Latest in Smartphones: Fourth Quarter 2010

[Julio Franco]

Whether you are focused on business and productivity or are looking for something designed with multimedia and entertainment in mind, there are so many new smartphones getting released week in and week out that it's hard to keep track of what's hot anymore.

Read the complete guide:
https://www.techspot.com/guides/buying-smartphones/

Please leave your feedback here. Thanks!

 

[Leeky]

That was a nice read.

I've moved in the last couple of days from my iPhone 3GS, to a new HTC Desire, and I have to say I'm very impressed so far!

Though I made a grave error of judgment initially by getting a Blackberry 8520 - After not even 1hrs use it went black! Its shocking!

The HTC Desire seems to score very well in most reviews, and is as simple to use (and figure out!) as the iPhone is, without the annoying requirement of iTunes that you get with the iPhone - That alone put me off the iPhone.

So, the iPhone lasted 3 months before I got fed up with it; I'm also fairly certain I'll be just as happy with my HTC in 3 months time as well. It's fast, efficient, and has good battery life for a smartphone, even with wireless always on, as I never bother to turn it off.

I love Apple, but the iPhone ended up being everything I didn't want in a phone. Its overpriced, slow, drains battery like no tomorrow and the forced "i-Tunes" is pathetic. Glad I didn't bother getting the 4 now, I'd have been seriously wasting my money!

I don't know about everyone else, but I always find choosing a phone, and being happy with it really difficult. Maybe I expect too much, but there doesn't seem to be many phones these days that I like, or feel happy with.

 

[Guest]

LOL Nokia basically kicked everyone in the... yeah there! xD

 

[Burty117]

Strange, I hate using Macs and lots of other Apple related stuff such as the iPad and AppleTV yet the one item I do like and own because I do, is the iPhone3GS?

I mean, I don't really see many problems with it. I know Apple are *****s when it comes to dev teams and restrictions blah blah blah... but generally speaking since I have owned it (March this year) I love it and have friends on the same network as me (Orange in the UK) who own Blackberrys and HTC's but every time they all prefer my phone.

They just simply cannot afford it! again though my guy friends prefer my phone over their HTC's because of the games (Angry Birds FTW) and my lady friends prefer it to there blackberrys because its easyer and quicker to get onto facebook, twitter and the internet in general, not to mention that youtube seems to load quicker as well over both other makes? I don't know, Maybe Apple are paying Orange for extra bandwidth for their phones or something?

And yes, this all came about one night at the Pub and we did some serious testing with texting and viewing angles etc... Again my iPhone3GS seems to be the favorited one? Which is strange because I prefered my friends Samsung Galaxy S

 

[Burty117]

Also forgot to compliment Techspot! Well done on a good article, it was a nice read while on my lunch break

actually I proably should get back to work

 

[Archean]

It took just 1 hour for me to get tired of iphone, and since then I haven't bothered with it. I don't like Nokia's any of the current offerings (including the mentioned N8) but I'm really unsure about the argument that investing in 'dying' OS is not appealing. Because OS on a smartphone is relevant only to a certain point in time. Beside, you don't go and hop from one OS to another on it .......

 

[Leeky]

@Burty117
My iPhone 3GS is (or was) on Orange UK as well. One major thing that didn't help was the lack of signal in my area. Every carrier in the UK lists good to very good 3G signal for my post code, but in reality its just not as good as stated.

I was with t-mobile previously, and since it was out of contract I decided to move to Orange. I'm now back with t-mobile, after being given an offer to return that I couldn't refuse. Paying off Orange was a bummer though (I got a nice discount but 21 months remaining makes for a lot!)! lol.

That said, I couldn't be happier. I haven't decided what to do about the iPhone yet, as I could easily sell it and make quite a bit of money back, but who knows. I have a feeling this is one secondhand hand-me-down my wife won't complain about being offered! :haha:

As for me and the HTC Desire; I'd take one over an iPhone any day. The battery is lasting twice as long as the iPhone, the internet seems quicker, the whole phone is faster, smoother and I find using it much less frustrating.

Some things that really bugged me about the iPhone are:

* It absolutely takes forever to re-orientate, the HTC is instant. This is one feature I'm forever using > The iPhone seems to need to be held at a certain angle in order to understand your actions, whereas the HTC knows immediately and re-orientates accordingly.
* Having to log into itunes to change anything software related is a pain on the iPhone, as is the forced connection to itune to update the phone software.
* It is all too sluggish in use, things just don't seem to want to open in a hurry.
* The battery life isn't the best, OK its a smartphone, but it should be expected to last at least a day in proper use!
* The case scratches far too easily - It's almost like its designed that way?

The ironic thing is, most didn't become apparent until I directly compared it with the HTC. I thought all of the above was normal, but clearly it isn't if the HTC beats it hands down.

 

[Guest]

One correction:
AT&T's version of the Galaxy S, The Captivate, does not have any flash on it's camera.
That said, I've had the phone for almost 2 months now and have no complaints - not even about the battery life (I can pull 36 hours out of it, so long as I use an App Killer).
Actually, that's a lie. I do have one complaint: all the AT&T bloatware they've installed, but nothing that can't be removed after rooting it.

 

[Flannelwarrior]

This is a beautifully written guide, props Techspot!

I love my Motorola Droid 1, and still have 9 months til my next upgrade. We'll see what's out then :0 1.3Ghz CPU will be standard I imagine, along with 8MP camera and hopefully support for 64GB SD cards?!

 

[kazarm]

What about a guide for the phones with smaller screens - like 3.2" and 3.5"
For me a phone should easy to carry. A small screen is enough for social applications and calender.
If I wanted to browse the internet I would use a tablet.

 

[mpribe]

These look nice, but I will probably wait until the Windows 7 phone comes out to see how it stacks up before I make the jump from my vanilla blackberry

 

[Edward Catflap]

Very well written article.

It will be interesting to see how many of these handsets make it to Australia. I know some of the major carriers have plans for the N8, Galaxy S (that one's pushed quite heavily) and the HTC Desire, but I'd really be keen to get my hands on a Droid X. I'm a Motorola fanboy, I dunno why it's not bigger in Aus.

I wonder how big a splash Windows 7 Phone will make in the market. Microsoft have their work cut out for them, competing with Apple and Google - from what I hear, Microsoft's new OS hasn't got an "edge" over the competition...

All this makes me feel like my Dext (Cliq) is a bit outdated. Already. Sigh.

 

[Guest]

My brother works at a local electronics giant store. Every single day he tells me stories of people that come in after owning an iPhone for a week or 2 looking for a different phone. After demoing some of the features of the Android phones, people usually go for them. Everywhere you go people are sick of Apple. I would like to predict right now that there will be no iPhone 5. It is my opinion that Apple will fold in the near future because of all of the glitchy software, defective hardware loss of advertisers and lack of customer support or care. Either that or they will report that they "decided to go in another direction" to save face. Their business model and closed mentality only worked for a little while. Everyone say goodbye to Apple while you still can.

http://TechReview.LIEconomy.com

 

[DelJo63]

Those that are early adopters (ie: the first on their block to get the latest xyz device) there's a lot to be considered; Prices, features, access ...

Does anyone recall the video VHS vs Betamax history? Some technologies get left behind (eg: Betamax) not because of failures, but strictly on marketing and user commitment to the other product, and that can still take place even though the looser is/was a better technology.

Sometimes it pays to not be the pioneer leading the Westward movement - -
lots of pioneers were found lying face down on the prairie with arrows in their backs.

 

[ucould2]

kazarm said:
What about a guide for the phones with smaller screens - like 3.2" and 3.5"
For me a phone should easy to carry. A small screen is enough for social applications and calender.
If I wanted to browse the internet I would use a tablet.

I found the article for the popular smart phones very pleasing however they are all well out of my pocket-book size
Currently sharpening my teeth up on the purchase of a Garmin-Asus nuvii A50 seen here at egadget apparently the Breeze UI has been updated from 1.6(donut) to 2.1(éclair) just a few days ago!!