[geeks] iPhone alternatives

[Francois Dion]

On Thu, Jan 29, 2009 at 1:35 PM, Shannon Hendrix <shannon at widomaker.com> wrote:
> What do you guys think of iPhone alternatives these days?
>
> I have decided to start using a PDA again, and of course I looked at iPhone.

All PDAs including the iphone make ok phones at best. One thing is
that almost all touch devices have no dialpad on the actual phone.
Maybe not a big deal for some, but I have to dial phone numbers that
are not in my contacts on pretty much a daily basis. The Samsung i760
has a full dial pad under the touch screen, but the touch part is not
up to par to iphone, particularly for web browsing and you need an
external GPS, so it is not a complete solution. But you can put better
software, external gps etc and in that regard I've been able to live
with it. Sound quality varies too. Most PDAs lack volume. Can you hear
the pda when in a holster, with the windows down and the radio
playing? Or even just with windows down and no radio, just normal
traffic noise.

A wireless headset with voice command might make the lack of dialpad
and awkwardness of holding a pda to your ear and some other issues ok,
but then you are using two devices.

At the end of the day, see if you cant borrow whatever device you
think you want over, say, a weekend. Carry it around everywhere, call
people in poorly lit conditions and in full sun and see how you like
an on screen keyboard. Try to test all the features single handed too
to see how that works out.

If you use the phone a lot (including web browsing/ ssh etc), you
might want to go with a device with replaceable batteries...