Mobile phone options

[drcarlos]

Got my wife a Nokia C7 almost a year ago as an upgrade from her 5800 xpressmusic as she protested that she didn't use half the functions, had no use for apps or desire to learn a new OS.
Just had to buy an Xperia Neo for her as she started complaining that all the ads she saw for useful apps were for iphone or android and not for Symbian. She went on to complain that I should have just got her Android and told her to get one with it then.
Just becuase you don't want apps now doesn't mean that you won't see something useful in a couple of months and want it. On that case alone it's enough to rule out Winphone7 and Symbian based devices. Symbian is dead and Winphone7 seems to be going nowhere and is crippled anyway.
An android handset of some description is my choice now, HTC, SE or Samsung being leaders.
This dual and quad core stuff is nonsense really as a decent single core phone is enough if you don't run all manner of shite all the time, most of it not needed.
Remember cores take power, power means bigger battery, bigger battery more bulky and heavier.

Forgot to add don't discount Motorola, who up until now haven't been the best or greatest with keeping the phones up to date but Google are buying them (pending approvals) and they will become the vendors with the best OS support as they have always been good hardware manufacturers.

Carl.

Just to be clear - I'm not advocating people buy Nokia, at all - it was merely an example.

What I'm really suggesting is that many people aren't so easily swayed by apps - even now I'm not, either with my N8, or my Android tab.

I have some key features / functions I want to use - and true enough, with my N8, there's been some apps that have extended that a bit - but for both that and my tablet, I'm not interested in clogging them up with countless apps that look appealing. My main interests are the key functions I want, working well.

Scope for future development clearly matters for some - but for other people, not so. You can say, in 6 months, app X will be available, which will rock your world - well I, and some others will likely say "So what...".

That's not to say that people won't find that after having a smartphone, or other gadget, other add-ons may be useful - but all the same, not everybody is interested in that whole smorgasbord that is iTunes, or Android market, or OVI store, once the key things you want out of it are sorted.

Put it this way, had Nokia's mapping product not taken something of a slide with the most recent retail offering, I'd happily stick with that platform, when I need to replace my N8. What will happen in reality, will probably depend on what happens with that - but that's the killer smartphone app for me personally. Pragmatically, I suspect my next smartphone will probably be something running android - but that will likely be in context of having an android tablet, too.

Didn't mean to come across like that, I didn't think you were suggesting Nokia, just trying to illustrate from a technophobes POV how their perception and requirements may change in a short time.
To be fair her Nokia is not bad, it lasts well on a charge (3 days before it goes into power save) has a good built in Music and Video player, the nav software is good and the screen is pretty good too. Symbian itself is good in that it was designed to be mobile from the word go so can run on lower power CPUs (hence good battery life) and less memory, where as Droid, iOS and Windows are all ports to some extent of full size device code and need more grunt behind them.
What let's it down is the poor amount and quality of apps and the camera is poor for Nokia.
Anyway just some of my observations.

Carl.

 

[Barneyballbags]

I've got a Samsung Galaxy Nexus and can thoroughly recommend one.

Before that I had a Blackberry Bold 9900 (for about a week as I hated it), HTC Sensation XE (good battery life, poor screen), Samsung Galaxy Note (lovely, but massive!), iPhone 4S (big letdown) and iPhone 4, in that order.

It took me a few months of trying out lots of different phones (as you can see!) before I settled on the Galaxy Nexus. Luckily I'm on a SIM only contract so I was able to buy/sell the phones as and when I wanted to, without losing out on too much money in the process.

I think what you'll find (and judging by this thread, what people have said) is that there isn't any one phone which is the best. You need to decide what you want from a handset and go from there.

Personally, the Galaxy Nexus fits the bill for me and it's miles ahead in terms of the Android 4.0 OS. Although saying that, as soon as the Galaxy S3 comes out I'll be one of the first in line for it. Apple won't get another look in until they can come up with something truly revolutionary (and not just copying other people's ideas and trademarking them)... :roll:

 

[FSR-Si]

Another N8 fan here, had mine for a year now and still think its wonderful even moreso now its just had a major software update.

You installed Belle?

Yes, i got the update last week. I dont think its much different to Anna to be honest, I think the internet browser is a tad quicker, and I like the fact that i can put individual icons on the home screens instead of blocks of 4, I also like the pull down menu giving instant access to wifi, bluetooth, internet settings and also to silence the phone. One of things i dont like this is you can only put one internet bookmark on the home screen instead of several.

I think the nokia apps have always been a bit of a let down but in saying that i think most apps are just a gimmick anyway, I have the important ones like sports tracker, iplayer, youtube, Mcdonalds finder, google maps, AA roadwatch, yell.

 

[FSR-Si]

My wife just got a Nokia Lumia 800 running windows a few weeks ago, She was struggling to get her ringtone working and asked me to have a look, After trying a few times to no avail i googled it only to find that to have a personalised ringtone it has limitations IE no longer than 40 seconds and no larger than 1mb and also the file format has to be changed to "ringtone" then to put the track on the phone you have to use windows zune software as you cant bluetooth the file across or drag and drop the file via usb.
Also the phone wont recognise another phone or my laptop via the bluetooth which is another big negative imo.

 

[Neil]

Another N8 fan here, had mine for a year now and still think its wonderful even moreso now its just had a major software update.

You installed Belle?

Yes, i got the update last week. I dont think its much different to Anna to be honest, I think the internet browser is a tad quicker, and I like the fact that i can put individual icons on the home screens instead of blocks of 4, I also like the pull down menu giving instant access to wifi, bluetooth, internet settings and also to silence the phone. One of things i dont like this is you can only put one internet bookmark on the home screen instead of several.

I think the nokia apps have always been a bit of a let down but in saying that i think most apps are just a gimmick anyway, I have the important ones like sports tracker, iplayer, youtube, Mcdonalds finder, google maps, AA roadwatch, yell.

Well I already had a downer on Belle because of maps 3.08. Nokia seem to be dumbing down, removing configuration, and trying almost to Windows-Mobile-ify a lot of their apps, but also, along the way cutting out some functionality and options.

For example with maps - they removed the options to plan routes by having intermediary points with the beta of 3.08 - their rationale? It didn't work very well / wasn't intuitive, and their hubris? Better not to have a function, than a function that doesn't work well. They had to back track over that for 3.09 beta of maps.

They also removed automatic maps sync (favourites and routes) at maps startup, configuration of how frequently (or not) maps checks for traffic updates, removed options on whether to accept a new route based on traffic info (just re-routes you, and NOW informs you, in the beta, it didn't even inform you).

For me, it's not so much that they've done such things, it's as much about their rationale for doing so. In recent times, they've greatly alienated (yes I accept, a probably entirely unrepresentative grouping) beta testers of maps, and people who've installed Belle, due to the bugs, but more, really, the oversights and things removed.

All that said, on Symbian Anna, with maps 3.06, and the updated camera software, I find my N8 almost perfect (if it could have the Kindle app on, it would be) - although in fairness, I found the Symbian version before Anna slightly better (PR1.2).

Sports tracker is really good, use it daily - problem is, it almost taunts you to buy the bluetooth polar heart rate monitor for input. Camera is truly awesome. I use the DAB radio (bought the headset, new, on Amazon for around £20) daily, too.

As it is, I'm very happy with it - I don't like where they're going with the software, though - and as I said, it's as much about attitude, as actual results.

 

[rosstheboss]

In my experience you can't go wrong with Android, it's the most flexible OS, available on lots of different phones from cheap to top end. I've used it for 4ish years now with absolutely no problems and have only paid for apps recently when they were offering 10 apps for 10p for 10 days to celebrate 10 billion app downloads. You have all bases covered for free - email, browsers, maps etc. Basically find a phone you like and enjoy it, rather than have your hand forced by limited product ranges i.e. Apple, Blackberry etc. If you set up a googlemail account you have the same contact protection as the blessed icloud, and your emails are managed as well as Blackberry (there are Blackberry style phones (i.e. physical qwerty keyboards) running android available too. Any of the other OS behave perfectly well, personally I prefer the flexibility android gives you, bearing in mind basically any app available for iphone, blackberry, symbian or winphone is available on the android market, even Siri (Have a look for Iris - see what they did there!!!) and generally for free too.

Best bet go to a shop, check the internet, find some phones you like and try them out, much the same as bikes really!!!

 

[hurin76]

phone

I had a htc mytouch slide 4g shipped from the U.S and it is a very good phone, the only thing is we don't really have 4g coverage in the uk yet, so I cannot take advantage of that. It runs the latest gingerbread software and has a excellent camera and a slide out keyboard if you don't favour the touch pad.

on the negative side I find the keys on the keyboard a little fiddly and the htc os system not quite as user friendly as blackberry who seemed to have more common sense when it comes to linking phone numbers to texting for example, or there is lag between looking at your call log and tapping on a contact which can result in phoning the wrong person! all small things but annoying non the less..

http://reviews.cnet.com/smartphones/t-m ... 43845.html

 

[Bullpup]

Having been out with clients the last few days, it seems that quite often I may need 2 devices: i.e. look at emails and talk at the same time. I could always keep the 6310 and run something else on a data package?

 

[Chris]

I agree with what chris2lou says about the blackberry 9000, but since I've started using an iphone there is no going back

 

[drcarlos]

Xperia Neo arrived yesterday, Bella update ready for the C-7 this morning :roll: .
Anyway it's now for sale.

Carl.