Nokia S60 Touch UI video gets updated
By Will Park on Tuesday, June 10th, 2008 at 1:34 PM PST In Nokia, Symbian, Videos
With all this talk of the iPhone 3G shipping worldwide in little more than a month from today, it seems only fair to give mention to one of the iPhone’s hardest-hitting competitors – Nokia (NYSE: NOK).
The Finns have been toiling away at their own touch-based solution to the smartphone market with a touch-based mobile OS – S60 Touch. Nokia has updated their S60 Touch video on YouTube, and it’s worth a once-over.
The S60 Touch UI looks impressive. Menu animations and UI interaction is reminiscent of the iPhone’s venerable UI, but that’s to be expected to some extent. When push comes to shove, however, the S60 Touch UI looks like it’s shaping up to be an incredible platform. There are those in the Nokia camp that have said the first iteration of S60 Touch OS will fall short compared to the iPhone (oh yes, it’s true), but from the looks of this here video, I think the S60 Touch OS will definitely find its way in to one of my front-pockets (rear pockets are reserved for lesser items – wallets, keys, Incredible Hulk figurines).
[Via: PocketPicks]
It’s shaping up ok. The challenge Nokia of course has is its huge existing user and developer base. They had to make a tough decision whether to make a clean break or build on what they already have. So far it seems to be the latter and I personally like it as I have plenty of S60 experience.
The other interesting (crucial?) thing will be whether they can make an UI that can be used by fingers ONLY IF the user so prefers. The demo has a bit where the chick clicks on a fairly small item on a drop down menu with her finger. If they can really make that work, it would be awesome.
I can hit single-word hyperlinks on a zoomed-out webpage on my iPhone with ease, so I don’t see why S60 Touch wouldn’t be able to make this work.
Of course, it would depend on just how dexterous the user is – I consider myself more dextrous than most.
This is a very old Nokia video! Ite been out for at least 6 months Id say. (And posted by Stefan when released).
The OS looks far far too conservative, trying to stick to the old S60 design. They really need to change, but they arent learning and will learn to their detriment.
Still looks kinda rubbish to me. I wish they’d just scrap the old OS design, if I was so desperate for consistency I’d keep my old phone.
I like the Touch UI. Perhaps more because it’s very iPhone-esque
The video has been updated, I believe.
I agree that s60’s design needs an update, but as an evolutionary jump from S60 to S60 Touch, I think the Touch UI is quite eye-catching. Usability is an entirely different issue altogether and we’ll have to wait for hands-on opinions before we know just how good S60 Touch really is.
When you look carefully, you see that the videos of the UI are all just animation and/or flash. Concepts, nothing working really. So I’d just wait for the real thing, not commercial animations.
True, but working under the assumption that the CG animations are mockups based on concepts that are being developed, the Touch UI looks pretty. Usability, again, is another issue. But, as it stands, Nokia’s vision for S60 Touch is easy on the eyes.