So as we come to the end of our overview of the smartphone world (which has included the Blackberry Storm, Blackberry Bold, Nokia E71, HTC Touch HD and the iPhone 3G) and we meet the T-Mobile G1 – The first Google Phone! This has got to be the only phone where the operating system (O/S) has created more interest than the phone. Having said that the phone has been the centre of much attention and not all of it is without good reason.

Firstly a little background: the phone is technically called the HTC Dream (you may recognise HTC from their Touch HD) as they, along with some input from Google’s design team, designed the hardware. But what makes this phone special is that it is the first example of Google’s Android O/S which promised to be stylish, packed with features and built completely with touchscreens in mind; so it looked good, but the end result was a phone of two halves.
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So far we have covered four of the best smartphones: the Apple iPhone 3G, HTC Touch HD, Nokia E71 and Blackberry Bold 9000, and it is another Blackberry that we take a look at now. Blackberry is a massive company in the smartphone market and it is no surprise that it is the only one with more than one phone in this list – although this may also be a reflection on the inexperience of the other companies in this market.

So moving onto the Blackberry Storm the most obvious question is how different is it from the Bold, and I suppose the most obvious thing is the use of a touchscreen instead of a QWERTY keyboard. This is an attempt to open up a different bit of the market and is Blackberry’s first real attempt at a full touchscreen, obviously prompted by the iPhone.
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Of the three top smartphones that we have covered so far (Apple iPhone 3G, HTC Touch HD and the Nokia E71) none come from such a prestigious background as the Bold. Although ‘Blackberry’ only became mainstream in 2002 they did so in style soon winning over the hearts and wallets of millions of businesses and has become the number one company for business phones.

So much so that ‘Blackberry’ has almost become a noun to describe a smartphone; and if you are interested in American news you will also know that President Barack Obama has ‘fought’ to keep his Blackberry amid security warnings. So let’s have a look at the first of the two Blackberry phones we will cover — the Blackberry Bold 9000. [Read more…]