How Smart Is Your Smart Phone Choice?

In today`s busy world, people live and work differently than they did mere decades ago. Businesspeople and teenagers alike feel a constant need to be in touch with colleagues and friends. Whether it is keeping up with the stock market or finding out who asked who out on a date, the exchange of information is always flowing and no one wants to be left out of it.

Smart phones provide the solution for people who need to be in touch while they are on the go. The devices generally have phone call capability as well as a built-in organizer/calendar functionality, web browsing ability and email and texting applications. Many smart phones can run word processing and spreadsheet software, allowing a user to have a virtual office literally in the palm of his or her hand.

The options are wide and varied in terms of features and price. A selection of top Smart Phone choices include: Apple iPhone 3GS, Motorola Droid, HTC Touch Pro2, Blackberry Bold 9700 and the Palm Pre. They have some shared features and each has its own unique attributes.

Some see Apple`s iPhone as the ultimate Smart Phone. Many people eagerly anticipated the original version`s entrance to the market and Apple did not disappoint. The 3GS, the newest version, is worth its price tag. It is very slim and lightweight and has an attractive looking touchscreen with large icons. Everything you could need is at your fingertips, from a calendar to your email to a variety of other applications that can be downloaded easily. On the downside, there have been complaints about call quality and access to the 3G network.

The Motorola Droid is a strong competitor to the iPhone, running on Google`s Android platform as opposed to Apple. The Droid has a touch screen as well as a full QWERTY keyboard, which may be easier for some people to use. The Droid is slightly larger and heavier than the iPhone, but it surpasses the iPhone in terms of call quality and picture quality on the screen.

The HTC Touch Pro is larger and heavier than the iPhone and the Droid and is also more expensive. It is more appropriate and useful for the business user as it runs Windows Mobile and comes with conference call management tools. It also has a high-quality and large touch screen as well as a pop-out QWERTY keyboard. Unlike the Droid`s keyboard which some have found unwieldy to use, the HTC Touch Pro`s keyboard manages to have enough space between the keys to make typing very easy. The phone provides excellent call quality and is a great solution for the businessperson on the go.

The Blackberry Bold complements Blackberry`s line of smart phones and adds a little more style to their selection with its sleeker design. Because the keyboard is part of the main body of the phone rather than a pop-out, the screen on the Blackberry Bold is obviously smaller than that of the iPhone, Droid or HTC Touch Pro. It is a question of personal preference, as some people would rather sacrifice the screen size for the convenience of having the keyboard always accessible. While Blackberry users are generally satisfied with the products, the web browser lags behind that of the other smart phones in terms of ease of use.

Finally, there is the Palm Pre, which has been hyped as another major competitor to the iPhone. The Palm Pre is smaller than the iPhone but with a similar look in terms of a simple touch screen. The screen provides a very high quality picture and is easy to navigate. For those that prefer the keyboard experience, there is a QWERTY keyboard that is easily accessible, although small and not so easy to use. Where the Palm Pre stands out over other smart phones is in its multi-tasking capability. It is simple to run several applications at once and easy to switch back and forth among them.

The choices are limitless when it comes to choosing a Smart Phone. As with most things, it is all about personal preferences and finding the one that has the features that best suit you.