Top 10 - Classic Smartphones

Steve, the link doesn't work... hope you correct it soon 😃

Sorry all, now fixed. [slaps wrist] "must check contents of copy buffer before pasting in a URL"..... 8-)

I love my n93, it's shame that it's been left behind firmware wise.. I've just ordered myself a n95 8gb though in the hope that it will act as some sort of replacement although I'm going to miss the whole 'Viewfinder' twist.

Storming into a mono world came the stereo 6630, enabling me to take my music with me for the first time

I think the N-Gage was actually the first music smartphone: it came out in late 2003, had full stereo sound (it included stereo headphones in the package and an adaptor for 3.5mm headphones), an MMC slot for mass storage which worked up to 1 gigabyte, and it even had a dedicated music key for direct access to the player.

Krisse - yes, I know. I owned an N-Gage classic. And I *almost* put it in the top 10 for breaking lots of new ground. But it wasn't mainstream enough, ultimately, for all its clever features, and I was already feeling guilty for putting in so much Nokia hardware.... Plus it wasn't exactly stylish or elegant. The MMC was under the battery, the screen seemed too small for the form factor and you had to talk into its side(!) If it makes you feel any better, think of the N-Gage as being in at number 11 !!

My top five would be:

5. Moto A920/A925 (first 3G Symbian device with aGPS)
4. Nokia 7710 (first high res Symbian device and Nokia's first touch screen)
3. Nokia N95 (original - Symbian's first truely convered device)
2. Ericsson R380w
1. SE's P910 - the first truely useable and mature Smartphone. Still a favorite for many professionals

at first place i would have put Nokia 7610
the first ever multimedia phone with a good OS and expecially reallly stylish.
and even in terms of longevity.
my phones 7610 - 6120c - (next N98)

Sorry to change the subject but I have a hobby horse. Is it possible to download maps for a Nokia 6110/N95 that are off the beaten track? Or are these phones only for mainstream countries?

I agree on the n93. It is one of the best phones i have used. Bulky, yes but what it packs in more than makes up for it. A legend truly. Why Nokia decided to abandon it despite all this praise is something I will never understand.

Anyways to come back to the topic of this article, i would also like to recommend the Nokia 6260. It was a beautiful version of the 6600 (which i think should also have been in the list), and was a early adoptor of all the best features that existed in smartphones then. Plus it had all the 'twists' needed to put excitement in a phone and i personally think was pretty stylish. If only it had come with a better camera, or without the stupid restriction that it would shoot in VGA mode in fold open mode only and not in twist mode...

what about the Ericsson R520?

i had this phone for ages... loved it.

The lack of 6600 concerns me

Steve - stereo smartphones - you're forgetting the Sendo X which was full stereo just after the N-Gage but way before the 6630. And what about the Siemens SX1 - wasn't that stereo as well (and came out before the N-Gage)

Yes, yes, AND I had a Sendo X (getting me worried now, was there a single device that I *haven't* owned?

But, like the N-Gage, it wasn't a mainstream device and represents perhaps more an evolutionary side alley. I was trying to point to devices that really have shaped what was to follow in an obvious and glorious way....

The 6630 was the first S60 phone with stereo output to sell in serious numbers (*ten million* plus, I'm estimating), whereas the N-Gage was (to buyers) all about the games and the Sendo X sold in comparatively low numbers - sadly.

An interesting and nostalgic list. These things can only ever be subjective, even with the best of intentions.

I would echo the earlier comment about the 6600. That handset really had an impact. I remember going from my 7650 to the 6600 and all my wishes made true. It was also a sexy looking device (I still have it, along with my two 7650's) and I remember getting very moist around the gusset when I was able to rip a DVD to a memory card and watch an entire movie on it 😊

Other than that, an interesting list and a good read.

Thanks Steve 😊

These are the phones I've actually paid money for. Consequently I think they must be my personal top 5. In chronological order they are:

1. The legendary Sendo X
It came with 3 fundamental faults:
Once the microphone got a bit of dust in it, it stopped working. People couldn't hear what you were saying LOL. Buying a replacement re-designed mic from SendoSmartphones solved that problem.

The firmware had a problem with IR. Use IR just once and it stayed on forever, flattening your battery really quickly all the time! Solution: Physically remove IR LEDs using a sharp pair of scissors and use bluetooth instead!

It's a perfect phone and music player, unfortunately due to a firmware or hardware problem it can't do both at the same time. Listen to music and it won't receive phone calls anymore LOL. I can live with this though, if I'm listening to music I don't really want to be interrupted anyway!

2. The P900

Another perfect phone. Absolutely nothing to complain about. It is perhaps a bit on the large size, which can be an issue sometimes. Of course since then Sony Ericsson haven't been able to release a UIQ phone anything like as good (P910 excluded obviously).

3. The N70

The best of the S60V2 phones IMO.

4. The E60

Perfect hi-res screen, perfect keypad. Slightly buggy OS (well it does run the first version of S60V3)

5. The N82

Super fast and has a great QVGA screen, and finally a S60 phone with a decent camera. I'm getting used to the awkward D-Pad, slowly. Crashes ocassionally though. Hopefully some more firmware updates are on the way and will fix those.

I am an E70 fan - I just wonder if Nokia is going to come out with a sequel? Does anybody know?

My goodness, what a time trip and so crazy that i have owned 6 of the phones in the list. I miss the 7650 that i got as a birthday gift back in 2001, it was truly a pioneer and we have come a long way since then.

Thanks Steve.

[SIZE="1"]p.s.. been following this industry for all these years and i don't have a blog. Need to start one pronto.[/SIZE]

Thanks Steve! Really great post...

I've owned 5 of the top ten. I totally agree with you, the N93 really was one of a kind. I should think that for the average user the N95 is a much better option, but for me, the awesome form factor and the video abilities just nudge it slightly beyond the N95 in my all time favourites Nokia's list.

Let's just hope that Nokia have the son of the N93 somewhere in the R&D labs!

James Burland wrote:
I've owned 5 of the top ten.

Me too. But my current E90 gets more use (and love) than any of my previous smartphones. Besides being packed with basically all the newest technology, the most revolutionary thing about the E90 is the 800 x 352 screen resolution. 😊

Steve, surprised no one noticed this, but the "read more" link to your article is broken. Thanks.

Lest we forget the Motorola A1000, motos phones had been featurewise very good, the a920/925 was the first symbian phone with 3G, videocalling and aGPS, but the A1000 was smaller than the P900 (with flip), and with a few tweaks, way ahead of the game:

Opera 7.5 included flash, tabbed browsing, SSL and FTP
AGPS works now with google maps, and other programs for geocaching - standard JAVA API
Haptic feedback on the dial screen! Something that is sorely missing from most touchscreen phones
One of the first mega pixel cameraphones
Good battery life for once - 1600Mah battery
The first phone to use microSD (transflash at the time)
COMPLETE one handed use with seethru keyboard and handy day
A true gamers layout for a phone, widescreen display with joypad on left and 5 buttons available on the right-hand side (6 if you count the touchscreen) - picodrive runs well with sound in this layout
Perhaps the best stereo speakers you can get on a phone
Standard (well for winmobile phones and a few others) 2.5" headphone jack
Screen rotation for watching videos and web browsing
Slide to lock the phone, again an absolute essential but missing from most phones
Picsel viewer for msoffice/pdf/zip/jpg/txt/html viewing, you can set bookmarks for use as a book reader, even on pdfs (which render better than nearly every other mobile pdf viewer), and with screen rotation
One of the first symbian phones to have a Home screen (and is also customisable)

I have used a lot of the new phones (Kaiser, N95 etc) but, bar the camera and the lack of car navigation software for the built-in gps I find that they very rarely measure up in terms of day to day use and have sold every new phone I've gotten with a contract.

nice list, but I do think that it's incomplete somehow... like where is the 6600? It was one of the most, if not the most popular, smartphone of its time. It should've been there.

the 6120c should've been included there too - currently being the smallest ever s60 smartphone.

the n93 was nice, but certainly, it wasn't that much of a best seller "enough" to be called a 'classic' smartphone.

cheers!

It certainly is not one of the most spectacular devices mentioned in this thread, but I love it too pieces, it just does it's job so professionally (and not much more) I am not looking forward to the expiration of my current GSM subscription. At present I would not know what to swap it with ;(

I too believe that 6600 was legendary phone too,its somehow missing in list.And how come w960 made it to the list, it has a very dull screen, Ui is very laggy, Takes too much time to boot.

difenbaker wrote:
the 6120c should've been included there too - currently being the smallest ever s60 smartphone.

The e51 from nokia is smaller, has wifi, double the free ram, a metal case and better battery life much more deserving of being on the list than the 6120 classic.

nice review..
i agree with most of them..
i wonder if N96 would make it the next time

Good to see so many comments.

As people have said its always going to be a bit subjective. Its also interesting to see how far we have come.

I think I'd have included the A920 - amazing for its time - first time I really got what 3G could do for a mobile, and the 7110 - UI and some design ideas were ahead of its time. I think there's a place for 6600 as it was the first really popular S60 phone, but on the other the further forward we move its harder to pick out one phone because their are sister models (e.g. 6600, 7610, 6670 or N95, N95 8GB). It also depends on what you look at - the E70 stands out as a great piece of design (but it had been done before by Nokia), similarly the N-Gage QD was well designed for its purpose, but let down in a number of ways... I might also recall the X800 which was impressively small for its time... the SX1 managed to stand out with an interesting keyboard.

I have a soft spot for the P800 though. It was the must have geek phone and broke new gorund in a way that very few phones do.

You don't need a top 10, you need a top 1 - the 6120 Classic. Quite how you could have left that off I don't know. Soon to be shoved into 2nd place by the 6220 Classic.

Unregistered wrote:You don't need a top 10, you need a top 1 - the 6120 Classic. Quite how you could have left that off I don't know. Soon to be shoved into 2nd place by the 6220 Classic.

No, no, you've missed the point of the article. I was looking for devices that combined innovation with technological style. The 6120 Classic is a good example of device that's *superb* as an evolved, mature smartphone, but, size-apart, it didn't break any new ground or do anything to set it apart. In fact, its very anonymity in geek circles almost disqualify it from consideration 8-)

Steve