Nintendo 3DS vs iPhone 4 - Part 2

You're reading Part Two of the great Nintendo 3DS vs iPhone 4 face-off. For Part One click here.

Whilst the first part of our feature focused squarely on the gaming credentials, a battle which the 3DS well and truly won, this concluding part will look at the wider considerations and demands of any portable gaming gadget.

Just to refresh your memory, as it stands the half time score is:

Can Apple's latest sold-out dream machine clamber back into contention for pocket gaming device of the year? Read on...

This point is a bit tricky. For one, the iPhone 4 could be as much as £599 (for a 32GB contract-less unit) or absolutely free (on some Vodafone contracts), while the 3DS has no confirmed price at all.

But it's still a key factor in deciding which box o' tech you'll be slipping in your skinny jeans when you head out the door.

The iPhone 4, is of course, a phone, so it's all contracts and SIM cards and tariffs. There's been no talk of an iPod touch 4, so you'll be tangled up in bills. Still, on an average contract of £25 a month, we worked it out as costing you about £360 to £500, depending on the storage size, for an 18 month contract.

While the DS, will probably be less than £200, maybe even less than £150 if you ask the right people. Either way, Nintendo isn't known for gauging cash on devices, so it'll be cheaper than the iPhone 4, without a doubt. 3DS wins.

Both the iPhone 4 and 3DS pack multiple picture snappers. But while the 3DS might beat out the iPhone 4's fleet of cameras in quantity, featuring three in total, the resolution is remarkably poor. The outside cameras on the console feature a laughable 0.3 megapixel lens, capable of snapping in 640x480 resolution.

The iPhone 4? A five megapixel lens, with the ability to shoot images over 2500 pixels wide. It also packs an LED flash, 5x digital zoom, tap to zoom, and even HD recording, letting you cut and splice your clips in iMovies.

Of course, the 3DS takes images in 3D. It's a lovely idea, but what use are 200 pictures of last weekend's mental kegger, in 3D, if you can't upload them to MyTwittbook? Seeing as a .3D filetype doesn't quite exist yet, and as about six people have 3D graphics cards, your holographic snaps will be stuck on your 3DS.

Sounds like a gimmick that'll get old faster than milk in the mid-day sun. If we're taking photos, we'll reach for our iPhone first.

This is a no brainer, as far as we're concerned. 3D movies might be worth a poke on a 3.53-inch screen, but the iPhone 4 offers so much more. Internet, music, iBooks, and productivity apps. Oh, and it makes phone calls, if you're still doing that.

Sure, Nintendo has tried its best with stuff like the Opera Web Browser and Facebook connect for your funny DSi snaps, but it's a games console, not the illegitimate lovechild of a phone, PDA, and iPod that the iPhone 4 is.

But it's nice to know that the 3DS still supports DSiWare, so you can get the fun timewasting casual games we love so much on iPhone, like Fieldrunners and Flight Control, for lifts and queues and microwavable noodles.

Social gaming and connected features are the new black right now in the Facebook-dominated world, and both systems unsurprisingly have innovations when it comes to connecting and sharing with others.

Nintendo's wi-fi Pictochat and sharing functionality has long been a staple element of the DS family, with games like Animal Crossing, Pokemon, and Nintendogs allowing players to gain extra gaming elements via trading and connecting with others via Bluetooth.

Multiplayer match-ups have been similarly well handled over wi-fi and Bluetooth, and there's internet browsing too thanks to the Opera browser, along with the chance to download extra content or a small section of games via the dedicated DSiWare channel.

The tagging element is going to the next level in the 3DS, though, with games and programs remaining able to communicate with fellow 3DS-owners and the internet without any recourse to drop-down menus. Unless you tell it otherwise, the new tagging mode will happily chat away automatically.

Whilst that sounds impressive, iPhone is even better connected. Along with the wi-fi and bluetooth connectivity, there's also the phone network to come into play and provided you've got flat rate data you can happily connect for multiplayer gaming, high-score sharing, or browsing the internet almost as you would on PC via the truly sumptious and slick Safari browser.

Oh, and of course you can phone and text people, and even video call if you REALLY have to.

Although Apple doesn't offer any community management features themselves (although this will be addressed with the Game Center in autumn), there's a host of third-party systems at work from the likes of OpenFeint, Scoreloop, and Plus+ which provide Xbox Live style community, achievements, and score sharing options.

All of which contributes to the iPhone 4 just about getting its nose in front in this round.

Nintendo 3DS: 5 - 4 :Apple iPhone 4 Round 9: Design and coolness factor

It may sound flippant, but the test of whether or not you actually want to be seen with the device in your pocket is an increasingly important one.

As portable technology becomes more ubiquitous, the choice of gadget you use on the Tube becomes as important as the clothes you wear. If you're still sceptical, just think back to the original DS with its clunky fisher-price stylings, can you honestly say you didn't feel a little bit embarrassed pulling that out in public?

Fortunately, Nintendo realised its error pretty quickly and the slimline Lite and its successors, including the 3DS, are much slicker prospects, arguably taking their cue from the super-trendy design facets of leading gadget manufacturers like, for instance, Apple.

And that's the point. Whilst Nintendo may have followed the rounded plastic route that Apple pioneered with iPod, iMac, and early MacBooks, Jobs and Ives have moved on since then to even chicer, more metallic and expensive looking wares, like the MacBook Air, the iPad, and shortly the iPhone 4.

Whatever else you may think about the organisation, Apple is a design leader, which has succeeded in part because people want to be seen using its gear as much as they want to actual use it.

In other words, the 3DS has nothing to be ashamed of, but in the design stakes it's still a bit Primark against the iPhone's Prada.

Final Score
Nintendo 3DS: 5-5 :Apple iPhone

Verdict

So at the end of the day, Brian, we've ended in a dead heat with both systems scoring well in different areas. As a pure gaming console the 3DS edges into a lead, but in these ever more converged days where we demand multi-tasking, connection, and even social status from our gadgets, the iPhone fights back.

While Nintendo has made strong steps into the realm of multimedia with announcements of 3D movies, and the iPhone 4 has stepped up its game with a fancy new gyroscope and Game Center in iOS4, both are still sitting pretty in their own respective technological corners.

3DS is still a video games console at heart, but one that can pull off cool multimedia functionality. And the iPhone 4 is still very much a smartphone, but with some excellent games on the side.

Extra time needed!

Of course, one factor that we haven't dealt with above is availability. Whilst the 3DS might well be a better games machine it isn't one that you can actually get your hands on until this Xmas (at the earliest), whereas iPhone 4.0 is shipping on the 24th June (stock withstanding).

So if you're looking for the best portable games machine available right now then by default the title belongs to Apple's iPhone 4. The question is whether it'll still have the title this time next year.