Recommendations for best current Smartphone (in Europe)?
 

I am interested in the Sony Ericsson P910.

Or is anyone recommending something else over it?

Thanks!

Also, any recommendations for the cheapest places to buy one (without a contract)?

I am currently in Dubai...would they be cheaper here?

Well, the P910 is OK but early reports are that they keyboard is a mess and uncomfortable to use. You're lucky to be in Germany where you can get your hands on one of four kick-... new Windows smartphones from T-Mobile. http://www.infosyncworld.com/news/n/5320.html

I would love to have any of them, though the SDA Music and MDA III are the killers.

As I understand it DXB is not a good place to buy phones. The best I've done is the US and HKG, though you can only get the SDA/MDA in Alemania.

Thanks a lot for the info! :)

Any other opinions?

Well, for what its worth, I've just bought a Nokia 7610 and it seems like a pretty decent phone (Symbian OS, built in mega-pixel camera, reasonable desktop synching options, ring tones that annoy the hell out of my colleagues and so on). I can't really comment further because I've only had it for a few days and I've not yet made the time to learn how to properly use the Series 60 user interface.

Incidentally, this is a phone-like smartphone as opposed to a PDA-like smartphone (P900). If you're requirement is not urgent then you might want to wait for the Motorola A1000 (think P900 form factor, OS and features accept it does 3G too :D ).

See:

http://www.nokia.co.uk/nokia/0,,55534,00.html
http://www.symbian.com/phones/mot_a1000.html
http://www.symbian.com/phones/

It was only a matter of time before someone mentioned a BlackBerry. The 7100v can be had with contract for under 100UKP. Or you can get the 7100t in the US for $200. I think these are excellent prices, considering what it does.

I think a BB has more utility than the SEM P9xx series and if you do lots of e-mail, it can't be beat. If you're looking for more downloadable software or a cameraphone, then maybe look at one of the newer WindowsMobile phones.

Asking for "A Smartphone" is like walking onto a used car lot and asking them to sell you "a car".

What do you want to do with the device?

Will it mainly be used as a time planning device/contacts database (i.e. a true PDA)

Is Email and Internet access the most important?

Do you want multimedia functions for MP3 and/or video?

Does it have to have Bluetooth access?

Syncing with Outlook or another kind of client?

Where will it mainly be used, only at home or abroad too?

Too many questions to be able to offer a decent answer.

Good questions.

Basically, I want a pig that can lay eggs.

My perfect device would do the following things (ranked by priority):

1) Be an excellent and easy-to-use phone with very long battery life and possibility to use any mp3 file as ringtones.

2) Be a good E-Mail device. Yes, it should be able to sync with Outlook - I should be able to sync all my contacts over (not only those on the top level of the Outlook directory, but also subfolders from my Outlook address book).

3) I should be able to run AvantGo on it.

4) It should have a decent keyboard.

5) It should have a brilliant display.

6) It should still be small and lightweight.

7) (Now it starts getting unrealistic) It should be able to play MP3 files and should have at least a 20GB hard disk built in.

8) It should have a camera with at least 3 megapixels resolution and 3 x optical zoom - and not only that, I should be able to record video with it as well.

9) It should have Tri-Band.

10) Yes, it should have Bluetooth for easy syncing.

11) It should have W-LAN capability (so that I can use Skype on it).

12) It should support HSCSD and GPRS (not very important to me, just as a backup).

13) It should have a handsfree speakerphone feature.

14) I should be able to play DivX and MPEG-4 videos on it.

15) I should be able to use it as a VCR.

Basically, my perfect phone would be as stylish as an iPod, have all the phone features of the Sony Ericsson P910, would have all the video/VCR capalities of the Archos AV 400, but with better DivX compatibility, would take pictures in a quality as good as my Casio Exilim EX-Z4, would be usable to record moving pictures with sound in decent quality, would be usable to record from a TV signal like a VCR (like the Archos AV 400), would be a better e-mail client than the Blackberry devices...etc.

But to be realistic, I think the features of the Sony Ericsson P910 are pretty good.

I wonder, are there any phones out there which are combined with an MP3 player that has a hard drive built in (like the iPod)?

Nokia 9500 has all of the list except 6 and 15. Point 7 depends on how many memory cards you have, no internal HDD.

I use the 9500 for work and have a the 7270,a simple pocket size phone I use socially as its small, light and cool, although its Outlook and Calendar syn are excellent too.

I think today, one phone is not the best way to meet all an indivuals needs. Swapping out the SIM takes seconds ^

OK, there is only really one device that comes close to that; The Motorola MPx, and it's not really out yet.

As nice as the Nokia 9500 is, it has no or little additional software available for it, and I'm not sure there is an AvantGo client for it.

The MPx runs PocketPC, has a keyboard, WiFi, Bluetooth and camera.

Howard's review of the MPx220:
http://www.howardchui.com./modules.p...icle&artid=172

Thanks ScottC and jerry a. laska...didn't see a keyboard, usability and camera picture quality look pretty crappy...doesn't really look better than the P910.

What about the Treo in comparison to the P910?

Actually, now that I look at your requirements a little closer I believe Scott was referring to this MPx:
http://www.motorola.com/motoinfo/pro.../0,,48,00.html

That is correct, I'm referring to the PocketPC based device, not the recently introduced smartphone.

That one looks really cool.

Thanks for the tip. It does come quite close to what I was envisioning.

I'd like to try it before I'd buy it, though. I have pretty bad experiences with Motorola compared to Sony Ericsson in terms of usability.

The good thing about this device is that there is very little Motorola User Interface in it, it's a regular PocketPC Phone edition, so the user interface is Microsofts.