Nokia N97 vs. Samsung i8910 camera

Tonight I attended the “Drinks with Nokia” event here in San Francisco, together with [name dropping] Ewan MacLeod (MIR, MDTV), Matthew Bennett (Nseries US, UMI), Dennis Bournique (Wap review), Kevin Neely (Rubbernecking), and the lovely crew from Ubergizmo, amongst others [/name dropping]…

Once again I was able to play with the Nokia N97 and the Samsung i8910 (Omnia HD) – better yet, I was able to take pictures and make videos with each. The N97, although a prototype, was running the latest firmware, and was rock solid. The i8910 was running the Orange production firmware, but was less stable. Both devices are great, and I can’t wait to get my hands on them!

Here are my pictures and videos, including cameos by my Palm Pre and the HTC Magic (a phone I can’t take a clear picture of, apparently).

Update: Full sets of pictures and additional videos here.

My spouse reviews the Palm Pre

The irony of my crazy Palm Pre adventure is that before the mishap, my spouse actually got more hands-on time than me!

Here’s my spouse’s non-technical review of the Palm “whatever it’s called”…

- Hey, this doesn’t weight much and it’s a smaller size that fits easy in my hand.
- Ouch, who designed this slider and decided sharp edges was a good idea right by the keyboard? Bad design.
- Nice big screen, very responsive to touch. Wait, I thought this was going to be like my old Palm interface? It’s not.
- OK, now on to the real test. Can I connect to my email? That was easy; I added my new email and yup, there it is.
- I’m bored. I need to watch some YouTube. Easy to find browser and connect… Wait, it’s not loading!
- Fuck you, Sprint! Same damn problem as when the iPhone came out. Carriers aren’t prepared for the data traffic.
- Hey wait. What’s this part by the button? Oh, that’s touch sensitive too; not just the screen… Very interesting.
- Overall, very easy to use out of the box and without any tutorial. Not as easy as the iPhone but easier than the G1
- Physically the design is meh, the interface is good, and a 7 year-old or a middle-aged white yuppie dude can use it for everything they need.

So there you have it :)