I thought it would be both fun and informative to do an article on my smartphone of the year 2009. It was unfortunate that we didn’t get good participation for the MobilityNigeria 2009 Phone Awards. Thanks to all those who did drop their nominations.

Anyway, in this article, I will list all the smartphones I used in 2009 and do a sort of countdown to my top smartphone for the year just gone by. Here goes!

The contenders, in the order that I came in touch with them:

1. Nokia E90 communicator (October 2008) **
2. T-mobile G1 (May 2009)
3. Nokia E75 (June 2009)
4. Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 (August 2009)
5. Samsung B7320 (December 2009)

While I got the E90 in 2008, I did use it for several months in 2009, so it qualifies.

Number 5

At number 5 is the Android-powered G1.

I loved the keyboard on this device, being one of the most functional I have used, but the choice of colour of the keyboard area made reading in daylight difficult.

The Android user interface got me hooked too. Download, installing and updating applications from the Android Market was a joy. But while the G1 had USB charging, its battery life was one of the most appalling I had experienced on a smartphone. With the G1, my eye was constantly on the battery indicator. On an average day, I had it plugged to the mains more than not.

Email management was flawless on the G1, and web browsing was good, though the browser wasn’t as capable as Opera Mobile or S60 Web.

Again, the G1 could not be tethered without the use of a 3rd party app (or having to root the phone), had no Bluetooth file transfer, and – the straw that finally broke the camel’s back – no built-in office viewer/editor. The available 3rd party viewers were plainly underwhelming.

I love Android and look forward to its maturing. Then, you can be sure that I am game.

Number 4

At number 4 is the Symbian-powered Nokia E75.

The E75 was a good piece of hardware and felt solid to hold and to look at. The keyboard was good, but in my experience did not match those of the G1 or the E90.

While it had a 3.2 megapixel camera specified same as that on the E90, the camera did not perform as good. Whenever I needed good pictures or video recording, I kept going back to the E90.

Web browsing was standard S60 Web, but for some reason, Nokia had still not sorted out the issues with its messaging/email client. The E75 let me down at critical times in the area of email management. In my line of work, that is unforgivable.

Number 3

The Windowsphone X1 from Sony Ericsson is my Number 3.

The X1 had a good camera. Being Sony Ericsson, I wasn’t expecting less. The keyboard was not as tactile as on the E90, E75 and G1, but it worked.

Email management on the X1 was flawless and I had no issues with web browsing. As a matter of fact, there was little to dislike about the X1. But those few include a not-so-loud loudspeaker and the lack of a built-in task manager,which was annoying.

Being Windows Mobile powered, the X1 allowed for customisation by way of custom ROMs from XDA Developers.

Number 2

By now, many of you are guessing that the number one spot is surely going to the Nokia E90. Unfortunately, if that was your thought, you thought wrong.

At number 2 is the venerable Nokia E90.

Ah! A 3-year old smartphone that still rocks. Excellent 5-row keyboard with several shortcuts, glamorous huge display, very loud speaker, and a really good camera, it is hard not to like the E90.

With a keyboard like that, a huge screen and oodles of RAM, web browsing was a joy on the E90.

Also, the E90 feels as sturdy as a tank. Holding one in a corporate setting is good massage for the ego. It simply feels good in the hand.

Unfortunately, the email client was again plagued with issues. For some reason, setting up Gmail on the E90 simply brought the mail client into a comatose state.

To compensate (and because the E90 was really hard for me to part with), I used Gmail’s mobile app to handle my personal mails and notifications. Of course, having to do that was a kludge. I had to manually check for mails at intervals.

Note that I also tried out Nokia Messaging, and it worked well for a while before the same issues popped up.

I love the E90, but I found a new love.

Number 1

My smartphone of the year 2009 is nothing short of a miracle. It is testimony that good things are not necesarilly big or expensive.

The Samsung B7320 OmniaPro is a Windowsphone. it runs version 6.1 and is upgradeable to 6.5. So far, I have found only two major things to complain about:

1. Older version of pocket internet explorer
2. No flash with the 3.2 mega-pixel camera

Just two, and those two are not quite earth-shattering problems. There are other smaller niggles, of course, but certainly nothing that 3rd party apps didn’t fix. The B7320′s key strengths are:

1. Very good battery life
2. Very good loudspeaker
3. One-handed use and interface
4. Highly functional QWERTY keyboard with preset & customisable shortcuts

Before you go on about Windows Mobile not being user-friendly, note that there are two versions of Windows Mobile – Standard (non-touchscreen devices) and Professional (touchscreen devices). The B7320 runs Windows Mobile Standard and has no touchscreen. I found it surprisingly intuitive to use, different from the Professional edition that.

The screen is large, though much smaller than the E90′s, and the keyboard packs a wallop – very tactile and usable, and with several preset shortcuts. You can also set your own extra shortcuts for your favourite applications.

On the negative side, I am disappointed at Pocket Internet Explorer. No multiple tabs here and rendering is not as good as what obtains on Opera Mobile or S60 web. But it gets the job done for most of what I need to do. Where it is restrictive, I use a 3rd party browser.

Email management is flawless. Both my corporate mail and Gmail work flawlessly, with audio notifications as mails arrive.

The camera is good, but performs badly in low-light situations because of the absence of a flash. Forgivable. The speaker is also quite loud.

Oh, and since there is an ongoing discussion about one other particular manufacturer skimping on RAM, the OmniaPro comes with 256mb RAM in all, and has about 175mb RAM free after booting. I run between 7 and 10 apps on the OmniaPro at a time and still have about 120mb free.

I’ve never gotten one of those out-of-memory messages yet. I’ll try running 30 apps and see

Lastly, and very important, this is one smartphone that I have not had to worry one bit about the battery life. The battery simply goes on for days, even with an always-on 3G connection for email and web browsing. Even the E90′s battery life pales in significance.

The B7320 has 90-95% of the E90′s functionality packed into a small, handy and lightweight device – and at less than half the price. That’s a pretty good deal. Guess who’s happy?

Moving On…

I am looking forward to trying out a couple of new devices this year. Hopefully, Palm will release the GSM versions of their Pre and Pixi this year. I really want to try out the Pixi. Perhaps also the Motorola Milestone. 2010 is promising to be a year of the Droid, so maybe other manufacturers will give us a candybar Android with QWERTY?

I am waiting for Windows Mobile 7 and trying not to fret while at it. The guys at Redmond need to hurry! As for Symbian, perhaps we will see something really good from the old guard too, though I am not so excited at prospects from that direction (for reasons I have already stated on this site). Some announcements have been made at CES 2010 already, and I expect more when Mobile World Congress 2010 holds.

What is your smartphone of the year 2009? And which smartphones do you have your eyes set on this year?

Introduction
We have spent a couple of weeks with the Samsung B7320 OmniaPRO. It is not everyday that one runs into a Windows Mobile device that costs below N50, 000. What is even more striking is the fact that the device in question packs a punch with some of the most up-to-date features in the market.

The closest we have come to this was the Samsung i780, another candybar QWERTY running on Windows Mobile. The i780 is about two years old now but still quite in the game.

Key Features

• Operating System: Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard [upgradeable to 6.5]
• Size and Weight: 111.8 x 59.6 x 12.6 mm. 110 gm
• Display: 65, 000 colors. 320 x 240 pixels, 2.4 inches
• Processor: Qualcomm MSM 7201A 528 MHz processor
• Data: GPRS, EDGE, 3G, HSDPA (3.6 Mbps)
• Camera: 3.2 MP, 2048×1536 pixels, autofocus
• Memory: 100mb + microSD slot (no card in retail box)
• Connectivity: USB. Bluetooth
• Text Input: QWERTY keyboard
• Mesaging: SMS, MMS, EMail, Instant Messaging
• Web Browser: Pocket Internet Explorer
• Large capacity Li-Ion 1480 mAh battery
• Wi-Fi
• Video call with secondary VGA videocall camera
• Office documents viewing and editing
• PDF viewer
• Built-in modem (internet sharing)

Strengths

• Very good battery life
• Very good loudspeaker
• One-handed use and interface
• Highly functional QWERTY keyboard with preset & customisable shortcuts
• Good display

Weaknesses

• Older version of pocket internet explorer
• No flash with the 3.2 mega-pixel camera
• microSD card slot under the battery cover

Operating System and User Interface
The barebones Windows Mobile user interface may be dated when it comes to touchscreen devices i.e. devices running Windows Mobile Professional. But the B7320 runs Windows Mobile Standard, which is the WinMo version for non-touch devices.

It is a pleasant surprise that Windows Mobile on non-touch works just fine and logical. There is little to fault here, and coming from us, that is saying something.

So, while WinMo certainly needs to update the user interface for touch devices (WinMo Professional), any updates carried over to WinMo Standard are just a bonus.

Form factor and Display
The B7320 is a candybar device. It is slim enough for one-handed use, which suites WinMo Standard just fine. The device is very light, but feels good in the hand.

The display is 2.4 inches, perhaps not as large as some would like (its a tweeny bit larger than the display of the new Nokia E72, for example), but it is sharp and clear. There are up to 5 levels of brightness that can be set and the phone has a sensor too for automatically adjusting brightness.

Samsung has implemented several homescreen options.
In all there are over 8 homescreen layouts. Our favourite is the WizPro (which looks like an adaptation of the famous TouchWiz home interface). This gives you quick access to notifications, 8 favourite contacts, music and video, photo album, and a list of 8 application shortcuts.

Navigation and Text Input
As stated earlier, the B7320 runs WinMo Standard which is optimised for non-touch smartphones, so navigation is entirely via physical keys. Navigation is mostly logical and stressless.

Navigation is via a central D-pad and soft keys on the display.

It is our first time here toying with a WM Standard device and using it has been pleasurable.

Text input is via a very well laid-out QWERTY keyboard that holds its own besides the likes of the Nokia E71, E63 and a range of Blackberry devices.

In addition, the keyboard has dedicated buttons for calling up Pocket Internet Explorer, Messages, Symbols, Contacts, and Camera. In addition, you can specify other shortcuts using a combination of “Alt” button and another. For example, we have “Alt + B” setup to toggle on/off bluetooth. The keyboard is simply a joy to use.

There is a dedicated home button that returns the display to the homescreen. A long press on this same button calls up the task manager. This displays a list nof all running programmes, and you can switch to any of them. You can also terminate one or all of them.

Internet
The Samsung B7320 comes with a web browser pre-installed. Unfortunately, it is pocket Internet Explorer. That means, this phone has one of the lowest grade browsers on the planet.

That is not necesarilly bad news.It works well, loading both mobile and desktop format websites. But accessing advanced web services results in frustration. By advanced, we mean trying to login to Cpanel to manage your webhosting account or wanting to load flash pages.

Some other advanced services do work. We were able to login to our internet banking account without any issues.

Other limitations of PIE include not being able to open multiple windows (tabs), less than good page rendition and almost always having to scroll sideways on certain webpages.

Of course, you can always install and use Opera Mini, Skyfire, UCweb or Iris (if you still have a copy). All these are available 3rd party browsers for the WinMo standard platform.

Email
The email client is standard WinMo fare and works fine. The mail client supports both POP3 and IMAP. Setting up Gmail or regular corporate mail works fine and without issues, so no surprises here.

Organizer and Office features
The B7320 comes with an Office document viewer and editor, so you can carry and manage your documents with you on the go.

Multimedia
The phone packs a 3.2 mega-pixel camera, which does a good job but is hindered by lack of flash.

The standard media player is built-in for audio and video playback. Both work fine. While not the best media player in the smartphone world, the very loud audio reproduction of the B7320 makes listening to tracks and watching videos a joy.

In addition, music tracks on your PC can be set to sync automatically with your phone once connected.

Battery Life
A very important consideration in choosing a smartphone is battery life. Here, the B7320 surprises us pleasantly. The battery lasts about 48 hours with consistent email retrieval over a 3G connection, web browsing, camera usage, SMS, and voice calls, among others.

To summarise, the battery simply lasts. This is one smartphone that you won’t have to worry about battery life with.

Customisation
Of course, being Windows Mobile, it is possible to further customise the B7320 to your requirements by installing 3rd party applications. It is important to note though that some apps developed for WM Professional will not work on it. Still, there are loads of WM Standard apps out there.

For starters, you can now download and install Windows MarketPlace. You can then use that to hunt out other applications and/or games you may want.

We also downloaded and installed the Windows MyPhone app and it works fine for backing up and synchronising files on the device.

Conclusion
The B7320 is a pleasant surprise. Samsung has done an excellent job on this, just like they did with the i780. The B7320 does better though with the excellent battery life and new homescreens, great audio reproduction, as well as price.

In addition, Samsung is set to release a WM 6.5 upgrade for the B7320. This will deliver a much better and up-to-date version of Pocket Internet Explorer, as well as MyPhone and MarketPlace built-in. We are eagerly waiting for that upgrade.

Our verdict: This phone rocks on a 4 on a scale of 5!

There was a recent discussion in which I pointed out that while some phones are value for money – highly capable while being affordable – such devices still feature compromises here and there. I was reminded of that discussion today when I handled the Windows Mobile Samsung i780, a phone I once used.

The i780 is one of the best value for money devices I have ever used (take a look at the review here, and a head-to-head with the legendary Sony Ericsson P1i here).

The i780 cost far less than its fellow WinMo-powered smartphones and packed a wallop. The major compromise on the phone, however, was its camera. Sporting a 2 mega-pixel camera without a flash, the camera was more of a bonus.

That notwithstanding, the i780 is an excellent device. I played with it again today and found that over a year after I sold my unit this device is still very much in the game.

I have been looking around for smartphones that pack that kind of wallop and don’t cost an arm and a leg. Here is my list:

1. Nokia 5800 XpressMusic
2. Nokia E63
3. Samsung B7320

All the above are smartphones that feature pretty much what most users will need. Of course, the compromises are there, but these phones are almost faultless. Anyone will be hard-pressed to find phones with all their capabilities and at their costs. They are all sub-fifty thousand in cost.

Of course, with a lot of people (myself inclusive) running more and more on a tight budget, such devices are bound to get noticed more than ever. Personally, I am currently eyeing the Samsung B7320. Could it be because of nostalgia for its older brother, the i780, or could it be because I am really not inspired by Symbian at the moment? Who knows? Who cares?

Feel free to make your nominations in the comment box below. If you are planning on changing your smartphone this season, what budget feature-packed smartphone are you ogling?