I’m in the market for a new Windows Mobile phone. For me the most important aspects are screen size, processor speed, memory and battery life. These are the ones I’m considering at the moment (all information sources from GSM Arena):
- HTC Touch HD: One of the first big screen window mobile phones, but getting a bit on in age having been released more than a year ago. It features a 65K color,
480 x 800 WVGA, 3.8 inch display, Qualcomm 7201A 528 MHz processor, 288 MB RAM, 512 MB ROM and a 1350 mAh Li-Ion battery. - Samsung Omnia II i8000 (also dubbed the Samsung Omnia Icon): This is a brand new release from Samsung following on its predesessor the Omnia i900 (which I seriously considered a while back). It features a 65K color AMOLED 480 x 800 pixels (WVGA), 3.7 inch display, Samsung S3C6410 800MHz processor including a dedicated graphics accelerator, 2/8/16 GB storage, 256 MB RAM and a 1500 mAh Li-Ion battery. Currently this is the one I’m favoring, the AMOLED display, processor and battery makes it a good option. It currently ships with WinMo 6.1, but will have a free (in most cases) upgrade to 6.5.
- Acer F900: Released under the radar earlier this year without much press attention. Acer bought the PDA/GPS company E-ten and their range is based on the E-ten models. It features a 65K color, 480 x 800 WVGA, 3.8 inch display, Samsung S3C6410 533 MHz processor,128MB RAM, 256MB ROM and 1530mAh Li-ion battery. This phone offers good value for money since it is much cheaper currently than the others listed here. It is a shame about the low RAM/ROM, but it compensates with a microSD slot and a good battery. It is apparently more responsive than the HD Touch.
- Toshiba TG01: The much hyped and yet to be released model features a 256K color (65K effective) 480 x 800 WVGA, 4.1 inch display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD8250 1 GHz processor, 256 MB RAM, 512 MB ROM and a 1000mAh Li-ion. For me the screen size pushes the phone over the edge of being comfortable enough to carry as a phone. The weak battery is also disappointing, hopefully this will be beefed up when the phone is released.
- Acer F1: Now here is an interesting phone I stumbled upon by chance. It is pipped to be releases in October and there has not been much press on it, but check the features (not listed on GSM Arena yet, but can be found here): 65K color, 480 x 800 WVGA 3.8 inch display, Qualcomm 8250 1 GHz processor, 256 MB RAM, 512 MB ROM and a 1350 mAh Li-ion battery. Very impressive. The battery could have been a bit better, but this phone may actually be a contender. The price is likely to be less than both the Toshiba and Samsung phones which makes it even more attractive.
Windows Mobile 6.5 also promises to have improved performance and responsiveness. I can vouch for this: I loaded a cooked 6.5 ROM on my HTC and must say was impressed with the responsiveness even on my old 200MHz phone.
Now for the difficult part – which one to buy: currently I’m leaning toward the Omnia II. Once I have made the decision I will do a mini review on it.