FOGEY 5 Smartphones (older)
The Fogey 5 are the best five products in their class by virtue of expert and consumer review from at least 10 respected and authoritative websites.
Of all the Fogey 5 categories this one will likely date most rapidly. New handsets and uprated versions of operating platforms seem to appear weekly. Apple trades on the desirability of its handsets and the HUGE choice of apps (applications). Their main competition now is from handsets that use Google’s Android operating platform and from Blackberry, who are still a major force in the smartphone field in spite of all the Apple-related hoo-ha. Nokia are hanging on in there with their Ovi suite of apps and services such as ‘free’ sat-nav but their relatively outdated Symbian operating platform seems doomed (so much so that since this was written they’ve leapt into the sack with Microsoft and will, in future, use Windows Mobile). It’s a war, and because of the ubquity of smartphones and the collosal piles of dosh involved, it’s a war that will never end. The info contained herein was correct in October 2010. An update is on the way…
HTC Desire
Aside from the gizmo cognoscenti, who’d heard of HTC five years ago? And now look at them; hot handsets cascading off the shelves, spanking Apple where it hurts and winning gadget mag T3’s ‘smartphone of the year 2010’ for this very model. There’s a tale to be told of tit-for-tat patent infringement lawsuits between Apple and HTC, of Google and HTC joining forces to posit the Android operating platform as a serious Apple-ternative but it won’t be told here. Instead marvel at the Desire (a re-jigged Google Nexus-1) and its many accomplishments: big 3.7-inch AMOLED touch screen; optical trackpad (as opposed to a Blackberry-like ball); wafer thin and at 133g about the same as an iPhone 3G. It is clever in ways that will make you sigh with head-shaking happiness and can be had ‘free’ for as little as £20 a month on a 24 month contract. And there’s now an HD version.
Contract deals here. More info here.
Apple iPhone 4
Does anyone not know what an iPhone can do? Pretty much everything aside from brew a decent espresso. If you have the fingers of an anorexic pixie the touch-screen keypad is a joy to use and the plethora of apps will keep you quietly and simply engaged for eternity. The iPhone’s success is almost self-fulfilling because everyone who’s anyone seems to have one. And if we leave aside the slightly bonkers expense of Nokia’s Vertu handsets, it’s one of the more affordable entry-points into top-of-the-range luxurious bling. But talk of iPhone 5 is already infecting the tech airwaves so why commit to this or any handset for two years? Well, unless you want to fork out around £500 for a sim-free handset so you can use it on pay-as-you-go, there’s no choice. And unlike the HTC Desire, or most other handsets, the iPhone is never ‘free’ with that contract and the monthly tariff is always high.
Contract deals here. More info here
Samsung Galaxy S
If they had their way, Samsung would rule the consumer electronic world; there being so few appliances and gizmos they don’t make. Their current range features no less than eight smartphones of which the Galaxy S is the poshest. Earlier Samsung smartphones used Windows Mobile as their operation system but this one uses Google’s Android platform and is better for it. One of many nifty applications is Swype, which lets your finger trace a word on the touchscreen keypad and see it appear much faster even than via standard predictive texting. Point the camera at a restaurant and a slew of reviews will pop up on-screen. It records and plays in HD and the 4-inch AMOLED screen is one of the biggest. Battery life is pants if you make it work hard but that’s true of most smartphones. Contract prices with ‘free’ handset start at around £25 a month.
Contract deals here. More info here
Apple iPhone 3Gs
It may seem perverse to go for the older iPhone but it’s now something of a bargain (it’s £129 upfront and £25 a month on the cheapest tariff from 3). The iPhone 4 has improvements and new features such as Face Time but you can upgrade the firmware on an iPhone 3 to iPhone 4 standard so the differences become minimal. The ‘s’ in 3Gs stands for speed and that, improved battery life and camera functionality are where it scores over the 3G. There were smartphones before the iPhone but Apple made them all look a bit dim by raising the bar on user-friendliness to stellar heights. Swipe it, stroke it, jab at it and then wipe if clean on your trousers. It’s a hype icon and far from perfect but that’s principally a comparative judgement and such user complaints as there were didn’t stop punters queuing round the houses for the iPhone 4. Having said all that my missus is now on her third handset in a year.
Contract deals here. More info here
HTC Legend
The progression of the HTC’s Hero handset and launched in March 2010 the Legend is a proper slice of phone pie, its carapace hewn from one solid hunk of aluminium. It’s fast, capable and very, very sleek. Nit-pickers might point to the 3.2-inch AMOLED screen not being as high-def as more recent smartphones but it’s the same resolution as an iPhone 3Gs. It does support Flash (iPhones don’t), has a 600MHz processor for swift web-surfing and a 5 megapixel camera with flash. And it’s more affordable than most: ‘free’ on a 24 month contract at £20 a month with Vodafone – although you won’t get much in terms of calls and texts for that price.
More info here
