Alternatives to the IPhone

Mr_Thrifty

Interesting comment about the Blackberry 9700 there. This phone looked stunning and absolutely perfect for all my needs. It even had UMA support so I could get perfect reception at home via my wi-fi. SORTED... or so I thought.

One of the key things I want to do with my phone is link it to my work e-mail and calendar, which uses Microsoft Exchange. Sadly however, Blackberry insist in such circumstances that you use their own special bit of software that you need to purchase and install on the server. Yuck! Can't they just connect directly to Microsoft Exchange? It's one of (if not the) most popular e-mail/calendar server software there is! Yet Blackberry seem to have gone down their own proprietary route, thereby rendering an otherwise perfect phone useless as far as I'm concerned. This was really disappointing, particularly when you think that Blackberry was supposed to be THE phone for e-mail.

I started looking at Windows Mobile phones... but the interface looks really bad.

Android based phones look like the best bet so far... but I need to find one which supports UMA ideally.

Why can't phone manufacturers just make one decent phone that does it all!

goonermontana

Mr Thrifty I could not agree more.

Its all a big bloomin farce.

almillar

The Palm Pre is an iPhone alternative, but unfortunately it's only available on o2 on that tariff you hate...

TommE

Hi

I have been looking for an alternative also but I am also struggling. There is the Sony Ericsson Xperia coming out in February 2010 which looks amazing! I also like the look of the Nokia N97. Has anyone used the Nokia? Is it any good?

Sublime_2

Have you looked at the Nokia N900, link. I love my 5800, but wow!

Sneezy

The HTC phones are okay as they have created the touch flo system - theres a fantastic review about the HTC phone in T3 thats worth reading (gadget magazine) - they also review other WM phones.

Mobiles.co.uk_company_representative

If you aren't desperate there's a massive increase in the number of "iPhone alternative" handsets coming out over the next 3-4 months, for obvious reasons, some of which are very very reasonably priced. I can't go into details but all of the major manufacturers are working on their own versions.

Wallhart

I think the phones talked about above are:

SE: Xperia3
HTC Dragon - Android version of the HD2
Motorolla Thingymajig. (Might be already out in states)
Acer (Not sure on name)

Worth having a read. I am not sure whether to get a hero or wait. For me if you are not getting an I phone the android is the OS to be on.

Mobiles.co.uk_company_representative

All those and more - HTC's roadmap for the next year is very, very impressive for one.

movilogo

Always try to buy phones where you have a open operating system. Blackberry has a proprietary system.

AFAIK, Android is open. Symbian is open too, but you need to hack it (quite easy with very cheap or free hack app) if you want to whatever apps you want.

So, depending on your budget, the two closest iPhone rivals are

Nokia 5800 XM - for too thrifty folks
HTC Hero (or any model with Android) - for richer folks

IMHO, any smart phone which is not hacked/jail broken are dumb phones

2010 will be year of smart phones. There will be plenty of models to choose from and their price will come down too. They will be more matured (many smart phones crash too often at present).