What Nokia needs to make me switch to lumia?

Make it under Android OS ! Or Bring back Maemo (Jolla?) !

Ok, am i dreaming? Then take a note of what will really make a Nokia device again my primary device, actually it is not, since i've got the iPhone 4s and lately the Samsung Galaxy S3 (I am permanently having the S3 and the 808 pureview on the pocket, the 4s in some specific cases too, the lumia is here to stay at home !) :

Let's start with the most obvious side of the story (UI), it's been now my second try to "adopt" WP OS with the lumia 800 (for 2 months) and now with the 900 (for a month) and im really trying hard to like and adopt it !

But man, it's just "not familiar", i feel myself manipulating an alien object, some kind of something new, and not adoptable instinctively (learn : IOS, Android and MeeGo Harmattan).

Let's not speak about me for a moment, when i give the device to anyone, their immediate inclination is to swipe sideways ! This is partially because of iOS but more precisely because of this is an instinct (another testament to Steve Jobs’ ao Apple as the whole understanding of human nature. This was a decision he made. He could have opted for vertical scrolling, but he didn’t) and when i asked them why they do swipe sideways, they said with no exception : "I don't know !" it's just natural...even my father who doesn't own a smartphone but a classic 6700, showed the same reaction ^^

Swiping up and down on the homescreen still never seems to feel natural after all this period of use. It's maybe tolerable for apps list because we have a very handy search capabilities but this doesn't apply to the "start" screen, WP8 will partially address this with the help of resizable tiles (so we can imitate the IOS "home screen" or Android widgetized true home screen) and the lack of folder management increase this intuitive dilemma, i don't know if WP8 will support folders on start screen...

Oversized fonts for headings waste screen space and result in low information density and don't make sense on such a small screen

Add to this that tile concept is really on an alpha stage for me, i mean, the "live" term should be seen more carefully as this isn't really "live" or "alive", for example :

- I have an sms received, the Message tile shows me there's 1 sms, but to read it, i have to open the Message application from this tile...is this live? Nope, i've expected SMS to scroll on the (resizeable) tile with its flipping animation ! With a swipe gesture (left or right) i should be able to reply or mark as read etc.

- I have a missed call? The name of the caller should be displayed without any interaction, again a swipe gesture on the tile should allows me to call back or send SMS.

- A new message on Facebook? On Twitter? I should be notified straight on the live tile !

I have to admit there're some apps that take advantage of this, like weather apps and prayer apps, Nokia trailers and few others but there's another problem, the tile flips every 3sec or more, and let alone in a hurry situation, even when you're on your living room, 3sec of wait to see an information is like waiting for an eternity !

Another point that really irritates me is the lack of notification signal (or vibration, or LED), could you learn from Symbian or the best of the best MeeGo Harmattan with the active lock screen? Or please make that Windows button blinks for missed events? It's not rocket science, it's a common sense...

So, the whole concept is nice, but it's fragmented and at some extension confusing in a way, it's not an unified experience mainly on the "live" concept, sorry but both IOS and Android are simplifying the UX with their notification center or live notification !

This "beta" feeling of the OS lands on other aspects too, what really, i mean really piss me off and won't for sure make a Nokia device my primary device is the following facts :


- No matter what you say or try to explain technically or not, there's no true multitasking, nearly all apps are frozen in the background except for some few built-in apps and resume apps takes ages, this is really pissing me off ! I mean, it's really pathetic, even IOS do a really much better work (let alone android, symbian or Maemo)

- Add to that, switching apps by pressing and holding the back button is in no way intuitive (nor long or double press on home button by the way) rather than provide a clear view of the open applications the user sees ridiculously large screen previews and is forced to scroll through them. What is meant to be a quick task (quicker than returning to the home screen or app list and reopening it from there) suddenly becomes time consuming. It’s strongly counter-intuitive and had Microsoft thought about it or understood it for even a second they would have made the home button switch apps and given a better preview of open applications.

And apps run in the background with absolutely no consistency.  For example, downloading podcasts to the phone is a pain in the a** and most of applications stop running completely, a lot of applications don't work properly while on the background (whatsapp, badoo, foursquare etc.)

- Mr Elop ! Note that "your" OS is also a very closed perhaps more than Apple's one (at least, with a jailbreaked IOS, we reach a very satisfying level of customization and openness) so yeah there's no support of Divx/Xvid video codec, or FLAC

- Man i just want to drag and drop and don't want Zune to convert with loss of quality !

- Oh i can't, there's no support of mass storage mode ! Are we living on 2012? Hell no...Ok i can deal with skydrive (adopted already with dropbox) but some flexibility are needed here (as on Android), and not all people are comfortable with that.

- Hold on ! Wireless sync? Why not ! But why should i link the device to my charger ! Save battery? Give me the choice ! Don't follow Apple paths

- I want a filemanager, i want to have the freedom to create folders and place some specific files into some specific folders, a true smartphone that backup my computer when i'm in the go ! Maybe if the skydrive or dropbox integration are deep i can forget about that !

- I want to have Google as my search engine, bing is just poor and not accurate ! Give me a choice !

- I hate the fact that Windows Live ID account cannot change country once set (somehow like on Google but not really)

- I want my Alarm clock to work even if the phone is turned off

- I want to be able to attach a file, any file (even if the format isn't supported) straight from the email client and with integrated file manager.

- I want to be able to update the firmware over the air (OTA)

- I want to stream multimedia contents with HDMI

- I want to stream my Music to my radio system (in the car or home) with an integrated FM transmitter !

- I want a permanent status bar for battery life, signal strength, carrier, 2G/3G wi-fi, Bluetooth status.

- I want to freely create and save playlists on the phone.

- I want an equalizer and a freely customizable one

- I want to be able to save draft sms messages.

- I want an enhanced call history to not only show phone number type

- I want to be able to save or use numbers in sms or email !

- I want to be able to edit forwarded emails

- The search button is of limited use and waste of space as it is hardwired to Bing, make it extended to phone contents

- I want a haptic feedback for keyboard, it's all about Facebooking, Twittering, SMS texting and emailing, addicted smartphone users send 100 SMS text messages per day and often shift to OTT services like Whatsapp

- I want to be able to download any file even if it's not supported

- What irritates me is that Wi-fi disconnects when screen sleeps, turn your screen off and the wifi goes to sleep after 30 seconds ! And as i can't use the Lumia (800 or 900) as my primary device (for the lack of all above points) i don't have a data plan on my other lines, just tell me, what logic is this? Turn of WiFi to save some battery and activate 3G to eat a lot more battery? Come On who's this stupid engineer who decided to validate this concept?

- I want to be able to transfer any file via bluetooth.

- I want to be able to filter call history into Missed Calls, Received Calls, Dialled Calls, Recent Calls, etc

- I want to be able to see call duration in call history.

- I want profiles manager !

- I want full back up and restore (Call log, SMS, contacts etc.)


If WP8 and Nokia gonna be address those points i'll definitely adopt the Lumia (not sure as my primary device) if not, the last Nokia maybe gonna be the next lumia 920, as actually, android is the most interesting OS available right now in the way of its sharing and syncing features and possibilities, I'm really really delighted and spoiled as i wished my N9 or symbian devices to do (sadly) !

[Preview] Nokia Lumia 920 In The House !

Well, sort of !

The Package received from Nokia Team has inside :

- Carl Zeiss camera sensor,
- Sample of Corning Gorilla Glass,
- Extra polycarbonate shell

Of course, all that from the upcoming Nokia Lumia 920.

Each item came with an accompanying card, touting the importance of each component in the final phone !

And yes i must say that the Nokia Lumia 920 has some really interesting features that make it one of the most awaited and desirable smartphone of the rest of 2012 and mid 2013 beside the iPhone 5, so here's what will we expect !

A sheet of glass that is highly resistant to damage. How is it created? By submerging the glass in a bath of molten salt heated to 400 degrees Celsius ! Don't try that at home (Apple !)

Read that !

Nokia optics module : Designed to give amazing low light performance. It does this by monitoring its position in real time, so it's always ahead of the game, in fact, it's 300x faster than the average humain reaction time, so it knows what you're going to do before you do ! Clever !

How it looks beside a Lumia 900? Here's some pics beside my white one :)

So? Yeah im hungrily waiting for it as you do !

Ps : This preview is powered by the 808 PureView :)

[REVIEW] Nokia Lumia 800 First Impressions : Verdict !

I'll make it sweet and short for you !

I really have no hesitation in recommending the Windows Phone OS and precisely the Lumia 800 (and the upcoming 900) : it thinks differently, and works differently, but often just as well or better as any of its competitors. 

Most importantly, it's easy and fast, especially for social media--it's (with the N9/N900 at some extensions) probably the best-connected social media phone out there. I may still be waiting for it to really live up to its promise, but that doesn't mean that it isn't an extremely usable platform right now.

Bottom line, if those things don't bother you, go ahead and try it, you'll like it ! For me, i'll wait till i'll get a comparable level of symbian/MeeGo flexibility (Apollo Update?) before using this platform or any Nokia under Windows Phone, it's just not ready to satisfy my needs (even i'm thinking to drop the N9 at some point because the experience was a lot dumbed for a real Nokia user) :)

[REVIEW] Nokia Lumia 800 First Impressions : What i DON'T like !

After the first part in which i've highlighted what i mostly like about the WP OS, here i am with this second part where you'll find what still confuses me or don't like it at all on the WP experience and on the lumia 800 specifically :

- It doesn't feel like it's a Nokia device ! a Nokia operating system ! i don't find roots for Nokia device, it feels stranger ! this feeling is in the same time good and bad, good because it's new experience, new identity to Nokia experience overall, but loyal Nokia user base will need time to get used to that experience and to deal with absence with some very basic options or settings...that still confuses me and pushes me to not using it as my main device...read after the break :

- Call history doesn't show call duration ! Come ON ! Or if the call is a week old, it doesn't show the calling (received or dialed) hour ! Are you kidding? No one among Microsoft design or dev team though about this basics features, this a PHONE before all, a Nokia PHONE !

- For a phone that’s so integrated with Facebook – there is no support for facebook notifications (even with the latest facebook standalone app update), my N9 will enable this in the imminent upcoming update (PR1.2).

- Contacts fields for phone numbers isn't usable at all, neither customizable ...what a headache to modify a land-line number to a mobile number...

- Bing Local search doesn’t work in Morocco (and a whole lot of other countries) and Bing classical search results is...let me say this in other words, if you use Google you'll get 100 results relating to your search query, with bing, you'll only have (non pertinent) 30 or 50 results...

- WP7 doesn’t support xvid/divx and other common movie codecs.

- You can’t quickly skip forward in songs/movies by dragging a slider. Instead, you need to keep tapping or holding the “fast-forward” button.

- Tethering support? You can forget about that for now...my N9 does that (my iPhone and even my N8 with dedicated app).

- Email, oh, yeah, which phone cannot do email? WP fails when it comes to sharing/attaching contents, you can only send pics as attachment, if you want to send office docs, you need to go to office, open the doc, and choose share, too simple, right? In your dream...


- Sharing options by default are limited to facebook, email, twitter...i like N9 approach much better, in fact the more you install app that "support" sharing feature, it will be extended to other natives app but not all...

- HTML5 is the future, ok but the transition will take a little time from adobe flash, so you have to know that WP does not support flash in its browser.  Microsoft announced that it too will abandon Flash as a default in its upcoming Windows 8 operating system... Android OS (symbian, maemo and few others) will do the job for sometime from now...

- BlueTooth File Transfer? Forget about that, you cannot share or transfer files via bluetooth like you can with other Nokia (Symbian, Maemo) or Android devices, welcome to iOS world...

- Ability to upload files?  Forget about that, you do not have free access to upload file types to websites except for pictures files.You cannot select PDF, audio files such as mp3, wmv, etc., video files, office documents, on any other type of file that is not a picture file to upload, GOD we are living on which century?!

 - Multitasking : The meaning of multitasking in Windows Phone is slightly different from the multitasking we are all used to. It means executing function while our application is not running in foreground, if you own a symbian or maemo device (N900, N9), the multitasking experience on the lumia 800 will be a jock, a BIG one ! in fact, my basic understanding is that it is sort of like Android, iOS...task management paradigm, it makes use of frozen app states to conserve memory and prevent a background app from running away with all the CPU cycles, in fact, apps are Suspended and kept in RAM for quick resume but not actively processed. They can also be cleared from memory automatically as soon as it is needed for something else, 



- The other thing that really bothered me, that seems like a minor thing but became a legitimate frustration, is the menu bar. Almost, on every other device, you could look at the top of the screen and see the time, battery and network information, and connection status. That's not frivolous. Those things are important. Windows Phone does away with that. Sometimes, in some apps, you can see the time, and tap near it to see the battery life and connection status. In a lot of apps, you can't. Using Twitter and want to know what time it is? Go back to the homescreen. Then go back to Twitter, and wait for it to reload, because it doesn't support multitasking yet and had frozen into a hibernation state while you checked the time. This is really, really dumb ! You have to learn from N9 !

- Navigation GPS : nothing interesting to highlight, maps are not powered by Nokia Maps but by bing's ones, except on drive application, but even on drive application we are at 50% of N9 or symbian features...(POI, favorites etc.), no support of compass...

- If you want to download a unsupported file by windows phone (zip, rar etc.) the download will very simply fails...great...

- VOIP? Currently there is no VOIP support at all for windows phone 7...

- Front Facing Camera and Video Calling- no front facing cameras even if video calling applications such as Yahoo Messenger, Quik, and skype will be coming to the phone that will be USELESS !

- Lack of (quality) apps : Call blocker, sms blocker etc, no apps for that for now, my N8 is actually my main phone because of it has the best PIM tools of all OSs (except android at some level), whatsapp is very buggy, twitter is basic, etc. (however there are some good ones, like foursquare, tunewiki etc.) ! Add to that, not enough apps take advantage of Live Tiles...(yet)

- Message sync with the laptop (nokia suite fans) : you're dreaming ! 


- HDMI, TV Out, FM Transmitter? No chance !


- Application categorization. Sure, Ballmer hates the app-in app-out paradigm of other platforms, but that doesn’t mean the OS should not have app categories. Vertically growing app list becomes tiring to navigate after a while. And the only way they are sorted is alphabetic – which, needless to say, makes things even more difficult. Now even if you don’t want to have categories, why not sort apps automatically based on their usage? I mean, at least sort the top 10 and the rest can go in alphabetical order, or like on symbian belle, enable search and categories for apps, the best of both worlds ;)



- Camera : totally busted white balance and auto-exposure in low light scenes the continuous auto-focus is also not perfectly functional in video mode. It sometimes totally loose focus and get’s stuck unless you stop recording and start again. It hunts all over the place and I guess that it may be related to the previously mentioned white-balance and exposure issue (the auto-focus system is contrast based). There’s also too much grain in low light shots as if the auto-iso wasn’t correctly working either. Interestingly when things work as planned the shots are superb (no sharpening artifacts at all) and the videos are insane compared to other Windows Phones (and other unnamed devices..). One thing that I haven’t seen reported anywhere is that the Lumia 800 shoots / encodes videos at 14Mbps compared to 9Mbps -10Mbps on the HTC Titan (and 6MB/s on the first gen WP7 devices). The framerate also never goes below 25fps (up to 30fps) even in low light conditions unlike the Titan (and most other devices) which can drop as low as 15fps in some cases. 



- Music quality isn't what you'd expect from a Nokia device, the sound is flat, no bass, no rich sound, my N9 (which also i criticized in this area) seems a lot better ! 


- The hardware search button is supposed to be context sensitive right? The hardware search button only ever goes to Bing search...


- And oh, wifi connection : it enters idle state once the device is locked (to preserve the battery) so don't expect push mails to work, unless the device is plugged into the charger !


- Last thing that drives me crazy : it hates 3G connection, i don't know if it's a bug, i didn't reset the device to check that but i remember it worked well at first week, i cannot check social news, apps or email under 3G connection (even if i forced the wifi to be disabled), only Internet explorer does work properly under 3G, weired...
 
Verdict? Stay tuned for the last part in a couple of days :)

[REVIEW] Nokia Lumia 800 First Impressions : What i like !

Now that's almost 1 month i'm using the lumia 800, i couldn't give my feedback or full review yet because of the lack of time but if you're following me on twitter you'll know that i'm overall satisfied with the user experience of the lumia 800 knowing that i'm owning a Nokia N9, iPhone 4, N900 and range of symbian devices (of course the N8) but no android OS here (still not ready for each other), so i'll give my first positive impressions based on daily and natural use (i'm using the device with no intention to "test it" if you see what i mean) !

This is not the final review, you can consider it as my first impressions of what i like so far, if something isn't listed here, it means, it's still confusing or i don't like it at all !! (you can meantime take a look at camera test, here and here to have a first impressions of how it performs)

1- So to start the journey, everything was so easy to set up, Windows Live ID, Xbox Live ID and a recent convert to Office 365 done in an instant ! Great way to start quickly with a device ready to go ;)

2- The Windows Phone UI in its current form is probably the first text driven UI to exist commercially in the industry. We’ve seen a peek of this with the Windows Mobile 6.5 and fully so on the Zune media devices, it's bleezing fluid, smooth, my N9 is ashamed in-front of it !!! it's something beautiful, something stylish and user friendly :

- This is the first platform in my knowledge to actually embrace a panoramic view for the apps. it means, you need to scroll sideways to get to the various key features of an app or the native apps within the platform, this approach means reduced need to dive into ‘options’ every time. Everything is just ‘a flick to the side’ away, personally, i found adding horizontal access to more content within apps and phone features was a breath of fresh air.

- Also, i like the tiles approach builds up on icons and takes it ahead, instead of static icons that do nothing, the tiles act as widgets and feed you informations, that you can glance at and if necessary access the entire application.

- The People Hub is in my sense the phonebook of the 21st century, i mean it puts everything I need at my fingertips. The system brings in all of my Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and Google contacts, and links them together. If I want to send a friend a text, a Facebook message, mention them on a tweet or simply call them, it’s all just a few swipes and taps away! And that's not all ! with groups feature you'll be focused on the contacts you really care about : family, best friends etc. you can create groups and whether it is sharing a photo you clicked or an email or anything similar, it’s all possible with one click. Within the groups also you can see what each one has been up to, new photos that they might have uploaded to their Facebook account or a new status message perhaps, one is able to view it all and comment right there from within the humble ‘phonebook’ and the best of the best you can tile a group to your "homescreen" ;)

--> There's also a "History view" that i like a lot, which enables you to see the history of your recent calls, emails, texts, and chats with one defined person. Just tap in the list to return the call or go to the thread. 

--> The ‘what’s new’ option next to the phonebook listing within the Hub will list what your contacts are saying on the social networks where you have them listed.

--> The ‘Recent’ section will show you the 8 last interactions you’ve had with the contacts listed in your Hub, irrespective of the kind email or twitter.

One more thing, "Me" card. It's all about Me ! the first real visible attempt by a mobile OS to show the ownership of the device by an owner. The tile is the easiest way to post a message (or status) on all the Social Networking sites (natively supported by the OS) simultaneously. You can check in to a place and set your chat status (Windows Live and Facebook), All your notifications,  basically if you have been tagged on any of the natively supported social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Windows Live) will be displayed here.

The best part, you can reply and comment back from here itself, no need to jump into another app to reply !

- Messaging on the Nokia Lumia 800 is different from messaging that you would see on an Android or any other device (except the N9 and N900 at some stage). Windows Phone has merged the Windows Live, Facebook and Xbox Live with traditional messaging here. What I mean by this is that you can chat with your friend on Facebook, continue on the phone when he moves on to the Xbox and is playing a game and text him once he’s outside. All of this will happen out of a single chat window or rather all of it will be displayed in one conversation string with that person.

- The QWERTY keypad also is very good (not like the N9's one by design but by functionality) on par with the iPhone's one if not a little better. Personally I find typing on the Windows Phone to be a much better experience than on other keypad setup except that of the N9 which IMHO is still the best by design and some unique features and flexibility...

- Conversation view on emails : If you're fed up with deleting emails one by one or sifting through your inbox for related messages, then conversation view based on emails that are grouped by subject, is for you. If you'd rather see your emails individually, you can still do that, too.

- Linked inboxes : Juggling multiple accounts for personal or work email? Streamline things by linking them into a single inbox to see all the messages in one view (the accounts will stay separate). 

- ‘Pictures’ is your gallery on the phone. Is it different like the rest? Yes! Microsoft has done a good job here again. By integrating all your albums on Facebook and on SkyDrive along with making it available conveniently for viewing, downloading etc.

- Picture tagging automatically detects untagged faces when you're uploading pictures to Facebook or Windows Live, just tap, tag, and post.

There's also an amazing integration of applications in hubs App Connect, for example You'll see photo apps in the Pictures Hub and music apps in Music + Videos, Games in Xbox Live hub etc.

- The calendar on the Windows Phone platform is also socially aware so as to say, integrating with the Facebook calendar and also birthdays that you have entered in Windows Live and Facebook and LinkedIn, nothing exceptional but it works well.

- Right outside the box, you can create, edit and view documents, spreadsheets and presentations. The best part however lies in the fact that also included is OneNote.

Thanks to the expanded Office Hub. The improved Office Hub has more ways to view, navigate, and search for your docs, you can share directly from the app itself with other people over email and also on SkyDrive, you can sync your Office docs between SkyDrive and your phone, so you can edit them on your phone now, then edit some more on your computer later. .

Sharing so as to collaborate on it is easy within Office. If you share it on SharePoint Server then it makes for easy collaboration and for you to work more effectively. Any changes made over the PC will instantly reflect here too.

Also if you have IRM-protected email or Office doc? Now you can open it on your phone !

Office 365 takes your business to the cloud and by that, Windows Phone supports Office 365 right out of the box.

Bing helps you search the web in more ways, with voice search, Music search, and Vision search, which uses your phone's camera to look up product info or to translate a text !

All in all, i'm liking the overall experience because of its fluidity and smoothness and Windows Phone, really, is the only OS besides the iPhone that feels like it's got its shit together, from the interface to the core apps to the overall experience and it's Not the common cup of coffee you find at any restaurant ;)

Stay tuned of the "what i don't like" part :)

[Head To Head] N9 vs Lumia 800 Pictures Shots (Blind Test) Part 2 !

How good the lumia 800 output can be good? You can view it here in the first Face Off with the Nokia N9 !

Now Let's do another blind test (there'll be a third !) to see which one is looking good to your eyes !

This will about macro shots with flash (low light conditions) :

Remember : The distance was exactly the same (even mm precision almost)

Update : results at the bottom of this post.

Section A followed by Section B, which section is good to you?

As a reference ! The same shot with the N8 with normal Macro and super-macro :

So drop your comments and let me know !

Results : Section A was captured by the N9 and section B with the Lumia 800 ;) So N9 did a great job in low light conditions, plus it focuses amazingly well (sometimes better than the N8 itself) ;)

[Head To Head] N9 vs Lumia 800 Pictures Shots (Blind Test) !

Hello folks, i'm back with an interesting head to head pictures shots, this time with the awesome N9 vs his fake cousin the amazing Lumia 800, but interesting because mainly my (first) conclusions don't fit with what i've read on the net about how "bad" lumia 800 camera is in comparison with the N9 one!

So, can we do a little blind test, i'll be publishing results by Sunday ! Please don't look at details on the original pictures on flickr, let's play the game ! Ready? The principle is simple, drop on the comment section with group of pictures you find "better" There are two groups/sections taken with the two devices : A and B (each device is assigned to a section of pictures)

So let's start : Section A (taken by a device) followed by Section B (taken with the other device)


Update :

Well well well, results are as following: pictures on section A are taken with the Nokia N9 and the section B were taken with the Lumia 800, what do you think? Personally I see that the Lumia did well and better overall in those conditions, I really want to say that the N9 is more natural but it's not, there's a blue hue that makes pictures looks unnatural (it reminds me of the N95 on its first days...)

Also, you should not that the N9 has a better focus overall anyway :)

But don't be fooled, there'll be another test where the N9 will take the revenge :);) keep your eyes open !

Those two pictures aren't part of the section game, but you can comment on each one !

So which section of pictures do you prefer? A or B?