Clearly you don't know about the runaway hits like N95 and other N series. Those were some exceptional phones.

If I still remember correctly it was the first Symbian to have hardware support for OpenGL ES, until then it was only done in software.

I think Asphalt was the game chosen to demo it.

Had chosen something else most likely OpenGL ES would never had taken off, given how lousy it was supported across mobiles back then.

If nobody knows about them were they really runaway hits?

Everybody who knew about smartphones at the time knew about them. A couple people on HN who aren't in that group doesn't mean 'nobody knew about them'.

Upvoted. Although tbh: the moment iPhone started iterating the N-series was a lost cause IMO.

I had the N82 candybar model with a great camera and real xeon flash.

The N95 hardware felt cheap and plasticky. Performance wasn't that great either, nor was the screen.

Yeah, know them. Wouldn't call them "exceptional". N95 was introduced a few months before the iPhone -- which totally killed it.

That said, Nokia had indeed some exceptional (for their era) devices, namely the Nokia Communicator.

I had an iPhone 4 at one point and the existing Nokia devices were still able to compete, thanks to Opera also on the browser side. In fact I remember switching back from the 4 due to missing features and several annoyances.

The contemporary 2010 Nokia device was the N8, specs here: http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_n8-3252.php

The Finnish tech industry is still filled to the brim with ex-Nokia folk who simply do not understand what was better about the iPhone. Even today.

Yeah I know, I also had the N8 among other models (but I had switched back to the E72).

Some things were better about the iPhone, notably the UX, browsing and the app ecosystem which was starting to pick up (but was nowhere near what we have today).

Some thing were worse, and this is where many people seem to have developed selective memory issues. In particular the E72 didn't drop calls if one held it wrong, had a battery life at least double that of the iPhone and was less than half its price.

The N8 had a great camera and free offline maps. With Opera mobile it had a pretty damn good browsing experience. It was far from a complete dud.

The N9 could compete toe to toe with the 4S also on the UX, but by then it was too late. Nokia didn't have the foresight and guts to kill Symbian and bet the company on Maemo/Meego while they still had the possibility to build an ecosystem around it.

Apple invested all their effort into the iPhone and incrementally turned it from a good browsing device albeit average smartphone into a superb mobile computer while Nokia was starting and restarting four projects to compete with it.

>I had an iPhone 4 at one point and the existing Nokia devices were still able to compete, thanks to Opera also on the browser side.

Thanks to Opera? Mobile Safari on the first iPhone was the first browser that actually made sense and showed the web as you should.

Yeah, Opera mobile and mini, arguably the most innovative mobile browsers ever invented. I had a Sony Ericsson P1i and was enjoying the mobile web thanks to Opera just fine.

Safari was impressive back then for sure, but feature-wise it's pretty bad even today.

The first iphone didn't even have 3g

I dont understand why no one else has picked up on the crazy good camera components yet. I had 1040(the 42 megapixel monster) and I have to say being able to take great looking pictures improved my quality of life. I was able to enjoy a hobby anywhere at anytime and document life in a much more candid 'real' way.

Samsung has the Galaxy Camera Series with an Optical Zoom. A Similar Cameraphone is available from Panasonic.