As you might have gathered from some of my previous posts, I do enjoy playing with new mobile phones, and I really enjoy ranting about them at length on the internet. So, I was stoked to receive an email on behalf of O2 offering to let me try out their new "Cocoon" music phone.
I've been playing with it for a few days now, and I must say I like it. I don't love it, though, as it does have some flaws. It's got one massive flaw -- which you might be able to predict from my other posts -- but one feature which might just swing it for me. More on that later, though.
O2 have commissioned this phone themselves, rather than just branding an existing OEM model. They've handed it to a goatee-growing, polo-neck-wearing Swedish design agency, who have obviously put together a bunch of unfeasible design sketches and then passed it on to manufacture by Pantech, a huge Korean phone maker who we've barely heard of here in the UK.
I'm not sure where the name "Cocoon" came from, though. It reminds me of an old Dilbert cartoon where it turns out the only two codenames left for new projects are "PHLEGM" and "PLACENTA".
The phone is a curvy white semi-minimalist design, reminiscent of Marvin in the film version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, or the shagging robots in that Björk video by Chris Cunningham. You might think it matches the Apple iPod/iBook white aesthetic, but it doesn't really. Apple go more for rectangular rounded glossy white plastic, while the Cocoon goes for smooth curves with crisp edges and a more "satin" finish.
The whole thing's really built around a single distinguishing feature: the five-character 16-segment blue LED display on the front. Invisible when off, but bordered by a few inset symbols, it glows behind the white surface rather pleasantly with a relatively deep blue. I'm in two minds about the blue: would it look simpler and better if white LEDs had been used instead?
So, to start with, we get a minimalist white cardboard box, with the word HELLO embossed in the same sixteen-segment font across the front. The lid flap is neatly held down by a rare-earth magnet hidden somewhere in the box, and then reinforced for good luck by a nasty VOID sticker. Opening the flap reveals a panoramic picture of something-blossoms which I totally ignore in favour of the phone itself sitting nestled there. A small plastic tab on the side marked "PULL" reveals the side tray, full of accessories.
The phone itself is a clamshell phone, with a comfortable spring to it, and a thick hinge. It closes with a solid "thunk", rather than a "snap" thanks to the rubber buffers inside. The outside is white plastic, and fairly featureless, until you notice a few fiddly details, like the camera, flash/"lantern", black volume wheel, battery panel, lanyard post, and inset indicator symbols.
The sides and the inside of the phone are black and covered in buttons and widgets, such as the stereo speakers either side, the do-everything "port", a slider to release the battery/SIM panel, a microSD slot, and control buttons for the music features.
Inside, we see the standard arrangement of screen, earpiece and video-call camera on the upper half, and keys and microphone on the lower half. In between, there's a little-used volume wheel built into the hinge which works well from either side.
The main phone and navigation keys are flat but with slight ridges and dimples in places for touch. The keys are very slightly backlit in a pale sickly green. The main navigation device is a flat four-way clicker with centre button, along with two multi-function keys and the two hook buttons: in all, a very standard layout.
When the phone is open, it forms a graceful curve which the Swedes obviously spent long nights sketching with markers. Unfortunately, this leaves the phone a little uncomfortable to make calls with: the flat edge and face of the earpiece doesn't contact the ear at a good angle, leaving the call either tinny, or the phone pressed close against the cheek. Score one for design -v- practicality. However, this isn't really a big deal. I've had a three-hour conversation using the Cocoon and it only bothered me to start with.
So, now onto the elephant in the room... the LED display.
To me, this just looked like a gimmick. We've seen phones with external displays before, and they're just nothing to write home about. Okay, this one's got a neat docking station (the "Nest", as they refer to it), but I had a desk charging station for my Nokia in 1996. Whoop-de-doo.
The Cocoon fits sideways into the Nest in what seems to me to be a thoroughly mixed metaphor. The designers have taken a leaf out of the iPod's book when it comes to connectivity. There's a single port on the side of the phone, akin to the iPod's "Dock Connector", which acts as a connector for the headset, charging, docking, and even FM radio antenna. The USB cable plugs either into this port, or into the identical connector on the back of the Nest, with the Nest plugging into the phone with the same type of plug. The other end of the cable is a standard USB plug that either goes into the computer or into a mains-plug charger.
They've even taken the idea of removable plug pins from the iPod charger, including an oddly-hinged UK three-pin adaptor, and a similarly-bendable European two-pin adaptor. I don't blame them for copying the iPod, because the iPod did it right, and anyway Apple probably weren't the first to do it either. Anyway, the arrangement is pretty much identical in topology to the iPod setup.
This brings up the issue of overcharging the battery: the Cocoon's manual points out that full charge/discharge cycles are far more conducive to battery lifetime than quick top-ups, and yet the Nest encourages this bad behaviour. While the Nest is plugged into the mains, it will charge the phone, regardless of the point in the discharge cycle. And, if you're using this thing as an alarm clock, you want it to remain charged. Unsurprisingly, the manual doesn't cover the issue to this depth, so I'm a little at a loss on what to recommend.
Along with a headphone jack socket, the Nest has two of the multi-function ports on the back: one for the power/USB cable, and one for the FM radio antenna.
Annoyingly, the Nest is lightweight and a bit too small. If you lift the phone, the Nest invariably comes with it. You have to hold down the Nest to remove the Cocoon, and since it's so slim, you end up pushing sideways on the cable plug. I think including a hefty lump of depleted uranium in the base might've made it easier. Failing that, they should've made it bigger to give something to push against, and made the Nest's docking plug fit looser. Instead, I'll probably end up Blu-Tacking the whole thing down. (Incidentally, as I discovered while taking an abortive set of pictures of the Nest, Silly Putty sticks like glue to the rubberised base of the Nest... I ended up having to break out a range of solvents to get rid of it all.)
So, while the Cocoon is nestled in its... Nest... it sits there blinking the clock, just like a blue-hued alarm clock. While the Nest is powered, the Cocoon will keep the clock showing, so it functions perfectly as a bedside or desk clock. In fact, it's better than my existing alarm clock, a PURE Sonus-1XT DAB Radio which, while designed with accessibility for the visually-impaired in mind, manages to have an illegibly low-contrast screen. The Cocoon also hasn't crashed yet, unlike the Sonus.
[NOTE: I'm not visually impaired; I just got it for the sexy female voice-synthesis. I also seem to have a disturbing tendency to buy alarm clocks that end up crashing.]
The big deal -- and I really do mean Big Deal -- about the LED display, is that it's also used for other things. Okay, this is no great surprise, but until you use it, it's not clear how staggeringly cool this is.
When I get an incoming call or text, I hear the ringtone, look over, and see the name of the caller scroll across the screen. I can happily ignore the call without having to go across the room, pick up the phone, open it and start pressing buttons. Incoming messages are partially read out across the screen, which I suppose could be a little embarrassing in a public place...
I can walk into the room and notice the little blue LED above the clock backlighting the debossed "missed call" light. A meeting reminder will display the subject of the meeting. The possibilities abound.
For years I've been wondering why combined cable television and phone companies (ie. all of them?) don't integrate Caller-ID into the TV STB. If I'm watching a show, it would be handy for the name and/or number of the caller to come up on screen with the "Busy" option on the cable remote, rather than having to get up and check the phone, or, heaven forbid, answer it. This Cocoon/Nest layout isn't quite that, but it's a start. I don't have to get quite so distracted by my mobile phone as usual.
Of course, this functionality also happens while the Cocoon is away from the Nest, but then it's just like every other mobile's external display, and not quite as big a deal. Fatally, the LED display is totally invisible outdoors in daylight, even when overcast. The white plastic is just far brighter than the subtle blue LEDs could ever be. I wonder if the same form factor and concept could be better utilised with a reflective display technology like electronic ink...
O2 have been fairly generous with the accessories. We get a headset cable as usual, with a plug for that multi-function port, and a standard stereo jack socket with tiny microphone hole and a single button. Since this is meant to be a music-oriented phone, and therefore a potential iPod replacement, I would have preferred a stereo jack socket built-in to the phone itself, rather than having to drag more cables around.
Considerately, they've also thrown in a stereo jack doubler to allow two people to share the phone. Nice touch. I also notice that when these accessories are all finished in the same black faux-rubber and also curved in the same way so they form a willowy shape when used together. Again: nice touch.
Along with all of this comes the earphones. Rather than the grotty fall-out-of-ear types that came with the LG Shine, they've included in-ear-canal ones with three sizes of ultra-soft sleeve. The cable is very short to keep the headset microphone high, and the separate earpiece cables are asymmetric so the weight of the headset only tugs on one of your ears.
I'm going to cover the other aspects of this phone in a day or two, but so far, I'm fairly happy with the hardware. Most of it is nothing special, and it does seem a little over-designed at times. However, I can't stress enough how neat the Cocoon is while "nested". Such a simple idea, and not a particularly new one at that. However, they gone done it right.
More later.