Holiday Smartphone Buyer's Guide
by Vivek Gowri on December 4, 2010 5:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Guides
- Holiday 2010
- Mobile
Since there are so many smartphones on the market, we figured that the holiday season was a great time to write our first smartphone buyer's guide. And so we continue our 2010 Holiday Buyer's Guides with the handset sector. This year was the first year that we got some real, honest competition in the smartphone sector. Google's 2.0 version of Android released late last year to great success, and versions 2.1 and 2.2 only continued that trend. Apple, always good for some drama, kept it up this year with the iPhone 4 and the ensuing Antennagate scandal. Microsoft finally made a serious play for the handheld sector with the brand new, Zune-based Windows Phone 7. Palm got bought out by HP, BlackBerry finally got a WebKit browser in BB6, and Nokia continues pair increasingly awesome hardware with Symbian on everything not called the N900. Safe to say, we had a pretty busy year in the smartphone segment.
We've split our guide into 6 segments - one for each carrier, then one for unlocked and international devices. We put in a page for tablets, since that's still an expanding market closely related to smartphones. Over the next few months, we'll see rapid growth in tablets and slate computing devices, but for now, it's not big enough to warrant more than a page. So, we'll kick it off with the carriers, starting with AT&T.
AT&T
Until recently, if you were on AT&T and wanted a smartphone, your choices were limited. In fact, basically the only choices were either a BlackBerry, iPhone, or Windows Mobile. In the span of a just a few months, however, AT&T has built out a surprisingly decent portfolio of Android, Windows Phone, and even WebOS devices, diversifying their smartphone lineup so they've got devices from every major platform in case one suddenly becomes dominant. Whatever the case, there are far more options these days than there used to be on AT&T.
That said, it's hard to argue that the world's most polarizing device isn't still at the top of the carrier's list - the iPhone. There isn't much to say about the iPhone 4 that hasn't already been said in our review and its updates. If iOS's style and predominantly hands-off, just-works philosophy appeals to you, or you're looking to upgrade from an iPhone 2G, 3G, or 3GS, this is the obvious choice. When it comes to screen resolution and battery life - something its predecessors couldn't nail down - the iPhone 4 still remains unmatched. Even though the Cortex A8-derived Apple A4 SoC in the iPhone 4 isn't running at 1 GHz, - rather around 800 MHz - the phone still has a level of snappiness that I've yet to see equaled on any platform short of the Galaxy S phones. For the longest time, the iPhone was the reason to have AT&T in the first place, and though that still likely is true for a majority of users, there are enough other good devices on the 'ol death star that this isn't really the case anymore. The other advantage is that when you get tired of the iPhone 4, you can pop your SIM into a device from a number of different platforms.
First up, probably our top recommendation for a smartphone of the Android variety on AT&T is the carrier's Galaxy S variant, the AT&T Samsung Captivate. I've played with the Fascinate on AT&T and the Vibrant on T-Mobile, but still haven't been able to directly interact with a Captivate long enough to review it - we're still trying to get one. That said, the speed of the Galaxy S line alone and its potent combination of a 1 GHz Cortex A8-derived CPU and Imagination SGX 540 GPU in the Hummingbird SoC make it (last I've checked) the fastest hardware you can buy right now. No doubt the story will change early 2011 with Cortex A9 MPcore based SoCs like Tegra 2, OMAP4, and new platforms Qualcomm, but for right now the best you can get through legitimate means with cash in your hand is Galaxy S.
The Captivate differs from the other Galaxy S devices slightly. Unlike the Fascinate (and like the Vibrant and Epic) the Captivate lacks an LED flash, which is a bit of a downer. The hardware itself also feels very insubstantial, which is a good or bad thing depending on your point of view and preference. The only other downer is that the Captivate is still running Android 2.1, though it appears the rest of AT&T's direct offerings are also running 2.1. Things look better however when you consider that the Captivate is selling for $0.01 at Amazon Wireless on 2 year contract, or $199.99 from AT&T on contract. The other Android options on AT&T are the HTC Aria (2.1), Motorola Bravo (2.1), Backflip (2.1), Flipout (2.1), and Flipside (2.1), and the Xperia X10 (2.1). See a pattern? It's incredible that there are no devices being directly offered on AT&T that come with Android 2.2. For that, you'll have to find a Nexus One which is becoming increasingly scarce.
The other options on AT&T are similarly differentiated by your platform preference. 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 browser is much improved, the platform manages to feel decently snappy despite still relying on a relatively unimpressive 624 MHz Marvell Tavor PXA930 SoC. Amazon Wireless is likewise offering the Torch for $0.01 on contract, or you can get it for $99 from AT&T directly.
The new player on the scene is Windows Phone 7. At least for this holiday season, there aren't any CDMA Windows Phone 7 devices, meaning choices are limited to T-Mobile and AT&T if you want to try Windows Phone. We've reviewed the HTC Surround which is available on AT&T, and Anand is still working on the Focus. Having played with both, I can understand why the Focus is reportedly outselling the Surround - it feels like the Galaxy S phones in thickness and weight, and packs an AMOLED display that certainly makes it pop when side by side with the Surround. There's also the LG Quantum if you want a hardware keyboard, even though Windows Phone 7 has an otherwise excellent virtual keyboard. The Surround beats the Focus in our battery life tests in all but 3G talk time, no doubt in part to the Focus' AMOLED display. We haven't tested the LG Quantum yet, but it packs a traditional TFT screen and will likely be in the neighborhood of the Surround battery life-wise. All three AT&T windows phones are on Amazon Wireless for $0.01 right now on contract, or $199.99 from AT&T on 2 year contract.
Last but not least is WebOS. Here the options are interesting. The Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus remain available for free from AT&T on contract, which is a great deal if you're a fan of the WebOS card workflow and multitasking style. The Palm Pre 2 is now out, however, which is available directly from HP-Palm for use on AT&T for $449.99, unlocked and without a plan. There's no option to get the Pre 2 directly from AT&T on subsidy - your only option is direct from HP.
AT&T definitely does have a lot of options, even if you (shockingly) can't get an Android 2.2 device direct from the carrier short of finding a Nexus One on eBay. At the end of the day, my recommendations boil down to either the iPhone 4, Samsung Captivate on Android (with the Xperia X10 a worthy second), or the Samsung Focus or HTC Surround for WP7.
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DigitalFreak - Saturday, December 4, 2010 - link
Forgot to mention that there is also a dock coming, with HDMI out, USB and an Ethernet port.VivekGowri - Saturday, December 4, 2010 - link
You can still sideload apps, so it's not a huge deal. You can seriously just go download the .apk from the internet, toss it onto the SD card and install off there. The problem with that is that some of the apps don't work too well - I couldn't get Angry Birds to run properly for some reason.Just IMO here - the stock software is NOT okay. It's basically ruining the device, for me at least. It's such a slow UI....I can deal with UI skins that don't lag down the system, like on the Galaxy Tab or the HTC Sense stuff, but man, this thing is slow - I've got dual A9's and it feels slower than the freaking ARM11 phones.
XDA is awesome, I've been looking at their section for the G-Tablet recently. I'll probably have a performance preview up within the next couple of days, but the full review is going to have to wait until after the Galaxy Tab review, so I'll probably look into TNT Lite.
The G-Tablet really does look like the hackers dream, but I've got a question, am I the only one that thinks it has a pretty woeful screen (especially next to the iPad)?
strikeback03 - Monday, December 6, 2010 - link
Haven't seen one in person, but based on the preview hands-on over at androidcentral I have to agree, horrid viewing angles on the screen and lag that could be measured in multiple seconds in interacting with the OS. And apparently it was even more unusable with the first shipping software revision, IIRC there have already been updates.jonup - Saturday, December 4, 2010 - link
Guys, while I understand the noise around the flagships of the major phone manufacturers/brands is there a chance that we will see reviews/recommendations for some smaller, lighter and more elegant phones? I just picked up X3-02 and so far I am loving it. (I wish I didn't have to work 60+ hours and getting ready for some finals :( ) I paid for it more than some of your higher end offerings just because I don't want to hoe all the extra weight. Maybe you can review even some Vertu phones!?That said I understand it is a niche market and most people on the street would not care because they have not been bombarded with countless commercials everyday, but for those of us that care about looks, texture and quality of materials, we still want to get a feature rich device as much as the physical dimensions allow for. It will be nice to know how they stack up against the big phones.
p.s. I also prefer Longines to Breitling ;)
DanNeely - Sunday, December 5, 2010 - link
They're less fashionable, but feature phones still make up roughly half the phones sold, so a reasonable case could be made to cover some of the higher end models.G-Man - Saturday, December 4, 2010 - link
"It’d be completely disingenuous if we had a myopic, USA-centric world view, and we’re actively working on getting a more international spread of devices whenever possible that’s of interest to everyone."You have no idea how awesome Anandtech is for realising this (no sarcasm). So many other sites forget this. Thank you.
Hrel - Saturday, December 4, 2010 - link
You guys REALLY need to start getting some Archos hardware in shop to test out.AuDioFreaK39 - Saturday, December 4, 2010 - link
Excellent article Vivek and Brian! I just spotted one apparent issue with a technical specification. On the very last page regarding tablets, the BlackBerry Playbook was announced to feature a 7-inch 1024x600 screen, not a 10-inch screen. Hopefully this can be corrected, thanks in advance.VivekGowri - Sunday, December 5, 2010 - link
Riiiiiight. My bad, thanks for catching that!Galcobar - Saturday, December 4, 2010 - link
Actually, the PlayBook is a 16:9, 7" screen, device itself is 5.1" x 7.6" x 0.4" (130mm x 194mm x 10mm).