Today was the last day for the Nokia E62 from Cingular. Tomorrow I will start using a new device and the 81-day-experiment continues. So it is time to summarize my experience with the Nokia E62 from Cingular.
The Nokia E62 is a “business” device with some multi-media
The full QWERTY keyboard, the e-mail, web browsing, PDA functions, and office applications (including the ability to edit documents), combined with the fact that it does NOT have a camera, make the Nokia E62 from Cingular a true business device (you can refer to day #47 on September 29, 2006, for additional comments on the smartphone cameras and related security concerns in the business world).
In addition however, the Nokia E62 offers the music and video playing capabilities as well as the recorder to record voice notes and save them or e-mail them. These additional multi-media capabilities are definitely a plus (for more details about the voice recording and sound quality, please refer to day #62 on October 14, 2006).
How about usability?
In terms of navigation, at the high level, the device offers nicely streamlined navigational capabilities. The joystick, the menu key, and the e-mail key, together with the phone keys and the right and left selection keys, make up what I would describe as a straightforward and intuitive interface.
However when I got into the details of the user interface, and started to do more than just navigating, I felt that there were too many steps involved when accomplishing certain tasks. At some points, I wished I wasn’t being prompted yet one more time to make a selection or confirm a previously made selection. This aspect of the device (too many steps involved) reminded me of the Treo 700w which I used earlier in the 81-day-experiment.
Another factor is that the device is slow and occasionally, you can't tell if it is "stuck" or still doing something. This is an issue I had with the T-Mobil MDA which I also used earlier in the 81-day-experiment. I had to reset (reboot) the device once, which also happened with the Treo 700p and T-Mobile MDA.
Final thoughts on the Nokia E62 and the Symbian OS
Overall, the way I would describe the Nokia E62 and the Symbian OS is that they have the right idea, and the implementation still needs some work. When the issues I mentioned above are addressed, this can become a fine device. It reminded me a bit of the Treo 600 which has been significantly improved with the Treo 650 and most recently the Treo 700p (the Palm Version). The same is possible with the Nokia E62.
Tomorrow, a new day, a new device!
I just bought this phone and I'm trying to enable BB Connect with little success. I've the unlimited PDA Connect plan, but after installing the BB Connect client, I still can't get the BB icon to show. My next step is to get Cingular support involved. Nice site with good E62 info...I'm bookmarking it! :)
Posted by: Ron Sinclair | April 09, 2007 at 10:07 AM