Symbian versus series 40 handsets

Question

I've done a search for this and come up with nothing, so excuse if this has been discussed in some way or another already. I've often heard and read that you can do far more with a symbian/series 60 handset than you can with a series 40 one. What are some of the "applications" or things that you have done or can do with a series 60 phone? What kinds of applications have you got on your phone? Where do you find these applications? How do you install them? Why do the interfaces of series 60/smartphones seem more straightforward than series 40 (for example, no screen saver, no 3d menu icons, etc)/ why do they appear to be less configurable, superficially speaking? Why do you have more camera options, (e.g. filming in night mode,) on series 60, but not on series 40 handsets? How do you find out how much your particular handset is capable of doing if you own one?
Would really love to know. Thanks to anyone who responds.

Answer 1

I've used both in the past and present.
The series 40 I would say is more of a common phone interface. It's primary function is as a phone and it's a damn fine interface for it. My experience of the 40 phone was with a 6230. I did find the OS to be much more stable than S60 phones. The features that I really need from a phone (ie it needs to make calls) were very slick and fast to operate.
The apps for a S40 phone pretty much did what I needed at the time. You could find JAR applications galore out there, just a lot them were games.
The S60 is a smartphone that has a closer resemblance to a PDA than a straight forward phone. It's whole interface is infinitely more customisable, like your PDA or PC would be. It also seems to have more productivity apps available for it. It also has a collection of games available as well. You also get things like Virus scanners for S60 phones because there are nasties out there written to exploit the Symbian OS.
The phone itself does more than just make calls. I think that's the key for an S60 phone.
What would I choose? I would like an S40 for ease of calls and an S60 for everything else, thus I have an S60 phone.
As for camera options, that's merely down to what Nokia want to put into their camera. The Ericsson camera phones may not run either but their camera options are very good.