Gift Ideas: Smartphones
Can you correct a word document, enhance an Excel spreadsheet and respond to email while in the drive-thru of your favorite fast-food restaurant? Well, these phones can!
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Samsung JackFrom $24.99
If you are looking for a PDA phone but didn’t think you could afford one, check out the Samsung Jack. Running at the fastest speeds available (HSPDA), the Samsung Jack provides outstanding multi-media capabilities, a 2.0 megapixel camera and comes loaded with Microsoft Mobile 6.0. The Samsung Jack is a powerful tool that is easy to use. And texters will appreciate the full QWERTY keypad and its thoughtful design.
The Samsung Jack is packed with features. You get built-in GPS, Bluetooth, text messaging with T9 capability, MMS, speakerphone and much more. You can even sync your Samsung Jack with your PC. If you plan to mix business with fun, think about the Samsung Jack.
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BlackBerry Curve 8330From $99.95
There’s never been a better time to be a BlackBerry fan. And this season you have more choices than ever. One BlackBerry in particular, the Curve, is a very powerful device. It allows you to receive your email instantly, surf the internet, text, MMS, forward articles to friends with just a couple clicks, and much more.
The Curve has a 3.5mm jack to you can take full advantage of its media player. Take great pictures with its 2 megapixel camera, shoot video, listen to music, create and view scrapbooks. The BlackBerry Curve also features a full QWERTY keypad with textured knobby keys that are easy to use.
The Curve also features a large, high resolution screen that is easy on the eyes. Keep in mind that there are a great many applications available for the Curve to make it even more useful and fun!
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Samsung InstinctFrom $129.95
The Samsung Instinct boasts a very large 3.1″ touchscreen with haptic feedback. It practically fills the front of the device and looks teriffic. This touchscreen is your launch point to go wherever you want. Various dedicated icons allow you one click access to your email, the internet, your music and much more.
The Instinct offers a full HTML browser, which means you can view the internet the way it’s meant to be seen. It comes with a 2.0 megapixel camera, video recorder, 600-entry address book, personal organizer, voice memo recorder and microSD memory expandability up to 8GB.
If you’re looking at making a big, fun upgrade to your current phone and like touchscreens, take a look at the Samsung Instinct.
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HTC Touch Pro$TBD
The HTC Touch Pro offers a large, 2.8″ 480 x 640 pixel display, full slide-out QWERTY keyboard, Touch Flo 3D finger-swipe navigation and much, much more. This is one of the most talked about phones of the year. Powerful, fun and easy to use, this phone is definately one that has it all.
The HTC Touch Pro comes with 288 megabytes of RAM, buit-in GPS, stereo FM radio, MP3 player and pre-loaded productivity programs including Word, Excel, Power Point and One Note. And all of these great features run courtesy of MS Mobile 6.1 Professional.
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Apple iPhone 3GFrom $199.99
And then there is the famous standard bearer, the phone that started the touchscreen revolution – the iPhone! All others are measured against this wonderful phone.
The iPhone 3G makes interacting with the device just plain fun! Its Safari browser provides a full HTML web experience, and the large 3.5″ 480 x 320 pixel resolution display makes everything look awesome. It runs on the 3G network, so it loads pages faster than its predecessor, comes with a 2.0 megapixel camera, video recorder, MP3 player, WiFi, and all the other cool features you would expect in the number one touchscreen phone.
What makes the iPhone especially exciting is that an entire industry has sprung up to develop teriffic applications that can be added to your iPhone with a simple click. Some are free and some have a fee.
Like many Apple products, the iPhone philosophy was to make technical stuff simple and fun. Everything about the iPhone is intuitive, easy and logical. A great phone.
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BlackBerry Storm$TBD
The much anticipated BlackBerry Storm has arrived just in time for the holidays and a lot of people are talking! The Storm is the current flagship BlackBerry device, with a feature set that is hard to beat.
The Storm boasts a very large 3.25″ 480 x 360 pixel display, making it one of the finest high resolution screens on the market today. This is an innovative, clickable touchscreen and truly fun to use. The Storm also features a full HTML browser, an impressive 3.2 megapixel camera, video recorder, email, media player and much more.
Rounding out the large feature set is built-in GPS, 3.5mm stereo jack to really maximize your music, speakerphone and soon you’ll be able to add to your Storm with a planned BlackBerry application store due to launch early next year. RIM has invested a lot of time and effort to produce this device and plans to support it with hundreds of downloadable applications.
If you are looking for the best money can buy, many would argue that the BlackBerry Storm is far and away the best choice currently available.
Note: Keep in mind that while we’ve categorized our selections into separate price tiers, pricing ultimately depends on whether you purchase your phone with or without a contract.
