Smart Phone Run Down

I’ve recently been lured into the world of Twitter by Penelope Trunk.  While there I found myself drawn to searching for my favorite (and not so favorite cell phone platforms).  Lots of questions out there about which smartphone to purchase.  Since I have a cell phone disease (I’m never quite settled with my smart phone and have used more than 6 in the course of the last year).  I thought I’d write a quick (read - long) review of the platforms and phones I’ve been using as a way to help some folks decide which might be the best platform for them.

First let me preface by saying that I’m probably not a typical smart phone user.  I expect a lot out of my smartphone.  I want it to be able to do everything I need for work: email, phone calls, web searches; I want it to be able to get me from point A to point B and identify locations along the way for things I might need; I want it to aggregate all my Google Reader feeds and podcasts; I want it to house my music, movies, books, and other mobile entertainment needs, and if it can let me play games too, that’s just icing on the cake.  Here’s the round-up of phones I’ve tried out and how they compare based on the criteria of how well they meet my personal needs.  I understand that everyone’s needs are different and don’t make any assurances that just because I like or dislike a phone that it will or won’t be right for you.

iPhone 3GS.  I begin with the iPhone 3GS simply because I believe it is the best smart phone on the market today.  Not because the hardware is superior, not because the OS is superior, not because the carrier is superior,  not because the apps are superior (though they are)... but because in combination there is no better platform.  The depth and breadth of titles in the app catalogue can’t be matched on any other platform.  And while no one needs 100,000+ apps, it’s nice that when you need just 1, there are typically multiple choices in the category.  What makes this phone great? The ease of user interface - really, my grandmother could use it.  The App Store makes it hard to ignore the iPhone.  The best developers are there and releasing titles ever growing in creativity and usability.  The depth and breadth of accessories made for the iPhone - if you want to dock your phone on a set of speakers, there are a hundred choices.  And cases, don’t get me started.  I have a serious issue with cases, they are like shoes for some people.

What could I do on the iPhone?  The alarm clock woke me up every morning.    Tweetie was my first stop, then Facebook before I hit the shower.  Podcasts on the way to work listened to through the iPod native app, news throughout the day via NewsRack, my Google Reader app, Secure Password kept all my passwords and logins at my fingertips, Mint and my bank were on the phone providing access to all my bank and retirement accounts, IM throughout the day on Meebo, Remember the Milk app was used to keep track of all my To-Do’s.  At night I had access to hundreds of games.   Every once in a while, I even used the phone to make phone calls.  Which brings me to why the iPhone 3GS is not so great.  Phone calls.  I ultimately left the iPhone platform the first time because I felt it would be nice if I could decide when to hang up the phone instead of AT&T.  I dropped nearly every call I made, even when I had 5 bars.  Data speed and connectivity was never an issue, just phone service.  The reason I left the iPhone the second time was because of multi-tasking.  I love my husband very much and we often IM throughout the day and even at night.  Every time he would send me an IM it would disconnect me from whatever game or app I was using.  In order to respond I had to close the app I was in and open my IM app.  Major pain when playing JoJo’s fashion show.  Everytime an IM popped up I sent a model out naked.  

In the end, I think the iPhone 3GS is a solid platform.  I’m not happy with Apple’s walled garden, but for the general user, I think they will be more than happy with the iPhone... as long as you don’t mind dropping phone calls.  The number of apps available make it hard to resist as it really can do just about anything one would want a smart phone to do.  When iPhone x.x comes out and can do multi-tasking, make calls without dropping, and allow me to tether, I’ll be back with Apple in a heartbeat.

iPhone 3G.  This was my first and most beloved of smart phones.  When I left the store with it I sat in my car and dialed and it had me at the first number I dialed.  I loved the interface, the coolness of the virtual keypad, the way it just seemed to magically dial.  I loved it before I ever met it’s suitcase of apps.  While the iPhone 3GS is noticeably faster than the 3G, it’s a great alternative for anyone wishing to save money on the front end of a contract.  I expect this model will be put out to pasture by summer of 2010 when the iPhone refresh typically happens.

Motorola Droid.  I left the iPhone the first time for the Motorola Droid.  On paper, I drooled while waiting for this phone to come out.  In person, the first time I held it I remember thinking, “Really, I’m going to learn to love you even if you are ugly and cold.”  I tried, I really did, but I just couldn’t do it.  Part of it was the device itself, most of it was Android.  What the Droid did well is of course integration with Google.  My life is in Google so that made Android an easy choice.  Gmail, Google Voice, Google Search, Google Calendar, all flawless on the Droid.  No other platform can boast the integration with Google voice (naturally) and that is what I most miss about the platform.  The Droid was also fast.  Very fast.  Apps opened quickly, it was easy to move between apps, web pages rendered quickly, nothing really to complain about.  Notifications on Android were another strong point.  Notifications from multiple sources flow in on the top of the screen.  Very unobtrusive yet always in view.  I like Android’s notification system better than Palm or iPhone’s (iPhone shouldn’t even be on the list since their notification system is woefully lacking) even though I often had trouble grabbing ahold of the notification bar and pulling it down.  Android’s App Market is also fairly robust.  For the more obvious applications there are generally a choice of several from which to choose... if you can find them.  The hardest thing about the Market for me was just finding the applications.  Even when searching for them by name one wasn’t assured of finding them.  Very curious issue with that App Market which I saw across many of the Android forums.

So why did I give up the Droid?  Please refrain from calling me shallow (at least to my face), but the Droid was just ugly and cold.  I have a baby and was afraid to use the device while holding her lest I drop it on her head and give her a dent that might never go away.  Ugly, heavy, cold, and did I mention ugly?  Yes, I’m shallow.  But that’s not all, I was very frustrated with Android itself.  Android has no way to kill apps - so if you use an app, you can’t close it.  If you’re like me and you open lots of apps, you can’t close any of them, you have to resort to opening yet another app - a Task Killer app to kill off the apps you don’t want running.  But HEY, don’t accidentally kill off the OS or keyboard or anything like that.  Seriously, they’re on the list.  And random apps would open that would need to be shut every time the device would start to slow down.  I felt like I was babysitting the OS.  I constantly found myself trying to figure out how to move between screens and programs.  Buttons do different things in different environments and it was hard to keeps straight.  And the keyboard, I don’t think I need to go into issues with the keyboard.  Suffice it to say that while the Droid keyboard isn’t terrible, I could type faster on the iPhone virtual keyboard than the hardware Droid keyboard. Granted, I gave Android only 3 weeks of my life, but it was enough to get the sense that the OS is half-baked at best.  It will be good, I sincerely believe (and hope, Go Android), but I don’t want to be a part of that growth.  I prefer a more mature platform.

Droid Eris: Before giving up on Android completely, I tried out the Eris.  I loved the layering of Sense UI onto the phone and it almost made me want to keep the device... until of course I couldn’t keep the battery charged for more than 2-3 hours at a time.  Why?  Because I wasn’t effectively managing my Task Killer app.  I wrestled with this issue - even replacing the battery - before deciding I was done with Android.  Nice phone, the Droid Eris, it solves the ugly phone syndrome of the Motorola Droid, it made the OS look pretty and run more smoothly, but the battery issues sent me back to the Verizon store before the end of my 30 day trial period.  

HTC Touch Pro 2: In a last ditch effort to stay with Verizon I tried out the Touch Pro 2.  Of all the form factors I have used, I love the HTC Touch Pro 2 best.  The keyboard - awesome, the speaker phone - awesome, the heavy, rounded, solid feel of the device in hand - awesome.  I didn’t spend a lot of time with the TP2 (1 week), but here are my general observations.  The apps on the app store are EXPENSIVE, especially compared to Android and iPhone apps.  The ones I was able to find and download onto the phone were very much inferior to those on both Android and iPhone.  The phone worked well as a phone, especially as a speaker and conferencing phone, no qualms there at all.  It also worked well for email and texting.  The Internet experience wasn’t terribly painful though the web pages rendered extremely slowly, and double tapping to zoom wasn’t very precise.  I spent most of my time on this platform just trying to figure out how to get it to work.  I’m I pretty tech savvy person and was somewhat miffed at the level of effort required just to get the basics up and running on this phone.  In the end, I returned it and dragged my sorry butt back to AT&T for a new iPhone.  They took me back.

Palm Pre Plus: I’m only a couple weeks into my tenure with the Palm Pre Plus.  I have a new attitude towards my smartphone.  I’d like it to make phone calls without dropping and the Pre is performing perfectly at that.  I also want to multi-task and the Pre is better than any other OS at this. I love the gestures for moving around the OS and the consistency of that.  I love the feel of the device in my hand and am very surprised by this.  I’ve avoided the Pre to date because I felt it looked cheap.  While the Pre has a plastic feeling, it manages to feel warm as well versus the cold feel of all the other devices I’ve used.  I’ve also decided that it’s not an option to go back to the iPhone, and the Palm WebOS platform is the best alternative for me at this point.  

I have to admit that every time I browse the app catalogue I’m very, very sad.  The depth of the catalogue is just depressing.  While there are apps for most of the things I felt were do or die functions, there’s very little choice.  Also, the apps were clearly made for a device with very little storage.  I hope that since the Pre Plus is now out, apps will be released that take advantage of that storage space - specifically in the RSS feed category.  Also, the search function is also surprisingly bad in the Palm app store.  When searching for an app by name 20 apps will return with the app searched for by proper name is buried down around number 17.  Why?

I keep thinking that if Palm and/or Verizon would really get behind advertising for this platform it would take off.  It really is elegant and is a fantastic option to the iPhone and Android platforms.  The phone performs well and only requires apps to round out the user experience.  I also hope that Palm soon does a refresh of its form factor.  It’s nice that the Pre has a hardware keyboard - I really like that my screen real estate isn’t compromised when I’m typing on the phone - but my wrists and thumbs hurt when I type on those tiny, tiny, non-correcting keys.  The web browsing experience is as good as the iPhone (for me).  I was up and running with this phone within an hour of purchase.  Only the iPhone can boast that kind of user onboarding ease.  Bottom line - I’ve tried the best out there right now (sans the Nexus One) and feel like the Pre best fits my needs. 

One very large caveat to this - the Pre fits my needs on its own merits, though also largely because I’ll be purchasing an iPad at launch so that I can continue to use my iPhone OS apps that I’ve become attached to.  With the Pre Plus’ Hotspot feature, I’ll be able to save $100+ for the non 3G model and still get onto the internet.  Very cool.

One more note, I have also used the Blackberry platform for the last 3 years for my work device.  I did not mention this experience in this review because it’s too painful to recount.  While the BB is a great device for users who want a device supported by their company’s IT department, I can’t recommend it for any other reason than being required to carry it.  Email is great on it, especially corporate email, but nothing else.  Literally, nothing.  That is clearly only my opinion as I know many die hard BB users, but seriously, I’d rather have ice picks shoved through my eyeballs than to have to browse the web for anything on any BB device.  That’s not hyperbole.  And multimedia?  Seriously?  I don’t work all the time.

Final thought, I promise.  I’ve recommended the iPhone 3GS, Motorola Droid, Eris, and HTC TP2, and Palm Pre Plus to different people depending on their needs.  What I’ve written here is just my opinion.  If you have any questions, DM me on Twitter at @gadgetmom6.  

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