Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Nokia N95 vs. Apple iPhone




I don't mean to bash the iPhone -- I haven't seen one nor played with one yet. However, looking at the spec sheet leaves much to be desired, and the marketing for the iPhone (and the idiots in the mass media outlets that keep swearing it's the next greatest thing since sliced bread) is getting pretty damn annoying -- especially for ANYBODY who knows basic things about mobile phones (I suspect, the iPhone will only take off in the U.S. and the U.K. -- whereas the rest of the planet will not buy into the retarded hype ... but I've been wrong before). The iPhone just isn't that great, feature wise -- I like how these guys spoof Apple's famous commericals to compare the Nokia N95 vs. the iPhone.

Now when I go back to the states, I'm going to have to hear all of the parrots ranting about how great the iPhone is -- and I'll be like the guy in the video talking crap about it.

6 comments:

ethan said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Instead of making a comparison, here is a list of differences between the iPhone and the N95


Bluetooth
iPhone - May work, but is a very limited and closed system with few practical uses.
Nokia N95 - Has A2DP and AVRCP. This means you can
Use it as a wireless music storage device in your car to transmit your music in excellent quality to your car stereo to play back the music.
Control the phone's playback of your music collection from your car radio.
Use both cameras of the phone as an excellent wireless webcam for your PC with Mobiola Webcam.
Use microphone of the phone as a wireless microphone for your PC with Mobiola Microphone Remote.
Use a wireless keyboard such as space saver Think Outside keyboard or any typical BT wireless keyboard.
Use high quality wireless headphones (Sony, Bose, Motorola, etc.) that allow control of the music playback on the phone.
Use your PC wirelessly to move, copy, delete, and edit files directly on the phone.
Use your PC to wirelessly control all the features of the phone and at the same time display the phones screen on your PC, recording it if your wish, with Mobiola Remote Phone Control.
Access and utilize external Bluetooth GPS positioning devices.


Computer access
iPhone - Very limited closed system with no direct access to the data for repair if it were corrupted.
Nokia N95 - With cable, WiFi, and Bluetooth you can
Drag and drop, synchronize, share, and stream files, (music, pictures, video, documents, files, and folders) to or from any PC on your network, to any uPnP device.
Map network drives on your phone for access from PC's, access mapped network drives on your PC's from your phone with SymSMB.
Access and download all the data on your PC's and listen to and watch your entire PC media collection of streamable media (music and movies) from anywhere in the world with Orb.


WIFI
iPhone - Works
Nokia N95 - Works and is reported to stream data at a faster rate than the iPhone.


Bar-code reader
iPhone - None
Nokia N95 - Get contact information instantly at trade shows from the other members cards.


Record sounds and voice
iPhone - None
Nokia N95 - Excellent microphone with which you can
Record anything you want, including calls. No limit in length.
Remove the required 5-second beep with Ultimate Voice Recorder.


GPS
iPhone - Cell tower emulated triangulation. Voice instructions.
Nokia N95 - Built in real GPS hardware, cell tower emulated triangulation, External Bluetooth hardware capable, Assisted GPS or any combination of all three. You always have some kind of fix. With the GPS you can
Find your current location in a foreign city at night and find and get direction from where you are to where you want to go.
Get directions to services of all kinds.
Use third party add-ons such as Tomtom.
Use the Nokia Sport Tracker for walking, riding bikes, hiking, etc. This provides several different statistical analyzes of distance, elevation, time and distance, including laps and the actual path taken with the ability to save and compare your results with other results.



Camera
iPhone - 2 mega pixel. A common place phone camera that will not produce images that most people would want if they went to a concert or show.
Nokia N95 - 2 cameras. 5 mega pixel and VGA for video conferencing on EU networks. The 5 meg camera takes stunning pictures day and night. Carl Zeiss optics. Comes with editing software right on the phone. With third party applications your can take pictures of pages and email them or fax them.


Video capture
iPhone - None
Nokia N95 - 640 x 480 @ 30 fps. Stunning quality, even at night, with audio. Includes digital stabilization.


Activation
iPhone - 2 year contract that adds up to quite a bit.
Nokia N95 - Buy it unlocked from Nokia or Dell directly and have a warranty and no contract to take it where ever you want.


Infrared
iPhone - None
Nokia N95 - Works great. With it you can
Transfer data.
Control all the Infrared devices in your house and office.
Connect to your PC and use the phone as a modem.


Screen
iPhone - Very nice large touch screen. (finger print prone). Requires 2 hands to operate easily.
Nokia N95 - Smaller screen than the IPhone. A larger screen would have been nice. Easy one handed operation.


TV Out
iPhone - None
Nokia N95 - Works great with the supplied cable. Use it in a hotel room with a BT keyboard to read email and edit office documents, Use it on your TV to play video games, movies, and share pictures.

Cable Interface
iPhone - proprietary iPod type connection.
Nokia N95 - Mini USB and a standard mini plug that all ear buds use. (same plug for TV Out)

Speakerphone
iPhone - ?
Nokia N95 - People do not even know I am on it.


Speakers
iPhone - Mono sound
Nokia N95 - Probably the best set of stereo speakers every installed in a cell phone.

Ring tones
iPhone - Is it even worth mentioning?
Nokia N95 - Use pretty much anything you want. Any audio track on the phone can be used. Create your own mix right on the phone itself and save it as a new mp3 or ring tone.


Traveling
iPhone - You are locked to ATT, period.
Nokia N95 - Unlocked and support for various networks across the globe. If you are traveler, the iPhone is not even a consideration if you do your research.


Sexiness (I am putting this here because CNET mentioned this)
iPhone - Sleek and cool looking, but viewed as a toy in the workplace.
N95 - Viewed as THE phone of a technologically competent professional.


Battery
IPhone - Longer lasting than the N95, but not removable
Nokia N95 - Replaceable battery. If you find yourself in the EMERGENCY situation where you need to make a call and do not have access to a charger and your battery is dead, you can just replace the battery with a spare. With the iPhone you could be stuck off the side of a cliff in a car with no power and trapped. Unfortunately, Apple seemed to overlook this MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE OF HAVING A CELL PHONE IN THE FIRST PLACE. EMERGENCYS!!! I would actually be willing to get my wife this phone if it were not for this issue.


Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)
IPhone - None
Nokia N95 - Excellent on board chip for hardware decoding of video and 3D games. Supports DirectX and OpenGL. Stunning game playback on the phone or your TV that the most hard core XBOX/PS# games are impressed with.




Additional third party applications
IPhone - None at this time.
Nokia N95 - Several different office applications, programming, game emulators such as MAME (allowing playing pf 1000's of known arcade game classics), Synch applications, Tune musical instruments, Gmaps, Google maps, Phone Guardian, GSM Tracker, ybroswer, FExplorer, SysExplorer, studio nokia, mobile web server, cCam, Carbide ui, SymSMB, Instant Messaging, VoIP,, SSH/Telnet, rar files with Mobilerar, stream with Orb or TVersity, Mobiola Webcam, Mobiola Microphone Remote, Mobiola Remote Phone Control, Tomtom, NavXS and others, Aspicore GSM Tracker, ultimat voice recorder, really nice 3D games by the hundreds, HourPower, Digital Clock, Mobisophy InteractiveVoice Call Master, Webgates Advanced Call Manager, MobieGenie, Divx player, CORE Player, Flash 5 player, PeerBox, TextQuick, Mobile Weather, eBuddy, MSN, Mig33, ScanR, Palringo, Adobe PDF support preinstalled, MS Excel and Word support pre installed, S60 Internet Radio, VCEL, ShoZu, TypePad Mobile, OperaMini, The Kaywa Reader, Jaiku, Nokia Sensor, Nokia Team Suite, Gmail Mobile, Symella, SymTorrent, Python for S60, PuTTy, QReader, ReadM, Chords for S60, S-Tris 2, Nokia - Wellness Diary, Acala 3GP Movies, studio_nokia, MyStrands, OggPlay, JabpLite, Calcium, GCalSync, Autolock, MobileRar, Nokia Local Search, Scenetone, Tasky, Nokia DJ Mixer, Fring, WorldMate, CellTrack, Loc Bluepulse, Spodtronic, Mobixie, Hibaru, DJMixerNSeries, SafeTxt, GamesFlash, Market Simplified for Mobiles, myNumbers, Qibla Compass for Mobiles, Handylearn Counter, Weight and Measures Quick Study Guide, mShell, Virgin Radio & Podcast Player....

I could add to this list for hours. Many of these applications are free. Most of these programs are well written and feature rich. These are not trivial little tidy bits. If you really want a smart phone, it has to be smart enough to know that it will not do everything out of the box and some things should be left to outside programmers to develop. The iPhone 's application list is not even a bad joke compared to the N95. The problem with comparing the two is that it takes months just to get a handle on the capabilities of an N95. Most N95 users do not take the time to respond to such comparisons, as the comparison is not only foolish, but requires quite a bit of time to accurately list the N95's capabilities.

Unknown said...

I hope you like the iPhone better now. I sure do, and I wasn't a fan. I tried it, bought one, and now am 100% iPhone fan. I am looking forward to 2008, the Feb SDK and lots of new iPhone apps. What a platform!

David Stennett said...

dave, I like the iPhone from the usability side, no doubt about it -- Apple is second-to-none when it comes to usability (Nokia could learn a LOT from Apple) ... and the price is good for what you get. However, from a power user perspective, it still could improve ... even with the 3G iPhone, it's still behind Nokia from a power-user perspective. But, it's catching up.

Unknown said...

The Nokia N95 vs. Apple iphone article is nice article.
All the buzz these days is about the Apple iPhone (not to be confused with the Linksys iPhone). I have to admit, the iPhone is pretty cool, and I was really excited about it for a few hours. Then, reality started to sink in and I realized that the iPhone is probably not something for me. Here are 10 reasons why I’d like to buy a Nokia N800 instead of an Apple iPhone. I realize that there are areas where the iPhone will be better than the N800, I just don’t think it’s worth the extra cost and lack of freedom that comes along with having an iPhone.
1. Price

Nokia N800: $399 (get the new, better, cheaper Nokia N810)
Apple iPhone: $499 or $599 (Plus 2 year Cingular service contract)
2. Open Source

The Nokia N800 is a Linux device based on a modified version of Debian GNU/Linux that they call “Internet Tablet OS 2007 edition”. Nokia created the open source Maemo development platform for the 770 and N800. They’ve worked hard to encourage developers to port applications to this platform. You can find more info at maemo.org.
I normally use the Unlocked GSm mobile where it can be unlocked by mobile-unlocker.com/

Ed Bomke said...

Thanks for sharing this useful information.