Smartphone Lab Test: iPhone vs. 7 Top Wireless Wonders

• cellphones
• Apple
• iPhone
• Samsung
• LG Electronics
• Blackberry
• Palm
• T-Mobile
• Nokia
• Helio

How intelligent does a phone have to be to deserve the title of “smartphone”? Should it be able to retrieve your e-mail? Probably, but not necessarily. Should a smartphone take high-resolution pictures, and play music and movies on the go? Many do—but then again, some don’t. “Smartphone” is a nebulous term that is as much marketing spin as it is a distinct category of mobile phone.

Nevertheless, smartphones in one form or another have been around for over a decade, bringing e-mail and productivity software to anyone busy enough to carry their office around in a pocket wherever they go. In recent years, companies such as Palm, Research In Motion (maker of the ubiquitous BlackBerry) and Microsoft (which created the Windows Mobile operating system that works on dozens of third-party phones) have created cheaper devices with more entertainment functionality built in to attract nonbusiness users. The current generation of smartphones is as much about music, movies and multi-mega-pixel photos as it is about e-mail and spreadsheets.

But the slow evolution of smartphones from business tool to cool got a turbo boost recently because of a single new entry in the category. That machine is, of course, Apple’s iPhone, and its revolutionary capabilities (click here for video) include everything from Google mapping to weather widgets to graphically displayed voice mail.

One of the common observations about the iPhone since its launch in June is that it wouldn’t have seemed so innovative if it weren’t for the fact that other smartphones are so frustratingly difficult to use. Anecdotally, we at PM can ­confirm this, as we review dozens of different phones each year. But until now, we had never tested smartphones head to head. Nor had we ever had such a ballyhooed “ringer” (pardon pun) as the iPhone to put the category in perspective. So immediately after the iPhone’s June 29 launch date, we got to work on a showdown between the smartphone wunderkind and seven competing devices. Our selection included phones from all four major cellular providers (AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless) as well as one startup (Helio, which actually runs on Sprint’s network). For good measure, we threw in one unlocked Nokia smartphone that runs on either AT&T or T-Mobile.

The main goal of our test was to assess the functionality and ease of use of each device. So we asked seven people who had little to no experience with smartphones to analyze our test devices alongside PM’s experts. Our testers evaluated photos from each phone’s digital camera, walked around with the devices in their pockets to deliver a “comfort” rating and then sat for a series of grueling time trials for the various functions of each phone. With no practice and no user’s manual, testers tried to make a call, send an e-mail, take a photo, play a song and load a Web page on each phone.

Stopwatches don’t lie. Apple’s intuitive interface guided our testers to songs, photos and Web pages and to most other multi­media destinations in less than half the time of the nearest competitors. E-mail was a different story. The iPhone came in third after Samsung’s BlackJack and Palm’s Treo. Surprisingly, the photos from the iPhone’s 2-megapixel camera came in dead last in our blind evaluation, because of a lack of white balance that gave interior photos a blue cast. Photos from the Nokia N95’s 5-megapixel camera rivaled many point-and-shoot stand-alone cameras.

Still, when price was considered, choosing the smartest phone for the money became a close call. Testers liked the Samsung BlackJack and Apple iPhone best overall, with RIM’s BlackBerry and Palm’s Treo tied for a close second. It turns out smartness comes in all shapes and sizes.

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	Nokia N95

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