[shaqiulle]

Nokia Belle is a big a step backwards.

1. Battery life has gone pathetic. My phone does not last 4 hours, while with anna, it lasted 18 hours.

2. No way for user to kill background tasks. (App stop is not available for belle)

3. No augmented reality apps. (No wikitude, not even Nokias live view, or city view)

4. Top icons are not responsive anymore. I cannot click on battery icon and go to power saving mode.

5. App installation takes twice as long.

6. Many apps install, but do not work. (e.g. astroller).

7. Six screens have too many apps running.

Somebody PLEASE advise how to go back to anna? 

[vuldee]

Ad.1 Looks like settings or battery problem rather then Belle's fault- my N-8 doesn't seemto drain the battery so bad after upgrade.
Ad. 2 Yes way. You just have to use hardware menu button instead of soft one, hold it and kill'em all...
Ad.4 There's no one word reply to that. You need to either use hard power button to enable power saving mode or download nokia battery monitor.

If I didn't convince You @ me for further assistance...

[shaqiulle]

Thanks for your tips. They are helpful, yet do not minimize the pain of upgrading to Belle...

the laundry list of issues continues:

1. Apps that have Anna widgets do not have screen widgets in Belle. This makes less widgets available to put on twice the size of screen space.

2. Default buttons in Anna were to delete messages, photos etc. In Belle, delete option is only available through Menu.

3. Phone takes longer to reboot.

4. While on a call, and browsing the phone, Belle inconsistently displays on call icon. On-Call icon is consistently visible across all navigation in Anna.

5. In Belle, intermitently, phone becomes inresponsive. Good thing it recovers, bad thing is anna never had that problem!

6. In anna, holding call button allows for voice commands. In Belle this is no longer the way to activate voice command. I have a feeling it's hidden somewhere - but who asked it to change?

[carman58]

Some Anna widgets, Chatterer for example, work fine also widgets like mail are far more functional as you can actually scroll through your mail via the widget itself.. As for booting up, I rarely do it, but haven't noticed a difference,Assuming you know you are on a call, why do you need an on call symbol, and why are you browsing the phone( unless maybe to get a phone number) My phone is pretty snappy without lag.

For voice commands, install the Voice command shortcut where ever you want it

The whole Belle experience is vastly improved from Anna, more versatile , quicker, modern, feature filled and functional, try searching the user guide on the phone, spend some time exploring it, you may find you're being over critical, The update is a MAJOR software change, not a slight update, it's like getting a brand new phone, spend a couple of days tinkering and you may turn out to really like it

MODERATOR'S NOTE: This post has been edited because the spaces between the paragraphs are out of proportion and without per se.

[j810]

maybe u need to do a hard reset or something because the battery on my N8 lasts the same after the belle update. And also my n8 is 1.5-2x faster on installing apps via the nokia store and with the 6 home screens, it uses much less ram (checked with raminfo).

[krazyq00]

i've attached the app stop application you're talking about so hopefully that helps.

About not being able to click the battery button, you do know about the notification bar, correct?

from the top of your screen drag your finger down and it brings up the notification bar, you can turn off/on mobile data, wifi,bluetooth and silence right away.

check your connection settgs, if you have the c7, the nfc is turned on by default.

maybe before you're update you should back up your files

do a hard reset, then delete your mass memory folder then to the update again

then restore your contacts/messages etc

should be better that way

goodluck

[esanker]

Yeah I concur to that. Belle is much better in managing RAM than Anna. I use Opera Mobile and I still have 108 Mb left in my RAM. With Anna, I'm left with much less.  Also, I can run as much widgets as I want without fear of running low on RAM.

[Joi_C]

Carman58 wrote:

The whole Belle experience is vastly improved from Anna, more versatile , quicker, modern, feature filled and functional, try searching the user guide on the phone, spend some time exploring it, you may find you're being over critical, The update is a MAJOR software change, not a slight update, it's like getting a brand new phone, spend a couple of days tinkering and you may turn out to really like it

I cannot for the life of me recognise the Belle improvements.

• Experience is vastly improved=> can you name some of the improvements?
• more versatile: examples?
• quicker=> No noticable difference as far as I can tell.
• modern=> you mean ugly
• feature filled=> What features? I only miss features I had with Anna
                                    (eye candy isn't a feature in my opinion)
• functional=> How is removing features functional?

My experience:

• Widgets are bigger and clunky and cannot be configured. I have tried everything, but 
        I cannot make my homescreens look as nice and neat as I had them with Anna.  
       Moreover, I need MORE homescreens for the same info.
• The highly functional date/clock/profile widget I enjoyed in Anna is no longer available.
        Now all I get is a BIG ugly clock and an ugly grey profile widget that does not show self-
        created profiles (I created an Outdoor profile, because the Anna standard one is no 
        longer there!)
• Ugly text under the shortcut icons that cannot be removed (a choice would have been
        nice)
• Widget online/offline toggle is no longer available.
• I can only access 'Open applications' by long pressing the menu button. I liked the
       menu option better. I do not want to wear out my menu button or have the bottom of my
       phone drop off. I love my N8 and do not want to lose it anytime soon. Forcing me to use
       hardware buttons when there perfectly fine menu options in Anna is just plain annoying.
• I can no longer create folders within folders. (Yes I liked that feature!)
• I can no longer switch homescreens by clicking on the software button on the bottom
        middle of the screen. (Yes, I used that a lot)
• I can no longer turn on battery saving by clicking on the battery. Now I have to either
        press the power button or dive into the menu.
• I liked the notification widget much better than that eyecandy slide down notification bar.
• I can no longer access the connectivity menu via the homescreen. I need to go to
        menu/settings/connectivity.
• With Anna, connection settings were easier. When on the road, my 3G connection was 
       automatically selected and whenever I was within range of a known WiFi connection,
       that connection was automatically selected. With Belle I have to set the internet 
       connection to ask what connection I want. The only other option is to hardcode either
       3G or a specific WiFi network. If that selected connection is not available, the
       connection fails. So now when I access the internet I first have to select the desired
       accesspoint. How's that an improvement?

I do not have more RAM available than I had before (80MB-90MB) and my phone does not run smoother/faster than under Anna (which was just as smooth/fast on my phone, I had no complaints!). And yes my phone was empty when I upgraded. Before I upgraded I synchronised my contacts/messages/photo's and uninstalled all apps I had installed and then performed a soft reset. The phone was empty, like I just got it from the store. I currently do not use a microSD and install all apps on the mass storage (not on C.

I am the kind of person that buys and uses the phone that I like and that gives me the functionality that I need. I do not feel any need to impress my friends. If they don't like my phone, tough! I am the one using it, so I am the only one who has to like it. All this added Eye Candy is therefore useless to me. Couldn't they just have added the eye candy without removing the handy Anna features? Then everybody would have been happy.

Someone please tell me what it is that I am, judging by your comments, obviously missing!!! Let me know what I have overlooked, because I love Nokia and I love Symbian and I want to love Belle, but I just cannot. :-(

[cmdoshi24]

Belle is good , but I agree the battery is draining quickly

[Netizen99]

totally agreed! Where're all the Anna good features gone?

[banlec]

I think Belle is nice, a step in the good direction.

[rayhipkiss]

---

Joi_C wrote:

• With Anna, connection settings were easier. When on the road, my 3G connection was 
       automatically selected and whenever I was within range of a known WiFi connection,
       that connection was automatically selected. With Belle I have to set the internet 
       connection to ask what connection I want. The only other option is to hardcode either
       3G or a specific WiFi network. If that selected connection is not available, the
       connection fails. So now when I access the internet I first have to select the desired
       accesspoint. How's that an improvement?

---

 This is definitely a regressive step and a deal breaker for me. This is how my Galaxy S behaves and I find it very annoying to have to go through these steps when I need an internet connection. The way Anna (and all other Symbian ^1 & ^3 versions) deals with it is perfect so I won't be "updating" anytime soon. I'm actually glad that Nokia have yet to submit Belle to my network provider otherwise I'd be in the same boat as joi_c.

All the best.

Ray. 

[Gabrielo1985]

I TOTALLY agree with Joi_C. Great review!

Maybe Anna was a little bit slower but, it worked, it was something different.

The thing I loved most in my Nokia was that, against the showy-fashionable but trivial  IPhone&Co, it was a world apart which works properly and without frippery.

Now, with Belle, it seems like a bad imitation of apple or android device, losting all the thing that was the true added value of my Nokia.

Why has it to lose all the good thing that has before only for have a sort of "new theme"?

[Joi_C]

Joi_C wrote:

With Anna, connection settings were easier. When on the road, my 3G connection was automatically selected and whenever I was within range of a known WiFi connection, that connection was automatically selected. With Belle I have to set the internet connection to ask what connection I want. The only other option is to hardcode either 3G or a specific WiFi network. If that selected connection is not available, the connection fails. So now when I access the internet I first have to select the desired accesspoint. How's that an improvement? 

---

rayhipkiss wrote:

This is definitely a regressive step and a deal breaker for me. This is how my Galaxy S behaves and I find it very annoying to have to go through these steps when I need an internet connection. The way Anna (and all other Symbian ^1 & ^3 versions) deals with it is perfect so I won't be "updating" anytime soon. I'm actually glad that Nokia have yet to submit Belle to my network provider otherwise I'd be in the same boat as joi_c.

---

I have been told on another forum that it should work as it was in Anna, so I am going to check

my connections settings again tonight. Maybe there is something I did not configure correctly. This point is therefore still under debate and might not be true. So please do not make any decisions based on this issue. Other than that I stand by my other points.

[rayhipkiss]

 @ Joi_c

 I reckon your original assumption is correct and this is now the default behaviour. Why else would there be buttons for Wi-Fi and 3G on the notifications pane? In any case, I'd already made my mind up not to update and this was the defining factor for me to definitely not update. If Nokia address these issues in future updates then it may be worth updating otherwise I'm not interested.

Ray. 

[chattaBox]

I kinda Like Belle, the Mail is much better and with a full Homescreen or two just dedciated to Mail is a good thing. 

Anna had a more neat look to it, but Belle is a step forward, plus swiping from homecreen to homescreen has improved greatly with Belle. 

The only down side is and do agree with others, the battery life drains much faster now. Probably in half the time as it did before. I get the feeling that is probably due to the extra homescreens, with active to apps, that weren't running before. 

Over-al i give Belle 7/10

[greycounciller]

Like Ray, I'm still on Anna.
I'll wait and see if many of the issues surrounding Belle are to be noted and resolved. For the amount of time it has been available as leaked firmware, many issues don't make sense and are real surprise omissions.

[dumpystig]

Someone tell me it's not true that the grey text boxes below each shortcut icon can't be removed? The whole idea of an icon is to be a visual representation of the shortcut it is linked to, thereby negating the need for text. Feels like I'm back at school again. I reckon the developers must have had one weekend to be able to come up with this FFS

MODERATORS NOTE: Offensive language has been removed. Please do not use offensive language as this is not allowed on the forums. 

[secarica]

@Joi_C: "and an ugly grey profile widget that does not show self-created profiles (I created an Outdoor profile, because the Anna standard one is no longer there!)"
Wrong, it does show the self created profile, except that you have to scroll the list to unveil the additional one(s). Not the best thing, but it works.

Cristi

[AUTxRemoteC]

At first I was excited that the update is finally shipped, if I had only known this (and similiar) threads before ...

I agree to most of you, to repost the key features I miss in Belle:

- quickly change to battery safe mode by pressing the battery icon; with the power button there is always the possibility to press it too long and the phone will shut down. Even if this happens rarely it is very annoying to wait for PIN code and reboot.

- same for the calendar: There seems not to be a widget that only displays the date and with a click you are in the calendar.

- next point: The clock - I don't want an Android clone or something. I really liked the old style: No eye-candy but functionality. If I want eye-candy and no possibilty to configure my phone I buy an iPhone - simple as that.

- Only change the homescreen with a swype: Where is the handy button? Maybe it's not so "cool" to press a button instead of swype randomly on your touchscreen but it is faster and easier, also if you have other things than only your phone in the hand. I have to say the swype is faster in Belle but it wasn't that bad with Anna.

- Screensaver clock is tinier => takes longer to read / you have to look closer

- No Bubbles!!! This was one of the coolest and most functional features, even if it was only a Beta and crashed under certain circumstances!

- Where are all my programs and apps?

- Why deleting all the folders? All programs are apparently randomly sorted in one long list ... will take some work to get a organized structure back. But I read hear that subfolders aren't supported anymore - who was in charge of this?

- With Anna 3 homescreens were enough but with this new Widget style you really need 5 homescreens for the same amount of 'information'.

My conclusion: How to get back to Anna? After all I experienced in the short time plus things I read here like shorter battery lifetime and problems with the right connection --> you do not have to copy Android ;-)