Hopefully starting a bit of a debate.

I am writing this message from an android powered smart phone. I was wondering what smart phones people have and why they chose them.

I have a samsung galaxy s running froyo, I primarily chose this phone because it represents excellent value for money. I can do virtually everything that an iphone 4 can do for a fraction of the price. Plus I don't have steve jobs constantly looking over my shoulder telling me what I can and cannot do.

The operating system took a little getting used to, but I much prefer some of the features including widgets and most of all the swype keyboard. It is such a ingenious way to type, I am able to type full paragraphs very quickly compared to other touch screen phones. Despite having similar performance figures as the iphone 4, out is nowhere near as fast in any situation. Hopefully the ginger bread update will help

I went for an iPhone, 'cause there's a bunch of cool apps once they are jailbroken.

Sucks you've gotta put apple shit on whatever computer you're using just to put music on them, though.

I have the Sony Ericsson X10 mini pro. I got the mini version partly because I was too tight to get the full size version and partly because I didnt want a phone that was too big to easily fit in my pocket.
Its the first smart phone ive had and its quite good. I hated it when I first got it but im getting the used to the way it works. I have had many Sony Ericsson phones but upgrading to an android one was completely different. I am disappointed that theres no EQ settings on the music player and very few settings on the camera that is not very good but I can live with that for the time being. I love being able to download games and apps often for free. Having a qwerty keyboard on a phone that size is great. I can type out text messages really fast now.

Currently on the IPhone 3GS 32gb. Upgraded from the 3G in jan 2010. I have had the IPhone since the 3G was released (I was never going to buy the 2G) jailbreaking is a must for this phone as some of the Apps have rediculas price tags on them. My only grump about this phone is the battery life, I use it all day and depending on what I'm doing I can run a full battery out in about an hour!!! (Usually live webcam broadcast) I am not sure if I should upgrade to the IPhone 4 next month or wait to see if an iPhone 5 comes out?.

Not if you use a program called copytrans manager you don't ;-)

had an htc hd2 for just over a year. great phone and easy to use plus the camera quality is fantastic for a phone.

I've had a HTC Wildfire with Android, for just over a week to replace a broken iPhone original 8gb. I love it, so fast and the wireless card is so much better than the old iPhone, I'm picking up a wireless signal from halfway down the garden. Took a bit of getting used to but really pleased with it.

iPhone 4 16gb - because it's the best phone on the Market.

Look forward to plusone clocking this thread.

experia play coz I like games and big screens

Lol, in what way? Quite a bold statement to make... Have you used all other OS's to base that opinion fairly, or is it just because Steve Jobs told you so?

Personally, im using an HTC TouchPro2 at present, because I require its features for my business. Outstanding keyboard (though still not the quality of the HTC Universal it replaced imho), excellent battery life (2 - 3 days dependednt on usage), large 800x480 resolution screen (because screen real estate is everything), all the features you could need wirelessly with excellent performance and reliability on all (wifi, HSDPA, EDGE etc), Garmin Sat-nav, and choices of OS as and when I need to.

Currently mainly running Windows Mobile 6.1 without HTC Sense but with SBP Homescreen - recently downgraded from Windows Mobile 6.5.5 BETA as it was suffering the odd SoD issue (which was actually to do with the chef's coding). Feel more at home with 6.1, even after using 6.5 for 10 months. 6.1 will increase battery life slightly, and also runs faster in general, in addition to me overclocking the CPU from 528Mhz to 770Mhz. Supports all the apps I have become accustomed to using over the years, for controlling my business, and the Outlook email client, Opera Mini browser and PuTTy for PocketPC, paired with the keyboard, means I can control my business effortlessly. Also has Microsoft Office Mobile, which too comes in handy for many things.

I am actually dual-booting WinMo with XDandroid Froyo at present, will be changing to Gingerbread over the next few weeks however. Android is excellent, feels a bit different, and more up-to-date, but the battery life when running it, is somewhat lacking, giving as little as 12 hours on a full charge, is pitiful.

Next phone, id like to go to a HP Pre3 or maybe a HTC/Samsung Windows Phone 7 device (at this point, most likely a HTC Pro7, as its the direct upgrade from the TP2) - the latter is based on whether or not Microsoft can pull their fingers out of their arses and come good with regards core features used heavily in WinMo such as multi-taking etc, and the former is a decision obviously based on whether HP can get the bloody thing to market in the UK again. Between the two, id probably go for the WebOS device, but if Microsoft can deliver the updates that WP7 so badly needs to catch up with WinMo in terms of functionality, then I love the look and feel of the OS itself, so it would be a touch choice to make.

As it stands though, I expect to be sticking with my TP2 and Windows Mobile (with the odd bit of droiding when im not working) for the foreseeable future. I guess ive used WinMo for too long (were talking years here lol), and become so used to using it and the fantastic apps it has, that even though its not an obsolete OS with the advent of Windows Phone 7, its still hard to ditch it. Oh, and did I mention, it support flash lol. Shame Adobe were too quick to drop Flash 10.1 development for it when MS announced WP7, but still, at least it supports Flash lol...

I've had a Blackberry, Samsung Omnia Pro 4, and Nokia E5 in the last few weeks and have to say out of the three of them, the Nokia wins hands down. The Samsung was so quiet, impossible to hear it ringing in a noisy environment. The blackberry was fine as long as you are prepared to pay for email. That left the Nokia, it does everything I want for free and I can hear it ringing. It has 3D ring tones that seem to travel everywhere.

Yes

Obviously not im afraid, or you would have seen how much better some phones/OS's can be at certain things. As good as iOS is, there are better OS's for certain things - there isnt actually any OS and/or phone that could considered "the best", indeed there isnt a benchmark phone on the market that is even good at everything, nevermind the best at everything. Are you seriously suggesting, that iPhone and iOS is the best phone for... well battery life (even in smartphone terms), multi-tasking, the best for typing long emails, even the best on-screen keyboard, web-browsing, format and application support (Adobe Flash anyone?), app-neutrality, in-depth apps that are actually worth money (1001 farting apps and spoof radar apps doesnt really help anyone out does it lol) even something so simple as reception (I can't think of any other phones on the market that require to either use a case, or hold the phone in a certain way, just to get decent/reliable reception). Where is the Xenon flash that would obviously give it a chance to compete with the best "camera-phones" on the market? LED flashes just don't cut it, to be considered the best.

The best depends on what you require from your phone; if you require posability or simple, restricted, safe (as in its hard to break) usage, and theres no harm in wanting any of them, by all means, ill agree, the iPhone and iOS are certainly the top dogs in that respect (though posability is now questionable what with every other chav you see using one), its generally quite a reliable and smooth-flowing OS, but then so are others (I can't recall any major reliability issues on Symbian or WinMo in the past 5 years or so - they do on occasion crash, but thats usually due to sloppy coding by application developers - and its not as if Apple havent had their problems with iOS recently).

Personally, ive heavily used i0S, Maemo, WebOS, Android, Symbian (though admittadly, ive not given Symbian 3.0 an honest run due to its impending death thanks to Nokia switching to Windows Phone), WinMo, obviously, and encountered though not had the full experience of Windows Phone 7 and Blackberry OS.

They all have their stregnths and weaknesses, some moreso than others, but I don't think realistically, anyone can say any phone or OS is the best on the market.

Ditto!

This is the best phone you can buy, also has an optical screen, once you've used this phone there's no going back to anything else.

Optical screen?? I think you mean a "Retina Display" Ste lol. And in case you were wondering, its just the mammoth Apple marketing machine in play again, repackaging the term for a high-res screen into a fancy "retina display". If Apple announced they would be selling stools of shit, albeit with an apple badge on them, their fanbase would instantly be pre-ordering, and believing that iShite was somehow better than any normal shite lol.

My HTC Universal had a "high-res" display (640x480 on a smaller screen) 5 years ago; indeed most mid-high end HTC devices have had "high-res" screens for the past 5 years or so. Long before Apple realised that fuzzy, aliaised graphics and text, look shite lol. Windows Mobile and Windows Phone have also always employed the Microsoft technology aka ClearType, the same as that you find on Windows since XP.

Is the iPhone 4 honestly the best phone for any of these options:

- Battery life? (lol, joke obviously)
- Multi-tasking? (Seriously, check out WebOS before even considering judging that)
- Physical keyboard? (you're kidding, right?)
- On-screen keyboard (Compare it to the WP7 keyboard)
- Web browsing (I hear people are struggling to view wiki on their iOS devices, Safari has many shortcomings)
- app-neutrility (ill leave Apple to decide what you can and cannot have on your phone; personally, I prefer to make the decision myself)
- Corporate-standard apps (PalmOS and WinMo have always been the corporate OS of choice)
- 3rd party application support? One word, Flash.
- Reception? (how many times does the 4 drop calls again)
- Camera? (does it even have he best optics or camera software [did someone mention Carl Ziess and Cybershot), nevermind a decent flash).

I guess so lol.

retina I meant lol.

Bloody hell Matt you really hate apple haha, it's personal preference.

Because I've used this phone so long all other phone screens seem bitty/pixilated.

As for web browsers there are many available.

The camera is awesome too.

I have flash on mine
Only thing I hate is the damn txt predicting on it

Matty you are the "HardCore" user who has to have maximum control over how your phone/systems work. It's like your Lewis Hamilton and we are go cart racers, your want the best you can get from your machine and you have the technical knowhow how to adjust everything. We just want to get in and press go and everything work for "us" it's the "best" for our owner user experience reasons. No technical this and that.. Just download an App and off we go. P.S jailbreaking is a must!!!

Im not debating that wheels, the iPhone really did set the bar in terms of simplicity, and it helped bring smartphones to the masses, before it, smartphones were as you say, mainly something geeks picked up and used.

Ste, I far from hate Apple, I love OSX, it's a wonderful, if somewhat limiting OS, for instance. But I do have reservations about how people (and media) are fooled by the Apple marketing machine, into thinking everything they do is somehow new, everything the create is is somehow the best, and they can do no wrong. The BBC is a prime example of how well the marketing machine works, there isnt a day goes by where the BBC technology pages don't have something to praise Apple for; and yet, we hear very little when it comes to other significant or dominant technology software/hardware. I do however admire (as should Microsoft, RIM, Nokia and Palm/HP et al) the ease at which the machine operates, and the destructive nature a Steve Jobs announcement can have on their loyal followers and to a degree, the industry.

iPhones are nice, and quite rightly have a loyal following, the only reason id not consider owning one right now, is due to a few limitations that I find with them and I suppose to a degree, my contentedness with WinMo (im sorta don't fix something that isnt broke type of guy); if Apple were to change a few things, it would be on my radar; but thats personal choice. I stand by my argument, that there is no "best phone on the market" as each phone excels in different area's, each phone suits different types of people and different budgets, and no phone can truely hold a reputation of being the best in every area. There is no benchmark phone, simply a mish-mash of various different phones that set the present-day benchmark in maybe a couple of area's, but always ultimately fall short in others.

Just thought I would update this thread, since updating my phone to gingerbread, my phones performance and battery life has improved dramatically. I went back to using an iphone 4 the other day and must say that my samsung is now just as fast, if not faster.

I couldn't believe that the wireless hotspot feature that had been available on android for a while and uses your data plan, it is a chargeable service on iphone. Costing up to 15 a month