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So Is Symbian Dead Or A Tale Of Cameraphones?


Good day, Habr. I was inspired to write this note by several factors - the experience of communicating with other people from the community of Nokia fans, notes and analyzes on Habré, as well as my own experience in choosing suitable smartphones.
As usual, there are a lot of people in “these your Internet sites”, each has his own opinion, his own arguments and counterarguments, but people like to just give in to fashion and scold just because it is a trend. My post is intended to somewhat dispel the established view of Symbian, its capabilities and current status. I will build the main part of the arguments on the example of camera phones, I will tell you and explain how and why I got carried away with them, so if you are interested, welcome and get ready to spend traffic on photos and video examples.

How it all began

Perhaps it is worth noting right away that I am quite a long-time fan of Nokia devices - it all started with the famous model 3310, then 3510i followed, 6230i, the purchase of the N95 was a big step forward for me, and further research on forums and shops led me to buying at least the famous N8. In terms of changing phones, I am inclined to consider myself a lucky enough person, since all changes, except one, took place as part of the upgrade of the existing phone to something new, which has much greater potential.

Nokia 6230i

If with models 3310 and 3510i everything is in principle obvious, then with all the rest things were already a little more complicated. So, starting from 6230i, one of the important characteristics of the device for me was the camera - in the summer of 2006 I, as a schoolboy, just hit 1.3 Mpx with an incredible resolution at that time - 1280x1024. At that time, the usual resolution of the cameras in the phones was 640x480, one could never have dreamed about autofocus, but the only alternative to this device could be a bunch of simple phone + cheap soap box + cheap MP3 player, which turned out to be no cheaper than one device in the form Nokia 6230i. Anyway, after going to the store, having acquired this device, I immediately began to explore all of its capabilities. There was browsing through the mobile Internet, listening to music, and reading books (yes, on a 1.5 "screen with a resolution of 208x208 pixels), and of course, taking photos and videos in all possible situations. Many of you will probably say," yes what photos you could do with that ridiculous camera, rubbish "and maybe they would be right. For getting a more or less normal photo, almost ideal conditions were really needed - good illumination, the right position relative to the light source, a strong hand (especially for night photos) However, some that decent could be removed and with the help of Nokia 6230i:

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In my opinion, it is quite enough to capture some life situations, some photos after processing with a photoshop file were even sent to print in 10x15cm format. Moreover, let me remind you that we are talking about 2006-2007.

Nokia N95

So, by the summer of 2008, I finally “matured” to replace the existing device, and first of all I paid attention to the Nokia devices, namely, the N95 model. Impressions of the first acquaintance were extremely positive - almost double screen diagonal (compared to 6230i), multitasking, maps with GPS, WiFi, TV and audio outputs through a 3.5mm mini jack, and of course, the camera. The N95 camera at that time was really out of competition: the resolution of photos was 5 Mpx, autofocus, LED flash, video recording with a resolution of 640x480 and a frame rate of 30fps. Simply put, the N95 was really rich in functionality and, with proper use, turned into a mini-computer. It was then that I developed a list of requirements for the functionality that any normal smartphone should have:

As history has shown, not all of these elementary things were in IOS, Android, Windows Phone 8 ...
As for photos and video, then with n95 this hobby has reached a whole new level and I came to the conclusion that I don’t want to carry a soap-box or a DSLR with a camcorder all the time. The quality of photos has risen to quite a decent level, do not forget, this is 2008-2010:











Nokia N8

As for the Nokia N8, at first its purchase was seen by me as a simple evolutionary transition from one good smartphone to another. Yes, the N8 has a bigger and better screen than the N95 (3.5 "AMOLED vs. 2.6" TFT, 640x360 vs. 320x240, GorillaGlass versus plain glass display), the clock frequency and the amount of RAM are also doubled, the aluminum housing versus plastic, xenon flash against LED, 12Mpx camera vs. 5Mpx, well, everything else, a new version of the operating system - Symbian ^ 3. In fact, there were not so many innovations and visual changes, and they didn’t introduce into a stupor, using the example of the S60, I was quite familiar with Symbian, I was well aware of its capabilities, strengths and weaknesses. Based on this, I just focused on studying the hardware stuffing, I was pleased with the increased speed of the system, free GPS navigation, and the increased quality of images and videos. It should be noted that the “boxed” version of Symbian ^ 3 was not perfect and Nokia was constantly working on improvements, fixes, and expansion of the device functionality. The first major update was Symbian Anna, which improved the stability of the system, added beauty to the UI, and brought with it a set of new small flaws. As is often the case, the system became a real workhorse only after the second major update, Symbian Belle.
At that time, the prospect of winding down Symbian work clearly loomed on the horizon, and it was in Belle that Nokia developers tried to finally fix many annoying omissions of previous years. Thus, the number of desktops was increased, a “curtain” appeared at the top of the screen, by pulling which you could expand the quick access panel, the SMS message chat was changed, the frame rate was increased to 30fps during video recording, and the camera interface added elements for more accurate settings. Moreover, after installing Belle, the smartphone began to behave more stably, did not hang and could work without shutting down or rebooting for several weeks.
As time went by, the Nokia N8 faithfully served me as a mobile computer, player, camera, camcorder. Several thousand photographs were shot, hundreds of videos were shot, even all moments of the holidays were filmed and edited at 720p. Of course, over time, the drawbacks of the device became noticeable, more precisely, the N8 became obsolete. The abundance of jquery, all kinds of plug-in libraries, even outdated Flash-videos on the pages of sites led to the fact that most of them were not very comfortable to browse due to slow loading and banal “brakes”. Installing an SSD into a home computer has completely disliked any kind of delays and expectations when working with various devices, and the resolution of 1280x720 when shooting video in 2012 was already not enough to document the events around me.
Perhaps it was only the quality of the photos that suited me:

















Difficult choice between Nokia Lumia 920 and Nokia 808 Pureview

In the summer of 2012, I began to think about replacing the N8 with something more advanced. In fact, there were only 2 candidates - either 808 Pureview or Lumia 920. The iPhone was not considered fundamentally because of the modest photo and video capabilities and the inflated price (yes, Apple fans will forgive me), Samsung, HTC and Sony products just could not please in evaluating the apparatus as a whole. I didn’t want to take the 5 shovel at all, charging the smartphone every night was also not the best solution, physical flaws such as the lack of a xenon flash supplemented artificial problems like interface braking, the inability to easily and quickly throw files via USB, etc.
If we talk about the previously mentioned Nokia devices (808 Pureview and Lumia 920), here, in principle, everything was clear. The first is a further development of the N8 concept and by and large doubles its characteristics, the second is a representative of the new line of smartphones and in many ways its capabilities depend not so much on Nokia itself, but on the new Microsoft operating system. Appeared review allowed to form the first impression, which was then adjusted in the course of reading a large topic with a discussion of this unit. It should be noted that the first impression was very pleasant, the filling of the Lumia 920 was quite decent, and the new tiled interface seemed logical and convenient. As before, I decided to “do not flog a fever” and wait for the moment when in our country it will be possible to buy this model in fairly large stores. I didn’t want to get involved with dubious stores, and, as time showed, over the course of several months, prices for the device fell by 150 euros. As it turned out, the decision to wait was right, because the forums started to “float” problems and inconveniences imperceptible at first glance - the inability to create a playlist from the tracks in the smartphone itself, the strange behavior of the smartphone when answering the call, constant reloads (partially due to marriage), fast battery discharge, etc. I found the following as the most critical for me:

Especially strange are the last two points, because the Lumia 920 camera boasts PureView technology, which means to some extent this cameraphone. Several especially loyal fans at one of the forums tried to convince me that uploading photos through the browser is not necessary, because there are separate applications for these purposes. The only trouble is that the application allows, for example, upload photos to Facebook, but it is not able to upload documents to millions of other sites. That is, having bought a top-end smartphone on Windows Phone 8, you can’t just go to your favorite site and share with other people a photo, a screenshot, a document, an audio file after all. Instead, it is suggested to download this file to SkyDrive and share the link. But SkyDrive, as they say, is not rubber, and this method is not always suitable, you often need to "just take and download." Paradoxically, but forgotten and buried by all, Symbian allows you to upload any files to any sites via the browser, you can easily create and edit playlists in the player, and the standard camera application allows you to use the zoom when shooting video and pause recording as you like. .

Nokia 808 Pureview

So, after weighing all the pros and cons, I realized that at the moment the transition from Symbian ^ 3 to Windows Phone 8 will be a step back for me, and together with a beautiful tiled interface I will get completely ridiculous, artificially created barriers and limitations. Once again, sowing for reading reviews and analyzing the prices of smartphones in our stores, I again returned to the thought of buying 808 Pureview, which was finally done. Oddly enough, the Symbian Belle versions vary from device to device. Today, the latest official software version for Nokia N8 is Belle Refresh, and for 808 Pureview (as for a more powerful device), this is Belle Feature Pack 2. At first glance, the differences between them are not so significant, however, Belle FP2 uses more accurate fonts, pop-up windows have a rounded shape, the camera control interface has been improved and expanded, the audio bit rate for recordable videos has been increased twice (up to 256 kbps). In general, the entire operation of the OS looks more stable, and the scrolling of the interface elements is smoother. I anticipate possible negative reviews about the overall design of Symbian ^ 3, but since all this is very subjective, I will still give examples:

Main desktop


Desktop with mail, event, connection management widgets


Opened curtain of the quick access panel


Gallery


View photos


Photo info


Open applications with quick access to them

You probably won't find the glamor in Symbian ^ 3, but it is quite possible for the OS to perform its functions and provide the user with access to the necessary applications or data.
As for photos and videos, a separate large review would be needed here, explaining exactly how the Pureview technology works in this case, what it gives and why you need a sensor as much as 41 Mpx. Instead, I will just give an example of some photos and a small edited video.
There are not so many photos taken at the moment, so as an example only 4 (+1):









In my personal opinion, it makes sense to take full-size photos in 38 or 33.4Mpx only by shooting landscapes and panoramas, moreover, for this purpose it is highly desirable to have a tripod, otherwise photos can be slightly blurry. For all other cases, 5Mpx resolution photos are quite sufficient using the PureView technology. It is also worth noting that with a tripod, you can take photos with an exposure time of up to 2.7 seconds. Such an exposure allows you to get quite decent (for a smartphone or a "soapbox") photos in low light conditions in cases where a xenon flash can not be used, or simply inappropriate. As an example:



This photo was taken at night, in the light of street lamps, without using a flash.
If we talk about the video capabilities of the Nokia 808 Pureview, it is worth conventionally dividing this conversation into two parts - the quality of the recorded video and the sound quality. Due to the huge resolution of the sensor 808 Pureview allows you to use digital zoom without loss in quality. You can verify this with such a simple test:


Original

When using a tripod, the quality of shooting improves and in some cases it is not always possible to immediately determine whether the 3 zoom is being used at the moment or not.
To record sound when shooting video, use Rich Recording Technology, which has already been described on Habré.
As a confirmation of its capabilities, I suggest watching this video:

On Youtube views you can find many other examples ( one , two ).
Despite the fact that the N8 was far ahead of its competitors in the quality of sound recording, even he was unable to record sound from the fan zone without distortion:



The successor to the 808 Pureview in the literal sense significantly raised the bar for sound recording quality, especially in the loud and noisy recreation areas of its owner.
In general, the photo and video capabilities of this unit do not allow you to carry a cheap digital camera or camcorder with you, and take a DSLR camera only in exceptional cases when there is both a possibility and a necessity. If we talk about the Symbian Belle FP2 itself, then at the moment it is quite an adequate alternative to Windows Phone 8 and Android, if you need a simple and reliable tool, and not an expensive and capricious toy.

findings

As a result of the whole long story, reflections, analysis and everything else, I would like to say the following: if choosing a smartphone confuses you with only Symbian Belle on board, try to look at the situation objectively and think sensibly. At the moment, Symbian is quite an adult operating system that survived its childhood diseases, it was not abandoned, it was not forgotten, there is both official support and various mods and programs from third-party developers. In many ways, Symbian’s reputation is based on rumors and unverified facts, but in reality it turns out that everything is not so gloomy at all, and in some cases a person holding a Symbian Belle device has much more opportunities than his comrade with an Android device. , IOS or WinPhone8.
Thank you for your attention, I hope you were interested to look at the situation behind the “iron curtain”.

Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/178807/

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