Defining the Smartphone

1)fast processor (eg:1 Ghz Snapdragon..at least) ;
2)plenty of RAM (let's say 512 Mb after boot) ;
2 b)plenty of storage space(64Gb should be enough on the go...for more,look at point 6) 4th idea);
3)high resolution large capacitive touchscreen..at least 4 inches in diagonal..which can work great in direct sunlight and indoors(SuperAMOLED)...great for browsing the internet , playing HD games, editing and reading mobile documents,ebooks,etc ;
4)fast,stable and multiple oriented UI (bussines,multimedia,leisure)...waiting for MeeGo OS :> ;
4 b)bussines , multimedia and leisure apps should already be installed in the device (egffice,pdf reader,smart music player,HD games,etc) :
5)lots of apps in the application store (eg:Apple store) ;
6)Wi-Fi (g,n) , 4G , internet tethering ,conctivity with other divices(like N8) , Bluetooth 3.0 ;
7)8Mp camera with good lenses(Carl Zeiss) with xenon flash...12Mp is too much for a phone ;
8)thin,shock and scratch resistant aluminium (even magnesium) one piece casing;
8 b)a physical keyboard should be provided if the market requests it;
9)...lets not forget the power plant...a powerful battery which should be provided with an auxiliary solar pannel so you can charge your phone on your way to work for exemple...

What else?...IPhone 4G + Nokia N8 + HTC Desire + Samsung M110 S Galaxy S + future MeeGo device-->SuperSmartphone

What do you think?:-?

Before I would have included n86 as a smart phone but now it doesn't seem right.

To me, you either a large screen or a qwerty to make up for the lack of it.

And smartphone should include more processing hardware which for sure the n86 don't fit.

I would almost lump n86 into those super featured phones.

I would propose a 'hybrid' definition.

Smartphone is a phone that fulfills at least three of the following criteria:
- Can run native applications
- Has large screen (> 3'')
- Has physical or virtual querty keyboard
- Is sutible for prolongued connection (always connected)

I just picked up my first phone magazine in 3 years (steve contributes).
Apart from a well hidden x6 on the front page it took utill page 40 or so before a symbian/nokia device appeared.
nokia only seem to have 3 or 4 phones that are smartphones and even these are out of date!!!!
It seemed to have to be touchscreen running android/windows/or the "king of phones" i phone.
Surley it is in nokia's remit to define the smartphone.
They need to get agressive with the marketing.

[slitchfield]

Yes, I do seem to be the only real Symbian user in Smartphone Essentials. I do what i can to keep the platform in the tech media eye. Symbian handsets outnumber everything else in terms of sales, but 90% of buyers don't really understand what they're buying, sadly.

I loved the comment above about smartphones only being as smart as their users. Very true! 8-)

Whatever does that mean?

As far as I can tell, one of the dominant internet protocols is Flash.

Flash runs well enough only on Windows. It's a bit of a nuisance on other desktops, and simply non-existent on phones. As a closed protocol, *all* of the smartphones have to wait for Adobe to take its thumb out of its lower orifice and deliver -- and Adobe hasn't found the wherewithal to create a single instance of Flash v. 10.x for a single one of them, anywhere. (A couple of phones have an unsupported, feature-incomplete "beta.") Now that Adobe has upgraded most of its user base to CS5, the meme that Steve Jobs was painting his firm into a corner has subsided and life goes on pretty much as it has since Adobe cut the Flash Lite teams from Macromedia, five years ago.

Likewise, other standards are evolving rapidly enough that sites frequently need to detect the browser and dumb down content for the device. As a consequence, many highly-compliant browsers are unable to view all content or perform all actions.

I think the two issues are related: Flash delivers where IE6, IE7 and IE8 do not.

In any case, it's hard to imagine that we will ever have both stable and also relevant standards. Any living system will have to deal with subsets and supersets.

[SFx86]

IMVHO it's completely bollocks to use a term purely generated for marketing reasons to express what phones it's fun to work with...

What I can't understand the most is how many comments were hardware-centric - just think what Linux can make of a otherwise useless i80486.

cheers, Swordfish

There was no App Store for the first generation of iPhone in the first year. So, is it a smartphone?

On the other hand, if you take a look on getjar.com, there are more than 1000 java app for feature phone, and it can make it smart. So, is it a smartphone?

Shopping for a new phone and trying to get a full understanding of OSs , apps, JAVA and other features is a nightmare- I'd love it all, but who can find it all in one device? Thought I'd buy an unlocked phone dual sim that I could use for the next 5 years or so.... LOL! Now of course I realize that the technology is moving at the speed of light- WOW! Hopefully I'm one of the SMART smartphone buyers now..... Thanks for the perspective