New devices and criteria in the Grid

wow impressive...

i got n86 8mp (which is my current phone) followed by nokia n95 8gband nokia e75 tied and then in third place the nokia n82 (which is my previous phone)

quite on the money with my choices then! 😊

Actually your grid is pretty much spot on, but I have a few tiny adjustments or maybe you can justify your selection.

1. iPhone GPS = 9/10 (Google maps is flawless, and the compass works as advertised). To give the Nokia phones 10's while Ovi Maps is problem prone shows your bias as usual. They should all be rated the same in my book. I have an N86 that routes no better than Google Maps or Navigon.

2. iPhone Software Stability = 9 (No crashes, no out of memory errors, no under memory'd phones) Again Steve, I am not sure of your criteria here.

3. iPhone File Management = 3/4 (With additional software so on this one we can call it a draw. However, if you download some software free/paid, you get access to the iPhone file system)

4. iPhone Office App = 0/1 (You were generous here. The iPhone can only open Office type docs. To really be productive, you have to purchase software)

5. Updates = 9/10 (Apple listens to their customers more than Nokia at the moment. Right now, the iPhone is getting important updates faster than Nokia, and then Nokia still does not fix things.)

6. Robustness = I think the iPhone has much better hardware minus camera than just about any phone out there. Are you really comparing the iPhone to the 5800XM or the E71? Really?

While you have your opinions on these things I find it hard to come to the same conclusions that you do especially after using a Symbian phone and iPhone daily, but then again I have nothing against Symbian nor the iPhone.

Forgot to add..... Great grid. You guys should make this a sticky if you haven't already..... I usually point friends to this when they decide that they want a phone.

not too bad - it recomended some samsung horror show as first
then 5800 and iphone a couple of poitns behind

i have a 5800 and iPhone! 😊

Selected the Samsung 8910 as the winner and then the iPhone 3GS for me.
Well I wouldn't touch the Samsung with a barge pole so thats out!
I did have an N97 but replaced it with an iPhone 3GS as it had the edge on the N97 in the following;

Email
web Browsing
General ease of use and 'Just Works' 'ness

Also the Loudspeaker on the iPhone was clearer and louder than the N97 even though it was only a mono unit. Strange that your grid marks the 3GS so low here as I find it to be pretty good.

I don't remember the n97s battery life being 3x as good as the iPhone. I'm pretty sure it was only fractionally better if anything!

In fact the only real advantage that the N97 had was in imaging ,especially in low light where the iPhone is useless, and file management.

Still a pretty good guide though.

I presume the reason that the N97 battery is 3x better than iPhones is because it can be replaced.

I very much agree that double weighting should be given to size and weight of phones, as designers seem to be getting lazy and bloating their hardware since Apple got away with it.

The grid selected my phone, a Nokia 5800, spot on. I have been looking for a phone that will replace it, but there are none as good (for my requirements) on the market. Yet. Possibly X6. Or more possibly something further up the new product pipeline.

Unregistered wrote:

In fact the only real advantage that the N97 had was in imaging ,especially in low light where the iPhone is useless, and file management.

.

And having a qwerty keyboard and not being an Apple product.

Wheather being or not being an Apple product is an advantage is a matter of personal taste as some prefer Apple.
I don't make product choices based on the label but on the functionallity and fitness for purpose of the device.
I thought that the hardware KB on the N97 would have been a +ve but it turned out that the iPhone touch keyboards responsiveness and auto correction made it easier to use than the N97s.

theres a lot of people eagerly defendin the iphone on a symbian website...

must be a lot of people who moved over to iphone from symbian and werent quite 100% with their choice so need to constantly justify their choice 😉

OK so now I am signed in (forgot my password and couldn't be bothered on the last 2 posts)

I'm not an iPhone zealot and I was a hairs breadth away from returning it but 2 weeks with the N97 was enough to convince me that there isn't a better alternative for me at the moment.
I spent 2 years with my n95 and loved it despite its flaws (battery life, slow browser, data destructive FW upgrades)
I figured that I would wait for the N97 for my upgrade but 'tried out' the iPhone while I was waiting.
I found it really difficult to go back to the S60 mix n match OS on the N97 after using the Apple so I stuck with it.
I don't deny that the N97 is a better phone in some ways (imaging being the one that hurts me most) but overall the iPhone was the better choice for me.

As this is a thread for comments on the comparison criteria of these phone I though I would comment that in my experience the external speaker and KB were better than the N97.

In terms of battery the ability to change it or have a back up spare certainly give the N97 an edge I would just argue that it's may be not a 3x edge.

And don't worry I'm not going to sneak into your homes at night and swap all your lovely Symbian devices for Apple ones you are quite safe :tongue:

sapporobaby wrote:
1. iPhone GPS = 9/10 (Google maps is flawless, and the compass works as advertised). To give the Nokia phones 10's while Ovi Maps is problem prone shows your bias as usual. They should all be rated the same in my book. I have an N86 that routes no better than Google Maps or Navigon.

sapporobaby wrote:
2. iPhone Software Stability = 9 (No crashes, no out of memory errors, no under memory'd phones) .

sapporobaby wrote:
3. iPhone File Management = 3/4 (With additional software so on this one we can call it a draw. However, if you download some software free/paid, you get access to the iPhone file system)

sapporobaby wrote:
4. iPhone Office App = 0/1 (You were generous here. The iPhone can only open Office type docs. To really be productive, you have to purchase software)

sapporobaby wrote:
5. Updates = 9/10 (Apple listens to their customers more than Nokia at the moment. Right now, the iPhone is getting important updates faster than Nokia, and then Nokia still does not fix things.)

sapporobaby wrote:
6. Robustness = I think the iPhone has much better hardware minus camera than just about any phone out there. Are you really comparing the iPhone to the 5800XM or the E71? Really?

Pawlee wrote:theres a lot of people eagerly defendin the iphone on a symbian website...

must be a lot of people who moved over to iphone from symbian and werent quite 100% with their choice so need to constantly justify their choice 😉

Really?

Unregistered wrote:Google maps needs to download map tiles and won't cache them, that makes it instantly a loser.

What? There are plenty of occurrences of crashes and errors on iPhone. Just google it.
On the other hand, I've not experienced one on the my Nokia.

See 4 below.

See 3 above.

Apple has one phone and Apple does more talking and controlling than listening.

Bad news, iPhone has a capacitive screen that is vulnerable to cracking when dropped. That is just ONE advantage of resistive touch screens.

1. Not sure what you mean but when I use Google Maps on my iPhone as well as on my N86, they function the same. AGPS plots my location and updates it as I move. So I have no idea what you are talking about here.

2. Symbian is repleat with stories about crashes, out of memory errors, reboots, etc.. If you've experienced none of these, consider yourself in an extremely small minority or better yet, turn your phone on and try to use it. The crashes will come. I would say that when compared to my N86, the iPhone is much faster and has much more stability.

3./4. I guess you didn't have anything to add.

5. One thing I have learned regarding Apple and their approach to customers is that they strive to have a better user experience. Like them or hate them, for the most part Apple's user experience is unmatched at the moment. Look at the user surveys regarding customer satisfaction. The iPhone is at the top. Nokia can easily do this but it seems that they would rather boast about being number 1 than living up to being number 1. The last quarterly report from Nokia should have been a wake up call.

6. Resistive screens scratch. So you can have a possible cracked screen or a scratched screen. The choice is yours. Also, the debate about which screen is best pretty much depends on what a customer wants. If the N97 was better designed (some here will apologize for the N97 until the cows come home), had more ram, a really functioning GPS, and a few things to make it less prone to crashes, reboots, etc... I would have kept mine more than 2 weeks. To be fair to Symbian though, my N86 is pretty stable, and not too slow. Hopefully Nokia will release an upgrade soon.

"1. Not sure what you mean but when I use Google Maps on my iPhone as well as on my N86, they function the same. AGPS plots my location and updates it as I move. So I have no idea what you are talking about here."

What he means is that Google Maps ONLY downloads maps on the go, ie. using your data account, whereas with Nokia maps you can install the maps on the phone using the maploader software. When you are in your own country and have an unlimited data account the difference is possibly minor, but when you don't have unlimited data and/or are in a foreign country, Google Maps is unusable, as it is simply too expensive.

Unregistered wrote:"1. Not sure what you mean but when I use Google Maps on my iPhone as well as on my N86, they function the same. AGPS plots my location and updates it as I move. So I have no idea what you are talking about here."

What he means is that Google Maps ONLY downloads maps on the go, ie. using your data account, whereas with Nokia maps you can install the maps on the phone using the maploader software. When you are in your own country and have an unlimited data account the difference is possibly minor, but when you don't have unlimited data and/or are in a foreign country, Google Maps is unusable, as it is simply too expensive.

Ahhhhh.... Okay. Got it now. I think the caching thing threw me. But then again, Google Maps was never meant to cache maps. It is designed to be an "on the go" type of application. I guess you could always purchase some sort of navigation system. I purchased one for my iPhone that has the built in maps, and in the long run it is cheaper than Ovi Maps as it is a one time purchase, but then again this depends on your navigational needs.