Density Equates Quality

This past weekend I was killing time in Best Buy when I wandered over to their cell phone display. As some of you may recall from last week's post, I'm currently in the market for a cell phone. Of course, my search for a phone is hampered somewhat by the cell phone industry's annoying practice of continuing to produce crap. 

So, there I was, standing in front of dozens of cell phones, idly picking one up and marveling at how generic it was before moving on to the next one when suddenly I found myself pleasantly surprised. I had already gone through numerous cheap plastic phones when I came across the Nokia 6301. This phone stuck out for me because out of every phone I looked at that day, this reminded me most of a product that Apple might make. 

Now, before too many people start posting ugly comments let me clarify, I'm not saying that this phone is similar to the iPhone, I'm pointing out that there are aspects of it that are very Apple-esque. For instance, unlike every other phone I picked up that day, this phone only has 3 buttons on its sides. Those being a power button on top and two volume buttons on the right side. Now, that is still more buttons than on the iPhone, but it is downright minimalist compared to everything Samsung produces. (as they are firm believers in the style of bolting as much crap onto a phone as possible) In fact, the entire phone looked sleek and refined. It was a surprise to say the least.

But perhaps the thing that most shocked me was how solid the phone felt. In fact, the weight is what you first notice when you pick it up. It has a steel back and metal frame which gives it a sturdy feel. It also make you think it is more expensive than it actually is, as (when it comes to electronics at least) we tend to equate high density with high price. That quality, more than anything else, is what makes me declare that this product feels like something Apple might make. It is heavy and solid and doesn't feel like a cheap piece of plastic that is only designed to last until the next iteration comes out. It feels like a high quality phone. 

In fact, being the giant geek that I am, I later looked up the specs on the 6301 and compared them to the iPhone. I found something only mildly unexpected, after doing a little math I found that these two phones have virtually the same density. While most of the other phones on the market are quite content to produce phones made of plastic, Nokia is taking a different approach with this phone. I applaud them for this. Furthermore, I hope more phone makers realize that making high quality, better built phones might be the only way they are going to ever have a chance at competing with the iPhone. 

Apple took a different route and decided on using metal and glass. And as we can see it paid off nicely for them. It appears that Nokia might possibly have decided to move in the same direction. I think that this is a wonderful move on Nokia's part and hope we see more phones like this in the future.