The Quest for the Perfect Form Factor

I agree with the spec's you've mentioned. However, to create MY perfect 'form factor' i'd essentially want to see something like the i8910 (or Toshiba's upcoming offering) with the N97's hinge and the E90's 'proper' keyboard.

I've used the 5800's, N810's, Viewty's, etc virtual keyboard and they just don't 'do it' for me. I don't like the loss of screen space while typing either.
The physical keyboards on the E71, Curve/Bold, Treo are just too small for me. (my idea of hell would be trapped with the Pearls keyboard!!!), so the Pre is simply a non-starter for me.

The E75's keyboard is better, but is like the Motorola's (RAZR) type buttons. Somewhere between real and 'virtual'.

So give me a tablet style phone, with large screen, and slide down/N97 keyboard.

Just my 2c.

�Perfect form factor� is a misnomer because form factor has more to do with perception that perfection!!!

Again, my choice of the perfect form factor would be the walky-talky from the Original Star-Trek Series which opened with a �Click�, It some how amused me that N97 made the same click when opened.

Shall we say, �History repeats� or �Futures calling�. You decide�..

Suju.

Contentious subject indeed 😉

Because we are talking about devices that *must* have physical keys, and haptics are not that advanced beyond vibrating the entire device, I would say that the HTC Touch Pro/N97 are about as close to making everyone happy as things get.

If I had my call though, the Nintendo DSi would probably be best. Fewer buttons, dual screens, folding, etc. You kind of get everything there except the keyboard.

I think that the OLPC 2 will end up being the best (don't remember if it will have haptics or not). But that dual screen book-like mode will pretty much natch it for just about everyone.

It's got to fit easily into a jeans pocket and be strong enough to survive a head to concrete drop, or it just isn't mobile.

I'm holding out for something like an E90 with an internal touchscreen. The N97 is no good because the outside lacks a numeric keypad. The E90 is no good because it doesn't have a touchscreen, which makes web browsing and lots of other things too fiddly.

For me the Palm Prē-like form does it, big touch screen with slide out vertical qwerty keyboard.

iPhone with slightly improved spec gigantic step for apple their first fm radio device ever !!!!! MAN THEY SURE SUCK ALL HAIL ACME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What a lovely picture of the O2 XDA you have 😊

... and that's coming from a current (happy) E71 user and someone whose all-time favourite phone was the 9300 - but for all that those devices offered, the sheer pleasure of using an iPhone/iPod Touch interface really needs to be experienced to be understood.

The engagement with the device is immediate and intimate (odd word I know).

Typing is faster (especially in portrait) than I - an old-school hardware QWERTY guy - would ever have thought possible.

The flexibility offered by the big screen is worth the cost of getting used to yet another input method.

So, for those who generate a lot of content on their devices (text docs, spreadsheets etc) I'd say, try a capacitative slate in the future but NOT now: it can work but the problem is that on the best current example (iPhone) the software isn't there to do what we want to do.

The i8910 may fix that - if so, I'm off to Orange. iPhone 3 in June may fix that - QuickOffice in the AppStore, perhaps.

But I'm worried about the absence of multi-touch on the i8910 (BTW, how does the pictured 3D FPS work with only one-finger to control movement?). iPhone's battery and multi-tasking are weak and, while the N97 looks good, I've never found resistive screens to be responsive enough (although to be fair, the TyTn II and N810 were the last ones I tried for any length of time).

In short: the slate is the future.

Steve - I need that i8910 review. Holding off on a new phone is killing me!

Finally, because I don't post often: thanks for the site and, especially, the podcasts: always informative and often funny too (especially those moments where you can almost hear Steve's eyes rolling at another Ewan pun!)

i feel that having a full touch screen is great, for apps, but when it comes to real usage it isn't anywhere as near as good as having a keyboard

using the bb storm is great for standard phone usage even emails and sms are great on it, better in my view than on the iphone. but when i go on the internet the browser just lets it down compared to the likes of the nokia s60 3rd edition browser where i can just scroll to and click on what i want.

the best design so far for me is the sony ercisson p1 which had both touch screen and keyboard, i know a lot of people prefere the p910 where you had a full screen, with the flip keyboard attachment if you wanted. but the full qwerty split in half made typing far faster than anyhting else i have used.

im waiting on the palm pre where we have the full touch screen to do stuff as you can on the g2 and iphone, but with the option of the qwerty for us old fashioned people who just like the feel of a keyboard allowing us to type quickly

I think P990 (without the flip of course) and P1 have the prefect form factor. they both have qwerty (yes a bit tiny but fully functional) and touchscreen(2.8" isn't enough?) and they can be called candy bar with no moving parts too!. what more do you want steve?

Personally, I'd take issue with UKJeeper
as the "sliding keyboard" of the TyTN 2/ N97/ N810 WASTES a lot of keyboard space for *NO DISCERNABLE BENEFIT*!
The E90, slightly WIDER, i.e. about 6.5/7 cm with a touchscreen that comes as close to the edges as possible , without losing the internal VidCam, would be preferable.
I was of the firm opinion that the licensed Psion hinge of the Psion 5/ Revo was a design classic that could never be matched but must say that apart from the "click" as it changes mode, the E90 has a very elegant facsimile.
Thus I'd want a Wider, flatter (less 'brick-like'😉 E90 with an internal WVGA Touchscreen and configurable UI that allows the selection of both larger icons for finger-driven navigation and smaller UI elements/ "buttons" for those of us that prefer to use the Stylus for more PDA-style usage.
The OMAP 3 with the attendant Cortex and associated coprocessors should be mandatory like the Samsung i8910 HD, and the internal flash memory of at least 32 GB should be matched with a 512 MB of RAM, leaving about 372 of RAM free after booting-up. "Demand Paging" should be implemented , and the option of allocating more memory to e.g. the web browser should be user-configurable (within reasonable parameters).
The outer screen could be the e75 or even n95 one but doesn't neeed touch.

Based on the points raised - it seems we need a combination of the form factors.

How about this:
Updated version of the i8910 with 32gb RAM, slide sliding keyboard and detachable front keypad (think like the P800).

Or you can do the same thing with slightly larger keyboard (ala E90) - outside keypad, inside display touch + full keyboard (think Series 60 5th edition E90) but with more memory and CPU.

I agree with the proposed form factor of the future. But knowing how man thinks and our usual dislike of all being the same. There will always be many form factors for the masses. And believes as which today that depending on what and how you plan to use it, will ultimately decide the form factor you choose.

As a steady Nokia user : 9210 > 9500 > E90 , I am of course prejudiced , but I like the lonMID formfactor , including Touchscreen , and a LOT of keys !
http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/11/lonmid-m100-is-a-giant-smartphone-or-tiny-netbook-you-choose/

 Regards jApi NL

I agree that one of the best forms is the d s which has 2 touch screens. The phone I want is an evolution of the n 93 with 2 large touch screens (one capacitive one rsistive) both playing to their strenghts. this layout gives you the needed angled screen for viewing and the proper layout for handheld video recording. the seperate lens and camera module after 4 years develoment should easily match the omnia hd.

Personally I'd say the ideal form factor is held by the E90, with it's large internal screen and physical keyboard. Turn that screen into a touchscreen for art packages and the like and it's the ultimate for mobile web users these days. For sleekness sake I'd have to get rid of the "phone" on the outer shell though and make it a bit thinner depth-wise.

Feature-wise it needs the specs of the i8910 at least.

Steve, I'm very surprised that you had no mentioning of the N93 (N91/N92), the very phone you used to film many of your earlier smartphone shows. That phone has the perfect form factor.

Imagine that phone update with modern technology. The design of those phone allow a "full" camera lens/optic on the swivel part. So you know it will have the best camera/video.

The front of the phone can be a full touch display with that can be rotated to many possible angles.

The internal keypad can be updated to a qwerty keypad. If you've ever hacked the phone to play N-Gage or just playing any games, you know it is fabulous.

The N91/N92/N93; those phones are the perfect form factor. Nokia just need to update them to a bigger touch display, put in a qwerty keypad and trim it down a bit.

I'm going slightly off-topic here but oh well.
I'm not so sure resistive has all that much to do with sunlight legibility. The best screen i've used EVER with regards to this is a 7 year old device. Namely the p800. And it had a resistive touch screen. It was so good at reflecting ambient light it didn't even have a backlight. It used some kind of strange front lighting technique.

I'm going slightly off-topic here but oh well.
I'm not so sure resistive has all that much to do with sunlight legibility. The best screen i've used EVER with regards to this is a 7 year old device. Namely the p800. And it had a resistive touch screen. It was so good at reflecting ambient light it didn't even have a backlight. It used some kind of strange front lighting technique.

LG prada II vs N97? Both have very similar formfactor. Though in OS there could be a large difference...

@unregistered [insert obligatory moan about unregistered people posting here]

The N93 was indeed special in many ways. But elegant and mass market it wasn't. I remember talking to a Nokia service engineer who basically ran away screaming whenever he saw someone coming in with an N93 - they were a NIGHTMARE to service and repair. All that twisting and folding made for an incredibly complex device.

One advantage of the tablet form factor is that there are almost no moving parts whatsoever. Simpler servicing, greater reliability, greater elegance. And I speak as an N93 fan.

As a recent convert from N95+Blackberry to N95+iPhone I can say with confidence:

1. The full screen slate form factor is fabulous for most tasks
2. The supposedly best in class virtual keyboard is no match for a good thumboard (although that might be because I can type unusually fast and accurately on my Blackberry)
3. The virtual keyboard concept falls down completely if you need to create a spreadsheet on the fly. Now I know that not everyone needs to do that, but i find it very hard to keep switching between the sheet view and the little editor box which is all I can see when the keyboard is popped up. Given that spreadsheets are an important part of most businesses this is something that manufacturers should bear in mind when encouraging users to leave the laptop at home and rely on the mobile to get the job done.

With all that said I have to say I would probably switch to the iPhone as a standalone device if the battery was up to a full day of calls and push email, and if the signal strength was better (and I could move it onto Vodafone to use my company SIM). I would miss the multitasking but I think I could live with it.

there are lots of ways to skin a cat. but they all have to achieve the same thing.

we still have lots of different types of car but they, almost all, have 4 wheels and a steering wheel. so for phones I guess almost all of us like a touchscreen. hopefully that will become standard. but some of us want a keyboard (big, small, slide, fold, etc) too. no problem we're getting them.

maybe two main types of device then. the tablet and the keyboard. both with touchscreens. let's see how it goes.

however, keyboard and touchscreen hasn't worked for laptops (yet), a touchpad near the keyboard has been more useful. netbooks and slide out qwerty phones are pretty close to each other though in size and form. we'll see.

anybody for a kindle-a-like?

The one thing I can't understand and regret is why so few of the 'slate' devices have a D-pad, for quickly moving through forms, lists etc, and of course for games. Surely that would fit without having to enlarge the device?
Especially for a non-multitouch device it seems like a must-have. For me it is (next to the flash) the biggest argument against the OmniaHD.

OF COURSE we've reached the perfect form factor. The perfect form factor is the one that's right for you. And as people have a variety of different needs and use cases, it requires a variety of different form factors (and hardware and software specs). Nuff said.

If ever there was a non-article, this is it.

Odd that UKJeeper states " to create MY perfect 'form factor' i'd essentially want to see something like the i8910 (or Toshiba's upcoming offering) with the N97's hinge and the E90's 'proper' keyboard.

I've used the 5800's, N810's, Viewty's, etc virtual keyboard and they just don't 'do it' for me. I don't like the loss of screen space while typing either.
The physical keyboards on the E71, Curve/Bold, Treo are just too small for me. (my idea of hell would be trapped with the Pearls keyboard!!!), so the Pre is simply a non-starter for me.

The E75's keyboard is better, but is like the Motorola's (RAZR) type buttons. Somewhere between real and 'virtual'."

Thus he admits the real-world limitations of most of the 'keyboards' offered as well as the fact that he'd prefer a physical to virtual type but then concludes
"So give me a tablet style phone, with large screen, and slide down/N97 keyboard"!!.

I find this bizarre as it is obvious that around *half* of the available Keyboard space is 'wasted' in the open configuration of the slider format and thus the keyboard is ***necessarily truncated**** to allow for it!
Compare the keyboards of the Nokia n810 or HTC TyTN2 to the E90's for proof and then consider that the E90 is only 57 mm wide as opposed to the n810's 72mm!
An improved e90 with the processor, flash memory (and MicroSD expansion slot), HSUPA, 5/8 Mpix camera, WVGA resolution touchscreen of 4.3-4.8 inches, running improved S60 5th Ed or the new Symbian Foundation OS is the way forward.
The e90 is also likely to be far more robust than the N97 (hinges, screen ribbon), to say nothing of the outer screen and keypad.
What is sure is that the N97 can only ever be a "placeholder" for the upgraded E90!

however, keyboard and touchscreen hasn't worked for laptops (yet), a touchpad near the keyboard has been more useful. netbooks and slide out qwerty phones are pretty close to each other though in size and form. we'll see.

May I point you to a splendid device with the best ever pocketable qwerty keyboard and a touchscreen, running [strike]Symbian[/strike] EPOC?

maartenmk wrote:The one thing I can't understand and regret is why so few of the 'slate' devices have a D-pad, for quickly moving through forms, lists etc, and of course for games. Surely that would fit without having to enlarge the device?
Especially for a non-multitouch device it seems like a must-have. For me it is (next to the flash) the biggest argument against the OmniaHD.

Seconded - Many people like to use their phones as mp3 players - you shouldn't have to look at the screen just to change tracks or adjust the volume!
Similarly a hardware lock switch is essential to ensure you can avoid looking at the screen.
If we're on the subject of games, analogue control is used on consoles and computers, just hasn't been solved for mobile devices yet. Shoulder buttons located where a phone's volume control is normally placed are a good addition as per most gaming controllers.

Unsuprisingly, if you add volume controls, a dpad and hardware lock switch, you arrive at a formfactor similar to the a1000, still one of the best formfactors without a qwerty keyboard.