The All-In-One Device: Is It Really Useful?

With the iPhone, Nokia N95, Blackberry, and numerous Windows Mobile phones, the phone is becoming more and more like a computer. The phone is now the center of our mobile entertainment. And with 4G data networks (Sprints XOHM) on the horizon, these phones mobile media centers are going to become that much more powerful and convenient to use. But, is this move to the all-in-one device good?

I am currently in the market for a new cell phone and found myself really drawn to the new smart phones. They can do everything, what can be wrong with that? I was all but ready to buy a new Windows Mobile phone from Verizon, when I took a minute to think about what I was buying.

The obvious appeal of the all-in-one device is that now you can do everything with one gadget. No need to carry around a laptop, a phone for business, a phone for personal use, an mp3 player, a PDA, and anything else you may need. But what happens when you combine all these gadgets into one? Now you are no longer separating business from personal/pleasure. You're business phone and personal phone is one in the same, and your corporate email is always able to reach you. How can you ever unplug? You now rely on one device for both business and personal, so it needs to be on at all times. You can't separate yourself from your work. You are essentially accessible 24/7 by your job. Now throw in your mp3 player. Do you really want your music ringing? Now you can't even zone out for a bit, or escape from communication. When you go running, you don't bring your phone, specifically so you can't be called or interrupted. Its a way to "zone out" for a bit. But if you phone and mp3 player are in one device, you don't have a choice.

I ran into this problem with my current phone, the LG Env from Verizon. Its about as close to a smart phone as you can get without being classified a smart phone. I was going to use the phone for its media functionality, I wanted it to be my mp3 player as mine at the time was broken. This turned out to be a bigger problem than I anticipated. Keep in mind these are phones first and everything else devices second. So the controls and menus aren't designed for media, this caused problem with things like adding music to the phone, accessing the mp3 player on the phone, and generic tasks like switching songs and changing volume. These seem like pretty trivial tasks, but they add up to the over annoyance of the device. Then while I'm listening to music if I get a phone call or text message, I have to go through the whole process of accessing the mp3 player all over again.

Its minor things that add up. And its something to consider when looking at the all-in-one device. Just because it can do everything doesn't mean it should. You need to look pretty realistically at the phone and what you are going to use it for. While its nice to have all these cool features in a phone, how many of them can be done much better by a device you already have, and how much extra are you paying for useless features. Smart phones not only cost more for the actual phone but you need a specialized data plan with the phone, costing usually an addition $50 a month.