Buying a Smart Phone

Buying a phone for your business is like buying a house. The house that is just right for you could be simply miserable for the next person. Maybe having a big backyard is important for you, to remind you of the farm you grew up on, while others see it as hours wasted mowing and gardening.

It’s key to know what type of communication is most valuable to you. If you are an e-mail addict, then the phone you use should be optimally designed for typing and reading e-mail. If talking on the phone is more important, you need a phone that can facilitate dialing, maximize contacts, improve reception of calls, etc. If you want to use your phone for multimedia, ensure that your phone has plenty of memory and that the camera can take good video and photographs. Cameras can range from 1.3 to 3 megapixels.

If your image and overall look is important to you, then you might want a pink phone to match your pink heels, or a sleek black phone to match your serious corporate lawyer image.

For those of you purchasing several phones for your employees, it is absolutely critical that your team test the phones on a few staff members before rolling out to the group. You are not going to please everyone and maybe you’ll have to standardize more than one phone. Consumer review websites can help in your search, such as consumerreports.org, cnet.com, engadget.com and gizmodo.com

The list below explains some of the key features you should consider when shopping for a smart phone.

QWERTY keyboard

If you want to do even the basics of e-mail, a “peckable”-size QWERTY keyboard (the common computer keyboard layout) is a must. I’ve seen smart phones with no QWERTY keyboards, but I don’t see how users can type. (Examples of QWERTY keyboards: Palm Treo, BlackBerry, Samsung Blackjack)

Windows Mobile

If you want true, 100% compatibility with Microsoft Outlook and Windows applications, Windows mobile is the way to go. (Examples: Motorola Q, HTC PPC-6800)

Non-Windows Mobile OS
Whatever operating system comes on your phone, it’s important that it meet your needs. Ensure that the applications you use often can run on your phone and will work on your smart phone. (Examples: Nokia, Palm, BlackBerry and Apple OS X all have their own operating systems)

Optimized for E-mail

If you need the perfect e-mail device to manage your heavy in- and outboxes, then BlackBerry is the best device, period. Its interface is still 100% focused on delivering an optimal experience for managing e-mail.

Small form factor

Some people just don’t like bulky phones weighing them down. If this is your scenario, you’ll want a very small smart phone. Most likely this phone won’t have a physical QWERTY keyboard, but it might have a virtual, on-screen keyboard, which will save on size and weight (think iPhone).

Slide-out keyboard

There are a number of smart phones with slide-out keyboards, which enable the phone to have a wider keyboard than the traditional QWERTY. If you like the main face of your keyboard to have a more simplistic design you’ll also like the slide-out keyboard. (Examples: HTC SMT5800, Sidekick)

Physical durability

I don’t know of any smart phones with a rugged design, but if you’re in an industry where there’s quite a bit of dust, grime and moisture — or you just drop your phone a lot — you might want a phone with a rubberized protective sleeve, such as found on some Nextel “push to talk” phones. In addition to having the sleeve, a ruggedized phone will be internally constructed to withstand a measure of abuse. You might not have the smart phone of your dreams, but you will have a durable phone. (Examples: Motorola MC35, Nextel i930 by Motorola)

Speaker phone

Now that I have a wireless headset, I use a speaker phone much less than I used to. However, if you need another person to hear the conversation or are not able to wear a wireless headset, a speaker phone is a handy option. Most phone models have speaker phones built in; ask your carrier when purchasing.

Touch screen vs. non-touch screen

With my new Palm, I have found that although the keyboard is great, from time to time it’s nice to have a stylus to be able to cut and copy text or point to menu selections on the screen.