Nokia E65 & E Series Tips Tricks and Reviews

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

WARNING about Apple iEnvy - What Nokia E65 actually has over iPhone (part 1)

Its iPhone madness around the world, especially Australia which will get its first official bite of the Apple iphone when it is launched on the 11th July. I know anyone can say how much the iphone is better than any other phone so... whilst some E65 users will already be pre-booking their iPhones, I'll dare to mention a few things in which the Nokia E65 beats the iPhone.

Cost Lots has been said about how the iphone is US$199 and how cheap that is but the problem is, the news reporters are just reading from the media release put out by Apple. You actually need to sign up to a data plan with AT&T which doesnt come cheap. In Australia, Optus and Vodafone have not released what plan or prepaid arrangement must come with the iphone. They just want to assume you are an Apple fanboy with no qualms about price. For the E65, although its on its way out, in Australia you can get it free with a $19 cap plan with optus.

Change battery anytime Who would have thought that this would one day be considered a feature but one sad thing about the Apple Iphone is Apple's way of sucking money out of its consumers in every possible way and one of the most ingenious ways is to solder the battery into the iphone to stop you buying a generic battery from China. Instead, when you need to change your battery, you will need to seek out an Apple store to have it changed. Is there a service fee? You bet.

Cut and paste Your Nokia E65 has the side button with the pencil on it, which enables you to copy and paste:
* Website addresses from SMSes
* Phone numbers from your address book
* Notes to SMS
* WEP passwords to your WIFI password request field etc
Believe it or not, while the iPhone can also surf the net, you cant copy and paste! So if I sms you a website where you can see free wifi locations around australia, you will have to type this out: http://mye65.blogspot.com/2008/01/free-wifi-hotspots-around-australia-see.html

iTouch, but I dont want to. You think a touch screen is a good idea? wait till you get KFC all over your screen when someone calls you. Also, we dont know what it is like smsing someone using a touch screen which gives the user no feedback as they call or type. It might sound like a good idea but wait till you try it out.

Like I said earlier, obviously the Nokia E65 cannot compete with the iPhone. E65 came out earlier than iphone, is cheaper and its the Nokia N96 that iPhone is competing with. My points here are that the E65 has some points over the iphone which many people will not be aware of. There are other points I will cover later.

Edit: Part two can be found here

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5 comments:

  1. I've just been doing some research on Mobile phones lately as my E65 plan expires next month. My decision is to get either the Nokia N96 or the Apple iPhone. In this discussion I am going to take Apple's side just to make things interesting (and because I am a slight Apple fanboy).

    Firstly the N96 uses the Symbian 60 OS which is very reliable and stable. However it still feels clunky and slow. Even with the latest models out at the moment, the N95, the OS is still clunky and slow as ever. If you've ever played with an iTouch or the first generation iPhone you will be absolutely amazed at how fluid and fast the OS is. The OS is based on the OSX kernel (which itself is an amazing piece of programming).

    Whilst the iPhone doesn’t have replaceable batteries I don’t personally think it’s an issue. If you’ve ever owned an iPod you will know that replacing batteries has never been an issue (only in some odd circumstances). The battery in iPods will easily last 2 years without any problems. The life of the battery will naturally degrade which is expected with any rechargeable battery.

    The 'App Store' is probably the biggest advantage the iPhone has over the Nokia N96 or any phones out there. The 'App Store' can be considered a marketplace of software. This is where developers can upload their software creations for the public to download and use. Phone owners can download software for free or for a small price (depending if the developers want to charge). Many large corporate companies to garage programmers have the ability to create software applications. This is only made possible by the Apple’s Xcode programming tool (also used to program the OSX). Imagine the possibilities. You are able to run stable, fast, and complex programs rather than putting up with slow buggy java based applications which aren’t even full featured. So far companies like Ebay (Online Auction), Sega (Video games), EA Games (Video games), TomTom (GPS), Associated Press (World News) MimVista (Medical imaging software), Modality (Medical software learning tool), MLB (Major League Baseball) and many many more have signed on to develop software for the iPhone. As you can see the possibility of native software applications are endless!

    Sorry to say, but the future of computing and portable devices is heading towards “touch”. This is going to happen whether you like it or not. Even Nokia is going in the way of touch. Even Microsoft’s Windows 7 (The successor to Vista) will be touch. As an owner of the Apple iTouch I can confidently say that if you have oily hands IT WILL NOT affect the feedback. Another question to ask yourself is, ‘Would you be touching electronics with greasy KFC hands in the first place?’ Besides the touch aspect gives you so much freedom to navigate throughout the phone. With GPS becoming a more standard feature in mobile phones touch would be beneficial. If you’ve ever used a standalone GPS system you’ll know the benefits of a touch based system while driving.

    In terms of music downloads I’ll have to say that Nokia has a very long and rough road before it can even compete with iTunes. Believe it or not but Sony and Universal have already been contributing to iTunes library for a while now. And the fact the ‘iPod’ brand attached to Apple is so dominant I don’t think Mr. Jobs will be worrying about Nokia’s music download service any time soon.

    Finally (there is more but I think I’ve made my point), the iPhone has a Proper Internet Browser. Yes that’s correct, after comparing the N95 web browsing to the iTouch, web browsing you will understand why the iPhone/iTouch is superior – it feels like you’re using a desktop to browse. The iPhone/iTouch is using a non-cut down version of the popular Safari browser. Funny enough though, the Nokia web browser is based on Apple’s open source web coding found in the Safari Web browser. Additionally many mainstream websites (i.e Google, facebook, ebay, etc) are being optimised just for the iPhone/iTouch so that the pages will fit perfectly on the screen as well as utilising the touch capabilities. With that said, Nokia has nothing on Apple when it comes to web browsing.

    One other feature not mentioned which I can’t be bothered discussing is the ability to mimic and even improve upon RIM’s Blackberry service which is highly utilised in the corporate world today. Many companies like Nike, Google, and even Disney have already implemented the iPhone system into their corporate environment, replacing the popular Blackberry mobile devices. The reason why it is more beneficial in the corporate world is because it is highly compatible with Microsoft exchange (push email, outlook calender sych, etc). Microsoft has worked directly with Apple to make this feature flawless on the iPhone

    In saying all that, the iPhone is lacking several key features. As the N96 will sport a 5mpx camera (which is becoming a standard nowadays) the iPhone will only have a 2mpx camera - very disappointing indeed. Flash will be missing which is an absolute joke. ‘Cut and paste’ and MMS will also be missing (but can easily be solved by a simple firmware upgrade). And finally as many have predicted, the plans will be costly.

    Call me harsh but the facts are clear. I’ve always stuck with Nokia’s and the E65 has served me well. But I do think Apple has done things right with the iPhone. For me however the decision to get the Nokia N96 or the iphone is still a hard one :( Hope everyone has learnt something! Thanks for listening.

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  2. Hello,
    I have both, even if the iphone(1) is up to me unbeatable with the flexibility and ease of use. The E65 has a working bluetooth. By working I mean not only headset profile but all so file transfer and other stuff.
    Finally I have my iphone on the belt but I keep the E65 in my back pack ;)

    Best regards
    Slim

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  3. Thanks Mike P for your treatise on the case for iphone. :) Clearly iphone exists because there IS a market out there for people who will happily go without the 5MP camera, video features, flash on the camera, mms, cut and paste, (working) bluetooth, flash on websites etc.

    However, it should be noted that the iphone iStore is nothing new, because all mobile phones have software all over the internet available to download and use and much of it is free. The only difference here is that Apple is taking a cut from EVERY application that works with iphone and sold on the iStore. A dollar theirs, is a dollar lost.

    At least with the internet everyone has the opportunity to be more informed about their purchasing decisions. One more thing.. I think Nokia N96 owns the iphone :)

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  4. I bought the iPhone back in September 07 and bought the E65 in May 08. And I must say ever since I got the e65 I have never put it down. It is so much more functional on a daily basis compared to the iphone, like voip, skype, and full bluetooth ability to connect to my gps module.

    I have installed an app called Fring on both the iphone and the e65, however it always crashes on the iphone while it works just beautifully on the E65. End in point the iphone is just a pretty piece of jewelry and a good conversation starter. The E65 however, is a tough workhorse, that completes it's task with great efficiency.

    I can't wait for the E66. :)

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