Both Nokia and Samsung have shown their dedication to touchscreen with their flagship devices, the Samsung Wave and Nokia N8.

The Samsung Wave was Samsung's first device to run on Bada and we were impressed with the attempt.

The Nokia N8 was Nokia's first foray into Symbian^3 and it too, seemed pretty good at first glance.

How to these two debut device compare, though?

Camera

The Nokia N8's star feature is most certainly its 12-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens. The photos it produces are magnificent and with a Xenon flash, it doesn't matter whether the conditions are dark or light, the metering will still be spot on.

The Samsung Wave's camera can't be ignored though. Although it's noticeably lower resolution at 5-megapixels, but it still produces pretty good results. the LED flash does a good job at lighting dark, indoor shots, but it doesn't replace the power of the Xenon.

Winner: Nokia N8

OS and UI

The Nokia is the first device to be released on Symbian^3 and it's not a bad start. It looks more like an Android device than previous Nokia touchscreen devices, and it's good to see the company modernising. There's a choice of three homescreens that you can style up with your favourite widgets, shortcuts and contacts. the tiles are live, so dynamically update, and the preinstalled apps including Social are really easy to use.

Samsung's Bada operating system may be pretty new, but it's a decent enough OS for a smartphone beginner. It may not feel as finished as Symbian, but it's still a true touchscreen platform with an easy to use UI. Built in apps aren't as impressive on the Wave in comparison to the Nokia N8, and that includes Twitter, Gmail and Facebook.

Winner: Nokia N8

Apps

Nokia's Ovi Store is a universal store for all Nokia devices. Although at the time of writing there were far more applications available for older versions of Symbian operating systems. most notable S60, the number of apps available is certainly on the rise. The quality of the apps may not be as high as those on the iPhone or Android, but again, as more developers become accustomed to developing for Symbian^3, the quality of the apps will rise.

Samsung's app store is also pretty behind in comparison to Android, RIM and iPhone. There's little on there at the moment, and as Samsung concentrates cross-platform with Windows Phone 7 to think about now too, it's questionable whether the apps offering will take off.

Winner: Nokia N8

Screen

The Nokia N8's screen is a respectable 360x640 pixel, 3.5-inch number. With 16 million colours, it's vibrant and pretty crisp.

However, the Samsung Wave's best feature is its screen. It was the first Samsung device to include Samsung's Super AMOLED screen that is quite simply stunning. At 480x800 pixels, it's also much crisper than the Nokia N8's screen.

Winner: Samsung Wave

Verdict

The Samsung Wave and Nokia N8 are both top performing smartphones.

However, it's clear Symbian^3 needs a bit of a facelift to make it fresher. The screen isn't as stunning as the Samsung Wave's, so maybe that's the one area of technology Nokia should invest in. If the Finnish manufacturer included its Clear Black Display, the N8 would knock the Wave down completely.

Overall winner: Nokia N8