light; very good account management/integration.
Yep, it's pretty cool, my co-founder swears by it. It's on the market here in Sweden at least. Same shape as the other phones, but running apt instead. :-)
They already did, and it seemed to be a solid device when I tried it a bit. Of course they are not very happy to sell anyone that as it runs the infamous 'burning platform', Symbian.
how so? my experience using it over the past year leads me to say otherwise; it feels extremely well thought-out, down to the finest of details (and amazingly so when you drill-down to the subtleties of the ui).
sure, not all the features were there with wp7, but from following the development of the platform pretty closely, i’d say their choices in what to put-out (and not include) in each release were also very deliberate. and what exactly would you say is missing in wp8 vs. ios/android now anyways?
What are your favorite things? How is the HTML 5 rendering? How is the wifi? What are its biggest faults? What do you feel like you are missing?
I am very curious. I am a long time Apple fanboy and a general UI junkie. Android still feels so inconsistent that I am not interested yet, but I am very curious about Metro on mobile. iOS has been relatively stagnant interface wise and while extremely functional and completely unoffensive, I am itching to try something new.
WP 7.5 is current devices, WP 8 is the upcoming devices (to be launched late October) and obviously iOS 6 is coming out soon'ish. So, though the WP 8 browser has plenty to catchup on vs iOS 6 for some features, it's still much much better than WP 7.5.
And apparently they announced today that there's going to be a Windows Phone 8 preview SDK out on Sept 12th. So if you're running Windows, you can download and try it out yourself.
if i had to pick one asset as my favourite it would be the one that got me hooked in the first place, the design. plain and simple. being, i’d say, a fellow ui junkie, it really is unlike any other interface (mobile or otherwise) that i’ve interacted with. and it’s because of the interface that, despite missing the occasional hot app of the day or some super-cool new feature available on another device, it never even crosses my mind to switch to another platform…
i know this probably sounds like total marketing bullshit, but it really does feel alive and in a very natural/real way, while also being super-slick and digital at the same time.
when people think of wp (if they know of it, lol), they think of big colorful tiles and blown-up (cut-off) typography; and while those are the most prominent aspects of the visual design, the way it all flows together puts that all in the background and what you experience using it on a day-to-day basis is what’s left, namely the content you’re interacting with. this is especially true as nearly every app is designed to fit-in, and in terms of usability, always function in a way you come to expect. this provides for a seamless experience switching between the os and apps that feels so unified you really forget there’s a difference.
beyond that (and actually, feeding into it), and why i really take offense to the original comment, virtually everything down to the smallest detail is incredibly well considered and implemented. there are so many little things you can’t pick-up on when looking at screenshots (or a spec sheet) that make the experience all the more alive… things like the gliding effect and acceleration/deceleration when sliding between screens (and the way that ‘blown-up’ test moves as you pivot); the lock screen animation that has a nice bounce to it; the way jump-list letters slide into one another as you scroll lists; and even the clicking noise when you lock/unlock your device, all just make it feel really satisfying to use. by contrast, using another device, no matter how slick and impressive it may be, just feels cold and boring to me.
..that aside, everything else works for me just the same as with any other device. pages load-up fine, wifi works (?), it runs great, and there are a lot of other neat features baked-in [1] that i don’t feel like rattling-off right now. biggest complaint i hear is the supposed lack of apps; it’s true that some big-name titles are missing, but the vast majority are there and there are many great third-party alternatives (and incredibly awesome devs) you come to really appreciate. it’s never really bothered me much, but if you’re an app-heavy user (or addicted to instagram or something) you may want to hold-off.
that’s my (very long take) on it. i’d just add that it is really worth trying out; no number of videos or screenshots or reviews or me rambling on can carry-across the experience of just picking one up. i had no ‘dog in this race’ when i first got on to wp, but now i’d say i’m firmly in the fanboy camp, so you never know..
Thanks for the detailed response, and like a good UI junkie you are into the emotional aspects of the user experience. I think the ambient data of the tiles is so seductive. I love that the OS and Apps feel merged- I'm sure that has slowed development for third parties too, but it does sound great.
The animation sounds very tight, which is something lacking that really frustrates me on Android.
Good call on instagram too, its a great social network for visual folk- and probably one of the few apps on the phone that I really love. Seems like it would do well on WP.
My question around the wifi is just because I have heard that it doesn't work as well as the iDevices, but as a heavy user it seems like you have't seen that.
Display: 4.5 inch Nokia PureMotion HD+ WXGA IPS LCD, Super Sensitive touch, Nokia ClearBlack with high brightness mode and Sunlight Readability Enhancements
I really liked the OLED. The higher resolution will be nice, but the Lumia 900 rarely feels cramped, and the contrast is amazing. Blacks are solid black, but you can still read email in broad daylight.
They're beautifully tapered, the colors are distinctive, and the feel in the hand is lovely. I wasn't delighted with the sicky Pentile displays they used for the first run, but the new IPS displays should put that to bed. They're strongly reminiscent of the 2nd Generation iPod Nano, one of the most fantastic pieces of Apple design.
Despite all of Nokia's profound failures in the last few years, they found a distinctive and appealing design for their "flagship" phones that didn't mindlessly ape the market leader and they should be commended.