Iphone vs other smartphones

[PPRuNeUser0211]

I've got an upgrade/end of contract nearing and I'm a-thinking!

I've currently got an HTC Touch - reasonable phone, but a couple of bugs and a little on the slow side, and my previous two phones were from the 02 XDA range (also by HTC).

I'm after something that does browsing/email well and is 3g, preferably the 7.2mbit variety as I spend a fair bit of time in airports! But there's a few more points!

- Tethering would be nice (i.e. the ability to plug one's phone into one's laptop and steal the data connection for a more full web experience - not essential if the phone's browser is up to scratch and files are easily transferred to laptop)

- Bluetooth A2DP would be nice, have a couple of sets of bluetooth speakers kicking around (car and house) and it's v useful to be able to zap music to them (willing to consider an adaptor/dongle though!)

Anyhow, my leanings are either an Iphone 3g (but suspect the apparent lack of tethering and lack of a2dp would annoy!) or an HTC Touch HD. I've also heard tell of a couple of other WinMo based phones recently released that might be worth a look (I'm happy with the winMo experience, for all the bad press it gets, although having used an ipod touch for a while, I must say the Ipod/phone range certainly is a lot slicker!)

Thoughts?

[preduk]

iPhone is fantastic for email, and if your at airports a lot the WiFi bolt on you get is great because it connects to the cloud and BT Openzone (both usually added at Airports) HOWEVER it's not very good for any bluetooth device.

[Keef]

I went through the same series of questions a couple of months ago.

I ended up with an O2 XDA Ignito (aka HTC Touch Diamond, but in a less tatty-looking housing). It does everything it said it would.

I had to work out a few bits to get it to play Modem to the laptop, but I can now do that via Bluetooth or via the USB synch/charge cable.

It also runs Excel and a few other packages that the iPhone won't.

All in all - very happy with it.

There are a couple of threads in here on the subject.

[preduk]

Just to sort of add to Keef's post...

What sort of things will you be doing with the phone? I.e GPS, Internet Browsing, Youtube, Office Applications etc.

[PPRuNeUser0211]

GPS yep, would be nice, but as far as I can see pretty much all new smartphones have embedded gps with your choice of mapping software (google maps mostly, unless it's a nokia!)

Internet browsing, yep, lots!

Youtube/triv? Not likely tbh,

Office apps? Once in a while, excel is quite handy to have, but not vital I suspect,

[61 Lafite]

Blackberry Bold is pretty impressive.

Personally don't like the touch-screens - too fiddly.

Lafite

[SyllogismCheck]

The HTC is a tool. The iPhone is a toy.

[Nightrider]

iPhone is a NoNo if you need the phone to work with. It does internet and email well, typing requires,however, a very steady position as the touch screen keyboard is small.
It does not give any 'receive' message after sending SMS, has no ability of saving email attachements, difficult to transfer files 'on the fly', bluetooth only possible with Apple headset or car-set, no IR.
If not jailbroken, no video possible, no zooming with cam and hand-cuffed to the Apple store for apps and sounds; if jailbroken....no warranty anymore....
Nice gadget, but not for any office use.
Need to watch my security cams when away, how else can I find out what wife and dog are up to, the safari browser does not allow active-x, so not possible.
The new Blackberry is what I am looking at, considering this as next device.

[PPRuNeUser0211]

Any thoughts on the samsung omnia?

[dusk2dawn]

iPhone is a joke: Cannot retransmit a SMS.
Cannot recieve MMS
Cannot send MMS
Cannot use SMS-templates
Cannot save a single SMS without saving all SMS' from same contact
Cannot recieve business cards
Cannot send business cards
Cannot include phonenumbers, name or any other info from list of contacts in SMS
Can only import some of your contacts from sim-card (ex 16 of 350+ )
iPhone is a joke. Good looking and expensive but still a joke.

[preduk]

dusk2dawn,

The iPhone is far from a joke it's a fantastic phone for a particular market sadly it doesn't do everything but it also offers services that many other phones don't do.

MMS is a crappy, worthless, mince service that I hope all mobile phone providers get rid of over the next couple of years. The Image quality and size is crap and costs are too high. Whats the point in having an 8.1mpx camera (on some phones) if you can't send them in high quality to other people. You can recieve MMS you just can't store them you can access them through a portal.

Your correct, forwarding an SMS message is a feature I would like to see added.

Cannot save a single SMS without saving all SMS' from same contact

Personally... I really really like this feature, no searching for texts from other people you can see the full conversation so no complaints from me.

Cannot include phonenumbers, name or any other info from list of contacts in SMS

Thats because the SIM doesn't store this information and therefore you couldn't transfer these details from say a Nokia to a SE anyway.

Can only import some of your contacts from sim-card

Wrong. You can import them from the pc. 99% of phones on the market come with software to allow you to back up the contacts on the pc, you easily copy them over to googlemail/outlook/windows mail etc and it will sync them into the phone.

In terms of the Samsung, I've given up on the other makes for me it's Blackberry, XDA or the iPhone the rest are too far behind (and break all the time).

I personally, think the phone is amazing for only the second version and there will be much more to come.

[aidanf]

my 2 cents - I have an iPhone, and I'd never go back. I'm currently doing some work in Abu Dhabi and my clients got me a nokia on the local network ... couldn't believe how outdated the experience is!! I've heard lots of talk about how texting on the iPhone is a pain, but from someone with particularly chunky fingers I can assure you that it's still a gazillion times easier than most. If you surf the net a lot, then the browser is truly unbeatable. Their 'app' store is pure simplicity for adding games and tools (if you're a pilot you just have to check out xplane for the iPhone, it's ridiculously powerful, and the phone works as a yoke ... mind-blowing stuff). So now I have a phone which surfs the net in a really easy to use way, I have all the photos I've taken of my family from the last six years for those lonely nights in a hotel, I've got thousands of songs, videos, games, useful tools, etc., etc.

I know a lot of people think it's a toy - trust me, they're absolutely right. .... and it's one of the best toys you're ever going to have, and with some serious phone / web / email bits thrown in for good measure :ok:

[WG774]

Nokia E71 does everything you ask for. It's not perfect (GPS can be slow and keyboard can be fiddly). Camera isn't much better than Iphone (good outdoors - indoors, forget it). Email, Surfing and data handling in general is good. OS is pretty intuitive.

[Al R]

/\ what he said.

I got an E71 a few weeks back and I'm chuffed with it.

Nokia Europe - Nokia E71 - Products (http://europe.nokia.com/link?cid=PLAIN_TEXT_1053330)

Nokia E71 | Wired.com Product Reviews (http://www.wired.com/reviews/product/nokia_e71)

[PPRuNeUser0211]

Cheers guys, I'd say I'm leaning more towards a touchscreen rather than a 50/50 split keyboard/screen, just purely for screen size when browsing (my eyes aren't getting any younger!)

[dusk2dawn]

preduk, it saddens me to read that you agree 99%. I maintain that iPhone is a joke.

[Keef]

iPhone is OK if you want what it does, and as long as you don't use any of the up-market e-mail facilities (which don't work on iPhone). There's too much it won't do.

I've got TomTom 6 working on my XDA, and it's brilliant. I have a tiny phone, in my top pocket, that can navigate me across Europe, bleeps when there's a speed camera on the road (not that I'd be speeding, of course ;) ), does e-mail and browsing, is the internet access for my laptop, etc etc etc.

[PPRuNeUser0211]

So here we are a couple of months on, Touch HD acquired on upgrade from Orange (who seemed terribly keen not to lose me to the Iphone/O2 combo!) and I'm very satisfied. It's a great piece of kit all round, the size is a little large perhaps (but same as the iphone). Other than that, I heartily recommend it! Screen is fantastic btw

[jxc]

I took delivery of the iphone last week lasted 3 days before i sent it back some of the applications were great like i think aero weather but the google satnav is rubbish and if you are taking a call you cant then open the gps satnav to see if you are on track as it seems to only run one app at a time

So sticking to my nokia E90 at the moment might have a look at the new
sony ericcson X1

Cheers

[Chief Erwin]

I've had the HTC diamond for couple of months.
It gets slow, camera plays up, keeps trying to conect to internet, GPS is slow to initialize and gets particulary hot.
Wish the omnia was available when I was looking.
Iphone is really crap.

[Shunter]

With Apple it's a case of "you'll get what you're given and be happy with it". That's why there's such a rampant jailbreaking scene. Jailbreaking has many advantages and no disadvantages. A lot of the moans from dusk2dawn can be addressed with third party applications. For proper business use most people simply want Exchange/Calendaring and bluetooth to hook it into their car. SMS forwarding and all that crap is kiddie territory. Business cards have always been a farce as different phone vendors use different formats anyway.

Currently A2DP requires the use of a bluetooth dongle, but there is a third-party bluetooth stack being developed as we speak which should provide all the usual bluetooth profiles you might want.

I spent the weekend modifying and compiling OpenOffice Calc for iPhone, which needs a little further development, but does work.

So it's not all bad news, just depends on whether you're prepared to spend a bit of time getting it fine tuned. From a hardware and aesthetics perspective it destroys most other phones.

[FerrypilotDK]

dusk to dawn..I assume that your statement that the iPhone is a joke, comes from hours, days, weeks or months of dissatisfied usage? Or is it like the EU people that preferred the Russian satellite positioning system over the US GPS, because the specs were so much better. Of course, they lacked receivers, production facilities etc......

If the iPhone is a joke, then I will laugh for a long time. There are a couple small things I would change, but this will come. In the meantime, it is by far the best device I have had in my pocket. The SMS ferature of being able to follow a conversation for months back, is SUPER! All my photos, easily accessed, some great games, a full ipod, saves me taking out the laptop at airports....yeah, some joke!

Woohoo!

[PPRuNeUser0211]

Ferry,

I'm relatively neutral when it comes to fan-boyism, but I would like to point out that most of the features you just described are SOP on a number of modern smartphones, not least of which the Touch HD which I plumped for in the end.

Threaded SMS conversations - check
Photos, easily accessed and displayed in glorious resolution - check
Great games - I'll grant you that the iphone has some good ones, but there are a few good ones for winmobile if you can be bothered to pay for them. I can't because I'm tight... But sudoku, chess, the little ball maze thing and a couple of others do well enough to pass the time when I'm a bit bored
Ipod in a phone - check (although a little digging is required to find software as good as the ipod stuff on the iphone, the stuff out of the box was good for small collections of music, but perhaps had not been designed with a 16gb memory card in mind!)

ChiefE - Google for XDA developers forum, have a look at the Diamond section in the forums and see if anyone has a solution for you, there are numerous upgrades (official and otherwise) kicking around that you may or may not know about. One disadvantage against some non-iphone devices, harder to get hold of updates (but at least we don't have to use Itunes!)

[call100]

Not being a Mac/Apple fan boy, I put off getting the IPhone for a long time. Completely missed the first version.
Now that I have one, I can only say I'm glad I didn't choose one of the others out there.
A lot of people I know are having problems with their winmobile phones. (Not all granted) and wish they had gone for the Iphone instead. Of those with the IPhone, well none seem to regret the decision.
The longer I have it and the more Apps I discover a use for the more amazed I am by it.
Horses for courses I suppose. It ticks all the boxes for me.....and I haven't even done a jailbreak..... yet.....:):ok: