Nokia N97
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Nokia's much-anticipated first touchscreen device with a full Qwerty keyboard is an odd mix of old and new. It's very similar to a 5800 but with added slide-out keyboard – no bad thing – and features a 3.5in resistive touchscreen with 16m colours. However, the Symbian S60 interface, despite a new widgets facelift, is starting to look a little tired and is certainly no match for the up-to-the-minute graphics from the likes of HTC, Apple and Google's Android. It's got loads of storage – 32GB on board, plus an extra 16GB with Micro SD card, but the three-line keyboard isn't the easiest to use, and the 5Mp camera, despite its fancy Carl Zeiss lens, is only so-so. Another solid smart phone workhorse from Nokia and certainly ideal if storage capacity is your main concern.
Reg Rating 75%
Price £499
More Info Nokia
Samsung i8910 Omnia HD
It's a big old chunk o' handset at 123 x 59 x 13mm and 148g but the large 3.7in, 16m-colour, OLED capacitive touch screen and twin speakers make watching movies or TV a joy. The Symbian S60 OS comes with a TouchWiz widget spin and is fun to use but the Omnia HD also features a terrific 8Mp camera with LED flash that can shoot video at an impressive 720p at 24fps. There's also 16GB of memory on-board, plus a hot-swap microSD slot and, unlike most Samsungs, it's got a 3.5mm headphone jack. And like the latest iPhone, it's also got a digital compass. The huge, super sharp, OLED screen makes this an excellent choice for hand-held cinema lovers.
Reg Rating 85%
Price £530
More Info Samsung
COMMENTS
HTC Touch Pro 2
I didn't buy an iPhone for the sole reason I have an iPod Touch and didn't want to replace it. It's a lovely device but I bought the HTC Touch Pro 2 instead for Outlook and multiple input options.
Not likely.
Nothing will ever be as good as the iPhone.
Practically ALL the touchscreen phones can beat the iPhone in terms of specs. However none of them have the same mad cult of followers - hence difficult to beat.
I however think almost all touchscreen phones are better than the iPhone, especially in terms of price.
The only contender for me
I would have gone for an iphone 3GS but for the same reason as tomjol (too pricey for the minutes and texts and phone you get) I didn't.
I went for the HTC Magic. Certainly it's got failings but email and internet are great on this. I hardly use gmail or thunderbird on my PC anymore. And pretty much every app I've tried work great and the integration is really good, if not perfect. It shines for the same reason that the iPhone shines, if maybe a little less brightly : outstanding usability. My Nokia E71 did more out of the box but despite being a great phone, was a pain to use by comparison. Also the Magic benefits from the same promise of ongoing OS updates as the iPhone but without ever having to connect it to a PC.
Sadly it doesn't look as good as the iphone but much to my liking, doesn't attract much attention.
@AC re: K800i
Yes, the K800i was/is a great phone. It was by far the best phone I had ever owned until I switched to my iPhone 3G. Since doing so the only thing I've occasionally missed is the great camera, but not much TBH. The K800i camera might blow the doors off the camera in the iPhone but it's still just a toy compared with any real camera, even a point and shoot cheapie. So, for the typical "taking a pic for an MMS" usage a phone camera gets the iPhone camera is as adequate as that on the K800i or any other phone camera.
"messing about on the internet using opera mini, which with the zoom on the new version is a joy to use." and "with opera mini and just normal GPRS, I still find it acceptable".
You are joking aren't you?? Granted, Opera Mini is about as good as mobile browsing can get on a screen the size of a postage stamp but it's still a huge chore. To be used only when there's absolutely no alternative. Mobile browsing with Safari on iPhone however is just amazing, as good as using the browser on your PC or Mac. The same can be said for e-mail. Yes, it worked, painfully, on the K800i, but on the iPhone it's pretty much as good as on a PC. When I'm at home I frequently check my mail and surf the net on my iPhone rather than walk 5 yards to the iMac sitting in my office.
Videos on the K800i?? Watching them? See "postage stamp screen" above. Since I've had my iPhone I've been able to watch entire series (like Lost, Alias etc) on the train to work. You really lose nothing compared to watching them on TV.
Oh, and about people's WLAN "obsession". Guess what? My iPhone contract with Vodafone in Portugal gives me a 500Mb monthly data limit. That's perfectly fine for daily surfing (and yes, we can surf the net on the metro here) but you'll soon blow it if you watch a few YouTube vids or use streaming radio, so yes, WLAN is very important.
Know what you are talking about
@The Original Ash
Yes it's an S60 device & yes that OS has had problems and I should know because my last 4 or 5 phones have used it. The problem here though is you are knocking the s60 5th edition without knowing the score because this baby really is much, much better. The speed is near enough instant and smooth & packed with features. Also I'm not tied down to Apple!
