Nokia Nseries and Eseries vs. iPhone: CPU and Battery Life

* Updated 09/09/2009 - Added iPhone 3GS, Nokia E72, N86, Nokia N900. Merged the many tables into one table.

* Updated 10/22/2008, 10/1/2008

After almost a year since the iPhone was announced and more than half a year since it was launched, the iPhone to some other phone comparisons have started to die down. So just to add some wood to the dying fire, I'm here to state:

Current Nokia smartphones can't match the general computing performance of the iPhone

CPU

Nokia N82/N95	Texas Instruments OMAP2420	330 MHz ARM1136 + 220 MHz TI TMS320C55xDSP + PowerVR MBX 2D/3D Graphics Accelerator + IVA
Nokia E71, E66, N79, N85	32bit Freescale MXC300	369 MHz ARM1136JF-S + 220MHz StarCore SC140 DSP
Nokia N96	32bit STMicroelectronics Nomadik STn8815A12	264 MHz ARM926EJ-S
Apple iPhone	Samsung S5L8900	620MHz ARM1176JZF (downclocked to 412MHz)
Apple iPhone 3G	Samsung S5L8900	835MHz (downclocked to 412MHz)
Nokia N86, N97	32bit Freescale MXC300	434 MHz ARM1136JF-S + 220MHz StarCore SC140 DSP
Nokia E72	32bit Freescale MXC300	600 MHz ARM1136JF-S + 220MHz StarCore SC140 DSP
Nokia N900	Texas Instruments OMAP3430	600MHz ARM Cortex-A8 + PowerVR SGX graphics core + IVA 2+
Apple iPhone 3GS	Samsung S5PC100	600MHz ARM Cortex A8 + 100MHz PowerVR SGX 530 graphics core + VPU

Source: Semiconductor insights, Engadget, PDAdb.net
BoingBoing, iPhone 3G FCC filing

More after the jump.

From the configuration we can see that Nokia has placed a higher importance in call performance (probably from the inclusion of 3G video calling) with the use of a dedicated Digital Signal Processing (DSP) unit, namely the Texas Instruments 220 MHz TMS320C55xDSP).

Does the iPhone lag behind because it lacks a DSP?

No, not really.

In the following chart you will see the ARM1176 perform almost as good as the C55x:


Moreover you can see the ARM1136, found in the Nokia phones, perform almost as good as the ARM1176 with a similar clock speed. Too bad the iPhone packs a ARM1176 with almost double the clock speed.

Two is always better than one right? It could be if you're using both CPUs at the same time. With the flexibility of the Symbian S60 operating system on Nokia phones, you can initiate a video call while editing Microsoft Word/Excel documents in QuickOffice and seamlessly switch between them. The Apple iPhone hides the multitasking from the user and you don't have video calling so you will likely have the iPhone to your ear where you can't really do anything else simultanously. And that's when you realize 1 CPU on the iPhone is good enough if it could handle both DSP operations and general CPU usage as you rarely get to do both at the same time.

So when you're only using the general computing CPU, say for watching a video, the iPhone can process more frames and provide a snappier interface than the Nokia phones.

Battery

So here comes a drawback to the two processor set up on Nokia phones. They're power hungry compared to the iPhone since it has to power two CPUs. Even though each of them uses less power than the high clocked iPhone CPU, putting them together in a package creates a higher power usage situation since one is powering the UI while the other is handling cellular operations.

Now to add the nail to the coffin, Nokia has equipped their phones will less powerful batteries:

N95 - 950mAh
N82 - 1100mAh
N95 8GB - 1200mAh
iPhone/iPhone 3G - 1400mAh

Conclusion

The Nokia phones are equipped with a dedicated DSP CPU and a general ARM CPU while the iPhone makes due with a higher clocked general ARM CPU. The iPhone user interface doesn't emphasize the multitasking capability by hiding it from the user so a single processor design works well enough for it. Nokia equips their phones with two CPUs with one focussed on heavy DSP tasks like 3G calling while the other handles all other CPU tasks. The preferred design is based on how you use your phone. But with a more powerful battery and a single chip design, the iPhone will win in the battery life competition.

Reference:
Use a Microprocessor, a DSP, or Both?, BDti, 2007/04/04
DSP Design Line

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Update 10/1/2008
Nokia's latest S60 phones (E-series and N-series) have switched from the Texas Instrument dual core N82/N95 to a Freescale single core in the E66/E71/N79/N85. Oddly enough, a single chip design was used in the N96 like the iPhone. However, the Nokia N96 phone use an older ARMv5 instruction set architecture as opposed to the ARMv6 of the iPhone and other Nokia phones. The iPhone continues to overshadow the Nokias with a higher frequency.

Nokia E71, E66, N79, N85	32bit Freescale MXC300	369 MHz ARM1136JF-S + 220MHz StarCore SC140 DSP
Nokia N96	32bit STMicroelectronics Nomadik STn8815A12	264 MHz ARM926EJ-S
Apple iPhone	Samsung S5L8900	620MHz ARM1176JZF (downclocked to 412MHz)
Apple iPhone 3G	Samsung S5L8900	835MHz (downclocked to 600MHz) ARM1176JZF + 100MHz PowerVR SGX 530 graphics core + VPU

Source: iPhone 3G FCC filing

My original article wrote about the benefits of having a CPU with DSP combination and Nokia continues this with most of their latest phones except the N96. The latest Nokia phones do not have the 3D graphics accelerator as the N82/N95. It's too bad Nokia didn't outfit all their N-series devices with 3D graphics accelerators so N-gage games can stand out from standard Java games. Nokia's switch from a dual core to a single core design and leaving out graphics acceleration will improve battery life.

Nokia continues to outfit their phones with smaller batteries:
E66 - 1000mAh
E71 - 1500mAh
N79 - 1200mAh
N85 - 1200mAh
N96 - 950mAh

It is surprising that Nokia's next flagship phone, the N96, has such a low frequency and uses a single chip design compared to other Nokia devices. Out of all the Nokia phones, only the E71 has a larger battery (1500mAh) compared to the iPhone. I think it was a bad decision for Nokia to include low powered phones (like the N73) as being N-gage compatible when they could've differentiated their N-gage games from other games if 3D hardware acceleration was part of the N-gage platform.

Source:
MXC300-30: 3G Single Core Modem Platform
ARM1136JF-S - ARM Processor
ARM926EJ-S - ARM Processor
ARM1176JZ(F)-S - ARM Processor

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Update 10/22/2008 notes: Revised clock speed for iPhone 3G, mentioned downclocking for iPhone, revised to refer to 3D hardware acceleration

Additional note: The Nokia N96 does support DSP and hardware video acceleration for 2D/3D with its STn8815A12 chipset. Read more at STMicroelectronics. Oddly enough, the JBenchmark scores for the N96 in the 3D category do not come close to the N82/N95 which feature a separate chip for 3D acceleration. The benchmarks more closely resemble the N85 that does not have 3D hardware acceleration.

Source: Mobile88, Mobile Arsenal

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Update 09/09/2009
It's been almost a year since I updated this posting and things have only slightly changed with Nokia putting out Nseries and Eseries devices with a higher clock speed. Apple, not to let any competitor catch up, gave the iPhone 3GS a thorough updating with the new ARM Cortex A8.

Nokia N86, N97	32bit Freescale MXC300	434 MHz ARM1136JF-S + 220MHz StarCore SC140 DSP
Nokia E72	32bit Freescale MXC300	600 MHz ARM1136JF-S + 220MHz StarCore SC140 DSP
Nokia N900	Texas Instruments OMAP3430	600MHz ARM Cortex-A8 + PowerVR SGX graphics core + IVA 2+
Apple iPhone 3GS	Samsung S5PC100	600MHz ARM Cortex A8 + 100MHz PowerVR SGX 530 graphics core + VPU

Source: PDADB.net, Nokia N900

As I had suspected, the 32bit Freescale MXC300 used by Nokia in their Nseries and Eseries phones for the last year and a half had more capability than Nokia was using which explains the jump from 369MHz to 600MHz.

Since this post is about CPU to battery life I decided to look up the battery life of the Nokia E71 and E72 because they both use the same Freescale solution and same battery but the E72 uses a higher clock frequency.

Phone	E71	E72
Battery	BP-4L 1500 mAh	BP-4L 1500 mAh
Talk (GSM/WCDMA)	10h 30min/4h 30min	12h 30min/5h 42min
Standby (GSM/WCDMA)	17 days/20 days	20 days/24 days

Source: Nokia E71 Specifications, Nokia E72 Specifications

Very oddly, even though the E72 has a higher clock speed and same battery as the E71, the E72 has a much better life so there is much more to battery life than just CPU and battery capacity. Influences could be better firmware and hardware design.

Unfortunately, 600Mhz is the upper limit to the Freescale solution so Nokia had better find a better solution to keep up with their high-end competitors. I suspect Nokia will continue to use the Freescale solutions in their mid-tier devices, for its good balance of speed and battery life, well into 2011.

This is where Nokia's latest smartphone, the N900, comes in. The N900 discards the pathetic Freescale solutions and returns to the more powerful Texas Instrument solutions to provide the necessary speed to run today's applications and rich multimedia. This extra power puts it inline to compete with Apple's iPhone 3GS. If you don't believe me about how pathetic the Freescale solution is, try comparing the playability of Vampent vBagX on a E71 to the older N95.

The Nokia N900 will be a very exciting product for Nokia. I'm hoping to see a performance comparison between the N900 and the iPhone 3GS to see which will take the crown as the most powerful consumer smart phone.

Not all Nokia battery chargers built the same

An article posted a while ago on AAS mentioned phone battery charge time varied by the charger used. If you've bought Nokia phones from their various product lines then you may have noticed Nokia including different chargers. But what exactly is the difference?


From left to right: AC-3U, AC-6E, AC-5U, AC-5E

Here is a comparison of the various current Nokia chargers:

Type	Short Description	Connector	Power Output	Packaged with
AC-3	Blocky low end chargers	Nokia 2mm	DC 5V, 350mA	Nokia 1110, Nokia 3555, Nokia 5310, Nokia E61
AC-4	High end chargers	Nokia 2mm	DC 5V, 890mA	Nokia 5610, Nokia E71
AC-5	Small high end chargers	Nokia 2mm	DC 5V, 800mA	Nokia N82, Nokia N95
AC-6	Mid-ranged chargers designed for microUSB charging. They resemble the AC-4 in design but output is very different.  Non-detachable cable.	microUSB	DC 5V, 550mA	Nokia N97
AC-8	High end chargers. They resemble the AC-4 in design.	Nokia 2mm	DC 5V, 890 mA	Nokia E75
AC-10	High end chargers. Non-detachable cable.	microUSB	DC 5V, 1200 mA	Nokia N85, Nokia N86, Nokia N97, Nokia N900
AC-20	Mid-ranged chargers.  Non-detachable cable.	microUSB	DC 5V, 750 mA	Nokia Lumia 520
AC-50	High end chargers	microUSB	DC 5V, 1300 mA	Nokia Lumia 925, Nokia Lumia 920, Nokia Lumia 620
AC-60	High end chargers	microUSB	DC 5V, 1500 mA	Nokia Lumia 1020
CA-101	USB cable	microUSB	DC 5V, 500 mA	Nseries and Eseries
DC-4	High end car chargers.	Nokia 2mm	DC 5V, 890 mA	N/A
DC-6	Mid-range car chargers. They resemble the DC-4 in design	microUSB	DC 5V, 550 mA	Nokia 5800, E72, N97 mini navigation editions
DC-9	Mid-range car chargers. They look like a square box with retractable cord	Nokia 2mm	DC 5V, 700 mA	N/A
DC-10	High end car chargers. They are similar to the DC-9 in design.	microUSB	DC 5V, 1200 - 1500 mA	N/A

All this information can be found in small text on your charger. The output indicates the amount of power sent to the phone. You may notice a letter just after the types I listed above such as 'U' or 'E'. This letter indicates the region the charger is designed for - 'U' would be for the United States/Canada, 'E' is European, and 'N' is India. The same type of charger produces the same output regardless of the charger's region. Moreover, both 'E' and 'U' chargers work with an input of 100-240V at 50-60Hz, so both chargers can work in North America and Europe without worry - with a simple plug adapter of course.

Charging my N82 took over twice as long to charge with the AC-3 compared to the bundled AC-5. I've charged my N82 with a AC-5E charger in Europe, Japan, India with a plug adapter, and North America with a plug adapter with no problems.  But be sure not to overcharge your phone by using a charger that has a higher power output than the charger that came with your phone as it will overheat your battery and degrade the life of the battery.

Interestingly, the high end N97 bundles such a low output charger. I initially thought it was a microUSB limitation but Nokia also makes the AC-10 which produces much more power. I think someone swapped the battery charger in the review unit I have because the official N97 sales package mentions the inclusion of a AC-10. It would have been better if Nokia equipped the N97 with both the older Nokia charger port and the microUSB charging like the E75 so we could use our existing chargers too.

As you can see, Nokia makes various chargers and the higher the output the faster your phone will charge. So if you have a number of chargers available and need to charge your Nokia phone in a hurry, be sure to pay attention to the charger.  Plus, don't use a charger with a higher power output than the charger included with your phone to avoid wearing out the battery too quickly

Which uses more power? WiFi or 3G?

I had that same question on my mind after Ziostilon posted that question on HowardForums. Fellow HoFo member jessi3k3 showed that WiFi consumes a little more energy than EDGE. Another HoFo member, RogerPodacter, brought up some good points to suggest that WiFi should consume less power than 3G because the cell towers are further away and it'd require more energy to move the same amount of data in longer distances. But an argument against that is WiFi was developed without mobile devices in mind so power consumption wasn't of the highest concern which is why Bluetooth was developed and that 3G is designed with mobile devices in mind so it should be optimized for limited power consumption.

So we ran Nokia Internet Radio at 128kbps and used Nokia Energy Profiler just to see for ourselves what really consumed more power...

802.11G with WPA-PSK (WiFi):

Test #1


Test #3

AT&T 3G:

Test #2


Test #4

From my test with Nokia Energy Profiler, it shows that 3G does consume more power than WiFi in streaming the 128kbps.

This is how I tested (so you can try it too):
I'm using the same Nokia E71-2 running firmware 100.07.76 for all the tests. I used a Linksys WRT54G with 802.11G WPA-PSK. According to this map of AT&T's 3G network from this summer, I'm in the blue area so I have strong 3G support. I wish I knew where the tower is so I could write a better post.

Software used:
Nokia Energy Profiler 1.1 (1-May-08)
Nokia Internet Radio 1.06 (or get it through Download! on your device)
Screenshot for Symbian OS (S60) 3.01 (just to take those pretty screenshots)

1. Open Energy Profiler
2. Turn on Internet Radio
3. Options > Settings
4. Set access point (if you change this value, you need to restart Internet Radio for the change to take effect)
5. Set all the bitrate to Best Quality (128kbps)
6. Choose a radio station and wait for it to finish buffering
7. Go to Energy Profiler and click Options > Start

I alternated tests between WiFi and 3G (which is why the screenshots go from Test 1, 3, 2, 4) to rule out the case that earlier runs might produce more favorable results than later tests and tested each connection more than once because one test is never enough.

This test really changed my perception that WiFi is a power hog. Even with the burden of WPA-PSK, WiFi consumed less power for me. HoFo member oddsocks gives a pretty good explanation on why 3G consumes just by the specs. I guess this explains why Steve Jobs of Apple added WiFi to the iPhone and complained about 3G chipsets not being ready for mobile devices.

The Nokia E71 Eseries Pouch

I personally love my E71. It looks amazing with its thin profile and classy use of chrome, very good build quality with little to no creaks, and a flexible robust S60 operating system.

Here is my E71 with the included OEM pouch:

In case you don't have a E71, a thin ring around the D-pad serves as the LED notifcation when you miss a message

But like most of Nokia's line of phones, the E71 is not without its flaws like weak e-mail program with no HTML support. But I want to bring to your attention a simple straightforward flaw in the design of the E71 that reminds me that Nokia still needs a lot of work.


Being designed by Nokia for the E71 and included with the E71 retail package, the case is exactly the right size for the E71:


The exposed stitching definitely looks nice so here's a close up:

A classy Nokia Eseries logo is etched onto the outside. The outside material is soft to touch and feels like leather.

The Nokia E71 easily slides into the case with its soft red fabric interior:


The bumps of the phone like the D-pad ring and the camera will slowly make an imprint on the case:


Now you might be thinking, what is this whole blog entry about and what's wrong with the case? Well just look at that last photo of the E71 in the case. If the LED message indicator is around the D-pad, how can I tell I missed a message when the case covers the D-pad?

It's sad that RIM got this right in every single Blackberry they've ever put out:

Look at that huge exposed notification LED at the top right of that Blackberry.

Yes, it's pretty to see the D-pad blink, sort of like the Blackberry's glowing trackball, but the practical usage tradeoff is ridiculous. If I have the E71 in my pocket or in a belt holster, I can only see the top of the phone so a notification LED should be at the top not on the face of the phone.

The good thing is that Nokia really shows a willingness to listen to consumers and the changes from the E61 to the E71 reflect that. I'm hoping Nokia's next QWERTY keyboard phone will show an improvement in this area.

Going beyond games with TV-out: Doing a Business Presentation

A useful yet not widely exploited feature of the Nokia N82 and N95 is the TV out functionality through the Nokia AV. You may have read about the impressiveness of connecting your phone to your TV to play some ngage games like Fifa 2008 but what else can you do with it? How about something productive, say give a presentation!

Wouldn't it be great to not need to lug around a 4+ pound laptop?


Most projectors offer the VGA input and the RCA input. Luckily some of Nokia's latest smartphones include Nokia's A/V plug offering RCA video and audio output. Before we go further, I'd like to mention that I found this set up to work best with simple presentations (no animation or embedded objects). As well, it's important to give this set up a couple tries before using it in an actual business presentation and I highly recommend bringing your laptop as a back up. We're pushing the S60 smartphone to the limits so there's bound to be technical glitches.

So let's get started with putting our presentation. What you'll need:

Hardware
N82/N95 (you'll need it for the TV out and faster processor)
Nokia Video Connectivity Cable (CA-75U)
Nintendo Wii controller

Software
Quickoffice 4.5.14.8+
mobiPad 1.0

Creating and Editing Presentations

It's best to start with a presentation template. Since I'm doing a business presentation, most companies already have a standard template available. Upload it to your phone and start editing it with QuickOffice. This is also gives you a great way to make those last minute quick changes to your slides.

With Quickoffice you can:
Insert images, textbox, and tables


For each of these elements you can perform the following:
- move
- resize
- resize evenly
- Rotate (only text and images and at any angle)
- Flip (only text and images)
- reorder
- properties
Color: fill color, line color, dash style, line weight
Position: Horizonal position, Vertical position, Width, Height, Tech anchor point

You also have the ability to change the order of slides and insert new slides.

Remote Control
Once you have your presentation complete and ready we should set up your wireless control. To set up the Nintendo Wii controller to control your phone while you're standing, turn on Bluetooth, open mobiPad, and click the red button under the battery cover on the Wii controller to sync the Wii controller with your phone. Once connected you will get a connected message.


Displaying the Presentation
We want to turn on screen rotation on the N82 so we can display it in landscape while on the N95 you can open the Media keys.
Go to Settings > General > Personalisation > Display > Rotate screen > Automatic


Now to open up the presentation in Quickoffice and click Options > Full Screen.


Connect the N82/N95 to the projector via the Nokia TV out cables (CA-75U).

Presto! You're ready to give a presentation with your phone while navigating your slides wirelessly.

Large text and simple shapes displayed well:


Displayed on the N82 screen


Displayed by the project

Small details don't show up so well:


Displayed on the N82 screen


Displayed by the projector

Conclusion
Creating my presentation on my N82 felt very cramped because of the low resolution and the limited movement with a d-pad. The lower resolution of the phone output was unacceptable so I had to resort back to a laptop for my actual presentation. For this instance the N82 couldn't do what I wanted but if I had bigger text and images I would consider giving my N82 another try at giving a presentation.

Here is what I found while putting together my presentation with my N82. Let me know if you've found anything else to add to this list:

Advantages:
Bluetooth remote to control your presentation
Look high tech giving a presentation
The N82/N92 have just enough power to move through each slide smoothly

Disadvantages
Not all Nokia phones support TV-out (not even the E-series phones support it)
The 320x240 pixel display makes TV-out look blocky. Avoid small graphics and text on presentations.
Powerpoint editing on S60 is not yet mature with limited functionality
Editing documents on the small display is frustrating
Does not support embedded objects

QWERTY phone keyboards: Not Created Equal

So why do I have an E62 and an E61 on one hand? They both came from the same manufacturer and they came to market around the same time so what am I trying to show you? Probably something you've already noticed, they have symbols placed differently between handset keyboards.

The differences between keyboards make transitioning between handsets take a little longer as your fingers have a habit of travelling a certain distance on one handset that needs to adjust for another handset.

RIM Blackberry
The workhorse of the business world, Blackberries can be seen on every corner of the financial district, subways, restaurants, and even at schools.

Blackberry 6230 My second favorite keyboard. My first favorite is the RIM 950.
Blackberry 8830
Blackberry Curve A tight keyboard

The keyboard layout is consistent throughout the various Blackberry models.

Palm
Once the darling of the business world, Palm has lost a lot of market share because of a stale PalmOS or buggy Windows Mobile devices.

Palm Treo The keys are stiff and hard.
Palm Centro

Similar to RIM's Blackberry, the keyboard is consistent between the models.

Nokia
Hoping to grab more of business users

Nokia E61 Different regions have a different layout for the special characters.
Nokia E61i Almost the same layout as the E61 if you have the same regions to compare.
Nokia E71 At least the space bar is wide.

Nokia kept the same keyboard layout between thte E61 and E61i but the E71 will change it's layout. Unlike the Blackberry, Motorola, Samsung, and Palm, the Q, A, and Z keys are aligned all to the left for Nokia keyboards.

Motorola
The first manufacturer to build and sell a thin qwerty keyboard smartphone.

Motorola Q Hard keys, similar to a Treo
Motorola Q9h

Motorola changed the placement of all the special characters between their two phones.

Samsung
Following hot on the heels of Motorola, Samsung was the second manufacturer to sell a thin qwerty smartphone.

Samsung Blackjack
Samsung Blackjack 2

Some of the special characters remain in the same position between the two versions but some changed.

HTC
They are the manufacturer of most Microsoft Mobile phones in the market today.

HTC S620 All left aligned alphabets.
HTC S720 Only Q is aligned to the left
HTC S730 All aligned 1 character to the right.
HTC Tytn II The Z is aligned one character to the right.

HTC has a different keyboard layout between their many handset models. Some have Q, A, and Z aligned ontop of each other (S730, S620), some have Z one character to the right (HTC Tytn II), while others have both A and Z one character to the right (S720). It's not even worth mentioning the special characters change places between the layouts. HTC has got to get its act together and make one consistent keyboard layout for all their phones.

It's understandable for one manufacturer to have a different keyboard layout than another so users tend to stick to a familar layout. But some manufacturers like HTC vary their special characters and alphabet alignment entirely between handsets and some manufacturers like Nokia and Motorola change the special characters layout. Hopefully the qwerty keyboard on smartphones mature to the point that all handsets share the same layout like computer keyboards so transitioning between them will be seemless.

The S60 Road Warrior, Part 1: Finding my way around

You could be travelling in a different city each week or just exploring your own city, a GPS is a valuable tool to help you find your way. Just last week I used it to find a detour to avoid an accident on my way to Yankee stadium and find a close parking lot to the stadium.

Unlike the "GPS" pushed by your wireless carrier for phones that clearly do not have GPS (Motorola RAZR and first generation Apple iPhone) and rely on triangulation of cellular towers, a real GPS relies on a clear view to the sky to connect to a GPS satellite to give you your position accurate to within a few meters (accuracy depends on your GPS receiver). Moreover, a real GPS does not need to use cellular data if you have the right map software and maps already installed.

Most of Nokia's recent S60 include a GPS receiver but if it doesn't, you can always get a bluetooth GPS receiver and pair your S60 phone to it. The benefit to having a bluetooth GPS is that your handset's battery is not drained as quickly. But you have one more thing to carry and that's one more thing you;re likely to forget to bring when you really need it. There were a few times I was lost in New York City and relied on my GPS to find my way back to the hotel.

A couple years ago I plotted my trips on paper maps. With the advent of the Internet and MapQuest/Google Maps, I plotted my trips online and printed out the directions. But now with a GPS, I can jump into my car and plot an address or place of interest onto a map program.

Unlike the GPS products you buy from BestBuy or Fry's, S60 phones don't usually come with maps pre-installed onto the phone or memory card. You may also need to download the map software and install it to the phone. It's a little more complicated than buying a dedicated GPS but you the flexibility to choose the map program.

With each mapping program comes pros and cons so it's important to evaluate each one before purchasing. The most common mapping programs available for S60 and support Nokia's internal GPS in North America are Nokia Maps, Garmin XT, and Google Maps. Here is a brief list of pros and cons of each before I going into detail on how to get them set up on your phone:

Nokia Maps 1.0

Pro: Usually installed by default. Installable over the air. maps are free, maps can be downloaded over the air (wifi or data) Con: Turn by turn navigation is charged by subscription. Pay for Points of Interest (POI) guides that are not up to date for North America. Pre-loading of maps requires a data cable. If you choose to install maps from your computer, Nokia Maps needs an Internet connection to download the maps from Nokia's servers.

Garmin XT 4.10.80

Pro: Same software you find on dedicated GPS devices from Garmin. Decent list of Points of Interest (POI) included with maps. Con: Complicated install if you deviate from the suggest method. High initial cost. Need to pay for maps. Maps must be pre-loaded.

Google Maps 2.0.14

Pro: Simple install instructions. Installable over the air. ability to see satellite view, always up to date. Points of Interest (POI) comes from Google. Can be used with GPS with limited accuracy. Con: Relies on data, slow to load maps depending on your data connection. No voice turn by turn navigation.

There are two more major map software for S60, but Wayfinder doesn't support Nokia's internal GPS and TomTom just released 6.02 to support it. I haven't a chance to test out TomTom.

I was going to write about all three map software in one blog entry but it quickly got too long so I'll blog about each one in an individual blog entry. Stay tuned!

The S60 Road Warrior

From toasty dry summers in Dallas to the frosty winters of Toronto, I've been on business trips all over North America for the last three years. Each week I spend at least a full work day at the airport or on a plane. Being so mobile, I need a quality phone that suits my life style and Nokia has offered that in their S60 platform.

A lot of web sites already review S60 applications so in the next couple blogs I will write about how S60 helps me with...

• Finding my way around
• Capturing my experiences
• Getting my work done
• Keeping me entertained
• Saving me money
• My reminder
• Connecting me with work and friends
• Sharing
• Safe guarding my phone

I hope you will find this has interesting to read as I will writing it. If there's any topic you want covered, feel free to leave me a comment.

I will be writing my experiences with my Nokia N82 but I'm sure the experience is similar on many other S60 phones like the N95, N96, E90, etc.

How S40's UI has changed - 2nd edition to 5th edition

S40 is a platform for mobile phones that run Nokia's proprietary operating system. Most people refer to S40 like an operating system. I will be focussing only on S40's user interface (UI) in this blog entry.

The last S40 phone I got for myself is the Nokia 6230b and it used a modified version of the S40 2nd edition platform. It's modified because it was the first S40 to use a grid for the menu. All future S40s have the option of grid or list for the main menu. My last review, of the Nokia 3555, made me think about how much S40 has progressed since late 2004 against the latest S40 5th edition.

One very observable difference between S40 2nd edition and S40 5th edition is the support for portait screens (128x160 pixels) instead of the old screen screen (128x128 pixels).

I love pictures and they truly say a thousand words. Now let's look at some screen shots (I switched the positions of the 6230b and 3555b a couple times just to make sure you pay attention - ok, I took the photos in two different sittings so I apologize):

Standby Screen (2nd on left, 5th on right):

You can do much more on the 5th's standby screen like control your music player, show calendar updates, and shortcuts to your most used apps.

Menu (2nd on left, 5th on right)

Not much has changed here except you can now see battery life, reception, and other indicators too. You can see these indicators without the phone now in all submenus.

More Icons (5th on left, 2nd on right):

There are some icons beside the text for help. Even though there is more vertical screen space, it hasn't increased the number of menu items on the screen at once.

UI Changes (5th on left, 2nd on right):

The left/right toggle for the 5th edition reduces the number of clicks, somewhat.

Some new icons don't match the rest of the User Interface (UI):

Some menus have an added Save button so some changes are not automatically saved. The icons don't match the look of the rest of the UI.

Real Theme Support (both from 5th edition):

The 2nd edition only support color changes while the 5th edition supports background and color changes. It's pretty neat that S40 will preview the theme after highlighting it.

Calendar (2nd on left, 5th on right):

Things that were good before are the same.

Calculator (2nd on left, 5th on right):

The calculator has undergone a dramatic change from being a simple native app to a complex Java app.

Camera (5th on right, 2nd on left):

Much more controls on the camera application like zoom.

One thing I wish S40 had was a way to switch between an Advanced mode (for users to configure the phone) to a Basic mode. I usually recommend S40 phones to people who want a phone for a phone and a no non-sense phone UI. But with so many available options and customizability like active standby, S40 is starting to become overwhelming for a first time user. I wish there was a way I could set up and customize the phone for the user in Advanced mode then switch it to Basic for them to use. The only other option I can think of is to refer them to emerging market phones but they're hard to come by in North America and/or cost more than carrier subsidized phones.

The new S40 operating system puts up a good fight against Sony Ericsson's phone platform in terms of customizability; but I don't think Nokia's S40 platform is as refined judging by the inconsistencies in the UI look.

Nokia has made great strides to make S40 a highly customizable platform without needing to make it a smart phone operating system. However the introduction of all these options have made S40 a lot more overwhelming for a first time user than previous iterations. I personally like how the new UI works and the additional functionality it provides and I'm sure users will slowly get accustomed to it even if they're a first time user.

You can learn more about the S40 platform at Forum Nokia