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Smart phones, or sphones as technophiles take delight in calling them, are handheld devices that offer an array of electronic functions. In the most basic sense, a smart phone is a mobile phone - PDA (personal digital assistant) hybrid that may enable users to access email, browse the Internet, write notes, listen to music, make voice recordings, and use a wide variety of other applications typical of a personal computer. In recent years, almost all new phones come with some degree of smart phone characteristics, and as such, it can be hard to know which model of phone is best for you.
There has been a boom in the smart phone market, with a wider choice than ever before, making smart phones a smarter business decision for many. What is more, the increased competition between smart phone manufacturers means the phones are becoming more and more affordable, making them both a spatial and economical alternative to buying a separate mobile phone and pocket PC. Some of the leading players in the market worthy of your consideration include T-Mobile Sidekick 3, Nokia 9300, Samsung BlackJack, Motorola Q, and Palm Treo 700P. This article aims to guide you through some of the confusing techno-jargon, highlighting the pros and cons of a variety of smart phones.
The Sidekick 3 is perfect for those that tend to text more than they talk. With a landscape-orientated QWERTY keyboard, typing is made easier, but dialing numbers is not so convenient. The phone also comes with a 1.3 mega pixel camera; however, it does not have video recording capabilities. T-Mobile may struggle to convince business users to pay $300 for easy texting and little else.
Never judge a phone by its cover. This holds particularly true for the Nokia 9300, which looks like a rather ordinary, though quite sleek, phone on the outside - open it up and behold a multi-functional smart phone. It has a large screen and a full keyboard; these make using the word processing, PowerPoint, and other such applications very easy. Surprising for a phone of this kind, it completely lacks any form of camera, perhaps designers decided that adding such a device would make the phone unacceptably bulky. This phone is fairly priced at $300 with Cingular and can even be unlocked, making it more appealing as it gives users a greater choice of carriers.
The Samsung BlackJack will sit very comfortably in your pocket. It is one of the smallest phones available with a QWERTY keyboard, weighing in at only 3.5 ounces and measuring at just over 2.3 inches wide by just less than 4.5 inches tall and only half an inch thick. This isn’t all good news, for those of us with slightly larger fingers, using the keyboard for texting and emails can prove difficult. Moreover, it is not too hard to imagine the dual number and letter keys causing confusion among some users when dialing. Like the Sidekick 3, this phone also comes with a respectable 1.3 mega pixel camera.
The Motorola Q with Verizon is a fairly good value for the money at just $200. It has a 1.3 mega pixel camera, which is capable of video capture and has a mini SD slot for increased memory capacity. It boasts voice command and a jog-dial on the side, but lacks a touch screen, which would give this phone a real edge. Instead, the Motorola Q relies on its wireless sync feature as the real selling point, which allows synchronization of emails, tasks, and appointments between the phone and the user’s PC over the Internet.
The Palm Treo 700P is a comprehensive smart phone solution with everything you would expect from a PDA. It has a touch screen which locks after a set time, and further functionality is added to the user-interface via programmable buttons. This phone also has a 1.3 mega pixel camera with video recording. It is pricey at $400, but buyers do get a huge range of features and a choice of carrier; Verizon or Sprint.
Overall, there are a good range of smart phones currently on the market - many more than can be included in a single article. The phone you ultimately choose will largely be dependent on your circumstances, such as your budget, phone activity, and PDA requirements. Carrier choice is another important and often overlooked aspect that must be considered. It would be useful estimating how much time you spend talking on your phone each month, as well as how many text messages you send when selecting your carrier because costs vary.