Does Anyone Actually Use a "Smartphone"?

jm2morri asks: "I am currently in the market for a new cell phone and while I'm at it I'd really like to combine my PalmOS based PDA into my new cell phone. I'd really like to keep PalmOS based so that I can sync with my wife who has a PalmOS based PDA as well. However I don't want a camera since there are new security laws being written, as I type this, to restrict the use of camera-phones. Has anyone used one of the smartphones on the market? What is the voice quality like? How often does it crash? Do you have any other observations?"

Re:Sony Ericsson P800

[mpmansell]

This raises some of my concerns about the newer more complex smart phones. The firmware ismore complex and there is a higher likelyhood of something going wrong. I also have a 3650, which is sort of a halfway house and the damned thing constantly reboots, leaks memory and generally incites me to buying large blunt objects!

I assume that the software developed in these devices is to the same standard as most of the rest of the industry. To much rush and too little testing. There is a lot to be said for a bog std phone that is just a phone :)

Conventional Wisdom

[haunebu]

Working for Nokia I've participated in several internal product testing (beta) programs over the last four years. The best advice I can give to someone considering a smartphone is this: Wait until the device has been on the market for a few months before you buy it.

Internal testing is pretty good at finding major bugs, but some always slip through and find their way into the hands of the consumer. Most of these become obvious after the device has been on the market for just a few weeks - the sheer volume of people using the devices means bugs are found quickly. Nokia is pretty good at taking that feedback and rolling out updated firmware - usually less than two months after the product's been on the market. (Gotta keep that field failure rate down!)

People looking for stability should avoid devices that use the initial firmware version, unless they mind taking their device in for an update a few months later.

It was the same with my Sony Ericsson P900. The initial firmware release (R1A) had some annoying problems which are well documented on enthusiast sites, but four revisions later (R4B) it's turned out to be a fantastic device.

Samsung SPH-I500

[mchawi]

I have the Samsung SPH-i500 via Sprint. This is the size of a normal phone, and was designed for being a phone first. I really like the fact that if I wanted it only for use as a phone - it is still a great phone.

If you open it up it has a screen on top that has your phone menus (like address book etc) or Palm OS menus. On the bottom it has your keypad and a small area to write - just like the Palm. So the PDA functionality is also pretty good.

I also like that this particular phone does not have a camera. It has a color screen, multiple ringtones, etc. It doesn't send SMS to other sprint phones natively (although it can receive them), but there is a 3rd party app you can download for this.

My service (quality/coverage) with Sprint has been excellent. My experience with customer service with Sprint - not so much.

I think when you ask this question you have to ask if you want something that was designed to be a good phone first, or a good PDA first. I think, out of all the phones I have seen, this is the best combination.

Hope this helps.

Re:Motorola A920

[monopole]

The bit about loving PDA functionality but always leaving the PDA home is telling. One of the critical aspects of PDA utility is omnipresence. When you always have your PDA at hand it suddenly becomes indispensable. If tacking on a phone makes this happen all the better.

Why "smartphones" are worth it...

[dublin]

Most of the comments here are focused on the merits or demerits of a particular smartphone. While I have one, the most important thing you should know is that there are real and significant benefits to an integrated smartphone that you cannot get with a separate phone and PDA. I've done both extensively, and the smartphone combo is terrifically more useful. Note the comments below are for a Palm smartphone - I don't know a single person that's tried a PocketPC smartphone (or PDA, for that matter) that's happy with it for very long.

Although it sounds simple, there is just no overstating the importance and power of having *all* your contacts with you at all times, and having that contact list integrated into your phone/dialer. No more wishing you'd put Joe's number into your phone, or trying to juggle data from the PDA to the phone. If you drive and talk, or ever want to be able to, this alone is enough reason to spring for the extra bucks for the smartphone. Bluetooth in both devices gets you closer, but it's nowhere near as transparent, and is a notorious security problem, too.

Don't worry about snazzo marketing features you'll probably never use. If you want an MP3 player, buy one, you'll probably be disappointed in your phone as one anyway - there's a lot of benefit in combining some devices, like the phone and PDA, but not much in combining those with an MP3 player or camera, for instance. The difference, of course, is that combining a PDA and phone is a win-win with few or no tradeoffs, while adding hardware to make even a decent smartphone passable as a digital camera or MP3 player is so expensive you can count on it being done only poorly.

Even 8 MB will store an enormous amount of data on a Palm device - many thousands of contacts, tons of text crunched into compact formats, and schedules forever. My phone is an older 8 MB one, and I have a LOT of contact and schedule data, plus a couple of versions of the entire Bible, and several dozen other essays, articles, and reference documents, and I still have over 2 MB left over. (I never even clean out old schedule events, I just leave them there since they're sometimes handy for future reference. I've been doing this for about 5 years with no problems at all.)

For all the benefits smartphones provide, though, the wireless carriers aren't capitalizing on the benefits of their networks or the growing intelligence at its ends - there are many enhancements that make sense, and could be supported, but aren't. For instance, rather than the relatively useless Bluetooth, why not have the ability to send contact info over the phone call itself? Use a digital connection on PCS networks, or even some clever touch-tone encoding to allow "beaming" directly over the phone line. This just makes sense, and could even be used by the carriers as a significant value-add, especially if the system works transparently across wired, wireless, and IP telephones. Here it is, the 21st century, and I'm still having phone calls saying "e-mail me you contact information, and I'll send you mine back." Why the heck can't that happen over the phone call? (Information could now justify some of their ridiculous $1.00 charges by "beaming" the number you just looked up into your contacts list, too, so you'll still have it after they've helpfully "connected you at no additional charge" - hope you wrote that number down, or it's another buck!)

Now a bit about specific phones, and picking them: Although it's really hard to find working demos of these phones, insist on using a live one *before* buying - there are often subtle things that will irritate you that you can't see until you try it. (For instance, I recently decided against upgrading to the Treo 600 because it has the camera (both useless and a liability) and also does not support Graffiti. The missing Graffiti support is not something that's obvious until you hold it in your hands - some people prefer silly blackberry-ish keyboards, but the lack of Graffiti killed the Treo for me - if i