For a personal companion such as a
mobile phone that not only spends over twelve hours each day with you but also
is something you depend completely, it better be something good. However, the
definition of ‘good’ when contextualized for a person like me, occupies a
broader meaning. Apart from being great in terms of performance, it needs to be
aesthetically appealing and intuitive as well. This was my expectation from
Nokia 701.
Something I hate to do with any new
product is to check the user manual to understand how to go about using it.
Even if this guide is in the form of an interactive video, I would happily
skip. The reason being that these manuals are written as if talking to
heartless robots, while the videos seem like nursery rhymes. I prefer
experimenting with my new gadgets till the time I have explored it to my heart’s
content. This also adds the feeling of discovery.
I did the same with the Nokia 701. The
test was to check the usage videos at the end of the week to see if I had
managed to figure out all by myself. Only then could I consider the interface
as ‘intuitive’. By the end of the second day itself, Nokia 701 had cleared the
test successfully when I checked the manual to see if there’s anything more
still left to discover.
Here’s a gist of what the experience was
like:
Firstly, the new Symbain Belle interface
appeals to the eye. The icons, the wall-papers, the screen-savers along with
the layout both at header menu and within the tabs appear clean with nothing
out of place and jarring.
What struck me next is the motion and
the touch capability. It seems to understand the difference between a touch to
open an application verses one that is meant for moving around the interface. Such
was the pleasure that I derived out of rambling through the icons that I ended
up scrolling the icons on the menu page aimlessly when lost in thoughts. While
playing the motion sensitive ‘Ashphalt 5’ (which comes along with this phone)
and using the phone as the steering wheel of the car, there is hardly any other
gaming experience that comes anywhere close to it.
What I loved most about the interface as
a whole is the intuitive manner in which it behaves. While using the phone, whenever
I would feel the need for something, such as finding out a file which I
downloaded, checking the network status, opening an alternative window on the
browser, etc., I didn’t feel the need of checking out the manual for it. I
found all the options where I thought they should ideally have been.
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