An update

Ok, what about a short update about everything mobile. Let's start with the quickest one. My Nokia E71 finally received a firmware update, 300.xxx.yyy - thank you for that Nokia, what took you so long? The camera software gave some improved quality which was fine. There were some new applications installed like a Youtube client and some other additions and improvements but no major changes. Overall, nothing that made me change my opinion about what phone to use as my main handset. At the moment the E71 is on the shelf with no SIM card and turned off.

I bought the Nokia N95 for slightly over two years ago and the battery showed very clear signs of being worn out and loosing charge very rapidly even under very slight use. The battery door had also been broken. I found a web shop and bought a 3rd party 900mAh battery and a complete new back side for the N95, now in black instead of the original sand colored. At the moment the N95 is almost looking as new and the black back side is a great improvement. The battery capacity is also as good as new, the original battery being a 950mAh which is 50mAh more than the new battery, but I doubt that I will ever notice the difference. Currently I have my private SIM card in the N95. I've also bought a new wired headset for the N95 with controls for the musicplayer, replacing the original headset shipped with the phone which had been broken.

The iPhone 3G receives a thorough workout every day. Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, texting, Navigon, calender, browsing the web, playing games and listening to music, podcasts, and audio books. So far I haven't even considered changing away from using the iPhone as my primary phone. I'm quite satisfied with it.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Best phone!(?)

Hi Everyone,

Long time no see! Well since last it hasn't happened a lot. But I think I have reached a final (?) decision about which phone should be my main phone. For the time being at least.

I've looked into specifications, stand by times, functionality, applications, games, synching and many other smaller details when it comes to choosing between a Nokia S60 phone and an iPhone 3G. When looking solely at specifications both the N95 and the E71 are superior to the iPhone in many areas. Ever tried running a Twitter application in the background on the iPhone? Right, it isn't possible (if you don't jailbreak it). Works perfectly on the Nokias, in theory at least...

Why only in theory? Well there is one small problem - available RAM. When Symbian OS runs out of available RAM for running programs the OS takes a good look at what unused applications can be terminated to free up RAM so you can load that big website without problem. And what do yo know? suddenly you have no Twitter application running in the background - but you aren't told and the only way to check is to load up the application list. Something you don't do at a regular basis. The same goes for any application that you'd like to have up and running like Location Tagger and Podcasting. This is mainly a problem for Nokia S60 devices with limited amount of RAM, e.g. the N95 with 64 MB RAM. The E71 with 128 MB RAM doesn't suffer from this kinds of problem at the same rate.

In this era of social networking any platform that hasn't got a native Twitter and Facebook client is in my point of view somewhat inferior to those that have. Symbian has several great Twitter applications but no Facebook application. You must use the mobile website equivalent version, which in my opinion doesn't provide the same level of user experience, it's simply too slow and awkward to use in my opinion. The iPhone has several Twitter clients, many of them free, a native Facebook app, LinkedIn (really needs an update), and Yammer just to mention a few.

Shooting video and photos the N95 is still the winner - 'nuff said. Even with the latest firmware upgrade the E71 is still not performing that much better than the iPhone 3G with OS 3.x. Before the firmware 300.x.x update of the E71 the photo quality was really miserable - even when using the autofocus. If you concentrate on holding the iPhone absolutely still when releasing the shutter button the photos are now really sharp, clear and well balanced - especially if you avoid having direct light shining in the camera. The 3.0 update really made a difference here. If you don't need to shoot video or a photo in low light conditions the results of the iPhone camera are actually quite acceptable in my opinion.

Gaming, well not much to say there that hasn't already been said. The iPhone is truly a great gaming platform with an ever increasing catalog of low priced high quality games in every category. Sid Meyers Civilization, Bejeweld, PinBall Dreams, Sims 3 - I can make the list go on and on. Comparing that with the Nokia N-Gage platform - nah, I don't think I'll go down that route. Just let me say that simple Java reworks for the S60 platform doesn't compare that well with native applications on the iPhone.

When we are discussing the Office side of things the iPhone loses a bit. The built in support is only for viewing documents that has been mailed as attachments to the iPhone. Comparing that with the E71 that has built in editors for MS Office documents and can handle them through the regular file system. There are applications for editing Office documents in the iPhone AppStore but they still are a bit clunky in some areas even though it is a safe bet to say that they will improve over time. At this point in time - the iPhone is clearly inferior to the E71 if you have the need to edit and create Office documents.

So to conclude:

Nokia N95

I've really tried to like this phone, and believe me when I say that I do - under certain circumstances. It's a great phone for vacations and parties when the great camera/video really takes good photos. When it comes to playing music and videos, well, let me put it this way: If you have been accustomed to the iPhone/iTunes environment with it's simplicity in synching podcasts, music, applications and video, everything else is a bit kludgy in my opinion. Synching the N95 works, no doubt about that, but Apple's solution does it that much better. Playing games should be great, but it isn't. Why? Take a look at the D-Pad. Look at the keys o the left and to the right of the D-Pad. Imagine playing an action packed game where timing is essential. Ooops I hit the multimedia menu button instead of the D-Pad left. I do it, my kids do it, and when you have done it a couple of times you just grow tired of it and quits playing.

When discussing the keyboard of the N95: The keys are quite good to press with good tactile feedback. But they are clicking, a lot, especially on the right side where the slider is a bit loose as well and contributes with some more clicking. I've checked that with Nokia and they claim that the slider is within acceptable limits. The standby time isn't that great either. Listening to music, surfing, downloading some Podcasts, making some phone calls, working in the calender, well if you last a day you are really lucky. My N95 has the habit of once in a while run down the battery from a full charge to complete emptiness within a couple of hours. And that is with no special applications loaded in the background and just lying around at the usual places in the house. I have a background from using Treo's for quite some years and being used to a full qwerty keyboard and then starting to use T9 is a constant source of irritation even if you use predictive text input. One other sore area is the lack of decent support of HTML e-mail. The built in Message application handles those as attachments so you'll have to open them via the webbrowser. This is soo 1990. Nokia provides a new HTML based e-mail application in beta but it defeats the purpose of having all messages handled by one application. Clumsy solution. Integrate HTML support and push out an improved version of the Messaging application with the next firmware update.

E71

The E71 is a different phone in some areas compared to the N95. There are more RAM, it's more solidly built, has a qwerty keyboard, great standby time, and a smaller form factor. On the downside we have a smaller screen, crappy camera and no multimedia buttons, neither on the device nor on the headset. It is a beautiful device which will run forever with it's gigantic 1500 mAh battery but having to access the media player applications directly to pause the music/film when you need to talk to someone isn't to my liking. The small screen makes it a bit hard to watch films, especially if it is subtitled. As a business unit - and a BlackBerry killer - it's the given choice of the three but it still lacks from many of the same areas as the N95 when compared to the iPhone. Actually the qwerty keyboard is at times the worst point of the phone. Try to enter a phone number from your memory when driving. It is close to impossible to hit the right keys. I know - I've tried - and yes, it's legal to drive and use a phone at the same time in Sweden. When texting, answering an e-mail or editing a document - it's a great improvement over the N95. Depending on your preferences the keyboard could even be better than the touch screen keyboard of the iPhone. The E71 has basically the same Messaging application as the N95 with no integrated HTML support which just plainly sucks. The omission of threaded text messages is also unbelievable. Handspring introduced that in the Treo 600 years ago.

iPhone 3G

When purely looking at the specifications the iPhone 3G is inferior to both the N95 and the E71 in many areas. Due to that I've tried to switch over to any of those devices as my main mobile unit, but within a day or two, I've switched back the SIM cards and started to use the iPhone again. Why? The camera is inferior, mainly lacking auto focus, the standby time is as bad as the N95, it has no ability to run applications in the background, has no integrated Todo. Many actions requires a lot of tapping around, e.g. new calender or address entry. But in two important areas it shines brighter than any other smartphone. The overall user experience is just hands down the best there is, the UI just makes you happy when using it. The second area is the iTunes AppStore. The simplicity, the low prices, and the extremely large selection of applications in almost every imaginable area enables you to make the iPhone into exactly the type of device you want. And the best of all - not a single Java application with sluggish performance and non-intuitive UI anywhere to be seen.

The touch screen keyboard can be a dog to use at times but as you use it you'll probably have a better experience. You'll still have to look at the keyboard when typing but the benefits of having a really large screen available when not needing the keyboard makes up for that several times over. When you have watched at a full length movie e.g. during a flight you won't mind. If you do use the iPhone for looking at movies or listening to music/audiobooks/podcasts for an extend period of time it is recommended that you buy some kind of external rechargeable battery pack if you intend to be able to use the phone when you are done. That large screen does consume a rather large amount of power...

The large screen is also the source of one potentially severe problem with iPhone as all to many has found out. It doesn't like being dropped on a floor. The glass surface tends to crack. Most often you can still use the iPhone, but it doesn't look good and it will cost you to have it changed if (when?) it happens so be careful!

Conclusion

So in spite of being inferior in some areas and in spite of my efforts of trying to like the N95 I always ends with switching back to the iPhone - I can't help it, I have really tried not to. The overall benefits of the iPhone makes it - for me at least - the best smartphone I have used so far. The good things really outshines the few areas that might be a problem.