In addition to gaming laptops I appear to have convinced my bosses that I need a really good phone.
I imagine that this is a no brainer, but I really havent kept up with phones.
My options are Orbit 2, XDA Stella, HP Palm Treo or wait until July 11 for an iPhone.
I know nothing about phones except I liked the advert for the iPhone.
Recommendations please.
All phones make phone calls :flirty: What else do you need from it?
my lad has had an iphone since they came out and reckons it is the biz.
It looks good to me and is amazing with interwebs, google earth is just like on a pc
I think the Blackberry pearl looks like a nice business phone without being stuck with a stupid iPhone. I'm on the T-Mobile Compact III which is a nice phone with GPS etc, but doesn't have WiFi which I'd have liked.
There's a pile of choice out there, if you put up some features you'd like we can narrow down the choices for you.
OK here is my thoughts.
Orbit 2. It's a Windows Mobile smart phone so it will be pretty easy to sync up e-mail, documents etc if you use Outlook and Microsoft office at work. It's 3G (fast internet) has sat nav and a reasonable 3meg camera. I think it's only available on O2 though. I have a friend who had one and it was horribly unreliable and kept crashing. He sent it back and now has a Nokia E90 as do I (excellent phone but a bit of a brick)
XDA Stella is basically a HTC Kaiser for the O2 network. It's touch screen but that's really all I know about it.
HP Palm Treo There are several types 700, 750 for example. Lots of people hate the qwerty keyboards so i strongly suggest you try it out in a shop before you buy.
Apple iphone. I will not let my hatred of all things Apple get in the way but remember Apple do not let you adapt your phone, add third party applications or do anything much to customise your hardware. It's also very expensive (not an issue of you are not paying for it). As a web browser, e-mailer, media store etc it's glorious. As a mobile phone the lack of a keyboard can actually be a real issue. It's odd how many people end up hating not having real buttons to press. The first iphone was a disgrace with no 3G, a poxy camera, no MMS and no video. At £200+ plus an 18 month contract anyone who bought one should be ashamed. The new iphone however fixes a lot of the terrible short comings the original suffered from. Especially the 3G
I've not a lot of experience of any of these phones but I'd suggest you check out some online reviews for the Orbit, Stella and try the keyboard on the Palm. I assume as it's being paid for by your work that it's a going to be a business phone. If so I'd forget about the iphone. It's designed for dippy blonde girls and 'media types' (sorry i couldn't resist :) ). Seriously I don't think it stands up as a business phone. Shame you can't have the Nokia E61 or E61i
Blackberry does the job for work.
That or the Nokia N95 is it.
Failing that get a small normal phone, you'll only drop it anyway.
I must admit a lot of my workmates have the new version N95 and are very happy with it. It's a bit less flash looking than the iPhone, but it has all the bells and whistles and more.
Apparently we used to get the N95 on a deal too, but not now.
I want the mobile internet really, outlook web access. Easy syncing too. I hadn't thought about the inability to add software to the iPhone. I have an iPaq which I thought I could ditch with a better phone and that has some handy applications on it.
Maybe the iPhone isnt the best bet, unless it attracts dippy blond chicks.
We have to go with 02 for a basic rental of 3.25/month including 150 minutes of calls. The data is 6.38 for 200Mb/month or £25 for unlimited. Is 200Mb a lot?
I will get down to shop and see which feels best. i just wanted to see if there was anything technical I needed to know.
Thanks all.
Quote from: big-paddy;234721We have to go with 02 for a basic rental of 3.25/month including 150 minutes of calls. The data is 6.38 for 200Mb/month or £25 for unlimited. Is 200Mb a lot?
Yeah, 200mb is a decent chunk for mobile use unless you're going to be using Skype or msn messenger alot or browsing youtube.
It should do you for checking emails/finding out things on the interwebz.
I'd check to be sure about the iphone but I hear lots of stories about ways of unlocking the phone and then Apple offer an update which locks the phone and round it goes. This is basically what I find so disgusting about Apple. Clearly many customers want to run 3rd party apps but Apple simply do not listen. They seem to have this pathological "we know best" attitude and have never managed to grasp the idea of giving customers a choice.
If you are looking for a good e-mailer and web browser try any of the Nokia E series phones, HTC or RIM Blackberrys although most of the RIM's have no 3G (which for me is a deal breaker). If you can deal with the size and weight of the phone try a Nokia E90 communicator. If you can deal with the weedy battery that needs charging each night (firmware updates make this less of an issue) try the Nokia N95
Anyone use a Nokia N95 (original or 8gb version)?
I'm thinking of getting one but was looking for some advice first.
ive got one but i cant think of what to fill up the 8 gig with :g:
other than that very good phone and you get spiderman 3 free with it
Quote from: ChimpBoy;235756Anyone use a Nokia N95 (original or 8gb version)?
I'm thinking of getting one but was looking for some advice first.
Me you muppet, and you've both seen it and had a fiddle with it. When next we meet I'll whip it out and you can have another play
Quote from: smilodon;235781Me you muppet, and you've both seen it and had a fiddle with it. When next we meet I'll whip it out and you can have another play
I bet you say that to all the boys!!:D
Quote from: smilodon;235781Me you muppet, and you've both seen it and had a fiddle with it. When next we meet I'll whip it out and you can have another play
I must have repressed that evening :D cheers bud
In the meantime
1. Nice slider phone. Not small but fits in a pocket fine
2. Simbian OS. Very powerful and there are masses of free and cheap pieces of software for it. You can find almost anything you want somewhere on the web.
3. Likewise themes and wallpapers. There are whole web sites dedicated to supporting the N95 and the Symbian OS
4. Decent Sat Nav built in. Free unless you want voice directions
5. Good media player and music player so you can dump your ipod.
6. 3G fast internet
7. 5 megapixel camera with decent Carl Zeiss optics. Decent quality if you are looking for a snapper.
8. VGA video recorder
9. Easy to use wifi
10. Bluetooth and loads of compatible accessories.
Downside.
1. Poor battery life. Will need a daily charge if you give it 'average' use. The sat nav will kill the battery after about 45 minutes use.
2. Firmware upgrades improve the battery quite a lot, however if you get the phone with a mobile phone package it will be branded for that network and the firmware updater will not work. It's pretty easy to unlock the phone although it could have implications for your warranty. If you buy it unbranded it will cost £300+ but will have no firmware issues
3. Slider feels a little flimsy although mine is going strong after a year
4. The digital zoom is dreadful (all digital zooms are worthless) so work on the basis there is no camera zoom regardless of what Nokia say
5. Which Magazine say Nokia is only average for reliability
Basically this is the most full featured mobile phone in the world. It does everything and does it pretty well. When it was launched in 2007 it took the mobile phone market by storm and won a mass of awards and editors choices. However unless you are 'power' mobile user i.e. you use a combination of some of the following web, e-mail, mp3 player, camera, sat nav or 3rd party software you'll arguably be wasting your money and should look for something smaller with a better battery life.
N95 8gig review (http://www.mobilechoiceuk.com/Phone-review?product_id=200)
N95 original review (http://www.mobilechoiceuk.com/Phone-review?product_id=155)
Cheers for the review mate - much appreciated.
I had a quick browse, filtering the features I wanted and that seemed to be the popular one. I was looking for something with the following features:
- Speaker phone
- Camera (just to take quick snaps - doesn't need to be ace)
- Tri/Quad band
- MP3
- FM radio
- Web browsing
- Video
- Bluetooth
- GPS (although a nice to have, not essential - TomTom & AtoZ can get me through)
N95 seemed to have all of that, but I'm sure there are others. It's just been so long since I had a personal mobile that I'm a bit lost with all the variety nowadays to be honest.
Contract renewal is due for me too in 4 months. Luckily you can stop the active stand by mode in the new nokia N series which drove me insane when i test drove the n82 and n73. I currently have a 6300 but this feels cramped when typing text messages as does the n82. I want wifi really and the ability to look at pdf/ office documents. The N95 does all these but i like the styling of the n73/ n82 as they are not sliders. I hope they'll let me keep my £10 contract :D.
N95 Pros:
Good phone, nokia has the interface sorted out the box
Camera is 5MP which is loads
8GB of storage can't be a bad thing
Symbian lets you customise the phone a reasonable amount
Cons:
It's not the most modern design
The Sat-Nav costs extra
Windows Mobile 5 Pros
More programs available - yet more customisation
Working sat-nav on some phones
Big Touch Screens are cool in my book
Cons:
Harder to use out the box (txting really needs a downloaded keyboard)
Much harder to use for videos
I'm still bigging up the WM5 side, they're good phones.