[icruise]

I was browsing Youtube a bit ago and happened upon some video reviews of cell phones. Let me tell you, they were pretty eye-opening. I've used a lot of PDAs in the past, but I haven't been keeping up on recent smartphone developments. Man, the iPhone's interface makes these things look like they're antiques.

A few examples:

The LG chocolate - OK, it's not a smartphone, but it is a "fashion" phone, and it has a music player, camera, etc. Shockingly bad interface.

Treo 750 - What can I say? It's a brick and the screen seems tiny.

Sprint Mogul - Apparently the end result of a contest to see who could fit the most buttons onto a phone.

Blackberry Pearl - An extremely bare-bones interface. I think the reviewer said it best when he quipped that the user interface was more like that of DOS than a phone. And that mushy keyboard with two letters per key makes me wonder why the iPhone's on-screen keyboard is such a controversial feature.

HTC Touch - A Windows Mobile phone that has been "optimized" for use primarily with a finger. Just look at the difference between this interface and the iPhone's -- especially the keyboard. My god!

Nokia N95 - Maybe the best of the bunch, although very thick. That 5MP camera is nice. But of course, it also costs $750... Ouch.

LG Prada - Obviously the closest in form factor to the iPhone. But again, look at the interface. Why did they go with a traditional cell-phone keypad (press 1 three times to enter "c") when they had a touch screen?

The more I look at these, the more attractive the iPhone looks, and the more it seems to me that Apple may in fact be on the cusp of something similar to the iPod in importance.

[tasslehawf]

LG Prada

[icruise]

Can't believe I forgot that one. Added.

[DigitalEl]

Originally Posted by icruise

The more I look at these, the more attractive the iPhone looks, and the more it seems to me that Apple may in fact be on the cusp of something similar to the iPod in importance.

Agreed. I've been looking forward to this convergent masterpiece since before the first rumors surfaced.

If you read all the non-Mac sites/press, they're already digging in with the same arguments they use (unsuccessfully) against the iPod.

"But my Sanyo X350C-15 does everything the iPhone does... Not to mention it's 3G, it's camera is 5 megapixels and it has a removable battery."

They don't get that jamming more features into a more complicated device does not make for a superior user experience. The people whining that the iPhone doesn't open Office documents or won't sync with the Exchange servers at their workplace... They don't get that the iPhone isn't for them.

God help us if there are any problems with the iPhone, as the backlash is already in full-effect. The hate is on.

[mdc]

I have to disagree with the BlackBerry Peal comment about the keyboard. I have one and have been using it since September last year. When I bought it I was used to the layout of traditional cellphone keypads 1=ABC 2=DEF, etc, etc, so I could never remember where the letters should be on the BlackBerry.

After a few weeks I got the hang of it and I can type really quickly on it now. There is a nice feature to have automatic word changing. il for example will automatically change to i'll, wer becomes we're, and you can make your own. Nice feature since it saves having to get to the punctuation menu.

I do agree on the UI. Once you leave the initial application launcher menu everything becomes a plain text list. I was rather shocked at first.

I think the iPhones keyboard will be similar to the BlackBerry's in the sense that at first people might have issues with it, but give it time and I'm sure they'll get used to it.

[slugslugslug]

The upcoming Sony Ericsson w960i looks pretty awesome. Wi-fi, Walkman media player, 8 Gb storage, Symbian UIQ OS. No idea how it'll compare cost-wise (or what bands it has (and I'm too lazy to google for a link right now)). But I have a feeling I'd prefer tactile T9 text input to touchscreen QWERTY, and SE phones tend to be pretty hot. So it's probably ties with the N95 for iPhone-esque hotness.

[mduell]

Don't compare to the RIM Pearl, compare to the Curve.

The N80 and N92 may be worth comparing, and the N95 is only $75 more than the iPhone ($749 vs $674 [$499+175 early canx]).

[LeeG]

I have had both blackberry keyboards - the suretype (like the pearl has, I had a 7100) and the QWERTY (I had an 8700) - I was VERY fast at typing long emails on both. I actually liked the suretype because I thought it was easier to type with one hand - the full qwerty was too wide to type quickly with one hand.

I just gave up my 8700 this past week, as I am changing jobs, and I really need a new smartphone. The only holdout I have is the reviews of the iphone keyboard...

Every other aspect of the device absolutely SMOKES anything else out there. And my 8700 had a rated talk time of "up to 4 hours", I would use this thing ALL day - internet, SMS, email, and phone, and still have about 25% left at the end of a day - definitely had to charge every night. It was EDGE also - EDGE is SLOOOOWWWWW...

OTOH...Wifi is FAST....

I'm betting this thing will be a huge hit, but yes, the hate is on - if its not a grand slam, my stock is gonna tank...

L