Say what you like about the iPhone, but that 'slide to unlock' thing they have going on is pretty cool. It doesn't really do very much, and we think it is a toss up between that and the hardware unlock slider on our nice Nokia N97, but still. We quite like it. Now you can get the same effect on our Nokia smartphone thanks to nUnLock. Find out how we got on with it in our nUnLock review, slide on over the page to check it out...
nUnLock basically implements the iPhone's unlock screen on S60 5th Edition Phones (as opposed to locking nuns, our first assumption).
You know what? It does it pretty well. The makers are careful not to include the same 'pale blue dot' picture of the Earth as the default wallpaper, but if you were to add it yourself.. well it is only the screen dimensions that would mark it as being any different.
You unlock the screen by sliding an arrow button across the screen (nUnLock even apes the 'glistening' effect of the 'Slide to Unlock' text). Yes, this is a bit like the 'slide to answer/slide to unlock' you get when your 5th Edition device rings, but it is a much better implementation that has an almost tactile feel to it.
The screen itself is slightly customisable - you can choose any image as the wallpaper and configure the clock and date (24/12hr, MMDDYY, etc) or just opt to dispense with the clock altogether. We can't help thinking that this is a bit of a missed opportunity and ThinkChange might consider putting together a couple of widgets to display news, weather, etc. Just a thought.
Ultimately, we found that the usefulness of nUnLock is nullified if you forget it is there and keep trying to unlock using the hardware unlock key. If you can retrain yourself to just use the power button to lock the phone and then press it once to bring up the unlock screen (in a very iPhonesque way, really) then all is well.
nUnlock, then. It's not for everyone, but it is a cool little bit of re-skinning for your phone that has some level of utility and looks great.
Details
Price: £1.50
Size: 0.21MB
Check out our Ovi Store App: nUnLock Review photo gallery:
