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iphone 4 vs Nokia N8???

J

jbaby1

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 16, 2008
4
0
I am not tech-savy, so find it hard to decide between a Nokia N8 & the iphone 4.

We own a Mac so I think you can download things on the computer, then transfer to the iphone, so you don't use as many KB/month (Correct??) Can this also be done with the N8??

I am thinking of the N8 for the video calls. I read that if using an iphone 4 - the other person must also have that exact phone...where N8 is compatible with a lot of phones.

Also the 12 megapixel photos and HD Video (won't matter if I forget my camera) would be nice too! That's almost as good as my camera now.

My only other problem is in Edmonton, I can only get an N8 through Rogers & I wanted Telus for their coverage area when I travel.

Any thoughts??
Thanks!
 
BMW Vs Hyundai:D
With the i4 you can use many different video chat clients like Skype, Yahoo IM, Fring etc...
You're not restricted to only facetime that's currently only between iphone 4's or iphone 4 to Mac computers only.
About the 12 Megapix camera and HD video hope you know the number dont mean much. The i4 takes great pics with its 5MP camera and video is great also.
 
jbaby1 said:
I am not tech-savy, so find it hard to decide between a Nokia N8 & the iphone 4.

We own a Mac so I think you can download things on the computer, then transfer to the iphone, so you don't use as many KB/month (Correct??) Can this also be done with the N8??

I am thinking of the N8 for the video calls. I read that if using an iphone 4 - the other person must also have that exact phone...where N8 is compatible with a lot of phones.

Also the 12 megapixel photos and HD Video (won't matter if I forget my camera) would be nice too! That's almost as good as my camera now.

My only other problem is in Edmonton, I can only get an N8 through Rogers & I wanted Telus for their coverage area when I travel.

Any thoughts??
Thanks!
Click to expand...

Totally get the iPhone 4, the user experience, build quality, and the world famous Apple customer service just doesn't compare.
You already own a Mac, so buying the iPhone 4 would be a wise purchase.
 
The N8 does have a very good camera, and its build quality is excellent.

However, its screen and OS? :(
 
Symbian is obviously far more open, customizable, etc, and has Flash. But it's pretty damn slow and has crap for support.

So I'd pick neither. Get another device. Or if you're set on iPhone, wait for the iPhone 5.
 
For better still photos and a more robust build quality, get a N8.

For everything else, get an iP4.
 
Nokias Symbian 3 OS is the first device to have this OS.
Remember Maemo on the N900 never heard of that one again.

My advice is go for the Iphone all day long.:rolleyes:
 
Go to youtube and watch videos of the N8 and iPhone 4 in action and see which would suit your fancy more.

Just ignore everyone else's advice here and listen to mine. I'm sure most of the people here giving you advice have never held an N8. In my opinion, the N8's hardware is wonderful, but it's horribly crippled by its OS. There are also many other options for phones out there that may interest you if you're looking for something that will provide a good user experience and impress people.

1. Palm Pre 2
2. Windows 7 series Phones
3. Higher end Android devices

If a phone does not have a glass screen, I completely ignore it, but that's a personal preference.

Asking for advice on what phone you should get from complete strangers will get you no where. You don't have to be technically inclined to know what you will like. If push comes to shove, just go to a store and try out some phones.

Keep in mind that if you're not technically savvy, a lot of the finer details that matter to geeks probably won't even cross your mind. Most of the hardware being used in the smart phone market are pretty much identical, and you won't notice much of a performance difference as long as you stay at a certain price point. From there, you only have to worry about which user interface you prefer more.
 
You tube

People say go watch you tube videos on which phone to get.. ha ha ha

They asked for an opinion so we shall give it.

The OS is pants on the N8 full stop, no point in having a good phone and the OS is pants. Thats like buying a macbook pro and wanting windows 98 on it.

Read all the opinions then go to a shop and make your mind up.

People love to knock Apple. But at the end of the day their OS is the best out there......Period.....:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D
 
Nokia N8 has a great camera, and a sturdy build, although iPhone 4 is sturdy aswell.

The hardware inside - iPhone 4 is better.

Functionality - The Nokia N8 and it's Symbian are light years ahead of the iOS, built in free maps application, and you can download new complete maps for offline use right on the phone, no PC necessary, SIP support, widgets, USB OTG, "removable memory" support, just attach it to the PC and move files back and forth, it's got a very handy standby clock, FM transmitter, BT3.0

Unfortunately those functions aren't implemented with a nice UI, Symbian looks terrible, clunky and slow compared to the iPhone.

The iPhone also has functions that "matter more" in everyday use, superb keyboard, both portrait and landscape, great cut/copy/paste implementation, browser that is actually pleasure to use, basically, Nokia has lots of connectivity and features but they are implemented like crap!

An update is supposed to come out this year that improves the UI considerably, but still, right now I'd recommend you to go with the iPhone.
 
terencemac said:
People say go watch you tube videos on which phone to get.. ha ha ha

They asked for an opinion so we shall give it.

The OS is pants on the N8 full stop, no point in having a good phone and the OS is pants. Thats like buying a macbook pro and wanting windows 98 on it.

Read all the opinions then go to a shop and make your mind up.

People love to knock Apple. But at the end of the day their OS is the best out there......Period.....:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D
Click to expand...

Opinions are like *******s; everyone has one. What the OP needs to do is look at unbiased videos of the phones in action to see what s/he will like more. We have no clue what the OP wants in a phone. All of these opinions are based on what each individual poster cares about in a phone. A non-technical person could care less about specs (the only reason they would is to stay current with everyone else).

He is also posting this question on an Apple-centric website, so he's going to get a lot of people telling him to go for the iPhone, and a lot of people who want to be "different" from the sheep telling him to go for the N8.

Before I became technical, I used to buy based on people's opinions. I ended up wasting money on buying a bunch of junk

OP, my advice to you is to just make a list of the main things you are looking for in a phone: build quality, looks, cameras, OS characteristics, and then see the phones in action in unbiased reviews or hands on videos. From there you will see what the phones are really like.

"We own a Mac so I think you can download things on the computer, then transfer to the iphone, so you don't use as many KB/month (Correct??) Can this also be done with the N8??"

I'm not really sure what you mean by this. You can download documents and other files and transfer them to the iPhone from your computer to save from using your precious data, but you can also do the same thing with an N8. The iPhone doesn't show up like a USB drive on your computer (there are ways to do it though). I think the N8 does though, so it makes dragging and dropping of files much easier.

Also the 12 megapixel photos and HD Video (won't matter if I forget my camera) would be nice too! That's almost as good as my camera now.

Are you a photographer? If you're into taking standard shots, 12 MP is overkill unless you plan on blowing the pictures up to a large size. What creates clear pictures is a combination of a number of components including the lens, the number of photons entering the camera, etc. Cell phone camera technology is catching up with stand alone cameras, but presently no cell phone can replace an actual camera. The quality comparison between the iPhone 4 and the N8 is very subjective. An article went up a few months ago on gizmodo or engadget comparing the picture quality of the phones, and both had pros and cons. No one was able to conclusively say which was better.

Reviews (I love technobuffalo)

Nokia N8: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p3TaFiA4dc
iPhone 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cER36crkkVw

Give a poor man a fish and he is fed for a day; show a poor man how to fish, and he is fed for life.
 
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i like the USB on go feature , you can connect usb mouse, keyboard and drive and use it.

You can copy file To and From the USB drive using N8.
 
Symbian is backwards and laughably bad.

Few outside of benighted European or Asian markets care about Symbian. Face it: buying a Nokia is betting on an endangered species...a bad species. :D

It's more like which is better, iPhone OS 2/Android 1.6 or Symbian^3?

Ask around on WP7, Android, and Palm OS forums. You will get the same answer.
 
N8 all the way, I bet all the morons here haven't even used Symbian^3.

Good points about the N8:

Camera, absolutely fantastic stills (beats the iPhone any day of the week), Xenon flash, 720p Video recording + Stereo Mic's.

HDMI Connection to watch videos / surround sound audio through a TV.

USB On the go, plug in a Memory stick and you can play music / view videos / documents etc etc off the said Memory stick, copy them to your microSD card whatever you want.

Maps: Free offline Walk + Drive navigation that IMO beats the TomTom's and Garmins. Does Own Voice & Traffic updates and included proper 3D maps with 3D images of landmarks.

OS: Symbian 3 is a LOT LOT better than the previous incarnations, it's stable, very fast, has nice transitions and is a lot better at touch based.

Battery: My N8 lasts about 2 days, depending what I do.... if I use it heavily it lasts about 24hrs.

OVI Store: This thing has grown HUGE very recently, most of the top apps are there but unlike the iPhone it has a lot of the functionality already built into the phone. 3D is amazing on this phone due to it's seperate graphics processor.

Music Player: Coverflow type browsing as well as list browsing, integrates perfectly with the Mac, has a iTunes module that syncs a playlist as soon as i plug in USB or initiate over Bluetooth (yea... try doing that on a iPhone). Also imports Photo's from the phone to iPhoto AND will copy photo's from iPhoto album to the phone. Also sync's bookmarks and Address Book.

Headphones.... probably a smaller consideration but the headphones in the box are... in a word... pretty damn good! they are in-ear type ones with very good sound range for default ones.


But you know.. it's horses for courses, some like the iPhone and if it's right for you get it... each phone has it's +/- just don't read into the missinformation on this site because Nokia don't have a strong US presence...
 
I own an iPhone 4 and had the pleasure to use the N8 for 5 days.

The N8 looks very strange. The design is boring.

The built quality is very good but the distant camera module, which lays often on the table with the lower edge gets scratched in no time. So your beautiful Nokia gets ugly. On iPhone 4 you can get easily scratches too, but hey are barely visible.

The OS is crap compare to iOS. It looks so boring and it is (compared to the iPhone 4) sooo slow. You will enjoy it only for 1-2 days.

The camera is quite good but it disapoited me coz i expected a much better result. On the other hand the iPhone 4 camera surprised me positively: only 5 megapixels but way better than Samsung Wave or Nokia N97! And the iPhone has tons of camera related apps, so I enjoyed the iPhone camera more than the N8 camera.

Other things except the camera which impressed me on the N8.... nope....

Get an :apple: iPhone 5 :apple:
 
Savor said:
For better still photos and a more robust build quality, get a N8.

For everything else, get an iP4.
Click to expand...

My feelings too.

I've had two N8's and sold them both.After having the IP4 (My first iPhone) Symbian is like a lame horse, don't know how i stuck with it for so long by having devices such as 3650,6600,6630,N70,N73,N80,N95,N96,N97 MINI,5800 XM.Loved all those phones at the time but right now i could not go back to Symbian.

I have a Trial Nokia C7 at home and it's been out the box 2 maybe 3 times, just doesn't appeal anymore, nice build quality though.
 
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jbaby1 said:
1) I am not tech-savvy
2) We own a Mac
Click to expand...
These are the two reasons the best choice for you is the iPhone. The reason so many people buy iPhones is anyone can use one easily. They are so simple.

The Nokia is an excellent phone, but misunderstood by those who are not knowledgeable about smartphones and biased towards the common iPhone.
 
@OP: I bought my 3GS a little over a year ago. I too considered buying a smartphone from Nokia - they're built like tanks and I can be rough on phones. In the end I went with the iPhone and I do not regret the decision. It's the whole system that I find attractive - having MacOS X/ iTunes/ iOS integrated together works very well for me and my family. And moving files from the Mac to the iPhone is not so hard, for there are multiple solutions: various document readers and editors, MobileMe, DropBox, etc.

As for the camera, the simple truth is that a camera that has a higher pixel count does not always take better pictures than one with a lower pixel count. Picture quality depends not only on resolution, but also on optics, lighting, the quality of the electronic sensors (sensitivity, speed, and noise suppression), and the software capabilities of the camera. From what I have heard both the iPhone4 and Nokia N8 take satisfying pictures.
 
camera on the n8 is fantastic.
I like the homescreen with customisable widgets and multiple homepages. Not perfect, but better than a bunch of app shortcuts and with a bit of care you can set it up pretty nicely. eg I have three homepages - 1 is work, with work email, calendar, notifications and contacts (thumbnails and swipeable); 2 is home which has home email, twitter/facebook feed and different contacts; 3 is my app launcher which is full of my most used apps (everything else is under the apps key)

I would like it to be more flexible, but its a good start.
 
N8 a no-go now; maybe a Samsung Galaxy 5 Fascinate - but probably the iPhone4.

Thanks for all the responses!

I was/am looking for a phone with a large touchscreen; sturdy build; landscape keyboard; apps that I can download using my Mac - then transfer to my phone to save on the data plan (no wi-fi); must have games to keep my 3yr old quiet at times too.
I am in Canada, so it has to be something that "Telus" offers as they have the best coverage for the small towns where I travel to.

I did go to you-tube & found a couple helpful video's & I am now looking at a higher-end Android now (I think it's high end) I scrapped the Nokia idea as I decided to stay with Telus (once I had a closer look at the coverage areas) and started looking at the "Samsung Galaxy S Fascinate 3G+".


BUT Samsungapps.com store does not support Macs. There are a couple sites you can go to to purchase software to make it happen - but I haven't found any for the Fascinate yet. As I scanned through a few categories I wasn't able to find anything applicable to my 3 year old...no kids section at all. (I already know she loves iWash Cats and Sort Slider on iPod's.)

So I am still not excited about the camera size on the iPhone, but it's comparable to most other phones. So I think it'll be the iPhone 4 that I get. I just can't forget my actual camera LOL! No, I am not a 'photographer' but I take whatever shots I can of my daughter, then crop a lot out & then enlarge to 8x10 etc for scrapbooking. Some I do 12x12 as well. I know these aren't huge pic's - but sometimes I crop a lot!

Also, I'm glad "Applejuiced" reminded me I can put Skype on the iPhone instead of being restricted to video chatting with other 1Phone 4 and Mac computers.

Thanks!!
 
This is the worst place to ask if you should buy a phone other than the iphone, because just about everyone here is biased.
 
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