GLOBAL – It’s here. My fifth and final day with a Series 40 phone. So far I’ve looked at setting up my emails, keeping up-to-date with my social networks, checking into locations and taking photos. All the things I do on a fairly regular basis with my Nokia N8 – a smartphone. Today I’ll continue to use the Nokia C3 Touch and Type for the final time, concluding with how I think a “dumbphone” isn’t necessarily so.
07:06
It’s the morning again and I remove my phone from the charger, as I decided to plug it in before I hit the hay last night, the battery was getting quite low and didn’t want to risk it going flat half way through the day. It probably would’ve lasted most of the day, though. I find my Nokia N8 from my drawer and plug it in to charge so that it’s ready for me start using again.
12:11
Today seems like a good day to download some content from Ovi Store, so I find the shopping bag icon in the menu and click it. I fancy playing some games, my Nokia N8 is always good for that. It’s Devil’s Ride 3D that catches my eye first. Once downloaded and installed, I race my virtual me down a ski-slope, collecting rockets to boost my speed and collecting clocks to increase my time. Gems XXL is another game I love playing on the Nokia N8, it’s one of those game I spend ages on. I’ll get some good use from this game today.
23:10
After a day of making some phone calls, a few text messages, a small amount of Gems XXL playing and a meeting with my colleagues, it’s now time to give up this S40 phone. I wipe off all my data from it, power it down and remove my SIM card. Once again, my Nokia N8 houses my SIM card, ready for some smartphone use.
So, my week with an S40 phone is over. I’ve gone from smartphone-geek to dumbphone-chic. Did I miss my smartphone? If I’m honest, yes, a bit. I missed the huge selection of high-quality apps I usually use. That’s not to say there’s not any great apps for S40, because there are. I just like my apps integrated, glossy, HD and running a few at the same time. One thing is clear, though. That the divide between smartphone and non-smartphone is closing in and some of the features you’d expect to see on a high-end phone are creeping into the lower markets. I guess that’s inevitable, and it’s great.
One thing I didn’t miss – which surprised me – was the email notifications. I thought I’d find manually logging into the email client a real chore, but this wasn’t the case. I rarely even did it. I sit at a computer all day for work, which means I’ve got my email account open all day on there, anyway.
Although I didn’t have the need to use Ovi Maps this week, it’s a service I find so useful, that I’d definitely be lost without it should I need it when I’m out-and-about.
Overall, although S40 isn’t an actual smartphone OS, it does nearly everything anybody would want. It is a great OS, but it’s not the OS for me. After all – and when you look at the software more closely – it’s not built for the likes of me: someone who installs several apps a week and is looking to be constantly logged-on. It’s aimed at the cheaper devices and for people who don’t like all the glitz and glamour you’d expect to see from a full-on smartphone. And it’s excellent for people just starting out in the mobile world or for people in emerging markets, where even owning a phone can be a rarity.
S40 is a great OS that’s more than capable of connecting people with the rest of the online world via the likes of Twitter, Facebook or even just Web browsing. Not only that, but it also does a cracking job at the most basic of things you’d expect to see from a phone. Making calls and sending text messages.
Could you take up the challenge to ditch your smartphone for five days? Or are you too attached to your top-specc’d phones. Let me know, below. I’d love to see somebody else give it a try
Image credit: Magic Madzik