Best smart phone to replace phone & MP3 player?

Emperor Tomato Ketchup

Anyone fancy advising me on what smartphone to get. Preferably without the usual iphone vs android fighting. I am aware both have their fans and their pluses and minuses. Its just very unclear which are which. Anyway any thoughts appreciated

I’m not a gear head which is why I’ve had the same phone for over 5 years and now its falling apart. As is my even older MP3 player and so I want a new device that’ll replace them both. And as I’m not a gearhead I want to make the right decision so I can keep it for years.

In order my priorities are
· Music – ease of changing
· Memory size
· Web
· Battery life
· Screen and keyboard
· Camera

Cost is not a major issue as I sold some music equipment recently, though when it comes to a monthly deal I’d definitely prefer a cheaper one as I don’t use phone calls all that much.

The first thing I definitely need is decent MP3 playing. I have a huge collection of MP3s, enough to fill my 40gig MP3 player ten times over. It was mainly ripped from my vinyl collection and I want to regularly and easily chop and change the music on it. Which means I don’t want a machine that will try and sync itunes everytime I plug it in. And ideally I’d prefer to avoid itunes. I don’t use itunes on my PC and I don’t want to. However, I am reading/hearing different stories about whether or not a iphone4 will do this syncing thing. Some places say it will some say it won’t

I also read that on the iphone if you want to use your own music as ringtone you need to reformat it through itunes which sounds like a pain. On my current sony ericcson its easy to assign sounds to any function like that.

This also means I want one with as big a memory card as possible, so ideally a changeable memory card would be best. In fact if I could have two memory cards loaded with different music might be an idea. Again I’ve read that the memory on iphone is not changeable but a friend said it was (though he hadn’t done it).

Web browsing – with roaming. I could see this being used a fair bit, especially when I am away (I’ve family in UK, US, france and germany). I suppose the charging for this is tied up with which service provider I go for but that’s something I need to work out at the same time as I’ll be getting the phone through a new deal. I’m very confused as to what the different package options mean in terms of useage. What does 500Mb vs 1gb per month actually mean in terms of time spent web browsing. Also I’ve been told it is worth having the connectivity off when the machine is not in use (also helps for battery) but how easily that is done varies from machine to machine.

And those two issues combine on playing internet radio/streaming stuff which would be handy.

And for other stuff. A good camera would definitely be good. Keyboard is important– I use my current phone for writing short notes and texts a lot so I can. I’ve tried both iphone and blackberry and the tiny keyboards on both are kinda annoying whether they are touchscreen or buttons. But I suppose practice will help there.

Battery life is definitely important. Everything I read makes it sound like its a problem for all smartphones but some are much worse than others. Certainly I use my MP3 player a fair bit ...until its battery life died, now I’m lucky to get an hour or two (on the second battery) and it really grinds my nads not to be able to rely on something.

Screen would be good as I would use it for reading books, esp late at night if I can’t sleep and don’t want to turn on the light and disturb my partner. Currently I use the torch facility on my phone and an old fashioned paperback. No sniggering at the back there.

Phone calls are not a big thing for me. I use text a fair bit but can easily go from one end of the day to the other without speaking on it. So the iphone4’s rep as not so good on reception is not a dealbreaker. Though I’d certainly prefer if it wasn’t dropping calls when I do make ‘em.

I'm with o2 bill pay so probably need toleave them to get a decent bill. I asked them for an upgrade last year and they told me that as a reward for loyally staying with them but not spending enough each month they'd give me nothing.

dr ro

I'm not going to tell you which one is best as I don't know but I'm using a Nokia N8. The build quality is very good, feels like it'd last a long time. Good quality glass screen that doesn't scratch easily. It's currently 16gb built in with card slot for another 32 giving you 48, but I think there's a 32gb version on the way(possibly here already) giving you 64gb. Ovi player(nokia's music system) is pretty straight forward to use.
It's processor is smaller than it's competitors making it's battery more efficient, giving some people 2 days use apparently but I don't really put mine down much. I charge it every night and never get close to draining it unless gaming heavily(angry birds OCD).
Using swipe has made inputting text much easier. Takes a little getting used to but will speed things up no end. There's a 12mp camera and h.d. video capture, so you're not lacking there! Web browser is not brilliant but you can use opera mini/mobile as your default if desired plus there's a firmware upgrade imminent that's due to address this. There's an internet radio app available, it also has an F.M.radio and transmitter so you can listen to your music on your car radio.
Ovi maps comes free, which includes detailed maps and full voice guided navigation for the countries you've mentioned plus most of the rest of the worlds countries downloadable from Ovi suite. You can download any of the maps directly to your phone so you don't need an internet connection while you're travelling. It works very well. I used it in Berlin recently. It's got an h.d.m.i. port for connection to your t.v. and u.s.b. port for connection to everything else!
This phone does get a lot of bad reviews (particularly from U.S. based sites)as it's run on the symbian operating system. However, Symbian 3 is much improved over previous systems, alot of people are using it and are happy with it and it is worth the effort. It is also due to improve, as I mentioned.

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

Emperor Tomato Ketchup

I'm willing to use itunes on a portable device if it doesn't get in the way but I am not clear on whether it would or wouldn't. As I said different people seem to say different things.

What software do any other phones use to play MP3s? How flexible are they in terms of play (e.g. random, random within folders, playlists, lining up songs etc).

Also does playback sound quality vary.

cnocbui

iTunes, iPods and iPhones only sync automatically if you configure them that way. If you turn off syncing, you can manage the music on an iPhone manually. The battery life of an iPhone4 is very good when playing music - 40 hours on a charge according to Gsm-arenas test. The iP4 probably has the best battery life of any smartphone when just playing music.

That said, the smartphone with the best overall battery life - again according to GSM Arenas tests, is the Samsung Wave S8500. It also has the best screen available on a phone, until the Galaxy II becomes available. It also makes for a superb MP3 player which you can manage the content of by simple drag and drop without using apps like iTunes. The camera on it is superb also. Web browsing and keyboard (touch screen) are excellent. It will take up to 32 GB micro SD cards, but swapping them would be a fiddle as you have to remove the battery to get at the holder.

Talking about 32 gb cards is all well and fine, but the cheapest are around €65 and tend to be fairly slow (you can add €20 for a fast one) and it would take an age to fill several of them.

Quite honestly, I think you might be best served with an Apple iPod classic - 160 Gb which has 36 hrs playback on a charge and a get a separate phone as well, but if you want to stick with an all-in-one device, then the Wave I mentioned would fulfill all your requirements as well or better than the alternatives and would be quite a bit cheaper, as Samsung have discounted the hardware to get their new Bada OS established.

BostonB

GSMArena usually test the sound quality of phones for music

Orion

I have a Galaxy S. You can get 8Gb or 16Gb built in and add a 32Gb micro sd card as well. It's drag n drop and it scans all media as soon as you unplug the usb cable so the library just builds itself - assuming your ID3 tags are all ok. I'm not mad on the stock media player but there are plenty in the market - I use 3 (cubed) which works very well. There's also the new Nexus S which is basically an upgraded Galaxy S. Sound quality is good as is picture quality for video if you want that too. I'm actually happy with the stock headphones but if I didn't also want the handsfree phone facility I'd buy better ones.