Ever since the introduction of the iPhone, we've said that it is a niche product. The iPhone 3GS strengthens that niche idea, but we think especially Nokia (check out the Nokia N900 here), Sony Ericsson and LG might be working on concepts that would give Apple some serious competition in the battle for consumers in the future. There's of course the rest of the crowd too, but they seem to be busy cranking out phones where the high-end consumer appeal might not be the strongest. Anyway, if you fit into the iPhone category, there's plenty to enjoy for consumers right now. For the rest of you, there are all of a sudden a lot more well-performing options on the market now than only a couple of months ago:
If you're already in love with your iPhone and you have a few hundred bucks to spend, the Apple iPhone 3GS is a no-brainer. The performance gains are huge, especially in complicated apps like games and the Web browser. The iPhone was already a leader in multimedia features and Web browsing, and the library of apps was the most diverse and impressive among all the major smartphone systems, so it's nice that the new performance boost only made all of this good stuff even better. If you were on the fence before, though, the new features might not be enough to push you over the edge. Only a user who had been suffering with the iPhone will appreciate the video recording and voice dialing apps, as these are present on most other smartphones, and many other simpler devices. With the Apple iPhone 3GS, Apple seems to be shoring up its borders, and not branching out into new spaces. Popular business features like e-mail and productivity apps have been left behind, or left to third parties, while there seems to be no relief in sight for users who want more buttons or, gasp, an actual keyboard. Still, there's no denying the appeal of the iPhone, and if you thought the older model was the best, with the Apple iPhone 3GS, the best just got even better.
The Palm Pre is a very good phone, and an exciting addition to the smartphone world. We enjoyed our time with the phone, and would have no trouble recommending the phone. But to who would we recommend it? iPhone users might be put off by the less intuitive interface, which would be a shame because they would miss the snappy feel of the e-mail and address book apps. BlackBerry fans might gripe about the smaller QWERTY with those grippy keys. That would be too bad, because the Palm Pre does all the great consolidation of e-mail, contacts and messaging that BlackBerry users take for granted, but extends these to social networking and Internet search, as well. So, here's how to know if you should buy the Pre. Do you use Gmail, Exchange and a variety of e-mail and scheduling services? Do you text, twitter, Google Chat and send messages over Facebook? Do you have dozens of duplicate phone book entries that need some organization? If so, the Palm Pre is an impressive way to bring a lot of disparate services together in an organized, intelligent way, and it might be the smartphone for you.
When the HTC Touch Pro2 hit the scene, it instantly became the best business smartphone on T-Mobile's lineup, and one of the best business smartphones you can buy. For the hefty starting price, it better be (for our analysis of the real cost of owning a smartphone, click here). But the HTC Touch Pro2 on T-Mobile proves its worth with solid hardware, including our favorite QWERTY keyboard and advanced features all around. The phone excels at calling in ways that business users will certainly appreciate. It will help you make great-sounding calls, with easy conference calling and a best-in-class speakerphone. Even better, it will help organize the information you need to access quickly during that important call. It's not a fun phone, though it is packed with multimedia and fun features. But it lacks the customization options of a Google Android phone like the T-Mobile myTouch 3G, the social network synergy of the Palm Pre or the multimedia prowess of the Apple iPhone 3GS. Still, it trumps those devices with superlative call management as well as better scheduling and productivity features, and it's still easy going enough to play music and videos or casually surf the Web. In other words, the HTC Touch Pro2 takes the best of Window Mobile and hides the rest behind a snazzy and responsive interface that keeps things professional.
T-Mobile's big Android launch will draw mixed emotions. If you've been waiting for an Android phone whose outer design is as cool as the user interface, the T-Mobile myTouch 3G is certainly a more polished and appealing looking phone than its predecessor, the T-Mobile G1. However, cool looks don't necessarily mean improvement, and if the exterior could use some tweaking, the onscreen keyboard needs a real overhaul. Ultimately, the T-Mobile myTouch 3G might let down multimedia fans with its poor media software and lack of necessary hardware, like a headphone jack or camera shutter button. Messaging fans will certainly lament the lack of a hardware keyboard. Though Android is still a smart competitor to other touchscreen operating systems, the T-Mobile myTouch 3G lacks the wealth of apps and advanced capabilities of the Apple iPhone 3GS, and it isn't quite as intelligent or business savvy as the Palm Pre's WebOS. Digging through the Google Market will reveal some hidden treasures that go a long way to improve the interface and basic features on the phone, but we wish some of these apps were simply bundled on the device, and a few features, like corporate contacts sync or video playback, still have no first-class options for the Android platform. The T-Mobile myTouch 3G is a stylish sign of things to come, but we're already waiting for what's next.
The Nokia N97 wouldn't be such a disappointing device if it weren't supposed to be the flagship multimedia smartphone for the largest handset manufacturer in the world. It has some great specs, including that impressive 32GB of storage (expandable to 48GB), a solid, smart design, and hefty battery power. However, the touchscreen interface seems more like a few touch controls laid atop a standard Symbian S60 interface. When the Nokia N97 gets things right, they are right indeed. We thought the build quality, especially the hinge mechanism, was superlative, and most of the external design was spot-on. The keyboard was cozy, even with its unique layout, and our biggest problem was the lack of onboard apps to support the messaging features. In the end, we'd recommend a Nokia Eseries for serious messaging and business users, and a Nokia N85 for camera and multimedia enthusiasts. For true touchscreen fans, we'd look somewhere else.
The LG enV Touch is certainly a superior device compared to the LG Voyager, even though the new phone lacks V Cast Mobile TV. Instead, the enV Touch gets 2 high-resolution displays (hint: one's still better than the other), a slew of multimedia and messaging features, and enough power to show off those big displays with fancy video playback and Web browsing with Flash Lite. We'd have liked to see some new ideas from Verizon Wireless for this phone to give it advanced access to the online social networking services that are most popular with this phone's potential audience. Still, if you're looking for something different, a solid phone all around with a great screen (or two), the LG enV Touch gets the job done nicely.
The Samsung Solstice, like the Samsung Highlight on T-Mobile, skips out on some advanced smartphone features like Wi-Fi and a high-megapixel camera and tries to keep things simple. In some ways, this works nicely. The phone did a great job making calls, with some cool address book and in-call interface designs. It's also the first AT&T phone we've tried that can use the new AT&T Social Net app, which let us keep tabs on our Facebook, MySpace and Twitter updates all at once, albeit rather slowly. For the most part we liked the hardware. The screen was colorful and bright, and streaming videos from AT&T's Cellular Video service looked surprisingly good. We were disappointed that so many features were just plain mediocre, like the Web browser, the 2-megapixel camera and the rest of the messaging apps. Regardless, buyers looking for a simpler, smaller device will find a healthy, though not very exciting, feature phone in the Solstice.
The Samsung Highlight is an interesting alternative to the Samsung Behold, and we think it will have more appeal for a younger audience looking for a cool phone without the advanced camera features and chunky design of the former phone. We like the slim, Icy blue shell, and we even had a good time with the responsive, vibrant touchscreen, even though the TouchWiz interface got messy when we started dragging out too many widgets. The phone isn't great at any one feature, but it is pretty good at almost all of them, with a friendly, capable music player and a Web browser that was better than most basic feature phones. The key for this phone will be if T-Mobile can offer it for a bargain basement price, which isn't the case at launch, so we're hoping the price will drop rapidly into the $50 range. It needs to be affordable for teens and even tweens, who will definitely be the target audience for this cool looking, though underpowered, little tablet phone.
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