Should I buy a smartphone?

parallax_20

I cancelled in march or april. I got it for the 50% off at the time. I hardly used it as I was always browsing from my mobile when out and about. I was considering getting the mifi adapter to make more use of it, but never bothered as it would have been another device to carry and keep charged up. But now with all the data limits being capped perhaps I should have kept it. It was 5GB broadband for £7.50pm.

AMO

Hi Billy,

I'd make the following points:

a) Windows Mobile 6.5 is fading out of the market except for business ruggedised PDAs. Windows Phone 7 is the replacement due in the last quarter of this year. I would not go Windows Mobile at the moment. If you do choose to go this route, consider the HTC HD2.

b) If you want 'free' mobile internet access, the best way is to get a PAYG sim that offers free internet if you top up £10 per month. Then every year or so, close the SIM down and get a refund.

c) For guys, increasingly many find that in the past with only mainly voice call and text features, they used voice calls more. However, with mobile web surfing many guys especially find that they are more likely to access the internet than make calls on an average day. So consider a phone more dedicated to web surfing as priority if you fit into that category.

Possibly smartphones may be the Dell Streak or the Apple iPhone 4 or 3GS. There are many more. I am currently considering the Dell Streak.

Hope that helps,

AMO

parallax_20

The Dell Streak is a nice device, but personally I wouldn't consider it as a daily phone replacement. Its just too big and not really pocketable, unless you wear clothing that has large pockets or carry a bag/purse. This is from someone who used to carry around T-Mobile MDA Pro/O2 XDA Exec for a while which had smaller dimensions than the Streak and a smaller 3.5" screen. If you've seen the Toshiba TG01 in person you'll know what I mean. The Dell Streak is marketed as a 5" tablet and not a smartphone, so it'll be like carrying an iPad on a smaller scale.

Thats just my personal opinion on large handsets. I wouldn't consider a phone that I couldn't comfortably carry around on my person or looking like the character from Happy Trigger TV (brick to ear).

ampletime

If you go Androiid you can get DocstoGo as a free app which lets you look at docs or the full version which is about £10 at the moment where you can edit, create docs and spreadsheets etc etc.

If you can i would wait a few months. You will see some very good phones coming out but if you can't then the Desire, SE x10, or HTC HD2. The Dell Streak is a good device but is quite big but for docs it would be great.

Yolina

billy_the_kid wrote: »

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.

One personal opinion coming up: been using WinMo phones since 2004 (currently have a HD2) and never had any major issues with them. The only thing I'd say it that because WinMo has been around for so long in different forms, there's a lot of "legacy" stuff, even in the latest 6.x version, that was never designed to be finger-friendly in the first place. I think the new version of WinMo (7) which is due out on phones later this year, will be much better as it's basically a brand new OS rather than a "let's update that bit" job - so new code, new interface...new everything really.

Oscar_The_Grouch

The one warning I would give you is that if you get a Desire, get a contract one. There are any number of posts on here about people who have had a Desire and not topped up their PAYG sim before the 30 days of "free" internet runs out. Within a day or two, the Desire has eaten all their credit because it's been accessing the internet to check for e-mails, updates and the like.

parallax_20

Oscar_The_Grouch wrote: »

The one warning I would give you is that if you get a Desire, get a contract one. There are any number of posts on here about people who have had a Desire and not topped up their PAYG sim before the 30 days of "free" internet runs out. Within a day or two, the Desire has eaten all their credit because it's been accessing the internet to check for e-mails, updates and the like.

I thought most providers would send you a text 2 days or so prior to it expiring? But you have to admit, using up your existing credit is better than running up a huge bill once you've exceeded the data limit each month. We've heard a few of those horror stories too.