Nokia C6-01 vs. HTC G2

The Q3 was very successful for two mobile giants – HTC and Nokia, as they launched cool collections of high-end and mid-range smartphones. The Taiwanese company released its WP7 series lined up as HTC HD7, HTC Mozart 7, HTC 7 Trophy, HTC 7 Surround, HTC 7 Pro and Android powered HTC G2, while the finish company comes with its Symbian powered smartphones like Nokia N8, E7, C7, C6-01 and others. All these phones made a fuss in mobile world, but one of the most rumored smartphones of the companies were the Nokia C6-01 and the HTC G2, and I decided to compare them to find out what features they have got and why there were so many criticisms. You can also check out the HTC G2 review here, as i will focus on Nokia’s unit.

OS

At first let’s look at the OS the phones run, the Nokia C6-01 works on Symbian^3 platform, which is the main competitor of the Windows Phones 7 OS. The C6-01’s OS offers better graphic than its earlier versions due to the new architecture, its interface is too quick and more fashionable, it is also very programmable allowing the users to make their phones unique. The Nokia’s newest operating system supports a multitouch ability which helps to do more difficult tasks, for example you can type a letter holding the virtual shift key. The next advantages of the Symbian^3 is HDMI output and the C6-01’s owners can watch their device’s photos or videos on TV. The “Here and now” protocol offers easy to use web services related on the user’s current location. The networking apps are very popular these days, and it is such important to support apps like One-Click Connectivity, which is provided by Symbian^3. And of course I can’t speak about Qt which is more comfortable platform to write apps, as it’s a cross-platform application framework used for developing application software with GUI.

The T-Mobile G2 comes with Android 2.2 (Froyo), it can’t be slower or work on the same speed as faster OS is just a necessity for current mobile market. This OS provides faster working as the apps run on a different layer than other OS. As Google promised, it has 2x faster performance compared to the older versions. The operating system supports Adobe Flash and Adobe Air which is a great advantage for the version. The Android 2.2 based phones can search the Android Marketplace directly from Quick Search, and also it allows the users to install apps on the SD card automatically. The apps are updated by one-touch button or you can stream music from your desktop. But I think the WiFi Hotspot is the most exciting thing of the OS.

The OS’s are one of the main features of the smartphones and this is why this brunch is developed so quickly. Symbian^3 and Android 2.2 are the latest versions of their types and they are the best versions ever developed.

Camera

The G2 can capture with 5MP camera with autofocus lens and single LED flash, it also supports for 720p video recording. The camera look very good in practice and especially the color balance is good if a little washed out, but there is a problem with low-light settings. Though the camera can record videos in 720p, but it can suffer from artifacting like other HTC phones which use low bitrate. The HTC G2’s camera interface is stock Froyo and can be shared with the Nexus One, but the Sense interface features tap-to-focus which is more useful. So we can consider that the camera is very good in many conditions but it is not the best solution for this phone, as the screen even washes out in direct sunlight.

The Nokia C6-01 features 8MP camera at the back with autofocus and dual LED flash like the G2, but what is interesting there is no mention of a Carl Zeiss lens through. This is one of the Nokia’s “Camera Phones” lines and it must be good in shooting cases. The camera has got many imaging controls and settings, other camera features are below:

Photo & Video Geo Tagging
Red Eye Removal
Face Tracking
Auto Motion Blur Reduction
Dedicated Camera Key
Video Recorder
Video Light

Internals (processor, battery, display)

Nokia’s last smartphones come with faster processors than other manufacturers’ smartphones do, I guess its main reason is related with the fact Symbian^3 is on step back from Android and WP7, so it had to equip its devices with faster CPUs to cover the holes. The Nokia C6-02 runs an ARM 11 680 MHz processor equipped with 3D Graphics HW accelerator. This is a great deal for this phone because comparing with G2 which runs Qualcomm MSM 7230 800 MHz processor, it provides enough quick working and switching between the apps.

The screen of the HTC G2 is a little larger than the C6’s one, so you can get more pleasant viewing on the G2’s 3.7 inch display, while 3.2 inch is less for the second smartphone. The both displays own Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate ability, but the G2 offers such features as Optical trackpad and Swype text input which are more useful, accept it!

What surprised me, that these phones’ batteries come with super offer; the T-Mobile G2 sports standard Li-Ion 1300mAh battery providing up to 430 h (2G) / Up to 430 h (3G) in stand-by mode and Up to 9 h 50 min (2G) / Up to 6 h 40 min (3G) talk-time, while the C6-01 is equipped with Li-Ion 1050mAh (BL-5CT) battery, which is enough good too, and offers Up to 408 h (2G) / Up to 372 h (3G) for stand-by mode or Up to 11 h 30 min (2G) / Up to 4 h 30 min (3G) for talk-time, and even Up to 50 h of music play.

Nokia C6-01 review

T-Mobile G2 review

Below is the phones Cons and Pros table:

Features	HTC G2	Nokia C6-01
OS	Android OS, v2.2 (Froyo)	Symbian^3
Display	3.7 inches, 480 x 800 pixels	3.2 inches, 360 x 640 pixels
CPU	Qualcomm MSM 7230 800 MHz processor	ARM 11 680 MHz processor
Battery	Li-Ion 1300 mAh	Li-Ion 1050 mAh (BL-5CT)
Camera	5 MP, 2592 x 1944 pixels	8 MP, 3264×2448 pixels
On board radio	No	Yes, Stereo FM radio with RDS
RAM	512 MB RAM	256 MB RAM
Dimesnions	119.4 x 61 x 15.2 mm	103.8 x 52.5 x 13.9 mm
Weight	184.3 g	131 g