Spy Phone Review takes a look back at what seemed to be an innocent contender to the smartphone market, the iPhone. Little did Spy Phone Review or the world know how much this phone would revolutionize technology as we knew it and shape the smartphone landscape for years to come.


Spy Phone Review takes a look at iPhone

Spying on an iPhone has never been easier, with good products available from both Mobilespy and FlexiSPY. Unfortunately a direct comparison between the two is a no contest, as FlexiSPY offers many more features at a lower price than Mobilespy. The money back guarantee seals the deal.

Mobilespy add GPS to their latest iPhone spy phone, but still cannot compete with the entry level FlexiSPY BASIC which provides more features, supports more iPhone models, and is completely undetectable; all at a price 20 percent less.

Considering that the cheaper FlexiSPY iPhone product delivers extra features such as email forwarding, being able to cover up the jailbreak, and to be able to remotely uninstall the software, coupled with an easy upgrade path to the more powerful FlexiSPY LIGHT, FlexiSPY PRO and FlexiSPY PRO-X products, we have no hesitation in declaring FlexiSPY BASIC the winner of the Mobilespy vs FlexiSPY head to head contest..


Spy Phone Products for iPhone

Although a newcomer to the mobile device market, the iPhone has put smart phones on the map, as well as into pockets and handbags. While other device manufacturers have long had features that the iPhone still does not possess, such as the iPhone’s sexy design, its superlative UI, and the iTunes franchise have driven this device to become the must-have device, or the must-give gift.

This is why it’s now easier than ever to spy on a lover or protect a child. Giving an iPhone as a present to a loved one is practically de rigueur, almost like flowers or chocolates. Offer an iPhone with spy phone software already installed to someone, and they will tear your arm off, while you rip off their secrets!

Mobilespy and FlexiSPY are the only companies to offer iPhone spy phone software. Mobilespy only has one version, while FlexiSPY offers its greater feature set over four different versions called BASIC, LIGHT, PRO and PRO-X.

Mobilespy were the first company to release a spy phone product for the iPhone, but being first does not mean much unless you also stay ahead of the competition. For all its strengths, Mobilespy does not support the latest 3.0 software update. FlexiSPY works on all 2G and3G and 3GS devices, and will also allow you to use the latest 3.0 firmware release.


FlexiSPY Competitor Feature Comparison


Mobilespy vs FlexiSPY iPhone Feature Chart

To make the comparison in context, remember that Mobilespy product is equivalent to FlexiSPY BASIC. If you need to read emails, make secret spy calls or have full remote control of the software, then FlexiSPY offers the more powerful LIGHT, PRO and PRO-X versions.


Installation

Before installing either product, you will need to jailbreak your device and install the software. Mobilespy original installation was a nightmare, taking over two hours to complete and requiring deep technical abilities. They have made a tremendous improvement to this, and have now added their product to the Cydia catalogue. Unfortunately, this now makes it obvious to the target that the device is jailbroken because you cannot remove the Cydia icon. Opening the Cydia icon now screams Mobilespy to the user.

Another problem with the Cydia catalogue system is that when Mobilespy next make a product update, the target device will be notified, causing immediate suspicion. This is a serious concern and for my money is a sign that Mobilespy do not take their customers privacy seriously.

The final step of the Mobilespy install is to send an SMS with the ID and password that you select. This is ok if you have the device in your hands, but is a major security problem if you need to change it later because the target will see this SMS and can then log into the web account.

All Mobilespy products have this fundamental problem because the ID and password used to deliver events to the web account must be the same one used to log in to view your data. If you change your web password, you will need to change the password on the device.

All FlexiSPY models use Cydia to download the application into the iPhone. After the download, an icon appears on the device which opens up to provide a GUI interface where you can use to set all manner of variables, depending on the product you have specified. Having set the parameters, you can specify if you want to remove Cydia and the GUI icon and the install completes and all icons are removed.

This really impressed me, because it means that you can jailbreak the iPhone and the target would not know about it and there is no trace at all of a FlexiSPY install.


Settings

As described in the section how spy phone delivery works, one of the key features to escaping detection by the target is to be able to create event delivery profiles. Unfortunately this is not possible with Mobilespy, which is a real disappointment.

Mobilespy’s strength of simplicity is also its weakness. There are no user definable setting in Mobilespy, therefore these is no GUI or remote control. However, this means that you have to live with the defaults, which are not published anywhere. I contacted Mobilespy technical supports who were unable to answer this question. The consequence of this lack of control means that you don’t know when you will receive data at the web account, and you simply have to keep logging in and checking to see if you have events. This is definitely not suitable for a real time system, and therefore unsuited for time sensitive applications.

Mobilespy technical supports advised that the GPS feature takes readings every thirty minutes, but were unable to say when these events would be available at the web account.

FlexiSPY approach is the exact opposite. There is almost too much choice, and it can be confusing for the beginner, who is best to accept the defaults. FlexiSPY lets you can choose which events ( SMS, Call Records, GPS, EMAIL, default = all) you wish to capture, a delivery schedule, configurable in increments of 1 hour, from 1 to 24 hours ( default = 1 hour) and a threshold number of events ( between 1 to 50, default = 10) that need to occur before a delivery is attempted. The GPS feature can be configured to take location readings at regular intervals of ( between 1 to 60 minutes, default =30mins). What this means is that you can have full control over how and when data is sent, and real time operation is possible.

And you don’t have to worry about getting the setting right first time as the FlexiSPY PRO and LIGHT iPhone allows all these settings are able to be changed remotely by SMS commands. FlexiSPY BASIC requires the use of the GUI, which means getting the device into your hands again.


Features

Both Mobilespy and FlexiSPY BASIC offer the ability to read the SMS and Call Logs as well as the GPS location of the device. The FlexiSPY product goes a step further and for any SMS or Call record number, it will also retrieve the name in the device address book letting you know that this is not a wrong number. This may not sound like much, but in actual use to know that the call or SMS is from someone in the targets address book is invaluable.

During tests, I noticed that all call records from Mobilespy were a minimum of one minute or multiples thereof, whereas the same calls were reported to the second with FlexiSPY. Not a big deal, but just another example of the small details that always niggle with the more expensive Mobilespy.

Inside the web account, all FlexiSPY products provide an email relay service that will email all new event data to you as soon as it arrives at the server, so there is no need to log in continually. Unlike Mobilespy, password changes at the web login have no effect on the iPhone, and may be changed at any time.

Moving up the product range, FlexiSPY LIGHT does everything BASIC does, but also captures emails from all mail accounts on the iPhone.

FlexiSPY PRO adds a remote listening capability also called spy call. This allows you to set a special number in the target device. When the iPhone senses an incoming call from this number, it will silently answer, with no indication on the screen. This allows the spyer to listen into the surroundings of the iPhone. The call will only disconnect when the spyer hangs up, or the iPhone’s phone application icon is touched.

FlexiSPY PRO and LIGHT offer full remote control via SMS commands while BASIC only offers manual control if you use the GUI on the device itself.

All FlexiSPY iPhone spy phone products can be remotely uninstalled using SMS, which could come in very handy in a sticky situation.


Purchase Cost

Mobilespy and FlexiSPY BASIC are available in 3, 6 and 12 month subscriptions. The chart below shows the cost breakdown:

COST Mobilespy Flexispy BASIC FlexiSPY LIGHT FlexiSPY
PRO
FlexiSPY
PRO-X
3 months $49.97 $39 N/A N/A N/A
6 months $69.97 $59 N/A N/A N/A
12 months $99.97 $89 €100 €150 €250

FlexiSPY BASIC is ten dollars a month cheaper than Mobilespy, and is available in the same recurring subscription periods. Purchasing any FlexiSPY version allows you to upgrade to a more powerful version, and you can change devices at any time during the subscription period.


Guarantee

The mark of a company’s confidence in its products is if it will stand behind its products is to see how they deal with customer satisfaction. Mobilespy do not have a money back guarantee, but FlexiSPY offer a 10 day money back guarantee. This is actually more generous than it would seem, as when I contacted their support, I was told that they would refund the money even after the 10 days, on the condition that I allowed them a fair attempt to fix any problem.


Conclusion

Regardless of a comparison, there are some things that are essential for a spy phone product to deliver for it to be considered fit for serious spying. These are the ability to remain hidden and discreet in operation and to be flexible and adaptable for use in a hostile environment, and it’s on this count that Mobilespy fails.

Mobilespy does not do anything particularly badly, although not being able to stop the software, and giving the general public instructions on how to uninstall your product shows a serious lack of judgment, it’s just that as a complete package it’s simply not up to the task of spying in a real life situation.

FlexiSPY on the other hand is almost over engineered, and has clearly hacked down its flagship product to get down and dirty with Mobilespy. Even FlexiSPY BASIC, in its latest Spartan incarnation, it has preserved all the essentials required for a true spy phone, and you could take this into a serious operation with confidence.

Mobilespy used to be much cheaper than FlexiSPY, and that made it recommendable. However, now that FlexiSPY BASIC is cheaper than Mobilespy, they have lost this advantage and when you add FlexiSPY’s offer of a no quibble 10 day money back guarantee closes the deal.

What was billed as Mobilespy vs FlexiSPY head to head, turned out to be a no contest, as despite our best efforts, there is not one area in which Mobilespy took a single round.