Which Smart Phone?

[HappyTree]

The grim realities of getting a mobile phone are beginning to dawn on me. I had begun by declaring that I didn't need a SmartPhone and would get a cheap and functional one that has no fancy functions. Well after looking at what is on offer I realised that I don't want to spend my time making do with a cheap, plasticky effort. If I am to be forced kicking and screaming into the 21st century then I might as well do it in style!

Which means I am now diving into the hell that is deciding what SmartPhone to get. Ohhh dear, I really don't know. Do I go for a reasonably-priced option like the Samsung Monte?


Or maybe a slightly better Galaxy Spica?



But then the reviews on Youtube have seemed to show them being a little stuttery in operation. Maybe I have to admit to myself that having an iPod Touch for the last 8 months has spoiled me. Much as I rant against Apple and iTunes, I am addicted to its smooth and intuitive operation.

Sigh. I'm going to get a bloody iPhone, aren't I? Can anyone persuade me out of it?

[phes]

They're shit for texting:

The keys on the screen are too small (for a touchscreen) unless you have pepperami fingers.

The send key is dangerously close to the 'p' meaning I send the message about one in 5 times I go to hit 'p'

Likewise with the 'l' and the delete letter button.

You cant send out new group messages without selecting each recipient painstakingly individualy.

The 'T9' or whatever it used to be called (predictive) just isn't as good as on my old Nokia circa 2005

No alphanumeric keypad option


but you wont appreciate all this until you get the phone after the iphone you're going to buy

[HappyTree]

I'm always using the keypad on the iPod Touch, I don't find it hard to use. I've never had a mobile phone so have never used an alphanumeric keypad, and thus don't miss it. They seem to be a bit of a pain. But thanks for trying!

I get easily swayed into spending too much, I need to calm down. The Samsung Monte does just appeal to me, and in the reviews it got a great score for call clarity. I don't NEED amazing web functions on a phone, as long as I can Tweet and check my emails.

Nothing else for it. I need to go haunting the 3 mobile phone shops there are in this town for the 5th day in a row. I'm sure the perfect phone is there somewhere. I think I'd be silly to splash out on an iPhone right now. Besides, when I get a flat and internet connection I'll have Wifi for the iPod Touch anyway.

Ok, I've talked myself out of it. Now what do I do?

[Famous Mortimer]

My phone-obsessed mate swears by the HTC Desire, but from my brief using of it the keyboard seems even worse. More powerful, though, should such a thing be important to you, multi-tasking and stuff like that.

[shiftwork2]

My phone-obsessed mate swears by the HTC Desire, but from my brief using of it the keyboard seems even worse.

The stock Android keyboard is noticeably less reliable than the iPhone's but you can download others.  I've been using swift key which does a spookily good job of anticipating your next word based on the context and your previous usage.  Worth noting that you can change anything you like on an Android phone including the launcher, music player and dialer if you don't like the stock ones.

[The Boston Crab]

Also, Android has Swype. Who needs keyboards?

I await the day that computer keyboards have Swype.

[MojoJojo]

My phone-obsessed mate swears by the HTC Desire, but from my brief using of it the keyboard seems even worse. More powerful, though, should such a thing be important to you, multi-tasking and stuff like that.

The Desire's keypad is HTC's improvement of the stock Android one, and predicts what you wanted to type. It takes a bit of practice, but it is good once you get used to it. The trick is to not worry about missing a letter, because it will almost certainly correct it for you.

[HappyTree]

Maybe I should stop reading reviews. The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 looked marvellous in the shop (but v expensive), yet the reviews said it was a POS.

I have a Q about 3G. I had assumed that 3G was the standard by which mobile phones connected to the internet. Yet my brother informed me last night that he switches off 3G on his iPhone because it eats up the battery and just uses his normal signal to connect to the net.

So do I need 3G or not? I assumed yes but it seems there are other ways to get your email and send a few Tweets. This is all so bloody complimicated, I can see why a lot of people just throw up their hands and go iPhone.

[phes]

The Xperia 10 MINI was reviewed very well indeed. The Xperia 10 and Xperia 10 MINI PRO less so.

[Milo]

3G is the fastest common way for mobiles to connect to the net but it's also used for voice/text, etc. And yes you can do net stuff with the other E or G networks but they are progressively slower and also will stop you receiving calls or text messages while active. This can cause text-grief as the networks don't handle failure to deliver texts very well and you can end up only getting them hours after they were sent.

So yes, you want 3G. No idea if it uses more battery life or not, I suspect it does though.

EDIT TO ADD: Ironically, having the phone actively net browsing on a slower non-3G connection probably ends up using more battery life as you have to hang around waiting for the info you're after, eating more life through CPU use and screen light use.

[Ignatius_S]

...Yet my brother informed me last night that he switches off 3G on his iPhone because it eats up the battery and just uses his normal signal to connect to the net.

So do I need 3G or not? I assumed yes but it seems there are other ways to get your email and send a few Tweets. This is all so bloody complimicated, I can see why a lot of people just throw up their hands and go iPhone.

As Milo says, it's a good idea to have it.

3G itself won't drain the battery – only when data is being transferred. On a voicecalls, a 3G connection will drain the battery faster than 2G, but you're also able to use the Net at the same time.

However, if you're using it for other data transfers, such as Web surfing, then I believe you use less power using a 3G connection – because you have to spend a lot less time keeping the data connection open.

If you're in an area with bad 3G reception, the phone will have to keep searching  for the network and reconnecting to it, which does use the battery – all phone manufacturers recommend you turn 3G off in this type of situation.

*edit* just seen Milo's extra bit!

[MojoJojo]

3G itself won't drain the battery – only when data is being transferred. On a voicecalls, a 3G connection will drain the battery faster than 2G, but you're also able to use the Net at the same time.

3G is *marginally* more battery draining than GSM, since it requires slightly more complex processing. More of a problem is that 3G coverage is a lot less extensive than 2G, so it's possible with 3G you'll be draining more power because your phone is talking to a more distant transmitter than it would on 2G. In theory this could make 3G a lot worse, but I think in practice you'll only notice it if you spend a lot of time where there is a weak 3G signal but a strong 2G one.

Sorry for enduring my nerd-gasm.

[Ignatius_S]

3G is *marginally* more battery draining than GSM, since it requires slightly more complex processing. More of a problem is that 3G coverage is a lot less extensive than 2G, so it's possible with 3G you'll be draining more power because your phone is talking to a more distant transmitter than it would on 2G. In theory this could make 3G a lot worse, but I think in practice you'll only notice it if you spend a lot of time where there is a weak 3G signal but a strong 2G one.

Sorry for enduring my nerd-gasm.

Oh no, it's rather interesting! I should have perhaps mentioned that 3G processing the transfer is slightly more draining than 2G, but the speed/time required is so much lower that far less power is required overall. A good point about the coverage – and I'd be inclined to agree that you would only really in the circumstances you described.

[Steve Lampkins]

A lot of battery power is drained when the phone seeks a better signal, but when phones switch between 2G and 3G networks as you move about, that is perhaps draining more power.

But as with setting RAM amounts in Windows, it's generally best to let the operating systems decide what to do.

[HappyTree]

Ok thanks. I think I now know enough about it to decide on a phone. So 3G is a way to send and receive data, but not the only one. And probably the best overall, if you have the coverage.

The Happy Tree verdict: I have an iPod Touch and with Wifi it is enough of a Smart device for my purposes. I only need a phone that has 3G for roving mails which I'll use sporadically, so I don't need an actual Smart Phone. As you were.

[waste of chops]

What about one of these?

http://www.three.co.uk/Mobile_Broadband/MiFi

Sure, it's an extra thing to carry around but if you want a smartphone purely for mobile internet then you could just get one use your iPod with it.

Besides, if you're anything like me you'll only resent whichever smartphone you do buy for not being more like your iPod Touch.

[Steve Lampkins]

Nah, just get a cheap Nokia that has 3G and supports JoikuSpot. The free version is fine. It basically turns your phone into a wireless router. It's what I use to browse the net on my iPod Touch when I'm out and about. Works great, but having active 3G and WLAN at same time on the phone drains the battery fairly quickly.

[chocky909]

Also, Android has Swype. Who needs keyboards?

I await the day that computer keyboards have Swype.

I though Swype was only on the Samsung Galaxy S.

[Subtle Mocking]

You can still get Swype if you look hard enough (or wait for another free beta). It's compatible with Android.

[Steve Lampkins]

Nokia also invested in Swype, so I'd look for it coming to Nokia too.

[chocky909]

What's video compatibility like on these Android phones? I'm looking at changing my iPhone to a larger screened Android phone, maybe a Desire HD or even the Samsung Galaxy Tablet seeing as I mainly use my iPhone for internet, email, games and texts and hardly ever using for voice calls. Sure, I'll look silly speaking into an iPad sized slab but it's be such an awesome experience the rest of the time. So video playback would be a big thing for me with one of these and I could ditch my Cowon A3 which weighs a ton. Does the Android OS play most filetypes like xVid, h264 and 720p/1080p files? And if not can you download different media players that do?

[no_offenc]

The Galaxy S seems to be playing pretty much anything I throw at it. It has native support for 720p files (mkv?), xvid/divx and h264, looks dead nice on there as well. Reckon it may be sommat to do with the processor and GPU in there handling high bitrate video well.

[sick as a pike]

Apologies for this naive question, one which quite frankly I could probably find out the answer to myself if I only took more responsibility.
What's the best way of transferring video files to a smart phone then?  Would I use the laptop to somehow rip the files from the DVD and then drag and drop those to the phone (Samsung Galaxy S)?  Or ...something else?

[MojoJojo]

You could do that - Handbrake does the reencoding part simply, and I think on a Mac does everything you need. On windows you need to get a seperate dodgy bit of software that breaks the encryption, but that is transparent once it's installed.

But it's easier still just to BitTorrent stuff.

[phes]

As above ^ the latest version of Handbrake has all the necessary options and you can just leave all the files in a queue to convert (to .m4v for iphone). I did about 75 films the other day.

As MojoJojo points out, the DVD ripping it going to take an age and anything even vaguely popular will take half the time to D/L

[Garfield And Friends]

I would like a smart phone that doesn't require re-encoding of videos. Re-encoding stuff for different kinds of gadgets is the road to hell.


It should just play all kinds of formats from the off. A VLC type of phone!

[Pseudopath]

I would like a smart phone that doesn't require re-encoding of videos. Re-encoding stuff for different kinds of gadgets is the road to hell.


It should just play all kinds of formats from the off. A VLC type of phone!

The Samsung Galaxy S plays DivX, XviD, MPEG4, H.263, H.264, WMV, VC-1, AVI, MKV and FLV videos out-of-the-box and also lets you hook it up to your telly.

[Garfield And Friends]

Cool beans. But will it blend?

[Steven]

The Samsung Galaxy S plays DivX, XviD, MPEG4, H.263, H.264, WMV, VC-1, AVI, MKV and FLV videos out-of-the-box and also lets you hook it up to your telly.

It also plays Flash within web pages, which not many people seem to know. I'm still on Android 2.1 and it works fine on any browser after a bit of fiddling.

There's also a fix for the Galaxy S to speed it up by almost three times, it seems Samsung incorporated a slow filing system which lags some of the operations but the lag fix gets around that.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1538479

[chocky909]

The Samsung Galaxy S plays DivX, XviD, MPEG4, H.263, H.264, WMV, VC-1, AVI, MKV and FLV videos out-of-the-box and also lets you hook it up to your telly.

How do the HTCs like the Desire compare? I was thinking of getting something like the Desire HD.