oh nokia..

.. why do you forsake me so!

I've always had nokia phones and always liked them functionally. It would be unfair to say that nokia didn't used to have stylish phones though. My first phone was the banana phone they used in the first Matrix (you know, the good one of the "trilogy").

I also owned the rather diminutive
8250 which really was not just the most stylish, but also the smallest phone at the time.

Sadly now, if you want a decent looking nokia phone, what do you buy? They're all ugly bricks. I currently own the 6230i which I bought to replace my 6610 (which was the last nokia phone I liked).

At this point I need to reiterate though - the functionality I really love. The software updates have become better and better in small but significant ways since my first nokia. In 1 touch I can make a call, write a message, use my calculator, use my calendar, open the camera mode (but not directly take the picture which is a good thing), browse my contacts. In 2 touches I can set a countdown timer, set my alarm clock, switch modes, convert currency. All of those functions I just mentioned I really do use all of the time - yes, even the camera for shots like this. It's fast, the text is easy to read, it ticks the connectivity boxes (bluetooth, ir, triband etc), it doesn't have stupid options in stupid places (for instance the ericsson C button on a contact is a shortcut for delete - really, how often do you want to delete a contact versus cancel out of the address book?), it contains all the functions I use and none of the one I don't... but... it's a fat ugly brick.

However there is hope! Recently they released the E50, which for the puritans out there even optionally comes without a camera. It's slightly taller than most phones (dare I say more phone shaped?) but it's thin (well, for a nokia), it has a very hi-res decent sized screen. Style wise I really love it - I want a phone that looks like a phone that has the great nokia functionality I have come to know and love. I played around with this phone in the shop on Saturday. It's awful. I could have cried.

It's a nokia phone sure, but it's got some crappy symbian bullshit software on it. I don't want to carry a frigging personal management system in my pocket, I just want a phone with simple software widgets! It's everything I love and hate all rolled into one. Why can't phones be more like computers - you buy them and then install your preferred OS?

Since I need a new phone (I don't treat them particularly well) I'm actually going to have to buy the successor to my current brick, the even more brick-like 6233. It's exactly like my previous nokia purchase - slightly fatter, no better.

Is there any hope for me? Well lets see - LG and Motorola would have to improve their software dramatically, ericsson would need to make slight design improvements and slight software improvements and nokia need to either use the right software on the nice phones or improve their designs and stop trying to be so friggin radical with their bulky "style" oriented phone. In short, no - there is no hope.