All-angle comparison of the 8MP phones

Multimedia:

Since we started talking about past times in the very beginning, let us remind you of something. Until now you had to carry a camera, music and a video (DVD) player if you wanted to be fully equipped multimedia wise. Following the all-in-one trend the modern phones offer a combination of these futures. We hope this will happen with people soon too so we’ll be able to find a top model girlfriend that is willing to cook and do the laundry.

Music player:

More than a year ago the iPhone showed us the proper way to control a music player. Although none of the four 8-megapixel phones is even close to that standard, they offer some interesting solutions. The Pixon’s interface is not that effective (lacks Cover Flow), but all options are available directly, and the album covers are visualized small but perfectly. The equalizer has seven modes, which really influence the sound.


Renoir’s player offers an old-fashioned design, but we could’ve been OK with that if the extras were fine. Unfortunately, this is the model that has the most problems reading ID3. Not only the album art doesn’t appear most of the time, but the artists are not correctly recognized. There are no sound effects except for the Dolby Mobile.


It’s almost the same story with the INNOV8 (most covers do not show), but at least the equalizer has 17 presets. Variety is a good thing, although we would have preferred to have the option to make our own EQ. This you can do in the C905, which has interface similar to the Walkman series, but with less extras. Overall, it is quite nice and only the covers are so small that even if they were of good quality we wouldn’t notice it.



All four models are equipped with FM radio, but the RDS option is not available in the Renoir. The C905 and Pixon get some extra points for offering the music recognition option. We have already tasted the precision of Sony Ericsson’s TrackID, and Samsung service doesn’t fall behind.

Renoir	Pixon	INNOV8	C905
1	5	4.5	4.5

Loudspeaker sound quality:

Listening to music from your phone is generally a lonely activity that you do with your headphones on. However, sometimes you want to share your favorite tracks with other people and then you have to use the phone’s loudspeaker. You shouldn’t expect, though, that it’s loud enough to make a party (although we once succeeded in this with a N95 8GB).

Pixon is our favorite in this category, since it’s the loudest of all and, if the music is calm, it offers very good quality. If, for example, you’re listening to music featuring more guitars, the sound would be too sharp and annoying. The situation is similar with INNOV8, the only difference being that it produces a weaker sound. As far as sound quality is concerned, we’re very pleased with C905, at moments it performed even better than the Samsungs, but it’s too quiet and it’s hardly heard at the other end of a bigger room. Renoir offers even a weaker sound and you can as well assume that it’s unusable in circumstances slightly more noisy than being in a church.

Renoir	Pixon	INNOV8	C905
2	5	4.5	3

Sound quality through the headphones:

So, we got to the most important criterion as far as listening to music on the phone is concerned. We have to underline that, in order to assess the sound quality we used the same headphones (sometimes with an adapter), and not the ones included in the sets. The test headphones are midmarket class - Alessandro MS1. On the whole, we are pleased with the performance of all four models and we can say they answer the needs of the mainstream user. There is, however, a small difference in the sound volume they provide.

INNOV8 and C905 are the loudest and the Sony Ericsson model offers a sound that is slightly clearer. The Pixon can achieve the same volume, but the sound is a little sharper, so you’ll have to turn it down a little. Renoir is a bit quieter compared to the competition. On the whole, none of the models offers a volume, comparable with that of the music champion from our comparative evaluation of the GSM touch-screen phones, iPhone. Furthermore, only INNOV8 has an in-built 3.5 mm jack, while Renoir and Pixon come with adapters. C905 does not provide a possibility for plugging in headphones of your choice (unless you buy an adapter). All these facts have been taken into account for the final evaluation, which is...

Renoir	Pixon	INNOV8	C905
4	4.5	5	4