Review of the top 5 smartphones

Smartphones have become a part of contemporary life. Although some time ago, we wouldn’t think what the difference between a common cell phone and a smartphone is, today, with the massive increase in the smartphone sales, we have started wondering which the best smartphone is. Evolving from personal digital assistants (PDAs), a whole cluster of super smartphones has swept the market, allowing people to stay connected. However, from this whole set of newcomers, there are certain smartphones that really stand out in terms of functionality, OS and high-end technology.

In particular:

a) Apple iPhone 3GS

Apple iPhone 3GS is the best smartphone on the market. Coming with a 16GB and 32GB storage memory, Apple’s iPhone features a 600MHz processor and 256MB RAM, offering users much more than what a smartphone can offer.

Featuring a 3.0 iPhone Software, iPhone provides new features such as cut and paste, universal search, and a keyboard that works even with e-mail. What is great is that users who own previous iPhone models can download and upgrade to the iPhone 3.0 software for free. The iPhone doesn’t feature too many apps on its own, but offers quick access to Apple’s App Store, where users can browse and download thousands of apps, either for free or for subscription and select titles to download to their phone.

What is impressive about the iPhone is its ergonomics. Slim and sleek, weighing 134 grams, the iPhone features a 3.5″ touch screen that houses all apps. However, most of the impressive features are hidden inside the iPhone where technology takes the smartphone experience to another dimension. The iPhone 3GS runs twice as fast as any 3G model, from switching apps to opening attachments and sending text messages, and has a longer battery although high-speed networks need more power.

iPhone comes with a 3-megapixel camera, yet without a flash, a video capture ability at 30 frames p/s, iTunes feature, voice control interface, support for Nike + technology, support for stereo Bluetooth and enhanced GPS capabilities.

The Apple iPhone 3GS comes at a retail price of 9.99 (16GB) and at 9.99 (32GB).

b) Samsung Omnia II

Combining an extraordinary fusion of features aiming to satisfy the needs of the most demanding customer, Samsung Omnia II overcomes Windows Mobile’s limitations, standing out as one of the best smartphones to date.

Its large 3.7″ WVGA AMOLED touch screen with 480X800 pixels resolution puts Samsung ahead competition. The screen definitely offers good image quality with a sharper and brighter picture, while consuming less power. In terms of sensitivity, the Omnia is carefully designed so as every touch is accompanied by a gentle vibration. Knowing how much technology is inside the Omnia, it is amazing how light this smartphone is. Weighing only 129 grams – including the battery – and being only 12.5mm thick, the Omnia is extremely fashionable being one of the most attractive smartphones on the market.

Featuring state-of-the-at technology, the Omnia provides users with a smooth and effortless touch screen interaction. In fact, this might be the first Windows Mobile PocketPC that shifts technology to another level integrating a multimedia entertainment device on which users can watch movies on perfect quality, using part of the handset’s gigantic 16GB memory. Besides, it features a 5-megapixel camera with flash, an accelerometer for the web browser, photo gallery, and video player, FM radio, a 3.5mm headphone jack, 8GB of internal storage and microSD card slot, which allows users to store a huge number of video formats and large playlists of music. Besides, the Omnia II supports a wide range of audio and video codecs such as DivX, XviD, WMV, MPEG4, MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA and OGG.

The Omnia starts at a retail price of 9.99.

c) Palm Pre Web OS

Palm Pre was one of the gadgets of 2009. Being widely regarded as the iPhone’s direct competitor, Palm Pre has fascinated consumers upon its launch. Featuring a 3.1″ multi-touch screen and a sliding full QWERTY keyboard, Palm Pre is the first phone to run on the Web OS technology allowing users to have an exhilarating web-connected experience.

One of the best features of Palm Pre is Synergy, a contact / calendar management system that merges Gmail account, Facebook profile, AIM identity, and Exchange data, killing duplicate entries, and creating linked contacts. In that way, users can have a merged contact list of all their social networking websites and e-mail account. Besides, the calendar application automatically synchronizes to the Gmail or Facebook account and allows users to hook into other applications on the device. For instance, they can buy tickets for an event via Fandango and schedule the even ton the calendar.

The OS platform features nice, glossy icons, a 5-app launch bar and a menu system of three screens. The Card system is, admittedly, a fine way for users to keep track of what they are working on. When launching an application, they can drag it onto the Pre’s desktop to create a new card, and when they are finished, they can close it by flipping the card upwards. The input technology that excludes the screen is also state-of-the-art. Palm features the gesture bar, an empty surface under the screen that allows users to streamline some of the navigation so that they can use the Pre on the go. Overall, the OS is extremely user-friendly, integrated in an amazing design that provides users a unique feeling when touching the interface, while the phone’s look is very advanced.

Featuring a 3-MP camera with flash, Wi-Fi-, GPS, stereo Bluetooth, microUSB, and 8GB of internal storage, Palm Pre starts at a retail price of 9.99.

d) Motorola Droid

The Motorola Droid signifies Motorola’s comeback in the smartphone market. Featuring the first commercially available Android 2.0 hidden in a slim device, the Motorola Droid comes with a 3.7″ WVGA touch screen that natively supports 854×480 resolution, making images considerably sharp and bright. Besides, the clarity of the text is exceptional as the Droid features excellent pixel density allowing users to read e-books as if they are on their PCs.

Droid is an advanced Android phone featuring a QWERTY slider keyboard. The keyboard keys are bigger and flatter than those of the Droid’s competitors such as HTC Touch Pro or the N900. This allows users to type more comfortably using their thumbs instead of their thumbnails.

The Droid features Google’s latest version of Android OS that supports a relatively fast 3D graphics chip. Besides, the native support for Exchange, the unified contact list and the exceptional new mapping and navigation application from Google make Motorola Droid a good option for a smartphone.

The Motorola Droid starts at a retail price of 9.99.

e) HTC Touch Pro 2

The HTC Touch Pro 2 is perhaps the largest smartphone on the market. Although it has a nice design with its attractive silver casing and opaque mirrored face, it weighs 185 grams, which makes it bulky, thick, heavy and uncomfortable to carry in a pants pocket.

On the other hand, the Touch Pro 2 features an exceptional keyboard. Sliding and tilting to allow for a better typing angle, the Pro’s keyboard features an isolated key design that is mostly encountered in laptops and netbooks. Featuring large keys that enable users to type comfortably and quickly, the Touch Pro feels like typing on a laptop.

Besides, it features a 3.6″480 x 800 resolution touch screen that supports sharp and bright colors allowing users to view text and images. Besides, the extra screen real estate enables users to read Web pages, documents, and long e-mails by fitting more information onscreen and minimizing scrolling. Also, the built-in accelerometer automatically switches the screen from portrait mode to landscape mode, simply by rotating the phone.

The HTC Touch Pro 2 comes at a retail price of 9.99.

Written by Christina Pomoni
Financial Adviser – Freelancer Writer

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