Holiday Smartphone Buyer's Guide

T-Mobile

In recent times, the big news at the Big Magenta has been their pair of new Android handsets, the G2 and the myTouch 4G, so naturally, they’re our picks for T-Mobile high end devices. I’m a huge fan of the G2 for a multitude of reasons, though as a daily G2 user, I may be biased. As I mentioned in my preview last month, it has a nice design, great build quality, a good screen, a decent camera, and a great physical keyboard. Plus, it’s running an almost completely stock version of Android. I never really saw the necessity of complete Android skins, so seeing a clean build is refreshing. Nothing against Sense UI, as it’s one of the only skins I like, but after having an EVO, I definitely appreciate the speedier experience that the G2 brings to the table. The only sore spot I found in my first look was the potentially fragile hinge mechanism, but thus far it’s held up well and I don’t forsee it being a problem (knock on wood). So I have no problems recommending the G2 - it’s a solid high end Android device with a unique feature set that should appeal to a number of people, whether you’re looking for a hardware keyboard, a simpler UI, or a good all-around device.

If you don’t see yourself making use of the physical keyboard though, T-Mobile has a couple of high end slate handsets to choose from. One is the Samsung Vibrant, a member of the Galaxy S line and close cousin to the Fascinate we reviewed earlier. Similarly to the Fascinate, it’s a pretty light phone with a plasticky vibe to the overall design, and like Brian said in his review of the Fascinate, it’s almost shocking how unsubstantial the Vibrant feels the first time you pick it up.

The other option is T-Mobile’s new myTouch 4G, built by HTC. We haven’t covered the myTouch 4G on AnandTech before, so I’ll give you a rundown of the specs first: 3.8” 800x480, Qualcomm QSD8255 (1.0 GHz/Adreno 205 - it’s a faster version of the G2’s processor), 768MB memory, 4GB of built-in storage with a pre-installed 8GB microSD card, front-facing VGA camera, rear-facing 5MP unit with an LED flash and 720p video recording, HSPA+ and dual-band 802.11n. Ta-da, how to properly equip a high end smartphone in 50 words or less.

Now, here’s the deal. The Vibrant’s somewhat lacking build quality is what really led me to pick the myTouch 4G over it, but spec-for-spec, the two are pretty close. You get a more powerful graphics chip and a larger OLED screen with the Vibrant, whereas you get more RAM, better build quality, and a more visually appealing design out of the myTouch. To me, the SoCs are close enough that I don’t think its worth picking the Samsung solely because of the SGX 540 graphics, but if you’re a hardcore Android gamer, you’ll probably disagree with me there. As an overall device, the myTouch is superior in my opinion, but you can’t go terribly wrong with either.

On the low end, I’m a fan of the Motorola Charm. Not just because of its quirky and fresh form factor, but also because it’s one of the few budget Android handsets that comes with Cortex A8. The Charm comes with the 600MHz OMAP 3410, so it’s about on par with the original Palm Pre/Plus and the Nokia N900 as far as computing horsepower goes. Pretty impressive for a usually free and often overlooked Android device. I personally love the form factor and industrial design, like a Blackberry designed for people who don’t wear suits, but I know that it’s a polarizing design that not everyone will warm up to. Other downsides involve MOTOBLUR (ugh...) and the fact that it’s still on Android 2.1 with no firm word on a 2.2 update anytime soon. Thankfully, you can root it and get rid of BLUR pretty easily (look on XDA), though there aren’t any 2.2 ROMs for the Charm as of yet.

If the Charm’s “hip to be square” vibe is just too hipster for you to handle, another good option is the LG Optimus T, another low end Android phone that has a long list of features that thankfully comes with 2.2 out of the box. The Optimus T has a smallish 3.2”, 480 x 320 screen, WiFi, 3G, GPS, wireless hotspot capability, and a 3.2MP camera. For a free phone, that’s pretty amazing. Unfortunately, Flash 10.1 is disabled and you only get an ARM11 based processor, but you get what you pay for, right? I really like the Charm, but you can’t go wrong with the Optimus T as a budget handset, as long as you’re okay with the slower processor.

But wait, you say. What about Windows Phone 7? Ahh, yes. See, it’s of my opinon that T-Mobile made out like bandits from the WP7 launch, somehow ending up with the two best phones of the lot - the Dell Venue Pro and the HTC HD7 (HTC’s Mozart and Trophy were 3rd and 4th, respectively). Dell is doing a nice botch job of the Venue Pro launch (including changing the name from Lightning to Venue Pro), so we’ll see about that one when it arrives. But for now, they’ve got the HD7, which is basically an HD2 with WP7 loaded from the factory. Hardware-wise, it’s same old, same old; HTC has a solid platform here with the HD2/EVO, so they didn’t see a need to change much with the HD7. I can’t blame them, because the HD2 and the EVO were pretty great phones in their own right (minus the anachronism that was Windows Mobile 6.5). So really, the HD7 depends on what you think of Windows Phone 7. If you like the concept and are willing to take a risk, you can’t go wrong with proven hardware like the HD7.