Ask Engadget: Best 3G smartphone?
By Paul Miller 
posted Nov 30th 2007 7:07PM
posted Nov 30th 2007 7:07PM
You might've noticed the recent uptick in mobile industry news, which comes courtesy of the annual Mobius conference currently taking place in Amsterdam. It's pretty clear that the future is bright, what with 700MHz, 4G, a new Windows Mobile, Android, and a 3G iPhone all on the way, but what about the here and now? What we're wondering is:"What's the best 3G smartphone currently available in the States?"
And yes, we mean 3G. You know, that hip cool thing that Apple isn't terribly fond of, which brings high speed internets, effective tethering, streaming video and music downloads on the run -- while supposedly beating battery life to a pulp. We're also talking about what's available in the here and now, but it could very well just be time to wait for the next great thing to come along, so be sure to let us know if that's the case for you. If you'd your own question answered, you can to hit us up at ask at engadget dawt com.
iPho...oh wait...
That's right....iPhone 2.0. It isn't ready yet, but it's already the best. It's a given plus it will have Steve Jobs endorsement. iPhone 2.0 FTW.
Three iPhones!
Three iPhones!
DynaTAC for the win!!!
whats 3g tho??
I'm hoping it's the HTC Touch Cruise, which I'm waiting for it to be released. I've used the AT&T 8525 since it came out, but it's an ok phone. It's fast, but I hate the size.
at&t Tilt
HTC Hermes and the new upgrade - The Tilt thing.
best phone I've ever had
AT&T Tilt (HTC TyTN II)
I likey this one
Without a doubt the N95 US.
You've got a 5MP camera, WiFi, HSDPA, a proper 3.5mm headphone socket, support for memory cards up to 32GB, VGA@30fps video recording, A2DP, Outlook/Notes/Mac syncing, WMP/iTunes media syncing, Slingbox, GPS, etc, etc, etc.
The only downside is the price.
yeah.. what he said
And no QWERTY...Which is a killer for emails and whatnot.
second (or third?) the N95-3
couldht u hack it to work with bluetooth keyboards though?
that would easily be the best.
dinnt someone suggest that with the iphone and tae apple wireless keyboard too?
It works with the Nokia BT keyboard - no need to hack it. The N95 supports all the right BT profiles, unlike some other phones that i could mention
i have an n95 but I'm not sure if I'd call it the best. Best of a bad bunch maybe. There really doesn't seem to be any GOOD 3G phones.
Is there no E90 in the States?.... It's definitely the best... it's got every feature one would wish...
An addon BT keyboard is so completely different from a built-in one...
If you need a smart/pdaphone for business, you have to have a built-in QWERTY keyboard. You have to.
@ Jesse S
Its true that business people need a qwerty keyboard. However, some people prefer to touch type on a full keyboard rather than use their thumbs.
What I like best about the N95-3 is that you can upload pictures to flickr or whatever in their full sized 5 megapixel glory. With 3G and an app called Shozu, it can all be done instantly and in the background.
The 2nd best thing is podcasting. You dont need to be tethered to a computer to get your podasts. You can download them where ever you are and delete them when you're done.
You're right - there's no QWERTY keyboard. It's certainly a drawback for some. On the upside, the N95 looks like a regular phone so you don't look like a total dork when you're talking into it.
The new Apple Wireless Keyboeard works beautifully with the N95. This is of course is only useful if you have a brief case or something to carry it in. But it is great to have a really nice keyboard to use if you want to do a lot of email. Great on a plane for example.
qwerty is not a necessity like many people think it is. I have a flip WM5 smartphone and i can type emails using predictive text just as fast as any qwerty user.
N95 is good, but it doesn't have a touchscreen, does it? That opens up so many more software possibilities.
Oh, and Shozu is available for other platforms too. I use a WM-native version on my Hermes.
Nokia 6120 or Nokia E65... Easy
N95 US
HTC Tilt
Definitely the Nokia N95-3 (with US HSDPA)!
Perhaps even the HTC TyTN II (AT&T Tilt)...
No doubts ... the Blackberry 8830. It just works.
hahaha...you must be kidding to put blackberry on this list. Those things are garbage
Actually i know a LOT of Blackberry users who love their new Blackberries. The only downside is the Office document software is hella expensive.
Not everyone needs a touch screen.
I love my 8100 Pearl, but I also have T-Mobile so I don't understand this "3G" you speak of. I just have to put up with slow unlimited tethering/data/e-mail for $20 a month. Still not a bad deal.
The 'best' is whatever the hell a person likes to use. Way to bring even more brand fanboys to the website Engadget.
i have to say, im rather fond of my O2 XDA Exec (brit gageteer here) yes it may be a bit bulke but i have yet to find a device with such versatility, main liking points would be the massive resolution touchscreen the 3.5mm headphone jack and the volume output/sount quality when partnered with TCPMP.
Oh and lets not forget the swiveling screen!, to this day it never fails to turn heads!
i can see the sixe/weight being a big problem for some people, i have huge pockets so its fine.
thats just my 2 pence.
I got one too. Imported it to the states. Main reason for my purchase, VGA res screen. Thats twice the pixels of the iPhone.
Actually VGA is 4 times the pixels of iPhone ;P
(640*480)/(320*240) = 4
well now we can see that the iphone has become the norm and is compared against in order to prove a point. oh and iPHONE FTW
actually we were comparing other phones to the xda exec, just happened to be the iphone as it has a big screen. and to prove your fanboyness you just read that the iphone is far inferior to the xda yet are still trying to convince people that your fasion item, sorry, phone... is a better option,
im sorry, and i know that apple has produced some genuinly good products but all they are now is a fasion item, an attempt at a status symbol, it a glaring declaration that you enjoy being taken for a ride and paying through your teeth for old technology.
Old technology? Are you telling me that multi-touch is "old technology"? I beg to differ.
errrr, actually, yes i am saying its old technology, 25 years old to be exact, all that apple did is trademark the name 'multi-touch' and impliment it in a smaller device.
the university of toronto and bell labs had it back in '82 on both tablets and screens.
I quite agree, apart from the hiccups I've seen in some o2 devices (mainly software though, and they disappear after an update) o2's whole lineup is state of the art.
i don't have an o2, but i have a hp rw6828, a clone of an XDA atom, and i love it :D. Especially the idea that i don't have to delete the 3000 text messages i have, and i can actually archive them like emails :).
also, @ Andrew
multi touch isn't that big of a deal on a phone, it really seems quite useless on a small device. On Microsoft surface it actually has a good use, because you aren't holding the device and have full use of both hands, but when you are holding a phone, it seems that a device that can be used with one hand is inevitably easier to use.
well, thats my opinion :D
im not going to point at any specific phone but for 3g, quality and just fun features, I'd go with an htc phone. All their phones are good. Not totally excellent or anything but it goes a bit over my standards for smart phones. If you're a person who frickin hates htc phones, I'd go with a blackberry curve on sprint or verizon or the curve on tmo. If your a RIM hater go with the nokia n95. It's a bit overpriced but it has good internet and a pretty decent phone nokia has outed. If you're a nokia hater you must be waiting for someone to go " 3G iPHONE!!!ZOMG!!!DURR!!!" or in other word: you should get out more. low rank me at will but it's what I believe.
I used to love my T-Mobile Dash. HTC makes some good hardware but that can't stop Windows Mobile from crapping on your parade. My Dash was great when it was new but it just gets slower and slower every day. I keep getting WinMo devices and always end up hating them (what's wrong with me?). I'm seriously considering Symbian for my next phone
sorry I meant blackberry pearl on sprint or verizon.
Not ALL HTC phones are good. Their 6800/Titan sucks...especially the Sprint Mogul version. Too small of memory, crashing Bluetooth stack, short battery life, alarm clock doesn't work, ringer changes to vibrate at random and other misc bugs.
The BlackBerry 8130 on Sprint does everything. GPS, memory card slot, BT tethering for PAM, media player, decent camera; and the BB pack on Sprint is only $30 a month.
And isn't 3g.
I was going to say the 8130 as well... it has everything I need! Although I paid the full $500 so that I can sell it off later and get a 3G iPhone (I refuse to buy a non-3G phone that you cannot 'legitimately' add applications to)
@Firebird
Uh, yes, it is. This ain't no 8100.
@Trey
Prepare to receive a large bill unless you've tethered your BB in a way where it can't be seen as acting as a modem, because Sprint's $30 BB plan is for unlimited data/text and NO PAM included. That's $15 extra. The $40 includes it, but no texting.
It may not be 3g but Sprint's network is fast enough for any handheld device at this point. Sprint's service tethers well too.
I have been using the Sprint Touch (HTC Vogue not the same thing as the GSM Touch which is the HTC Elf) and I can't say I have ever been happier with a gadget of any kind. It is much smaller than any other touch screen PDA phone, and has a 400Mhz CPU and 128MB of ram. The only 2 things you can really hold against it is that it doesn't have a hardware keyboard, and it doesn't have WiFi. But will unlimited EVDO data, I can do with out WiFi, and for the smaller, sexier form factor, I can do with out the hardware keyboard.
Any suggestions on the best method to get this phone if you weren't going to be signing a contract with Sprint? I want to replace my PPC-6700, but I'm on the employee plan of sprint so I can't really sign a new contract
Yeah, talk to ecare and lie your ass off on your current phone sucking or being a piece of crap or something and tell them that you NEED a Touch.
The 3G iPhone
(it does exist just only in Cupertino and probably somewhere in Texas too)
And @Trey
Price doesn't make something good just cheap...A Blackberry isn't smart enough to be the best 3G smartphone, it's only good for email.
Well, that was kind of my point. The price for the plan is just an added incentive, the phone's features are the attractive part.
ATT Tilt, if you can stand HTC's terrible build quality and ATT's terrible network. Mogul if you can stand HTC's terrible build quality. i760 (Samsung, Verizon) is what I myself prefer...Amazing build quality, and it's CDMA.
The Tilt is the most powerful though. I just cannot stand HTC's slider mechanism...
CDMA sux, how is that a good thing, it will basically only work in the us, maybe in a few countries, I'm not exactly sure, but UTMS and GSM are the best, because they're universal (except in Japan)
@sam zebian
you've never lived in the Wash. DC area. GSM absolutely sucks down here, can only get a signal in about half the city. Verizon (CDMA) covers most of the city and even is down in the subways, which makes it indisputable for commuters (and therefore tens of thousands of people) since GSM isn't down there at all. I would like GSM to be everywhere in DC, but unfortunately our nation's capital is an oasis of the Dark Ages.
@Sam -
For the most part, GSM vs CDMA does not matter for most Americans. If you are stating that CDMA sucks because you are not American and do not live in America; then you might have a point. But for the majority of Americans who do not travel outside of the US or need their data & US cell phone number outside the US, this is a moot point. GSM vs CDMA should really be about the coverage where you plan to use it most, not about where you theoretically could use it most.
@Mike and Wicked
CDMA SUCKS...PERIOD. Especially the way Sprint and Verizon implement it with their completely locked down networks and horrible phone options. GSM and Cingular (yes, Cingular because it really IS the same thing as the "new ATT") = OPEN and USE ANY GSM PHONE on the market. Plus faster speeds and a bunch of other stuff...
I guess you haven't heard of VZW becoming semi-open in 2008? Or about how CDMA has better voice quality? Or faster data speeds? Or more bandwidth? Or soft-handoffs between towers, which means less dropped calls?
You do realize that CDMA is superior to GSM in ever single way, right? And it supports R-UIM, which are essentially SIM cards for CDMA.
I wonder why China, Korea, and parts of Japan use CDMA? One could call them the fastest advancing countries in the world, and look at their choice.
Why am I lowest ranked? HTC has terrible build quality compared to Samsung. GSM sucks.
you have a point there on the R-UIM cards. I mean, those cards have the potential of say running an iphone on sprint or verizon. I mean I would love that as a sprint customer.
Too freaking bad that this post is talking about the best 3G smartphone. If you get a CDMA phone in the United States, you are getting EV-DO.... ha!
I agree with you that CDMA is better for data, but nothing beats GSM for efficient voice quality. Therefore, in the US, AT&T is the best carrier. They use GSM for voice (you need 5 CDMA towers for every one GSM tower) and HSDPA (CDMA!) for data. Best of both worlds.
Case closed.
@Jesse
It's funny you bring up Verizon's newfound "openess". Mainly because you have no idea what it entails and still wouldn't give the flexibility that ATT's current infrastructure with GSM and SIM cards provide, which, btw, is the way it's been for the last several years. Who knows what Verizon's "open" plan is. I guarantee you one thing though, they're still gonna lock down and uglify the phones they provide.
And as for the bandwidth, I encourage you to WIKI the specs for EVDO rev. A (current revision) vs. HSPA (current GSM technology) I think you'll find that you have no idea what you're talking about. Plus like I've mentioned many times before, with HSPA you get simultaneous voice and data which is not only convenient by itself but also allows for Video Calling.
isn't EV-DO 3G by cdma stabdards. It's pretty much as fast as 3g. I know. I've been with at&t's 3G and I'm currently a sprint customer on an unlimited EV-DO plan
In real-life application, EV-DO has higher bandwidth.
And you know why you have to have 5 CDMA towers for every 1 GSM tower? Soft hand-offs, which means less dropped calls. And CDMA does have better voice quality.
I know Verizon is still going to be locked down, why do you think I said "semi-open"? I'm not an idiot, I know they're still going to delay phones for almost a year and lock out a feature or two, but it's better than it being completely locked.
The only reason GSM is used is because it's cheaper than CDMA.
@Jesse S
You do realise that Verizon are migrating to a GSM Association technology (LTE) for 4G, right? That's how they're opening up their network. And you do realise that the GSM Association 3G standard (UMTS/HSDPA) is based on a CDMA air interface?
CDMA doesn't suck. Qualcomm's implementation of CDMA does suck.
I do know that Verizon is moving to LTE, but isn't that only for data?
I have a SonyEricsson P1i which I love, but I have to nominate the N95 as it is just that little bit better (apart from the keyboard!) at almost all things, and I'm a big SE fan/user so thats a big complement... (and HTC stuff meh its not good at the moment..)
Go w/ the K850i. Best of both worlds: SE & 3G.
5mp camera blows Nokia's away. I owned both & can *finally* use a phone for a camera.
I love Sony Ericsson but i wish the new K850i has wifi, that is the only new feature which is missing :( i was really disappointed to NOT see wifi in it
My 8525 is still going strong. It is sturdy, always works, and has a solid feature set. It is a tool.
I have been through 2 Treo's. Treo is to smartphones what Vista is to Windows. I will never purchase another Treo anything. So if you are starting a "worst smartphone" just put anything Palm on the list and call it a day.
For your analogy to work, it should be Treo:smartphone::Vista:computer
I like my ol' Motorola StarTac from 95'.. she works great an never has any bluetooth or wifi issues
Nokia N95
It is amazing!
A Treo 755p with EVDO Bluetooth DUN enabled. Preferably on Verizon, but the 3G iPhone may be out before then.
I would have to go with the Mogul, Touch or irjqw3rrqjpqwe45
AT&T Tilt (HTC Kaiser).
No EV-DO phone even belongs in the running here since they can't handle voice and data simultaneously. Beyond that, the Tilt packs everything a smartphone should have, which (sorry N95) includes a QWERTY keyboard. Yes, she's a fatty, but she puts out!
When you think about it, all the fatties put out. Most people can't afford to swap pocketability for the features. A middle ground needs to be had.
Like the borderline-supermodel that only puts out when you take her to Tiffany's.
Chris
TILT
if hardware qwerty is a must, AT+T Tilt. No qwerty, the CDMA version of the HTC Touch. I say CDMA because it has a 400MHz processor opposed to a 200MHz processor on the GSM version. Oh wait, the GSM version isn't even 3G, it's still EDGE.
HTC TyTN II !!!!
I find it hard to put my faith in Apple to product anything better than they have already - add 3G on an "ok" network - big deal. There's only spotty 3G support on AT&T anyway.
I am looking forward to the release of the US N95 - I would only keep my iPhone if Apple decides to embrace the spirit of software that they build Mac/iPhone platforms from. The iPhone should be an open platform, period. Without this change, iPhone will never be tops in my book.
And where do you plan on using that N95-3? You do realize that the only network in the US where you will have 3G functionality is on that 'ok network with spotty 3G support', don't you?
Did you read my entire post? The point was not in reference to AT&T's network. I will stay on AT&T regardless of the fact that it has delivered inferior service in comparison to Verizon. I would seriously consider going back to Verizon if the N95 was available on that network, and I would happily pay my $350 early termination penalty. But again, that was not the point of my post.
The point was that the iPhone is (and could remain) locked down to third party local app development. Once I was over the "cool" factor, it's welcome was worn out for me.
Sprint Mogul on SERO plan. Can't beat $30/month.
Three letters for you: E70.
It's from Nokia. It's got a full keyboard, WLAN, camera (video & still) and it's been out for a while, so it's cheep! (Plus it does so much more!)
Don't beleive me, beleive Maddox: http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=iphone
Nokia E70
hey! I own an e70.. and it's *almost* the best... it lacks RAM... that's why I'm getting the E90 soon... but yeah, gotta love the e70, even though it's ugly as hell :D
Aaaaaah, truly an ugly phone. I agree.
The E90 is trickling here (Chile) at exhorbitant prices (USD 1500). I will wait or maybe I will Amazon, or I will consider the SE P1i even after the horror that the P990i was. They seem to have gotten their act together now.
I agree, the Nokia E70 is the most under-rated phone ever. Fantastic keyboard, great battery life and it's screen puts the iPhone to shame.
Well, let us not forget this little... ahem... "jewel"
http://duggmirror.com/apple/The_iPhone_is_a_piece_of_shit_and_so_is_your_face/?u=iphone
Hello, I have an E70 and I used to really like it, but now it has so many problems. It takes forever to send a text message (3-4 minutes)and I can't receive a phonecall in the meanwhile, webpages won't load because it says I have exceeded the memory limit (even though I have a 2gb SD card in there) and the software is really buggy. I've had this phone for a little over a year. It's gotten to the point where I am forced to buy a new phone. Is this phone just dying or is there something wrong that can be fixed?
Download the Nokia software updater and update the firmware. The SMS problem is a well known problem that was fixed a long time ago. There's been a lot of RAM improvements too, but it's not perfect.
The HTC TyTn II, A.K.A. the HTC 8925, A.K.A. the HTC kaiser A.K.A. the AT&T Tilt, simply because it runs the mobile OS that best integrates itself into the most commonly used Computer OS, windows, has a great 3g connection, wi-fi, bluetooth, tethering support, a large touch-screen, a full qwerty keyboard, a microsd card slot supporting up to 32GB microsd cards (don't see that one often!), a great unlimited data plan for &20 a month: no tethering support with that cheap plan, though :(, Runs on the best network, which is UMTS, AKA "3GSM", and simply, it tilts.
I must have missed something in my research. I want to upgrade from my 2 year old Treo 650 (Sprint) and was considering either the Mogul on Sprint or the Tilt on ATT. I am well aware that the Tilt is a better phone but I kept coming back to the fact that (as it seemed to me) my $15/month unlimited data plan on Sprint would jump up to $40-45 if I were to switch over to ATT. So far Sprint has given me few issues and the service is hella cheap. I just hate to shell out a few hundred bucks on anything but the better device. I was gonna deal with the Mogul's shortcomings for the lower data package but you say you got $20/month data on ATT with the Tilt. I might be willing to deal with the $5 increase for the better phone but I wouldn't deal with a $30 increse.
Oh, and the AT&T tilt also has a 3mp camera
Oh yeah, and the AT&T tilt has GPS (sorry for all of the reposts, I keep forgetting all of the extra features, because there are so many of them!)
Tilt
I'm rather fond of the HTC s630/Dopod C730.
Definitely the o2 XDA EXEC (HTC Universal)
I'm pretty satisfied with my Blackjack. It's getting harder and harder not to load my leaked WM6 ROM onto it.