If it is quite difficult to compare two seemingly identical boxes, then the task becomes much easier by thinking what’s actually inside those boxes, for the content happens to be quite different when touched and tried on hand. The word is about Nokia’s twin brothers – the Nokia N9 and the Nokia Lumia 800. Both are born at nearly the same time (Nokia N9 in September 2011, Lumia 800 in November 2011), we can say even from the same genetic source, but the outcome went slightly different as to what they became. A little warning before proceeding: the word both in this review is going to be used twice or thrice more than usual due to already understandable reasons.
Design
Both phones have the traditional already curved design, made from single piece polycarbonate. The looks are virtually the same, apart from the fact that the Lumia 800 has a Windows Phone logo below its monitor, and two other quick launch buttons on the left and right of it. As to dimensions there are no differences, as both have 116.5×61.2×12.1mm characteristics. But they actually weigh differently, the Nokia N9 is slightly lighter, it weighs 135g against the Lumia 800’s 142g.
Memory
Here is where we start to see more difference between these two, and these differences can actually make difference as which one is more preferable and why. The thing is that while both have the same 16 GB of internal storage, on the RAM side we surprisingly discover that the N9 is quicker than the Lumia with its 1GB of RAM against 512GB of the Lumia 800. That means that the N9 is potentially twice stronger than the Lumia 800. Moreover, according to SunSpider 0.9.1 benchmark, the N9 is said to be even faster than the iPhone 4 and the Galaxy S II.The phonebook of both devices has unlimited entry place, and both have no card slots available.
Display
If we were asked to describe in one sentence the difference between the designs of these two, then we could say that there is a big eyed brother (the Nokia Lumia 800) and its small eyed brother (the Nokia N9), and all this refers to screen sensor buttons. Both handsets have AMOLED capacitive touchscreens, 16M colors, Gorilla glass displays, Multi-touch input method and fingertips swipe of a sliding motion. The display size is almost the same, the N9 being a little longer, as to anti-glare thing, the N9 uses Anti-glare polarizer, whereas the Lumia 800 works with Nokia Clear Black display system.
Camera
The two smartphones are packed with an 8MP camera with a resolution of 3264×2448 pixels, Carl Zeiss optics, an autofocus and a dual-LED flash. As to frontal camera, the N9 is equipped with a simple VGA front camera, but the Lumia 800 considered it unnecessary. Video recording again is of the same feature in both with 720p at 30fps.
Nokia N9 sample video
Nokia N9 sample photos
Nokia Lumia 800 sample video
Nokia Lumia 800 sample photos
Processors
Here Lumia 800 takes revenge over N9 for its RAM lag by having a slightly stronger of 1.4 GHz Scorpion processor plus Adreno 205 GPU, Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon chipset, 3D Graphics HW Acce, and N9 is equipped with 1GHz Cortex A8 CPU, PowerVR SGX530 GPU, TI OMAP 3630 chipset.
Battery
Here both have the same type of battery, which is a Standard 1450mAh Li-Ion battery (BV-5JW), but what it does in both devices is a different matter. Stand by duration in the N9 is up to 380 h (2G)/up to 450 h (3G) and in the Lumia 800 it is up to 265 h (2G)/up to 335 h (3G), so this makes the N9 look more attractive, but no need to hurry there. And that’s because in talk time the Lumia 800 can do up to 13 h (2G)/up to 9 h 30 min (3G) as compared to the N9’s up to 11 h (2G)/up to 7 h (3G).
Software
As to the operating system, the N9 runs on MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan, while the Nokia Lumia 800 is built on Windows Phone 7.5 called Mango. MeeGo was released in May 2010 and is made on Linux by a mix of Nokia’s Maemo and Intel’s Moblin software platforms. As to Microsoft’s Mango, it was released this year at the end of September and does everything to make you forget you are using a smartphone, and think you are dealing with a laptop. Though it is easy to give preference to Mango over MeeGo, but I think it is too soon to do so, considering that Nokia would not release almost similar phones nearly at the same time. So what’s the issue here? One guess is that the Nokia N9 is indirectly directed to more sophisticated customers, who know what Linux is, and probably some programming skills. MeeGo indeed can be said to possess amazing multi-tasking possibilities, whereas Mango so more directed to general public, with ease of use and navigation. Finally, MeeGo is a dead platform, and the Nokia N9 is the only handset running it, while Windows Phone thrives.
Other features
The N9 did keep NFC feature, while the Lumia 800 dismissed it, but the latter has a built-Stereo FM radio with RDS, while it is absent surprisingly on the N9. But N9 can boast of its currently much spoken TV-out feature, whereas it’ not there on the Lumia. The N9 is also equipped with a Dolby Mobile sound enhancement, Dolby Headphone support.
Conclusion
Even though there is a widely accepted notion that the newer the phone is, the better, I personally think that the Lumia 800 needs time on its side to prove its superiority over the N9. The thing is that the N9’s multi-tasking and RAM advantage can be more comparable to Nokia’s main tow competitors, while the Lumia 800 is more of easy to handle, big-button, windows looking smartphone. But this is a purely subjective view, for the standards of assessment can drastically change within a small time when the Lumia 800 can really be loved and make the N9 look obsolete.
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