We’ve grown used to seeing network branded devices in the UK. It started off with a simple logo pasted on the device and a simlock so that you couldn’t use it with simcards from other networks. It then developed into branded UIs with branded wallpapers, screensavers, cases and, for some smartphones, a Firmware version exclusive to the network which branded the device from top-to-bottom. Some networks even have their own exclusive device models.

So it came as no surprise that the Nokia E61 a colleague had bought from Vodafone had a different Firmware Version to the regular E61 I’d been using for testing at work. What did surprise me though was the huge difference in performance between the two devices.

One of the best things about the E61, and in fact about any 3rd Edition S60 device, is how quick the new UI is compared to the older Symbian devices. The E61 I’d been using for weeks had never given me any problem and was always quick and responsive even when I had multiple apps running in the background.

In comparison the UI on the Vodafone-Branded device was in fact slower than on any of the 2nd Edition devices. The menu would open up after a noticeabe pause, changing options seemed to take forever and opening apps was just as bad. The owner was so sick of it that he swapped it for a Blackberry a couple of days later. To make sure it wasn’t just a one-off problem I decided to try out another branded E61 in the Vodafone store on Oxford Street in London. Again the device was slow and when I pointed this out to the shop-assistant she said that they’d “had a lot of trouble” with the device.

So now Nokia have a problem. From what I can see the early adopters of the E61 are going to be the business types. The ones who can afford to spend the money to get the device when it’s just been released. These are the same people Nokia are aiming for with this specific device; the Crackberry addict, the guy who lives on his phone. Unfortunately they are also the people who like to make snap-judgments and a device which doesn’t immediately impress isn’t going to cut it.

Now as far as I know this issue is limited to Vodafone UK, so this might just affect a small number of users. However I’m sure other networks in other countries are also going to ship with their own Firmware versions. If Nokia don’t start to take an interest in whether the user experience on a branded device is on-par with that of a regular device then these too could have similar problems. You’d think that, after spending so much time and money on improving the Series60 platform, Nokia would be more interested in making sure that the User-Experience they intended the user to have is actually what the user gets.