Flashback: how Symbian Anna tried to bring an old OS into the modern touchscreen world

12 November 2023
Anna, unlike the S60 5th edition software of the Nokia 5800, was a much better attempt at a touch-operated Symbian. It still wasn't good enough, though.

Sort by:

  • V
  • Vance37
  • wvR
  • 29 Feb 2024

Redzuan, 27 Dec 2023I miss it soo much, golden era: 1. Xpress music vs walkman... moreOhh man you reed my mind, how I miss so much that times and world reign of Nokia, so many different devices all of tham special in something. I was with nokia till last where unfortunately nokia just sink been under pressure of android and ios. My favorite always ws series E. I remember my first ever smartphone was Nokia 3250 in 2006. Also 6630 the dream of dreams most beautiful smartphone for me. And Nokia 3660 first smartphone I ever seen in 2004 such a good memory. Symbian was amazing OS always love it, so flexible so easy to use. My Nokia history:
Nokia 3410
Nokia 7260
Nokia 3220
Nokia 3250
Nokia N72
Nokia N73
Nokia N80
Nokia N91
Nokia E72
Nokia E90 Comunicator
Nokia E6
Nokia N8
Nokia E7
Nokia N9
Nokia 9 PureView
Many other I wish but never got like 3660, 6630, 9500, n93i or N900 or not comercial nokia N950 with mego. Nokia always in my heart
Connecting people

    • R
    • Redzuan
    • G2L
    • 27 Dec 2023

    I miss it soo much, golden era:
    1. Xpress music vs walkman (epic battle)
    2. s60 file manager, ability to share any kind of file including games (blue line white background)
    3. Lcg jukebox as main music player
    4. Smart movie and real player as main multimedia
    5. Multiplayer via bluetooth or infra red (explode arena, snake and lock n load, my cousin and my friends cannot beat me lol)
    6. Matrix has you!!! Command Warrior inside (Virus)

    My old phone is:
    1. Nokia 6600, 7610 Ngage, Ngage QD, N70 Music edition (S60)
    2. N76 clamshell (S60v3)
    3. Sony Ericsson P990i my first Symbian Uiq3
    4. Sony Ericsson W205, W595
    5. Nokia N8 Symbian anna belle
    6. Xperia X8/W8 my first Android
    7. Lumia 1020 my first windows phone
    8. Actually many more including Lg phone but i skip
    9. My latest phone Xperia 1 J9110 (hard bricked) T_T
    yeah yeah naughty boy who likes to play around Xda..

      Anonymous, 14 Nov 2023Windows on phones was laughably bad.as someone who daily-drives a Lumia 930 with WP8.1, I can confidently say that's not true. at least until Windows 10 Mobile comes into the picture. that was the worst mobile OS I ever used, nothing comes even close.

        • C
        • Czajka
        • nHG
        • 20 Nov 2023

        I had 5530xm back then and it was one of the worse if not worst phone I ever had. Slow, non responsive and when I compared it with my friend's iPhone I was sorry I couldn't afford it. Anyway, I felt big relief when it crashed and switched back to Nokia with a keyboard

          • A
          • Ankit
          • cdR
          • 20 Nov 2023

          The best one nokia n9 with Meego os

            I liked the E6-00, which was a seriously good little phone, complete with a mechanical keyboard and a hi-resolution, touch display.

            The memory was plenty, and the cpu very powerful. It could do ANYTHING in the blink of an eye, and especially the maps-function was always spot on.

            On top of that it had fantastic networking for the time, with both 3G and WiFi on board.

            It was rather expensive, of course, but I bought it brand new for half the price in Cambodia, in 2011.

            The only reason I threw it away, was because in 2018 I couldn't find a replacement battery for it.

            So sad. Such a technological marvel...

              • D
              • Dan
              • Pt5
              • 17 Nov 2023

              Sam N8 808 owner, 17 Nov 2023Symbian was probably the only modern OS to be completely in... moreAgreed loved S^3 all the way to the Donna update

                Symbian was probably the only modern OS to be completely in control of the user.
                The best OS I ever used. It had privacy, it had task control out of the box, you had control over what runs in the RAM.
                For minimalists, for power users, Symbian was for everyone, despite its shortcomings that went away slowly.

                It would've been a formidable force, had the USA just let it remain, instead of sending their man in the Nokia Board of Directors.
                Sadly, a journalist's word is now more important than a customer's.

                  • S
                  • Sammy
                  • q{r
                  • 17 Nov 2023

                  I remember when my dear friend, Fawzy Moghabghab, showed up one day with a Symbian in his hand; it was stellar.

                    • F
                    • Fargo73
                    • X0x
                    • 16 Nov 2023

                    I was working at Nokia back then, and I had an E7 with the upgrade to Anne. Despite the beautiful hardware, I felt that the OS was the bottleneck both for features and performances.
                    I think the right move would have been to switch to Android, although it would have been a painful one, considering the number of people working on Symbian.
                    And that was one of the many wrong decisions at Nokia in that period. As it ended, we all know...

                      I feel you are comparing the Symbian with Today's experience. The Symbian Anna was actually better than android and iOS at that time. it delivered a fluid UX maybe came short in UI, Ovi maps worked with or without the internet, Street view was available that time too. i was forced into using the qwerty keyboard, the handed easy use of the T9 keyboard was still my favorite and i was faster in typing with T9. Symbian's death feels like it was poisoned. i still have a sweet memorable feeling each time i remember Symbian experience.

                        • b
                        • batman52
                        • pZ%
                        • 14 Nov 2023

                        I did not feel it that way I owned (actually still own) a Nokia 5530 express music, smaller brother of 5800 that had bigger success. For me this was the first smartphone experience that I had. I regretted not going for the 5800 which had an integrated gps, but i could pair with a bluetooth gps that actually had better sensitivity. It also gave me wifi, internet browsing and apps (skype, sygic, ovi), with offline navigation (i travelled through Europe without internet, which now seems crazy!). It was also my first phone with Bluetooth audio, which i learned to enjoy. All this in a somewhat affordable device (i think 250eur). I mean Android device were there (and iphone too) but i just couldn't afford them! So thank you Nokia for those devices! What is sad is that the fall of Nokia basically killed the european consumer electronics industry...

                          • C
                          • Carol
                          • skK
                          • 14 Nov 2023

                          Anonymous, 14 Nov 2023Windows on phones was laughably bad.Actually was good and faster then android by miles.

                            Anonymous, 14 Nov 2023Windows on phones was laughably bad.That's because you never use it. Best of luck getting the same kind of memory management in any low-end Android phones. Even Android Go requires at least 2GB RAM, and it's supposed to be a watered-down "lite" version of standard Android.

                            And before you cry about "no apps", I never suffered much problem with it.

                              • ?
                              • Anonymous
                              • yVI
                              • 14 Nov 2023

                              YUKI93, 13 Nov 2023As a Windows Phone user, I see a lot of potential for it to... moreWindows on phones was laughably bad.

                                • C
                                • Carol
                                • nUJ
                                • 13 Nov 2023

                                Yeah, very good times. Especially now, If MeeGo would have been brought back, i'd jump on it today and cut google forever from life and family.

                                  • C
                                  • Carol
                                  • nUJ
                                  • 13 Nov 2023

                                  Hector, 13 Nov 2023What was infuriating at the time is that Nokia didn't ... moreThey actually wanted a slow transaction to MeeGo, let's not forget that millions of Symbian devices were sold and beeing sold, they could not just cut the "cord". They plans and idea were actually great, sadly elope came a long... after that, we all know what happened.

                                    • H
                                    • Hector
                                    • Eq4
                                    • 13 Nov 2023

                                    What was infuriating at the time is that Nokia didn't use their own Maemo OS that was designed for touchscreens and still tried to push Symbian on to touch. Symbian UIQ was quite good too, but Nokia made it's bet on S60 and underpowered devices and we know what happened after that.

                                      • S
                                      • S9achin
                                      • XSM
                                      • 13 Nov 2023

                                      My first phone was Nokia 603 in 2012 with Symbian Anna. Upgraded to Belle, then lost to a bucket of water :(

                                        Ottonis, 13 Nov 2023This is true. MeeGo could have become the third big OS besi... moreAs a Windows Phone user, I see a lot of potential for it to disrupt the Android-iOS duopoly, especially with the existence of Windows on ARM these days. But yeah, it feels like Microsoft never got serious with the mobile hardware business in the first place. All great ideas for mobile OS gone just like that.

                                          1 of 6