On the one hand, they're not even finished with it yet. On the other hand, they're clearly months/years behind Apple.

Maybe it's because Apple's product is already out? I don't quite understand what you're talking about here. It's like saying a beta version isn't as polished as a final version.

Im not an apple fan but they got the UI right on the iPhone. I was watching the xperia video and there was a little bit of slow down between transitions.

Dammit where did my stylus go?

Oh wow, if you touch the clock icon, you are taken to the clock application.

Apple better watch out!

I would say they're about one year and three weeks behind.

@Sqube: don't worry yourself this is Gizmodo its a great site but they are very much Apple jock riders in the beginning I didn't think it was true but they are still a great site but very annoying with Apple lovin'...Nokia UI isn't polished but its also a work and progress and its looking good so far more power to them.

i would say they are about 5 years behind. The iphone has OSX.

embarrassing.

ouch, I wouldn't even show that in public, if anyway, ever.

I think either Nokia or Motorola are poised to revolutionize a UI for their new phones... but are stuck with traditionalist departmental heads controlling incremental releases to "string us along."

If you're only testing the groundwork, why would you expect it to have any fancy animation? I wonder what the first versions of OS X mobile looked and ran like when Apple's techs were in the initial test phase.

That was painful. I had to stop watching.

@Sqube:
They aren't saying, "on the one hand this, on the other that." They are saying that Apple has a finished product, and Symbian has a crappy prototype, therefore, Symbian is way behind Apple. It's very simple.

is that a tablet pc that the simulation is running on?

Yea it is ugly, but it has the ability of custom ringtones, sending songs via BT, and apple has a weather button that shows you the weather of many towns. Apple is nice. It will probably add to it's magic phone the option of watching teletext and maybe they'll add the function of polyphony custom ringtones. Apple is fashion, and nothing else.

One huge pet peeve of mine is that you have click to select and icon. Then click again to open it. This is something they really should learn from the iPhone and adopt. And really the major thing they have to avoid would be to tack a touch screen onto an existing interface, without innovating the control.

Dunno what hardware is powering it, but the screen is a Xenarc USB touchscreen, generally used for car PCs. I actually have the same one in my car. They're not the most responsive and aren't exactly designed to be manipulated by finger, though you can get away with it.

I agree. The WhyPhone interface is way ahead of this. I still cant type on the iphone but the rest of the interface is pretty nice.

how does anyone know how far they are behind apple when apple NEVER introduces prototypes to the public so nicely as Nokia has done in this instance? Instead of rating out an unfinished product you should rat out apple for their conspiracratic-propaganda-emulating-rumor-monguling-dictatorship not letting you see how far they were along with the iphone x years/weeks before it's announcement.

Ouch.

I was actually expecting a lot more from them. What about the Samsung touch screens? I wonder how they will pan out.

@Mac-PC-EEE:
Was wondering the same thind!
Looks like it's in a not-so-little developing tray of wait-and-see-and-maybe.

Wow, the level of English among the Finnish people never ceases to amaze me. That was just hilarious.

@SumGuy: I can type super fast on mine, but the auto spelling (which you can turn off if you want) sometimes screws with my absurd use of the English language.

why show it at all if it is embarrassing. Just keep doing your fine tuning in private before you bring it out for the public to see.

They would tidy it up but I am surprised that Nokia showed the UI at this stage.

@kavendano14:
Don't forget that that was a prototype of the X1. These small performace issues will most likely have been sorted out by the time the phone is released.

Her voice is incredibly annoying. I couldn't watch past a minute, and didn't want to after she made it sound so "practical" while having the same tech as the iPhone.

This hurts... Nokia what else do you have... I mean even if I would made it myself I wouldn't show this out to the public... Apple's in trouble!!

@ Tiger-Fever :

Does the reporter speak spanish? No.
Is this Spanish woman doing an effort te speak english? Yes
Can she speak better english than the reporter can speak Spanish? Yes

So don't whine if someone tries to speak your language but still keeps his or her accent.

And stop comparing everything to the freaggin' iPhone.
This is not fair and balanced news ;)

maybe i'm wrong here but i've always gotten the impression that nokia's idea of animation is either no animation or jerky animation that makes you wonder whether it's the hardware or the same programmer that wrote the screen saver app that crashes 1 in 5 times when it tries to launch.

To be honest, I usually turn the animations off on things like this as they may look pretty but they often waste time (eg. Nokia's "Multimedia Menu") so I won't mind if they don't bother with them. Series 60 has very few animations anyway.

Also, as a developer of Java mobile phone apps I have written a better touch-screen UI than demonstrated there!

@hassanpr: normally i'd complain about fanboyism, but lately i have to admit that i'm in love with the UI on my iPod touch.

and the features are basically all there for nokia, and maybe even are more accessible on nokia's system, it just lacks the smoothness and beauty that OS X brings to the table.

verdict: almost ready as-is for spartan businessmen, and can be made into a really nice UI with a little more work.

@Paradise: Wow what phone do you use?

Anyways not gonna even bother watching the video after what everyone has said. Was really looking forward to a touch screen phone this year from nokia but hopefully in this context it isn't comming.

Apple has a really nice UI on there iPhone and I doubt the Nokia will come anywhere close to it even at launch but it'll be usuable and not crappy that's fine... Plus when the phone actually comes out it won't be locked to certain carrers and your allowed to develope for it yay!

@misplacedparadox: Let me ask you this: Why would any company would want to show off an unfinished product? Don't they realize that it just creates a negative image? There's a reason why Apple doesn't show of an unfinished prototype and it's probably the smartest thing they ever did.

To quote Nutbastard's greatest line:

[Everyone else]: Check this out - it'll be out in a couple years.

Apple: Check this out - it's fuckin' done, son.

When it comes to actual phone functionality Nokia still beats the iPhone handily with their normal non-touch Symbian handsets. Sure, they are not nearly as pretty but instead they come with working features are very practical - physical buttons have a place because you can use those both one-handed and without looking.

Also, things like actual voice recognition for dialing means you can use a Nokia E-series with a headset and basically never touch the phone itself - just tap the button to answer and hold it in a second and tell the phone who you want to call, and that without training the phone.

UI design is where they are lacking enormously though, and it's not just the design of the software but the hardware as well in some respects. The iPhone interface is just so glass smooth, so quick, so responsive that you are never reminded that it is a virtual interface, whereas a normal ugly Symbian phone is completely unacceptably laggy and slow.

It's great to see they are finally waking up and smelling the coffee and trying to design a modern UI, but they clearly have a loong way to go.

The new Xperia that SonyEricsson is doing too... well, it's based on clunky old Windows Mobile. I have to doubt that they can get the same smooth experience that you get on an iPhone, but reserving judgement. Way cool device otherwise.

Touch screens if implemented should be done right like on the iPhone. All the other touchscreens for devices like the HTC Touch, and the plethora of LGs etc and even the crappible Palm Centro makes me want to puke.

The Nokia N800 and N810 have excellent touchscreen features but that demo product reveals otherwise. I'm happy with a non-touchscreen product for now. The iPhone requires too much cracking to get it to run on T-Mo and for such a steep price.

That's pretty fast turnaround time for a touch based UI from a company that rolls out kick ass phones every year - it looks more like a false pretense if anything, make people ignore Nokia for a while.

But this is Nokia, we only accept the best from them.

@Tinseldud: I can't complain about somebody's voice now? I didn't say her accent was annoying, I said her voice was annoying. That made it impossible for me to watch it. So sorry that offended you.

If the cell phone companies could produce a decent OS, let alone a touch screen version - you don't think they would've done so by now? That's their EXACT problem - they've been at it for 20 YEARS and Apple came in and blew them away - and now you expect them to catch up in a year or less? You're dreaming. They blew it. They can't even get decent icons, how are they going to go past that? Will they still sell a lot of phones, sure - because Apple doesn't care about the subsidized or under $200 phones - all they want are the high margins - people willing to pay price to get real functionality.

All you have to ask yourself is this - after using cell phones for 5-20 years, how many had an OS you actually liked?

Yea, one - the iPhone.

Nokia says the user will have the "choice" to use finger or stylus, but that's the problem ... they won't. Look at all the fussy little elements in this UI that in real world use (especially on smaller screens) will require the use of a stylus. Apple went for a UI that stuck to a single paradigm and that's why they're ahead. This is yet another compromised, stop-gap response that hasn't even caught up to where the iPhone UI was more than a year ago. What will Apple have by the time Nokia gets this to market? I'm really disappointed that the industry leader hasn't risen to this challenge.

@Sqube: I'm saying that they can't even make a product off of what they have. You just answered your own question, you know.

Listen. Everyone has a phone thats garbage. None of them do everything you want and only a few of them do anything at all. Apparently the 1% of people who actually hack their phones and add more programs read Gizmodo and make stupid comments like "i'm not going to be able to upload my Super Mario Bros scores and be able to send them over Bluetooth. Both completely pointless. Maybe it's a Cali, NY thing, but i've never had a need to BT anything to anyone.

It's amazing to me that when a company(Apple)makes an excellent, yet "crippled" product that all we focus on is what it can't do. "Oh no, it doesn't have GPS". Use a map people because its good for your brain.

Apple has spent over 30 years developing interfaces. They pioneered the use of a mouse and as far as modern interfaces go they are arguably the best. It should be no surprise that they took the time to develop and test the interface of the iPhone under the cover of darkness, because if they would have to listen to all this dumb meandering by people that have no experience and live in the "customer is right" generation, the damn thing would be Windows Mobile.

Hooray! Apple rules, Jobs is king and iPhone is everything.

How pathetic can the worship free support of the media (and esp Gizmodo) to Apple be? As usual Gizmodo revels in the notion that nothing can touch their church, subtly insults anything that can challenge Apple's domination and in general promotes AAPL Inc. as if it was some family honour issue or their childhood football team. Puke.

@asherpat:

I wonder if you even looked at the video... To me the video of the UI was even worse than what I was expecting after reading the headline and article. Are you telling Gizmodo should not write about things as they are but with some kind of anti-Apple agenda.

The facts are that iPhone is out and the UI is really nice, even when it was first announced, about a year ago it was *much* better than what Nokia is showing in Barcelona (according to videos, demos and several first hand reports). From this the assesment that Nokia is "months or years behind" is valid.

The iPhone is not a perfect product, far from it, but its UI is way better than what is shown on the video. I will refresh my opinion after Nokia has shipping products. Showing the UI at this point is quite a strange move, although it is better than faked demos that copy directly from Apple, which they managed to do last fall.

I like that the Nokia will fit in your pocket. IF YOU ARE ANDRE THE F*ing GIANT.

Anyway, a coupl eof other comments pegged it - the VO says "We have to keep the OS familiar to Symbian users..." Legacy means you are STILL using 20th century paradigms...

But the Finns make awesome saunas and vodka.

@JOONATAN,

i was not arguing about the product, i was noting what i see as a fact, that the tone of Gizmodo (and for that, most of the geekblogs) is subtly promoting Apple dominance (although that is kind of difficult for them, esp the old-guard, who can not see themselves as the top-dog).

I wud not rasie this issue if for example, the headline was "Nokia UI prototype not polished yet", or even "Nokia UI is bad" - but by comparison with the iPhone, the writers make an effort to dissuade people from buying say Nokia and persuade them in the infinate coolness of iPhone

Well, this is what nokia has produced as of current, and they're obviously improving this UI as we speak but what people fail to take into account is that apple is also developing and god knows what steve jobs has thought of, no doubt theres going to be a small iCheeseGrater or sme other peice of revolutionary technology attached to the iPhone 2.0 when it comes out.

also the hardware is obviously inferior in this demo but i have always used nokias (since the old b&w brick phones... those were the days) and they have always started freezing up on me several months into use whereas the iPhone which i switched to 5 months ago is running as if new, and i literaly spend all my time on it

But you never know what the final product may be, maybe an iphone killer, or maybe just a cheap knock-off, we'll c

emil.