A Smarter Smart Phone?

On Friday, he posted a blog comparing the N95 to the Canon SD800 digital camera. Gartenberg found the N95 to be far inferior to the SD800 because of shutter lag, flash, zoom and other defects. He's right, the N95 won't shoot as good or easily as the SD800, but it's not supposed to. However, I contend that the N95's camera is more than adequate for most people.

The N95 is a phone plus camera and other extras, not a camera plus a phone, which is how Gartenberg evaluated the device. The N95 is an excellent phone and pretty good digital camera, GPS, Internet access device and more. It's an impressive converged device, and I chose to buy the N95 instead of waiting for Apple's iPhone.

No pro photographer, I still shoot pretty well. My gear: Canon EOS 20D digital SLR and Canon 135mm prime—that's fixed focal length—lens. My gallery of the 2007 Cherry Blossom Parade shows that I'm fussy about my photos—and gear. If the N95 is good enough for me, it's probably going to be good enough for most anyone else.

Partly, this is about expectations. I don't expect the N95 to take the same quality pictures as a dedicated digicam. But I do expect it to meet a certain "good enough" threshold, which the device achieves.

I like to shoot pictures, but I simply can't carry the 20D everywhere, so I had been shopping for a small digital camera for some time. But it would mean carrying a cell phone and camera, and who really wants to do that in the summer? So I had been considering a cell phone with good camera for some time. The Sony Ericsson K800i appealed, but the tribands weren't the right ones for my mobile carrier. The phone's 3.2-megapixel camera otherwise would have been close to good enough.

Then along came the quad-band N95 with a 5-megapixel camera, GPS, maps, music player (even supporting Windows Media DRM), Wi-Fi and software for blogging or posting pics directly to Flickr and videos to Vox. After reading and watching N95 reviews, I bought the phone about three weeks ago. Whoa, what a smart phone it is.

Now, I carry a pretty good camera with me all the time—and there are other benefits, like good Internet browsing, superb music and video consumption, and easy calendar/contact synchronization with Outlook 2007. I don't use corporate e-mail on the phone, nor do I plan to.

Phone photography is its own art form, in part because of spontaneity and fluidity. There is a different emotional content, too, because these are the pics otherwise missed. The phone camera is good enough because the moment would otherwise be lost. I snapped this image of my daughter on Sunday evening, using the N95. It's an exceptionally good pic for a cell phone.

Anticipation for Apple's iPhone shows that there is interest in converged devices and that many people will pay the price premium. Feature for feature, iPhone doesn't compare to the N95, unless the consumer is hot on the touch screen and calling features integrated with Cingular's network. The N95 has better camera, Wi-Fi and other extras.

There are lessons that Microsoft and its Windows Mobile partners should learn from the N95. For one, Nokia has launched one helluva advertising campaign, with "There's a thing in your pocket." The campaign has a contest, where people upload videos of the things carried in their pockets—and Nokia has built up real enthusiast community around its N Series phones, particularly the N95.

Windows Mobile is all about converged devices. Microsoft and partners like HTC and Samsung should take a good look at what Nokia is doing with its N Series phones.

No question, a smart phone is a series of compromises. But when the features reach a certain "good enough" threshold, the one device is enough. Sure, I'll always take a dSLR to parades and other events. But there are plenty of unexpected opportunities to snap a pic, watch a movie, check e-mail, IM, blog, photoblog or get directions where a good smart phone would be plenty good enough. I'm hoping that within a year's time I can rave as much about a Windows Mobile smart phone as the Nokia N95.

Commenters, what would you like to carry in your pocket?