[Touch HD General] Robster83:
Not really.... I'll explain...

I've just sold my iPhone 3G and bought a HD. My reasons were...

1) I get bored and I had the iPhone since last July and fancied a change

2) I wanted expandable memory

3) I think the iPhone is looking dated now. Controversial I'm sure...

4) I now want stereo Bluetooth streaming for a new iO Play car kit I have had fitted

I used to change phones far too often and had 13 in a year once, but the iPhone is the longest serving handset I've had for a while. Despite not being bleeding edge when it comes to the specification, the way you interact with it, the simplicity, the fluidity and the Apple ecosystem all added up to make it a revolutionary phone. There is a reason why every new touch-screen phone is an iPhone killer.

The email client is superb, web browsing superb and media playback superb. And the text inputs auto-correction is very intelligent and doesn't just look out for spelling mistakes, but patterns in typing which it relates to possible words.

The App store is great, but getting full of rubbish making the genuinely useful stuff harder to find. Rumours are there will be a premier store soon. The O2 contracts are great, as the free data and free WiFi access are superbly implemented, switching between seamlessly. And once you've authenticated with the free WiFi once that's all you ever have to do. I could walk into a Starbucks, McDonalds, Costa, Hotel, Airport etc etc and it would connect to the WiFi before I even realised I was in a hotspot.

But it's not the Jesus phone everyone seems to think. And I hate, really, really hate the fan-boy love affair some people have with it... to the point I was embarrassed by it sometimes.

"No, I don't want to talk to you about your iPhone, stranger...."

The limitations in the iPhone are 75% software based, most of which will be corrected in version 3 of the software. Things like additional Bluetooth profiles, landscape text input in all apps, MMS, tethering etc will be welcome additions.

And that's one of the things that bothered me. These are simple things that really should be included as standard.

Things like the poor camera didn't bother me. I mean, Sony Ericsson have been putting rubbish cameras in phones they didn't market as imaging devices for years. If the camera is the main focus, there are much better options (like buying a camera).

The lack of expandable memory is a big deal for a multimedia phone though. I can understand the marketing / product reasons behind it, but even that seems to contradict the 'one device to do everything' approach Apple take with this.

Now to go back to my original point, Apples Vs Oranges, the HD and the iPhone aren't that different. Both have huge strengths, both have huge weaknesses, both have massive amounts in common. The thing that differs between them is down to the person buying it. What do you want from a phone....?

Out of the box usability and slickness? iPhone.

Endless tinkering, customisation and free reign of what you do with your phone? Touch HD

But both have the capability of matching the other in every single aspect. There is pretty much nothing that you can do with one that you can't with the other. Exactly the same can be said for Windows PC operating systems Vs Apple Mac OS X. Funnily enough, most of what I have said above can be applied in some way to that argument too.

So, the other downsides to the iPhone.... (some of this is entirely personal opinion).

Text input needs work in it's current form. The keys are just too small. This is made up by the excellent auto-correction, but it's still poor. And you can't add in new keyboards without jailbreaking, which brings me to..

Restrictive approach to third party applications. Apples closed-door approach has no benefits. I originally thought it would be good as it would ensure reliability and stability, but there are some terribly shaky applications in the App Store. I see no benefit in this for consumers and the only way around involves invalidating your warranty.

Hardware restrictions - No expandable memory, as above. Screen size Vs chassis size and screen resolution are falling behind the competition. Poor build quality is another factor that's not uncommon either.

If you are the kind of person who enjoys Windows Mobile, I predict you will get frustrated with the iPhones shortfalls and will be jailbreaking it within a day.