Wednesday 13 February 2013

Nokia Lumia 920 vs Apple Iphone 5 - Clash of the Titans Part II

I do remember posting an article which I have written many moons ago regarding one of the greatest battles in the history of mankind when it comes to the technology within a mobile phone. This article will continue the legacy of identifying whether it is worth while choosing the Nokia Lumia 920 over the Apple Iphone 5 or vice-versa. Best of all, should we just ditch this comparison and get an Android mobile instead?

Apple Iphone 5

Let's start off with the Apple Iphone 5. It is undoubtedly an icon for the past few months ever since the very first design was incepted by Steve Jobs in 2007. Many manufacturers after the debut of the Apple Iphone have started mimicking or even trying to design their mobile phones which resembles the Iphone and got themselves into trouble. It is understood that the battle in the world of patents is still going on around the world. The interests gained was so popular that there is a wikipedia entry into the said disputes. Many manufacturers particularly Samsung thinks that Apple is holding on to their treasure of a pool of patents too tightly. This will eventually result in the loss of an improvements in the field of designing new mobile phones and the technology in a mobile phone.

The Apple Iphone 5 continues the legacy of the success of the previous models which Apple has released, namely the Iphone 2G, 3G, 3Gs, 4 and 4S. The Iphone 5 departed from the usual 3.5" screen and it is now 4" instead. Many components have been changed too including the custom made A6 SoC with dualcore CPU and quadcore GPU. Apart from that, the internal memory has been increased from 512MB to 1GB with the usual internal flash storage of either 16GB, 32GB or 64GB. The main focus of the Iphone 5 lies within the new designed 8MP 1080p camera at the back of the mobile phone with an LED flash and a 1.3MP camera at the front for Video Calling. The Iphone 5 is also lighter than the Iphone 4S so much so users will not feel the Iphone 5 in their pocket as compared to the Iphone 4S.

There is no change in the functionality of the Iphone 5 when it comes to the software department. The iOS 6.1 is superb in handling any commands from any users. Moreover, it is understood that consumers will have a good feel when using the device as the interface is similar to previous generations. Best of all, it has enhanced a user's experience when using the Iphone 5 because there is virtually no issues when purchasing any apps from iTunes and users can easily backup the iphone 5's content with a few easy clicks. I enjoyed using the Iphone 5 very much. To sum up about the user experience of using the Iphone 5 in a word: Spectacular.

However, I have been having a problem with my thumb as I do experience pain while typing on the Iphone 5. I feel that there is a connection between the pain on my thumb and the narrow body of the Iphone 5. I then changed my focus to other mobile phone makers out there which will resolve the current problem. The phone which I have chosen is the Nokia Lumia 920.

Nokia 920

The Nokia Lumia 920 is based on Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 and it is designed to run multithread. This will increase productivity and it should be a perfect tool for day-to-day use. When the Lumia 920 was announced by Stephen Elop, I was skeptical about the phone because it is just too big even for my larger than average hand. I wish that the Lumia 920 could have been slightly thinner and slightly lighter to be exact. Nevertheless I took up the challenge of trying out the Nokia Lumia 920 for a few days.

Immediately I'm impressed with the 8.7MP digital camera on the Lumia 920. It performs much better than the camera on the Iphone 5 as it can take better low light pictures and that is what is lacking in the Iphone 5. I also like the Windows Phone 8 design although I'm not too keen in using the Live Tiles as it will just use up quite a lot of data if I am not connected to wifi as it will keep on updating on various apps in the background.

I like the brand Nokia very much but it is really hard to use the Lumia 920 as a day to day phone although the free turn-by-turn Satellite Navigation for around 70 countries in the world and the free Nokia Music app does turn me on. However, I have an offline Satellite Navigation app. so there is nothing special which wil attract me to the Lumia 920 anymore. Couple with the fact that there was an outage of the Microsoft's Marketplace last week which really annoyed me. The service was restored within 48 hours.

Advantages of using the Iphone 5 over the Nokia Lumia 920

If you are an Iphone lover or an Iphone user and you are using an Iphone 5 at this moment, you will feel that the Nokia Lumia 920 could not come close to the Iphone 5 in terms of its performance. This is true based on the fact that the Iphone 5's chassis is slimmer and significantly lighter than the bulky Nokia Lumia 920 where else the iOS 6 is smooth and refined over the Windows Phone 8. One good example will be in the area of taking a picture. Users of the Nokia Lumia 920 will have to wait for around 1.5 seconds before they can take a picture or even a 1080p video once they have clicked on the camera shutter button. Users of the Iphone 5 will not experience any delay at all. Users of the Iphone 5 will find that they can easily backup their apps or the entire storage of the Iphone 5 on their PC or laptop via iTunes without a fuss but it is difficult to do so on the Nokia Lumia 920 because it requires a geek to backup everything a user will need on the PC or Laptop.

Users of the Nokia Lumia 920 will be very disappointed to know that Zune no longer work on the Lumia 920 and they have to use another software to backup the contents of the Nokia Lumia 920. The backup software for the Nokia Lumia 920 is not as good as backing up on the iTunes as it will not store everything which is on the Lumia 920 onto the PC or Laptop. This is because users will have to rely on the SkyDrive from Microsoft. This is quite a hassle for someone who is thinking of using a non iOS device in the near future. Since all information are being stored in the cloud, a user of the Nokia Lumia 920 will be most disappointed if he/she wants to view their documents offline without the need to store their information via the cloud, ie: on a local computer only.

iOS users will be very happy to know the Microsoft has developed a software to backup all a user's information on their iOS devices to be transferred over to their Windows Phone with ease. Microsoft even have an app which is designed to transfer all information from a user's iOS device to their new Windows Phone device.

If this does not persuade a user to move over to the Lumia 920, the device itself supports NFC and wireless charging. The device has a 2000mAh battery which is significantly larger than the 1440mAh battery on the Iphone 5. The Lumia 920 also equipped with a dedicated camera shutter button which is really helpful. Moreover, the Lumia 920 takes a slightly larger SIM card than the Iphone 5. Apart from that, the Nokia Lumia 920 has better resolution than the Iphone 5 and the Nokia Lumia 920 is equipped with Gorilla Glass II to protect the screen but this is nowhere to be found on the Iphone 5.

Apart from that, the Lumia 920 comes with a 4.5" screen but the Iphone 5 only managed 4". Users of the Nokia Lumia 920 will be very happy to view movies on the Nokia Lumia 920 as it has a gorgeous screen and if you were to compare the performance of the screen on the Nokia Lumia 920 with the Iphone 5, the Lumia 920 will emerged as the champion.

Best of all, the Nokia Lumia 920 is more affordable than the Iphone 5. This is true given the fact that a brand new Nokia Lumia 920 with 32GB of storage will cost a potential buyer of £500 but this is so much different as compared to the Iphone 5 as the 32GB version of the Iphone 5 will cost a potential buyer of £599.

Advantages of using the Iphone 5 over the Nokia Lumia 920

If you are an Iphone 5 user, most probably you will think that you can forget about using the Nokia Lumia 920 as you have all the tools of the trade ie: Bluetooth 4.0 and a superb iOS 6. Moreover, the iTunes marketplace does not crash often. The truth is, you are most probably right. That is why there are many people who will be willing to spend a premium to get a gadget which will last for a long period of time.

Which mobile phone should I choose then?

Honestly, if you are used to the Iphone 5, you might not find the Lumia 920 sexy or as good as the Iphone 5. However, you should give the Lumia 920 a chance as the Windows Phone 8 on the Lumia 920 does have a potential in providing the same level of expectation on the Iphone 5. Personally I will stick to the Iphone 5 for now although I have a Nokia device as a backup phone with me.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

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