iPhone to N95 – A look back

This is parts 1-5 of an article I wrote for Symbian-Guru over 6.5 months ago (5.5 weeks before the iPhone 3G was released in the US.)  Ricky Cadden was nice enough to let me re-post them on mobiledivide.

You can expect more articles and HD video posts on mobiledivide soon.  I feel it’s important at this juncture to take a brief look back before the mobile landscape in front of us can truly be appreciated.

With that I also look forward to your comments below.

June 2, 2008

This is the first of a 5-post series from guest author Serko Artinian who is a Director/Editor at SERKOART®. Serko explores the move from an iPhone to an N95-4 in depth, with the nice surprises as well as the letdowns.

Let’s start things off with a bit of background information. I’ve been an S60 enthusiast for basically 18 months now and have had the privilege of extensively using/owning an N73, N75, N95-3 and most recently an N95-4. I’m a Mac user by preference and trade since I work in the Digital Media Production industry. The iPhone was my primary handset on and off for the past 10 months but after I was gifted an N95-4 that quickly changed. The N95-4 has been my primary mobile for almost 3 weeks now. Here is my perspective from being a former iPhone user who still relies on his Mac for desktop computing needs day in and day out. This article is based on using a factory fresh N95-4 with Symbian Series 60 FP1 running firmware version 1.2.011 and an iPhone with Mac OS X Mobile version 1.1.4 without the use of Jailbroken 3rd Party Apps.

Part 1 of this series will explore the Form Factor and Hardware Design of both devices.

The first thing I noticed when picking up my N95-4 was how well it feels in my hand. Everything from the soft contoured rubbery back to its handy ability to stand upright or in landscape mode on its own has been really refreshing coming from an iPhone. Though the slider form factor isn’t my preference I have grown accustomed to utilizing its benefits (more on that later) more often than its annoyances. The N95-4 also has analog “soft keys” which have been a real boon to my productivity since I’m able to set two shortcuts right off the bat, and pressing an analog button just has its own reassuring feel that is hard to describe into words and is considerably more effective when in a car, walking down the street or riding in a bumpy subway.

Did I mention how much I appreciate the fact that the N95-4 can stand upright or in landscape mode on its own? This comes in super handy when watching a video or using my handset as a portable boombox. It’s also great for taking hands-free pictures or recording video whether they are one off exposures or time lapsed ones!

One big benefit of having the slider form factor is answering calls with wet hands. You might be thinking, “what’s the big deal?” but I can’t tell you how many calls I’ve missed when I used to have an iPhone full time. In my experience I’m a lot less likely to answer a call on an iPhone with wet hands vs the N95. Since all you have to do is slide the N95 upwards you can basically get away with doing that and not being concerned with “are my hands dry enough to slide the Multi-Touch answer call virtual button on my iPhone’s naked screen?” The N95 is more practical as an actual mobile phone in my opinion and this is only one aspect where it excels and is only noticeable with extended use.

Speakerphone calls are shamefully poor on an iPhone. Yes I said it and I’m sure over 95% of iPhone owners will agree with me. What was Apple even thinking when they decided to include that pathetic monaural speaker on the bottom of their $600 (original selling price for the first two months of sale) “Smartphone”? I’ll tell you what I don’t know but my best guess is that it was a design afterthought (just like the pitiful 2MP camera with no AF/Flash/Video recording capability but I’ll get to that later). Even my former S40 handset (the 6126) completely put the iPhone’s speakerphone to shame for calls AND music and it was $50 (subsidized) at the time of purchase! The N95-4 on the other hand is a beast when it comes to everything from being an excellent speakerphone during calls to a portable boombox when it comes time to playing a digital audio file for a small group of people.

Recently I was at Home Depot and decided to take a few pictures utilizing the N95-4’s macro focus mode. Since there were 2 instances where a price check was necessary those photos ended up saving me a ton of time because the cashier was able to read the price and product catalog number from the “on sale” labels that I photographed! Up until this experience I never imagined a mobile handset could save me time (and money) at a hardware store. There was actually a carpenter in line behind me who commended me and said that “I’m going to use your idea and get a mobile with a better camera” to which I replied “Nokia makes some of the best camera phones in the world”. Oh and let’s not forget about the iPhone here. On one hand it does a totally decent job of capturing images quickly (the camera App launches in 2 seconds flat) and slickly with little noticeable digital artifacting (think digital noise) in broad daylight but once the sun goes down or you’re indoors with minimal available light, its built-in 2MP camera goes from useful to pretty much useless! Since there is no built-in flash or auto-focus the camera suffers from basically being little more than a tacked on afterthought which is surprising coming from Apple since all of their portable notebook computers have been shipping with a high quality built-in camera (iSight=AF+640×480 video at 30fps) for over 2 years now.

Not only does the N95-4 have a 5MP camera with Carl Zeiss (he was a renowned microscope optics pioneer) lens but its S60 software is smart enough to actually make the most of that built-in hardware. Being able to take beautiful and effective macro photographs with a mobile handset is more powerful than I could’ve anticipated originally. It also performs admirably in low light conditions with its LED flash (though not as well as the N82’s Xenon flash) and it also records VGA quality video up to 30 fps (though it tends to fluctuate from 25-29fps most of the time). Since the iPhone still can’t officially record video whatsoever it wouldn’t be a fair comparison to make and so the N95 basically offers more here for not much more of an initial investment.

Now that I’ve mentioned some of the positive aspects here are my primary gripes regarding the N95-4’s form factor:

• T9 is bearable but after growing so accustomed to QWERTY Multi-Touch on the iPhone my WPM have dropped from 30 to 15 (forget about clicking through with soft keys to add a new word into the built-in dictionary which takes considerably more effort than my iPhone ever did).
• An un-recessed full sized headphone jack is great to have but its placement leaves much to be desired if you plan on slipping the N95 back and forth into a pair of jeans often.
• Slider form factor can get really tiresome since it tends to slide open and closed on its own at times (when you least expect it) and forget about setting the auto keypad lock when slide closed to “On”, unless you want to add an extra headache to your day.
• QVGA (320×240 vs the iPhone’s 480×320) screen resolution limits Web browsing productivity since even with the website overview mode there is considerably more panning and zooming that tends to get frustrating really quickly coming from the iPhone’s expansive use of screen real estate with Safari Mobile (this goes for viewing most PDF documents too).

In part 2 of this series, guest author Serko Artinian, Director/Editor at SERKOART®, explores briefly the differences in user interfaces between the iPhone and the N95-4.

So how important is the GUI ecosystem of a mobile to you? The quick answer that most people give to that question is “it depends”. When going back to S60 from having the dead simple (and gorgeous) iPhone GUI I tended to hesitate, shake my head in disbelief at how anyone got anything done with such an arcane setup which consists mostly of a handful of folders scattered all about in the order in which Symbian/Nokia decided the default layout should be.

After a few days of initially arduous reconfiguration I found order and peace in what began as a test in futility! S60 still has a LONG way to go in terms of being as user friendly as Mac OS X Mobile for iPhone but luckily the user has configuration options, which will help mediate the canvas while Symbian/Nokia get their GUI up to par. After my initial setup time I was able to switch between and launch applications as quickly as I ever could with my iPhone with the added benefit of actually knowing which Apps are running in the background and being able to switch between them without quitting the current application I’m using!

There are a few specific productivity advantages that I feel the iPhone’s GUI has over the N95’s and those will be addressed in a separate section. After all aren’t these both supposed to be considered portable multimedia computers?

Hot on the heels of part 2, this is the 3rd installment in this iPhone to N95 series. In this post, guest author Serko Artinian, Director/Editor at SERKOART®, compares the synchronization methods between the computer and the iPhone or the N95-4. He explores wireless, USB 1.1 and USB 2.0.

Whether you’re using Nokia PC Suite/Nokia Multimedia Transfer/iTunes, the actual hardware that speaks with those applications needs to have certain inherent technological capabilities to actually make the most out of those data transfer sessions. Since I’m primarily on a Mac I use Nokia Multimedia Transfer, which utilizes iTunes as a data-transferring buffer between your Nokia handset’s data and your computer’s. Unfortunately for the N95-4, syncing media is usually a torturous experience. This is primarily due to its inability to transfer data above USB 1.1 speeds. What that roughly translates into is a “slow as a slug” data transfer rate. USB 1.1 data syncing through the mini-USB cable is single handedly the most crippling aspect of the N95-4 and Nokia should’ve known better than to release a Flagship Nseries handset with such limited data syncing bandwidth.

In one instance, I had to transcode and sync a 41mb Video Podcast from my Mac to the N95-4. It’s no mystery that having to transcode (think optimize) the Video Podcast first into a format that the N95 is more comfortable playing (even though it shouldn’t have any issues playing an MPEG-4 Video file to begin with) adds extra processing time to the sync but 12+ minutes for a 41mb data sync is obnoxious at best.

Nokia also provides a handy Podcast App, which sets your handset up for OTA syncing and downloading of basically any Podcast you’d like. The problem is that this application currently fails is in its inability to play most of the Video Podcasts even though they are MPEG-4 video files most of the time. Audio Podcasts work effectively well but again I’ve had issues updating the Podcasts category in the Music App to reflect how many I actually have downloaded to my handset (even with a manual Library refresh). It’s also counterproductive how S60 requires Mac users to have to manually refresh after every time they sync new music files with Nokia Multimedia Transfer with the N95’s Music player App. I’m honestly listening to Podcasts about 20% as often (compared to when I had an iPhone) now since getting them onto my handset is such a chore.

It also goes for most video files (forget about syncing an episode of a TV show or a full length DVD) unless their running time is under 5 minutes. This severely limits my enjoyment of the N95-4 but at the same time my options are pretty limited unless I want to do a massive data sync every night while I’m asleep. Especially in my line of work having the flexibility of swapping and syncing media files of various kinds and sizes in a respectable amount of time is paramount. It’s the difference between getting to show a potential client that new project I just finished editing at a party or doing my best trying to explain what it consists of and letting them know that I’ll send them a link. Most of those options usually tend to come across as excuses in my industry and the potential client is less likely to watch or give me instant feedback on the work sample (I’ve actually gotten a few jobs because I was able to show some video samples back when I had an iPhone).

Anyone that owns an iPod or iPhone should know how seamless and fluid syncing to iTunes can be whether they are using a PC or Mac. Apple “gets” software more than most software companies and the execution and speed of syncing is basically second to none with iTunes + an iPhone vs. Nokia Multimedia Transfer + an N95-4 on a Mac (I can’t offer a Nokia PC Suite comparison since I don’t own a Wintel based computer). Safari Bookmarks sync with little to no effort (something which is still pretty handicapped with the N95 using Nokia Multimedia Transfer) too. No manual library refreshes required, MPEG-4 Video Podcasts sync and play with little to no effort and that 41mb Video Podcast would probably take closer to 12 seconds instead of 12 minutes like it did with the N95-4.

Bluetooth Address Book and Calendar syncing are really handy with the N95-4 though. The iPhone does an admirable job of syncing these necessary data files in record time through iTunes, but having the option of wireless Bluetooth syncing is handy nonetheless. It actually saves me time when I don’t feel like plugging my N95 in and waiting for it to go through every “category” of data files just to get to the Address Book or Calendar part of the sync. An added bonus over the iPhone (which can’t sync any data over Bluetooth period) is that the N95 actually makes use of the “To do” list and “Memo” note syncing capabilities of iSync and iCal within Mac OS X! Since Apple hasn’t added a “To do” list or Notes syncing option (even with a wired connection through iTunes) the N95 comes out on top when it comes to syncing PIM type data files.

Also, USB charging has always been a useful alternative to an AC adapter with my iPhone. Since I don’t tend to travel with my AC adapter, the N95’s inability to charge over mini-USB has tended to limit its versatility (unless you are a really light user). With US 3G sucking up most of the battery throughout the day, it would’ve been nice to have USB charging as a viable alternative when I don’t necessarily have an AC adapter handy.

In part 4 of the iPhone to N95-4 series, guest author Serko Artinian, Director/Editor at SERKOART®, explores the built-in core applications that come out of the box on both devices.

It doesn’t matter how advanced the hardware inside your handset is without adequate software to harness and make effective use of it. Let’s begin with a few primary apps (I like to refer to them as Core Apps) that come pre-installed on both handsets or are available as complimentary downloads.

Email

Mobile email has to be one of the most important apps when it comes to any Smartphone. Let’s begin with the iPhone this time. The native Apple Mail app that is included in the list of apps for the iPhone might single handedly be my most missed software (after Safari Mobile of course) after moving to the S60 based N95-4. I currently use up to 3 different email apps just to mimic what I had on my iPhone. These are: Profimail, Gmail (Java version) and the native S60 Nseries Mail application. Long story short the combination of these 3 actually surpasses the single Apple Mail for iPhone since they give me the ability to natively save or attach virtually any file type you can think of (iPhone is currently limited to Photos for native file attachments unless it is Jailbroken). Even though Profimail supports HTML embedded messages, most of the live links that are embedded in those messages tend to fail when you try to activate them. Furthermore, having the extra screen resolution/size is really noticeable when viewing HTML embedded messages with pictures or PDF files. Some of the GUI productivity advantages that I alluded to earlier really come into play here. The iPhone’s Multi-Touch screen makes resizing or zooming in/out of attached pictures or PDF files a refreshingly fluid experience that tends to go unnoticed until you’ve actually had extensive time using both handsets as your primary mobile.

Recently I was renting equipment for an upcoming project when I needed to pull up an attached PDF file. Launched the Gmail App for S60 (takes what feels like years to launch compared the native Apple Mail client for iPhone) and poof I was able to search over 6Gbs of storage in seconds and pull up the PDF file! “That’s great” I thought to myself and showed my friend how great my N95-4 was compared to his 16GB iPhone. “Ok so let me see the PDF” my buddy asked and so I proceeded to load the file up. “Uh oh” it’s not showing the embedded photos properly! “Let’s try it with my iPhone” my friend said and so we called up Safari Mobile and poof there was the file again. Fortunately for me the Web based Gmail client for iPhone was able to perfectly display the PDF file in all its glory and so we pinched and zipped our way through the file and got what we needed to see. After I got home that night I sent that same PDF file to my N95 over Bluetooth and it opened up fine too, which was kind of a relief. Then I proceeded to do my best to log into Gmail again and even selected the “Non mobile” version but both attempts still failed to display the pictures embedded into the PDF properly (they were replaced with dead space).

Here are a few key detractors when it comes to multi-tasking with the N95 in regards to Email proficiency:

• No simultaneous emailing allowed over Wi-Fi while in EDGE mode (during a cellular call) which is something I could always do on an iPhone and is particularly handy when I’m out of a 3G area but have access to an open Wi-Fi network.
• It is a sad reality when an iPhone over EDGE is able to outgun a 3.5G N95 when it comes to HTML email retrieval (speaking specifically to Profimail and the built-in S60 Nseries email clients)

Maps

Now let’s skip ahead to Google Maps, since that’s one I use most often. This is an application where having GPS built into the N95 really takes things over the top again, though the form factor comes into play with the N95’s T9 keypad being the primary culprit. Since most street names aren’t saved into its dictionary they need to be added manually. After using the addictive (once you get the hang of things) Multi-Touch keyboard of the iPhone it has been really hard to swallow having to triple tap letters to form words within Google Maps (and the S60 Web browser too). Not only that but one huge plus the iPhone version has is that when you are searching for directions you can auto-fill the “To” or “From” fields with any contact in your address book without having to type their information in again! Routing for a trip takes half the time with the iPhone’s Google Maps App since most of the fields auto-fill themselves. An additional touch that I like is the one click “reverse route” button, which instantly switches the “To” and “From” fields when you’re ready to go back from your original starting point. I’ve also had inconsistencies with the ‘locate me’ feature while on the N95 (even with GPS turned on) vs. the iPhone’s Cell Tower Triangulation which has been more reliable when time is of essence (and spot on accuracy isn’t.)

Browsing

Web browsing has to be the most significant App for either of these handsets. Since they both run a version of WebKit there seems to be a lot of parallels that can be drawn between the two. Again, screen real estate and resolution are primary hindrances with the N95 vs. the iPhone (especially with a photo heavy website). Even though both handsets basically run around 400mhz, (the iPhone is underclocked on purpose by Apple to save battery life) how is the 3.5G N95 not knocking the pants off the 2.5G iPhone? This was a shocker to me too but it seems as though the superior software development skills at Apple have managed to make the most of their 1st mobile’s limited bandwidth to help give a decent enough experience for general web browsing (especially mobile optimized websites) over EDGE. The N95’s web browser tends to stagger how it chooses to load a website (this is especially noticeable in “page overview” mode) in a way that appears to load most of the text first then everything vanishes for a second until most of the pictures are downloaded too, then everything is finally there together again. 3.5G data connectivity with the N95 is a huge boon to productivity though when you need to download or upload a continuous stream of data and the battery life tradeoff is totally justified in my opinion.

Then there is the aspect of Tabbed browsing which comes heavily into play and is a very important feature to have in a mobile web browser. Again the iPhone’s web browser does a beautiful job of executing tabbed browsing (up to 9 tabs) which can be manually recalled at any time. The S60 Web browser only opens one new tab when it is “forced” to by the website that is currently being viewed. Even something as simple as sending the current URL of a website with the iPhone is a “just works” experience. On the N95 you need to dig through a few submenus only to realize that sending the link as an SMS is the most reliable way of forwarding it to someone, which I find ridiculous (the “send by email” option for a link tends to send it as a WAP attachment which doesn’t seem be work as well most of the time.)

Flash Lite 3.0 is also great to have on hand with the S60 Web browser (though most of the YouTube clips look really low quality even over 3.5G) and something that is basically nonexistent (there is currently a JavaScript bookmarklet called “iTransmogrify” that links certain FLV files to the iPhone’s built in YouTube player however) on the iPhone.

This is the last installment of this iPhone to N95 series, in which guest author Serko Artinian, Director/Editor at SERKOART®, explores the core difference between the iPhone and the N95-4 , the ability to install 3rd-party software.

There is no question in my mind that the currently thriving S60 community is a force to be reckoned with! Nokia and Symbian have built what has been for over 5 years now a Mobile OS that offers its users everything from the ability to run desktop class Apps in the palm of your hand to streaming live video content straight from your handset to the internet. There are literally thousands of Applications for S60 and that is a huge advantage over any other Mobile ecosystem in the world today.

Harnessing most of these powerful applications is another story entirely. Apart from Nokia’s “Download!” application portal which is focused more on 1st party software, there really is no central hub for an S60 user (especially a first time) to go to and have an efficient and streamlined way of downloading/purchasing quality software (Handango is one example but their library is far from “complete”).

Being a power user on the other hand involves investing a decent portion of time per day/week in pursuit of that next great S60 app. Whether you choose to RSS great sources such as Symbian-Guru.com or not is your choice but luckily most S60 power users such as The Guru are so passionate about the community that they are generally “Open to Anything”. By that I mean open to answering any question you may have regarding a specific application (including where/how to track it down) or troubleshooting your handset’s current software glitch. (editor note: thank you, Serko)

How does the iPhone currently fare? Well speaking in “official” terms the iPhone is still currently classified as a “Feature Phone” which basically means that it hasn’t been opened up enough to allow for the downloading and installation of 3rd Party software. Apart from Web Apps which are basically shortcuts to mobile optimized versions of websites that can live natively on the iPhone’s home screen, what you see is what you get with the current generation of the iPhone when you remove it from the box.

Both devices have their positive and negative aspects. It’s ultimately up to the end user to decide which “flavor” best suits their needs. Unfortunately for most casual mobile users in the US, the “oh that’s so cool” design aesthetic of the iPhone (coupled with its more attractive price point) tend to be looked upon as “more for your money”. The saddest part to this story is that most S60 users don’t even know what their handsets are capable of doing thus switching to an iPhone would actually seem like a step up in more ways than one.

Filed Under: Articles

Tags: Apple • iPhone • N95 • Nokia • Symbian-Guru