The Guardian News review

Richard Goodwin

We review the Guardian's news application for Symbian S60 handsets

Published on Sep 18, 2009

If you work on the move or are generally a busy person, it's always handy to get news on the move.

The Guardian's news app is exactly that; an app that sits on your Symbian phone, allowing you to check the headlines wherever you are.

For starters, we found the download and installation process a breeze - it took less than a minute, which was refreshing, as we’ve had some bad experiences with Nokia’s Ovi Store. And on first impressions, the app itself doesn’t look too bad at all - so long as you’re not expecting a browsing experience similar to that of the iPhone or HTC Hero.

The app itself attempts to emulate The Guardian’s website has closely as it can - all those lovely colour breaks are there, as well as the newspaper’s logo, and section headers. However, it really misses the mark in terms of looks, particularly when compared to the capabilities of other smartphones on the market. The text and graphics look dated, even archaic, and just leave you wishing you had a better phone!

While many are now accustomed to data rich web pages and user intuitive controls, such as the pinch and grab feature on the iPhone and Hero, it is sadly not the case across the entire smartphone market. And using this app on the N95 8GB really highlights how quickly a good device can go out of date.

However, on a positive note, the app provides everything you could want in terms of news, sport, culture etc - in fact, content wise, it’s as good as any other news app on the market. Nevertheless, navigation, particularly after the ascension of the touch screen paradigm, on the N95 8GB is just awful - it takes too long to get the pointer to where you want it to be, and when you finally do, the text is so tiny and cheap looking, you’ll probably not want to read it.

Because this app is free, its difficult to be too harsh about it, particularly since all the content you’d expect is there. Additionally, the app itself is very stable, loading and switching between pages very quickly, and with very little lag. However, it just doesn’t look very good, and this is the real kicker. Plus, anybody with bad eyesight will really struggle with the text size. Granted, you can zoom in and out, but actually doing this on the N95 is hardly a fast process, as the majority of users will know.

In short, this is a free app, so its definitely worth a go, and it will make a nice addition to your apps section, particularly for those who like to be up to date with the news 24/7. However, the general look and feel of it is extremely disappointing, which left us with a bitter after taste and the desire for a superior device.