My N95 is slow. It has adhesive tape holding the battery cover in place. The chrome paint is chipping away (and the N95 is supposed to be a premium flagship product, ha?). I hate Symbian’s interface which reminds of how user interfaces looked like 15 years ago. It has no QWERTY keyboard.
Shouldn’t I have bought an iPhone ages ago?
Hmm..
Today, a friend on Watwet complained about the “crappy” quality of the iPhone’s camera. “I should get a Nokia” he said. Then I found this DIY contraption that someone has invented to make taking photos of documents with the iPhone easier.
COME ON
Not only does the iPhone has a 2MP camera, but it also doesn’t have Flash. That’s why it is important to place the iPhone at a certain distance from a document and make sure your hand doesn;t shake while shooting the picture.
Let me tell you: I have used my Nokia N95 several times to take perfect pictures of documents in low light conditions. It has saved me several trips to the copy shop.
Recently I’ve been tempted to look at the E71, the new business phone from Nokia.
It’s the nearest thing to an N95 with a QWERTY keyboard. It’s 3.2 MP camera with flash is not as good as the N95’s, but it is still better that 2MP with no Flash.
My problem is that I am both a “digital lifestyle” and a “business” user. I always thought that the iPhone would be the answer for me. With with a camera like that and no native video shooting capabilities it seems it won’t cut it for me.
And as I wrote in pervious posts, I really respect the fact that Nokia provides excellent maps for Middle Eastern cities for free. So even with the addition of GPS on the iPhone 3G, I don’t think I will get the same quality maps on Google Maps.
Another ridiculous point about the iPhone is the whole debate wether Apple will allow us to use its data connection on our laptops. An application to “tether” the iPhone to a laptop via Bluetooth was made available of the App Store and then REMOVED (because, unbelievably, AT&T’s iPhone contract doens not allow such usage of the data connection!). Is this a joke? I was experimenting with sharing a GPRS connection to my laptop FOUR YEARS AGO on a Nokia 6600!
Whenever I have an ADSL outage or I find myself on the road with no WiFi around, I use my N95’s data connection to do some browsing on my laptop. On an iPhone, I’d probably have to apply some hack to get this done. BAH!
A growing library of Apps, the touch screen and the amazing interface make the iPhone extremely desirable. And every time I see that chipped paint and slowness on my N95 I get fantasies of smashing the damn thing against a wall.
But I still love the power of the N95 in many different areas.
I will go and have a look at the E71. Although my feeling is that I will simply stick with the N95 for now.
The iPhone isn’t even officially available in Jordan yet. When it comes, it will be with Orange. I am with Zain. I don’t want to use a hacked phone. Yet another reason to delay phone change!
Comments
9 responses to “More reasons for me NOT to get an iPhone!”
Is Blackberry Bold an option?
always ranting ranting ranting about an iPhone.
deep inside you, you are CRAVING for an iPhone. It shows in your writings, in your words, in the way you describe it. So stop making tons of excuses for not getting one. its getting boring to keep reading how you ditch the iPhone for this reason and that excuse. When i read your posts title, I knew what its going to be about.
its not uncommon to see people in amman holding two or three cell phones. so at least get an iPhone and use it separately and see if you can get used to it, all that while keeping your ‘powerful’ nokia in your pocket at all times.
I just got the old 2G 16GB iPhone last week, and unlocked it myself through a software i downloaded online. I dumped my blackberry and was hesitant between an iPhone or E71. I also installed the 2.0.2 update on my iPhone that gave me the Microsoft exchange and VPN configurations for my company’s email servers. and it works flawlessly with my Mac.
iPhone 2G costs around 350 – 400 JDS, which is cheaper than a Nokia. My friend works for marketing department in Orange and he said that they will probably get it by the ‘start’ of next year, and listen to this: it will be more than 600 JDS and FOR PRE-SELECTED PEOPLE
! thats not to mention a contract.
I do admit two things though, turning the Wifi on iPhone is surprisingly a hassle (requires 3 or 4 taps) and its reception is not as strong – my friend’s Nokia E71 detected networks beyond my iPhone’s range.
and the bluetooth ONLY works with my Mac and with other iPhones. which was a shock in itself, as I am an avid user of bluetooth technology.
but apart from that, I am telling you, its a heavenly experience. I love it now. i love the ‘Push’ service. Give it another version or two, and it will compete with the crappy blackberry as a corporate device. I will keep using my iPhone until hopefully nokia gets into multi touch in the future. because am still a nokia supporter and fan.
by the way its not called hacking, its unlocking. you can also jailbreak it. but all three are different concepts. and trust me, if you want to really wait for a genuine locked iphone with a good technical support, then why dont you wait for Apple to open a store in Amman??? whether you get it from orange, or hacked, unlocked or jailbroken, you will always have a risk owning an iphone, because its maker does not have an official store here. you think those guys at orange will resemble the Apple Genius Bar? go figure.
I agree. I just got an N95 8GB. It absolutely rocks. Especially for bloggers. It’s a bit thinner and lighter than the original, with more space of course, better menu navigation, and ikbis-friendly
I think you’ve had your N95 for so long that its falling apart. So you might want to try it again.
As for cameras. LG has just announced the first 8mega pixel camera phone. It looks like an iphone too.
And speaking of watwet…when will it be Orange-friendly!?
We’re all waiting!
Or at least I am.
Wait till you see how the iPhone apps crash
Oh you’ll grow to adore those frequent crashes long freezes!!
Also, Iphone camera has no any kind of focusing, which is really bad.
Nokia N95 is really great, still it has one problem, its screen is not a touch screen, I wonder how you could navigate the Internet on such a screen :S, I’d go for Sony Ericsson G900, It is a touch screen 5 megapexil camera phone, with a GPS accessory, it becomes a perfect phone! except for its small screen.
Or maybe the X1,a multi touch screen mobile with windows mobile 6.1:
http://www.sonyericsson.com/cws/products/mobilephones/overview/x1?cc=ae&lc=en
Cheers
Black Jack. Thanks for the free psychoanalysis
And thanks, despite being bored by my post, that you managed to write a great, long comment about your experience.
Am I craving an iPhone. On one level yes. I really like Apple and its products. I’ve been a Mac user since 1991.. that’s almost two decades. I fanatically followed the development of iPhone. I surely can afford it too. But believe it or not, my hesitation is functional. I use all aspects of my N95. Imaging is very important in my field of work. The iPhone doesn’t cut it.
There is no way I will carry two phones. I find that ridiculous. I already forget my wallet and phone all over the office and have trouble keeping up with my digital and analogue life. I don’t want to complicate it even further.
Hacking, jail-breaking, unlocking. It’s all a form of hacking to me (ie tampering/tinkering around with stuff). I know its easy and commonplace. A number of people in the office have done this and are happy users of the iPhone. Yet I still somehow dislike the idea.
My post was triggered by by “iPhone craving” but by the E71 coming to my attention.
If you ask me what I really CRAVE I’ll tell you: it’s an iPhone with a proper camera with flash and video, proper Bluetooth support and Middle East map coverage.
My guess is that I will get an iPhone eventually, but probably not the current version. We’ll see..
Nas,
I’ve only had the N95 for a little over a year. The build quality is SHAMEFUL.
My next phone should have a full keyboard. So the N95 8GB is ruled out.
Watwet Orange friendly? It’s unlikely I think.
Za3tar,
App crashes are the last thing I need..
Let me get this straight, I understand (from this blog) that Twitter is operator agnostic, and hence had no problem spreading its tentacles across the board, but with Watwet, i understand now that this is not the case (forget about WEB/WAP interface), this is in my humble opinion a very serious flaw given the market split among operators (in most countries) and the competition out there.
I think the SMS support is very very important, and I can’t see any technical reason for not having it enabled for all operators (mind you, without their official consent) through 3rd party int’l operators!
The average social-group of Watwet potential users will have the regular 50% can’t-help-it-but-Zain-die-hards, 40% Oh-its-the-best-network-Orange-Mobile users, 9.999% status-oblivious-Umniah users and 0.001% of my likes.. on the forgotten XPress… the other 50% left in the cold would probably render the experience of the Zain users incomplete, No?
Blackberry is the best available business phone in the market and has all teh gadgets you like but the Nokia E71 which I currently own is a cool phone and meets all the required business needs excepct for the stupid tiny keyboards and teh lousy camera