Comparison – Google Nexus One, Nokia N97, Nokia N900, iPhone 3GS
I won’t pretend to know how each of these devices perform in reality – development teams count for a lot with a modern mobile device. Factors like the maturity of the operating system, the user interface, the availability of third party software, and so on can make or break any device regardless of how good its hardware is.
Regardless, I was keen to put the stats of these four devices side by side for my reference at least. In cases where items could be compared to some extent, I’ve highlighted the perceptual ’best’ and ‘worst’ entries in a light green and pinky red respectively (I’ve not declared a winner for the display row as I can’t find details of the Nexus One’s colour count and I’d argue that the N900′s higher pixel density counts in its favour over the Nexus One’s bigger display. The processors can probably fall under some debate due to extra GPU power that I’ve not considered, or the different multi-chip ARM hardware is used in different devices).
| Google Nexus One | Nokia N97 | Nokia N900 | Apple iPhone 3GS | |
| Operating System | Android 2.1 | Symbian OS 9.4, S60 5th Ed | Maemo 5 (6 coming) | iPhone OS 3.1 |
| Dimensions (mm) | 119 x 59.8 x 11.5 (81836 cubic mm) |
117.2 x 55.3 x 15.9 (103050 cubic mm) |
110.9 x 59.8 x 18 (119372 cubic mm) |
115.5 x 62 x 12.3 (88080 cubic mm) |
| Weight | 130g | 150g | 181g | 135g |
| Processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon 1Ghz | ARM11 434Mhz | OMAP 3430 ARM CortexA8 600Mhz & 430Mhz | ARM CortexA8 600Mhz |
| RAM | 512Mb | 128Mb | 256Mb + 768Mb (virtual) | 256Mb |
| Internal Storage | 512Mb | 32Gb | 256Mb + 32Gb | 16Gb or 32Gb |
| Expandable Storage | Micro SD (4Gb included, 32Gb possible) | Micro SD (32Gb possible) | Micro SD (32Gb possible) | None |
| Graphics | OpenGL ES 2.0 (GPU) | OpenGL ES 1.1 (CPU) | OpenGL ES 2.0 (GPU) | OpenGL ES 2.0 (GPU) |
| Extra Connectivity | Wifi b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1 | Wifi b/g, Bluetooth 2.0 | Wifi b/g, Bluetooth 2.1 | Wifi b/g, Bluetooth 2.1 |
| Battery | 1400mAh | 1500mAh | 1320mAh | 1219mAh |
| Display | 3.7″, 800×480 | 3.5″ 640×360, 16.7M colours | 3.5″ 800×480, 16.7M colours | 3.5″, 320×480, 262k colours |
| Input | Capacitive multi-touch screen, OSK | Resistive touch screen, hardware keyboard, T9, handwriting | Resistive touch screen, hardware keyboard, OSK, handwriting | Capacitive multi-touch screen, OSK |
| Camera | 5M, LED flash, video 720×480 20fps | 5M Carl Zeiss, dual LED flash, video 640×480 30fps | 5M Carl Zeiss, dual LED flash, video 848×480 25fps | 3M, video 640×480 30fps |
| Secondary Camera | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| GPS / Location | Assisted GPS, Cell/Wifi Positioning, Digital Compass | Assisted GPS, Cell* Positioning, Digital Compass | Assisted GPS | Assisted GPS, Wifi Positioning, Digital Compass |
| Extras | Accelerometer, Proximity Sensor, Light Sensor, Noise Cancellation | Accelerometer, Proximity Sensor, Light Sensor, FM receiver, FM transmitter | Accelerometer, Proximity Sensor, Light Sensor, FM receiver, FM transmitter | Accelerometer, Proximity Sensor, Light Sensor |
*Wifi positioning available via 3rd party product
I should note that while the table suggests that the N900 and Nexus One have a similar number of plus points compared to the other devices, it’s worth comparing the text in green to the text in grey – some devices only just have the edge over others, and others are still highly spec’ed enough for most people (after all, who is really going to see benefit from a device supporting 802.11n wireless when others can manage 802.11g).
The amount of red in certain columns certainly is interesting though. Some may accuse me of bias – when I created the table I was certainly not looking for bias, and I’m happy to add other rows if I’m provided accurate data for all four devices.