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iPhone 3G, finally, will be available in India on August 22nd through Airtel. While I’m excited about the world’s most revolutionary phone meeting the world’s fastest growing market, I’m not buying one for myself. Instead, last month I purchased a Nokia N82 Black, having decided that iPhone 3G was not for me. Why would I pass up the chance to own perhaps the sexiest piece of electronic hardware in the country?
In a nutshell, iPhone is peculiar. It is generations ahead of its peers when it comes to user experience, but has inexplicably glaring flaws. Some of these are deal-killers for my usage pattern. Nokia’s Nseries phones, specifically the N82, fit my mobile lifestyle like a glove. Well, almost. But this post isn’t about the N82. Here’s what struck iPhone off my list:
Applications cannot run in the background
This is the number one flaw that clinched it for me. This article on Mashable about the release of Google Talk for iPhone first alerted me to it:
Therefore, you can’t have Google Talk sit idly in the back and have a conversation every now and then – which is the default pattern of usage for most users, I believe. This limitation is due to Apple’s silly “apps can’t run in the background” rule, the official explanation of which goes along the lines of “we can’t let people do that, it would consume too much battery.”
In fact, Google’s blog post about this said
“…in order to receive instant messages with Google Talk on your iPhone, the application needs to be open in your Safari browser. When you navigate away to another browser window or application, your status will be changed to “unavailable” and your Google Talk session will be restarted when you return.”
This is shocking. For instance, during my commute, I use the S60 browser, Google Maps, the Gmail App and the music player simultaneously. I also cycle between these applications pretty frequently. Having to shut down an active application and start another one is simply unacceptable.
Poor battery life; no replaceable battery
Paul Stamatiou, who knows a thing or two about iPhone, has this to say about the battery:
The battery life is excruciatingly horrible. I woke up at 2pm today, unplugged my iPhone from the charger, went about my day, came home at 2am and received a 10% battery warning. It should come with a car charger for free.
This would be tolerable if you could purchase a second battery to pop into your iPhone while on the road. But no go; the battery cannot be replaced (by the average user at least). The N82, on the other hand, only needs to be charged every 3 days. This is with 45 minutes of music playback, one hour of web browsing on EDGE, several hours of Fring in the background and 15 minutes of Google Maps for mobile. Daily.
Touchscreen keyboard
For a heavy text user like me, the lack of a physical keyboard is serious. I send up to 20 messages a day, compose email and the occasional blog post draft. And this is on a 9-key dialpad.
I’ve tried using the iPhone keyboard, and while I’m a huge fan of the autocorrect mechanism, the overall experience is still not good enough. I might even consider it if you could use the keyboard in landscape mode, but iPhone is incapable of even that.
No copy-paste out-of-the-box
While there is an application on the iPhone App Store that enables copy and paste, I am once again apalled at the lack of native support for this. My Nokia 6670 could copy and paste text back in 2005, and now it’s ubiquitous. No one would even call it a feature any longer. Copying phone numbers, addresses, names, conversations snippets, text from web pages, into other apps are things I do almost daily. I do not want to rely on a third-party app to give me this functionality.
Poor camera
Users forgave the sub-par camera on the original iPhone, but to continue to ship with the exact same camera a year later is unforgivable. iPhone’s 2 megapixel camera does not have either a flash or autofocus. Most of Samsung’s and Nokia’s high-end phones ship with 3MP cameras with LED flash. Nokia’s flagship phone, the N96, ships with a 5MP camera with Xenon flash (the same one as on the N82). Samsung’s Innov8 sports a monstrous 8MP camera (which, arguably, is overkill).
In addition, iPhone cannot record video. At all. In contrast, the N82 can record video at a smooth 30fps.
No modem capabilities
iPhone cannot be used as a modem for your computer out-of-the-box. The iPhone App Store (the only place from where you can legally install third-party applications) hosted Netshare, an application to do just that – “tether” your iPhone to your computer. Only briefly, though. It was pulled down in two hours. The only way to use iPhone as a modem is to “jailbreak” it (install a firmware hack) and install alternative applications. On the other hand, I’ve been able to use my Nokia phones as a modem since 2005.
Operator Bundling
There is still no clarity on whether existing Airtel users will be allowed to migrate their current tariff plans to iPhone 3G. The current plans in the U.S. charge an awful lot of money for data.
Conclusion
In summary, although iPhone 3G offers a compelling user interface, large screen and gobs of storage, it has a few fatal flaws in its design, intentional or not. On the other hand, the Nokia N82, while not perfect, fits into my mobile usage lifestyle perfectly. Consequently, I have decided in favor of the N82.
What will you choose on August 22nd?
Update:
More recent developments add to my reasons to not purchase iPhone 3G:
Steve Jobs admitted to the Wall Street Journal that Apple has the ability to remotely disable software it deems malicious on an iPhone 3G. I am not comfortable with Apple (or any other company) retaining control of what I can do with my iPhone after I have purchased it.
The performance of the 3G chip on iPhone 3G seems to be below customers’ expectations. So low, in fact, that there have been strong rumours circulating about a device recall. This is not encouraging news for someone who’s been awaiting 3G rollout in India for over a year now.
The price of iPhone 3G in India is about Rs. 31000 for the 8GB model and Rs. 37000 for the 16GB one, which is inordinately high. I would be willing to pay about Rs. 16000 for the 8GB model and Rs. 18000 for the 16GB model, without an operator contract subsidy). I wonder how many potential customers Apple will lose by pricing iPhone 3G that high.
Tarek writes about what he can do with his Nokia S60 phone that he can’t with his iPhone.
August 8, 2008 · Post to Twitter · Email this · Apple, Editorials, Nokia, iPhone · 13 Comments
You might also be interested reading:
- Prediction Proved: The Immediate Future is Native Mobile Apps
- Two reasons why Apple sells so many iPhone apps (and why Nokia and co. understand only one)
- Flash Web Applications and componentization
- Why did Mowser fail?
- About the smartphone category called iPhone-like
To each his own, one compelling reason for me to own an Iphone – the ipod feature and let’s not talk about the rest like the ability to surf the web whenever I feel like it…
How good is surfing on the N82? I would go one step further that I would like a real full QWERTY keyboard. Any suggestions on a Phone for me. Rahul?
[...] Why I won’t be buying the iPhone 3G [...]
Venky, wrote a post just for you.
http://www.rahulgaitonde.org/2008/08/09/mobile-internet-lifestyle/
From a discussion we had just a couple weeks ago on the Mensa India group, here’s a list of QWERTY phones folks seem to be using the most:
* Nokia E61i and E71. (the latter is my personal favorite)
* Motorola Q (small screen for its size)
* HTC Touch (touch screen keyboard; worse than iPhone)
* Blackberry Curve (my second-favorite; I chose the E71 only because it runs Nokia’s S60 environment).
There’s also Samsung’s Blackjack. While I know next to nothing about this model (never held it in my hands), Samsung is a mobile company I’m keeping my eyes on.
Hey Rahul,
I see that you upgraded from a N73 to a N82
Wonder what made you take that jump ?
Screen size same
N73 camera is quite decent
N73 also runs s60
N73 has easier buttons to work with
Other than the N82s bigger RAM and thus a much faster interface any other features that made u switch ???
Hey Prayag,
Good to see you on the blog! Honestly, I upgraded because a friend wanted to upgrade to an Nseries phone and was more than happy to use my (year-old) N73 ME. It’s fair to say I probably would not have upgraded if not for these circumstances.
But have I observed anything post-purchase that makes the N82 a compelling upgrade? Yes:
* The N82s 5MP camera with Xenon flash can now completely replace your digital camera.
* WiFi means I can load music every morning into my phone from my home computer while sipping coffee in the living room
* With the accelerometer, I can use the S60 browser in landscape or portrait mode by merely tilting the phone.
* Nokia Maps with Assisted GPS is a new experience. You might also be interested in the Nokia Sports Tracker. (http://sportstracker.nokia.com)
* I can use my favorite set of (non-Nokia) earphones with the standard 3.5mm headphone jack.
BTW, regarding the points you made:
* The N82 runs S60v3 feature pack 1. That’s an iteration ahead of the N73’s OS.
* The N82’s buttons look miserable, but they’re easier to type on because they’re distinct. The N73 has the worst keypad among all phones I’ve seen except the 7610 and the 3650!
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_7610 and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_3650)
Guys,
I am using HTC S710, so much R&D i and other good developers have done on this model in last one year. Now as per my usage of my S710 it seems you are talking about child phones really! i mean it. You are just talking about child activities that you can do with your phones.
Now if we talk about iphone, iphone does not stand anywhere with my HTC S710.
Sorry i can’t you the details how advance my phone is as compared to your phones or iphone because if i gonna tell you, it will take 150-160 pages of writing… enjoy!
Hi Rahul,(Once again
You’re dead on with iPhone… as much as it is as a killer device… there are lot of areas it needs to work on.
I recently got a blackberry curve 8320 over a nokia E series… loving every minute of it. Texters will love this, and its an information device firstly, entertainment secondary.
btw, iPhone is not out in Bahrain officially, and the ones that are, are going for BD600 i.e. just over Rs. 63K !!!
Crazy world aint it!
Jose,
The Curve is a *beautiful* device. What Nokia Eseries phone did you compare it with before picking it? I was searching for a comparison of the B’berry Curve and the Nokia E71.
It’s incredible that the grey market is valuing iPhone at Rs. 63K in Bahrain – wonder what the retail price will be!
[...] Why I won’t be buying the iPhone 3G [...]
The thing that said no for me was the fact that it can't sync tasks on Exchange
I like the interface – very slick
don't like the lack of background apps, mms and cut and paste. I use all those on my HTC even if it is a bit clunkier.
I can't stand iTunes so that's no great loss and Winamp can sync with iPod, not sure about iPhone though
Kevin,
1.) What is your opinion about Windows Mobile interface usability? I'd blogged about mobile touchscreens some time ago – do let me know your perspective.
http://www.rahulgaitonde.org/2008/09/09/two-tho...
2.) Winamp + iPhone/iPod Touch: Have you tried the ml_ipod plugin ? It seems to perform most common sync tasks.
http://mlipod.sourceforge.net/wiki/IPhone
Rahul.
Kevin,
1.) What is your opinion about Windows Mobile interface usability? I'd blogged
about mobile touchscreens<http://www.rahulgaitonde.org/2008/09/09/two-thoughts-on-mobile-touchscreen-interfaces/>some
time ago – do let me know your perspective.
2.) Winamp + iPhone/iPod Touch: Have you tried the ml_ipod
plugin<http://mlipod.sourceforge.net/wiki/IPhone> ?
It seems to perform most common sync tasks.
Rahul.