Thinkpadders: What Smartphone do you prefer?

[Nigellus]

I'm looking at some sort of android, and probably a touchscreen because I found a deal in my price range. But I am curious what kind of smartphone you prefer and why. I'm particularly interested in touchscreen vs QWERTY models, and the relative advantages/disadvantages of different operating systems, but I'm here to learn, so any reason you have will have some value.

Thanks.

[ZaZ]

I had the original Galaxy. Compared to the iPhone, the battery life was terrible and people I know who have Andriod phones, tell me the same.

[Tasurinchi]

I have a Samsung Galaxy Note (the one with the 5.3" screen) and I'm more than happy with it. The screen is huge and a pleasure to watch fotos, read ebooks and browse through the internet. I'm really happy with it, now my old iPhone 3G looks really tiny

[tonepaq]

I use the Samsung Galaxy S2 Skyrocket (big name). I prefer Android over IOS beause of the open operating system. I also prefer to run a custom rom to remove all the carrier bloatware.

The phone has a dual core cpu and plenty of ram, 16gb internal storage and I have added a 32gb micro sd card also. The screen is very bright and pleasant to look at. Battery life sucks, but my usage is very heavy so others may have better results.

[loyukfai]

Still miss the QWERTY on the Treo. But, touchscreen-only models have their own advantages. And slide-out QWERTY add thickness and weight. Very few candybar QWERTY on Android.

Perhaps you can tell the others what are you using and what are you expecting from your smartphone first. A smartphone can of course do more, but then you have to pay for mobile data, which in the US is ridiculously expensive (as compared to many other developed countries), to use many of those added functions, many of which I consider to be manufactured demand.

Cheers.

[garnet]

Nokia e72.
Symbian s60 FP2 (i think)
Has everything I need and NOTHING I dont need.
Symbian is hugely underrated these days.
3-4 days of battery life with moderate use (15-20 min of talk time/day) is pretty good.

[j-dawg]

Nokia e72.
Symbian s60 FP2 (i think)
Has everything I need and NOTHING I dont need.
Symbian is hugely underrated these days.
3-4 days of battery life with moderate use (15-20 min of talk time/day) is pretty good.

This is what I use as well (an E73, nearly identical), and I can consistently get three days out of it. I'd disagree that it has nothing I don't need - there is a ton of functionality built into the OS that goes beyond anything I could ever hope to use, like mounting remote drives, printing, etc...

It is extremely well-built and all my Android-toting friends note how nice it feels in the hand. (The Iphone 4 and 4s are the next best thing - they have a good weight to them.)

If I were to switch, I would definitely try to stick with the Blackberry-style form factor. Since that's not really an option with today's smartphones, I don't really know. I would love an iPhone if it didn't use a proprietary charger and use iOS / iTunes - I don't like Apple's software, desktop or mobile. I would consider a used Nokia N900 as it was the first step in a road I wish Nokia had taken (but, I suppose, it could not have).

[sysiphus]

I'm also a big Symbian fan, and have enjoyed a couple Android devices...but my current pick is a Palm Pixi Plus--it cost me almost nothing unlocked/off contract, has a usable keyboard, does email, and has a fantastic cordless inductive charging feature, too. Sure, it's useless for new games/apps, but I really don't care. I only wish the camera were a notch better.

[pdwayne]

I am currently on an iPhone but I think that the android phones we have currently are one for the ages. They have really been coming up with really powerful devices which are tough to get by. And with S3 just recently coming out, it boosts the possible market share for the android which has really made a dent with the market lorded over by the Apple devices from before.

[Temetka]

Android will win the phone wars. I guarantee it.

That being said I am using a Samsung Captivate (Galaxy S) and my only complaint is lack of a built in flash for taking pics. Otherwise it's great. I replaced the stock ROM with Andromeda and everything has been running great for months.

[ZaZ]

I just dumped the iPhone 4 and ate the cancellation fee. Two months ago my bill was due on a Friday and I paid on a Monday. Verizon stuck me with a late fee. Last month it was due on Tuesday and I paid on Thurdsay. I got another late fee. I called them up and said "are you going charge me a late fee every time I pay couple days late?" They said yes, so I said goodbye. I picked up a Lumia 710 and went back to T-Mobile preaid, where I was happier before. It's not the greatest phone, but it's inexpensive and does what I need it to do. The phone is worth more than the cancellation fee and not shelling out $80 a month will start paying for itself in about three months.

[Puppy]

I'm waiting for a Windows 8 device. I don't want anything else than Windows.

[pianowizard]

I'm waiting for a Windows 8 device. I don't want anything else than Windows.

Me too. And I must have a good physical keyboard. My HTC Touch Pro2 has getting old and slow and still uses Windows Mobile 6.5, but because it has a superb physical keyboard, I prefer it over almost anything else in the market.

[jdk]

I like Nokia phones. I was heavily tempted to upgrade to the Lumia, but it is such a step backwards from Symbian. No micro SD card support, can only transfer about three file types over (and must use the Zune app to do so), no bluetooth data transfer, no browser other than IE, etc. I will hold on to my old Nokia for awhile, which gets about a week between recharging, and has a great feel. I may eventually upgrade to Jolla if they ever release anything running Meego.

Someone above mentioned that Android will win the smartphone wars, it reminded me of an old saying, "Linux will be the last OS."

[TTY]

I prefer WCDMA phones over phones, that are merely GSM capable. I believe, that at least AT&T and T-Mobile offer these technologies in the U.S. From what i understand, Verizon does not. When a mobile phone establishes contact to a base station with GSM technology, it starts at its highest transmit power. As soon as it has found a base station, it starts to negotiate a lower transmit power with the base station and then steps down transmit power. When a WCDMA phone establishes contact to a base station, it starts with very low transmit power. It then increases the transmit power until the base station can hear it and contact has been established. Therefore, with phones that use WCDMA, the user is subjected to lower initial levels of radio frequency. I'm not sure whether this also applies to moving between cells, i.e. hand over.

I also prefer mobile phones, which have the antenna in their low end. Phones which have the antenna in the top end don't seem to make much sense, as the antenna would be transmitting directly next to the user's brain. To me, such a requirement rules out all manufacturers, who can't be bothered to make any statement on antenna placement. I've found that Nokia informs about antenna positions, and that the antennas of contemporary Nokia phones are where they should be.

[cjmorisson]

Im using samsung galaxy s2.. One of the greatsmartphone i know. Dual core and very responsive. Just my cent.. i prefer it compared to ip4..

<list of spam links removed>

[mattbiernat]

I guess Im the only one who doesn't like Android. Im using iPhone 3GS but Im probably going to be moving into Windows Phone in 1 year (mostly because of apple's shady policies).

[cjmorisson]

I guess Im the only one who doesn't like Android. Im using iPhone 3GS but Im probably going to be moving into Windows Phone in 1 year (mostly because of apple's shady policies).

Agree! aside from their tactics, the price is also an issue. Considering that there are alot of smartphones now that are cheaper.

[wolfman]

My "smart" phone is a Nokia candy bar phone that cost $25 and came with $20 of free minutes. I pay 10 cents a minute for voice, have text messaging blocked and am in front of a computer 12-15 hours a day, so I can do all my electronic communication that way. Costs me about $8.66 a month, hence the "smart" part...

[Puppy]

I guess Im the only one who doesn't like Android.

No, you are not alone

[Turbo Audi]

Nokia Lumia 900. It is a new Windows phone. Love it!

[happyninja]

Android fan here. I have a Galaxy tablet. Admittedly it's not exactly a normal kind of phone but it has my vote. I use it mostly for work so wearing an earpiece isn't an issue and I don't make many calls when I'm out and about on weekends.

[RealBlackStuff]

Pantech C520 Breeze.
Cheapest cell phone I've had in a long time.
I haven't charged it up, and haven't bought any pay-as-you-go top-ups in well over a year!
You gotta love it!

[pit1337]

I'm currently using HTC HD2 with Android 4.1 (CM10 kang) on it
This phone is quite old now, but (so far) never failed at me. It also feed all my needs (I don't play games on phone), so I see no point in getting rid of it (in near future).

[WA2SI]

I just went from a HTC Thunderbolt to. Samsung Galaxy S3. I was really quite pleased with the performance of the Thunderbolt, especially it's keyboard layout but the battery life was simply awful. The Galaxy should remedy that.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

[IT_Sean]

My personal phone is a simple flip dumbphone (samsung). However, my company phone is an iPhone 4. I love it. Makes it so easy to work from the road. In addition to making calls, it allows me to issue trouble tickets (i'm an IT support tech), respond to emails, and even remotely access the office modem pool (the products i support make use of analog dial modems) to troubleshoot customer equipment.

The fact that i can do all that, whilst standing on a rail platform halfway around the world from my office, nowhere near a wifi access point, is killer, in my book.

I am sure there are a number of phones that can do all that and more, but, the iPhone fits my working style really well (besides, i didn't have a choice in the matter... i was handed an iPhone when i joined the company).

[ThinkRob]

I used to be a BlackBerry user: 8900 and a couple others. I liked them well enough, but now that I no longer need push e-mail and calendaring, there's no reason for me to have a smartphone. I suppose it'd be fun to be able to play the odd game or browse the web while I'm waiting for a bus or something, but I can't see a reason to give up my existing phone (Samsung SCH-N330) and plan ($29.95/mo for 1200 minutes, 3000 texts, and 100 MB of data on Verizon's network) for something that's more cumbersome and *far* more expensive.

If I did have to get a smartphone it'd be an Android one with an unlocked bootloader. I would never want to pay hundreds of dollars for a computer that I didn't fully control.

[_65536_kb_sec_]

SE Xperia X1i - does all that I need pretty well.

Next one would be Sony Xperia S.
Previously I've had SE T68, P800, P900, P1i and now the X1i.
I've had an Iphone 8Gb before the P1i but didn't fit my needs and expectations.

[JohnD.]

I have a Palm Treo 700p. I started with the Treoo 300, then a 600 to a 650. I love the keyboard on the unit and knowing there are a ton of programs for the unit if I ever need something. It just works for me. I just need to lower my Sprint bill a bit. I am paying $50 for a 5GB data plan (3G) for the Samsung Galaxy 7" tablet that I hardly use. Sprint wants to charge me $350 because I am still within the two year contract. It's been a year and three months since I got it. Any advice on how to not get charged this fee? I have been a Sprint customer for 9 years.

Thank you,
John

[sysiphus]

SE Xperia X1i - does all that I need pretty well.

Next one would be Sony Xperia S.
Previously I've had SE T68, P800, P900, P1i and now the X1i.
I've had an Iphone 8Gb before the P1i but didn't fit my needs and expectations.

Ooh, another UIQ user

I had a P800 at one pont, too--those things were so far ahead of their time!

Did you ever play with an M600i? It was effectively a P1i in a plastic body without camera/wifi--a great little no-frills communicator. Pity it didn't have 850MHz support, or I'd have kept mine.