I started watching the Keynote speech for
Apple's new iPhone. I was curious to see the hype. My Sidekick 3 is almost a permanent part of my body, but I'm always looking out for cutting edge mobile phones - specifically smartphones - as I use them a lot. People started asking me about Apple's new product. "So what do you think of the new iPhone?" I like to give intelligent answers, so I started looking into the iPhone vs Sidekick 3 debate.
Long story short, I won't be trading in my Sidekick 3 for an iPhone.
At first, I thought the iPhone looked pretty cool. Jobs was making good points. Yah, I don't like crippled apps. Web browsing from my Sidekick 3 is useful, but it's not always a plesant experience. True, I'd like to use a higher resolution screen and the iPhone interface looks pretty slick. I was almost getting into the idea of owning an iPhone, but then reality started to hit.
A touchscreen seems like such a bad idea. I'm obsessive about cleaning my Sidekick's screen. When Jobs touched the iPhone screen, I cringed when I saw the smudge mark. The Sidekick 3's trackball is really good for navigation. Plus, using it doesn't leave fingerprints on the screen. With the Sidekick 3, you can do a lot of stuff one-handed. Flipping the hiptop screen open like a switchblade, then quickly checking my email or a webpage, that's just about as intuitive as it gets.
I don't accept Job's statement that the iPhone is 5 years ahead of other smartphones.
OK, sure... the Sidekick 3 doesn't do video - at least not yet. That does suck. But, music playback is good enough for now. While the iPhone has a better looking interface for music playback, that's not going to get me to switch to Cingular. I really don't need a visually impressive display for audio playback. I just rip my favorite CD tracks to MP3 format, then I dump it on my Sidekick's memory card. I don't need to rate songs, nor do I worry about play lists? If I don't like a song, then why would I put it on my phone? The music player with the Sidekick 3 already has features that I don't use, so I'm not going to pay extra for more features that I don't need.
I don't see how the iPhone beats the Sidekick. For $20 a month, on top of my regular service plan, I get unlimited text messaging and unlimited data. The Sidekick 3 is cool, but it's also financially smart. Is the iPhone going to be as competitive? I don't know. Besides, I'd rather use a real QWERTY keyboard instead of a touchscreen keyboard. As soon as I saw how typing was done with the iPhone, I immediately lost interest.
I think I would have been more excited if Nintendo made a smartphone out of the DS.
iPhone vs Sidekick 3
Linear Mode
