In the past five years, ever since the introduction of that legendary iPhone, the mobile phones industry has gone through a sea change. Old biggies have been reduced to minnows. Non existent players have become market leaders and the ubiquitous mobile phone has gone through major design changes. Five years on, while Android has managed to sort of slow down the iPhone juggernaut, the Android fraternity mostly did it by pumping in volumes and offering people an excellent alternative to iOS.
Also, it took a bunch of manufacturers and Google’s clout to challenge the growth of the iPhone. The debate over Apple’s quality over Android’s quantity is a never ending one. However, even the staunchest of Apple fanboys will admit that Android has been bridging whatever is left of that quality divide rather too fast for Apple’s comfort.
While Apple may argue that Android might have been a “copied”, product – it is a fact that iOS also has had its share of ‘inspired from Android’ implementations. Also to be remembered is the fact that Android is all software.
What is the scene when it comes to hardware?
When it comes to hardware, the “room” to innovate further seems to have been shrinking more and more each year. It is slightly like that old misquoted saying; “Everything that can be invented has been invented”. Sure, we have been seeing the advent of faster processors and even faster graphics chips. But can you call that innovation? Isn’t it just a normal progression of technology? What then is innovation?
Well five years ago, a phone with a capacitive multi-touch display that supported gestures with never ever seen before mass public implementation of pinch to zoom was as revolutionary as it was innovative. Such was the implementation of the technology that people did not mind several mainstream features being omitted just because a device was doing the rest of the things in a totally revolutionary manner. Case in point; SMS forwarding.
With each iPhone version launch, Apple has been until now continuously out-innovating its competitors by adding at least one revolutionary feature. If it was the absolutely mind boggling retina display on the iPhone 4 it was the eerily intelligent responses of Siri to your questions with the iPhone 4S. While the early iPhones would have had a hard time competing with even a pinhole camera, everything changed with the arrival of the iPhone 4S which put many mainstream point and shoot cameras to shame.
The question now is, has the iPhone 5 managed to out-innovate others as Apple has done almost every time it launched a new product? Well, at least for me, it hasn’t. May be it is because we expect Apple to deliver something truly exceptional every time it launches something. And why not? It is something they have been consistently doing so well all these years.
So, if the iPhone 5 isn’t all that revolutionary, what recently announced product is?
How about the Lumia 920?
True, Windows Phone as an OS has a long way to go before it receives a mass appeal as large as iOS and Android – and Nokia is far too down in the dumps as of now for someone to even consider them to being worthy of coming up with an iPhone challenger. But hey, let’s not forget that Nokia still has some smart people in there who can design some really gorgeous looking phones. That coupled with a bunch of innovations that has gone in to the hardware on the 920 could just turn the tables over the iPhone 5. So what are these innovations? Are those really groundbreaking? Let’s see.
The Display
We start with the display. Not only does the Lumia 920 have a much larger display, it also matches the iPhone when it comes to the overall pixel per inch density – even with the much larger screen. Surely, this is not an innovation any more. But wait there is more! The Lumia 920 gets something known as a super sensitive display. While it may not sound something very significant now, it would be interesting to see comparison videos of people using the iPhone 5 and the Lumia 920 using gloves once both these devices are out. Nokia claims that the display will be better than its competitors in this tricky environment. For those of you who say that you can always remove those gloves, my only response would be to try doing that in sub zero temperatures. This is not all. Nokia also claims that it’s PureHD + display is much “faster” than its competition. And they are not saying it just like that. The pixels on the Lumia 920 move faster than than on competing LCD displays.This reduces “motion blur” and greatly enhances screen readability during transitions. Apple has not claimed anything of this sort and we are safe to assume that the display on the Lumia 920 coupled with its on par PPI density and color saturation with ClearBlack technology would better the one on that of the iPhone 5.
What about the Camera?
The iPhone 5 surely gets an upgraded camera. The camera on the iPhone 4S was an absolute gem. But much water has flown under the bridge then. The likes of HTC and Samsung have caught up. And Nokia made a rather huge jump with its PureView 808. And Nokia stomps on with authority with the camera on the Lumia 920.
It is no longer about the megapixel count anymore.
The iPhone 5 gets a better lens, a new imaging sensor and an F/2.4 lens but still, it is not THE camera phone to have any more. The 920 on the other hand, at least on paper has a bunch of innovations that have gone in to the camera module. The first obviously is optical image stabilization which according to Nokia betters even than the ones seen on many digital cameras. While they did mess up on the demo video, I still feel it will take some great shaky videos that are not shaky. Also to be noted is the fact that the 920 gets a F/2.0 lens which will guarantee much better low light photography.
Why is this innovation? Because there is no phone in production or in the pipeline out there that boasts of such specs. I hope that Nokia has not in any way doctored those low light image samples that were shown to us during the demo of the phones to us last week in Delhi. Simply put Apple cannot claim that the iPhone 5 is the best camera phone out there. It is not.
There are a lot of other features that the iPhone 5 comfortably skips and the Lumia 920 gets. These however are not revolutionary in any way – except maybe for the Wireless Charging bit. But then the Galaxy S III already has it.
All this said let us not forget that the iPhone 5 still has that awesome eco system surrounding it. The Lumia 920 is a far cry from being even close to Apple when it comes to this. I have no doubt that people would be lining up in front of Apple Stores around the world this time round too. It may continue to break sales records. But is it the most innovative smartphone of the year? The answer at least for me is a big no. What do you think?
