N95 8GB vs iPhone (revised)

[slitchfield]

Six weeks ago, I previewed the upcoming O2/Apple iPhone, putting it head to head with the upcoming Nokia N95 8GB. Now that I've had the latter for over a week, it's been time to revise my initial head to head. For completeness, if this is a comparison that you're interested in, here's the N95 8GB vs iPhone page to read/print/link to...

Read on in the full article.

[slitchfield]

Other relevant links:
My review of the Nokia N95 8GB
and
N95 8GB product advert (new)

[jah]

And don't forget you can't even use a BT keyboard with the iPhone - very basic BT support. You really need to compromise a lot to make the iPhone a business tool.

[xerxes]

The Gadget Show on Channel 5 just ran a head to head on the N95 vs the iPhone.

The N95 won on everything except looks ... but the iPhone got all the attention in the nightclub.

Yes, saw it too.

Summed it up perfectly I think. I'm surprised to be honest. For some reason, I started off thinking they would try and rig it somehow so the iPhone would not look too bad (best not to go againt the grain too much and upset everyone, stay wishy washy that kind of thing) but very pleasently surprised.

Can someone explain something to me though ?

Yes the iPhone looks quite nice (asthetics), but is it just mass hype/hysteria/bandwagoning etc. about it looking so amazing or am I missing something?

Shame they did not have the "sexy" black 8 gb model...

Bet N95 sales go up.

Zuber

I was surprised too, I expected the Gadget show to bull in favour of the iPhone, but I suppose there is no arguing for a 2G phone handicapped by a touchscreen.

I still don't get the comparison, the iPhone is a different beast from the N95, they are good at different things and it depends what you need from it. If you need a gadget to attract attention in a nightclub then.....

"If you need a gadget to attract attention in a nightclub then....."

Of course. Now it makes sense. I can see why the iPhone is so popular now

Zuber

[mattrad]

One thing missing from Steve's comparison in the music bit: Gapless playback. The iPhone has it, the N95 variants do not.

Mind you, if that's not a problem for you, then the 8GB N95 does look very tasty indeed...

If you want gapless playback on a Symbian then can't you just install an app that does it?

But how about the sound quality of the music player? I think that n95 8gb sound quality sucks just like my nokia 6290 (poor bass). Luckily there's LCG Jukebox and 10 bar equaliser =0

[mattrad]

I can't comment on the N95 sound quality but my N70 sounds fine to me.

I don't think though that you should be missing gapless in a phone that's advertised with music as a major focus. Mind you, iPods didn't have gapless until, what, a couple of years ago(?) and they are far more music-focussed.

I wasn't aware that 3rd party apps allowed gapless, but I wouldn't want to install another app to provide what I consider basic functionality. Mind you, I use Profimail over the built in mail client and Papyrus over the built in calendar. Horses for courses...

Enough of the spec comparisons between iPhone and N95, let's look at this from a different perspective since they are the pinnacles of their phone product lines.

Mobile phone R&D experience: NOKIA: 40 years, APPLE: 0 years
Phones from the past: NOKIA: countless, APPLE: 0

And look at how many "new" features coming or shown from Nokia Lab AFTER iPhone is sold, from chat style text message to the latest iPhone-like screen auto-roate on n95. And not to forget the future "touch" version of Symbian, that somehow will make a Symbian hard to use in the winter with gloves on and requires two hands in use, sounds familiar? We love Symbian here, but the 800+ applications are not going to help much if Nokia can't put out some real solid phones straight out of box to compete against the future iPhones.

[mattrad]

Perhaps look at it another way:

Small form-factor engineering experience: NOKIA - 40 years, Apple - 6 years (release of iPod, more if you consider the Newton)

GUI experience: NOKIA - 40 years, Apple - 24 years (since Lisa release)

So, there is not such a gulf I believe.

Shortcomings aside, the iPhone has at the least given other manufacturers pause for thought about mobile phone usability and interaction with the computer. I'll be buying an iPhone on Nov 9th but will eagerly await a touchscreen S60 device...

Quoting how long each company has been in the business is pointless. I doubt Nokia have many people who have been working on small form factor for 40 years. If Apple want experience then they can just go out to the market and recruit.

Err... how about the Psion 5 from ten years ago? There's nothing new about touchscreens, the IPhone has a nice software UI, but its under-powered rubbish at best, and Apple's anal behaviour regarding networks and 3rd party software means they deserve to fall flat on their faces with this one. Still, those fools who like paying for mp3 files will no doubt lap it up...