Smartphones

I had been planning to buy a Smartphone for the last one year or so; am just waiting for my service provider to roll-out 3g operations. So as I was doing my Smartphone research, I came across a lot of new and interesting features in mobile phone technology. I shall just try to list out some of the features that I think would be important in arriving at a purchase decision; sort of like a checklist.

1: Touch screen – I have never owned a touch screen before, but I have tried out the Apple iPhone, and the Nokia 5800 among others. I noticed a stark difference between the two handsets in terms of user experience. I know that you cannot really compare Apples and well, Nokias. But that is not the point. The point is that Apple has a “Capacitive” while Nokia 5800 has a “Resistive” touch screen.

The difference between the two lies in the sensitivity of the screen to touch.

Capacitive screens are quite sensitive and a feather touch is sufficient whereas Resistive screens need greater pressure and the response time is slower. The resistive touch screen works extremely well with a stylus while the capacitive doesn’t and accuracy is generally compromised in this case. The biggest advantage of a resistive screen is the fact that it works with almost anything – fingernails, gloves, stylus or any object as it only senses pressure. On the other hand, the capacitive screen will not work with gloves or inanimate objects. Handwriting recognition is almost an exclusive feature of resistive screens. However, multi-touch response, pinch zoom etc are features not available in a resistive touch screen. Resistive screens are cheaper.

So the decision just boils down to economy and accuracy versus a premium but a great user experience.

2: Operating System – Symbian – OS 9.1, 9.2,….Symbian^2, ^3, ^4, RIM 4.1,4.2,…., Apple iPhone OS 1,1.1,2,….,Android 1.5,1.6,….,Palm 1,1.1,1.2,….,MS Windows Mobile 5,6,….,Phew! Have I missed out any? Now how does one choose the operating system? Frankly, I have no clue. I guess unless I actually use all of these O/S extensively, I cannot make a decision on which is better. In this case even reviews don’t help too much.

While Nokia mostly uses Symbian (few models use the Linux platform), HTC, LG, Samsung all are moving towards Google Android. Apple and Blackberry have their own O/S.

However, one thing that you would observe is the processor speed. Most of the processors are now minimum of 1 GHz, while the Nokia Symbian^3 is still stuck with 680MHz which is quite disappointing.

3: Display – Now this can be quite a technical issue, so I did not really look at this as a criterion at all. The resolution of a display is characterised by the number of pixels (for e.g. 360×640). The higher, the better. The Apple iPhone 4 has come up with the concept of ‘Retina Display’, wherein the pixel density is so high that the human retina cannot physically see the pixels at that level, and hence the resolution is better. Anyway, apart from the pixel stuff, I did look for a scratch resistant, fingerprint proof screen.

4: Input mode – Keypad input or Qwerty. Most phones now allow both. Some of them also have handwriting recognition. Other than these, I came across this really amazing new Input method called Swype. I think the video will explain this concept better.

Samsung Galaxy i9000 has it.

5: Camera – I am not a big fan of camera phones. I have rarely used the camera in my phone. But then I have heard such rave reviews about the camera phone on the Nokia N8; every single reviewer was unanimous in their views on this phone. The camera is touted as being better than even some of the best of digicams.

6: Music – This is an important parameter for me as I listen to music mostly on my mobile phone. So I would look for very high quality speakers, adequate memory, ease of searching and storing files, and of course FM radio. So far, Nokia phones have beaten every other handset maker when it comes to music.

7: Dimensions – Length, Width, Depth and the Weight are often compared parameters between handsets. The slimmer the handset is the sleeker look it portrays. The wider the screen is, the greater the ease of typing and the better the viewing experience.

The comparison is especially inevitable with the iPhone4 which is the thinnest handset available in the market with a depth of just 9.3mm. The closest is the Samsung Galaxy i9000 which has a depth of 9.9mm.

8: Battery life – I wouldn’t worry too much about this, as any mobile phone when used with a lot of apps will require charging at-least once a day. The Apple iPhone is known to be the worst, needing charge every 2-3 hrs of talktime.

9: Apps – I have heard that a Smartphone is only as good as the app market it is associated with. I again do not know much about this as I am yet to own a Smartphone. Apple iPhones are so popular only because of this, as otherwise the iPhone really does not match up to several other brands which are available at better price points. However, some of the apps that I would be interested in are blogger.com (they haven’t come up with an app for any O/S yet), Facebook, Gtalk, email and such basic stuff.

10: Price – I think this should have been the topmost criteria J

Other features that one might look at are Video Calling, USB on the go, GPS (although this is also a given in all smartphones), Storage Capacity and so on.

Oh, one more thing. When you are going for a 3G phone, it is advisable to go for a HSDPA supported handset (equivalent to 3.5g) than a WCDMA, which means HSDPA would be faster.

Ultimately what I have realized is that no single Smartphone has the best of everything, so one need to make compromises on some or the other feature.

Note: I have finally zeroed down to the Nokia N8! (Am a very loyal customer of Nokia). So I get the best music phone around, the best camera phone, and a scratch resistant capacitive touch screen.