This is Part 1 of our 4 part “Introducing S60 v5” series which we hope to cover this week.
S60 V5 is Symbian’s new Touch UI. While many things remain the same as the previous S60 v3, the new updated OS and UI does bring about a couple new things here and there.
Today we’re going to talk about the Menu, Home Screen and the Contacts application in S60 v5. This was done on a Nokia 5800, so some things might be different on other S60 V5 devices like the N97 or Samsung Omnia HD.
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The Menu :
The Menu remains pretty true to its S60 roots. Its a 3×5 icon grid, which you can change to a list format too. You can create folders, move icons around and organise, etc. S60 V5 uses Nokia’s new “Ovi Icons” in the 5800.
The Network bar(left) and Battery bar(right) stay on top as you navigate through the menu. There’s also the time display, and icon notifications (such as Bluetooth, GPS, Wifi, etc) on the upper right corner.
If your device supports it, the menu can change between portrait and landscape modes, along with other applications.
On the 5800, the menu auto-rotates orientation thanks to the built in accelerometer in all menu’s and applications other than the home screen.
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The Home Screen (Active Standby) :
The Active Standby screen or Home Screen in S60 V5 remains basically the same as S60 v3, but there are a lot of small changes.
You can choose between three “Home Screen Themes” for your active standby.
The first option is the “Basic” home screen :
This is the basic underlying home screen. You have your Network Bar(left) and Battery Bar(Right) at the top. There’s the Clock, Network Operator Name, and the Day and Date below that, which changes to show your active profile occasionally.
At the bottom of your screen you have the new numeric dialler icon, and the contacts icon.
The Dialler Icon, takes you to the numeric Dialler Application :
Here, an onscreen numeric keypad appears, which you can use to dial a number, or save a number to contacts, etc. From here you can directly go to your Recent calls list, Contacts, Speed Dial or your Call Settings.
The second Home Screen Theme is the “Shortcut Bar” :
This works the same way as the shortcut bar Home Screen Theme on S60 v3. You can choose any 4 Application shortcuts to be displayed here.
A bonus of using the Shortcut Bar, is that you get several Active Standby Plugins that work along with it, such as the Search Bar on the Home Screen. There’s also the Music Bar, which appears when you use the Music Application, etc.
And finally, is the new “Contacts Bar” Home Screen Theme, which makes it’s Debut on the Nokia 5800 :
In this theme, you can choose any four of your favourite Contacts, to have easier and quicker access to them. While having only 4 Contacts does seem very limiting, the Contacts Bar is a pretty good Idea.
For each of the 4 contacts, you can subscribe to two of their Web Feeds. This can include anything from their Twitter Feed, Facebook Feed, Blog Feeds, etc. Basically anything they have which generates an RSS Feed.
Apart from all this, the Home Screen in S60 V5 also has a couple hidden shortcuts around the screen.
Tapping on the Date or Profile Name, will quickly bring up a list of profiles and a shortcut to the calender application. Tapping on the Clock takes you to the Clock Application.
Tapping on the Area between Network Operator Name and Battery Meter, will bring up a Tab Showing you the Date, a shortcut to your connectivity options, and showing you any Wifi or Bluetooth Connections you’re on (if any).
There are also various Notifications that are shown here and carried onto the Menu screen too. Notifications such as 3G usage, Edge or GPRS use occur as a small icon under the Network Meter :
Notifications such as Bluetooth Connections, Wifi, GPS, etc occur next to the operator name near the Battery Meter :
That’s it for the Home Screen !
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Contacts :
As we said earlier, tapping the Contacts Icon on the HomeScreen, takes you to the Contacts Application.
The Contacts Application is very similar to S60 V3. All your contacts are listed Alphabeitically. You can assign ringtones or display pictures to each contact, or place them in a caller group.
In S60 v5, you tap once to highlight the contact’s name, then again to choose that contact. You have quite a list of options for each contact :
As we said before, in addition to assigning a specific display picture or caller ringtone to each contact, you can also assign as many numbers as you want, email addresses, websites or blogs addresses, notes, etc.
Choosing a contact is a bit cumbersome though. You can either scroll the list using the scroll bar on the right side (you cannot just flick through the screen like on the iPhone), or you can type in their name using S60 v5′s new input system for the contacts application specifically.
When you click on the Search Bar, a keyboard pops up. As you type your contact’s name, the choices of alphabets gets smaller and smaller and more specific until you find your contact.
For example, if I want to find my friend “Babs” I type “B” for which I get the following options :
Now as i go on typing, I type “B-A-B” to which the list gets narrower and the alphabet choices get more specific :
It’s a pretty good system that works fine. I’d have liked it to have been a little bit quicker though, but no complaints really.
Apart from all that, you can choose where to store your contacts (by default it is sensibly, the phone memory). You can also choose to display only your phone memory contacts or SIM contacts.
You also have the choice on Name Display, First-name-last-name being the default option.
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That’s it for part 1. Join us tomorrow for Part 2 of our 4 part Introducing S60 V5 Series !
Clinton is currently based in New Delhi, India and is executive editor for UnleashThePhones. He is responsible for all editorial decisions, and covers all forms of Mobile things.
Cj is addicted to caffeine, social media, and technology. Always up for a good conversation, you can reach him through the contact form, his website, on Google Plus 
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