Well, it’s happened again. My shiny black N95 8GB flicker and died. The screen did a passable impersonation of television form the early 70s and went blank. Power cycling causes a quick vibe, some back lights and then nothing. So it’s either off to repair or swappable for a refurbed device. Still having difficulty decided which to go for.

Some of our more exotic devices are tied to networks other Vodafone who have been taking my money for over 10 years now, so I’ve picked a Sony Ericsson W850i from our test devices to keep me going. It is very light, slim and feels solid. The slider is much better to the touch than the N95 ever was.I’m also intrigued to discover that it has “fitness functions” so I’ll be able to see how many steps I take as I want to and from work.

However the real issue is that it doesn’t have my address book, e-mail settings, apps, Flickr login,  and all the other bits and pieces I use daily. So some painful admin work this evening.

It’ll be interesting to see if the backup restores properly when I get another N95.

Having done a breakdown on the iPod Touch UI, I though it worth while looking at the Nokia N95 S60 Series 3 interface.

The overall comment is that there are far too many layers between you and what you want to do. An extra menu, and extra option that you’ve forgotten to select. However the good side of that is you can find, eventually, what you are looking for by trawling through the menus. There’s no guessing involved, or at least not if you have a methodical mind. Affordance is generally good and it’s all very consistent.

An example of the “always another option” problem is placing calls - if you don’t just press the green button, but choose to go through the menu you are always asked if you want Voice or Video, and if I get to a bit that Vodafone haven’t limited, there’s Internet call option too. Similar thing on messaging, and in common with Sony Ericcson, you’re asked if you want to send text, multimedia, e-mail, carrier pigeon, or deliver it by hand. Enough options already!

I have the front screen configured to have all the things I want at easy reach, which makes it very efficient for me to use. However setting that up was a real power-user process. I doubt if many people go to that effort.

There are no modes, and everything switches cleanly from landscape to portrait when you slide the front back and forth. Sometimes too easily, but that’s more a hardware issue than the software.

Too much reliance on special buttons. In fact too many hardware buttons in general, and many of them too small for many people, me included, to click cleanly. That said, the buttons I do use regularly fall exactly where my fingers go.