In the world of smartphones, there are a lot of options to choose from. Picking your smartphone is an important decision because you’ll use it for such a significant portion of your day. Especially if you use your phone for work, it is important to have one that will meet all your needs. Even if you just use your smartphone to surf the web, communicate with friends, and entertain yourself, you want to pick a good one. It can be hard to navigate all the different features of the various choices, and it can be even more complicated with new versions coming out seemingly every other month. Here are three of the most popular smartphones, and their pros and cons to help you make a decision.
iPhone 4
The iPhone 4 is such a popular model smartphone, it’s hard to go wrong with it. There are over 200,000 apps you can download, and folders make it easy to organize them. The iPhone 4 is great to use for work or play, and it is a beloved Apple product. It even has a 5-megapixel camera with HD video, and the picture quality is probably better than your digital camera. It includes FaceTime, which lets you video chat. Drawbacks include that many people have problems with frequently dropped calls, and it doesn’t play Flash. The keypad on the screen can be hard to get used to at first. All in all, the iPhone 4 is a solid smartphone. If you want an iPhone, though, you might want to consider waiting for the release of the iPhone 5 in 2012, which will have many marked improvements and new features.
Motorola’s Droid X is another popular option with a lot of comparable features to the iPhone 4. It has HD video also, an equally fast processor, and an even better 8-megapixel camera. The keypad is also on screen, but a great feature allows you to just drag your finger from letter to letter versus tapping, which can be more time consuming. The display screen is bigger than the iPhone. There might not be as many apps available, but developers are making more every day. You might not have as many connections problems with the Droid X, but it is more prone to viruses. Regardless, this smartphone is a solid choice.
Blackberry Torch 9800
The Blackberry has been a staple for business professionals, and it’s certainly a great choice for anyone who relies on their phone for business purposes. It’s one of the best smartphones for multi-tasking, and it has a real QWERTY keypad to type on as well as a touch-screen. It doesn’t have as large a selection of apps, but you may not need them, anyway, if your main reason for needing a smartphone is to keep up with work when away from the office. A great feature of the Torch 9800 is that you can remotely wipe it of all data, in the event that your phone gets stolen or lost.
When choosing your smartphone, you will also want to consider your mobile carrier and available plans. The cost of plans will vary according to the amount of data you want to process. If you use your phone a great deal, an unlimited plan may be the right choice for you, so see if your carrier and smartphone combination will offer one.
