We owners of the Nokia C7 have been hungry to see the new OS update called Symbian Anna. I for one, I have become so frustrated waiting for this. My thirst to just have a feeling of Symbian Anna made me fall into a site that gave a mouth-watering analysis of the update. You too want to know what’s coming in and what’s going out. Let’s take a look at this review from http://zomgitscj.com.
We’ve checked out Symbian^1 and Symbian^3 in detail before, and now here’s the new Symbian Anna. Nokia India hosted a little “Get to Know Symbian Anna” event with the launch of the Nokia E6 and Nokia X7 today, so we figured, why not take a look at it in a little detail just to see what’s new, eh?
First up, Symbian Anna is also known as the PR2.0 update to Symbian^3, and brings along a host of new features to the operating system, and tweaks the user interface and visuals too. Most of them though, are under the hood. The update debuts on the Nokia X7, a new media centric device, and the touch-and-type business oriented Nokia E6. There’s full legacy support too, so it will eventually arrive on previous Symbian^3 devices.
So take a look at some of the main new features here, shall we?
The Visual Update:
The Symbian Anna update comes with a new set of rounded icons which freshens up things considerably. There’s real time scrolling, so transitional animations will follow your finger in real time, and you can also scroll between homescreen panes as well.
The Functionality Update:
The general consensus of the Symbian browser as of recently, was that it’s slow and desperately needed an update. Thankfully Symbian Anna brings that along, with HTML5 support (ish), hardware acceleration for smooth CSS animations, and a much cleaner, minimalistic UI with support for searches right from the address bar, and an always visible back button.
(Darn, no wifi!)
Yup Browser version 7.3 brings that all in, with support for Flash Lite and multi-touch too. Performance is also improved slightly, but can appear choppy at times on heavy websites.
Apart from that, there’s also a nice new full QWERTY portrait virtual keyboard (some call it “split screen” keyboard) that replaces the triple-tap numeric keypad. Interestingly, Nokia’s positioned the numbers in a few rows, instead of placing it on one row like other keyboards. Definitely much appreciated.
Maps have also been improved, but it’s the same as the latest version that’s available on Nokia Betalabs, allowing you to download full maps without needing a computer, and for quicker searches and integrated public transportation routes. The calendar app also has been updated, with a Dual Pane layout in monthly view. You can tap on any day on the left side, while on the right side, you can view any appointments on the date. Fun thing we noticed: You can also use multi-touch to zoom in or out of monthly and weekly views!
The Email application has also gotten a minor update with more space to check out your emails, an improved UI, and is slightly quicker to use. However it remains mostly the same at its core.
The Conclusion:
Here is a video overview of what’s new with Symbian Anna, right from Nokia India’s Product Manager himself:
Symbian Anna review
So yes, Symbian Anna definitely touches on some of Symbian’s major issues. It might not be the “revamped UI” update that everyone’s waiting for, but it’s much better than the current iteration.
The incoming Symbian Belle update has promised a complete overhaul of the platform, with Nokia setting the bar high, saying “If you like Android, you’ll love Symbian Belle“. In the meanwhile, Anna does a pretty good job. Will it convince folks to stick to Symbian though, remains to be seen.
Beautiful!!! I just can’t wait.
