Ultimate Business Smartphones - WiFi or 3G?
As 2007 comes to an end the temptation to kick off the New Year with one of the new range of powerful smartphones becomes irresistible. My challenge is to find the ultimate business smartphone that could increase my productivity in the coming year. But does it mean hunting for a WiFi or 3G handset?
With so many WiFi and 3G enabled smartphones and PDA’s now available all of the best business handsets can now receive email and offer internet browsing. But if you want to optimise your productivity you will want to have the fastest broadband connectivity available at anytime. In that case you will probably need both WiFi and 3G.
Why? First of all WiFi can save you money. With WiFi you can connect at faster speeds for free at home or office, and at free WiFi zones such as Milton Keynes’ Britezone. 3G can give you greater coverage but data plans are expensive. Indeed you may discover that you spend 30 – 70% of your time in locations where secure WiFi networks are available across the country (http://www.hotspot-locations.co.uk/). By making use of free WiFi you reduce the amount of 3G data you pay for.
However blanket WiFi coverage is not available in most places. So when you are out of WiFi coverage you will default to the slower 3G connection. While current 3G connections offer only 384kbps, mobile operators are upgrading their data networks to faster high speed packet access (HSPA) capable of speeds over 1Mbps. It would be worth choosing a handset that can benefit from HSPA technology where available. Examples include Nokia’s N95 handset.
A QUERTY keyboard avoids the laborious task of typing emails with predictive text. Although Apples’ iPhone Safari browser does a great job with its soft keypad and intelligent predictive keys, it may not offer the same tactile feedback as solid keys from mainstream handsets like the Sony Ericsson P1i, the Nokia E61i and E90, RIMs' Blackberry, and the HTC Windows Mobile models such as the TyTyn.
Both the Apple iPhone, iPod Touch and Blackberry 8820 offer excellent WiFi. However both manufacturers currently lack 3G offerings. It can make internet browsing out of WiFi coverage painfully slow over slower GPRS or EDGE mobile networks.
Integrated GPS satellite navigation makes a smartphone particularly appealing. However if you run both WiFi and GPS on one handset such as the O2 XDA Orbit or Stellar you will need to have extra batteries or a recharger on hand to avoid embarrassment.
An alternative for the best all round business smartphone without a keyboard has to be the Nokia N95. Now with 8Mb it has a powerful 5 mega pixel camera and DVD quality video. Nokia also offers the ability to make low cost Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls with "Presence" from Instant Messaging providers such as Fring (http://www.fring.com/).
As 2007 comes to an end the temptation to kick off the New Year with one of the new range of powerful smartphones becomes irresistible. My challenge is to find the ultimate business smartphone that could increase my productivity in the coming year. But does it mean hunting for a WiFi or 3G handset?
With so many WiFi and 3G enabled smartphones and PDA’s now available all of the best business handsets can now receive email and offer internet browsing. But if you want to optimise your productivity you will want to have the fastest broadband connectivity available at anytime. In that case you will probably need both WiFi and 3G.
Why? First of all WiFi can save you money. With WiFi you can connect at faster speeds for free at home or office, and at free WiFi zones such as Milton Keynes’ Britezone. 3G can give you greater coverage but data plans are expensive. Indeed you may discover that you spend 30 – 70% of your time in locations where secure WiFi networks are available across the country (http://www.hotspot-locations.co.uk/). By making use of free WiFi you reduce the amount of 3G data you pay for.
However blanket WiFi coverage is not available in most places. So when you are out of WiFi coverage you will default to the slower 3G connection. While current 3G connections offer only 384kbps, mobile operators are upgrading their data networks to faster high speed packet access (HSPA) capable of speeds over 1Mbps. It would be worth choosing a handset that can benefit from HSPA technology where available. Examples include Nokia’s N95 handset.
A QUERTY keyboard avoids the laborious task of typing emails with predictive text. Although Apples’ iPhone Safari browser does a great job with its soft keypad and intelligent predictive keys, it may not offer the same tactile feedback as solid keys from mainstream handsets like the Sony Ericsson P1i, the Nokia E61i and E90, RIMs' Blackberry, and the HTC Windows Mobile models such as the TyTyn.
Both the Apple iPhone, iPod Touch and Blackberry 8820 offer excellent WiFi. However both manufacturers currently lack 3G offerings. It can make internet browsing out of WiFi coverage painfully slow over slower GPRS or EDGE mobile networks.
Integrated GPS satellite navigation makes a smartphone particularly appealing. However if you run both WiFi and GPS on one handset such as the O2 XDA Orbit or Stellar you will need to have extra batteries or a recharger on hand to avoid embarrassment.
An alternative for the best all round business smartphone without a keyboard has to be the Nokia N95. Now with 8Mb it has a powerful 5 mega pixel camera and DVD quality video. Nokia also offers the ability to make low cost Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls with "Presence" from Instant Messaging providers such as Fring (http://www.fring.com/).
posted by Fredi Nonyelu at 7:59 AM
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