Which smartphone should you buy?

September 10th, 2009

By Birge Basik

HTC Hero With so many smartphone launches coming up, it can be really confusing to choose which smartphone to buy.

HTC, Blackberry, Apple, Nokia, Samsung, and other smartphone manufacturers have launched many new models recently. Here I have prepared a short guide to help ease the confusion.

First of all, we have to clear up the question, “What is a smartphone?”

Wikipedia explains as follows: A smartphone is a mobile phone offering advanced capabilities, often with PC-like functionality (PC-mobile handset convergence). There is no industry standard definition of a smartphone. For some, a smartphone is a phone that runs complete operating system software providing a standardized interface and platform for application developers. For others, a smartphone is simply a phone with advanced features like e-mail, Internet and e-book reader capabilities, and/or a built-in full keyboard or external USB keyboard and VGA connector. In other words, it is a miniature computer that has phone capability.

Growth in demand for advanced mobile devices boasting powerful processors, abundant memory, large screens and open operating systems has outpaced the rest of the mobile phone market for several years.

Well, I guess all of us already know about iPhone and Blackberry. They are popular examples of smart phones. Some of the latest smartphone launches are Apple iPhone 3GS, Palm Pre, HTC Snap, Samsung Exclaim, Motorola Rival, HTC Touch Pro2, LG LX370 and the Nokia N97.

Before continuing, you have to answer a question: “Do I really need a smartphone?”

Do you have to keep in contact with many people?
Do you have trouble staying organized and need to keep a better schedule?
Do you want to carry fewer devices in your pocket? A smartphone can be an mp3 player, a gaming console, a calculator and a camera at the same time.
Do you need access to specific applications? You can create Word documents, e-mails, and access GPS data and do many other cool things.

If you’ve decided that a smarphone is definately for you, here are some tips to help narrow down your choices.

If you’re a business person, your primary need may be to stay in touch with your staff. You definitely need quick access to business applications, like MS Word or PowerPoint and your emails, Web access, GPS and Wi-Fi. If that’s the case, be sure that your selection covers all of these applications and support Exchange Email services. HTC and Blackberry will probably satisfy your needs.
If you need more text messaging having powerful media and graphics I’ll suggest you to look at Nokia N series, HTC Touch and iPhone 3Gs.
Choose your operating system wisely though, since the OS determines the functionality of your phone. There are several operating systems on the market. Symbian OS (Symbian Ltd.) has the biggest market share; BenQ, LG, Motorola, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson curently use it. Other operating systems include: Palm OS, found on the Palm Centro and Trēo or Web OS on the Palm Prē, iPhone OS (Apple Inc.) for the iPhone, the RIM BlackBerry operating system and Windows Mobile from Microsoft.
Windows Mobile smartphones integrate smoothly with most Microsoft business applications like MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint via Microsoft Exchange. And there are a lot of third-party applications available to choose from.
Consider ergonomics and decide whether you want a phone with a QWERTY keyboard or a number pad for text messaging and other applications or maybe you prefer touch screen?

Some other main features to consider: