Nokia N900 vs Apple iPhone 3GS vs HTC Desire – Clash of the Titans comparision

Nokia N900 vs Apple iPhone 3GS vs HTC Desire – Clash of the Titans

The Nokia N900, Apple iPhone and HTC Desire are all the heavyweights of their respective fields. Which one is the best? There’s only one way to find out…

For movie fansEach of the leviathan smartphones has a trump card. The Apple iPhone has access to the fab iTunes library of movies and TV episodes, which can be downloaded for a reasonable price and look great on the iPhone’s screen.

The HTC Desire has that stunning 3.7-inch AMOLED screen – one of the best-looking mobile phone displays we’ve ever clapped eyes on. In a head-on collision, the Nokia N900 may seem like the weak link, but it really isn’t.

The N900′s screen is no tiny postage stamp, at 3.5-inches, but its flexibility in the movie war is unparalleled. Unlike the iPhone or HTC Desire, the Nokia N900 supports Xvid, Divx, WMV and Realvideo as standard. Using an iPhone, you have to convert any videos to specific Apple-friendly formats, and the HTC Desire only has limited Divx support – using an app from the Android Market.

The winner? it’s too close to tell amid the carnage, but if you’ve got a huge video library already, we’d plump for the Nokia N900.

For games and apps
All three of these smartphone giants have access to their own app store. The iPhone has the iTunes App Store, the HTC Desire has the Android Market and the Nokia N900 has the Ovi Store to fall back on.

Which one is the best? This answer is a bit simpler – the App Store, by a country mile. It offers more than a hundred thousand apps, from fart sims to apps to help you pass the bar exam that cost hundreds of pounds.

This fight isn’t quite over yet though. Unlike the iPhone, you don’t have to rely on an app store to install apps with the HTC Desire and Nokia N900. The latter in particular can make use of a veritable treasure trove of Maemo apps available from the Maemo website, and offers full flash support – great for web games and apps. Check out our feature on the top N900 secrets and top N900 games for more.
Winner – Apple iPhone

As a music playerEach of these worthy warriors features a 3.5-inch headphone jack – the first test for any budding music device. What of hardier challenges though?

In sheer flexibility terms, the iPhone is the loser. You have to rely on iTunes to transfer music, where you can merely drag and drop files with the HTC Desire and Nokia N900. Plus it doesn’t offer a memory card slot. The Nokia N900 also offers better codec support, and can even play Ogg Vorbis files if you grab an additional codec.

If you’re an iTunes fan though, this lack of flexibility is no problem. We find that iTunes is a proggy you start off hating, only to find you can’t live without it a year down the line.

The HTC Desire definitely needs an additional memory card to be a contender as the iPhone boasts at least 8GB internal memory, and the Nokia N900 has an incredible 32GB memory built-in.

None can compete with the iPhone’s super battery life optimisation for MP3s though. Using apps its battery life may be terrible, but it’ll last for a whopping 40 hours when playing music.
Winner – Apple iPhone, if you can get on with iTunes. If not, Nokia N900

In interface terms
The iPhone famously has the easiest smartphone interface in the land, but we’re often left hankering after more customisation, which is offered by Maemo and Android.

Both give you control over a handful of home screens, which you can populate with all sorts of neat little shortcuts and widgets. The sheer flexibility of Android wins out for us though, with so much additional potential offered in app form.

Desktop replacement apps let you completely change the way your phone works – you can even design your own interface with Sweeter Home. We’re not quite that ambitious, but it wins the HTC Desire lots of points.
Winner – HTC Desire

For web browsingThere’s fierce sword clashing going on here. The Apple iPhone offers a fantastic control interface, with pinch zooming still feeling better than anywhere else here. Gliding around web sites is a dream, and the virtual keyboard gets pretty close to a full Qwerty for typing in those web addresses. There’s one major boo-boo though – no flash support.

The Nokia N900 boasts full flash, which is still a rarity on mobile devices, but because of its resistive touchscreen, browsing is quite a different experience. No multitouch features and a less casual feel, thanks to the pressure you have to apply with your finger, start swaying the balance back in the Apple iPhone’s favour.

Enter the HTC Desire, offering the best of both worlds – sort of. It doesn’t have full flash, but its mobile version of Flash 10.1 is a good compromise. The superb capacitive touchscreen and multitouch functionality make casual browsing a joy too.
Winner – HTC Desire

The cool factorSome phones have that indefinable “something” that makes them more desirable. They jump out of the mobile mold and become lifestyle items that transcend what they actually do and become essential to your existence.

The iPhone has definitely been one of those devices, but is it past its prime? Do we need some real developments in the iPhone 4G if it’s going to keep up?

For now, we’re more interested in seeing how Android will develop in 2010, as it fills-up mobile shop shelves and becomes (one of) the top smartphone operating systems. The HTC Desire is the current king of the Androids, so it has won our heart. The Nokia N900? It has a slide-out Qwerty, so no chance.
Winner – HTC Desire

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