Let me repeat that once again – it’s time Nokia adopts WVGA (800×480 pixels) screens for their high-end phones! nHD, which is 640×360 pixels, is just not enough. It was a great idea initially to provide users with 16:9 video watching experience, but the industry went forward. WVGA is now de facto standard for any high-end smartphone. The Samsung Galaxy S, HTC Evo 4G, HTC Desire, Nexus One, Sony Ericsson Xperia X10, Motorola Droid X, HTC HD2 are just some of many examples. Heck, the iPhone 4 rocks a 960×640 display and where’s Nokia? Still at nHD, even with their 12-megapixel camera equipped, Symbian^3-based N8. To be fair, there’s one Nokia smartphone with WVGA display – N900, but that’s more of a “geeks only” device than a mass market product.
Aside from Nokia, we also have other Symbian licensors (Sony Ericsson and Samsung) launching nHD screen-equipped devices, and there’s the Android-powered Dell Mini 3i/Aero with such a screen.
It’s enough. People want better and larger screens. Personally I find the ideal size to be somewhere between 3.7 and 4 inches. The HTC HD2/Evo 4G’s 4.3-inches make the phone too bulky, hence not as easy to carry around. In contrast, the Samsung Galaxy S’ 4-inch Super AMOLED display makes the phone super desirable.
So what will Nokia do about this? Do they really think people will pay a premium for a non-WVGA screen equipped phone? I don’t think so.
On the other hand the Finnish giant may be shooting for the mid range of the market which is sad considering they used to rule the very high-end space when the Nokia N95 was originally introduced. Wake up folks! If Symbian can’t handle it, show us some cool Meego-based products. We really want to see you get back to the high-end stage and show the rest of the market how to survive the toughest of conditions, and by that I don’t mean the long, cold Finnish winter.
So the way forward is – dump nHD or leave it for the mid-range devices and go for the WVGA. You’ll get all the love from IntoMobile and the rest of the Interwebs! 🙂