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HTC, iPhone & the Palm Pre: Are they worth all the Hype?

Mike Anthony | 18:32 UK time, Monday, 21 December 2009

Now when it comes to phones there's always a problem trying to pick the right one to satisfy all your needs. Sometimes we're sold the phone with the biggest hard drive, the quickest processing speed, 45 billion mega pixels and a battery life that effects the climate change!

But to be honest half the time, most of us just want to make a flipin' phone call! Now the reason we've chosen these particular handsets is because either these (or their predecessors) have arguably had the most hype around them this year, but are they any good?

Over the last few weeks I decided to check out these so called hottest phones on the market to see if they're all that and then some? So let me it break down ....

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First up the brand new....

HTC HD2
Its predecessor the HTC Hero win best gadget of the year at the T3 Awards.

HTC HD2's 4.3-inch display is the first thing that grabs you.....it's amazing. When you see video playback in high definition you will be very impressed. It has the world's first capacitive touch technology on a Windows phone.... POW!!!! 1 GHz processing power......DAMN!!! It is the phone that comes closest to a pc. Customise it at your leisure and the phone really does belong to you. It's almost like building your own computer! If you don't want Internet Explorer you can have Fire fox or Safari. On top of that it takes up to a 32g micro SD card......so bags of memory peeps. What's mad cool is the time and weather update. Wherever you are its automatic, and if you use the weather wallpaper it'll give up to temperature and effects mirroring the weather outside in your area. (Nice touch). Windows mobile also gives you access to an incredible amount of apps so you need not worry.

Now you need to bare in mind that this phone is perfect for pc users and will sync effortlessly. Downside is if you have a Mac, its not as straight forward (at the moment, still waiting on more apps that will make this an easier process). If you have a MAC read the next review.

3iphones2.jpg

Apple iPhone 3G S

Is the upgraded version of its predecessor with a few tweaks. Its processor is decent, up from the 466MHz which makes opening and closing Apps much quicker and fluid so downloading is better. You can also check your messages, copy, paste and call them back using their contact profile.

The games look amazing....AMAZING I TELL YOU! Gotta be honest before I really wasn't interested in gaming on the iPhone, but now I changed my opinion. Better graphics and quicker game play makes this a very enjoyable phone to have.

Now one thing that stands out for me is the videoing on the new iPhone..... Upload to YouTube and Facebook after editing it on your phone to near DVD quality! Now we're talking BABY!

When buying a phone the battery life is very important especially when a phone like this batters Apps....you'll be happy to know that battery life has been extended. Whoop whoop! My only gripe has to be the camera. With so many 8MP and 12MP camera phones adding a measly 1MP is a joke. Come on sort it out.

Again like the HTC HD2 which is perfect for the PC. This works wicked with a Mac. But you're able to download software to sync it to a PC so you can have the best of both worlds.

PalmPre.jpg

PALM PRE

The Palm Pre was probably the most anticipated hand set of the year. I managed to get my hands on it 6 months ago and was well impressed with its features. It's Synergy and Universal touch development is brilliant.

It's got all the usual Windows, Facebook, Instant Messenger and Twitter Apps which is cool. I love the fact you can have multiple Apps open all running and just flick then off the page like playing cards. Music and photos at a glance just as easy to manage, but this phone excels with the Synergy technology.

Import all your Facebook contacts with contact details and the minute you put their number in you can link to their profile. FANTASTIC!! It syncs your Google and other accounts under each name automatically as well as not duplicating names like in my Nokia! It also works out if your Instant Messaging and SMS account belong to the same person all on one page. Brilliant!

It's a slick easy to carry phone that is so practical.The 3.2 MP camera does the job and photos can be easily be attached to emails and uploaded. By the sounds of this review you must be thinking it's the best thing since sliced bread right?

Well... There some major problems though..... Its QWERTY keyboard is the smallest one I've ever seen!! (if you've got big fingers like me its all over).
Only an 8g GB built in memory that slows down when loads of Apps are open and the battery life is beyond shocking. I took it back to the shop twice thinking there was a fault with the handset. (Definitely not good).

It's only got 20-30 Apps at the moment compared with over 90,000 Apps on the iPhone....Need I to say anymore?


All in all I gotta say getting the right phone does really depend on what you want it for and your particular lifestyle. THe Palm Pre, good phone a lot of hype but still not as good as the other two in my opinion. The HTC HD2 and iPhone come pretty much the same rating with not much distance between them, but no qwerty keyboards on both is a downside for me. However still both great phones worth checking out.

Check out the ratings.

HTC HD2

Four joysticks

IPhone 3GS

Four joysticks

Palm Pre

Three joysticks

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