The Evening With S60 event last Thursday at the New York Nokia Flagship was great! I know I was supposed to take lots of pictures, but the people I met there were very interesting that I got sidetracked. I’ll recap what happened that night and highlight a few things that stayed on my mind.

Nokia put the table with the preview phones right near the entrance. Sure enough, the side of the table where the Nokia N95 was got more attention. I looked at each one briefly, but paid most attention to the phones that interests me in order: Nokia N95, Nokia E90, Nokia E61i, and the Nokia N93i.

I’ve seen pictures of these phones so many times already, but holding them in person was different. I was especially intrigued by the Nokia E61i’s form factor. I never paid attention to it before, but it is now definitely noteworthy for me. It is light, thin, and I was able to type with one hand. I even took two sample pictures with it to test the camera and transferred it to my Nokia N93 without difficulty.

Sample Nokia E61i Photos

Most of the phones on the table were still prototypes. The Nokia E90 especially was very unresponsive when I played with it. Some of the S60 team members had more updated versions if you can find who had which device. I asked several of the S60 team and Nokia employees which phone they had. Phil Schwarzmann from S60 Blog had a newer firmware for the Nokia N95 and Ganesh Sivaraman, the Product Manager for the S60 Browser, had an updated firmware for his Nokia E90.

Mr. Cumberland (Software Platforms), Mr. Sivaramn (S60 Browser), and I

The S60 team was there to answer questions. Johnathan Greene from Atmasphere spent some time with Mikko Röntynen, Head of S60 Platform Marketing, to ask about Feature Pack 2 and why we can’t upgrade. Read his post for Mikko’s response. I asked Ganesh Sivaraman, the Product Manager for the S60 Browser,why I can’t watch YouTube videos within the browser. To keep it simple, YouTube uses Flash 9 while the latest Flash in S60 is compatible only up to version 7. Yuck.

A few people asked what business or organization I was with. Honestly, it was intimidating to respond that I just run a personal site dedicated to Nokia.

Darla says one of the reason she likes S60: PINK!

One of the S60 team was going around with a camcorder asking people for three things they liked/disliked about S60. I agreed to get in front of camera, but I blanked out in the middle of my response (not so good in front of camera). If I can answer again, I’ll say:

Three things I like about S60:

1. As a student, I can just transfer my lecture PowerPoint slides from my computer to my phone and review on my way to school.
2. It’s like a laptop in the palm of my hands.
3. Making phone calls is a lot easier and faster than my previous Windows Mobile phone.

Things I do not like about S60 devices:

1. I want my YouTube!
2. Firmware updates are nerve-wrecking and very risky.
3. Third party games are not easy to find.

I bumped into one of the salespeople playing Prince of Persia on the Nokia N95. If you missed the event and would like to see the Nokia N95 in action, Product Specialist David in the Nokia New York Flagship has one for training the sales team.

I met other bloggers there. Jonathan Greene showed me his Nokia N800 and Nokia N73 connected to a GPS receiver. Darla was late because she went crazy shopping on Fifth Avenue. I had to look up when I talked to Stefan because he is tall and I am short.

The big announcement at the end of the night was that Nokia N95 will indeed be available for sale at the store and the one in Chicago by the end of March. Interested buyers at the event were given the opportunity to be the first on line by putting their name on the wait list. The sales team will call the people on the list once it becomes available in the store. Interestingly, the woman who put my name on the list (#90 or #91) was one of the employees I spotted dancing in the store.

It doesn’t end there. Our names were taken down when we entered the store for a mystery prize. The winner was a fellow Howard Forums member Alan and the prize was a Nokia N95! Here is the video of the raffle. I’m sorry if you can hear my disappointment in not winning LOL. Nokia, can you please give me one?

Overall, I enjoyed the Evening with S60. It was fun talking to a lot of people who had the same interests like me in Nokia’s devices. My family and friends are content with cell phones that just make phone calls. It’s good to get together with other people who want more than that.

To see more photos from the event, check out the Flickr Gorup.