The Smartphones You Can Rely On [Video]

We Americans pay a hefty slice of our monthly budget–$80, on average–for the convenience (and fun) of owning a smartphone. In total, U.S. consumers will spend $4.8 billion on smartphones and wireless services (voice and data messaging) in 2010, according to market research firm In-Stat.

With all that money being spent on mobile technology, you’d expect an abundance of critical research and analysis indicating which products and services work well for the money, and which don’t. But little information exists. That’s why PCWorld initiated this survey, asking owners of all kinds of smartphones to relate for their real-world experiences with buying, using, and troubleshooting the devices.

Perhaps the central finding of our survey is that smartphone owners have plenty of complaints, yet seem to willing to tolerate many of the shortcomings of their wireless service providers as well as the manufacturers of the phones. The survey asked the opinions of some …