Ok, it's been a while since the last update and the posts where I intended to compare the Nokia E71 and the iPhone 3G. Sorry for that but I'll try to amend that.
I don't know how in how many parts I'll do the comparison yet. Most likely I'll make them up as they come to my mind. First up is gaming. Don't get me wrong here, gaming is not the main use of my devices - but still a quite important one. Playing a good quality game while waiting at an airport, waiting for the kids, or just to kill off a few moments when you just don't feel like always being productive is rather nice.
If I've made this comparison a year ago it would have been between a 1st generation jailbroken iPhone running OS 1.x and some simple game and the Nokia N95. A comparison that the N95 had won quite easily. But since Apple introduced the Appstore and OS 2 last summer, the scenario has changed drastically.
I've downloaded some apps through Nokias N-Gage and played the included ones. I've also downloaded free games and bought quite a few games from the Appstore to my iPhone. The gaming experience on the Symbian can't be compared with the iPhone. Compare driving a car using the d-pad on the Nokia and the accelerometer in the iPhone. The iPhone wins hands down. The quality of the games on the iPhone platform is miles higher than the games on the Symbian platform, not to mention the diversity of the games and the simplicity of using the appstore. Nokias Ovi store shows some promises but has yet to be released. The pricing is yet another factor. There are many free 'Lite' games in the iPhone Appstore but also the full featured games are quite unexpensive as well, ranging from $1 to $10-15 if they are really expensive. The N-Gage games I think is about $20. Yoy can pay a couple of bucks just for trying out a game but $20 makes you think a couple of times before hitting the buy button.
I've played Fieldrunners, Bejeweld 2, Pinball Dreams, Top Gun, and many others. Most are very good games and some are quite extraordinary so. Of course I've bought some real lemons but most has been playable providing swift and fluent gameplay with beautiful graphics. The Symbian games has been enjoyable too but none has so far made me come back again and again.
As a gaming device the iPhone beats both the E71 and the N95. It probably gives Sony PSP and Nintendo DS a run for their money as well. My kids are using their 1st gen iPhone's for playing games not their Nintendo DS's. The price of the games makes my happy too.
