Having owned and used an iPhone 3G for the past 3 years, I thought it was time for an upgrade. With fierce competition in the market from many manufacturers eyeing the throne for "Smart Phone" king with their splendid products, it was not going to be an easy task. I had settled for three contenders that I had thought were worthy of consideration. They were: Apple's iPhone 4S, Samsung's Galaxy S2 and Nokia's N9.
Having owned an iPhone 3G, I didn't feel that iPhone 4S was considered an upgrade to my experience. Yes, there have been major advancement in the processor, the screen display is wonderful, the multitasking issue has been answered, and many features that you may know of. But, the experience and look, well to me, is still the same. And Apple's control over the OS mars the experience. It was until you performed the jailbreak that things started to get fun.
The Samsung Galaxy S2, is a monster of a phone. It does everything apart from shaving your beard. Yet, there was always this doubt when deciding to go and purchase it. The Android UI, in my opinion is clunky. It's not very well layered as the iOS. Then the issue of future upgrades. With Apple you're in the loop, as for Android, you are compelled to purchase a new phone or read the numerous forums on how to install the upgrades manually, which is a task.
However, with the Nokia N9, I was taken aback with its beautiful & simple design. There are no buttons apart from the lock & volume rocker on it's side. A cover is included in the box, to shield and protect the N9 from the bumps & blemishes. And it does not hinder the design nor obstruct the beautiful swipe gesture. The quality of the phone is great. You may at first be intrigued by the small button at the top of the phone that secures the sim card compartment and how to get it to open. It was frustrating at first. I even thought you are required to be double jointed to get the thing to open. But once you understand the design it all makes sense.
The MeeGo OS is a wonder in itself. It is a well layered interface and the response is very fluid, despite the Nokia N9 not graced with a dual core processor. Yet the ingenuity of a swipe is so natural and so seamless that you're left to wonder of the simplicity of the gesture. The UI and the phone go hand in glove. To activate the phone you either press the on/off button on the side or simply tap the lock screen twice and swipe (either from left to right, right to left, top to bottom or bottom to top) you're presented with 3 home screens:
' App Screen: Screen that lists all the apps
' Open App Screen: Displays all the open apps
' Notification Pane: All your missed calls, SMS text messages, emails calendar, feeds, Skype, Facebook, Twitter & notifications are displayed here in an organized manner.
The N9 is very versatile and efficient. The battery under PSM (Power Save Mode) should last you 3 full days of regular use (making calls, sending text, emails & etc...). I had many contacts on my previous iPhone 3G, all I had to do was Bluetooth my entire contact list to the N9. That only took about 20 seconds. The Bluetooth feature was something very useful that I had sorely missed on the iPhone.
The camera is wonderful, with a plethora of options that may render your compact camera useless. There is a front facing camera, but this hasn't been brought to use yet. However, there shall be an update soon to address this matter.
Nokia have stated that they will stand by the Nokia N9 with updates and support till 2015. Since it's release last summer, there have been 2 updates so far with as stated above, one update promised for release by the end of the month to make the N9 experience all the more mesmerizing.
Yes, there may be a lack of apps when compared to iTunes & the Android market, but the Ovi Store inventory is increasing week by week. And the N9 comes with Angry Birds, NFS Shift, RF 2011, GOF2, Facebook, Twitter & Skype dedicated apps.
The Nokia N9 is a delight to see and definitely a joy to use. It should be considered if you are going to purchase a smartphone soon.
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