Symbian Belle VS Android (Updated with Belle Feature Pack 1 inputs)

[FARRUKH]

Symbian has already moved from Belle to Belle Feature Pack 1 and is available for 603, 700 and 701 as a software update. The mighty 808 Pureview will come with Belle FP1 pre-loaded.That is why we felt a need for updating this popular comparison and bringing a fresh article comparing the latest of two operating systems.

So the areas, where Symbian now has an upper hand as compared to Android,

Better Widgets:

The widget quality on Belle devices has got great boost with Belle FP1 adding as many as 20 new widgets. Also quality wise widgets on Symbian devices have more to offer. For example Symbian widgets take less space on the homescreen and important widgets like Social and E-mail are scrollable. So yu can just check the current mails or feeds without even opening the application. While Android widgets are not scrollable and you have to open the application to check more items.

Dolby digital Plus:

This is great feature for any operating system and great news for Symbian device owners with Belle FP1 compatible devices. Yes Belle FP1 brings Dolby digital plus to 603,700, 701 and 808 pureview. So you basically can enjoy Dolby surround sound with any headphones as the Dolby digital plus ability is inbuilt into the Symbian devices. Major advantage, if you compare even a low range 603 to even a high range Android like SGS II.

Check the video for more about Belle Feature Pack 1,





RAM requirements:

This is really a major strength of Symbian Belle. Check the above screenshot of N8 and SGSII. The N8 even with all the apps like Mail, Social (Facebook & Twitter),Weather widget has got as much as 104 MB free RAM out of total 250 MB (RAM) . Compare that to Android devices having 500 MB RAM. I have seen as less as 70-80 MB RAM left for running applications in those Android devices. That gives you true picture. Android can’t support true multitasking because it is so much resource intensive.

Processing power requirements:

Symbian belle makes phones running on single core processor clocked at 680 Mhz very smooth. For example N8.This is very surprising in the times when we need dual core and processors clocked at 1.2 GHz for Androids to run them smooth.viz SGS2. That is sufficient to show how efficient Symbian is as an OS. Please follow the link below to see N8 with belle in action. It is also worth noting that low speced Android phones are not that smooth in operations, and Symbian belle phones in the same price range can beat them easily.

http://www.gsmarena.com/new_belle_ro...-news-3540.php

Power consumption:

This is where Symbian belle beats Android hands down.As Android needs more processing power to run the OS smoothly.It takes big toll on battery level of the device.We have heard a lot about how android users need to carry chargers with them,and charge it twice sometimes thrice in a day.

True & live Multitasking:

This is one area where even, Android’s latest ICS( Ice cream sandwich) can’t hold a lamp to Symbian Belle. Symbian always had true multitasking,with Belle it goes one step ahead and becomes live multitasking with live app tiles!! Android still only supports only a fixed number of apps while multitasking, and freezes others.



Now some areas where Android is still better than Symbian belle,

Screen resolution:

Though E6 has proved that Symbian can support resolution other than 640×360, but still Nokia has not come up with other devices with better resolution.Even 808 Pureview is coming with the same nHD resolution although with Nokia’s CBD (Clear Black Display) it looks fab and gives awesome outdoor visibility as well.

Better apps eco system:

Though it is not related to OS directly but apps eco system and quality wise, Android is better than Symbian.The number of app at Android market are nearly 300000. Symbian also has impressive numbers of around 110000. A comparison by “Allaboutsymbian” shows that all the top paid and free apps are also available in “Nokia store”.But if you compare the quality then as the apps of Android get more frequent updates than Symbian, quality wise some of Android apps are better than Symbian.

Please let us know what you think about this comparison !!

[Dragoon]

Better Widgets: Excuse me, it's so hard to install Beautiful Widgets or whatever you want? Also Android DOES support scrollable widgets. Not every launcher, but Sense, TouchWiz, LauncherPro, GO, Apex and MIUI Launchers do. It doesn't support it out-of-box on every device, but there's a nice point on Android side: you can use any launcher you want. On Symbian, you're pretty much stuck with the stock one. You can use replacements, like GDesk, but you can't just close the stock launcher and use yours as the only one - as you can in Android. And usually Android devices come with a lot of good widgets, not only AOSP ones. Android wins.

Dolby Digital Plus: Fair point. AOSP doesn't have Dolby Digital built-in, because it's a licensed technology. Android is open source. They can't add it to Android without actually buying Dolby and changing their license terms. Some Android devices however have Dolby, but their ROMs aren't open source. HTC Desire HD for example. Symbian is open source too, but there are many features missing. Symbian wins.

RAM requirements and processing power requirements: Some widgets on the screen, and 58% RAM is already used. Android does require more power and memory. But as far as I'm aware, there are devices way slower than SGS2 - let's say, HTC Desire - and they're running Android very smoothly. My friend has Desire with ICS, and it's running perfectly. (Unrelated note: Desire is more powerful than N8, and it's cheaper than N8.) But, Symbian requires less resources. Symbian wins.

Power consumption: Fair point. No excuses for Android here. Symbian wins. (But if all Android devices had same specs as Symbian devices, it would take more or less the same amount of time to deplete the same battery. Unfortunately, we can't check it out. There is no Symbian ROM for HD2 or other Android device.)

True & live Multitasking: While on Symbian all apps are running all the time, Android freezes hidden apps when they're not needed. So, if you're downloading anything via Torrent, you can hide the app and do whatever you want, it won't freeze or close. Apps can decide whenever they can be closed or freezed by Dalvik, so if something needs to run in background, it will. In Symbian you have to close apps manually, or they'll keep running. If you want, you can tweak Android settings to NEVER freeze, close or kill any apps, just rely on the user's task manager, but it's pointless. Android wins.

Screen resolution: Super AMOLED Plus = perfect visibility and great colors all the time. Android can run in pretty much any resolution you want - from 320x240 in Wildfire to 1920x1080 in TV set-tops. Android wins.

Better apps eco system: Symbian would have better apps if all Symbian devices weren't so underpowered. OS should provide a good API, what Symbian provides is good enough for games and simpler apps, but you can't for example replace launchers, boot animations, default apps etc, like in Android. And when you root your device... It's Oh-So-Sweet. You can actually replace Android with any OS which is ported to your device(Hello, HD2 users!) or use a new ROM - some can modify nearly every aspect of Android. Like MIUI. Android wins.

Also, Android is completely free to modify, for use in ANY device. You can't install anything like Recovery in Symbian device, do you? There are ROMs for these, but usually they just add a couple of apps from higher Symbian versions, because Nokia won't update them anymore. Oh, and if a Android device isn't supported anymore, community usually will make sure that it runs the latest version of this - IMHO - great OS. Even G1 runs ICS, slow as hell, but it's possible. Can you do this in your N8? Of course not, you can't unofficially update your device if Nokia gives up developing anything new for it. Because all Symbian devices have locked bootloader too.

[dr_phg88]

as per my views...
..
@ multitasking... Symbian v2/v3/v5/s1/s3/belle/...anyone u can take for exmple...ofcurse wins... Yeah ryt we hv to rely on some fixed Taskmanagers...but so what????
They r too good for anything...n yeap...for kind info.. U can customise each n evry kernel/process/task/app running in back/fore-ground in @@@jbak taskman@@@.... Why so worried abt tht???humm???.... Ram managemnt is exxxcllnt so far concerned wth this taskman...
.
@ rom modding... Symbian any versn wins of course...
evry symbian user knows how powerfully they can customise their fone.... from font size,type, to even how any app's icon or name should look... U can customise even camera power and resolution to some extent.....
.
Yeah we can root android bt not easily each fon and that too at a pain in neck procedure....
And evn afr rooting...u cannt do 'that much'' of ur desire...isnt it???
.
N ya... About back up??? Ask any v3 or v2 or v5 user which thing in their fones they cant back-up for futur..??? U cn back each n evry bit of ur fones menu including msgs, contcts, app cache data, brwsr bukmrks, reminders,..etc...too long list...
.
And this all at a hand..i mean not on cloud/online disk...bt in memory card or so... So that we cn evn transfer our backup to some other symbian monster too.......
.
There are some other points too...but my fingers r aching....... Thats all for today from my side....
.
@@@No offences android/bb/i/wind00ws users....@@@@........

[Dragoon]

@ multitasking... Symbian v2/v3/v5/s1/s3/belle/...anyone u can take for exmple...ofcurse wins... Yeah ryt we hv to rely on some fixed Taskmanagers...but so what????
They r too good for anything...n yeap...for kind info.. U can customise each n evry kernel/process/task/app running in back/fore-ground in @@@jbak taskman@@@.... Why so worried abt tht???humm???.... Ram managemnt is exxxcllnt so far concerned wth this taskman...

Wow. You need to use task managers. They were needed in Android 2.1, but since 2.2 they're just useless. You can use any manager you want too, but it's pointless, Android takes care of everything by itself. If you want, you may enforce the maximum amount of apps running, too. In Symbian you can have 10 apps open at once, but do you use all 10 of them anyways? Up to 5 at once, that's it. IMHO iOS has the best task manager out-of-box :P

@ rom modding... Symbian any versn wins of course...
evry symbian user knows how powerfully they can customise their fone.... from font size,type, to even how any app's icon or name should look... U can customise even camera power and resolution to some extent.....

OH MY GOD! YOU CAN CHANGE THE FONT!!!111oneoneone...
Tell you what, I can change any interface element in my Android device. And by any, I mean really ANY. Look at TouchWiz. Then at MotoBlur. Then at CM7. Then at CM9. Then at MIUI. I don't know why, but they're completely differrent than each other. Can you do this with Symbian? Uh... No? Yeah, no. Because Nokia - or Accenture, Nokia isn't developing Symbian anymore - didn't want you to tinker with their software. It is open-source, but Symbian on devices and open-sourced versions are completely differrent things. You can't flash you own, completely customized version of Symbian onto your device. You can do that with Android. About how apps look? Wait a minute, can't you:
1. Install any launcher you want - Unrelated note: there are 3 launchers for Symbian, the Stock one, GDesk and SPB Shell. There are about... 30 launchers for Android. - then use any theme you want. Icons changed. You can rename shortcuts too. You can't do that in Symbian.
2. Install a ROM with theming support. CM9, AOKP and, well, most new ROMs support it. Install any theme you want. Voila. True, you can't theme your device from most stock ROMs. Some allow that, through.

Yeah we can root android bt not easily each fon and that too at a pain in neck procedure....
And evn afr rooting...u cannt do 'that much'' of ur desire...isnt it???

First thing: I don't have Desire, my friend does. I have Galaxy S II.
Rooting can be hard. Or not. For HTC devices, it is a pain in the ass. S-OFF, using Fastboot, unlocking bootloader, then rooting. It does take a while. But on Samsung or Sony devices? Baby, it's easy: enable USB debugging on your phone, run the rooting app on your PC, connect your device to PC, press Enter. That's it. There are other, a bit harder methods like CF-Root, but it's really easy too. Fire up Odin, make sure "Repartition" or "Phone EFS Clear" isn't checked, select PDA, choose file you downloaded, connect you phone to PC in Download Mode - boot it with Volume Down, Home and Power - then hit Start. Magic.
What can I do after rooting? More or less everything. First thing, I can install CWM Recovery, which allows me to tinker as much as I want with my device without bricking it permanently. Something f**ked up? Let's hit Restore in Recovery, wait 5 minutes and *fanfare* my device is back and alive. I can even install a regular Linux distribution or - on my phone, or HD2 - other OS like Boot2Gecko. I can also dual-boot OSes with a new kernel like Siyah. Can you do that on your Nokia? (Tip: No, you can't. Flashing anything voids your warranty, and in most cases you have to buy a new phone if something goes wrong and refurbishing in Phoenix doesn't help you. Even if it isn't a software problem, Nokia will gently send you broken phone back to you, because you flashed something onto it. If something will happen with your HTC, Samsung or Sony phone, and it isn't a software problem, they will fix it and send it back to you, because they usually don't care. If it's a software problem after flashing, everyone is f**ked up anyways.)
Basically rooting changes your Android phone into a small computer. Also after rooting I can do backups in Titanium - you can't backup entire apps with data, etc in Symbian. I can block most ads. I can change kernel settings, so my device can be louder or brighter than it's manufacturer wanted. Can you do this in Symbian?

N ya... About back up??? Ask any v3 or v2 or v5 user which thing in their fones they cant back-up for futur..??? U cn back each n evry bit of ur fones menu including msgs, contcts, app cache data, brwsr bukmrks, reminders,..etc...too long list...
.
And this all at a hand..i mean not on cloud/online disk...bt in memory card or so... So that we cn evn transfer our backup to some other symbian monster too.......

Again, Titanium Backup. Entire apps, with data, game saves etc. Backing up app data isn't allowed in Symbian, only bare apps. Contacts are synced across all Android devices you own - phone, tablet, stuff like that - and GMail, so that's not a problem. You can backup almost everything with proper apps. True, you can't do that out-of-box. So Symbian does win here, but only partially. You can backup ENTIRE device, with current OS, firmware, etc from Recovery - requires root - and restore it whenever you want. In Symbian, once you flash something, you can't downgrade it if you don't like the new version, because downgrading is a) known to fail quite often, b) usually recoverable from Phoenix by refurbishing the device, or WIPING everything that is on it (If you break your Droid, you lose everything except internal and external SD cards. Usually most stuff is stored there, apps will reinstall themselves on first symc with Google... can you Symbian device sync with Nokia and reinstall all missing apps? I don't think so.) and c) sometimes it can brick you phone for good. Usually this doesn't happen with Android device, if it's broken, you didn't follow the instructions.

@@@No offences android/bb/i/wind00ws users....@@@@........

I am an Android fanboy, but I don't scream "MY OS IZ BETHER THAN UR......@@@@@@........I DUN KNOW HOW TO WRIT IN ENGLIHS". No offense

[iRUINER]

No explanation. Simply in one " I love Nokia"
Because Farukh Bro Said the Truth.
Although in The Matter of Availablity of Quality app and HTML5 Browsing Android is Far Better Than Symbian Belle. But Nokia is a very User Friendly and King in Battery longevity.

And Dont wary The Smartphone giant Samsung may stop producing Android Device. Because Samsung is working on Tizen OS with Intel. HTC also planing to Launch Tizen Devic.

And Nokia Planing to launch their Upcoming WP with Award wining Pure View Technology .

Lumia 1000 - Concept

OS - WP8
Feature - 4.3 inch AMOLED 1024 x 768 pixel Display. An Intel ATOM Z2580 Dual core 1.8 GHz processor. A PowerVR SGX 544MP2 GPU at 533 MHz. MicroSD card slot, 64 GB of internal memory, 2 GB RAM
Camera - 41 Mega pixel Camera Sensor With Award Wining Pure View Technology.

[Dragoon]

iRUINER: I had few Nokia devices already, but after I've used Android for 10 minutes, I'll never go back to them. True, Symbian is lightweight, doesn't consume a lot of battery, but it's far behind Android and WP7 when it comes to ease of use. Belle is a lot better, but it's like trying to defibrilate a dead person. Samsung and HTC won't stop producing Android devices for at least next 3 years, because it's the most popular OS right now, and first Tizen devices are expected to come next year. Remember the Android, Symbian and WP7 beginnings? First year was rather poor. So, we can expect Android fall to begin either in 2013, thanks to WP7, or in 2015, thanks to Tizen. I'd rather buy a Tizen device, because it's also open-source and Linux-based. ROMs will be coming.

Plus, you're a Nokia lover, not Symbian lover :P To be honest, I'd like a MeeGo device. It's a great OS with great UI and great tools. Too bad Nokia killed it. WP7 is pretty much OK too, but it's completely closed. No ROMs actually changing everything, no dabbling with kernels etc. Thanks to such stuff, Android was flourishing. MeeGo allows that, Tizen too. And I simply love dabbling in such stuff. (Samsung fanboy :P)

And yes, if Lumia 1000 is going to have these specs, it's going to be one hell of a phone. Yet, I'll stick with my SGS2 for now :P If WP8 would be open-sourced - not going to happen - then I'd buy it. It's damn good OS, lightweight, fast, but community supporting it is rather small.

[iRUINER]

One Man Cant Decide which is good and which not. Different man can like Differen OS as thier point of view. I am Not a Gaming Geek. I like tho most primary featurs in a Smartphone. No one can delivered it without Nokia. Checkit on your Device. Security. Connectivity and How Much User Frindly.

[Dragoon]

First: Nokia delivered Symbian, which was the best smartphone OS... until other OSes came. Even Bada simply felt better. Today, if you'd ask me which OS is the most user friendly out-of-box without any carrier or manufacturer's modifications, it would be WinPhone. Connectivity? You know that all the goodies like NFC, GLONASS or 4G weren't introduced in Nokia devices, but Samsung and HTC devices? (Unrelated note: all of those devices were powered by Android, not WP7 or Symbian. Nokia didn't create the first mobile phone. Motorola and Bell Labs did.)
Security? Blackberry was the first manufacturer to introduce call encryption, full device encryption, secure proxy for every user and for the few last years provided cell phones for US Govt thanks to these goodies. iPhone supports full device encrypton and call encryption(with additional software) - proxy can be set manually, but you have to buy and secure it by yourself. Same for Android.

[pesur]

You know that all the goodies like NFC, GLONASS or 4G weren't introduced in Nokia devices, but Samsung and HTC devices?

1.Are u sure about NFC cuz wikipedia says diffrent http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_field_communication
2.Dont know what Glonass is
3.4G support only few countries so i dont see reason for Nokia to release 4G phones yet.

[iRUINER]

First: Nokia delivered Symbian, which was the best smartphone OS... until other OSes came. Even Bada simply felt better. Today, if you'd ask me which OS is the most user friendly out-of-box without any carrier or manufacturer's modifications, it would be WinPhone. Connectivity? You know that all the goodies like NFC, GLONASS or 4G weren't introduced in Nokia devices, but Samsung and HTC devices? (Unrelated note: all of those devices were powered by Android, not WP7 or Symbian. Nokia didn't create the first mobile phone. Motorola and Bell Labs did.)
Security? Blackberry was the first manufacturer to introduce call encryption, full device encryption, secure proxy for every user and for the few last years provided cell phones for US Govt thanks to these goodies. iPhone supports full device encrypton and call encryption(with additional software) - proxy can be set manually, but you have to buy and secure it by yourself. Same for Android.

This is your love toward android. But my is different. For your kind information pls check it http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/featu...ack_on_Sym.php and you analyse my option differently. Pls keep it simple.