October 24, 2011 at 16:04Symbian Belle OS Review
In late August, we announced a new version of the Symbian operating system - Symbian Belle. Soon it will appear as a pre-installed system along with the new Nokia 700 smartphone . The new OS is very different from previous versions of Symbian.
Belle surpasses previous Symbian OS releases not in the number of innovations, but in their quality. Also in this OS, many improvements to pre-existing features have appeared. The user interface received modifiable widgets and a drop-down menu displaying various notifications and managing connections; the number of desktops has increased to four (and will soon grow to six); the lock screen has become more informative. Of course, this is not the whole list of changes in Symbian Belle - all the most important features can be found under the habrakat.
Many standard widgets like hours, mail, music player, selected contacts, calendar, have been rewritten. Now they can be of five different sizes. This gives users the ability to arrange widgets in any order, creating the main screens to their taste.
To save users from a number of simple but routine actions, a new type of widget, “Switch,” was introduced in Symbian Belle. Using it, you can, for example, quickly turn Bluetooth on or off, change the profile from the main screen.
In addition to widgets on the main screen, you can make selected contacts for quick calling or sending messages, as well as icons of individual applications for instant access to the most necessary software.
In Symbian Belle, the number of main screens has increased to four. After a while, an update will be released that expands the number of main screens to six.
At the bottom of the main screen of the Symbian Belle, three virtual buttons are displayed for calling up the main menu, a numeric keypad for dialing (or selecting a contact) and setting the main screen. This solution in theory allows you to abandon the use of physical buttons, as was done on the Nokia N9.
For each screen, you can set a separate background image.
In addition, the Belle main screen now has a drop-down menu that appears when you slide down from the notification area. It displays notifications of missed calls and unread messages, you can choose a quiet mode, as well as manage your communication settings and WiFi and Bluetooth connections. Yes, someone will say that it was already in Android and iOS, but the history of this solution begins with Maemo. ;)
The main menu has undergone very few changes, but they can pretty much change the pattern of using the phone with Symbian ^ 3. The main menu in Belle has single-level navigation, that is, applications go in one list. In order not to get lost in it, at the bottom there is a separate button for calling up the search for applications. Of course, no one bothers you to sort the applications into folders and put them in the right order - this feature has remained in place. Symbian Belle has a function to remove programs through the menu, and not through the application manager.
The background for the main menu is now not a black background, but a shaded wallpaper on the main screen. By the way, it is from the main menu that you can duplicate applications on the main screen - we already managed to tell a little about this feature.
The change in the interface of Symbian Belle affected a number of standard programs as well. Well, let's list them.
At the bottom of the screen, instead of the "Functions", "Take a picture" and "Exit" buttons, there are buttons for controlling the flash, selecting scenes, advanced camera settings, as well as the "Back" and "Menu" buttons. On the left side of the screen is a slider that appears automatically to control digital zoom, and on the right there are buttons for taking a photo or video and selecting a mode (photo / video). In fact, the new camera interface is an improved version of the camera interface in Symbian Anna, in which the left and right parts of the screen are now practically devoid of bulky buttons, and all the most used buttons are taken out of the settings menu.
The browser has undergone a number of small changes designed to increase the convenience of web surfing. So, the address bar now automatically disappears when the user starts flipping through a web page. Buttons for calling bookmarks and open tabs now appear at the bottom of the screen - earlier they were hidden in the menu. All other settings still remained in this menu, so it is not much different from the browser menu in Symbian Anna.
Of the less obvious things that have received an update in the Symbian Belle browser, better HTML5 support can be noted.
Functionally, the player has not changed, but visually has been significantly redesigned. The cover of the current album has become larger and is now displayed on the entire top of the screen. The rewind bar is also made larger, so in Symbian Belle it is much easier to rewind a track.
In addition to the control buttons located under the cover and information about the artist, you can switch tracks by simply swiping the cover left and right. The bottom menu now displays the shuffle and repeat buttons.
At the beginning of next year, a package of business applications from Microsoft will be available for Symbian Belle. It will include:
1) Lync - a collective text, voice and video messenger for organizing meetings on the go;
2) Document Connection - an application that provides access to files on SharePoint sites;
3) OneNote - an application for composing text and photo notes, synchronized with SkyDrive;
4) PowerPoint Broadcaster - an application for viewing presentations stored on a PC on a mobile device.
Also next year, Microsoft will release native applications Word, Excel and PowerPoint for devices on Symbian. Thus, it will be the first OS other than Windows Phone, which includes the Microsoft office suite.
The new Nokia 700 smartphone already has an NFC chip built in, all subsequent Symbian ^ 3 smartphones will also be equipped with an NFC chip. Of course, Symbian Belle introduced support for NFC technology (which we recently wrote a great post about ) at the system level. In Symbian Belle, you can transfer photos from one device to another, connect with various accessories and check in at different places with one touch of NFC-enabled devices.
We tried to list the main features of Symbian Belle, however, there is simply no way to describe all the minor changes in the review. As before, the new release of Symbian ^ 3 brings a number of improvements related to both interface solutions and the overall stability and performance of the device. Separately, perhaps, it is worth noting the fact that, despite the addition of a number of new functionality, the power consumption of devices on Belle has not increased: the phone’s battery life during active use can be three or four days.
The Symbian Belle operating system will soon be available to owners of Nokia N8, E7, C6-01, C7 and X7.
If you have one of the above phones, do you plan to upgrade it to Symbian Belle? Based on the review, how do you like the new operating system?
Belle surpasses previous Symbian OS releases not in the number of innovations, but in their quality. Also in this OS, many improvements to pre-existing features have appeared. The user interface received modifiable widgets and a drop-down menu displaying various notifications and managing connections; the number of desktops has increased to four (and will soon grow to six); the lock screen has become more informative. Of course, this is not the whole list of changes in Symbian Belle - all the most important features can be found under the habrakat.
New custom widgets
Many standard widgets like hours, mail, music player, selected contacts, calendar, have been rewritten. Now they can be of five different sizes. This gives users the ability to arrange widgets in any order, creating the main screens to their taste.
To save users from a number of simple but routine actions, a new type of widget, “Switch,” was introduced in Symbian Belle. Using it, you can, for example, quickly turn Bluetooth on or off, change the profile from the main screen.
In addition to widgets on the main screen, you can make selected contacts for quick calling or sending messages, as well as icons of individual applications for instant access to the most necessary software.
Main screen
In Symbian Belle, the number of main screens has increased to four. After a while, an update will be released that expands the number of main screens to six.
At the bottom of the main screen of the Symbian Belle, three virtual buttons are displayed for calling up the main menu, a numeric keypad for dialing (or selecting a contact) and setting the main screen. This solution in theory allows you to abandon the use of physical buttons, as was done on the Nokia N9. For each screen, you can set a separate background image.
In addition, the Belle main screen now has a drop-down menu that appears when you slide down from the notification area. It displays notifications of missed calls and unread messages, you can choose a quiet mode, as well as manage your communication settings and WiFi and Bluetooth connections. Yes, someone will say that it was already in Android and iOS, but the history of this solution begins with Maemo. ;)
Main menu
The main menu has undergone very few changes, but they can pretty much change the pattern of using the phone with Symbian ^ 3. The main menu in Belle has single-level navigation, that is, applications go in one list. In order not to get lost in it, at the bottom there is a separate button for calling up the search for applications. Of course, no one bothers you to sort the applications into folders and put them in the right order - this feature has remained in place. Symbian Belle has a function to remove programs through the menu, and not through the application manager.
The background for the main menu is now not a black background, but a shaded wallpaper on the main screen. By the way, it is from the main menu that you can duplicate applications on the main screen - we already managed to tell a little about this feature.
Updated Applications
The change in the interface of Symbian Belle affected a number of standard programs as well. Well, let's list them.
Camera
At the bottom of the screen, instead of the "Functions", "Take a picture" and "Exit" buttons, there are buttons for controlling the flash, selecting scenes, advanced camera settings, as well as the "Back" and "Menu" buttons. On the left side of the screen is a slider that appears automatically to control digital zoom, and on the right there are buttons for taking a photo or video and selecting a mode (photo / video). In fact, the new camera interface is an improved version of the camera interface in Symbian Anna, in which the left and right parts of the screen are now practically devoid of bulky buttons, and all the most used buttons are taken out of the settings menu.
Browser
The browser has undergone a number of small changes designed to increase the convenience of web surfing. So, the address bar now automatically disappears when the user starts flipping through a web page. Buttons for calling bookmarks and open tabs now appear at the bottom of the screen - earlier they were hidden in the menu. All other settings still remained in this menu, so it is not much different from the browser menu in Symbian Anna.
Of the less obvious things that have received an update in the Symbian Belle browser, better HTML5 support can be noted.
Music player
Functionally, the player has not changed, but visually has been significantly redesigned. The cover of the current album has become larger and is now displayed on the entire top of the screen. The rewind bar is also made larger, so in Symbian Belle it is much easier to rewind a track.
In addition to the control buttons located under the cover and information about the artist, you can switch tracks by simply swiping the cover left and right. The bottom menu now displays the shuffle and repeat buttons.
Microsoft programs
At the beginning of next year, a package of business applications from Microsoft will be available for Symbian Belle. It will include:
1) Lync - a collective text, voice and video messenger for organizing meetings on the go;
2) Document Connection - an application that provides access to files on SharePoint sites;
3) OneNote - an application for composing text and photo notes, synchronized with SkyDrive;
4) PowerPoint Broadcaster - an application for viewing presentations stored on a PC on a mobile device.
Also next year, Microsoft will release native applications Word, Excel and PowerPoint for devices on Symbian. Thus, it will be the first OS other than Windows Phone, which includes the Microsoft office suite.
NFC Support
The new Nokia 700 smartphone already has an NFC chip built in, all subsequent Symbian ^ 3 smartphones will also be equipped with an NFC chip. Of course, Symbian Belle introduced support for NFC technology (which we recently wrote a great post about ) at the system level. In Symbian Belle, you can transfer photos from one device to another, connect with various accessories and check in at different places with one touch of NFC-enabled devices.
Conclusion
We tried to list the main features of Symbian Belle, however, there is simply no way to describe all the minor changes in the review. As before, the new release of Symbian ^ 3 brings a number of improvements related to both interface solutions and the overall stability and performance of the device. Separately, perhaps, it is worth noting the fact that, despite the addition of a number of new functionality, the power consumption of devices on Belle has not increased: the phone’s battery life during active use can be three or four days.
The Symbian Belle operating system will soon be available to owners of Nokia N8, E7, C6-01, C7 and X7.
If you have one of the above phones, do you plan to upgrade it to Symbian Belle? Based on the review, how do you like the new operating system?