Aim for a fast 3G/4G phone with a good amount of memory.
I moved from a G1 to a G2 and the speed and memory were huge improvements and truly make a smartphone fun.
Make sure your phone has one of the big three operating systems (OS).
Apple OS, Android (by Google) and Blackberry OS are the standard. You are basically taking the risk of having very little compatibility with other devices or apps if you are on another system. When everyone else has the next hot app and you want it too; if you do not have Apple or Android you are automatically probably not in the running. Most business apps consider Blackberry in their marketing plan so if you are on a Blackberry device for business than you will probably be set!
Decide Whether You Need a Physical Keyboard.
iPhone is an excellent piece of technology but the lack of physical keyboard is a big negative. I loved the G1's keyboard and the G2 has actually been a step down. The G1's physical keyboard had separate buttons for the number keys. While the G2 has included nifty buttons like "@", ".com" and ".www"they have made the numbers an "alt" function of the top row on the QWERTY keyboard. This is a pain when putting phone numbers in texts or writing out emails and passwords that include both letters and numbers.
The good news is that on screen keyboards are getting much easier to use. My suggestion is play with a working phone for a half an hour before you buy it.
Find a phone to suit your multimedia needs.
Do you have an iPad? Do you have a Kindle? Do you have a blackberry for work and a regular phone for personal use? Do you want your phone to search the web, take notes for you, provide a distraction with video games and videos?
Or - Do you just want to make phone calls and have a very smart database for your contacts?
My G2 links to my Gmail account and syncs everything with the "cloud" just the same way and Apple phone would sync with "Address Book". I had my G1 stolen in Mexico in the middle of Carnival in Huejotzingo (try saying that three times fast). Three days later I opened up my replacement phone back in the states and all my contacts, apps and emails were back in place like my phone had never left my side. I love my Mac and the Time Machine feature for the very same reason. I killed the hard drive on my MacBook once and re-uploaded all my data files, media and presentations from Time Machine the next day to a new hard drive (free from the Mac Store) in time for a presentation that night. I lost some pics I had saved the day before just before I lost the hard drive but everything else was in place like I had never damaged my computer.
Credit to Complex Magazine for General Outline of this Posting.
My Smart Phone HTC G2 http://ow.ly/3DDJr
Full disclosure: I was not paid or compensated in any way to write this posting. I am a T-Mobile Customer and, as far as I know, I pay full price.
