The Nexus Chronicles - replacing a Symbian flagship? - Part Two

Published by Steve Litchfield at 14:59 UTC, February 23rd 2010

From top, clockwise: Symbian, Symbian, Android.... but are the devices and platforms interchangeable for common functions?

As I said in part 1 of this feature, it's important not to be locked in a bubble, pretending the competition doesn't exist. 2010 sees a frighteningly competitive smartphone world, with no less than eight different phone operating systems – and that's without even considering the multitude of proprietary 'feature phone' OS. Then, upon these eight (or more) platforms, we have a multitude of hardware offerings with numerous different form factors. In this context, there's always one huge question that goes through my mind whenever I come across something new and shiny that runs on a platform other than Symbian: Could this replace my current Symbian-powered favourite? I mean, really replace it?

With this in mind, and looking purely at raw functionality (and, responding to recent criticisms here on AAS, allowing third party software as long as it doesn't force significant extra cost), I've compiled the 15 things that my smartphone absolutely must be able to do for me. These functions are part of my electronic life and if any, repeat any, of them aren't possible to some degree then that phone/platform fails my criteria.

In part 1 of this feature, I listed the top 7 functions needed from my current Symbian smartphone - a Nokia N97 - in this part, I'm going to run down functions 8 to 15:

• Secure database - having a password-encrypted store of passwords, PINs and ID numbers is an essential part of modern life for anyone who cares about ID fraud and security. You can't just use the same password on every service. And what about all those software activation and registration keys? In the Symbian world, I've always sworn by Epocware's Handy Safe Pro, mainly because they offered a PC client that did two way sync to my phones.
   
  To both match Handy Safe Pro in the Android world and also (hopefully) handle importing my existing data (comprising over 1000 items), I turned to Splash ID on the Nexus One. It seems to be the leading app of this kind on the platform, although syncing between Nexus and desktop is somewhat clunky, in that as part of the process you have to type in, on the phone, the IP address of the desktop - this will catch out the non-geeks, I suspect! Splash ID is flexible and powerful, although despite having numerous text-based import filters, there seems not to be one for the XML data exported by Handy Safe Pro, meaning that I was stuck. 
   
  
    
  You'll remember that I've been using SRCF, the Symbian Replacement Compatibility Factor, in these features. SRCF here is 90% - I have to knock something off for the lack of a direct import from the most popular Symbian app and for that clunky sync set up. 
    
• YouTube - being able to bring up most popular events in modern history, or virtually any music video, or archive clips of old bands, at a moment's notice, is something I've got very, very used to. On Symbian-powered phones, there's Google's dedicated YouTube client, which is 'good enough' most of the time, though the lack of a login system, for access to my YouTube favourites, remains an irritation.
    
  On all Android phones, YouTube is built into the firmware (rather than having to be installed from the Ovi Store or Google's mobile site) and you also get full access to your Google/YouTube account favourites. On the Nexus One, it also looks better, thanks to the lovely OLED screen and thanks to it having access to the 'High quality' streams from YouTube's servers. A big fat SRCF of 100% here, of course, despite the tinny mono speaker - hey, you'll want to watch with headphones in anyway!
   
• Music playback - having my phone as my primary mobile music device has been part of my life for the last 6 years and the experience (gapless playback apart) on Nokia smartphones is usually very good. Many phones have hardware music controls, many of the touchscreen phones (like the N97) come with multimedia headsets, with their own playback controls, plus you get full EQ and, often, high quality earbuds.
   
  
   
  Things aren't quite so rosy with Android 2.1 on the Nexus One. Raw sound quality is potentially very good, but the experience is ruined by the inclusion of a cheap, uncomfortable, tinny headset (whose 'controls' don't work with the Android music player at all) and by the lack of any frills like EQ adjustment. Track selection and playlists work much as on a Symbian-powered phone, but the limitations of the Nexus One and its equipment here let the SRCF score down - 70%.
   
• Torch - a seemingly trivial function, but one that's very important to me. Yes, it's possible to simply use the screen display on maximum brightness, but that just gives a general glow - I've loved phones and phone apps that let me use the camera LED as a real torch. Starting with the likes of the Nokia 5500 Sport and N93 and now with the PhoneTorch utility on S60 5th Edition. It's complicated a tad on the N97 by having to retract the lens/flash cover and then 'Exit' the Camera app first, but it's a small price to pay for what is a half decent emergency torch on a dark night.
   
  
   
  It seems that Android phones don't currently allow applications access to the camera LED - the only app I've been able to find that does this requires a degree in hacking (to get 'root access'). The brighter OLED screen (when manually cranked up to 100% brightness) does provide a brighter than average screen torch, but it's not really the same. SRCF here is low, maybe 30%.
   
• iPlayer - the UK's (well, the BBC's) TV-on-demand service is ubiquitous and tremendously useful - going to bbc.co.uk/mobile/iplayer on your S60 phone pops up a download for a dedicated Symbian client. Having a batch of recent programmes downloaded (with time-locked DRM) on your mass memory or memory card for watching on the way into work or on a boring train journey is just lots of fun. Most recent Nokia Symbian-powered phones are fully compatible, while other marques have streaming only access, which is better than nothing.
   
  I've heard rumours that the BBC are developing an Android iPlayer client, but there's nothing official at present and it goes without saying that the non-Flash browser in Android can't handle the full iPlayer web site. There's an unofficial utility, BeebPlayer, that attempts to grab the iPlayer streams, but it didn't seem to like my router and of course there's no download facility. So, at present, a SRCF of 25%.
   
• Games - yes, even the great modest Steve Litchfield needs to play games sometimes! Usually while waiting in line on journeys or for my family in the supermarket. There's no shortage of casual games for Symbian these days, though decent full action titles are rather harder to find. My favourites on my N97 are Micropool and the free Raging Thunder driving game.
   
  The story's much the same on Android - plenty of casual games (all via the Android Market) but very little that gets close to competing with the iPhone gaming scene, despite the higher spec levels of the hardware. Maybe it's just early days. Still, I've had fun with the cross-platform phenomenon Frozen Bubble and SuperYatzy. Job done, for such a part-time gamer as myself! SRCF here is 100%.
   
• Movies - like most people, I keep a quantity of video on my phone (no, not that sort of video, I'm talking about favourite rock clips, a few DRM-stripped (shhhh) documentaries, a handful of full length movies, training videos for guitar - Lord knows, I need training.... - you get the idea).
   
  After getting over the hurdle that there's no way to access them until you install a third party file browser (Astro), I experienced mixed compatibility on the Nexus One:
  * many - but not all - of my mobile-optimised MP4 videos from the N97 worked fine
  * my FLV collection ([ahem] 'archived' from YouTube) wasn't handled - Flash (video) and Android aren't yet decent bed fellows
  * my (N97) mobile optimised m4v videos (from Handbrake on the Mac) played with audio but not picture - and even that only after I'd manually renamed the files to have a MP4 extension
  * generic MP4 downloads, DivX and the like from usual Internet sources weren't handled at all.
  The Nexus One does have more graphics horsepower below its bonnet, but until Google put more codec support in Android, its smartphones make worse video players than most Symbian handsets. And video volume from the Nexus One's fairly pitiful speaker means that in-ear headphones are the only way to actually watch and listen. A disappointing SRCF here of only 30%.
   
• Phone - ah yes, how could I forget that these devices are supposed to be telephones? Both N97 and Nexus One showed good signal strength in my area, with good call quality using the built-in earpiece, but the N97 leaps ahead when in speakerphone mode. It's notable that, in the Symbian world, the Nokia N97 is widely regarded as having one of the quietest and tinniest sets of speakers - yet it's still light years ahead of those in the Nexus One. I guess it's all relative. SRCF here is maybe 60%

And so we come to the end of the 15 essential functions that I require from a modern smartphone. As you might have gathered from looking at the SRCF scores(!), while the Nexus One got a resounding 100% for some functions, there are simply too many sub-100 scores for me to consider making it (or indeed any Android-powered phone) my main smartphone right now.

Of course, it's also notable that the Nexus One has a number of unique talents that, for some people, might open up extra 'essential' functions that a Symbian-powered phone would not be able to match. The super Google account integration throughout, for example, plus the option of usable voice recognition in any text field, both spring to mind. Both are attributes which it would be easy to get addicted to.

A reasonable question would thus be to ask, for a hardened Android user, what their 15 essential functions of a phone are - and then to see how many of these a (e.g.) Nokia N97 might be able to accomplish. If such a user is reading this and wants to cooperate in a companion piece, then please get in touch! My guess is that the N97's score in an Android Replacement Compatibility Factor(!) would be slightly higher than the Nexus One's here. But I'm open to being proved wrong!

Steve Litchfield, All About Symbian, 25 Feb 2010

Discussion

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dubito I have an interesting requirement: I ride a motorbike, and at least music controls need to be operated in gloves, which means either a headset with decent controls, or a *resistive* touch screen.

... or voice control ;-).

Quote:

Originally Posted by juwlz ... or voice control ;-).

There would be a lot of background noise for the phone to contend with! ^_^

Of course, the biggest problem with using a capacitive screen with gloves is that GPS becomes set-and-cope-with.

I agree with juwlz: Also need at least one ebook reader, and:

Giving relative scores needs >%100 at times. Witness, for example, Google integration, where the Android Relative Comparison Factor for Symbian would be about %50 - it's (almost) all possible, but do you really want to, when Android is available?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Unregistered -Better UI Of course Symbian^3 is on the way with the revamped UI, but for now, N1 is far more superior. Moreover, N1 has multitouch (via firmware update) -AMOLED Capacitive touchscreen N1's screen is better. It's more sensitive and more vivid. However, resistive screen also has its edge. You can use glove, fingernail, stylus, etc. -Full flash support Adobe has released a video demo showing N1 with the flash support which is very friendly with the battery -Live walpaper It's not so important, yet it's so beautiful -Better hardware N1 has 1Ghz snapdragon processor and 512 Mb RAM while N97 has 434 Mhz processor and 128 Mb RAM -Higher Resolution N1's higher resolution display (480x800) ensures less scrolling in browsing though Nokia's nHD (360x640) is not bad either

Match all these things but replace n97 with 5530/5800/5230 and reduce price four times less than N1? what do you think then, and if Symbian^3 with 600Mhz and 256Ram with similar cheaper price is good deal too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Unregistered -Better UI Of course Symbian^3 is on the way with the revamped UI, but for now, N1 is far more superior. Moreover, N1 has multitouch (via firmware update) -AMOLED Capacitive touchscreen N1's screen is better. It's more sensitive and more vivid. However, resistive screen also has its edge. You can use glove, fingernail, stylus, etc. -Full flash support Adobe has released a video demo showing N1 with the flash support which is very friendly with the battery -Live walpaper It's not so important, yet it's so beautiful -Better hardware N1 has 1Ghz snapdragon processor and 512 Mb RAM while N97 has 434 Mhz processor and 128 Mb RAM -Higher Resolution N1's higher resolution display (480x800) ensures less scrolling in browsing though Nokia's nHD (360x640) is not bad either

- multi touch is nice, but its far from being essential
- amoled is only superior indoors. Outdoors, or anywhere with strong sunlight its actually worse.
- better hardware. I laugh at this. So what if its got a faster processor/more memory - the operating system actually NEEDS the faster processor and the extra memory

Quote:

Originally Posted by giggig Match all these things but replace n97 with 5530/5800/5230 and reduce price four times less than N1? what do you think then, and if Symbian^3 with 600Mhz and 256Ram with similar cheaper price is good deal too.

The 5800 is a good deal.
The 5530 offers slightly better value for money.
The 5230 is the smartphone bargain of the moment - nothing comes even close for the price. Sub £100 for most of the useful features of the N97. The N97 camera isn't that amazing (its just an N95 camera), the keyboard is too compromised (should be a 4 row keyboard, not 3).

Quote:

Originally Posted by giggig You all forgot one most important feature, which is PRICE ? ordinary middle class person or a student like me can afford Symbian for around $150 (5530,5230) which almost can do same things which Nexus one does. Most parts of world are not rich and in Asia we hate to buy a phone on contract cuz prepaid calling and text rates and packages are cheaper than even postpaid packages. i dont think an andriod can come down to such a low price in near future. Hopefully symbian^3 with at least 600 Mhz and 256 ram can maintain such a low price too.

I could have afforded a Nexus, N97, Mini or N900. Decided against all of them.

Reason being that, as you have said, a 5230 or 5530 can do the majority of the same things, but at a considerably lower price point. So I went for the 5230.

The perceived negatives of the 5230 are minor :
- camera. Only 2mp. Wake up people, as much as the N95, Nexus, etc. can only take reasonable pics outdoors. indoors they're basically useless.
- no wifi. Got a decent data plan. If I want something downloaded at home, I can just download on a PC and send it over via cable/card reader.
- no compass. I can generally work out which way is north. Location based services using a compass aren't quite there yet anyway.

The 5230 shows just how massively overpriced the other models in the Nokia range are.

Quote:

Originally Posted by clonmult - multi touch is nice, but its far from being essential - amoled is only superior indoors. Outdoors, or anywhere with strong sunlight its actually worse. - better hardware. I laugh at this. So what if its got a faster processor/more memory - the operating system actually NEEDS the faster processor and the extra memory

N1 indeed has better hardware. Don't you remember how buggy N97 was? N97's free ram is about 40-50 Mb. Even Nokia has acknowledge that its flagship device needs better hardware. That's why there is romour about nokia's snapdragon phone going around.

Multitouch is nice to use because its intuitive and a lot of people ask for it. That's why it is included in Symbian^3.

Btw, Google Earth has just been released for Android. Besides, Android Os is upgradable. Ex, Droid is going to be updated from Android 2.0 to Android 2.1. I believe if there is a new version of Android, N1 will get updated too. Could Nokia do that? Updated N97 to Symbian^3 when it is out? Of course it can't. You have to buy a new handset because of its resistive touchscreen and meager hardware.

Quote:

Originally Posted by giggig You all forgot one most important feature, which is PRICE ? ordinary middle class person or a student like me can afford Symbian for around $150 (5530,5230) which almost can do same things which Nexus one does. Most parts of world are not rich and in Asia we hate to buy a phone on contract cuz prepaid calling and text rates and packages are cheaper than even postpaid packages. i dont think an andriod can come down to such a low price in near future. Hopefully symbian^3 with at least 600 Mhz and 256 ram can maintain such a low price too.

Don't forget the 434 Mhz processor and 128 Mb RAM plus resistive touchscreen the 5230,5530 presents. Add capacitive touchscreen and 16 Gb internal memory to the game and Nokia costs you $455 (X6). So, I am wondering how much 600 Mhz, 256 RAM and capacitive touchscreen will cost you? Since an unlocked N1 is around $539. Besides, a lot of manufactures are attracted to Android as their choice of OS (tablet and smartphone). Don't you think the competition will lower the price?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Unregistered . Besides, Android Os is upgradable. Ex, Droid is going to be updated from Android 2.0 to Android 2.1. I believe if there is a new version of Android, N1 will get updated too. Could Nokia do that? Updated N97 to Symbian^3 when it is out? Of course it can't. You have to buy a new handset because of its resistive touchscreen and meager hardware.

Being updateable is no great advantage. For an upgradeable OS you end up with a new OS but old knackered phone. I'd rather have lower cost phone and get a new one with new hardware.

Take iPhone 3G, with latest OS. Still no video capability. Still old processor compared to 3G S. iPhone 2G has no GPS and no 3G connection.... lastest OS is of no help there.

AMOLED screen is not perfect either, compromse a pretty vivd display with low power consumption but only to be crap outdoors in sunlight.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gdigenis for example, the youtube client on s60 is horrible. i have used it on all of my s60 phones and it makes me not want to view youtube videos at all.

That's interesting because it works fine for me with good quality.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Unregistered Being updateable is no great advantage. For an upgradeable OS you end up with a new OS but old knackered phone. I'd rather have lower cost phone and get a new one with new hardware. Take iPhone 3G, with latest OS. Still no video capability. Still old processor compared to 3G S. iPhone 2G has no GPS and no 3G connection.... lastest OS is of no help there. AMOLED screen is not perfect either, compromse a pretty vivd display with low power consumption but only to be crap outdoors in sunlight.

Well, I don't see N1 Snapdragon processor going to be obsolete soon. Remember, HD2; HTC Desire; X10 use snapdragon. Samsung new bada phone (wave) uses snapdragon. And it's just an added value to be able to upgrade your OS.

AMOLED is indeed not perfect but a lot of manufactures start to use it. What's about the SUPER AMOLED by samsung. Even the romoured Nokia N8 uses AMOLED. It's just great for multimedia purpose.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Unregistered Well, I don't see N1 Snapdragon processor going to be obsolete soon. Remember, HD2; HTC Desire; X10 use snapdragon. Samsung new bada phone (wave) uses snapdragon. And it's just an added value to be able to upgrade your OS.

The iPhone 2G is not obsolete, I wasn't suggesting obsolescence, just not updateable.
Anyway, SnapDragon will be superceded by a multi-core chip. Again, you will need a new phone, an OS update won't get you that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Unregistered AMOLED is indeed not perfect but a lot of manufactures start to use it. What's about the SUPER AMOLED by samsung. Even the romoured Nokia N8 uses AMOLED. It's just great for multimedia purpose.

Great! So you get you nice shiney new phone with AMOLED and updateable OS, then SUPER AMOLED is available and you get your new OS but still have ordinary AMOLED.

As I keep a phone for about 10-12 months an updateable OS is not really going to be any benefit to me. New phone has a new OS and all the dual-core and SUPER AMOLED.

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