A few days ago, major mobile competitor Nokia announced that its new high-end smartphone, the Lumnia 800, will be available in the U.S. by early 2012. Many are saying that this is the first phone that will be able to truly compete with the iPhone. Let's see how its killer specs compare to the iPhone 4S.
Elegant Design
To be frank, the Lumnia is pretty. Sculpted a from 12.1mm thick of piece of durable polycarbonate plastic and featuring curved sides and a tapered top and bottom, the feel of the phone is described as light, substantial, and polished. Although the iPhone 4S weighs a bit less than the Lumnia (140 grams versus 142 grams), the weight is comparable.
Quality Camera
The Lumnia boasts an 8MP camera with a f/2.2 aperture and a Carl Zeiss Tessar lens. The iPhone 4S also includes an 8 megapixel camera, but with a larger aperture of f/2.4, which lets in more light to the lens making pictures brighter. Like the Lumnia, the iPhone 4S features LED flash and both devices have face detection software.
Battery Life
In technical specifications alone, the Lumnia's battery is more powerful than the iPhone's. The Lumnia's battery is said to power up to 9.5 hours of 3G talk time, 55 hours of music playback, and 265 hours of standby time. On the other hand, the iPhone's battery can only handle 8 hours of 3G talk, 40 hours of music, and 200 hours of standby time. What remains to be seen, however, is how these batteries will hold up over the lives of the phones.
Built in Apps
Both phones include some truly useful apps. Apple gives users reliable maps capabilities, a steady, although flash-incompatible browser, facetime, photo booth, messages, newsstand, reminders, and iBooks. Lumnia, on the other hand, includes Nokia music featuring preset radio mixes, ESPN sports hub, and turn-by-turn GPS navigation. All in all, both phones seem to provide some great applications. At first blush, it seems like Apple has the advantage here because of the maturity of its product, but the Lumnia's applications are certainly ready for battle and provide capabilities that are currently impossible on the iPhone.
Price
Okay, this is usually the make-it-or-break-it moment. How do the prices of the two devices compare? The iPhone 4s at 16 GBs costs $199 retail. The Lumnia? Well, it's not currently available on the US market, but it's retailing in Europe for 420 euros. We don't even need to convert that number into dollars to know that the iPhone is substantially less expensive than the Lumnia. Even the iPhone 4S's premium version, with a capacity of 64 GBs, is $160 less than the Lumnia. This a deal breaker. If Nokia wants to compete in US markets it's going to have to substantially reduce its price.