Solid build quality remained to be an improvement over the plastics on the original N97, and the small form factor dimensions were not too bad to tolerate after being used to bigger touchslabs. That flawless hardware combination of metals and plastics felt irresistible in my hand and extremely portable in my pockets. However, it was a different story with the on-screen software since it started to wear on me a bit. That was to be expected to a degree, but I did not realize how claustrophobic a 3.2inch screen would affect me with 5th edition's chunky appearance. Text fields being minimized by a column of icons and a thick taskbar crowding the screen really had me missing the ample space of Quickoffice on the E72. Writing blogposts in the Notes app or checking Nokia Messaging for email suffered from this problem, and I began yearning for the vastness of the Captivate's high-resolution screen. In addition, I also had to get used to being without threaded SMS and the Nokia Messaging app not being as well-executed as Gmail on an Android device.
Day 3 of the experiment was when the awaited flaws of Symbian 5th edition really began to surface. Soon running into a memory error pop-up before the opening of Ovi Maps navigation shut down completely did not help matters at all. Even though exiting a running app did the trick at that moment, I was reminded of why I had lost patience with Symbian 5th edition in the first place: lack of usage efficiency. When on a smartphone, I was not wanting to worry about how much free RAM was available to run functions on it. Throughout my day, I wanted to just wake my gadget from standby and kick it into gear with whatever task I asked of it with no lag, no freezes, no hangups. That was not to be the be the case with the N97 mini, and the sad part is that I was not surprised by this. However, I was a bit surprised about my sudden hesitation in adopting S^3 on the upcoming E7.
Would this new iteration of Symbian on the E7 really be an improvement over what plagued the N97 models, or simply a dressed up version of the same old OS? I do remember friends of mine commenting on how opening an email on an E7 demo video seemed to show signs of lag, but I still wanted to hold out with a tiny bit of hope. I was admittedly mesmerized by Nokia's hardware from the aluminum build to the 4inch capacitive ClearBlack screen to the full qwerty chiclet keys resembling my Apple MacBook. Like with any new toy, I simply wanted to hold and caress it for a few minutes to satisfy my curiosity, but my desperation for a tactile qwerty and functional GPS possibly clouded my judgment. Even if the E7 was destined to struggle with the same issues on the N97 line, I could at least be sure that working GPS and a hardware qwerty was at my beckoning call. In the midst of such worry, I figured the best thing to do was wait for online N8 reviews from users and tech blogs alike to determine the validity of this new Symbian OS version. I had to be honest about the overwhelming sense of excitement I had started feeling for the E7 and claim it as blind faith. My Facebook and Twitter followers had the pleasure of reading posts about my growing zeal for the E7 that in some cases had dominated my dreams or even kept me from sleeping (yes, sad, I know)! I had become somewhat disenchanted by my Captivate despite its other pros and wanted to know if the grass was finally greener on the other side with Symbian...especially with that new build design! The prospect of having a TRUE successor to the E90 (over that E75) most certainly amped up my eagerness to get that new Nokia in my hands.
For a brief moment at the start, I had even considered selling my Captivate to keep the mini until the E7 arrived. Needless to say, I was glad I did not follow through with that plan. Slowly but surely, the N97 mini was gaining my trust with its qwerty and FLAWLESS execution of GPS via Ovi Maps navigation and Sports Tracker. I was swept back into the magic of Gravity, downloaded the Engadget app from the Ovi store, and ALMOST relented to pay $20 for a QuickOffice doc editing license! Everything from the bundled car dock to the minimal charm of the hardware really worked me over to accepting it as a main phone. Unfortunately, the software just had to remain true to itself and be the certified killjoy in my Symbian reunion fantasy. Slapped back into reality of neither the E72 or N97 mini being my saving grace from the Captivate, it was time to pull the plug on the Exchange experiment...at least with Symbian 3rd and 5th edition.
The run of Symbian was over for me before the inevitable E7 arrival, but I was glad to at least learn for myself that life outside of the Android OS was possible with Exchange support.
Trent Smith
Sent from my Nokia N97 Mini
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