The first generation Apple iPhone was made of metal, only to give way to the glossy plastic of the updated 3G version of the gadget sold now. The plastic is vulnerable to wearing and scratching, so it doesn’t take too long for a 3G iPhone to lose much of its charm. Nokia 5800 XpressMusic employs a matte back panel with a thin striped texture enabling it to stand better against the physical threats.

Apple iPhone is some three millimeters thinner, but the Tube wins in the remaining aspects; it’s more comfortable in use, being the shortest of the two handsets. The precise measurements of the two are: 115,5 x 62,1 x 12,3 mm (133 g) for iPhone and 111 x 51,7 x 15,5 mm (109 g) for Nokia 5800. The assembly quality and design are on Apple’s side. The new version of iPhone looks gorgeous and has a sturdy build. 

The screen of Nokia 5800 XpressMusic has a higher resolution, providing a better image quality; iPhone’s screen is more sensitive, though. The MultiTouch technology allows for detection of multiple spots of simultaneous touch interaction, making it easier to resize the images in the gallery and similarly improving multiple other facets of functionality. The Tube follows a more conservative approach, only supporting the traditional set of touch actions; but its interface is optimized for finger control, so the difference in usability is negligible.
 

 

Audio (9/10 vs. 8/10)

Both 5800 and Apple iPhone provide a quality sounding through the bundled headset, the difference in quality being marginal. Nevertheless the onboard stereo speakers of 5800 sound much better than iPhone’s.

Nokia are enjoying the fruit of all their efforts invested into the development of power saving techniques. Accordingly, the Tube lasts much longer than Apple’s brainchild.

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic: 406 hours of standby / 8,45 hours of talktime, up to 35 hours of continuous MP3 playback

Apple iPhone 3G: 300 hours of standby / 10 hours of talktime, up to 24 hours of continuous MP3 playback

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is equipped with the standard microUSB and 3.5 mm headset connectors and a memory card slot. The iPhone handset has a firmware charger slot also used for synchronization and a 3.5 mm audio jack. There’s no memory slot available on iPhone.

As we have already mentioned, the 5800 model has a memory card slot and supports capacities up to 32 Gb, a 8 Gb card coming in the sales package. If you pick an iPhone, you will be strictly limited to the onboard storage of either 8 or 16 Gb depending on the version.   

Nokia 5800 utilizes a quality 3.2 Mp auto-focusing cam boosted with Carl Zeiss optics and a powerful flash. Apple iPhone is only equipped with a weak 2 Mp cam which can’t even take video records. The Nokia handset easily records VGA clips at 640x480@30fps with stereo sounds. The Finns are clearly leading in this test.

The user interface of iPhone looks much better than Nokia’s solution, making a vast use of animations. Nokia can’t offer anything comparable, keeping to a very modest level of aesthetics. Likewise, iPhone has a substantially better performance, all the menus and windows pop up almost instantly. On the other hand, the OS X that powers iPhone will never be able to compete with S60 in the variety of available third-party applications. Also, with iPhone you aren’t going to get such powers as handwritten input (the Tube has a stylus for that) and OCR support, copy and paste text actions, all of this available on Nokia 5800 Tube.

Nokia 5800 comes with a desktop tripod, a travel case, a text input mediator device, a 8 Gb memory card, a TV cable, a USB cable, a headset while iPhone 3G has its box stuffed with a cradle, a USB cable, a primitive headset and a brand wiping cloth.

The Nokia smartphone is incomparably cheaper and isn’t bound to a specific carrier company. The recommended price for Europe is 279 euros. iPhone 3G costs 199 USD provided that you sign a contract with a specific carrier, an unlocked iPhone is priced 800 USD.