AzraelDarkangel
10-23-2008, 10:07 AM
I've been watching computer technology closely for the last several years and I've been happily watching the quickly shrinking size of personal computers over the last few years in particular. Beginning with phones like the Apple iPhone (http://www.gsmarena.com/apple_iphone-1827.php) and LG Prada (http://www.gsmarena.com/lg_ke850_prada-1828.php) the gap in functionality between all-in-one phone devices and laptops/personal computers has quickly been shrinking. The big difference is computing power, screen size, and dedicated graphics chips. The software functionality evolves so quickily I don't see that being a major issue. With the Nvidia Tegra chipset (http://www.nvidia.com/page/handheld.html) now available and which I hope to see being used by manufacturers in 2009; I'm really excited how quickly the technology is evolving and I expect that soon phone/pocket PC's will become more popular than laptops for portable computing for most people. I just wish manufacturers would put all the nice features of different phones in their lines into one device instead of having one particular phone with a really good camera and another phone with good sound and another phone with high resolution touchscreen, etc. I suspect it's more of a marketing issue than an issue of cost or whatever.
A quick rundown of various phones from reviews I've read:
Apple iPhone:
Beautiful design and software with nice Capacitive touchscreen. So-so, outdated hardware, poor camera by current standards. They know how to market products. Take cheap hardware and dress it up really nice and people will buy it because it's pretty. Most people do judge a book by it's cover.
LG Prada:
Similar in certain context to the iPhone, a fancy designer phone more about style and fashion, came out around the same time. Also a nice capacitive touchscreen, inferior software.
LG Viewty: (http://www.gsmarena.com/lg_ku990_viewty-2070.php)
Newer replacement to the Prada, much improved. Much nicer 5 MP camera with 30fps full VGA recording capability. Resistive touchscreen which is the current trend for most touchscreens (can be used with a stylus but is usually less sensitive for general use than a capacitive touchscreen) No WiFi! Hardware and software updated to play DivX videos which to me seems less relevant without WiFi though you can still browse with 3G or EDGE.
Nokia N95 8GB: (http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_n95_8gb-2088.php)
Probably the best, most full featured Nokia available and possibly the best price/performance all-around, all-in-one phone currently on the market. Sadly no Xenon flash, inferior in that respect to the Nokia N82 which is one of the best (if not the best) camera phone available. I really think high-end Nokias are the best value for all-in-one phones. They aren't as pretty as LG's or HTC's or Apple but they seem to have better hardware and features.
Nokia N82: (http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_n82-2177.php)
Probably the best value if you don't need the extra bells and whistles of the N95 or want a better camera which is probably the best available on any phone, particularly for low light or night shots. Kinda ugly, black version looks better, keypad not so good.
Nokia N81: (http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_n81_8gb-2085.php)
Really good sound quality, better than the N82 and N95 but comparatively crappy camera. Good choice if you listen to music alot but don't take many pictures.
HTC Touch Diamond: (http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_touch_diamond-2368.php)
I'm getting this phone soon I hope. At around the same price as the Nokia N95 8GB it has a full VGA (480x640) resolution touchscreen and nice Touchflow software interface. I wish it had a better camera but I'm trying not to spend too much. I want a good portable internet browsing experience. The hardware is really good and there are lots of mods out to improve the software. I wish it had N82's camera and qwerty keyboard but otherwise it seems a good value at around $550 (unlocked).
HTC Touch Pro: (http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_touch_pro-2413.php)
Similar to the Touch Diamond but with a keyboard and minor tweaks but at around $800 just doesn't seem worth it compared to the Diamond. Not cost effective for my needs, I can get a pretty good laptop for that price. More RAM memory than the Diamond.
Phones coming out soon!:
Google (HTC) G1: (http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_g1-2533.php)
Essentially Googles version of the iphone with a more open software platform. Slightly better but still so-so hardware, nice fold-out keyboard. Nice software with nice capacitive touchscreen. Lots of potential on the software side after some time passes and more applications are developed.
HTC Touch HD (http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_touch_hd-2525.php)
Really nice WVGA (480x800) 3.8in touchscreen. Decent still camera but crappy video recording.
LG Prada 2: (http://www.gsmarena.com/lg_kf900_prada-2552.php)
The official sequel to the Prada. Looks to be a good camera which includes WVGA 30fps video recording capabilities. But only the usual 240x400 display. (Why not make the display at least as high res as the video recorder?) WiFi icluded, unlike the original Prada. Capacitive touchscreen.
Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 (http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_ericsson_xperia_x1-2246.php)
So far the closest to what I would like to see in a all-in-one phone. WVGA display, Slide out qwerty keyboard, good software, long lasting battery.
Could have a better camera on such a high-end device. How about an OLED or AMOLED display?
I can't wait till next year when someone uses Nvidia's Tegra chipset and hopefully more WVGA high resolution OLED based touch diplays, multitouch (Patents might be an issue to keep it from penetrating the market for awhile, not sure.) would be nice too. Someone should work out the software for heads up diplays, there is some ok hardware already out, most people just don't know about it. I think people just got scared off by all the bad virtual reality sci-fi/horror movies that came out awhile back but I really seeing that as being the near future once the hardware for such small devices is powerful enough. Contact lenses with built in bluetooth displays is already being experimented with but still a ways off. Easy way to browse :banana::banana::banana::banana: in a crowded cafe, lol!
Also check out:
Samsung Omnia (http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_i900_omnia-2422.php)
Samsung Innov8 (http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_i8510_innov8-2471.php)
Samsung Pixon (http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_m8800_pixon-2535.php)
Nokia N85 (http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_n85-2496.php)
Nokia 5800 XpressMusic (http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_5800_xpressmusic-2537.php)
Sony Ericsson C905 (http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_ericsson_c905-2427.php)
Sony Ericsson G705 (http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_ericsson_g705-2520.php)
Blackberry Storm 9500 (http://www.gsmarena.com/blackberry_storm_9500-2534.php)
Blackberry Bold 9000 (http://www.gsmarena.com/blackberry_bold_9000-2370.php)
A quick rundown of various phones from reviews I've read:
Apple iPhone:
Beautiful design and software with nice Capacitive touchscreen. So-so, outdated hardware, poor camera by current standards. They know how to market products. Take cheap hardware and dress it up really nice and people will buy it because it's pretty. Most people do judge a book by it's cover.
LG Prada:
Similar in certain context to the iPhone, a fancy designer phone more about style and fashion, came out around the same time. Also a nice capacitive touchscreen, inferior software.
LG Viewty: (http://www.gsmarena.com/lg_ku990_viewty-2070.php)
Newer replacement to the Prada, much improved. Much nicer 5 MP camera with 30fps full VGA recording capability. Resistive touchscreen which is the current trend for most touchscreens (can be used with a stylus but is usually less sensitive for general use than a capacitive touchscreen) No WiFi! Hardware and software updated to play DivX videos which to me seems less relevant without WiFi though you can still browse with 3G or EDGE.
Nokia N95 8GB: (http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_n95_8gb-2088.php)
Probably the best, most full featured Nokia available and possibly the best price/performance all-around, all-in-one phone currently on the market. Sadly no Xenon flash, inferior in that respect to the Nokia N82 which is one of the best (if not the best) camera phone available. I really think high-end Nokias are the best value for all-in-one phones. They aren't as pretty as LG's or HTC's or Apple but they seem to have better hardware and features.
Nokia N82: (http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_n82-2177.php)
Probably the best value if you don't need the extra bells and whistles of the N95 or want a better camera which is probably the best available on any phone, particularly for low light or night shots. Kinda ugly, black version looks better, keypad not so good.
Nokia N81: (http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_n81_8gb-2085.php)
Really good sound quality, better than the N82 and N95 but comparatively crappy camera. Good choice if you listen to music alot but don't take many pictures.
HTC Touch Diamond: (http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_touch_diamond-2368.php)
I'm getting this phone soon I hope. At around the same price as the Nokia N95 8GB it has a full VGA (480x640) resolution touchscreen and nice Touchflow software interface. I wish it had a better camera but I'm trying not to spend too much. I want a good portable internet browsing experience. The hardware is really good and there are lots of mods out to improve the software. I wish it had N82's camera and qwerty keyboard but otherwise it seems a good value at around $550 (unlocked).
HTC Touch Pro: (http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_touch_pro-2413.php)
Similar to the Touch Diamond but with a keyboard and minor tweaks but at around $800 just doesn't seem worth it compared to the Diamond. Not cost effective for my needs, I can get a pretty good laptop for that price. More RAM memory than the Diamond.
Phones coming out soon!:
Google (HTC) G1: (http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_g1-2533.php)
Essentially Googles version of the iphone with a more open software platform. Slightly better but still so-so hardware, nice fold-out keyboard. Nice software with nice capacitive touchscreen. Lots of potential on the software side after some time passes and more applications are developed.
HTC Touch HD (http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_touch_hd-2525.php)
Really nice WVGA (480x800) 3.8in touchscreen. Decent still camera but crappy video recording.
LG Prada 2: (http://www.gsmarena.com/lg_kf900_prada-2552.php)
The official sequel to the Prada. Looks to be a good camera which includes WVGA 30fps video recording capabilities. But only the usual 240x400 display. (Why not make the display at least as high res as the video recorder?) WiFi icluded, unlike the original Prada. Capacitive touchscreen.
Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 (http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_ericsson_xperia_x1-2246.php)
So far the closest to what I would like to see in a all-in-one phone. WVGA display, Slide out qwerty keyboard, good software, long lasting battery.
Could have a better camera on such a high-end device. How about an OLED or AMOLED display?
I can't wait till next year when someone uses Nvidia's Tegra chipset and hopefully more WVGA high resolution OLED based touch diplays, multitouch (Patents might be an issue to keep it from penetrating the market for awhile, not sure.) would be nice too. Someone should work out the software for heads up diplays, there is some ok hardware already out, most people just don't know about it. I think people just got scared off by all the bad virtual reality sci-fi/horror movies that came out awhile back but I really seeing that as being the near future once the hardware for such small devices is powerful enough. Contact lenses with built in bluetooth displays is already being experimented with but still a ways off. Easy way to browse :banana::banana::banana::banana: in a crowded cafe, lol!
Also check out:
Samsung Omnia (http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_i900_omnia-2422.php)
Samsung Innov8 (http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_i8510_innov8-2471.php)
Samsung Pixon (http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_m8800_pixon-2535.php)
Nokia N85 (http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_n85-2496.php)
Nokia 5800 XpressMusic (http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_5800_xpressmusic-2537.php)
Sony Ericsson C905 (http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_ericsson_c905-2427.php)
Sony Ericsson G705 (http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_ericsson_g705-2520.php)
Blackberry Storm 9500 (http://www.gsmarena.com/blackberry_storm_9500-2534.php)
Blackberry Bold 9000 (http://www.gsmarena.com/blackberry_bold_9000-2370.php)