In one of the most hotly anticipated battles of the summer, the PDA gurus, Palm, go up against the world's largest mobile phone manufacturer, Nokia, in a full on battle royal. Here we take a look at the tale of the tape to see who could win out of a straight matchup between the Nokia N97 and the new kid on the block, the Palm Pre. Seconds out people, its round one. Ding ding!
Nokia N97
The Nokia N97 comes in with the full pedigree of the N-series stable and it certainly has some impressive statistics behind it. As you would expect for a successor to the N96, the N97 has some serious multimedia punch. The handset is 3.5G compatible as well as having Wi-Fi onboard so surfing the web should be a pleasant experience. The 3.5-inch screen should also be able to render web pages in full, without the need to chop bits of them off. A massive 32GB of internal memory is included and you can even expand on it via the microSD card slot.
However it certainly has a form that is something of a departure from the norm for Nokia. The N97 is a dual control handset, at the front it has a resistive touchscreen that can be slid out to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard. This could be useful as the N97 is clearly designed for using the internet. The N97 is an all in one multimedia machine that packs a deadly punch.
Palm Pre
After looking at the beast from Finland, you could be forgiven for thinking that the specs for the Palm Pre are a bit underwhelming. But it could turn out that the Palm Pre is actually a much more usable phone than the N97. It has a similar dual control system but instead of a resistive touchscreen the Palm Pre has capacitive touch. This means is that you not don't have to press down hard on the screen to confirm any actions. The iPhone uses capacitive touch, for example, but the HTC Touch Diamond uses resistive touch - which we didn't enjoy using as much.
Aside from a seemingly more intuitive control system, the Palm Pre has some impressive specs of its own. It has Wi-Fi and 3.5G so internet browsing should be as quick as the Nokia, however, it suffers in comparison when it comes to memory as the Palm Pre has 8GB of internal memory with no ability to expand further. This still leaves plenty of room for music lovers to store their tracks but it does seem a bit weedy next to the 32GB of internal memory present in the Nokia. Looks wise the Palm Pre definitely has the edge with its rounded black form which stands out in comparison to the fiddly looking Nokia N97.
Conclusion
Both the Palm Pre and the Nokia N97 have some serious benefits to offer but the choice between the two handsets may come down to something as simple as cost. We expect the N97 to only be available for free on the most high end tariffs as it is rumoured that it is a very expensive piece of kit. So the Palm Pre may well win the battle in these cash conscious times. The Nokia N97 is expected to be available in July whilst the Palm Pre is rumoured to be hitting US stores in May with a European release shortly afterwards.