Smartphone comparison for lawyers

I recently presented a CLE course that examined the different apps, benefits, and features of the leading smartphones for lawyers. There are three leading choices for lawyers: the BlackBerry, iPhone, and Android phones.

Although there are no Canadian statistics, the American Bar Association’s 2012 Legal Technology Survey Report shows that of the 89 per cent of American lawyers who use smartphones for law-related tasks, 49 per cent of them use iPhones and 31 per cent use BlackBerry. Although only 18 per cent use Android phones, the Samsung Galaxy is by far the leading Android device on the market today with 30 per cent of the entire smartphone market.

It can be difficult to decide which smartphone is best for you and your law practice. I have used all three. Although my choice is the BlackBerryQ10, each phone has benefits and shortfalls. In this article I will compare the features of the top three
smartphones for lawyers to help you decide which is best for you and your law practice.

Costs

Cost is always a big factor and it includes more than the cost of the device. Consider the data plans, daytime minutes, and long distance as well as how many text messages you can send. These factors are different depending on your provider. The following table outlines the advertised device costs in Canada:



Storage

Each phone has different storage capabilities; however only the BlackBerry’s storage can be expanded. The smartphones compare as follows:

BlackBerry Z10	16 Gigabytes	Expandable memory up to 32 GB
BlackBerry Q10	16 GB	Expandable memory up to 64 GB
Samsung Galaxy S4	16, 32, or 64 GB	Expandable microSD, up to 64 GB
iPhone 5	16, 32, or 64 GB	No expandable memory

Battery life

Each phone has unique ways to increase battery life. For example, the iPhone can extend its battery life by limiting location services and push notifications. In every case, the battery life depends on how you use your phone:
  

Size and weight

Size and weight of your smartphone may not seem important at first, however if your screen is too small for you to see or the device is too large to fit into your suit pocket comfortably you will regret not considering this factor. Here is a table to compare:

  
Screen

 You will spend plenty of time looking at your screen and every smartphone uses the screen to navigate the operating system. Here is how they compare:

	Size	Resolution
BlackBerry Z10	4.2” diagonal	1280 x 768 pixels
BlackBerry Q10	3.1” diagonal	720 x 720
Samsung Galaxy S4	5.0” diagonal	1920 x 1080
iPhone 5	4” diagonal	1136 x 640

Camera and video

I have friends, family, and colleagues who use their smartphones to capture all of their photographs and videos, so having a quality camera is important to them. As lawyers, we need these tools to document evidence at a motor vehicle accident location or a client’s property. Here is how the cameras and videos compare:



The bottom line on BlackBerry

My smartphone of choice is the BlackBerry Q10. It has a responsive keyboard for those who do lots of typing and an interactive touchscreen. It is slick and modern, yet is surprisingly rugged.

For anyone who loves the QWERTY keyboard on mobile, the Q10 keyboard is very likely the best BlackBerry ever produced. In addition, I can switch batteries in minutes, which is an absolute necessity for the travelling lawyer. Few phones will last a full day of travel, with heavy use, without additional battery charges.

The BlackBerry continues to have excellent e-mail filtering and security. Finally, the BlackBerry Balance is new technology built into the BlackBerry 10s that lets you create two separate personas on your smartphone: one for work and one for personal so you can keep your work life and personal life separate.

The bottom line on the iPhone 5

The iPhone is the ideal companion for the iPad and MacBook. All Mac products, including the iPhone, iPad, and MacBook, have amazing integration. If you download an app for the iPad, it works (usually for free) for the iPhone as well. The iCloud is incredibly convenient and useful for accessing non-confidential documents from anywhere. For the lawyer, this may include templates, letterhead, addresses, calendar entries, to-do lists, and saved legal cases.

Another advantage for lawyers that choose the iPhone is there are many excellent web sites dedicated to lawyers that use Mac products in their legal practice. A quick Google search will raise many of these sites.

The Bottom line on the Samsung Galaxy S4

The Android operating system is customizable and developer driven. Although many lawyers have not adopted the Android operating system it has the potential to integrate with your PC (and all things Google, such as Gmail and Google+, Google Docs, etc.) and there are many apps available. The Samsung Galaxy device has a larger screen than the iPhone and BlackBerry and if you are not a fan of the Samsung Galaxy you have the option of many other smartphones that harness the Android operating system.

Summer law student Ben Austring assisted with this article.