Mobile internet usage
What do you use your mobile phone for? Making calls? Sending texts? Mobile phones may have started as handheld versions of your landline but the ever more sophisticated devices are able to do much more. Mobile internet, available from network providers such as Vodafone, is one such feature that is becoming more and more intricate, with the development of mobile broadband and Wi-Fi enabled phones. If you’re buying a new phone, it may be worth looking into the internet features of each phone – can you browse, check your email, twitter? What’s better for surfing the web – a Blackberry, or an iPhone?
Blackberry Storm: Available from Vodafone on their Pay Monthly plans (from £35) the Blackberry Storm is the first phone from the company that doesn’t have a QWERTY keyboard, using a touchscreen instead. However unlike the iPhone the display boasts ‘click’ technology so that you can actually click on things. If you’re not used to touchscreens this may take a bit of time to get used to and accuracy can sometimes be a problem but this is easy enough to get over. In terms of web surfing the phone can display web pages in mobile format or in full HTML and similar to the iPhone you use your finger to drag the screen up and down. Blackberrys are known for their email and messaging capacity, and this phone still has those capabilities. However regular Blackberry users may find typing on this phone a little slower than its earlier counterpart, the Bold.
iPhone: Whilst this phone has garnered much publicity for its unique touchscreen interaction what makes the iPhone so popular is its ease of use – dragging your finger down the screen to scroll down, and zooming in or out by dragging fingers closer together or farther apart. With inbuilt GPS and Safari to surf the internet, the experience is very smooth and similar to using a computer. However when it comes to email the iPhone can be rather frustrating and outcomes vary wildly depending on which email service you use, compatibility being the key problem
So dependent on whether you’ll need a phone primarily for web surfing or for email either the Blackberry Storm or the iPhone should be able to meet those mobile internet needs. Finally, take a look at the Vodafone site to view their latest Wi-Fi enabled smartphones, including the iPhone.
