Cellphone

So I lost my phone (A 2 1/2 year old Nokia 6820) , and I was looking for "something else" to replace it...

I'm saying "something else" but I'm not sure what type of device I'm going to buy. I'm still waiting for the magical device that will do everything my old Palm, my Mp3 player and a phone does and still have the same form factor, but this type of device have yet to materialize...

Still, there are some interesting devices out there, and so, after a bit of searching, I found three intertesting phones: 2 development platform, and 3 consumer devices.

First up, the Greenphone

The Greenphone is Trolltech's development platform for Qtopia.

It's a phone with a software stack based on a Linux kernel and the Qtopia developpement platform. It's a device targeted at software developers, and enthusiasts (which I am, kind of).

On the hardware side, it's a cross between a medium range phone with a camera and a touch screen PDA. Interesting specs includes:

• Touch-screen
• 64Meg RAM (+128Meg Flash)
• MicroSD card slot
  
• GSM Tri-Band
• Bluetooth
• Standard Mini-usb connector
• 1.3Megapixel Camera
• Based on Linux 2.6 + Qtopia
  

It's a bit pricey at 700$US, but the ability to develop my own applications for it using a platform that I am familiar with was interesting... It's a great phone, but in the end, I'll just wait and see...

Next up The Openmoko Based Neo1973

Again this one too is a development platform.

• Touch-screen
• 128Meg RAM (+64Meg Flash)
• MicroSD card slot
  
• GSM Tri-Band
• Bluetooth
• Standard Mini-usb connector
• Based on Linux + GTK

While it's a bit less cool looking, and doesn't have a camera, at 350$US it's half the price of the Greenphone. However, I'm still not sold on such a device because of the amount of work I would have to put up an Mp3 player inside. It's a great future phone platform, and I will definitely keep a eye on this one also.


The next phones I looked at is the Treo 650 and 680.

I prefer the 650 as a form factor, but the 680 has much better hardware:

The 650 has:

• 32Meg flash (23 acceissble)
• SD / MMC slot
• PalmOS 5
• Touch-Screen
• 0.3 megapixel camera
• Bluetooth

And the 680:

• 64 MB onboard NAND (+32 MB SDRAM split )
• touch-screen display
• SD / MMC Slot
• PalmOS 5.9
  
• 0.3 megapixel camera
• Bluetooth

While this phone looks nice, it's getting old. (650 date back to fall 2004). The PalmOS is slowly losing momentum and while I've been using it for years, and I am quite used to it, but It's getting harder and harder to get new applications for this platform.

Both phone also have only a 0.3 megapixel camera, which is kind of low quality compared to other offerings

On the plus side, Both phones have a qwerty keyboard as well as a full SD slot.

The price for the 680 is around 500$CAN without a contract, and 300$CAN with a 2 year contract. Not sure if I'm going to get this one...

The last phone I looked at was the Nokia E61.

This is the closest phone I could find to a Palm phone without running Windows Mobile. It runs on Symbian OS and uses S60 for the smartphone capabilities.

Features:

• Touch-screen
• 64Meg RAM
  
• MiniSD card slot
  
• GSM Tri-Band
• Bluetooth
• Standard Mini-usb connector
• Symbian OS 9.1
  

Plus 2 killer features that are removed on the north America E62 equivalent:

• WiFi
• SIP client

While it lacks a Camera, the wifi and SIP capabilities is very interesting. Also, SymbianOS is a more modern and vibrant OS with lost of third party applications.

The only real downside is the price: 600$CAN, and can only be bought as an unlocked phone.

For now it's a toss between the Nokia E61 and the Treo680.