Over the last 3 years I have used 3 different smart phones. I thought I would do a comparison of the the 3 types and what I liked, what I disliked and which was the best for me and why.
The three I have used in order are the Blackberry, Windows Mobile and the IPhone.
1. The Blackberry
I had a Blackberry 8300 for over a year for work. This was one of the earlier models which did not have
WI-FI. It should be noted that the Blackberry is a corporate device and is geared to corporate email. With
the BES (Blackberry Enterprise Server) the Blackberry is an amazing tool for email.
Web Browsing is another story. The Blackberry web browser is hard to use and very slow. Personally I find
almost unbearable to use.
Their are third party apps available for the laptop and they are functional. I did not find these third part
apps anything special.
My conclusion on the Blackberry series of devices is that if you are in need of corporate email this is the
way to go. The keyboards are great and the reliability is very good.
2. Windows Mobile
The second smart phone I went to for personal user was a Samsung Jack Windows Mobile device. One
reason I went to this device was because it supported Active Sync and my web hosting provider supports
Active Sync for email.
The Active sync feature worked really well syncing my emails and my contact list.
It should be noted Active Sync for Windows 7 is built in.
The web browser on the phone is soso since it is Internet Explorer for Windows mobile and I am not a
big IE fan.
Cut and paste only became available with Windows Mobile 6.5
The application base was adequate. The Evernote client which I use all the time worked really well.
My biggest concern with the Samsung Jack was the Hardware reliability. I was on my 3 device in a year
before I made my last switch. The device was prone to overheating which is not a good sign at all.
3.0 IPhone
Originally when the IPhone came out I said I would never like one due to the touch screen and no
keyboard. I have never been more wrong.
The Iphone is a slick device which has made my mobile experience much more enjoyable.
The web browsing is incredible on the IPhone. With Safari, web browsing is much more enjoyable and a
feature of the phone I use all the time.
The down loadable applications are amazing. I have 5 screens of applications on my IPhone. It is truley
the best mobile computing device I could have asked for.
The Iphone uses Active Sync. Active Sync works with my email server and manages to keep all my mail,
calendar and contacts in sync.
The big drawback for the Iphone is it has no built in To do list application that syncs with Outlook. For me
this is not a big deal because I prefer an online todo list called Remember the Milk. The Iphone application
for this is very slick.
The Iphone I have has WI-FI built in and it works great:) It saves me from paying over the air charges
when I am at home, at friend’s or out and about. I would not do without it.
The Iphone uses Itunes so I am no longer carrying my Ipod around. The nice thing about Itunes is my
IPhone is automatically backed up on my pc so if something happens I do not have to re-download all my
my other applications.
The Iphone has more applications available for it then any other Smartphone.
Conclusion
I have not had the opportunity to yet try either the Palm Pre or the Android. Based on what I have tried the
IPhone is the mobile phone of choice for me.
