Slashdot Mirror
Does Anyone Actually Use a "Smartphone"?
jm2morri asks: "I am currently in the market for a new cell phone and while I'm at it I'd really like to combine my PalmOS based PDA into my new cell phone. I'd really like to keep PalmOS based so that I can sync with my wife who has a PalmOS based PDA as well. However I don't want a camera since there are new security laws being written, as I type this, to restrict the use of camera-phones. Has anyone used one of the smartphones on the market? What is the voice quality like? How often does it crash? Do you have any other observations?"
I own a Sony Ericsson P800 and if a could afford it i would buy me another phone. With the last firmware the uptime increased to 2 weeks, but for the most you have to reboot because bluetooth did not work anymore.
I like the pen based input and with some extra software the "smartphone" features like calendar, todo list, etc. are okay.
I can't say about the P900, but when bluetooth and the OS is more stable i would give it a try.
For the last year and a half, I have been using a Motorola A008 which is a simple smartphone. While I didn't expect to find it so useful (I bought it because it was a special offer for 99ukp for a sim free GPRS - ideal spare phone).
The notepad and enhanced contacts are invaluable, as is the keyboard for sms.
Sadly, it recently developed a really weird fault (works when roaming, just not at home!) and to save time I just upgraded to the Treo 600.
Just my first impressions, but it looks like it will prove just as useful, though not always as convenient, but I can put multilingual dictionaries on it which is a great use for me. mobile email is also a consideration.
All in all, so long as the phone side isn't made too difficult, some of us can make good use of smart phones. However, if all you want is a nice decent phone, there are many simpler and more convenient devices on the market.
I have an sph-i300 from Samsung. It's a standard Palm phone with the keypad on the screen. It's not much bigger than a regular palm, but the screen is a bit smaller.
I like it a lot, as I have all my numbers, appointments and little notes on my phone, which is hard to forget at home. And syncing it with my PC is the #1 reason I bought it, as I won't have to worry about syncing my phone and palm together and if I do lose my phone, I still have all the numbers. I just get any new Palm OS phone and sync it and I'm golden.
There are tons of programs for Palm including an SSH client, IRC client, a ping util and a couple of browsers that are good in a pinch (and only in a pinch, really).
I have two compliants about this phone though. This particlular phone is not compatible with Sprint's vision service, so my phone tops out at 14.4k. The i330 is vision capable, so I imagine I will get that next. Also, the screen is hard to see in the sun, which is a minor inconvienence.
I say if you can deal with carrying something of that size all the time, go for it.
ft
The first one had its problems - it was a little unresponsive (as compared to a stock Nokia etc) and its battery life sucked a bit (I got about 3 days standby out of it). The mail/sms client behaved a little oddly at times as well. I stuck with the Smartphone for the simple reason of Outlook integration, which was excellent.
The E200 fixes most of the problems and has some nice additional features (multiple POP3 accounts etc etc). The battery life is a little better and generally the phone is a lot more responsive. The best bit is that I can now sync it over the air (GPRS) with Exchange 2002 automatically. I always have my latest mail/contacts/calendar even when I haven't been at my desktop for a while. This, for me, is the silver bullet. Any other idiosyncracies I can handle.
My only other complaint would be its size - it is a touch bulky, but Motoral do a flip version I think which solves that problem (although it doesn't have bluetooth in its current form I think).
Hope that helps
'Internet! Is that thing still around?' - Homer Simpson
I use a 3G Motorola A920. Great phone. Sucky company (Hutchinson/3)
I've hacked mine a bit (replaced some of the UIQ components with third party ones) to allow me to install software (3 lock thier phones down to ensure that you can't install fun software on your phone, bollocks to that I say).
There are some stability issues (opening a 2MB e-book in html on the opera browser will cause it to lose connection with 3's network sometimes). A quick reboot fixes those of course. What price we must pay for our toys.
Also, battery life becomes more of an issue because you're dealing with a 266MHz CPU in your pocket, not just a flimsy phone-call appliance.
What's the good?
- Internet access on my phone
- Games games games
- MP3 playback
- Camera and video recording/playback
- Reading e-books wherever I go
- Phone takes 128MB SDcards for storing more MP3's
- Using MP3's as a ringtone
- Awesome address book/calendaring
- Email from your phone
- All the other neat PDA stuff
I love PDA functionality. I would own a PDA, but I would never take it with me anywhere, always leave it at home because I don't need it (like any other gadget). I have to carry my phone for work purposes, and it's useful to have with me. It also happens to do all these other amazing things. And all I need when I go out is my phone, my wallet, and my keys, and I'm set with all those capabilities listed above. It's much better than carrying phone, keys, wallet, pda, mp3 player, camera, video camera... forget that. You'd buy the camera and leave it at home and never get to take that nice picture when you get the chance. Likewise you never know when you'll get bored and just pop open one of your ebooks and have a read, or browse over to bash.org and see what people are being quoted for saying.
I am government man, come from the government. The government has sent me. -- G.I.R.
I have a Sony Ericsson P900, and absolutely love it.
:(
It does just about everything, and is the perfect compromise for a PDA/Phone (ie, not to big and not too small).
The sound quality is fantastic! The persons voice sounds more realistic, not high pitched and tinny like it did on my Sony Ericsson T610.
The reception is also excellent. I live in a dead zone and the T610 would never work (nor would any other mobile) but the P900 works fine! Maybe it has a bigger internal antenna since its physically bigger.
The phone is superb. I would definitely recommend it, or the P1000 (or whatever it will be called) when its released later in the year. Apparently this one will have a keyboard on the back of the flip.
Unfortunately the phone has a camera, as all new phones and PDA/Smartphones do these days
I'm not sure what you can do about that... pretty much every phone has a camera these days, so you're pretty much stuck using an old phone + PDA combo or just get a camera phone/smartphone/etc.
Everyone is gonna have them, so places will just need to learn to deal with it.
D.
You can tell how powerful someone is by the magnitude of the crime they can commit and be able to get away with.
But, I have a friend who does. He doesn't read Slashdot though, but he really knows his stuff about Smartphones. Drop him a line
Join the Free Software Foundation
I use a Nokia 6600 and synchronize it with MS Outlook and my Clie.
The OS is not too stable and I get sporadic crashes. Though it is mostly fixed in the latest firmware upgrade. Unfortunately the firmware is not user upgradable and you have to go to a service center which charges you for the service of upgrading your cellphone firmware.
The cellphone will eventually replace my PDA, but not at the moment, since it still has some useful apps which are not available in the cellphone (SecondScreen TV, HandyShopper and Mapopolis). What would eventually end up is my PDA will end up as a secondary device but no longer something I carry around all the time. If any I would be getting a GBA SP to replace my PDA because primarily I use it to play a few games on the road, the cellphone has a few games but the phone UI is not too friendly for games.
Also Nokia beats the pants off any other cellphone I have tried so far for text messaging with the keypad. For text messaging I prefer to use the standard keypad with the T9 dictionary, YMMV and most people would prefer an easily misplaced stylus and a bulkier cellphone to support stylus input. The Nokia 6600 is pretty bulky as it is, unfortunately it was the only 6000 series Nokia that had all the features I wanted at the time.
Archie - CIO-for-hire
Working for Nokia I've participated in several internal product testing (beta) programs over the last four years. The best advice I can give to someone considering a smartphone is this: Wait until the device has been on the market for a few months before you buy it.
Internal testing is pretty good at finding major bugs, but some always slip through and find their way into the hands of the consumer. Most of these become obvious after the device has been on the market for just a few weeks - the sheer volume of people using the devices means bugs are found quickly. Nokia is pretty good at taking that feedback and rolling out updated firmware - usually less than two months after the product's been on the market. (Gotta keep that field failure rate down!)
People looking for stability should avoid devices that use the initial firmware version, unless they mind taking their device in for an update a few months later.
It was the same with my Sony Ericsson P900. The initial firmware release (R1A) had some annoying problems which are well documented on enthusiast sites, but four revisions later (R4B) it's turned out to be a fantastic device.
Blue skies, Barthy Burgers, girls...
Mine has crashed in the single-digit numbers of times since I got it. I have found that letting it run out of battery while roaming tends to drive it nuts, and that situation got me both my two data-loss crashes...since then, i've carried a live backup on the 256MB SD card I keep in the unit with my 'critical MP3s' and 64MB worth of files. I use it as a backup MP3 player as well. Battery life is presently around 2.5 days, but that's on the original battery - when new, it lasted around 4, with moderate talktime. This one is on Verizon, btw.
I'd recommend it wholeheartedly for one reason: I no longer need carry a Palm and a phone. This one does the job of both. It's a *slightly* compromised phone (big, battery hungry) and a more compromised Palm (OS4, lousy processor) but its advantages (for me) more than outweigh those issues. I like it quite a bit, and consider it the first real 'phone that science fiction promised me as a kid.'
A hero is someone who knows when to run away. I am a hero. -Trent the Uncatchable
I have the Samsung SPH-i500 via Sprint. This is the size of a normal phone, and was designed for being a phone first. I really like the fact that if I wanted it only for use as a phone - it is still a great phone.
If you open it up it has a screen on top that has your phone menus (like address book etc) or Palm OS menus. On the bottom it has your keypad and a small area to write - just like the Palm. So the PDA functionality is also pretty good.
I also like that this particular phone does not have a camera. It has a color screen, multiple ringtones, etc. It doesn't send SMS to other sprint phones natively (although it can receive them), but there is a 3rd party app you can download for this.
My service (quality/coverage) with Sprint has been excellent. My experience with customer service with Sprint - not so much.
I think when you ask this question you have to ask if you want something that was designed to be a good phone first, or a good PDA first. I think, out of all the phones I have seen, this is the best combination.
Hope this helps.
It crashes about once a month with no serious side effects (reboot in under a minute). It runs most Palm software well.
The battery life very good for a PDA, comparable to other digital phones. Talking is the most power hungry activity. I never run out of juice, but YMMV depending on how much you talk. Handset gets uncomfortably hot if you talk a long time at maximum transmit power.
The screenvery good in most lghting conditions, and is at least usable in bright direct sunlight. The keyboard's OK, but a little cramped; the Blackberry layout is superior if you are doing lots of keying, but more awkward as a phone. You can do without stylus, but I miss graffiti sometimes.
The browser works suprising well. I can browse the non-PDA version of slashdot adequately. Naturally flash and ActiveX dependent sites don't work. You cannot use the phone as a modem for your laptop, a limitation designed for SPrint to avoid clashing with their PC card modems. However inexpensive third party software can turn it into a modem for your laptop.
THe camera is a complete piece of shit; it's basically a pinhole camera. Resolution is poor it has a serious problem except with very/strong. brightly lit scenes with low contrast. Basically, it's enough of a camera to get you into trouble in places where cameras are forbidden, but not enough to be useful for anything.
The phone has no bluetooth, but it does have a SDIO slot that may support an (as yet unreleased) third party bluetooth card. I understand there is a header on the PC board for the bluetooth chip, but it is not populated because Sprint doesn't want bluetooth on this beast.
Generally I'd rate it fine as a phone and about 80% as good as a Tungsten as a PDA. I'd prefer a Tungson and a small digital phone connected by bluetooth, but overall very good.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
I had Kyocera 6035 for a couple of years. Then I switched to Handspring (now PalmOne) Treo 600. I have been using it for over 6 months (since the week it came out in stores).
Treo 600 is the best smart phone on the market. I have sprint as my provider and also have their vision professional pack for $15 per month extra that allows me UNLIMITED web access. I have not used the SMS much but I mainly use my phone for voice calls which are of great quality, it has an awesome speaker phone, it does have a decent camera (cameraless versions to be available soon), included keyboard is the best. I also use my phone to check work email using Sprint's Business Connection software (don't need to buy extra VPN software), you can even log into your VPN using this phone, it also has POP and SMTP mail access, Calendar function is great and I use it greatly, Hotsynching is amazingly easy to do, you can install Palm applications over the air, included web browser is a full featured web browser and you can view just about any website. I also have an additional proxy based browser called Reqwireless WebViewer (a java based AMAZINGLY FAST browser, costs $20 one time, worth every penny).
This phone is amazing if you are a true computer user. I use it sometimes with VNC to access my Windows XP desktop!
There is so much you can do with this phone. There is tons of palm OS freeware and paid software. If you need answers to anything regarding this phone, check out Treocentral Discussion Forum. Great site with tons of useful info, people reviews, experiences and software links.
Do you specifically want a 'smartphone', or do you have a must-have feature list that's long? If not, why not get one of the simpler palm/phone combos?
I got the Samsung i500 shortly after it came out, and I love it. Form factor is great, battery life is good, color Palm 4.1 functionality works great, and the voice quality is as good as the network you're on (since basically the 'phone' software is just a Palm app that's hardcoded in - the mode switch button on the side is incredibly useful).
Signal strength is a little weak due to small antenna, and it does not have many of the funkier features bigger phones have like external speaker, enough space for MP3's, etc. Only thing I miss is not having an expandability slot of some kind: the original i500 is stuck with 16MB. Integration between Palm apps and the phone is good, but not great: most places in Address you can press Talk to dial the currently selected phone number, but you can't if you're actually editing an address record.
Other than very occasional sync problems, I've had no stability issues: the phone has never failed or had problems due to Palm apps or anything. So if stability is a concern, look for one of the less-feature-overladen Palm phones. 8-)
P.S. SprintPCS is great. But SprintPCS also sucks: no *supported* SMS exists for this phone that I know of.
I'm quite a fan of the Series 60 devices. Series 60 is a Symbian platform, and a couple of manufacturers produce phones based on it.
I've had a Nokia 3650 for about a year, and just got myself a Nokia 6600.
They're both pretty stable (occasional need to reboot due to memory leaks, but not too bad), loads of apps available for them (though quality does vary), and easy to write for yourself. Oh, and they're pretty damn good for voice calls too (nice speaker phone mode etc). Cheap too, I got both mine free when signing up for 12 months with my provider (Vodafone).
About the only downside is that input is only via the text pad. That said, you can buy a bluetooth keyboard + bluetooth keyboard software (3rd party) and you're away, so that's always an option
This post will enter the public domain 70 years after my death, unless Disney buys another extension.
Most of the comments here are focused on the merits or demerits of a particular smartphone. While I have one, the most important thing you should know is that there are real and significant benefits to an integrated smartphone that you cannot get with a separate phone and PDA. I've done both extensively, and the smartphone combo is terrifically more useful. Note the comments below are for a Palm smartphone - I don't know a single person that's tried a PocketPC smartphone (or PDA, for that matter) that's happy with it for very long.
Although it sounds simple, there is just no overstating the importance and power of having *all* your contacts with you at all times, and having that contact list integrated into your phone/dialer. No more wishing you'd put Joe's number into your phone, or trying to juggle data from the PDA to the phone. If you drive and talk, or ever want to be able to, this alone is enough reason to spring for the extra bucks for the smartphone. Bluetooth in both devices gets you closer, but it's nowhere near as transparent, and is a notorious security problem, too.
Don't worry about snazzo marketing features you'll probably never use. If you want an MP3 player, buy one, you'll probably be disappointed in your phone as one anyway - there's a lot of benefit in combining some devices, like the phone and PDA, but not much in combining those with an MP3 player or camera, for instance. The difference, of course, is that combining a PDA and phone is a win-win with few or no tradeoffs, while adding hardware to make even a decent smartphone passable as a digital camera or MP3 player is so expensive you can count on it being done only poorly.
Even 8 MB will store an enormous amount of data on a Palm device - many thousands of contacts, tons of text crunched into compact formats, and schedules forever. My phone is an older 8 MB one, and I have a LOT of contact and schedule data, plus a couple of versions of the entire Bible, and several dozen other essays, articles, and reference documents, and I still have over 2 MB left over. (I never even clean out old schedule events, I just leave them there since they're sometimes handy for future reference. I've been doing this for about 5 years with no problems at all.)
For all the benefits smartphones provide, though, the wireless carriers aren't capitalizing on the benefits of their networks or the growing intelligence at its ends - there are many enhancements that make sense, and could be supported, but aren't. For instance, rather than the relatively useless Bluetooth, why not have the ability to send contact info over the phone call itself? Use a digital connection on PCS networks, or even some clever touch-tone encoding to allow "beaming" directly over the phone line. This just makes sense, and could even be used by the carriers as a significant value-add, especially if the system works transparently across wired, wireless, and IP telephones. Here it is, the 21st century, and I'm still having phone calls saying "e-mail me you contact information, and I'll send you mine back." Why the heck can't that happen over the phone call? (Information could now justify some of their ridiculous $1.00 charges by "beaming" the number you just looked up into your contacts list, too, so you'll still have it after they've helpfully "connected you at no additional charge" - hope you wrote that number down, or it's another buck!)
Now a bit about specific phones, and picking them: Although it's really hard to find working demos of these phones, insist on using a live one *before* buying - there are often subtle things that will irritate you that you can't see until you try it. (For instance, I recently decided against upgrading to the Treo 600 because it has the camera (both useless and a liability) and also does not support Graffiti. The missing Graffiti support is not something that's obvious until you hold it in your hands - some people prefer silly blackberry-ish keyboards, but the lack of Graffiti killed the Treo for me - if i
"The future's good and the present is nothing to sneeze at." - Roblimo's last