How to buy a smartphone

They're smaller, more user-friendly, and more addictive than ever. Fortune's guide for those who don't get a company freebie.

Key questions
Should I wait for the iPhone? Apple's new phone is beautiful, but it uses Cingular's slower EDGE network and may not be a mainstream choice for businesses.

Will I still need an MP3 player? Probably. Most smartphones have memory cards that max out at two gigs. That's about 500 songs - enough for your commute but not your entire music collection.

How hard is it to switch phones? Transferring contact data, appointments, photos, etc. from one phone to another - even with different brands - is now pretty easy.

Don't I need a corporate IT department to synchronize e-mail, contacts, and calendar between my phone and computer? No. It's easy to do all that wirelessly using free Web services like Yahoo Mail and Google Calendar.
Hardware Operating system Wireless network Key questions Should I get...
The smallest, the fastest and the best phone for a power user. (more)

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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.