Which mobile phone should I buy for mobile broadband?

Many have bought a brand new latest expensive mobile phone but never fully utilize its functions. Ask yourself, if you are just using it for voice communication, then a S$60 phone is good enough for you. You do not need camera function, radio function, 8GB memory card and HSCSD support... not to mention mbb plan. Instead, you should look at size, weight, appearances, large keypad, battery life, big characters for easy viewing and durability.

However, manufacturers are packing tons of features into the phone to make it the best selling models. To best utilize mobile broadband (mbb) plan, there are some fixed and variable factors to consider and I list them for your considerations.

Fixed factors - Must have for mbb plan

• 3.5G support – There are many standards of data transfer. We are concerned on the maximum speed as listed below:

Technology	Generation	Theoretical speed (Mbps)	Practical speed (Mbps)
GMS	2G	0.0144	0.002
GPRS	2G	0.1140	0.056
EDGE	3G	1.0000	0.300
HSDPA	3.5G	7.2000	2.500

For mbb plan, this is the critical criteria of selection – HSDPA. Forget about GPRS and EDGE which are older technologies and cannot be utilizing the full bandwidth of the mbb plan. Visit GSM Arena for the list of mobile phone with HSDPA. Please note that the practical speed maybe even slower than stated due to network traffic. Therefore, it is pointless to select a mobile phone without HSDPA support. It just cannot make the mark.

For example, why Nokia E71 and not Nokia E63? Both have identical outlook. The former is HSDPA (3.6Mbps) while the later is UMTS (0.384Mbps)…nearly 10 times speed difference. So E63 is a bad choice and that's why it is selling cheap or given away free.

• Long battery life – Running applications can be torturing for the battery. Without a long lasting battery, you have to run to charge it every now and then. I would recommend a battery with stand-by time of minimum 300 hours for 3G.

• Reasonable large screen – We prefer to have the largest screen size so the words are bigger for viewing. However, the larger the screen, the more power consumed. It is best to balance battery and screen size after comparing the specifications.

• Good Operating System (OS) – There are a handful of OS in the market dominating by few players. A good OS will minimize hanging issue that disrupts routine use of mobile phone.

Deciding factors – Deciding applications

Deciding factors are the 2^nd most important key in selecting your mobile phone for mbb. The more features you have, the more applications you can run with your mbb. Therefore, it is important to select as many factors as possible from the list below.

1. Wifi – VOIP calls and local connection thereby saving battery life
   
2. Global Positioning System (GPS) – Location based service
   
3. Internet Radio – Use of internet radio can save some battery life over conventional radio using antenna
   
4. Communication services – Support of emails, RSS, messaging services
   
5. Web browser – Use for browsing the web
   
6. Games – for leisure and in between work/study.
   

Optional factors – Desirable and good-to-have

Though are optional, they make the phone fun and complete.

1. Bluetooth – for transfer between phones
   
2. Video Camera – for video call
   
3. Memory card slot – for data storage
   
4. USB connection – for data transfer
   

Soft factors – personal preferences

1. Size and weight
   
2. Form factor (bar, flip, swivel or slide)
   
3. Colour
   
4. Touchscreen/QWERTY
   
5. MP3 ringtone
   

Lastly, I feel these features are of little significances – camera flash (drain battery life), infrared port (replace with Bluetooth), WAP (replace with standard html).

Generating the list

Apart of the clone and doubtful quality china-made phones, I run a list of my criteria above from HERE and below are the results:

Screening	Nokia	Sony Ericsson	HTC	Samsung	LG	O2	Apple	BlackBerry	Total
Fixed	20	34	15	27	7	4	2	1	110
Deciding	13	6	15	9	1	3	2	1	50

Namely,

Nokia: 5730 XpressMusic, 5800 XpressMusic, 6260 Slide, 6710 Navigator, E55, E71, E72, E90, N78, N79, N85, N86, N97

Sony Ericsson: Aino, C905, G705, W715, W995, XPERIA X1

HTC: Advantage X7500, Advantage X7510, Dream, Hero, Magic, P6500, S740, Touch Cruise, Touch Cruise 09, Touch Diamond2, Touch 3G, Touch HD, Touch Pro, Touch Pro2, TyTN II

Samsung: G810, i550, i7110, i780, i8510 INNOV8, i8910 Omnia HD, i900 Omnia, i907 Epix, S8000 Jet

LG: KM900 Arena

O2: XDA Orbit II, XDA Serra, XDA Stellar

Apple: iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS

BlueBerry: Bold 9000

From the above table, we can see that manufacturers made mobile phones but compromise on key features such as GPS and Wifi capabilities. Only 45.5% of the phones are qualified for our next round of review. A total of 50 mobiles phones qualified for mbb plan. Note that some of these may not be available in Singapore.

Narrowing the choices

The key to find the right phone likes in how much you are willing to pay for it. Older models are cheaper when new models are launched in the market. Out of these 50 sets, 4 are new models (Nokia E72, E55, 6710 Navigator and SE Aino) which have yet to be launched.

After considering the optional and soft factors, you will zoom in to a handful of models. For instance, if you further set below criteria:

1. Standby time - 400 hrs
   
2. With radio
   
3. Minimum 2.2 inch touchscreen
   
4. Form factor - slide
   

The final choices are Nokia N97, SE XPERIA X1, HTC Touch Pro or O2 XDA Serra. Happy shopping!