vB Easy Archive - SMT5600 vs Nokia 6682?

Pages: 1

SMT5600 vs Nokia 6682?
(Click here to view the original thread with full colors/images)

Posted by: darren72

Hi everyone,

I'd like to get a Cingular smartphone and I think I've narrowed it down to the Audiovox 5600 and the Nokia 6682. Any thoughts about the relative merits of one version the other?

Thanks.

Posted by: Omega2008

The SMT 5600 can do a whole lot more....the SMT more a PDA than a phone while the Nokia is more a phone than a PDA.

Posted by: darren72

THanks - but could you elaborate a little? What kinds of things can the SMT do that the Nokia cannot? I know the SMT supports microsoft exchange servers. But both are highly customizable, so I'm curious about the shortcomings you may find with one or the other.

Posted by: Omega2008

Not totally sure about what the Nokia can do since I never had a Symbian OS device. Based on what I heard it can just do more. I really don't have set examples I wish I did. Your best bet is to get them both and try them out side by side and see which one you like and suits your needs. LOL sorry for my biased approach in my first post.

Posted by: wshwe

I'm switching from Symbian to Windows Mobile because I subscribe to a hosted Exchange Server service. For most I think either OS would suffice.

Posted by: AaronT

As I see it:

Strengths of Nokia 6682:

- EDGE
- Better quality screen
- Better build quality
- Far superior camera
- Better RF
- More third party software
- Better Bluetooth support
- Hot-swappable memory
- Ability to send/sync text messages via PC
- Office/PDF software. included
- Native Lotus Notes/Apple iSync support
- Faster boot times

Strengths of the SMT5600:

- Cheaper (in the UK, at least)
- Smaller
- Slightly better battery life
- Much better syncing with MS Outlook
- Home screen more customisable than Series 60 equivalent
- Cheaper memory cards
- Easier to develop software for

To be fair, you're comparing a phone that was released over a year ago (SMT 5600) against one that's just hit the shelves (N6682). It's no surprise that the newer phone is superior in most respects. The SMT 5600 was a great phone when in was released a year ago, but it's starting to show its age now.

If I was in the market for a Microsoft Smartphone, I would personally wait until one is released with Windows Mobile 5.0 as it's supposed to fix a lot of niggling issues.

Posted by: hylton

I'd have to agree w/ Aarons points other than the 'more 3rd party software' point, I think they both have a ton available, while I can't say I know how much Symbian OS software and Java software is available for the Nokia 6682, there is more crap out there than you can shake a stick at for WM devices...maybe there is really 'more' for Symbian, but even if there is, I haven't found a single piece that I would have needed that didn't exist for WM.

Heck, the WM devices even have a mosquito repeller...take that Symbian ! ! ! (that's a joke, not being serious here, its just funny)

As a long time Nokia candybar fan (and I really wanted to stick w/ Nokia), I decided on the SMT b/c I was sick of waiting on the 6682 to come out...and the fact that it was windows based, which gave me a shorter learning curve as a windows developer to get familiar w/ how to tweak it...all in all I'm very happy w/ it.

Chris

Posted by: beatniks3

we have the mosquito repeller program too.

EDGE is the big deal maker or breaker here IMO

Posted by: shaolinmonk

series 60 has way more toys(apps) to play with and is more exciting IMO...

series 60 also has

supernintento/gameboy/sega/commodore 64 emulators
mosiquto apps
lie detector apps
alcohol tracking apps

the only really benefit i saw in a windows phone was it's compatibility with windows..

Posted by: Holishi

Aaron pretty much sums up everything. If money is not an issue, 6682 is a better phone over smt5600.

Posted by: hylton

yes, edge is definitely the biggest plus in my mind to the 6682, but for what i needed (or thought I needed) at the time, GPRS was fine...especially w/ BT and USB pass-thru at home...so if you really don't see or have a need for EDGE speeds, then I'd still have a preference toward the audiovox for the other features...the customization i've gotten w/ my homescreen and other windows-ish capability has proven to be invaluable....

anyway...that's funny about the mosq repeller, didn't know symbian had it too, that's hysterical...

chris

Posted by: mbranscum

Quote:

Originally Posted by Omega2008

The SMT 5600 can do a whole lot more....the SMT more a PDA than a phone while the Nokia is more a phone than a PDA.

Actually, and I have both phones, I can't think of one thing the SMT5600 can do that the Nokia 6682 can't.

With the right software....many of the smaprtphone apps are also available for Symbian, like Profimail, Opera, some of the DVD programs and games. A BIG advantage of the Nokia is Edge. If you're on Cingular, there is a noticible difference. In some respects you have a bigger selection in Symbian software. For example chosing between Opera and NetFront browsers (I have both).

Sizewise....there's not much difference.

Posted by: hylton

I'm not trying to argue here, I think both phones are great, but I'm gonna disagree about what you can/cannot do w/ either...but here goes...

Here's my list of things I do not think I could do w/ a Symbian phone, based on my limited knowlegde and reading on Symbian...these are things I've found since I bought the SMT5600 that I find pretty invaluable...

1. homescreen apps like facade, the homescreen configuration of a WM device is pretty valuable to me now that i've used it and customized my phone much more than would have been possible w/ a Nokia. Everything is XML based, messing w/ it is not difficult and could in fact be done by just about anyone that can read and use notepad. It's pretty handy in making the device extremely useful for managing a schedule and ease of access to key phone functionality.

2. SMT5600 has WMP10, this allows me to sync my music straight to my phone and at the SAME TIME sample it down to a lower Kbps rate for maximizing storage. This of course requires WMP10 on the desktop, but if you are typically using WMP10, this becomes a VERY nice feature and integration w/ Windows.

3. GPS/mapping software availability, didn't think I'd use it, but I do...Symbian has some GPS offerings, but none of the regular players offer anything (US based) that seems to be worth much on Symbian...someone may correct me here, but I haven't found anything...I use this alot on my SMT, particularly w/ PocketStreets, but there are offerings w/ routing from Destinator, TomTom (non-US at this point, US coming), CoPilot, and Mapopolis.

4. General config capability. I can tweak my SMT5600 via the registry to be much more specific to my needs (sounds, menus, features etc.) than I could w/ a Symbian device. I have a number of customized settings w/ regard to my sounds and profiles that could probably not be achieved w/ a Symbian device. While I can't say this is totally impossible w/ Symbian, I can say that I most folks wouldn't know where to begin to look for this and I found it in a matter of hours while playing around w/ my phone. My point, if you are very familiar w/ Windows, this platform is very easy to work with and make changes to it.

Just a few things I feel make WM better than Symbian...

Chris

Posted by: shaolinmonk

Quote:

Originally Posted by hylton

I'm not trying to argue here, I think both phones are great, but I'm gonna disagree about what you can/cannot do w/ either...but here goes...

Here's my list of things I do not think I could do w/ a Symbian phone, based on my limited knowlegde and reading on Symbian...these are things I've found since I bought the SMT5600 that I find pretty invaluable...

1. homescreen apps like facade, the homescreen configuration of a WM device is pretty valuable to me now that i've used it and customized my phone much more than would have been possible w/ a Nokia. Everything is XML based, messing w/ it is not difficult and could in fact be done by just about anyone that can read and use notepad. It's pretty handy in making the device extremely useful for managing a schedule and ease of access to key phone functionality.

2. SMT5600 has WMP10, this allows me to sync my music straight to my phone and at the SAME TIME sample it down to a lower Kbps rate for maximizing storage. This of course requires WMP10 on the desktop, but if you are typically using WMP10, this becomes a VERY nice feature and integration w/ Windows.

3. GPS/mapping software availability, didn't think I'd use it, but I do...Symbian has some GPS offerings, but none of the regular players offer anything (US based) that seems to be worth much on Symbian...someone may correct me here, but I haven't found anything...I use this alot on my SMT, particularly w/ PocketStreets, but there are offerings w/ routing from Destinator, TomTom (non-US at this point, US coming), CoPilot, and Mapopolis.

4. General config capability. I can tweak my SMT5600 via the registry to be much more specific to my needs (sounds, menus, features etc.) than I could w/ a Symbian device. I have a number of customized settings w/ regard to my sounds and profiles that could probably not be achieved w/ a Symbian device. While I can't say this is totally impossible w/ Symbian, I can say that I most folks wouldn't know where to begin to look for this and I found it in a matter of hours while playing around w/ my phone. My point, if you are very familiar w/ Windows, this platform is very easy to work with and make changes to it.

Just a few things I feel make WM better than Symbian...

Chris

latest symbian has a active bar which let's you put in shortcuts etc.. calendar prompts etc.etc.. works very wel

handy day also did this well.

dont' see the any clear benefits to wm10. i can use smartmovie, real player , ogg player... and change bit rates make playlists from my pc also.

windows does GPS much better then series 60 can't argue there

do you have any specific tweaks you're referring too... sounds, profiles, full screen caller .. series 60 let's you chnage it al..

Posted by: Omega2008

Like I said, I never owned a series 60 device so I really can't comment on it. Based on the comments in this thread WM2003SE and Series 60 (whatever version of that is on the 6682) are very simular in alot of aspects. I do believe that WM5 device will be much more capable as a PDA than Symbian's current offerings.

Posted by: jenya2k

Hey I currently have the SMT5600, and I love the phone... Unfortunately I noticed that smartphones and PPC's in general have issues when it comes to signal strength and consistancy. I can stand in one spot with my SP and the signal can go from zero bars to full bars and back. I just feel that basic phones do a much better job of switching towers in the GSM world...

Anyways sorry I was ranting, I was wondering if the Symbian phones have Active Sync apps out for syning with Exchange. I remember in March they announced a partnership with MSFT. Have they released anything?

Posted by: hylton

Quote:

Originally Posted by shaolinmonk

don't know what activebar offers in the way of customization, but what i can do w/ the XML is most likely way more configurable than what activebar can do, but again, i'm not saying it is or isn't, just my observation from looking at what symbian software add-ons offer based on the summaries themselves...w/ things like facade or the other homescreen products, i can control font sizes, positioning, colors, borders and shading, the entire look and feel pretty much...

yea, if you don't use WMP10, then i agree, not much benefit either way...I am curious though, you mentioned changing sampling rates w/ your stuff, does it do that automatically when you push to the phone...b/c what i was referring to was WMP10 integration w/ smartphone/ppc devices thru ActiveSync, I set my params and when I build my playlist in WMP10 on the PC and say 'sync to device', it does everything for me...shoves it to the phone in folders, sample rate conversion is done based on my one-time setting...I don't have to manually convert the file and then move it to the device...i.e. I have no 64k files on my PC at all, ActiveSync and WMP10 converts them right to the phone.

The other tweaks I was talking about was the ability to do things like totally customize my menus...I can take things totally out of the start menu, move them around, change the order, even use 3rd party to get a PDA look rather than the typical WM phone menu...

Second, on sounds, I can tweak the registry to have my 'silent' profile and default sounds behave as I want them...the phone itself offers a little customization, but w/ the added registry entries, I can turn off every single phone sound accept my alarm clock software...including keypad blips, warning tones...etc...so that even in normal mode, all I get are ringers and reminders...nothing else has the ability to make noise...again, this may be possible w/ Symbian from the menus, but if I want to go in and say this one thing gets to make a sound now, i can do it.

Chris

Posted by: rosullivan04

The Nokia 6682, with Cingular, is a fundamentally flawed device. This particular phone has serious flaws which would prevent me from ever considering it, such as memory full errors while browsing on the internet etc... The Symbian vs. Windows discussion is moot with such a flawed device. The SMT5600, granted, also has its flaws... but its flaws are insignificant compared to the 6682's flaws. With the setbacks and delays that plagued this device, it should be flawless. Unfortunately, this is far from the case.

Posted by: shaolinmonk

Quote:

Originally Posted by rosullivan04

The Nokia 6682, with Cingular, is a fundamentally flawed device. This particular phone has serious flaws which would prevent me from ever considering it, such as memory full errors while browsing on the internet etc... The Symbian vs. Windows discussion is moot with such a flawed device. The SMT5600, granted, also has its flaws... but its flaws are insignificant compared to the 6682's flaws. With the setbacks and delays that plagued this device, it should be flawless. Unfortunately, this is far from the case.

yes they did butcher the memory allocation in the cingular version.. as people as experiecning program errors on opera etc..

Quote:

Originally Posted by hylton

theme development covers all of that i believe.. (but you can't move the structure like you can in windows) like clock to the bottom left corner or whatever.
you can change fonts in symbian, borders rf and battery bars etc.etc...

no it's not intregrated.. to my knowledge to adjust bit rates but the nokia suite does convert everythig to a usable format.. maybe real player has a sync to phone function but i doubt it.

i prefer a card reader nothing bests that IMO.

sounds like if you want to get creative you can "tweak" a lot more on a windows phone.. having said that i'm not much of a "tweaker" so windows wins in that category as well..

everyone looks for different things so it's hard to really compare i guess..

for me windows smartphones and series 60 do pretty much the same.. but having used both i find series 60 a lot more entertaining

Posted by: wshwe

To my knowledge Symbian hasn't released Activesync Exchange software yet. If you're going to consider the Nokia 6682 have you also looked at the Nokia 6620, 6630 or 9300? If I'm not mistaken all of these Nokias support Edge.

Posted by: sabesh

I've got/had both: Nokia 6620 & a Motorola MPx220. Both are great phones and can do more or less of the same things. I think it comes down to personal preference of the O/S.

I prefer WM2003SE 'cos it does GPS very very well (Mapopolis works like a charm). I also like the homescreen setup and the many nice apps coming out for it. Similar-function apps tend to be better in wm2003se. For example, Resco explorer for wm2003se is much better than FE explorer for s60 and so forth.

Cheers, Sabesh.