Five Great SmartPhones Offered by Sprint

This week I've spent most of my time goofing off online shopping for Smartphones. I've been using a T-Mobile Sidekick II for the past couple of years and it is has served me fairly well, but I'm really ready for a new cell phone and I decided I wanted one with a lot more features and a superior camera.

Another "must have" for me is a QWERTY keyboard on the phone. I spent most of my time on the phone with the data applications and do a lot more email than I do talking and having an actual keyboard to thumb-type on makes a world of difference. I'm pretty quick now too! So all of these phones I'm showcasing have full QWERTY keyboards.

Ultimately I decided on a Treo and switching networks to Sprint, who have some great rate plans and I'll be saving quite a bit of money on my monthly T-Mobile bill. Sprint has a pretty decent selection of Smartphones, in my opinion, and if they have decent service in your area and the places that you frequently travel, you should take a look at their line-up of mobile phones and rate plans.

The Treo 755p with the Palm OS is what I decided to get after hemming and hawwing a bit over whether to go with Palm or Windows mobile.

Ultimately I decided to go with the Palm-based Treo 755p because I really enjoyed my old Palm Tungsten. I consigned it to the closet a few years ago after buying my Sidekick because it seemed silly to carry two PDAs with me and clearly it made more sense to carry the PDA that had a phone in it.

But I definitely missed all the Palm apps and since there are so many third party applications available and a great user community built around this rock solid and easy to use operating system, I was happy to make this choice.

The Treo 755p is a great device. It has a 320x320 resolution screen, a 1.3 megapixel camera, can play video and music, has a web browser, a miniSD expansion slot, and Bluetooth. It comes with a Google Maps feature and it can be used as a wireless modem to connect my laptop to the internet, something I seriously could have used while travelling earlier in February.

It can also handle broadband. Since I spend far more time using data features on my phone than I do voice (I might talk 60 minutes a month when I'm not on the road), all of the data features are essential apps for me.

The Palm Centro is the newest smartphone from Palm. It is one of the least expensive Smartphones that you can buy. It is an amazing phone for the price and I almost selected the Centro over the Treo 755p because it has everything the Treo has and more.

The big difference between this phone and the Treo, however, is the Centro's slightly smaller form factor and the fact that it doesn't do voice dialing. Since I spend so much time surfing or writing email on my phone, I decided that it was worth paying the extra money for a the slightly larger screen that the Treo comes with. I also prefer the larger form factor and shape of the Treo.

But if you're in the market for a Smartphone with the Palm OS, then this is one phone you should definitely consider. It will most likely suit your needs. In addition to pink, it also comes in Red and Black.

The Motorola Q9c Smartphone is another phone I considered. The friend who convinced me to switch to Sprint with her has this phone and she likes it quite a bit. It's a great choice for anyone who prefers the Windows Mobile operating system as it comes with Windows Mobile 6.

Like my Treo, the Motorola Q9c comes with a 1.3 megapixel camera, bluetooth and a MiniSD port. It can handle broadband and also has WIndows Media Player 10 for playing video and audio. The Q9c also comes with the longest battery life of any smartphone on the market - up to 7.2 hours of talk time. That's about 3 hours more than the Treo gets.

The HTC Mogul runs Windows Mobile 6 and features a sliding design which hides the QWERTY keyboard when the device is closed. Another cool feature is that the screen on the phone adjusts its orientation according to the direction in which you are holding the phone so you can read it both vertically and horizontally.

One big advantage of the Mogul over the other phones on my list is built-in wifi. This means that if you're at a hotspot you can use WiFi rather than Sprint's EV-DO Broadband network. You would generally get higher speeds from WiFi, but EV-Do really is no slouch. Still, lots of people want a feature like this on their phone and if you're one of them, the Mogul is one of your best options. And of course, it has bluetooth as well.

The only major drawback of this phone is the camera. While it features 2 megapixels, nearly all of the reviews I've read of the camera complain that it takes crappy pictures. So if your camera is important, check out some of my other suggested phones instead.

If you travel overseas a lot, the Blackberry 8830 is for you. This is the first CDMA Blackberry that also roams on the global GSM/GPRS networks, a critical feature for some business users. Naturally it offers all the standard Blackberry features, including Enterprise Server, but it has some Sprint-specific features as well -- it can run Sprint's Music Choice service and has a built-in media player. Like the Treo, the Blackberry 8830 can also be used as a wireless modem for your laptop and it features Bluetooth.

The only thing the Blackberry doesn't feature is a camera, so I personally wouldn't buy one, but if you are in the market for an world phone, this is one of your best options.