What new phone to get?

A friend recently asked me what phone I'd suggest to replace his dying Nokia E70. Here's what I said. (Note that I am considering only GSM/UTMS/HSPA phones.)

I have recent moved to an Android/Google phone (HTC Hero) and loving that. If I didn't have an Android phone I would have an iPhone. Things I look for personally are:

• Good Operating System with great web browser and good apps available
• Enough RAM to run the OS and web browser
• Charges via USB socket
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• Capacitive touchscreen (i.e. for use with fingers rather than resistive screen + stylus)
• Decent size storage for music/podcasts/video (built-in or upgradable SD card)
• You don't need to install Mac/PC apps to install them, sync then, or update them

These days you should also expect to have:

• Wifi
• Bluetooth
• GPS
• Digital Compass
• Decent Camera

You need the compass, not because you care where north is, but because GPS doesn't know which way you are facing if you're standing still. And you need GPS, not so much for maps, but because all the funky new apps on the horizon are location based, so without GPS+Compass you'll not get to use them. Wifi lets you do all you big downloading and syncing at home where the data is free/cheap so you don't blow your data plan.

Your choices are the best of the old generation phones:

• Nokia E63/E71/E72 (runs Symbian)
• Nokia N97 (runs Symbian)
• Blackberry (whatever the latest full-size model is)

Or one of the new generation phones, i.e. the iPhone or one of the a phones running Android/Google.

• iPhone 3GS (you really must use Apple iTunes on you PC or Mac to have one)
• HTC Magic (Android) - www.htc.com/magic
• HTC Hero (Android) - www.htc.com/hero (same an Magic inside, updated case)
• Motorola Milestone/Droid (Android) - www.motorola.com/milestone

The 'Hero' has almost identical guts the the 'Magic', different style case and adds a 3.5mm headphone jack.

I didn't list any Windows Mobile phones because I think, and probably even Microsoft employees agree, they suck :-)

One question to consider is whether you want:

• a physical keyboard
• a slide-out physical keyboard
• a touchscreen keyboard

Whichever you get used to the typing speed appears to end up about the same. New gen phones like the iPhone are 100% touchscreen, Android phones come either with or without slide-out keyboards (in both case you can use the touchscreen). People with physical keyboards almost always end up holding them with both hands, so-called 'two-fisted' users. Touchscreen keyboard users usually hold their phone one-handed.

Nokia, Blackberry, and Windows are seriously behind the curve on touchscreen phones; They have some now, but their OS and the existing apps are totally unsuited to touchscreen use. Check back in 2-3 years and see if they have managed to evolve.

If you really hate yourself enough to buy Windows Mobile, get something from HTC, they try hardest to hide Windows Mobile from the user :-)

One thing I really like about my Android phone is that it is totally independent of my laptop, no syncing software, no updating software, no requirement to have iTunes. Everything is installed, updated, synced, over the Internet. Rather than syncing with my laptop apps, I get both my phone and laptop apps to sync my contacts, calendar, photos, files, etc., all over the Internet with Google or Exchange or Facebook or Sugarsync or Dropio or Flickr or POP/IMAP email or whatever services I want to use.

The worst thing about my Android phone is that it doesn't (yet) support bluetooth keyboards, which I have and like to use. That is just a software issue, so if Google doesn't add it in an update, someone else will work it out I hope.