Which Mobile Phone?

[jrbkk64]

Hi All,

Need a new mobile. Primary usage will be for phoning/sms-ing, however this time I also want a phone that can be used as an organizer, send/receive occasional emails, synchronize with laptop/outlook agenda, etc.

It must be small enough for me to carry it in my (trouser)pocket, a screen as large as possible but not PDA size!!, fast software etc.

Have been looking at Nokia N95 (8GB). Like the functionality but a bit big/heavy and software a bit slow.

Any recommendations/tips? Am based in Thailand so will most likely buy in Thailand and pre-dominantly use around Asia.

Thanks.

[yeti]

Alternatively does anyone know of a good website for which you could enter what you want your mobile phone to have / be able to do (mp3 player, camera with resoluton higher than x million pixels, email, organizer, etc.) and then it'd give you the corresponding models for the main brands?

[DAS]

Alternatively does anyone know of a good website for which you could enter what you want your mobile phone to have / be able to do (mp3 player, camera with resoluton higher than x million pixels, email, organizer, etc.) and then it'd give you the corresponding models for the main brands?

GSMArena.com will tell you everything you need to know. Personally, I love my N95 and I normally can't stand cellphones. Good luck.

[nikster]

iPhone is awesome (and fast!!) but very expensive and not exactly small or light. Of course, the reason is that it's made of steel and glass so it's near-indestructible and the screen doesn't scratch so there's a trade-off. And the screen is most of the phone, too. LARGE.

Syncing is a dream compared to my previous Nokias - it takes 10 seconds to sync: bookmarks, email accounts (no entering your email info here -it's all synced from the computer), calendars, time, address book, music, photos - the latter two if you choose to do so.

iPhone is great for smsing, and O-K but not any better for phone calls. It's working reasonably well, but Nokia is somewhat better in this regard, at least all the ones I had.

If you can live with the heft, absolute recommendation.

[Gary A]

Hi All,

Need a new mobile. Primary usage will be for phoning/sms-ing, however this time I also want a phone that can be used as an organizer, send/receive occasional emails, synchronize with laptop/outlook agenda, etc.

It must be small enough for me to carry it in my (trouser)pocket, a screen as large as possible but not PDA size!!, fast software etc.

Have been looking at Nokia N95 (8GB). Like the functionality but a bit big/heavy and software a bit slow.

Any recommendations/tips? Am based in Thailand so will most likely buy in Thailand and pre-dominantly use around Asia.

Thanks.

I have a Nokia N80 that has been really good for me. It has everything except GPS, When the price for the new N95 8gb comes down and I happen to see one in a store, that will be my next phone.

[gharknes]

they have all been copying Sony Ersn for years, inovation in design and features, don't settle for a copy get the real thing SE are way ahead of the rest.

[britmaveric]

Left Nokia and Motorola alone for many years now.

Best phones are Samsung for style and Sony Ericsson for functionality.

I totally agree Samsung is superior product these days.

[jrbkk64]

Hi guys (girls?),

Am using SE now, however face a (common) issue that nobody seems to be able to fix. It switches off all the time. Have had the software updated etc, but problem still the same. Before this one I had a Samsung, NO GOOD!! Bad built quality and the menu is not very logical.

[ignis]

Friend has the new slide Samsung, it is very nice but......

Ring tone is very soft even on full + battery life....

Myself have a Sony Ericsson, have always bought them for the past 15years..

Recharge every 7 days, ideal for what I use my phone for.

[Tywais]

I have a SE k790i, before that a k750i and before that another SE. The only thing missing in the 790i is a kitchen sink.

[Who, me ?]

Hi,

Which model do you have ?

I have an aging Nokia 6230, and fancy a new, not too expensive mobile

Thanks

Friend has the new slide Samsung, it is very nice but......

Ring tone is very soft even on full + battery life....

Myself have a Sony Ericsson, have always bought them for the past 15years..

Recharge every 7 days, ideal for what I use my phone for.

[nikster]

Hi guys (girls?),

Am using SE now, however face a (common) issue that nobody seems to be able to fix. It switches off all the time. Have had the software updated etc, but problem still the same. Before this one I had a Samsung, NO GOOD!! Bad built quality and the menu is not very logical.

That's because SE is a piece of crapola. At least the symbian based ones. I had a P990i - sadly, my first SE, and one that is known to have a lot of problems. But this flagship model was basically unusable. It just did not work, no matter what. Because the software kept crashing ("restarted to optimize performance" - yeah right!!) I even went through the trouble of changing the ID to a global ID and installed the very latest firmware available.

It's a pretty complicated process but if you use the SE updater with the Thai ID, it will update to whatever version SE Thailand has said is good enough for Thailand, which is several revisions behind.

However, even with the latest global firmware, the phone was shit. It was faster, and actually reasonably fast, but it also kept crashing.

How bad is the SE P990i?

- At one point, I couldn't make phone calls. Network error. Of course that was in a real emergency and not being able to make calls was crazy - luckily I had my old Nokia with me, swapped SIM cards, and made the call on the Nokia. The network was fine. The SE was the problem.

- Refilling my account did not work. I had to swap the SIM to the Nokia to refill my account. I later found that it worked sometimes, seemed to depend on which mobile cell I was in.

- Crashed randomly - pretty often, the phone restarts to "optimize performance". Usually while you are in the middle of something.

- Missed calls. Mysteriously missed calls even though in a quiet room with phone in pocket. Phone just didn't ring- showed the list of missed calls just fine. And no, it was not set to silent.

- Out of memory errors. Solution: Restart the phone!

- User interface is divided into flip and no flip operation. It's messy to begin with with buttons and menus in all sorts of unlikely places, but flip vs no-flip makes this phone downright schizophrenic. "Sorry you can't do that with the flip closed!". <deleted>?

- User interface chaos. Do I use the click wheel, the number pad, the key pad, or the stylus? Some things need this, others that. With the flip up, you can't see half the preferences. Why? No idea. It's not explained anywhere. Changing anything always took ages and usually going through every single menu option until I found where the setting was hiding.

The only saving grace was that the hardware was solid and looked nice. But the software on this thing is just unbelievably bad. I am a software engineer and in my opinion, the only thing they can do with that is throw it away and start over. It has so many issues that that would be the best fix.

The P990i easily takes first place for worst phone I have ever owned. It also takes second place for worst gadget I have ever owned behind the Creative Nomad Jukebox 1st-gen mp3 player.

I am OK with the non-symbian based SEs - they look nice enough and seem to work OK. But I would not touch a symbian based SE with a 10 foot pole.

Edited November 14, 2007 by nikster

[ignis]

Hi,

Which model do you have ?

I have an aging Nokia 6230, and fancy a new, not too expensive mobile

Thanks

Mine are aging now, K750i + just as good 630i, and as a spare very old but still works and looks like new T29.

Had a clear out a couple of years ago and sold or gave away all the others, keeping the ones I like best.

[rak sa_ngop]

Friend has the new slide Samsung, it is very nice but......

Ring tone is very soft even on full + battery life....

Myself have a Sony Ericsson, have always bought them for the past 15years..

Recharge every 7 days, ideal for what I use my phone for.

I recently bought a Samsung F300.

Two screens, one front, one back. Very fidddly to use; switching screens, some touch/stroke buttons and some press buttons.

Music sound is good but telephone sound and ring tone is very low (2 speakers I believe). Some favourite functions missing like calculator and full month calendar. Difficult learning curve especially as instructions are very basic.

However it is very small and light (without the combined carrying case and second battery pack) and very sexy!

I did check out some reviews for this phone but some features that were highlighted as being missing I do have (e.g. vibration) and some features that were supposed to be present I do not have (calculator) so it seems almost impossible to judge how suitable a phone is for your own requirements without using or buying one first.

If you buy one and don't like it you just have to wait a few years until its time to buy a new one!

[grtaylor]

Very happy with my NOKIA 6300 - does all you ask, has a big screen, light-weight case.

G

[Gary A]

My wife has a Samsung slider. It has some nice features and is fairly easy to program and to use, BUT, the voice and call quality stinks. I am a little hard of hearing and I wouldn't be able to use that phone. The call quality of my N80 is MUCH better.

As a side note, I have a friend coming over for a visit and he asked me to buy him a cheap phone. I bought a Nokia 1208 for him and the call quality is excellent.

[raro]

Depends on your budget...I saw that iPhone the other day and it is truely amazing - but not cheap and rather large.

I bought a Motorola PEBL three months ago and it can do basically all you are asking for. The razor has a larger screen, though, but same functions. The PEBL comes now at 5,000 Baht, has bluetooth and can also connect via USB. You can upload contacts out of Outlook and use it as a wireless modem for GPRS....

[tjo o tjim]

Can you tolerate Windows Mobile (or do you see it as a benefit)? If so, HTC has a number of viable options, with Motorola and Samsung also in the mix with better style but arguably less function.

I find the Nokia smartphones sluggish and clunky, but many people get used to them and love them.

The iPhone is pretty good-- generally snappy response, but text entry isn't as good as with a qwerty keyboard.

Overall, if you want to type, it's hard to beat the blackberry. The experience is expensive (service charges), but everything I have seen makes it the winner. Not really a fan of the trackball on the newer units, but it works. Palm is useless these days for a new user.

Personally, never liked the Sony Ericson phones. They were OK, but always one problem that drove me crazy.

[jrbkk64]

Got the Nokia N95 8GB today. Let us see how happy I will be. So far so good!! A bit expensive at THB 26k.

Thanks for your help.

[Gary A]

Got the Nokia N95 8GB today. Let us see how happy I will be. So far so good!! A bit expensive at THB 26k.

Thanks for your help.

Let us know how you like it. The old N95 had poor battery life and the new one has a bigger battery so should be much better.

[moo9]

Got the Nokia N95 8GB today. Let us see how happy I will be. So far so good!! A bit expensive at THB 26k.

Thanks for your help.

Let us know how you like it. The old N95 had poor battery life and the new one has a bigger battery so should be much better.

I am interested in it too....did the prices for the ordinary N95 drop now?

[jrbkk64]

Got the Nokia N95 8GB today. Let us see how happy I will be. So far so good!! A bit expensive at THB 26k.

Thanks for your help.

Let us know how you like it. The old N95 had poor battery life and the new one has a bigger battery so should be much better.

I am interested in it too....did the prices for the ordinary N95 drop now?

I think the current price for the 'ordinary" N95 is about 23k but it may drop quickly as the new version is now available in Thailand.