2008's top three touchscreen phones
Will the real iPhone killer step forward...
Kit of the Year Following last year’s iPhone launch, there was a rush to release handsets based around touchscreens rather than buttons. That led to a profusion of offerings this year — but which ones tapped the right spot?
HTC Touch HD
So it’s not truly HD, but the HTC handset nonetheless has a better and bigger — 3.8in and 480×800 — smartphone screen than you’ll find elsewhere. The display’s big, bright and clear — perfect for movies and for reviewing shots taken on the Touch HD’s five-megapixel camera. HTC’s TouchFlo HD user interface gives Windows Mobile the face it needs, making this handset a worthy alternative to the iPhone.
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Reg Rating 90%
Price Contract: from free. Handset only: £535. Find the best online price
LG Renoir KC910
It’s its eight-megapixel camera that’s the Renoir’s star feature, but the Renoir is more than a mere cameraphone — its fancy widget-based touchscreen UI packs in a raft of solid multimedia features and smartphone functionality. It’s not iPhone slick, but it has so much more to offer than the Apple handset does.
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Reg Rating 85%
Price Contract: free — £250. Handset only: £370
Apple iPhone 3G
Nothing divides opinion like the iPhone — Register Hardware readers love it or hate it. None are neutral, and that’s a testament to its impact on the phone market. Apple’s handset is one of the very best media phones out there and if it has its flaws — incomplete Bluetooth functionality, no MMS support, the network ties — its super-smooth UI and excellent web browser have won over many a sceptic.
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Reg Rating 80%
Price Contract only: from free to £159. PAYG: from £342
Best of the Rest
T-Mobile G1
75% Full review
Samsung Omnia
75% Full review
Sony Ericsson Xperia X1
65% Full review
Kit of the Year 2008
COMMENTS
I haven't used any of them,
but my current phone uses Windwoes Mobile, and a sorrier, less intuitive, less stable, buggier, more half-baked piece of crap I've yet to see. If you rate a Windwoes phone above something else - anything else, including a tin can and a piece of string, I have to seriously doubt the value of your judgement.
Great comments
I have to say that this is such a great comments section. I love the reactions of the vacuous air headed fanboys.
My particular favourite is "People envy me and my i-phone". Now if you had said "When I go to parties everyone wants to use my i-phone because the flat screen is just super for chopping out big rails" then I would have been a little more impressed. Instead I have visions of a monster nerd fest of fanboys.
Well done El Reg for igniting the flames!
Apple - grow up and buy one.?
"Apple - grow up and buy one."
Exactly the arrogant sort of comment you'd expect from a big percentage of apple users and endoresed by the company ... seriously its not the kit.. its the clan!
Re: Not just a frigging phone.
"There are much, much more you can do with this mini mobile computer that happens to have a phone to it. All of this made possible by Apple and third party developers."
So, it's like a PDA of old, then, updated a bit for the 21st century. I don't dispute the additional functionality - that's what the smartphone market is all about - and Apple aren't the only ones in that department, although I actually welcome their contribution since it has woken the incumbents from their stupor: ten level deep menus, useless options, "GSM nerd" functionality, and Java "Shit Edition" fixation.
But sheesh! Re-read your original remark and then tell us that you didn't sound like Nathan Barley!
@ccriste et al
i can do 40% of those things in my head, 50% of those with my 4 year old p910 (oh sony, where are you now with a decent grown-up handset?) and the other 10% with a selection of other dedicated devices. yes of course the iphone is a very nice, and it does what it does in a very nice way, but that doesnt mean there arent other things out there that do more, are cheaper, or suit other people better. and please, if you need electronic help to deduct 30%, or find north based on where the sun is (as that ap does, the iphone doesn not have a compass), you really should have paid more attention in school.
A granny smith is a very nice fruit, but some people prefer bananas or oranges. that doesnt mean those people are wrong, or that they dont understand fruit, it just means they want something else. i want a new phone, but i dont want touchscreen-only (preferably qwerty), i want at least 2007-standard features (a2dp/gps/3+mpix), i dont want a blackberry, and unfortunately i want it on orange...fingers crossed for palm NEW-ness i guess.
oh and even actively shy away from calling it a 'mini mobile computer'
