What is a Smartphone? For a mobile phone to be called a smartphone, it needs to offer certain advanced features that would not be found on a standard mobile phone (or Feature Phone as they are sometimes called). The exact specification requirements vary between manufacturers, but a smartphone should certainly have a few key features including:

- Email
- Web Browser
- WiFi
- Still and Video Camera
- Organiser
- PC Sync

As you can see, this list is not all that different from the type of things mobile phones have been boasting for several years. The real main difference between a smartphone and a feature phone is the way the phone behaves and how we interact with it.

Mobile phones are becoming more and more like mobile PC’s, from the type of applications they include or can run, to the way the applications look on the phone. Because the way the applications look is so important to a smartphone, they screens are usually larger, brighter and have much higher resolution than traditional mobile phones. This has led to the explosion of touchscreen phones and, whilst a touchscreen is not a prerequisit to be classed as a smartphone, many people would include this feature if asked what makes a phone a smartphone.

So what are some of the other features you can expect to find on a smartphone?

- Touchscreen (as mentioned above)
- Easy access to and installation of new applications
- High Speed Bluetooth
- FM Radio
- Expandable Memory
- High Quality Music Playback
- Voice Actication

Great Deals on Smartphones

What is a Smartphone?

Some would argue that even having all of these features would not make a phone a smartphone unless it can multitask. Almost all of the modern operating systems that phones like the iPhone and HTC Desire use allow at least some degree of multitasking, but the way each OS handles it varies. Whatever a smartphone can do, the constraints of memory, processor power and battery life mean that true multitasking as you experience on any MAC or PC is some way off.

Personally, I think that for a phone to be a smartphone it has to almost make me forget I am holding a phone in my hand. By that I mean that browsing the internet should be fast and seamless, I should be able to view websites almost as I would on my home PC. It should flow smoothly from application to application. Video and images should be high res and smooth. And it should be able to adapt to how I need to use it from one day to the next, be that making video calls, sending emails or playing Doom.