Several days ago I tried to compare the upcoming Nokia 500 with the HTC Wildfire S, and it came out that in many aspects Nokia’s entry-level smartphone is even better than HTC’s mid-range device. Now I want to compare the Nokia 500 with the Samsung Galaxy Ace, and I have personal interest in this comparison, since I’m an owner of a Galaxy Ace.

So, let’s see which phone is better – the Nokia 500 or the Samsung Galaxy Ace.

Design

As I said in my previous post, the Nokia 500’s design is at least original and recognizable. The Samsung Galaxy Ace, on the other hand, looks like a typical Android smartphone, but a very stylish one for sure (I bought it only because I likes its design, and only later I found out it that has good specs, too). Both smartphones have interchangeable battery covers, the only difference is that the Nokia 500 offers a wider range of color choices, while the Galaxy Ace comes in two colors only – black and white. Besides, the Nokia 500 is 1mm shorter, 6mm slimmer and 20g lighter than Samsung’s device.

So those who prefer more original smartphones with different colors will most likely choose the Nokia 500. And those who like the sleek shapes of Android phones will give preference to the Samsung Galaxy Ace. Design is a matter of taste anyway, I personally like the Galaxy Ace more.

Display

The Samsung Galaxy Ace is larger, so it offers a larger screen size – 3.5-inch (the Nokia 500’s screen is 3.2-inch), but at the same time its resolution is lower — 320 x 480 against the Nokia 500’s 360 x 640. On the other hand, the Nokia 500 is an upcoming device yet, so we can’t be sure it will really appear with such a display (and will it really have a high quality?), but I can touch and see Samsung’s display, and I say its quality is good.

Processors

The Nokia 500 is going to have a 1GHz processor, while the processor of the Samsung Galaxy Ace is only 800MHz. However, I think Nokia’s CPU has yet to be tested, while as an owner of a Galaxy Ace I can say its processor is rather good, and I’ve never experienced any problem with it.

Platform

The Samsung Galaxy Ace runs Android, while the Nokia 500 runs Symbian Anna. Of course, Symbian Anna is much better than the previous Symbian^3, but still it’s Symbian… Android is the most popular platform now, and almost half of all smartphones work on Android; this means it has many useful apps and a huge community… I don’t know, maybe there are people who will prefer Symbian, but I prefer Android anyway.

Camera

Both smartphones have 5MP cameras, but Samsung offers auto-focus and LED flash with its device. Nokia always makes very good cameras for its smartphones, and I’m sure the one for the Nokia 500 will be good, too. As for Samsung, maybe this company isn’t known for its cameras, but the Samsung Galaxy Ace’s camera is already tested – at least by me – and takes quality pics, really quality ones.

Other features

The Samsung Galaxy Ace has only 158MB of storage, and it’s a big shortcoming – even I have to admit this. And 2GB of internal storage is the big plus of the upcoming Nokia 500. However, a microSD card can even the odds. On the other hand, the Galaxy Ace comes with some features the Nokia 500 lacks (DLNA support, Wi-Fi hotspot and others).

So…

Both smartphones have their stronger and weaker sides. The Nokia 500’s display has a higher resolution, its processor is stronger and it has a bigger amount of internal storage. The Samsung Galaxy Ace runs Android, the most popular OS, has a camera with LED flash and auto-focus, it also has some features the Nokia 500 doesn’t and is more beautiful (IMHO). I think those who love testing new devices will surely buy a Nokia 500, and those who love older but tested devices will prefer the Galaxy Ace after all.

So it’s up to you to decide which one is better for you. But I would like to add that the Nokia 500 is yet to come (some of its features can still change before it’s released), and the Galaxy Ace is real, it can be touched, felt and bought right now. I have always thought that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. And the rest is up to you

The Nokia 500 was announced only several days ago, but it has already caught the attention of many geeks with its Symbian Anna OS and low price. HTC is also offering quite an interesting device – the Android-based HTC Wildfire S, which isn’t very expensive and has good features, too.

Let’s try to compare these two entry-level smartphones and see which one is better.

Design

The HTC Wildfire S looks like all the other HTC smartphones based on Android, nothing new or extraordinary. The Nokia 500 is more recognizable, if I can say so, and you’ll never mix it up with any other device. Besides, it has two interchangeable back covers of different colors – you can choose the one that best suits your mood. Do you like it? I do!

Display

Both Nokia’s and HTC’s smartphones have 3.2-inch displays, but the Nokia 500’s screen is more narrow and tall, and its resolution is higher — 360 x 640, while the Wildfire S’s resolution is only 320 x 480. I can’t say which display’s form factor is better – Nokia’s long and narrow one or HTC’s “square” one – it’s a matter of taste. But the higher resolution is always better, so the Nokia 500 is surely a winner in this category.

Processors

The Nokia 500 has a 1GHz processor (it’s Nokia’s first smartphone with such a CPU, by the way!), and the HTC Wildfire S’s SPU is only 600MHz. And no matter how much we say that the number of “MHz”s is not that important (once we compared the 1GHz processor of the Motorola Atrix 4G with the 800MHz processor of the Nokia N8, and the Nokia smartphone won, remember?), this 400MHz difference will surely play its role and affect the smartphone’s performance.

Platform

The Nokia 500, as I mentioned above, is running Symbian Anna, and the HTC Wildfire S is based on the most popular OS nowadays – Android. I can’t say which OS is better – it’s also a matter of taste. I myself prefer Android, but I can’t help mentioning that Symbian Anna is not worse at all – it also has a big number of great features, and Nokia’s Ovi Store offers many good apps and services.

Camera

Both smartphones we’re trying to compare have 5MP cameras with VGA video recording capability. Since the Nokia 500 isn’t released yet, we haven’t seen its camera in work, so we don’t know what images it can provide. However, everybody knows that Nokia has always equipped its smartphones with great cameras (remember the Nokia N8), which HTC has always failed to do. So I guess the Nokia 500’s 5MP camera will be cooler than the HTC Wildfire S’s one…

Other features

I guess we should also try to compare the connectivity features of these two smartphones, though there isn’t much to compare here. Both have microUSB, Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth (though the Bluetooth version of the Wildfire S is a bit newer – 3.0 against 2.1). On the other hand, the Nokia 500 has HSDPA connectivity support up to 14.4Mbps, which is two times more than the Wildfire S’s speed.

So… what can I add? These two smartphones seem to be similar in many aspects, but if I were to choose, I would choose the Nokia 500, since it looks better, it has a stronger processor and higher screen resolution. The rest is up to you…

In May 2010 only 27 percent of the mobile consumers in the UK used smartphones. Now this number has grown nearly twice and made up 42 percent.

This increase in smartphone popularity has created a competitive landscape for the most popular mobile operating systems, namely Symbian, Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android.

Only a year ago Symbian was the most popular OS in the UK, but now the situation has changed – Apple’s iOS has managed to overtake Nokia’s Symbian and to take 27.1 percent market share, so now iOS is the top platform in the UK with almost 6 million users.

Android, which is considered to be the best and the most popular smartphone in the world, is only the second in the UK with 26.7 percent market share. However, this number is also great for Google’s OS for now, since its market share only a year ago was really tiny, and now it has grown by (attention!) 634 percent!

Symbian is only the third now, and its market share is only 22.5 percent (10 percent less than in May 2010). The number of Symbian smartphone users has also decreased to 4.5 million.

RIM is on the fourth place with 59 percent increase, and Microsoft’s platform is the fifth with 32 percent decrease.

Probably you remember Nokia was on the first position of its high sales figures, and that time nobody can foresee that this company will be the second in a year. Android has officially broken all records, though it’s not surprising as Google’s OS is the fastest growing mobile platform nowadays.

While many manufacturers fore-felt Android’s future and switched to it, but Nokia decided to be loyal to its Symbian OS and this is the right time to think whether Nokia has made a good decision.

The appropriate survey has been done by a Research firm “Canalys” which revealed that Symbian sold 31 million of its product while Android sold 1.9 million more during the last quarter of 2010. Android reached such results because many devices were launched in face of HTC, Samsung and LG. And if Nokia thinks it gives an advantage to be the one manufacturer offering Symbian-based devices, but probably the company has forgotten it has losses too.

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