Alright, it’s come down to this. 3 of the most delicious touch screen cell phones go head to head in a battle royal for you to decide the all important question, which touch screen phone?
Round 1: Looks and Design
All the 3 mobile phones in this comparo have strikingly different looks, yet are derived from Apple in someway or the other. I mean, you gotta hand it over to them to have popularized phones that divorced their keyboards.
The iPhone has a very clean and minimalistic design, whereas the Storm too is quite the looker. Though it is a tad chunky, I would like to congratulate RIM on a good design. But it’s got quite a lot of bulk thanks to its stupid SurePress touch screen tech. The Nokia 5800 is the least impressive when it comes to looks, but people do get excited on seeing a touch screen Nokia anyway.
Winner – Apple iPhone
Round 2: Input
Again, Apple completely revolutionized they way you interacted with a phone, by means of its marvelous multi touch screen. This probably left the RIM dudes with a bruised ego, so they to decided to do something revolutionary as well. They developed a half baked clickable display technology which sounds good on paper but is so darn irritating that you’ll want to bang your head against the wall and pull your hair, at the same time.
I tell you, stay away from this phone when you are not in a good mood. There are very good chances you’ll just chuck this thing out of the window. Every reason Blackberry gives for this technology sounds a lot like when a lady presents stupid rationale to avoid someone/thing. The best compromise would be Nokia’s haptic touch but usability wise, iPhone’s touch tech wins hands down.
Winner – Apple iPhone
Round 3: Multimedia
Here’s where the playing field gets slightly more level. All the 3 phones have excellent media playback capabilities and 3.5mm jacks. The iPhone has a delicious looking interface for browsing music and it just cannot get any simpler than this. But the Nokia and the B’berry aren’t too far behind either.
I really liked the media player on the Storm and was about to fall in love with it, till the time a bad guy named “clickable display” came along and spoiled the party. But in all fairness, video on the Storm makes even bad movies look good. Audio output from both the Storm and 5800 are pretty impressive. The icing on the cake is that both of them also support a multitude of audio formats.
It boils down to the camera and the Storm has the best light catcher (3.2MP AF. Good in bright to medium light) amongst the 3, so that should seal this round.
Winner – Blackberry Storm
Round 4: Software and Interface
The Storm features the usual Blackberry OS optimized for touchscreens, so that should make it the most productive gadget in this comparo. Email is great, the calendar is good and the clickable display is bad. Portrait mode is well nigh impossible to get work done on and even the landscape mode requires a lot of attention to.
The 5800, on the other hand is running a brand new platform and it’ll take some time to judge its true potential. The iPhone with its repository of applications should prove to be a bit more productive than the others.
I am really disappointed at the fact that its going to be almost 2 years since the iPhone released and 2 of the biggest names in the cellular business couldn’t do as much as hold a candle to the iPhone’s interface. All the 3 phones are, more or less, evenly matched when it comes to hardware but only the iPhone walks away gloriously while the others are still having trouble getting up.
Winner Apple iPhone
Round 5: Performance
The Storm sputters, gulps, gasps and everything that a dying Looney Toons cartoon charecter does. But Looney Toons charecters do so only when they have been shot at, while the Storm is up to no good all the bloody time. Its like that dude skunk charecter which stinked and stinked some more. While the iPhone on the other hand is smooth as silk when it comes to, well, everything and is infinitely more user friendly. The 5800 too is surprisingly snappy for a Nokia. Battery life from all the 3 phones is pretty good and so is call performance.
Winner: Apple iPhone
Round 6: Connectivity
The Nokia 5800 seems to be the best connected of all the phones in this shoot out. It’s got a pretty long list of wireless connectivity options under its hood while the iPhone and the Storm are crippled in some way or the other. Of course, Apple’s 3.0 update to its OS changes a few things. That still leaves the Storm without Wi-fi which is so not happening. I mean, how can you not have Wi-Fi at this price? How could you RIM, how could you? Buhuhuhu.
Winner Nokia 5800
Verdict
The Apple iPhone still kicks major ass after almost 2 years of its launch and the recent software update makes it closer to being a complete phone. On the other hand, the Blackberry Storm stinks from head to toe while doing nothing good to improve Blackberry’s image. I doubt even the HTC Touch HD could have done anything significant to upset the Apple cart. This leaves us with the Nokia 5800 which is priced ever so sweetly at $350 (INR 18k), which could almost make me declare it the winner if I dial in the value for money factor.
But justice prevails and recession does not, so the Apple iPhone wins this shootout, fair and square.
P.S. I am not necessarily an Apple fan boy and have criticized Apple whenever need be. But this time, the verdict is as clear as daylight.
Image Credits: First pic designed by Madan Mohan, Lead Designer JAM Magazine. Rest, respective manufacturers.
