It's now over a month since the hubbub and interest sparked by the iPhone. Which means it's, ooh forever until the thing actually launches.
In the meantime, however, everyone and your dad is probably saying that there are plenty of good smartphones on the market. Or they're quickly trying to build their own. It's in this spirit that I've decided to roundup the contenders that are already out there in a little segment I like to call "It's not the iPhone but..."
The first victim contender: Research in Motion's Blackberry Pearl.
£££ From free
The blurb Despite a relatively limited customer base, Blackberry's brand has managed to punch way above its weight in recent years: it's the number one name in mobile email and still the hallmark of most soulless executives who want to affect that "I'm too busy for this" look.
The Pearl, released last year, is Research In Motion's attempt to take the Blackberry into the mainstream - "It's a pity just to use it for work", boasts the slogan. It's certainly got the looks; a sleek and shiny phone body which weighs in at just 88 grams, while the traditional scroll-wheel been dumped in favour of a white trackball (the eponymous "pearl").
The stats It's a quad band GSM/GPRS number, that supports up to 10 email accounts. It's got a 2.5 inch 260x240 screen and has a 1.3 megapixel camera with 5x digital zoom. On top of the usual gamut of bells and whistles it has an integrated web browser, microSD slot, IM support (Yahoo Messenger and Google Talk). And there's multimedia support for MP3, AVI, MP4, MOV, AAC and more.
The test The Pearl definitely hits the spot between mainstream consumer and light business user. It is a great little email device, and accounts are easy to set up. But it's not always brilliant for writing on: the screen is not big and, in particular, Blackberry's insistence on the SureType keyboard - a fugly halfway house between the SMS layout and a Qwerty keyboard - seems based on stubbornness. Expect to take some time before you learn to type quickly.
The functions all worked pretty well, and the size was a definite bonus compared to some of the heavyweight competitors out there. But while it did pretty much everything we asked, the pearly trackball on our model started playing up a little after continuous use, which proved very awkward. And, of course, there's no 3G support or complex applications - making it the dumbest smartphone around.
Thumbs up Looks sweet, almost like an ordinary phone, and is a cinch to set up. Existing Blackberry users may enjoy looking less like a lifeless gimp.
Thumbs down Good for reading email, but not much else... lack of 3G support disappointing and keyboard awkward.
