Decisions – Which New Mobile Phone Shall I Get?
I currently have an HTC HD (running Windows Mobile 6.1 OS) on the O2 network and my contact expires at the end of this month, which means that I can get a new phone. My preferences for a new phone fall into 3 categories: Android based, iPhone 4 and Windows Phone 7 based.
Android
I am a big fan of Android because it is open source, not tied to a single handset, comes with some really great software (including satellite navigation), some new and innovative software (such as Google Goggles and Google Layers) and has a very good user interface. Plus it is JAVA based so easy to develop for and has a very strong developer community.
The only problem is that there are no handsets that I want at the moment. The best one available in the UK is the HTC Desire, but that doesn’t have a front facing camera (neither will the HTC Desire 2). The best (most fully-featured) Android based phone in the world at the moment is the HTC Evo 4G, but this is only available on the Sprint network in America (plus it has really bad battery life). The DELL Streak is nice, but at 152.99mm is really too long for what I want.
There will be a lot of good Android based phones coming out this year – but I don’t know when (and when I am lusting after a new gadget, I don’t like waiting!).
Windows Phone 7
Previous versions of Windows mobile have been out for years and although pretty good, they have always been a bit buggy. I have owned several Windows based phones and have always had problems with all of them (6.1 has given me far fewer issues than previous versions – but it has been far from perfect).
Windows Mobile has always had an okay developer community and you can get most types of applications for it for free with no adverts.
The Windows Phone 7 operating system is due out later this year and it looks promising. All applications for Windows 7 will need to be written in Silverlight and all games will need to be written in XNA. I am a big fan of both Silverlight and XNA.
It doesn’t have Zune incorporated into it, rather a facsimile of it (so basically the same) – this is a very good thing.
The Windows Phone 7 interface as a whole looks very good – I like the concept as they are really making the phones interface personalised to the user.
However I don’t think they are doing enough. While the music interface will be good, I think the mobile interface will end up being clunky and slow to navigate around.
Microsoft do make some really fantastic software, but they suck at promoting it. For example, compare their official Windows Phone 7 website (which was hard to find via a Google search by the way!) to the official iPhone 4 website – if you didn’t know anything about the phones and just saw those 2 websites side by site, the clear winner would be Apple.
Apple iPhone 4
I am not a big fan of Apple. They keep bringing out devices with low-spec hardware – and software missing features that competitors have had for several years. Plus as people spend lots of money on apps, they then feel obliged/trapped into sticking with Apple so that they can retain those apps (with Microsoft or Android, if you buy an App you can then use it on any hardware with that operating system, not just a single device).
I see the Apple iPhone 4 as being a good smartphone for the mainstream, unlike Android which although is gaining on market share, I think is still being bought more by the technical community.
The iPhone 4 was announced this week and it does have some very good features – noticeably:
- A really good quality screen (although small in size compared with other phones)
- Very good battery life
- 802.11n WiFi
- Physically small phone
- The resolution of the iPhones and iPad screens are proportional, meaning that applications can be scaled to run on any of them (although they are better if they are custom-developed for each device)
- Gyroscope
The bad points of the iPhone 4 are:
- Small screen
- Non-standard screen resolution, so it not true 720p (this is because it is 4x the resolution of the previous iPhones – so that applications can be scaled to run on it).
- No kick-stand (so you have to hold it if you want to watch videos, etc.)
- Glass on the back (I think this will be reflective and annoying when it is on your desk)
- No FM Radio (I use the FM radio on my Windows phone every day when I walk into town to get my lunch!)
- CPU is likely to be under-clocked (as per previous versions of the iPhone) in order to improve battery life
- Only 32GB’s (max) internal storage
- No expandable memory (e.g. Micro SD card slot)
- The main camera has a small diameter lens
- Main camera is only 5mp (other mobiles have 8mp)
- Only single LED flash on the main camera
- Only a VGA quality front facing camera
- Video chat is iPhone 4 to iPhone 4 only (this is likely to change in 2011)
- Video chat is only possible over WiFi (this is likely to change in 2011)
- Currently no video Skype support (this is likely to change soon)
- No standard USB connection (this is a big deal when you go to a friend’s house and want to charge your phone!)
- No HDMI output port
- No free satellite navigation software (this is a big deal for me as I use it a lot on my current phone). You can purchase TomTom for £60 – but I would much prefer Google maps
- Not true multi-tasking
- The App Store encourages developers to make all apps either paid for, or to include advertising (many Android and Windows Mobile applications are free with no adverts)
Many applications are being written for Android and Windows first, then the iPhone. This is because the iPhone is:
- Harder and slower to code for
- Many applications are banned on the App Store which are allowed on other devices (this has resulted in some high-profile developers moving from Apple to Android)
- You can develop Apple apps on PC’s, but you need additional software to do this (more hassle) – Apple are not making it easy to do this. There are many more PC’s out there than macs, therefore there are many more PC and JAVA based developers out there than Apple ones.
Summary
The Android and Windows operating systems are more open, have cloud based technologies (this is becoming increasingly important) and have better hardware, but the Apple iPhone 4 is a nice phone (albeit with some serious limitations) and does have a good range of apps.
My personal preference right now would be the Android operating system with HTC hardware (but with the iPhone screen technology – only bigger).
If there was a decent handset for Android I would get that. I am half-tempted by the iPhone – but only half-tempted. I really want Android, but I think I’m going to have to wait a few months for some decent hardware to come out. Then again, I don’t like to wait. So I’ll make my decision once the iPhone comes out.
July 5th, 2010 at 22:42
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