What is the difference between a telephone and a smartphone? Mobile phone VS smartphone
Nowadays the word “smartphone” won’t surprise anyone. Even if you don’t have it, you’ve heard it at least once and know roughly what it means!
But that’s the point, roughly. Not everyone knows exactly what the word smartphone means, how it appeared and how this gadget differs from a telephone, communicator or PDA. Let's try to figure it all out together.
Meaning of the term Smartphone
The Russian language nowadays is full of foreign words. And this term is no exception.
The word Smartphone comes from the English Smartphone, which, in turn, combines two words:
Smart- means "smart"
Phone- means "telephone".
Thus, we can conclude that Smartphone is a phone that has “smart” functions of a mobile computer: both computing (processor, RAM, ROM) and communication (WiFi, 4g/LTE, Bluetooth, GPS, GLONASS).
What then is called the Communicator?!
Don't forget about the synonymous word - Communicator. The fact is that in their meaning both terms are actually the same thing. The confusion here arose again thanks to the manufacturers. And that's why! At that time there were no tablets, and in their place on the market there were PDAs - pocket personal computers. At its core, it was a small tablet running the Windows Mobile operating system. Despite the fact that it had a touch screen, it was impossible to control the gadget as it is now with a finger. For these purposes, a special stylus similar to a ballpoint pen was used (by the way, until recently it was still found on the Samsung Galaxy Note).
And what the manufacturer considered his brainchild to be depended on what he would call it. If the developers thought it was a phone with PDA functions, it was a “Smartphone.” If they positioned it as a PDA with telephone functions, then it is a “Communicator”.
Of course, now that the very concept of “Pocket Personal Computer” has simply disappeared, as have the devices themselves that represent this class, the semantic difference between the two names of the same device has disappeared.
There was another classification option based on the operating system installed on the device. It so happened that if the operating system is installed Microsoft Windows Mobile or PalmOS- then this is a communicator, but if the gadget is controlled Symbian OS, then this is already a smartphone. Of course, now, after some time, such a division seems strange and absurd, but then, in the early 2000s, that’s how it was. The funny thing is that the advent of Android and iOS almost eliminated their predecessors. Palm OS and Symbian have practically sunk into oblivion, and Windows Mobile has transformed into Windows Phone.
Mobile operating systems
At the moment, we can name 10 main mobile operating systems that have been the most popular over the past 15 years:
Android - iOS - Windows Phone (Mobile, CE) - BlackBerry - Symbian - Samsung Bada - FireFox OS - Palm OS - Web OS - Linux Ubuntu
Unfortunately, a considerable part of them are already in the past and are unlikely to receive further development. Currently TOP3 looks like this:
The history of smartphones
At the beginning of 2000, a new mobile phone, Ericsson R380, appeared on the market. This was the first device that the manufacturer officially called a “smartphone” and from which the development of an entire class of mobile equipment began.
Ericsson R380 ran on the Symbian OS mobile operating system and had a monochrome touch screen.
Almost immediately after it, a competitor appeared on the market - Nokia 9210.
By this time, Nokia already had a whole line of communicators, but none of them were popular. They were bulky, uncomfortable and ineffective. Therefore, model 9210 was fundamentally different and, accordingly, they began to call it differently - Smartphone. That is, Nokia positioned it precisely as an advanced phone. Then a flurry of development began, during which more and more new players entered the race - HTC, Sony, Motorola, Siemens. Completely different technologies and form factors were tried (sliders, clamshells). The phones were equipped with a full QWERTY keyboard.
This continued until 2007, when a new trendsetter appeared on the scene - the iPhone smartphone on the iOS operating system from Apple.
This keyboardless monoblock set the direction of development for the next decades. And a little later, its main competitor saw the light of day - the Android operating system and first dozens, and then hundreds of smartphone models running on this OS.
What is the difference between a smartphone and a mobile phone
1. Software filling. The phone simply has firmware with a certain set of functions. The communicator already uses a full-fledged operating system (IOS, Android or Windows), which allows you not only to use the existing capabilities, but also to expand it by installing additional programs.
2. Hardware capabilities. It’s unlikely that anyone knows what chip and how much RAM is used on a regular push-button phone. But modern smartphones already use multi-core processors and several gigabytes of RAM. In terms of performance, such devices outshine computers older than 5-6 years.
3. Communication capabilities: availability of WiFi, 4G/LTE, GPS, GLONASS modules.
4. Additional features: Pedometer, gyroscope, IR port, USB.
5. Ability to work with various types of files: audio, video, documents, tables, presentations.
6. Data synchronization with cloud services Google, Apple, Microsoft, etc.
7. Screen size. The phone does not need a large diagonal display. And it simply cannot work with higher resolution due to modest hardware capabilities. Smartphones and tablets have an average screen size of 5 inches.
And what is the difference between . Today we’ll talk about the differences between a phone and a smartphone.
First you need to give definitions for each of the terms.
- Mobile (cellular) phone is a phone that is designed to work on cellular networks.
- Smartphone is a mobile phone that is supplemented with the functionality of a mobile computer.
Do you feel the difference? Now let's dive into the comparison.
What is the difference between a telephone and a smartphone?
- The first major difference is the dimensions. While a phone is typically a small device that fits easily in your hand, a smartphone is often twice that size. But this has its own advantage - a large screen diagonal. So, if a phone is content with a display with a diagonal of 1.5-2 inches, then a smartphone can have a display with a diagonal of 3.5 inches to 7 inches! Of course, on such a screen you can watch movies, play games, read e-books, etc. In the case of a phone, doing this is at least inconvenient.
- Smartphones have virtually no physical buttons on their bodies. If on a phone we dial a number using physical buttons, then on a smartphone we do this by touching the touch screen with our fingers. The number of physical buttons on a smartphone rarely exceeds 2-3.
- Smartphones are built on an operating system. The most popular system is Android, on which most smartphones are based. Another popular OS is iOS, which is used in Apple technology. The operating system supports many different functions, so the smartphone can safely be called a real computer - only compact.
- Operating systems support an incredible number of applications - their number amounts to tens and hundreds of millions. The applications are very different: for work, for reading, for watching videos, for having a good time... In general, the choice is huge. A pleasant plus is the fact that many applications are free.
- The smartphone can be used as a full-fledged navigator. To do this, you need to get an application with maps and turn on GPS or. The location accuracy of the device is very high, so the maps are used for movement, including by car.
- Many smartphones have long replaced cameras. So, if you are going somewhere on vacation and do not plan to take professional shots, a smartphone will be enough. Moreover, now devices have begun to appear on sale that shoot no worse than semi-professional cameras. The same applies to video recordings. Of course, phones also have cameras, but often the quality of photos is very mediocre.
- It is very convenient to use the Internet on a smartphone - not surprising with a screen of such a diagonal. All actions are performed by tapping the screen. And some sites have a mobile or adaptive version that adapts to the size of the smartphone screen - using such a site is very convenient even with one hand. All this cannot be said about the phone.
- But as for operation, it’s easier to drop a smartphone due to its size. In addition, if you fall, the likelihood of breaking the screen is much higher than with a phone with a small display.
- The cost of smartphones, of course, is higher. But if before the difference was huge, today the most inexpensive smartphone can be bought for about 2 thousand rubles. In some countries, smartphones are offered whose prices do not even reach a thousand rubles. These are simple devices, but for 10 thousand rubles you can buy a mid-budget device. The flagships are much more expensive and whether it is worth overpaying for them is up to the buyer to decide. Phones cost from about 500 rubles.
What to choose: smartphone or phone?
If you only need the device for calls, buy a cell phone. If you need a mobile computer with which you will use social networks, watch videos, play games, etc., the choice should be in favor of a smartphone.
The large number of mobile devices on the market allows everyone to choose a device that will best suit their needs. However, diversity also has a negative feature: it is sometimes very difficult for an unprepared buyer, little familiar with the world of high technology, to choose the optimal solution.
For example, today's popular smartphones used to be classified as flagships and mid-range devices, while now even a budget device can be a smartphone.
What is the difference between a smartphone and a regular mobile phone? Let's try to figure it out in this article.
Smartphone is translated from English as “smart phone”. The “smartness” of the device lies in the fact that such devices operate under a common operating system, being, in fact, pocket computers. In addition to standard applications, the user can install software from third-party developers, which significantly expands the capabilities of the device. The most popular operating systems nowadays are Android, iOS, Windows Phone and BlackBerry OS. Previously, Symbian and Windows Mobile systems were also common, but today smartphones running them are no longer produced.
Traditional mobile phones lack such functions and the most a user can count on is the installation of simple games and programs written in Java.
Thus, the presence of an OS is the main criterion for distinguishing a smartphone from a telephone.
Touch phone Samsung Corby. Runs on the proprietary Samsung TouchWiz 1.0 shell. The phone does not have the ability to install third-party applications, does not have a full-fledged operating system, but does have a touch screen. You can't call it a smartphone.
Smartphone Nokia 6630. Does not have a touch screen, but runs on the Symbian 8.0a operating system, which is no longer relevant these days. Still, because of this OS and the ability to install applications, this device can be called a smartphone.
Form factor
The first smartphones looked no different from ordinary mobile phones. They had a traditional “tube” appearance with a hardware numeric keypad with 12 buttons. This state of affairs could be observed until about 2012, already in the heyday of the touchscreen era.
A modern smartphone, as a rule, has a large screen (more than 4 inches diagonally) with high resolution and almost (or completely) devoid of hardware keys. In some cases, a sliding QWERTY keyboard can be used as an addition.
At the same time, a mobile phone can be either in the form factor of a traditional dialer or with a touch screen. However, the display resolution of such devices is usually lower and the diagonal is smaller.
The touch screen with full input support is the second important difference.
Hardware platform
Smartphones are usually based on high-performance chipsets, which include multi-core processors with frequencies above 1 GHz, gigabytes of RAM and special graphics accelerators - analogues of computer video cards.
Mobile phones cannot boast of such potential; in their “hearts,” as a rule, single-core processors with a frequency of several hundred megahertz and a couple of tens of megabytes of RAM are installed.
The third difference is the powerful hardware platform.
Instead of a conclusion
Thus, we can highlight the main differences between a smartphone and a mobile phone:
- availability of a full-fledged operating system;
- the ability to install third-party programs;
- large high-resolution touch screen;
- powerful hardware.
If in terms of traditional telephone communication, smartphones cannot boast of anything special, then in terms of additional features, even the most powerful “dialer” can barely compare in capabilities with a budget smartphone. The only thing in which phones are confidently in the lead is battery life. If a smartphone can work in standby mode for a maximum of a few days, then many inexpensive mobile phones can hold a charge for more than 10 days.
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Articles and Lifehacks
Today, few people ask the question of how a smartphone differs from a telephone, but not so long ago it was more than relevant.
How it all started
The very concept of “smartphone” appeared quite a long time ago. In 2000, she decided that to highlight the advantages of her R380s model, something more was needed than the banal name “phone.”The gadget was small, light, but at the same time had a touch screen. Unfortunately, from a modern point of view, it had a significant drawback - closed.
This meant that it was impossible to install applications on it other than those provided by the manufacturer. Subsequently, this flaw was corrected, and the new models received the first open operating system, Symbian 6.0.
In those days, there were two more classes of gadgets: personal pocket computers (PDAs), which played the role of an electronic organizer, which were already giving way to communicators, which were essentially the same thing, but with the ability to make calls and access the Internet.
When they were “crossed” with a touch phone, the concept of what we understand today as a smartphone appeared.
So what's the difference
The main differences between a smartphone and a telephone can be considered the presence of the functionality of a pocket computer and a touchscreen. However, modern phones are also very “smart”, although they are much inferior in capabilities to their older brothers.
In addition, although they have access to the Internet, it is limited to GPRS/EDGE technology, in which the cost of a megabyte of transferred data is prohibitively high.
Smartphones are required to have 3G, and many have a 4G module, making mobile Internet quite affordable and acceptable in speed.
It should also be borne in mind that this type of device is characterized by one of the powerful operating systems:
- Google Android.
- Apple iOS.
- Windows Mobile.
As for the operating systems of push-button phones, no one would even think of comparing it with a netbook.
If both classes of mobile devices still exist, it means that each of them has some advantages.
Pros of smartphones:
- the functionality of a pocket computer, allowing you to use it for a wide variety of tasks;
- touch display for convenient control of the gadget;
- high-speed Internet access;
- the presence of additional features, such as GPS navigation, TV tuner, built-in audio system, etc.;
- a huge amount of built-in memory compared to a phone, allowing you to store a lot of different information;
- status of top smartphone models.
- very low cost of the gadget;
- small dimensions compared to most smartphone models;
- a design and control method familiar to older people.
If a person needs absolutely nothing other than the ability to make calls, then there is no point in buying even an ultra-cheap ultra-budget smartphone.
Not to mention the fact that such tempting offers of “exact copies of an iPhone for only 2,000 rubles” usually end in wasted money, while push-button models for the same price usually do not have such problems.
On the other hand, for most of us today life is unthinkable without at least periodic access to the Internet. The World Wide Web is increasingly drawing earthlings into its digital networks.
In this regard, push-button handsets are unable to offer the user virtually nothing, which sharply narrows the audience for such devices.
It is impossible not to mention a variety of entertainment content: in this regard, smartphones are again at an unattainable height: books, films, more than high-quality - except that in terms of music, “tubes” are at least somehow able to compete with their sensory counterparts, and even then only with using headphones.
Thus, the smartphone today is the main means of communication used by the vast majority of people, and the telephone is an ultra-cheap surrogate intended only for making calls, the popularity of which is falling from year to year.
We live in an amazing time when, thanks to the rapid development of microelectronics, it is becoming increasingly difficult to determine what is the difference between a phone and a smartphone.
Just a dozen years ago this was obvious: a larger color screen indicated that the device belonged to a more advanced class. Accordingly, ordinary mobile phones used displays that displayed black and white images in pseudo-graphic mode. Much has changed since then, and this difference between a smartphone and a mobile phone has lost its relevance. For example, now you can buy a mobile phone with only basic functions, but huge
Smart devices
To answer the question of what is the difference between a smartphone and a telephone, it is necessary to remember what functions were added by the developers to an ordinary mobile phone, which subsequently made it possible to call such an improved model a “smart phone” (from the English smart). At one time, the emergence of new modifications was restrained by the fact that all existing devices were already doing an excellent job with their main task - making calls both in the networks of cellular operators and to landline terminals.
Increasing the transmitter power to increase the “range” was impossible, since it was necessary to meet the requirements for the permissible level of radiation. Something fundamentally new was needed that could attract potential buyers and interest them. So, first a calendar appeared in mobile phones, then a scheduler with a reminder mode, and a converter of the most popular currencies. Soon, in almost every communication device one could find a browser for viewing Internet resources, an email program, a calculator, etc. In other words, the telephone began to turn from a device for making calls into a kind of pocket electronic assistant - a smartphone. This was the beginning.
So, in light of the above, we can formulate the first difference between a smartphone and a telephone - the presence in the device of additional capabilities that are in no way related to the main purpose. Currently, this area is actively developing: smartphones allow you to work with office documents, spreadsheets, watch movies and play games.
Platform...core...brain
Of course, the difference between a smartphone and a telephone is not limited to the built-in additional programs. Since for ease of use of all features it is more advisable to use a large color display, this has become a standard in most modern mobile communication devices. The graphic component has also undergone a change, becoming much more perfect. To ensure acceptable speed of complex programs and graphics, it was necessary to install sufficiently powerful processors in the devices. Hence the next difference between a smartphone and a telephone - the former contain a high-speed computing unit, and the amount of RAM is hundreds of megabytes. To understand where a “smart” and where a “simple” phone is, it is enough to compare the power of their processors: for example, it can be 1 GHz and 200 MHz, respectively.
Applications
Finally, one of the key differences is the presence of an open operating system, for which a large selection of programs from third-party developers is available, which the user can install at his own discretion. It is worth noting that although most cell phones allow you to install programs for the Java virtual machine, this does not classify them as smartphones. Also, if in a regular mobile phone the operating system is strictly protected and does not provide for updates to new versions, then in smartphones running on Android, Windows Phone, iOS, Belle, and others, the user can install an improved control program.