[richwhite]

(Original post by Michalis.Biochem)
What really puts me off about this handset is the 256 RAM and the 680Mhz CPU. I heard though that it has an integrated GPU that makes up for its relatively small CPU. What about the RAM though? Does it really make a difference in comparison to the other smartphones that are on the market right now?

Yes the GPU makes up for it - Nokia aren't amateurs at making phones, whereas it's now custom to stick massive processors under the hood, the N8 runs a very efficient OS that doesn't require a large processor - it's like running Windows XP and Windows Vista, XP will run fine on 1GB RAM and Vista is just like watching a tortoise. One is just more efficient than the other.

There are some places where it might slow down but it's not as drastic as people make out - as i said already, people like to bitch about other phones when they haven't actually used it. I posed this in another thread the other day, the N8 vs the dual core Atrix http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=b6hienXEd0Y there are many places where the N8 is faster or smoother, some where the Atrix is faster, and overall certainly shows the effectiveness of Symbian when you consider the modest processor it runs.

One thing the N8 also has is the battery life - one of the most frustrating things of having a smartphone is compromising use to get a full day out of the battery. The N8 has a great battery, easily lasts a day, and if you're a light user you won't need to charge for a couple days. When the battery gets low it also asks if you want to use power saving mode, which gives another few hours.

[Chrisateen]

I use to have the Sony Ericsson satio which ran on Symbian version 3 and one of the huge problems for me (well apart from the problems I had with the phone itself) was the lack of apps out there for me to install on my phone.

I changed my phone to LG optimus 2x and love the fact that anroid has soo many different apps both free and paid for me to install on my phone.

If apps is one of the main things you are looking for in a phone I would steer well clear away from symbian. Not many apps/developers support it anymore compared to a couple of years ago when there was the nokia n95. However if having very few apps to choose from does not bother you then it probably doesn't make much of a difference

[Michalis.Biochem]

Wow, that vid just blew my mind. Atrix beats n8 in ram and cpu by far, but n8 seems much faster and smoother. I might roll with the n8 after all

[richwhite]

(Original post by Chrisateen)
I use to have the Sony Ericsson satio which ran on Symbian version 3 and one of the huge problems for me (well apart from the problems I had with the phone itself) was the lack of apps out there for me to install on my phone.

I changed my phone to LG optimus 2x and love the fact that anroid has soo many different apps both free and paid for me to install on my phone.

If apps is one of the main things you are looking for in a phone I would steer well clear away from symbian. Not many apps/developers support it anymore compared to a couple of years ago when there was the nokia n95. However if having very few apps to choose from does not bother you then it probably doesn't make much of a difference

Er, what? Symbian^3 is NOT on the Ericsson Satio.

Sure, Symbian doesn't have as many apps as Android or iOS, but it does have a lot and, let's not kid anyone, a very large percentage of the Android and iOS 'apps' are 'funny' fart apps, ringtones and wallpapers. It's as wrong to say Symbian has 'very few' apps as it is to say Symbian has been killed off - it's total ignorance, admittedly largely fuelled by Engadget et al's pro-American companies anti-European Nokia. Ovi Store gets 5 million downloads each day and if you were aware of Qt/QML you'd have a better understanding of Symbian development and how it's changed from the past, in a much better way making for fast development of apps with a great UI. It has thousands of apps. Do you know most people actually install 5-10 apps on their phone? Symbian comes pre-installed with Office, voice recorded and various other things too, so as far as features go you don't need to get them elsewhere. And there's plenty of fun apps, web apps, movie apps, news apps and games etc to keep people satisfied. It's a flawed argument.

[richwhite]

(Original post by Michalis.Biochem)
Wow, that vid just blew my mind. Atrix beats n8 in ram and cpu by far, but n8 seems much faster and smoother. I might roll with the n8 after all

Yeah that's pretty much a decent summary of Symbian vs Android as operating systems. All that bloated hardware is great for spec heads who don't understand what's under the hood, and it jacks up the price and drains the battery. Symbian is extremely efficient and optified.

But, as i said, not everyone wants that. If you like what you see, it'll serve you well. If you want something a bit fancier, there's other choices. But do look up 'Anna update Symbian^3' and see what you think of that.

[Chrisateen]

(Original post by richwhite)
Er, what? Symbian^3 is NOT on the Ericsson Satio.

Sure, Symbian doesn't have as many apps as Android or iOS, but it does have a lot and, let's not kid anyone, a very large percentage of the Android and iOS 'apps' are 'funny' fart apps, ringtones and wallpapers. It's as wrong to say Symbian has 'very few' apps as it is to say Symbian has been killed off - it's total ignorance, admittedly largely fuelled by Engadget et al's pro-American companies anti-European Nokia. Ovi Store gets 5 million downloads each day and if you were aware of Qt/QML you'd have a better understanding of Symbian development and how it's changed from the past, in a much better way making for fast development of apps with a great UI. It has thousands of apps. Do you know most people actually install 5-10 apps on their phone? Symbian comes pre-installed with Office, voice recorded and various other things too, so as far as features go you don't need to get them elsewhere. And there's plenty of fun apps, web apps, movie apps, news apps and games etc to keep people satisfied. It's a flawed argument.

Sorry I meant version 5 and no I didn't say there was no choice at all I'm just saying that the android market has more to choose from and I also did say that if your not too fussy on apps then it doesn't make much difference in choosing between the 2

[richwhite]

(Original post by Chrisateen)
Sorry I meant version 5 and no I didn't say there was no choice at all I'm just saying that the android market has more to choose from and I also did say that if your not too fussy on apps then it doesn't make much difference in choosing between the 2

S^1v5 was very different to S^3, S^3 has been redone from the ground up.

[Michalis.Biochem]

I searched about previously, it is all about making symbian even more effecient in terms of usability. I was going to ask about apps but it seems that your answer to Chrisateen was also an answer to my question.
What i don't understand is why is everybody raging at nokia? As i mentioned earlier i had a N81 and it was perfectly fine, whereas the other phones that were matching it back then when it was released are nowhere to be found. :P

[richwhite]

(Original post by Michalis.Biochem)
I searched about previously, it is all about making symbian even more effecient in terms of usability. I was going to ask about apps but it seems that your answer to Chrisateen was also an answer to my question.
What i don't understand is why is everybody raging at nokia? As i mentioned earlier i had a N81 and it was perfectly fine, whereas the other phones that were matching it back then when it was released are nowhere to be found. :P

It's something i wonder too, why all the Nokia hate? No idea to be honest, other than maybe the eye-candy factor. In America i can understand why because Nokia were never that big, but i guess now the big tech blogs people read are American, so naturally they favour the American companies. But when you actually sit down with the devices you realise the great things on offer. It's like the resistive vs capacitive screen debate, i think resistive screens are far superior, but suddenly it was deemed crap so anything not capacitive was criticised (if you're wondering, resistive are the screens you can use a stylus or fingernail or gloves on, capacitive you can only use skin, or a specially designed stylus). I guess it's a throwback to when styluses were used to hit tiny icons, but that's not the case anymore. Nokia recently changed the font and will be changing icons in the next release - it got huge praise as a result. That's how superficial it is on the blogs - 'wow, look, a new font!! Nokia is making the effort'. No mention of the FM transmitter or build quality or mass storage or, hell, even the fact when WP7 fried a memory card of an Engadget blogger, ONLY the N8 could format it, not Windows, Mac, cameras, any other device, only the N8. It got a brief mention, but it's a sign of Nokia's build quality. But nooo, the font is a big deal, apperance is everything and performance isn't.

There's just been a smartphone race though where it's all about bigger specs and bigger screens and new release after new release. Sure Nokia can improve in areas, everyone can, but the phones are not even close to the reputation bestowed upon them now.

What is annoying though is that Nokia has so much innovation in its labs that just doesn't get released. Maemo 5 is a far better OS than Android, but Nokia didn't push it or give it enough support and only put it on one phone. So that left people only seeing Symbian, and of course most Symbian phones are still S^1, not S^3, so that's probably a big part of the issue.

[SteveDhalai]

Wait until tomorrow, you'll see where WP7 is going as they're announcing Mango. Then make a decision.

Remember that unlike Android, ALL WP7 phones are guaranteed updates in the same time frame as each other.

[Michalis.Biochem]

Found these benchmarks http://dailymobile.se/2011/01/17/ben...msung-epic-4g/ .
Is the wifi speed going to be improved with the update?

[dulcificum]

WP7 is the worst platform I've ever seen. I don't know how people can bear to use it, especially people who like to customise.

[Michalis.Biochem]

Why is that? Does it lack features etc?

[richwhite]

(Original post by Michalis.Biochem)
Why is that? Does it lack features etc?

Yes it does - for now. The Mango update features actually are very promising. For those who like to customise it's not a good platform, but if you want to just get on with things it is good. It will also have some big advantages soon too, like the partnership with Nokia, the acquisition of Skype, Nokia Maps and so on. The OS is really very good, pleasant and easy to use, but yes, until Mango it is lacking a few areas.

I'm not sure it's true about the update time frame either - 'time frame' yes but it's vague. The updates so far have actually been pretty dire, causing bricking problems and other issues, or being delayed. The Samsung devices got NoDo before the HTCs too.

Also the MeeGo conference is being held right now and there should be an announcement very soon about Nokia's first device. If that interests you at all it'll be worth waiting for news on that, then you can make a decision on the latest MeeGo news, Symbian Anna update, WP7 Mango, or Android.

[dulcificum]

It's okay if you're the opposite of a power-user but for anyone else it's useless.

[richwhite]

(Original post by dulcificum)
It's okay if you're the opposite of a power-user but for anyone else it's useless.

Would that be more or less useless than your posts? When someone is asking for advice it's generally a good idea to actually offer some suggestions and clarification

[Michalis.Biochem]

I don't think i will be able to buy a MeeGo device, mainly because of the cost they might have. Most likely i will go with the SGS or the N8. SGS seems to have very good features for its price, which is going to be lowered anyway since SGS 2 recently came out.
I read somewhere that it has more triangles/sec than N8.
On another note i found a used N8 for just 200euros which seems like a good bargain so i might buy that instead. Who knows?! Thing is that i am glad that it is narrowed down to SGS or N8

[richwhite]

(Original post by Michalis.Biochem)
I don't think i will be able to buy a MeeGo device, mainly because of the cost they might have. Most likely i will go with the SGS or the N8. SGS seems to have very good features for its price, which is going to be lowered anyway since SGS 2 recently came out.
I read somewhere that it has more triangles/sec than N8.
On another note i found a used N8 for just 200euros which seems like a good bargain so i might buy that instead. Who knows?! Thing is that i am glad that it is narrowed down to SGS or N8

Check out the video recording and sound quality of the N8 compared to rivals (SGS 2, LG Optimus 2x, iPhone 4) http://mynokiablog.com/2011/05/21/sa...-phone-period/

i don't know how much the SGS is now going for, but i'd avoid any 'older' Android devices for sure, they come out so fast and fragmentation is such a big issue that if i were to ever get Android i'd get the newer ones to ensure at least a chance of getting some future software updates. Plus the N8 has better hardware than the SGSand if media is important to you, the HDMI, USB OTG and amazing camera aren't to be sniffed at.

[dulcificum]

I don't know what you want me to clarify.

And the suggestion would hopefully be obvious as it is in the thread title as an alternative: Android.

[richwhite]

(Original post by dulcificum)
I don't know what you want me to clarify.

I guess that's the average Android user IQ coming to light...

If you enter a thread where someone is asking for advice on an OS and you say one is no good, you should clarify why it's no good. Saying it's no good and not backing it up isn't helping the OP in any way whatsoever