Smart phone.

[Overlord Drakow]

I am thinking about investing in a smart phone but it is primarily for business use rather than personal use. My main requirement is to be able to check my E-mails on the go. Having a good mp3 player is desirable because at the moment I use my 3DS for that function. The calling and texting (main functions of a phone) are not such a big deal to me since I barely ever use my current phone for those purposes at the moment - mainly use internet messaging systems to communicate with people most of the time unless it is important or whatever. I have never had a smart phone before either.

So in your opinion what smart phone should I consider getting to match my requirements? Also, what smart phone do you personally believe is overall 'the best'?

 

[Hybrid Trainer]

inb4 I DIDN'T READ WHAT YOU SAID BUT GET AN IPHONE

What you've described can be done by pretty much ever smart phone ever made really. Every brand of smartphone can play music at a higher level than a 3DS and receive emails. If you mostly communicate through instant messenger though I'd recommend something with a keyboard as I've always found it easier to type quickly with physical keys, and with you saying you've never had a smart phone before I'm assuming you wouldn't be very swift typing on a touch screen straight away.
Another thing with smart phones is the amount of apps you want to be able to use. If you aren't that bothered about the amount of apps in the OSs app store then I'd say go and have a look at the BlackBerry website and those have been the go to business phones since the late nineties. If you want a large app store then I'd recommend looking into android smartphones and searching for touch and type phones.
It would also help if you told us your price range so we don't all go banging on about these £300 phones when you only have £100 to spend.

Also I don't think that any smart phone is the best, it's like saying what shoe fits people best. The closest answer you can get is what shoe fits that person best.

 

[Gerri Shin]

Along with what Hybrid said, if you're used to using iTunes I'd recommend iPhone, But if you're more used to another music player, Have a look at the Nokia phones. A Nokia running Windows Phone 7 would probably work pretty well for you too.

 

[Legendary Silke]

Along with what Hybrid said, if you're used to using iTunes I'd recommend iPhone, But if you're more used to another music player, Have a look at the Nokia phones. A Nokia running Windows Phone 7 would probably work pretty well for you too.

I think they're on bargain basement prices, too. Unless you want to wait for Windows Phone 8, that is, and the hardware that it brings.

 

[ManOfSteele]

[SIZE="a"]No no no no no no, don't get a BlackBerry. RIM is literally 6 years behind all the competition.

Here's my suggestion: If you like Apples ecosystem, enjoy a very simplistic and easy to understand device, get an iPhone.

If you enjoy computers, modding your various devices or using custom software, get an Android. A Galaxy Nexus to be specific. That's the phone made by Google that's completely open on the software side.

Google has the better OS, but Apple has better apps. It's your decision to figure out which is more important to you.

Hope this helped :)[/SIZE]

 

[Legendary Silke]

Seeing as your main use of a smartphone is to check email and use Internet messaging, I have to ask: what kind of Internet messaging? Does it involve Facebook chat in any way? Any IM clients you use? These are the kinds of questions that you have to ask.

You'd also have to ask yourself what else you have to do with your smartphone, seeing as they're practically the digital Swiss Army Knife. Do you like to take photos? Do you like web browsing on the go? If you're going to use it for email, you are going to have a data plan if you don't want to end up scrambling to get some Wi-Fi. If you're not looking at Apple, you'd have a lot of great choices under 100 British Pounds, on contract, of course. (Protip: given the same hardware specifications, Windows Phone will run smoother than an equivalent or slightly faster phone running any version of Android.)

 

[Cherrim]

I would... not get a Blackberry. As much as I want to recommend one so that the immediate job network in my city doesn't go under, RIM really isn't doing so well right now and I imagine their customer service & updates are going to take a hit pretty soon as the massive layoffs start/continue. :(

I think a cheapish android phone would honestly be your best bet. If you aren't going to do a whole lot with it, you don't need a powerhouse and you certainly don't need to be paying Apple prices for something. I agree with Hybrid Trainer in that if you are going to be typing a lot on it, it's probably best to look for something with a tactile keyboard. They're much easier to type on. They aren't very common anymore but I know several companies have made smartphones with slide out keyboards in the past so you might be able to get one used pretty cheap.

I don't know anything about Windows phones though since I've never known anyone who's owned one. The only ones I see for sale are kind of expensive but I admittedly haven't really looked at phones much since I got mine a few years back.

 

[TRIFORCE89]

If all you want really is email and MP3... a low-end Android, or... as much as I hated my phone when I had it because it was basically just email and MP3, I'd maybe recommend but not really a Bada phone. Bada is Samsung's proprietary OS on some of their recent non-Android devices. Basically fake Android. Does email well. Has an MP3 player. Downside (and why I switched to Android) is really bad app support given that people don't really make apps for Bada - there is an app store though and some neat apps, but really subpar compared to Apple or Android)

 

[Overlord Drakow]

Alright guys, some really useful advice so thank you for that. It's given me stuff to think about and I have a new requirement. I'd like the phone to have a SAT NAV system of some nature available to it. Don't worry about budget too much, I'll filter that myself, I'd like a range of options to explore if possible.

 

[TRIFORCE89]

Alright guys, some really useful advice so thank you for that. It's given me stuff to think about and I have a new requirement. I'd like the phone to have a SAT NAV system of some nature available to it. Don't worry about budget too much, I'll filter that myself, I'd like a range of options to explore if possible.

Android has a built in Nav powered by Google Maps. Can't really go wrong there

 

[Legendary Silke]

Alright guys, some really useful advice so thank you for that. It's given me stuff to think about and I have a new requirement. I'd like the phone to have a SAT NAV system of some nature available to it. Don't worry about budget too much, I'll filter that myself, I'd like a range of options to explore if possible.

Did you mean GPS?

Every single major phone OS has some sort of navigation software built-in these days, be it iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Symbian, BB, or whatever they have there.

Avoid BlackBerry, Symbian, and Bada, though. As for Windows Phone, might want to wait until the first batch of Windows Phone 8 devices come out later this year.

 

[Tsutarja]

I'm no expert on smartphones here, but I will say this: if you want simple, go with the iPhone, since every iPhone operates in the same exact way with the same exact processor speeds and RAM. However, if you want to go advanced, then get Android. Each Android device is so variable on what its features are and you could also use it more freely (even without jailbreak), as compared to the iPhone.

Unfortunately, though, I have no experience with Windows phone at all, so don't expect anything from me on Windows phone. :(

 

[NintendoQueen]

I have a smart phone, and it's a Samsung Galaxy SII [android]. And I absolutely love it. Granted, I only had it for almost two months, but you can get emails right away on your phone, and you can play music [you can get music through the Google Play Store--which is just like the Android Market].
The screen is also big and easy to read text.

 

[blue]

There's pro's and con's of all of them, however I've heard mostly positive things about the iPhone, my sister has recently got one and she absolutely loves it!

 

[Overlord Drakow]

I have another question for you guys. Has your use for a smart phone evolved over time? At the moment, I want E-mail access, GPS, MP3 player and access to stuff like Facebook / MSN etc. But do you think it's likely that I'll become more reliant on my smart phone as time passes and I'd want to do more with it? Because if that is likely, then I'd rather get a more top end phone.

 

[NintendoQueen]

I have another question for you guys. Has your use for a smart phone evolved over time? At the moment, I want E-mail access, GPS, MP3 player and access to stuff like Facebook / MSN etc. But do you think it's likely that I'll become more reliant on my smart phone as time passes and I'd want to do more with it? Because if that is likely, then I'd rather get a more top end phone.

Right now, I can access Facebook, email, GPS, maps, MP3 players, video players, internet, etc. on this phone I have. I'm not saying it's the best one out there, but I do think it's a great start for a smart phone [especially if you haven't had on before].
Also with Androids, because of the constant updating, the battery life isn't great, but I just charge it wherever whenever I need to, and that's not a nuisance really.

 

[Cherrim]

I have another question for you guys. Has your use for a smart phone evolved over time? At the moment, I want E-mail access, GPS, MP3 player and access to stuff like Facebook / MSN etc. But do you think it's likely that I'll become more reliant on my smart phone as time passes and I'd want to do more with it? Because if that is likely, then I'd rather get a more top end phone.

Most any Smartphone will handle all that just fine out of the box... but if you think you'll end up wanting to use your phone constantly while you're out, it might be worth looking into something that has a much better battery life, which probably means buying newer. (Plus, if you think you'll want to play games on it or use it like a tablet of sorts down the line, you'll want something that can multitask and has better graphics.)

My smartphone usage has pretty much stayed the same as I thought it would. I use mine mainly to keep up with twitter, a bit of web browsing, checking bus schedules/maps, and email. The only thing I do on it a lot that I never expected is streaming Youtube videos and even then that's not a very big deal. From the sounds of it, your intentions are pretty similar so I wouldn't worry too much about what you get based on that alone.

I don't know what mobile plans are like there but chances are in order to get a solid one, you'll have to lock in for a few years. If that's the case, it might be better to go with a higher-end phone anyway because not only will you get the discount from going into a plan with it but it should last you the x number of years no problem.