The Times asks 'Which Is the Best Touchscreen Phone?'

[Ewan]

The Times' Testbest section today looks at five touchscreen based rivals to the iPhone (leaving unspoken the idea that the iPhone is the one phone that every other phone must be measured against) and fails to appoint a clear winner - each phone is good at a few tasks, and poor at others - but it certainly points out a looser... the W960i.

Read on in the full article.

[krisse]

But no one bought Palms or Windows CE devices in the end, everyone bought cheap mobile phones from Nokia, Moto, Samsung etc. PDAs are now a long-forgotten backwater with little commercial significance.

IMHO the whole iPhone vs Whatever argument is pointless, they're all incredily expensive devices that no one will buy.

The 5 to 10 million iPhones a year that Apple is aiming for is a 0.5% to 1% market share, close to nothing.

The recent $199 iPhone announcement had me excited until I realised didn't actually cost $199, that's just the first payment of a 2 year contract. The actual cost of the cheapest new iPhone hardware is probably nearer $600 when you tot it all up, plus the compulsory monthly charges for calls whether you use it or not take the total price well over $1000. This is yet another gadget that no one will actually buy.

It's the cheap phones we ought to be looking at, but the media never does.

In the real world price is the main feature people think about when buying a gadget. The price is the bottom line, it makes the difference between buying something and not buying it.

IPhone sales are not relatively low considering the fact that until recently, it was USA & AT&T only (and there it beats Nokia sales easily). Now, that is dramatically changing, iPhone will be available in 70 countries this year with great 3rd party apps, so at last I can switch. Those 3rd party app demos at WWDC convinced me to switch to iPhone...

[jah]

iPhone - one design, one form factor, one proposition - for all the people. Can't work for ever, there are lots of people with different needs. And what will happen in 10 months time when the iPhone v3 is announced and all the iPhone v2 customers (e.g. on O2 with V1 iPhones at the moment) have 12-24 months still left on their contracts?

krisse: based on your logic, BMW, Mercedes etc. are not significant car makers, they hardly have more than a few percent market share and they are quite expensive. And you can customize you suzuki swift much better.

Yeah, the phone market in the real world for the vast majority of people is not all about touchscreen phones, Krisse's right. HOWEVER, AAS has specifically posted this article in the news meaning they wanted to highlight and discuss it, and it's specifically about touchscreens, therefore that's all we should be considering here.

So...given that, of course the N95 wouldn't be considered - where's the touchscreen!? If the only handset that runs Symbian happens to be crap, fair enough. I think we all already know that Symbian and NSeries etc. trounce the iPhone in various ways, but as regards a *touchscreen* model comparison, this Sony phone is obviously crap for other reasons. Fair play.
Of course everything in this article should be compared to the iPhone - it has by FAR the best touchscreen implementation of any phone out there, and that's the initial basis on which the article is making comparisons.

Nokias (etc) also have added costs over the course of a contract, let's be fair.

Listen, NOTHING is stopping Nokia making an iPhone-beating touchscreen implementation. Then they'd have it all - the great hardware and platform AND a great touchscreen. The S60 touch demos seen so far do not exactly set the world alight. Nokia don't really have any excuses here - they're THE phone experts. They should be doing the world-beating stuff. If Apple come along and surpass them on various fronts, that's Nokia's fault.

That said, Nokia may well look at their sales figures, and their understanding of the market, and realise that over the whole of their phone business, a superb touchscreen is neither here nor there - it doesn't have THAT much importance to them - i.e. they can afford to lose people who want the iPhone's superb touchscreen over Nokia's OK touchscreen. Disappointing for some of us, but that's business for you. Anyway, let's wait and see. S60 touch might be better than we're expecting.

Alex Kerr
CEO
phonething.com

I am having a n95 8gb and i am sorry to say that iphone smokes n95 out clearly in usablity... n95 is very slow in loading gallery that it takes almost a minute to see what are my photos.... what is the use of all features list if the software running it is not good?
the userfriendlyness of iphone is too good and i would say that if given a chance i would choose iphone over n95 eyes closed!

[Menneisyys]

While I do know Times is in no way a geek mag, statements like "Also, some of the Windows-based software is very slow, although the HTC does come with a quantity of programs that befits a proper smartphone" are just too vague (they must be referring to the very slow and sub-par TouchFlo 3D, not to the other OS apps or add-on programs in general.) And, you can just disable this TouchFlo 3D crap and use the standard interface instead if you're fed up with the slowness of it.

(Not that I defend the Diamond. IMHO, it sucks like hell because of the 4GB stroage and the lack of memory card slot. I wouldn't buy it at all.)

Here we go again, an assumption that everyone wants a touchscreen. No thanks, if operating a phone was my life then perhaps, but it's not and thank goodness for that!

Operating a phone is my life and I still don't want a touchscreen. All phones lack something, while the iPhone lacks even the things that most budget phones have. MMS being the first feature that springs to mind.

I have my s60 phone set up to be my instant messenger, my e-mail device, my full web browser, my music player, my camera, my image editor, my mp3 cutter, my handheld gaming device, my e-book reader and even my phone. I don't have a computer in any form apart from my phone and I don't use it over Wi-fi even though I can if I need to.

How many iPhone owners can say that and not be lying through their teeth? Sure, it's got a nice user interface, but style above substance is something I've never been a fan of. If people really need to show off an expensive device that doesn't do half of the things something half the price does then that's their problem.

[snoyt]

Well, one thing we can be sure. Apple did put touch screens back on the mobile map. Their approach of gaining screensize by using a touchscreen while 'keeping' mobile phone dimensions was very pretty looking. Their effort to improve data-input with a touchscreen into a workable solution is very laudable ;-). Very innovative when comparing it to early Palm and UIQ, grandiose and heroic when comparing it to Windows Mobile. But then Making things simple is Apple at its core business. And the iPhone is basically a simple device.

However great touch is for interactive menu browsing and more. It is never a replacement for a real keyboard when talking fast data input. As such I see future touch screens with a navigation keypad as the new E66 or the N95 and slider mini-qwerty keyboard for data entry. Nokia's silence about their touch plans show they are planning slightly more than just a touch phone. Perhaps a whole T-series party in August... T-for touch that is.

[bartmanekul]

As such I see future touchscreens with a navigation keypad as the new E66 or the N95 and slider mini-qwerty keyboard for data entry.

Like the upcoming (overdue) Sony X1?

Thats a 3" touchscreen and has a slide out very decent qwerty. And unlike the HTC TYTN2, its a reasonable size. Still big, but reasonable. I must admit, if it wasnt for the 6220C, Id be very interested in that.

[snoyt]

Originally Posted by bartmanekul

Like the upcoming (overdue) Sony X1?

Thats a 3" touchscreen and has a slide out very decent qwerty. And unlike the HTC TYTN2, its a reasonable size. Still big, but reasonable. I must admit, if it wasnt for the 6220C, Id be very interested in that.

I absolutely love the design. And it looks rather functional and practical too. Even However currently Nokia seems to have the nicest software collection and quality hardware all in one solution. Touch screens are definitely currently the flashiest gimmick for mobile phones. I just hope there is a practical benefit for us too. I doubt touch screens will ever be great until you can 3D-shape the screen. But I'll settle for adequate when combined with a large screen size, navigation buttons and mini-qwerty.

Webbrowsing and messaging are becoming an important part of the mobile experience.

[bartmanekul]

Can you imagine what would happen if nokia released an X1 alike?

No reason why they cant better that spec either, add a 5MP cam and perhaps TV out.

Would that kick arse? Oh yes.

[snoyt]

Originally Posted by bartmanekul

Can you imagine what would happen if nokia released an X1 alike? No reason why they cant better that spec either, add a 5MP cam and perhaps TV out.

Would that kick arse? Oh yes.

Kick ass you mean ;-). That poor donkey. Anyway, guess what I am waiting for ;^). Note that the form factor should be N95 sized!