Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls and the millions watching all over the world are you ready? Let’s get ready to rumble.
Hey this is LP from www.teknoreview.com today we have something a little different 12 rounds heavyweight smart phone action. Welcome to our Smart Phone smack down. In the right corner weighing in at 150 grams, Nokia's new N series device the N97. In the black corner HTC’s very own flagship device weighing in at 178.5 grams that is the Touch Pro 2.
All right let’s stop kidding around I got to mention I’m a fan of both HTC and Nokia. I’ve had at least a dozen Nokia phones in the past and I’m going on my third HTC device right now. So I absolutely have no reason to pay favorites.
Round one, fight. The design is pretty much always a factor when buying cell phones because you definitely want to have a flashy device to show up to your business buddies and friends. The n97 has a very distinct Nokia quality about it. It’s pretty much in line to the previous N series devices. The only gripe of the device is that it resembles the 5800 Express music quite a lot. You can get the Express music device for under 300 bucks while this device cost more than double.
The Touch Pro2 is also a very good looking device its slick and streamlined but the times people confuse this for an iPhone. I’ve already lost count. But these are small complains because both devices are very good looking and when it comes down to looks and design it’s pretty much a matter of taste anyway. Some people like coffee and some people prefer cocoa so that’s the way it goes. So this round is a tie, decide for yourself.
Round two fight when taking to devices that are in constant use. Built quality is definitely important. I mean it can get annoying wake up after night in the town and finding your cellphone in your pocket in pieces. It happened to me a couple of times. I wonder if tequila has anything to do with it. Anyway both devices are both made out of titanium. Well not really but it would be kind of cool to have a phone that can handle an entry to the earth’s atmosphere.
But these devices are made of plastic. Despite these they both fell solid in the hand. Both have a good slide out mechanism but the tilting screen on the Touch Pro2 has a light giggle to it while, the mechanism on the N97 is very solid. So the slight edge goes to Nokia in this round.
Round three fight. This round maybe a very important deciding factor for most because this part relays to the unique selling proposals of both devices the QWERTY keyboard. Looking at the keyboard is quite obvious how this round will turn out. The tilting screen on the N97 is taking a hell a lot in space on the keyboard itself leaving space only for three rows of keys.
Even though like typing with the N97, the Touch Pro2 keyboard is definitely on a league of its own. The keys are bigger, more elevated and spaced out comfortably and rows are misaligned like on a regular keyboard. And the Touch Pro2 also scores dedicated rows of keys for the numbers and I would say the typing is about 30% faster on the Touch Pro2. The N97 gets boned pretty badly in this round.
Round four fight. When comparing the screen spec wise both have their advantages. N97 has brought a color range but the screen on the Touch Pro2 has bigger resolution. Being the keen eye resolution whore that I am the advantage in sharpness is somewhat noticeable on the Touch Pro2. Small text and details looks slightly sharper on the Touch Pro2. The TouchPro2 seems to have a slight edge in brightness and contrast looking at the devices side by side. The advantage in colors is not apparent as might think. And I really can’t see the difference in color count on the N97. Better contrast and higher pixel density gives the Touch Pro2 the points in this round.
Round Five fight. All the devices have resistive touch screen which react with physical pressure while HTC has plenty of touch screen devices under its belt. This is only the second touch screen device from Nokia. While I think the firmware update improve touch screen sensitivity on the N97 it still can’t compete with the TouchPro2. Pressing buttons and icons just need a bit more pressure and I would say that the sensitivity on the N97 is somewhat similar to the last generation of HTC devices. The Touch Pro2 is a clear winner in this round.
Round six fight. If you’ve watch my N97 review you might remember that I wasn’t too impressed with the SymbianS60 5th edition interface. It could have customize the interface for the Nseries devices because as it is now is not enough to justify the high price tag. The Touch Pro2 runs on Windows Mobile 6.1 which can be a bit clank at times.
Luckily HTC has added their custom user interface on top of the operating system. Touch Pro3D2 is very functional and easy to use and you don’t have to be MacGyver to operate the main functions.
Although it would be kind of cool if you are MacGyver though. Anyway when comparing the two UI’s the Touch pro 3d2 stands out it looks slicker and runs smoother. Although the Symbian has its pros as well if you’ve used a Nokia device before you probably find yourself at home using the S60 5th edition interface. Also good feature in the N97 is the widget based home screen which can be customized to suit your everyday needs.
The Nokia Ovi store is a definite advantage to the N97 user experience. It’s definitely a good idea to have a dedicated store for downloading new feature sand products unto your device. There's not a massive amount of stuff in Ovi store yet but I did find this cool ring tone which they use in the newest starter tune. While Windows mobile devices may not have a dedicated store yet, the community support for example a XTA forum is amazing. Weighing in the two interfaces pros and cons, I have to reward this round to the TouchPro2.
Round seven fight. In this round, I’ll be comparing the Opera mobile 9.5 on the HTC device against the Symbian web browser on the N97. The two browsers are very similar in use. You can use your finger to flicker round on the page and double tap to zoom in. Although the TouchPro2 also has a dedicated zoom bar for zooming in and out of pages. The Symbian browser does support some flash out of the box while the browser on the TouchPro2 does not.
Loading times on the browsers are about the same, the Opera browser loads some pages faster than the Symbian and vice versa. A very cool feature on the TouchPro2 is the push internet. This feature lets you set your favorite internet pages to load at a predetermined time so you won’t have to wait for your favorite sites to load.
The Symbian browser has its pros as well; navigation between open tabs and previous sites is done smartly. Render quality is decent on both browsers. I noticed that when loading bigger sites on the Symbian browser, the kinetic scrolling can get a bit choppy. But the Opera mobile browser is not without fault either. I had the browser actually crashing onetime while making this comparison. Both browsers are decent but far from perfect. I call this one a draw.
Round eight fight. I mean, Round 8. Fight. The TouchPro2 supports a 3.2 megapixel camera and no flash. Now the N97 supports a 5 megapixel camera with a dual led flash. The camera on the N97 is one of the best I’ve seen on a mobile device. It has all the functions you normally expect to see on a dedicated pocket camera. The N97 has dedicated buttons for operating camera which is always a good thing. The camera on the TouchPro2 is okay but can’t compete against that camera on the N97.
Round 9. Fight. Media playback is always featured in marketing slogans for these types of devices. A rock concert in your pocket or a movie theater in the palm of your hand. I watch a lot of movies off the big screen and it’s not exactly the same as watching it from the 3.5-inch screen. Surely enough, both devices have nice and big screens. Which are well suited for watching your favorite content while commuting on a train or a plane for example.
When it comes down to media playback, you definitely want a device that can handle any format you pull off the net. Either of these devices support DivX out of the box, but this isn’t too big of a deal because I would recommend getting a third party player anyway. For example Core Player that handles pretty much every format you throw at it, as in pretty much.
Unfortunately, the Symbian S60 fifth edition does not support Core Player. In fact, I could not find a working player for the Symbian that can handle DivX and Xvid. But the N97 handles the formats and supports with ease. And excels over the TouchPro2 with 3gp formats. But since I have zero movies in 3gp, I have absolutely no views for 3gp playback.
I mean I’m not going to sit around for hours converting files. Another issue I have with the 3gp format is picture quality which can get a bit blocky. Even though the N97 handles some format with ease, a lack of codecs and third party player support is the reason this round goes to TouchPro2.
Round 10. Fight. Both the devices have good music playing capabilities. The speakers on the TouchPro2 are better than the N97 speakers, which also makes speaker phone calls better on the TouchPro2. But the N97 has a feature that the TouchPro2 is dearly missing, with 3.5mm headphone jack. Without the jack, you won’t be hooking your device up to external speakers to show off your Boy George collection. And in my books, that’s a big enough reason to give this round to the N97.
Round 11. Fight. Ignore the battery life promise on the spec sheets, it ain’t going to happen. Both devices have 15 hundred milli amp batteries and battery life is about the same. If you’re a heavy user, you will be depleting your battery in two days so keep your charger handy.
Round 12. Fight. When it comes down to it, price may become a deciding factor. But rest assured no matter what, both devices will be making a whole in your wallet, the size of a decent shotgun blast. But 32 giga byte internal storage and superior camera justify the higher price tag on the N97. So I would call this one a draw.
So that’s about it, the TouchPro2 took down the N97 with the final score of 94 points. I’m probably going to get some flack from Nokia fans but that’s okay. I still consider both devices to be good business smart phones. And I expect Nokia to be upping the anti next time around. The TouchPro2 is now the defending champion. And I’m going to need your help to choose the next challenger. Post your suggestions on the comments. Thanks for watching. LP signing out. Finish him!
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