HTC Dream vs. Nokia E71
Basically I have been playing with the HTC Dream smartphone for the last week and half, thanks to the loan phone from Optus. Let me say it first — it is a very very nice phone that I believe every geek would love to have one. On the day when it arrived on my desk, I can’t stop people from touching it! Too bad I had to return it last Friday. However the question is — would I buy one? Hmm. Maybe not. Not yet.
So let me compare it with the Nokia E71 that I got in January, which is my current phone.
Instead of reviewing it feature by feature, I will share some of the things I would do (or would like to do) on the mobile phone, and how would HTC Dream stack up against Nokia E71 in handling those tasks.
 HTC Dream |
 Nokia E71 |
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| Dimensions and Portability |
117.7 x 55.7 x 17.1 mm @ 158g 1150mAh battery |
114 x 57 x 10 mm @ 127g 1500mAh battery |
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Dream is around 25% heavier than E71, although it is only a tiny bit longer and not much narrower. However, E71 is considerably thinner than HTC Dream — in fact it is probably one of the thinnest smart phones around. A slide out keyboard on Dream is not helping either. Both are quite “portable” in my standard, i.e. I am happy to slip either into my shorts pocket. However as of all mobile phones — smaller & thinner = better. Another aspect of portability is its battery life. On paper — Nokia E71’s 1,500mAh Lion battery is 30% juicier than Dream HTC’s. The reality is also true. I do around 1-2 hours of web surfing a day, and they stay on, connected to 3G and Wifi whole day. I have to recharge almost every single day on Dream, but my E71 could usually last 2-2.5 days. Dream can be recharged over USB though, whereas you need to get Nokia CA-100 cable for E71 to charge over USB power (which they ought to include that in the first place). Winner: Nokia E71 |
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| Making Phone Calls |
Dial Number Dial A Contact |
Dial Number Dial A Contact |
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One of the most basic functionality of mobile phones is, guess what, making phone calls! The call quality is “about the same” sucky GSM low pass filter sound, but the “process of calling” is a bit different. Nokia E71, with its permanent keyboard, makes it easier to turn on, type in a number and make phone calls. With HTC Dream however, you get the option of typing in phone number with either the full screen dialer (not as responsive as real keys), or slide out the actual keyboard to use the keys, and then slide back in before making phone calls (very awkward). Same with dialing a contact — dedicated contacts button on E71 makes the process a little bit easier and quicker. If you are buying a phone just to make phone calls, the choice is no brainer… (Which of course would be neither — $40 prepaid dumb phone from supermarket will suffice). Winner: Nokia E71 |
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| Email & SMS |
Input Method Application Support |
Input Method Application Support |
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One reason why I prefer a phone with QWERTY keyboard is because I do quite a bit of emailing when I commute. In this department, HTC Dream’s slide out keyboard is marginally better than Nokia E71’s. There are more spaces between keys, and there is a dedicated numeric row — which is something very useful I found. I have relatively small hands but it’s still quite easy to make mistakes on E71 when I am in a hurry. But I guess that’s where Nokia’s suggestive text input comes in. It will try to complete the words for you, or make a suggestion when you made a typo. It can be annoying sometimes (making wrong suggestions), but in general I found it quite helpful. Email application wise, Dream HTC is street ahead of Nokia E71. Out of factory E71 only comes with a simple email app that supports multiple IMAP4 and POP3 accounts. You can however get Nokia Messaging with IMAP4 IDLE/push email support (a much better client but no guarantee to be free in the future). If you are a Gmail user like me, you can also download Gmail Mobile, which is a J2ME application that feels half finished. On the other hand, HTC Dream has a nice looking email client + a much better Gmail Mobile application out of box, which actually supports HTML email viewing (but not composing, at least I have not found a way to do it). Well, you cannot blame Google for creating a better Gmail client for their own operating system, can you? Not just better Gmail integration — but also contacts/tasks/calendar events sync between the phone and your Google account. It’s so integrated that the only way to use a different Google account is by resetting the phone (doh). Whereas Gmail Mobile app on J2ME allows you to have multiple Gmail account logging in at the same time. Winner: Dream HTC |
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| Web Browsing |
Display Navigation Browser |
Display Navigation Browser |
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Darn. I love everything about web browsing on HTC Dream. The browser interface is slick. Text is rendered beautifully. Screen is twice the resolution as E71. You can scroll around with either the trackball or by dragging on the touch screen. I don’t have an iPhone, nor Windows Mobile 6 based devices so I cannot compare with them. But browsing experience on HTC Dream is on an entirely different level than E71. Nokia E71 came with Nokia Web Browser that is also Webkit based, although the quality of rendering makes it hard to believe that they actually share the same layout engine. There is no anti-alias fonts (which I think there’s a hack to turn it on). It’s slow. Half the website I visited would kill it. When the sites don’t kill it, they don’t render properly. However there is no way to change the default browser so I am stuck with it. There are other 3rd party browsers available on Nokia E71 though. OperaMini, an J2ME based browser, is my favourite, and it is also available on Android. Good for digesting the content rich site that would otherwise kill the defacto Nokia Browser, and it goes through a proxy that can really cut down the traffic to save cost. However it has no Javascript nor Flash. Yes I have tried Skyfire — it feels heavy and unresponsive to me. Winner: Dream HTC |
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| Watching YouTube |
Dedicated YouTube application |
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YouTube is fun. YouTube on your mobile is even useful — when you need to calm the kids and distract them :) On HTC Dream you have a dedicated YouTube application that allows you to search and watch videos on that nice HVGA screen. Just need to make sure you are on Wi-Fi connection so you don’t get a surprising bill at the end of the month. On E71 however, it’s not that straightforward. YouTube for mobile does not work on Nokia Browser, as video gets encoded in 3GP format which is not supported by the Real Player on E71. To watch YouTube video on out-of-box E71 however, you need to browse to the regular YouTube site, search for the video you wish to watch, and then use the built in Flash Lite to watch the content in its small QVGA screen. That’s if YouTube happens to render properly on Nokia Browser (most of the time it doesn’t), haven’t crashed it, and you can find the content you looking for before the browser grinds to a halt. Flash Lite is also a bit under-powered when it plays the content, and will likely skip every 3rd frame… Winner: Dream HTC Update: Apparently Google has just released an YouTube application for S60 platform, and watching YouTube video on my E71 is now just as easy as on HTC Dream :) |
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| Remote Administration |
SSH: ConnectBot RDP: Connectoid |
SSH: PuTTY for Symbian RDP: Various commercial applications |
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One thing I need to do (but have not managed to do it) is to be able to manage my servers remotely from my phone. For example if MySQL crashed, and I can just ssh into my box and restart it. Both ConnectBot on Android and PuTTY on Symbian are pretty good. However with bigger screen + better keyboard, HTC Dream might be sysadmin’s choice over E71. With ConnectBot I can actually fit 80 columns in a screen! It’s actually the first application I installed when I received the HTC Dream. No experience with RDP based administration. Yup I am lucky I know :) Winner: Dream HTC |
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| Making VoIP Calls |
Nil |
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It’s 2009. There is basically no point paying ridiculous high mobile call rates and everyone should be onto VoIP — provided your phone actually supports it. Unfortunate I have not yet found a SIP client that works well on HTC Dream. Consider mobile carriers’ generally negative response to VoIP, I am not sure how soon will we see a full VoIP application on Android. On the other hand, there are heaps of options on Symbian/S60. SIP stack is built into the OS. The fully integrated client is available on E71, which you can set as the default action when you press [Dial] button. There are other clients integrated with other IM networks. Currently I am using Nimbuzz that also registers my phone onto PennyTel’s SIP service, MSN and Skype. Making VoIP calls on mobile is actually quite clear (when you have good 3G reception) and very economical. Winner: Nokia E71 |
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| Connect Computer to the Net |
Nil |
Modem via USB cable or Bluetooth |
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When you are on the road and there is no Wi-Fi hotspot in sight, being able to use the phone as modem to connect to Internet via 3G/HSPA might be the best option. Again, I have not found a way to do it on HTC Dream other then rooting the phone to install tethering application. On the other hand, there are heaps of options for my Nokia. Nokia PC Suite can be used to connect your computer to Internet via a connection to the phone — from either USB cable, infrared or Bluetooth. For me I just need to turn the Bluetooth on, wait for PC Suite to detect the existence of the phone, and then click on a button to make that as a modem. Easy. The same functionality is also available on Mac and Linux, although it can be a bit fiddly (with PPP chat scripts) on Linux. The other possibility would be using a tethering application such as Joiku Spot, which turns your phone into an adhoc Wi-Fi access point, where multiple computers can use to connect to the Internet. Winner: Nokia E71 |
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For many other things I do, they are pretty much on-par. HTC Dream almost always have flashy UI and Nokia E71 usually have good established commercial software support. One thing I like about HTC Dream and Android though, is its active developer community and the momentum behind it. When you open up Market Place in Android (another great piece, compare to Nokia’s pathetic “Download!”), you can easily search for new and popular applications — and they are usually free (whereas most apps on Nokia’s “Download!” cost). It’s easy to find new apps to review and install. Whereas with my Nokia, I hit Google search first, and then have to go through many banner-ad-filled web pages before I can find a download link.
And when you have the developer mind share — you are winning the game. Just ask Apple. From what I can see, although for the existing pool of software packages, there are more available on Symbian than on Android. Give it a year and two, and it will be very different I think. Nokia with its aging Symbian and S60 interface will have to fight very hard to win back the developers. Maybe Qt could help? Who knows…
Conclusion
HTC Dream verses Nokia E71 — who wins? It’s a draw for me. I love my Nokia E71 for its small form factor and ease of use, but envy the arguably better operating system that’s Android on HTC Dream. The deal breaker for me would be making VoIP calls and the ability to tether, which neither are available on HTC Dream yet. I believe they might not be something that are difficult to develop, but pressure from mobile carriers might prevent them to be included in the Android Market Place.
So for now, it’s Nokia E71 for me. My next phone in 2 years? Who knows. There is a big OS war out there — Symbian, Android, Windows Mobile, iPhone and Blackberry. Do we have big enough market for so many mobile operating systems? Who will survive and who will wither? Time will tell.
Comments
I thought you would want to know about Tetherbot http://graha.ms/androidproxy/
It allows you to teather your android phone for internet access. It isn’t exactly the same as Windows Mobile but it works for getting your laptop online.
@Rothgar — thanks! TetherBot looks interesting although it does look rather fiddly to set it up :)
I just wanted to correct one small item. If you have your contacts on the Nokia E71 (I sync with Outlook via PC Suite to device memory) you actually don’t even need to go into the contacts to choose a contact. Just typing the partial name from the main screen will pop up a list of contacts who match those characters. Then you can either type to narrow the results or scroll up to pick the one you want.
Also, I know this is not what you were going for but if you want apps for the Nokia phone I know handango has a lot of options.
Keep up the good work very nice job.
I’d like to add that only one isues tease me with my E71 which is changing the writting language.As far i know it can be changed through the setting menu.
scotty – thx for the compare. I’m a WinMo 5-6.1 (moto q, backjack, moto q global) user for the last many years. Just got my E71. So far so good, though ive been quite disappointed with the heavy carrier (at&t)branding over the phone and apps. Not that the winmo phones didnt have that issue, i was at least able to uninstall them.
- Do u know of a way to “unlock” the protected at&t apps so i can uninstall them with being told their locked?
- Also i consider myself a pretty quick mini-keyboard typer… But i have run into the most annoying bug on the E71. (not that i wont find more)… But the keyboard / key-press timing is horrible. Quick example: whem typing i usually still have the last key pressed down as my fingers go for the next key to press.
This works fine for 75% of the keys, but for whatever annoying reason if I’m typing a word that’s within the “num-pad” area I cannot easily roll letters back2back. Like if type very quickly: apple … No problems. now type: my …. fast. And you get just m. Granted I do “slur” my words whem typing… Maybe i just need to slow down?
- Lastly… Outta the box my E71 had only an Exchange app and the crap-ass AT&T Xpress mail app. WHY no simple POP3 or IMAP client built-in.
From Windows Mobile to Symbian… I hope to find at least some 3rd part apps to make this experience more enjoyable. Looking forward to the SSH app, RDP too though I cant imagine it to be usable via this tiny-screen.
written from Nokia E71x keyboard.
Nice comparison. I don’t have the E71. but a friend does. I love the G1. But E71’s always available keyboard has a really big advantage as you pointed out above. When you are searching for apps, or searching through contacts, you have to rotate the phone and slide out the keyboard. The latest 1.5 release helps a bit with a soft keyboard, but it’s no where near as efficient as a physical keyboard. And it only works if there’s a Text Field.
Having said that,
You can cut down the steps to “dial a contact” to the fewer steps than on the E71 except for opening and closing the keyboard. If you open the keyboard and start typing, it will bring up the contacts matching the letters.
Also to dial a number, you can just click on the phone icon on the desktop, you can start dialing immediately. In fact an application called SpellDial does an excellent job of using T9 to filter through contacts. Almost as fast as using the keyboard. I don’t know how the contacts search works on the E71, but on my UIQ Sony Ericson P990, the search in contacts was awful!
For an open phone, Google does make you jump through a few hoops. Not giving you root access. Not allowing you to install apps on the SD card. Not providing a SIP client on the phone. But all-in-all, it’s easily the best phone I have ever had.
Does anyone know whether the Nokia supports multiple address books? (a personal one and one for work).
If so, my decission is made. If not….what phone would support that?
Thanks in advance.
Can’t wait to get my grubby hands on that Nokia!
@trogdor: I’m not sure about multiple address books but I know you can create and sort your contacts via groups so that should work for you.
Ok, I guess I wasn’t specific enough…my bad.
Would there be a problem if I did sync at home, and alter a sync at the office…i.o.w., would the two syncs conflict/overwrite/add?
Greetzzz
I understand now… the sync software is typical in allowing you to setup two way syncronization or one way syncronization with each PC (using mobile or PC as “always keep”). The profile information for each computer can be unique to that computer and would allow you to update something on one PC, sync to update the mobile, and then have it update the other PC with that information. Here, I put three screen shots of the settings for sync up.. let me know if that helps to clarify things
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e193/benito0525/settings1.jpg
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e193/benito0525/settings2.jpg
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e193/benito0525/settings3.jpg
Hey man, thanks for your time, but it’s still not what Imeant :)-.
I could simplfy my question to this: Can I have two separate agenda’s and contact book son this device: one personal and one for work?
I know contacts can be filtered but the agenda/calendar cannot be sorted or filtered in that way. I think we finally got this question answered :-) Have a great day!
\(*_*)/
Not the answer I was hoping for, but hey, I’m getting one from my work, so why complain?
Thanks for taking the time!
They bought a bunch of the E71, and I think they’re amazing machines. However, the dual agenda mode does not exist. The mode swith is just a gimmick and doesn’t really add anything. I’m not looking for software that might allow me to manage two simultaneous, yet different agendas.
Ahem…”not” in my previous reply should be “now”.
But still…nokia rules. As I said, amazing machines, and IMHO, the design is up to now still unparallelled. If I could someday find the double agenda/contacts software, that would make this machine 100% perfect.
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Playground is the personal weblog of Scott Yang, a Chinese-Australian Christian who works as a software developer in Sydney Australia.
Like the way you broke down this comparison. It usually does come down to user needs and whether or not the device will suit the way you work and live. Tethering is not an issue for me, neither is Remote desktop.
However, VoIP calling through something like Skype would be handy….. hopefully this will change.
Cheers!