The Magic Touch: Comparing the Touch Screen Phones on the market

Starting July 3rd, consumers will have yet another type of touch screen mobile phone to choose from. May I present to you, the Dare from Verizon Wireless.

Verizon is the next big-name cell phone corporation to join the fight over the touch phone market. Verizon was originally offered to sell the iPhone exclusively through their company but declined the offer when Apple demanded a fair chunk of the phone’s profits.

So now, this leaves me, and many other customers across the country wondering – which cell phone provider should I go with?

Our family has trusted Sprint for the last nine years, though I only got my first mobile phone a little over four years ago. Our contract expires sometime soon, and while I had my cell phone stolen in mid April, we still haven’t replaced it. We’re still debating whether or not we want to continue with Sprint.

Their customer service has been consistently poor. We’ve become frustrated, hung up and called at various other times, and been put on hold to every country across the globe. Even in the physical stores we have had problems getting the sales people to do the simplest of things (i.e. talk to us about plans, or show us different models). I can only assume it must be a miserable company to work for.

Despite this, Sprint has its perks. It has decent service in most of the places I’ve been. I’d argue it as the second best coverage, losing only to Verizon. It has the cheapest plans of any of the top dogs, itself, Verizon, and AT&T.

AT&T’s original perk was that it was the only provider that was compatible with the iPhone, but with the addition of Sprint and Verizon’s touch phones, AT&T no longer has a foot up in that market. All three phones have the fancy touch screen format, and all of them are similarly priced. The iPhone 3g, premiering July 11th, is $199 (with contract). Verizon’s LG Touch is also $199 after a 50 dollar mail in rebate and 2-year contract, while Sprint’s version is $129 with the two year contract and mail in rebate.

Apple’s model, so far, still looks the sleekest, while the LG Dare has a very similar pleasing interface. The HTC Touch has a smooth looking interface, reminiscent of an older Blackberry model, and is remarkably small in size compared to its sister phones.

The HTC operates much more quickly than the original iPhone, data retrieval operates at 400MHz CPU. Sprint’s phone does, however, have access to the Sprint Music Store, Sprint Radio, Sirius and Sprint TV, which offer some of the best mobile entertainment on the market. The HTC doesn’t however, make use of Wi-fi like the iPhone, but Sprint’s data plans are also a lot cheaper than AT&T or Verizon’s.

Crave blogger, Nicole Lee, best describes the perks of the Verizon model. “[It has a] 3.2-megapixel camera with flash, it has light exposure control, auto focus, and even face detection and noise reduction.” The LCD screen also automatically responds to outside light, and has a feature that lets the user write on the screen with their finger (with or without a stylus [not included]). This means that users who are sick of typing texts in T9 mode and dislike the tiny qwerty keyboard that pops up under texting mode, can simply handwrite texts on their phone screen. Did I mention the LG Dare also comes with a camcorder?

The iPhone 3g is getting a run for its money. Both Sprint and Verizon are offering many new incentives to go with their new touch phones. The 3g offers GPS capabilities, like some of its competitors, which the original iPhone did not. The 3g also allows for 10 hours of continuous talk time. Also, those insistent on Apple software (think Safari and ITunes) can only look to the iPhone.

Still not satisfied with any of these options? Consider the Samsung Instinct, which is also through the Sprint network. Like with the iPhone, users can download songs for 99 cents on the go (via the Sprint Music store rather than iTunes). It also has access to the “made-for-mobile sports and entertainment video” available exclusively through the Sprint network. The downside to the Instinct – its web browser has been deemed to have the most faults of any of these types of phones on the market. And, while it like the iPhone runs 3g, it is not capable of using Wi-Fi.

In the end, the choice is up to you. My mother’s also knocking at the door saying something about how she and my father are discussing none other than cellphones and how they want my input. I’m tempted to just wave them over to this article.