Why are Android phones better than Symbian phones?



Symbian has been popular with users, but lately that popularity has been declining. Among the other devices out there, Androids are probably the most prominent in the news. Hence, many may ask themselves the question: "Why should I get an Android"? In fact I see such questions all the time, but I didn't see a clear topic with some answers. For that reason, I've decided today to post this short list to explain why someone should go for an Android device instead of Symbian, if he is trying to decide which one to buy.

But before that, I'd like to stress two things:
a) There are all kind of Android devices, but for this post I'll refer only to the high-end phones.
b) Sybmian devices also have their strong points, but I'm sure these points will be posted in Symbian forum section.


So, here we go, the advantages of an Android device:
1) Great processing power based on modern processors. Androids use Cortex-A8 based processors which deliver a much better performance than Symbians with Arm 11 CPUs. Excellent examples are HTC Snapdragons (currently with 2nd generation) and Samsung Hummingbirds, both running at 1 GHz speed (versus 680MHz speed in Symbians). The gap in processing power is even larger with the newest dual-core CPUs based on Cortex-A9 architecture (like in Motorola Atrix). That makes Symbians to fall even farther behind Androids.

2) Screen resolution. Androids use higher screen resolutions with 800(854)x480 compared to Symbians (640x360). This allows more details to be displayed on screen, which is especially handy with web browsing (the extra information on screen saves the trouble to scroll too much). Furthermore, the recently announced Atrix brings even a higher qHD resolution (960x540)! That means 2.25 times more pixels on the phone display than those found in Symbian phones.

3) Memory (RAM). Everyone hates when the applications in a phone start to crash because of low memory. While 512MB RAM is normal for Androids, Symbians have to leave with 256MB RAM. Despite Nokia trying to optimize the memory usage, “out of memory” messages still happen in Symbian phones. On the contrary, some Androids reward you with even more RAM (768MB in Desire HD, 1GB in Atrix).

4) Graphics and games. Symbian devices use the Broadcom BCM2727 GPU, which while seems to perform pretty well against the old Adreno 200 chips (Nexus One), it falls behind the newest Android GPUs. Current Android devices come with powerful GPUs based on Adreno 205 (Desire HD) or PowerVR SGX540 cores. Furthermore, the newest Nvidia Tegra 2 chips bring even further boost in graphics performance, that is said to show 3-4 times better performance than Adreno 205 or SGX540! Nvidia has opened a special portal called Tegra Zone, where the owners of Android Tegra 2 devices can enjoy high quality gaming (as Nvidia describes the chip: "capable of extreme multitasking with the first mobile dual-core CPU, hardware accelerated Flash, and console-quality gaming with an ultra-low power GeForce GPU).

5) UI and customization. It has been pointed out by many analysts that Nokia UI is not modern enough to compete with Android/iOS. The limited customization of the homescreens and deep menus are all weaknesses of Symbian. On contrary, Androids offer huge customization of homescreens, menus, launchers, widgets that will satisfy vast majority of tastes. Either go with manufacturer customized UI (like HTC Sense with its 7 homescreens and widgets) or create a new one completely suited to your tastes. Popular launchers like Launcher Pro or ADW Launcher are handy to create customized UIs.

6) Web Browser. The Android stock browser is the most popular out there because it does the job nicely. Starting form Android 2.2, it can support Adobe 10.1 full flash, that is being used in many websites. This enables full browsing experience, enables flash video streaming and playing flash games from websites like Kongregate. Symbian browser at this moment is a headache to use. For that reason, some users have jumped to use Opera, but it doesn’t support flash.

7) Multimedia. Thanks to powerful hardware and abundance of multimedia applications, playing videos, listening to music or playing with photos is fun on Android devices. Large screens (up to 4.3"), great displays (Super Amoleds), huge amount of media players, support for all popular audio/video formats, HDMI connectivity, DLNA media streaming - all these contribute to the media fun. Symbians have to limit themselves with lesser displays, rely on default media player (because there are hardly any good alternative applications) and miss DLNA connectivity.

8.) Applications Store. While Symbian OVI Store has grown recently (258% in 2010), it's growth is lower compared to Android market (544% in 2010). The number of applications is also much higher in Android Market (200,000) compared to OVI (40,000). However, what the user notices most is how these app stores integrate with their phones. While OVI seems to be just a disconnected place to download applications, Android Market will synchronize your installed applications, will notify you of almost daily updates, will auto update them all if you wish (even simultaneously) and offer similar apps. Some alternative client applications for Android Market, like AppBrain, take it even further by allowing you to browse the applications on PC and schedule auto installs on your phone or allow customized selection of apps suitable for your needs.

9) Applications. As pointed above, there are more Android apps available than Symbian Apps. But what does this give us?
For one, you can do more things that you can't do with Symbian, because Symbian doesn't have similar application. For example, I'm using at least 5 Dutch Android apps that have no Symbian equivalents.
Next, there is the variety of applications. Thanks to more developers being involved with Android, we get a huge choice of applications. Try to count the number of applications available for Android and Symbian in a particular interest, say how many music or medical applications are available in each platform.
When we look at the applications outside the Apps Stores, they are most easy to install on Androids: just copy them to the phone and run it there. With Symbian, you have to deal with the complicated Symbian signing procedure. DailyMobile's Symbian forum has probably a few thousands posts with desperate questions on this matter.
Finally, sharing apps on Androids is a breeze thanks to Apps Sharing applications and QR codes. There are multiple ways to do this, including Dropbox sharing and Barcode scanning.

10) Custom ROMs and Modding. This is a special area where Androids shine above other platforms. Professional modding communities like Cyanogen, XDA-World, or Modaco are immensely popular by creating new firmware with either new OS versions or improving those that come built-into the devices or by adding new features. For people who love to scqueeze the best out of their phones, Android truly offers the best possibilities.

11)  OS updates. On average, every 6 month there is a new OS version in Android. While manufacturers have different ideas about updating their phones (HTC does an excellent job updating their phones), you can almost always update your phone to latest version thanks to custom ROMs. The fist Android phone (G1) that was released in 2008, was updated to Android 2.2 Froyo via Vodaphone and via custom ROMs. Symbian jumped from S60V5 to S^3 for touch devices, but none of those S60V5 devices was updated (probably because the hardware was crap).

12)  Market trends.Some trends are obvious, like declining popularity of Symbian devices, falling Symbian and rising Android market shares, other manufacturers abandoning Symbian at all (like Samsung and SE), disposal of Symbian foundation, etc... It has come now to "One versus Many" where Symbian is alone (Nokia) against a team of players (Google, Samsung, HTC, Motorola, SE, LG, etc...). In January, the CES 2011 electronics show was all about Android devices (now even stronger with tablets invading the market), while Symbian was nowhere to be found. Maybe in MWC in February? Maybe... Taking too much time between announcing a phone and releasing it doesn't help Symbian at all (typical examples are Nokia N8 and E7). Contrary to this Androids keep it short, between 1 to 3 months (see DHD or Nexus S or LG Optimus 2X).

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Ne slažem se sa 5) (meniji i teme su prilično customizable, onako kad se gleda out-of-the-box telefon) i 7) (ima mnogo 3rd party plejera i pordžava hdmi port), a i 10) se menja u poslednje vreme

-hhmmm... lukpot, i ako ima istine u tome,radi se o tri tačke od navedenih 12...

Budženje romova ima na symbianu ali to nije ni približno androidu ili Wm-u.

Elastic Phone concept



For those of you who made the jump to a touchscreen phone from a standard keypad, you might have thought to yourself one day, “Now how on earth did I ever manage to live my life around a keypad handset?” while flinging yet another bird to its green-skinned pig target. The Elastic Phone concept is a throwback (pun not intended) that certainly rolls back the years, where it intends to merge both the old and new with an OLED touchscreen display that has the convenience of a flexible keypad. If you decide for a full-view display, you will find that the keys are shifted to one corner of the handset – or you can always rearrange them whenever you want to let off some steam, using the Elastic Phone as a gaming platform.

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Mobiado Aston Martin luxury phones coming soon. CPT002 transparent phone concept unveiled

In case you’ve missed Mobiado, we’re (sort of) happy to inform you that the Canadian company has big plans for this year, and some of them will be accomplished in collaboration with British sports cars maker Aston Martin.

Yes, you’ve guessed it: Mobiado will make Aston Martin luxury phones.

There are no details on the phones themselves, but we know that they should be available starting May this year “through a range of premium outlets.”

Until then, Mobiado and Aston Martin have presented a concept phone called CPT002. The CPT002 would feature a “solid sapphire crystal, see-through capacitive touch screen”, and would be used “as a key to your Aston Martin vehicle.”







Of course, the Mobiado Aston Martin CPT002 will probably never become a real device. Or at least not in the foreseeable future.

Via Press release and Press release (PDF files)

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Mobile phones cause bone weakening?



We’ve already heard mobile phone radiation can cause cancer of the brain. Like that’s not enough, a new research suggests it [radiation] can also affect our bones.

Dr Fernando Sravi of Argentina’s National University of Cuyo found that men who routinely wear their cell phone on their belt on the right side have reduced bone mineral content (BMC) and bone mineral density (BMD) in their right hip.

“The different patterns of right-left asymmetry in femoral bone mineral found in mobile cell phone users and non-users are consistent with a nonthermal effect of electromagnetic radiofrequency waves not previously described,” he said.

Apparently the men who wore their cellphones on the right side had a lower femoral neck BMC in that hip than the men who never carried one. Moreover, the cellphone users also had reduced BMD and BMC at the right trochanter, which is the area at the outside top of the thigh bone.

Although larger follow-up studies will be needed, the study does raise the possibility that long-term exposure to electromagnetic radiation from mobile phones could adversely affect bone mineralization…

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U.S. Trade Panel Rules Apple Did Not Violate Nokia Patents


A U.S. Trade Panel has ruled that Apple did not violate any of five Nokia patents, according to Reuters.

Apple Inc won a round in its patent battle with Nokia on Friday as a U.S. trade panel ruled that the U.S. company did not violate any of five Nokia patents. The patents were for electronic devices, including mobile phones, portable music players and computers. A judge at the International Trade Commission, which hears many patent cases, said that Apple did not violate the Nokia patents.

Nokia has filed numerous complains and lawsuits against Apple. In December Nokia filed claims in the UK High Court, Dusseldorf and Mannheim District Courts in Germany and the District Court of the Hague, Netherlands, alleging that Apple infringes Nokia patents in many of its products sold in these countries, including iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

Those actions added 13 further Nokia patents to the 24 already asserted against Apple in the US International Trade Commission and the Delaware and Wisconsin Federal courts.

Read More




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Windows Phone to Beat iPhone, BlackBerry Market Share by 2015



IDC recently published their forecast for the worldwide smartphone market, and they foresee 450 million units shipping in 2011 compared to 303 million last year; that translates to 49% growth, which is four times more than the overall mobile market. IDC claims Android will snatch up 45% of the worldwide smartphone market share by 2015, though to be honest, that sounds a little conservative, considering Android already claims 39% according to the IDC’s own research, though others have pegged it closer to 29%. For the same time period, BlackBerry and the iPhone’s iOS are likely to hold their ground at 13% and 15% respectively, Symbian is to all but disappear, and Windows Phone 7′s market share will grow significantly from 5.5% to 20.9% thanks in no small part to the Nokia deal.

That would put Windows Phone ahead of BlackBerry and iPhone in terms of market share by the time 2015 rolls around, which is a little hard to swallow, but like Android, WP7 appeals to multiple manufacturers. Motorola is the only one who hasn’t been particularly interested in making a Windows Phone, leaving HTC, Samsung, and LG to explore alternatives to Google’s mobile OS. I worry that supporting a second smartphone OS will split manufacturer attention and lead to slower updates across the board, but I guess that’s the price you pay for a diverse phone selection.

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Only in Japan: The F-07C, a 4 inch dual boot mobile phone that does full blown Windows and Symbian



According to a rumor coming straight out of Japan, NTT DoCoMo is going to release a product from Fujitsu dubbed the F-07C that packs a 4 inch screen with a resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels and it’s going to run both Windows and Symbian. We’re not talking Windows Phone either, we mean full blown Windows 7. That’s right, there’s an Intel Atom processor inside this thing, along with a 32 GB solid state drive. No word on how much RAM it packs, nor how Fujitsu is going to make Symbian even work. Is it going to be an x86 port of Symbian? Is there a tiny ARM chip in there that does Symbian? Will you need to reboot between the two or can both be running at the same time? At 125 mm x 61 mm x 19.8 mm it’s what some may call chunky, but just think about the possibilities. You wake up in the morning and boot up your phone, we’re assuming this thing will come with some sort of docking accessory, and you do whatever it is you need to do on your large screen, keyboard, and mouse, and then when it’s time to go to work you just put your computer inside your pocket and head out. Once your in the office you dock your phone again and bam, there’s your desktop.

The F-07C is likely to cost an arm and a leg and will never leave the island of Japan, but we’re actually wondering if such a device would catch on if it was released in Europe and America. With the next version of Microsoft’s Windows operating system supporting the ARM architecture, why not release an all in one phone/computer that you use as your one and only computing device? Hardcore gamers and creative types who edit photos and videos would never buy such a thing, but for the majority of folks this is perfect.

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