Nokia E7 vs LG Optimus 2X vs Apple iPhone 4

Introduction and Design:

The Nokia E7, LG Optimus 2X and the Apple iPhone 4 are one of the best and most current representatives of rather different mobile operating systems – Symbian, Android and iOS. It's a long shot to compare the three as they are so different, but it gives us a bird's eye view of how the mobile industry has changed in the last few years.

The Nokia E7 has the worst timing of the three, appearing right after Nokia announced its decision to slowly phase out Symbian, and replace it with Windows Phone. Still, it is an extremely well-crafted device, and its anodized aluminum chassis feels very solid in the hand, all the while it manages to keep a fairly slim profile, considering it carries an excellent chiclet-style physical keyboard.

The LG Optimus 2X is basically a big slab, but the curved battery cover edges, and the soft touch plastic on the back make it comfortable to hold. The iPhone 4, on the other hand, has exceptional looks too, but it achieves it with a steel and glass frame, while still having one of the thinnest profiles out there.

The displays utilized are also very different. First we have the 4” ClearBlack AMOLED on the Nokia E7, which offers the widest viewing angles, high contrast, and nice, saturated colors, plus it has a polarizing filter on top to aid in sunlight visibility, since it is not as bright as the LCD screens on Apple's and LG's handsets. Its main downside – the low 360x640 resolution.

The iPhone 4's so-called Retina Display is much smaller than the one on the E7 at 3.5”, but it has the highest mobile display resolution out there – 640x960 – and is one of the brightest too. And, finally, the  display on the LG Optimus 2X is a solid 4” IPS-LCD with 480x800 pixels, making it a good choice if you'd rather have a bigger screen with standard resolution than the smaller one on the iPhone 4.

	Apple iPhone 4	Nokia E7	LG Optimus 2X
Displays and viewing angles of the Apple iPhone 4, the Nokia E7 and the LG Optimus 2X

Looking around the sides we immediately notice that the phones have different sets of functionalities. At first look the Nokia E7 is the most versatile of the three. It has an 8MP camera with dual-LED flash, HDMI-out port and USB-on-the-go for hooking up a USB stick directly to your phone.

Left	Top	Right	Bottom
The sides of the Apple iPhone 4 (top), the Nokia E7 (middle) and the LG Optimus 2X (bottom)

The LG Optimus 2X, however, also has an 8MP camera with LED flash and HDMI-out port for hooking up your phone to a big screen TV. It doesn't have USB-on-the-go, but thanks to its dual-core chipset its camera records Full HD 1080p video, plus it has a microSD card slot for storage expansion.

Backs

Of course, both the LG and Apple's phones don't have the comfortable physical keyboard the Nokia E7 has. The iPhone 4 actually looks the least functional in terms of ports, as it has neither HDMI, nor microSD, not even a microUSB port, and a 5MP camera with flash. Camera resolution, however, doesn't mean much for the actual picture quality, and Apple released an HDMI cable that goes into the proprietary port of Apple's finest, so this evens things out to an extent.

Hardware and design is not all there is to it, so let's examine the interfaces quickly.

Of the three phones, only the Nokia E7 has a physical keyboard

Interface:

A lot has been written which approach is better for your smartphone interface – the plain Jane of the iPhone which serves as just a portal for all the iOS apps out there, or the more information-laden one on Android with its widgets, which Symbian now sports as well. It comes down to what you are used to, but there is no denying that people now want as much info from the first glance at their phone's screen as possible. Not all widgets are created equal, though – the ones on the Nokia E7 with Symbian are taking the one-size-fits-all approach, restricted in six rectangular boxes on the three homescreens. This will change with the big Symbian update that is coming, but for now the UI versatility crown goes to the LG Optimus 2X here.

The interface of the Apple iPhone 4

The interface of the LG Optimus 2X

The Symbian^3 interface on the Nokia E7

Messaging and keyboards:

If you never got used to typing on a piece of glass that doesn't have any tactile feedback, you'd love the physical keyboard on the Nokia E7. After tilting the screen up you have four rows of chiclet-styled keys with an ample amount of space in-between to allow for fast and comfortable typing.

We are at the opinion that you can get used to any keyboard, regardless if it is physical or virtual, but we like our screens bigger when typing, the one on the iPhone 4 feels a bit cramped, compared to typing on the 4” displays of the Optimus 2X or Nokia E7. Plus, the keyboard on the Optimus 2X looks as a copycat of the one on the iPhone 4, which makes it quite good.

The on-screen keyboard of the Nokia E7

The On-screen keyboard of the LG Optimus 2X

iOS 4 will now underline words that are misspelled

Camera:

The Nokia E7 has a fixed focus 8MP camera, so it focuses everything beyond 20 inches (50 cm). This makes it faster to snap a photo since you don't need to prefocus with the dedicated camera button, but you are not able to snap a picture in macro mode.

The LG Optimus 2X, on the other hand, has numerous scene modes and settings you can choose from, and it excels with the ability of its 8MP camera to capture Full HD 1080p video. The iPhone 4 has the simplest, point-and-shoot approach to taking photos of them all, which is very appealing for the average user.

As for the photo quality, there is enough amount of detail in the pictures taken with all three phones, but the color representation is different – the iPhone 4 slightly oversaturates the colors, while from the LG Optimus 2X they come out a tad colder than reality. The Nokia E7 gets it about right, but the images could be a bit sharper. Same goes for the video clips, and the crown for most fluid 720p HD video goes to the Optimus 2X and the iPhone 4, whereas the Nokia E7 shoots with 25fps.

Apple iPhone 4
LG Optimus 2X
Nokia E7 Outdoor samples

Apple iPhone 4

LG Optimus 2X

Strong	Medium	Low light	Darkness with flash
Nokia E7 Indoor samples

Browser:

The LG Optimus 2X is the most functional of the three browsers in terms of fast JavaScript rendering, and full Adobe Flash. On the other hand, scrolling and zooming are most fluid on the iPhone. Finally, navigation within the Symbian browser on the Nokia E7 is a pain, and the update for it can't come soon enough.

The browser on the LG Optimus 2X executes both JavaScript and Adobe Flash elements very quickly

Web surfing with the Apple iPhone 4

The browser of the Nokia E7

Safari also takes the crown in navigation versatility – you can scroll and pan around the page while your fingers are doing pinch-to-zoom here, whereas on the LG Optimus 2X you can't. It also recognizes columns in websites very well, so double-tapping to zoom is more precise than in the Android browser.

To wrap it up, the LG Optimus 2X excels in speed and support, thanks to its dual-core chipset and full Adobe Flash support. Script execution and page load times are blazing fast since the second core is utilized by the browser's code. Again, if you want to see the Internet sites fast, and as their web designers intended, on a large 4” screen, and with full Flash support, LG's handset offers that.

What the Safari browser on the iPhone 4 does best of the three, is smooth and seamless navigation, plus very crisp text due to the high resolution display. The screen is smaller, though, and Adobe Flash support is non-existent.  As for the severely outdated browser on the Nokia E7  - hopefully the coming update will ring in the much needed improvements to it.
Conclusion:

All the three phones are having great design and hardware that is more than competent for the job, especially the Optimus 2X with its dual-core chipset. The call quality is good as all three are equipped with noise-canceling microphones. The iPhone 4 has this grip reception issues sometimes, which most probably won't affect you, unless you live on the very edge of the signal tower.

It is not all about hardware these days, not even about having the slickest interface, but rather the amount and quality of third party apps that can make your phone so much more versatile. This is where the App Store excels, as it got a head start of about a year before Android Market even appeared, not to mention Nokia's Ovi Store, and it is still most profitable for developers to write apps for iOS.

Considering that these phones cost more than $600 unlocked, and the Nokia E7 actually takes the crown as the most expensive at this very moment, so at this price you'd probably set your eyesight on it only if you definitely need a physical keyboard to type comfortably, and already have some experience with Symbian, i.e., if you are a Nokia fan. As we said, its market timing is the worst now, with all the noise surrounding Nokia Windows Phone.

Now the tough call is between the iPhone 4 and the LG Optimus 2X. Android Market might not have an app for everything, but the 150 000 + applications thereabout cover most basics, and then some. The dual-core chipset allows for Full HD video recording, fast page load times with zippy Adobe Flash support, and thus makes for the best hardware of all the three phones. This unlocks a different set of apps and possibilities, which have not yet materialized on Android Market, though, and matter most for more technically inclined people, which are the most likely to fall in love with the Optimus 2X.

The iPhone 4's thin steel and glass frame is very appealing, especially if you are coming from a phone with a plastic chassis, which the overwhelming majority of them are built with. It doesn't do Full HD video, and the browser can't load Flash to save its life, but those are obviously not considered a necessity, since most people that buy the iPhone 4 prefer the smooth experience, devoid of hiccups. The other thing they are looking for is the possibility to  have these numerous apps and versatile accessories everyone is talking about, as well as ease of use, which is very visible in the dead simple camera interface, for example. The sheer fact that it is a 9 month old phone, and still in the mix, comes to show that you are only likely to switch camps if you are getting bored with one mobile OS or the other, and want to try something new for a change.

As for the Nokia E7, we know the company has its loyal fanbase that is dying to get its hands on the latest piece of design art from it, so we are sure the E7 will do fine, once the price starts going south.