How to choose a Smartphone

What Is a Smartphone?

A smartphone, or PDA-phone, is a digital organizer and has phone functions.

A smartphone is all of the following:

*   A phone

*   Data organizer

*    Personal information manager

*    Picture/video viewer

*    Email client

*    A web browser.

It's a device that doubles up a phone with a powerful pocket computer, delivering power and flexibility in one small handset.

What Can You Do with A Smartphone?

*   Make and receive phone calls
*   Organize your personal data; such as appointments, memos, and tasks
*   Send and receive email
*   View websites (though mobile formatted websites are best as they are
     optimized for the smaller screen)
*   View and/or edit MS Office documents
*   Take photographs

Many models will also do the following:
*     View pictures,
*     Take/view videos,
*     MP3 player
*     Login to office networks,
*     GPS Satellite  Navigation

Are you wanting to upgrade your phone?

Here are some pointers your phone:

*    Check the coverage maps.

*    Areyou travelling overseas often? Use a  GSM-based network. You can      pop in prepaid SIM cards whenever you're in a different country..

*    WiFi is useful.  Specially if you spend a lot of time in hotspots.

*    A QWERTY keyboard makes the phone much more powerful, specially if        you intend checking emails.

*    Check your data plans carefully. Prices vary a great deal.

Here are the common Operating systems:

*     Microsoft's Mobile: Microsoft's Mobile platform offers a Windows 
       environment, including Office and Windows Media Player. Windows
       Mobile-powered devices are on the increase.

*     Palm OS The Palm OS is also available on a few smartphones,    

*     Symbian S60: Symbian S60 is available on a number of handsets               which  use traditional mobile keypads with software optimized for this            style of use.

*     Blackberry: Blackberry has become very popular with a number of              people using  smartphones to work on their emails.

Memory

In addition to the built-in storage, most smartphones support memory expansion via slot-in flash memory cards.

3G or not 3G?

3G will speed up any data transfers from web browsing and email to video downloads and streaming. 3G services offer a much richer variety of content options; streamed Mobile TV services and video calling are just some extra services you'll be able to access via 3G.

Connectivity

Most smartphones offer the following:

*    Bluetooth

*    USB connectivity

*    Infrared.

*    Wi-Fi

What Smartphone do I buy?

Here are the top 4 recommendations: 
    Apple Iphone
    Nokia N95
    Blackberry 8800
    Sony Ericson P1i