There are plenty of things your mobile can do, but does it meet your needs when it comes to surfing the Internet? This is something that’s increasingly becoming necessary, and peop
le today are critical of phones that can’t surf effectively. In the past few months I've met a lot of mobile users who gave surfing priority over other things. This seems to be a trend, so here's my take on the three best phones you can buy for surfing the Net. iPhoneThe iPhone is by far the best handset I've used to surf the Net. It's equipped with the Safari Browser, which is simply a delight to use. One good thing about the iPhone is that it uses a cool gyroscopic mechanism that allows you to change the orientation of the screen by simply turning the screen around. This way yo
u can surf in both portrait and landscape mode.
It doesn’t end there. You can zoom in and out of the screen using the iPhone's multi-touch technology. GPRS/EDGE is supported and there's Wi-Fi connectivity. Apart from surfing, you can also use the YouTube application to watch videos. Although the phone is not officially available in India yet, gray market pieces costing around Rs 16,000 are aplenty. Professionally speaking, I'd recommend that you wait for the official launch, but it’s your call...
Like the iPhone, you can change the screen orientation from portrait to landscape by sliding the screen down. It has a good 2.6-inch screen, and the web browser allows multiple instances, plus download options. You can also use the phone for VoIP calls – just install Skype. UPnP is supported, so you can stream media over your home wireless netwo
rk. The phone even comes with a handy Gmail application. The device costs around Rs 23,000 (the 8GB version costs around Rs 5,000 more).
Asus P535The Asus P535 is equipped with Wi-Fi 802.11b/g, which works fine. But you can't use more than one browser instance, which is surprising, considering a fast phone like this can easily handle more. But you get a free upgrade to Windows Pocket Mobile 6, which does help. To enhance your surfing experience the phone includes Java MIDP 2.0, which lets you run scripts and check your mail.
Even though the phone supports GPRS, it does not include EGDE. Very disappointing, since most PDAs today support EDGE. It has Wi-Fi though, and you can change the screen orientation in the Settings menu or from the taskbar. The phone costs Rs 30,000, and though this may seem rather steep, do read the reviews to find out why the phone is totally worth it!