Should I buy a smartphone?

billy_the_kid_2

Same question many posters have already asked but from a slightly different perspective. Not sure where I should have asked this as It could have gone into teccie forum.

I have had an Ipaq for many years and have found it invaluable. Its now gone to the great repair shop in the sky and I need a replacement. I used it for exporting word documents, spreadsheets and powerpoint presentations to use at work. I also had Tomtom loaded and used it incar as my satnav and played some games on it. However it was most useful as a contacts store and diary at work as it linked with outlook perfectly.

I have been looking at getting a smartphone such as the HTC desire so that i only need to take one device with me, getting rid of the Ipod etc. But here is the rub, I already have a works mobile, and I really only use my home mobile for occaisional calling. I would estimate that my phone usage is at most 20 pounds every 3-4 months.

I am currently on ASDA mobile PAYG and have been very happy with the service and particularly the price. So I have a choice. Do I buy the desire sim free for £400 and stay with ASDA or do I go for a contract with minimal airtime.

But here is my dilema. Will the HTC be emasculated by turning off the GPRS and just using it in Wifi hotspots on PAYG , what would its functionality be like ie. will the mapping work with just the GPS or do you need the internet on all the time to download the maps to make it work. It would be great to use the internet at will from a contract but I will be paying a great deal for airtime I will just not need?

I have been put off smartphones using windows mobile by many reports that it doesnt work well with phones, is this true.

Thanks in advance for any personal opinions anyone may have.

DUTR

Thought the ipaq was windows CE, the HTC Desire is Android OS, for documents as you describe, then you may still need to go with a windows mobile OS or paid for software, as for the PDA functionality, yes smartphones can do the lot, depends if you are comfortable leaving all your eggs in one basket, you can also get secure vault type software for the smartphones where you can store the stuff you usually lock away on the pda, GPS software, google do a turn by turn navigation for the android OS, I have Sygic 10 on my handset, but beware, the GPS consumes batter power like you don't know what, in fact so does the wi-fi.
So basically you will have to choose your form factor , eg screen size, bluetooth , wi fi gps camera etc, then OS Android, Apple OS, Windows mobile, Symbian etc then whichever brand fits your requirments, HTC are the new standard though

billy_the_kid_2

So am I looking for a convergent device that doesnt really exist? I can deal with putting the Desire into a charging cradle every day, I am just worried that will it work effectively without the internet on via a phone contract.

As for the IPaq, yes it was running windows mobile. However I have read so many posts warning against it on smartphones.

DUTR

billy_the_kid wrote: »

So am I looking for a convergent device that doesnt really exist? I can deal with putting the Desire into a charging cradle every day, I am just worried that will it work effectively without the internet on via a phone contract.

As for the IPaq, yes it was running windows mobile. However I have read so many posts warning against it on smartphones.

All the smartphones are good (does not have to be an iphone (which are good too)
All will have their speciality, I have a Satio, the camera gets plenty of use , the iphones are good for gaming, Blackberry are good for works email, some will be better for audio,TV etc etc
So the one that will be best is the one that is best for you not anybody else, I have hackpro on my handset, and realistically I could leave my Palm Tungsten at home.
Look at lots and weigh up the pro's and cons for you :beer:

billy_the_kid_2

Thanks DUTR I think Ill pop in to the local phone shop and have a good look at a few.

bubblesmoney

the desire is best suited on a data plan, it would be crippled if the data was disabled but still could be used i guess with limited features.

one could still use free apps like quickoffice and docstogo for viewing word/excel/pdf files. to edit them you would need to buy the paid versions. or use your data plan and access googledocs via browser and use the edit feature etc. i havent tried powerpoint yet, hope others can comment whether this works well on the desire and which app is good for that.

googlemaps and navigation is good but would need a data plan. without a data plan, something like app called copilot for £23.47 for UK+ireland maps downloaded onto sdcard would be useful without using data connection, but you would need a bigger sd card to accomodate the maps. that app has got good ratings for map and navigation features from cnet etc.

you could use the htc desire as a basic camera, basic video camera, voice recorder, gps, data storage, media player, fm radio, compass, metal detector, screen or LED flashlight, google translator, etc etc, but best to have data plan on any smartphone

parallax_20

If you're considering an Android phone. Three.co.uk are doing the HTC Hero (refurb) for £160 PAYG or look at the LG Optimus GT540 for £130 at O2 and get them unlocked.

I too am looking at either a SimOnly or PAYG tariff used mostly for data. The ones I found to be pretty appealing is GiffGaff and their Goodybags or with their free internet for all until 1 October. And the O2 Text & Web PAYG, which gives you 300 text & 500MB for £10 topup previous month.

I'm like you, I do very little calls or texts, and mainly use the internet for browsing on the phone, so something like the O2 Text and Web would be ideal as you get free data & text each month, whilst accumulating your top-up credit for less frequent voice calling/voice mail. The call & text rates are a tad high compared with ASDA. But if you don't make many calls it can balance out, as you would either be paying 25p per min for the call on O2 or 20p per MB on ASDA. And if you're getting a smartphone, you don't really want to be paying 20p a MB as you'll use all your credit up very quickly on a phone like the Desire. O2 seems to be the most generous so far with free data at 500MB which is equivalent to the amount of data on most SimOnly or Contracts these days.

If you're worried about exceeding 500MB, then I would go with GiffGaff which claim to offer true "Unlimited" data according to their marketing material. But I wouldn't want to take a guess as to how long that will last, since O2 have announced their data caps, it may slow start to ripple down to the virtual networks like GiffGaff eventually, but good while it lasts.

Good luck.

parallax_20

bubblesmoney wrote: »

you could use the htc desire as a basic camera, basic video camera, voice recorder, gps, data storage, media player, fm radio, compass, metal detector, screen or LED flashlight, google translator, etc etc, but best to have data plan on any smartphone

Sorry to go off topic, but how does the Metal Detector work or is it just a gimmick? Do you still have your Desire. I thought you had problems with it and was returning it? Did you get something else or just a replacement?

bubblesmoney

parallax_20 wrote: »

Sorry to go off topic, but how does the Metal Detector work or is it just a gimmick? Do you still have your Desire. I thought you had problems with it and was returning it? Did you get something else or just a replacement?

see http://pocketnow.com/software-1/android-market-pick-metal-detector for details on the metal detector app. you can scan the QR code (funny looking square barcode) and download the app. it does work but i uninstalled it as i dont use it and fed up of the no memory alerts. probably will reinstall it after getting the froyo update which will allow apps to sd card.

you might be interested in the tricorder app if you are a techie sort of person as it shows signal strength and various other measurements.

i had problems with reception at one place which hasnt be fully sorted but better than before after i fiddled with the test settings. there is some signal attenuation just like with the iphone4 of about 20dBm (slightly less if holding with left hand when the right bottom angle is not covered). the drop in signal becomes an issue in poor signal areas but not otherwise. i like the phone and decided to keep it as am on a competitive priceplan as i get 1100mins mix and match plus 300 3-3mins plus 1gb internet for 20£ a month on a 18m contract and they wrote off 2 months rental due to signal issues, thought about moving networks and decided to stay with the network as didnt want a network change presently as elsewhere the network is fine for where i use the phone and the data speeds are much better than what i see usually reported for many of the other networks. i usually used get upto 5400kbps but recently down to about 2900kbps downloads (5400kbps is faster than my landline at many times) downloads and upto 1600kbps uploads (usually around 540kbps uploads though before but now a days often about 1500kbps uploads which is faster than my landline uploads speeds), the speed is great compared to what i have seen usually mentioned on this and many other forums for other networks.

parallax_20

Those are impressive speeds with three. unfortunately I didn't have such luck. it was all a bit hit and miss. I ended up cancelling my mobile broadband with them due to low speeds.

bubblesmoney

parallax_20 wrote: »

Those are impressive speeds with three. unfortunately I didn't have such luck. it was all a bit hit and miss. I ended up cancelling my mobile broadband with them due to low speeds.

was it recently or a while ago. they have been putting up a lot of masts, they will have about 12000 masts by the end of this year from 8000 in 2008. think thats the highest for any provider in the uk. thats just 3g masts and they have a tie up with tmobile/orange for 2g masts.