Best Smartphone

After using all sorts of different mobile phones and PDAs over the last few years, I have finally found something combines the two in one light package that really makes it possible to stay connected almost everywhere. I can do email, post to blogs, browse the web, read RSS feeds, make video calls, take pictures, make videos and post them to blogs, plus calendar, contacts etc. And of course voice communications (aka regular phone calls).

This great gizmo, which is classified as a “smartphone” is from Samsung, model SGH-i600, a variant of which is marketed in the USA as the Blackjack. Samsung have done a great job of putting together most of the things one needs in an incredibly light package of 95 grams with a full keypad.

Universal Data Communication, everywhere

The SGH-i600 has Wireless Lan, UMTS, Edge, GPRS and Bluetooth. That means that I can use Bluetooth to hook up the gadget to my car’s hands-free system. I can connect to the Internet via a hotspot in a cafe. When travelling, I can connect via the telephone operator’s UMTS, Edge or GPRS data service almost anywhere in the world.

Calling, voice and video

If there is UMTS coverage and the person you are calling also has a phone that supports video telephony, you can make video calls. I use this a lot with family members – recent phone upgrades mean that a few of them have video enabled phones. Video calls don’t cost a cent more than a regular phone call, so they are great way to improve communications, both business and personal.

Operating System

For the technology minded, the SGH-i600 uses Windows Mobile 5.0, Smartphone edition. For those of us used to Nokia or SonyEricsson phones, it takes some getting used to and often seems to need more clicks. However the MS menu system is quite consistent and after getting used to it, I don’t have any major complaints.

And no, contrary to what a lot of people say, the phone doesn’t need to be rebooted regularly. I have had to restart once in the 6 weeks I have had it. That compares favourably with a couple of times a week for the last phone I had from the market leader.

Gripes

No review of a gadget is complete without gripes, so here goes:

• It is hard to get to the special alphabet characters one needs a lot in Europe. One has to click through many different symbol screens to get to them. Short cuts to the most used symbols would be a great enhancement. Maybe somebody can give me a tip on how to do this?
• The email content is stored in the built-in memory and cannot be changed to the storage card. Now I have a large storage card and can’t use it for the thing that needs storage the most. I wonder what the developers at Microsoft were thinking when they cooked up this restriction? A workaround would be most welcome.
• It isn’t possible to limit the amount of cache memory Microsoft’s Internet Explorer web browser uses on the device. The result is that the memory used for caching keeps growing, until there is no more memory left and then you can’t do very much more on the phone. Workaround: delete the explorer cache regularly (what a pain) or install the Opera browser and use it instead.

I will start making more posts when I am on the road in an attempt to push the mobile connectivity envelope to the limit. Stay tuned.

Comments and suggestions are appreciated. If you want to take part in some mobile blogging experiments, let me know.