Which smartphone for email, document editing and MNing?

[Quenelle]

I'm going round in circles looking at the different smartphones available.

Basically I need good access to email, viewing and editing attachments such as excel, and a good screen and fast internet browsing for MNing etc. And a camera, preferably with flash.

Which one is best? I don't really like touch screens but I guess I'll have to get used to one if I want a decent sized screen won't I?

Oh, and I don't to pay a fortune each month on a contract so an iphone or HTC Desire is probably out.

Thanks in advance.

I don't know of any that let you edit documents, but I don't know every smart phone on the market.

Also, define fortune!!

Hi Tee. I think you can create and edit docs if you have the right app. I just googled and found DocumentsToGo, not read all the details (cost) yet.

Erm, a fortune is over £30 a month...

Never heard of it. Just looked in the App store, it's £8.99 or £5.99 depending on functionality, which is very expensive for an app. Not sure I'd want to try to edit on my phone screen, personally, as it's so small, but I guess it's doable! Live and learn!!

If you look around, you can get the iPhone 3GS on about £30 a month with a free phone from various places. Usually fairly long contract, though.

I don't think you'll want to be editing documents on something like an iphone screen, it's a PITA.

I prefer real keys, like on a BlackBerry, but is the screen big enough for web browsing comfortably?

motorola droid- full keyboard that slides out, or onscreen kb. It's about a year old now, so shouldnt be expensive.

damn- called a milestone in UK

Thanks CaptainNancy. I'll google it and have a look.

Might be worth looking at a Windows Mobile. I used to have an XDA Orbit which had Windows OS and I could run Excel and Word on it. Was a PITA because of the postage stamp sized area of the document I could see at any one time, but this was just prior to iphone introduction so the zoom thing on screens wasn't really available.

Have no experience of the new generation Windows Mobile phones but might be worth a look.

To be blunt, I'd forget viewing and editing documents. I'm a self confessed geek and frankly I'd rather eat my own gonads than edit a document on my iphone.

I can barely tolerate typing a lengthy reply on my ipad. It's just too much of a PITA as others have said.

If that's important to you, save yourself the aggro and buy a netbook with a 3G dongle.

Plus, without meaning to be rude, if you can't afford the HTC Desire then I very much doubt there's anything which will fit your bill. IMO it is one of the best value smartphones on the market still, despite my personal feelings on Android.

Have you checked out some of the online retailers though like mobiles.co.uk and onestopphoneshop? They often have stunning deals which are not available in the high st.

Htc desire is £25 a month on 3 with the text plan,I would go for this tbh. I wouldn't recommend the iphone for browsing really, I have just got one and it was easier to browse with my old htc hero. For some reason some web pages come up with titchy text, which you constantly have to zoom in on after every click, so annoying. Plus the desire has the trackpad, which would be useful for navigating within documents.

Hi - I am also trying to buy a new phone but as I have been "off the market" for a while am totally confused by all the new phones out there.

What is the difference (apart from price) between the diffrent HTC phones, eg the Desire, the Wildfire etc.

And does anyone have anything (good or bad) to say about the Blackberry?

Thanks.

Hi Stranded

Desire is essentially the best phone HTC bought out last year (I think).

However, it wasn't cheap and due to its popularity and the massive rise in Android phones they brought out the HTC Wildfire which is essentially a budget Desire.

The wildfire has a smaller screen and a slower processor. This makes it ok for occasional use but I'd avoid it if you want to surf the web a lot or play games on it. Angry Birds doesn't run on it which for a lot of people is reason in itself not to bother!

The newer HTC Desire HD is basically an upgraded HTC Desire. Bigger screen and faster processor. I've heard battery life is terrible but not experienced it myself. What I would say though is I found it a little on the big side and holding it in my hand, it just didn't feel quite right.

As for Blackberry, I think if a lot of your friends have them then great for email & BB chat. Otherwise I'd avoid and go iphone or android.

Thanks Niceguy. I would love an Iphone but £35 a month!!! I just can't do it....
AAArgh. I just don't know what to do....

Whats your budget?

Well in an ideal world £0 as we really spend everything (dh) earn's at the moment, we dip into savings for extra. But I am accepting that I do need a decent phone and it will cost money.

Probably around £20 a month all in? Does that sound reasonable?

Oh and what on earth is Angry Birds?

Angry Birds is a very addictive app/game where you launch birds at little green pigs. Great fun. It DOES run on the Wildfire, I have it on mine. You just have to load it, then press the 'sleep' button twice. It's not as responsive and clear as bigger, more expensive phones but I am powering through the levels nonetheless!

Stranded. Well mobiles.co.uk are offering the HTC Desire on Orange Canary 20(24 months) for £20.42 but on a rather measly 100 mins & 250MB data but unlimited texts.

I'm loathe to recommend that as I think you'll bust the minutes & data then end up paying more. If you can stretch to £25 per month then things look much better.

That said, if money is that tight, perhaps the best thing to do is stick with the same phone and go on a SIM only deal.

Actually can you not upgrade instead of starting a brand new contract?

Hi again, actually I probably wouldn't make 100 mins of phone calls a month, I don't use it much for calls, It was more that I wanted one with internet access and the ability to have apps (want to join the rest of the world). I could stick with the phone I have but it doesn't have those.

I am edging towards the HTC Wildfire, but just need to make sure I will be happy with the amount of internet access I can get. Again I don't need it much - I use my netbook at home and don't have time to sit using twitter on my phone all day.

If you don't make 100mins of calls a month then I'd definitely go for the Desire rather than the Wildfire.

Whilst the Wildfire is a great phone for the money, its quite slow IMO.

I have the Desire and it's great. But even with 1GB internet included in my package (and the fact that I use it with wireless where I can instead) I often find I'm about to go over my 1GB limit by the end of the month. And I don't use it for work, or much internet at all, really.

Argh! You're not helping guys
Niceguy - do you mean the other way round - isn't the Wildfire the cheap one? Therefore less minutes?
Tobylerone - do you know approx how much you use the internet on your phone eg per day?

Check emails a few times. Bit of twitter, bit of facebook, bit of MN. Maybe a few google searches.

Thanks - sounds about what I would do, probably no more. So I would probably need 1gb.