Soon to be getting a smartphone.
I’m finally ready to purchase a smartphone, but I have a lot of options to consider. A couple years ago the obvious choice was the iPhone, but for a number of reasons I have decided to never get an iPhone. That’s not to say that I’m rejecting the best possible option, arguably the iPhone was great when it initially launched, but the competition is better than ever.
So I’ve narrowed it down to several phones either available now or coming soon.
First, there’s the HTC Hero which runs on the Android OS. It’s an excellent device in a very clean, solid shell. It has a custom UI called the HTC Sense which enables multiple screens running widgets that give you a fully-customizable phone experience and quick access to all of the phone’s features. The phone features the robust Android Market with hundreds of applications to download. Finally, it’s built on an open platform backed by my favorite company, Google.
It’s definitely a formidable choice of smartphone, but it’s not without it’s flaws. In reviews it has been said that the interface tends to lag or feel choppy at some points, this is probably attributed to a few things: it’s a multitasking device so apps can run in the background taking up resources, software issues (that can be fixed in updates), and it has a slower processor than some of the competitors. While it has tons of applications, development from big name companies tends to be slow or non-existent. Most of the phone’s applications from from indie-developers. The app market is unrestricted so a good amount of the applications are crap.
The Palm Pre is a work of art. It’s a beautiful device that runs very smoothly, and is about to launch it’s own “App Catalog”. It has a full qwerty keyboard, a touchscreen, and touch sensitive gestures in the bottom portion of the screen. The biggest feature for the Pre is Palm’s new WebOS which is a multitasking OS that puts every application on “cards” that you can scroll through from the main screen. Cards can be maximized to full-screen to give you full access to all of it’s functions, but they will also continue to run when you zoom out.
In my opinion, it didn’t gain as much popularity as it deserved for what an elegant and fully-featured phone it is. Part of the problem is that it didn’t launch with Applications (current Pre owners have to hack their device to install applications). The iPhone was able to get away from this at launch, but app support is pretty much the most important feature for any smartphone. It has a lot of potential which will only be realized once we see more and more official apps gain entry into Palm’s catalog.
My last (but certainly not least) smartphone consideration is the new Blackberry Bold 9700 (formerly the Onyx). It has everything that every other blackberry offers, but features significant hardware upgrades that sets it apart from it’s siblings. It’s the first all-in-one classic Blackberry, and by that I mean it has 3G data speeds, Wifi, GPS, a nice camera, media playback, and blackberry’s new touchpad that replaces the trackball. To top all that off, it’s all encased in the smallest form-factor classic blackberry yet, in a clean slim shell. Of course, as far as software goes, it lives up to every pro and con of the Blackberry OS. It multi-tasks, no other phone can rival it’s messaging capabilities, addons integrate very well with the core system like Facebook and Google Voice, and it has great support from a lot of companies.
The Blackberry started out as a business-only phone, and it’s only recently that RIM have shifted focus to average consumers. They have added features to appeal to the non-business crowd, and it’s much better than it used to be, but it still has the feeling of a work-phone. Blackberry’s competitors’ phones just seem more fun, and just as capable.
So which one will it be then? I’m still not sure, but what it all comes down to is what I mainly want to use it for.
The Blackberry would be my best choice if I’m using it for email, chat, and other messaging service (twitter, facebook, this blog). It’s great for keeping in touch in the most possible ways, and I like how contacts can be linked to their online accounts once the apps are installed.
The Palm Pre is the most visually appealing for both hardware and software. It’s a sexy phone, and it looks like it’s very fun to use. It’s has a lot of functionality out of the box, and hopefully has the possibility for extended functionality in the future.
The Android is the most customizable and extensible. It’s the definitive computer geek phone, and it the most similar to a desktop computer than other smartphones.
