Last Phone Post

This will be my last phone post until I maybe tell everyone which one I'm getting, but I thought this would be interesting to some people. The guy who emailed me this is a pretty serious programmer who's sent me some stuff in the past. He's legit, works for a major tech company, and knows what he's talking about:

HTC Touch

Do not buy this, or any other phone that promises a 3D user interface for now. Right now, most of these phones (except the iPhone and Nokia N95) are built around the Qualcomm MSM7200 series chipset, which includes a crappy implementation of OpenGL/ES in hardware by ATI. The performance of these phones will suck. How do I know? (He tells me here what he does for a living, which, if he's to be believed - and I believe him - makes him a major authority on the subject).

Do not buy:

HTC Touch
Sony Xperia
Samsung Omnia

I have not yet tried the HTC Touch HD, because it has just come out and is only available overseas. I could get one, but don't want to spend the $800 right now.

All of these manufacturers are trying to play "catch up" to the iPhone, and failing. The best 3D phone on the market is the iPhone. It's use of 3D is actually sparse, and the good look to its user interface comes from its clever use of OpenVG (Open Vector Graphics), a 2D technology that zooms and scales text really well, and is supported by hardware acceleration on the iPhone's chipset.

Actually, the best phone out there is still the iPhone. Sorry if that's not what you want to hear, but this is what I do for a living.