Business -- 13 days ago
TECH – iPad Air vs Nokia Lumia
Words: Violet
Nokia: poor, poor Nokia. It’s not good to think about what has happened to this company in the past decade because it does not make good reading. Apple, on the other hand… we really don’t need to talk much about that either. So what is this article about if we aren’t going to talk about stuff?
Well, this week saw these two companies entering into a battle and when TGJ saw that Apple and Nokia would compete in the tablet wars this Christmas, in our mind we saw a gorilla beating up a Chihuahua. It wasn’t even a little bit funny. But, being the broad minded magazine that we are, we decided to at least look at why Nokia thought they had a chance.
The first thing we assessed was the appearance and, to be very honest, the plastic casing is not doing the Lumia any favours. It doesn’t matter what colour you give it. Indeed, the red colouring of the one we looked at made it look like it had been spray tanned by someone from Essex. When comparing it to the aluminium casing on the iPad things go from bad to worse. Apple is very proud of its screens.. and it shows. It has the same retina screen found on all Apple tablets which, quite frankly, confirms the earlier Gorilla/Chihuahua analogy as the Lumia has fewer pixels and a much lower resolution. Where Nokia betters Apple (at last) is in the effectiveness of the screen in the dark. In countries where it gets dark very early, this might be a bonus but, in the UK, this tool might not be as useful.
The processors are a much tighter contest: Nokia has splashed out on the quad core snapdragon while Apple has stuck to their A7 chip. Both processors are top of the range. Ultimately, the experience on an iPad is smoother because of the combination of software. As documented previously: TGJ has never liked android. We tried it once and had an overwhelming urge to wipe the memory from our brains forever. This was because the software made every little thing seem like an effort. And we also disliked the mascot! So while the chips are about the same, the clunky, static and budget experience that Android offers its users makes the Nokia seem slower as well.
In fact, the only thing that Nokia wins hands down is with the camera (6.7 megapixel versus iPad’s 5). Trust us when we say it makes a difference to quality. However, this is really the only reason why you would buy a Nokia and, to be honest, if you were doing that you might as well get an actual camera. Having read our review you might feel that we have been a little bit harsh on Nokia. In truth, this is the brand’s first real attempt at tablets and, as far as first attempts go, we do like it. It’s certainly better than Apple’s first go.
However, at the end of the day, Apple invented this market and has had a lot of practice ironing out the rough edges on its products. So naturally it gives a much more polished performance. TGJ wants Nokia to keep trying because it is a very promising first attempt but unfortunately the rookie loses to the veteran on this occasion.
By Edward Hambro-Rabben
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