N95 vs iPhone - Part 2: The Web
This could very well be the biggest gap ever in terms of the amount of time between part 1 and part 2 of a series. Part 1 was essentialy my conclusion as I stated, and to be honest not much has changed since I wrote that post over 2 months ago. I’ve been switching back and forth between the iPhone and the N95 and I must admit, the iPhone has definitely been getting more face time. For a while I carried both; the N95 was essentially for GSM voice and HSDPA connectivity for the iPhone thanks to JoikuSpot. That didn’t last very long though - I’m a one-handset-at-a-time kind of guy…
In this quick entry, I wanted to simply illustrate how the devices differ in terms of web. Both the S60 browser and Safari mobile are WebKit ports, and they really are similar from a very broad point of view. In terms of usability however, in my eyes they’re night and day.
First, what we’re all used to:
On the N95 when visiting a full website in the S60 Browser, you’re greeted by the top left corner of the page. Hmmm. The other problem here is that full webpags are not designed for tiny screens, so navigating is a bit of a pain. Moving around, the S60 browser usually does a fair job of sizing text columns for the screen - of course you constantly need to be moving around because very few words actually fit on the screen.
One thing I can’t stand about the S60 Browser is the fact that it doesn’t truly cache historical pages. Safari does. If I’m browsing a site and I want to go back a page, I tap back and I’m there. On the N95 I hit back, choose the page I want to go back to from the mini-page list, and then wait while the browser reloads all of the content.
Now, the iPhone:
The difference is remarkable. You’re greeted by a nice overview of the web page and you can easily navigate and zoom to the exact spot you want. The 3.5″ display can fit far more content of course, and the crisp screen displays everything quite clearly. Opening new tabs / pages is easy and accessing / adding bookmarks is easy. Everything is easy.
Browsing the web is also one of the few examples of usage where I FAR prefer a touchscreen. It’s so fast and simple to move around and see exactly what you want to see. Of course the double tap implementation and zooming are fantastic as well. Double-tap anything and Safari instantly zooms to the exact proper place. Double-tap again and you’re back to the overview.
It will be quite interesting to see how S60 Touch addresses browsing. Details on the upcoming new OS revision have been somewhat disappointing thus far so I hope the browser isn’t more of the same. To be honest, I can’t even recall the last time I held a UIQ device and I don’t remember the browser at all. If you have a UIQ device and wouldn’t mind, please do post your impressions on how the browser utilizes touch in the comments below.
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