Feedback: How are you finding the official Nokia Belle update?

[polldaddy poll=5920952]

To those that managed to get the official Nokia Belle update yesterday, what is your verdict so far? I recorded a hands on video (twice in fact) using YouTube’s direct upload feature. YouTube failed the first time and then Chrome died the second time.

What I wanted to share from my end was that I’m really enjoying Belle. It’s amazing what they’ve managed to do on 2009 hardware. It’s smooth for the most parts, though it does stutter here and there, and gets worse if you have more things running in the background.

The web browser is much improved though it is not a fan of heavy websites at all. I like the new navigation bar that makes it much easier to browse the web. I detest that the browser bar still doesn’t fully incorporate search properly (instead you have to click ‘search for’ as if you don’t you’ll just lead yourself to an error page.

As mentioned, the phone is a lot smoother if you have less/no programmes running. I do dislike that I have to manage what’s open to get the phone running smoothly. I’m sure it’s less Belle but more the hardware that Belle has to deal with.

Other than that, I really like :

• the new homescreen with better widget implementation.
• easy shortcut addition – instead of having the shortcut bar and then editing it to look for shortcut – just add the shortcut app. And you can just have one if you want.
• the more consistent lay out – very important for overall experience.
• the drop down notification, nice quick access.
• Menu A-Z organization and the search button

I’m finding that having a lot of photos, you’re going to want to open Gallery for a while and leave it running whilst it refreshes your media. After getting the update, perhaps leave the N8 for about 20 minutes to sort itself out. If it’s still stuttering in places (like scrolling) then restart the N8. The whole update itself was pretty seamless. Connect to microUSB, check updates at Nokia suite, just click to accept the update and then done.

For those who are still waiting, it’s coming 🙂 You definitely have a lot of good things to look forward to.

BTW, thanks to Yvonne from Nokia and co who have been replying to user questions in our comment section about Nokia Belle. That is pretty cool, no? (And yes, that is really Yvonne – confirmed in discussion through email).

• http://mynokiablog.com/2012/02/07/i-have-the-official-nokia-belle-update-d-nokia-belle-available-through-nokia-suite-d/
• http://mynokiablog.com/2012/02/07/nokia-belle-rollout-info/

So:

1. What do you like about Belle? What’s been done well?
2. What could do with improving?
3. Any bugs?
4. Any app incompatibilities?
5. How was the actual update process itself?
6. Are you still waiting?

Belle should appear soon, and I’m guessing most will have a reasonably positive response to the update, if not high marks then most will be in the category waiting.

You could in the mean time check out the availability Map for Nokia Belle

Category: Nokia, Symbian