Chess Handhelds

What is the best?  Ideally I'd prefer an Iphone or Ipad but those can be quite expensive if we count the contract.  I also don't have personal experience with them.  Is there a way to get an iphone without contract and use its wifi capability to download something like Stockfish?

What are some other decent Chess handhelds?

I have an Android smart phone (iPhone would be good, too) with unlimited online access. This is wonderful. But...the unlimited acess is around $40/month. I can't justify it just for chess. But I can justify it for other stuff. You have to decide this, personally, too.

With it, I can download just about any chess engine...anything I can on a desk top or lap top, including chess.com and all its features, including game play, tactical trainer, forums...everything. And, the screen size is quite adequate...no squinting, even with my old eyes (have had cataract surgery, even).

I also downloaded a free chess engine...there are many. I haven't downloaded any of the "for purchase" ones, yet...because I already have these on my laptop or desktop. Quite doable, though.

If you don't want to have unlimited access...I don't see why you couldn't put a chess engine or database on it, anyway. Simply pay the cost of air time to download it...what, 5 minutes or less? See? Or, maybe you could sync something over from your desk or laptop.

This is not the future...it is here. Fantastic!

I have an iPhone with Chess.com on it, and I also downloaded a Fritz app, which is very strong (at least for me) and was very cheap. The down side is the cost. The iPhone itself is great, and has loads of stuff on it, maps etc, and includes unlimited download access, however, it was an expensive phone to buy in the first place, and it costs me 45 euro per month, which is about $65.

To tell the truth though, the iPhone has me completely hooked, and I can't imagine being without it.

I might add...and I really have no preference, per se, between the Android or the iPhone. Just a comment on my smartphone's cost of purchase.

I paid $100 bucks for it. Then it came down to $50. I have seen it for free, on and off, at Best Buy (of course with a new plan). Mine is HTC Incredible with Android 2+.

I wouldn't mind having a tablet...someday I will...but a smartphone fits the bill for me, nicely...and is convenient to carry on a trouser (anyone use that word anymore?) belt. Yeah...email, gps, news, stock trading...

You can also try an iPod touch. Same basic features as the iphone (minus the phone) except that you would use wifi instead of having to subscribe to any pay service.

And you can install the chess.com app on it too.

I just bought a used copy of "Chessmaster: The art of learning" for the nintendo DS for 15 bucks and I borrow my son's DS whenever I want to play it.

Touch phones are cool but not worth the money for my meager needs.

I have an Android smartphone(HTC Desire), which I'm delirious about. I think I'll start calling it 'My Precious'. I have Shredder,Chessgenius, droidfish and of course, the Chess.com app. It's great to be able to keep up with my games anywhere, anywhen(more or less), but the chess.com app does behave oddly at times. For instance, it will sometimes show me the wrong name of opponent, and if I try and enter a move it will say, 'Illegal Move' or 'It's not your turn'. Worse than this, it has resigned me out of the wrong game on a few occasions. Once when it did this, it cost me entry into the next round of a tournament, so I was not best pleased. I understand that there are some such issues with the iPhone app also. So...

NEVER USE THE APP TO RESIGN A GAME. Always use the website.

Apart from that, they are brilliant!

Yours deliriously,

Lanky

Ah that would probably be perfect.  Pretty hefty price though!

Haha, I'm beginning to think the same, but they are so tempting.