I’m sat having breakfast yesterday with Dom of Tempero, (one of the country’s leading providers of moderation and content control services). One of my companies used to do a lot of those services so it’s excellent to catch up with him and find out how the industry is getting on. It’s enjoying spectacular growth at the moment on the back of huge demand for user-generated content sites — all need some degree of moderation and control.
So I’m sat there and Dom brings out his handset to quickly dismiss an incoming call. Ah hah. He’s got the New Sony Ericsson K800i. He and business partner Jasmine always have the latest top of the range Sony handsets.
I expressed an interest and asked him to show me the handset in more depth. I’m thinking of upgrading my Three phone to the K800. As he flicked through the menus I was quite taken aback. It was fast. Things happen quickly. Click on ‘messages’ and your inbox displays — immediately.
‘Wait, stop, hold on a moment,’ I asked him, ‘Let’s do a test. Set your phone to its main menu and let me try something.’
I got out my N90 and set it to the main screen, just as Dom’s K800 was on. (Not the menu, the main logo screen).
‘Ok, now, open up your message inbox when I say go, right?’ I asked Dom, ‘I want to do a quick time comparison here.’
‘Go!’ I say.
Within half a second he’s thrusting his K800 at me with his message inbox open. I, in contrast, am looking at a sodding white screen. The N90 is in the middle of it’s rather advanced and snail pace slow message-opening function. 1.5 seconds later, my inbox is open.
That’s just not good enough.
Why the delay? I’m beginning to think that while the N90 is phenomenally good for photos and video, it absolutely 100% blows for anything else. It’s totally underpowered. It’s nigh on ridiculous that I have to wait almost 2 seconds sometimes for the message inbox to open up.
I CANNOT STAND staring at white space while the mobile’s processor does some calculations and ponces about for a few moments, before finally building the screen correctly.
This frustration has been bubbling away for some time. It’s only when faced with one of the top Sony Ericssons that I actually recognised it.
So where does this put me in terms of my phone strategy? I dunno. I’m gradually wanting a normal, proper phone that is quick and not so chunky. I have EVEN considered swapping to my SLVR now and again.
What to do, what to do….