Choosing a business mobile phone

Phones that help you run your business, answer emails and work on documents on the move allow you to be more efficient and more productive than ever.

This page will advise you on exactly what to look for in a business mobile phone and explain how helpful a good enterprise-focussed handset can be to today’s workers.

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What makes a good business phone?

Business phones differ from standard handsets and more entertainment focused smartphones, usually with more of an emphasis on an array of communication features such as secure email and an on board office application suite. Here we’ll talk through some of the functions specific to business phones.

Advanced messaging functions

Push email is a technology that pushes new emails to a user's phone as soon as they arrive in the mail server. This allows them to respond quickly to any important messages and stay in the loop at all times.

Perhaps even more useful for workers are the email attachment viewers and editors that come installed on a business handset. The former allows you to see documents created in key MS Office packages - including Word, Excel and PowerPoint, as well as PDFs that have been sent to your account.

Many business phones include the chance to set up multiple accounts, with support for all major email service providers.

QWERTY keyboards

Expansive, physical QWERTY keyboards for speedy text entry are a key feature of many business phones. They’re handy principally because they allow users to compose lengthy emails and SMS messages quickly and comfortably - much, much faster than they could with a standard numerical keypad.

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Personal organiser functions

Being late for an important meeting can be disastrous. To help make sure that doesn’t happen, business mobiles offer users the ability to synchronise their calendar accounts wirelessly with applications such as Outlook. With details of your weekly meetings at hand at all times, you’ll never miss a beat.

Handwriting recognition software

This technology means you’re able to write directly onto your business phone’s display. The handset will register the movements of your hand and convert whatever you write into text instantly.

If you need to take a quick note or compose memos, writing straight onto the screen is probably the best and fastest method around.

Business tools & apps

Need the latest finance news at your fingertips? That’s not a problem with a business mobile. Simply download one of the many financial news agency apps available for your handset's apps store, such as those from Bloomberg and Reuters.

Many apps also offer the option to track the progress of particular stocks and shares, so you can survey how your investments are performing and keep up to date with market movements.

A-GPS support with mapping software

Assisted GPS is a location triangulation technology that's capable of pinpointing wherever you are in the world with staggering accuracy. When combined with the mapping software that often comes preloaded with business mobiles, users can get turn by turn directions to help them to their destination.

Remote wiping

If you mislay your business phone and all the confidential, commercially sensitive information it contains, you need not worry about security. Along with advanced encryption technology that protects your data from intruders, selected models offer a service whereby the entire contents of the handsets can erased remotely.

Which business phones are best?

Choosing the best business phone is a highly subjective matter, so to a certain extent this is impossible to answer. However, among the best rated in the category are Nokia’s ESeries range, Research In Motion’s BlackBerry phones and selected models from HTC.

Buying a business phone

Although you can buy business phones separately, most UK networks offer group purchases at a substantial discount. The generous usage limits that business plans usually provide, teamed with cheaper charges for calls made over the same network, also mean that substantial savings can be made by businesses if they find the right deal.

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