I borrowed a friend's brand new HTC myTouch Pro (Android) and iPhone 3GS to conduct a small unscientific and purely subjective video recording comparison with a Flip Ultra (dedicated videocam) and Nokia N96 smartphone. All four brief videos were shot one after another in the space of a few minutes standing in the same spot outside (no windows) on the 6th floor of a building. I panned each camera in a similar path to get different distances and lighting conditions in a single video sweep. Each phone/camera was left with its default setting. The one exception is the Nokia N96. I forgot I had set it to stabilize video recordings. That is probably what caused the "rubbery" look in some frame sequences.

Flip Ultra, Nokia N96, iPhone 3GS, myTouch Pro

Quite frankly, the video recording quality of the iPhone 3GS, Flip Ultra and Nokia N96 are pretty close in my opinion. I should mention that the video looks much better when viewed without YouTube's additional compression. The myTouch Pro, on the other hand, produced video that can be best described as low-quality. It was the only device that produced a 3gp video file output. I had to translate it to MP4 before bringing it into iMovie to bring all the video segments together. But, believe me, this additional step did not degrade the myTouch Pro's video "quality".

If you listen to my running commentary, you'll probably agree that the myTouch Pro also produced the lowest audio recording quality of all four devices.

My subjective ranking of the four devices is:
1. Nokia N96
2. Flip Ultra
3. iPhone 3GS
4. myTouch Pro

I would be hard pressed to truly argue with anyone who re-arranges the top three rankings though.

I'm hoping to re-do this video comparison and add the HTC Touch Pro2 (Windows Mobile) to the mix and, ahem, remember to turn the iPhone 3GS to record in landscape orientation. Stay tuned.