Over at HOFO, Pink Jazz posed the question: What would be your own ideal S60 phone? I was halfway through making a reply when a bunch of thoughts popped into my head. So I came up with ideas for 5 phones I’d like to see.

Nokia N97 8MP

While the Nokia N97’s camera is impressive compared to its mainstream competitors like the G1, Pre and iPhone, it is pretty lacking compared to niche flagships like the Sony Ericsson C905 or the Samsung Omnia HD. As someone who loves to create media with his mobile, I felt underwhelmed by the N97’s camera when it was announced.

My first phone would give the same treatment to the Nokia N97 the N85 got from the N86 8MP. I would upgrade the N97 with the N86 8 megapixel camera, the 720P video capture from the Omnia HD and the xenon flash from the N82. Those are options I’d expect from an N-Series flagship. An OLED screen would be great to view all that created content.

Nokia E70 Modernized

The split qwerty flip form factor was one of Nokia’s best and fun innovations. Unfortunately for the E70, its CPU and available RAM were woefully inadequate. My idea would be to take the E70 and put the E55 guts into it: a fast 600 mhz processor, lots of ram and a beefy 1500 mah battery. A 5MP camera with flash wouldn’t hurt either. A 320×480 HVGA screen like Nokia 6260 Slide would be the cherry on top.

Nokia E90 Baby

In my travels around Los Angeles, I see that messaging phones are getting more and more popular amongst teens. I see a lot of phones flip qwerty phones that are small versions of Nokia Communicators like the Nokia E90 and 9300. LG already makes an S60 phone (the KT615) with this form factor, but it is pretty much only sold in sporadic places in eastern Europe. All it needs is quadband GSM and triband 3G and it could sell worldwide. Throw in S60v3 Feature Pack 2, micro-USB and a 3.5mm headphone jack for a little more flavor.

Nokia N90 Reloaded

I absolutely loved my Nokia N90. I think its best feature was the sheer size of it when opened. It was always a topic of discussion whenever people saw me use it. I’ve been thinking about a new version for a long time, so I have complied a lot of ideas that could be in this phone.

I’d keep the barrel flip form factor of the N90 instead of the swivel flip form of the N93. The barrel would house a 5MP camera with optical zoom and dual LED flash. No room for xenon, since this would be a video focused device with 720P video capture. The outer screen would be a 2.0″ QVGA screen with music controls like the N76. Turning the barrel would activate camera mode. The inner screen would have a 3″ 640×360 touch screen and could flip all the way to the other side. Turning the barrel in this mode would activate video capture. In camcorder mode, you could manually select video or camera mode. In addition to 720P and VGA video capture, I’d also add a 120 fps mode for slow motion.

Flip open the phone and you have a standard d-pad, control cluster and number pad. The left side would have a lock switch, memory card slot and power button. The right side would have a tiny joystick for volume and camera controls. The bottom would have a headphone jack, micro-USB port and a mini-HDMI port for hooking up to an HDTV. Of course, vibration would not be missing and a bigger battery would be added.

Would it be too massive to have all those features?

Nokia 3220 Remix

I used a 3220 while on a vacation back in 2006 since my N90 was locked to T-Mobile. The 3220 was a crazy little phone that had lights go off in sync with its ring tones. I wouldn’t make many changes. A 4×3 screen ratio, bigger battery, nicer camera and stereo speakers would bring it up to date. The big change would to have a lot more lights and synced ring tones for more fun.

Your Ideas

These are my ideas… what would be your own ideal Nokia phone?