Smartphones Review

Your Smartest Business (and Life) Plan Yet

Smartphones offer the features you need to manage the myriad details of your life whether that includes scheduling business meetings, tracking your family’s schedule, reading email, or surfing the web. The line between business smartphones and the more consumer-oriented multimedia phones is becoming blurrier with every new smartphone that’s announced. 

Why Buy a Smartphone?

As a busy person, you know the importance of staying a step ahead of your clients and your family. You probably know the feeling of being  tied to your desk or home so as not to miss that important email or phone call and to maintain convenient access to essential data—proposals, schedules, contact information, business news or the stock market. However, thousands have newfound freedom using PDA-style smartphones designed for business (and fun). These cellular devices trace their roots back to the personal digital assistant or PDA. Originally used as businessperson’s right hand to track important client information, project statuses, and task lists, these devices have evolved into an everyman’s (and woman’s) tool.

These cellular devices are much more than just cell phones; they provide instant access to the web. Whether you’re researching news to predict the stock market or looking for the perfect golf course on the weekend, you’ll find it on the net.

Many of these devices allow you to sync with your desktop computer. This means you can store, view, and work on documents directly on your handheld. You can also receive and respond to emails as they arrive in your inbox on your home computer with real-time push email.

These produces can also serve as multimedia devices, so your entertainment goes with you. They can store and display pictures and videos of friends and family and even entire feature-length movies. Most can take pictures and capture video, but the most common multimedia function is the ability to play MP3s—sit back, relax, and enjoy your favorite tunes while traveling or during breaks.

Another perk of using one of these devices is the fairly recent development of third-party applications (or apps). These apps range from those geared toward hardworking business tasks to entertaining games and everything in between. With thousands of apps available to download in a range of prices, there’s sure to be something that will appeal.

In this site, you'll find articles on smartphones, comprehensive reviews and a side-by-side comparison that will help you make an informed decision on which smartphone is right for you. At TopTenREVIEWS We Do the Research So You Don’t Have To.™

What to Look for in a Smartphone for Business

In the past, business people were easily identifiable—they carried large briefcases, binder planners and perhaps a brick cell phone. The scene has changed and so has the way we conduct life and business. One of these devices stores important data and documents, offers a calendar planner, provides instant access to the internet and email and keeps you in touch with clients, coworkers, friends and family – anytime and anywhere.

Below are the criteria TopTenREVIEWS used to evaluate these cellular devices.

Design
Size and weight, along with screen size and resolution, make a difference in the display and handling of these devices.

Multimedia
The best business cell phones have at least a 2 megapixel camera with zoom features and the ability to play and record audio and video. These cell phones act as life management devices and include organizational features like calendars and task lists. Most sync with home computers allowing for document viewing and editing.

Call Features/Quality
The foundation of business is communication, and these product's first function is as a cellular phone. These devices for business should include all typical cell phone features including speakerphone, three-way calling, voice dialing, call waiting, etc.

Memory/Storage
The most practical products are compact, include good input and display options, and enough battery life to last through a full day’s work and beyond.

Additional Features
Many cellular devices include practical tools like calculators, map applications and GPS. Some have the ability to support third-party or browser-based programs that can perform a variety of specific functions. Third-party apps are becoming a key component, allowing the user to customize their phones to support their lifestyles.

Be sure to check out our top ranked smartphone cell phones: Apple iPhone 4, Droid X and the Apple iPhone 3GS 8GB.

Non-volatile memory

Non-volatile memory, nonvolatile memory, NVM or non-volatile storage, in the most basic sense, is computer memory that can retain the stored information even when not powered. Examples of non-volatile memory include read-only memory, flash memory, most types of magnetic computer storage devices (e.g. hard disks, floppy disks, and magnetic tape), optical discs, and early computer storage methods such as paper tape and punched cards.

Non-volatile memory is typically used for the task of secondary storage, or long-term persistent storage. The most widely used form of primary storage today is a volatile form of random access memory (RAM), meaning that when the computer is shut down, anything contained in RAM is lost. Unfortunately, most forms of non-volatile memory have limitations that make them unsuitable for use as primary storage. Typically, non-volatile memory either costs more or performs worse than volatile random access memory.

Several companies are working on developing non-volatile memory systems comparable in speed and capacity to volatile RAM. For instance, IBM is currently developing MRAM (Magnetoresistive RAM). Not only would such technology save energy, but it would allow for computers that could be turned on and off almost instantly, bypassing the slow start-up and shutdown sequence.

Non-volatile data storage can be categorized in electrically addressed systems (read-only memory) and mechanically addressed systems (hard disks, optical disc, magnetic tape, holographic memory and such). Electrically addressed systems are expensive, but fast, whereas mechanically addressed systems have a low price per bit, but are slow. Non-volatile memory may one day eliminate the need for comparatively slow forms of secondary storage systems, which include hard disks.

Microprocessor

A microprocessor incorporates most or all of the functions of a computer's central processing unit (CPU) on a single integrated circuit (IC, or microchip). The first microprocessors emerged in the early 1970s and were used for electronic calculators, using binary-coded decimal (BCD) arithmetic on 4-bit words. Other embedded uses of 4-bit and 8-bit microprocessors, such as terminals, printers, various kinds of automation etc., followed soon after. Affordable 8-bit microprocessors with 16-bit addressing also led to the first general-purpose microcomputers from the mid-1970s on.

During the 1960s, computer processors were often constructed out of small and medium-scale ICs containing from tens to a few hundred transistors. The integration of a whole CPU onto a single chip greatly reduced the cost of processing power. From these humble beginnings, continued increases in microprocessor capacity have rendered other forms of computers almost completely obsolete (see history of computing hardware), with one or more microprocessors used in everything from the smallest embedded systems and handheld devices to the largest mainframes and supercomputers.

Since the early 1970s, the increase in capacity of microprocessors has been a consequence of Moore's Law, which suggests that the number of transistors that can be fitted onto a chip doubles every two years. Although originally calculated as a doubling every year, Moore later refined the period to two years.

In the late 1990s, and in the high-performance microprocessor segment, heat generation (TDP), due to switching losses, static current leakage, and other factors, emerged as a leading developmental constraint.

Operating system

An operating system (OS) is a software, consisting of programs and data, that runs on computers and manages the computer hardware and provides common services for efficient execution of various application software.

For hardware functions such as input and output and memory allocation, the operating system acts as an intermediary between application programs and the computer hardware, although the application code is usually executed directly by the hardware, but will frequently call the OS or be interrupted by it. Operating systems are found on almost any device that contains a computer—from cellular phones and video game consoles to supercomputers and web servers.

Examples of popular modern operating systems for personal computers are Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.

Java Platform, Micro Edition

Java Platform, Micro Edition, or Java ME, is a Java platform designed for mobile devices and embedded systems. Target devices range from industrial controls to mobile phones (especially feature phones) and set-top boxes. Java ME was formerly known as Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition (J2ME).

Java ME was designed by Sun Microsystems, now a subsidiary of Oracle Corporation; the platform replaced a similar technology, PersonalJava. Originally developed under the Java Community Process as JSR 68, the different flavors of Java ME have evolved in separate JSRs. Sun provides a reference implementation of the specification, but has tended not to provide free binary implementations of its Java ME runtime environment for mobile devices, rather relying on third parties to provide their own.

As of 22 December 2006, the Java ME source code is licensed under the GNU General Public License, and is released under the project name phoneME.

As of 2008, all Java ME platforms are currently restricted to JRE 1.3 features and uses that version of the class file format (internally known as version 47.0). Should Sun ever declare a new round of Java ME configuration versions that support the later class file formats and language features, such as those corresponding JRE 1.5 or 1.6 (notably, generics), it will entail extra work on the part of all platform vendors to update their JREs.

Java ME devices implement a profile. The most common of these are the Mobile Information Device Profile aimed at mobile devices, such as cell phones, and the Personal Profile aimed at consumer products and embedded devices like set-top boxes and PDAs. Profiles are subsets of configurations, of which there are currently two: the Connected Limited Device Configuration (CLDC) and the Connected Device Configuration (CDC).

There are more than 2.1 billion Java ME enabled mobile phones and PDAs.

Feature phone

Feature phone is a term used to describe a low-end mobile phone that has less computing ability than a smartphone, but more capability than a "dumb phone". The term was originally used to describe mobile phones which had features which weren't available on most other contemporary mobile phones, and smartphone and feature phone were not mutually exclusive categories. As mobile phone technology advanced, newer low-end phones were categorized as feature phones, and by 2007, the smartphone and feature phone categories were considered mutually exclusive.

Newer feature phones can often run applications based on Java ME or BREW. However, the feature phone has less advanced programming APIs and is unable to run native software specific to a smartphone platform. Some analysts have predicted that as the price of smartphones comes down, the smartphone may eventually eclipse the feature phone.

In 2009, feature phones accounted for 83% of all mobile (cellular) telephone sales in the United States.

Mobile phone

A mobile phone (also called mobile, cellular phone, cell phone or handphone) is an electronic device used for full duplex two-way radio telecommunications over a cellular network of base stations known as cell sites. Mobile phones differ from cordless telephones, which only offer telephone service within limited range through a single base station attached to a fixed land line, for example within a home or an office.

A mobile phone allows its user to make and receive telephone calls to and from the public telephone network which includes other mobiles and fixed line phones across the world. It does this by connecting to a cellular network owned by a mobile network operator. A key feature of the cellular network is that it enables seamless telephone calls even when the user is moving around wide areas via a process known as handoff or handover.

In addition to being a telephone, modern mobile phones also support many additional services, and accessories, such as SMS (or text) messages, email, Internet access, gaming, Bluetooth, infrared, camera, MMS messaging, MP3 player, radio and GPS. Low-end mobile phones are often referred to as feature phones, whereas high-end mobile phones that offer more advanced computing ability are referred to as smartphones.

The first handheld cellular phone was demonstrated by Martin Cooper of Motorola in 1973, using a handset weighing in at two kilograms (4.4 pounds). In the year 1990, 12.4 million people worldwide had cellular subscriptions. By the end of 2009, only 20 years later, the number of mobile cellular subscriptions worldwide reached approximately 4.6 billion, 370 times the 1990 number, penetrating the developing economies and reaching the bottom of the economic pyramid.

Smartphone

A smartphone is a mobile phone that offers more advanced computing ability and connectivity than a contemporary basic feature phone. Smartphones and feature phones may be thought of as handheld computers integrated within 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 install and run more advanced applications based on a specific platform. Smartphones run complete operating system software providing a platform for application developers.

Growth in demand for advanced mobile devices boasting powerful processors, abundant memory, larger screens, and open operating systems has outpaced the rest of the mobile phone market for several years. According to a study by ComScore, over 45.5 million people in the United States owned smartphones in 2010 and it is the fastest growing segment of the mobile phone market, which comprised 234 million subscribers in the United States.