A smartphone is a mobile phone that offers more advanced computing ability and connectivity than a contemporary feature phone. Smartphones and feature phones may be thought of as handheld computers integrated with a mobile telephone, but while most feature phones are able to run applications based on platforms such as Java ME, a smartphone allows the user to run and preemptively multitask applications that are native to the underlying hardware. Smartphones run complete operating system software providing a platform for application developers. Thus, they combine the functions of a camera phone and a personal digital assistant (PDA).
In 2007, Apple Inc. introduced its first iPhone. It was initially costly, priced at $500 for the cheaper of two models on top of a two year contract. Initially lacking the capability to execute and multitask native applications, many reviewers considered originally released device to be more akin to a featurephone than a smartphone. It was one of the first mobile phones to be mainly controlled through a touchscreen, the others being the LG Prada and the HTC Touch (also released in 2007). It was the first mobile phone to use a multi-touch interface, and it featured a web browser that Ars Technica then described as "far superior" to anything offered by that of its competitors. A process called jailbreaking emerged quickly to provide unofficial third-party applications. Steve Jobs publicly stated that the iPhone lacked 3G support due to the immaturity, power use, and physical size requirements of 3G chipsets at the time.
You're intelligent enough to know that carrying around a cell phone and a PDA is inefficient. Lighten your load by picking up an all-in-one device. Whether you use it as an organizer, an e-mail device, a cell phone, or all of the above, getting a smartphone is a smart move. Here are our top five picks for these phone-PDA hybrids; we've picked one from each major carrier, as well as one unlocked smartphone. This list will be updated regularly, so sign up for our Mobile Weekly newsletter.
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