Celebrating the Dozen Best Built Symbian-powered smartphones - ever

moonshot wrote:You have missed the point.................. you should be able to get the phone that can do what you want, when you want without it costing what it does cost. But while you are willing to pay inflated prices for what is after all only a phone with a cut down pc, games machine, iplayer and camera built in, then Nokia and others will be happy to take your money.

I think moonshot is missing the point from at least 2 points of view. First if you buy all those devices it will cost you much more and secondary you just can not put all of them in one pocket, sorry. If you have in mind some small device with all mentioned features for less money, please share with the community

Gotta vote for the i8510 - have put it on ebay twice and pulled it - still prefer it to my i8910 - I think you could run a jumbo over it its so well built- and the performance was really improved when the software was (finally) updated

The old Nokia 6630 should be in this list. It is not only one of the first of its generation (3G Symbian with a camera) but it is also built like a tank.

Mine has lasted almost 5 years. It still works great and has zero problems despite being very scratched. My productivity increased a lot.

Right now it's definitely obsolete and I just bought a Nokia E72.

Now where is the S**t-list? Would be fun to have the top 10 worst built phones

-Fred

daos wrote:I think moonshot is missing the point from at least 2 points of view. First if you buy all those devices it will cost you much more and secondary you just can not put all of them in one pocket, sorry. If you have in mind some small device with all mentioned features for less money, please share with the community

Those original devices do the job they were built for much better than a 'jack of all trades device'.

Anyway the original point was; Nokia can build and sell the 5530 for �129.00. What is the N97 mini giving extra that is worth the additional �270.00?

Steve...

N86 ?????

Yes, we know from my Tweets, that my own experience with the N86 has been nothing short of the worst disaster for any Nokia phone I have ever owned, but in fairness, these predominantly relate to the software.

But when talking about the best BUILT phones, and you include this, I am quite staggered...

You see, build wise, the N86 has lots of flaws that not just I am experience, even Tim Salmon attests to many of these...

• Wobbly slider. Far improved from old n95 days, but Nokia STILL do not know how to make a solid slider, that most other manufactures have been doing for at least four years now. Trust me - if I slide it open, then press down on the top part, just underneath the D-Pad, I can readily play clackety-clack tunes with my phone for people's amusement. And this is a well protected N86 that lives in a Lowepro Shockproof case.
• Poor D-Pad. My D-pad is such that the lower edge only, not the top or sides, the slight lip that runs all around the d pad edge - my bottom one is rough, jagged, and almost sharp even. Very poor.
• Rock solid pressure needed to press keys. Tim Salmon knows all about this, but he seems to only equate it to earlier models. My mate just got one last week, new to Virgin so thus not sitting on a warehouse shelf for ages, and his is the same as mine - the keys are not just nice and firm... on the contrary, after a while, they give you serious RSI when trying to type. They are far too HARD to press.
• Dust inside - and I know why - see next issue...
• Misaligned upper glass layer. My top surface glass layer that covers the top of the phone completely - mine is misaligned. If you hold it to the light so you can see it, I can clearly see that along the right hand side of my phone, where the glass surface layer should touch up the the slightly higher raised lip or bevel that runs around the phone - there is a 1mm gap. The other side, over the left though, the glass is pushed against the bevel. This gap on the right is clearly were the dust is entering my phone, and contaminating the screen. I can carefully press down, for pressure/grip, on the glass, and push it over to the right, to make it flush. But as soon as I let go, it moves back to the original position - clearly the glue or whatever, is fixed to the offset position alas.
• D-Pad again. Mine clacks now (not when properly pressed - just when pressing it enough to make contact with the phone surface as it were). So coupled with the loose slider, it makes for a very musical phone, so at least I can play tunes on it to amuse people.

Indeed, whilst it feels rather 'solid' in the hand, this is due to the generous use of metal parts. But that doesn't mean mine, or many others, are of great build quality.

Indeed, after this N86, I am convinced that I will never again own any Nokia other than a mono-block, as Nokia have still not got the slider right - far from it.

I only relented and went with a slider this time, as that is what Nokia, in their foolish wisdom, have decided to give us, for their flagship camera-centric phone.

How stupid is it, that for a camera orientated device, they build it into a SLIDER, not a MONOBLOCK. Mmmm.

Anyway, I digress - I sound biased, but honestly I am not. My friend with a brand new Virgin N86 is unhappy with the build quality, many others have said the same, and Tim Salmon has posted on here before about the keypad issues.

So I'm please for you yourself that you consider YOURS to be so great of build, as do others too to be fair.

But please be mindful that such praise, from the praiseworthy as yourself, will tempt many into a similar direction, and I worry that this would be a bit unkind to them, when they might well find their real world experience, vastly different to your own alas.

EDIT - to add my E51 Experiences...

Mmm E51... Loved that phone, apart from one major issue I had..

My first E51... there was a 2-3mm gap between the front and back parts, around the side, that started flush as it should have been, on the right, but as it ran up around, and over to the other side, ended up a good 2mm wide gap.

The first was therefore returned straight away, for a doorstep T-Mobile exchange.

When that arrived, this new one was even worse.

So I took it back to an actual T-Mobile store, where they opened up the only one they had, and it too was the same.

So I was (foolishly) advised to keep mine, and just take it to a Nokia Care Centre. Which I did, and after a week, they rang to say they wouldn't even touch it, and it would have to go to Nokia.

It was therefore sent to Nokia, who sent it back "No Fault Found" (morons).

I therefore had to send it BACK to Nokia again, with a full covering letter.

This time, it came back EVEN worse, but to try and cover for their failings, they had replaced the front silver metal, with the black metal fascia one instead (thus making mine some kind of hybrid speciality - not a black one, nor a silver one, but bits of both - and this being NOKIA THEMSELVES, not a Care Centre - so your getting my picture as to what I think of Nokia UK Care, yes...)

This was therefore sent back with the threat of legal action... To no avail, because the recorded delivery legal action letter was sent to the wrong address, as Nokia had given me their OLD UK HQ address - this just gets better and better.

Finally after sending a Letter of Notice Before Action to Nokia UK correct address, they relented and let me choose from a new alternative handset, AND keep the E51.

Result eh! Er no, because I kid you not - the N82 they sent me (NEW, not refurb), was D.O.A. - just wouldn't even switch on.

And this being at the end of the N82 production cycle, they could not source me a replacement N82.

So instead, they eventually decided to offer me an E90 instead. FINALLY - RESULT...???

Erm it arrived damaged - but to be fair, we could see that already, as the box was mangled - it was a Royal Mail fault, not a Nokia one. The box was totally destroyed, and the phone inside was damaged too.

So a replacement one had to be sent.

And eventually, I ended up with an E90 that is still solid and reliable now.

But only after the utterly ridiculous, utterly farcical situation described above, which doesn't even mention the twenty odd phone calls to Nokia, promises of fifteen FAILED return of calls, FIVE recorded Delivery letter, and being sworn at twice (yes honestly), by some afro-Caribbean sounding employee of Nokia Care, down the telephone.

So if Damian Dinning is wondering why I haven't taken my problematic N86 to a Nokia Care Centre, maybe after reading that, he might understand, and have the UK Product Manager arrange something a bit more direct, to try and resolve my current N86 issues (bearing in mind, that to the latter end of my tale above, this is what I was in effect then doing with Nokia for that case, personal one ot one correspondence, and that didn't make things go much smoother anyhow).

So E51...? Not on my list of solid builds, but I know I was the unlucky one (again), but I will sure add the E90 as one of the all-time solid Nokias, and indeed also perhaps the plasticky, but solid (lasting), N82.

Wow. That's a tale of woe! You, sir, are a one man Nokia disaster area!!

I can only re-iterate that my N86 is built superbly in every detail. Again, it's possibly down to me having one of the first production run units, from Finland - I suspect that yours was from a later batch at some Asian factory? Anyway, I stuck it further down the list because of the different experiences of (some) others.

But yes, you were right to perservere. At �400, these devices should be nigh-on perfect in terms of hardware. Anything less is, rightly, to be thrown back at Nokia until they tighten their QA.

slitchfield wrote:Wow. That's a tale of woe! You, sir, are a one man Nokia disaster area!!

I can only re-iterate that my N86 is built superbly in every detail. Again, it's possibly down to me having one of the first production run units, from Finland - I suspect that yours was from a later batch at some Asian factory? Anyway, I stuck it further down the list because of the different experiences of (some) others.

But yes, you were right to perservere. At �400, these devices should be nigh-on perfect in terms of hardware. Anything less is, rightly, to be thrown back at Nokia until they tighten their QA.

Steve - very right and true - a lot of what you say makes good sense.

In brief, I should just point out, without going into inappropriate detail, that DD is trying to both resolve my N86 situation to my satisfaction, whilst at the same time, and arguably more importantly, trying to investigate the issues I am having with my particular phone (given that it is likely software based, not hardware).

So I won't say too much more, as it would be improper, but just to flag up the fact that Nokia (read DD), is bending over backwards to sort this all out, so well done to him for that, especially after all my tales of woe with it..