Compare Touch Screen Phones

Buyers' guide: Touch screen phones

Touch screen phones are being released thick and fast at the moment. Everywhere you look, these amazingly advanced mobile phones are being offered in a variety of deals and packages.

You only have to look through our comparison tables to see that the UK is now awash with the best prices ever for cheap handsets. While some touch screen phones are simply the cheapest variants of standard mobile phones, others are more rugged, and 3G smart phones supply you with everything needed to stay connected to the internet, email and social networking activities.

If you've read a few touch screen phone reviews and figure one of these is ideal for you then Broadband Genie makes it much easier to compare touch screen phones, all within the space of one or two pages. You'll see everything from the cheapest through to the most expensive and all points inbetween, although a great way of bagging the right offers for touch screen phones is to first decide what you want to do with it.

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Touch screen phones and your options

When you compare touch screen phones you'll find that they come from a variety of manufacturers, including the likes of Apple, HTC, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, LG, Motorola and so on. And when it comes to mobile providers who will sell you one, or a complete deal that includes touch screen mobile access to the internet, then there are even more options to add to your comparison list including 3 Mobile, Vodafone, T-Mobile, O2 and Orange.

A touch screen phone is a far more advanced bit of kit than a standard handset, and even the cheapest models of handset can do a lot more than traditional mobile phones that only really used to be any good for voice calls and text messaging. Nowadays, even a cheap touch screen phone will do way more than your old handset and new touch screen phones coming to the marketplace are getting more powerful by the day.

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Compare touch screen phones

A touch screen phone may be referred to in some cases as a smartphone too, but it's essentially the same thing and the easiest way to think of it if you're a newcomer to this style of handset is that it’s basically a mobile phone and a handheld computer, all crammed inside one neat little package. In order to successfully compare touch screen phones you can generally divide the touch screen mobile into three basic categories: dumphones, featurephones and smartphones.

When it comes to the dumbphone then you'll find that this isn't really what most people would call a touch screen mobile, although you can make calls, send and receive text messages and also manage contacts with ease. It's not until you get to the latest touch screen phones that allow you to access the internet and send and receive emails that things really start to get interesting and this is where the feature phone enters into the touch screen phone marketplace.

A feature phone will basically carry on the theme of the normal mobile phone or handset, although it will have many more features as you'd expect from a touch screen phone. If you're in the market to buy touch screen phones like this then there is certainly plenty to choose from. You'll find that newest touch screen phones like this will have all the toys on board and that includes having a camera, music player and games. You'll also be able to access the web, send and receive emails and do a host of other things all using touch screen capabilities.

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The difference between touch screen phones and smart phones

There isn’t really any difference between the latest touch screen phones and smart phones, they’re really the same sort of thing but with a different name. A smart phone or touch screen phone will come with all of the features we touched upon earlier, but will have the added power of an internet-connected computer on top. Even cheap touch screen phones like that fall into this category can be armed with a whole host of features that will allow a touch screen mobile to do everything you want and more besides, without breaking the bank.

Nowadays we buy touch screen phones in order to be able to carry on with everything that we'd normally do on the computer at home, and also make calls and send text messages at the same time. You'll find that the latest touch screen phones come with added extras like Qwerty keyboards, just like your PC would have, plus fast data connections meaning that the web and email is all available on your touch screen phone. Then, of course, there is the app, which is a small program that allows you to do anything and everything on all sorts of touch screen phones, from the Apple iPhone to an HTC HD2 and all points inbetween.

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Touch screen phones and their operating systems

With your humble touch screen phone almost having the same sort of computing power as a home PC it’s no surprise to find that they come with their own operating system, in the same way as your laptop might be running Windows 7. Touchscreen phones, even the earlier incarnations that have since been superseded by the newest touch screen phones and their bells and whistles features, will have used a dedicated OS to power them along.

When it comes to using apps, and all of the associated tools that come with those, there's the Apple iPhone, which has just released a new version of its iOS software, making it one of the hottest touch screen phones on the market. To buy one of these doesn’t come cheap and that's even if you can secure a special deal or offer on one of the handsets. You'll also find that many of the new touch screen phones coming to market will be armed with the Android operating system from Google. Even Google have produced their own touch screen mobile that runs this, although you’ll find that manufacturers offering the newest touch screen phones will be offering the same thing but in a funkier guise, like many of the models arriving from HTC.

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Any other touch screen phone software to think about?

There are other options open to you if you want to buy touch screen phones and would prefer to avoid the usual suspects. There is Nokia and their Sybian OS, which you may find running on some of the other models on the market, such as the odd Sony Ericsson touch screen phone or two. RIM, who are the makers of the BlackBerry range of touch screen phones, have their own dedicated operating system, as does Palm, although they have since been bought by HP so that could change over time.

You'll also find that some touch screen phones come complete with Windows Mobile, which is a bit like running a normal PC interface on your smartphone. This is due to be replaced by Windows Phone 7 soon though, which might mean that older touch screen phones, or for that matter, some of the newest touch screen phones may well end up being obsolete in a fairly short space of time. So remember to do your price comparison carefully and note which models have this OS because you may be signing up for something that won't have an awfully long shelf life.

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Additional touch screen phone features

Even cheap touch screen phones will need a way of connecting to the internet and email so bear in mind that you'll also need to compare touch screen phones that are available via particular mobile networks. So, pick the features that you want from any of the new touch screen phones and then spend some time using our comparison tables in order to see what kind of deals you can get. Many of the touch screen phones that are available can be picked up via offers with different mobile providers.

Newest touch screen phones will often be the pricier models that are available, and in the case of something like the Apple iPhone 4 it may be difficult to bag a bargain whatever the mobile provider. Nevertheless, any touch screen mobile will have terms and conditions attached to it, whatever deal you end up going for, so remember to check the small print.

This is particularly important as the newest touch screen phones often interact with the internet and email even when you don’t think you're connected to it. This can have a knock-on effect on data allowances, so be sure to check this when you begin to compare touch screen phones. Once you've genned up on all of the latest models, read some reviews and formed an opinion then you should be able to use our online tools to get yourself one of the latest touch screen phones in just a few simple mouse clicks.

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