back to article Ten of the best... iPhone beaters

The iPhone 3G S is now upon us, bringing with it incredible new things like MMS, video recording, laptop tethering, stereo Bluetooth and the marvel of cut and paste. Hang on. Haven't other smartphones been doing this sort of thing for ages? While iPhone mania shows no sign of dissipating among the faithful, another big …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Is camera *that* important?

    The majority of these reviews seem to conclude that each model has a better camera and that's about it. Given how well the iPhone does everything else it seems like none of these are particularly credible rivals unless you're a photo nut. In which case buying a proper camera might be in order.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Still note quite there yet...

    I've been half looking for a while to upgrade from my Sony Ercisson K800i, which has a wide array of applications and games which make it a really great 'dumb' phone. Thing is, unless you're somebody who gets the train or bus a lot, then what's the point of these iPhone beaters?

    I get just as much fun from the iPhone games as I do from some very good K800i java games, and the great camera on it, torch application which I randomly found which uses the autofocus red LED, mean I don't really want to pay £400+ for something that basically has a bigger screen, plays videos...and that's about it. Serious business users aren't going to opt for any of those, and would be handed a Blackberry from their employer, or if smart, a Nokia E71, which I've used recently, and is great.

    Until the K800i we had to put up with a lot of crap on the market, with upcoming features abound. I believe a junction appeared that Opera Mini filled, and apart from improved video viewing and WLAN connectivity (who needs that when you've got an all inclusive data plan?) why bother risking hundreds of pounds on one of these devices?

    Every large palm-style unit I've used has had major flaws, which is why I've kept my trust over-engineered K800i and bought a decent separate tiny mp3 and video player for those extra long flights. Things just aren't good enough yet, and it's 3 years on from my last phone purchase.

    Quite glad to get rid of that upgrade-stigma every 12 months actually. These aren't iPhone beaters, they're in a totally different category, because people don't view them primarily as phones, more as business devices with extra capability. Plus, they're mostly quite a bit larger!

  3. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Reads more like a who's who of iPhone roadkill

    Seriously, the Blackberry Storm? The Xperia? The N97? A gaggle of HTC and Samsung devices? Those have all been soundly beaten by the iPhone.

    The only reason why someone would opt for any one of these devices is a blindig hatred for anything fruit related. Granted, there is a fair sized group of people in IT who would never be seen with an iPhone. It's much more manly (so they think) to have a big clunker dragging don your shirt pocket which you have to reset several times a day than give in to the ambiguously sexy man-love device...

  4. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    10 of the best?

    Erm, based on your review scores, there's actually only FOUR "iPhone beaters" there, not TEN.

    In your reviews, both the iPhone 3G and 3GS scored 80%.

    However, only the HTC Magic, Samsung Omnia, HTC Touch Diamond & LG Viewty Smart scored higher. The rest scored the same or less than the iPhone and therefore are not "beaters".

  5. Ian McLaughlin
    Coat

    Samsung price?

    You seem to be showing the price (£370) for the Omnia and not the Onmia HD (£599 - best I could find)?

  6. FazZ
    WTF?

    And...

    Why wasn't the better than the rest HTC Touch HD included?

  7. Kebabster
    WTF?

    Who's Smart?

    Hold on... "Try these tasty smartphone bites instead"... Doesn't Smartphone imply some form of Operating System and application programming framework? Kinda knocks the LG Viewty, Prada and 5800 wannabes into touch doesn't it...

  8. thedinosaw

    Erm...

    Why is the Toshiba TG01 missing from this review?

  9. Mike 61
    WTF?

    What!?! No sidekick??

    The 2009LX is sweet, I would take a Pre or a sidekick over any of the phones mentioned.

  10. A. H. O. Thabeth

    The last paragraph on the first page should have told me I did not need to read further...

    ...but I did read to the end.

    The phrase "Our ratings are based on comparing iPhone-style features..." said it all.

    I said very soon to a number of people after I bought my iPhone 2G.

    If you want more and better features buy the Nokia N95/N96, or the Sony something.

    If you want a phone that you will enjoy using buy the iPhone.

    If the 400% increase in uploads from mobile handsets is true then once again usability scores over features. Those who have the iPhone will use more of the features that it has.

    I have asked friends who have had Nokia N95 and 96, Blackberrys etc. "Do you ever use the internet on your phone?" and a common answer is "I tried it once."

    Steve Jobs is not God!

    Bill Gates is not the devil!

    "Design is more than how it looks. Design is how it works."

    Abdo

  11. Eponymous Cowherd
    Paris Hilton

    @Buck Futter

    ***"It's much more manly (so they think) to have a big clunker dragging don your shirt pocket which you have to reset several times a day than give in to the ambiguously sexy man-love device..."***

    I see. So using Buck Futter math the 119g HTC Magic is heavier than the 135g iPhone 3Gs?

  12. Bacon
    Coat

    Why oh why....

    do I bother to even read these troll baiting articles....

    (am thinking I must be part troll myself)

    Some people love the fact they can pay money for music and "apps"

    Others realise that they can pretty much get the usefull applications and all sorts of stuff on their own phones for free.

    I dislike the IPhones but thats because they have nothing I want, I have tons of music, can do my emails and loads of other bits and bobs on my K850i and I have a pretty good camera to snap away with too.

    What realy "grinds my gears" (gotta love family guy) is this massive fasination with the I-things... be it pod, touch or phone the owners just can't stop bleating on about having one, it seems they can't be happy unless they are telling people they are better than what they have and why, they even turn on thier own in that 3GS will look down on 3G and the cycle continues with the 2G owners. Companies seem obsessed with trying to beat them when they should be trying to improve their own brand....

    Its Friday and I have not had a smoke for a week.... ARRRRGGGHHHHH!

    Who said anything about withdrawal???

    Mines the one with the empty packet ot nicoteen gum in the pockets

  13. tomjol
    FAIL

    The Storm? Really?

    I'm yet to meet anyone who bought a Storm and actually likes it. The screen was a complete disaster, and yet in your summary you just branded it "innovative". Not that I'm surprised by a somewhat...different...review by El Reg.

    As an iPhone 3G owner (and straight iPhone before that) with a contract running out in a month or so, I'm in something of a quandry as to what to do next. The 3GS is nice, sure, but it really is getting ridiculously expensive, and the price plans are completely out of date - 600 minutes and 500 texts for £35/month?! Vodafone will give me unlimited texts for the same money, and the Magic would be free while the iPhone would start at over £85. Additionally, I'd like to be able to just throw together a Java app in a few minutes and run it on my phone, not have to pay for developer access, wait for Apple's approval, and be unable to do voice dialling on either 3G or 3GS via Bluetooth (and not at all on the 3G).

    But the Magic has no 3.5mm jack (yeah, OK, adapters...but let's face it, adapters suck) and the upcoming Hero has this stupid non-official-Android stuff going on which forces owners to rely on HTC, rather than Android, for software updates. Fragmenting the software just ain't smart, and I can see the whole platform going the way of desktop Linux (disorganised, any number of different platforms, a complete nightmare in the phone world).

    So I'm screwed, basically, and realistically I'm going to drop down to one of O2's SIM-only tariffs once my contract expires. There's no ideal phone for me, and I'm not interested in shelling out hundreds of pounds for a compromise. I can only hope that the next Android-sporting model to come out will have a 3.5mm jack...and official Google branding.

    Oh, and don't even suggest Windows Mobile. That thing was fundamentally flawed five years ago, never mind with all the competition it has now.

  14. Liam Thom
    Pint

    Hello?

    Where's the HTC Touch Pro II? Beats the lot unless your main criterion is camera pixels, in which case you want a Nikon not an iPhone.

  15. Joe Hazzers
    Thumb Down

    A bad typing joke?

    How come many of these phones don't have a proper keyboard layout? I pride the iPhone's keyboard in the fact that it is properly laid out, not in a grid-like fashion.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So, that would be ...

    1 (the Pre) that comes very close to being as good as or better than the iPhone and 9 that are fucking shite then!

  17. Giles Jones Gold badge

    iPhone beater

    Funny how everyone is so critical of the iPhone, if this is so why is it the benchmark device?

    Why does everything have to beat the iPhone if these other devices are so wonderful?

    I take issue with the assertion that Android and the HTC Magic is the most obvious competitor. The Palm Pre is closer to the iPhone and has the multitouch capability with it's capacitive touchscreen. It also syncs with iTunes and has the most innovative features.

    HTC devices just aren't designed well enough, they're not sexy or desirable.

  18. Jimbo 7

    Kebabster

    " Doesn't Smartphone imply some form of Operating System and application programming framework?"

    This is interesting point. I kinda agree, I'm still puzzled why LG is going separate route, I think they would get so much more customers if they would use symbian/winmo/android os. Their phones are decent, but I would never get it exactly for the reasons you mentioned.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Re: Who's Smart

    Well as a 5800 user I can say it's smart. It has the same S60 5th edition OS as the N97.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Re: The last paragraph on the first page should have told me I did not need to read further...

    "I have asked friends who have had Nokia N95 and 96, Blackberrys etc. "Do you ever use the internet on your phone?" and a common answer is "I tried it once.""

    To be honest I think that says more about your friends than the capability or user experience of internet on the 95/96. It's great, maybe not iPhone great, but nonetheless very nice.

    Clam

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Horns

    Bugs!

    "That thing was fundamentally flawed five years ago, never mind with all the competition it has now."

    Dude, 5 years gives you time to do things like bug fixing.

  22. Busted

    htc touch pro 2 ?

    Palm pre good but where is my touch pro 2 a serious device for business and techies imo.

    You can keep your idrones no keyboard makes it a lame business tool.

    HTC Hero look very interesting from a non business perspective.

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Why are people dumb?

    The iPhone is a pointless device built on a free OS that's been enslaved and then they've totally locked the user out...

    Hmm my iPhone is so great I can do anything with it....

    Really ? Can you use the Opera Mobile Web Browser, Use free programs like puTTY... can you install codecs for media... What about GPS can you get OS Maps and TOM TOM software on there ! ? What about all kinds of other free software ? Yes I may have to put up with Windows Mobile but unlike Apple, Windows Mobile smart phones don't rely on the OS to look snazzy it's juts a platform for Applications... The iPhone is basically, locked up, blocked up and useless... Yes it looks good.

    I can do all those things mentioned above on my HTC Touch Diamond, It may not be pretty but then neither is my PC but it does all the things you want or need a smart phone to do... Does your iPhone ? NO it doesn't, does it make you look cool to thickos who don't actually have a real reason for having a smart phone ? YES.

    :D

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Honestly...

    How long do you play with these phones?

    You know, live with them, use them day to day, get to know them...

    Cos I know two people with the Omnia, and they both absolutely hate it! You give it 80%.

    If you really want to check out the iPhone killers you should give an iPhone and other phones to one person who isn't a current iPhone owner (or any of the others) and leave them too it for several weeks.

    Nothing is really going to match the user interface of the iPhone, they have that down to a fine art - protected by a million lawyers, but feature wise there are far better.

  25. Steve Evans

    @ClammyLammy

    Agreed.

    I use the internet on my N95 all the time. Mainly via wifi points as I'm tight! lol!

    I've won ebay auctions and chatted to friends using skype over wifi from various parts of the planet. Taken some cracking pictures and uploaded them onto facebook to annoy friends who weren't on holiday :-)

    I have a couple of microSD cards in my wallet, one for my music and the other for storing pictures and video.

    Total cost of all these features... £0, phone was a free upgrade. OperaMini free, Fring free.

    The main reason I went with OperaMini is it allows me to turn off images on a website which keeps the data bill down if I happen to browse via my carrier instead of wifi.

  26. Will Godfrey Silver badge
    Coat

    Anyone know...

    where I can get a device for making voice calls, and maybe send an occasional text message?

    The one with the two tin cans and piece of string in the pocket.

  27. Gary F 1

    Yawn

    "It's a slider with four-line Qwerty keypad, which will always beat the iPhone's rather cramped onscreen keyboard for ease of use"

    Seriously, has the person who wrote that line actually used either device to type?

    So a landscape onscreen keyboard is more cramped than those tiny little slide out keys.

    Even the standard iPhone keyboard isn't as cramped as the Pre keyboard.

    But then it is the Pre vs the iPhone so I guess you have to find something to try to make the imitator sound better.

    After all the hype (at least amongst the geeky circles), the Pre hasn't exactly caused the expected excitement and mass defections from the iPhone.

    Maybe people have wised up to the fact that this is Palms last gasp and won't risk having a phone that is doomed to be left behind with no support when Palm fall.

    The nerdcore here just don't get it, do they.

    People LIKE the iPhone. Whether you do or not. And they don't care if you like it or not.

    It works for them. It does what they want it to do, and does it without huge user effort. It is well supported and has a huge amount of easily accessible apps to expand the experience.

    You people can rant on about the pixels in the camera etc but only you care about that stuff.

    Also, whatever phone you are using now, you should thank Apple.

    Before the iPhone, mobiles had a slow upgrade cycle, adding one or two new features here and there to try and tempt you to upgrade. Touch screens were nowhere to be seen, multimedia and internet experiences were very poor and user interfaces were horrific.

    Now 2 years later, look how your Nokias and Motorolas have been forced to offer you so much more.

    Seriously, look at their hideous phones from 2 years ago and then look at todays. And then thank Apple for that huge leap.

  28. Busted

    @ Gary F 1

    "Before the iPhone, mobiles had a slow upgrade cycle, adding one or two new features here and there to try and tempt you to upgrade. Touch screens were nowhere to be seen, multimedia and internet experiences were very poor and user interfaces were horrific."

    Fail

    XDA, Ipaq and it's ilk all had touch screens well before the Iphone and as for slow upgrade cycles remind me what apple's upgrade was this time as last time it was 3G whoohoo but a bit late.

    The only thing Apple have done is what they are good at, which is to dumb it all down make it look pretty and give it a good PR spin.

  29. Vision Aforethought
    Pint

    @K800i comment - agreed!

    I have returned to a trusty K800i after having gone through three (excellent, except the camera and lack of letters on the number keys making punching in passwords a pain in the @*&#!) Nokia E71s, a Samsung ToccoULTRA (great camera & video), a Nokia N95 8G (possibly the best all rounder phone I have ever owned, but a little too bulky) and am managing to do all that I did on these other phones on the K800i - in fact, I own an iPod Touch, and while the apps are outstanding, Apple's web browser is too much work over the nice automated browser on the K800i (not sure whose it is, Netfront? Opera?) that formats the text and forms on the fly - IE, nationalrail.co.uk is all compact and nice and takes way less time to fill in and submit than on Apple's browser.

    All said, it is the view of this here poster that the future lies with Android, as long as Google are able to build upon ALL the sorts of technologies Apple have under the hood of OS X and the iPhone OS, namely, advanced 3D graphics, multitouch and more.

  30. Vision Aforethought
    Megaphone

    Samsung Jet is a worthy contender

    Check out it's specs on GSMArena.com (and soon, a shortform review) at Fonebox.com.

  31. Andrew Peake

    hmmmm

    I have to say having used 2 HTC devices in the past (one still partially used) after 10 minutes I want to throw them at the wall - having to realign the touch screen every few minutes does that to you.

    I am not an iphone lover but really do not like HTC.

  32. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    iphone hate...get over it!

    I am struggling to find a phone that matches the iPhone feature for feature.

    None offers a better browsing experience, nor do they offer a superior music experience.

    None offers the wide range of apps - both free and paid, commercial of free-ware.

    It's far from perfect, No proper multi-tasking, no OLED screen, not LED flash, no customisable widgety home screen, no folders for putting your apps into, and it is locked down to kingdom come, but compared to the competition, it's the most usable, most feature rich, and most supported of the touch screen smart-phones out there.

    Nokia is years behind with it's S60 interface, and has failed miserably to update it with the N97 or 5800.

    Android is fragmented, and hasn't got decent hardware behind it yet.

    Pre has no on-screen keyboard and still has no API widely available.

    Blackberry's storm is a joke - the sluggish push-in screen interface is a painful experience.

    Windows Mobile is a mess - resource hungry, sluggish, fragmented, and just painful to use ina touch screen environment.

    Yes, hardware functions like cameras, speed, RAM, and radio are all well and good, but I'd rather have a decent user experience than one that is hampered by a sluggish unfriendly UI.

    The only viable alternative to the iPhone as far as I am concerned is an amalgamation of Android and Pre.

  33. Fred Flintstone Gold badge

    Have both a Sony Ericsson and an iPhone 3G

    It's taken a while, but finally the iPhone has moved to a similar level of functionality as the Sony (p1i). I'm lucky in that I didn't have to buy the iPhone, it's a company phone, but I'm now seriously considering upgrading my personal Sony Ericsson to the 3G S, for the following reasons:

    - I also have an iPod. Having that in the phone means less to carry

    - It is OK to use. The camera on the 3G is rubbish, and the lack of cut and paste was ridiculous for a phone that claims to be user friendly, but stuff like conf. calling works well, the handsfree is OK and the default data allowance just about works for me.

    - The 3G S fixes the bits I didn't like. The new phone had proper encryption and can be zapped on remote (critical IMHO for anythign used for business), it has a better camera (don't need it but good to have around) and it's faster, which was my main gripe with the 3G.

    However, there is one, ab-so-lu-te killer business feature which makes me reluctant to ditch the Sony Ericsson just yet: it can OCR business cards. The app uses the camera to take a picture of a busines scard and is very good at extracting the information from it. If that became available on the iPhone it would remove the last barrier..

  34. Rob 30
    Thumb Up

    @Bacon, re nicotine withdrawal

    you should check out the electric ciggies mate, they're effin' amazing, i got one as a guy at work had one & was singing it's praises. i thought it might just be an interesting gadget but i haven't smoked any baccy for over a week without even trying now, good stuff.

    try googling 'electronic cigarette', i got a titan tecc 510 from the first result. it gives out water vapour with nicotine in it when you drag on it, takes a bit of getting used to, like switching to silk cut or something, but you can smoke it inside without setting off fire alarms, which is nice.

    i imagine there could be health issues, but it's hard to see how it could be worse than actual smoke, & it breaks the habit. can't speak highly enough about it really, way better than patches gum or those inhaler things, all of which i have tried at some point.

  35. Number6

    K800i

    I agree with the others about the K800i being a good all-round device. I finally swapped mine for an E71, which I also like (not sure about the comment from Vision Aforethought about letters on the number keys - mine has both letters and numbers on the central keys).

    To me, a smartphone has to be not an iPhone and not run Windows Mobile, so that leaves Symbian and Android. I don't know that Android is quite there yet, but next time I want to upgrade it may well be. Or it might have degenerated into an "all your apps are belong to us" in the manner of the iPhone. I'm not keen on touch screens, they inevitably get dirty in use. I've disliked them ever since the HP oscilloscope I used 20 years ago had one and the screen was invariably hard to use because of the finger marks. It also had the annoying habit of popping up menus when someone as trying to point out something on the trace.

  36. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    @AC Friday 26th June 2009 18:58

    Well done. Do you want a meddle now? Or perhaps a gold star. To say that iPhone is 'useless' is a bit puerile I'd argue. It's works extremely well as an email device. It is arguably the best in class web browsing platform, and the range of apps available is too shabby either, with most being very reasonably priced or even free, oh and it's popular too. Just because some fanboy nerds don't like it and equate easy to use and looks good with not technical and un-business like doesn't mean it's not a capable device. The keyboard is a matter of taste, but I've found it to be better than most HTC devices and certainly better than Blackberry, and now with OS 3.0 it more flexible than those mentioned anyway (portrait and landscape full keyboard).

    By "free OS" I can only presume that you mean that iPhone OS and OS X are based on BSD? FAIL. I wish you astroturfers would do your research. Use Google (or Bing) to search for Xnu. It'll explain why OS X isn't entirely based on BSD and isn't a free OS.

    "Can you use the Opera Mobile Web Browser," Got Safari, works a treat. Why would anyone want to use Opera? Sure they're good at claiming they innovate (not really true), but the browsers IME are buggy and a nightmare to actually use.

    "Use free programs like puTTY" Plenty of terminal apps on the iPhone. None that I know of are free at the moment, that's not to say that there aren't any. Not many are more than £5. The one I use cost 59p and is really rather good. http://jbrink.net/touchterm/index.html

    "can you install codecs for media" Why bother? It supports all the media types that the majority of people use/need. Not to mention that that is one of the main ways malware is distributed...

    "What about GPS can you get OS Maps and TOM TOM software on there ! ?" GPS has been a feature since last year! As for the rest; http://iphone.tomtom.com/ http://www.codeartisans.co.uk/ and more - search Google.

    "What about all kinds of other free software" Loads of free software available on the app store. If you really want to jailbreak, there are even more.

    Don't get me wrong there are a few things I'd like to see improved, but it really is one of, if not the best smartphone on the market AT THE MOMENT. I doubt that Microsoft will catch up with the pack. Nokia need to let go the dreadful S60 OS. Android is only going to get better, and we'll wait until the Pré has been released globally before judgement can be made, but it looks promising. The others may have more features (some would argue unnecessary bloat), but none do it as well as the iPhone, and when things get reduced to mobile levels, usability is King.

    Maybe if you were to try more fruit you'd be slightly less of a spotty nerd. You may even meet some girls...

  37. tomjol
    FAIL

    @AC "Dude, 5 years gives you time to do things like bug fixing."

    That's true, and there's no denying that the platform has come a hell of a long way in the past five years. It's still flawed though - updates are all...er...what's the phrase "polishing a turd", rather than built from scratch to have a nice user experience as iPhone OS, Android and webOS were. WinMo wasn't designed for touchscreen devices and, while you can use it with touchscreen devices easily enough, it's clearly designed for a stylus. HTC in particular have made some improvements, but it still lags behind its competitors.

    Of course, none of that matters to the hardcore group of WinMo users who refuse to consider any other option and spend their time bleating on about how all iPhone owners are sheep and know nothing about smartphones. Fair enough, if that's how they want to play it, that's up to them I suppose...yes, I'm referring to the AC with the title "Why are people dumb?". Having gone through his list of things that the iPhone supposedly can't do, it seems he's the dumb one (the only thing listed that the iPhone can't do is install codecs...oh no! Disaster!).

  38. Slava
    Thumb Down

    All suck. Waiting for Toshiba TG01

    delayed a bit, should be in june (dynamism dot com)

  39. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    @Busted

    Rubbish. They had a stylus based interface where the nail on your pinkie would also work. Nothing with the accuracy of the iPhone touch interface. Windows Mobile is still a couple of years off having a true touch screen interface in that regard. What is it with you fanboys? Windows Mobile isn't better because it's harder to use! Infact the opposite is true - iPhone is better because it's easier to use. Besides, with your definition of touch screen, Microsoft are copying Apple's Newton, and I'm positive someone else did it before that. Is an objects popularity upsetting you that much? Diddums.

  40. Law
    Go

    @ Fred Flintstone

    "However, there is one, ab-so-lu-te killer business feature which makes me reluctant to ditch the Sony Ericsson just yet: it can OCR business cards. The app uses the camera to take a picture of a busines scard and is very good at extracting the information from it. If that became available on the iPhone it would remove the last barrier.."

    Just use the free Evernote iPhone app to send all this info to a free account, does voice/text/images - it OCR's all images taken and adds it all (text, location, image, date/time) into your searchable database which is available in your account online via any browser, and also your windows/mac/iphone clients too. Oh - it's also free unless you are a really heavy user (like super heavy - I use it alot and have never come close to needing to pay!). It's stupidly easy to use too - just point and shoot - it then syncs instantly over 3g or when you are in wifi spot depending on your settings.

    My only gripe with my iPhone 3G right now is that the 3.0 update last week has turned it into a slow and buggy phone at the minute. It's been near perfect for me until the update, now it's slow, it's not giving me an audible message tone at random times, sometimes it will double or triple message tone me in a row for 1 message - the damn thing ignores home button presses occasionally, it still capitilises white for no reason (but at least it doesn't auto-correct realise to realize now). Today was a bad day - it wouldn't slide-unlock because I got a new message... I've had similar reports from other friends about problems to do with messaging... then I have others who have no issues other than slightly annoying lags sometimes. It's bizarre.

  41. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Stop, look, listen.

    To everyone berating the iPhone's lack of features w.r.t. Nokias, SonyEricssons, etc., Apple's strategy is basically the same as the Japanese car manufacturers' one in the 70's. Basically, they start with a basic device that *works beautifully* and over time slowly add features in a controlled manner to that solid base. Essentially the K.I.S.S. principle.

    The iPhone is not about features, it is about usability. Any comparison with other devices based on features will generally make the iPhone look bad. But tech folk love features and stats because they can be trotted out top-trumps style ad infinitum.

    Posted from my computer because a 17" screen will always beat a 3.5" screen (see what I did there!)

  42. Codge
    Stop

    @Bacon

    A heart attack and patches have made it easy for me to give up the evil weed! Just the occasional "pipe" now.

    Good luck.

  43. Player_16
    Thumb Up

    @ Busted

    Fail?

    'XDA, Ipaq and it's ilk all had touch screens well before the Iphone and as for slow upgrade cycles remind me what apple's upgrade was this time as last time it was 3G whoohoo but a bit late.'

    Yes they had touch screens... came with a stick as suggested. but you could (just) use your finger. And as for upgrades, look how long it took for those companies to realize there was a better way at doing nothing. How much memory did those come with?

    As Gary F 1 has said; '...whatever phone you are using now, you should thank Apple.' And even you agreed to that....

    'The only thing Apple have done is what they are good at, which is to dumb it all down make it look pretty and give it a good PR spin.'

    I couldn't agree more!

  44. Fab De Marco

    My Gripe is Fashion Vs. Technology

    What annoys me about the iphone is that it has become more of a fashion accessory rather than a device. and as such I have trouble taking it seriously. Theres a girl in my office, typical sex and the city girl, all handbags and shoes and she says to me I want to get an iphone. She can't justify the monthly costs, it is too expensive for her but she wants one. When I asked her why she could not give me a sensible answer related to a feature that the iphone has. She just wanted it as a material possesion.

    So based on that, there are a lot of iphone users that use their phone to make phone calls, send SMS and thats it. Thats like buying a ferrari and sticking to the speed limits. In both scenarios it is a waste of much potential.

    If a company suceeds based on merrit of its technology then I can respect it, but if it makes its money based on the kind of guy that gets his pint at the pub, sits down and puts his phone on the table with no intention of using it then it makes me die a little bit inside.

    It's like willy waving but its phone waving.

  45. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'm getting a 3Gs..

    My screen broke and my contracts up for renewal.

    When it comes to a great user experience I feel the jesusphone really is a step up from the rest.

    I do miss being able to run apps in the background on my N6600 (Which is about 5 years old now. Lol) but I can see why they did it. A wifi enabled device that is also a leader in smartphones run by a company that doesn't really "get" security.

    It's no surprise they did that.

    I just wonder if these push notifications are going to work as planned.

  46. Alex C

    @Law

    I've noticed the recent slowdown - but from vs 2.2.1 (or whichever the version that came out a month or so before 3 was).

    Since nothing else on the machine changed I've had to assume they'd put some limiting factor into it to encourage us to move up to 3G S.

    I'll freely admit becoming a fanboy since moving over from my beloved Sony Ericssons of the past decade (and for those who cry - 'where are the features?' - the answer is in the smooth UI), but am under no illusion that Apple is some sort of tech charity.

    I'm curious if others have noticed this from before vs 3? If so, I wonder if we at can scream loud enough to have this rectified in a further "update"?

    Ho Hum

  47. Steve King

    When you pay your own money....

    I use a G1. Not even reviewed here, and it has suffered lots of abuse for the hardware being 'below par'.

    To be honest, I was worried about the hardware, as I had a stylus based WinMo HTC 3 years ago and the hardware was rubbish.

    However, my experience with the G1 has been excellent. I've had it four months so far, and I love being able to do things I never expected a phone to be able to do. Recently I needed a guitar tuner, and in a flash of inspiration thought "I'll just try the Android Marketplace" - result one free and very usable chromatic tuner for the phone!

    No techie skills needed - it all just works.

    I do wish the battery were better, but then it was £30/month. The nearest equivalent iPhone deals at the time were £45 and £55/month. You pay your money and take your choice (if you are rich enough!).

  48. David Kelly 1
    Thumb Up

    @Fred Flintstone

    Try this iPhone app for OCR of business cards:

    http://iphone.netwalk.be/content/snabiz

  49. Ancient Oracle funkie

    @Giles Jones

    who asks "why is it the benchmark device?"

    The answer is depressingly simple - because the Apple brand/marketing is so successful. Note I said brand not products. I remember the original iPod (yes, I am that old). A lovely looking piece of kit but hampered by DRM issues and a distinct lack of features. But did the various iPod killers that could play DRM-free tracks and had video playback outsell the iPod? Of course not because everyone wanted an iPod. Why? Marketing! Apple is cool, etc. So the iPod ruled the world.

    Same with the iPhone (although I will admit that it does look as if it really is a genuinely good piece of kit). People just want one. Hence it is the benchmark device; even if it is over-priced and only available on O2

  50. Steve King

    Texting

    Forgot to mention in my previous comment that two 20-something women in my office recently changed their phones. Absolutely iPhone core market - fashion conscious, into Facebook and mobile apps and so on. Very tech-aware without being in any way 'techies'.

    Neither chose the iPhone as neither could text at a reasonable speed on the keyboard. One ended up getting a Samsung of some kind and the other got a Blackberry (which amazed me - my last Blackberry couldn't even display a PDF file - I said never again after that!)

  51. Fatty Treats

    It's been asked, however

    Where's the Touch Pro 2?

  52. tiggertaebo
    Grenade

    horses for courses

    when it comes to picking a phone (or any other product really) I generally look for something that satisfies the need for which I am buying it. For a phone I want (in order):

    Good phone (calls, texting, MMS - in that order)

    Customisation (ring tones, themes, home screen - I want it to feel like *my* device)

    Good camera (can't be arsed to carry a separate digicam all the time)

    Non-network based mapping

    Connectivity (bluetooth, wifi etc)

    Web (rocking horse poo)

    Email (golden rocking horse poo)

    Music player

    Oh and yes i want a physical keypad. I cannot stand doing text input on a touchscreen, tried it on multiple devices and I loathe it with a passion that is almost holy.

    So looking at all the above shockingly enough the iPhone isn't the best fit for MY* needs. I know. I know. This means that I need to go to the White Room for "re-education"

    What it does mean however is that my current N95 fits the bill in most every respect, sure its not perfect, The tendency of the text client to slowdown when I get above about 2000 message in my inbox is a pain in the ass, it would be nice to change the snooze length on the alarm (you let me change EVERYTHING else but not that??) and yes occasionally it gets confused and thinks my photos need to be upside-down (N95 users will know what I mean) but they aren't deal-breakers by any means. Oh and because its not got all the Beautiful People(TM) falling over themselves to hand over wodges of money I got a contract that suits my high need for minutes/texts at a very reasonable price without forking over anything for the phone!

    May you all find your perfect phone!

    *Your needs may vary

  53. Sordid Details
    Grenade

    All bets are off

    Wait until you can try the HTC Hero. I'm currently trialling it for one of the UK networks and you are going to love it. How can you take my word for that? Because I'm an Apple fan-boi and I'm thinking I prefer the Hero to my iPhone...!!!

  54. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    RE: K800i

    I'm going to go a bit further, and say that the K800i is the best phone I've ever actually owned.

    With the screen brightness at 50%, which is still very bright, the phone lasts me 4 to 5 days with calls, texts, and messing about on the internet using opera mini, which with the zoom on the new version is a joy to use.

    Most of Sony Ericsson's newer phones still use mostly the same hardware as this, but use cheaper processor chips, so that's why the K800i, especially with the latest firmware release a few months ago, is faster than those! Which works out great for videos, applications, games and using the internet, but not good for the upgrade cycle. I quit my contract to keep this thing, as I realized I had found the phone I can live with for many years until it eventually dies.

    I want to make an important point: WHY ARE YOU ALL SO CONCERNED WITH WLAN?!?! You do know that in many other countries, unlimited or very generous data charges are cheap, ie: £5 to £10 per month equivalent?

    Why should you be turning off pictures on your web browser on your phone? Don't the networks *want* you to be at least on a package that makes you use the internet on your phone, or download applications, etc? It's crazy!

    WLAN is free, and I don't think so many people here can be bothered paying subscription charges to BT and the like to get wireless access. Admittedly phones suffer in the battery life department whilst using 3G, but with opera mini and just normal GPRS, I still find it acceptable, given it's a phone, and very usable.

    The networks in the UK are crazy, I've been around the world, and nobody's bothered with wireless WLAN on their phone, because data is included for them in a package. That's why in Japan and China people can use the internet on the subway or bus to work, and not worry about the cost of downloading pictures.

    It's craziness!!!!

  55. Defiant
    Thumb Up

    N97

    Nokia's first touch phone is the Nokia 5800 which also seems a much better spec than the iphone 3gs

  56. Steven Gray
    Stop

    @Ancient Oracle funkie

    "I remember the original iPod (yes, I am that old). A lovely looking piece of kit but hampered by DRM issues and a distinct lack of features."

    Clearly, your memory is failing. The original iPod - the 5 Gigabyte one with the mechanical scroll wheel - was unhampered by DRM... because, well, DRM didn't exist. The iTunes Music Store didn't exist.

    iTunes was a software product that ran under Apple's OS9, and soon after, OS X, and was ostensibly there to manage MP3s on your Mac. It was there to rip your CDs to AAC or MP3 - neither with DRM. AAC tracks and MP3s could be moved to devices that supported them. (IIRC, early versions of iTunes didn't even rip to AAC, hence some of my music is still in it's mp3 format). The 1st gen iPod appeared some time after iTunes was introduced.

    Features? Well, autosyncing over 400mb/s firewire was /slightly/ quicker than 12mb/s USB 1.1 (the only option on other players at the time unless you count SD players). I'd say that was a feature. Physically smaller than the competition? Feature. A pleasure to use? Feature. 40 channel equaliser? Er, ya got me there.

    Sorry for the history lesson, but it annoys me when people lay the whole DRM issue at Apples doorstep, when in fact it was instigated by the record industry so that Apple (and others) could sell music online. And everyone knows that.

  57. The Original Ash
    Thumb Down

    @Defiant

    Yeah, but it's still a S60 device. My E51 is S60 and the browsing is less than stellar. Plus, while you can get an HTC Magic for free on a £30 18 month contract, you can't get an N97 until you hit £45 24 month (At least from Phones4U, where I went yesterday to look at both of these phones).

    YMMV

  58. Defiant
    Grenade

    Know what you are talking about

    @The Original Ash

    Yes it's an S60 device & yes that OS has had problems and I should know because my last 4 or 5 phones have used it. The problem here though is you are knocking the s60 5th edition without knowing the score because this baby really is much, much better. The speed is near enough instant and smooth & packed with features. Also I'm not tied down to Apple!

  59. Michael Brown
    Jobs Halo

    @AC re: K800i

    Yes, the K800i was/is a great phone. It was by far the best phone I had ever owned until I switched to my iPhone 3G. Since doing so the only thing I've occasionally missed is the great camera, but not much TBH. The K800i camera might blow the doors off the camera in the iPhone but it's still just a toy compared with any real camera, even a point and shoot cheapie. So, for the typical "taking a pic for an MMS" usage a phone camera gets the iPhone camera is as adequate as that on the K800i or any other phone camera.

    "messing about on the internet using opera mini, which with the zoom on the new version is a joy to use." and "with opera mini and just normal GPRS, I still find it acceptable".

    You are joking aren't you?? Granted, Opera Mini is about as good as mobile browsing can get on a screen the size of a postage stamp but it's still a huge chore. To be used only when there's absolutely no alternative. Mobile browsing with Safari on iPhone however is just amazing, as good as using the browser on your PC or Mac. The same can be said for e-mail. Yes, it worked, painfully, on the K800i, but on the iPhone it's pretty much as good as on a PC. When I'm at home I frequently check my mail and surf the net on my iPhone rather than walk 5 yards to the iMac sitting in my office.

    Videos on the K800i?? Watching them? See "postage stamp screen" above. Since I've had my iPhone I've been able to watch entire series (like Lost, Alias etc) on the train to work. You really lose nothing compared to watching them on TV.

    Oh, and about people's WLAN "obsession". Guess what? My iPhone contract with Vodafone in Portugal gives me a 500Mb monthly data limit. That's perfectly fine for daily surfing (and yes, we can surf the net on the metro here) but you'll soon blow it if you watch a few YouTube vids or use streaming radio, so yes, WLAN is very important.

  60. Olivier 2
    Thumb Up

    The only contender for me

    I would have gone for an iphone 3GS but for the same reason as tomjol (too pricey for the minutes and texts and phone you get) I didn't.

    I went for the HTC Magic. Certainly it's got failings but email and internet are great on this. I hardly use gmail or thunderbird on my PC anymore. And pretty much every app I've tried work great and the integration is really good, if not perfect. It shines for the same reason that the iPhone shines, if maybe a little less brightly : outstanding usability. My Nokia E71 did more out of the box but despite being a great phone, was a pain to use by comparison. Also the Magic benefits from the same promise of ongoing OS updates as the iPhone but without ever having to connect it to a PC.

    Sadly it doesn't look as good as the iphone but much to my liking, doesn't attract much attention.

  61. rash.m2k

    Not likely.

    Nothing will ever be as good as the iPhone.

    Practically ALL the touchscreen phones can beat the iPhone in terms of specs. However none of them have the same mad cult of followers - hence difficult to beat.

    I however think almost all touchscreen phones are better than the iPhone, especially in terms of price.

  62. lukewarmdog

    HTC Touch Pro 2

    I didn't buy an iPhone for the sole reason I have an iPod Touch and didn't want to replace it. It's a lovely device but I bought the HTC Touch Pro 2 instead for Outlook and multiple input options.

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