The iPhone packs a groundbreaking collection of features, many of which we think will have a lasting impact on cell phones to come (read our full story here). However, some of the iPhone's best feature are already here, on handsets that are available right now. Here's a collection of some of the best aspects of Apple's iPhone, along with some current phones that have similar functions.
1. Touch-sensitive controls
What the iPhone has: The iPhone has a 3.5-inch touch-sensitive screen that lets you use two fingers to navigate every function on the phone. It only uses one button, a home key that returns you to the main screen.
What other phones have: Besides the obvious touch-screen Windows Mobile Pocket PC phones, there have been a few keyboard-less touch-screen phones to emerge in the past few months. Most notable is the
LG KE850 -- the Prada phone -- with its slick interface and dominating screen. It could practically be the iPhone's European cousin, and will probably beat the Apple phone to market, with a late February release in Europe. However, its €600 (approximately US$775) price tag makes the $500-600 iPhone look like a bargain -- a rare feat. Samsung's
SGH-E890 uses a touch-screen to navigate Samsung's pretty menu interface and to dial calls. Finally,
Pharos's GPS Phone 600 forgoes a keyboard, with mixed results, to mimic a more traditional car-based GPS device.
2. Television and movies on a phone
What the iPhone has: iTunes will synchronize your movie and TV show purchases with the iPhone. This means that any non-protected MPEG4 or H.264 video, already supported by iTunes, should sync to the iPhone.
What other phones have: Almost as exciting as watching movies from iTunes on your phone is the idea of playing DivX videos, as the Samsung Ultra Video phone will be capable of doing. To be honest, we, er, know a guy who has more DivX movies than any other format, and the movies look sparkling clean on the swiveling handset's screen. True multicasting mobile TV from is finally making its way to the U.S. via Verizon Wireless, supported by
Samsung's SCH-U620 and
LG's VX9400, both of which offer live broadcasting that you won't have to download. Finally, Sprint's Power Vision network has been offering full movies over the air since September, and in our tests using the Spring
SPH-M610, the choice of movie titles was interesting and, though the picture was small, the quality was generally fine.
3. Decent web browsing on a phone
What the iPhone has: Safari, the same browser found on Apple's Macintosh computers, which renders full pages accurately and supports one-tap zooming and a thumbnail history of previously saved pages. JavaScript will be supported, but no word yet on AJAX support for sites like YouTube.
What other phones have: The Picsel web browser found on
Samsung's IP-830w is a powerful browser that can also be zoomed with simple finger gestures. In our tests, complicated pages like The New York Times homepage loaded completely, and scrolling the long page was smooth. Nokia's browser on the
E62 keeps thumbnails of previously visited pages in memory, just like Apple's mobile version of Safari. It also includes a navigator box to show you where on the page you are looking, a feature that even Apple's iPhone browser lacks.
4. Google Maps for Mobile
What the iPhone has: Google Maps for Mobile phones comes preloaded with maps, satellite images, directions and a local business locator.
What other phones have: Though there were some flourishes in Steve Jobs' demonstration of Google Maps on the iPhone (the pins flying in from off-screen), Google Maps for Mobile is already available for Java-enabled phones,
Palm OS phones and recent
Blackberry devices.
Meanwhile, Helio's Drift pairs Google Maps with GPS as a workable, though not optimal, navigation tool. Helio's Buddy Beacon service also pairs GPS with MapQuest maps, which look just as good as Google's Maps. On our
Treo 700p, we use Google Maps, with full satellite imagery support, for directions and finding local businesses, just like Steve Jobs demonstrated on the iPhone.
5. Music features
What the iPhone has: iTunes synchronization, just like on your iPod. Without a clickwheel, the iPhone will have finger-scrolling lists, and the popular Cover Flow feature found in iTunes, which displays cover artwork in an animated 3-D fan that let's you browse through your albums. The iPhone also accepts standard headphones in its 3.5mm port.
What other phones have: Music on mobile phones has come a long way since Motorola first bundled iTunes with it's
MOTOROKR. Now, even the RAZR gets the iTunes treatment with the
RAZR V3i, but if iTunes isn't your thing, you have even more choices. Cingular Music, which basically allows you to port your Napster or Yahoo music onto your phone, works with the
Samsung SGH-A707 (also known as the Cingular SYNC
) and the
Samsung BlackJack. Even if you don't subscribe to Napster or Yahoo Music, every Windows Mobile-enabled phone will synchronize your Windows Media tracks in Windows Media Player with your phone. If Windows isn't your thing, Nokia, with its XpressMusic phones like the
Nokia 5300, and Sony Ericsson's Walkman phones, like the
W810, do a stand-up job handling music. Most of these include either a 3.5mm headphone port to use your own set of cans, and some, like the SYNC, include A2DP stereo Bluetooth capabilities, a feature for which Apple has yet to announce support.
Related phones: Phones with iPhone-like features
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Helio Drift
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Score: 60% When: November 2006 Worth: $225 Carrier: Helio
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