26 May 2008

Do you believe Nseries is losing its charm?!

Isn't the Nseries losing its attractiveness? Remember when the Nseries first wave was released it took the world by storm. Each of the phones had something unique going on for them.

So they did the second wave of Nokia N73, Nokia N93 etc. I remember waiting so anxiously and so excitedly for the release or even a spy image of a new 'N'.

But now every phone that has been released after the Nokia N95 has failed to impress (me at least).

The very fact that every other Nokia release belongs to the Nseries family shows that Nseries cell phones are losing their 'elite' status. There are now 24 phones under this category. How can a group so large be called elite or unique anymore?

Here are my arguments:

Just take a look at the Nseries chronology. Let’s start off from the very beginning.

The 1st and 2nd waves were truly impressive. Phones like N91, N90, N80 and N92 all had individually revolutionized the market. These phones introduced for the first time technologies like a hard disk, Carl Zeiss optics, 2M and 3.2M cameras, DVB-H and wi-fi. These were truly remarkable gadgets. (though there were also cells like N70, N71 which I personally felt that shouldn’t have come under the N banner)

Nseries saw its first pathetic mobile in N72. This cell should have never been released; it’s nothing but a rip-off of a by-then outdated N70. But along with it came to highly impressive phones, the Nokia N73 and N93.

Then came the mother of all Nseries phones the N95.

Imo this was and is and will always be the pinnacle of Nseries. No arguments here about the N95's credibility.

Just look at the cell phones released after the N95. Every phone after this has fallen short of expectations except perhaps the Nokia N81 > Decent good phone. Finally got gaming on to the radar in Nseries

But apart form this its been a downward journey for Nokia. Nokia N75, Nokia N76, Nokia N77, Nokia N78, these four phones have neither been promoted nor have anything to their name to make them the least bit attractive. A huge hit to the Eliteness of Nseries.

These 4 are big and ugly. Do they have any features that can make up for the bad qualities? No. And worst part is they have equipped 3 of these with the now ancient 2MP cameras.

Along with this Nokia has released Music Editions and Internet editions and 8gb versions which are in reality just marketing strategies. Nokia has leeched the life out of the Nseries image.

The latest and IMO worst move of all. The N82.

Nokia has always been unable to release good-looking cell phones. The N82 stands testimony to this fact. The N82 is so horrid looking that people will wonder extra hard why they shouldn’t go for the N95 which has everything that the N82 has and is cheaper.

The N82's keypad is horrible. After the N91 keypad fiasco you would have thought Nokia would have learnt its mistakes. Apparently they haven’t.

I just hope that Nokia stop releasing new 'N's every week and come back with another N95 (It’s not too much to ask for, there are so many new technologies like multi-touch etc. that Nokia really needs to incorporate into their devices).

P.S: I maybe wrong, after all this is just 1 boy's opinion and I’m open to discussion and debate