Analyzing the feedback for Nokia devices based on S60 3rd Edition
My boss asked me to analyze the market feedback for the S60 3rd Edition devices that Nokia has launched so far. I’m supposed to send a summary, including suggested improvement actions, to everybody in my unit here in Nokia. Most importantly, we’ll try to improve our built-in applications based on the feedback.
Now, you’ll find below the initial list of product reviews I’m going to analyze. Are there any good reviews that I should add to the list?
Nokia N93
http://my-symbian.com/s60v3/review_n93.php
http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/reviews/item/Nokia_N93.php
http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/reviews/item/Nokia_N93_part_two-the_smartphone_the_summary.php
http://www.symbian-freak.com/reviews/n93/n93_review_01.htm
http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_n93_photo-review-100.php
http://3lib.ukonline.co.uk/sshow/ss13.html
N92
(no real reviews available yet)
N91
http://www.mobileburn.com/review.jsp?Id=2617
http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/reviews/item/Nokia_N91_Review-Mobile_Music_for_the_Masses.php
http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_n91-review-81.php
http://www.infosyncworld.com/reviews/n/6844.html
http://3lib.ukonline.co.uk/sshow/ss9.html
N80
http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/reviews/item/Nokia_N80_Review_2.php
http://www.mobileburn.com/review.jsp?Id=2345&source=BROWSER
http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_n80-review-84.php
http://www.mobile-review.com/review/nokia-n80update-en.shtml
http://www.infosyncworld.com/reviews/n/6614.html
http://www.about-nokia.com/blog/index.php?itemid=305
http://3lib.ukonline.co.uk/sshow/ss12.html
N73
http://www.infosyncworld.com/reviews/n/6960.html
Nokia N71
http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/reviews/item/Nokia_N71.php
http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_n71-review-92.php
http://www.mobileburn.com/review.jsp?Id=2567
http://www.infosyncworld.com/reviews/n/6717.html
http://3lib.ukonline.co.uk/sshow/ss11.html
Nokia E70
http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/reviews/item/Nokia_E70_Review.php
http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/downloads/smartphones-show/e70review.mp4
http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_e70-review-96.php
Nokia E61
http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/reviews/item/Nokia_E611.php
http://www.mobileburn.com/review.jsp?Id=2548
http://www.infosyncworld.com/reviews/n/6656.html
http://3lib.ukonline.co.uk/sshow/ss10.html
Nokia E60
http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_e60-review-86.php
http://www.mobile-review.com/review/nokia-e60-en.shtml
http://www.mobile-review.com/review/nokia-e60-2-en.shtml
http://www.infosyncworld.com/reviews/n/6775.html
Nokia 5500 Sport
http://www.infosyncworld.com/reviews/n/6969.html
http://www.mobile-review.com/review/nokia-5500-en.shtml
Nokia 3250
http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/reviews/item/Nokia_32501.php
http://www.infosyncworld.com/reviews/n/6596.html
http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_3250-review-75.php
http://www.mobique.com/nokia/3250/page1.php




I have a couple more links:
http://www.slashphone.com/117/4898.html
http://www.mobile-review.com/review/nokia-n93-cam-en.shtml
I am tagging N93 reviews on del.icio.us
http://del.icio.us/gillum/N93
and N73 too:
http://del.icio.us/gillum/N73
Not a review but feedback based on real experience. Do You know about trouble with N71 here in Russia and Ukraine? The trouble is in keypad, which scratchs screen on all devices sold by official resselers. This is because of bad quality hausing and too big gaps between parts of housing. We’re (owners of N71) shstill waiting for Nokia’s opinion about this during 2 month.
The Register’s hardware site has two detailed reviews for you to add to your list:
http://www.reghardware.com/2006/08/21/review_nokia_e61/
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/08/07/review_nokia_e70/
Fabio and DM: thanks!
Victor: thanks for sharing, but unfortunately I can’t do personally much to help you. Sorry.
3250 : http://www.generationmp3.com/mobilehub/index.php/2006/06/08/1227-test-nokia-3250-par-mobilehub
Also, The Register today, on N93:
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/08/28/review_nokia_93/
Please, please, please add the a2dp and avrcp bluetooth profiles to all the s60 devices.
I’m curious, how will you go about evaluating contradicting feedback from different sources? Take the new browser for example, it’s been described as a “catastrophe” and elsewhere as “I just cannot find right words or sentences to express how good it is“.
Also, will you take into account that some sites are more Nokia/S60/Symbian friendly than others? And don’t forget that different sites may have different target audiences and hence different criteria for their review scores.
On a slightly separate note, users such as the previous poster obviously have comments and improvement ideas. (I know I do! :P) Would you like us to post here too - or will there be a separate wishlist thread somewhere?
Mobique’s review of the N80
http://www.mobique.com/nokia/n80/
and the N91
http://www.mobique.com/nokia/n91/
and while I’m here, crazy rumours are flying on Whirlpool (again) about an N80i (again)
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=581048&p=1
Any truth in those?
> how will you go about evaluating contradicting feedback from different sources?
Good question. Well, at least I’m not trying to get a consensus. If there are contradicting opinions, I’ll try to let people know all of them.
And yes, I’ll try to take into account all the biases in product reviews. I know the feedback won’t be perfect, but sometimes quick-and-dirty feedback is valuable
Hmmm… Thanks for suggesting the improvement idea thread, I’ll organize a vote.
SeaWolf: I’m not allowed to comment anything about Nokia products that haven’t been launched…
Tommi,
I’m gathering much the same set of info on my wiki, if there’s any reviews you’re missing you might find them on http://feetup.org/wiki/NokiaN71 etc.
Jim.
The main problems with the N80 are random restarts when typing network requests e.g. for O2 in the UK with the *#10# balance request, also the paint (?) on the front corners very easily scratches off, the slide is liable to going sideways as well as up and down and needs to be strengthened, and lastly, the switch on the back for macro has nearly already failed completely on mine not even using it much as it is far too flimsy….sorry for taking so much space!!!
Andrew; I think Tommi is mostly looking for software related feedback
Since 2 days I’m an owner of a Nokia E70 so the initial experience is still pretty fresh/ongoing so maybe I can provide some useful feedback.
The E70 replaces a 6230 which was a pretty good phone as long as you didn’t use it as a PDA. What did surprise me when switching is the fact that the Series 60 phone doesn’t come with extremely basic apps like a stopwatch and a countdown time. I used that countdown timer a LOT, especially in the kitchen
I love the simplicty of it, start it, enter 4 digits, hit start and that’s it. Now I have to try to find a similar app in a jungle of shareware/commercial/freeware software that mostly doesn’t run on 3rd edition. This is aggravated by the fact that most sites don’t mention what edition of the Series 60 those applications are made for so you’ll have to download, copy, install and then find out that it didn’t work.
The main problem with the E70 (or the whole E-series as it seems) are the memory problems. Zooming in to 100% of a picture you made with the built in camera? No go, ‘out of memory’ even when you haven’t installed a lot of extra applications and nothing (except for ’standby’) is running. The browser is pretty slick when it comes to usability but it absolutely sucks when it comes to memory management and stability. http://www.nrc.nl crashes every time on my phone, same thing with nu.nl and opening http://www.russellbeattie.com/notebook/1008503.html doesn’t work if you have images enabled because it goes out of memory. This with 75MB of internal RAM…
Something that almost made me change my mind about buying an E70 is this whole certificate/DRM stuff. Especially for opensource developers and for hackers this positively sucks. I get it from a corporate/marketing POV but for your average developer/geek it’s not good news
I bought the E70 anyway because there just aren’t any decent alternatives (yet?) and I needed a new device now so I’ll give it a chance 



- Add some shortcuts/efficiency improvements
Those are things that first spring to mind. Besides that there are a fair amount of bugs on the E series devices but I’ll assume that you are aware of that
Oh, something that I miss are some more shortcuts. Entering a new meeting or a new contact is just too much clicking with that awkward joystick. It would be nice if you could just use some keyboard shortcut to do that. That’s what I _really_ liked about my Psion 5 (back in the days). Series 60 definately looks better than Symbian back then but alas I can’t say the same for usability. The Psion 5 was one mean efficiency machine
Oh, and it would be REALLY nice if there was a development environment for OS X but I’m afraid that that’s wishful thinking
Shortlist:
- Fix those memory/speed issues
- Add some of those small Series 40 apps
- Add XMPP/Jabber support in the IM app, Wireless Village isn’t going to make it
- iSync support on OS X
- OS X versions of the SDKs
Hmm, some feedback after posting a message would be nice
Thanks bart. I add your comments to the summary I’m preparing.
hello Tommi,
Any reason to “ban” from your list the excellent My-Symbian.com reviews?
Just my 2 cents.
No reason, Horia, except my limited time in collecting this link summary. That’s why I asked your help
Thanks, I added my-symbian reviews to the list.
http://my-symbian.com/s60v3/intro.php
Note to myself: read also http://www.phonearena.com/ reviews and http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_n73-review-106.php
E70: http://www.coolhunting.com/archives/2006/07/nokia_e70_hands.php
And a new one about S60 in general:
http://the.taoofmac.com/space/blog/2006-09-18
Using diacritics for czech/slovak language in T9 for SMS messages is ABSOLUTELY nonsense.
It lead to short SMS (70 letters) instead of 160 letters.
Generally: Czech/Slovak users send extreme volume of SMS. Diacritics is too EXPENSIVE DUE TO SHORT SMS. Czech/Slovak users do not use diacritics for SMS they do not need it.
Hello Tommi,
I hope this suggestion topic is still open, because I wrote an extended improvements message here :
http://stmcgill.wordpress.com/2006/09/02/what-would-you-change-about-built-in-s60-applications/#comment-289
Please have a look.
I hope you can do something about it.
Thanks,
Jean-Marie, the poll is closed in the sense that I forwarded the results already to many people here at Nokia, and I won’t spam them again.
I’ll do the poll again next year, please be there to give your feedback
Thanks for your kind information, but next year is quite long. By that time I’m afraid there will be lots of other fantastic devices.