As it did the year before, the Smartphone Round Robin needed to go into overtime again this time around -- but we're finished now! If you haven't been following along, here's what you missed: Each of the editors of our five Smartphone Experts sites swapped phones for a week or so, reviewing and leanring what it's like to wear another smarphone user's shoes. The result is the entire series of articles you see linked on this handy page, the Smartphone Round Robin of 2008.
What will you learn there? You'll learn that there was no single smartphone that 'won' the Round Robin -- but that's by design. There's no perfect smartphone out there, but there just might be the perfect smartphone to fit your needs. If you're looking to get a new smartphone soon, think about what you need it do to and then hit up these articles -- you'll find that depending on what each of us care about, we'll give you a useful perspective on whether a given smartphone matches up.
Actually, we explain it all pretty well on this page. Oh, yeah, one more thing, we are giving away fabulous prizes:
- From Android Central, the T-Mobile G1, the BlueAnt Z9 Bluetooth Headset, and SPE Screen Protectors
- From CrackBerry.com, the BlackBerry Bold, Spare Battery, and Case-Mate Second Skin
- From The iPhone Blog, the iPhone 3G, Case-Mate Naked Case, and Motorola H9 Bluetooth Headset
- From TreoCentral, the Treo Pro, Case-Mate Clear Armor, and Aliph Jawbone Bluetooth Headset (original)
- From WMExperts, the HTC Fuze and the Celio Redfly Mobile Companion
Find out who the winners are, after the break!
Smartphone Round Robin Winners!
Here are all the winners for the 2008 Smartphone Round Robin, chosen randomly in accordance with the contest rules:
From Android Central, winning the T-Mobile G1, the BlueAnt Z9 Bluetooth Headset, and SPE Screen Protectors, we have:
Hunter McNabb, for this post about how the G1 is snappier than the Fuze.The runner up, who will receive a $50 coupon to any Smartphone Experts accessory store, is Devonair.
From CrackBerry.com, winning the BlackBerry Bold, Spare Battery, and Case-Mate Second Skin, we have:
Dimietriev, for this post about one of the 'little things' we pay attention to on Smartphones, namely the calculator.The runner up, who will receive a $50 coupon to any Smartphone Experts accessory store, is jordanmah.
From The iPhone Blog, winning the iPhone 3G, Case-Mate Naked Case, and Motorola H9 Bluetooth Headset, we have:
Mark, for this post about his primary need in a smarpthone: messaging.The runner up, who will receive a $50 coupon to any Smartphone Experts accessory store, is Jeff.
From TreoCentral, winning the Treo Pro, Case-Mate Clear Armor, and Aliph Jawbone Bluetooth Headset (original), we have:
berdinkerdickle, for this post about just how important one-handed use is -- how else can you eat that sandwich?The runner up, who will receive a $50 coupon to any Smartphone Experts accessory store, is Geo-Treo.
From WMExperts, winning the HTC Fuze and the Celio Redfly Mobile Companion, we have
Pamina, for this post about how somewhere in the the Fuze there's an awesome phone that's just waiting to come out.The runner up, who will receive a $50 coupon to any Smartphone Experts accessory store, is blancmik.
Congratulations to all of our winners! You can expect an email from Dieter (aka me) over the weekend.
A special thanks goes out to the sponsors of the Smartphone Round Robin, without whom we couldn't have possibly pulled it off:
| Celio Corp | Palm |
| Case-Mate | Smartphone Outlet |
Well, the Smartphone Round Robin has been a ridiculous amount of fun (and an equal share of work and shipping fees!) and we loved doing it. We hope you loved following along and learned as much as we did along the way.
We'll bring it back again, of course, later in 2009. Here's a promise: this year we'll actually bring in some Nokia/Symbian action and heck, we might even deign to include a Windows Mobile Standard device. Oh yeah, and there's that whole Palm Pre/webOS thing to look forward to as well.
The smartphone world is going to rock in 2009, and Smartphone Experts will be there to cover it all for you.
