Smartphones- What to get?

[richard]

Basically I want to replace my current (awful) phone with a nice new smartphone, on which I can get my email, twitter, facebook, and of course all of your wonderful blogs.

But what should I get? I basically want a phone that works as a phone, but I can also keep up to date with all that's going on in the football blogging world. As (I'm guessing) quite a few of you have smartphones already, could you tell me what the pros and cons of your phones are?

Cheers

[Ian]

Oh lord, I think that this may descend into a row. I'm not going to comment on other phones, but I love my HTC Desire. It has two drawbacks - the battery life isn't great and there aren't as many apps as there are for Iphone, but it is a great little bit of kit, especially for the price. The big advantages - it runs Flash (which Iphone refuses to allow and, so far as I am aware, has no intention to) and the ability to store on an SD card, meaning that you can basically make the phone's memory as big as you like. The Desire HD is apparently an improvement on the one that I have got, but I haven't used one yet.

[rob]

As smartphones go, I still swear by my Nokia N95 8GB, but if I'm going to be typing a lot - I use my Nokia N63. It's a fairly cheap Blackberry-lite, rather than a smartphone, but the keyboard is easy to navigate, and with a combination of Opera Mini as a browser, and Snaptu as an application (to update twitter/facebook), it does pretty much everything I need from a net point of view.

It's also got flash, and even Adobe Reader, and it's own wordprocessor/spreadsheet applications (although I've never used the WP/SS).

[mirkobolesan]

I've got an i-phone and it's definitely the best bit of technology I've owned since the rubber-keys ZX Spectrum. I like it, though I know it's expensive in comparison to other phones of the same ilk.

[9men]

I have the Desire HD and it is pretty awesome. Having used iPhones at work for development use I definitely prefer my phone.

[footballhobo]

I'm going to step forward as an iPhone apologist, too. The only bit of Apple kit I've ever owned, and I'm a big fan. But then I'd probably be a big fan of the HTC stuff, too, because I just like the fact that it has the internets and stuff. I'm easy to please.

I'm not a massive techno-buff, but have enjoyed my 18 months or so of iPhone 3Ging and haven't found any real issues with it. Battery life (a typical complaint) is fine if you're using it as a phone and occasional browser/iPod/game player. I usually listen to podcasts/tunes on the way to/from work, as well as a fair bit of browsing and stuff and a full charge will usually last two days. If you hammer it then it'll eat the battery and you'll want to charge it every day, but I've not found it a problem.

[richard]

Interesting answers so far! What about a blackberry or something? Anyone got one of those?

[terry]

I have an HTC desire which is growing on me. I agree with Ian that the battery life isn't great and I'm not too keen on the keypad. Plus Audioboo keeps crashing and well actually I hate it.