HTC Wildfire vs Nokia C6 vs Samsung Spica, A Midrange Fight

Time for another price match my dear readers, this time, three of the best touchscreen mobilephones in the mid range arena, HTC Wildfire, an Android Éclair powered device suited with an HTC Sense UI, the Nokia C6, a QWERTY slider Symbian^1 and the Samsung i5000 Spica, also another Android Éclair device.

Then again, I have to mention that my comparison is based only on the company’s given hardware and technical specifications and features and sample videos that can be seen in the web or in any video sharing sites. I have no hands on experience whatsoever on all of the aforementioned devices except for the Symbian^1 where I have trialed an N97 Mini that has the same Operating System to that of the C6.

Operating System: HTC Wildfire. I have been very vocal on this in my past few posts, I like the Sense UI (User Interface) of HTC plus the fact that it runs an Android 2.1 Éclair, a feature and graphic riched (3D wallpapers, multiple homescreen, etc.) operating system, that is why the Wildfire won without a sweat in this category. The Samsung Spica upon upgrade also runs an Android Éclair but it lacks the sassiness of the HTC Sense UI while the Nokia C6 has the solid Symbian^1 Operating System minus everything, so imagine that for a difference. Yes, the Symbian^1 was good OS, it’s just that Éclair is undeniably better.

Browser is part of the OS and the Wildfire has the best browser among the three having a multitouch pinch to zoom support and a faster loading time. The Spica lacks this feature on its browser even if it runs an Android Éclair, quite odd!

Outer Case: HTC Wildfire. Pitted in a midrange arena, all three phones have to be stuffed into a less expensive plastic structures but among the three phones, the HTC Wildfire and Nokia C6 was given a stripe of metal, Nokia C6 has a metal cover at the back of the screen protecting it from the sliding QWERTY while the Wildfire has a streak metal on the back cover. Given the fact the two tied in the robustness criteria, HTC won the accolade being the more attractive and solid one. The HTC device just looks fantastic on the outside, I would say a bit classy and clean while the Nokia C6 and Samsung Spica looks cheap.

Size and Dimension: HTC Wildfire. The Wildfire was the slimmest of them all with a dimension of 106.8 x 60.4 x 12mm, a huge difference to that of the Nokia C6 having a slider QWERTY beneath and Samsung Spica’s 115 x 57 x 13.2mm. I’m not saying that the thinner the phone is, the better it becomes, it’s just that the Wildfire perfectly fits any users grip. The Nokia C6 has a good dimension but the curve at the back of the phone makes it a bit uncomfortable which causes most slipping incident when used.

Display: Samsung Spica. The three phone have TFT screens with 16 million color resolution but Nokia C6 has a resistive screen while Wildfire and Spica were both capacitative. The Samsung Spica edge the Wildfire with its 320 x 480 pixel screen and dithered C6 by its capacitative capability. Though the C6 has the best screen pixel resolution between the three giving a crisp and clear screen but resistive touch is somewhere in the past nowadays.

Memory: HTC Wildfire. Call it small yet storagefull (just made up the word, haha!), but seriously the Wildfire has a more capable storage space having a 384MB Internal Storage with 512 MB of ROM while the Nokia C6 has 240MB Internal with 125RAM and Samsung Spica with 180MB Internal memory. The Nokia C6 is perhaps prone to freezing or crashed just like the N97 Mini due to its limited RAM while Spica has lots of memory full incident closing all its open application on the homescreen without a warning.

Connectivity: HTC Wildfire. They almost have the same connectivity feature, Quadband with GPRS, EDGE, WiFi b/g, Bluetooth, microUSB, etc, except that Wildfire has faster 3G with HSDPA 7.2Mbps compared to the 3.2Mbps of the other two phones and has a Bluetooth 2.1 version. The Wildfire can also charge via USB so it adds up to convenience.

Camera: Nokia C6. Nokia C6 has a 5MP camera, autofocus and LED flash same to that of the HTC Desire but the later has no Secondary camera for Video call and can only shoot a 15fps video compared to C6’s 30fps. The Samsung Spica has a 3.2MP camera only with 15fps video capability and no secondary camera, C6 is a clear winner in this category.

Entertainment: Nokia C6. The phone is an entertainment prowess having to support all of the possible media files out there most importantly, DivX support which was recently rolled in beta stage for all Symbian^1 devices. (I have been wishing for this in the longest time on Nokia) Samsung Spica also has a DivX support but it doesn’t have a Radio and Flash Support so it failed to tie up with C6. HTC Wildfire like other high end HTC devices doesn’t seemed to care about Xvid and it’s a huge mistake on their part.

CPU: Samsung Spica. The runaway winner I would say having the fastest processor of them all, an 800Mhz compared to the 585Mhz Qualcomm MSM of Wildfire and the ARM 11 434Mhz of Nokia C6. Having the fastest processor doesn’t always mean that it is the fastest but as I compared the three, the Spica was a clear winner, no question.

Features: Nokia C6. The three phones have almost identical features except that Nokia C6 has a document viewer and a QWERTY keyboard. Having a mechanical QWERTY keyboard in a smallish 3.2 inches touchscreen device is just glorious having to experience the pleasure of typing SMS or eMail faster and easier. The document viewer is next to having a camera on a smartphone nowadays because people buy them due to the integration it brings, it’s the essence of owning one, eliminating this feature on Wildfire and Spica is unforgivable.

Battery Life: Samsung Spica. Another runaway winner here since the phone has a huge 1500mAh Li-Po battery that runs up to… (braise yourself!) 650 hours of standby time on 2G and 540hours on 3G. That would be double to the standby time of C6 and Wildfire! Utterly amazing, but needs to be tested if true. Anyways, it has the biggest power storage space so it might be.

Price: Nokia C6 and Samsung Spica. The two phone is currently being price at PhP13,400 in retail stores while the HTC Wildfire is a bit heftier on the PhP15,400 range. The three phones are higher by PhP1,000 if bought in their respective Flasghip stores.

Customer Support (Care Centers): Nokia C6 and Samsung Spica. Both phones have strategic Care Centers all over the country so I am assured that if anything happen to my device, I have somewhere near to bump into. Both also have ready to use accessories, parts and supplies to purge.

And the winner is… (Drum Roll!) It’s a 3 way tie! Cheers! Wow.. This is the most interesting match-up yet in the history of the blog. Three powerful devices in the same range with different strong and weak points, how crazy would that be? I have to admit, I was gasping with excitement when counting the scores because I graded them as independently as possible per category without tracking the scores as to which device leads and so on. All phones scored five each fairly and nobody edged nobody! It will now be up to the buyers if which category weights more to them. Harsh truth!

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