Phone Junkie

Smartphones have all advanced over the past few years, and mostly do the same things. But if you look at the details, you’ll find that—depending on your needs—one may be way better than another.

Most smartphone platforms support touchscreens and/or keyboards, and let you browse the internet, run apps, view photos and play games/music/movies. And while they may act the same on a fundamental level, not all smartphones are created equal. Here’s where they match up, and where they don’t:

Note: We have updated certain notes in the chart to reflect the lively discussion going on in comments, and we want that to continue. That said, we plan to leave Symbian both out of this discussion and any future discussions of the hottest smartphones of the day because it has little or no presence in the US, where we are based, despite its popularity in other countries. We apologize for the inconvenience this may cause you.

iPhone
Apple is so fixated on maintaining a high level of user satisfaction and reduced frustration on the iPhone, they will bluntly admit to leaving out key smartphone features—particularly features that are either hard to implement in the UI, or require too much battery juice. The result is a pretty slick interface (with occasional glitches, yes, but fewer than others) that nevertheless leaves you wanting more. iPhone OS 3.0 (covered in full detail here) addressed most of the user gripes—such as lack of push notifications, copy and paste and search, but we’re still left without video recording, Flash browser support and true background-app multitasking.

Windows Mobile
Windows Mobile is brilliant for the business crowd because of its ability to support secure emails, work with corporate computer infrastructures and run proprietary business apps created entirely within Microsoft’s device ecosystem. You can pretty much run and do anything you want on a Windows Mobile phone, which is great. But because the phones are made by many different competing companies—with no consistent quality assurance—UI and user experience don’t compare to the other platforms, so the OS is not as good for people who want a fun smartphone for their own personal use.

One major gripe especially revolves around the screen and its systemic lack of both finger-friendly capacitive-touchscreen support and multitouch interaction. WinMo feels really clunky when you use a finger, and you otherwise have to use an annoying (and easily lost) stylus.

The official reasoning for no capacitive touchscreen support is puzzling. Here’s what Prithvi Raj, Windows Mobile product manager of consumer experiences told us:

At this time, we are focusing on resistive touch because we wanted to ensure the highest quality across the entire experience on the phone, including in different applications such as Excel or Word. However, we have enhanced our software to help resistive screens act like capacitive in certain areas like the “gesture support” and “physics engine” that you see across the new UI of Windows Mobile 6.5 powered Windows phones.

Hrm. Well at least they’re acknowledging the need for better gesture support, and the need to mimic the capability of capacitive touch. We’d rather they just skipped all that work and upgraded, though.

Android
Android is the code monkey’s dream. Because the OS is fully open source, you can do anything you’d like to the phone. This means pretty much any feature you’d like on a cellphone is possible on Android—even the officially unsupported multitouch interaction—provided someone can write an app or extension for it. The downside? Even the official Google/HTC/T-Mobile release of the G1 had a UI design that felt incoherent, like you’re using four different OSes instead of one. Also, despite all this free love, there’s only one currently available phone, and it’s ugly as all sin. Note: For more information, you should read this detailed Android vs. iPhone piece by Gina at Lifehacker.

BlackBerry
Like Windows Mobile, RIM’s BlackBerry is also a business-oriented phone, but with a much more coherent consumer initiative under way. Relatively intuitive and well-structured to use, it feeds off of an email server that is second to none in getting messages to you as they’re sent. And since the phone only runs on BlackBerry hardware, you can mostly be assured the OS will run smoothly (mostly). But despite their best efforts to liven things up with the admirable 4.6 OS and the not-so-admirable BlackBerry Storm touchscreen edition, this remains a fairly utilitarian phone that serves one main purpose: superior messaging. Note: Blackberry was deemed to not have Universal Search because it doesn’t search files or Applications.

WebOS and the Palm Pre
Palm’s Pre with its all-new WebOS has the potential to be the closest competitor to the iPhone, merging the zen simplicity and beauty of the iPhone OS with some of the background processing power of an Android or WinMo phone. You can run as many apps as you like concurrently, and manage them using a system that lets you quickly flick through apps like it was a photo system, great for staying on top of many things at once. But it also integrates the internet into so many facets of its UI (search, contacts, UI, etc.), that you might not even realize you’re using the internet sometimes. If the iPhone is for the common man, WinMo for the executive, Android for the programmer and BlackBerry for the information junkie, WebOS could very much be for the savvy kids trying to stay on top of social media and Web 2.0. Let’s see what happens when the thing actually ships.

Anything you’d like to add about the differences between the smartphone OSes? This is obviously an overview meant to highlight the most crucial differentiators, but if you’ve got something you want to share that’s a little more nitty gritty, please pop it into comments pronto.

Still something you still wanna know? Send any questions about smartphones, dumbphones or megaphones to tips@gizmodo.com, with “Giz Explains” in the subject line.

After the BlackBerry Bold’s epically delayed launch on AT&T and the Storm’s epically borked launch everywhere, RIM needs 2009 to be better than 2008. The T-Mobile BlackBerry Curve 8900 is a good way to start.

galleryPost(’tmocurve8900′, 6, ‘T-Mobile BlackBerry Curve 8900′); We looked at a close-to-production model Curve 8900 a few months ago (albeit one marked for the Death Star). So far, our experience on this retail unit for T-Mobile has been pretty much the same as it was on the prototype, both good and bad (but mostly good).

galleryPost(’blackberrycurve8900impress’, 3, ‘Previously on Gizmodo: AT&T BlackBerry Curve 8900′); We won’t call anything bulletproof without less than a week with the device (especially given horribly depressing comments muttered recently by RIM’s CEO), but BlackBerry OS 4.6 has been around for several months and been on a few devices at this point, and the Curve 8900, so far, seems like the most stable and least buggy product RIM has shipped in a while. It’s also notably hardware that’s a return to what they’re most comfortable making—a 2G device with Wi-Fi—the kind of phone they’d poop out in the old days (you know, two years ago) and it’d still work fine and deflect missiles and small children while maintaining two-day battery life. So, it does bode well.

Conceptually, the Curve 8900 is almost exactly what you want in a sequel—it ups the ante in a lot of the right ways, like sex quotient, but keeps the fundamentals in place. It’s not a beautiful piece of hardware that will magnetically pull drool out of people’s lips in a trickle, but it’s black-and-chrome modern enough with just the right lines (borrowed from the Storm) that it will draw eyes, if only for a split second.

Hardware
Three things make the hardware exceptional: The screen is delicious and not just because a video of John Mayer is preloaded on it, one thing RIM’s been getting very right (the screen, not John Mayer, though that is also very right). Colors pop like John Mayer’s lyrics, contrast is contrasty and the 480×360 resolution is fantastic, with a nice, wide viewing angle. The screen’s still too small to watch anything longer than a music video—starring say, John Mayer—but it’ll look pretty good while it’s rolling.

The new “Atomic” trackball seems noticeably sturdier than the one that’s been on BlackBerrys for years. It’s more solidly implanted in the device, with less room for nasty junk to squeeze inside, but still plenty of spin in the wheel.

The keyboard, I feel, is better than the original Curve’s, with a more pronounced sloped to the keys, a la BlackBerry Bold. I prefer the Bold’s keyboard, since it’s way roomier and has perfectly squishy keys, as opposed to the super-punchy ones found on the Curve 8900. That said, the Curve 8900 keyboard is still one of the best smartphone keyboards you’ll ever tap on. RIM knows how to make QWERTY keyboards with their Canadian eyes closed, even if they’re still working out the whole touchscreen clicky thing.

The build quality is another strong point. It’s a solid device that you know won’t go down without a fight, like all RIM hardware. I’d say it feels more sturdy than the original Curve, which I always thought was excessively plastic-y. It definitely feels nicer than the Curve—more high end, and its smoother lines make for a better handfeel too. The weight’s similar to the iPhone 3G—not a feather, but not a monster like the G1 or BlackBerry Bold. The flimsiest part of the phone is the cheapo battery cover, which pops off and on mercifully easy.

A few things muddle the hardware’s excellence: The lack of 3G (sorry, once you’re used to it, you can’t go back) and the Wi-Fi’s persnicketiness—it just didn’t want to play nice with a few of the secured Wi-Fi networks I had it on, constantly dropping out. Open Wi-Fi points seemed just fine though. Also, when I talked to my mommy, the call quality wasn’t bad—it was very clear—but it also had a weird kind of hollowness to it.

Software
Software-wise, the Curve 8900 has every strength and weakness that every BlackBerry phone has when compared to other smartphones: If you’re not familiar with BlackBerry email, BlackBerrys are all about it, with features like real push, server-side search, Exchange support, serious security, a million keyboard shortcuts and other power perks. It’s not the sexiest looking email client around, but it does everything you’d ever want a smartphone to do in terms of email. There’s a reason it’s a corporate warrior’s mandatory piece of kit.

The OS is fairly easy to use (some particulars aside)—it’s an icon-based layout where what you see is what you get. Settings can be a bit of a listicle labyrinth, but for the most part, everything’s presented right up front and easy to get to.

Even though the iPhone and though Android get all the press for apps, BlackBerry also has the backing of a pretty solid developer community for applications, so there are tons of applications to download and install, even if they aren’t quite as shiny as what’s on the iPhone or Android or available from a convenient storefront (yet). The Curve 8900 comes loaded with a solid starter suite though, with instant messenger apps from everybody that matters, like AIM and GTalk; BlackBerry Maps (which is alright, though I prefer Google Maps); and Office to Go, which lets you edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint files…on the go. The media apps work fine, with a fairly generic UI.

The software is hampered mostly by its message-oriented roots, so while it does email better than anyone and does have a ton of apps from the developer community, the whole web thing the iPhone, Android and Palm Pre get, and its attempt to scale to that kind of complexity, is clearly a struggle within the BlackBerry OS paradigm. The Curve 8900’s browser, though ridiculously more usable and accurate at rendering than the original Curve’s, is slow even over Wi-Fi. Its application approach is still browser-oriented while we wait for the BlackBerry app store and it’s pokey and annoying, even from RIM’s own central app hub. The apps are there and many are good—Kevin from CrackBerry highly recommends the Bolt browser for a much faster browsing experience—you just have to find ‘em.

Oh, one other sore point for BlackBerry is trying to sync one to a Mac. It’s not a fun experience, with PocketMac providing nowhere near the kind of complete functionality of the PC BlackBerry Desktop Software, which handles all of your syncing, app and media management, and the total inability to have more one sync program installed on a Mac at once. If you install BlackBerry Media Sync to sync iTunes to your BlackBerry on a Mac, it borks your other syncing programs. =(

Conclusion
Based on our time so far, if you have a BlackBerry Curve, the Curve 8900 is the same thing, but better in a lot of little ways that add up to a markedly better experience overall, thanks to a gorgeous display, slicker OS and well-designed hardware.

It’s not a phone to switch to T-Mobile for—especially since it’s obviously coming to AT&T, and most probably Verizon and Sprint too—but this is the BlackBerry that most people will be rocking in the next year as it inevitably spreads from carrier to carrier, and for good reason. If you’re on T-Mobile, you really have two (good) choices for a smartphone now: This or the G1. If you do serious business, well, the choice is made for you.

Even though the Palm Treo Pro has been supposedly delayed for Sprint until February 15, Best Buy is now putting the phone up for preorder on its website for $699.

The price is steep, but about normal for a contract-free phone. Best Buy will ship the (currently backordered) Palm Treo out in one to two weeks. Methinks that if you’ve already waited long enough for the Palm Treo Pro to come out, you might as well wait for the Pre lest you get stuck with the-soon-to-be antiquated Windows Mobile 6.1 software. [Best Buy via PhoneScoop]

You could see some litigious intent in Tim Cook’s recent statements regarding competition, but they weren’t direct threats to Palm, or about the Pre. That didn’t stop Palm from taking them that way.

Pressed about Cook’s words, a company spokesperson told Digital Daily:

“Palm has a long history of innovation that is reflected in our products and robust patent portfolio, and we have long been recognized for our fundamental patents in the mobile space. If faced with legal action, we are confident that we have the tools necessary to defend ourselves.”

Are both Apple and Palm talking vaguely about one issue that they both foresee becoming a point of legal contention, like multitouch?

Probably not. Cook’s original statement was purposefully vague, and when he was pressed on if he was referring to Palm, he said “I’m making a general statement.” It’s not certain that he wasn’t referring to the Pre, but it’s clear in any case that he didn’t want to initiate a public cockwaving contest over it. Palm apparently does, which is a strategy I’m not sure their lawyers would be overly enthusiastic about. [AllThingsD]

You’d be crazy to grab any Palm piece now with the Pre imminent, but if you’re a Sprint WinMo masochist, the Pro’s available for $250 with two-year deal. Update: Whoopsie, Sprint didn’t mean to.

Adrian, our resident Palm disciple, found the Treo Pro a very capable phone, as far as Windows Mobile handsets go. And it was Palm’s best-designed phone, until the little pebble of Pre-ness was dropped on us at CES.

Now it’s a lot easier to find out if he was right with Sprint’s CDMA Pro, as before now it had not been subsidized by any carrier. [Sprint Nextel]

Update: Annnnnd now it’s gone. I guess Sprint hit “publish” too early. One would assume, though, that the information was correct, just early. Here’s their statement:

Sprint inadvertently posted information on Sprint.com regarding an upcoming product, Palm Treo Pro, this morning. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Sprint looks forward to welcoming this exciting, new device into our portfolio as soon as it has been approved through our customary testing process. We will share details on the correct availability date as soon as the standard testing of both the device and its interaction with our network has concluded. Thank you for your interest in Sprint products.

The Palm Pre is shaping up to be OMFGtastic, except it’s “Oops, I’m late” feature sounds more like a fatal flaw: It automagically tells people you’re gonna be late for a meeting.

What takes the Pre beyond other smartphones is that integrates all of your contacts, data and messages—like from Facebook, IMs, texts and email—into a single flow, and this super-calendar feature draws on that. The absolutely amazing part is that it downloads all of your calendars for the day, along with all the relevant info for your meetings, like maps and even Wikipedia pages about who you’re meeting with.

Here’s how the scary automatic “HAI I’M LATE” part works, according to Elevation Partners’ Roger McNamee (the venture capital firm that’s plunged nearly half a billion dollars into Palm):

When you’re late it — remember, this thing has GPS; it has a clock; and it has your calendar. So it not only knows where you are, it knows where you’re supposed to be and when….so when it realizes you’re going to be late, it says, ‘Hey, not only are you going to be late, but I can take care of it for you. I’ll send an email to your assistant or to the people in the meeting, which would you prefer? And oh, by the way, here’s the map.’

Does that not sound like an idea that seemed really cool in some bright young designer’s head, but would be absolutely terrible in real life? The proper way to handle being late is to make it seem like your presence is imminent, no matter how far away you are. Then it’s like you’re in rush and really, really trying to get there on time, so the guy you’re meeting with thinks that you think it’s a super important meeting, especially since you’ve obviously got so much going on you’re late even though you’re trying incredibly hard to get there.

Unless, however, you’re going to be absolutely egregiously late. But then you’re kind of a dick if you have a robot send a canned message for you. [Yahoo Finance via Precentral via PhoneScoop]