The Nokia Guide

Question: Is it only the flash that makes the N82’s pictures superior?

Despite having done various comparisons here at the Nokia Guide between the N82 and N95 8GB, the battle goes on! People are still unsure whether to get the N95 8GB with its unique form-factor and large screen or the N82’s compact size and amazing camera. One of the more talked about differences between these two devices is the camera and when talking about the camera there is one difference that is always mentioned: The Xenon flash on the N82. Based on the tests performed here, it’s obvious that Xenon will have the upper hand when it comes to low-light photography; this is even the case when compared to the newer dual LED-based devices. As Dotsisx at the Symbian-Guru has pointed out, the dual LED solution on the newer N96 and N85 are “still swept in pictures,” when compared to the N82. 

At the N82 launch we were told that it uses the same 5 megapixel camera module as the N95. With this in mind, many tend to explain this picture quality on the N82 as being “due to the inclusion of a Xenon flash”, but does this paint the full picture? If the Xenon flash is turned Off, would we see any differences? Let’s find out!

Despite using the same 5 megapixel camera module, these tests reveal that the N82 is better even when the flash is turned off. In the first test both devices were used to capture the fine details on a 50 Guilder bill. The bill has fine dots that are truly captured by the N82, while on the N95 8GB they appear to be almost washed out. In the second test the N82 shows colors that are true to the original and the overall image is much sharper. This difference can be explained by a better in-camera image processing software on the N82. Conclusion: The N82 takes better pictures not only because of superior flash, but also due to better image processing software. Based on these test it’s clear that if you have a N82, it would be a very good idea to hold on it, even as newer devices are coming out, as even these can’t quite match the mighty N82’s imaging powers.

How has music progressed in the Nseries Part 1: Audio Quality

The legendary N91 and N91 8GB are known for their impressive audio quality through their 3.5mm audio jack. The N91 has impressed many with its audio quality that is said to rival any standalone audio players and is also said to belong to one of the best on the market, even after2-3 years after its launch. Yet it manages to do all of this, despite the fact that it’s not just a dedicated audio player. Over the years the N91 and N91 8GB have made way for a smaller device that this time is not only positioned as the best in music, but also the best in gaming: the N81 and N81 8GB. Armed with the equally impressive Shure SE530 In-Ear Monitors I wanted put a question that is asked a lot to rest: what is truly the best sounding Nseries device? The N91 (8GB) or the N81 (8GB)?For reference the N95 8GB was also used.

When I started listening to all three devices one thing became quite obvious: the N95 8GB was definitely not in the same league as the two others. The audio quality was not only lower, but there wasn’t enough volume headroom like on the N91 8GB and N81 8GB. The original N95 would score even lower due to some audio hiss, that isn’t present on the N95 8GB. To put things into perspective, the N95 8GB was quite an improvement when it comes to audio over the classic N95, yet both the N91 8GB and N81 8GB leave the N95 8GB FAR behind in the audio department. The N82 on the other hand slots in nicely between the N95 8GB and N91 8GB/N81 8GB.

I must say that the audio quality on both the N91 8GB and N81 GB is extremely impressive and will easily get the best out of any headphones, earphones or IEM and could easily rival any dedicated audio player on the market. With ample storage capacity, all-in-one functionality and the fact that they could be considered “smart and connected” music players, I personally don’t see any reason to buy a dedicated music player. But which one is the best? First thing worth mentioning is that the N91 8GB and N81 8GB are awfully close when it comes to audio quality and the difference will most likely only be heard on high-end earphones like the Shure SE530. The N91 8GB does however have more audio volume headroom and overall produces a much clearer and dynamic sound. The N91 has an extremely clean output and overall produces the sound as intended, while N81 slightly colors the sound produced. There you have it! When it comes to audio quality, even after 2-3 years on the market, the N91 and N91 8GB are still the best when it comes to audio quality through the 3.5mm audio jack. The N81 and N81 8GB came just slightly below the N91 in terms of audio quality, but we can’t forget that the N81 does present a more convincing and overall smaller package.

I don’t know what Nokia used in the N91, but they should quickly apply that to newer devices as the N81 doesn’t seem to be quite there yet. With the announcement of the N79, N85 and soon-to-be-released N96 I’m wondering  (and hoping) that the N91 will finally be dethroned, but honestly I do not expect this to happen. For me, if the N91 had removable storage, I would stick to it and use it as my dedicated music player, until something equal or truly better comes along when it comes to audio quality.

The E71,the Gadget show’s hero

Recently I found about this great show called The Gadget Show, a program all about tech airing on UK’s channel 5. This is a UK only TV program, making it out of reach for the rest of the world, luckily I’ve been able to watch it on Joost, but because it isn’t quite up to date with the latest shows I’ve missed their latest comparison where they put the iPhone 3G against the Nokia E71.  Fortunately, the guys from Dialaphone found about this comparison and posted it in their first look of the E71. The E71 managed to equal the iPhone 3G’s 4 out of 5 score on the Gadget Show and guys from Dialaphone agree, calling the E71 vs iPhone 3G an “evenly matched battle that has gained so much attention.”

At first glance you’d be more inclined to put the N96 or even the N95 8GB against the iPhone, but once you think about the E71’s stylish and thin looks, it indeed could be a rethinking and even better alternative to the slim and almost button-less iPhone 3G. What do you think? Are the E71 and iPhone 3G evenly matched?

Nokia E71: How much do you sacrifice on the multimedia front?

Judging by the Eseries and Nseries segmentation, it almost seems as if Nokia wants you to have both an Nseries device for Multimedia and an Eseries for work related tasks. For most of us however it will come down to just having one device that will have the difficult task of juggling both business and multimedia duties. One of these devices is of course the new and popular E71, which obviously shines when it comes to productivity. Until that magical device comes along that harmoniously does both business and pleasure, going Eseries means giving up on some of the multimedia performance and features. Yes, I know the E71 is a business device, but people still use it for multimedia consumption and creation, despite of what Nokia wants you to think.

For those of you looking to get the E71 and want to use it for both business and pleasure, this post is just for you! Let’s try to answer the following question: When it comes to choosing the E71how much do you loose on the multimedia side of things?

To answer this question the E71 will be compared against the obvious multimedia kings: The N95 8GB and N82.

Imaging(N95 8GB images first)

More megapixels doesn’t always mean a better camera, but the N95 8GB’s 5 Megapixel with it’s extra pixels (compared to the E71’s 3.2megapixel camera) means extra room when it comes to cropping.

During the day the N95 8GB is way ahead of the E71 when it comes pictures, but surprisingly the E71 does fairly well despite its business roots. Why is the N95 8GB ahead? Due to better dynamic range handling, better color accuracy and detail. The N82 is way ahead of both. In other words, the N82 is a camera replacement device, the N95 8GB can double as an emergency camera while the E71 has a bonus camera.

In low-light conditions the gap widens even more due to the E71’s lesser flash and noisy pictures.

On top of that the E71 lacks the N95 8GB’s Sports Scene mode. And while the E71 does have both the Single and Burst shot options, it lacks the 10 sec, 30 sec, 1, 5 and 10 minute interval shot timer. Other things missing on the E71 is the ability to set the Sharpness and ISO.

Video

The E71’s 320x240 video resolution at 15 fps is a dramatic step down from the N95 8GB’s 640x480 at 30 fps.  The lower frames per second means video that won’t look as smooth as the one on the N95 8GB. Frames per second aside, the higher res video will look better and less pixilated on high resolution screens or monitors.

Music

The E71 lacks that handy 3.5mm audio jack, which basically means not being able to use your own earphones (fans of expensive In-Ear-Monitor should look elsewhere) or plugging your device to portable speakers or speakers systems with an auxiliary 3.5mm audio jack. The audio quality on the E71 isn’t on par with the N82 and N95 8GB and way behind the N81 and N91. You could always use the a 2.5mm to 3.5mm adapter but that beats the idea of having a built-in, no-adapter solution.

When it comes to the built-in speakers, the E71’s top-mounted single speaker is loud, but isn’t as loud as the N95 8GB’s potent stereo speakers you’ll definitely hear the lack of the stereo effect.

Taking a look at the Music Player and you’ll see that most things are left intact expect for the lack Visualization effects on the N95 8GB and the option to set the currently playing song as the ringing tone.

No TV-out

With it’s out of-the box office editing options, having the TV-out function would have ideal for quick notebook-like editing with a Bluetooth keyboard or Powerpoint presentations. But for Multimedia it means no sharing of video and pictures on the big screen or just about any mobile related task you can think of including web surfing, chatting and Youtube.

No UPnP/DNLA

No UPnP means not being able to wirelessly connect to the ever growing list of UPnP/DNLA devices like the Playstation 3, Digital Video recorders, Audio-Video systems, Network attached storage systems, PC’s/Notebooks,  DVD players, Blu-ray recorders/players, Digital cameras and printers to send and receive digital media.

No Accelerometer

No accelerometer on the E71 means not being able to use those cool Shake application like ShakeSMS or FlipSilent or even getting that automatic screen rotation like the one on the N82 or N95 8GB.

No N-Gage

The E71 is still blessed with S60 goodness being able to install many native or Java apps, when it comes to N-Gage you are pretty much out of luck.

No Hardware accelerated 3D graphics

With the lack of the OMAP 2 chipset found in devices like N95, N93 and N82, the E71 lacks hardware accelerated 3D graphics which. With rumors floating around that 3D accelerated  graphics coming to N-Gage, we might see a performance and Graphics qualiry and effects gap between devices with and those without 3D acceleration.

Conclusion

Answering our initial question, the E71 lacks a lot in the multimedia department in the case you plan to use it as your main device. But I guess this is expected, especially in the case of camera and video performance. But not having things  3.5mm audio jack, TV-out and accelerometer are in my opinions BIG omissions and should be in any high-end Nokia device, whether it’s an Nseries or Eseries.

But, in the E71’s defense there is no denying the exceptional built-quality and QWERTY keyboard that simply cannot be matched by the N82 or N95 8GB. Another trademark feature of the Eseries which the Nseries lacks is the out-of-the-box editing features provided by Quick Office. Or what about those one-touch shortcut keys? Other things worth mentioning are the Active notes, the new Mode switcher, Speech text reader, enhanced Contacts version, Enhanced Calendar, Dictionary, to name a few things. Last but certainly not least, the E71 menu speed is way ahead of anything I’ve seen on the Nseries.

Nseries vs HSDPA Modem

Recently the local providers of Curacao (UTS) and Aruba (SETAR) have launched the Caribbean’s first UMTS network (including HSDPA). Besides offering just the mobile options, users can also opt for the HSDPA access modem, in this case the Huawei E220 for PC’s and especially Notebook access. The E220 is an all-in-one solution including HSDPA modem, USB mass storage device and virtual CD-ROM device. Opting for the modem means paying the expensive local purchase price or adding an extra fee to the monthly charge. As an official tester for UTS I decided to put the N95 8GB and the Black N82 against the Huawei E220 HSDPA USB modem. Would the Nseries be slower? How long would the batteries last when tethered?

The N95 8GB and the Black N82 were able to perform just as fast as the dedicated HSDPA modem, clocking close to the 3.6 Mbit/s limit as indicated by www.speedtest.net  An interesting observation however is that the N82 seemed to disconnect more frequently than the N95 8GB or the HSDPA modem. This could be pure chance, but it also could be that it’s less sensitive at picking up signals. During the course of 3 days, the HSDPA disconnected just 1 time just like the N95 8GB, while the N82 disconnected 5 times.

As for the battery life, the N95 8GB lasted 2 hours and 24 minutes tethered to my laptop, while the N82 lasted 2 hours and 45 minutes before its battery died. The HSDPA modem was USB powered so it could keep going for as long as your Notebook could.

Conclusion

The N95 8GB and N82 work well as HSDPA modems giving you virtually the same performance as a stand-alone HSDPA modems. With the latest Nseries devices you can expect battery life of about 2.5 hours, which by itself isn’t bad, but can’t compete with a USB powered unit like the Huawei E220 in the sense that most notebook can keep going for longer than 2.5 hours. In the case that your notebook is plugged in and you didn’t bring your charger along means that the HSDPA modem could keep going while the the N95 8GB and N82 would be dead in less than 3 hours. Getting the Nokia Nokia Charger via USB port CA-100 should bring the latest Nseries devices on par with a stand-alone HSDPA modem.

Nokia PDF document highlighting the differences between the N95, N95 8GB and the N96.

James Powell from the Talk About Nseries blog has found a PDF document highlighting the differences between the N95, N95 8GB and the N96. No surprises here, but analyzing the document reveals a few interesting details. First of all the document indicates that the N96 includes A-GPS, but that it has an improved antenna. Another interesting detail is that they mention that the N96 has “Enhanced Audio Quality.” But it’s still unclear whether they are referring to the Digital Audio Processing for music playback or that audio-recording during movies has been improved. The N96 also appears to have the ability to natively playback WMV and WMV-DRM (finally!) But the most interesting information has got to be the fact that they indicate that the N96 will have an effective transfer rate of about 50 Mbit/s, 10 times faster than the N95 8GB and N95 which is a huge improvement over current devices on the market. It’s something that we’ve been complaining about and I’m glad to see the the official numbers. I do have to say that the real-world transfer on the N95 8GB is more around 0.8 to 1Mbit/s (the document mentions 5Mbit/s) which I think should put the real-world transfer of the N96 more in the 10-15Mbit/s range which is still pretty fast.

The documents can be found here and here.

N95 8GB vs N82 The Real Battle Begins Part 6: Conclusion

Here at The Nokia Guide I’ve pitched the N95 8GB against the N82 in several categories, trying to answer the difficult question of what to get.

In the first part I covered low-light camera performance: Despite the fact that the N95 8GB and the N82 have the same 5megapixel camera module, the N82 produces cleaner images with more detail and truer colors. The N82 also performs better at higher ISO levels retaining a clean image and lot’s of detail. It’s also obvious by now that the N82’s Xenon flash is superior to the N95 8GB. The N82 is the clear winner here.

In part 2 I discussed Music, where the scores of both devices were pretty close, but it was the N82’s audio quality through the 3.5mm jack is what pushed it ahead. Worth mentioning is the N95 8GB’s impressive stereo speakers and the fact that it does have music controls.

Part 3 where the performance aspect was discussed showed almost no differences between the N82 and the N95 8GB.  This should come as no surprise as both devices have the OMAP 2 under the hood, basically bringing both devices to a tie.

The N95 8GB’s larger and brighter screen, plus better outdoor screen visibility makes it the clear winner in part 4 where both devices were put against each other in the video category. Currently the N95 8GB is still the only Nseries with Flash Lite 3 support, making it the only Nseries device that can play full-blown Flash content from the browser. The N82’s smaller screen doesn’t stand a chance here.

And lastly in part 5 I talked about the design and the “Bling Bling” factor of both devices. While both devices look good, the N95 8GB’s unique double slider, black color and large screen makes it stand out. The N82’s more traditional candy bar design isn’t as eye-catching as the N95 8GB and has more in common with your average phone. If you want something that blends in, the N82 is for you. But when it comes to standing out the N95 8GB takes the crown.

If we take all of these categories into consideration this how the two stand:

Nseries and memory cards Part 2: Smartphones vs Internet Tablets

Normally I try to start a post with some fancy schmancy intro, but this time I’ll go straight to the point. Previously I had done some benchmark testing on Nseries devices with built-in memory or others using memory cards. These test revealed that some improvements had be done when it comes to data transfer via USB. For example: the same 4GB Sandisk microUSB card scored: 0.8MB/s in the N76, while the card reader managed to squeeze almost 11MB/s out of the same card. No matter if the device is using internal memory (N81 8GB) or card slot (N76) they perform very similar. Equipped with the Nokia N800, a Sandisk 4GB and 8GB microSD cards using microSD-to-SD adapter I wanted to find out how fast Nokia’s Internet Tablet really is. And how do the Nseries tablets compare to Nseries phones?

Test were down with HDTach.

Nokia N96 vs N95 8GB vs N82, what to get?

It’s no secret that the N96 is better than the N95 or the N95 8GB. When it comes to the N82 the story gets a little bit more difficult as in some areas it’s better, while in others it’s not. Getting the latest and greatest is everyone’s wish, but with the release of the N96 it might be a smart time to buy the older N95 8GB or the N82 as the bigger brother pushes the price of the other two to even lower levels. After comparing the devices there’s a lot in common, but there are a few key differences that may or may not be as important to you which will allow you to answer questions like: should I upgrade to the N96? What features do I sacrifice when getting the soon-to-be-cheaper N95 8GB and N82? Let’s start by comparing the sizes. As always Sizeasy to the rescue! The N96 seems to be about the same size as the N95 8GB, just slightly longer but thinner. I’ve also added the newly released N78 and as you can see its dimensions closely resemble those of the N82, so holding a N82 in your hand should give you quite an accurate idea about the N78.

After comparing the dimension let’s start with the obvious: I know some of you only want sliders, while others swear by monoblocks (candy bar). If you exclusively want a slider, you have the choice of either the N95 8GB or the N96. Choosing one over the other depends mostly if you are willing to give up on some features while saving a bit on the price. If you’re more of the candy bar type the N82 is currently the only high-end Nseries in the monoblock shape (N78 is considered mainstream)

 

Now that we have the basic covered let’s take a look at the major differences.

N95 8GB vs N82 The Real Battle Begins Part 5: Bling Bling

There’s no denying that people choose phones based on their design. Most people I know choose phones purely on this factor and some cases the color alone is enough to make them buy a phone. Even the more advanced Nseries users have to admit that even though we like feature packed devices, we do look at the design not only for its ease-of-use, but also on how good it looks, in some cases how many heads it can turn. My point is: design is important to people, people care just as much about how good a phone looks as for example how many megapixels it has. For this reason I wanted to put the N95 8GB against the N82 in a very important head-to-head duel: how good do they look? As always, design is a very subjective matter so the results here are just that: my opinion. While previous test results were not, this test is purely subjective, but maybe you might agree with me. Let’s start with the N95 8GB.