What are Smartphones - and how smart are they?

Although there may be no official definition for “Smartphones” there are still many features that are common to most smartphones on the market.

Smartphones could be described as a combination of high end mobile phones and handheld computers.

In addition to most of the advanced telephone features available today, they provide many functions you would normally expect from a PC. They offer the option to run 3rd party application software (Apps), Internet browsing, e-mail clients and the facility to exchange data with your PC and synchronize emails, address books and other applications.

This is usually combined with other advanced features such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, top range cameras, MP3 and even GPS, etc. For easy operation most offer large touch screens and sometimes full key-pads and manufacturers may dream up other features to attract customers.

As smart-phones are basically handheld computers with advanced telephone features they can also be distinguished by the power of their processors and the operating systems they are based on.

Operating systems for smartphones

The most common operating systems for smartphones are Symbian, iPhone OS, Nokia Maemo and MeeGo, Windows mobile, Palm WebOS, RIM BlackBerry OS, Samsung bada and the increasingly popular open source Android promoted by Google.

The functionality and availability of applications are very much related to the operating system. Apple, for instance started with introducing its successful iStore that allows you to download many free and paid application. But also other operation systems provide now download sites such as Blackberry App World, Palm App Catalog, Windows Marketplace for Mobile, Android Market, Nokia Ovi Store, etc.

Below you can find some short descriptions of some of the latest top rated smartphones.

Google Nexus One

Google’s own contribution to the Smartphone market (with some help from HTC) and first to run the Android 2.1 operation system on a fast 1 GB Snapdragon processor.

The Nexus one comes with a 3.7 inch AMOLED touch screen with 800 x 480 dots resolution providing high contrast ratios. The inbuilt camera has 5 megapixels, an integrated LED flash and provides geo-tagging using the phones AGPS.

The Android 2.1 operaating system allows you to synch with several email accounts and offers a quick contact feature to connect with a person in various ways by just tipping the name on the screen. It has been well received in Internet reviews and is a serious competitor for the iPhone range.

• Phone/Data
• 7.2Mbps HSDPA
• Bluetooth 2.1
• 802.11b/g WiFi
• AGPS
• micro USB port
• 3.5mm audio

• Processor
• 1GHz Snapdragon
• 512MB
• micro SD to 32GB

• Screen
• 3.5 inch
• AMOLED
• 800x480pix

• Camera
• 5 Mpix
• 720x480/20fps
• LED flash

• Battery
• 7h G3 talk
• 5h G3 Internet
• 20h audio