i want to buy a smartphone for school use

[Deleted]

So i got about 500 € for my birthday at the beginning of the month, and i was thinking about spending it on a decent smartphone. however, i got some demands:

1) he needs to support 3G, WiFi b/g/n and bluetooth.
2) i need to be able to sync it with my outlook express agenda and contact list.
3) it needs compatibility with windows (i.e. no iphone). i don't want to buy a mac just to use my smartphone.
4) needs to support prepaid cards (probably not an issue).
5) (if possible): i'd like to be able to hook up one of those foldable or rollup keyboards that recently started to appear on the market, either via wire or by wireless.

any suggestions?

[llDemonll]

NEWS FLASH! iTunes is available on Windows also. I have an iPhone and it syncs with my Outlook contact list each time I plug it into the computer.

Prepaid cards (I don't know a lot about phones) are specific to the phone, you can't just grab a phone and expect to be able to use a prepaid card with it. I may be wrong, but I believe this is how it still works.

If you want to hook up to a keyboard, you're probably looking into more of a PDA than a smartphone, though I know there are some random accessories that will hook to phones.

All-in-all, unless you get a jailbroken / unlocked iPhone (maybe Android has an equivelant?) you won't be getting a smartphone with wifi without paying for a data plan as well.


As clarification, #4 means that you will only be using prepaid cards with it?

[vesseblah]

Android 2.2+ phone from HTC.

Unless you want to be iFashionable and want to get iProprietarily locked down without flash support.

[Cilraaz]

I'll echo vesseblah, but say Motorola instead of HTC. I'm loving my Droid 2. Droid Does, iDon't.

[Bloodmayj]

I'd second the Droid. I just got a Droid X, and so far I love it. The only problem I see is battery usage, but if you're going to be using it a lot a second battery would be a good investment.

[Cilraaz]

Battery usage gets better with time on the Droids.

[Badpaladin]

Samsung Captivate here, and it's been nothing short of awesome. I've got my jogging playlist from itunes on it, all applications needed for your standard physics major and more...and it's reliable as hell. I can go a full day(as in, 6:30am until about 17:30pm) of use where I'm not at my computer and not have to worry about it dying on me.

I'm not positive on the wired or wireless keyboards, but you can do all the others with it.

DriodSoftware4lyfe. I know it's against the rules to bash apple, but steve jobs doesn't have shit on droid software.

[Fuger]

Battery usage gets better with time on the Droids.

The battery is also replaceable unlike the iPhone.

[Deleted]

I love my N900.

[Deleted]

HTC Desire Z imo

[Wries]

iphone works fine with a PC, for the intended purposes of the phone. But it's still overpriced.

I have an HTC Desire. Works well with microsoft exchange (so did my ipod touch before I got my smartphone, luls) and is also fine with facebook and google account integration.

Don't know anything about keyboard gadgets and compability, but I know Desire Z got a keyboard built in. I'm fine with just a touch screen myself.

If you go for any android phone I'd recommend that you go for something that has Android 2.2 installed or available through an update. If a phone manufacturer haven't bothered making 2.2 available for one of their higher-end android phones they obviously don't care about their consumers. Period.

[llDemonll]

I'm assuming that by posting all these recommendations those phones are all available in prepaid card models? Like I said I've no idea how prepaid cards work nowdays

[vesseblah]

Depends on your country really. If you can buy phones with operator lock only you're screwed.

[Cilraaz]

I'm assuming that by posting all these recommendations those phones are all available in prepaid card models? Like I said I've no idea how prepaid cards work nowdays

As vesseblah said, it depends on your country... more specifically your carrier. In the US, there are very few prepaid smartphone options available (that I've seen, at least). Those that are available have horrendous up-front costs (usually around $500 for the device) and skimpy bandwidth limitations.

[llDemonll]

No wonder I've never heard of prepaid smartphones then...

If I were you I'd head to cell-phone places and just play around with them. All those features should be available with any smartphone you can find, outside of that it's all personal preference on looks, weight, size, touch-screen or keypad or both, etc., etc.

[Deleted]

what i mean with prepaid cards is something like Proximus Pay&Go in Belgium (explained at http://customer.proximus.be/en/Intro...n/Prepaid.html)

basically, you get a card that you can recharge for a certain fixed amount (or choice of fixed amounts), which you can then spend on calls. it's great for those that don't call often (like me), since you don't need to pay monthly bills for petty amounts (less than 10 EUR), but more like 25-50 EUR every 3-4 months, depending on your calling habits.

as for the other comments, i am primarily looking for something that can replace my current cellphone. i intend to use it for telephone calls, taking notes at meetings for class and my end term project, keeping track of my school assignments and probably some other stuff that i haven't thought of yet. this is why i would like something that either has a built in keyboard or where i can add an external one. it's hard to take notes on a cellphone, my writing sucks and while i do have a laptop, i often don't have enough time to wait for the bootup process to finish. being able to use a smartphone (or even a PDA) to do these things might help more.

ofcourse, i'm always open for suggestions. maybe i can get myself a cheap cellphone just for telephone calls and a PDA for my agenda and notes. it might be cheaper than a smartphone that combines the 2 aspects.

[Kiusaaja]

Get yourself a brand new N8

[vesseblah]

basically, you get a card that you can recharge for a certain fixed amount (or choice of fixed amounts), which you can then spend on calls. it's great for those that don't call often (like me), since you don't need to pay monthly bills for petty amounts (less than 10 EUR), but more like 25-50 EUR every 3-4 months, depending on your calling habits.

That's why I have subscription with lowest possible monthly rate, no call/sms packages and slightly higher /minute cost. Does exactly the same thing you're after.

Also, N8 & other Nokia phones are not good purchase at the moment, since Nokia just killed whole Symbian. Their app store sucked already before it, and now it's gonna be hopeless. N8 is good phone out of the box, but there's not gonna be much 3rd party support for it.

[Zookii]

I'm going to agree with Cilraaz with Moto. I've got a Moto Droid and it's been a great phone. Albeit mine is rooted and running a custom ROM I enjoy it far more than I would with a iPhone that I can't "play" with like my Droid.

[vesseblah]

I'd rather take HTC instead of Motorola since they haven't fucked over people who root their phones. At least not yet.

Also HTC Desire HD has probably the most advanced hardware of any smartphones atm & almost as good default UI as iPhone.