One thing comparing the Incredible S to the Desire that has been dramatically improved is the camera.  Not just the bump from 5 to 8megapixels, but the processing software seems to have been given some real attention.  The Desire’s camera was “flat” in the shots it took and for me wasn’t worth using.

The Incredible S however is a very rich, vibrant.  It isn’t a DSLR ( which I carry with me nearly everywhere), but it is a great point and shoot camera for a wide variety of shooting environments.

The camera does low light very well, and limits ISO Noise very very well. One issue with lowlight though is that it pushes more red into images than is necessary.  Whilst the lighting at the nightclub where I took the photos of the Cat Empire, was heavily skewed red, this red dominance also came out in the sunset shot that I took at the river, there at least I had the Nikon D7K to get a much more realistic colour balance out of the shot. Which also is a case of apples and oranges, one is phone, one is prosumer DSLR

The flash on the camera is up to the task, but you will notice that the band shots don’t have the flash on, because I wanted photos of the band, not the back of people’s heads.  You might want to remember that next time you’re at a concert. The great thing is that the Incredible also remembers the last state the flash was on as well, even when you exit the app.  A nice touch, that means you can take photos quickly without having to reset the camera every time.

For reasons that are not knee bone is connected to the leg bone type of logic, if you are using the phone is being used as a WIFI hot spot ( which is great if you don’t have the USB cable with you, or you wish to share it with a few friends ), you can’t use the flash.  I’m sure there is a good technical reason for this, but I can’t think what it was.

I’d much rather that the effects vs the settings could have been switched.  Then I am a lot more of purist when it comes to photography anyway.  The face detection works really well, even if the subject is in the background of the image, and the cameras inherent depth of field gets everything in focus. White Balance etc all seem to work just fine but nested as they are, tweaking one item, such as white balance, involved more clicks as sub items take over the menu structure.

The geotagging feature is great to leave on, but is one that I would have given higher priority to in the menus.  I would love to be able to one click turn it off and on for photos as I went.  Photos from home for example would not be tagged or from a friends place, but out in public tag away is the way I like to shoot.  The GPS seems to get a fix very quickly, often one or two shots in a new location and they are tagged. A cursory look at images I have uploaded to flickr shows the location very accurately as well.

Sure, the camera has nice little effects, to be honest the only one I would consider using is the depth of field filter.  Even then unless it was something I couldn’t get a feel for a particular shot that I was after.  As a rule, and this applies to all photos that you take with your phone etc, don’t and I mean DON’T apply camera filters.  Why, because in 12 months time, or even the day after you won’t have the unedited version.  The photos off the Incredible should print really well, and unless you have the “clean” version you are going to regret not having it sooner rather than later.

But, words are words, images are images…  I let them do the talking… ( ok, with just a touch of voice over…. )

(All images link to full size flickr version )

Dull Sunset Comparison

(Plus the Nikon D7000 that took the shot)

Nikon D7000

Nokia N8

HTC Incredible S

Nokia N95-8gb

Nokia X-6

HTC Desire

JVC GC – FM1

Notes:

The order is how I judge the devices.

Unsurprisingly the DSLR wins , Next is the amazing Nokia N8, which is simply amazing as a camera on a phone. But given the hardware the Incredible S was against, it did do very well.

DPI, the higher the number the better the print.  72DPI is great for onscreen, 300DPI is better for printing, this is reflected broadly in filesize.

The D7000 shot was taken in RAW and exported via Lightroom 3. I do have the Solmeta GPS for the D7000, but it wasn’t plugged in J, the other phones that didn’t get a GPS fix had not been used in sometime and were not already on, when I did the test.

Both the Desire and the Incredible S are lacking much in the way of EXIF data, so a full comparison of EXIF Data is not possible.  Either this is an ongoing firmware issue, or shows the limitations of the HTC Camera System.

Final point, remember that the Nokia N95-8gb is from 2007, so it is the oldest of all off the above devices by a number of years. Still the camera in that phone still stands up.

And here are some more shots from the Incredible S

Good light

Very dark room

The Macro as I said is fantastic.  Add the touch the screen to move the focus point and you can get some great close up photos.  The text in these images is nice and crisp.

This is a pretty sunset….

HTC Incredible Sunset

Nikon D7000 Sunset

As you can see from above, the HTC made the sky a lot pinker than it was.  Whilst most people wouldn’t care.. I do.

And now some night shots..

First from the HTC Desire

Now two from the Incredible S ( at both ends of the zoom).

And thanks for getting to the end of this rather long post…. The camera as I said is a great point and shoot, and is a good phone camera.

This is the Nokia N8 camera shoot out for that situation. ( Please note, it wasn’t a spectacular sunset the evening I got the shots… )

First is shooting directly into the sun. This is one of those men from the boys tests.

Shooting into the Sun – Nokia N95-8gb Camera Nokia N95 8GB Exposure 0.003 sec (1/333) Aperture f/2.8 Focal Length 5.6 mm ISO Speed 100 Flash Auto, Did not fire Orientation Horizontal (normal) X-Resolution 300 dpi Y-Resolution 300 dpi YCbCr Positioning Centered Date and Time (Original) 2010:10:24 19:25:34 Date and Time (Digitized) 2010:10:24 19:25:34 Light Source Unknown Color Space sRGB Custom Rendered Normal Exposure Mode Auto White Balance Auto Digital Zoom Ratio 1 Scene Capture Type Standard Gain Control None Compression JPEG (old-style)	Shooting into the Sun – Nikon D90 Camera Nikon D90 Exposure 0.001 sec (1/800) Aperture f/16.0 Focal Length 18 mm ISO Speed 200 Exposure Bias 0 EV Flash Auto, Did not fire X-Resolution 240 dpi Y-Resolution 240 dpi Date and Time (Modified) 2010:10:24 21:24:20 Exposure Program Auto: No Flash Date and Time (Original) 2010:10:24 19:24:02.00+11:00 Date and Time (Digitized) 2010:10:24 19:24:02 Max Aperture Value 3.5 Subject Distance 6.31 m Metering Mode Multi-segment Light Source Unknown Sub Sec Time Original 00 Sub Sec Time Digitized 00 Sensing Method One-chip color area CFAPattern [Green,Blue][Red,Green] Custom Rendered Normal Exposure Mode Auto White Balance Auto Digital Zoom Ratio 1 Focal Length In35mm Format 27 mm Scene Capture Type Standard Gain Control None Contrast Normal Saturation Normal Sharpness Normal Subject Distance Range Unknown Compression JPEG (old-style) Viewing Conditions Illuminant Type D50 Measurement Observer CIE 1931 Measurement Flare 0.999% Measurement Illuminant D65 Lens 18.0-200.0 mm f/3.5-6.3 Lens ID 38 Image Number 85557 Color Transform YCbCr Flash Return No return detection Flash Mode Auto
Shooting into the Sun – JVC GC-FM1 Camera JVC GC-FM1 Exposure 1/4029 sec Aperture f/2.8 Focal Length 3.9 mm ISO Speed 100 Exposure Bias 0 EV Flash No flash function Orientation Horizontal (normal) X-Resolution 72 dpi Y-Resolution 72 dpi Date and Time (Modified) 2010:10:24 19:22:55 YCbCr Positioning Co-sited Exposure Program Program AE Date and Time (Original) 2010:10:24 19:22:55 Date and Time (Digitized) 2010:10:24 19:22:55 Max Aperture Value 2.8 Metering Mode Center-weighted average Light Source Unknown Color Space sRGB Custom Rendered Normal Digital Zoom Ratio 1 Compression JPEG (old-style)	Shooting into the Sun – HTC Desire Camera HTC Desire ISO Speed 100 X-Resolution 72 dpi Y-Resolution 72 dpi YCbCr Positioning Centered Date and Time (Original) 2010:10:24 19:22:31 Date and Time (Digitized) 2010:10:24 19:22:31 Color Space sRGB GPSVersion ID 2.2.0 GPS Latitude 37 deg 53′ 51.27″ S GPS Longitude 144 deg 59′ 8.24″ E GPSAltitude Ref Above Sea Level GPSAltitude 12 m GPSTime Stamp 19:22:31 GPSMap Datum WGS-84 GPSProcessing Method HYBRID-FIX GPSDate Stamp 2010:10:24 Compression JPEG (old-style)
Shooting into the Sun – Nokia X6 Camera Nokia X6-00 Exposure 1/1000000 sec Aperture f/2.8 Focal Length 5.2 mm ISO Speed 123 Flash Auto, Did not fire Orientation Horizontal (normal) X-Resolution 300 dpi Y-Resolution 300 dpi YCbCr Positioning Centered Date and Time (Original) 2010:10:24 19:21:27 Date and Time (Digitized) 2010:10:24 19:21:27 Light Source Unknown Color Space sRGB Custom Rendered Normal Exposure Mode Auto White Balance Auto Digital Zoom Ratio 1 Scene Capture Type Standard Gain Control Low gain up GPSVersion ID 2.2.0.0 GPS Latitude 37 deg 53′ 51.58″ S GPS Longitude 144 deg 59′ 7.84″ E GPSAltitude Ref Below Sea Level GPSAltitude 1.5 m Compression JPEG (old-style)	Shooting into the Sun – Nokia N8 Camera Nokia N8-00 Exposure 0.001 sec (1/1400) Aperture f/2.8 Focal Length 5.9 mm ISO Speed 100 Flash Auto, Did not fire X-Resolution 240 dpi Y-Resolution 240 dpi Date and Time (Modified) 2010:10:24 21:11:30 Date and Time (Original) 2010:10:24 19:21:18.153+11:00 Date and Time (Digitized) 2010:10:24 19:21:18 Light Source Unknown Sub Sec Time Original 153 Sub Sec Time Digitized 153 Custom Rendered Normal Exposure Mode Auto White Balance Auto Digital Zoom Ratio 0 Scene Capture Type Standard Gain Control None GPSVersion ID 2.2.0.0 GPSAltitude Ref Above Sea Level GPSAltitude 5 m GPSMeasure Mode 3-Dimensional Measurement GPSDOP 0.9 GPSMap Datum WGS-84 Compression JPEG (old-style) Viewing Conditions Illuminant Type D50 Measurement Observer CIE 1931 Measurement Flare 0.999% Measurement Illuminant D65 Color Transform YCbCr GPSVersion ID 2.2.0.0 GPS Latitude 37 deg 53′ 51.34″ S GPS Longitude 144 deg 59′ 7.91″ E GPSAltitude Ref Above Sea Level GPSAltitude 5 m GPSMeasure Mode 3-Dimensional GPSDOP 0.9 GPSMap Datum WGS-84

Looking towards Melbourne CBD from Brighton.

Skyline – Nokia95-8gb Camera Nokia N95 8GB Exposure 0.009 sec (1/110) Aperture f/2.8 Focal Length 5.6 mm ISO Speed 160 Flash Auto, Did not fire X-Resolution 240 dpi Y-Resolution 240 dpi Date and Time (Original) 2010:10:24 19:27:26+11:00 Date and Time (Digitized) 2010:10:24 19:27:26 Light Source Unknown Custom Rendered Normal Exposure Mode Auto White Balance Auto Digital Zoom Ratio 1 Scene Capture Type Standard Gain Control Low gain up Compression JPEG (old-style) Viewing Conditions Illuminant Type D50 Measurement Observer CIE 1931 Measurement Flare 0.999% Measurement Illuminant D65 Color Transform YCbCr Flash Return No return detection Flash Mode Auto Flash Function False Flash Red Eye Mode False	Skyline – Nikon D90 Camera Nikon D90 Exposure 0.005 sec (1/200) Aperture f/7.1 Focal Length 18 mm ISO Speed 200 Exposure Bias 0 EV Flash Auto, Did not fire X-Resolution 240 dpi Y-Resolution 240 dpi Software Ver.1.00 Exposure Program Auto: No Flash Date and Time (Original) 2010:10:24 19:26:33.00+11:00 Date and Time (Digitized) 2010:10:24 19:26:33 Max Aperture Value 3.5 Subject Distance 21.1 m Metering Mode Multi-segment Light Source Unknown Sub Sec Time Original 00 Sub Sec Time Digitized 00 Sensing Method One-chip color area CFAPattern [Green,Blue][Red,Green] Custom Rendered Normal Exposure Mode Auto White Balance Auto Digital Zoom Ratio 1 Focal Length In35mm Format 27 mm Scene Capture Type Standard Gain Control None Contrast Normal Saturation Normal Sharpness Normal Subject Distance Range Unknown Compression JPEG (old-style) Viewing Conditions Illuminant Type D50 Measurement Observer CIE 1931 Measurement Flare 0.999% Measurement Illuminant D65 Lens 18.0-200.0 mm f/3.5-6.3 Lens ID 38 Image Number 85559 Color Transform YCbCr
Skyline – JVC GC-FM1 Camera JVC GC-FM1 Exposure 0.003 sec (1/340) Aperture f/2.8 Focal Length 3.9 mm ISO Speed 100 Exposure Bias 0 EV Flash No flash function X-Resolution 240 dpi Y-Resolution 240 dpi Date and Time (Modified) 2010:10:24 21:15:02 Exposure Program Program AE Date and Time (Original) 2010:10:24 19:26:52+11:00 Date and Time (Digitized) 2010:10:24 19:26:52 Max Aperture Value 2.8 Metering Mode Center-weighted average Light Source Unknown Custom Rendered Normal Digital Zoom Ratio 1 Compression JPEG (old-style) Measurement Observer CIE 1931 Measurement Flare 0.999% Measurement Illuminant D65 Color Transform YCbCr Flash Return No return detection Flash Mode Unknown Flash Function True Flash Red Eye Mode False	Skyline – HTC Desire Camera HTC Desire ISO Speed 100 X-Resolution 240 dpi Y-Resolution 240 dpi Date and Time (Original) 2010:10:24 19:25:39+11:00 Date and Time (Digitized) 2010:10:24 19:25:39 GPSVersion ID 2.2.0.0 GPSAltitude Ref Above Sea Level GPSAltitude 9 m GPSTime Stamp 19:25:39 GPSMap Datum WGS-84 GPSProcessing Method HYBRID-FIX GPSDate Stamp 2010:10:24 Compression JPEG (old-style) Measurement Observer CIE 1931 Measurement Flare 0.999% Measurement Illuminant D65 Color Transform YCbCr GPSVersion ID 2.2.0.0 GPS Latitude 37 deg 53′ 51.37″ S GPS Longitude 144 deg 59′ 8.08″ E GPSAltitude Ref Above Sea Level GPSAltitude 9 m GPSDate Time 2010:10:24 19:25:39Z GPSMap Datum WGS-84 GPSProcessing Method HYBRID-FIX
Skyline – Nokia X6 Camera Nokia X6-00 Exposure 0.002 sec (1/500) Aperture f/2.8 Focal Length 5.2 mm ISO Speed 100 Flash Auto, Did not fire X-Resolution 240 dpi Y-Resolution 240 dpi Date and Time (Original) 2010:10:24 19:24:11+11:00 Date and Time (Digitized) 2010:10:24 19:24:11 Light Source Unknown Custom Rendered Normal Exposure Mode Auto White Balance Auto Digital Zoom Ratio 1 Scene Capture Type Standard Gain Control None GPSVersion ID 2.2.0.0 GPSAltitude Ref Below Sea Level GPSAltitude 7 m Compression JPEG (old-style) Measurement Observer CIE 1931 Measurement Flare 0.999% Measurement Illuminant D65 Color Transform YCbCr GPSVersion ID 2.2.0.0 GPS Latitude 37 deg 53′ 51.83″ S GPS Longitude 144 deg 59′ 7.72″ E GPSAltitude Ref Below Sea Level GPSAltitude 7 m Flash Return No return detection Flash Mode Auto Flash Function False Flash Red Eye Mode False	Skyline – Nokia N8 Camera Nokia N8-00 Exposure 0.003 sec (1/310) Aperture f/2.8 Focal Length 5.9 mm ISO Speed 103 Flash Auto, Did not fire X-Resolution 240 dpi Y-Resolution 240 dpi Date and Time (Original) 2010:10:24 19:24:21.534+11:00 Date and Time (Digitized) 2010:10:24 19:24:21 Light Source Unknown Sub Sec Time Original 534 Sub Sec Time Digitized 534 Custom Rendered Normal Exposure Mode Auto White Balance Auto Digital Zoom Ratio 1 Scene Capture Type Standard Gain Control Low gain up GPSVersion ID 2.2.0.0 GPSAltitude Ref Above Sea Level GPSAltitude 19.5 m GPSMeasure Mode 3-Dimensional Measurement GPSDOP 1.1 GPSMap Datum WGS-84 Compression JPEG (old-style) Viewing Conditions Illuminant Type D50 Measurement Observer CIE 1931 Measurement Flare 0.999% Measurement Illuminant D65 Color Transform YCbCr GPSVersion ID 2.2.0.0 GPS Latitude 37 deg 53′ 51.03″ S GPS Longitude 144 deg 59′ 7.94″ E GPSAltitude Ref Above Sea Level GPSAltitude 19.5 m GPSMeasure Mode 3-Dimensional GPSDOP 1.1 GPSMap Datum WGS-84 Flash Return No return detection Flash Mode Auto Flash Function False Flash Red Eye Mode False

Headline numbers on the Cameras are.

Nokia X6- 5megapixel
Nokia N95-8gb- 5megapixel
HTC Desire – 5megapixel
JVC FM1 – 8megapixel
Nikon D90 – 12megapixel
Nokia N8 – 12megapixel

Whilst I know that sensor size, aperture, glass etc are what makes a great camera, megapixels is what Joe Public know when they are after a camera.

One of the more interesting things that came out of the second test, was that 3 of the cameras that had GPS built into them had time to get a GPS fix. Compare the locations.

KML Google Map Showing, location of the Above Cameras. The HTC was the closest.

View Larger Map

All the EXIF data, is pulled from Flickr’s view EXIF info mode, more data would be available through other tools.

Once again, the Nokia N8 wins in the above tests. ( Well apart from the D90 ). I kept the D90 in the tests for showing what a DSLR can shoot compared to a mobile phone when on auto mode.

I can not believe just how bad the camera on the HTC Desire is, it fails on every comparison test I do. And fails by a long way.

To be fair to my Nikon D90…. this is what you can get, with a DSLR, Manual Mode and a 70-300mm Lens. This is the cheap old 70-300mm lens which costs less cost less than $200AUD.

( This shot is also available for purchase on Redbubble )

All devices were on Automode, and the scene was in hard light at 5:40pm, of flowers in my front garden.

The shots were just lined up quickly by hand but all taken within a few min of each other.

(Click on each Image to link through for the full size shots)

Macro Shots – Nokia N95-8gb	Macro Shots – JVC FM1
Camera Nokia N95 8GB Exposure 0.009 sec (1/111) Aperture f/2.8 Focal Length 5.6 mm ISO Speed 100 Flash Auto, Did not fire Orientation Horizontal (normal) X-Resolution 300 dpi Y-Resolution 300 dpi Custom Rendered Normal Exposure Mode Auto White Balance Auto Digital Zoom Ratio 1.04 Scene Capture Type Standard Gain Control None Compression JPEG (old-style)	Camera JVC GC-FM1 Exposure 0.002 sec (1/599) Aperture f/2.8 Focal Length 3.9 mm ISO Speed 100 Exposure Bias 0 EV Flash No flash function Orientation Horizontal (normal) X-Resolution 72 dpi Y-Resolution 72 dpi Date and Time (Modified) 2010:10:24 17:41:23 YCbCr Positioning Co-sited Exposure Program Program AE Metering Mode Center-weighted average Light Source Unknown Custom Rendered Normal Digital Zoom Ratio 1 Compression JPEG (old-style)
Macro Shots – Nokia X6	Macro Shots – Nokia N8
Camera Nokia X6-00 Exposure 0.003 sec (1/333) Aperture f/2.8 Focal Length 5.2 mm ISO Speed 100 Flash Auto, Did not fire Orientation Horizontal (normal) X-Resolution 300 dpi Y-Resolution 300 dpi YCbCr Positioning Centered Light Source Unknown Color Space sRGB Custom Rendered Normal Exposure Mode Auto White Balance Auto Digital Zoom Ratio 1 Scene Capture Type Standard Gain Control None Compression JPEG (old-style)	Camera Nokia N8-00 Exposure 0.012 sec (1/85) Aperture f/2.8 Focal Length 5.9 mm ISO Speed 102 Flash Auto, Did not fire X-Resolution 240 dpi Y-Resolution 240 dpi Custom Rendered Normal Exposure Mode Auto White Balance Auto Digital Zoom Ratio 0 Scene Capture Type Standard Gain Control Low gain up
Macro Shots – Nikon D90	Macro Shots – HTC Desire
Camera Nikon D90 Exposure 0.003 sec (1/400) Aperture f/10.0 Focal Length 18 mm ISO Speed 200 Exposure Bias 0 EV Flash Auto, Did not fire X-Resolution 240 dpi Y-Resolution 240 dpi Max Aperture Value 3.5 Subject Distance 0.45 m Metering Mode Multi-segment Light Source Unknown CFAPattern [Green,Blue][Red,Green] Custom Rendered Normal Exposure Mode Auto White Balance Auto Digital Zoom Ratio 1 Focal Length In35mm Format 27 mm Scene Capture Type Standard Compression JPEG (old-style) Color Transform YCbCr Flash Return No return detection Flash Mode Auto	Camera HTC Desire ISO Speed 100 X-Resolution 72 dpi Y-Resolution 72 dpi YCbCr Positioning Centered Compression JPEG (old-style)

The worst performer was the HTC Desire. Colour rendering is terrible, it is washed out and insipid. ( I’d like to see if the new HTC Desire HD camera is any better, but the current Desire’s camera is pathetic )

The N8, did a wonderful job. Colour rendition is very close, for what is a tricky shot, the depth of field is bang on as well.

The 3 year old Nokia N95-8gb, still stands up as a great camera, but it showing its age when compared to the Nokia N8

The D90, shot to dark in Automode. (But I don’t shot in Automode that often, and still have the RAW version to process)

I’ve yet to see a cameraphone that comes close to the Nokia N8. The new sensor, coupled with the Carl Zeiss F2.8 lens is simply stunning. 4000×3000 shots with real print DPI, give you a lot of wiggle room for cropping as well.

I have yet however to find a way to move the focus point on the N8. This makes playing with the depth of field very tricky. It comes down to lining up the focus point then moving the camera to get the out of focus elements you want. Which on the above camera phones is the only thing that the HTC Desire had going in its favour.  I’d like to see Nokia open up the camera app, to allow some real control over the image as well. Why, cause they could.  Sre I lug my Nikon D90 with me, but giving people some more fine control over the camera would help people get the most out of this device.

Whilst, in my big review, I pointed out there was a lot wrong with the N8, some of which I am sure will get ironed out with firmware updates and third party applications, Overall the camera is simply stunning. If you are a Nokia user, who likes to get photos on the run with their phone and not lug around a separate camera, get the N8.

For me, the USB as Host feature and its amazing Macro lens, means I will still be carrying around the N8 with me, because it does add to my overall set of tools.

Of course in the interim I was seduced by the dark side as it were… – no not Apple, (not that dark), but Android; the HTC Desire.

To be a spoiler of my own review, if I was comparing only the Nokia family, then the N8 is an amazing “phone”.  These days, for a great number of people including myself that just isn’t enough any more.  Many people need a mobile computer; access on the go to Google, email, games and importantly social networks.

Nokia, you aren’t playing in the same game anymore.  The N8 is without a doubt an amazing Nokia phone. But Nokia the game has changed, you needed a product that will bring people back to you, and unfortunately this is not it.

And on to the why’s and wherefores about my decision.  Certainly, there are a lot of features that are more than worthy on the N8, many of these features will get dedicated blog posts of their own over the next few weeks.

The Nokia N8, is great to hold.  It feels solid in your hand, without being plastic and cheap. It is also one of the few phones on the market that stands up on its own. Whilst, on paper it is close to the HTC Desire, I like the feel of the N8. You know you are holding a solid piece of engineering and development. The buttons feel great, the controls are solid and the micro sd-card slot and sim slot are easy to reach.  The Sim and micro-SD slots easily accessible and you can swap out as you go. With 16gb on storage on the N8, you can dump all your apps on the phone, plus a few thousand photos and just use the micro-SD for music. These are big things over the Desire, which puts everything behind a flimsy back of plastic. One that you have to take the battery out for, to change the micro-SD card or swap the sim.

Yet, the Nokia has a major problem here. The Desire has a changeable battery.  Whilst you could swap the battery if you have a Torx screwdriver on the N8, this isn’t what I would call user friendly.  I have found in my non technical testing that the battery life on the N8, is certainly much better than the Desire. But using standby and call times for batteries are useless metrics days.  If I used my Nokia only as a phone, I could get 1 hours more talk time on 3G than the Desire. How many people buy smart phones only as phones.  Heavy usage, will still drain the battery in a few hours.  The Nokia N8, does at least support USB charging, along with the traditional Nokia 2.0mm charger.

The camera on the Nokia N8 is fantastic.  In fact I will say that again, the camera is fantastic.  I am at the point of holding off buying a new macro lens for my Nikon D90 camera because I can use the N8 as a macro lens, of a comparable quality to what I get from my D90. It is simply that good.  Now it isn’t a replacement for the Nikon D90 in anyway, but if you have to have a phone with a camera, you can’t go wrong with the N8. The 12MP Camera, with “a huge arse” sensor (I am sure that is the correct technical term), will take photographs that leave all other camera phones for dust.

But, the great camera is let down by the operating system.  For example, I’ve yet to work out how to change the focus point on the camera. There is no native Upload to Flickr as a key point. So I have a fantastic camera, which on the OVI store is only supported by a few apps to give me uploading to Flickr options, to easily share the content I create.

The “New” Symbain ^3 Operating System, tries its best to be the old Symbian.  Why, I have no idea.  Of course it is very familiar to Nokia users, and works very well on that level.  To change settings on various applications can be a series of yes and no prompts. Some work at one level, others at two levels though with differing confirm commands.  And because the OS is so new it is missing what for me are basic and core functionalities. The keyboard is only T9 in portrait mode, and a qwerty in landscape, what software engineer decided that? Different screens have different levels of input, some are one level, others are input text, confirm, then update. Again a software issue. Nokia will tell you that the OVI Store has X number of applications.  But that is X number for all handsets, not just the N8 which is new.  A lot of applications are still missing, some from the OS built in, others from 3^rd party developers. Yes they will come in time, because this phone will sell in large numbers.  But early adopters are going to run into hurt.

The phone itself, seems slow at times.  While, yes, the operating system can run on lower specs that other devices, it still seems slow.  I wanted it to be snappy, like my Desire is when changing screens for example.  I wanted it not to hang, and I wanted it not to spit out random “Sim Not Found” errors.  Many of these will be fixed I am sure with the next iteration of the firmware. Perhaps more software will be written to take advantage of the 3D Graphics Broadcom Chip, which takes the heavy lifting in graphics off the CPU.  The Nokia N8, can handle Dolby Surround 720 Divx content and does it well.  My version had Tron Legacy Trailers, which when plugged into my 1080p flat panel TV via the N8’s HDMI out looked amazing.  And with the N8’s wifi N built in, this phone could be a great media server.

The screen is great to look at, and does seem to work very well, even in bright outdoor environments.  Yet, for me, the choice of fonts that Nokia have, just seem – well, ugly.  If I look at the way text is rendered on my Desire it is cleaner and easier to read.  The issue may be Nokia’s choice of only using a 360 x 640 pixels, 3.5 inches screen, compared to the Desire’s 480 x 800 pixels, 3.7 inches.  On the Nokia, I find my reading times have slowed.  I’m sure some font nut expert will be able to tell me why (and I am sure I will nod and agree with them, whilst they spout stuff I have no understanding of).

The USB as host feature, is simply wow. And by wow I mean WOW! (like the camera, it will get a dedicated blog post in the future).  I plugged in a $10 SD card reader, inserted a card from the Nikon D90 into it and, and up came all the files straight on my Nokia N8.  I can now shoot high resolution shots with my range of lenses and without a computer upload the jpgs straight to Flickr (once I found . It works and it works seamlessly.  Couple this with HDMI out and you have a portable presentation system that works as a phone.  Already I leave the card reader and the USB cable in my camera bag – I can upload shots on the road, no laptop.

I wanted this phone to be good, I wanted to be able to go up to people and say, look what my Nokia can do.  Can I still do that, yes, but.  Two years ago, this phone would have trounced everyone.  But it isn’t two years ago anymore. When Nokia announced they had free Navigation on all GPS phones it was a market leader.  Having offline navigation for (even, just) your own country is a killer feature. And yet the newly announced Desire HD also has this feature. USB as host will come to a whole pile of devices shortly I am sure. HDMI out, whilst great  isn’t (yet) a killer feature on a phone.

Would I recommended this phone to someone.  Yes, I would.  Nokia fans will love it, as well they should. For Nokia though this phone needed to be something that would bring the fan boys back.  Nokia have made great hardware again, but great hardware isn’t what drives the smart phone market. I look forward to the firmware update from Nokia to see if that will fix some of the issues.  Once a bit more software comes out, it will be more friendly. I want a great mobile computer, and this isn’t it.

I wanted this phone to be great, I really did. But it isn’t at this point.

It is a great phone but not yet a smart one.

(Disclaimer: The Nokia N8 was supplied to me directly by Nokia Australia)

The Show Down Consisted of the following…
( plus the Nikon D90 DSLR, which took this shot)

Overcast Sunset – Brighton, Melbourne, Saturday 23/10/10

All devices were set on automatic mode and a couple of shots were taken, the best of which I uploaded to flickr.

Each image links through to the flickr version, where you can see the full image as well.

——————————————————————————-

Nokia X6 – 5MP

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JVC FM1 – 8MP

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HTC Desire – 5MP

This is the only Exif Data for the shot from the Desire

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Nikon D90 – 12MP

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Nokia N8 – 12MP

I think the D90 wins… but then it should. But the N8 for a mobile phone, which of course happened to be the only device that could upload the photos from all the other devices, comes a very very respectable second.

Just stop and think about the last 10 years in Australia and the tools that we use. Then after reading this think about what you are going to do in 10 years time.

Starting a bit before 10 years ago, in 1992 there were two yes two ISP’s in Australia. Telstra weren’t to switch on ADSL until 2000. And it wasn’t until 2006 that Telstra removed the cap and let ADSL1 get to 8Mbps. ( BTW how many people actually get that kind of speed)

Google which is now such an integral part of some many of our lives ( see all those ads on the side) only overtook Altavista in 2000. YouTube launched in Nov 2005, only to be grabbed by Google less than a year later for a cool US$1.65 billion in Google Stock.. Now people upload more than 24 hours of content every single minute. Google Maps which is doing a fine job of killing of map directories launched in 2007. Street View didn’t hit Australia till August 2008. Yes just a squeak over 2 years ago.

Flickr, didn’t launch until Feb 2004. It wasn’t until December 2006 that pro accounts got unlimited uploads. In this month Flickr officially had its 5billionth photo uploaded, given that the 4billionth shot was uploaded in Oct 2009, that is 1 billion photos in 11months. Uploads run to around 3,000 per minute.

MySpace… much maligned at the looser to Facebook launched in 2002. But still for the looser they are still the 32nd most visited website in the world. Which of course leads to the current behemoth that is Facebook. It didn’t launch to the public until September 2006. 4 years later it has ½ a billion users. They are now the number 2 visited website, with of course Google still number 1. (Source Alexa.com)

Of the Top 10 sites as September 2010, really only Yahoo and Windows Live can claim to have been any sort of influence pre 2000. YouTube, Facebook, Baidu, Wikipedia, Blogspot and Twitter just didn’t exist. These are content rich sites. They are not just light weight text sites, but sites with rich media, photos, HD Video e.t.c.

The big argument is about wireless taking over and making Fibre to the Home obsolete. Ignoring the obvious thing about the physics of it all and that fact that you can just your N grade wifi with many of the new devices to connect to the backbone at your home or work, let think about wireless devices.

It wasn’t until the N95 that you could get a 5megapixel camera and GPS in one device. That was March 2007. Nokia also gave us the first phone with a compass, in 2008. Apple didn’t launch the first IPhone until June 2007. The IPhone 4 now has a 5megapixel camera. The Nokia N8 is launching with a 12 mega-pixel camera, with 8 mega-pixels becoming common on high end phones. Nokia in 2008 became the world’s largest manufacturer of any kind of camera. These devices now support N Wifi, with its data capabilities of 600mbit/s. Telstra’s Next G has speeds upto 42Mbit/s. So are you going to rely on just wireless or use your local or someone else’s WiFi network.

My phone has a 1 GHz CPU, 10 years ago that was the top of the line CPU for home computers. Now I do lots of stuff on the move, but the heavy lifting as it were is done at home on the big computer, the one with 12gig of ram and 3tb of storage.

The advent of P2P has forced a dramatic change in the way we view television and listen to music as well. Napster only came onto the scene in 1999. Bit Torrent wasn’t released as a protocol until 2001, now it is estimated to be anywhere between 20-50% of Internet Traffic. Whereas previously Australia was often low down in the priority order for showing first run shows, now networks “RUSH” TV shows often within a day or less of airing internationally just to circumvent this technology. The ABC only launched IView in 2008. In 2010 is launched live streaming of ABCNews24 (chewing up around 300mb p/h ) in the process. Now all the channels offer some sort of IPTV Catch up service.

This is just a sample of various tech over the last 10 years. Many of the examples above are only 5 years old. The other big advantage of the NBN is that either end of the cable can be upgraded, so the 1gbps is an artificial limit. In some respects it happens to be the most cost effective for deployment for the whole project.

There is no technology on the horizon that is going to be able to compete with Fibre to the Home for speed. This is a rare chance for Australia to be a world leader with all the benefits that will bring. Or it is a chance for us to shy away and spend the next 10 years catching up. Look above to see what happened in the last 10 years, the clock is ticking.

For the really lazy… Here is my conclusion..

I like the HTC, I like Android and I’m finding myself living more and more connected due to this phone. If you use Google a lot, this is the phone for you, if you use Google a bit, this is the phone that will make you use Google alot.  There is a lot to like about it, there is a lot to be frustrated by it.  But will I recommend it to people.  Yes, with a big caveat you have to be someone with time to invest to get used to it.  Also this phone is for someone with a dataplan.  If you don’t have a decent data plan you are not going to get the most of out it.

On with the review…. my 3 year old nokia…Most people would say.. but the phone is three years old.. why haven’t you upgraded.  The reason was evolution not revolution.  The original N95 to me was the Revolutionary phone.. the N95-8gb which I got was the evolution.  One of the reasons for getting was that it had Flash Lite 2.1… aka Flash Lite with Flash 7 video.  (Sorry Steve but flash has been on mobiles for a few years now!), coupled with the GPS, wifi and 5 Mega pixel camera this phone still served me well.

What is interesting is that on paper the HTC-Desire is so close in so many areas.  At least for the things that I was particularly interested in. Of course I am moving from the old Nokia to the new HTC as my new base phone, but what I think I should point out is just where the phones are different.

Comparison Table N95 – HTC (Table Modified from – GSM Arena)

For me what is interesting is that the Nokia still holds its own in a large number of these fields, including camera, wifi, gps and multitasking.

I’ve given the nod to Nokia for battery as well whilst on paper the HTC is the better battery, not once you start using the features of the phone and features is what is comes down to. Until people start putting “using the phone time” in battery life is somewhat of a useless number.  9 years ago this kind of computer was top end sitting on your desktop.  Now it is in your hand.

The camera also goes to Nokia as well for the optics, but the camera controls are more refined on the HTC, but the dedicated Camera button on the Nokia is much easier to use, also the way you hold the phone is much easier with the Nokia and on the HTC I kept covering the lens with my hand.

The screen goes hands down to the HTC, it is a joy to use and is so bright and clear that even going back to the Nokia for 20 minutes was to be honest quite hard just to read the text on the screen.

I’ve already blogged about the GPS, which is incredibly fast and responsive and with the digital compass a huge advance of the Nokia. Couple that with the beautiful screen it is a great car gps as well.  However Nokia still have one big thing over all the Android phones and that is Ovi Maps.  The fact that you can now get (on all new Nokia’s) free world wide offline maps this is something that I missed with the HTC.  I often use my Nokia to plan routes or when I am travelling outside phone coverage and even in the dense urban areas your map never goes offline and you never have to pay for data charges to get maps.

The Android Store can be a dogs breakfast when using if from your phone.  Sure if you know just what you are after then it is great, but it still needs a lot of work to be really user friendly and help users find the apps and give them the control on sorting.  However there are number of third party solutions, AppBrain in particular is very handy giving you control over your apps and the ability to see what your friends have installed.

I miss my Real Player and my Divx player as well.  Like a number of things, that is not HTC’s fault, nor Androids, someone hasn’t built them yet.  Sure people scoff at Real Player, but there are a lot of sites that still use it and a lot of streaming radio uses it as well. I am going to miss the TV out function as well, I liked being able to see my camera photos on the tv when I was travelling.

The wifi in the Desire is very impressive… getting signals at the other end of my house where the Nokia doesn’t.  Which means that I can be a little bit further out from free wifi and still get a signal, which suits me perfectly.

As for the Telstra set up, I get where they were coming from in the way they put the apps on.  Sure they want to push their own brand, but do it right.  WAP is not an Application.. so don’t make things look like Apps that are just WAP Links.. Further why WAP… seriously this phone can display stunning webpages.. make light version of the page yes, but not WAP.  And let people remove them.  Why introduce limitations to a device that was designed not to have them.

As for Network, if you live outside the major metro’s I would say Telstra hands down.  If you travel outside the metro’s frequently also Telstra hands down.  Nationally their network is fantastic.  Yes when they say their coverage is in more place and is stronger they are telling the truth. If you live in the city though other factors can come into play… price is the biggest one.

Using the HTC is fast, it is very responsive and with the update to Android hopefully due soon it should be even faster.  Couple that with Flash 10.1 and this phone is seriously going to rock.  I look forward to seeing what Nokia can come up with, but it looks like Android have me in their grasp for a while yet.

When I work out more things… I’ll just add more blog posts.. but without the hashtag

My UMPC, the Asus R2H which I use primarily as my car computer these days (yes I am that sad I have a car computer).  I’ll need to trick it up a bit.. like with a bigger SD card or two but it could be possible.  The main things I do with the R2H are make time-lapse driving videos (eg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwjbluNF3So)  and run OziExplorer for offline detailed topomaps to see where I am and where I want to go.  Google maps just doesn’t cut it when you get off the beaten path. And have some music to sing along badly to.

With a few well choosen Apps I could do this.  It is going to take sometime to work it all out, but I really think that this is possible.

There are a few things that the R2H can do that the Desire can not.. storage and downloading photos from my D90, but I can still take the computer for longer trips, just not mount it on the windscreen.  One of these weekends I’ll get a decent screen mount, and I already have a lighter to USB power supply, plug in my FM transmitter to the headphone jack and I think it can be done.

I really wish that I could get offline navigation for free like I can on my Nokia with Ovi Maps (well not free $10 because I have an old phone) but still… the fact I am even considering this I think is noteworthy about the device.

That aside, I thought I would take the time to write down where I am coming from.

I’m not primarily a Telstra customer… I have a backup Telstra Phone that I only use on my extra long road trips, say twice a year (if I am lucky).  This phone just sits in a draw the rest of the time without credit as there is no way to keep long term credit on prepaid without it expiring.  Funny thing is that stamps don’t expire, but phone credit does.

But then I spend most of my time in a large city with access to basically blanket coverage anyway, so coverage as never been a major issue for me. I am a free wifi hunter, data rates in this country are to put it kindly criminal.  Sure sending a few tweets here and there is nothing, but when the SMH home page weights about 1 meg and refreshes… that starts to add up very quickly.  More when you consider that if I was to use data it would be for storm chasing and uploading high-res photos from my D90 the cost is way out of my budget.

And I am not an iPhone user, and to be honest the iPhone has never attracted me.  Sure it is a very nice looking device, but my trusty 3 year old Nokia N95-8gb still out performs the iPhone for the task I use it for.  Those tasks are making calls, using the camera and GPS tracking primarily.  Nor have I been a big application installer. I kind of tend to find a series of apps that do what I am after and stick to them.  The background recording of GPS traces has meant that I could never use an iPhone as that is what I consider a base requirement for a device is the ability to mulitask.  Neither is the camera and use I use the front camera for video calling occasionally as well.

I did play with a Nexus One for about 5 min over a beer and must say that is was the first phone that made me stop and think about jumping ship as it were.  The N97 whilst an improvement over my N95, just wasn’t the huge leap I was looking for.  The N900 still isn’t on plans in Australia and with the changes to Symbian has a real risk of being technology that is going to be OS Redundant by the time it hits our shores.

So I have been plugging away with my phone which I can use very easily with one hand with it’s 8gig of on-board storage, tv out, replaceable battery, multitasking, damn fine camera e.t.c quite happily. The other main thing I do with my phone is interact on twitter in the evening, with the phone connected to my home wifi using dabr.co.uk as my primary web app.

It is going to be interesting to see if I can not only move to a wholly new platform but a new way of interacting with a device and yet still keep the things that I count as my minimum requirements.

To really it put the phone through its paces I’ll use just the HTC Desire whilst I am in Hobart for four days and see what I can do about video, photography, GPS, calls and social networking, then I will see how it goes through day to day real world use as well.

It should be interesting, I’m willing to look at something new it just has to fit my “old” requirements as well.

P.S

I’ve set up a Twitter list for all the other people on the Social Review here as well which you can follow.

http://twitter.com/wolfcat/htc-desire-telstradesire

Today’s announcement of Section 3.1.1 by Apple.

“Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. ”

Of course this is aimed squarely at Adobe and the upcoming CS5 which will let Flash Developers port to the “I” platform. And as it turns out happens to be the biggest step down the road of turning Apple into the next Beta Format. Like Beta it will be around for many years to come and I am sure that many people (most much smarter than I) will be able to put forward lots of technical reasons why the Native only path is the best way to go.

But why did the public, yes not developers and not marketers choose VHS over Beta… because it was cheaper easier and OPEN. Sure when VHS was first coming out, Beta was better, but people didn’t care.

Apple got the jump going for the “people” aspect with the iphone… but the market is bigger than just the iphone and whilst Nokia still hold the high ground on numbers and devices (Sorry Apple users but my N95-8gb is still more useful than an iphone!), Android is on the rise.

Reviewers who have lauded the iphone and now looking at devices like the Nexus One and the HTC Desire which pack all the “wow” of the iphone with one extra little toy… OPEN Platform.

Now if you are a development company and can build a new game/widget/etc and output it via Flash to Android, Nokia, WinMo and all the devices that are on this.. but miss the “I” platform what are you going to do. In the medium term, sure you will develop for both, but not long term.

The restrictions of the “I” world are starting to bite and the noose is getting tighter, due in no part to Apple pulling on it themselves.

The times are a changing.. the rise of Android will see to that… the rise of the OPEN environment where people change things on their device without voiding warranty are coming….

This graph helps to show the rise of Android in the Mobile Operating System Market in the US….

(Source from JavaLobby)