The Phones Show 83 now out

[slitchfield]

It's a hardware spectacular for The Phones Show 83, now out, with news of new Symbian OS smartphones, a long video review of the HTC Touch Pro, with head-to-head section against the Nokia N97, plus a demo-focussed tour around case makers Proporta, down in Brighton. If you want to pick the show up via RSS, here are the QVGA (for phones) and VGA (for desktops) feeds.

Read on in the full article.

[paker]

seems something is wrong with the servers. I'm now downloading the show at 333 bytes/sec! it will take me 110 hours to download the show.

Furthermore the servers are misconfigured to serve up .mp4 files as MIME type "text/plain". This means that MS-Windows will convert any LF (0x0a) to CR LF (0x0d 0x0a), and a Mac will convert LF to CR.

[jonnybruha]

No download problems here.

Steve I gotta say, as a typical Nokia/S60 fanboy, I have to concede that the screen on the TP2 is clearly nicer than on the N97. Aside from the resolution disadvantage, even in the picture shown in the video, you can see the rainbow of discoloration that the screen suffers in many different viewing angles. On top of that, you can see the dots making up the digitizer in direct sunlight, and if the TP2 has the same hard plastic layer for the screen as the original TP did, it's another win over the N97's soft resistive layer.

I'll let the WM guys go nuts over the other features, but this one point is off even from this side of the game.

[slitchfield]

Yes, I'll agree that the Touch Pro 2 has the better screen of the two. But there's not THAT much in it. And the N97's screen fares slightly better in sunlight, so it's not all one way. And then there's the screen's hinging, which is much better on the N97.

[hargs48]

Once again a great show,just an fyi,the TP2 actually has a 3.6" screen not 3.5"....

I would like to know; the WVGA (800x480) resolution of the TP2,does it make a massive/noticeble impact vs the 640x360 screen of the N97?

[rvirga]

Originally Posted by slitchfield

And then there's the screen's hinging, which is much better on the N97.

It's a tradeoff, IMHO. Yes, the N97's hinge is more robust, but the Pro2 can be tilted at various angles, while the N97's is at a fixed angle.

[jah]

The TP2 is a Business Device - the key points are:

- greay call quality
- great keyboard (business on the move)
- read & edit MS mobile office
- proper integration with Exchange servers (which you only get with 'E' series)
- lots of apps (e.g. PIM) for power users
- proper support for categories in the PIM! (forget the UI, its not an issue for a business user)
- very good battery life for a device with such a large screen

The TP2 is not a media device. Just becuase a bat and a bird have wings, does not mean its appropriate to compare. Just because the N97 and TP2 have tilt screens and keyboards does not make it sensible to compare these devices.

[morpheus2702]

The TP2 has good call quality?

My previous experience of all HTC devices' call quality had been acceptable rather than good (worse case getting no bars in the Chilterns where I'd be getting full bars using any Nokia, same SIM).

Would love to know if HTC has improved in this regard?

very excited by the N97. The screen widgets serve a purpose, information at a glance which can be customised. all it needs imo is skype and a good ecosystem and we have an iphone beater in our hands.

[Abushaheed]

How about having a head to head with the Samsung i8910HD That's where the real competition is for the N97 IMHO.