10 Things Android Does Better Than Symbian

1. Change the defaults – One of the cool things about smartphones is the abundance of 3rd party applications, including web browsers, messaging applications, and the like. Unfortunately, in Symbian, there’s no way to set these 3rd party applications as the default for certain actions. This is annoying, for instance, if you prefer to use Opera Mobile as your web browser, instead of the default one. Any link you click on the phone will automatically open in the default browser, no matter what. With Android, you can change the defaults for anything, including the browser and messaging quite easily, with no hacking required.

2. Browsing – the default web browser on Android is noticeably faster than the Symbian one, specifically for large websites. It’s also much smoother to use, and seems to be more accurate when clicking links. The Android browser also offers visual bookmarks, which is handy to get a peek at each webpage, and these are updated when you open them, too.

3. Multiple homescreens – No Symbian-powered smartphone currently offers more than a single customized homescreen, though this is supported in future versions. The Samsung i8910 OmniaHD actually offers 3 ‘panels’ in its TouchWiz UI, but no other Symbian-powered smartphone offers multiple customized homescreens. On the HTC Eris, I have 3 with the native homescreen, or 7 with the HTC SenseUI homescreen. This is awesome and gives me more room for widgets and shortcuts to contacts or applications. The HTC SenseUI even allows me to save my homescreen setups as ‘scenes’ that I can quickly switch between – for home and work, for instance. To be quite honest, though, 7 homescreens is absolutely ridiculous, and I have trouble remembering what’s on each one. 3 is much more manageable and realistic, in my opinion. Both are better than the single option we have with Symbian^1. It should be noted that Symbian^3, which should be on devices later this year, will support multiple homescreens, so there’s some improvement being made. (the white bar above ‘phone’ indicates the current homescreen in the photo here).

4. Integration – this is the big one that Symbian really needs to get on board with, specifically on Nokia’s handsets. When I got my HTC Eris, part of the initial setup process asked if I had a Google account, and if I wanted to login with it. I did so once, and magically, all my Google Mail, Google Contacts, Google Calendar, and Google Talk info was copied down to the device. Others have reported that when they logged in with their Google account on a different Android device, their apps were downloaded, too. On my Nokia N97, I have to separately download, install, or otherwise setup my Ovi Mail, Ovi Contacts, Ovi Calendar, and Ovi Chat accounts, and nothing from the Ovi Store is downloaded, no matter how many times I change devices. I also have to repeatedly login to these services, whereas on Android, my account is always logged in. It’s an incredibly seamless experience, and even better is that it carries over into the browser. When I launch the browser, it automatically logs me into Google there, so I can browse as me, too. The PIM functions also sync automatically in the background on my HTC Eris – no need to download, sign, and install Swim like I do on my N97.

5. Notifications – the top of the display on Android devices is for notifications. In a small strip, you can easily see the time, battery level, signal strength, system indicators (GPS, WiFi, etc), and a set number of application notifications. On Symbian, this same area takes up twice as many pixels and offers a fraction of the information. This notifications feature is perhaps the most convenient part of Android, and one that I feel is overlooked. On every other platform, new messages, emails, etc pop up in your face and you pretty much have to do something with them. With Android, these notifications are tucked out of the way in the notification bar until you pull it down to do something with them. This allows you to manage things on your terms, rather than interrupting your workflow. There is also a convenient ‘Clear Notifications’ button to quickly dismiss everything.

6. Applications – the App Market on my Android phone allows me to browse by popularity or date added, neither of which are available on the Ovi Store (Update: this feature is now available in the Ovi Store). It also has a usable search function that actually returns relevant results, which the Ovi Store search function doesn’t always do. While browsing the App Market on Android, I can click to install an app, and then continue browsing while that application is downloaded and installed in the background. I’m also notified when there are updates available for the applications I have installed, something Symbian doesn’t do (yet), but should.

7. Onscreen keyboards – the onscreen keyboards on Android were clearly designed for touch – specifically the portrait QWERTY. Compare below, and you can easily see why it’s actually usable, compared to the one stuck on the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic.

Also, the onscreen keyboards on the HTC Eris are contextual – if I’m in the browser, I’ll have quick access to a ‘.com’ button and the backslash or @ sign. If I’m texting, those shortcuts won’t be there. On Symbian, all the keyboards are the same, and none of them have handy shortcuts like that to make my life easier.

8. Notification LED – on my HTC Eris, there is a small LED at the top right of the front of the phone, above the display. This is a multicolor LED, and developers can activate different colors for different things. I can also choose which events prompt the LED to flash and for how long. A great example of how useful this is comes with Handcent SMS, a replacement app for messaging. Handcent SMS allows me to setup unique notifications for various contacts, including the color of the notification LED. I could, for instance, set it so that when Mrs. Guru texts me, the notification flashes pink. When my brother texts me, however, it might flash blue, and when I get a twitter notification, it might flash green. This is something that Symbian needs really bad, as I firmly believe that visual notifications on most other platforms is seriously underutilized.

9. Platform Updates – this is a two-part point. For one, any updates to Android devices are delivered over-the-air, period. There is no need to find a Windows-powered PC or any of that – it’s all done over-the-air. Symbian devices have gotten better about this, but both Nokia and Samsung continue to release firmware updates through their PC-only applications, which is lame. The second part is actual platform upgrades. When you buy a Symbian-powered smartphone, you get whatever version it comes with – S60v3, S60v3 Feature Pack 2, S60v5, etc, and that’s all you get. Most Android-powered smartphones shipped with either v1.5 or v1.6 pre-installed, and nearly all of them have been officially slated for the newer v2.0+ upgrade. This is a big deal, and now that the Symbian source is free and open source, I wonder if we’ll start to see opportunities to update later handsets like the N97 Mini to Symbian^2.

10. Sell In The U.S. – Android does a much better job of getting along with the 4 major carriers in the U.S. That may not seem like a big deal, but when you consider that in the U.S., the vast majority of phones are sold through carrier subsidies, that’s a big deal. Symbian has suffered in the U.S. as neither Nokia, Samsung, LG, or any other manufacturer has been able to really get any major carrier on board with the Symbian platform. To be fair, Nokia has done a decent job, lately, but not without letting the carrier rape the device with countless ‘customizations’ that strip out functionality and freedom. Android, on the other hand, usually launches with little to no customization from the carrier, save for a few preloaded apps such as navigation and whatnot. I’m definitely hoping that Symbian manufacturers are able to grow a backbone soon to get us cool smartphones without the carrier raping.

Source: Symbian Guru

10 Things Symbian Does Better Than Android

1. Gmail – Believe it or not, while the overall experience might not be better, my Gmail consistently arrives in Nokia Messaging on my Nokia N97 a good 5-7 seconds faster than it does on the HTC Eris. Obviously this is a big win for Nokia Messaging, but since Nokia Messaging is also on Symbian devices at the moment, we’ll count it as a win there, too. Aside from the speed of arrival, though, Android trumps Symbian in the overall Gmail experience, so perhaps this one is a wash?

2. Multitasking – both platforms multitask easily, and while Android does a better job of intelligently managing those applications for you, the actual experience is much better on Symbian. On Symbian, it’s much more obvious (in most apps) how to ‘background’ an app, and then switch back to it. After several days (and 2 task management apps) I’m still trying to get a good handle on how to complete this process consistently on Android. It’s not always clear which applications are still running on Android, nor is it easy to consistently know how to send them to the background.

Of course, there are 3rd party apps for both platforms to make this better, but Symbian does it better ‘out-of-the-box’, especially with such eye candy as the Samsung i8910′s built-in task manager, shown below. It’s exceptionally easy to tell which apps are still running, and to switch between them or close them altogether. Another frustrating aspect is that many Android apps have an option for background notifications, which let them alert you of events even when they’re not the active application. This is awesome, but without being able to ‘kill’ an app easily, it can be frustrating, as I’m never sure if I still have Seesmic running, for instance, which brings me to my next point…

Multitasking on the Samsung i8910

3. Twitter – I’m a power user of Twitter, and actively manage 3 different accounts. Thus, finding a suitable Twitter app on various platforms is quite a challenge. On Android, I was using Twidroid, as it seems to be the only option that supports multiple accounts. Unfortunately, Twidroid doesn’t hold a candle to Gravity, mainly suffering in terms of performance. Twidroid is slow to load and even slower to refresh my timelines. It’s also infinitely slower when composing and publishing a tweet when compared to Gravity. I’ve beta tested TweetCaster, from Handbrake, and it’s much better, but still not up to the quality of Gravity. Seesmic for Android has now added support for multiple accounts, but it’s still not as smooth of an experience as Gravity is on my Symbian phones, specifically in getting notifications and the like.

Gravity on the Samsung i8910

4. Last.FM – Android has a native Last.FM app, straight from the company, so you’d think it’d be way better than Mobbler, which is independently developed by a 3rd party (really just an insanely talented group of programmers). However, that’s not the case – Mobbler completely trumps the native Last.FM client on Android, mainly for 2 reasons: Sleep, and Alarm. When I go to sleep at night, I start a station of soothing music, typically something like Norah Jones or Enya. However, if I leave that running all night, my Last.FM profile would be totally messed up, so I use Mobbler’s sleep timer to stop the station after 60 minutes. I also like to wake up to music, so I’m able to use Mobbler’s alarm clock function to blast a custom station at a designated time, so I’m more likely to wake up.

Mobbler on the i8910

5. Waze – Waze is actually much better on Symbian, again for a few reasons. For starters, on my HTC Eris, the bottom toolbar is hidden, and I have to press the ‘Menu’ button on the phone to get it to pop up – this can take a few seconds, which can directly affect the accuracy of my reports. It’s also a somewhat unnecessary step that the Symbian version doesn’t have. Also, Waze seems to simply run better on my Symbian-powered phones, with less delay or slowness. On my HTC Eris, Waze seems to lag quite a bit.

HTC Eris on the left, Samsung i8910 on the right

6. Music – the sound quality on my Nokia N97 is much better than my HTC Eris, specifically through headphones or a plug-in speaker system. The N97 also facilitates syncing with my desktop music collection better, with the option of mass storage mode or media transfer mode. The Eris, on the other hand, doesn’t immediately connect as anything, really. I have to open the menu and choose ‘mount memory card’ to be able to access that. I personally find the Symbian music player a bit easier to navigate, as well, though that’s really more personal preference. Of course, the Eris has access to Amazon’s MP3 store baked right in, but that doesn’t help me access the music I already have.

7. Calendar – while I don’t use the calendar heavily, I do use it to keep up with my daily schedules, and adding several events all at once on Android can be frustrating – there’s no way (that I’ve figured out) to be in the ‘Day’ mode and change to the next day. As far as I can tell, I have to manually back out to the full month and then click on the next day. Also, when adding times, you are forced to use these little wheels, similar to a slot machine. While these things have kinetic scrolling, I’d still like the option to just type in a number quickly, as it can be somewhat difficult to get the wheels to stop right where you want them to (exactly like a slot machine, come to think of it).

8. Powers Down – yeah, I seriously put this as an item because it’s really been annoying me. When you want to turn your Android-powered smartphone off, you press and hold the power button…..which pops up a submenu……from which you choose ‘power off’…….which pops up a confirmation dialog……where you again choose ‘OK’ to finally turn the blasted thing off. Oh, and it also takes for freakin ever to power back on. With Symbian, you press and hold the power button and the whole thing shuts off – boom. It’s also roughly 2x faster loading up and being ready to use.

9. Phone – one thing that Symbian fanboys have always enjoyed is that Symbian is more of a phonesmart than a smartphone – that is, the phone part is always a priority, and it shows. The phone aspects of Android don’t really work all that great, and can be confusing. For instance, when I’m on a phone call and hold the HTC Eris up to my face, the screen goes off. This is great, as it prevents me from accidentally pushing a button with my cheek. Unfortunately, the Eris doesn’t turn the screen back on when I pull the phone away from my face, so I have to press the end button to turn the screen back on, slide to unlock, and THEN do whatever I wanted to do. Completely unnecessary, and somewhat daunting to press the ‘end’ key in the middle of a call that I don’t want to end.

10. Developer Opportunities – As my friend Jason Harris at Techraver.com pointed out, Symbian has more opportunities for developers to build an app. Currently, if you want to build an Android app, you need the Android SDK…and that’s about it (save for web apps). Symbian, on the other hand, lets you use native C++, Qt, Python, Web Runtime, Java, and a few others. There are also millions more Symbian devices in use than there are Android devices – a great opportunity for a developer looking for the biggest market opportunity.

Can you come up with anything else that Symbian rocks at but other popular platforms like Android have trouble with? Join in the comments and let us know. Check back here tomorrow for my final conclusions on Android vs Symbian.

Source: Symbian Guru