The Nokia Guide has asked the obvious, if rarely asked, question- Is Maemo better than Symbian? I vote yes.
“An interesting post at the Symbian-Guru, showing 10 things Android does better than Symbian got me thinking. What struck me was that all of these things that Android indeed could do better than Symbian, were all things Maemo had already taken care of. Everything from the Browsing experience, multiple home screen and even notifications are advantages that Android may have over Symbian, but certainly not Maemo. In fact, all of these “new” features set to be introduced in the upcoming version of Symbian can be used right now using the N900 and Maemo.
After using Maemo on the Nokia N900, Symbian looks and feels outdated. Judging by the recent Symbian^3 and ^4 videos, fails to impress with just minor changes. Even Engadget seems to agree.
The N900/Maemo combo’s multi-tasking abilities could make any PC proud. Symbian in contrast feels leisurely when performance is concerned and is limited in multi-tasking. Unlike Symbian, Maemo is actually useable. The classic example is that of having multiple applications and browsers open and still having the ability to keep a Youtube video playing in the background and even having enough horsepower to show a preview of this video on the Dashboard! Unlike Symbian, the N900/Maemo combo never keeps you waiting and there isn’t really a limit to how many apps you can keep open with 1GB of RAM. For many PCs this is plenty enough, for a mobile device this is simply heaven. The best part is that performance never suffers, even with multiple apps or browser windows open…”
I vote no.
Maemo is not ready for consumers, Symbian is in the hands of millions of real people using it to do everyday tasks that normal people do. I’ve said it before, but we don’t represent the average person. Most people want a phone to do a few simple things: Calls, Texts, MMS, Email and probably Facebook nowadays. Most people don’t even know their phone can multitask or why they should care. And dont get me started on Engadget and GDGT, they seem to have a real hate on Symbian/ Nokia for some reason. Just because it doesn’t meet the small American market it has to be wrong? I love both sites, but Nokia/Symbian are huge companies run by some very clever people, not a few techies who like playing with the latest gizmos.
Without taking anything away from Maemo and Android, for a fair test there has to be a level playing field in hardware. Comparing the amount of Ram in the N900 is a hardware review. There also needs to be a distinction between the S60 front end and the Symbian OS which is evolving.