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Raise a glass to the iPod Touch… and its dinner partner, the Nokia N82

By Steve Litchfield on January 31, 2009

You may remember this post, in which I looked at areas of functionality in which Apple are very strong with the iPhone and areas in which they really should have stepped up to the plate, evening out the gaps. Recognising that there is something of an inbalance between the functionalities of different phones on the market though, I wanted to point out that there’s another option for fans of the iPhone OS, of the superb hardware and of the App Store. 

Regular readers here will know that, although having access to iPhones, I (personally) use an iPod Touch. Not crazy at all, this feature will hopefully explain one of the reasons why I’m happy with the ‘lesser’ device. The other reason is ongoing network/contract costs, but that’s another rant for another day.

 

Raise your glasses to the iPod Touch

Raise your glasses to the iPod Touch

You see, for Apple fans who eye up the telephony, connectivity and photography advantages of the best of the Symbian/Nokia world, it really is possible to have your cake and eat it. Read on…

Let’s get one thing straight first though. The iPod Touch is a super little bit of kit, encased in a robust metal and glass body. When it was first announced and I realised that it had 80% of the functionality of the iPhone at 20% of the total cost of ownership, I swear I thought there had to be a catch.  With the iPod Touch now down to as little as £130 in the UK if you know where to look, it’s a serious bargain.

Yes, this site is all about iPhone, but I’m sure even hardened iPhone fans won’t be too annoyed that I’m praising its little sister.

Referring back to my earlier post, I was trying to demonstrate the almost complimentary functionality of the Nokia N82 and Apple iPhone 3G, arguing that Apple could level their chart and take a real lead by giving the iPhone boosts in the areas of navigation and photography. However, subverting this chart to another end, what if we accepted the iPhone’s weaknesses and used the complementary nature of it and (say) a Nokia Nseries phone’s functionality to our advantage? In fact, the complementary nature of the two lines on the chart become even more evident if we plot functionality for the iPod Touch instead of the iPhone itself:

A natural fit? Very nearly...

A natural fit? Very nearly...

That’s a pretty good natural fit, in terms of each device playing to its strengths and complementing the other. What I’d like to suggest is that, from my own real world experience, a top spec Nokia camera-centric phone and an iPod Touch make a good and powerful ‘two box’ solution. There are some overlaps, to be sure, mainly in the area of PIM data and music playback, but for all other aspects it’s quite easy to identify which of the two devices comes out comfortably on top.

It’s worth noting that you don’t have to spend a fortune, either. I mentioned above that the iPod Touch can be bought for well under £150 now. If you’re strapped for cash, the Nokia 6220 Classic has the same 5 megapixel camera, Xenon flash, DVD video recording, GPS and navigation features as the N82 charted above, but at £215 or so, inc VAT, SIM-free.

Add the two prices together and you effectively get the best of both worlds for a total price of well under £400, with no phone contract to keep up, month after month. And no hassles if you change your mind and want to sell either or both on eBay after a while.

Yes, it seems inelegant to have a solution which involves two devices rather than one, but the real world can’t serve us up a single gadget that does absolutely everything right now, so a compromise is needed.

Nokia Nseries plus iPod Touch

(Battered and much loved) Nokia Nseries plus iPod Touch

I’ve been enjoying the combination of N82 and iPod Touch, shown above, for the last 6 months, with very few regrets. Quite apart from keeping a foot in both Symbian OS and iPhone camps, I’ve been able to take full advantage of the stonkingly good camera in the N82 while still enjoying the sumptuous delights of the iPhone App Store, especially some of the available games. I’ve been able to find my way around using the voice guided GPS navigation in the N82 while still  catching up with my TV viewing using BBC iPlayer and YouTube on the iPod Touch whenever I’m within Wi-Fi coverage. And both devices are surprisingly robust, which is just as well considering my genetic disposition towards clumsiness and the constant presence of a small child with less than pristine fingers!

Nokia Nseries plus (battered and much loved) iPod Touch

Nokia Nseries plus (battered and much loved) iPod Touch

The best of both worlds? As at Feburary 2009, I think I’ve done about the best I can. If you think you’ve done better, feel free to comment!

  • http://www.thenewsbeforethenews.com James Webster

    I quite agree with this approach… you should probably mention that with an app like JoikuSpot on the phone it is possible to use the iPod touch’s (much better) Mobile Safari to browse the Net via the phone’s WiFi and 3G connection; although my experience with this on my 1st-gen Nokia N95 shows the phone battery gets run down very quickly.

    Also what does the N82 have that the Nokia 6220 doesn’t? WiFi I expect… anything else that I would miss going from N95 ⇒ Nokia 6220 vs N95 => N82.

  • http://Craigl21.Typepad.com craig loxton

    I have similar soloution. You can get iPod touch to use wifi of n82 if you joikuspot premium. Then you can update or download apps on the go from iPod touch via n82 :-)

  • Tim Cooper

    A nice “two box” solution. When its time to trade in my E90 in September i may be going to a two box myself (unless the N97 DOESN’T turn out to be a Xperia size box with 5800’s OS, YUCK!) I do like the Ipod products and the interface is the best out there. I’m often found crossing back and forward on Regent Street to play in both shops! However there’s just ‘something’ about climbing on the Applecart that rackles me, don’t know what.

    I keep looking at the N810 as an option to an Ipod Touch. It can be had for about £170 “If you know where to look” (Amazon). A worthy rival to an Ipod Touch, or past its time? And does the Innov8 have Bluetooth DUN? If so I’d consider that pair to be a good two box solution.

  • Alloafan

    I also have a Nokia/Apple combo – the 6120 and iPod Touch 2G – and find it an excellent pairing. Yes, it lacks the camera finesse and no wi-fi on the 6120 but I’m hoping my next Nokia will be the N79 which would up the camera and add-in both wi-fi and GPS – and still at an overall cost of well below £400 sans contract.

  • ashu

    brilliant combination! But somehow, i find it very difficult to manage two devices simultaneously! I own an N82 and had thought of upgrading to still unannounced 5mp eseries. But going by the current market scenario, i will be holding on to my ‘much loved and much battered’ N82 (i too have a small child with an affinity to throw it around!!)

  • 2K

    excellent article. I’m using the N85 and iPod Touch combo and its great. Bwst of both worlds. The E71 is the best one device solution I’ve found so far.

  • Gez

    I wish I had read your article a few weeks ago. As I was faced with this exact problem. I had a N95 and was thinking of getting a touch to satisfy my touchscreen envy. However I got the Nokia 5800 instead and to honest I actually like it. Granted the touchscreen is not a responsive as apples but not bad and the sound quality is actually better then my Video Ipod. I still might get a touch just for the games unless Nokia does something soon!

  • Ivan Dimitrov

    I completly agree about nokia E71. You are making compromises with the camera and audio quality (may be) but you have 1 device only.
    P.S. I have E 71 :)

  • Giles

    I can see the sense in trying to get the best of both worlds but would never be able to live with the two-box solution. I’m sure that eventually there will be a single device that will cover most of the features of your two gadgets without too many compromises and I have a strong feeling that it will be a Nokia. Think I’ll wait

  • angryearthling

    tried the 2 device combo.

    normally carry an ipod classic 160gb, e71 and e61i. this covers everything i want to do nicely. but its a pain with three devices.

    so at chrismas i got an iphone 16gb on prepay. i was willing to give up the extra 140gb of capacity if it did everything else that i did on my e61i book reading and browsing the web while behaving like a normal ipod as well.

    gave it up after 13 days and went back to e71, e61i and ipod classic.

    the deal killers were
    * no disk mode. i use ipod to transfer files all the time. doing it on a nokia is possible but at 8gb only half the size.
    * hated the iphone keyboard, hated hated hated. tried every combo and it just was so much slower than either of the nokias at typing. i have used onscreen keyboards with devices like nokia 770 but this one seemed worse somehow.
    * safari web browser isn’t as efficient as opera mini. the iphone was on prepay so i get 50mb a day on that. opera mini compresses so i end up having 250mb while 50 big pages on the iphone are the limit. also prefer opera mini over safari as it can be used one handed while standing on bus. safari needed to be zoomed in and out and selected while holding the phone in your other hand.
    * book readers on iphone could only access books on the web not the 1000 or so whose files i have already downloaded. might be a way past this but i never found it.
    * unit kept ignoring wifi and used 3g even when it was in range and without warning used credit.
    * notes had no search option. if you have a device that can contain 1000s of notes why don’t you have a search? the early symbians didn’t either and i cursed them over it for a long time. i hope apple adds a global search soon.
    * calendar couldn’t be changed to make monday the first day of the week. you can on macosx desktop why not on iphone/ipod? used to be able on my palm.
    * inability to use bluetooth for anything useful.
    * and the absolute killer was that the iphone only syncs with one itunes account. i copy media to my ipod at work and at home and while on the move using different machines. that the iphone couldn’t do this was the moment i turned it off and gave up the experiment.

    i’m not saying that it is a bad device. it isn’t. it did somethings very well. but the limitations were for me too annoying to overcome.

  • Umberto

    I see the point Steve. At present I use a N95 classic for everything and an old Acer N50 premium mainly for my job. Anyway the link of the two devices via bluetooth allows me to easily exchange data and, consequently, It is similar to have only one device with more possibilities (have you ever tried messagease on pocket pc? It is wonderful to write fast during a meeting when you have your device on the table and it is also fantastic to use for spreadsheets).

  • eric sellado

    been using that combo (N82 black + 1st gen ipod touch 16G) ever since…didnt find the need to upgrade nor add another device…just perfect!

  • Matti

    I dont really see any reason to go with this combo, even if you’re gonna ditch convergence and start carrying two separate devices.

    In that case I would go with a camera and iPhone. Pretty much any real camera will totally destroy N82/95 devices in picture & video quality, optical zoom and battery life. Even very cheap pocket cameras.

    N/E-series devices are great as single device solutions. No point in using them otherwise.

  • Pintofale

    Agree with Matti. Steve, you must have big pockets – both literally and metaphorically!

    I have an E90 currently – what would adding an iPod give me? Only the novelty of the lovely smooth interface – nothing practical.

    I’m not hypnotised by the pretty graphics and smooth interface – if I wanted something pretty to go with my Nokia, I would stick a photo of Gemma Atkinson on the back of it.

  • Banglamung

    an amazing post. Why? Because I have had this combo for a year now and still beleive it’s the best way to go. (By the way, replacing those battered N82 front panels costs less than $5 from Nokia Care.)

    I’ve said until I’m blue in the face that the iPhone is a great “mobile compute” and a terrible cellphone. The list of what it doesn’t do that Nokia and other phones have done FOR YEARS is laughable.

    For me, photos are very important and the iPhone camera is a joke. And having the N82 to tether my laptop to is great. (Sorry iPhoney)

    I love my Touch (1.0) to death but truly resent Touch owners being treated as 2nd class citizens. I refuse to pay Apple to upgrade software (2.0) they should give away free and did not even purchase the “January update”

    I enjoy my 16 GB touch everyday. But I depend on my N82, still arguably the best mobile phone in the world.

  • Tim Cooper

    On the subject of “knowing where to look” i picked up an N810 at PCWorld today. £80 bnib. Nice!

  • Jon

    Well, why not just get the iPhone and a separate digital compact like those Casio ones that come in very thin form factors? Takes much better pictures than any camera phone for sure…

  • Syaz

    I think this article was just trying to point out the fact that the N82 and the Ipod touch complements each other very very well, and nothing more. And I agree. It’s not meant to suggest a two box solution. I’m sure there are a lot of N-series users out there who would like to own the I-phone but are not willing to give up on the computing power of s60. I’m one of them. I love s60 despite all its faults. As an all in one solution, it’s still the best for me. But I also like the I-phone. And I think the Ipod touch makes for an excellent compromise. With joiku spot and unlimited data plan on the N82, the touch is a perfect companion.

  • BMZ

    Bit the bullet today and bought a 16 gig ipod touch 2G. I have never owned an Apple product in my life but it is very nice. Took my N82 and E71 along with me for the walk and the salesgirl was very impressed by the N82 and even more so with the E71. Perfect solution for winter time connectivity and entertainment? Motorola/Burton “Audex” jacket with built in ipod port and comand interface along with intergrated speakers match up with bluetooth connectivity to handle calls with E71/N82. Keep my gadgets nice and safe outa harms way. The only thing that sucks with this combo is that nokia never released a NAM version of the N82 so I still gotta take my E71 around for data purposes. Sigh. Great camera with great OS but no NAM 3G for N82. I almost completely stop using my N82 with my service provider’s SIM because of this. In effect it has become my stand alone digital camera and media player. I have not had much time to check out all the features of the Touch but as far as i can tell there is no option to delete a song from the device itself. Utterly amazing and retarded. Please tell me that this is not so. BTW the last fm client from the app store is way slower than mobbler for S60.

    ps Had to go to about 6 stores before i found an ipod touch while stacks of nanos and classics were just sitting there.

  • Alex

    Matti has obviously never taken pics or videos with an N82. The camera on it “totally destroys” or at least matches the quality of any “real” camera for pics or video. In fact my photo-enthusiast friend says his 6220 classic shots are on a par with his expensive Canon digital SLR, and he’s not a bad photographer!

    And if you need more proof, check this out:
    http://web.me.com/jamesburland/Nokia_Creative/Blog/Entries/2009/1/26_Photo:_The_Nokia_Creative_N82_Photo_Awards_-_Winter_2009.html

    Now, lets hear no more nonsense about camera quality. As for the rest, I can’t see the point in an iPod/iPhone – unless you’re so obsessed with having multitouch that you’re willing to forgo a 5800 or N97.

  • Matti

    Wow Alex!

    Are you seriously comparing N82 to a DSLR camera? Really ?!? I’m finding it really hard to reply to that without sounding like a troll. Sorry, but you or your friend don’t really know anything about cameras, if you compare picture quality of any camera phone to DSLR.

    As for your ‘proof’…most of those pics are photoshopped, and tell more about amazing photoshop skills of the people who take them than N82.

    Best camera phones are getting relatively close to simplest and cheapest pocket cameras when it comes to picture quality, but to compare any of them to a DSLR…clueless.

    Lenses alone in real proper cameras are bigger than smartphones. Good luck at trying to get DSLR results with camera. It’s not possible now and it won’t be possible 10 or 100 years from now. Unless you manage to squeeze a black hole
    inside a camera, and start doing all sorts of fancy things photons, which are possible within a black hole according to theory of relativity.

  • http://3lib.ukonline.co.uk Steve Litchfield

    Guys, guys, let’s steer a common sense middle ground here.

    The Nokia N82 is just about the best camera phone out there, certainly the best camera SMARTphone. But yes, I agree it’s only equivalent to about a £50 standalone digital camera in ability. HOWEVER, with 5 megapixels and a decent size sensor (low noise) and Xenon flash and focussing down to 6cm, it’s still no slouch and more than good enough for most everyday ad-hoc situations.

    Oh and no, I don’t ‘Photoshop’ my N82 photos – the most I ever need to do is crop them slightly for framing and maybe add a little brightness (hey, this is the UK, land of murk and rain and snow!)…

  • http://www.TechnologicAli.com Ali

    I totally agree…I have an N95 8GB and an iPod touch 2G….
    N95 8GB : Camera, GPS, almost forgot phone :p…
    iTouch : Mail,Music,Web browsing,gaming….
    I think i could use an iPhone 3G, but then id miss the camera and some very useful S60 functionality….

  • http://mbace.wordpress.com mbAce

    Yea I was looking for the JouikuSpot in the text, it’s really a priceless piece of software. I currently have the N93 and E90 and that’s plenty enough for now, but I’ve been thinking of trading in my N93 for an Apple.

    Im still on the edge since N97 is just around the corner, but im really leaning towards the iPhone 3G. The reason, well the 3G and then the good video quality over Qik.com.

    As for the iPod touch, the price is right but the features just don’t cut it for me.

  • http://www.allaboutiphone.net James Burland

    Just want to quickly chime in about all this silly “those N82 pics are photoshopped” business.

    There were 7 winners this time around, to be clear, only 1 of them is obviously edited. The green stairs shot was edited on the N82 and the black and white photos are simply black and white shots, again, hardly requiring photoshop! If you look at any photographic awards you’ll find that 99% of the winning shots have had some form of post production, why should a camera phone award be any different? It’s not always about science, sometimes it’s about art too.

    Any camera with over 1 million pixel resolution is capable of taking a great photo for viewing on screen at a reasonable size. Modern camera phones like the N82 just make it considerably easier to get that capture that great photo.

    For the record, I actually quite like the ‘pathetic’ iPhone camera, it’s perfect for quick impressions, as has been ably demonstrated these last couple of days in the UK.

    Also, the N82 camera *is* quite amazing for it’s size, but it is outclassed by all but the very cheapest of the cheap Kodak digital cameras. Why anyone would expect anything different is beyond me. I say this not to take anything away from the Silver Snapper – it really is a gem of phone.

    The N99 however, will be in a different class entirely. ^_-

  • http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/ Menneisyys

    I too use multiple (three) devices:

    – Nokia N95 for phoning (with call recording – very few other, non-Symbian phones are capable of this; neither the iPhone nor none of the BlackBerries, for example), multimedia (A2DP and strereo speaker music) and camera. For these, it’s by way the best.

    – BB 8800 for e-mail and some quick Web browsing via Opera Mini (I do most of my “real” Web browsing on the iPhone). The best for being an e-mailer – much better than either the iPhone or, even worse, the N95. It’s really easy to quickly enter a message on the physical keyboard. Excellent battery life on top of this, even with a constant connection.

    – iPhone for gaming and Web browsing.

  • Menneisyys

    “Any camera with over 1 million pixel resolution is capable of taking a great photo for viewing on screen at a reasonable size. Modern camera phones like the N82 just make it considerably easier to get that capture that great photo.”

    Well, it’s not the megapixel count that counts, but the lens / CCD (MOS) quality. I’ve made some direct comparisons of the N95 (camera-wise, the same as the N82) and the iPhone 3G. The N95 is thousands of times better.

    See my comprative (!) shots if interested: http://www.smartphonemag.com/iphone/blog/87/ultimate-comparison-iphone-3g-other-mobile-operating-systems-and-devices-part-i

  • Menneisyys

    And, yes, I also use the iPhone for YouTube.

  • Menneisyys

    @Steve:

    “Guys, guys, let’s steer a common sense middle ground here.

    The Nokia N82 is just about the best camera phone out there, certainly the best camera SMARTphone. But yes, I agree it’s only equivalent to about a £50 standalone digital camera in ability. HOWEVER, with 5 megapixels and a decent size sensor (low noise) and Xenon flash and focussing down to 6cm, it’s still no slouch and more than good enough for most everyday ad-hoc situations.

    Oh and no, I don’t ‘Photoshop’ my N82 photos – the most I ever need to do is crop them slightly for framing and maybe add a little brightness (hey, this is the UK, land of murk and rain and snow!)…”

    Agreed. I also find the IQ (image quality) of the N95 pretty adequate for most snaps. Not so with my iPhone 3G (to put it mildly).

  • http://www.allaboutiphone.net James Burland

    Let’s just say this. Human artistry is a 1000 times more important than any pixel count. Understanding good composition is way, way more important than purchasing the best hardware. And educating yourself in photography is free!

    I would say that the N95 is just about three times better than the iPhone in the camera department.

  • ares

    Mind you, the iphone camera is surprinsigly capable providing you have good light…

    Nevertheless, things like lack of autofocus, lack of macro and lack of dedicated shutter button, are what really annoying

  • delaine

    Nice article, I actually have the same set-up but I’m using the n95 8gb instead. It doesn’t bother me to carry two devices since I want to experience both platforms and take advantage of their capabilities. So far i’m enjoying it! =)

    One question, didn’t the small keys of n82 bothered you? I text a lot that’s why i didn’t choose this phone even if it’s more robust than the n95.

  • leon

    I used the two-device solution with both a t-mobile Ameo, a nokia n800 and an ipod touch 1g along with my trusty N95. Whilst it wasn’t a bad setup, I still prefer using just my iPhone 3G. People seem to get very angry at the idea of anyone liking it beyond its niceness and are all to keen to criticise what it doesn’t have; but what it DOES have outweighs all the competition, and this is why I prefer to keep things simple and have one device on me at a time.
    As for the camera – it perfectly fits its purpose – for quick snaps, easily and quickly uploaded – and is FAR FAR better than the autofocus 3.2mp cameras on phones such as the T-Mobile G1 and TyTn 2. The quality will never match my N95 but the lens performs admirably in dim light considering its like of flash.

    I would never go back to the two-device solution again as (for once) I am pretty happy with what I have.

    I am one of those perverted people who enjoys the iphone’s onscreen keyboard, the SMS app and the ability to use the great email client and safari browser wherever I go, I don’t see what advantage the N82 and the Touch would provide me. I’m currently using the T-Mobile G1 that I got as an upgrade last months. I put the iphone to one side with the intention of selling to raise a bit of cash but I’ve finally decided to sell the G1 instead for a £100 difference in trade-in value.

    Don’t mock the iphone if you’ve never owned one, I’ve been guilty of that myself. On both the AAS and Xda Developers sites.