(continued)

* Battery

The main drain in N900 (save for high-drain situations, like gaming and film) was the screen. LCD is less efficient, eats about the same no matter what is displayed, and high brightness means constant power drain.

OLED only eats when emitting light which means that dark themes with bright, vibrant primary colors is what it does best, so showoff themes are actually saving battery. Single colors eat about a third of white, so a black-red theme which is 90% black and 10% red only eats 3-4% of what N900 would eat doing same, assuming LEDs were the same (they aren't, green OLED is more efficient than white LED in backligths).

The worst scenario (all white screen) is about the same as N900's best (all-white). For that reason, internet, that is mostly white, is surprisingly inefficient, with about 4 hours autonomy, roughly similar to N900. This is counter-intuitive, seeing how other tasks are so different.

Phone has a 9 day standby that actually works. It also can do, realistically, 35+ hours of music, 6+ hours of navigation, about 4 hours of video (HD).

When optimized, it can actually go on for days, which is way more than N900 does. Also, there are on-device tips on how to maintain battery, a Nokia app that builds statistics and advices on battery life (see post below) and is overall more careful.

The power saving mode (which is automatic with app installed) lowers screen to 25%, which is visible if not awe-inspiring and is readable in all but the brightest conditions. It also switches to 2G, doing much for standby consumption and talk time, pushing device from ~4 to ~9 hours talk time.

With Bluetooth off and other power eaters disabled (widgets to offline, mail refresh lowered) it can go for quite longer than N900.

Numbers aside, my personal experience is that I expect the E7 to last 2 days with the same usage pattern I had in N900, where the old device barely made it home. Also, I don't know about you, but even on 2G and with BT off there is no way N900 made 9 days. I used to lose about 1% an hour (a little more, actually, about 10% over 8 hours) which means that a minimal usage it just about reached 2 days.

Also, even if it's addon software, it's still Nokia, and it's free, so Power Monitor is a plus for the device. It sports auto-power saving mode, advice on battery life, statistics per-period and per-application which makes power management miles over what N900 has. It also doesn't have the same roller-coaster thing N900 used to with percentage jumping around. Most likely because at half the consumption there is less droop and more precision.

Most important, however, is not the fact that it does on average twice as good as N900. What's impressive is that in a pinch, it CAN be amazingly efficient and survive whereas N900 would leave you unable to call or look something up. With N900 down to 20%, I'd have to lock it to make it home. With E7 down to 20%, I'd still have a day ahead of me.

Winner: E7 (definitely)

* Native apps

Let's see how apps that you will be stuck with stack up:

Phone
Oh dear, where to begin? Search as you type numbers. Typing numbers also searches in contacts, where "2" tries "ABC", "3" tried "DEF" and so on, filtering contacts as you type. E.g., 634 finds "Ndi" and "neg" as part of "negrea". No more finding contacts like cavemen.

It also has a search box where one can use an on-screen vertical ABCDEF keyboard, where after each letter only valid letters are shown, to limit screen realestate use.

Call button is bound to "last dialed" when nothing is typed, but becomes "call" when typing. Contacts button becomes "add to contacts" when something is typed.

In landscape mode, OSK allows swype, plus QWERTY keyboard.

Voice dialing actually finds contacts, including in French and Romanian. Don't even know how it does it, if I pronounce a name in Romanian it finds it. I think it tries every language - how else can it figure out each language designation for acronyms? (to those who are unfamiliar with the issue, each lanuage has different names for letters. In English, "d" is "dee", In Romanian is "deh").

It also boasts complex voice commands, like selecting numbers: "Call Jen on Mobile". This stuff is cool. Tried in car, in a bar, on the street, near a TV. It really, actually works. Also, it can call applications.

UI has large in-call buttons, silence on flip and not-cramped photo.

There is no stuttering. The proximity sensor works like a charm. Capacitive screen makes it hard to push touchscreen by mistake by putting it on the table. Never answered or denied by mistake, helped by the proximity sensor and by the fact that it seems to wait for a touch, rather than just a "lift finger", meaning you can grab the touch.

Only one speaker, though.

Oh, and MMS. And video call. And service messages. And cell info. And Phone is fast to pop and always at hand.

Winner: E7 by about 15 light-years. It's not even funny.

Contacts
E7 sports better options, links to Facebook/Twitter profiles, better maps integration, groups, a detailed view, decent search and a better use of screen. Better: E7.

Messaging
E7 is very similar to N900, with conversations, which sport more emoticons, better language diacritics, also implements inbox/sent/drafts in parallel to Conversations, making it more malleable. Has ability to save messages in My Folders. Doesn't sport IM, though. Faster. Extra buttons.

The fact that E7 doesn't have Telepathy is not the fault of the Conversations, though, so winner: E7 by a narrow margin. Very narrow.

Photos
Same tag thing is implemented in E7, so that's that.

However, E7 scrolls images like it's buttered up, while N900 at 600 gets me 3 FPS. Overclocked it's better, at 5 or 6, but smooth is smooth and what happens in image scrolling on N900 ain't it.

Options are similar to N900, except E7 supports pinch to zoom, and, to maintain feel, zooms then loads. I feel this is a plus, even if details aren't immediately available, because it's easier to wait than to struggle with a stuttering UI.

Sliding images is fun and fast, with haptic feedback, pre-loading of images (fast preloads, it loads completely when zoomed), and handles video at the same speed as images.

UI is also better arranged. In image details, the lines can be clicked, allowing setting tags, adding to albums, etc while also having resolution, date and the such at a glance.

Winner: E7

Maps
Already reviewed. Winner: E7 by a wide margin.

Calendar
On the plus side, E7 calendar is bigger, roomier than N900 (4" screen). Same slide month, 3-views, but it seems faster. On the minus side, it doesn't auto-build the calendar from contacts' birthdays, which is bad.

Both boast multiple calendars with colors, toggle calendars.

I would say N900 wins for auto-calendars, but E7's is supported by OVI suite. Backing up and synchronizing with zero headaches beats a few manual adds every time. Plus, not everyone in my contacts should be in my calendar.

This is a really close call, they are almost identical, one has auto-birthday, the other sync.

I'll go with a tie. Personally, I like safety more than convenience.

Store/App manager

Store has a HTML-like interface, but dedicated. It allows login (auto), search, bigger images and better descriptions, comments, ratings, and is a little slower. Can handle multiple downloads and installs, even if fewer items are in view.

I think that repos are kind of needed for Linux, but not having to download 12 MB to get a list really gets things going. And with less of a hassle with dependencies, it actually is easier and more convenient to use Store.

Update are delivered separately. Allows purchases. Has "recently installed". Is faster.

Winner: E7 (sorry, folks, repositories are cool but not for 10.000 games on a mobile with limited link and CPU). Also, I'm talking fapman here, not that monster of HAM.

Office
Yeah, right. Winner: E7.

Mail
Mail app is pretty much the same, with multiple accounts, embedded common providers, roughly the same settings as 900. On the plus side, less buggy. On the minus, no selecting on what link to use (Wlan only mail), but is mitigated by a "headers only" setting. Both sport a widget. E7 has keyboard shortcuts (S for search, e.g.) and can be scheduled (Mo-Fri, for example, and suspend mails over weekend),

Winner: Tie. (E7 is better but not enough to be declared this and that)

Call log
Detailed log, separated, call duration, fast scrolling. Well embedded into Phone.

Winner: E7.

Search
E7 sports a search much like Scout on N900, except this one is faster and searches more locations (I think). Also does images of people when looking for people.

Winner: E7.

Misc
E7 also sports "here and now" that seems better, a photo editor that shames N900, a video editor, Sociality app that gives a touch-friendly UI to a crowded and ugly Facebook (but still works fine in Browser), SWIPE, Skype (installable) better themes, and a summer gift package of very good games for free, including Assassin's Creed with a innovative multi-touch interface (console-like), HAWX fighter emulator, Settlers, Monopoly (same you get via WebOS games emulator), and a few more.

So there you have it. Most if not all apps have been advanced in rank, polished and upgraded for S^3.

Winner: E7

* Software and apps

Well, here's the choke point. On the plus side, S^3 on E-series sports full office, games galore, high-end games, tons of stuff and, even though it's not free, there IS an option to buy. The incentive is visible, there is an alternate SHELL written for E7, complete with 3D desktop switching, custom screens, polished look.

On the minus side, most of your favorites are gone. There is no VNC and RDP app (the OS is young). I found no decent TVDbAPI app, and I miss SeriesFinale. I also miss MaeWeight or what's it called (MaeFat?). The replacement is polished but useless.

S3 also supports WebDAV (online drives), VPN (sort of), online backup (that one is cool).

Also, and this is very important, E7 is FULLY SUPPORTED BY OVI SUITE (ex PC Suite). This may not mean a lot for a Linux user, but it has the ability to export contacts, calendar and other data in a way that can be used on another phone or OS. This is kind of important, as I lost a lot of data when N900 died. I wouldn't have if it was abandoned, but when being dead I'm left with Berkley Db.

There is no clear winner now. Overall, both have thousands of apps. M5 has all the favorites by geeks, E7 has all the favorites by gamers.

Contrary to what you may think, this not a tie. While S^3 is young, M5 is not only old, it's virtually dead. The additions of software to M5 repos is slowing, while the S3 is exploding.

Sorry, folks.

Winner: E7 (don't switch if you depend on VNC, RDP or any Linux-based favorites)

Well, folks, that's it for now. Ask if you want to know more, but for now my feeling is that while I miss VNC and (a few apps I got used to), I finally have a phone I can talk on, with full features, a great screen and camera, better battery and I'm glad I switched.