Smartphone Comparison: Nokia 9500, SE P910a, and Treo 650: 03/06/2005
Nokia 9500 & SE P910a Purchased From: USTronics.com
By: Carlos E.
With time all phones have become more and more 'smart', but there is still
a distinct difference between what is just a well-featured phone, such as
the Nokia 6230, and a full featured 'smart' phone, such as the Nokia 9500.
Typically the differentiator is a more robust operating system, greater memory,
and a more dedicated text entry mechanism to name a few. However, how truly
'smart' are these phones? How much better do they do their jobs over more
'simple' phones?
In this article, I want to look at three smart phones, the Nokia 9500, the Sony Ericsson P910a, and the Treo 650, and not only compare them and rank them, but also, look at whether the winner is really worth its weight over a more simple phone, such as the Nokia 6230.
The largest of the three phones by a large margin is the Nokia 9500. When you see a phone this size, your assumption is that with the increased size comes increased features. I'm sad to say, though I found this not to be the case. Other than a larger screen and excellent reception, the Nokia 9500 is rather... uneventful.
The 9500's screen is its major selling point. It's large and beautiful, and is easily accessed by opening the horizontal clamshell. However, when you are using the phone mostly as a phone, you're left with the external screen that is no better than most of current series 40 Nokia phones on the market right now. Which brings me to my next point. The 9500 closed is just a big 6230. That's it. All that money and size, and in it's most used configuration (closed lid), it's not really the most feature rich of the lot. One major complaint while operating the phone closed is that there is no dedicated volume button to be found.. I couldn't raise or lower the volume easily during a call, very annoying.
Now, to discuss the phone when open... you might as well think of it as a mini-computer circa 1996, for that is what it feels like. The screen isn't touch screen, so you end up having to use the mouse like an IBM touchpoint, but it doesn't scroll quickly so you get quickly frustrated with it. The applications themselves are fine, but the overall feeling of the operating system is sluggish, and for as much 'power' as the OS has, it doesn't feel very refined. Overall, I was quite disappointed. Add to that the lack of EDGE and the American 850mhz band, and you really start regretting the high sticker price. You may object by saying that the 802.11b connection makes up for the lack of EDGE support, but in fact, I feel that even with the 802.11b connection, the OS made the browsing experience feel sluggish nevertheless.
Typing on the keyboard also proved to be rather difficult since, unlike the Blackberry or Treo, the keys are spread out far enough that it's harder to type with your thumbs, but the keys are too small to really 'touch type' with all of your fingers.
In conclusion, the 9500 is the weakest of the three phones that I tested in its features/price ratio. I think that the only market that it would serve well would be for someone who ACTIVELY reads spreadsheets or word documents, and who only utilizes T-Mobile in the United States. I give it a 6 out of 10.
Next, on the comparison list, is the Sony Ericsson P910a.
The P910a actually impressed me from the moment I threw in the SIM card.
The reception is amazing, and is starting to convince me that SE has really
worked hard at improving their reception relative to the best ones on the
market. Reception aside, the screen is nicer than that of the P900, and the
keyboard is also nicer.
Reception and screen aside, the P910a, with time, started feeling unpolished. For example, I couldn't type a number with the flip closed and save it to the address book, I had to actually open the flip and add it once the 'full' application was open. Also, for example, when I was adding an email address to the email field, the scroll button would cover the tail end of the email field so you couldn't see what you were typing.. for example, if I were to type.. something@mydomain.com, the .com would be hidden by the scroll button, so if you made a mistake in the text entry, you wouldn't know.
Overall the P910a was a good phone. I can't complain too much about the phone as a whole, only about little details here and there... lack of EDGE support, poor camera quality, annoying text entry method, and creaky construction.. that's about it. The software that came with it was stable and seemed to work well, although i suggest you invest in a task manager and you download Opera's web browser which is FAR superior to the included browser.
If you
have a Mac, and you want to synch it with the P910a, I got it to work by
only selecting to synchronize the address book, turning off the Mac firewall,
and then synchronizing.
Bluetooth was awesome on the P910a. However, the speakerphone volume was
kind of low. Battery life was good for a phone of that screen size, and calls
would go a lot longer the less you mucked with the screen.. in other words,
the main power draw is the screen.
The messaging application is weak, and doesn't support a different outgoing
smtp server than the one you designate as a POP or IMAP server.. which sucks
if your corporate send/receive servers are different.
Overall, I was impressed by the P910a, but find that it's price is still too high considering other phones out there that have many of the same features. I give it an 8/10.
Lastly, I want to discuss the GSM Treo 650, which is the phone that I'm currently using. I was lucky to be one of the first to purchase it unlocked when it came out in Palm's website, so I got the pre-jackup price of $600. I'm still miffed at Palm for doing this, particularly after what I'm going to mention during the rest of this review.
The first comment I want to make about the Treo 650 is that it's not ready for prime-time reliable use. It's just too buggy unless you use it JUST with the default applications and configuration, and even then it's not necessarily certain that the phone will work. For example.. these are some of the issues that I've experienced:
1) Calls that are missed and that don't 'sound'
2) Won't initiate calls.
3) Will reset at random times
4) Will lock up from time to time
5) Has low volume in both call and speakerphone
6) Bluetooth is not excellent, and doesn't support a large majority of Handsfree
profile headsets out there, not even the Jabra 250 which is identical to
the PalmOne branded bluetooth headset... a very unfair move on behalf of
Palm since, they're exactly the same headset.
7) The 'phone' application is buggy.
8) Work addresses in AddressBook (mac), don't get synchronized.
9) Turning off system sounds actually doesn't always turn them off.
10) There is a delay between the time when I dial someone and when it calls,
or when I hang up and when it returns to the phone application. This sometimes
causes me to call the person again while I try to return to the main phone
application.
I had to return the first phone that I received, and now I'm on my second one, and am also considering returning it. In short, the phone is unstable and somewhat of an embarrasement to PalmOne.
That said, the phone is very complete. I'm guessing that after the first 'service pack' comes out, the phone will go from pain in the butt to excellent.
The camera is a GREAT improvement, taking awesome pictures and videos (for the resolution that it sets out to have'. The Palm OS has the flexibility of many applications (although they may make your phone more unstable), the keyboard is now lit up and slightly more 'touch friendly'. They keys are arranged in a more logical fashion, although the send and end buttons still sort of work like the Treo 600 buttons, but with different icons. The messaging application is the best, by far, in the industry. They've also improved it by incorporating into it the MMS application, which was horrible in the Treo600. Versamail, however is buggy, and should be replaced with something else.
From a hardware perspective, the reception on the phone is good, but not excellent, battery life is pretty good, but not 'as long' as the Treo 600. The removable battery is a great aid, though in taking care of this problem. The memory is short at 32mb, but this issue has been beaten to death by others out there. The EDGE support of this phone is awesome and damn quick (44kbps-68kbps on average). It's definitively great, and now I just can't stand GPRS-only phones, which top out on average at 44Kbps.
In summary, the Treo 650 is a mixed bag. I'm in love with what it can do, but am annoyed with it on a daily basis, whether it's rebooting, or whether I have to buy a new headset to see if it works better, or a new SIM card (check Treocentral to look at the specifics of the Gemplus/Cingular SIM card issue that causes problems for Cingular users). In theory I'd give this phone a 9.5/10... where it stands right now, though, I can't give it more than an 8. It needs some patches for the OS and it needs them quick. PalmOne, please get your act together quickly before people start selling their phones in frustration.
So, in conclusion, I'm going to tentatively rank the Treo 650 as my favorite, provided that they come out with updates for the phone. in second place I'll put the P910a, a phone worth a look, particularly if you don't mind 'graffiti-like' handwritten entry (I don't), and lastly the Nokia 9500, which I think just didn't hit the mark. In comparison with phones like the 6230 that aren't 'smart' it seems like smart phones are more of a pain to the user, and are less straight forware and reliable. They need some refinement still, but in the end, they will ultimately be the way to go.
--- Appendix ---
Tips for the Treo 650-
To Synch via Bluetooth with a Mac:
* On your Treo, go to HotSync->Connection Setup
* Click New
* Give your connection an arbitrary name
* Connect-to: PC
* Via: Bluetooth
* Device: <YOURPAIRED MAC SHOULD BE AN OPTION HERE>
On the Mac side, go to HotSync->Setup->Connection Settings and make sure that bluetooth-pda-sync-port is checked and you should be good. Of all the issues I'm having with the Treo 650 (mainly spurrious reboots for no good reason), the BT HotSync was one of the easier tasks with a 10.3.8 Mac.
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