Head2Head – PhotoNova+PhotoWings vs. PhotoRite SP vs. Nokia Image Editor

I had written this post a couple of weeks ago and thought I posted it, turns out I didn't, so here it is, a couple of weeks late, but still as good.

When it comes to editing pictures on your phone, on-the-go, you usually expect a fast, simple solution, that is well integrated with your photo gallery, but that also allows the basic modifications. No need to go professional on the phone, right?
Right now, 3 solutions have hit the s60 3rd platform: first one was Nokia’s original Image Editor, second was Zensis’ PhotoRite SP, and just recently Sunios’ PhotoNova and PhotoWings.

Head2Head

	Nokia Image Editor	PhotoRite SP	PhotoNova + PhotoWings
Image adjusting
Adjusting Brightness	Yes	No	Yes
Adjusting Contrast	Yes	No	Yes
Adjusting Sharpness	Yes	No	No
Auto Adjusting	No	Yes	Yes
Image Color Editing
Black&White	Yes	Yes	Yes
Sepia	Yes	Yes	Yes
Any color tone	No	No	Yes
Negative	Yes	No	No
Image Effects
Emboss	No	No	Yes
Stamp	No	No	Yes
PhotoCopy	No	No	Yes
Sketch	No	No	Yes
Watercolor	No	No	Yes
Cartoonise	Yes: one preinstalled effect	No	Yes: preinstalled effects with degrees to each one. Custom-made effects can be added
Softlens	No	Yes	No
Magic Mirror	No	Yes	No
Slim up / Blow up	No	Yes	No
Red-eye reduction	Yes	No	No
Image add-ons
Frames and borders	Yes, only built-in photo frames	Yes (photo frames that are borders)	Yes, borders colors can be chosen too
Easy frame shifting on the same picture	Yes	Yes	Yes
Inserting faces in another picture	No	Yes (photo frames that are people’s pictures)	Yes, automatic detection of the face
Clip-art	Yes	No	No
Text	Yes	No	No
Editing Options
Rotate image	Yes	No	No
Crop image	Yes	No	No
Image size modification	Yes	Yes	No
Undo	Yes	Yes	No, since every effect has to be saved before applying another one
Allows multiple modifications before saving	Yes	Yes	No
Viewing
Fullscreen	Yes	Yes	Yes
Rotate	Yes	Yes	Automatic rotation of images only when in fullscreen
Easy switching between images	No, only the image selected to be edited is open	Yes	Yes
Integration with built-in image gallery shortcuts	Yes	No	No
Zoom	Yes	Yes	No
Slide Show	No	Yes	No
Menu and others
Number of images in menu	No menu, phone’s gallery is used to choose a picture	9	9
Editing Shortcuts	No	Yes	No
Editing of pictures before taking them	No	Yes	No
Set as wallpaper	Yes*	No	Yes
Send via bluetooth	Yes*	Yes	No
Send via multimedia	Yes*	Yes	Yes
Send via email	Yes*	No	Yes
Deleting pictures	Yes*	Yes	Yes
Saves the edited image as a new one	Yes, original image can not be overwritten	Yes, but original image can be overwritten if chosen	Yes, original image can not be overwritten
View image details	Yes*	Yes	Yes
Support for real folders	No	Yes	No, all images inside the Gallery are shown
Price	Free	$	Free

In Words
Nokia Image Editor offers a very well integrated solution, not too sophisticated, but simple and easy to use, from the first time. It is based on the image gallery, hence no main menu is used, since the basic menu operations can be performed from within the phone’s gallery (that’s why the “Yes” in the table has a * next to it). It also offers clip-arts and text adding, which combined can be used for writing captions. It is the only one amongst all 3 to offer image cropping and red-eye reduction. Yet, the lack of effects and customization (borders and frames can not be added) and the impossibility to insert faces in another picture are quite frustrating.
Zensis’ PhotoRite SP offers more effects : the slim-up and blow-up options are quite hilarious when they work out well. It also supports shortcuts, allows overwriting of original image, image size modification, can modify a picture from the camera, before taking it. That last option is most useful for frames, when you want to insert the face of the person in the right place of the image frame. Plus, custom-made frames can be added. Still, PhotoRite lacks adjusting options, and using frames for an already taken image can be quite challenging, if the face is not in the exact right spot, it’s basically impossible to obtain a decent image. Plus it is not free!
Sunios’ PhotoNova+PhotoWings offer simply the most complete list of editing options, whether it’s adjusting, color changing, frames and borders, effects… Most effects can be customized to different degrees or looks, which makes the editing possibilities endless. The cartoonize option is funny, but the blockbuster must be the automatic face detection option, which makes it a blast to edit taken pictures. Yes, it doesn’t allow editing of a picture before taking it, but that is completely arranged by the automatic face detection. It does a decent job at putting the face in the right place and in the right angle, but you can still move it a bit if it’s not 100% what you want, plus it changes the face’s colors to suit the frame’s ones. That’s awesome! What you get is a final picture and it’s hard to say whether it’s been edited or not. Yet, it lacks some basic effects like image rotation, cropping, text adding and clip-arts => proof that nothing is perfect in this world.

Judgment
Nokia’s Image Editor: 8/10
PhotoRite: 8/10 (would’ve gotten more if it was free)
PhotoNova + PhotoWings: 9/10

Conclusion
It’s hard to say which one of these 3 I would chose if I had to pick one. The fact that both Nokia’s Image Editor and PhotoWings+PhotoNova are free makes them both a must-have and an easy-to-have.
On my phone, you’ll find all 3 applications because I like to play pranks with pictures and, well, sometimes I need to insert a caption, sometimes a frame, sometimes a blow-up will do ;)