Should I take my smartphone on vacation to Cambodia?

Is a smartphone the way to go to travel to Cambodia? Let’s take a look at the “Swiss Army Knife” of electronics. The latest BlackBerry, iPhones, Microsoft, Symbian, Android and Palm devices can offer a wide range of functions. This short article is not to discuss which is the best smartphone, but rather whether a smartphone is the way to go for replacing MP3 players, cameras, GPS devices, checking email, and generally going online while taking your Cambodia vacation.

Cambodia is hot, dusty and the power supply is not that good. Generators abound and some of your electronic devices will not like the sometimes uneven power supply. Take a laptop, camera, GPS and MP3 player and you are talking about adding several kilos to your luggage, without forgetting the problem of damage or security.

If your smartphone doesn’t use GPS, i.e. with a SIM card, it probably won’t work in Cambodia. Check with your local mobile operator and make sure they have added global roaming to their service, if available. Cambodia uses GSM and you can get a local SIM card almost everywhere. Pay as you go with recharge cards, found almost everywhere. This is by far the cheapest way of doing things, but your mobile phone must be GSM, with a removable SIM card.

These days modern smartphones, as well as the most basic models, have pretty good cameras, with flash that are fine for taking snapshots and sharing online, printing on normal-size paper but not high-end photos. The best pictures of Cambodia’s landmarks can be purchased for a dollar as a collection of postcards. GPS can be a very useful feature and it works with Google maps in Cambodia, certainly with WiFi, but using GSM can be sporadic, depending on where you are.

For email and web browsing, there are many cafes, hotels and restaurants in Phnom Penh, Siem Riep and Sihanoukville that offer free or very cheap WiFi. If you need a big screen, there are plenty of internet cafes around. If you are using an iPhone, there are several travel apps available, but the reality is that the information available in a guide is much easier to access. Information in travel apps tends to be quite light.