Since these handsets have almost identical spec, the main difference would be how those hardwares are implemented.

A side note I like to make is, that neither handset are new, the Samsung is about three month old, while my trusty Nokia N95-2 came since the beginning of 2008, so this comparison would also look at longer term usability as well.

The difference in packaging is that Nokia offers TV-out cable and external music control as standard.

Build and function

At 106.5 x 53.9 x 17.2mm, the main body of innov8 is thinner than N95 8GB (99 x 53 x 21mm). If I lay them both flat, the former is slimmer at the front; the lens mechanism sticks out about 3mm, lifting the back of the phone up slightly.

N95-2 weighs in at 128g, while Samsung is 8g heavier, the difference in hand is minimal; the fact Samsung is lighter, and thinner actually creates an illusion of lighter feel. Shifting almost 5mm of the thickness, while providing such solid structure is impressive by any standard, on the innov8.

Samsung’s build quality is very impressive; most parts are cased carefully in metal-except the screen, of course. Metal battery cover is tightly held in place; and coming from the Nokia, the slider mechanism is superb, the process is spring assisted, and feels just right. There is no wobbles at all with the slider closed, not loosen up at all, and feels just as if its new. Whereas N95 8GB’s slider is getting worse by day, and had to replace my housing and battery cover more than once.

There are three ports on N95 8GB:

• 3.5mm Audio port
• Charging port
• USB port

Samsung has one less:

• Micro USB slot.
• 3.5mm Audio port

USB charging is a nice touch on Samsung, allowing you to charge, and transfer files at the same time. While charging using a PC USB port is slower than using the mains, it’s highly useful, as it means one can leave the charger at home.

Automatic lens protector of i8510 is very handy against dusts getting in. They are very snappy; operate with a tiny click noise at snap, to reveal the 8mp sensor.

So far, I found them non-intrusive, if slightly difficult to clean, when dusts do turn up. On the Nokia, the Carl Zeiss lens which is slightly recessed inwards; it’s easier to clean, likewise to scratch; though, I never managed to do the latter.

Innov8’s volume key is located on the top left of the handset, feels they would last longer than Nokia’s, which has tendency to quickly wear off, showing off the plastic beneath. Both the USB and micro SD slots are protected from dust on the Samsung, by pretty slick covers.

Long term build quality issues

While N95 8GB is still more feature packed than most feature phone, same cannot be said for its quality. With physically has mixture of:

• Wobbly slider
• Unprotected lens
• Cheap alloy plated button
• Plastic screen, thin paint coating (front)

In short term, it works; though it doesn’t take a genius to work out its more vulnerable to damages in the long run, than the Innov8.

In contrast, Innov8 is inherently built to last, with less areas causing build quality control.

• Plastic screen
• Light leakage at the top

Innov8’s plastic screen is about as easy to scratch as N95 8GB. The front of both attracts fingerprints equally easily; while shockingly - there is a gap on the back of slider on innov8, dust could travel through.

Not everyone handles them carefully, however, consider these are expensive devices, the way N95 8GB was built, is just as inexcusable as those who put their phone and keys together. This leads to a major criticism, which I’d like to bring up - the lack of Samsung aftermarket parts.

Take for e.g. Your N95’s screen got too scratched, it’s easy to get replacement (eBay); heck, there is practically an industry behind the Nokia aftermarket parts. Sadly, the same cannot be said for Samsung phone. Having looked on many sites, shops, and even asked a few suppliers in China, I’m hearing: there isn’t any replacement keypad, and you can forget about replacement housing for i8510. Innov8 isn’t the only one either; the same generally can be said for most Samsung high end phones. Limited availability of user replaceable parts are the price you pay for slick metal body.

Basically, while Innov8 is built like a tank, and almost thin as a mainstream phone, the single biggest weakness is the plastic screen, should you scratch it, the only way to fix it in the UK apparently is:

To pay between £44-£85 for whole new refurbishment plan at CPW and that’s gone to take up to 28 days. (*sign*) Not economic at all. Because as careful in handling such expensive device, in a years’ time, it still will be scratched.

Then again, it’s pretty much recommend, to get a plastic screen protector, before you do anything.

Ergonomics

Keypad:

Ergonomics might be slightly questionable though. I8510’s keypads are generally flat, and main keypad has similar style as Razor design. It’s quite the transition coming from N95 8GB’s centred, and well curved keypad. I find Innov8’s keypad too wide, if that’s possible. For someone with big hands, shifting between either side of the numerical keys, quickly gets tiring.

Look at the picture (below), it’s obvious then one’s hand would have to travel further, when texting, and the extra row above the numerical keypad, means shifting between D-pad takes longer.

D-Pad:

Nokia has smaller D-pad, I find it more defined, thanks to the curve upwards on the directional keys, if I want to go left, it does it. Samsung’s is quite flat, also harder to press, which makes it rather too easy to accidentally press wrong key, especially when sliding fingers around on the optical joystick.

The joystick is a welcoming feature of the phone, and works quick consistently with S60 system UI; in contrast, once you get used to it, new generation Nokias’ navi wheel looks like pure gimmick.

Of course, there is option in increasing the sensitivity in system setting. This stick increases precision in surfing, as well as speeding up navigation; we end up with hybrid mode between non touch and touch screen user experience, perfect for those not ready to go full touch phone.

However, I have found it difficult to use in third-party browser, like in opera mini - sensitivity is lacking.

Volume button:

Nokia’s volume is on the right hand side, ideal and easy to use your thumb tune the volume, where as Samsung’s volume key are on the top left side, while slightly odd, it’s key just have a far more distinctive press to it, as oppose to rubbery feedback on Samsung.

Shutter:

The same can be said for the shutter button, Samsung has distinctive halve stop, and gives a tiny reassuring click when pressed, Nokia’s halve press is just empty, hollowly space; not as good in my opinion.

Shortcuts:

Another nice touch on the Samsung is the useful Camera/Video/Gallery switch on the top left side of the phone. This allows Samsung to assign specific functions to the D-Pad in camera app. Though I find the button slightly ill implemented. It lacks distinctive touch to it, thus far too easy to go directly from Camera to Gallery, skipping the Video mode in the middle. Then again, it’s probably better having a hardware button than without.

Whereas Nokia managed, to put both delete and the pen function near the keypad; Samsung decided to put delete along with numerical keys, and take out the pen function. I’d say Nokia’s implementation is by far more logical. Despite having many keys near N95 8GB’s D-pad, I still find it next to impossible to press the wrong button, and the phone works with slider closed. While the flat keys on Samsung leaves something to be desired.

Nokia’s multimedia button either leads to multimedia menu, or music app if you hold it. The latter is quite useful, while another hardware gallery button is located on the right hand side, taking you direct to photos. The two buttons on either side of Inno8’s delete button are programmable, to set shortcuts. I much prefer this, to nokia’s multimedia menu.

N95 8GB does have dual sliders, with dedicated media buttons, while those buttons could be bigger, they are very useful to have. N95 8GB also comes with external media control, can change track without touching the phone.

Because Samsung has the Camera mode button, on the right hand side, the volume is forced onto the left. As the D-pad is fully assigned with other functions, volume is the only key that controls zoom, in camera application; when I held the phone in landscape, it feels very awkward to press zoom.

N95 8GB has rubber back, gives quite comfortable and firm grip, and somewhat makes up for the thicker body, but that said, Samsung’s smooth matte metal-back, combined with thinner body, is equally good. Generally on the whole, while having the quality material, and the hardware, Innov8 lacks slightly in design, a more interesting comparison would be with N86 8GB, which utilise better D-pad than N85, so far it’s dual slider is said to be impeccable.

Hardware:

The main difference is the underlying processing solution; the Samsung uses updated OMAP 2430 chipset.

It still has the same ARM11 core, though it’s a worthy update to 2420 in many ways, introducing updated image and video acceleration (IVA2), as well as more powerful media encoding performance. This brings:

MPEG4, H.264, WMV 9, RealVideo 10 decode at VGA (640x480) 30 fps.

Still image capture, >5 mp in 1 second.

The upgrade is very welcome, as WMV decoding is still not possible on N95 8GB. Along comes a less powerful MBX lite graphics, halve the rendering spec, but nevertheless saves battery.

Connectivity:

Samsung and Nokia sport very similar set of connectivity options, along with wifi, Bluetooth.

However, innov8 has updated 7.2 mb HSDPA, which is future proof than 3.6mbps of N95 8GB; as sooner or later, mobile networks will roll out 7.2mb, and even 14mb data package.

Samsung a printing OTG, for direct connection to printers, though I didn’t try this feature. Samsung it doesn’t have infrared port, not a huge deal breaker personally. I didn’t manage to get infrared remote working, and the technology is obsolete technology.

Display:

While looking at the size and resolution, the two displays are identical. There are more to a good screen then those basic specs, however.

At maximum brightness, Innov8 outshines Nokia 8GB, yet without distorting the colour reproduction. Contrast level is also higher, white shows up brighter, with less yellow tone, while the black is less grey than, so it remains even at full brightness. Annoyingly, N95 8GB also has backlight leaking at the bottom, causing unbalanced brightness, rather irritating when watching a movie.

As you can see, the same image shows more convincingly on Innov8. Granted its black level won’t be dark as those AMLED in more recent handset, it’s still offering surprisingly good quality over N95’s display. Undoubtedly Samsung’s LCD panel is better.

Outdoor usage:

However, while the glossy screen helps with the contrast on i8510, the trade off is less visibility outdoor. Indoor doesn’t pose any problem, for its superior contrast is also noticeable there.

Under the sun is a different ball game, Samsung’s is not as bad as some reviews suggested, certainly doesn’t become a mirror, it’s still usable; slightly better imo than its predecessor G810 I tried a while ago; furthermore, if you tilt the screen slightly, it’s comfortably readable.

There is good, and better, N95 8GB is definitely the latter outdoor, no good arguing it.

Music playback:

In audio department, Samsung has really done an admiring job on i8510.

For a start, the UI looks similar, if not more slick than Nokia’s latest, which is a good start, as the last time I used Samsung G810, its music player UI looked like 6630’s.There are three visualisations, first is plain, the other two are animated, which are quite cool. Music adds the tracks quickly, very pleasant, no errors, or reboots.

These are two of the animated visualisations

Headphone:

The joy of using innov8 here is the presence of dedicated audio chip, not only phone’s equalisers actually make difference, the battery also improves. Testing using a pair of Klipsch Custom 1 inear headphone, I can say that both the clarity and depth were incredible, it was near a dedicated player, and far surpasses N95. Volume at 80% was louder than N95’s full output. One can also further increase the volume, by creating and maxing out the equaliser.

It’s not an outright win, however. This is subjective - I found that the sound signature was slightly overwhelmed by treble, that highs caused my ears become tired of it quickly. Then again, having that audio chip means I can make the music sound the way I want with equalisers, at expense of battery life.

Secondly I noticed a bit hiss when I muted the volume, but left track playing. Noticeable until the volume is turned up to 50%; but as soon as the volume gets higher, the noise is overshadowed by the music. Granted this is probably a firmware bug, perhaps my headphone was too sensitive, yet my N95 is silent when I tried the same. Though should be easy to fix with a sound attenuator or a pair of higher impedance phone, again either would use battery more quickly, while reducing the volume.

Output through the earphone has never been N95’s strong point; while the audio quality was acceptable, the modern music, especially Pop and hip hop music fails to shine, and Classical simply sound unbearable. It simply lacked depth, as if the music lacked any sound stage. Bass response are poor, too easily distorted, with any earphone; mids are good, but lack clarity, while highs recess slightly, failing to sparkle.

N95’s main problem is muddy sound, due to poor bass handling(cause cracking and distortion, spoiling otherwise okay SQ). It might be fine for podcasts, and I’m sure that most people will find it okay; it’s just not something I want to enjoy high quality music on. For that, Innov8’s SQ is simply far superior to N95 8GB.

Speakers:

Oddly, i8510’s speakers are on the back, one on each side. There are pair of them, I found it sounding more like a single mono speaker. During testing, I tried the track ‘They’ by Jem, with good mix of highs, bass, and Jem’s mellow vocal. i8510 managed not to distort, but its bass presence were lacking, the bass produced wasn’t punchy, mids are recessed - it sounded hollow, as if the sound was coming from a tube, same overemphasised treble signature, making the whole output sound unbalanced.

On the other hand, as the speakers are located on the side of N95 8GB, inherently there would be greater surround sound effect. In practice, N95’s speakers were a touch louder than i8510’s, and it has far more natural tone, by default. Its speakers give much better bass. However, by that I mean, it sounds enjoyable, punchy, but sadly distorting easily at higher volume (80-100%); it’s the good mids, that give music its lively colour, and high frequency on N95 weren’t overpowering neither.

N95 8GB have the better speakers by default, with more stereo sound, good bit bass with more punchy impacts, as well as fun mids. Though the difference is not as significant, as Inno8’s lead over N95 through earphone.

Samsung’s speakers sound much better, with equalisers, such as the ‘Hall’ or ‘Soft Rock’ effect, which does a surprising job, to compensate for its unbalanced sounding speakers. However, it does require you keep changing the equaliser, gets annoying after a while. With the iPods, one can assign custom equaliser to each song, via itune; it would be great if other symbian phone manufactures did offer similar solutions on PC side.

Frankly, I listen to music through earphone most of the times, in that sense Samsung is the better choice.

Notes:

Samsung include dedicated audio chip, very admirable in itself. However, the UI could be improved. Take for E.g.: N95 has ‘all songs’ as the first option in the music menu (left), Samsung puts the same option in the fourth place. It’s just not very usable, if I want to shuffle my music.

While it i8510 have good numbers of pre-set equaliser. We cannot change them, mimic or personalise them, which is slightly disappointing.

It would be great if Samsung add more audio customisations, fully taking advantage of the chip, if not least, allow us to edit the preset equalisers.

This is likely to be asking for too much, consider innov8 also has slightly better sound quality than the current gen N-series device; it’s meaningless to raise the bar and potentially hurting future mobile and media player sales.

Nokia is in peculiar position, while technically they ought to be the one starting to innovate next, in this area. Then again why should they?

Unlike Samsung, Nokia is already are working perfecting Ovi, as a content distribution system, and their ‘come with music’ would mean more, to mass segment (which they seem to target now), than purely superior hardware which Samsung offers.

After all, while they expressed interest in developing their own software, until then, they are still more or less a hardware vendor in this market.

Video playback:

Marketed as the ‘Innov8 Ultimate Entertainer’, does innov8 have the performance to back it up?

In short, yes. As mentioned earlier, Innov8 sports updated chipset, multimedia performance upgrade is superb. It has out of the box Divx support, saves me from downloading, highly useful and free Divx player. After downloading a few unconverted 700mb AVI files onto Innov8, it played without any problems at all. No stutter, no audio sync issues, just works; better screen and audio quality really shine here.

N95 8GB cannot play AVI out of the box. After installing Divx player, AVI files played okay, with occasional stutters, as well as audio sync issue on N95 8GB. However, the UI is not consistent with the S60 standard UI, the menu lags more than real player.

On N95 8GB, Coreplayer works slightly better for unconverted AVI, it’s a far more advanced player, and it not free. Complicated UI is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. Nor is the problem is completely solved; audio sync issue on still existed occasionally, and rarely stutters in heavy action scenes.

The complete solution would be to convert the films down, to mobile friendly format, not quite as smart.

A beta version of Mobitubia finally brought support for FP2 devices, Youtube videos played just fine, again, due to better screen, innov8 is better in this task, I can just enjoy the movie.

Photography:

Photography was probably the selling point of both handsets at the point of launch, and with many firmware tweaks, N95 8GB’s image quality is still amongst the best in mobile phones. When push comes to shove, newer technology must replace old, even after almost 18 month. This is certainly going to be interesting if innov8 can do what G810 failed. Reading the raw spec from the shots:

• The resolution of Nokia is 5.04 mp (2592x1944)
• While Samsung has 7.99 mp (3264x2448)

Increasing the MP rating, without increasing physical size of the sensor is normally asking for trouble. This is why a bigger sensor is used, in fact, its Samsung’s own. In turn, it ought to not only, increase the detail of pictures, the dynamic range should also benefit; while colour accuracy ought to improve. The resolution increase brings up about 1.6 times more pixels, which is more work for the IVA of the OMAP chipset. Given Samsung uses OMAP 2430, with IVA 2, should be more than up to the task.

• Compare to Nokia’s ISO speed (100, 200, 400),
• Samsung has extended ISO range (50, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600)

While 800 and 1600 are interesting, they are for emergency, the introduction of lower base ISO is very welcome. However, slow film speed means you do have to hold it very still.

As well as updated sensor technology, Samsung has faster lens of F2.6, as oppose to F2.8; allowing more light to focus on the sensor in same time. In theory, it should mean less blurs in your photo. That said, having a lens cover is just as important in the long run.

Camera UI:

Samsung’s camera UI is far different to Nokia’s. This is the UI one gets; one can use the D-pad to control, for example, the flash. Or click on option to reveal more options.

*click to enlarge

The multi-shot mode is somewhat of a disappointment, allowing you to take up to 9 of 640x480 images, with no autofocus. Frame shot also limits the resolution down.

Though Panorama mode is very efficient, and fun, processes in reasonable timeframe, but also does limit the resolution.

As you can see, there are plenty of options in those menus, and even more are hidden. Quite annoying though, image stabilisation doesn’t play nice with flash together.

Occationally there are some limitations.

But mostly, things just work.

Video

Overall, the video quality was similar to N95 8GB’s.There is a tiny hole near the flash, which would be the mic; facing the subject directly, it ought to sound pretty good. I found it okay, if not it a bit hash sounding, and picks up noise from buttons easily. Otherwise it’s similar to N95 8GB’s.

The video mode is very useful, compared to the video on N95, which has basically no options. While there is no continuous focus, initial focus is allowed on Innov8, highly useful. While one can enable macro video on N95 8GB however, that may break the device.

Interestingly the flash, which also works in video, finally. The 120fps is another feature unseen on the nokia, fun and all, but real usefulness is questionable for me personally. What is useful, however, is the option that can turn off the camera sound; this was taken out of N95 8GB since firmware V15.

That a side, Innov8 is the ultimate video device, it even has the video editor built-in. N95 8GB is there, sitting in sadness, not responding.

Camera Test:

The camera boots up in roughly same time (2.5-3.0), neither fast nor slow. With Samsung’s camera app, your settings are saved; you’d have to reset things like scene, on Nokia.

Autofocus is faster, on the innov8; it finishes about 0.5-1.5 seconds faster, more accurate as well; leaving N95 8GB out in the cold. It’s difficult to autofocus onto close objects on N95; innov8 handles like a piece of cake. Higher success rate is greatly appreciated, in real shoots; it means the difference between a useless blurred picture, or a focused shot.

Face recognition is another addition on Samsung. There are 4 focus modes:

• PF: Autofocus off
• AF:Autofocus on
• Marco
• Face detection

Interesting feature Sam’s system automatically tracks faces and locks on them, even if you don’t halve press focus; guess this predicative method could save time. While the system is clever, I found you’d be facing the camera directly, facing sideways pretty much ensures, your face won’t be picked up; and multiple face tracking isn’t quite there yet. That a side, it’s something else over N95 8GB.

The combination of faster lens and larger sensor makes innov8 surprisingly more sensitive.The base ISO of 50 does still require good amount of light though. Photos taken generally are very detailed from 50-200, the sensor outputs slightly softer image at 400, but very little noise. However, noticeable amount of noise creeps in at ISO speed of 800, and 1600 is – as said for emergency uses.

*click to enlarge

This is a macro shot, done in quite well lit in door environment, and then it’s cropped. Innov8 is so sensitive in fact, that N95 8GB cannot produce a comparable image at same ISO speed, the ones taken at even ISO 400, was barely bright. I had to turn on the flash, to take similar shots.

Detailed spec of the DC:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canons80/

I also took the shot on Canon’s Powershot S80, for comparison sake (No IS and flash off). This one of the first, 8mp prosumer non-SLR camera, all the way from late 2005. With full manual mode, was capable of XGA video, and targeted at high end market. I only took the shot at base ISO, to give you an idea the difference between an 8mp DC and top end 8mp mobile.

The image taken at ISO 50 required long shutter speed, and the light in door was not sufficient, apparently, so there is sign of blurring. At ISO speed of 100, however, the amount of detail didn’t reduce much, and it was bright enough for the shot to be blurring free. Comparing Innov8’s ISO 50 and 100 to Canon’s ISO 50, I’d say we are still not there yet. Despite that Canon is old, it’s physically larger 1/1.8 inch CCD, still easily bests today’s crop of CMOS mobile sensor.

As for outdoor, N95 8GB has different image processing algorithm to the Samsung, which means the image will look different. Samsung chose higher contrast and better image look over Nokia’s more natural, if not a bit dull colour tone.

*click to enlarge

Here, this is comparing a few outdoor shots, these are cropped shots. Taken on N95 8GB, Innov8, and err, the iphone, which is just for fun. Innov8’s image is the clearest one, with much better detail, contrast, and dynamic range, than the other two. I wasn’t expecting auto mode to use ISO 50 at all, but apparently I’m quite wrong, and seems lower ISO are prioritised, and the camera software seem to be very smart.

In the ISO test, Innov8 seem to show some purple fringing at two top speed. Where out-of-focus purple spots shows on the image. This might be just noise, in which case can be solved with firmware update, or perhaps because Samsung weren’t using as good quality lens. However, the image between 50 and 400 are more than acceptable, having 8mp can also give you comfortable cropping margin.

iPhone	Nokia N95	INNOV8
*click to enlarge

Normally N95 8GB’s photo takes about 1mb each at highest quality, though this can vary, depending on the complexity of scene and compression used. Whereas the 8mp sensor of innov8, outputs above 2 mb normally. The time taken to take and process image between the two phones, is almost identical. And that makes sense. More processing power, working on greater load.

What’s concerning, however, is that my N95 8GB sensor seem to be damaged, yet the lens is intact. A red curvy line that shows up at the same place on every image, which can ruin an image, lucky it’s still quite thin.

In conclusion, with combination of user friendly UI, excellent camera sensor, and effective camera cover, Samsung Innov8 is almost a digital camera, that can output promising images; by contrast, N95 8GB losses badly, and is still just a phone. Someday, I really hope Nokia could do something about that camera UI, on non Touch screen phones. We’s had it since N80, for...3 years now, getting slightly boring.

Apps:

An additional feature pack is what sets Samsung apart, from Nokia N95 8GB, using FP2 and FP1 respectively. Booting on Samsung is slightly faster. Once booted, the phone is almost immediately usable, unlike the N95 8GB or N96 for that matter. N95 8GB has about 10 mb more RAM on boot up than Samsung’s low 70s, however, Innov8 does have to load more, eg, animation takes RAM; beside, that’s still quite alot, more than the needs of most. (but then again, if your reading this, your mileage may vary)

FP2’s transitions and animation were a bonus on the Samsung, and didn’t lag much, just added some eye candy. With it on, menu performance was still comparable to a standard N95 8GB. For a side note, wasn’t quite smooth as iPhone’s animation, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction. Two new standby themes are added, however, I like mine the way it is.

Though I must say that I was blown away, by how fast application install on innov8; it was not as time consuming process,, I guess this was due to FP2’s optimisation. While the uninstaller also shows up almost instantly. Huge improvement, from N95 8GB, which had trouble in doing so quickly.

FP2 also brings more usable connection manager, allowing you to easily connect to the internet. Trying to surf on G810 is just not as easy as N95 8GB, which has standby wifi shortcut, despite both running FP1. While Innov8 still doesn’t have that shortcut, the new network app is just makes more sense, can be further personalised.

As well as using more power friendly chipset, FP2’s optimisations, while mostly being invisible, is still noteworthy, so is the power feature mode. There is now two screen brightness level, standard level, and dimmed when idling longer, without turning it on/off. There is also a power saving mode, that automatically turns down power usage (by switching off Bluetooth, reducing screen brightness, etc), when battery runs low.

Another interesting feature is remote phone locking. Suppose you misplaced your phone, and didn’t set auto lock on, all you need to do to lock it, is send a text to it.

Software wise, N95 8GB is by no means outdated; Innov8 just have more bells and whistles, it’s more a refinement than any innovation. Generally software was less buggy than when I got N95 8GB, but I did crush it once. And the joystick driver is fine for normal tasks, but seem to lack priority when multitasking, as such it lagged quite badly.

Out of the box apps:

The phone is bundled with quite large numbers of third party software. Such as ShoZu, Yahoo Go. Video editor sounds quite cool, and can handle up to QVGA clips, this is one of the functions N95 8GB doesn’t have. Samsung doesn’t miss any useful apps neither, very handy Colin Cobuild dictionary is there to help, and also a Quick office (no editing), PDF reader and Road sync are included as well. So far so good.

They don’t really want you lost, with the help of GPS hardware, so a copy of Route66 version 8 is also put in, along with network based Google maps, in settings, Assisted/network GPS can be enabled, to reduce tracking time. In practice, Samsung’s GPS seem to be much more sensitive than N95, especially without network assistance.

For good measure, full copies of FIFA 08 and Asphalt 4 are thrown in. These are very good choices, and would cost hefty extra, if bought as retail package. They are probably there to stand in, though, until Samsung develops their own apps.

Nokia’s apps bundle with N95 8GB are quite poor in comparison. Nokia map helps, but illogically, navigation and voice costs extra; Ngage is also included, with older trial versions of the same games; you’d needed internet and updates to play latest. Newer N-series give you a free game of your choice, one less than Samsung. You’ll need to visit the beta lab, as well as spend a while updating apps, to fully take advantage of apps like podcast, sport tracker. Whereas the Samsung works stylishly out of the box.

Though found, that the bundled apps just won’t go away. I personally never use Yahoo go, so I uninstalled in, at least I thought I did. When I rebooted later, I ran into lags, apparently, Yahoo go was reinstalled automatically. This is true for the games as well. Depending on your firmware, N95’s free memory (C drive) was anywhere from 100mb upto 150mb, quite a bit bigger than Samsung’s 62mb; I normally like my apps installed there (than to E drive), as it’s faster, takes less power, and is more reliable; which is why I’d like to get rid of bundled apps that I never use. I installed opera mini, a theme, and some other small sized apps, the next thing I knew, there was about 40mb free memory. *err*

Most apps work well straight from download. However, there are still some compatibility issues due to FP2. E.g.

• Screenshot app is difficult to use,
• Jbak Taskman had problem auto starting, can restarting (slow)
• Some accelerometer based apps didn’t work, due to different framework,etc

Others

Java loading took about 2 seconds longer than N95 8GB, different from the Nokia, this screen shows before Java loads.(>)

Installing Java is more difficult than I thought. I downloaded ‘widsets’, only to find an error of ‘Jar and Jad attributes does not match’, when trying to install manually; it didn’t work letting Samsung’s PC studio install it neither.

Turned out I had to point my mobile browser, and get it.

PC Software:

The installation of Samsung PC studio was relatively easy, and bug free. I’ve heard that early version will actually ask you to uninstall Nokia’s drivers; however, it didn’t ask me to uninstall anything, and luckily, my both apps worked fine afterwards, in peace.

Once opened up the app, I noticed it’s almost identical to version 6 of Nokia’s PC suite, so no learning curve. Some functions were compatible both ways. Basically, as long as I installed either, and the driver for the mobile, it works.

Though there is nothing special in Samsung’s PC suite, while Nokia’s one integrated messaging, as well as firmware updater link.

While it’s possible to update over air by downloading Samsung’s exe file, I didn’t dare to try it. Mainly because my internet connection tends to corrupted download files.

Battery:

The battery has same capacity as N95 8GB, however, with FP2 and less power-hungry chipset, battery ought to improve, right?

Actually, I didn’t notice much difference in this area, and the battery died on me twice in a week, I tested audio playback in offline mode was about 15 hours with volume set to 60%; which is about 50%+ improvement over N95 8GB; but as I mainly used it online with 3G and wifi, battery was shorter.

Conclusion:

To summarise in short, Samsung has some pretty cutting edge stuff going with Innov8, the whole package in a solid housing. Though the design still lacks human touch, and while it’s much better than N95 8GB in most areas, it’s not meant to compete with N95 8GB, it will be compared to N86, to be fair.

I personally won’t upgrade to N86 8GB, because I don’t consider it good enough, and Innov8 is levelling with N86, where does that leave Innov8 for me?

Granted it sounds better than N95 8GB, but then that’s not saying much, my Cowon D2 literality runs rings around Innov8, in terms of audio customisability, audio quality, while offering about 3 times the battery life; it’s not quite the time to through my MP3 and Camera away, just yet.

Furthermore, the handset was quite new, yet its screen already looked a mess, while I appreciate its quality metal housing, it’s one thing having a plastic screen, and quite another to get stuck to it, for the life of the phone.

Its Irreplaceable plastic screen is just too much; if there was a good replacement screen for it, I would have kept innov8, and let N95 8GB go; but sadly that option was not reasonable. The next time I get a Samsung, I’ll make sure it doesn’t have same problem first. Those aside, I8910 looks pretty promising, with...glass screen, and OMAP3.