Recently, I switched my platform and device from Windows Phone 8 to Symbian, Nokia's previous platform before Windows Phone, as part of a personal journey in finding myself and stop focusing too much on my phone. Our smartphones nowadays have plenty of helpful functions, but they take a lot of our time and focus from the things that really matter. For example, before, I used to glance to the vivid tiles of my Windows Phone screen at all times waiting for a social network notification,a news notification, a message to pop up, or anything that made those beautiful live tiles flip and tell me that I had to use my phone. As a college student, I decided that I had to stop being one more of the tribe of those who look at their phone constantly to text, send a whatsapp or just browse the web. Maybe you haven't noticed, but I am sure that most of the people who are reading this stare at their phone much more than they look at their relatives and friends. So, I decided to quit my “addiction”. I made this decision at the beginning of this year.
I started exploring the possible platforms that could help me achieve this goal. I thought that an old platform would do it since the lack of many recent and popular apps would help me not to want to use my phone. However, I didn't have the opportunity to switch until about a week ago. A friend of mine broke his phone and asked me that if I could sell him my precious yellow Lumia 620. I hesitated for a moment because of the good performance that the mid range phone had given to me up to that point. But, I made the decision and I sold it to him. Right after he gave me the money, I went to deposit it to my bank account and pay for my new Nokia phone, the Nokia N8. At first, I hesitated about buying it, but this week has been very pleasant. Thus, I want to remark some of the advantages and disadvantages of this Operating System.
First the file manager is years ahead from Windows Phone. The experience of managing the files, made me remember my old Sony Ericsson days where finding a file or moving it was a few “clicks” away. However, now this task was achieved through a tactile display. It was very smooth easy to manage those files. However, Windows Phone 8 lacks an in device file managing system, making it really hard for users to move documents,pictures and others from the removable storage(Micro SD cards) to the mass storage of the phone. Although Microsoft has enabled the mass storage transfer function while connecting the device to your PC, it is still not as convenient as transferring those files from the device itself. Maybe in the future (WP 8.1 or later), Microsoft will allow users to achieve this task easily.
Second advantage of Symbian over Windows Phone is multitasking. While Windows Phone has been improving in this area update after update, true multitasking is still not a smooth experience with those “loading” pages in between switching from one app to the other. In the N8, I just press the physical button for a few moments (like the back arrow on WP) and the multitasking screen comes up. Then, I select the any other app and automatically opens it without loading screens or crashing the app in the process.
A third and last advantage that I have found over this week is battery life. Maybe this advantage has its own flaws since I haven't used a High-End Windows Phone 8 like the Lumia 920, 928, HTC 8X or ATIV S, and I don't use my Symbian device as much as I used my Lumia 620. While using my Lumia 620, I found that the battery life was not enough. It barely lasted a day with moderate usage, and with heavy usage like games, music and email maybe 4-7 hours top. On the other hand with my N8, I unplugged the device at 7 A.M and came back home at 9 P.M, and it still had 45% remaining. In my opinion, for a “smartphone”that is very impressive. Like I said this advantage has its own flaws since I heard of other users that get a day and a half from their High End phones.
Well enough with the Windows Phone “bashing”. Now it is time for Symbian to take some hits from a former WP user
.
First off, the interface is dated. Windows Phone is a million times more beautiful than Symbian. I cannot believe how ugly this Operating System is. The browser specially is not as responsive as Internet Explorer on Windows Phone. I can say that it is a pain to browse the web on this device, it is better than a flip phone, but nothing compared to the smoothness and lag free experience that I had in my Lumia 620. The apps' interface is horrible. When I check the mail app, I cannot help but remember the clean and beautiful mail box on my Windows Phone.
Secondly, the overall experience while using applications. Windows Phone has many more apps than Symbian. In my Lumia 620, I had more than 30 apps and a couple of games. Symbian has the basics, but do not hold your breath if you think that you are going to find a popular newly released app for this OS. WP apps are more functional they have more options and the interface is just prettier making the overall experience better.
Lastly, support.Every new version of Windows Phone is promised to be supported at least for 18 months. Whereas, Symbian is no longer supported by Nokia instead they handed it to another company that brings security fixes to the platform only.
I have not used this phone extensively (meaning that its only my first week) enough to say that I am an expert. But, overall my experience has been pleasant . I am not using my phone as much, I have more time to write, study, and talk with people. I am not looking at my phone constantly anymore. It has been a good change so far. It has been hurting since I was so used to check my apps constantly, but I am learning to be more patient and to rely less on my phone and more on the outside sources. Thank you for reading. Cheers!'
P.S There are twoother things that I like about symbian over WP, but I think they havebeen covered by previous articles at websites. Camera(By popular request: Nokia N8 vs Lumia 920 PR1.1 vs Ativ S camera test) and Sleeping Screen(Symbian's 'little feature that could' still to be equalled, even on Windows Phone). Although the latter is coming soon!!! to Nokia WP
I started exploring the possible platforms that could help me achieve this goal. I thought that an old platform would do it since the lack of many recent and popular apps would help me not to want to use my phone. However, I didn't have the opportunity to switch until about a week ago. A friend of mine broke his phone and asked me that if I could sell him my precious yellow Lumia 620. I hesitated for a moment because of the good performance that the mid range phone had given to me up to that point. But, I made the decision and I sold it to him. Right after he gave me the money, I went to deposit it to my bank account and pay for my new Nokia phone, the Nokia N8. At first, I hesitated about buying it, but this week has been very pleasant. Thus, I want to remark some of the advantages and disadvantages of this Operating System.
First the file manager is years ahead from Windows Phone. The experience of managing the files, made me remember my old Sony Ericsson days where finding a file or moving it was a few “clicks” away. However, now this task was achieved through a tactile display. It was very smooth easy to manage those files. However, Windows Phone 8 lacks an in device file managing system, making it really hard for users to move documents,pictures and others from the removable storage(Micro SD cards) to the mass storage of the phone. Although Microsoft has enabled the mass storage transfer function while connecting the device to your PC, it is still not as convenient as transferring those files from the device itself. Maybe in the future (WP 8.1 or later), Microsoft will allow users to achieve this task easily.
Second advantage of Symbian over Windows Phone is multitasking. While Windows Phone has been improving in this area update after update, true multitasking is still not a smooth experience with those “loading” pages in between switching from one app to the other. In the N8, I just press the physical button for a few moments (like the back arrow on WP) and the multitasking screen comes up. Then, I select the any other app and automatically opens it without loading screens or crashing the app in the process.
A third and last advantage that I have found over this week is battery life. Maybe this advantage has its own flaws since I haven't used a High-End Windows Phone 8 like the Lumia 920, 928, HTC 8X or ATIV S, and I don't use my Symbian device as much as I used my Lumia 620. While using my Lumia 620, I found that the battery life was not enough. It barely lasted a day with moderate usage, and with heavy usage like games, music and email maybe 4-7 hours top. On the other hand with my N8, I unplugged the device at 7 A.M and came back home at 9 P.M, and it still had 45% remaining. In my opinion, for a “smartphone”that is very impressive. Like I said this advantage has its own flaws since I heard of other users that get a day and a half from their High End phones.
Well enough with the Windows Phone “bashing”. Now it is time for Symbian to take some hits from a former WP user
.
First off, the interface is dated. Windows Phone is a million times more beautiful than Symbian. I cannot believe how ugly this Operating System is. The browser specially is not as responsive as Internet Explorer on Windows Phone. I can say that it is a pain to browse the web on this device, it is better than a flip phone, but nothing compared to the smoothness and lag free experience that I had in my Lumia 620. The apps' interface is horrible. When I check the mail app, I cannot help but remember the clean and beautiful mail box on my Windows Phone.
Secondly, the overall experience while using applications. Windows Phone has many more apps than Symbian. In my Lumia 620, I had more than 30 apps and a couple of games. Symbian has the basics, but do not hold your breath if you think that you are going to find a popular newly released app for this OS. WP apps are more functional they have more options and the interface is just prettier making the overall experience better.
Lastly, support.Every new version of Windows Phone is promised to be supported at least for 18 months. Whereas, Symbian is no longer supported by Nokia instead they handed it to another company that brings security fixes to the platform only.
I have not used this phone extensively (meaning that its only my first week) enough to say that I am an expert. But, overall my experience has been pleasant . I am not using my phone as much, I have more time to write, study, and talk with people. I am not looking at my phone constantly anymore. It has been a good change so far. It has been hurting since I was so used to check my apps constantly, but I am learning to be more patient and to rely less on my phone and more on the outside sources. Thank you for reading. Cheers!'
P.S There are twoother things that I like about symbian over WP, but I think they havebeen covered by previous articles at websites. Camera(By popular request: Nokia N8 vs Lumia 920 PR1.1 vs Ativ S camera test) and Sleeping Screen(Symbian's 'little feature that could' still to be equalled, even on Windows Phone). Although the latter is coming soon!!! to Nokia WP
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