Which Phone Passes The Grab-and-run Test?

Sydney Morning Herald

Monday August 11, 2008

Simon Tsang

I've been carrying three smartphones around with me for the past week - not out of some compulsive need to stay in touch (though constant 3G connectivity is definitely habit-forming). I just happened to have three of the most desirable handsets ever released in my temporary possession.

The BlackBerry Bold and HTC Touch Diamond (both reviewed on Page 13) were launched within a week of each other and the third, of course, is the ever-present iPhone 3G.

Which one is really the best? Putting all the hype and emotion aside for a minute, which device ultimately is the best tool for the job? The answer surprised even me. When at times I was rushing out in a hurry and could choose only one phone to take, it was always the same one. It would take only a nanosecond to choose based on my experience with all three - and it wasn't the iPhone.

Bear in mind that these are three very different kinds of smartphones. Apart from belonging to the same broad category, they have very little in common. The BlackBerry Bold comes from the corporate end of town with its serious focus on push email and no-nonsense approach. The iPhone 3G has mass appeal with impossibly gorgeous looks and the slickest interface in the business. HTC's Touch Diamond straddles both worlds with Windows Mobile's "leave nothing out" approach, yet is much smaller than either of its competitors in size.

So I came up with what I call "the liveability index". It's all well and good to talk about the merits of one phone's features versus another but at the end of the day, what are they like to live with?

The iPhone should have won this hands down but its lack of certain features such as video recording (why, Apple, why?) and its short battery life were huge turn-offs. I gave it a liveability index of 7 out of 10.

The Diamond with all its design flair and interface enhancements couldn't overcome the complexity and unreliability of Windows Mobile. It scores a 5.

That leaves the Bold, a brilliant and thoroughly contemporary take on the BlackBerry formula. As in the HTC, it has just about every known mobile technology crammed into its mild-mannered body, except that it's simple to use, fast and breathtakingly efficient. Despite being the largest of the three, it's the easiest to live with. In other words, it's a 10.

stsang@smh.com.au