Nokia claims that it's 6101 has "buttons built for a man, not a mouse." So, clearly, mice are the species targeted by tiny joysticks on Sony Ericsson phones and the oddball layouts on Nokia's past efforts.
No question the 3650 has among the silliest keypad designs ever foisted on an unsuspecting public (though the Samsung/B&O Serene does it one better by keeping circular key arrangement and putting it ON TOP of the screen...). But I'm with Jacob (#7)'s boss: the 7210 has to be Nokia's worst keypad design of all time because it uses rocker switches to combine things like engaging speakerphone (on one end of a small rocker switch) and HANGING UP THE CALL (on the the other end of the switch). I can't count how many people I hung up on while testing that phone. Nice Series 40 device otherwise with some neat accessories (the lanyard camera was particularly well designed).
But Nokia isn't out of the woods with its current lineup, either. All the current designs with the four essentially blank selection/send/end keys are overly minimalistic. Consumers new to Nokia phones cannot possibly know which key to press to initiate or answer a call, so a trip to the user guide is mandatory for the most basic phone functions.
The 8801 could also use some ergonomic help - there are blank spots in the precise location that Nokia puts menu selection buttons on its other phones. The spots look like buttons but are actually... dead space. The actual menu selection buttons are higher on the phone, and look like slider ridges. The middle selection button IS a slider ridge, not a button. The combined effect is to confuse anyone who is not new to Nokia phones, who will inevitably push the dead spots and think their phone's menu system is broken.
“The other one is a biggie, and it's something very noticeable in the videos: touch sensitivity is pretty bad. Using the virtual keyboard proved to be far too painful, and we're pretty sure it wasn't multitouch-friendly.”
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
Nokia claims that it's 6101 has "buttons built for a man, not a mouse." So, clearly, mice are the species targeted by tiny joysticks on Sony Ericsson phones and the oddball layouts on Nokia's past efforts.
No question the 3650 has among the silliest keypad designs ever foisted on an unsuspecting public (though the Samsung/B&O Serene does it one better by keeping circular key arrangement and putting it ON TOP of the screen...). But I'm with Jacob (#7)'s boss: the 7210 has to be Nokia's worst keypad design of all time because it uses rocker switches to combine things like engaging speakerphone (on one end of a small rocker switch) and HANGING UP THE CALL (on the the other end of the switch). I can't count how many people I hung up on while testing that phone. Nice Series 40 device otherwise with some neat accessories (the lanyard camera was particularly well designed).
But Nokia isn't out of the woods with its current lineup, either. All the current designs with the four essentially blank selection/send/end keys are overly minimalistic. Consumers new to Nokia phones cannot possibly know which key to press to initiate or answer a call, so a trip to the user guide is mandatory for the most basic phone functions.
The 8801 could also use some ergonomic help - there are blank spots in the precise location that Nokia puts menu selection buttons on its other phones. The spots look like buttons but are actually... dead space. The actual menu selection buttons are higher on the phone, and look like slider ridges. The middle selection button IS a slider ridge, not a button. The combined effect is to confuse anyone who is not new to Nokia phones, who will inevitably push the dead spots and think their phone's menu system is broken.
-avi