Nokia 5800 vs Blackberry Pearl 3G – Comparison

This might seem a little awkward comparison but i believe, this is a worthy comparison of 2 devices that have (or plan to) revolutionize their respective brands. Nokia 5800 which comes with the new s60v5 interface, custom made for symbian touch devices and on the other hand Blackberry, know for its dependable OS and qwerty keyboards, has come up with a new Blackberry Pearl 3G which comes with alphanumeric keyboard instead of a regular qwerty keyboard.

Design

Starting with the appearance, Nokia 5800 is predominantly a touchscreen device (except for application key, power key, camera key, lock key, volume up & down). Nokia 5800 comes with an on screen touch keyboard.BlackBerry Pearl 3G on the other hand has a candy-bar design with alphanumeric keypad. Though, many users don’t prefer touchscreen, however, if the screen size has to compromised then I’d prefer touchscreen device.

Screen Size

Nokia 5800 has a 3.2 inch screen with nHD display (640×360). The big display size of Nokia 5800 allows this device to give a perfect video playback. Moreover the web browsing/image viewing experiece is awesome. Blackberry Pearl 3G, on the flip side, features a significantly smaller screen, measuring just 360×400 pixels, much smaller than Nokia 5800. Although, the screen size is small, it does not fail to deliver very sharp video playback. But still, a larger display size scores.

Operating System

The building blocks of any mobile phone. Stronger OS means faster processing, increased reliability. Nokia 5800 runs on s60v5 platform, designed specifically for Nokia touch phones. Blackberry Pearl 3G, on the other hand, runs on its trademark blackberry OS (OS 5). As, i said, better OS means faster processing, therefore blackberry, though traditional, scores in this department. BlackBerry has a robust, intuitive and highly reliable OS that has been developed over the years whereas Nokia’s s60v5 is relatively new and needs some polishing.

Connectivity

Any smart-phone, Blackbery or Nokia, needs a lot of connectivity options. Well connected phones are always preferred. Nokia 5800 as well as Blackberry Pearl 3G both have the same (almost) connectivity options, 3G, HSDPA, Wi-Fi, built-in GPS receiver and A-GPS. So, there isn’t much to choose from.

Storage

Nokia 5800 has 81mb of internal memory and supports a maximum of 16gb micro-SD card for external storage. Whereas, Blackberry Pearl 3G comes with 256mb internal memory and a support for upto 32gb (double of Nokia 5800). Blackberry, in this scenario, is a clear winner providing double the storage as provided by Nokia 5800.

Camera

The camera on the Nokia 5800 has 3.2 mega-pixels, a dual LED flash and comes with a high quality Carl Zeiss lens. Blackberry Pearl 3G too carries the same specs except for the Carl Zeiss lens. And this is the reason why Nokia 5800 scores.

My Opinion

I believe all the important aspects, which a smart-phone buyer/user looks for, have been covered above. And personally, being a Nokia 5800 user, i recommend Nokia 5800 over Blackberry 3G. The reason being, Nokia 5800 clearly scores over Blackberry in terms of Design, Screen Size, Camera and Connectivity (Free ovi maps with guided voice navigation). Also, in terms of price, Nokia 5800 is cheaper alternative to Blackberry Pearl 3G.