Smartphone in emergency situation

So since I had the great opportunity to test the usefulness of a smartphone (HTC Desire HD in my case) during an emergency situation, here are some of my conclusions:


Good things:

• FM-Tuner (works without Internet)
• Compass (using GPS) when Internet is down
• Skype (was very useful for me as Softbank voice communication was completly down but Internet was somewhat working)
• Google maps - once Internet was up, guiding the way home.
• App for train delays. Since all trains where stopped not that much of a help, but at least I knew that I had to keep on walking. So I wasted less time on getting information about trains.
• Internet in general (Finding Bus lines, schedules, news etc)

Bad things:

• no digital TV tuner (which my old phone has). Because it's a national thing and most smart-phones are created for worldwide market it's mostly not included.
• Battery. Especially under those kind of condition the battery drains very quickly. I should get a spare battery.
• SMS this was (in my case, Softbank) working surprisingly bad. I had my gmail mails in and out before ever getting any SMS. But then, people on NTT might have had a different experience, so I guess in general it's good to have both.