Smartphones Reviews

Smartphones, as the name suggests, are something more than a cell phone. While most cell phones can hold contact data and some calendar information, smartphones include a full-fledged PDA (see our companion report on PDAs).This allows you to access the Internet, download e-mail, read or edit document attachments, send instant messages, listen to MP3s, sync data with your computer, scout out a locations with GPS and watch videos, as well as making calls. Prices for some smartphones themselves have been rising, as they morph into multimedia phones to compete with the success of the iPhone. However, with careful shopping, rebates and the willingness to commit to a service contract, some very capable smartphones remain relative bargains.

One thing to keep in mind with smartphones is that you have to pay for data service as well as monthly cell phone charges, on top of hardware costs. Total monthly wireless fees can easily cost over $100, depending on the carrier. But the beauty of a smartphone is that it saves you from carrying as many as six different devices, potentially replacing a cell phone, PDA, digital camera, MP3 player, mini TV and even a laptop.

CNet.com, PC Magazine and Laptop magazine do a great job reporting on smartphones, covering new models as they hit the market, sometimes even earlier. We also found excellent current smartphone round-ups in Money magazine, Kiplinger magazine and Popular Mechanics, however none of these covers smartphones with the regularity of the resources we rate higher. Websites such as MobileTechNews.com and MobileTechReview.com also include smartphone reviews, but they don't cover as many models as other resources. The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal cover smartphones from the mainstream user's point of view. Consumer Reports' smartphone reviews lack much in the way of discussion about individual models.

Also, while the iPhone 3G is truly remarkable in many ways, it continues to lack some basic functionality, including voice dialing, Bluetooth stereo audio or phone-to-phone photo sending, and there's no card slot for adding more memory. Additionally, the sealed battery is not user replaceable, meaning it has to be returned to Apple when it reaches the end of its life.

But, despite all of that, reviewer after reviewer says that the positives outweigh the negatives, especially for those that don't already own an original iPhone. Those positives are both big (much faster Internet speeds via AT&T's 3G data network) and small (the use of a standard earphone jack). The bottom line is that the Apple iPhone 3G is a technological marvel with a slick interface that works very well. It delivers on its promise of providing the Internet the way it's supposed to be seen, and it's a great multimedia playback device. New software (also available to owners of the original iPhone) also now makes the iPhone 3G a reasonable choice for business users.  ... Continued

Our Consensus Report shows how many times products are top-ranked by reviewers included in our
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The Apple iPhone 3G is slick and does a great job delivering multimedia content, and new software makes it a reasonable choice for business users. That said, business users may find the rugged construction and the full QWERTY keyboard of the AT&T Tilt more to their liking. For T-Mobile subscribers, the T-Mobile Wing is stylish and powerful. The BlackBerry Curve 8320 adds Wi-Fi to what was already a powerful business-centric phone. Samsung SCH-i760 is called Verizon's best smartphone, with a great form factor and lots of power. The Palm Centro breaks little new ground -- except for price -- which, when coupled with its impressive lineup of features, makes it a great first smartphone.