I have been a Nokia fan for long if you ask me about mobiles. There is nothing like a Nokia Mobile. Usability wise, nothing that really irritates you. But I landed up with a BenQ S 660C for a change. And thats when you really start to experience things that you never have as a Nokia user.
I switched on the set and came across the very nice UI. The menu icons were quite obvious and did not have any difficulty in getting through it. Tones were good. But as and when I delved into it, came across the usability problems.
1. Dictionary Feature if switched on is applicable for all the key strokes including that more the SMS and also Phone Book Name search option.
2. Dictionary feature as all types of key tapping(ITAP, itap, ABC, abc, 123) but notice this, Itap; this is missing. So after every end of sentence, you have to ITAP and then itap. So are you still a lover of Queen’s English?
3. Key stroke has another problem. If you are in ITAP mode, you cannot 1 or 0 using the scroll key but you can certainly 234. To 1, you have to change the key stroke mode to 123.
4. Now to highlight the Phone book. How cool, you can use SIM upto 110 in my SIM card and upto 2000 in this phone book. So I have 2110 in my memory. You think so! but no, I can either use 110 or 2000 as it allows to use one of the books, either SIM card or Phone memory.
BUT it really has one good feature to block incoming calls. You can set the ACCEPT or the REJECT list. The caller will always think that there is some network problem as the call is disconnected with HALF ring. Again this cannot be used with SIM card memory. This can be enabled with phone memory only
5. Alarm Clock feature is cool, you can enable it for all days of the week or for some days. With 6 different settings, you can set different time for alarm on weekends and weekdays. The SNOOZE time is set to five minutes and you cannot change it. Sleepwell!! But again usability. To kill the alarm, you have to FLIP open and click on EXIT. The scroll keys provided at the side of the set is off no use when it comes to EXIT. You can only snooze using those.
6. So you want to use other features, Ok let me take you STOPWATCH & COUNTDOWNTIMER. You can use these features but you cannot use any other feature in it like type a message of search a phone number simultaneously as the task is killed.
7. Fast dial option hmm yes but you will have to forgo a shortcut for that.
8. If you are typing a SMS, then beware no one should call you during that. If you get a call, be ready to type all over again as the last SMS is not saved.
9. Joypad has four directions and hitting any of it will open the main menu and yes you have an added advantage of using the MENU button to open the main menu. Quintuplet or a quadruplet + 1. Or call it all roads lead to ...
10. Games - two games one is football(soccer) and another is dragon fight. I wonder why they did not give some strategy game in which I could use all of key pad. With football if I can do it, I could very well have managed it with other games as well. Really sucks if you are playing football... for lots of keys to key in.
11. Additional feature of Screen Lock is available on this. Idea probably is to not allow other people from peeping into the phone book/inbox when the set is left idle on the table. Set the idle time and after which the screen is auto-locked. You have to key in the magic number before you want to peep in. Again beware that you do not get a missed call or more importantly a SMS. On this action, you get a note on the screen, one new message. Click ok and you can view it. Yup! only that message.
12. Time format can be set in 12 hour format. You have to be a GLOBAL being in this sense
13. You type a message, choose to send to Mr. X. As you can associate two numbers with the same person (Mobile and Land line), you will have choose which number. The number does not differentiate between a mobile and a land line but it of course does if you are viewing Mr.X’s number from phone book. OK let me choose Mr. X’s mobile number and click ok; it does not send, it asks whether you want to save it, preview it and then you click ok, the message is sent. in all close to five clicks.
14. Sent Receipts are not threaded as SMS and neither are they distinguished by the sent persons’ list. You just get a dialog box, Message Sent. To whom / when :-) You have to have your own memory for that of course!
All in all there are a lots of usability issues in it.
IN SPITE OF this would I still use it? I would, for it was presented to me by my wife on our marriage anniversary with lots of love and best wishes.