frent

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Re:China's Cell Phone Pirates Are Bringing Down Middle Eastern Governm... on Wednesday June 15, 2011 @09:41AM (#2657030)

I was referring specifically to the cheaper "feature phones" (such as the Xpressmusic, which certainly isn't a smartphone). We often hear that they rule the low end market, but even in that segment, their design and quality seem to be slipping.

Re:China's Cell Phone Pirates Are Bringing Down Middle Eastern Governm... on Wednesday June 15, 2011 @04:47AM (#2656421)

Nokia's "feature phones" have experienced a decline in design quality as well. My last Nokia Xpressmusic brick/candybar had no "stop" button, so if you put it in your pocket the wrong way, a song called "Dance of Shiva" that was loaded by default (and couldn't be erased) would switch on, and you'd have to hit pause a few times. Very embaressing to hear mysterious oriental music in a meeting, and suddenly realize that it's coming from your pocket.

Want to send an sms to a number not in your phonebook? No way to do that either...no numeric inputs allowed in the number field when sending SMSes - you had to look up a number in the phonebook.

Nokia's feature phones are often described as their last hope, but, given the declines in design quality over time, I think they won't be.

Re:Why Nokia failed: 'Wasted 2,000 man years' on UIs that didn't work on Thursday March 10, 2011 @04:11PM (#2310798)

With that said Nokia's brick phones have some of the easiest interfaces to use of any device ever

As someone who uses a recent Series 40 phone, I have to disagree with you. I think their last decent brick was the 6230i.

I got an XpressMusic (don't know the exact model number) Series 40 phone in 2009 , and, although it does the basics well, it has some serious design flaws.

It is a music phone, but it lacks a "stop" button to go with the play/pause button on its side. Therefore it is always on pause, so that, if it is in my pocket, and the "play" button is hit accidentally, a preloaded song called "The Dance of Shiva" starts playing. Very embarrassing.

And if you want to send an SMS, you need to save the number first as a contact, since the SMS UI doesn't allow for numbers in the "number" field.

These are shockingly obvious design flaws that Nokia missed. Something went wrong with Nokia a few years ago, and it wasn't limited to their smartphones.