There's more than one perfect smartphone form factor

I used to be a touchscreen proponent back in the old Pocket PC days. These days my smartphone of choice is a simple candybar S60 device that does everything except having a large touchscreen display. The convenience of having a sub 100g device far outweighs the luxury of a large display - at least to this commentard.

All I know is that I came from a Palm TX, which I found hard to write on (using the Grafitti entry method) and whose touchscreen went haywire after about a year. So I'm extremely happy with my Nokia E71 with it's keyboard that is just big enough, and noooo touchscreen. To each his or her own, I suppose.

I've been using N82. I have done about 2 months of research to find a proper replacement and have failed, and therefore I am sticking with it. I love the form factor, being able to slide it in and out of my front jeans pocket with incredible ease. It's become second nature to me. i don't even notice it. Then of course, it feels nice and solid in hand and I love the keypad. Optimal typing speed comes if I keep my thumb pointing to the side of the device rather than to its top (horizontal vs vertical), and the distance between the keys is minimal.... oh and did I forget to mention the camera 8-)?

Just wait and see that the new Android powered devices spread a little bit (Tattoo, Cliq/Dext/Samsung 5700) and the word of mouth between users to spread out and you will see Nokia run a little bit faster to catch up.
I've been a BIG Nokia fan till two months ago (N95 forever) but when I tried the HTC Hero I just fell in love and now I would never go back. And it's just the beginning, this are the first devices still far from perfect and what we will have in just few months is gonna change the market. I just hope Nokia will not be so blind to ignore this situation, the N97 (has been a big "passo falso". The N900 seems a big step forward but I wanna see it in real action before I judge.

Andoird UI reminds me of a desktop UI. It looks powerful, but really is clunky to use (and yes I have use one - HTC Magic - I returned it). I would rather have go through an iPhone than Android. It may be 'open', but the UI is really really dated. And this is supposed to be a modern OS...

Still my preference is still for none-touchscreen phones. Unless device makers can create a touchscreen phone with proper face buttons and a physical keypad that allows for easy one handed use, you won't see me buying one anytime soon.

I'm going to disagree this time. With every fibre in my being I believe that the classic smartphone form factor, with it's face buttons, side buttons and slide out keyboard is an evolutionary dead-end which will be truly dead and buried within 6 years.

Steve, you used your wife as an example, so I'm going to use mine. ^_^

She has loved pretty much every phone she has owned. To be fair, that's not really surprising as I choose them for her and she's a quick learner with a positive disposition. However, she doesn't really give much thought to what a more advanced smartphone will do for her, she leaves that to me.

Hence, with each new device she finds herself increasingly empowered. She didn't expect that to be the case, but that is in fact how things have turned out. Hence, my point is this; Every year my wife would say, "I don't need a new phone, I like the one I have", but then end up saying, "I really like my new phone, it's so much more useful then my last one".

Call me a zealot if you like, but for my money the iPhone form factor is the most useful. I don't need a plastic slide-out keyboard, and I certainly don't need a load of little buttons festooned all over the device. I just need a large multi-touch control surface, a slim form factor and some creative and powerful software.

I personally believe that this is what everybody wants... They just don't know they want it yet!

Of course this isn't the end of the story, this is bound to happen again and again, with each new user interface paradigm.

I am one of those who must have a physical qwerty keyboard, having migrated from a Treo 650 a few years ago, to the E71.
I've considered all the new and shiny smartphones on the market right now, and the only one that has caught my attention is the E72, a totally similar form factor to my favorite phone.

Not for me the larger brightest touch-screen that will last maybe a good day of moderate use, if lucky. I need my phone to last a few days between charging, and the E71 does that, up to four days on occasions!

> though the N900 is bigger, go measure it if you don't believe me

Let's look at the specs:
N97: 117.2mm x 55.3mm x 15.9mm
N900: 110.9mm x 59.8mm x 18mm

While it's thicker and larger, and also fairly less long. So you can't really say it's bigger, it's just size differently.

"...this is what everybody wants... They just don't know they want it yet!"

Ooh, James, that sounds *awfully* like something Steve Jobs might say..... 8-)

"There's more than one perfect smartphone form factor"

NO SH*T SHERLOCK!

Talk about stating the obvious.

For me, if the phone is not pocketable then it's not a comfortable carry-everywhere device, it's not a phone. This applies to iPhone, N97, N900 (fails very badly on depth). The 5800 is about as big as I would be prepared to carry, and I only tolerate that because of its incredible value for money.

If the 6700 classic had Wi-Fi then that is the perfect phone for me. And it has S40......

The portability of a phone cannot be measured by any one dimension, but what is impotant is the way it feels and sits in a pocket. If it goes into a jeans pocket and you can feel it restricting your leg movement then it's a fail.

I'm looking forward to trying a slim X6, and I am considering making feature sacrifices to carry a 6700. Depends on how the X6 feels.

My most important features are, portability, robustness and signal strength (ability to maintain connection at extreme range). Functional features are considered after these, and flashy gimmicks are at the bottom of the list.

So obviously the iPhone is a big fail for me as it majors on the gimmicks, so is the N97, N900 and the HTC Hero with that stupid bent chin. I would rather just carry a laptop than one of those monsters.

Jaggz wrote:I'm going to disagree this time. With every fibre in my being I believe that the classic smartphone form factor, with it's face buttons, side buttons and slide out keyboard is an evolutionary dead-end which will be truly dead and buried within 6 years.

Steve, you used your wife as an example, so I'm going to use mine. ^_^

She has loved pretty much every phone she has owned. To be fair, that's not really surprising as I choose them for her and she's a quick learner with a positive disposition. However, she doesn't really give much thought to what a more advanced smartphone will do for her, she leaves that to me.

Hence, with each new device she finds herself increasingly empowered. She didn't expect that to be the case, but that is in fact how things have turned out. Hence, my point is this; Every year my wife would say, "I don't need a new phone, I like the one I have", but then end up saying, "I really like my new phone, it's so much more useful then my last one".

Call me a zealot if you like, but for my money the iPhone form factor is the most useful. I don't need a plastic slide-out keyboard, and I certainly don't need a load of little buttons festooned all over the device. I just need a large multi-touch control surface, a slim form factor and some creative and powerful software.

I personally believe that this is what everybody wants... They just don't know they want it yet!

Of course this isn't the end of the story, this is bound to happen again and again, with each new user interface paradigm.

I shifted from a iPod Touch to a Cowon D2. (Smaller screen, chunky form factor, multiple (actually 2X the keys, but...) and little software (well, there IS flash on there, so I COULD, but I didn't bother getting any other software.) on board.)

That, and I still prefer my 5700 to my (supposed) replacement, LG Arena (because it was the cheapest with a decently specced camera), solely for the physical keys.

Can I say : I personally believe that having lots of physical keys is what everybody wants... They're just in denial!

ThomasHerve wrote:> though the N900 is bigger, go measure it if you don't believe me

Let's look at the specs:
N97: 117.2mm x 55.3mm x 15.9mm
N900: 110.9mm x 59.8mm x 18mm

While it's thicker and larger, and also fairly less long. So you can't really say it's bigger, it's just size differently.

N97 150 grams 88 cc
N900 181 grams 113 cc

It's bigger ~ 28%.

I would have disagreed with you at the start of this year, saying everyone should be buying iPhones or the like. But then I bought a slightly used, unlocked N95 8GB off of eBay. I originally bought it because my old phone was dying and I needed a smartphone for travelling. I have to say that despite the age of the design, the N95 has quite easily swallowed anything I threw at it. E-mail, podcasts, snapshots, my large contact list, it was if the N95 said, "Here let me take care of that." Adding Fring allows me to use Google Talk and Skype (great for when you're in a foreign country for a few days and don't want to buy a SIM). Although I miss the QWERTY keyboard from my old Treo, I don't actually care that the N95 doesn't have a touchscreen.

So yes, I definitely agree that not everyone needs an iPhone or N97 or N900. Eventually, most phones will probably have touchscreens, but that doesn't mean you need to go buy a new touch-driven phone now. There's plenty of smartphones that can fit your needs for hundreds less.

I don't quite get all this obsession with size amongst smartphone users... I mean, I get it for people that only need a simple feature phone to make calls and sms, but if you need more advanced features like decent web browsing, e-mail, documents, e-books etc. a big screen is most necessary and highly worth a bit more bulk, in my opinion.

In the late nineties when phones weren't that advanced the big craze was all about how tiny they could get, but now...? And especially for us smatphone users... Comparing a few millimeters here and a couple of dozen grams there and then saying that one phone is a 'brick' compared to the other, saying things like: 'I'd rather just carry my laptop' is plain ridiculous in my book.

As for pocketability, c'mon... All those phones mentioned are perfectly pocketable. For my past 8-9 years of using smartphones (which includes phones, or 'bricks' like the P800, 9300, E61, E90), the only one I really found too uncomfortable to carry in my pocket was the Nokia 9500 Communicator - but its little brother the 9300 was perfect.

I currently us the evilPhone (jailbroken, of course) which is one of my most comfortable smartphones to carry in a pocket because of its thinness and its smooth form - more comfortable than my N95 8GB. But again, that is far from the most important thing form me. The poor battery life, though, is very much exaggerated as it easily outperforms my N95 8GB. Not to mention signal strength... A couple of weeks ago, at my cabin with poor coverage, my girlfriends E75 (on the exact same operator as me and even the same plan) got 0-1 signal bars, while my iPhone got 3-4 (2 at worst)... Sorry, just had to clarify some of (the many) misconceptions regarding the iPhone hatred floating around here...

Anyway, I am a bit sick, well a lot sick actually, of Apple's 'Big Brother' (dear I say nazi-like) restrictions and as such I am looking forward to the N900 or possibly one of the new Androids coming. 😊 Right now there is sadly nothing out on the market that I find remotely interesting as a replacement, so my old 3G will have to do for a while longer.

Interesting article, Steve. I thought it was just me!

I agree with what you're saying - whilst the iPhone is an awesome piece of technology and the N900 and HD2 also look brilliant they're just too big. To me a phone should be ergonomical in that it fits comfortably in one hand, can be operated with one hand and stored away easily. All my mates with iPhone's, N97's, Storms and i8910s all look like they're pecking away at one of Moses' tablets with theirs!

That's why I've stuck with my 5800. Sure, it's a bit plasticky and the screen isn't a sensitive as some of the others (although debranding it and installing the v31 firmware seems to have sharpened it up considerably) but it's a great phone, comfortable in the hand and does absolutely everything I want. As such I think my next phone will be the X6 which is really just an evolution of the 5800.

It reminds me of the craze in the late 90's for smaller and smaller phones which culminated in the 8300 (I think). It was tiny and virtually unusable but very fashionable. Strangely enough it's the same friends who had those phones who now have iPhones.

The phone industry seems driven by fashion - one year it's tiny phones, the next clamshells, the next tablets - but they always seem to come back to the hand sized, candybar format unit. I'm not sure the latest trend will be any different.

"Ooh, James, that sounds *awfully* like something Steve Jobs might say..... 8-)"

True, true. You know me, I tend to trust Steve's judgement in these things. He does have a pretty amazing track record so far.

I've entered this post into my iCal and set an annual alarm, I'll check back in 2010 and see how things are progressing on this front. I've been doing this for the last couple of years with all sorts of mobile related blog posts, I have to say, the future is not that difficult to predict. Computers will get smaller and faster, displays will get brighter and more detailed, user interfaces will become more natural and more human... so if a device, or indeed a series of devices, don't fit into that progression then it's safe to say that they probably won't be around in 5 years.

I think of it like this. The slide-out keyboard on the N97 and N900 is taking up valuable space and resources that could otherwise be channel towards other features such as a bigger display or larger battery. Basically, each feature on any smartphone/pocket computer in a fight, a fight for survival. Every feature must prove its right to exist, and right now I don't hold up much hope for a physical keyboard.

Ah, I love threads like this one Steve, it really gets the synapses firing!

ThomasHerve wrote:> though the N900 is bigger, go measure it if you don't believe me

Let's look at the specs:
N97: 117.2mm x 55.3mm x 15.9mm
N900: 110.9mm x 59.8mm x 18mm

While it's thicker and larger, and also fairly less long. So you can't really say it's bigger, it's just size differently.

what about me?
I am faced with an upgrade in new year have used Palm Psion Clie XDA E70 and now Tytn2 Psion Clie and E70 were outstanding in terms or reliability but I find the TYTN web experience better than E70
I use Google Calendar 5 appointment a day on average ,Mail perhaps 10 mobile postings per day , Maps, and would like to use sat nav I think touch screen but am not sure and would like to find a good to do / planning app I likes the e70 keyboard better than the Tytn

tempted by android because of Google link but have always found Nokia to be most reliable my Tytn is getting really flakey as it comes to the end of its 2 year contract - three refirbs in 4 months
help

It is interesting that none of the users mentioned in this article, with the possible exception of the "student" who has over 100 apps on his N95, seems to be a smartphone user. They use their phones for basic tasks, such as calling, texting, picture taking and Web browsing. Even the gentleman with the E71 does seem to use it as a regular phone, albeit the one with a QWERTY keyboard. These use cases can be easily (and in some cases better) addressed by any number of "dumbphones" by any manufacturer. These users do fit a profile of a typical Nokia S60 user (most of them are not geeks), who has a smartphone but is not using 1/10th of its capability, instead using at as a regular phone. They buy these phones because "it's a Nokia!", or because they were suggested by relatives, friends, or coworkers, not because they understand or need the phone's capabilities. I'm reminded of this fact every time I see an old lady standing in the checkout line and talking to her grand kids on her Nokia N96.

I don't want a phone that is wider than 50mm. I want it to be very easy to hold and put in pockets, and I don't feel the larger touch devices fit into that category.

Got myself an E52 last week, and is extremely pleased about it, on all accounts, like the size, keypad and features.

Yeah, I quite agree with last poster. I have junior colleague at work who I noticed had new phone. She said as I picked it up "you won't like it as it's not an iPhone" (which is my phone). It was a n97. I said I thought it was a good phone but had problems with software that needed the new update. I slid out the keyboard and said "good for typing". Answer "never use it". I said "good camera" answer "never use it" etc. All she wanted to use phone for was as a phone or to txt. As she said "I bought nokia as I always have because I know how to use (txt and phone) with a nokia. It's got some
things on screen like an iPhone so, someday, i'll get out manual to see how to use them"

I fully agree that there must be a variety of devices to meet the needs and preferences of different people with different requirements.

When people but cars they buy what they need or just want whether it be a mini, 4 by 4, sports car etc. For too long the computer market has had far too little choice. This is great for IT managers as they hate making choices and having to stand by the consequences of their decisions. But for the consumer its a bit like saying you can buy any car you like as long as its in the Ford Escort range!

Lets hope the smart-phone market never ends up in that rut!

About what devices are geek devices I'm not too sure. I think it depends upon use. I would not describe a PC as a geek device as most people only use them for a few basic functions but they can be in a technical way by geeks. Similarly I would not describe an Iphone as a geek device as most people only use the basic functionality. However a jail breaked Iphone probably is getting towards making it a geeks device. The Maemo devices in concept, I would also put in this category is it has a very pretty consumer appealing interface and the basic functionality is not to my mind Geeky. OK its mainly for landscape use at the moment but at the end of the day that just a consumer option. You can use it in a more technical way but you have to make a conscious decision to install the applications use it in that way.

In reality I think the N900 is lacking in some basic functionality to make it a popular/ non geeky device but the son of N900 could well be different.

From the Nokia N900 to the HTC HD2, I'm seeing a groundswell of opinion turning against smaller, slightly simpler smartphones - but I contend that what you're seeing and reading isn't even close to being representative of the mass market and that, as usual (and I know because I'm one of them) the geeks are skewing all the analysis towards faster, bigger, flashier...

I think you're quite right that feature phones are and will continue to be more popular than smartphones. The much friendlier price tag, battery life and ease of use to name the main reasons why.

I'm happy with manufacturers pushing the envelope with smartphones though. If they traditionally just dished out what "regular consumers" said was "all they wanted in a phone" then there would be no SMS, cameras, MMS, Email, Mobile web of any kind.

10 years ago my mum said all she wanted was a phone to make calls. "None of this SMS rubbish, why would I want to write to someone when I could talk to them?".

5 years ago she said "I just need calls and texts, why would I want a camera in my pocket all day long?".

2 years ago: "Just calls, texts and a camera would be nice if it has a flash, why would I need to go on the internet? I only need to check my emails a few times a week."

Now she has a new phone and uses it to check her emails and facebook everyday. But that's all she'll ever need right? ... right?

She doesn't use the latest and greatest, but she reaps the benefits of them down the line.

Unregistered wrote:10 years ago my mum said all she wanted was a phone to make calls.

Oh dear god! I used a woman as an example of someone not technically inclined... The feminists are gonna kill me... goodbye cruel world.

If someone browses web and makes photos and in particular videos on e51, then definitely it has to be a true geek with excellent eyesight. Or a masochist, but I suppose it does not apply to Steve's wife.

Top Ten reasons N97 owners are not jealous (and have buyers remorse) over the N900:

1.
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5.
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10.

😊

Let's all just buy a Nokia 5730 and be done with it! =D

Raven wrote:I don't quite get all this obsession with size amongst smartphone users... I mean, I get it for people that only need a simple feature phone to make calls and sms, but if you need more advanced features like decent web browsing, e-mail, documents, e-books etc. a big screen is most necessary and highly worth a bit more bulk, in my opinion.

In the late nineties when phones weren't that advanced the big craze was all about how tiny they could get, but now...? And especially for us smatphone users... Comparing a few millimeters here and a couple of dozen grams there and then saying that one phone is a 'brick' compared to the other, saying things like: 'I'd rather just carry my laptop' is plain ridiculous in my book.

As for pocketability, c'mon... All those phones mentioned are perfectly pocketable. For my past 8-9 years of using smartphones (which includes phones, or 'bricks' like the P800, 9300, E61, E90), the only one I really found too uncomfortable to carry in my pocket was the Nokia 9500 Communicator - but its little brother the 9300 was perfect.

.

I don't get that at all, the latest batch of popular touchscreen smartphones are only as big as they are because of the size of the adult finger, it's problem still to be solved in UI.

For any item that I expect to carry all the time, I don't wnat a huge chunky block. I wouldn't carry a giant housekey, or car key, and remember that a phone is in addition to a wallet (if you choose to carry a wallet, I don't). So, a reduction in size is a benefit that is very important to me. A clothes sagging, movement restricing slab like the iPhone is just not good enough. Phone companies must do better. Unless you have handbag of course.