Moving from Android to Nokia (symbian)

englishpremier

englishpremier

englishpremier

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Seriously considering moving from a ZTE Blade (Orange San Francisco )with Android 2.2 to a Nokia N8. Don't flame me too much :D

The pinnacle of Nokia phones must surely be better than a cheap (but good) budget android system right?

I've come from an old Nokia N80 which i used happily for 4 years so i'm well versed in Symbian, but the main reason for switching is that I use my phone for Music, GPS, SMS and uploading photos to picassa.

With that usage in mind I think the N8 might be a better fit. In part due to the fact that I have Garmin XT on an SD card (which is a much better sat nav than Sygic that I bought for Android.

Any thing I should bare in mind before i switch?
 
Aye one of the things i though. Its handy for taking photos of stuff to ebay or post on forums without having to use my regular cam.

I saw a picassa app for nokia, but i'm not sure how the integration will be compared to android.

My only real concern is the screen resolution, it will be smaller than i currently have.
 
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have you considered a windows phone 7 device? You can get an LG optimus for ~£150 if you look around, and that'll pee all over any symbian device.
 
If you get on with Symbian, it isn't all that bad, especially if you aren't too bothered about apps, etc.

The N8 is a cracking phone (and relatively cheap) provided you can stand the software and you want an awesome camera, unless you would really benefit from the camera hardware, it's not a great option.
 
I thought about windows phone 7 but i'm familiar with Symbian. My last experience of windows was an Omnia, which was great hardware wise but I thought sucked compared to the N95.

Sat nav is the big one for me. I ride a motorbike and am regularly travelling around the country or in Europe. To save space and time i always use my phone, which has either run Garmin or TomTom, which is great as there is a big community of bikers touring and sharing routes in those formats. Garmin in particular.

The old Garmin XT app is known to work ok on the N8 and i can buy the latest maps to update it from my 2008 version.

Sygic on android is ok, but limited when it comes to modifying it or adding POIs and itineraries.

Other than that it's music again while on the bike. The N8 seems a good media phone, though i'm sure there are others.

EDIT: oh the lg does look good.

Finally the camera. Well that's just win when out and about taking quick snaps.

If after android i can't get on with symbian, I could sell the phone for about £180 and would also have the SF to sell to put towards something more high end.
 
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Well, check the RAM and CPU. The RAM on the San Fran is 512mb vs the N8's 256mb, and the SF's cpu is 600mhz, whereas the N8's is 680, although how fast they are also depends of the OS
 
englishpremier said:
Sat nav is the big one for me. I ride a motorbike and am regularly travelling around the country or in Europe. To save space and time i always use my phone, which has either run Garmin or TomTom, which is great as there is a big community of bikers touring and sharing routes in those formats. Garmin in particular.
Click to expand...

You don't need to bother with Garmin. Ovi Maps is free and gives you all of the features that you used to have (turn-by-turn navigation, offline maps for the whole of Europe, etc.).
 
well built phone but unfortunately now with zero support and pretty bad set of apps. RAM isn't an issue so much on Symbian due to how the multitasking works. If you don't use android for it's features like apps, homescreen, alert system etc... then you'll be fine.
 
you should be able to easily pick up a galaxy s1 for <£200, which will give you a much better camera, screen, processor etc than the SF offers...worth thinking about?
 
I'm of the opinion that most apps are completely useless. The only ones i regularly use are Gosms and wordfued.

One of the things i don't like about android is being presented with a wall of apps rather than them being categorised e.g tools, office etc.. It also seems you need an app for stuff that I think should be in the OS as standard, e.g a calc, alarm, converter, file manager, not pad.

Symbian is supported until 2016. Anna is due August, with Belle in 2012.

I'll update this thread with how i get on. If i get on.
 
englishpremier said:
One of the things i don't like about android is being presented with a wall of apps rather than them being categorised e.g tools, office etc.. It also seems you need an app for stuff that I think should be in the OS as standard, e.g a calc, alarm, converter, file manager, not pad.
Click to expand...

I think that only applies to vanilla Android, both Sense and Touchwiz (and probably the others) have those features built in.
 
tbh symbian aint as bad as people on here make out, i have an ipod touch 3g, fiancee has a san francisco and i have an n8.

if i had money to burn i would choose an iphone (expensive contracts or initial purchase but jailbreak it and get free apps).

if your more sensible with money and want a gadget and a phone i would choose android.

if you want a phone to use as a phone (call and text mainly with occasional email and gadget use) and take stunning pictures, i would get an N8.

like i say i have used symbian, ipod touch and san francisco on a regular basis and there is nothing wrong with symbian, the only problem i have with it is when you tell it to switch wi fi off, it reconnects again, even though scanning, etc is disabled. also the N8 battery on a full charge lasts years compared to both ipod and san francisco. symbian is no where near as bad as what people make it out to be, there is nothing i cannot do on my phone, compared with san francisco or ipod touch.

plus free sat nav with N8 too worth £££, its really good.
 
englishpremier said:
I'm of the opinion that most apps are completely useless. The only ones i regularly use are Gosms and wordfued.

One of the things i don't like about android is being presented with a wall of apps rather than them being categorised e.g tools, office etc.. It also seems you need an app for stuff that I think should be in the OS as standard, e.g a calc, alarm, converter, file manager, not pad.

Symbian is supported until 2016. Anna is due August, with Belle in 2012.

I'll update this thread with how i get on. If i get on.
Click to expand...

golauncher ex has grouping built in, and my phone has a calc / notepad etc already there ?
 
For the 2 reasons you have mentioned:
1: Imaging / Camera
2: Sat Nav

The N8 will not be beat. It has the best camera on any handset currently and I haven't seen anything about to land thats going to beat it & Ovi Maps detroys Google Navigation for free turn by turn nav for one main reason, locally stored maps.

Symbian is fine for most people and does what it should quite well actually, its just hasn't got the customisable UI of Android or the simplistic usability of iOS.

As english has said above, most apps are totally useless outside of gaming (which I don't do anyway.!).
 
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