Poll: Nokia N97 or iPhone 3GS?

Apple is really good with their keynotes and announcements because I was convinced of getting the new iPhone 3GS immediately after WWDC earlier today. A few hours passed by and it has worn off. I still want the Nokia N97! I’m curious how you feel after the announcements. Will you get the iPhone 3GS instead of the Nokia N97?

Nokia n97 or i Phone

The features that are more important to me are web browsing, camera, and immediate sharing of photos and/or videos to my friends and social media network. You might have other priorities, but all other features are secondary based on my usage.

My decision in wanting the Nokia N97 over the iPhone 3GS are based on these factors:

  • Web. Without a doubt, the iPhone’s web browser will be better than the Nokia N97.
  • Camera. The iPhone does not have camera flash while the Nokia N97 has dual-LEDs flash. I rather have barely-lit images than black images in dark places.
  • Sharing. I love to Twitpic, Flickr, and Facebook photos wherever I am. I prefer to have an actual keyboard, so I can type photo titles or descriptions quickly and upload from the phone. There is no keyboard on the iPhone. I’m sure there are many people out there that can type fast on a touchscreen, but again, I want to stress that I prefer to have an actual keyboard.
  • nokia n97
    i love nokia n97 its made i think we should all get to have soso if youve watched futurama youill know llol
  • nokia n97
    nokia n97 is the best iphone sucks.
  • fluipe
    Here is my opinion about iPhone vs Nokia 5800, I think you'll find good reasons to choose. Translate the article on the link "not your language?"

    http://www.felipecardona.com/2010/02/lo-que-sig...
  • shaylarooooooosa
    Nokia N97 the bestt, ive had the iphone and its not that good, and now i have the nokia n97 for a year now and its been working greatt
  • prachi511
    i think the n97 is the best touch screen mobile

    COZ I DON'T LIKE THE BLACKBERRY BECAUSE THEY R TOO COSTLY AND I PREFER A N97
  • ssaala
    i HAVE AN iPhone yaaay me LOOOL
  • cmcken1
    Actually, the camera is a no brainer to use on the N97.

    1. Open the lens cover.
    2. Point, Aim and Shoot (using the top camera button just like a std cam)
    3. Done

    4. Optional: On that same screen appears 4 options and they are:
    -send via email
    -send via message
    -send via blue tooth
    -send via upload

    So, as you can see, this is very easy to use and is not a hassle in anyway and, in fact, I found it much easier to use than the iPhone.
  • Nrbrhn
    So 3gs vs n97. I have to stress that the resistive on n97 is like 3 generations behind 3gs' capacitive.

    Games/apps on Apple's appstore are glorious as opposed to Nokia's miserable Ovi, N-gage & JME stuff. Quality & quantity achieved.

    Taking photos on the N97 seems like a hassle. 3gs' for simpletons. After a week playing around with the Nokia settings you just want one setting that does it all quickly.

    3gs' social apps way more stable and full-featured than Nokia's.

    N97 no tabbed browsing, no cut paste on browser text!!! ( opera mini beta 5 does not count yet. not that stable ).

    I bought the N97 against bad reviews everywhere. Thank god for keyboard, flexible bluetooth, fm transmitter, widgets, led flash, long battery life..
  • cmcken1
    The camera on the N97 is stupidly simple to use.

    Process:

    Step 1: Slide open the camera lens cover.
    Step 2: Point, Aim and Shoot
    END

    Options:

    On that same screen, the user has 4 options to choose from and they are as follows:

    1. Send by message
    2. Send by email
    3. Send by bluetooth
    4. Send by upload

    I compared the amount of clicks and time required to use both the iPhone and N97s cameras and found the Nokia device supporting faster workflow with fewer clicks. No need to wade through any software menus.

    There's also a std camera capture button as found on std cameras as a hardware feature. No manual required as it's extremely intuitive to figure out.

    Just my thoughts after comparing both devices.
  • shahminhaj
    my dad owns a 3gs,.. and i play around wth it at times,..but if i had to trade it to him for my N97,..
    I WOULD NEVER,..!!!!
    to me its N97 ALL THE WAY!!!!!
  • Jigar
    Nokia N97 is the best compare to shit I phone. I Phone does not have caller name say, games, you can't copy music, not memory card, you cant delet music without joinin it with computer... I phone is completely shit phone...
  • eugenio09
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  • tinustrekzalf
    a iphone isn't perfectt ,the n97 can d a n97 isnt perfect. Both need mods and jailbreak/hacks to work how it should be.

    If you don't like the "snap"of the camera of the n97, hack your device and make it silence!

    etc.

    after hacking and modding the n97 is a pretty good phone and even more.
  • danielfarinha
    Hello everyone

















































    I just read the review and I'm kinda surprised what I was reading. I have an n97 and I had an IPhone 3GS 32 gb which i exchanged with somebody for the n97. The Iphone is a better quality phone why? well because:
    -the screen is much better, the n97 looks kinda cheap and the colours ar not very nice
    -the navigation works. Nokia's nav is crappy be honest people nokia maps it's not that well.
    -the touchscreen is very responsive to the commands given the n97 touchscreen is terrible because of the ammont of force you have to put on the screen.
    -the widgets are nice but the widgets from the iphone are better by far.
    -itunes store has more to offer than ovi
    -games are great on the iphone
    -email on n97 looks cheap
    -browsing is terrible on the n97 and gets worse with the stupid little arrow ( same as on the e71)
    -commands don't always respond to the action given
    -the camera from the n97 looks terrible I expected more from a 5 mp carl zeiss lens camera.
    -the whole phone (n97) looks good when you hold it in your hand until you turn it around. C'mon people it looks like a knock off very cheap compared to the housing of the iphone, bb,e71.
    -the sound is terrible the Iphone beats nokia every day of the week
    -headphones from nokia are bad.
    On the good side for nokia

    -Battery life is super. I had to charge my Iphone twice a day
    -The keyboard is great far better than the iphone because when your typing it doesn't eat letters or change words.
    -the thing I like about nokia is that they are easy to use.
    -It doesn't blow up or get overheated. I bought my Iphone at t-mobile but within a week returned it because it got so hot that I couldn't even hold it in my hands. I got a new one btw
    -Not so expensive as the Iphone but not worth the price.
    - The storage is great extra trunk space for your junk lol, sorry apple better luck next year
    -You get more out of the box than with the iphone.


    this phone doesn't live up to the hype. I couldn't wait to get my hands on it and now I have one but think to myself this was the dumbest trade of my life.

    this message was posted on the website for e71 fanatics.
  • cmcken1
    Oh, just found this out about the iPhone last night: MMS messages sent to iPhones do not display the image on the device! My brother can't see any pics without having to go through Apples' web site and enter some huge hexidecimal number just to see the darn pic. What a joke the iPhone is. That's just ridiculous. The N97 with all it's bugs is expected to get a new SW update in Sept. Even with all the bugs, the N97 blows the iPhone away for ease of use, speed of work flow and much better camera, voice quality, reception, storage capacity, removable battery, and more. Why people keep buying iPhones is beyond me. They are nothing but fantastic looking devices. It's all in the packaging with Apple.
    The email client on the iPhone is terrible compared to what's available for the N97 and, Apples' servers are down quite a bit too thus resulting in delayed emails.
    Nokia all the way. It's just too bad that they didn't design in a better display and scrolling like Apple did. That screen looks really good and the scrolling and touch response is very good. Those are the only two things that outshine the N97 in my opinion.
  • I agree to your post and based on these factors even i got a N97 instead of iPhone
  • jarrodm
    Apparently, both devices also make and receive phone calls.
  • Peter
    N97 sucks, with a slow AMR11 434 Mhz, no chip 3D, and few free RAM (128MB.... I've heard only free 50 megabytes). Iphone 3GS has a real 600 Mhz CPU, a real GPU, real RAM (256 megabytes) and a real touch capacitive and BIGGER screen, the N97 has a thinner screen than the iphone. Games on the iphone 3GS shows off about the real power of a real CPU and real RAM memory. The N97 feels like a S60v3 FP2 (N86) but touch, thats the only real difference. WTF is wrong with nokia??, when will they use a real CPU and use again the chip 3D ??
    128 megabytes of RAM, slow CPU and resistive touch screen is from prehistory. Nowdays, a good cellphone should have at least: CPU 600 Mhz, capacitive touch screen with multitouch,256 Megabytes of RAM

    On my N95 8GB I am able to play quake 3 arena due to chip 3D graphic accelerator, enough free RAM (the game takes 60 megabytes of free RAM). On the "almighty" N97 nobody is able to play quake 3 arena
  • cmcken1
    It's times like these where I had to go put things into perspective. I did so by dropping in over at AT&T. I spent all morning in there trying the new iPhone 3GS. Doing so made me glad I stuck with Nokia. Despite all the bugs we are having now- I would still choose a Nokia over an iPhone and here's why:

    The iPhone still has issues with rotation which, my buggy N97- fairs better than the iPhone. The keyboard does not rotate on the iPhone as advertised. When I finally did get it into landscape mode, I could not find the commas, periods etc as they are on another menu- another screen. Who was the programmer that came up with that? Talk about no flow when typing. Their whole speech is about "flow" but here we have to go to another sub menu just to enter a period? WTF is that all about? Talk about impeding your workflow. Nokia's full qwerty keyboard burries Apple's in my opinion as it's all there laid out in front of you. No sub menus just to get a punctuation mark. Not well thought out at all.

    Safari vs. Opera Mini. Here's some perspective that I found shocking. After I struggled two times to enter in a web address on Crapple's horrid iPhone virtual keyboard that refused to rotate by the way again when using Safari- I finally hit enter and got an error message. Ok, what happened? The address is correct when input but, at time of enter- their software cut the address thus resulting with an error and no web page. I got the address in on my second attempt vs. flying through it with the N97s full qwerty board with ease.

    I hit enter on both devices and Opera pulled the site faster than Safari. Now, here's the kicker: The N97 is running in EDGE / GSM only- as I am on T-Mo and they don't support 3G so, anyway, the N97 burried the iPhone for pulling in the web page. I did this a few times to make sure it wasn't a cached page in one device and not the other. Now, whether there was a network issue on the AT&T iPhone or whatever- I don't know but, the bottom line is that I found the iPhone to be so much slower to get around on than Nokia's N97 and Safari is not that impressive as they make it seem in ads.

    Contacts: On the iPhone, some genius put the search function as part of the scroll page so, if your at letter W and you want to start a new search, you have to scroll back to the top of the list just to get the search window. That doesn't make sense to me at all so, I began thinking logically that there must be another way to jump to that search window but, I could not find it nor could the sales person. It's not intuitive to where this function might be. Nokia has a fixed search window so that no matter where your at- it's there when you need it. Again, I like the N97 over the iPhone for contacts and faster workflow. As neat as they are in the iPhone and how the GUI has that "pop" I don't like it one bit to use. To me it's good to look at but, not to use. More bling bling than functionality. It may have a faster processor and way more ram but, in the end, it's real world use that proves that the iPhone is not as great as people make it out to be. It is way overrated.

    The user can also use the N97 like a laptop whereas, due to the curved back of the iPhone, it's simply not possible without it wobbling all over the place plus, you can't see the screen as good as on Nokia's N97.

    The camera is also better on the N97 and so much easier to use. All you have to do is open the lens cover, point aim and shoot. Then, right on the screen, there's an option for emailing the photo, using MMS, Bluetooth or Upload- way easier than on the iPhone. There's no menus to scroll through, no menus to click, it's right there as an icon on the camera screen to the right. Great workflow and, it takes better quality pics than the iPhone. I didn't test video but, pics were way nicer on the N97.

    I also prefer the narrower width of the N97 as the iPhone is too wide in my opinion.

    Lastly: what's the battery life on this new iPhone 3GS? I get three full days of use out of the N97 so, chalk up another point over Crapple's iPhone.

    Summary: the only clear advantage that is really obvious with the iPhone in general is it's display and touch screen and it's GUI. It is very clean, sharp, crisp and clear. Even with the bright control dimmed it still looks better than the N97 set to full brightness. But, aside from that- it's a no brainer for me as to what device works better for me. Even knowing how many bugs are present in the N97 at current- I would still choose it hands down over the iPhone for ease of use, it's intuitive design and faster work flow.
  • nick
    Basically you can't see a list of apps running concurrently since the only certain apps will and generally Apple is using some trickery with storing cache data to make it appear you're resuming an app. Safari is a good example. If you want to use a more Nokia like task manager, just install backgrounder which allows you to run multiple programs concurrently in the traditional sense.
  • cmcken1
    Thank you for your feedback. Question: What is the difference of using backgrounder vs. the menu key to tab / display the open apps?
  • nick
    To quit safari, just hit the home key and it brings you back to normal app slection home, and caches the safari app along with any open windows you have (you can have multiple). That's what I don't understand about the multitasking arguement, it takes less time for my 3gs to launch an app from cache than the 5800 takes to switch to an already open one. I can maybe understand if you use greater than 4 apps at once, but i don't find that very productive for me, generally just use things like fring + safari or some other combination. I'd like apple to add true multitasking to the 3gs and it will likely come in the 4.0 update if only as an option to keep the bullet point feature comparisons level.
  • cmcken1
    Yeah, that's what I did. But, isn't that just going to the home screen vs. quitting safari? I was under the impression that it was always left on - no? I don' t know about the 5800 but, my N97 and E71 both tab very fast.

    I like to multitask and, when on a call, often use notes and the calender along with using the maps at the same time. Often when getting directions while on a call.

    But, how do you see all the apps that are open on the iPhone at once? Is there a menu or ALT-TAB / COMM-TAB type of function that allows one to see all the apps that are open? Or, am I understanding that it only runs one app at a time? This is what I am coming to understand.
  • nick
    I understand you're mostly just trolling, but you should really look into some of these, they're wrong. Adding a period while typing on the iphone you just hit the spacebar twice, also holding down letters gives alternatives, so to get a tilde over an n just hold down on the N for a second. To scroll to the top of a page/contacts you just tap the top of the window... as for internet speed I can tell you my 3GS is worlds faster than my 5800xm was at browsing the web, including opera mini, in fact, it's not even close.

    I'll give you the points about the camera on the n97, though sending videos to youtube or mobile me on the iphone is very easy. I'll will say though, you're post strikes me as someone who has only used an iphone for small amounts of time. I really like nokias, s60 holds a place in my heart, but unless nokia drastically overdrives their mobile OS, and forces 3rd parties to match higher specifications, it's going to be a very tough sell against apple, especially once apple launches increasingly cheaper phones/plans.
  • cmcken1
    How do you understand I am trolling? No, I am not trolling. I have been on this site for sometime. The one thing I agree wtih you is about is having an i-Phone for a short period of time. Actually, it's been three times now and, it's still the best looking device out there but, as far as using it and the features and that double tap for a period, (thanks for the tip) but, I prefer a period vs. two hits of the space bar or holding down letters. Takes too long. I love apple products such as their Macpro and Macbook Pros but, there's something about thier phone that is lacking other than cosmetic appeal in my opinion.

    Nokia has gone downhill with their OS. It is very buggy but, so was Apples'. If Nokia had done a really great display and had gotten rid of Symbian and went with something newer looking, it may have done really well.

    But, I still don't like the iPhone for useability and quick use. It's work flow just doesn't feel that fast despite it being a faster processor and a full browser etc. But, to me, it's just not intuitive or easy to bounce around from app to app while using many apps at the same time. I can get around on any Nokia device very quickly without everr opening the manual. It's very logical to where things are.

    I have a quick question- on the iPhone, how do you quit Safari? How do you tab around to see all the open apps at once? Much like one can on a desktop or Nokia where you use a key command and simply tab to where you want to go.
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