State of the Smartphones, 10/09

[rhoenix]

Alright, I suppose we've enough tech nerds here to have this discussion.

I currently have a Blackberry Storm through Verizon, and I'm currently satisfied with it, it is still my first smartphone (let alone first Blackberry). So, I've been keeping my eye on things as they're developing, and here are some of the prominent alternatives for the smartphone market.

Blackberry Storm 2 - has improved hardware design than the original Storm (better-looking case that doesn't leak light, for one), but overall pretty much just an improvement over the original. 3.2MP camera, microSD slot for expansion, and uses the Blackberry Storm touch-OS...which has its quirks. Currently restricted to Verizon.

Palm Pre - this jumped into the scene with a bang, and rightly so. Currently restricted to Sprint, it is rumored to be coming to Verizon early next year. It runs WebOS, which will be running on all subsequent Palm smartphone devices, and as phone OS's go, it appears to compete nicely with Google's Android, as well as Apple's iPhone OS, and makes the Blackberry Storm touch-OS look more than a little ham-handed. On the other hand, this line is still in its early stages.

Motorola Droid - coming to Verizon soon as part of their "Droid" line of phones, this will have a swivel-out keyboard, a 5MP camera, and an excellent touchscreen running Android 2.0. This is rumored to be one of the beefiest phones coming out (in terms of memory, processor power and such; though the physical size would be about comparable to the iPhone or Blackberry Storm), which should be able to handle all the things a typical smartphone user would use, and do so with ease.

iPhone 3 - already out, and already reasonably well-known. Unlike other smartphone OS's, the iPhone's is not capable of multitasking, which was a huge turnoff for me. Otherwise, the lack of expandable memory and the inability to swap out the battery were the deal-closers for me on the iPhone, not to mention being locked into AT&T's network for the foreseeable future.

For me, the reason I got the smartphone to begin with was to fulfill the basic functions of a laptop (google maps, checking bank balances, email), as well as the typical functions of a cell phone. For that, my Storm has handled those things wonderfully, though I concede that there might be better - however, as the saying goes - "better" is the enemy of "good."

Please put in your thoughts about smartphones, your experiences with them, and what features attract you to them.

[B4UTRUST]

Well, I personally have been rocking a 'smartphone-lite' for the last year and change with the Blackberry Pearl.

The pearl is in itself a fully functioning smartphone as far as features go. However, due to its size, being the same size and design as your typical 'Candybar' its specs have been cut a bit. It's not as powerful as its slightly bigger brother the Curve. But I generally like it simply for its smaller size, as I've always been turned off by the ginormous PDA-style smart phones that seemed to be the norm. However, in terms of power and performance, it simply can't compete with the larger models. It's what I would call the smartphone lite or a stepping stone between your normal cellphones and your smartphones, an in between line of sorts.

[The Cleric]

Really depends on what you're looking for. You've touched on some of the top tier phones for each carrier, but there are ones like the HTC Hero/Desire, the Samsung Moment, BB Curves/Tour, and a rather large range of Nokia unlocked devices to choose from.

Droid is the hot item right now, but once it's out the Nokia N900 and new Blackberries will draw attention.

[rhoenix]

Really depends on what you're looking for. You've touched on some of the top tier phones for each carrier, but there are ones like the HTC Hero/Desire, the Samsung Moment, BB Curves/Tour, and a rather large range of Nokia unlocked devices to choose from.

Yes, I'm aware - I posted the ones that appeared to fit the smartphone requirements I listed. If there are others, as the ones you've mentioned, mention why you'd recommend that specific phone.

[The Cleric]

The first and foremost thing you should be going for is a service provider. Coverage and monthly cost, then finding which phone they carry meets your needs.
For simplicities sake I'll take JUST your requirements of "google maps, checking bank balances, email, as well as the typical functions of a cell phone" and run with that. I'm sure there are other little things you prefer/need, but those can be handled as they come up.

All carriers: Avoid Windows Mobile like the plague. It will give you more headaches than you ever want to have to deal with. Your preference between a physical keyboard and all touchscreen will direct your choices to a large degree, but generally have little impact on the features you outlined. I would also avoid the Pearl, unless you're familiar with the SureType text input, as it's a strange balance between T9 size and qwerty accuracy that takes some getting used to.

Verizon: Currently, their offerings of the Storm 1 and 2 (along with either the Curve or Tour) would perform well. The Storm 1 was panned by critics as being slow, buggy, lousy build quality, and a mediocre at best implementation of SurePress (the clickscreen), but it's sales numbers tend to soften that blow. If the phone did what the user wanted, it fit well, but many people bought it thinking it was something it was never intended to be (a Blackberry iPhone) and ended up very disappointed.
The new Android phone, which could be called the Sholes or Tao or Droid (although Droid looks like it could be referring to an entire line of Android handsets, rather than an individual model) looks very promising. Stable OS, open source, large tech following, fast, keyboard, expandable memory and removable battery... On paper it's everything you could ever want. The implementation remains to be seen though, as Motorola hasn't had a reputation for innovation or turning a profit in their cell phone division since the Razr.
Verizon is also getting their version of the Hero, which is an all touchscreen Android device with a custom overlay that incorporates multitouch and some very pretty elements that are on HTC's line of WinMo smart phones (Touch and TouchPro).
Rumors of the Palm Pre have been conformed/denied, but it seems inevitable that Verizon will have it sometime Q1 or early Q2 next year.

AT&T: iPhone.
They also carry the Curve and Bold, which is a slightly larger and more robust device that can be considered the BlackBerry flagship for right now. There is the new Bold (9700) coming out soon, that is a trackpad device with a slimmer profile and faster everything that should be a solid choice.
AT&T also has the advantage of being a GSM based carrier, which allows their phones to work overseas as well as having easily swappable SIM cards for moving between devices. Lack of coverage and very poor 3G speeds due to network load can be a major turnoff, but your area will vary.

Sprint: The Pre is their flagship device for now, but it's not without it's own issues. A shoddy early build quality, and raw 1.0 OS have made some skittish about the phone, but it's been a cautious success for Sprint. WebOS is pretty, and functional, and will be a strong contender with Android and the iPhone with a few more updates. The app store is developing rapidly, and if you're willing to do some computer legwork the homebrew community is exploding with apps already, nearly all free.
Aside from the BlackBerries (Curve and Tour), the HTC Hero is your other choice. It's worth mentioning that, although not a true smartphone, the Instinct HD DOES do all that you've mentioned. It doesn't do google maps, but since GPS is included in all Sprint's data plans, it's pretty much a push unless there was some specific functionality you were looking for from google maps.

T-Mobile: Aside from the ubiquitous BlackBerries, of which T-Mo carries the Curve line along with the 9700 soon, your options are limited to the G1 (original Android phone) which is showing it's age and limited hardware, and the MyTouch, which is similar to the Hero, but with weaker hardware and a stock Android experience.
T-Mo is also SIM based, but on a different and not very common frequency so if you're planning on using a phone from a different carrier make sure it supports T-Mo frequencies before you purchase it.

Unlocked: Buying an unlocked phone will allow you to use it on AT&T and possible T-Mobile, depending on the device in question. Nokia is big in this market, although Sony does have a few players. Nokia offers slab style phones (think BlackBerry), and side sliders (G1 or TouchPro). Since there is no subsidy, the phones are more expensive, but retain resale value longer and can be used without signing a contract.

[rhoenix]

Thank you for all the information, Cleric. Due to the OS5.0 update Blackberry pushed out for Verizon phones for my Storm, it's far less urgent for me to look into other phones at the moment.

However, simply seeing how the Blackberry OS, WebOS, Android, and iPhone OS are developing is very interesting so far. I've seen reports of Moblin (from Intel) migrating to the smartphone market, but haven't observed any examples yet.

So, let's change the topic of discussion - what do you think of the developing smartphone OS's, out of Blackberry, Android, WebOS, and iPhone?

[rhoenix]

The Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus are hitting Big Red on Monday, January 25th. Their biggest draw, apart from both phones now having WiFi and double the memory and storage space (and therefore no expandable memory) is an app to turn your device into a personal WiFi hotspot. No word yet on pricing, but that would be rather nice.

However, as I sit here with my 1st generation BB Storm, I'm not racing eagerly off to get another phone just yet, though I admit to being a little tempted.

Anyone else thinking about new phones recently?

[The Cleric]

Price for WiFi tethering is $40/month, which is $10 more than wired tethering and $20 cheaper than a standalone device, along with being a feature that can be added/removed at will.

The bump is RAM is apparently a huge deal, allowing FAR more cards to be open at a time. The OS still suffers from occasional lag, although I can imagine Palm might push an update to keep certain core apps (email, phone, text) open in the background at all times to keep them snappy. Or you can just do it yourself.

[rhoenix]

Price for WiFi tethering is $40/month, which is $10 more than wired tethering and $20 cheaper than a standalone device, along with being a feature that can be added/removed at will.

Interesting. So it appears that by paying $10 more than wired tethering, you can use your Pre to let you and your friends get online somewhere.

Ok, that's cool I guess, but I'd never use it. Thanks for explaining that.

The bump is RAM is apparently a huge deal, allowing FAR more cards to be open at a time. The OS still suffers from occasional lag, although I can imagine Palm might push an update to keep certain core apps (email, phone, text) open in the background at all times to keep them snappy. Or you can just do it yourself.

This aspect had me far more interested, as it would affect daily use of the phone itself.

Have you used the OS itself for a while? Can you compare and contrast it in basic use to Android or BB?

[The Cleric]

I had the Pre on Sprint for a few months. It's a slick OS, hampered by hardware (tiny keyboard and lack of RAM being painful). The OS is a little raw and laggy in core applications. I feel that the phone/email/text should launch like they were never closed. I would routinely hangup on calls I just made thinking I mishit the send key, only to have my second press hit the end right after. The multitasking it does is better than any phone on the market. Period. BB isn't close, WinMo isn't close, Android isn't anywhere near it, and iPhone's don't multitask anyway.

The Touchstone charger is badass as hell. Wireless charging is so nice; if they would only set up bluetooth/WiFi syncing it'd be perfect. I feel that the Synergy contact integration is a little too aggressive; if you add your FaceBook it adds EVERYONE you're friends with into your contact list. That can get cumbersome for a lot of people; I'd rather it just try and match up people you already have added.

As to specific differences between it and BB/Android, lets see. BB is old. It's functional for what it's supposed to do, which is emailed and corporate integration, but for the average user it's just bland and not interesting. Great keyboards, but they've JUST added threaded messaging. And the app selection is very low, with a large number of more business oriented stuff. Android is awesome, but suffering from a fragmented device base. You have to check if that awesome app is compatible with the version you're running, how it handles on your hardware, if it's better to have a dpad for it, screen size, etc. WebOS is still on 2 devices, which allows for tighter developer focus.

If I could have an iPhone with WebOS after a handful of specific bug fixes/feature changes, I'd jump at it in a heartbeat.

[rhoenix]

That's exactly what I wanted to know - thank you, Cleric.

[rhoenix]

Alright, for this grand experiment's conclusion.

I ended up getting a Palm Pre +, and I have no complaints whatsoever. Even after playing with iPhones, the new Blackberries, and even the Droid, the webOS-running Pre+ works intuitively, and simply - with no real need for frills or extra crap.

To my surprise, the most I've customized about this phone is the background wallpaper, and that's all. Everything works beautifully enough (for the most part, barring GPS stuff) that I don't feel the need or want to tinker with it to make it work better.

Due to a bug in the GPS though, for some reason it won't use the GPS in google Maps without having the VZ Navigator app running, even if its on the "Agree/cancel" screen. Slightly annoying, but it's slated to be fixed (along with the addition of Flash for the browser, and the capability of video recording added) with the next OS update sometime this month.

Overall, five stars out of five, with no reservation. This is an excellent phone and OS, and will only get better as it matures.

[B4UTRUST]

Alright, well to counter Windswept's review I offer up my own.

I obtained a Motorola Droid. And I have to say, I freaking love it. It's got everything the Jebus Phone has and it isn't restricted and tied to Apple's whims. The application market isn't as restricted, though granted it doesn't have a 10th of the apps that Apple does, but it also doesn't have the years of app and development time.

Despite rumors, the Droid does in fact support multi-touch functionality on its touch screen and is fully enabled as of firmware 2.1. And that's one of the things that I love so much about this phone. I'm free to modify it. I installed an unreleased updated firmware on it to improve its functionality and did it in about 10 minutes with no problems at all. The entire system is completely open to rooting and modifying it.

Now, enough of the fandrooling...

The screen is very responsive. It fully supports multi-touch and is very good with it. Its fully integrated with google apps and systems (of course) and does extremely well with them. Gmail and google maps are instant access as is Facebook for those who care about that.

As far as processor speed, RAM and multi-tasking, it does this extremely well. I've had over a dozen apps open with no signs of lag or hanging. These have included media playing, games and browsing as well as GPS nav.

The on screen keyboard is nice and functions adequately. By this I mean it lets me type. It's intuitive. I've never used a touchscreen phone before and I managed to pick it up in about 10-15 minutes no problem before I was truly comfortable with it.

The droid has a slide out keyboard and directional/touch pad. The keys feel a slight bit cramped but this isn't a huge impairment.

The camera is 5MP. It has auto-focus but prior to firmware 2.1 this didn't work as great as it should. The update to 2.1 has improved it a bit. To be honest, the update to 2.1 has improved quite a few things on the system, however 2.1 is still unreleased.

The phone is excellent in my opinion and has very few negatives vs a whole lot of positives. Newer firmwares will correct some of the other issues and this will be a truly great phone that I have little problem calling a strong iphone contender.