I’ve had my 3G iPhone for more than two weeks now, and I love it. It goes everywhere I go, and it does everything. Well, almost everything. Actually, everything but a phone! The sound quality for voice calls is appalling; the Bluetooth connection almost unusable because of the echo, and the dropped calls beyond maddening. After suffering through two weeks of poor call quality and more dropped calls than I’ve experienced in a decade, I wanted to know whether it was the network or the handset, so I ran the ultimate comparison between my Nokia N95 and the 3G iPhone, both on AT&T’s network. Not exactly scientific, but the best handset comparison I could conduct.
The envelope, please? The results are in – it’s not the network but the handset. The Nokia N95 won hands down! No contest. To me (and when I checked, the person at the other end of the connection), the Nokia N95 has far superior sound quality, excellent Bluetooth sound with no echo, far better radio (with no dropped calls!), a fabulous speakerphone rivaling office Polycom systems, and beyond these critically important voice quality characteristics, an outstanding camera (Carl Zeiss lens, 5 MP) that could replace most Point & Shoot cameras. (Sadly, it just doesn’t have the Apple GUI.)
Testing the 3G iPhone — After pairing my iPhone with my Nissan Altima Hybrid’s hands-free phone system, I pulled out of my driveway and placed a call. By the time I got to the bottom of the hill (1.2 miles), the call had dropped three times. The sound quality was poor as well, with an annoying echo not experienced with my any other paired device. (I live on a hilltop in Marin County, about a half-mile from Highway 101, the main North-South highway running the length of California. Not exactly the boonies!) After a few dropped call episodes, I stopped using the phone until I reached the flats. I still had dropped calls.
Testing the Nokia N95 — Same network, same car/hands-free system, different handset. And a different experience entirely. I initiated a call from my driveway, retracing my route down the hill, and in each of the three spots where my call dropped on the iPhone, the conversation continued uninterrupted. We talked for 20+ minutes, without a drop. I placed another call, to the recipient of the original 3–dropped calls conversation(s), who commented that the call quality was better this time on his end. And no drops so far.
Verdict — No one’s made the perfect handset yet. I’ve said what the iPhone isn’t — a decent device for voice calling — but it has the best mobile browser by a lot, an elegant interface, fun apps — my current fave, Guitar Toolkit, for tuning guitar, illustrating chords and keeping the beat — and then there’s the coolness factor. Forget about e-mail, for which the BlackBerry rules. I use the 8820 (at least until the Bold is available). With a keyboard and the BlackBerry software, it’s simply the best for e-mail and business. And my current voice handset — the Nokia N95. So for now, I’m carrying three mobile devices, one for e-mail, one for browsing and one for good ol’ fashioned voice calls. That doesn’t include my Sprint USB Novatel U727 modem. The iPhone has further complicated my life, and added a third device to carry. Maybe I’ll give it all up and get a Jitterbug phone, the simplest and most elegant handset (and GUI) out there.
NOTE: California has a new hands-free law which prohibits all drivers from using a handheld wireless telephone while operating a motor vehicle (except to make emergency calls to a law enforcement agency, a medical provider, the fire department, or other emergency services agency.) So how well the iPhone, N95 or other handset operates in hands-free mode is very important, if you want to make a call in a car.
