We’ve seen the Nokia N85 before (it’s the successor to the N81 we reviewed recently) - but didn’t know anything about system specs so far. Now, the user agent profile has been leaked: let’s see what there’s inside for us:
After the radical “binary break” introduced in S60v3, Nokia seems to have understood that breaking binary compatibility (and thereby burdening developers further) is not the wisest thing to do.
Screenshots leaked to symbian-freak’s now show a version of S60 Touch that looks almost as if it were S60v3 FPx with a touchscreen added.
Even though some of my colleagues are pissed off about the lack of “finger” usability, this actually has good reason: S60 Touch devices will probably be controllable via the 5way nav with just one hand like their current siblings.
A recent walk-through of the SE BeiBei
showed a device which was perfectly usable with one hand without even touching the stylus. Palm Treo users can sing a song about the merits of this technology.
Nokia’s S60 touch devices are aimed at a different part of the market than the iPhone. iPhones go to fashion sensitive people who love Apple (and switch their brain off in all things Cupertino) - S60 touch boxen go to prosumers and businesses. Their enemies are devices like a Treo or a HTC Touch: boxen which are judged by their merits and not their beauty.
In the end, I am very happy with Nokia’s strategy - developers will be able to benefit from the touchscreen with minimal enhancements, while still remaining capable to do 1hand-controllable apps with ease. Users can continue to use their old apps without updating.
What do you think?
