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Nokia Unveils "World's Thinnest" QWERTY Smartphone
Barence writes "Nokia has revamped its E-series of business-oriented smartphones with two new models, including the 'world's thinnest' QWERTY device. The GPS-enabled E71 is the slimmer successor to the Nokia E61, with a thickness of only 1cm. It's HSDPA-enabled, offers switchable home screens, and gives a claimed 'two full days of heavy, heavy use.' The E66, on the other hand, is a slide-phone with a conventional numerical keypad and a built-in accelerometer. At the same event, Nokia also gave a tantalizing hint about its plans for an iPhone rival, with its senior vice president saying, 'we will have touchscreen devices coming this year.'"
But I don't see anybody coding up the next installment of gcc on these keyboards :)
And the speed with which some of my (female) friends can SMS using the shorthand method is simply amazing.
Personally I use my phone to call with, the camera function is nice to have (and a better camera would be a good reason to upgrade the phone) but after playing with the internet features a bit I really don't find much use for them.
The 'qwerty' bit is nice (same as with the blackberry) but it would not be enough to get me to switch (and the keys will be *even smaller*).
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Why can't the people making these devices with "full QWERTY keyboards", actually include the row for numbers. Having to switch modes to type numbers and then have all the alternate symbols on the number buttoms (!@#$, etc) hidden elsewhere is such an incredible pain. I would deal with the device being an eight of an inch longer in order to actually include a full keyboard.
If you can't promise that, keep it off my phone.
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find their privates are on the Internet.
going overboard. First ultra thin models giving young girls a false sense of their bodies and the phones. How do you expect the young phones to feel when they see these thin phones? Huh?
I'm forever after a phone that I can use ssh with easily for when I'm on call, so a full qwerty keyboard is mandatory. This one is actually looking good with an easily accessible @ / and . characters. Does anyone else have any other recommendations?
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The problem with slashdot is that most of its users were bullied and stuffed into lockers as kids!
...for the rest of the world. Now if we could just get a carrier to stock Nokia again in the US.
People and companies are attributing the success of the iPhone to its Touch technology. Yes, it was the first one to come out with it in a successful design, but the iPhone is succesful mainly because it capitalizes on Apple's software platforms. The iPhone brings together iTunes, iPod, & Telephone, and Web capabilities in a unified architecture that is based on OSX format. A Nokia or Blackberry with a touch screen will not be able to support anything remotely close to what Apple is offering. Yes, they will look similar and offer 'me-too' capabilities, but just b/c users can touch the screen and the phone can play music, doesn't mean it will be remotely competitive to the iPhone.
I was wondering about this -- my Blackberry Curve (8310) doesn't actually feel like it's thicker than 1cm. So I looked it up -- it's 0.91cm thick (0.36"). How is the F71, if it really is 1cm thick, the world's thinnest?
I'm still waiting for a company to come out with a Dvorak smartphone.
Introducing Microsoft Vacuum 1.0 The first Microsoft product that doesn't suck.
Symbian-based phones definitely have this capability, at least my 5 year old Nokia 6600 does. While in an application, I can hold down the "menu" button and it will show me task switcher that will let me go back to the menu and start another program without closing the first one and swap between them. I'm sure the limited memory of the phone will stop you at some point but I've had 4 or 5 applications running at once at times.
"People that quote themselves in their signatures bother me" - athakur999
I have been using the e61 for some time and it is fantastic. Wifi in a phone more than a year before the iPhone. The only thing it lacks is a tab key and it misses it badly. I just went phough phone buying hell for my father and got him a Centro (mostly becasue he is a technophobe who has had a palm, handspring, or treo for over ten years. ) I have been using the iPhone and a V3xx for the summer and all of them basically suck cock compaired to the e-series. Touch screen is cool but add no functionality for me and somewhat diminished typing experience. Oh had why the fuck doesn't the keyboard go to landscape in half the iPhone apps? Anyway none of you chumps will ever see this phone anyway becasue the US mobile phone companies are a ass licking oligarchy based on reduced function in returned for increased prices.
http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=iphone
Symbian is a really awful operating system. I had the E61 and it used to crash and freeze all the time. I thought it was the phone and then I bought the N95 and the freezing and crashing continued. I will never buy a Nokia again until they fix the OS.
Let me guess, you own a Motorola?
... some stupid pick-pocketer comes to steal something from you and he sees the iPhone, and he'll say:
Lol! An iPhone! An iPod a camera-phone and an internet communications device!!11!oneeleven so its a "must-have"!! He comes and steals your phone.
LOL! The slimmest phone with a QWERTY keyboard! The best fone evar!!one1 He comes and steals your phone.
.. some stupid pick-pocketer comes to steal something from you and he sees the Nokia 7110, and he'll say:
You choose with what are you going to come out on the streets!What a poor bastard. I'll give him my iPhone/Nokia E71 because he's god damn poor. He comes and give his phone to you.
[insert lame sig here]
But I type with the Dvorak keymap, and I doubt those tiny keyboards are good for touch-typing. So I think I will have to go the route of "soft" keyboards (a la iPhone) if I ever go down the smartphone road.
Having used similar devices with small keys and being 182cm tall myself, I can assure you that they are not a problem even for people with big stubby fingers.
The trick is that the keys are not flat, but rounded on top and require a small but important amount of pressure and travel to operate. Thus the hard part of your thumb or finger can easily press the right key, and the soft flesh around it does not push the neighbours.
It's a lot better than the iPhone interface (which is similar size "keys" but flat) and traditional predictive text because it doesn't rely on any kind of prediction or spell checking, so is much less prone to errors. You can also type non-dictionary and unusual words as easily as common ones, and not having to check if the phone picked the right word as you type speeds up the rate of entry and makes it easier to just think about the message rather than how you are entering it.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Have you ever used S60? It's a fine mobile operating system and easy to use. I'm certainly optimistic about their touch interface.
Also, you'll be able to tether your computer to it, will play audio over A2DP, allow non-Nokia authorized software to run on it, have an SDK that doesn't require a Mac... shall I continue?
- oZ
// i am here.
You do realize that Nokia shipped 115.5 million phones just in the first quarter of 2008? 14.6 million of those were in what could be called the "smartphone" category. So something that sells 8-10 million in a time frame of a whole year doesn't really sound so astonishing to them.
Yes, the data sheet clearly states GPS and A-GPS (GPS assisted with tower data to get initial fix).
Calling cell tower approximation (what Google Maps uses on phones with no real GPS) any kind of "GPS" would clearly be false advertising and just calling for trouble.
This is not Nokias first GPS model either, they routinely seem to put GPS on their new models. What really interests me how good is it. If initial fix takes minutes it is basically useless for quick "was the address I'm going to on this block or the next one"-type of usage. N95 (at least the early firmwares, I'm not sure if the newer ones have A-GPS) was terrible in this respect and keeping the GPS always on was not an option either because of the increased battery drain.
Nice flame. You forgot to mention that the iPhone has only 5% of the worldwide smartphone market, and that represents only a small fraction of the mobile phone market.
Is it a good phone? Sure. Is it a way better phone than anything Nokia sells? No.
Are Nokia getting "a little desperate"? laugh.
Nokia have three times the annual revenue that Apple do, and a similar profit margin. Apple should be thanking Nokia for the skill and talent they've employed to create a market for Apple to move into.
I'm looking forward to seeing Nokia's offerings towards the end of the year. I'll also have a play with a new iPhone.
You see, I do think differently, and better. I think beyond the shiny marketing message rammed down my throat.
yeah, nokia sells in a week what apple wants to sell in a year. This is why the iphone is not the major threat everybody thinks it is.
11 was a racehorse
12 was 12
1111 Race
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If I had WiFi available everywhere I went, I'd get the N810 in a heartbeat, but I don't.
I've no problems using Skype or a SIP softphone, but they're useless if I don't have a connection. I've got WiFi at home, WiFi at work, and several restaurants/bars here have WiFi (and even there, I'd have to ask for the key), but not everywhere.
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The thing is everyone thinks iphone==Touch screen. This is like saying iPod == simplified MP3 player with round dial.
If you happen to catch the last apple keynote, then you know it's about the integration. some stats:
>80% of iphone uses have used 10 or more applicaiton functions on their phone
>95% use the internet and google says most of their mobile queries come from iphones.
Now they are launching a app store for developers which will allow anyone to sell in 70 countries and apple handles all the delivery, installs, micro payments, currency conversio, and store UI languages.
It's first year the ipod sold because it was cool to look at and hold. But it sold the next year because the iTunes and the Itumes Music store were so freakin easy use with it.
Making a touch screen is not making an iphone. These companies have about exactly 1 year to figure this out before the apple app store has a lot of applications on it. After that it's too late.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.