Best smart phones

[Evan]

I know there was some discussion on a thread now missing i think....

Need a new phone, Best smart phone out there and why ?

- GPS with offline maps, worldwide (Europe, Asia, USA, Aust etc)
- Turn by Turn navigation nice to have
- Able to be a Modem for computer (have a data sim)
- Decent screen, web page viewing
- Bluetooth
- WLAN

Not worries if it does or does not have a qwerty keyboard.

HP messengers, HTC dream (andriod), HTS touch or similar, Blackberry, Nokia E series. Also happy with a PDA if it supports 3G data. (like Nokia 810)

Any thoughts welcome... I sort of like WM6 but i currently have a Nokia E-Series and thats also pretty good.

[munitalP]

hey Evan

I currently alternate between a HTC Dual and a Samsung Blackjack (blackberry look & feel) - I also have a iMate I no longer use

HTC

slide phone - standard telephone keypad - slower typing
Touch screen - comes with stylus
Windows mobile - can create new documents
No wireless connection
Bluetooth + all normal communication types
Excellent as a bluetooth modem for laptop
Even better as a wired modem for laptop (but cant make calls when modem in use)
Looks good, small and excellent battery life
Must remember to close down inactive programs on a regular basis
Whereis navigator
Easy phone navigation
Software crashes

Samsung

Small and light with full QWERTY keyboard
Windows mobile - this verson sucks - no document creation
No bluetooth, wireless
Modem capability when wired
Excellent camera quality
Whereis navigator
Excellent email features - I run a push account and a POP account
Excellent TXT features as well such as shows all previous TXT to that person
Pain in the butt navigation through phone
Software crashes - not as frequent as HTC though

If I could take the best features from the Samsung and plant them into the HTC, I would have a winner! Both phones push email and will accept more than one push accounts as well!

IMHO the HTC is the winner of the 3 smart phones I have.

Mr!

[Evan]

I forgot about samsung, they used to make some nice phone too.
I see Acer has a dual sim phone current out but no idea if they are any good.
This is a second phone and only to be used for some personal calls and data related things + navigation, i have another full time phone for talking... sure i would love to get down to one phone but i am not sure how, maybe i could get nav in my main phone and just use a usb modem but cant get emails easily when at work then which would be nice to have.

[Paddy55]

If you can wait until June/July then you might want to consider the next generation iPhone which should come out then

Ease of use, meaning mere mortals can actually use all this great functionality is a key strength, although poor battery life hinders the current model

Just an opinion

Paddy

[Evan]

Love the iPhone screen... no modem function in the new version either and not sure if it has GPS maps you can buy and store or just online, i want maps for when i am driving in other countries so i need to have offline maps if possible. WM has tomtom which is one of the better gps products our there.

[straitman]

Where can you get an iPhone at a reasonable price in Oz and use Telstra coverage

[Evan]

Where can you get an iPhone at a reasonable price in Oz and use Telstra coverage

Yes can get a cheap iPhone in Oz, but the issue is maps overseas, for examplei drive in Germany a few times a year and i would like to buy the offline maps for Germany to have when i am there.

[samh004]

Love the iPhone screen... no modem function in the new version either

It's rumoured to be in there (3.0), I remember hearing something about it, but it would depend on the carrier you're using I suppose.

Yes can get a cheap iPhone in Oz, but the issue is maps overseas, for examplei drive in Germany a few times a year and i would like to buy the offline maps for Germany to have when i am there.

I believe there are a few products in the app store, mainly for the US I think, but TomTom or Navman have yet to release a native program for the iPhone. I think there was an issue with how you could use the GPS... I do think it''s coming though, I'm just not sure when.

[Evan]

Modem was rumored but then it was officially not in v3.0 as said at macworld a month or so ago.
Seems take a long time for anything to be ported to the iPhone, but it is a nice useful thing i think for a lot of people, some people hate it some love it, but it does have a nice form factor and the nice large screen at makes it great for using the web etc.

[straitman]

The iPhone is currently available for floptus on a 2 year contract and $A49 cap if that's what you want. It would be OK for me but I need Telstra for coverage