Deciding Between an iPhone and a Samsung SCH-i760
Boy was I excited when I won an Apple iPhone at the Telligent Christmas party! On the stage to claim my prize, I proudly announced "Now I can be part of the club!". Several of my coworkers, including but not limited to Rob Howard, Scott Watermasysk, and Jose Lema have iPhones and love them. At Dave and Buster's during the CSDC weekend in October I watched Jose interact with his iPhone, dragging and scrolling with his fingers, along with taking photos of Scott enjoying his fruity drink. At the time I had a 2+ year old lower-end LG phone, one which did not even have a camera, and I had some serious phone envy.
My position as Program Manager, responsible for some Microsoft developer sites such as www.asp.net, keeps me busy with email, and with such a large and popular site, there are occasionally issues that come up during non-business hours which need to be addressed. So I have long lusted after a Blackberry or some other SmartPhone which would allow me to stay connected yet not quite chained to the desk. When I started using my old LG more in the house, I realized that I had intermittent reception problems; occasionally there would be periods where I could not hear the person on the other end of the phone, yet they could still hear me.
Growing tired of the reception issues, and in need of a smarter phone, I started researching what was on the market. The phone that really appealed to me was the Nokia N95, yet unfortunately this is not a phone which carrier's in the US are offering; it'd be up to me to buy it at a premium price, unlock it, and do whatever needed to be done to get it working. Another phone which appealed to me was the AT&T Tilt, but after examining the total cost of ownership, and not being thrilled about jumping ship from Verizon, I decided that was out. That left me with Verizon's phones. My husband ultimately decided that an LG Voyager would serve his needs well, and I found that phone easy and fun to use. But I eventually decided on a Samsung SCH-i760.
The Samsung worked fairly well, although I had never used Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional and needed to become familiar with it. When I won the iPhone, I had to decide yet again. These factors weighed into my decision between the iPhone and the Samsung:
- Didn’t relish the thought of having to send out the iPhone for a battery replacement (and I relish the thought of soldering myself even less)
- Not sure that I’d use the iPhone’s mp3 player much.
- iPhone doesn’t take expansion cards (although at 8 GB it exceeds my 4 GB MicroSD card for the Samsung).
- iPhone only works on the EDGE network currently, and I am used to EVDO speed
- iPhone does not have a hardware keyboard, voice dialing, or video recording
- Neither the iPhone nor the Samsung have GPS. If the iPhone had it I would have leaned more in that direction. I am notorious for making wrong turns.
- This Samsung is my first experience with Windows Mobile, and WM6 Pro is pretty decent. I like how it syncs email, contacts, appointments.
- Unsure of what AT&T is like, afraid of being stuck for 2 years
- Rest of family would be remaining with Verizon - can't afford to terminate contracts and pay connection fees for 4 phones.
- iPhone should be coming out with a phone that will work on the Verizon network this year
After I made the final decision on my own, I found these reviews on the PhoneArena.com website, which confirmed for me that I made the right choice based on my needs and habits:
Now, the iPhone wins in the sexiness category, hands-down. And its web browser and email reader are much nicer than what comes with Windows Mobile. But I mostly use my cell for business calls, business email, and SMS messages, so I decided to keep the Samsung SCH-i760 (until the next-gen iPhone comes out, at least).
Anyone want to buy a never-used, still-shrinkwrapped iPhone? :-)
