Let it be Symbian – theme review

 Themes  No Responses »
Aug 112011
 

The folks from Gnokkia’s have been excellent citizens of the Symbian ecosystem – in the past, they brought us gems like the theme used by the members of the Symbian DevCo. Their theme Let it be Symbian has a very aesthetic background image, but can it stack up?

Unfortunately, looking at the home screen reveals the first weakness – it is impossible to discern visually which widget, let alone widget element is active at the moment.
0a Let it be Symbian theme review

Opening the menu reveals another weakness – the icon set has a completely different visual style which does not match the background.
1a Let it be Symbian theme review

When in apps, no compatibility issues pop up.
2a Let it be Symbian theme review 2b Let it be Symbian theme review

This review tested the theme on a Nokia N97 mini. Installing it required 3399kb of RAM, I had no stability issues afterwards.

In the end, Let it be Symbian does not satisfy fully. The icon set used just does not fit in with the aesthetical background image – my personal, aesthetical feeling says back to the drawing board on this one…

Nokia Snake SubSonic theme

 Themes  No Responses »
Jun 132008
 

Nokia’s Snake SubSonic recently got a very lukewarm review – thus, the team decided to release a free theme compatible with all S60v3 handsets(even with handsets that can’t run the game itself). Does it stack up on a N71?

At first glance, the theme looks stunning:
0a Nokia Snake SubSonic theme

Unfortunately, the “Settings” app of my N71 didn’t get skinned:
1a Nokia Snake SubSonic theme

Nokia’s Skinning team made a huge mistake. The gradients do all the way to black – since many system dialog boxes use black fonts, the bottom part of the text becomes unreadable:
2a Nokia Snake SubSonic theme

The theme takes 3771KB of memory when installed(and is unsigned – apparently, not even the folks at Nokia’s feel a need for app signage). Unfortunately, Nokia provides a zip file only – it can be downloaded here.

In the end, the theme looks lovely – but fails the every-day usability test. The mistake with the gradients is unforgivable even for a freeware theme: sorry, but Nokia definitely can do better.