Selecting Your New Smartphone

When you have spent as much time in the wireless industry as I have, the most common question that you will get is: “What phone would you recommend for me?”  The short answer is that there is no one phone that will satisfy everyone.  The industry has become inundated with all different types of phone styles and different operating systems, and within the different operating systems there are different user interfaces to complicate things further.  To help the general public out, here are some basic tips for picking the right smartphone.

The most common mistake people make that lead them to dissatisfaction with their phone is that they choose their phone first, and their carrier second.  By doing this, it could lead to coverage issues, data speed issues, and higher than expected bills (which is a topic for another article).  Before you try to figure out what phone is right for you, you need to figure out which carrier is the right one.  The two pieces of this puzzle you should look at are coverage and billing.  Coverage is important, because if you can’t make a call or send an email, your brand new smartphone just became a very expensive paper weight.  Since there are many choices for carriers, try to test as many as you can in the places that you regularly need to use your phone.  If you are happy with your carrier, it is not worth switching if the service works for you.  The best way to test this without any risk is to reach out to friends and family that have phones with other carriers.  Throw a party and invite everyone (especially me, I love a good party) over, and you can see how their phones work in your home or office.  If one carrier performs better than others, then you have made your task of selecting a new phone much easier.

Once you have your carrier selected, you can move onto selecting a phone.  In the smartphone category, there are three major operating systems that you need to consider: iPhone, Android, and Blackberry.  Each OS has its own plusses and minuses.  For instance, the iPhone is a very stable and user friendly platform.  It has been around since 2007, and has had very few issues with the software.  The data security is good, and it works very well as a media player.  The apple app store is very robust, and the selection of free applications should satisfy the majority of people.  There are down sides to it though.  You are limited in your hardware selection, since Apple is the only manufacturer, and the data speed is slower than some of the Android and Blackberry selections.  You are limited to a 3.5 inch screen with no physical keyboard, and you can’t easily remove the battery (doing this yourself voids the warranty as well).  Since the iPhone is only carried by Verizon, AT&T and Sprint, you are also limited in the carrier selection, which should be your number one concern.

With the Android platform, there are choices from many of the top manufacturers like Motorola, HTC, Samsung and LG.  Screen sizes range from 3.2 inches all the way up to 4.5 inches, and there are selections from each carrier that work on the newer 4G data networks for fast download speeds (because of this, using your phone as a mobile hot spot becomes an efficient option for those needing mobile internet).  The majority of the applications that are developed for the Apple App Store are also available in the Android Market, so a lack of available applications should not really be a concern for most people.  The other advantage to most phones on the Android platform is the ability to have multiple batteries without relying on an external battery case.  I consider this a must for the heavy business traveler that is not always near a power source.

There is a down side to Android though.  Because of the open source nature of the software and the multiple manufacturers, the market is saturated with devices that run different versions of the Android operating system.  For most users, this is not going to be a problem, but there is a subset of users that need to have custom software developed for their companies, and this can be an issue if the company does not standardize the device selection.

The third option that a smartphone user should look at is RIM’s Blackberry platform.  The Blackberry has been around for over a decade, and is a standard in most major corporate environments.  While RIM has gotten a lot of negative press over the past few years, the Blackberry should still be considered by people looking for a phone where email, texting and calling is the major use of the phone.  Blackberry features an easy to use operating system and solid hardware with tactile keyboards that are user friendly, even to people with big fingers (like me).  The battery life can’t be matched by any Android phone or Apple’s iPhone.  There are a few downsides though.  The screens are not as big or as high quality as you see on the iPhone and the Android set, and the internet browsing is marginal at best.  Also, if you are on a corporate email server (like Microsoft Exchange), you will need access to a Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES), which can either be hosted in house or virtually.  Most carriers also charge an extra fee monthly to use a BES because of the royalties that need to be paid to RIM.  The other disadvantage to the Blackberry platform is that all email goes through RIM gets processed through their servers in Canada.  You don’t have to worry about this from a security standpoint, but since there is another server in place, if that goes down, so does your email.  The iPhone and Android phones communicate directly with your email account.

It is ultimately up to you which phone you choose, but remember to take your time and do your research before you commit to one since your choice will most likely be with you for 24 months.

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