Nokia N81 or Sony Ericsson W960

Sony Ericsson is not a name you will see often on this blog. I've always been a fan of Symbian S60 phones, as opposed to UIQ. I'm a fan of NSeries phones, and not really interested in the P Series.

One area Sony Ericsson do have an advantage is in music phones. The main advantage is the Walkman brand. People know what to expect with Walkman, and Nokia just don't have this, even though Nokia music focused phones are very good usability wise.

Two phones due for release shortly appear to place themselves head to head in the music arena and it is going to be interesting to see how they fare against each other. Nokia have their N81 8GB, and Sony Ericsson have the W950. The Sony Ericsson phone may be a Walkman phone but it is also a UIQ smartphone.

So, in a straight out 'fight', which phone would come out on top?

Sony Ericsson W960:
The Sony Ericsson W960 has dimensions of 109 x 55 x 16mm and weighs in at 119g. The screen is an impressive 2.6" QVGA TFT offering supporting up to 262k colours. The W960 screen is a touch screen, which you can use with a stylus or use finger input.

The W960 has a massive 8GB of internal memory. Plenty of room for music and applications. There is a 3.2 megapixel camera included, with Auto Focus, a welcome addition over the W950. Video is recorded at 15fps, but the W960 can support playback of up to 30fps.

Data connectivity wise the W960 is a Triband GSM and 3G handset, with WiFi, Stereo Bluetooth, and USB 2.0 There is no EDGE nor HSCSD.

Running Symbian OS v9.1, UIQ 3.0 the W950 sits firmly in the smartphone category. You can add additional software, including web browsers, IM applications, Sat Nav, etc. There is a good catalogue of UIQ applications available from the NSeries Mobile software shop

The main focus of the phone is the music capabilities. There is a FM radio built in, and of course the Walkman music player. All the usual music player functions are available, with equlaiser, shuffle, playlists, etc, and the Walkman Megabass option. According to the Sony Ericsson website the W960 will support MP3, AAC and several other music file types.

Nokia N81 8GB:
The Nokia N81 has dimensions of 102 x 50 x 17.9mm and weighs in at 140g. The screen is 2.4" QVGA TFT affair, supporting up to an impressive 16m colours.

There are two versions of the N81, one has a memory card slot supporting Micro SD memory cards, the other has 8GB of internal memory which we are using for our comparison purposes. Plenty of room for music, pictures and additional applications. There is a 2.0 megapixel camera included. Video clips are recorded at 15 fps, I couldn't find video playback stats, if anyone knows??

On the data connection side, the Nokia N81 is a tri band GSM handset and also offers 3G reception. There is also WiFi, Stereo Bluetooth, and USB 2.0 The N81 also offers EDGE and HSCSD.

The nokia N81 runs Symbian OS 9.2, Series 60 v3.1 and fits in as a strong member of the Nokia NSeries family. There are plenty of applications available for the N81, as with the W960 you can find software for the N81 at the NSeries Mobile Software Shop.

On the music front the Nokia music player supports multiple formats including MP3 and AAC. There is also an FM stereo radio and the N81 also has a 3.5mm stereo jack for using your own headset with the phone.

Summary:
On the face of it the two handsets are very well matched. Both with 8GB memory, the W960 has better camera spec, and a touch screen. It is also 21g lighter and almost 2mm slimmer. Small measurements but noticeable in the world of mobile phones. On the other hand the N81 offers more data connectivity options, although HSDPA is a noticeable absentee from the spec of both phones.

It's too early to call a winner in this fight, so I'm going to give an honourable draw for now. Especially with the expected announcement of the European iPhone on Tuesday, it will be interesting to see if it offers specification to match the impressive W960 and N81.