Thursday, June 12, 2008

Can the Nokia 5800 expressMedia actually challenge the iPhone?


Dipen Nandani from MeriNews says
With this, one thing is for sure that Apple’s iPhone will have a tough competition in the coming months. Nokia’s touch sensitive handset will be called the Tube 5800. An auto focus 3.2 megapixel camera along with the support for DVB-H technology would be one of the many features of this model. The handset would support Java and a 3.2-inch touch sensitive display would add a difference to the handset. The set would be equipped with a direct upload feature for videos and images, bluetooth, WiFi capability, GPRS, 3.5mm earphone socket and a lot more. It would also be compatible with 3G and HSDPA. Moreover, it will have a TV out socket and support Haptic Technology. Images taken from the camera can be geo tagged and a lot more features are being expected to build in.
Some of the features which look pretty certain are -

  • Wi-Fi
  • 3G
  • GPS

Another option for HSDPA could be on the cards for this release, but no-one seems to be sure yet.

Thing is all these features are already present on the upcoming iPhone v2.0 ! Not only that, the iPhone also comes with a whopping 8GB/16GB of storage - seen only on special editions in the Nokia NSeries or in other words the best of the best of Nokia. Then where does the phone actually compete ? That is what remains to be seen..

Read more about the iPhone v2.0 !

Chris has made a real good comment in the Comments section - be sure to read it. Just click on the comments (the black bubble) or the title of this post and scroll down.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm shocked you feel the need to compare these two otherwise diametrically opposed devices. The iPhone is an excellent feature phone focusing on experiencing media, but not good enough to replace any specialized devices except maybe a CD player. The Nokia 5800 is a powerful dynamo of a smartphone capable of replacing a laptop.

The iPhone will only support one video codec and a couple audio codecs. The 5800 media player's supported audio and video codec support alone puts it well beyond the iPhone's closed system. And you can sync or add music to the 5800 with or without a PC, and without any need for special software. The iPhone is enslaved to iTunes and the desktop, and is useless without them.

Without video capture support, the iPhone is simply embarrassed by the near DVD quality video capture. I won't brag about MMS support, since the iPhone is an anomaly. Almost all the mobile phones in manufacture today have it... except Apple's hype device, which is a shame.

The DVB-h tuner is welcome in some parts, but actually, there are various ways to view live TV on the 5800 via 3rd party solutions, even free ones like piiptv, which allow streaming of your home TV signal via web connection. The iPhone can only watch the video's provided from iTunes. The 5800 can view content from almost any source.

The iPhone has one source for apps, the Apple and carrier partner controlled Apple App Store. The apps come from the Apple developer SDK. Apple will remove any apps your carrier doesn't like. The 5800 supports apps from its Download! app, as well as dozens of online retailers like Softpedia and Handango, developer forums like Symbian-Freak and Dr. Jukka's site, and freeware sites, including popular sites like downloads.com and Softpedia. And programmers can make apps using the S60 SDK, plus c++, M, Python, Java, and Flashlite3. So the developer and app pool is large and can be more easily customized per the user with the 5800.

The 5800 will have a higher widescreen resolution, better for viewing video. And its three buttons to the iPhone's one only gives the interface more versatility. Not to mention the 5800's haptic support for tactile feedback. Imagine typing on a screen without any feedback. iPhones suffer this most, forcing you to always look to use it.

The 5800 is a real connectivity beast! Bluetooth can be used for file transfer! iPhone only user it for the earpiece. So 2002... Even cheap basic phones support bluetooth file exchange! And all S60 devices have built in modem tethering features. The iPhone must add it by a retail app they won't even allow users to buy it.

The iPhone's browser is a ripoff in disguise. While it is faster than the Nokia Webkit browser, it should be. It only renders a PICTURE of the websites with some links active. No animations or anything. The iPhone's browser is nothing more than an Opera Mini clone, available on any mobile phone as a free download at operamini.com. The 5800 browser is still pretty fast in comparison, and as all the latest S60 devices, supports Flash content in the browser. So even though there are a couple award winning third party YouTube viewers/downloaders, the browser can handle it with ease, showing the full videos and all animations, exactly like on your desktop! Even web based apps, like MySpace's image uploader, work exactly like Internet Explorer on a desktop PC. So not only does the 5800 come with Share Online, an app to upload media directly to various media sharing sites like Ovi and Flickr, but also browser based uploaders, which work with just as much success.

The storage issue is moot. The 5800 supports removable media, which is up to 32gb per card, with 8gb and 16gb cards common.

So there is no advantage in getting the iPhone, the feature phone in faux smartphone garb. Alot of the iPhone's popularity is due to marketing hype in the US, where smartphone offerings are slim, and a touchscreen is equated with high end business smartphones, making the iPhone a glamour device for mobile computing neophytes. It doesn't even support multitasking! What other phone doesn't and is considered a smartphone?

The 5800 is an entry level power device. The iPhone is centered around experiencing media content. The 5800 is centered around both experiencing and creating media content, all while handling various other tasks simultaneously, like real smartphones. The iPhone is very nice device, a true high school varsity grade piece of kit. The 5800 is above a passing grade in the superphone world, but it's an Ivy League phone. The iPhone still has alot to learn.

christexaport
www.symbian-freak.com
christexaport@sbcglobal.net

mufc said...

It will match the iPhone in terms of the selling factor as its a nokia brand.. To find out more information visit www.shopmobiles4u.co.uk

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