Holiday Smartphone Buyer's Guide
by Vivek Gowri on December 4, 2010 5:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Guides
- Holiday 2010
- Mobile
Sprint
When Sprint launched the EVO 4G in June, they had a runaway success on their hands, so naturally, it makes sense to start there in our Sprint holiday picks. I bought an EVO on launch day, after standing in the cold and rainy weather that Seattle passes off as early summer (when in fact, it bears no resemblance to the word summer at all). It was totally worth it. When I wrote up my first impressions bit, the word “beast” came up more than once, and for good reason - it was a monster device, not just in a physically imposing sense, but also just for the number of technologies it housed. It was the first mainstream American WiMAX smartphone and by far the most impressive Sprint device in years, making it a worthy choice if you’re in the market for a high-end slate.
If you want a physical keyboard, Sprint’s other 4G phone, the Samsung Epic 4G, is what you should be looking at. It’s almost as big as the EVO and has the same problems with battery life, but it’s faster due to the Hummingbird SoC inside. It’s the only Galaxy S device with a hardware keyboard and WiMAX, so its a definite step up from the Fascinate, Captivate, and Vibrant. Unfortunately, like all of the other Galaxy S devices, it doesn’t have the greatest build quality in the world, but the extra performance makes up for that. At $249.99, it’s $50 more than the other high end devices, but over a two-year contract with data, that’s roughly 1.8% total additional cost. If the hardware keyboard is important to you, that’s definitely worth it.
On the lower end, Sprint has a motley collection of weird smartphones, with the Samsung Intercept and Transform, Sanyo’s Zio, the old school HTC Hero, the non-WiFi Palm Pixi that we all know and, well, not love, but still. Again though, we find ourselves turning to LG’s new Optimus One (the Optimus S on Sprint). Even with a slower processor, it’s a great deal with Froyo and a pretty solid feature set. And it’s free on contract. This is a free Android phone that doesn’t suck! Easy choice for a low end phone. Did I mention that it’s free?
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
52 Comments
View All Comments
ThomasA - Sunday, December 5, 2010 - link
Check that US Cellular (limited regions) is a selling a CDMA version of the HTC Desire. Too bad they won't sell it outside their small coverage areas.synaesthetic - Sunday, December 5, 2010 - link
My girlfriend bought a Charm. We ended up returning it within three days. The screen is absolutely atrocious for a smartphone, even a budget model. I've seen cheap Virgin Mobile featurephones with prettier screens. We ended up buying her a myTouch Slide instead, which could also make use of the wonderful Cyanogenmod 6.I was especially appalled using the Charm because I am a Vibrant owner, so it was like a trip back to the smartphone dark ages!
sykorius - Sunday, December 5, 2010 - link
This article needs some editing - even though the phones were broken down in the carrier segments and unlocked/international portions, the phones were not themselves formatted in easily recognizable outline/title context. An editor would have pointed this out and emphasized the name of the phones in a bold/increase sized font title format alongside the pictures. Also, the site has been established for several years now, but the amateurish journalism still persists. The authors wrote "RIM brought BlackBerry 6 to market with AT&T in the form of the BlackBerry Torch 9800, a device that I honestly found very usable." The authors are suppose to be credible and suppose to be an authority on the technology subject matter, readers do not want your honesty - it's already expected and you are just being redundant with the sentence. More importantly, readers want to make their own judgment of the devices by the facts you state when using the phones, ie, responsiveness of the touch screen, call quality, phone camera & video recording, and other phone feature pros and cons. A better choice of words would be "to be candid" or "to be frank". Get a real editor to look over your articles before the final version is up on the site.fausto412 - Sunday, December 5, 2010 - link
where is my beloved anandtech.com?silverblue - Monday, December 6, 2010 - link
...but the Galaxy S should have Froyo, at least we do throughout Europe.strikeback03 - Monday, December 6, 2010 - link
Blame the carriers, most likely. Whatever the reason, official updates have not yet been pushed out.jah1subs - Monday, December 6, 2010 - link
Everyone of your phone choices is what I would call a chocolate bar because it is thinner than the old style "candybar" form factor. Personally, I prefer to use a clamshell phone and, even in elementary school, my parents received messages home from the teacher that I needed to develop motor skills. The situation is worse now since my fingers are bigger, so I prefer a real keyboard which means that I am most interested in the new Blackberry Style.Since Sprint has an antenna within sight of my home office window, I prefer Sprint service.
I like the ease of use of the menu system on Blackberry BB OS 4.5 once I click on an icon. I want the improved browser and other features in BB OS 6 and hope that the menu system has been kept in OS 6.
The only advance that I have seen for the user interface in the last 5 years is the less busy home screen on Windows 7. I want a phone that I do NOT have to keep looking at.
jah1subs - Monday, December 6, 2010 - link
develop FINE motor skills.GotThumbs - Monday, December 6, 2010 - link
I was really disappointed about the very brief mention of the Notion Ink - Adam. Their tablet is poised to be the IPAD killer. Competitive pricing and way more features than the IPAD. No need to purchase accessory cables for SD cards, USB, etc.I fit in the category of APPLE haters. not just the IPAD but the company as a whole. Their true colors showed when Jobs blamed a customer 'your holding it wrong'. So egotistic, that He is right and everyone else is wrong. I think APPLE is even worse than MICROSOFT was in the 80's and 90's. The ADAM even has an energy saving feature with the Pixel QI display, but no mention about it. I will agree that APPLE is creative and thier computers look pretty. But why would you pay 1,000 or more for a laptop with a two year old processor. SSD is not unique to APPLE and may PC'rs have already updated their laptops and pc's with SSD drives. Apple really only wows the uneducated public. Guess thats why they have to teach them how to hold a cell phone. Anyway. I'm keeping a close eye out for the ADAM. Just Google Notion Ink Adam to really get excited about the tablet market.
GotThumbs - Monday, December 6, 2010 - link
Forgot to mention HDMI connection built in....no accessory cable purchase needed.