Thoughts on S60

I had to spend all day at work yesterday knowing that a huge package with a ninja outfit and a N96 would be delivered to my door. I spent so much time fiddling last night that I didn’t get a chance to start my first challenge.

My first task is to upload a geo-tagged photo with Nokia viNe while in the provided (though a bit snug) ninja costume. I took a few photos last night, but I have a much better idea for what I’m going to do today, so stay tuned.

I’m competing against 7 other challengers to win 5 trials of the N96 for 5 of my readers. Seeing as how I have very little traffic on a day-to-day basis, I think I’m going to expand the competition into HoFo as well. I’d like for readers and members of HoFo to send me ideas (email, PM, comment, SMS, whatever) for pictures to take with the N96 in my ninja costume. They don’t have to be related to the challenges, necessarily, but I’ll be selecting the best ideas out of all that I receive and those who submitted those ideas will be the ones who get to trial the N96 (if I win, of course).

Here’s a list of my challengers and what they’re doing for the competition (compiled by Micky! on HoFo)

Micky Aldridge (N95Users) http://mickyfin.vox.com/

Norman John (Symbian World) http://symbianworld.org/1009-face-t…allange-begins/

NokiaAddict http://nokiaaddict.blogspot.com/200…-challenge.html

Erazer007 (Cellular) http://erazer007.wordpress.com/2008…p-mobile-phone/

Mark Guim (Nokia blog) http://thenokiablog.com/2008/10/22/…s-to-5-readers/

Rita (Dotsisx – Symbian guru)http://www.symbian-guru.com/welcome…challenges.html

XJ911 (HOFO) http://www.howardforums.com

As for the device itself, I’m coming away a bit unimpressed. Here’s a quick list.

Pro’s

• The size and overall look and feel of the device is incredible, to me at least. The slider is also decent.
• FP2 is packed with more features than I had originally thought (automatic access points, more helpful menu options, download unrecognized files, POWER SAVING MODE!, etc.,)
• USB 2.0 speeds makes transfers with the USB cable actually usable and reliable.
• OTA firmware updates are much easier and less stressful than using Nokia Software Updater, which would not work on my computer.

Con’s

• The phone is SLOW and I mean SLOW. Menus are very slow in navigation and my texting speed has taken a hit because buttons aren’t rendering.
• Nokia Software Updater does not like Vista x64. Opening NSU with the phone plugged in via PC Suite mode caused a whole bunch of error messages to come up, the firmware failed to update, and eventually it stopped seeing my phone altogether. Didn’t brick the phone, luckily.
• Unable to install unsigned applications of kind.
• Dual-LED doesn’t seem to make as much of a difference as I heard it would, especially with the N82 sitting right next to it.

Rest assured, I’ll be commenting on the battery the more I use it. From my brief experience though, it isn’t too bad.

Clicking the picture above will take you to my Face the Task channel on Ovi that I’ll be updating with all of my pictures from this challenge and any pictures I take in regards to the N96 in general. Thanks to everyone who sends me ideas and good luck!