6. Power And Ports

The applications you run, the network you connect to and how much you use your smartphone will determine how long the battery lasts. The BlackBerry Pearl delivers RIM's usual exceptional battery life, which is closer to what you'd expect from a phone than a PDA, mostly because email is stripped of HTML content and compressed significantly making wireless transfer times shorter. Many smartphones offer up to 400 hours of standby and 5 or more hours of talk time

You need to connect to your PC to install applications and (usually) synchronize your calendar and contacts and a mini USB socket (on the smartphone end) is much better than a proprietary connector. If you lose the cable or leave it behind when traveling it's much easier to replace. With the BlackBerry Pearl, Windows Mobile Smartphones and some others you can charge the phone over USB as well. Mac users will need extra software like Missing Sync to synchronise Windows Mobile smartphones. iSync can sync the address book, calendar and ToDo list with many Motorola, Nokia and Sony Ericsson smartphones. RIM offers a free version of PocketMac to sync BlackBerries.

Mac users need to choose carefully or buy extra software. For example iSync does work with the Sony Ericsson W950, but not Windows Mobile smartphones.

Most smartphones have a good range of Bluetooth profiles. As well as connecting a headset or hands-free device you can usually transfer files, use the smartphone as a Bluetooth modem, synchronize with your PC and connect to a keyboard or a serial device like a GPS receiver. Look for the A2DP Bluetooth profile if you want to use a wireless stereo headset.