Smartphone Comparisons and Mini GuidePosted by Roger Keays, 17 June 2010, 6:19 PM |
In this article I will compare a whole bunch of different smart phones to help you chose which one is best for you. I was primarily interested in a phone with the following features:
- 3G support (for Japan and Korea)
- 2G support (for Thailand, Vietnam and broader global access)
- A decent camera
- Good Unicode support and i18n input for studying languages
- Ability to run Anki Flashcards and StarDict dictionaries
- Decent performance, RAM and storage
Firstly, the most important factor is the operating system. What software can your phone run? There are 5 main operating systems which I have compared below. API is the main supported programming language, JME is the Java Micro Edition support, tethering is support for using the phone as a modem and i18n input is support for entering foreign languages.
| API | JME | Apps | Tethering | i18n input | Anki | StarDict | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Android | Java | no | yes | yes | addons | yes | yes |
| iPhone OS | Objective C | no | yes | yes | addons | yes | yes |
| Windows Mobile | C++ / .NET | no | yes | yes | ? | no | yes |
| Symbian | C++ | yes | yes | yes | ? | no | yes |
| Blackberry OS | Java | yes | yes | yes | ? | no | yes |
Table 1. Smart-phone operating systems.
Here are the smart phones I researched, and the specifications of each phone. The price listed is converted roughly to USD from the best price I could find in Thai Baht. Unlike in Australia, these phones are all unlocked an unrestricted in any way.
| price | release | platform | CPU | RAM | storage | expansion | HSPDA | WCDMA | GSM | wifi | size | weight | camera | AF | Flash | battery | input | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| i-Mobile 6010 | 209 | 10.01 | Android 1.6 | 128MB | 256MB | 16GB | no | no | yes | yes | 110x55x14 | 106g | 3.2Mp | yes | 1200 | touch screen | ||
| Samsung Galaxy i7500 | 262 * | 09.04 | Android 1.5 | 528 Mhz | 192MB | 8GB | 32GB | yes | yes | yes | yes | 115x56x12 | 114g | 5Mp | yes | yes | 1400 | touch screen |
| i-Mobile 8500 | 290 | 09.09 | Android 1.5 | 624 MHz | 128MB | 256MB | 16GB | yes | yes | yes | yes | 112x57x15 | 150g | 5Mp | yes | 1500 | touch screen | |
| HTC Tattoo | 297 | 09.09 | Android 1.6 | 528 Mhz | 256MB | 512MB | yes | A3288 only | yes | yes | yes | 106x55x14 | 113g | 3.2Mp | no | no | 1100 | touch screen |
| WellCom A88 | 315 | Android 1.6 | 600 Mhz | 256MB | 512MB | 32GB | yes | yes | yes | yes | 115x57x13 | 114g | 5Mp | no | yes | 1279 | touch screen | |
| Samsung Galaxy i5700 | 349 | 09.11 | Android 2.1 | 800 Mhz | 128MB | 200MB | 32GB | yes | yes | yes | yes | 115x57x13 | 124g | 3.2Mp | yes | no | 1500 | touch screen |
| Samsung S8300 | 349 | 09.04 | TouchWiz | 500 MHz | 80MB | 16GB | yes | yes | yes | no | 110x52x13 | 122g | 8Mp | 880 | touch screen + keypad | |||
| HTC Touch 3G | 416 | 08.12 | Windows 6.2 | 528 Mhz | 192MB | 512MB | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | 102x54x15 | 96g | 3.2Mp | no | no | 1100 | touch screen |
| i-Mobile i858 | 450 | 10.01 | Android 2.0 | 800 Mhz | 512MB | 512MB | 16GB | yes | yes | yes | 120x67x13 | 5Mp | yes | no | 1500 | touch screen | ||
| Samsung S8000 Jet | 451 | 09.07 | TouchWiz | 800 Mhz | 2/8GB | 16GB | yes | yes | yes | yes | 109x54x12 | 110g | 5Mp | 1100 | touch screen | |||
| HTC Magic | 500 | 09.02 | Android 1.6 | 528 Mhz | 288MB | 512MB | 16GB | yes | yes | yes | yes | 113x55x14 | 116g | 3.2Mp | yes | no | 1340 | touch screen |
| HTC Hero | 515 | 09.07 | Android 2.1 | 528 Mhz | 288MB | 256MB | 16GB | no | yes | yes | yes | 112x56x14 | 135g | 5Mp | yes | no | 1350 | touch screen |
| Google Nexus One | 600 | 10.01 | Android 2.1 | 1000 Mhz | 512MB | 512MB | 32GB | yes | yes | yes | yes | 119x60x12 | 130g | 5Mp | yes | yes | 1400 | touch screen |
| Nokia N97 | 630 | 09.06 | Symbian 9.4 | 434 Mhz | 128MB | 32GB | 16GB | yes | yes | yes | yes | 117x55x16 | 150g | 5Mp | 1500 | qwerty keyboard | ||
| Apple iPhone 3GS | 735 | 09.06 | iPhone OS | 600 Mhz | 256MB | 16/32GB | none | yes | yes | yes | yes | 115x62x12 | 135g | 3Mp | yes | no | 1220 | touch screen |
| HTC Touch HD2 | 998 | 09.10 | Windows 6.5 | 1000 Mhz | 576MB | 512MB | 32GB | yes | yes | yes | yes | 121x67x11 | 157g | 5Mp | yes | no | 1230 | touch screen |
| HTC Desire | 10.02 | Android 2.1 | 1000 Mhz | 576MB | 512MB | 32GB | yes | yes | yes | yes | 119x60x12 | 135g | 5Mp | yes | yes | 1400 | touch screen | |
| HTC Legend | 10.04 | Android 2.1 | 528 Mhz | 384MB | 512MB | 32GB | yes | yes | yes | yes | 112x56x11 | 116g | 5Mp | yes | yes | 1300 | touch screen |
* second-hand only
Table 2. Smart-phone comparisons
The best place to get these phones in Bangkok is almost definitely MBK, although the major department stores like Tesco and Carrefour also have good prices. Jay Mart and Powermall have lots of phones, but not such good prices.
In the end I bought a Samsung Galaxy i5700 from Carrefour because the red shirts where busy trying to burn MBK down to the ground. It was about 30 USD cheaper at MBK, but at least at Carrefour you can pay by credit card with no commision.
I chose the Samsung over other models primarily because Samsung are releasing Android updates for the Galaxy. I'm reasonably happy with the phone but haven't bothered with any of the updates yet. It was definitely worth getting a camera with auto-focus, while the lower megapixels, lack of a flash and low RAM haven't caused me any grief. The only thing I really don't like is the handstrap eyelet which is at the top of the phone, making it more less unusable. I rigged up an alternative through the speaker holes at the bottom of the phone, but it still has me scratching my head.
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Comment posted by: AnkiFan on 03/10/2010 11:11:37 PM
Hey! I'm also an ankiphile and now I'm searching for phone to run Anki on it. Galaxy i5700 seems good but how is with practice? Is Anki working on it witchout any problems? Can you do flashcards which sounds (mp3)?
Cheers,
Nowe
Comment posted by: Roger Keays on 04/10/2010 4:37:35 AM
Hi Nowe,
I think the Samsung is technically a pretty good phone, however there is one serious bug which would probably have been a deal-breaker if I knew about it when i bought the phone. The bug causes VoIP output to be routed to the wrong speaker (see Wrong Sound Channels on Samsung Spica i5700). Maybe this is not so bad if you don't use Voice Over IP though.
Overall, Android is a great platform for language study. My main tools are Ankidroid, which you already know of, and ColorDict, an excellent startdict browser. ColorDict lets you search all your dictionaries at once and tag interesting words you learn. I've gotten fast enough to record new words during conversation (people don't seem to mind at all when I do this) and then I put them into ankidroid when I have a spare moment.
Because ankidroid doesn't have an add card feature yet, this is what I do:
- create 50 blank cards in anki desktop
- set new cards order to 'newest first'
- set new cards to show before reviews
- set new cards per day to zero
When I want to add new cards (by editing the blank ones) all I need to do is change the new cards per day to 50 (or 5 or whatever). Then I set it back to 0 when I'm done adding cards.
Android input methods are great too. Entering Korean / Thai / Vietnamese etc etc into anki desktop was a bit of a pain on my laptop without the characters written on the keyboard.
Have fun!
Roger
Comment posted by: Nowe on 05/10/2010 4:51:31 PM
Thank You for great tips! They'll be very useful. VoIP isn't so important for me. You have written about making new flashcards on Android, I have one more question about it. Is synchronization with PC or via Internet Anki account working?
Best regards!
Nowe
Comment posted by: Nowe on 05/10/2010 4:53:41 PM
synchronization with PC via USE of course ;)
Nowe
Comment posted by: Roger Keays on 05/10/2010 8:24:30 PM
There is a beta version of Ankidroid with synchronisation, although I'm not sure if it is to PC, Web or both (my guess is both). The ankidroid forum has lots of chat about sync, and it is being actively developed, but actually I prefer to keep a single copy of my deck on my phone and mount the phone by USB to access that file directly in anki desktop.
Comment posted by: Nowe on 12/10/2010 6:00:11 AM
Thanks!
Comment posted by: Nicolas Raoul on 13/10/2010 8:54:05 PM
Thanks for this very useful comparison!
I usually do like Roger, I use the phone's .anki deck on my PC by mounting the SD card. But synchronization is available in an experimental version here: http://code.google.com/p/ankidroid/downloads
Adding cards is indeed not very convenient indeed, sorry! Right now I am working on this feature. A tricky thing is that Anki cards are not just front/back, they are defined in models. The models system is very powerful but a bit tricky to implement.
