Hi everyone,
I have been using the Nokia E90 as my main mobile phone (among other things) for just over 3 months now and have recently discovered its potential as an ebook reader. It’s not a tablet, but I think it fits quite well in this thread. Having read a few books on it, I can say I am very impressed. The 800x352 widescreen can fit quite a bit of text on one page, although you need reasonably good eye sight as the screen’s pixel density is pretty high. Mobipocket Reader handles even the largest ebooks without any significant delay – I’m using the whole of Wikipedia on it!
The great thing about high-end smartphones such as the E90 is their flexibility, in my opinion. While they may not be as good at the many things they can do as specialist devices, they offers a great and, when you consider just how many devices they replace, a quite affordable compromise in my opinion. Just think about it: A Nokia E90, for example, combines:
- A small, (admittedly not very high quality, but useable) digital camera
- A video/music player
- A phone, obviously
- An Internet navigation device
- An ebook reader
- A navigation system
- … (and quite a bit more)
I apologize if that sounded rather Steve Jobs-ish
.
The Amazon Kindle or whatever other specialised reading device many people on this site use may offer a slightly better reading experience, but ultimately cannot offer anything else apart from that, due to its monochrome screen, for instance, and can be quite impractical in day-to-day use because of its bulky form factor. The Nokia N810 does most things a high-end smartphone can and provides arguably the better Internet experience, but it can’t go online without another phone. One may argue that, if you know in advance that you won’t need a certain feature, single devices are the better option, because an average 75g mobile phone does the job without weighing about 150g more due to its unnecessary extra features. However, the idea of “leaving something at home you’re sure you won’t need” never quite worked for me in the past. Quite often I found myself wishing I had taken a certain device along which I previously thought was completely unnecessary.
I am a user who prefers convergence over specialization. I’m willing to do without a few things here or there to have everything I need with me when I need it.
To sum up, I think whether a specialized solution for the devices you need or an all-in-one device is the better choice is a matter of personal preference. In the past few years, convergence devices have got a lot better at everything they do though, and if this trend continues, the advantages specialist devices offer may become less and less apparent.
What’s your opinion?
Greetings,
Martin