The Top Ten 3G iPhone beaters

The very best smartphones - minus the Apple one

By Register Hardware, 11th July 2008

Round-up Sick to the teeth of 3G iPhone this and 3G iPhone that? Then express your anti-Apple anger by selecting one our list of the top ten feature-packed alternatives. Counting down, in reverse order, we kick of with the...

Motorola Z10
Click here for the full review

The Z10 is a step up from the original kick sliding Z8, but it’s still not up there with the very best smartphones. Top-level features like integrated GPS and Wi-Fi support are absent on this phone, though it does have high-speed HSDPA 3G data connectivity. The camera is decent but not a top-notch shooter. There’s the size factor too - you may expect a larger display given the phone’s footprint. General phone performance was good but there were issues with occasional software glitches and sometimes sluggish keypad responsiveness on our review sample.

Reg Rating: 70%

Palm Treo 500v
Click here for the full review

Palm's Treo 500v isn't the 'power users' Windows Mobile device - no Wi-Fi; no HSDPA just plain old 3G - but it's an impressive attempt at bringing the handset family into the reach of the mainstream. It's wonderfully compact and it looks good. Palm's new UI is a big improvement on the standard WM one, and its micro-keyboard is as easy to use as anything on a BlackBerry or HTC device.

Reg Rating: 70%

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Posted Tuesday 15th July 2008 13:42 GMT

TeeCee

@Robert Hill

Touch virtual keyboard? Yes, it's shite, if you stick with the OOB version. But CooTek's Touchpal is free and pisses all over the iPhone's slightly-better-than-most-but-still-a-sack-of-shit version.

But then, when you're using a WM6 phone you can put whatever you like onto it to customise the UI without having to get down on both knees and beg St Steve's indulgance first.

Depends what you want. If you're happy with the OOB plus approved addons experience go with the iPig. If you want to actually own a device and do what you want with it, don't*.

*Yes, I know that you *can*, with judicious use of Rocket Science, customise the things, but living on the bleedin' edge and continually looking over your shoulder in case the Lord Jobs decides to piss on your picnic ain't my idea of "usable".

Posted Tuesday 15th July 2008 08:09 GMT

Ben Bufton

@pctechxp

Hardly a review, more an observation - but I'm glad I can assist in your (all be it not wholly traditional) weight loss program...

Posted Monday 14th July 2008 16:13 GMT

Anonymous Coward

N95 top???

You have to be kidding me!?!?!?!

The interface on the N95 is completely unusable (needing 7 button presses before even getting to the screen where you can change the ringer profile is just ridiculous).

I cut my teeth on Motorola and Nokia phones, and I was a hardcore Unix Engineer for many years (so I have no love for Microsoft), but I have to say that Windows Mobile is by far the best mobile platform I've used (yes aesthetically it is ugly - and no I haven't used an iPhone, but more on that later).

I have a HTC WM6 phone (stylus only - no hard buttons for me - I don't think the model is particularly important), with all the bells and whistles - Wifi, GPS (with maps on the storage card - so it works when out of coverage area), HSDPA, SD card slot, Camera, I can play mp3's and video's and best of all - no-one tells me what I can or can't install on it (it's not even locked to a provider) - about the only thing my handset doesn't have is the accelerometer (but there are other HTC WM handsets that do). Even without any 3rd party helpers tools, all of the important applications and settings are only 1 or 2 taps on the screen away.

Another plus is the many free apps available for download - I have quite a few games and productivity apps installed, and I also have some interface enhancing apps too - like CooTek TouchPal (a brilliant virtual keypad), IrisBrowser (built on the same rendering engine as the iPhone browser), and PointUI Home (which takes some inspiration from the iPhone UI). This gives me an experience that is very similar (I'm told) to the iPhone on my WM handset (bigger controls, swipey type control actions and a more aesthetically pleasing interface).

So even without the extra bits, my HTC WM handset stomps all over the Nokia handsets, and with the extra bits it's on par with the 3G iPhone (interface is almost as good as the iPhone, but I have full control of the my handset - a pretty equal trade in my book)

Let the flaming begin (likely to come from all sides with this post)