My life with a smartphone – 2011 edition

 

 

My primary smartphone in 2011 has been the Nokia N8. (Thanks to @NokiaDeveloper for giving me a C7 that I immediately sold on Amazon and bought the N8 instead). To give you a little context of when I came from I had used the HTC HD2 (loaded with Android/CM7) for a few months – CM7 was great and the Android appstore offering on par with the best – however, the HD2 was a bit large at 4.3” display (which is excellent for webbrowsing) and had a mere 5MP (w/LED flash) camera, the battery hardly lasted a day of use.

 

Let’s take a look at my daily usage:

 

Morning Drill:

On most days I miss the wakeup alarm on my phone (I cant blame the loud N8’s loud speaker). But I first check out the time. (NOTE: I dont like wearing a watch and I simply love the Nokia N8’s always on Screen saver clock – it’s one of the most handy & used features by me.) I typically keep the phone around me for about 30 mins while I get ready – checking new emails (via Mail for exchange & Gmail) and reply to urgent stuff, twitter/ facebook (via Gravity) and review my day’s appointments. I also catchup on the latest news via CNN & Engadget. Ocassionally, I check the weather as well.

 

At work

My usage at work tends to be mostly answering phone calls (about 30mins) and responding to SMS. I do most of my primary work on a Mac and typically don’t use the N8 for anything else at this time.

 

Evening Dance

My evening are filled with family, home/outdoors, shopping malls/dinner etc. I typically use the Nokia Drive to navigate us to the destination and it works like a charm (except for search which can be improved). I also use the Music application to play our favourites tunes in the car (especially to keep my daughter entertained while I drive). I tend to take most of the photos with my camera (typically about 5 per day) and upload them to directly to flickr (via PixelPipe). I do occasionally check twitter/facebook and news (especially while my wife is busy shopping). I also typically read about 5-10 webpages on a my phone each evening espeically when away from home. I take picture of stuff I want to track in Evernote and email it to my evernote account. (due to lack of evernote client on N8).

 

Good Night Kiss

One last email check & final dose of twitter/facebook before I sleep. And then finally before I sleep – I religiously set a couple of alarms for next morning.

 

Other usage notes:

• Phone charging: On most days I don’t really bother charging the phone at night as I know that my N8 will make it thought the night without any issues (I cant claim that for other power powerful smartphones I have played). I typically charge my phone using the Nokia’s fast charger each morning for an hour or so. I know that if I need to charge it a microUSB port would be available in my car & at work. And if there is a risk that my battery will die – I have a fast way to switch on the power savings mode that will certainly get me through till I reach a power outlet.

Built-in Apps:

• Mail : Mail for exchange and Gmail support work fine and meet my needs.

• Webbrowser: The browsing experience is seriously lacking (In areas of display resolution, browser performance & rendering) . Once you taste the Android browsing experience — you really can see what I mean.

• Calendar: Works beautifully. I just hope that the home screen widget uses space more efficiently

• Camera: The best image quality (unparalleled in any 2011 smartphone). Performance needs improvement (especially startup & shot to shot). The UI is not bad – but, can really be improved.

• Maps: Best mapping application I have used (and it’s work every penny of the $8B Nokia invested 🙂 – however searching for places can be improved.  I cant see myself using the Android maps as it has no offline support and.

• Music: Mostly to list to music on-the go in my car and when I work out.

 

3rd Party Apps

Most of the big ecosystems (iOS, Android & soon WindowsPhone) have been making a big noise on with their app store metrics. But, I am a strong believer that ‘quality not quantity’ is important to a end user. I also firmly believe that most users use about 10-15 apps on a regular basis (though they may try a lot more in a device’s lifetime).

 

Here are apps I use on a regular basis:

• Gravity – For Twitter & facebook

• Nokia Pulse – Still in Beta. But, I use this to send short updates to my family

• PixelPipe – Use it to send picture from my N8 directly to flickr.

• Upcode – QR codes are not dying. So, this is quite handy.

• AAS – I keep track of whats going on in the Symbian world (afterall Nokia N8 is a Symbian ^3 device)

• Enagdget (RSS widget – I made my own via appwizard)

 

Ocassional Usage:

• Joikuspot: Somehow this has been pulled from Nokia store in US. But you can get it directly from the publisher.

• Google Maps: I mainly use it as the Nokia Maps seach mostly never finds what I am looking for. I typically seach on google maps and then load up the info into nokia maps to give me turn by turn routing.

• HDR Pro Camera:Just a nice app to capture and experiment with HDR photos.

• Sports Tracker : I use it to record my occasional jog

• Talking Hamster: It’s a neat little app that I use to amuze my daughter

• Skype

• Angry Birds : A casual game I play when I have a few dull minutes I want to pass

 

So now with all of this said – smartphone (N8 in 2011) has now woven into my daily living. Here is summary of what I learned about my my smartphone usage & preferences.

 

The essentials (what I can’t part:

• Core phone: Yep – it need to be solid, stable & should work!

• Robust Email: It should just work with a range of email accounts

• Great camera: Though I have moved to using a DSLR at home for photos – smartphone camera will continue the camera at my arms reach for years to come. So, I just need the best camera in the phone I carry.

• Usable & intuitive browser: Currently very lacking in a N8 – I do think a good browser is a must for me (something on part with Android browser on my HD2)

• Best Text input: should be intutive and fast (this is currently a limiting factor in N8 soft keyboard which feels contrained).

• 3.5-3.9” Display – I cant really go back to the E72/Blackberry style phones after I had the taste of bliss (larger touch screen devices like the N8)

• Functional button & key add to usability: Manufacturers are on a path to removing all button from a phone – but I have found that I like thoughtfully designed and implemented button (e.g., the Lock/Unlock key on the N8 – missing in most modren smartphones).

 

What’s missing:

• Nokia N8 currently does not have apps for Evernote & Audible that I use often.

• Breadth of apps is important: My needs and workflow is dynamic – I would like to have an app ready on my smartphone so that it fits into my workflow.

• Fast camera performance is a must.

• Fitness Accessories: I would like my phone to keep track of my weight, calories burned, sleep times etc – an accessory that works out of the box will keep me healthy