No to Nokia

The brand Nokia used to be synonymous with quality. That was years ago, when cellular phones weren't that sophisticated. A few years ago, after I bought a Sony Ericsson phone, I swore I would never go back to Nokia. Not only were their phone models sturdier, there were also less bugs in the software. Plus all of their high end phones actually had all the features you need in one model. A music player, a camera, an FM tuner, a basic web browser... I used to wonder why Nokia used to separate those features when it was possibly to offer all those features in one cell phone model.

Last March, I realized that it was time to buy a new cellphone since my phone already looked very worn out--- i've been using it for more than three years after all. Since I was very pleased with my old phone, I checked out the Sony Ericsson website and browsed through their latest phone models. What I was really looking for was a model with an excellent camera since I like taking random pictures every now and then, but the phones that had good cameras didn't look aesthetically pleasing... in fact, some of them looked downright weird. About the same time, Nokia was advertising their N82 model. At first I ignored all those ads, but out of curiosity, I searched the net to check out its features. It also had a 5 megapixel camera which was great... but what surprised me was the fact that it was loaded with features! Aside from the usual web browser, fm tuner, music and video player, it came with wifi! it also came with GPS! WOW! And aesthetically speaking, the phone didn't look bad at all. I guess all those features blinded me, because after a few days I threw all caution to the wind and purchased a Nokia N82.

When I first held it, I immediately thought of one thing--- Fisher Price. I thought the phone felt too plasticky --- it would probably break if I held it too tight. It really felt like a toy. What the heck, i thought. I'd just take care of it since I'm very careful with my gadgets anyway. Besides, I was very satisfied with the camera. But after just a few days, there were scratches all over, even on the screen!--- Even though the phone was usually just on my pocket with nothing else, except maybe a handkerchief. I have to admit, A lot of those applications were really useful like the document viewer, but the software was painfully sloooooooow. It takes several seconds to open a single text message, and I won't even get started on my web browsing experience. even with a good connection, it takes ages to move back and forth through web pages I've visited. The default web browser wasn't any good, I had to download a third party web browser. There's also a lot of bugs--- some are negligible, but there were many times that I felt like throwing the damn thing out of frustration. The phone would suddenly hang, or spontaneously reset. I couldn't delete messages because text message memory is full?! What the fuck is that?! Clearly, Nokia still hasn't gotten the whole software development thing figured out.

I knew better, and yet I've made the mistake of giving Nokia phones another shot. I thought it was safe to assume that they've mastered the art of manufacturing next generation cellphones by now. So much for giving second chances. It's not really a bad phone... I have to say that it's above average, but there are a lot of better options out in the market today. I should have just waited for the 3G capable iphone which will be out later this year. Packed with a zillion features, with an SRP of $199 for the 8GB model, it's practically a steal.