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The next best thing to an iPhone?
By Jamie | December 19, 2007
For sometime I’ve been thinking about getting a smart phone. Mainly so I can read emails while out of the office, record my time spent at clients, get my todo list in order and then synchronise it all back with Outlook.
I was very tempted by the iPhone, but we use Vodafone network and the iPhone is only available on the O2 network in the UK. Another issue was the £269 price that I can’t really justify when other smart phones meet my requirements and are free with a contract.
Samsung F700
So I was very pleased when I first heard about the Samsung F700 back in October. It compares very well to other smart phones and some of the hype was dubbing it as iPhone killer. I consider a Blackberry, but lack of camera on some models just put me off. So I decided that my next phone would be Samsung when its released in December.
Others
Before we go any further, here are other smart phones you might want to consider. I’ve order them based on a recent review in PC Pro magazine, top phone getting the best rating.
- Oranage HTC TyTN II
- RIM Blackberry 8820 & Oranage SPV E650
- RIM Blackberry Pearl 8120 & Samsung SGH-i600
- Palm Treo 500v, Nokia E61i and Toshiba Portege G900
- Nokia E90, Palm Treo 680 & Sony Ericsson P1i
Jason has a quick review on some of these phones.
So December has come and I now have my Samsung. Here is my comparisons of the two phones, Apple iPhone and Samsung F700 (Samsung SCH-U940 in the USA, when released).
Advantages overs the iPhone
- Faster to type - Pull out QWERTY keyboard
- High speed internet via 3G network
- Video capture, which is not available on the iPhone. Something that really hit home when I went to see Chemical Brothers last weekend and I wanted to record some of it.
- 3 Megapixel camera with LED flash over the iPhone 2 Megapixel.
- Java enabled
- Video calling made possible with the additional front facing camera
- Changeable battery
- Expandable memory via microSD (1GB included with a regular SD converter)
- Price, nothing with most contracts.
Disadvantages over the iPhone
- User Interface is simply not as quick or easy to use as the iPhone, although after a week you get use to it. When you learn the shortcut keys via the keyboard, things do speed up.
- Doesn’t have WiFi capabilities, real shame.
- Slightly smaller screen, but only just
- Smaller memory capacity, although you can now get 8GB microSD card, amazing!
- Although you get a data lead cable, you don’t get a docking station, which would of been nice.
- Email setup hasn’t been straight forward.
General Observations
- The web browser is very good, resizing website’s like the iPhone does.
- YouTube & Google Map apps pre-installed
- MusicStation - £1.99 per week for unlimited music downloads
- Haptic Feedback - Every time you tap on a button, the Samsung vibrates slightly. You can turn it off, but actually I missed it after a day and turned it back on.
- Syncs with Outlook
- Could do with two hard buttons to answer calls quicker and the ability to activate the camera from any menu would also be nice.
- Can’t re-program the quick soft buttons.
iPhone Killer?
So is it an iPhone Killer? No, the iPhone user interface is just too good. Which makes up for any downfalls in the specification department. I’m looking forward to seeing the specification of the iPhone 2, which is rumoured for next year along with a cut down version iPhone. On the subject of the iPhone, came across this interesting article below, which I certainly agree with for large businesses, but for small businesses the iPhone is fine.
10 Reasons Your IT Department Won’t Support the iPhone
Okay back to the Samsung, would I recommend it? Really depends on what you want it for. Just a phone, probably not. As a pure business phone, Blackberry still does it best. Music and camera, then Sony Ericsson range looks great. Next best thing to an iPhone, probably.
More pictures at our company flickr account…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/terinea/sets/72157603399711201/
Article Tags>> iphone | review | samsung f700 | sch-u940 | sgh-f700 | usa | vodafone
February 11th, 2008 at 10:51 am
Hi, I’ve just got a F700 and can’t get the email to work with yahoo.co.uk. Any tips ?
Thanks
Richard
February 11th, 2008 at 10:55 am
I have the same issue, can receive email okay, but can’t send it. I think you need to ring vodafone and ask them to un-block it. I’ve not tried it yet, but I think the issue lies at vodafone.
I wish it had hard buttons to answer and hang up calls, the touch screen doesn’t work when you are in a rush.
February 14th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
Thanks Jamie but the F700’s gone back. I was sold it as a smartphone but it won’t sync repeating Outlook appointments. I swapped it for a Treo 500v which although not a touchscreen is far better as a smartphone (and it syncs Yahoo emails perfectly !)
February 27th, 2008 at 2:59 am
I am about to get this phone, but people are sayin this phone is bad because “it needs to have buttons” or somethin like that.So now i’m afraid to get this phone because ppl are complaining about the “button” issue.Tell me your experiences with it, because i don’t want to make a mistake.
peace
thanks
March 13th, 2008 at 10:07 am
Would I buy it again given the choice, no. Great for internet, but I think thats the highlight for me.
Jamie