Believe the hype. The iPhone 3G has finally landed and is everything it\u2019s billed to be. The handset, made by Apple, is selling quickly, despite its high price. Exclusive supplier Vodacom will be hard pressed to meet demand.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not hard to see why people rave about it. Its large, touch-sensitive screen immediately captivates. Though other handset manufacturers have begun shipping keypad-less, touch based phones, the iPhone is still king of the hill, 15 months after the original 2G version was released in the US.<\/p>\n
But Apple\u2019s rivals are circling. Samsung has fired a shot over the company\u2019s bows with its new Omnia smartphone; and HTC recently released the Touch Diamond and Touch Pro handsets. But the Samsung and HTC phones have a serious drawback: they run Windows Mobile from Microsoft. Next to the iPhone\u2019s software, Windows Mobile is outdated.<\/p>\n
For now, the iPhone\u2019s biggest rivals are the traditional, keyboard-based smartphones from the likes of Nokia and Research In Motion (RIM).<\/p>\n
RIM\u2019s new BlackBerry Bold e-mail phone, with its generous Qwerty keyboard, could prove to be Apple\u2019s biggest headache in the short term.<\/p>\n
The iPhone\u2019s biggest flaw is undoubtedly its lack of a tactile keyboard. Apple has done a good job ensuring the on-screen keyboard can be used with a finger rather than a stylus, but it\u2019s still painfully slow to write e mails and text messages.<\/p>\n
However, the iPhone wins big in other areas. It\u2019s great for reading e-mail and for browsing the Web. I found that I could use the handset to read for hours on end, making it a competent reader for electronic books (I can recommend eReader in the iTunes Apps Store). And the phone\u2019s built-in accelerometer means that when you tilt the phone sideways, Web pages and e-books automatically re-orientate themselves for widescreen viewing on the 320×480 pixel screen.<\/p>\n
The handset, which comes in black or white, is available on prepaid and on a number of iPhone-specific contracts from Vodacom. All offer 250 MB of data.<\/p>\n
There are other disadvantages to the phone: it has no local maps so GPS navigation is a no-no. Push e-mail also chews through the battery. But the lack of a keyboard is the biggest failing. The Apple rumour mill suggests the next version, possibly to be announced in January, could have a slide-out keyboard. When that happens, the iPhone will be almost impossible to beat.<\/p>\n
Right now, though, the growing range of high-end smartphones gives consumers unprecedented choice. There\u2019s Nokia\u2019s E71, the best smartphone the company has made, and the BlackBerry Bold, which will go on sale in SA on October 15.<\/p>\n
Like the E71, the Bold does everything the iPhone does, minus a touch interface but plus a tactile Qwerty keyboard. BlackBerry keyboards have been cheap and plasticky, but RIM has done an excellent job with this top-end phone.<\/p>\n
The Bold\u2019s other strong feature is its screen. It\u2019s about 33% smaller than the iPhone\u2019s display, yet has the same resolution, which means pictures are very sharp. The phone\u2019s screen has to be seen to be believed.<\/p>\n
Because of its pedigree, the Bold is designed from the ground up to support enterprise e-mail. But RIM is also targeting the consumer market, offering tools for instant messaging and for connecting to social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. The device will even sync with iTunes so, when used with a memory card, it can double as an MP3 player.<\/p>\n
Which do I recommend? If you send a lot of messages and e-mails, it\u2019s the BlackBerry. But if money\u2019s no object, and you don\u2019t regularly use your phone to send e mails and SMSes, then it\u2019s the iPhone.<\/p>\n