"Smart phones"

[streak_56]

My cell phone bills are $120-$180 a month and I'm looking to get a smart phone purely because it will be so much cheaper in the long run. I need help choosing one because I am incredibly indecisive about spending my money.

Talking to a few people, from work, they recommended the Blackberry. Not too sure how awesome it is but my Fiance has one and it isn't too fun to play with.

I have an iTouch, I bought it thinking I could get an iPhone in the future and this is my "baby steps" to getting one. I like it and I think I'm a little weird with it because I've only really downloaded 4 apps onto it, compared to one friend I have that has over 75 apps. And I'm a little apprehensive because of the issues the iPhone 4 has had.

Now, a guy I did a job for, has the "top of the line" HTC and compared it to his iPhone and it has a bigger screen and the video he played for me looked amazing. He also recommended that Samsung came out with a Smart phone that is supposed to blow all the other smart phones out of the water.

I need help, basically my needs are something that I can play around with while I'm bored as hell at work, something that'll cut down on my bill because I can e-mail, BBM... etc other people at work to cut down on the calls. I also want to have something unique that not everyone has, although I do like the different outershell an iPhone can have. I need something tough because I'm an electrician and it needs to survive being on the worksite. I need something with alot of memory because I like having music/video around for long road trips/vacation/family fun time.

So if anyone can point me in the right direction, make some suggestions or basically kick my frugal ass into getting something that'll work for me... that'll be greatly appreciated.

[SecretMethod70]

It's all a matter of personal preference. I'm a big fan of Android phones, and the Samsung Galaxy S models are a good option there. (Depending on the carrier you go with, they have different names. If you mention what carrier you're on I can tell you what that carrier's model name is, or just look for the Samsung Android phone with a 4" screen.) I'm using the HTC Evo 4G on Sprint which I like quite a bit, and Verizon has the Droid X and HTC Incredible which are both good. Android phones do tend to have smaller internal memory capabilities, but they have SD card slots so the memory is expandable.

iPhone 4 is a decent device, though a bit simplistic in my opinion. It's also definitely not tough and will reportedly break easily. You're generally used to the OS, though, so there wouldn't be much of a learning curve.

I'm less familiar with BlackBerries because each time I look at one it doesn't take long for me to decide some other phone is a better option. That said, take a look and maybe you'll like it. They can be pretty tough phones, which might fit well with your needs.

[Shadowex3]

Picking a smartphone needs a couple decisions. I'd advise you on carrier as well but calgary is in canada iirc so we're talking strictly phones.

Now the world is split in two on smartphones basically on whether or not you want an iphone. Supporters will go on about it's touch screen, apple, the app market, and trendyness and decriers will go on about oppenness, big brother death grips on what you can install and when, walled gardens, and apple's "famous" parts quality. Both sides usually wind up insulting each other. Since I'm firmly a mac hater I'm not even going to pretend I can discuss an iphone fairly so I wont bother trying.

That leaves blackberries and droids. Blackberries were originally designed for businesses. They handle email incredibly well andtend to be quite robust: i've dropped mine onto cement and tile quite a few times. It pops open and the battery flies out but it's undamaged except for the paint. There are a lot of apps for them, and RIM just started running their "app world" but the consumer apps really arent as good as the more "professional" ones. Blackberries also tend to be a little less good in areas other than what you'd expect a CEO or Secretary to be doing, but again that stems from them being designed originally (and still) for business use.

Droid phones differ widely except for all being reasonably sized touch screens. Some have QWERTY as well (like the Samsung Moment I'm planning to get), others don't. Google supports them quite well, its up to your carrier to decide whether to keep compiling and pushing OS updates. There are apps easily rivalling apple in quantity only the difference is that a droid is basically after the spirit of linux to mac's traditional approach. It will try not to hold you back... but also that includes hurting yourself. You CAN screw up a droid phone by running a billion things at once, or installing whatever you want whenever you want however poorly it's been coded. The bright sides are that they are incredibly customisable, integrate very well with google's stuff, and will basically let you do whatever you want whenever you want. They're basically an "open" competitor to the iphone, designed for consumer use and with trendiness in mind.

TLDR flowchart: Do you want a touchscreen, do you want apps/sms/video or email, do you want business or consumer apps, do you need a phone designed so even an idiot CEO can't break it (physically or otherwise), and do you want an open semi or closed system?

[streak_56]

I do like a touchscreen which right now puts blackberry doesn't have anything decent out. I don't really know many people that use Andriod phones, so a little more info on those would help. The people I know that are in the trades that have an iPhone, have a rediculously huge outer shell for it to prevent it from cracking the screen. My current phone is the LG Voyager, and my carrier is Telus. I like my phone now because it has a decent memory space, the camera is amazing on it, the pictures it takes are better than my fiances camera and it has a touchscreen and qwerty keyboard. But I also have a mini SD card for this phone to get better memory.

[Shadowex3]

Well pretty much any mid to high end phone these days will have both microSD compatibility and any number of shells and covers ranging from ordinary plastic to carbon fiber and even some d3o, so that's not really something to be too concerned with when picking a phone.

I really would recommend picking based on carrier and THEN phone since if you pick the carrier you need you'll have a working system but if you go phone first you may not be able to actually use everything you get on the phone. At least thats if your carriers up there are anything like ours down here, some of ours can be right cheeky bastards.

As for learning more on them... down here the cellcos set up stations pretty much all over the place in malls and even have stores, so if you ask nicely and mention you're considering a new phone/contract they usually are willing to let you play with a few and see what you need. They care more about contract than handset so generally its in their best interest to at least help you get the right handset, even if they still want to screw you otherwise.

[SecretMethod70]

Yup, when I was looking at my HTC Evo 4G, they even let me try one that had no security tether, this way I could test putting it in my pocket.

[kutulu]

Shadowex3's discussion was pretty good. I just got a Samsung Vibrant (tmobile version of Galaxy) last Friday and I LOVE it. If you go with a smartphone you really need to make sure that you have a large screen. Things people usually want to do include watching videos, using the internet, and email. All those things are greatly enhanced by the large screens that the Android and iPhone offer (I'm not sure if there is a large screen Blackberry).

I'd also go with touch over QWERTY. I was hesitant about it, I was positive that I needed a tactile keyboard and that I wouldn't be able to use a touch screen right. I was really impressed with how easy it is to switch. Also, many of the newer droids have SWYPE. This allows you to spell words by just moving your finger around the keyboard, instead of hitting each individual key. There is a small learning curve but after only 4 days I've figured it out. It's crazy how it works, half the time you feel like you are just making circles around the keyboard but in the end, the word is spelled right.

[Shadowex3]

The closest blackberries get is the Storm, which is afaik their only attempt at a touchscreen bar style phone. RIM really shines in making what I like to call the two-thumb-typewriter: a wide flat candybar phone with a QWERTY keyboard right below the screen. You could call it their comfort zone. They're not bad phones, not by a long shot, but they just aren't really consumer phones yet. Even the newer ones still seem to be designed more for dealing with simple emails, ad-hoc group communication, and sending off fast text only replies more than anything else.

[telekinetic]

I have had two blackberries and an Android G1 (and my wife still has a G1, although as soon as her contract is out in a few months, it will be upgraded to whatever the latest greates t-mobile Android phone is).

My current phone is a Blackberry 9700 Bold 2. My suggestion? Unless you work for a company that runs Blackberry Enterprise Server, don't even consider a Blackberry. BES is the only reason to own one. If you need a desktop-like corporate email experience in your pocket or nerdy holster at all times, and your work has BES, don't consider anything OTHER than Blackberry. Otherwise, get something Android flavored.

You essentially already have an iphone, since the itouch has all of the functionality except making calls, so if you're not enamored with that, don't waste your time with the phone. Really, though, Android is the future. Embrace it.

[Martian]

The phone geniuses have already spoken, so all that's left is for me to point out that you do not have an iPod, not an iTouch.

I don't know what an iTouch is, but it sounds like a masturbatory aid.

/twitch

[Shadowex3]

They're really that identical Telekinetic? I'd heard people describe the iphone as an ipod touch with a bad antenna before but I didn't realise that was accurate rather than just sarcasm.

[SecretMethod70]

I don't have either, but my understanding is also that the only substantial difference between the iPod Touch and the iPhone is the phone.

[Redlemon]

Originally Posted by Shadowex3

They're really that identical Telekinetic? I'd heard people describe the iphone as an ipod touch with a bad antenna before but I didn't realise that was accurate rather than just sarcasm.

Well, the "bad antenna" quote is a bit sarcastic, but otherwise, it is pretty close. I have an iPod Touch, because I don't want to pay the monthly fee for a smartphone. If you take a Touch, add phone service, microphone, better speaker, camera, GPS, and some thickness, you get an iPhone. All the software is the same.

[kutulu]

Since this is a thread about smartphones, I thought I'd share some knowledge with everyone. Most phones use micro usb ports for charging now. Tmobile wan'ted $40 for a combined car/home charger. I got a car charger with a female USB jack and a wall charger with a female USB jack at monoprice for about $1 each. All the cords over there are about a dollar as well.

[Shauk]

ebay is the place to hit for phone accessories anyways, getting it from a retail or the company directly is just basically like having a kickme sign on your back

[Shadowex3]

Ebay for specific parts, but use monoprice for the usb cords themselves. For example my new phone uses a samsung wall wart which a regular usb->micro-B cord plugs into. I'd need to get the proprietary wall wart off of ebay but the cord is a buck at monoprice for a many-feet-long one.

[boink]

my first cell phone, and touch screen device is the HTC Incredible.
I'm no 'power user' but I had no real problems figuring it out. without bothering reading the manual. I like it alot. 16 gig in the slot and 8 mega pixel camera. it will do more things then my coworkers 3GS.

the only reason I envy his 3GS there is a mountain of iPone/Pod accessories. I will probably end up making my own dock for bedside and dashboard.

[streak_56]

I got the HTC Desire... Android 2.1 because apparently 2.2 isn't good enough for Canada, and I will say, it is confusing at first to get use to it being so different but DAAAAMN... way better than my iTouch and is more user friendly, I'm still going through step by step personalizing it but I'm not really tech saavy. Thanks for the info!

[Martian]

Originally Posted by streak_56

...iTouch...

/spasm

[streak_56]

so... I browsed the market for apps.... any good ones that people can recommend?

[boink]

I'm using Mort's music player,
FX camera
lightning bug alarm clock
ACV comic viewer (for .cbz e books)
Barcode Scanner (it's cool cause you can scan a 3D barcode on your comp screen and it'll take you to the download for apps)
Ascii camera
Call Confirm (stops unintentional calls)
Sparks (like a plasma ball on your screen, for fun)
Stopwatch (basic stopwatch)
Tone Picker for setting ring tones and alarms to different mp3 files.

plus the preloaded apps. and google maps. everything I downloaded was the free versions.

honestly I don't use most of them often. I like the FX camera though. and Mort works well for me.
there was another music app I had with an EQ I liked, but it crashed once so I tried Mort and it hasn't crashed.

I guess all the apps don't work equally well on various hardware, and I have the "sence ui" version of Android to which is a bit different than yours.

[Shadowex3]

HTC makes good droid phones, although I've got a more midrange Samsung Intercept (think Moment 2.0) myself.

Originally Posted by streak_56

so... I browsed the market for apps.... any good ones that people can recommend?

The stock google apps are really quite good for most things and integrate extremely well with the OS and their full-computer counterparts, which is to be expected since android itself comes from them as well.

So far I've installed:

Barcode Scanner for QR codes (those square ones that you see online)
Shopsavvy (regular barcode scanner) for checking retail prices
Meebo for messaging since it supports damn near EVERYTHING
Astrid for task management
Bump for transferring contact info easier
Rock player for media
GPS Status for exactly that, and since it makes a kickass compass
Launcherpro as a replacement for the standard launcher/home UI
I tried Opera 5 Mini and liked the tabs but it messes with scanning QR codes for apps and the standard browser really functions quite well since it's chrome based.
And I'm a heartbeat away from buying Tasker for... well... anything.

Most of those are self explanatory but Astrid and Launcherpro really stand out and deserve some more discussion. Astrid is one of the best task managers I've ever used, it supports everything from tags (which for once are handled sanely) to random or scheduled reminders and several levels of priority. Supposedly it's a "Getting Things Done" compatible program but I never got into that stuff and use it primarily as a simple To Do list. It's functional enough to deal with homework assignments from multiple classes, but it also works simply enough to make a simple and easy grocery list.

Launcherpro is a replacement for your "launcher" and home screens. At it's most basic level it lets you have as many screens as you want and allows you to tap the home key when ON a homepage to display all of them (zoomed out) while replacing the drag-me-out application list with a multifunction reprogrammable shortcut bar that you can also scroll through like a wheel. I use mine to launch meebo, go to messages, get to my apps, and haven't finished exploring the rest of the shortcuts and features yet. It's got some restricted for-pay features but even the free version is more than good enough imho.

I also mentioned the only for-pay-only Tasker. This one might be a bit out of your scope of interest and use but basically its an app that lets you say to your phone "When X happens do Y" where X can be just about anything you can define that the phone can recognize, you can basically use it to do pretty much anything as Lifehacker has pointed out in several articles now.

[streak_56]

Thanks for all the suggestions.... I already have two guys at work ready to switch to the Andriod software compatible phones because its that much better!

[Daniel_]

Originally Posted by Martian

The phone geniuses have already spoken, so all that's left is for me to point out that you do not have an iPod, not an iTouch.

I don't know what an iTouch is, but it sounds like a masturbatory aid.

/twitch

I know that Apple have abandoned their plans to do a version of the iPod Touch for children. Apparently focus groups felt that "iTouch Kids" would be a tough sell.