Nokia N9 vs iPhone 4 Smartphone Battle

Nokia N9 vs iPhone 4 Smartphone Battle
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General Design

The Nokia N9 is obviously a newer model than the iPhone 4 and it is quite clear that its design was influenced by the iPhone. In other words both these phones are full touch-screen phones with no hardware keyboards or begin and end buttons. That gives us a good basis to compare the Nokia N9 and the iPhone 4.

As far as size and weight goes, the Nokia N9 comes in slightly larger than the iPhone but weighs slightly less by about 2 grams.

The Nokia N9 has a physically larger display but comes with a lower resolution than the iPhone 4. So far it’s a close call but the Nokia N9 is slightly ahead of the iPhone 4.

As we move onto the display, both of these phones are neck and neck. The slight difference is that the Nokia N9 again steals the result with the new anti-glare polarization feature.

When it comes to choice of colors, the Nokia N9 takes the lead with a choice of three while the iPhone 4 comes with a choice of two colors.

User Interface

nokia n9

As we take a closer look at the interface of the Nokia N9 you find a shift in the conventions of modern user interface design. Both phones generally support the same gestures, however, the Nokia N9 emphasizes the ability to use almost every aspect of the phone with simple swipe actions.

As far as multitasking goes, the Nokia N9 takes the top spot with its true multitasking capabilities that keep programs running whether or not they are on in focus.

Both phones require the use of a touch-screen full keyboard to input text into the device. When interacting with both devices you find that they have similar interaction responses such as proximity sensors and multi-touch capabilities. The iPhone, however, comes out on top with the three-axis gyro sensor as opposed to the accelerometer on the Nokia N9.

Features

iphone 4

When it comes to sound output, the Nokia N9 takes the lead with support for the Dolby mobile sound enhancement and support for Dolby through the headphones. Both phones have an A-GPS receiver. The iPhone relies on Google Maps while the Nokia N9 uses Nokia Maps for navigation.

Both phones come with a 1Ghz processor but the iPhone 4 comes out on top with its superior GPU. The iPhone also supports Geo-tagging on video and also has a video light for better quality videos.

The iPhone 4 loses out with its 5 MP camera as opposed to the 8 MP camera found in the Nokia N9. Furthermore the iPhone 4 lacks the ability to video call unless using a Wi-Fi network while the Nokia N9 can video call over 3G networks as well.

The Nokia N9 takes all rounds when it comes to storage and memory. The capacity of the Nokia N9 is set at 64 GB with a RAM of 1 GB while the iPhone 4 has a maximum of 32 GB storage and 512 MB RAM.

The Nokia N9 runs the MeeGo OS, v1.2 Harmattan platform while the iPhone comes with iOS 4.

Performance

nokia n9

The Nokia N9 offers about 50 hours of music playback which is much more than the 40 hours you’ll get from the iPhone 4. Again the Nokia N9 has the higher rating when it comes to standby time with a maximum of 450 hours over 300 hours on the iPhone 4.

When it comes to talk time the iPhone 4 takes the lead over the Nokia N9 with up to a maximum of 14 hours over the latter’s 11 hours.

As data downloads go the Nokia N9 comes with a far superior 3G class at 14.4 Mbps which is double the speed that the iPhone 4 can offer.

Applications

Nokia N9

The Nokia N9 unfortunately comes with a handful of applications. It does not measure up to the hundreds of thousands of apps available for the iPhone 4. Even though the iPhone 4 is way ahead in terms of applications, there is one important application worth comparing – the navigation apps.

The Nokia N9 uses Nokia Maps while iPhone 4 uses Google Maps. Both applications are almost the same in terms of performance except for the fact that Nokia Maps supports offline maps. This saves a bundle in data costs. Of course this is dependent on the service you have paid for.

Verdict

The Nokia N9 comes in as a clear winner in almost all categories with its hardware and software configurations. Unfortunately the Apple iPhone 4 takes the lead in the most significant category which happens to be applications. The design and the hardware specifications don’t matter for most people, because if there are no applications then your hardware is pretty much worth very little.

Without hesitating, I would say when it comes to Nokia N9 vs iPhone 4, the iPhone 4 comes out as a close winner.

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