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Mobile phone recommendations please... (Read 165086 times)

Obi-Wan is lost...

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Mobile phone recommendations please...
January 15, 2008, 10:06:10 am
It's that time again, looking to upgrade my mobile. Any particular models people recommend? Or ones to avoid?
I would quite like a 'smart' phone, Symbian/WM etc, not that I particularly need it but I do like the toys.  :-[ But also interested in 'normal' phones also. What is the verdict on the Nokia N Series?

Fatboy

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#1 Re: Mobile phone recommendations please...
January 15, 2008, 10:20:28 am
I find the Blackberry Pearl a SHWEEEEET piece of kit I have to say!!
I have a lot of love the SonyEricsson kit too!

I'm not sure about Nokia as I have never used them...

unclesomebody

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#2 Re: Mobile phone recommendations please...
January 15, 2008, 10:20:29 am
The n95 8GB is an immense phone but it lacks one major thing that you need to decide if you want or not, a touchscreen. You can divide up the smart phones by touchscreen or non touchscreen. Non touchscreen you have all the nokia devices (excluding the E90) and some WM devices. The Nokia smart phones are very capable phones but once again don't have the developer army behind them. I would stay away from non touchscreen windows devices as they have less developing going on. Then you have the touchscreen devices, namely Sony Ericsson or more WM options. I've had both and there are pro's and con's to both. Symbian is nice, it works well, but it's ultimately simple. WM has a massive following and an unbelievable amount of developers. This means you can just about do anything on a WM smartphone. I had a TYTN II for a while which is an immense phone, but was slightly too thick to warrant keeping so I switched back to my SE P1i which I think is a great device. You should also decide whether you want a qwerty keyboard. I do use it all the time and think it's pretty mega for input (but it did take a week or two to adjust).

Check out XDA Developers for a taste of what you can do with an WM device. I think my next phone is going to be an HTC Touch Cruise (or relabelled as the XDA Orbit 2). Should be out in a month or so...

Now that I've been using smart phones for 5/6 years I would never go back. Things like being able to make VOIP calls from anywhere is attractive and having sat nav is useful especially with something like google maps where you can see live traffic updates. Good luck in the search!

cofe

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#3 Re: Mobile phone recommendations please...
January 15, 2008, 11:07:21 am
N73 is shit. it's slower than most 80s computers.

Obi-Wan is lost...

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#4 Re: Mobile phone recommendations please...
January 15, 2008, 11:45:43 am
We've been looking at the Touch 'Tom' Cruise for a GPS project at work. I'd love one for my own phone but considering how much i use my phone for calls I suspect they will want £100's for the handset.  :'(

Jaspersharpe

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#5 Re: Mobile phone recommendations please...
January 15, 2008, 11:54:12 am
Nokia E65 is a nice phone. It's Smart and does loads of shit that I never use it for but it also looks really cool unlike some Smart phones. And you can get it for free without a big monthly fee. On the downside it's pretty dumb in comparison to some of the proper Smart phones. Depends what you want it to do obviously but I find it a good compromise.

Eddies

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#6 Re: Mobile phone recommendations please...
January 15, 2008, 12:07:50 pm
N73 is shit. it's slower than most 80s computers.

I second that.
Ive had no end of problems with my N73... proper w@nk

Bubba

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#7 Re: Mobile phone recommendations please...
January 15, 2008, 01:18:34 pm

Samsung G600 / G800 ?

Jim

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#8 Re: Mobile phone recommendations please...
January 15, 2008, 04:08:08 pm
You gotta rememeber that the n73 is an old phone now, it was a good phone when it came out all those years ago. There have been some massive firmware changes since tho, have you guys upgraded?

N95 = brick

I like my E65, just which it had a radio and better firmware updates and a ram hard disk.

I don't think I would consider a touch screen phone as they are far too small and fiddly, I have enough problems with the full screen ones at work, let alone a tiny phone screen.

I'm suprised you haven't opted for an iphone obi despite it being a crock of shit

SE = kids phones

Bubba

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Finally got an N95 and it's an amazing piece of kit - I couldn't get one on my service plan but if you can go for the 8GB version.

fatdoc

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Nokia E65 is a nice phone. It's Smart and does loads of shit that I never use it for but it also looks really cool unlike some Smart phones. And you can get it for free without a big monthly fee. On the downside it's pretty dumb in comparison to some of the proper Smart phones. Depends what you want it to do obviously but I find it a good compromise.
if you want just a phone  i agree.

battery life on the glam phones is a bit wank, my 2 year old pebl lasts longer than 95s by  a long way..

do you really need the smartphone? i've had loads, never last more than a year..... i use a diary, a camera, a computer and a phone...

 the e65 is a good phone, the large screen limits batt life though...

as a mac convert I'm steering well clear of the iphone... i've got an ipod, and i want a phone that works as a phone...

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Don't touch Samsung kit.

underground

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Another vote for the E65 over here - I got mine for free, made it do the stuff I need it to do with the symbian customisabe menu, and set it up to sync with my Outlook calendar at work so I know where I am next if a meeting gets a bit long winded or I fancy a lie in but don't know if I have an early meeting.

Found battery life to be good, except if I'm up and down from my laptop a lot (it syncs with bluetooth whenever I get back in range, but that's just a setting)

Like Jim says, could do with firmware updating, due to a couple of funny little niggles, but all in all it's a peachy bit of gadgetry.

I would like a countdown timer though, for doing rice for 8 mins exactly while I fuck about round the house, but if that's the only major complaint.... :shrug:

I'm also with fatdoc- it's a phone, the camera is not great, it can't replace a laptop, but you can 'phone with it. Although I don't carry a diary anymore, just a Moleskine notebook for scribbling....

Jim

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Just got nokia N82, camera is really impressive. I've stuck with my E65 for another 9 months and given this to the wife cos she uses the camera thing more. She says the music player is really impressive sound quality wise and likes it a lot.
Those still using N73, debrand and update to latest firmware. Its a lot quicker now, use google if you don't know how

Battery life on mobiles will never be the same again since they discontinued the 6310i. What a phone that was. Your lucky if you get 2 days max now. A week was easy for the 6310i

underground

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Jim do you get the 'mosquito' noise with E65 when it's lit up?

Bizarrely, a fucking great mozzie is flying round this office right now. Must be warming up some out there, with all this wet.

Bubba

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do you really need the smartphone?
Free upgrade so why not? I'm not overly concerned about battery life as i'm rarely away from a car or mains charger for any length of time; certainly not for more than 24 hours so it's not really an issue.

GPS navigation is nice, as is the camera and the ability to use the web pretty much anywhere, via wifi hotspots where available.

unclesomebody

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Just got nokia N82, camera is really impressive. I've stuck with my E65 for another 9 months and given this to the wife cos she uses the camera thing more. She says the music player is really impressive sound quality wise and likes it a lot.
Those still using N73, debrand and update to latest firmware. Its a lot quicker now, use google if you don't know how

Battery life on mobiles will never be the same again since they discontinued the 6310i. What a phone that was. Your lucky if you get 2 days max now. A week was easy for the 6310i

http://europe.nokia.com/6300i   (14 days standy Jim... perhaps you've found your replacement)

E65 is an old phone and way behind in tech shit. The N95 8GB is looking pretty good and definitely worth getting over the regular N95 (for many reasons but mainly the larger screen!).

LG KS20 is worth looking into if you can find it in the UK. Other than that I still assert the HTC Touch Cruise (XDA Orbit 2) is where it's at. Or wait a while for the Nokia N96 (a mild upgrade if you read the full review at mobile review) or be really smart and wait for the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1. The biggest deal in phones since the Sony Ericsson P800.

fatdoc

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do you really need the smartphone?
Free upgrade so why not? I'm not overly concerned about battery life as i'm rarely away from a car or mains charger for any length of time; certainly not for more than 24 hours so it's not really an issue.

GPS navigation is nice, as is the camera and the ability to use the web pretty much anywhere, via wifi hotspots where available.


cant be arsed to charge them up mate.... just want a small phone that phones and texts...  I'm with jim on the old 6000 series of nokia.... bloody ace battery life!

Bubba

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The N95 8GB is looking pretty good and definitely worth getting over the regular N95 (for many reasons but mainly the larger screen!).
Definitely - worth noting that the screen is still the same resolution though.

Got Garmin Mobile XT working on it as a satnav using the internal GPS receiver and it's pretty damn good so far. Takes a while to find satellites at first but once you're up and running it works as well as the basic tomtoms i've used.
« Last Edit: March 29, 2008, 03:52:01 pm by Bubba »

Jim

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I don't rate the N95 at all. Its like a brick and there are no end to problems with it.

Bubba

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It's not the smallest of phones i'll admit.

What are the problems? Mine occasionally locks up but i've installed some beta software which is probably the culprit.

soapy

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had pretty basic devices in the past; last was a moto f3

but i upgraded to the bb8120 pearl on 02

and its very very very good

 :P

Sent from my Blackberry­® wireless device



slackline

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Not a recommendation but its not about apps...

Galaxy Nexus (Shame the camera is a bit poo!)

Face recognition to unlock phone is cool (although software not hardware)



Also Motorola Droid Razr (bearing in mind Google have done a deal with Motorola) compared

tomtom

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slackline

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Is that an icon for an app?  What does it do?

 

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