The best PDA Phone for Christmas is…
PDA phone, smartphone, smart PDA phone – whatever you call it, PDA phones have been the talk of the mobile phone world throughout 2008. There are now tonnes of different PDA phones on the market, and with a bewildering array of phones to choose from, finding the right one has become a nightmare!
To help you through the PDA phone maze, we’ve compiled a little guide to the best smartphones to buy for Christmas 2008.
The Top Five PDA Phones
The majority of PDA phones are currently based on four different platforms:
- Apple iPhone
- Google Android
- Windows Mobile
- Symbian
In no particular order, here’s a list of the best PDA phone for each platform.
Apple iPhone
An easy one this as there’s only one phone based on Apple’s legendary technology – the iPhone! Originally sold without 3G, the latest version now has both 3G and GPS built-in. It’s responsive, with a fantastic user interface, but despite 3G, it’s still slow downloading data unless you manage to hook up to a Wi-Fi network.
Other irritants include being locked into a specific operator, a battery that can’t actually be removed, a poor camera, and the lack of a physical keyboard, making text entry less than 100% accurate.
That said, the iPhone still has the best user interface of any mobile phone on the market today, and people who have one swear by them. They look fantastic, are fully extensible with thousands of downloadable apps, and sync seamlessly with Apple Macs.
If you’re after a PDA phone but don’t need to do much typiing on it (and you can stomach the 18 month restricted contract!), then the iPhone should be up there on the top of your list.
Google Android
Again, another easy one to describe, as there’s currently only one mobile phone based on the Google Android platform – the T-Mobile G1. In many respects, Android can be thought of as the PC equivalent to the iPhone – it also has a fantastic touchscreen user interface, is even more responsive than the iPhone, and syncs seamlessly with Google’s existing browser-based apps (specifically Calendar and Gmail). It even alerts you whenever someone sends you email or changes your Calendar.
Better still, unlike Apple it’s completely open. Although there’s currently only one Android phone on the market at the moment, there are dozens currently in development, with everyone from Samsung to Motorola feverishly working away to release more Android phones in 2009.
As such, the G1 can be thought of as the benchmark system to beat. And what a benchmark! Great design, touchscreen, slide out QWERTY keyboard, GPS, and HSDPA, enabling it to download data ten times faster than the iPhone. The G1 is also extensible via third party applications that can be downloaded and installed on your phone.
If you need a smartphone that’s fast to use, offers the best mobile Web browsing experience of any mobile device on the market, is slick, has a proper keyboard, and you’re a heavy Google user, then the G1 is for you. If however, you love the idea of an Android phone but want to wait until other manufacturers release their own version (like me!), you might want to hold off until mid-2009.
Windows Mobile
Windows Mobile phones have been around for years, with Windows Mobile 6 currently being the latest version. You can pick up a Windows Mobile phone from a generic brand really cheaply – but that doesn’t mean it’ll be any good! As I discovered with the Toshiba G910, some phones based on this platform are simply awful!
Part of this is to do with the awfulness of Windows Mobile itself, particularly its user interface. Looking like something from 1999, the Windows Mobile interface is so bad and clunky that many smartphone manufacturers have gone to the extreme lengths of developing their own user interface to place on top of it!
That’s not to say the Windows Mobile platform has nothing going for it. Because it’s from Microsoft, it’ll sync seamlessly with your desktop apps, including Microsoft Outlook, and will let you read and edit Microsoft Office documents (only Powerpoint docs are read-only). The cost of this, though, is the unremittingly-awful Pocket Internet Explorer that comes with it. Should you get a Windows Mobile-based PDA phone, the very first thing you’ll need to do is download and install Opera’s mobile browser (Opera Mina) ASAP!
Of the different Windows Mobile smartphones that are out there, you should consider the MWg range, if you’re after a cheap no-nonsense smartphone. Their main advantages are that they’re fast, cheap, and as well specified as the average smartphone, even coming with GPS and HSDPA.
If you’re after a sexier smartphone, check out the Sony Ericsson X1 or the HTC Touch. The X1 suffers a bit from a rather unintuitive interface, while the HTC Touch is a bit slow, but they’ve both got much better user interfaces than your average Windows Mobile device.
Symbian
Symbian used to be a company owned collectively by a variety of mobile phone manufacturers, but since Samsung finally sold their stake, Nokia now owns the whole company and its operating system.
Symbian has always been a well-respected platform, being both robust and extremely efficient. In recent years, it’s also become increasingly powerful, with Nokia driving its development to ensure it doesn’t get left behind in the smartphone race with the iPhone.
Perhaps its most sophisticated incarnation is the Nokia E90, a phone that I’ve personally owned for the past year, and which I whole-heartedly endorse! It’s a big brick of a phone, granted, but with a huge VGA screen and great keybaord, it’s perfect both for viewing Web pages and writing (short!) documents – exactly what I needed it for.
It’ll sync with most desktop-based applications, including Microsoft Outlook (via Exchange), and will even sync with GMail via the external toool offered by GooSync.
It comes with HSDPA, Wi-Fi, GPS and great camera and video camera – in fact, in many respects, it’s still the most feature-rich PDA phone on the market today.
However, its design and its size are now looking a little dated, so if design matters, better to go for the iPhone, G1 or Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1.
Summary
In conclusion, then, we have the following phones for the following people:
- Apple iPhone – perfect for the intelligent fashionista
- T-Mobile G1 – perfect for the person who wants the best mobile Web browsing device on the market
- MWg – perfect for the smartphone user on a budget
- Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 and HTC Touch – perfect for the fashionista on a budget
- Nokia E90 – perfect for the person who needs to Get Things Done, browse the Web, and can fit a small country in their pocket!
