G1? iPhone? Blackberry*?

[geno]

My current phone is getting a little long in the tooth, and I'm looking for an upgrade. The G1 has hit the market, but I'm hesitant about jumping at the first product Google is putting its name behind. My concern is something bigger and better may not be too far away and may be worth the wait. I'd hate to have a G1 and find out something sleeker and thinner is coming out. But I haven't seen anything which would suggest that.

Then, I see the iPhone. The drawbacks include a lack of a keyboard as well as having to screw with it to get it to work with T-Mobile. However, there's a ton of support for it and bouncing from one program to the next is very sleek and easy

THEN, I hear Blackberry has a phone on the horizon which is going to be good competition for both of the above. Again, I haven't done much homework here just yet.

Can anyone point anything out in regards to software for these phones? I love the idea of being able to run custom programs which I would think you wouldn't see on the iPhone, like emulators and such. I currently have a phone running Symbian (S60) and I loved the community programs which came out when I first got my phone. I'm not so much into checking a facebook or anything like that from my phone, I'm more of a "So how can I play Doom on this thing?" kinda guy. Any suggestions?

 

[Pegun]

Palm Centro?

 

[RedBeard]

Well it all depends.

I have used the following:
Apple iphone
Blackberry 7130->8700->8800->8330 (curve)

I am currently using the Tmobile G1.

It really depends on what you want the phone to do.

Iphone excels at media (music/movies)
Blackberry excels at data (email by far)
G1 excels at.. google.
If you are a google centric user (like me) then the G1 might be a good choice.
There are a lot of things happening to the G1 right now so it is a cool phone to have.

But the bottom line is that there isn't one phone that is head n' shoulders above the rest. If you can go further into describing what you will primarily use the phone for it would help.

 

[pm]

I have an iPhone on T-Mobile - which I generally like a lot. I spent about an hour in the T-Mobile store playing with the G1 last night. I know very little about the Blackberry Storm - except the general stats and a couple of reviews that I've read.

So first the rumors. Nothing here is anything but a rumor gleaned mostly from www.engadget.com and www.boygeniusreport.com.
Rumors are the Storm will be released on Verizon only in the next 2 weeks. And it's a fact that there's a non-CDMA (ie. a T-Mobile, AT&T) version which just passed FCC approval this week... not sure where that would go since the rumors say that the Storm is a Verizon-only exclusive thing.
Rumors are that there's a whole bunch of new Android phones coming out from HTC (who make the G1), with the next one arriving in mid to late Q1 next year).
Rumors are that there will be a new iPhone in June of 2009.

If you like texting and plan on a lot of email - I haven't used the Storm, but a real keyboard seems to always beat a virtual one, so I would recommend the G1 out of the three. But if email and Outlook are high concerns then probably you want something like a Blackberry Bold instead of any of these.

If you want to surf the web - I haven't used the Storm, but so far the iPhone is the one to beat. The G1 is ok, but it's not as slick or as "fast" as the iPhone and it's a little clunkier to navigate. I didn't hate it, but I surfed a fair bit and it was only ok in my opinion. The renderer is good, but the user interface isn't as fast or as neat as the iPhone and I generally didn't like it as much. Maybe I'm too biased by my iPhone's interface to judge anything, but I think I'm being objective when I think that web surfing on the G1 isn't as nice or as slick as on the iPhone. On the other hand, I would bet that Opera will be running on the G1 soon, and Android and the G1 are likely to see a fair number of improvements as we head into next year.

For music and movies - again, no data from the Storm, but so far the iPhone is better than the G1 in that the MP3 interface is better, and it ships with a video player and both are slicker than what I saw on the G1 last night.

For games, the iPhone is definitely the best of the three right now. Even if the Storm is some amazing wonderful phone, and it's applications store is fabulous, it will take time to catch up with the huge lead that the iPhone has... and gaming and Blackberries are not exactly synonmous The games on the iPhone are very impressive. There's some flight simulators with seriously nice graphics. First-person shooters are a bit problematic due to the controls, but there's a lot of great puzzle-games and racing games (using the acceleratometer), there's some good adventure games, and some really good "tower defense" games (my personal favorite). As a time-wasting gaming device, the iPhone is the best phone out there.

It's hard to say anything much good or bad about the Storm - it looks good, but we'll see. Supposedly before Thanksgiving...

 

[geno]

I'll mostly be using the phone for recreational web browsing, text/pic messaging and obviously voice calls. Checking directions, movie times, phone numbers, etc, are things I typically need to do with my phone. Occasionally, I'll need to browse or post on a forum when I'm not near a computer and need to post a question or something, so versatility in a web browser is something I need. I've heard of the troubles concerning MMS and the iPhone, which I'm not too happy about since I do a fair amount of pic messaging. I also occasionally need to checka POP and / or gmail account. I'm sure the G1 can handle gmail I wouldn't need my phone for work at this time, so I'm not too concerned with linking up to an exchange server or anything like that, so some of the BB's features may go to waste on me. And lastly, as I mentioned, I'm attracted to available software. Emulation, remote desktop access, silly stuff like that is fun to me. Concerning web browsing, what are some of the limitations when compared to browsing on a full-fledged desktop? Do all of the browsers support common plugins like flash? How is the community for each concerning homebrew / independent programs like I got used to on S60?


Have mercy on me, I'm currently using a Nokia 6682, where web browsing means dealing with WAP sites

EDIT - Pm - just read your response, thank you for the input! Though not having a physical keyboard is a tough pill to swallow, I might have to take a closer look at the iPhone

 

[pm]

Picking stuff out of your post, Geno:

None of the browsers on these three phones support Flash.

The activities that you mention sound like things that any of the three can do.

The attraction to apps sounds like you want an iPhone. Remote control (VNC), using the iPhone as a 3D mouse... stuff like this - the AppStore on the iPhone is vast. Fire up iTunes and take a look around. And, since you are talking about an iPhone on T-Mobile - there's a fairly decent homebrew app writing community for hacked iPhones (including installing OpenSSH for remote access to the phone, and MMS).

For MMS, check out SwirlyMMS - it requires a hacked iPhone, but you are talking about that anyway. http://www.swirlyspace.com/iphone/apps/mms/

The G1 will likely catch up in the homebrew space. I think it's an exciting phone, but so far, it's way behind the iPhone. The iPhone must have literally thousands of apps, and from what I can see of the G1, it's at less than 100.

The Storm is cool, but it's too hard to tell where it's headed at this point since all I've seen are somewhat grainy YouTube videos and powerpoint slides.

To be honest, I think you'd be happy with any of the three... The G1 is going to be homebrew Nirvana as we head into next year. The Storm is likely to be slick, easy to use, and should have some good apps. And the iPhone is the one to beat at this point - particularly with regards to applications.


One thing worth considering is that you can just Ebay whatever you choose it if you see something better. Ironically I've only ever made money buying iPhones and Ebay'ing them. I'm on my 3rd iPhone (4GB -> 8GB to 16GB) and I made money each time that I upgraded. I would think the resale value on a smartphone won't drop too far over the next 12 months. And if you get a contractless phone, you can still move around from carrier to carrier. I'm still waiting for something that I like better than the iPhone... the G1 is getting close... but I'll wait and see what they come up with next. In the meantime, the 16GB 1st gen iPhone is still worth more than that I paid for it if I sold it on Ebay today.


Edit:
Yeah, the lack of a keyboard on the iPhone is annoying. No arguments from me. I don't tend to write long things on it. Short emails, short posts to Anandtech. It's fun to surf on, but definitely not to write stuff on. I've seen people who rave about it - but I'm not one of them. I liked the G1's keyboard a lot.

 

[uli2000]

s60 now supports flash light. Skyfire for Windows Mobile also has flash support.

 

[pm]

Thanks for the clarification, Uli. Is Flashlite any good? I've heard it's very limited.

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

Originally posted by: pm
Picking stuff out of your post, Geno:

None of the browsers on these three phones support Flash.

I do believe Opera Mini has support for it. I might be mistaken.

The activities that you mention sound like things that any of the three can do.

Not entirely true. The iPhone still doesn't do MMS (picture) messages, so they have to go through email. Granted hacked is different (as you say later in your post).

The attraction to apps sounds like you want an iPhone. Remote control (VNC), using the iPhone as a 3D mouse... stuff like this - the AppStore on the iPhone is vast. Fire up iTunes and take a look around. And, since you are talking about an iPhone on T-Mobile - there's a fairly decent homebrew app writing community for hacked iPhones (including installing OpenSSH for remote access to the phone, and MMS).

For MMS, check out SwirlyMMS - it requires a hacked iPhone, but you are talking about that anyway. http://www.swirlyspace.com/iphone/apps/mms/

This is all if you want to break your iPhone. If you care about hacking it, and don't mind then by all means use the iPhone. If OTOH you want out of the box abilities go with the BB IMO. The G1 I haven't used and can't comment on.

The Storm is cool, but it's too hard to tell where it's headed at this point since all I've seen are somewhat grainy YouTube videos and powerpoint slides.

I would go with the Bold personally, but the Storm would be second choice (or first if I prefered touch, but I like physical keyboards as of now).

To be honest, I think you'd be happy with any of the three... The G1 is going to be homebrew Nirvana as we head into next year. The Storm is likely to be slick, easy to use, and should have some good apps. And the iPhone is the one to beat at this point - particularly with regards to applications.

For browsing the iPhone is regarded as king. I think Opera Mini provides 90% of what Safari browser offers, which you can use on the BB. I have a lot of problems with the iPhone, but my friends that have them love them. They are very "cool" in the typical Apple fasion, but once you get past that they are lacking some serious substance (unless you hack the phone).

Edit:
Yeah, the lack of a keyboard on the iPhone is annoying. No arguments from me. I don't tend to write long things on it. Short emails, short posts to Anandtech. It's fun to surf on, but definitely not to write stuff on. I've seen people who rave about it - but I'm not one of them. I liked the G1's keyboard a lot.

As I said earlier I haven't used the G1 yet, so I will stick to the BB realm. The BB keyboard on the Bold is said to be great and even better than the Curve, which I love. The Storm is reported to be on the level of the iPhone, but I hate touch keyboards so far. I doubt the Storm will change that for me.

I break it down like this:
iPhone= If you have to have all the "cool" stuff. It really doesn't offer anything special other than a great UI. Unfortunately it is severely lacking in other realms out of the box. Best aftermarket apps.

BB=If you need/want the email ability. They are very great UI, but below iPhone's UI still. Very easy to use, and going back to my Q (I had to pull some stuff off it the other day) was hell. The BB is definitely great. Lots of uses other than just a phone. Oh and Brickbreaker is like crack.

G1=Newest OS, so little in the realm of 3rd party stuff. Once it takes off though, it will be a solid phone I believe. Just depends if you want to wait for it to mature, or be an early adopter.

If you don't want to hack your iPhone to get MMS and other features (copy and paste for example), get a BB or G1. If you don't care about a keyboard and having to hack it, go with the iPhone.

The phones I would be looking at are (in order):
BB Bold on AT&T
BB Storm on Verizon (in a few weeks)
iPhone on AT&T/T-Mobile
G1 on whoever

Whatever phone you get though out of that list will be solid, and have great features. Each will have limitations though. You need to determine what you can live without, and what you have to have. The first step is keyboard/touch phone IMO. That will eliminate 50% of your options either way. If you are fine with either, then next I would create a required/would be nice/can live without table and see what phone meets the required and has the most "would be nice" features.

Make sure to go play with them in store for 30 min+, because you will learn the basic UI and what you like/dislike.

 

[ViviTheMage]

all 3 a damn good phones.

I have had BB, Ipones, soon to get a G1 to play with.

I prefer my Iphone though.

 

[Pliablemoose]

I have hated/avoided Apple products for years and I own an iPhone now, I've used the G1 quite a bit in the store, and it's just not there yet, I do think gen 2 or 3 will really nail it though.

BB is crippled, they sold the crap out of their phones because they had a lock on corporate sales and invaded the personal market. They're going to have to polish the hell out of their OS to even come close to the iPhone's slickness.

 

[DivideBYZero]

Originally posted by: Pliablemoose
I have hated/avoided Apple products for years and I own an iPhone now, I've used the G1 quite a bit in the store, and it's just not there yet, I do think gen 2 or 3 will really nail it though.

BB is crippled, they sold the crap out of their phones because they had a lock on corporate sales and invaded the personal market. They're going to have to polish the hell out of their OS to even come close to the iPhone's slickness.

This position you stick too is based entirely on ONE app you 'didn't like' on you BB. Define how the BB OS is crippled. That is a ridiculous statement.

Slick!=effective.

 

[LrsK]

I was on my way to these boards to start a topic almost identical to this one!

I am also looking to upgrade my aging Sony Ericsson T630. However, I'm looking for an unlocked phone since I'll be moving back to Europe (Norway) soon after getting my degree in the US. I've looked at a Nokia E71 or N95, anyone have experience with these? I'm also considering iPhone and G1. Although I've read that the G1 does not support 802.1x, but I suppose this is something that can change with future updates. I'm sort of thinking that I really want a G2 or G3, or other Android phone in the future, but right now it seems that the G1 is a little too "beta". I have to try it first to see if this is the case for my uses. Is it possible to buy the G1 unlocked right now? Does anyone know if it will get to the rest of Europe any time soon?

 

[Nda]

I think i understand your feeling. I am too looking to get a new phone, i've been using this T-Mobile MDA for awhile. When iPhone came about, then the 3G version, i was thinking really hard if i want to get it but i can't really see myself not being able to copy/paste, that's the biggest thing about iPhone that kills it for me. So i ended up not getting it and prepared for BB Bold, but until now, i am still using T-Mobile MDA. BB Bold is great btw (played my friend's it's great, but still it's not for me).

IMO, WinMo type phone works for me. I can add a lot of programs, tweaks here and there to my heart content. I have an old game Wolfenstein 3D installed on my MDA *chuckles*, but if you are looking to play windows based game kinda thing in a phone, WinMo phone is not a bad choice.

I am looking forward for AT&T Fuze this 11th. It's pricey, but i think i can live for a month not going out to lunch and bring my own brown box to office for this phone , but that's just me.

hope this helps,

 

[Pliablemoose]

Originally posted by: DivideBYZero

Originally posted by: Pliablemoose
I have hated/avoided Apple products for years and I own an iPhone now, I've used the G1 quite a bit in the store, and it's just not there yet, I do think gen 2 or 3 will really nail it though.

BB is crippled, they sold the crap out of their phones because they had a lock on corporate sales and invaded the personal market. They're going to have to polish the hell out of their OS to even come close to the iPhone's slickness.

This position you stick too is based entirely on ONE app you 'didn't like' on you BB. Define how the BB OS is crippled. That is a ridiculous statement.

Slick!=effective.

I guess other folk agree with me too Text

Interesting that the BB's have such a high failure rate...

That means consumers don't care only about looking cool anymore -- they want to look cool with a phone that doesn't have an 12% failure rate.

Text

:Q

DBZ, personal feelings aside, RIM is getting it's ass kicked in sales.

Doesn't matter anyway, I just found a TMobile web hack for the G1, and bought one on eBay.

 

[pm]

Originally posted by: Pliablemoose

Interesting that the BB's have such a high failure rate...

That means consumers don't care only about looking cool anymore -- they want to look cool with a phone that doesn't have an 18% failure rate.

I read that as the RAZR's had an 18% failure rate - not the BB's. The paragraph above that statement was about RAZR's - not BB's. And your second link backs that up... 14% for BB's vs. an extrapolated 11% for iPhones (although the extrapolation line doesn't look like the other curves).

From the second link: iPhone owners are 35% more likely than other phone owners to physically damage their phones. (12% vs. 9%).

Interesting link.

 

[Pliablemoose]

Originally posted by: pm

Originally posted by: Pliablemoose

Interesting that the BB's have such a high failure rate...

That means consumers don't care only about looking cool anymore -- they want to look cool with a phone that doesn't have an 18% failure rate.

I read that as the RAZR's had an 18% failure rate - not the BB's. The paragraph above that statement was about RAZR's - not BB's. And your second link backs that up... 14% for BB's vs. an extrapolated 11% for iPhones (although the extrapolation line doesn't look like the other curves).

From the second link: iPhone owners are 35% more likely than other phone owners to physically damage their phones. (12% vs. 9%).

Interesting link.

Whoops, my bad, BB's have a 12% failure rate. Double that of the iPhone. The Palm failure rate bears out my personal experience, I swore off them several years ago.

 

[DivideBYZero]

Originally posted by: Pliablemoose

Originally posted by: DivideBYZero

Originally posted by: Pliablemoose
I have hated/avoided Apple products for years and I own an iPhone now, I've used the G1 quite a bit in the store, and it's just not there yet, I do think gen 2 or 3 will really nail it though.

BB is crippled, they sold the crap out of their phones because they had a lock on corporate sales and invaded the personal market. They're going to have to polish the hell out of their OS to even come close to the iPhone's slickness.

This position you stick too is based entirely on ONE app you 'didn't like' on you BB. Define how the BB OS is crippled. That is a ridiculous statement.

Slick!=effective.

I guess other folk agree with me too Text

Interesting that the BB's have such a high failure rate...

That means consumers don't care only about looking cool anymore -- they want to look cool with a phone that doesn't have an 12% failure rate.

Text

:Q

DBZ, personal feelings aside, RIM is getting it's ass kicked in sales.

Doesn't matter anyway, I just found a TMobile web hack for the G1, and bought one on eBay.

Well I like the way you pluck the number that suits from the article. The sample size for the iPhone is substantially smaller than the other two and the figure, when extrapolated, comes in at just under 12% for the iPhone. The other interesting part of that article you didn't cite was the reasons for failure. By far the greatest failure for the iPhone was it's major feature, the screen.

As for sales, you are right, in the last quarter RIM were pipped by Apple. What you forget is there are currently 1.7 Million Storms on order for Verizon/Voda alone... Then we have the recent Bold launch on AT&T, the Curve 8900 and the recent 8220 Pearl Flip Launch. The reported quarter was in the lull between launches and many sales have been held off due to the delay of the Bold. But yeah, lets all bow down to a sub standard phone just because we can add a zippo lighter application and annoy the shieser out of our cube buddies by constantly 'flicking' it.

 

[Pliablemoose]

Anyway, congratulations, you big jerk

 

[QueBert]

iPhone all the way, it does a lot out of the box, and by this time next year the iTunes Store will have so many iPhone apps it won't even be funny. I seriously see the iPhone having apps to make up for all the short comings by then. And it will easily have over twice the apps for it that the G1 will have. I still have a problem finding good apps for my Pearl. G1 MIGHT work out, but the iPhone is an absolute. I'm psyched to see what apps the iTunes Store in the coming months.

And if any of them will have a full blown Flash player first it'll be the iPhone.

 

[Shlong]

Originally posted by: QueBert
iPhone all the way, it does a lot out of the box, and by this time next year the iTunes Store will have so many iPhone apps it won't even be funny. I seriously see the iPhone having apps to make up for all the short comings by then. And it will easily have over twice the apps for it that the G1 will have. I still have a problem finding good apps for my Pearl. G1 MIGHT work out, but the iPhone is an absolute. I'm psyched to see what apps the iTunes Store in the coming months.

And if any of them will have a full blown Flash player first it'll be the iPhone.

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=13451

 

[pm]

Nice link, Shlong. Thanks for posting it.

 

[Ichigo]

Originally posted by: pm
Nice link, Shlong. Thanks for posting it.

Hey, you're a moderator. Don't fuel the fire.

I would get an iPhone just because I see new applications all the time that just look damn useful. Especially if I jailbreak it, its cons would be heavily outweighed and some even removed.

 

[pm]

Originally posted by: Ichigo

Originally posted by: pm
Nice link, Shlong. Thanks for posting it.

Hey, you're a moderator. Don't fuel the fire.

I would get an iPhone just because I see new applications all the time that just look damn useful. Especially if I jailbreak it, its cons would be heavily outweighed and some even removed.

Fuel which fire? It's an interesting link that says that a lot of phones are likely to get Flash in the near future.