Topic: Favorite smartphone?

[nickmitch]

RIM is a little more dead in the water that Sony.

[BranDonk Kong]

RIM tried to go mainstream with the BB Storm, which sold a lot, but sucked as a "cool" phone and showed teenagers and young adults that BlackBerry was not for them.

[Plugabugz]

The problem with the storm was it was a pokescreen phone not a touch screen. That would annoy a lot of people very quickly.

[UncleBob]

I don't have anything against the iOS software, but I have to vote for Android simply because I can frickin' get a phone with an actual keyboard on it.

I used to *work* for RIM, and still use a BB... but I'm jumping off the platform at my next upgrade assuming there's a good phone with a physical keyboard out by then.

If you're on Verizon, check out the Samsung Fascinate.  It's a mid-to-high tier 4G phone with full slide-out keyboard and is pretty awesome.

[BranDonk Kong]

You are incorrect. You are thinking of the Stratosphere. The Fascinate (Verizon's first Galaxy S phone...though) came out a while ago, and does not have a keyboard. If you want the best phone with a keyboard, get a DROID 4. It's a DROID RAZR with a keyboard.

The Storm's screen was crap (though it takes nice pictures), but it also didn't help that any "fun" apps on BB simply do not exist, and the phone (like most BlackBerry phones) takes like 45 minutes to boot up.

[Morari]

If you want a keyboard you should... y'know... use a computer. Telephones are for talking... with your voice.

[Adrock]

By that logic, smartphones shouldn't exist because they do more than act as a mobile telephone. I don't want to live in a world where I can't access the Internet for largely unimportant reasons everywhere I go. I can barely comprehend how I functioned before I had a smartphone.

[Morari]

You're right, smartphones shouldn't exist.

[Ceric]

The problem the Windows Phone has is that.  A lot of people just won't give them a chance.  I have not met anyone who has actually used a Windows Phone for any length of time that didn't like it.  The only problem is the perception of everyone has because its Microsoft and how much the phone does right is inhibiting the App Store.  Why would a want a 3rd party app for something the phone itself does really well?

[Adrock]

You're right, smartphones shouldn't exist.

Have fun living in the past, Fred Flintstone. No wait, even he would have a smartphone made of rocks or dinosaur bones. Have fun living in the past, Jane Austen.

[NWR_insanolord]

While vanilla iOS is good, and does everything most people need, there is just so much good stuff on Cydia that I couldn't go back to not being jailbroken. Activator and IntelliscreenX are worth it all by themselves, but there are tons more things that are really useful.

[Oblivion]

If the jailbreak didn't completely **** up my battery life, I'd probably keep it jailbroken.

[BranDonk Kong]

Jailbreaking in itself doesn't affect battery life. There was a bug with an old version of Cydia if you were on 3.1.3 that would make the phone keep trying to get certain certificates signed over and over which would kill battery quickly. Anyway, I will continue to hate iOS...but if you're gonna have an iPhone, jailbreaking it makes it much more accessible and well, fun, provided you know what to do next.

[Lithium]

i dont even have a smart phone, but if i were to buy one i would be getting a windows phone, I have a Zune HD and love the interface and don't really care about apps. I just want a no nonsense phone that's easy and quick to use. (which is why i don't even have a smart phone)

[Oblivion]

Jailbreaking in itself doesn't affect battery life. There was a bug with an old version of Cydia if you were on 3.1.3 that would make the phone keep trying to get certain certificates signed over and over which would kill battery quickly. Anyway, I will continue to hate iOS...but if you're gonna have an iPhone, jailbreaking it makes it much more accessible and well, fun, provided you know what to do next.

You sure? I tested this once by installing cydia and nothing else. Installing cydia killed the battery life by 2-3 hours.

[nickmitch]

Was it the old version of Cydia?

[UncleBob]

You are incorrect. You are thinking of the Stratosphere. The Fascinate (Verizon's first Galaxy S phone...though) came out a while ago, and does not have a keyboard. If you want the best phone with a keyboard, get a DROID 4. It's a DROID RAZR with a keyboard.

You are correct.  You'd think I would know the name of my own phone.

I *hate* the wafer-keyboards on the Motorola DROID phones.  They've slowly gotten better, but they still suck badly.

[MegaByte]

Unlike the previous Droids, the Droid 4 has actual individual keys, not a keypad.

[Oblivion]

Was it the old version of Cydia?

Not sure. I'm fairly certain I updated it correctly, but I could be wrong. In any case, I mainly used it as a way to try out apps and as an emulator. Besides that, I really don't have a use for all the fancy tweaks that were possible with Cydia.

[UncleBob]

Unlike the previous Droids, the Droid 4 has actual individual keys, not a keypad.

It is leaps and bounds above the previous versions, but it's still... lacking.  I think Motorola misses the point of having a full keyboard.  We phone-keyboarders want the keyboard because we like the feel of the buttons and being able to easily type without having to look at the keys.  If we wanted something flat and nondescript, we could just a touch screen keypad.  Give us real, individual buttons with some height on them.

[Ceric]

Unlike the previous Droids, the Droid 4 has actual individual keys, not a keypad.

It is leaps and bounds above the previous versions, but it's still... lacking.  I think Motorola misses the point of having a full keyboard.  We phone-keyboarders want the keyboard because we like the feel of the buttons and being able to easily type without having to look at the keys.  If we wanted something flat and nondescript, we could just a touch screen keypad.  Give us real, individual buttons with some height on them.

Initially there was several Windows Phones with Keyboards w/ more in the works.  Now I can't find any.  I wonder if they just sold bad.

[tendoboy1984]

Unlike the previous Droids, the Droid 4 has actual individual keys, not a keypad.

It is leaps and bounds above the previous versions, but it's still... lacking.  I think Motorola misses the point of having a full keyboard.  We phone-keyboarders want the keyboard because we like the feel of the buttons and being able to easily type without having to look at the keys.  If we wanted something flat and nondescript, we could just a touch screen keypad.  Give us real, individual buttons with some height on them.

I really don't care if the phone has a physical keyboard or a digital keyboard. As long as it works, then I'm happy. That being said, the digital keyboard used in iOS devices works just fine.

[tendoboy1984]

Motorola is owned by Google now, right? So why hasn't Google let Motorola make a Nexus phone? Google keeps teaming up with Samsung and HTC, but they're neglecting the company that they own.

[TJ Spyke]

Google bought Motorola Mobility, there is also Motorola Solutions. Your point is valid though since MM makes the phones. Don't know.

The keyboard on iPhone and iPod Touch is alright, though far too frequently I make typos because the device though my finger hit the wrong button (even worse in portrait mode).

[BlackNMild2k1]

To suddenly give Motorola Mobility the exclusive rights to the Google Nexus would show unfavorable favortism to all the other phone manufacturers that have helped make Android as popular as it is.

In the mean time, MotoMobil has served it's purpose of strengthening Google's patent library against Apple and it's iPhones. But at some point in the near future, I hope it ultimately means that Moto starts making better Android Phones that update much quicker than they currently do.