Nokia N8 vs iPhone 4 – Ten Things Why Nokia N8 Is Better

First of all, let’s face the inconvenient truth that there is no perfect smartphone in this planet, but still we could consider that there is one smartest out there. Both Nokia N8 and iPhone 4 are candidates, so we will see if which part of my lists does Nokia N8 really standout against iPhone 4.

 

Checkout Nokia N8 vs iPhone 4 Camera comparison

Checkout Nokia N8 vs Apple iPhone Gaming
Price

One of the biggest advantage of Nokia N8 over the iPhone 4 is the price. With the price tag of €370 euros before taxes and subsidies, and converting it to pounds would give us £300. Comparing to the iPhone 4 (unlocked) 16GB with a price of £499 and £599 for 32GB. Therefore making the Nokia N8 much cheaper for a smartphone with cool multimedia features and especially Symbian^3 os.

Design
We admit that the iPhone 4 is slimmer, but there are consequences on this, like on the camera performance e.g. zooming and sensor size. For the color variants of Nokia N8, the mass is already have a wide choice for their taste on the color. There are currently 5 anodized casing  for N8 the dark grey, silver white, green, blue and orange For the iPhone 4, there are two the white and the black (no pun intended) and obviously I don’t like that my phone is mistakenly identified by others as an iPhone 3GS or iPod touch.
Video Call
The limitations of Apple facetime for the Wi-Fi connection and iPhone to iPhone is what Nokia already solved and made possible long time ago to their devices. So in N8 you will not be bounded by connections and you will get connected for the video calls in any capable devices.
HDMI + Dolby Surround
Another one few specs that a 2010 smartphone have is the HDMI connection where you can connect to your home theatre. With HD TV you will get a crisp and clear visual treatment as well as with your sound with the Dolby Digital Plus.
Memory
The Nokia N8 has a 16GB internal storage plus giving you a chance to add an external hot swappable microSD card up to 32GB.
USB On-the-Go
If 48GB of storage is not enough for you then consider this USB on-the-go feature where you can read and make slave USB sticks from external hard drive like on this 250GB hdd.
Usability (Reception issue)
If you’re afraid to get a bad reception just because of the phone’s inability to not allow you to have a proper grip, well, isn’t that obvious that this could be one of the biggest mistake that Cupertino company made? Eventhough Nokia N8 isn’t launched yet, we all know that this Finnish giant have more than 1 billion of devices out there and we never have the incidents where people protests just because of the reception issue.

Sensor
To have the biggest camera sensor in the field of camera phones—and even bigger than the other p&s cameras—means that we are having the right innovations. By the size of the N8 and to its one of a kind features, it really shows that this is an advance feature that Nokia N8 will hold against competitors.
Xenon flash
It is still a strong advert of manufacturers that LED flash can provide you enough light for taking pictures. But it is still a fact that xenon flash are the one who leads in the technology of flash for compact cameras as well as to mobile phones. What Nokia did is they reduced the size of the flash to 30% less compare to Nokia N82 & without losing the power.

Editing software & Ovi Maps are free (Symbian^3)
If you’re phone has an HD capable video recording and Symbian^3 on N8 has an on-board video editor and without pulling some extra bucks from your pocket, of course. The same on Ovi Maps, neither we need a connection nor we would pay for it. That is really the magic of Nokia, bringing us connected anywhere and anytime.
Obviously, we are not biased on posting articles nor we are against iPhone 4 to prove if just check Norman’s article about reasons why he shouldn’t wait for Nokia N8.

Design

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Dimensions

• Size: 113.5 x 59 x 12.9 mm
• Weight (with battery): 135 g
• Volume: 86 cc

Display and user interface

• Screen size: 3.5"
• Resolution: 16:9 nHD (640 x 360 pixels) AMOLED
• 16.7 million colours
• Capacitive touch screen
• Orientation sensor (Accelerometer)
• Compass (Magnetometer)
• Proximity sensor
• Ambient light detector

Keys and input methods

• Physical keys (Menu key, Power key, Lock key, volume keys, Camera key)
• Finger touch support for text input and UI control
• On-screen alphanumeric keypad and full keyboard
• Dedicated camera and volume keys
• Possibility to use capacitive stylus
• Handwriting recognition for Chinese

Colours

• 
  Anodized aluminium casing, available in:
  
  • Silver white
  • Dark grey
  • Orange
  • Blue
  • Green
• Colour availability varies by country

Personalisation

• 
  Up to three customisable home screens:
  
  • Widgets
  • Themes
  • Shortcuts
  • Icons
  • Menu
  
  
• Customisable profiles
• Ring tones: mp3, AAC, eAAC, eAAC+, WMA, AMR-NB, AMR-WB
• Video ring tones
• 
  Themes
  
  • wallpapers
  • screensavers
  • audio themes
  • pre-installed themes
  • changeable colour themes

Hardware

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Power Management

• BL-4D 1200 mAh Li-Ion battery
• 
  
  Talk-time (maximum):
  
  • GSM 720 mins
  • WCDMA 350 mins
• 
  Standby time (maximum):
  
  • GSM 390 h
  • WCDMA 400 h
• Video playback time (H.264 720p, 30 fps, maximum): 6 h (via HDMI to TV)
• Video recording time (H.264 720p, 25 fps, maximum): 3 h 20 mins
• Video call time (maximum): 160 mins
• Internal memory: 16 GB music playback time (offline mode, maximum): 50 h

Operation times may very depending on radio access technology used, operator network configuration and usage.

Memory

• Internal memory: 16 GB
• MicroSD memory card slot, hot swappable, up to 32 GB

Operating Frequency

• GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
• WCDMA 850/900/1700/1900/2100
• Automatic switching between WCDMA & GSM bands
• Flight mode

Data Network

• GPRS/EDGE class B, multislot class 33
• HSDPA Cat9, maximum speed up to 10.2 Mbps, HSUPA Cat5 2.0 Mbps
• WLAN IEEE802.11 b/g/n
• TCP/IP support
• Capability to serve as data modem
• Support for MS Outlook synchronisation of contacts, calendar and notes

Requires data service. Data Services may not be available in all networks. Data transmission speeds may be as high as HSDPA 10.2 Mbps, but may vary based upon network capabilities and other conditions. The establishment and continuation of a data connection depends on network availability, provider support and signal strength.

Connectivity

• Bluetooth 3.0
• HDMI
• 2mm Charging connector
• Micro USB connector and charging
• High-Speed USB 2.0 (micro USB connector)
• USB On-the-Go
• 3.5 mm AV connector
• FM Radio
• FM Transmitter

Software & applications

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Software platform & user interface

• Symbian ^3 for Nokia
• Java MIDP 2.1
• Qt 4.6.2, Web Runtime 7.2
• HTML 4.1
• Software updates Over the Air (FOTA) & Over the internet (FOTI)
• Flash Lite 4.0
• OMA DM 1.2, OMA Client provisioning 1.1

Applications

• Key applications: Calendar, Contacts, music player, internet, messaging, photos, Ovi Store, Maps, Videos, WebTV, Office document editors, Video & photo editor, Mail, Chat, Radio
• PC Applications: Nokia Ovi Suite, Nokia Ovi Player

Personal Information Management (PIM)

• Detailed contact information
• Calendar
• To-do list
• Notes
• Recorder
• Calculator
• Clock

Communications

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Email and messaging

• Easy-to-use email client with attachment support for images, videos, music and documents .doc, .xls, .ppt, .pdf, .zip
• HTML support for email
• Unified email client for multiple protocols: Yahoo!®
  Mail, Gmail™, Windows Live™, Hotmail and other
  popular POP/IMAP services, Mail for Exchange, IBM Lotus traveler
• Editing of key office documents
• Email web widget for home screen
• Chat instant messaging support: OVI Chat, Yahoo, AIM, Windows Live, Gtalk, MySpace*
• Unified MMS/SMS editor
• Conversational view for SMS
• Push email and expanded portal support available through Nokia Messaging for Email and Instant Messaging

* Some services may be available only via downloading or dependent on the market. Only devices that offer compatible multimedia message or e-mail features can receive and display multimedia messages. Content appearance may vary. Some images and ring tones can not be forwarded.

Call management

• Contacts: advanced contacts database with support for multiple phone and e-mail details per entry with personal thumbnail pictures and video clips
• Speed dialling, voice dialling (speaker independent) and voice commands
• Logs of dialled, received and missed calls
• Conference calling
• Integrated hands-free speaker
• Video calling

Sharing & Internet

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Browsing and internet

• Full web browsing of real web pages
• Web browsing with touch control
• Supported markup languages: HTML, XHTML MP, WML, CSS
• Supported protocols: HTTP v1.1, WAP
• TCP/IP support
• Visual history, HTML and JavaScript support
• Flash Lite 4 will support a majority of Flash Player 10.1 content
• Nokia Mobile Search
• RSS reader
• Support for streaming video

Navigation

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GPS and navigation

• Integrated GPS, A-GPS receivers
• Ovi Maps with free car & pedestrian navigation
• Wi-Fi Positioning
• Compass and accelerometer for correct orientation of display
• Use Nokia Ovi Suite to get the latest country maps for Ovi Maps on N8 for free

* Downloading of maps over-the-air may involve transferring large amounts of data. Your service provider may charge for the data transmission. The availability of particular products, services, and features may vary by region. Please check with your local Nokia dealer for further details and availability of language options. These specifications are subject to change without notice.

Photography

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Camera

• 12 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics
• Fullscreen 16:9 viewfinder with easy-to-use touchscreen parameters
• Xenon flash
• Face recognition software
• Autofocus
• Focal length: 5.9 mm
• F number/Aperture: F2.8
• Still images file format: JPEG/EXIF
• Zoom up to 2x (digital) for still images
• Zoom up to 3x (digital) for video
• Secondary camera for video calls (VGA, 640 x 480 pixels)

Image capture

• Automatic location tagging (Geotagging) of images and videos
• Images automatically taken in the correct orientation
• Pinch zoom in Photos image viewer
• View photos by tag cloud, month, album, slide show
• Photo editor
• Online Share with connectivity to popular sharing services

Other

• Internal memory: 16 GB
• MicroSD memory card slot, hot swappable, up to 32GB
• High-Speed microUSB to PC connectivity

Video

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Video cameras

• Main camera
  
  • 12 megapixel with Carl Zeiss optics
  • HD quality 720p resolution
  • Shoot 16:9 videos in HD
  
  
• Video capture in 720p 25 fps with codecs H.264, MPEG-4
• Settings for scene, video light, white balance, colour tone
• Secondary camera VGA for video calls
• You can record high-definition video with Nokia N8. If you are recording video to a memory card, for the best performance, use fast, high-quality micro SD cards from known manufacturers. The recommended micro SD card Class is 4 (32Mbit/s (4MB/s)) or higher.

Video codecs & formats

• H.264 (base profile, main profile, high profile), MPEG-4, VC-1, Sorenson Spark, Real video 10
• Streaming: H.264, Flash Lite 4 (Flash 10 compatibility for video), On2 VP6, Sorenson Spark

Video sharing and playback

• HD 720p Video playback on HD TV through HDMI cable
• *Dolby Digital Plus surround sound when played with HDMI & a home theatre
• Support for download, streaming, and progressive download
• Video editing software
• Videos application: collection of stored videos
• On demand WebTV widgets to watch local & global internet streaming TV
• Support for Flash video
• YouTube browsing and streaming
• Video call support (WCDMA network services)

*Dolby Digital Plus technology. Dolby is a registered trademark of Dolby Laboratories.

Music & audio

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Music features

• Flick scroll to browse the albums in your music collection
• Comes with Music service on selected markets
• Nokia Music Player
• Ovi Music store
• MP3, WMA, AAC, eAAC, eAAC+, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, E-AC-3, AC-3
• Bit rate up to 320 kbps
• DRM support WM DRM, OMA DRM 2.0
• FM transmitter

Radio

• Stereo FM radio (87.5-108 MHz/76-90 MHz)

Gaming

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Gaming

• Use the touch UI to play games
• Dedicated graphics processor with OpenGL 2.0 enables 3D graphics
• Java games
• Use the accelerometer to play games

Environmental features

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Energy efficiency

• Power Save mode, ambient light sensor, unplug charger reminder, Nokia Compact Travel Charger AC-15

Materials

• Free of PVC, free of nickel on the product surface, free of brominated & chlorinated compounds and free of antimony trioxide as defined in Nokia Substance List

Packaging

• Made of renewable, 100 % recyclable

Eco content and services

• Available at Ovi, maps for route optimization and pedestrian navigation

Recycling

• All materials of the device can be recovered as materials and energy

User guide

• Interactive user help in device and online, only Quick Guide in the box, eco tips on Green Page
Full Eco declaration

Package contents

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Standard Sales Package

• Nokia N8 mobile computer
• Nokia Battery BL-4D
• Nokia Connectivity Cable CA-179
• Nokia Stereo Headset WH-701
• Nokia Compact Travel Charger AC-15
• Nokia Adapter Cable for HDMI CA-156
• Nokia Adapter Cable for USB OTG CA-157
• Quick start guide

Accessories

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Recommended accessories

• Nokia Bluetooth Stereo Headset BH-905
• Nokia Bluetooth Stereo Headset BH-505
• Nokia Bluetooth Headset BH-608
• Nokia Extra Power DC-11
• Nokia Stylus SU-36

Compatible accessories Using Nokia or other consumer internet services with your mobile device may involve transferring large amounts of data. Your service provider may charge for the data transmission. The availability of particular products, services, and features may vary by region. Please check with your local Nokia dealer for further details and availability of language options. These specifications are subject to change without notice. SAR Full Eco declaration Declaration of conformity

3 Reasons to Switch from BlackBerry to iPhone 4 (and 3 Reasons Not To)

I knew this day would come. In fact, when I first purchased my BlackBerry Bold, I informed my provider that I was not willing to commit to the BlackBerry service for an extended period of time. I did that because I knew that at one point or another, I would be making the transition to iPhone. However, the first iPhone to come out after I started using the Bold was the 3Gs. As impressive as that extra speed was, I was not going to give up on the BlackBerry email experience for a little more processing power. So, I waited.

Then came the iPhone 4 and I now plan on ending my long lasting relationship with my BlackBerry. However, before I break up with my Bold, I will say to it “It’s not you, it’s me”. I loved the Bold, no scratch that, I love the Bold. However, it has one too many shortcomings for a heavy user like myself and with the new iPhone out, I see no reason to stick this out.
The following are the reasons I plan on getting the new iPhone next month followed by a few reservations I have about jumping the BlackBerry ship:

Camera: There are a lot of great things to be said about BlackBerrys, and it is not for no reason that RIM has such a huge market share. However, when it comes to photography, well let’s just say, this is not a selling point for BlackBerry. For some odd reason, and the general target audience might be that reason, RIM has not yet caught up when it comes to cameraphones. It is beyond me why there are 8 and 12 megapixel cameraphones on the market and BlackBerrys are still 2 and 3 megapixels. However, the iPhone, until the latest iPhone 4 had not caught up either. Now, with the iPhone 4′s 5 megapixel camera and the addition of a second camera and an LED flash, I plan on actually taking advantage of having a good camera on me at all times. Granted this is not a good enough reason to buy a phone, but read on, there is more…

 Web Browser: OK, this probably should have been first on the list… The Bold’s Web browser, which I am forced to use as the default browser to open links, could not possibly stink more. OK, maybe I am exaggerating just a little, but not only is it slow and lacking features, it almost always makes my phone freeze up. I am going to miss many things about the BlackBerry experience but that famous hourglass of the phone freezing up, is not one of them. With the new processor on the iPhone 4 combined with the unparalleled display, Web browsing on the iPhone 4 might actually replace my laptop. This leads me right into my next point.

Memory: OK, this is by far my biggest issue with the Bold 9000 and the reason I was considering upgrading to the 9700 until I tried its keyboard. The Bold 9000 has 128Mb of app memory. Subtract the memory allocated for the OS and the preinstalled apps, and you are left with 30-40 Mb of memory to install apps. Now, don’t get me wrong, with the sad BlackBerry App World, that might be more than enough, but I use a lot of apps, and having to delete apps constantly to free up memory is not exactly a convenient process. I, for one am very much looking forward to some freedom when it comes to installing apps.

Now, this point was there before the latest iPhone, so why am I mentioning it now? Well until now, I could not install as many apps as I would want even on the iPhone since there was a limit on home screens. Now, with the iPhone iOS4, there are app folders,which enable you to install over 2,000 apps on your iPhone. That should pretty much have me covered. However, when it comes to apps, there was no way I was switching to iPhone prior to this release since there was no multitasking. That was a complete deal breaker for me since at any given moment, I have at least 10 apps running in the background on my Bold. Now, I can install as many apps as I want, run multiple apps in the background, and thanks to the enhanced battery and Apple’s implementation of multitasking, still have some battery juice left. What else can a man need, right?

Having said that, and so as not to sound like a complete fanboy, I will say that I have my concerns about going over to the dark side. These concerns are being put to rest by my fanboy friends on Twitter, but I am still a little worried of missing these aspects of the BlackBerry experience:
Email: There is no debating the pure awesomeness of BlackBerry email.  It is fast, easy to use, and very reliable. I have asked many iPhone users, specifically people who made the transition from BlackBerry how the email on the two platforms stack up, and they almost all told me I had nothing to worry about. But I am still worried. However, with the new email interface on the iOS 4 with the unified inbox, I want to believe that the advantages of the iPhone will overpower the  inferior (hopefully not by too much) email experience.

Keyboard: Oh man, am I going to miss my BlackBerry Bold’s keyboard. I type faster on my phone than I do on my computer and that is not an exaggeration. However, I prepared myself for this and have been using an iPod Touch for a few years now and the large on screen keyboard (compared to Android) combined with the advanced corrective software allows me to type pretty darn fast. I never actually timed myself on the two devices, but I think my typing on the iPod and my typing on the Bold are pretty similar in speed. There is no question that there is something to be said about having physical keys to press down on, but like I said above, this is something I am willing to give up on for the advantages I get with iPhone.

BBM: While this is not as big of a deal as the prior two concerns, I am most definitely going to miss the always-on easy-to-use BlackBerry Messenger service. For those who do not know what that is, it is basically a free texting service for all BlackBerry users. However, there are some iPhone apps out there that provide the same functionality, such as WhatsApp, so I plan on getting those apps and enjoying everything the iPhone has to offer.

In conclusion, the first things I plan on doing once I get my shiny new iPhone 4 is changing my Twitter profile, which states that I chose BlackBerry over iPhone. The next thing I am going to do is sit back, relax, and enjoy the quiet of not having to explain to people every day why I am using such an “old fashion” device and not an iPhone. Once I have done those two things, I am going to open my iTunes and go on an app shopping spree. Why? Because I can!