Apple Iphone Versus Nokia 81 8g

[DamianMavis]

It's not what you do, it's how you do it.

Other phones have many of the same functions, and have had them for years. But it was so crappy it was more like a tech demo rather than something you would actually bother using.

EXACTLY, I never used the mp3 playing capabilities of my old phones, and I gave up trying to play video on them... I had to buy an ipod nano for music and a psp (has a nice big screen and plays video smoothly) to show decent video.... most phones have horrible implementaion of these 2 functions.

I use nearly all the functions on the iPhone - internet, sms, calendar, photo albums, stocks, even weather occasionally, world clock, alarm clock, calculator, notes, the phone , mail, and iPod. All are an absolute pleasure to use, and many of them exceed all expectations of what I thought possible on a small screen. Didn't think I would be seriously surfing the internet on that little device - but I do - it works fine. Same with mail. Didn't think I'd use the iPod either but it works beautifully.

No freaking kidding, I used to carry my laptop or mini computer with me everywhere, I cant believe they were replaced by my phone! I would carry: laptop, ipod, psp.... now I only carry the iphone.

Maybe a fine example is the camera - my N73 had a 3MP camera, and the phone was touted as "as good as a cheap digital cam". Which was probably true considering the hardware. It took great pictures on occasion. It had a flash. The only problem was the software. It was slow as hel_l to even turn on the camera (iPhone: no delay). The autofocus would often crash which you would only notice at the end of the day when all photos had turned out blurry, only remedy was to restart the phone. iPhone just snaps away. And lastly the album function was awkward and dead slow, whereas the iPhones album with touch zooming/panning/navigation is better than any album on any device.

Yes again, loading times are the main problem with most phones, and the iphone has NONE.

Damian

Edited January 21, 2008 by DamianMavis

[Thanh-BKK]

Hi

For a S60 Nokia to play video DECENT you need an extra app called "SmartMovie" which plays avi files. Full screen (176x208 for older S60 like mine) is available. The built-in RealPlayer handles only 3gp and is somewhat bad about it.

On my Sony-Ericsson i need to convert videos into 3gp too but it plays them nicely. The stupid thing is that it doesn't use the screen real estate fully - 176x220 is available but video is only supported at 176x144, even in landscape mode (black frame all around).

Mp3 on my old Nokia (a 3230) is a joke - mono only. There's a ton of mp3 player softwares that can be installed, yet they're all mono because the phone's hardware dictates that. Yet that was a cheap phone and it's focus wasn't the mp3 player but to get cheap charlies a chance to own a S60 device (it was the cheapest ever released S60 phone).

The Sony-Ericsson excels at ,p3 - top sound quality, and LOUD too! Via headphones, that is - the built-in speaker is weak as with most phones. Sadly no standard headphone plug - yet a small adaptor allows me to use my nice, big fully closed headphones with it. Equalizer and everything is available out of the box. And again that phone is NOT a "music phone", instead that particular model focuses (pun not intended) on it's camera - the first available camera phone with real auto-focus that actually works (the lens moves, it's not a digital "effect"). With that SE the time to load the camera is virtually NIL as well - open the lens cover and the cam is on. A ton of basic functions is available like in entry-level digital cameras (zoom, picture size and quality, frames, effects, white balance etc) and a flash too (VERY bright LED's). Those can be used as flashlight too - without any tricks, just go to menu item "Light" and select "on" and you've got a VERY bright flashlight. It can even blink "S O S" which is another menu item (off - 1 minute - on - SOS). I am getting about 9 days standby time (if i really not use any functions).

The internet on that phone is on the faster side too, even tough it does NOT support EDGE, just GPRS. I have an instant-messenger-type of application (it charges 80 Baht per month) that works with MSN, ICQ, AIM and Google Chat on it (there's an IM app out of the box too but haven't tried it - been long term user of the other one). The original browser fully supports html but Opera Mini (freeware JAVA app) is better because it's got zoom.

The "album" function is more like a file manager with thumbnail preview, it has a weird way of sorting pictures (last ones uploaded show first in the list, regardless of file name or creation time) but it's lightning fast, even if there's 100's of items/files in the list. I know that of Nokia - specially the N70 (first one with that rotating "slideshow" kind of gallery), it's gallery takes for ever plus three days to open if you got more than 20 pictures in there. But as i mentioned sometime before - Symbian phones in general are on the sluggish side, and if third-party apps are installed, they tend to get slower and slower (not unlike Windows).

Best regards.....

Thanh