iPhone's screen has high density of pixels, which makes images looks sharp,
but still, it is a SMALL screen, 3.5" compared to HD7 or Desire HD 4.3" screen.
first you have to determine what kind of apps are you looking for?

if you're looking for games, then yes, iPhone has the best apps,
if you're only looking for ebook reading or video watching,
both WP7 and Android are more than capable of doing so.
plus, its not like WP7 or Android does not have games,
they just doesn't have as much compared to iOS.

MOST people out there will recommend you iPhone,
simply because it is an iPhone, it is the "trend" now.
I'm recommending you based on your stated needs.

thanks for sharing,
and I use my 24" LCD monitor to read stuff,
but that's not the point now, isn't it?
people is asking for phone recommendation,
and iPad is not a phone.

Android do support flash, but officially you need Froyo (Android 2.2) to install Flash 10.1 to support flash.

alternatively for Eclair users (Android 2.1) you can try manually installing Flash 10.1 following this link here

actually for android there are at least 4 gps application available (there are more but I'm not sure about others),
papago, ndrive, aura, and of course google maps,
google maps does not have offline maps,
so it requires constant internet connection,
the other 3 have maps pre installed,
so at most you only need to party for the initial charge.

consider Samsung Galaxy 5 RM699, CSL Mi300 RM699, or LG Optimus One P500 RM899

can consider Acer Liquid Metal, but its a new model and its not available yet, but soon.

Acer Liquid Metal thread for more info: http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1651934

This post has been edited by phantomash: Dec 24 2010, 06:59 PM

HTC Desire AP set RM1.5k,
or within 1.3k, Acer Liquid Metal, Motorola Milestone XT720

Samsung Galaxy 5

you can get an AP Desire set, currently priced around RM1.5k

Desire is better than Aria not only in terms of hardware, but also software
800X480 (WVGA) resolution means compatible with 99% of apps out there
and the fast processor will allow you to use them without problem
plus there are plenty of custom ROMs developed for Desire,
though it might not be a factor for you to choose Desire over Aria

Based on your stated usage, HTC Aria should be good enough already

HTC Desire HD if you have the budget for it, otherwise SE X10

for your budget, there are plenty of choices for you to consider,

for HTC, you can go for HTC Desire HD on Android, or HTC HD7 or Mozart on WP7
for Samsung, there's Samsung Galaxy S and Nexus S on Android,
for iPhone, well there's only one model

all of them have their own pros and cons, suggest you to do some research on them first
for me or anyone to explain them would be ... a long essay

But just IMO, you should wait for at least another month or two,
this is because by this year, the dual core processor smartphones are coming out already,
first off there's LG Optimus 2X, equipped with Nvidia Tegra2 dual core processor,
once its out, every current top end smartphones will instantly turn into mid end ones
however, if you don't care about having the best performance,
then the current top end smartphones are already good enough.

This post has been edited by phantomash: Jan 4 2011, 01:04 PM

for your budget, maybe Samsung Galaxy 5 (RM650+), or LG Optimus One (RM899)

the flaws are below par camera, and small screen,

if you don't mind then those are good choices

what I suggest could be biased as I personally favor Android more,
thus I would suggest you HTC Desire HD,
but again this is just my own preference

yes, the LG Optimus One is indeed a very good phone,
those points that are mentioned by the sales guy is quite true.
the only let down is as mentioned, the camera,
which actually can still take acceptable photos

WF has its own pros too, such as the track pad, sense UI, better build qualtiy
and also looks better (subjective)

anyway, the LG Optimus One is definitely recommendable

HTC Desire AP set, there's brown and white available,
but white color model is slightly more expensive



This post has been edited by phantomash: Jan 11 2011, 01:56 AM

if Maemo is a simple OS, might as well go with Android

IMO go with Aria, if he has not used any touchscreen before,
he should now, try something new
simple phone design and very functional even without any sort of tweaks,
plus there are more games that are available for iOS also available on Android

N900 is nice too, but IMO it is more suitable for tech savvy people

This post has been edited by phantomash: Jan 13 2011, 04:08 AM

if you're looking for a phone with great camera, then N8 no doubt.
IMO it has the best camera on a phone so far

if your dad is someone who uses the camera on phone a lot and cares about photo quality,
then you should consider N8 otherwise skip it, as the UI isn't very user friendly

hmm, you can also consider HTC Desire, AP set can be gotten for 1.5k or below
but would that be overkill for your dad?

err, or maybe something lower end,
HTC Wildfire, or LG Optimus One

err personally wouldn't recommend it as a gift for your dad,
mainly because there's no multi touch on that phone,
so for 1 it definitely hinder gaming, and maybe daily usage in general
plus the stock ui from sony ericsson, media scape causes some lag
not saying that its not a good phone though,
besides the mentioned problems,
it is a good phone, big screen, fast processor, and great camera

4G is unavailable on Msia yet,
so there's no "4G HTC", even if there is, it should be above 2k

for cheapest, maybe Wildfire, can get for less than 1k,
but IMO better go for LG Optimus One instead, can get for around 800~900
its has better performance than WF, except maybe not as sleek looking