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iPhone 3GS vs. N97, KM900, i8910 and Magic

Name: iPhone 3GS vs. N97, KM900, i8910 and Magic
Brand: iPhone
Rating: 4 (1 reviews)

Abe Olandres July 6, 2009 · 1 min read

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We’ve got a bunch of high-end touchscreen phones locally available. If you think the iPhone 3GS is out of your budget, I’ve rounded up a number of them here — Samsung i8910 HD, LG KM900, Nokia N97 and HTC Magic — and compared them to the iPhone 3GS.

iPhone 3GS vs. Nokia N97 vs. LG KM900 Arena vs. Samsung i8910 HD vs. HTC Magic

phone round up

The iPhone 3GS is yet to be released on July 31 and the Samsung i8910 also this month (no set date). The iPhone is locked with Globe while the HTC Magic is exclusive to Smart.

It’s a tight match, IMO, although it seems LG takes the price category and Samsung tops the hard-core specs.

So, if you had Php40k to spend for a phone, which one of these will you get?

Notes:
iPhone 3GS price indicated is for 16GB.
Samsung i8910 HD price indicated is for 8GB (16GB version has Php36,000 SRP as indicated by Samsung PH)
A dash (-) means the specs are unknown.
microSD card sold separately
* All prices are SRP so they could all be cheaper, esp. in grey market.

React to this article:

htc magic iphone 3gs lg km900 arena samsung i8910 omnia hd

Abe Olandres

Editor-in-chief

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

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112 Comments

junulrik · 17 years ago

except with samsumg omnia hd, i have all of these units, but the best is really iphone 3G..

francis · 17 years ago

i tried using the previously released omnia in one of samsung’s product demo exhibits. the touch capability could use a little bit more of sensitivity. the iphone 3g is more responsive

Jay · 17 years ago

all of them have their special features… ill buy them all na lang.. i already have n97, the omnia HD and the iphone3GS… ala na lang ako nun HTC at LG d ko kc trip un design eh..

irispen · 17 years ago

paano naging worst ang 3.2mp camera with touch focus? i read na sobrang laki ng improvement ng camera nito. Anyway, iphone is not really a camera phone, kung di nga lang nauso yung mga camera sa phone, baka di na lagyan yan ng apple.

3.2mp is good
5mp is enough
8mp is to much, ang laki na masyado, di naman kailangan kung di ka nagpriprint ng pictures.

nakakasawa na kasi ang symbian, napaka boring na. compare to iphone 2g, laos parin ang omnia HD when ir comes to UI.

anyway, ill go for 3gs!
speed + power kasi. tapos, sobrang dami pang apps.

one of the reason na sobrang ganda ng iphone is UI and 3rd party apps.

Faie_fb · 17 years ago

The samsung i8910 HD is such a good phone people have been complaining about the touch screen well there talking rubbish the touch screen is really good and also ive heard that people have been complaining about the battery life well that a load of rubbish awell ive got just over a week on mine without charging it every night.
The camera is SOO good, and the video ‘OMG’ its like working with a professional camera.

Overall the Samsung i8910 HD is definetly the bedt out of all of them.
The iphone 3G S has the worst camera ever and apple are way behind everyone else.
The nokia is ok, but still not as good and the other phones dont evan match up to these three.
So pick the Samsung i8910 HD you wont regret it.!!

irispen · 17 years ago

mali mali naman info.. sa MAGIC: 192mb? thats the RAM! VGA? no, it cant record VGA!! and LG arena is not a smartphone to compare with others.. plus, i believe na HERO ang katapat ng Iphone, not the magic..

anyway, ang mahal ng magic dito sa Pinas! LOL! di hamak na masmura yan sa ibang bansa eh!

Beemer · 17 years ago

Nothing comes close to the iPhone overall. The 3.0 OS kills everything there. Sucky battery life and camera though.

ronP1 · 17 years ago

ill go 4 samsung i8910HD. i am also considering samsung’s jet since i am now using SE P1i. omnia i8910 = samsung s8000 + SEP1i. hehe

ferdzlopez · 17 years ago

gusto nyo ng windows mobile 6.1 OS na Samsung try Samsung i8000 http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_i8000_omnia_ii-2836.php

samsung · 17 years ago

sang store po yang omnia hd next week? capable ba cia ng usb charging?

Vicky · 17 years ago

Thank Yuga, what store will it be in next week in Manila?

ampanet · 17 years ago

hahaha, my bad.

just checked the samsung mobile ph site.

the i8910 hd is now in the products list

ampanet · 17 years ago

suhweet!

thanks for the prompt reply sir.

i’ve been tracking the i8910 hd for a couple of months now… and so far, none of the samsung sites have given a peep about a ph or even a sea region release date.

*giddy, in anticipation*

Milton · 17 years ago

Thanks for the reply yuga. do you know where i could get the omnia next week?

Seth · 17 years ago

Ayus! Mas mauuna pa yata diyan sa pinas ang release ng i8910 kesa dito sa Dubai!

The best talaga ang OmniaHD i8910! Value-for-money talaga dahil sa hi-specs! The best pa din SYMBIAN OS! Kung out-of-date na ang Symbian, why would NOKIA(market leader) still use it? Why would Samsung and SE use it with their flagship units(OmniaHD and Satio respectively). I read in some forums that WinMo can only support 65K colors display. True?

OmniaHD’s closest rivals :

iPHONE 3GS — still a hype-phone
N97 — still 5mp camera and only 434Mhz processor?

Just my opinion….

Mark Jason · 17 years ago

For me, Omnia HD, then I’ll have the LG Arena as my 2nd pick. HTC Magic’s price is imba with it’s specs. iPhone 3GS nangunguna lang naman sa Apps eh, di ba sila naisip na gawan ng memory card slot ang 3GS? Nokia, i dunno pero parang nalilipasan na ng panahon with it’s Symbian OS interface, kacombo pa ng hindi pagiging touchscreen.

ampanet · 17 years ago

does anybody have ph release info on the i8910hd?

i read that it’s malaysian release got pushed back to august.

Abe Olandres Editor-in-chief · 17 years ago

Release of the Omnia HD will be next week.

Carl · 17 years ago

THE OMNIA HD!

Carl · 17 years ago

WHERE CAN I BUY THIS IN MANILA!

Ochie · 17 years ago

“Samsung tops the hard-core specs”

I’ll definitely go with the Omnia :)

mon · 17 years ago

and everyone thought the iphone was ridiculously expensive =)

Niel · 17 years ago

I go for iphone 3GS because of UI and app store

Roy · 17 years ago

for the OMnia HD

Roy · 17 years ago

Any word on suppliers in Manila? Or a date of arrival this month?

jondeng · 17 years ago

so ? hindi maganda ang n97 ?

chris · 17 years ago

i’d go for the slide qwerty phone… i like the iphone but its more of a multimedia device for me sayang Symbian OS gamit ng N97

bengtotpogi · 17 years ago

Any of em will do, except the fruit phone! I won’t fall for the hype! Omnia HD or N97 on top of my list.

Roy · 17 years ago

Thanks for the chart! Anyone know where the Omnia HD is available in Manila? (If it is in stores)

Mike · 17 years ago

Whew. Those things sure are heavy on the pocket. I’ll wait for second-hand units, or perhaps a sale somewhere.

Art Samaniego · 17 years ago

I go for iPhone 3GS, HTC Magic and Nokia N97. I have been using these phones and I like them in that order :).

NEO · 17 years ago

Thannks YUGA for the very impressive comparison chart. I agree with techme, symbian is kinda getting outdated, i’ll go for the LG, specs and price wise.

BrianB · 17 years ago

Wow, gumanda N97 bigla.

goosebumps · 17 years ago

i wonder why Omnia shifted to symbian from Windows Mobile?

techme · 17 years ago

Omnia looks good on paper! but it’s running symbian so it’s big letdown for me …

itpinoy · 17 years ago

LG i believe is better for those with money constraints…

Miguel · 17 years ago

Qualcomm and ARM are the CPU.

The actual Qualcomm CPU used by the HTC Magic is the MSM7201A.

You can check http://pdadb.net for complete hardware specs – weird, the Arena has no CPU listed there. Non-standard?

arnold · 17 years ago

iPhone 3GS for me!

Vance · 17 years ago

Again, the prices above most probably from most telco.

The “real market” price will be different, as what Abe have pointed out.

cArLo_AnGeLo · 17 years ago

The N97 retails at the NOKIA STORE here in Tacloban for just about PHP31,000.00

mike · 17 years ago

I’d go for the KM900 best value for money, with similar specs among the lot.

Nil A. · 17 years ago

Samsung i8910 HD 16GB without second thoughts, if they lower the PhP36K SRP. :D

arlan · 17 years ago

Yuga, why are HTC phones that expensive? they don’t even have those high specs.

PinoyPSP · 17 years ago

nice comparison chart! =)seems like n97 is the only one with qwerty…

SmartGilas.com · 17 years ago

thanks yuga!

badbadtzmaru · 17 years ago

Thanks for the comparison table.
This is very helpful.
One question, though:
what are the row headings for Qualcom & ARM and the MHz?
thanks again!

minnie me · 17 years ago

definitely in terms of price point and specs superiority i would go with samsung i8910 HD.

Ian · 17 years ago

i go with the iPhone 3GS. Go with this site, it’s cheap http://www.digital-deals.co.uk where i will order for the 16gb iphone 3GS for $460 free shipping.