Steve's been trying to stay platform-impartial, as part of reviewing smartphones for his TV show, but it's just... so... hard.... It's not just in sales that Nokia's S60-based smartphones are so far ahead of the Windows Mobile competition. Read on...
Read on in the full article.
I had to pinch myself when I read these posts, and then check to see that we weren't up to April yet. I thought the multimedia post a while ago was ridiculous - on my WM2003SE phone I run a 3rd party app for DivX .avi playback and watch episodes of Lost, Rome, etc with no skips, dropped frames, stutters or anything. This is with IE and a host of other apps running in the background. Even using the embedded WMP10 with videos recoded to .wmv I have no problems. Music playback through WMP10 is excellent - particularly since they are .wma encoded. And since the introduction of WMP10 it also syncs automatically when I connect to my PC.
Granted the lack of notes is an annoyance, although 'tasks' is rather more functional anyway, and the lack of 3G is a total joke - hence why I tried an N70. An inbuilt Office app is also a must and sadly lacking, although if you have a few dollars there are perfectly adequate third party solutions. Seriously, my 18 month old Windows phone is far faster and more responsive than my brand new N70. The UI takes a bit of getting used to but once you do it actually rather makes sense. And I can totally change the way my phone functions by creating a whole new desktop - not just colours and appearance, but materially change the way the phone works.
I really can't take either of these articles seriously because my real life experience of both of these products contradicts your comments at nearly every turn.
I am really hoping the N80 is a better experience than the N70 - I am craving a 3G and WLAN phone - otherwise I will be left with another expensive paperweight, although at this moment in time what I really want is a Windows phone with that feature set.
>>was ridiculous - on my WM2003SE phone I run a 3rd party app for DivX .avi playback and watch episodes of Lost, Rome, etc with no skips, dropped
I'm not talking about 3rd party apps. You seem to have found yourself a clutch of third party s/w which brings Windows Mobile up to scratch. Good for you.
As you'll see from my multimedia review, I'm talking about the out-of-the-box capabilities of these devices, not patched to the hilt geek-ified units (like mine and yours!)
>>the background. Even using the embedded WMP10 with videos recoded to .wmv I have no problems.
So you can encode a video to 640 by 480 and watch it full-screen? Or expand a smaller video to full-screen? I couldn't, and I tried quite hard. On the Orange hardware supplied anyway.
>>Granted the lack of notes is an annoyance, although 'tasks' is rather more
Eh? What about all the Notes content in Outlook? Where's it supposed to sync to?
>>lack of 3G is a total joke - hence why I tried an N70. An inbuilt Office app is also a must and sadly lacking
So we agree on these points then 8-)
>>solutions. Seriously, my 18 month old Windows phone is far faster and more responsive than my brand new N70. The UI takes a bit of getting used to but
The N70 isn't a perfect example, actually, as it's still quite new and the firmware does seem to have some issues, generally.
>> And I can totally change the way my phone functions by creating a whole new desktop - not just colours and appearance, but materially change the way the phone works.
Again, sorry, you're firmly in geek territory here.
>>I really can't take either of these articles seriously because my real life experience of both of these products contradicts your comments at nearly every turn.
Each to his own, but I see an awful lot of hardware, as you can imagine, and I hope I've got a fairly balanced perspective.
>>I am really hoping the N80 is a better experience than the N70 - I am craving a 3G and WLAN phone - otherwise I will be left with another expensive paperweight, although at this moment in time what I really want is a Windows
Stay away from the cutting edge (on either platform) would be my advice! It's one of the reasons why I tend to use a year old smartphone as my main unit. 8-)
Steve Litchfield
With all due respect this article is a farce. As was noted in the past: this is a Symbian fanboy site. A very well run site I might add, but a fanboy one nonetheless.
You will not get an objective analysis or a comparison of different platforms on a fanboy site. Just like you wouldn't get one on a Windows, Palm, or any other fanboy site.
Actually I agree with the article (I've used both, but not as extensively as the author). There's no competition for the out of the box experience. The failing for Nokia is the add on software, but for 95% of users they won't ever notice. The other vocal 5% (power users) will notice.
And I think you're wrong to call this site a Fan Boy site. This site may be pro-Symbian, but it is the least fan boy like enthuiast site I know. I've seen plenty of criticism of Symbian / Nokia et al on here. As you say this site is very well run - there's some of the best writing about mobile / smartphone issues on here if you care to look, and while there is inevitable emphasis on Symbian I like the balanced approach.
More than that this is clearly an editorial comment expressing an opinion (not the first on the subject either). The fact you're free to state your opinions and that you're not shouted down or insulted says more than anything else about this site to me.
You should go and visit msmobiles, etc or any number of the palm sites, even the supposedly neutral sites tend to dismiss Symbian with some notable exceptions.
OK, so I would never code a movie to 640x480 for viewing on a portable device, and the WM Encoder gives you a default option for reducing the screen size to PDA or mobile (I forget which). It may well be the case that 640x480 won't go full screen, so I will concede that point (and try and read the article more carefully next time). The smaller one should work, although the aspect ratio will maintain.
I guess having been a Windows Mobile user for a while I don't use Notes in Outlook any more. I could equally point the finger at the syncing capabilities of the Nokia PC Suite though, so I guess detente is the safest option on this one.
I HAVE to be at the cutting edge though - my boys-with-toys leaning demand it!
To be fair I should try more S60 smartphones. The Orange E100 was idiosyncratic, the E200 was downright dreadful but the C500 is a gem. I would par the N70 with the E100.
I think it does also depend on the features youare looking for. I think comparing the E100 and N70 is more than a bit harsh! You can't compare the camera or the audio playback (music), the N70 is easily the best smartphone in the monocot form factor for these particular things. The E100 I had was a bit unstable, the camera was apalling etc. I actually think the C500 is on a par with the 6670 ish, with the 6680, N70 etc some way ahead based on what I was using them for. I prefer the S60 interface but putting that aside I just got better results from the S60 phones - i.e. camera, music, browsing, as a phone. But I guess everyone has their own opinion - not least because there is variation on opinion on individual items (I've had less trouble with PC Suite than ActiveSync, but I know its the other ways round for others)!
>> lack of 3G is a total joke - hence why I tried an N70. An inbuilt Office app is
>> also a must and sadly lacking
>So we agree on these points then 8-)
Strangely that was the one point I disagreed with most strongly. I live in the IOM, the first place in the world to get 3G. I had one of the very first 3G prototypes from NEC and we've now gone 3.5G. And I STILL don't know a single other person that uses 3G. Some people I know have 3G phones and may use the video call once or twice as a novelty but NO ONE uses 3G for day to day use because of the rediculous data charges in the British Isles.
Unless you are lucky enough to have a very understanding company that doesn't mind you handing in £x00 phone bills each month (which probably limits the 3G market to about a dozen people) 3G is a toy. Lacking WiFi is unforgiveable. Lacking 3G is ho hum.
But then, I guess that shows the dangers of claiming to be open minded and lacking in bias. We all have bias based on our everyday needs and experiences so to claim that the opinions of one person are completely lacking in bias is nonsense. Unless Steve is an android.
You also mention that it is not fair to compare WM5 to the N70 as it is a brand new phone and the ROM hasn't had time to be bug fixed or whatever. But WM5 is brand new and the second AKU's have yet to be released yet so that, again, seems like nonsense. One rule for Series 60 and another for WM5.
I happen to be a symbian fan (R380, P800, 7650, P900) who is currently using WM5 whilst the symbian hardware catches up and, whilst my overall experience of WM5 is that it is a little bit more hard work that Symbian (series 60 or UIQ) the extra effort is well worth it as the power and potential of these devices currently far outweighs anything symbian has to offer.
I agree that in certain aspects WM5 needs another 6-12 months to catch up with Symbian but the opposite also applies. Symbian devices lack in many areas including lack of WiFi support, poor levels of third party apps support and a general "You will do things our way" attitude to the UI. It's all very well Symbian maintaining it's legendary stability but if it's at the cost of allowing users to do what they want to do then I'll stick with WM5 (for now).
But then, that's my bias as a so-called advanced user.
PS
Why on earth would you bother encoding video at VGA for viewing on a QVGA screen? You said you "tried really hard" to get it working. Obviously not that hard if you didn't try the native resolution.
>>lacking in bias. We all have bias based on our everyday needs and experiences so to claim that the opinions of one person are completely lacking in bias is nonsense.
You're talking about preferences. I was talking about platform/OS bias.
>>You also mention that it is not fair to compare WM5 to the N70 as it is a brand new phone and the ROM hasn't had time to be bug fixed or whatever. But WM5 is brand new and the second AKU's have yet to be released yet so that, again, seems like nonsense. One rule for Series 60 and another for WM5.
Ahem. Please go back and read the above. We were comparing your '18 month old' device with the N70.
>>60 or UIQ) the extra effort is well worth it as the power and potential of these devices currently far outweighs anything symbian has to offer.
I'll agree with the 'power and potential' bit, but creating a real time OS for smartphones is extremely complex and I don't believe Microsoft are anywhere near Symbian yet in this regard.
>>Symbian maintaining it's legendary stability but if it's at the cost of allowing users to do what they want to do then I'll stick with WM5 (for now).
Fair enough, it doesn't sound like the S60 way is really for you. But remember that 98% of smartphone owners haven't even worked out what OS their device runs, let alone pined for ways of drastically altering the interface.
>>Why on earth would you bother encoding video at VGA for viewing on a QVGA screen? You said you "tried really hard" to get it working.
I was talking (please read my original piece) about watching VGA video on the VGA-screened Orange M5000. I dropped and dropped the bit rate but the processor and graphics subsystem just could not keep up.
Steve Litchfield
"Ahem. Please go back and read the above. We were comparing your '18 month old' device with the N70."
<lighthearted> Ahem. Please go back and read the above. We are different posters </lighthearted>.
Dr, Who? wrote:"Ahem. Please go back and read the above. We were comparing your '18 month old' device with the N70."<lighthearted> Ahem. Please go back and read the above. We are different posters </lighthearted>.
Ah yes 8-)
Confusing, these in-line quoting sessions! I plead busy-ness and doing everything in a rush at the moment.... So much to do, so little time to do it!
Currently juggling about eight different projects!
Steve