Mobile Phone News:

Well, it seems that Motorola have started their big comeback tour, according to their press release from yesterday. Coming up are two brand new mobile phones from the American manufacturer, which they predict will set the world alight. So, let’s have a look and see how accurate that claim is, shall we?

First up is the big daddy of the two mobile phones, the new Motorola MotoSurf A3100 which isn’t, despite what I thought when I first saw the name, the MotoSmurf. As you can see, it’s going to be another Windows Mobile phone, but this time, fully keyboard-less, lending it more of an iPhone-esque air. Or so Motorola would have us believe, anyway. Well, actually, they’re billing the MotoSurf as a true social smartphone, putting things like RSS feeds, Facebook access, and quick links to messaging and all your communication tools on the home screen, so that staying in touch is just one finger-touch away. So, kudos to Motorola for shouting about a completely new innovation in the world of mobile phones, that HTC, Sony Ericsson and Samsung have already been doing for a while…

I cite the example of the HTC Touch HD, there…

However, that’s not to say that the Motorola MotoSurf is without merit, because it is a nice looking mobile phone, if a bit cutesy for my tastes. The trackball’s a neat addition, and with the touchscreen, it should make for a phone that’s easy to navigate round. What I don’t like, so much, is the fact that the screen’s only 2.8 inches across, and is a much lower resolution than something like the HTC Touch HD, and so, won’t look half as good. The really annoying thing, though, is that Motorola should have released a mobile phone like this 6 months ago, and should, right now, be releasing something much more spectacular.

You know, since if it gets released in the UK and America, its release date will be around a similar time to (and hence, it’s going to have to take it on) the Nokia N97, which, as a smartphone, completely mullers it…

Meanwhile, in the world of non-smart mobile phones, Motorola have something else to shout about, and this one’s a bit more impressive, since it’s said to be the word’s first ever carbon-neutral mobile phone: the Motorola Renew W223. Made from plastic recycled from old water bottles (and one site is cynically suggesting they should’ve stayed as plastic bottles…), and delivered in a box made from purely recycled paper (toilet roll tubes, anyone?), the manufacturing process is also efficient, using much lower energy, and therefore saving the baby pandas. It even hammers the point home by being painted green!

Ok, I may sneer, but the Renew could steal a much bigger market share than its big brother, the MotoSmurf… sorry, MotoSurf. Y’see, the MotoSurf’s going to have some stiff competition from mobile phones like the aforementioned Nokia 5800, but the Renew… well, if it’s going for the cheap and easy market, it only needs to be cheap and easy to compete, and you know some people will buy it just for the whole eco-save-the-baby-pandas thing. Which isn’t a bad thing, since it’s got just about zero competition for that little prize, and the only other one I can think of, off the top of my head, is the Baby Panda Phone (oh ok, the Bamboo phone) that I’m convinced will take root if you leave it in a cupboard overnight.

Basically, as long as the Renew doesn’t fall to bits the first time you look at it, Motorola could be onto a winner! There’s no word, yet, on whether either of these mobile phones will even reach British shores, but if and when they do, we shall have them on site for all to see!

Do you have your own ideas for the perfect social smartphone to take on the MotoSmu- MotoSurf and Nokia N97? Leave us a comment and share your wild schemes!

Or, ‘The Story of one man’s true love for his new mobile phone’…

For about the last 11 months, long term readers will remember that I’ve been going on about one particular mobile phone above all others, for the simple reason that I was absolutely dying to get my hands on one. That phone is the Sony Ericsson X1, or as I prefer to call it (to try and kid on I’m cool), the X1 Xperia.

It’s been a long wait until its official launch, but I’ve finally gone and got myself an X1 Xperia, so I can finally give you the full, exhaustive, warts-and-all review.

First Impressions

Given how much I was looking forward to getting hold of the phone, you can imagine that I was really rather excited when I pulled the X1 Xperia out of the box. First impressions: the photos of it really, really don’t do the X1 Xperia justice. It’s only when you get your hands on one that you appreciate the brushed metal finish, and the fact that the build quality is absolutely second-to-none. Some have said the X1 Xperia’s a heavy phone, and to be fair, it is heavier than a lot of mobile phones, but the payoff is that it’s much more solidly built than them as well. As Matt keeps reminding me (since he’s as obsessive over his phone as I am over mine), the HTC Touch HD is thinner and lighter, but I honestly prefer the look of the premium metal in the X1 Xperia, and probably perversely in some people’s eyes, I prefer mobile phones with a bit of weight to them.

Oh, and incidentally, having seen both colours of it in the flesh, I reckon the black one looks a lot better than the silver version, what with the nav-keys being black on both versions. The black X1 Xperia has he illusion of having a bigger screen, simply by the fact it’s black. So that’s the one I’d go for (in fact, the one I did go for).

My First Journeys with Windows Mobile

Me and Sony Ericsson have something in common: the X1 Xperia is the first of our respective mobile phones to use Windows Mobile. Yes I’ve used WM before, but I’m used to using UIQ (who’ve, alas, now filed for bankruptcy) on my old P1, so I was a bit nervous at switching to a new operating system altogether, having heard all the old horror stories about Windows Mobile phones being fiddly, buggy and slow, and having to be restarted constantly. Well, in truth, there are one or two niggling little things about Windows Mobile that wind me up a bit, and do impact upon one’s enjoyment of the X1 Xperia (albeit not for very long). Thanks to a fast processor and loads of memory, the X1 Xperia is, as I’ve said many times before, the first Windows Mobile phone that actually works properly, without the vast majority of problems that have hurt WM in the past.

In essence, the X1 Xperia took my fear of Windows Mobile and completely kicked it out my head. I do still get the ‘crashed-it-take-the-battery-off’ moments, but they’re much fewer and farther between than I’ve seen on any other Windows Mobile phones. Oh, and on the subject of Windows, it may only be able to display 65,000 colours at once, but given that massive screen resolution, and the fact that its 65k colour screen is somehow richer in colour than the 256k colour screen on my sister’s K850i, I ain’t complaining.

Using tiny keys with big hands

One of the things I was a bit nervous about on powering up my X1 Xperia was the keyboard, because up until that point, I’d only tried the keypad on a dummy model of the phone, and found it to be a royal pain in the posterior. On the real X1 Xperia, however, there are no such worries. Yes, the keyboard may be fairly flush to the metal body round it, and yes, it may be a tiny bit fiddly to use at first, but honestly, it gets easier very quickly. Like anything, there’s a learning curve, but it’ll only take you a few days to start getting the most out of the X1 Xperia. The arc slider mechanism is sheer genius, as well, and it makes the side-sliding keyboard even nicer to use, and certainly nicer than any other side-sliding keyboards that come to mind!

Internet goodness

If you’re planning on getting an X1 Xperia, then I can just about damn near guarantee one of your first decisions will be “I’m not using Mobile Internet Explorer ever again unless I have to”. Guarantee it. And you know why? Mobile IE is absolutely god-awful. It thinks it’s a browser on a desktop PC, and as good as the X1 Xperia is, it ain’t a desktop PC. If you only got Mobile IE on the X1 Xperia, then it’d be a horrible internet experience.

Ah, but there’s the rub, y’see, because you also get, straight out of the box, Opera Mobile, which is just in a different league to IE altogether, with touch optimised controls, and that finger controlled slidy style of browsing and flicking through pages, made famous by the iPhone. Well, I can categorically state, having tried both Opera Mobile on the X1 Xperia, and Safari on the iPhone (and Dan is going to argue with me about this, and possibly kill me), Opera Mobile on the X1 Xperia is better. It scrolls faster, the flicky action’s smoother, and even without the fact I love my phone, objectively, Opera Mobile is, I feel, a better browsing experience. Oh and you can do that flicking-thru-lists thing (called, I believe, kinetic scrolling) in the X1 Xperia, too, which is a hoot, and actually useful. Although, my one complaint about it is that in the contacts list, I always flick through too fast, most often missing the person I was aiming for, and ending up ringing somebody else…

Final thoughts

The X1 Xperia, or the Sony Ericsson X1, if you want to be formal about it, is an exceptional mobile phone. It’s impressively built, gorgeous to look at, and an absolute joy to use, and not only that, but its vast range of features, and the best internet access I’ve ever seen on a mobile phone, will benefit you (case in point: checking Radio Times, to see what time a film was on that I wanted to see, or daft things like that). There are a couple of things that aren’t brilliant, namely the camera only being 3 megapixels (although, to be fair to it, it’s probably the best 3 megapixel camera I’ve ever used), and the GPS (which always seems to think I’m about 30 feet away from where I actually am, when it manages to find me at all), and the occasional random glitches you get on any Windows Mobile phone. But aside from that, I’m having real trouble finding anything to fault it on. The X1 Xperia is a true powerhouse, and a good-looking one at that. It may not have the huge screen of the HTC Touch HD, or the TouchFLO 3D interface (although you can get TouchFLO for it), but having played with both, I honestly reckon the Sony Ericsson X1 is the better phone. The Touch HD makes some sacrifices for style reason, such as not having a flash on the camera, and not having a keyboard (two essential things for any phone I buy), whereas the X1 Xperia makes no compromises whatsoever.

In short, this is the best mobile phone I’ve ever owned, and it’s the first phone that I’ve fallen so completely in love with since I got the original Sony Ericsson P800 all those years ago. If you’re thinking of getting the X1 Xperia, do so, you won’t be disappointed. If you’re after a Windows Mobile phone, your best choice is between this and the HTC Touch HD, and I reckon the X1 Xperia’s the better phone. And if you want a super, tip-top powerhouse of a mobile phone, then guess what; the X1 Xperia is still the one I’d go for.

However, I am in danger of losing it, and this brings me to my final complaint about the X1 Xperia. Why did they have to make the Bubble Breaker game on it so bleedin’ addictive? I’m in serious danger of my sister beating me up to take it off me…

And in case you’re wondering, my top score on Bubble Breaker is 1368 points. Top that…

Have you got the X1 Xperia, or had a go on Bubble Breaker? Can you top Technical Markus’s score of 1368? Leave us a comment (and please beat him, so he shuts up about it)!

In an intriguing story sent over to me by our very own Matthew (you know, he of the HTC Touch HD, who I’m currently embroiled in a friendly argument with, over whether my X1 Xperia’s better). An article’s popped up via The Scotsman, about what we can expect from our mobile phones in 2009. In short, we can expect what are being nicknamed ‘magic wand mobile phones’.

At which point, I’d probably better explain what that actually means before everyone starts wearing glasses and shouting “Expelliamus!”

Essentially, Scottish scientists have devised a way for mobile phones to bring useful information instantly to their users, all by the users simply waving their phone at whatever they want info about. Presumably it’s going to be a bit more esoteric than taking a picture of what you want to know about, although that in itself is pretty cool. No, what’s being proposed here is, apparently, more akin to the way you’d use a Wii remote, simply pointing the phone at what you want, and it grabbing info for you. Like the history of a building, or pointing at a bus stop to see if the bus is on time, that kind of thing.

Which is probably why they called it magic wand, since doing that with your mobile phone is some kind of sorcery! They also promise to let you use social networking sites on your mobile phones to find your friends in the real world… although… if you have to use a social networking site to find where your friend is in the real world, when you’re pointing your mobile phone straight at them, you really shouldn’t be using a mobile phone. Or anything with sharp edges…

Yes, I know that’s probably not how that bit works, but let me savour that image, it’s the new year, after all!

So, magic wand phones is what we can expect by the end of the year. If they pull it off, that could be rather interesting to see, although please remember, when vigorously shaking mobile phones at buildings like a Wii remote, remember not to let go, because they tend not to like a brick wall in the face…

Anyone out there know the horror of smashing their phone off a wall (Thankfully I’ve not done it with my X1 Xperia… yet…)? Leave us a comment and share your stories!

I’m back after my week long holiday in Guatemala (translation: stayed at home, went to the pub on New Year’s Eve), so the Mobileshop.com blog is back with a vengeance! First up in 2009 is a story that should be familiar to anyone who used their mobile phones to send Happy New Year texts to their mates.

I did. I sent about 93 in one go, and nearly broke Orange.

Well, according to Engadget Mobile, O2 have announced that it’s been a record-breaking new year, with a staggering 166 million text messages sent in a 24 hour period ending at 7.30am on New Year’s Day. Not bad, when you consider that just includes texts sent from O2 mobile phones, and when you factor in other networks, the number’s going to be much, much bigger.

Note, however, that it doesn’t state exactly what those text messages said. I’m willing to bet that the vast majority of people in the country were drinking themselves into happy oblivion, it wouldn’t have been unusual to see people’s mobile phones chirping away, only to deliver texts that said, “hcppy nnew yeeeeeeere. im piqqed.” (Work that one out…)

So, a happy and glorious 2009 to everyone, even though it’s a few days late, because I’ve been on holiday. And to everyone who completely killed Orange’s network when I tried sending my happy new year texts from me new Sony Ericsson X1 (and yes, expect a full review, very soon), don’t all send them at the same time as me next year!

Happy New Year from Mobileshop.com! Start the New Year in style with the awesome Sony Ericsson X1!

Well, it is that time of year again, when we come together to celebrate the real meaning of this festive season. It’s Christmas, and we must always remember the important things, and remember what the real meaning of Christmas is.

And this year, the meaning of Christmas is ‘I FINALLY GOT AN X1 XPERIA! HAHAHAHAHAHA!‘

Oh, alright, it can be about peace and love, and families coming together too. So, as we all head home from work, to go for the big Christmas burn (which involves eating turkey until it comes out your ears, and enough sprouts to make a Force 10 hurricane), everybody here at Mobileshop wants to wish every single one of you out there the bestest, happiest and most funnestest (I may have made that word up…) Christmas in the history of christendom.

So, eat, drink, be merry, enjoy any new mobile phones you’ve got (which I plan to do, and so will me mam and dad, since they’re both getting new’ns), and make it a Chrimbo to remember. I’ll be back in the new year, and I might even stretch to a review of the X1 Xperia, if you’re good boys and girls. In the meantime, peace to all, and enjoy the big day!

THE BESTEST, HAPPIEST, MERRIEST HOHOHO-IN’ CHRISTMAS FROM EVERYONE AT MOBILESHOP.COM!

Well, the rumour’s been going round for a while now, but it’s kicking up once again: according to the Boy Genius Report, there is an outside possibility we might be seeing a new, teeny-tiny version of the iPhone next year. In a not-so-shocking twist (since it’s based on the iPod naming structure), it’s rumoured to be called the iPhone Nano.

But how true are these rumours?

Well, they’ve been knocking about since August, and I’ll be honest, I haven’t reported on them before, because until there was something more concrete, I thought they were about as likely as Liechtenstein founding the first human colony on Mars. Until the new diminutive mobile phone was actually spoke about with some certainty, I would write it off as rubbish.

However, as BGR points out, there’s a new rumour going round, and it’s based on the website of a company called XSKN, who make cases and whatnot for mobile phones. They’ve now got up a product listing for silicon case for the iPhone Nano. Wishful thinking, in case Apple announce one? Well, maybe not, because XSKN have been involved in the history of the iPhone before, specifically with the iPhone 3G. Y’see, before the iPhone 3G was released, a company was promoting a silicon case for the iPhone 3G, which proved to be for the genuine article.

No prizes for guessing that company was, yup, XSKN.

So, they accurately predicted the launch of the iPhone 3G, due to having the physical specs for the mobile phone in their hands, which has to make one wonder whether they know something this time round, as well…

Needless to say, we’ll be watching this with interest (especially Dan), and if/when Apple pushes the iPhone Nano out into the world of mobile phones, we’ll be there to talk about it, but frankly, if we’re talking about innovative, full-touchscreen, keyboard-less mobile phones, I’d still rather have the Blackberry Storm…

Meanwhile, if you want to grab the current wonder-child from Apple, get yourself the iPhone 3G today!

Ah, another day, another luxury mobile phone, that can’t compete, features-wise, with its cheaper siblings! Today it’s the turn of… well, another version of the Nokia 8800 Arte, if I’m honest. Yep, today, thanks to Engadget Mobile, we get our first look at the Nokia 8800 Gold Arte.

Which is categorised and made special by being an 8800 Arte.

That’s gold.

Erm.

Ok, to be fair to it, the 8800 Arte actually does have a reasonably decent spec, coming with a gorgeous 16 million colour screen, a really sharp 3 megapixel camera, and that cool thing where you can just turn your phone over to face down, to stop it ringing. And although it’s one of the most ostentatious mobile phones ever made, I have a bit of a soft spot for the 8800 Arte.

Despite the fact the Nokia 5800, which’ll cost a lot less on release (I’d bet my knicker drawer on it), can out-think it a thousand times over, that is…

However… I have no such soft spot for all the 8800 Arte’s silly siblings, whether they be Sapphire, Carbon, Gold, Diamond, Goose-feathers, Latex, Magma or Adamantium, so expect no such mercy on the Gold Arte. Quite apart from the fact it WILL cost more than my car did, just look at it. Covered in gold and sandwiched between hunks of white leather, front and back, if you use this particular mobile phone, there is no possible physical way you won’t look like a footballer’s wife.

Even if you’re a man…

So, in conclusion, if you really want a luxury mobile phone, get the standard Nokia 8800 Arte, a phone that doesn’t make you look like a badly false-tanned WAG.

If, however, you want a much more powerful mobile phone with similar (but better) features, then sign up for alerts, and we’ll email you when the Nokia 5800 is released.

News from the Boy Genius Report now, about the possible next weapon in Google’s war for mobile phone supremacy. According to rumours, the follow-up to the T-Mobile G1 is going to be… the G2.

Innovative, ground-breaking naming scheme, or what!

Now, like many mobile phones way before they’re officially announced, details are a bit sparse, but what we know, so far, is that the G2, like the T-Mobile G1, will be powered by Google Android, and it’ll have a big ol’ touchscreen. As for the newest rumours, they spell out that the G2 will chuck the QWERTY keyboard to go for a full touchscreen device, in the vein of the HTC Touch HD, which isn’t a bad thing, considering how brilliantly that phone turned out.

Also, the source has stated that, unlike the T-Mobile G1, the G2 will also become available on other networks, although without the name G2, since T-Mobile have got the copyright on that name. And G3. And G4. And probably the letter G, since they trademarked the colour magenta. So, gawd knows what it’ll be called on other networks, but ten million billion quid says if it turns up on O2 it’ll be the XDA-something.

So, it’s sounding like the G2 is going to be much more akin to the iPhone, with a keyboard-less design, sleek body and loads of extra software downloads. And presumably a bespoke virtual keyboard, since there isn’t one built into Android, and, I would argue, mobile phones without any means of entering data are a bit pointless…

Don’t want to wait? Grab the first ever Google Android mobile phone, the innovative T-Mobile G1, today!

Not long ago, I bought a DVD of a film I’ve always loved since it was first released in 1996: Independence Day (for £3.50, double discer, brand new, bargain, eh!) It’s not the first alien invasion movie I’ve seen, and it won’t be the last, ‘cos I loves ‘em. There’s nothing like a good ET apocalypse to get the blood flowing.

Of course, if it ever happened for real, I’d poo myself and run away screaming like a girl.

Well, now, if there is alien life out there, it’s all set to get an even bigger impetus to wander over here and bomb our species down to the bedrock, thanks to a site that will let you send text messages into space. Yep, you read that right, you and your mobile phones can now send text messages into the great void, according to The Telegraph.

To be fair, it’s not strictly speaking done with mobile phones, and it’s not strictly speaking aimed at finding aliens. However, say I’m browsing along on my X1 Xperia (which I have now ordered and should be on its way, soon!), find the website to send messages into space, and see that it’s designed to send an eternal message for a loved one round the universe.

Yeah, right. My bottom that’s what it’ll be used for. People will send messages to aliens. You know they will.

And that, there, is where it gets worrying. Let’s assume that people send out messages in the same typing style they use for IM, or for sending texts from their mobile phones; the average message to a brand new, never before encountered species is going to read like a lolcatz picture…

If I were an alien at that point, I would wander over and make Earth stop sending spam texts into space. I don’t want to anger any advanced species that exist out there, and I certainly don’t want them ASBO-ing Earth, especially since to aliens, ASBO means “Annihilate, Smash, Burn, Owwrraaaaaaaaagggggghhhhhhhhhrrrrrrrrrr (the last word is hard to translate from alien, but scientists think it means ‘Probe’)”, usually with an enormous laser.

So, in essence, don’t text aliens. They’re big, they have tentacles, and they tend not to retaliate to things like that by writing a letter to the Daily Mail…

Join the campaign to stop numpty texters triggering interstellar annihilation! Leave us a comment below!

You may recall that I finally got to fiddle about with an HTC Touch HD, yesterday, and promptly fell a little bit in love with it. This gave me an opportunity to do something I’ve been wanting to do for a while; it’s well known that when the HTC Touch HD was announced, a lot of people called it the ‘iPhone-Killer’ (including, if I’m honest, myself). But now I’ve got access to one, and since I also have access to an iPhone 3G, I reckon it’s about time we actually put these two big name mobile phones up against each other, don’t you?

So, welcome to the big fight live, the showdown we’ve all been waiting to see, and one that, surprisingly, I’m going to be completely objective about… In the blue corner, we have the iPhone 3G, and in the red corner, coming in swinging, it’s the HTC Touch HD.

And since they’re so evenly matched, this promises to be one epic showdown!

1. Screen

In the first category it’s a straight up, out and out battle between the screens on these two touch-friendly mobile phones. Coming in at 3.5 inches, the iPhone 3G has an admittedly beautiful glass screen, displaying 320×480 pixels, and 16 million colours. However, the HTC Touch HD sports a 3.8 inch screen, and that’s always been its biggest (physically, as well as metaphorically) selling point.

Oh, and the resolution is much higher on the HTC Touch HD, too, coming in at a whopping 480×800 pixels, more than twice the number of pixels the iPhone 3G can display. Granted, it only displays 65,000 colours on screen, but to be frank, in normal usage, that’s not going to be such a massive deal, since at that vastly higher resolution, the HTC Touch HD renders what colours it does display beautifully. Based on the sheer size and resolution of the screen, the HTC Touch HD takes the victory in the screen category. It really does have a screen that needs to be seen to be believed.

2. Interface

Here’s where users of the iPhone 3G really shout how advanced their mobile phone is: the interface. Based on OSX, it is incredibly fast, and hugely simple to use. Of course, it’s not just about simplicity, as any iPhone user will tell you, because the interface on the iPhone 3G is designed to be fun, too, letting you do ostensibly silly things like pinching on the screen (which you can do with two fingers, as the iPhone 3G supports multitouch) to zoom in and out on things, or flick through lists with one finger, that keep moving after you’ve flicked them, an example of the cool software trick known as kinetic scrolling, where it emulates real physics.

Of course, that pretty much describes the HTC Touch HD as well, since it uses finger swipes and fingers slides to navigate round things. In fact, the only thing missing from the HTC Touch HD is multitouch and to be perfectly frank, I’m not sure that having it is a necessity. I even found that the pinchy motion made my hand hurt like mad, so I prefer the look and feel of the HTC Touch HD’s interface. However, the iPhone 3G interface was faster, and despite the Touch HD’s best efforts, the Apple contender was simpler, too, so this round goes to the iPhone 3G.

3. Internet

Ah yes, the other thing that iPhone 3G users trumpet as being the best thing since sliced bread: their Safari web browser. However, since I’m being objective, I will say this: the Safari web browser on the iPhone 3g really is very nice, and is one of the best web browsers seen on any mobile phones. With easy zoom and scrolling controls, and with the same flicking through the page action as you have on lists, it’s actually fun and intuitive to use.

However, and this may cause some controversy, after having tried out Opera Mobile on the HTC Touch HD, I can categorically state that there was very, VERY little difference between the two. The simple fact is that the browsing experience on the HTC Touch HD, thanks to Opera Mobile, is virtually indistinguishable from Safari on the iPhone 3G. However, since both mobile phones were on O2, and therefore have the same signal, it quickly became readily apparent that the HTC Touch HD loads pages a bit faster than the iPhone 3G, and so, it takes the crown in this category.

4. Camera

This category really isn’t going to be any contest at all, given how I’ve gone on at great length, previously, about how poor the iPhone 3G’s camera is. Even at 2 megapixels, it’s not, I felt, a particularly good 2 megapixel camera, and the number of mobile phones that can outclass it in this area is phenomenal. Compare that to the HTC Touch HD, with a 5 megapixel camera, and the difference is striking. However, it’s a bit of a hollow victory for the HTC Touch HD, because quite frankly, as neither mobile phones have a flash, neither are what you’d call exceptional camera phones…

5. Photo Viewer

The photo viewer on the iPhone 3G is one of its key strengths, always has been, thanks to the sheer speed that images load, and that you can navigate your way round them. Even when you’ve gone into the photo itself, scrolling through them is fast and easy. And despite me really not liking that pinchy thing that iPhone 3G users always go on about, it is used to good effect here.

Contrast that with the HTC Touch HD, which aims to do something even more fun, but with the same user-friendliness, allowing you to flick up or down to go through the pics. However, it’s no way near as fast as the iPhone 3G, because you can only flick up one photo at a time, and then, if you show the photo full screen, the movement to scroll through goes from up/down, to sideways, which can get confusing sometimes. For that reason, the iPhone 3G takes this round.

6. Text Entry

One of the big things about the iPhone 3G and the HTC Touch HD is that both of them are keyboard-less, so you’re going to be using a virtual keyboard on both. With the iPhone, I found it a bit hard to use, as it seemed to not recognise the key I was pressing worryingly often. I will say that it would get easier over time, but there is a steep learning curve in using it.

Meanwhile, on the HTC Touch HD, the virtual keyboard fairs better, as it has, very simply, bigger keys. I found it much, much easier to use, and made less errors when I was typing out the test message (which was rude, so I won’t repeat it, and yes, I did leave it on their respective screens for Matt and Dan to find). As well as that, the HTC Touch HD comes with a stylus, and since it doesn’t have one of those new-fangled capacitive, it will let you use handwriting recognition, which even recognised my scrawl, so it’s really rather advanced. Oh, and since it also has copy/paste, the HTC Touch HD wins this round…

7. Music

I’m going to reverse the order for this bit, and do the HTC Touch HD first. You’ll see why in a minute (the more astute of you have probably guessed why). The HTC Touch HD does have a rather nice music player, with the up/down flicky motion used this time to scroll through your albums. It’s a rather nice player, and the sound quality ain’t half bad, either.

As for the iPhone 3G, the sound quality is inferior, as it has been on every iPod I’ve ever used or tried, ever. However… and this is a big’n… it makes up for that with one word: iTunes. The iPhone 3G comes with iTunes built in, and lets you buy and download songs straight to the phone itself. For that reason, despite the inferior sound quality, the iPhone 3G has to win this round.

8. 3rd Party Apps and Software

Thanks to the App Store, the iPhone 3G has access to a huge range of software to pick and choose from, some of it tat, some of it genius. The downside that many commentators have mentioned is that you have to wade through a huge amount of cack to find the really decent apps. Plus, there’s a lot of stupid software been developed for the iPhone 3G; the imitation Zippo lighter springs immediately to mind.

Meanwhile, on the HTC Touch HD, you can again install third party software, and with it being Windows Mobile, there’s a huge array of really, really top-end software available for it, from Pocket Office, to instant messaging clients that actually work, to a whole new web browser, Skyfire, which promises to be the best mobile browser the world’s ever experienced. However, despite that, the iPhone 3G’s gonna win, for two reasons: 1/ Google Earth and 2/ as in an earlier blog post, Metal Gear Solid Touch…

9. General Feel & Usefulness

So, now we come down to brass tacks, how does each mobile phone make you feel? Well, with the HTC Touch HD, there’s is no escaping just what a powerful high-end smartphone it really is, with power dripping out of every pore. You always get the distinct feeling, when using it, that the HTC Touch HD will do whatever you want it to do really well. With the iPhone 3G, however, as nice and as funky a phone as it is, it doesn’t have that same feeling, it doesn’t feel like you’re using something that, if left to its own devices, could become self-aware and take over humanity (yep, another Terminator reference, there). The HTC Touch HD feels more composed, more capable, whereas the iPhone 3G, despite it being an undoubted laugh, doesn’t feel as good when it’s being a mobile phone. With that in mind, the HTC Touch HD takes the final round…

And the winner is…

So, who’s won? We’ve come all this way, and you’ll notice I’ve cunningly used 9 different categories, so that there would be a definite winner. We don’t do tiebreakers round here, no sah! So, here’s the big moment… speaking objectively, and totting up the scores from these 9 categories, the winner, with a score of 5-4 is…

The HTC Touch HD!

However, it was very close. And let’s not forget my central belief that people should have the phone that’s right for them, and if you want something that’s undoubtedly more fun, and is best described as a “smart-ish phone for non-smartphone users”, then yep, the iPhone 3G is the beastie for you.

If, however, you want a truly powerful mobile phone that will benefit you like no other, you need to grab the HTC Touch HD today!