Mon, 01 Nov 2010 12:41p.m.
I am not a cellphone expert, but I thought it was time to get three major breeds of phone and have a bash on them.
Some new ones have appeared recently, that motivated me to take a look.
I also wanted to write this blog as a few mates have asked me recently “what phone should I get”. I wanted to be able to give them an educated answer.
My default phone is an iPhone 3G.
Haven’t upgraded yet; don’t see the point. I don’t like video calling (it freaks me out), the reception issues also scared me (although Apple assures me it’s really not a big deal). The fact is, the 3G supports all the features I want in a phone. (As an aside, before I the iPhone I had a Nokia n95. In general this was a piece of junk, but it did cope really, really well with recording video. I really rate its ability there).
The 2nd phone in this comparison is the HTC 7 Trophy, aka the Windows Phone 7. As far as Windows phones go, this is a big one for Microsoft in NZ, a true competitor to the iPhone, I suppose. Although Apple fans would clobber me over the head for that sentence.
The 3rd phone has just been released, but I’ve had it for a week or so to play on. It’s the Ideos, made by Huawei? Hua-who? That’s what I said, too. We’ll get to that in a sec.
The iPhone 3G (aka my default phone I use every day)
The iPhone. By default, when people ask me “What phone should I get?” it’s pretty easy to say iPhone. For me, I like the iPhone for 2 main reasons. One: It’s dirt easy to use. Two: It’s replaced my iPod. In regards to point one, it’s the only phone I’ve never consulted a manual for. While initially it’s tricky to get used to texting without a keypad you can “feel”, you quickly get used to it. I can type more quickly on an iPhone than I could on my old n95, that’s for sure. The apps are brilliant, and using Twitter and Facebook and replying to emails are all a breeze. It’s an easy phone. Onto point two: It’s replaced my iPod. This seems simple, but really it’s huge. Being an Apple thing, it ties in seamlessly with iTunes which I use anyway. Podcasts and music and video are all one sync away. The other genius thing – if you’re listening with headphones and a call comes in, the music simply dims. If you answer, it pauses. Seamless. You even leave your headphones on and just talk into the phone. Then when you’re hung up, the music just starts again. Choice.
The HTC Trophy (aka the Windows Phone 7):
Onto the HTC 7 trophy: So new at the moment you can’t even purchase a cover for it (coming soon to JB, apparently). It’s a slick little unit, about the same size as the iPhone, but a bit narrower. The main thing this phone has going for it is its swanky interface, which you’ll either love or hate. I love it. For one thing, it’s very stylized and just looks sexy. The home screen is made up of what Microsoft brands “tiles” and “hubs”, that constantly update. For instance my PEOPLE hub contains my address book, and links through to Facebook. So the tile is constantly updating with the current profile pictures of my Facebook friends. This somehow gives the phone an organic, connected feel. It’s always changing; always current.
Unlike the iPhone which keeps social networking things like Twitter and Facebook separate (as they’re all operated using separate apps), the Windows Phone 7 aims to merge all this stuff together. So if you delve into the PHOTOS part of the phone, you get the photos you’ve taken with the phone’s camera, photos you’ve synced from your PC, and stuff from Facebook. Speaking of photos: The camera on the phone is delicious, much better than the one on the iPhone 3G. It has a flash. It has a nice high resolutions (up to 2592x1944pixels). It’s nice. Really nice.
The Ideos U8150 (aka the Android 2.2 phone):
Let’s be frank: Android is all new to me. All I really knew about it before picking up this phone (a unit 2degrees is talking up big time) is that it’s quite a bit geekier than the rest, and Google owns it. Google owning it is awesome, as far as I’m concerned: I powered it up, and instantly found it really easy to get into things like Google maps and my Gmail account. I figure Google owning pretty much everything has to be an advantage with embracing a Google phone. The phone is smaller than the Trophy and the iPhone. It feels cheaper, because it is. The main buttons at the bottom of the phone feel clunkier. This isn’t to say they don’t work; they work great. It’s purely an aesthetic thing. The resolution of the screen is also clearly lower than that of the other two phones I’ve talked about, but again, it works a treat, and touch navigation was dead easy. Also, having spelling suggestions that pop up while texting is absolute genius. As I said, Android fans are geekier than most (broad generalisation, I know), and there are countless websites showing how 2.2 is better than the prior versions: Easier to navigate home-screens, increased wi-fi functionality... the list goes on. What stands out to me is that 2.2 supports the latest version of Flash, which is awesome. I should also mention this phone is dirt cheap compared with the other two.
The bottom line:
At the end of the day, for many, it comes down to price. Roughly, for a handset, you’re looking at $379 for the Android phone (exclusively through 2degrees at this stage), $919 for the iPhone 3G ($1123 for the 4G), and $899 for the Windows Phone 7.
One last thing to bear in mind though: Choose the cheaper option, and your sex life might suffer. OKCupid, some kind of dating website (you can always trust their surveys) surveyed a bunch of 30-somethings about what phone they owned, and their sexual habits. It all resulted in this graph:
So there you go.
And yes, I know I left out reviewing a Blackberry, but the day is sunny and I want to go and enjoy it.