As a Microsoft Mobius member, I have recently received the HTC P3300 "Artemis", an advanced Windows Mobile 5 based smartphone with built-in GPS receiver. Let's see how it compares to NSeries flagship smartphone, the Nokia N95.

Both phones have similar size and weight, with the Artemis being slightly wider and higher but thinner (108x58x16.8 mm, 130 g) than the N95 (99x53x21 mm, 120 g). Front sides of both devices are dominated by their QVGA (240x320 pixel) screens. The P3300 has one of the smallest screens among Windows Mobile devices (2.8") but it's still noticeably larger than the screen of the N95 (2.6") which, in turn, is the biggest display ever used in a S60 smartphone (except for the internal screen of the E90 Communicator). Normally the difference isn't too noticeable, but sometimes it becomes quite apparent, e.g. in case of in-car GPS navigation where the larger screen of the Artemis lets you see the map and navi info more clearly and from further distance.

Like in all Windows Mobile 5 devices, the screen of the P3300 is touch-sensitive and the UI is pen-driven. The screen of the N95 isn't touch sensitive and the S60 3rd Edition UI is optimized for keypad control. As in some situations using stylus and touch screen might be cumbersome, the HTC P3300 has been equipped with additional softkeys and also with a trackball/trackwheel combination called "RollR". The N95, in turn, has a 5-way d-pad and two soft buttons.

The RollR looks very nice (epecially with its blue backlight) and I must say that the idea is very good: rotate the trackwheel or push the trackball to quickly scroll a list or zoom in/out a map, press the trackball to select an item, confirm a dialog, etc. It's extremely quick and convenient. Moreover, the Artemis also has an optional trackball controlled "Mouse Mode" in which you can see a PC-like arrow cursor and you move it using the trackball. This way you can control the whole device without even touching the screen.

The only concern is the reliability (and probably durability) of the RollR. In the tested unit the trackwheel quickly developed a 2-3 mm play and the trackball doesn't feel too precise with a 1 mm of play, either (it's also slightly "oversensitive"). The d-pad of the N95 doesn't give the quickness and easiness of the RollR but it's precise and provides good tactile feedback - you'll always know how many times you pressed it and in which direction without having to verify the result on the screen. If the RollR was more accurate and reliable, I'd recommend it with all my heart. However in its current form it doesn't give perceptible feedback and you can't clearly feel how many list items you've scrolled or how many times you zoomed in or out a map, without having to look at the screen at the same time. Pity. Let's hope that HTC will improve the build quality of the RollR in future units.

One of the unique features of the Nokia N95 is the slider: slide it up to reveal the phone keypad, slide it down to get access to the Music player buttons, move it back to its central position to lock all keys. The Artemis doesn't have phone keypad at all. Dialling a number or entering text requires using the touch screen. Fortunately, buttons of the virtual keypad of the Phone application are large enough to be selected with a finger, which frees the user from having to always use the stylus. Accepting and ending/rejecting calls can be done without referring to the touch screen as the standard Send/End buttons are available as hardware buttons located below the screen. Both the N95 and the P3300 also have the following hardware buttons: Volume up/down, Camera, Power On/off.

The general build quality of both devices is similar and quite good. The only exceptions are the above mentioned reliability issues with P3300's RollR controller and also a similar small play of N95's slider resulting in the front part being slightly wobbly. Casings of both phones (front and sides of the Artemis, sides and back of the N95) are made of soft plastic that gives a very pleasant feel as if it was covered with rubber. This high quality, however, doesn't apply to P3300's battery cover. Not only it's made of much thinner plastic but it also doesn't stick with the rest too well. It happens all the time (e.g. when taking the phone out of pocket or from the car craddle) that the cover simply falls off. Considering that the tested unit was a new device, I can only imagine how will it look like in a month or two. I've seen lots of complaints about lost Artemis covers on the web and it seems like a design flaw... To make it even worse, new cover costs about 15 pounds, i.e. almost 30 USD!

Let's now take a look at the hardware side. Both phones are equipped with Texas Instruments made application processors, but the one in the N95 is a much newer and much more powerful unit belonging to higher generation and running at over 30% faster clock speed. The CPU in the Artemis is the ARM9-based OMAP850 clocked @ 200 MHz. The processor of the N95 is the ARM11-based OMAP2420 running at 330 MHz, featuring integrated DSP and 3D graphics/video acceleration. Shortly speaking, the N95 is considerably faster. In everyday use, the speed difference isn't noticeable and the HTC is still quite a good performer. However, in case of tasks requiring more power it sometimes turns out that the P3300 simply isn't fast enough. There is no Skype client for the N95 yet but other VoIP clients work well. On the Artemis with its standard 200 MHz clock, Skype is simply unusable, you can't understand a single word and the UI almost freezes. Fortunately, the HTC can be overclocked using a simple freeware tool available on the Web. The device remains stable until about 240 MHz, i.e. +20%, and luckily it's enough to make Skype usable.

Both devices have 64 MB of total operating memory. The Artemis has about 25 MB free RAM, the N95 has 20 MB. Could be better, but in both cases it's enough for decent multitasking. Internal storage memory is 37 MB in the Artemis and 160 MB in the N95. Both phones have microSD card slots (currently up to 2 GB).

Multimedia is where the Nokia N95 wins hands down. It's first of all because of video quality. The N95 records VGA (640x480) at 30 frames per second with quality comparable to amateur miniDV camcorders, while the P3300 only supports very poor QCIF (176x140) resolution at 15 fps, which is of no serious use but for sending MMS. The CPU in the Artemis simply isn't fast enough to provide higher resolutions and frame rates... Sample video clips are available below (N95 sample on the left, Artemis on the right).

Taking still pictures is another function showing superiority of the N95 when it comes to multimedia. With its 5 Megapixel sensor (2592x1944), the Nokia provides considerably higher resolution and detail level than the HTC (2 MPix, 1600x1200). The camera of the N95 is also better because it supports autofocus and it has real mechanical shutter. The camera of the Artemis is a very simple device and it doesn't even have LED flash... There is, however, one thing about video and imaging that works better in the Artemis: white balance. All pictures taken with the N95 have a purple hue (too much magenta) whereas images coming from the Artemis have more natural colors. Hopefully Nokia will fix this issue in forthcoming firmware releases. The following are sample pictures taken using the N95 and the P3300.

Nokia N95:

HTC P3300:

Both smartphones provide similar quality of audio playback. The sound via headphones is of high quality. The N95, additionally, has stereo loudspeakers whereas the Artemis only has one monaural speaker. Both devices support A2DP and AVRCP Bluetooth profiles. The N95 includes standard 3.5 mm minijack connector letting you use high quality headphones without any convertors. The P3300 uses its miniUSB port for connecting headphones so you'll need to buy a converter if you want to use some nice sounding Sennheiser or Ultimate Ears super.fi headphones...

The N95 benefits again from its faster processor when it comes to video playback. Full screen video is smoother and higher bitrates are supported than on the Artemis. On the other hand, the Artemis supports wider range of video formats, including e.g. WMV.

The Nokia N95 has a very interesing feature missing from the HTC Artemis: video out connector. Using the bundled audio-video cable, it can be connected to a TV set letting the user run a presentation, browse the web or simply play console-quality games on large screen. Picture quality is exceptional.

In contrast to multimedia, the built-in GPS receiver is where the Artemis excels. It uses the SiRFstarIII GSC3e chip whereas the N95 uses Texas Instruments' own solution. The Artemis obtains fix much faster than the N95 and it is considerably more sensitive. For instance, it works perfectly via the atermic (metalized) windshield of my car whereas the N95 has serious problems with it. I must say that the P3300 has the best GPS receiver I have ever used and it became my main navigation device. It doesn't mean that the GPS in the N95 is bad or unusable, no, it's also a good working GPS receiver, only the one in the HTC phone is simply better.

The N95 comes with Nokia's Smart2Go software. The application allows to view where you are on a map, search for points-of-interests (POI) and create routes. Map data (free) from Tele-Atlas and Navteq can be downloaded directly via wireless network (e.g. GPRS/3G/WLAN) and stored on the memory card as needed. If all the desired map data is stored, no network connection is needed. For managing downloads of bigger sizes there is an additional PC desktop tool available. The free mapping solution comes with the option to upgrade to paid full fledged turn-by-turn navigation. The Artemis, in turn, comes with fully functional TomTom 6 navigation software and with one selected city map. There is also a more expensive bundle with more maps. Further maps can be purchased from TomTom at discounted prices.

Nokia N95:

HTC P3300:

When it comes to connectivity, both devices provide the same options: WLAN b/g, Bluetooth 2.0 EDR, USB 2.0 Full speed via mini-USB. Telephony and data transfer options again put the Nokia N95 on top: it supports EDGE, UMTS and even HSDPA 3.6 Mbps, whereas the Artemis is GPRS/EDGE (up to 236 kbps) only. It may be considered a serious limitation now that 3G networks are quite popular and widespread.

Both devices are power hogs. The P3300 has a 1200 mAh battery and the N95 has a 950 mAh one. Standby time depends on use but it could be better in both cases. Even though the N95 has smaller accu and faster processor, it seems to be more power efficient providing slightly better work times. It's probably because P3300's larger, touch sensitive screen eats more energy.

On the software side, I must say that I was pleased to see how Windows Mobile 5 (compared to WM2002 and 2003 of my old Pocket Loox) grew up and became much faster and more stable operating system. Switching to flash memory based storage was also a good move and it's worth mentioning that Symbian OS devices have always had Flash storage, so it seems that Microsoft follows the best solutions. Flash memory not only provides much higher security for user data but it also allows switching the device off completely when you do not use it.

What is still don't like about Windows Mobile is its always-growing, memory-eating registry, but on the other hand no other (registry-free) system will give you so much pleasure with hacking and tweaking the settings ;-) After unboxing the Artemis I spent almost three days looking up different hacks and modifications on the web and applying them - as a result I got a set of features perfectly adjusted for my personal preferences.

Another software function where Windows Mobile still excels is its famous Today screen. Unfortunately, no Symbian OS based device comes even close when it comes to functionality of the standby screen. The latest S60 smartphones (including the N95) offer the 'Active standby' function showing pending tasks, current Calendar events, new messages, WLAN networks in range, network status, quick launch icons, etc. but it's still far from Today screen's excellent support for 3rd party plugins providing virtually ANY functionality, including weather forecasts, RSS feeds, image slideshows, world clocks, dynamically updated stock exchange rates, etc., etc.

There is one thing, however, that's definitely better about Symbian OS' Active standby screen: its integrated phone functionality. If you want to dial a number you do it directly on the standby screen whereas in Windows Mobile "Phone" is still a fully separate application.

Another thing is PIM software and data synchronization. It's kind of frustrating that after so many years Symbian OS devices still haven't achieved similar reliability and full functionality of synchronizing data with the most popular desktop PIM software. The Artemis and Microsoft ActiveSync still do it way better than the N95 with its PC Suite. The built-in Calendar application is also much more advanced than the very simple one found in the N95.

Nokia N95:

HTC P3300:

Pocket Internet Explorer is one of the worst mobile browsers I have seen, at least compared with both the Nokia OSS web browser of the N95 and with the Opera browser. The Safari based Nokia N95 browser renders pages much faster and with almost perfect accuracy and the MiniMap function makes web browsing on a small screen faster and more convenient. Compared to this, Pocket IE is much slower and quite cumbersome. Fortunately, Opera has released Windows Mobile version of their browser so Artemis users are not limited to using the built-in PIE.

Both the N95 and the Artemis allow switching the UI between portrait and landscape mode. UI customization is much more advanced in the N95 as its Themes support allows skinning all elements of the UI whereas Themes in Windows Mobile only change the wallpaper of the Today screen and the color palette. What surprised me about the Artemis is that Windows Mobile still has the same ugly ringtones as many years ago. Some of them haven't changed since XDA I times, i.e. 2002 or so. Compared to this, the N95 offers a large collection of beautiful, high quality ringtones, with the optional configurable 3D effect. Of course, in case of both phones you can install own high quality ringtones in e.g. MP3 or AAC format, but the first impression when it comes to personalization is definitely on the N95 side - it simply looks and sounds much nicer and more friendly out of the box.

Being a 3G phone, the N95 comes with support for IP calls and video calls. These functions are sadly missing from the 3G-less HTC Artemis. As mentioned, you can install 3rd party VoiP clients including Skype and use them via WiFi (EDGE is too slow) but it requires overclocking the Artemis to get any usable results. When overclocked, the device consumes power at turbo speeds so it is better to do it only temporarily when you need it and then quickly revert to the standard CPU clock to save energy, or - even better - connect the phone to the charger when it is overclocked. The overclocked system uses so much power that even USB charging is too weak - you can watch the battery level bar drop even while the USB cable is connected.

Summary: Both devices are very advanced and highly usable smartphones. The Nokia N95 excels in multimedia (high resolution still shots, high quality VGA/30 fps video recording, video out connector), telephony and data transmission (UMTS, HSDPA, internet and video calls) and in general performance provided by its powerful OMAP2420 processor. This is where the HTC Artemis turns out to be considerably weaker. Where it rules, however, is its integrated GPS receiver: faster, more precise and more sensitive than the one in the N95. The Artemis also offers larger screen, which - together with the excellent GPS - provides top level GPS navigation functionality. Another advantage of the Artemis is the huge range of 3rd party software and accessories available for Windows Mobile devices.

Both devices are highly useful, well built, nice looking and good working. Both have their stengths and weaknesses mentioned above. Get the one that better supports the functions you need and you surely won't be disappointed.

If you need more details about the N95, please read my Nokia N95 review. Discuss about the Nokia N95 with other users on our S60 3.0 Discussion Forum.

Do you find our reviews helpful and interesting? Would you like to see more of them? Please consider supporting this website! Details can be found here.