First impressions of the SE w950

I was at DeeJay, Gadong last night, browsing around, as usual, at what the latest releases from all brands were. Nothing really stood out. While I was there though, another customer, a middle aged man, was in the process of buying the new Nokia 3250 XpressMusic edition.

My initial reaction was like, "Wow, its white" until I realised, that's probably the only major change that this "new" Nokia release had again.

*Rolls eyes* Here we go again.

But, the customer was very happy with his purchase. I could see it on his face. The shop assistants even helped to download some mp3 songs into the set for him, which made the guy even more pleased. So yeah, here I am dissing the new Nokias wondering why no one else can see this Nokia-pulled-another-fast-one tactic like I do, and there are people out there buying them. That's marketing for you.

Anyway, back to browsing I went. I spoke to the supervisor, a guy I know (from my previous phone purchases obviously), and asked him what else has been released lately. He showed me the SE w950 on display. So of course I just HAD to take a closer look. The supervisor then whipped one out from his pocket! He is a proud owner himself! (I should mention he's also an owner of the Nokia 8800. BUT, let's not go there right...)



ANYWAYS, there I was, inspecting it for the first time, wondering what's the big deal about this Nokia N91 competitor. It was quite light, very nice to hold in my big hands and felt quite solidly built too. I was impressed. Until I tried switching it on. I didn't know HOW to! Every button I pressed did nothing! I thought, "Ok, this is a SE phone, its probably a * to unlock type". True enough, it was. Moving on, with that out of the way, I was faced with the "Today" screen whilst the keypads lighted up in white (to match the phone's matching exterior hints of orange I suppose). Not bad I thought. But, as I stood there, I began wondering how the heck to start navigating around. The keypads had no obvious button to press like "Menu" or "Ok". Just the Walkman button on the left, another Walkman button in the middle (this apparently works as a Play/Pause function) and "C" (Clear) button on the right, with the obvious numeric keypad below. Ok, maybe I'm just not familiar with SE's new Symbian OS. Then I remembered, "oh yeah, this thing has a touchscreen". Eventually, I did discover where the menu button was and again, for a couple of seconds, just couldn't for the life of me figure out what to do next. I decided to try the messaging function, (as I always do on any phone, since I'm quite a hardcore texter). The guy did not switch on his T9 feature so I couldn't really type out anything much, nor had the chance to use the stylus to write anything either since I had to give it back. He WAS standing there in front of me ok?

I think, to review it better, I would definitely need to have it a bit longer than 5 minutes (I'm working on that). BUT, my first impressions of it is that its "just OK". I'm just not comfortable with the Symbian User interface. (It strangely reminded me of when I tested the SE p990i too. Both use the same OS btw). I also didn't have the chance to try out the highly recommended Walkman feature, but I'm sure its good. SE's just kill the competition in this arena.

Anyways, I still doubt I'd buy it personally. Why would I right? I'm hooked on the dark side.

Just a quick mention though, a cousin of mine just bought a 2nd hand SE w810i yesterday (which I had been advertising around) He texted me today saying he absolutely loved the phone with the gorgeous screen resolutions. Having been a hardcore Nokia for so long now, he finally decided to make the switch since this SE was a good deal not to miss. Its not surprising though, to know that he'll probably never go back to Nokia again. I'm don't blame him.

Lastly, if you're a TreoNut, some good news for you. The unlocked version of the new Treo 680 will starting shipping on 01Dec06! Treocentral has updates here with links to Palm.com too. So those of you waiting since forever, its finally coming! Likely to be a Christmas release too! Just in time I'll say!