A few questions on choosing a phone

froggyoggy wrote:hi, I am writing in this forum for the 1st time.

I need help deciding what phone to go for this time.

These are some of the phones I've been looking at:-

Orange SPV c600
HTC MTeoR
Nokia E60, N71, N73, N80, N91, N93
Sony erricsson p900i, k810i

This is what I need my phone for:-

1. Browsing web
2. Usage of applications / simple connectivity to PC such as USB cable
3. I like a phone which can be highly tweaked (like a PC)
4. Don't like a phone which has no physical phone keypad to dial out
5. Don't like a phone which is too big
6. The main usage for my phone is to make calls.
7. Reasonable camera
8. A phone which can have Tomtom software on it.

I don't mind WM5 or SYMBIAN mobile operating systems, although I definately want a phone which is very flexible, like a PDA as I plan to load applications onto it.

So what can you guys recommend?

Thanks for your advice

Well, this is a Symbian site so you'll probably get some pro-Symbian answers here... 😉

To start with though, do you have any particular priorities on those requirements?

I ask because some of them sort of contradict each other, for example browsing the web or using Tomtom is much easier on a phone with a large screen but that normally makes the phone itself quite big.

Smartphones can be very small, the Nokia 5500 is as small and light as non-smartphones, but it has a small screen. At the other end of the scale the E61 has a huge screen but it's quite big.

Going through your requirements in order though (I can only comment on S60 as it's what I use):

1. Symbian S60 3rd Edition phones (the Nokia Nseries, Eseries, 5500 and 3250) have a good built-in browser called S60 or NGbrowser, which is fast and renders sites pretty much as they would be on a PC. It works with sites that include frames, javascript, SSL etc. You can also buy the Opera browser for S60 which has lots of advantages and disadvantages over the free one, it's a matter of taste which you prefer.

2. All Symbian S60 3rd Editions can connect to the Nokia PC Suite support software via USB cable or bluetooth. The latest edition of PC Suite works very easily, and lets you do things like transfer music, store photos and videos, synchronise contacts and messages etc. You can also access the file structure of the phone itself using the phone browser.

3. S60 is an open platform, which means that anyone can write applications for it, and many people are doing just that, with new apps appearing every day. S60 is also the most popular smartphone platform in the world, outselling all the competition put together. The slight snag with S60 3rd Edition (the latest version of S60) is that it's only been on sale for a few months, so a lot of software is still being converted from S60 2nd Edition. As for the look of the menus and desktop, S60 supports themes and you can also download a free theme editor from the Nokia website so you can customise the look and feel of everything yourself.

4. All of those S60 Eseries and Nseries models that you listed have standard phone keypads.

5. Don't get the N93 if you want small phones, it's designed for the pocket camcorder market (it has a DVD-quality video camera) and is very large as a phone.

6. There's not much to choose between in terms of making calls, S60 all do it well, and they use the same contacts and messaging systems. Nokia smartphones generally have very good sound quality in calls, thanks to their phone-based heritage.

7. All Nseries S60 models have good cameras, with several megapixels and often with high quality Zeiss lenses. The series was designed to appeal to multimedia fans.

8. According to TomTom's website, the Nokia N80 will run the latest version of their software, and according to retailers so will the N71, N73 and N93.

Hope this helps.

Well tbh, i've heard bad things about the mteor, but the c600 wouldn't lead you astray. It's a normal phone form factor, with a regular keypad. Nice screen, and Windows Mob 5 is certainly customizable. It should run Tomtom, and will browse the web nicely, i'm sure.

out of the symbian phones you chose, the n91 and n93 might be too big for your tastes. They're also fairly specialised phones, and since you didn't specifically ask for music or movies i'm guessing that specialisation (and hence extra price) might be wasted on you.

Any of the others would be fine.

krisse & B35tY, Thank You Very Much for such a detailed answer! I really appreciate it.

Ok..I think when I said that I don't want a bulky phone, I meant a phone the size of an orange spv m3100. Although hands down, my priority is have tomtom software and using web, so yes I don't really care much if the phone was slightly on the big side.

My main reason for selling the spv m3100 was due to it not having a basic phone keypad which was very irritating as I mainly use my phone for calling friends all the time. But as you've explained, this argument won't apply to any of the nokia phones.

Since you've already told me that all the phones come with a good camera then I'm happy with that. B35tY - Just to clarify, I absolutely don't care about music or making videos, although that would be an added bonus. More important than that would be having ample storage on the phone, to upload applications to. Regarding the n91...I think its not too big, although a very slightly smaller phone would be nice. Hope that gives you guys a rough idea of what I'm willing to accept.

Ok here are a few more questions:-

1. What symbian version is the best - i.e. features-wise - highly customisable, like windows mobile 5? stable? complex, yet simple to navigate?

2. If I installed tomtom mobile software, would i need any hardware to use GPS? If so what will be required?

3. Will my provider (Orange) charge me per minute for using GPS?

4. Are any of these phones NON-UNLOCKABLE?

5. Last of all, having looked at my answers so far, what phone would you experts HIGHLY recommend? And please give me not one but a couple to look at. If necessary, number them by priority and give any advantages/disadvantages they may have.

Thanks!

froggyoggy

krisse wrote:Well, this is a Symbian site so you'll probably get some pro-Symbian answers here... 😉

To start with though, do you have any particular priorities on those requirements?

I ask because some of them sort of contradict each other, for example browsing the web or using Tomtom is much easier on a phone with a large screen but that normally makes the phone itself quite big.

Smartphones can be very small, the Nokia 5500 is as small and light as non-smartphones, but it has a small screen. At the other end of the scale the E61 has a huge screen but it's quite big.

Going through your requirements in order though (I can only comment on S60 as it's what I use):

1. Symbian S60 3rd Edition phones (the Nokia Nseries, Eseries, 5500 and 3250) have a good built-in browser called S60 or NGbrowser, which is fast and renders sites pretty much as they would be on a PC. It works with sites that include frames, javascript, SSL etc. You can also buy the Opera browser for S60 which has lots of advantages and disadvantages over the free one, it's a matter of taste which you prefer.

2. All Symbian S60 3rd Editions can connect to the Nokia PC Suite support software via USB cable or bluetooth. The latest edition of PC Suite works very easily, and lets you do things like transfer music, store photos and videos, synchronise contacts and messages etc. You can also access the file structure of the phone itself using the phone browser.

3. S60 is an open platform, which means that anyone can write applications for it, and many people are doing just that, with new apps appearing every day. S60 is also the most popular smartphone platform in the world, outselling all the competition put together. The slight snag with S60 3rd Edition (the latest version of S60) is that it's only been on sale for a few months, so a lot of software is still being converted from S60 2nd Edition. As for the look of the menus and desktop, S60 supports themes and you can also download a free theme editor from the Nokia website so you can customise the look and feel of everything yourself.

4. All of those S60 Eseries and Nseries models that you listed have standard phone keypads.

5. Don't get the N93 if you want small phones, it's designed for the pocket camcorder market (it has a DVD-quality video camera) and is very large as a phone.

6. There's not much to choose between in terms of making calls, S60 all do it well, and they use the same contacts and messaging systems. Nokia smartphones generally have very good sound quality in calls, thanks to their phone-based heritage.

7. All Nseries S60 models have good cameras, with several megapixels and often with high quality Zeiss lenses. The series was designed to appeal to multimedia fans.

8. According to TomTom's website, the Nokia N80 will run the latest version of their software, and according to retailers so will the N71, N73 and N93.

Hope this helps.

P900i is nice but outdated, Why not just go for a PDA with GSM, HP, palm and others sell them.

leroyg wrote:P900i is nice but outdated, Why not just go for a PDA with GSM, HP, palm and others sell them.

I've already used a PDA mate...an orange spv m3100...its useless when you just want to use it like a phone...way too big and unless its got the usual simple phone keypad to dial out, it starts to get irritating.

I notice that no one has managed to come up with any advice regarding the info and questions below...any anyone advice?..thanks!

froggyoggy wrote:krisse & B35tY, Thank You Very Much for such a detailed answer! I really appreciate it.

Ok..I think when I said that I don't want a bulky phone, I meant a phone the size of an orange spv m3100. Although hands down, my priority is have tomtom software and using web, so yes I don't really care much if the phone was slightly on the big side.

My main reason for selling the spv m3100 was due to it not having a basic phone keypad which was very irritating as I mainly use my phone for calling friends all the time. But as you've explained, this argument won't apply to any of the nokia phones.

Since you've already told me that all the phones come with a good camera then I'm happy with that. B35tY - Just to clarify, I absolutely don't care about music or making videos, although that would be an added bonus. More important than that would be having ample storage on the phone, to upload applications to. Regarding the n91...I think its not too big, although a very slightly smaller phone would be nice. Hope that gives you guys a rough idea of what I'm willing to accept.

Ok here are a few more questions:-

1. What symbian version is the best - i.e. features-wise - highly customisable, like windows mobile 5? stable? complex, yet simple to navigate?

2. If I installed tomtom mobile software, would i need any hardware to use GPS? If so what will be required?

3. Will my provider (Orange) charge me per minute for using GPS?

4. Are any of these phones NON-UNLOCKABLE?

5. Last of all, having looked at my answers so far, what phone would you experts HIGHLY recommend? And please give me not one but a couple to look at. If necessary, number them by priority and give any advantages/disadvantages they may have.

Thanks!

froggyoggy

1. What symbian version is the best - i.e. features-wise - highly customisable, like windows mobile 5? stable? complex, yet simple to navigate?

- Last one S60v3 - OS9.1;

2. If I installed tomtom mobile software, would i need any hardware to use GPS? If so what will be required?

- Yes, a bluetooth antenna. LD-3W, use the same battery and charger of Nokia phones, so could be better then others;

3. Will my provider (Orange) charge me per minute for using GPS?

- No. Is not network dependent (Tomtom);

4. Are any of these phones NON-UNLOCKABLE?

- None. The network operator can unlock all;

5. Last of all, having looked at my answers so far, what phone would you experts HIGHLY recommend? And please give me not one but a couple to look at. If necessary, number them by priority and give any advantages/disadvantages they may have.

- N73, E70 and E61 - why? Because are the only ones with enouth battery to work without problems more then one day!

Thanks very much for helping.

1. When you say S60v3 - OS9.1, can you explain to this novice what you mean?

2. Bluetooth antenna? You mean a receiver? What is LD-3W? If I used the same battery taken from my mobile, then how do i watch tomtom on my nokia's screen, because it'll have no power?

4. Do i just ring the operator to unlock them? How much do they charge?

5. The phones you gave are great, except for some niggles:-

a. N73 - Isn't this the one, where there is a problem with using the navigation buttons and joystick?

b. E70 - I certainly like this phone, does it have any important technical features missing, that other phones have? i.e. not expandable, application compatibility, slow...i thought this one is NOT SUPPORTED by tomtom???

c. E61 - Way too big too big for me...prefer the size of an E60 :tongue:

Once again thanks and i look forward to your reply

nj7 wrote:1. What symbian version is the best - i.e. features-wise - highly customisable, like windows mobile 5? stable? complex, yet simple to navigate?

- Last one S60v3 - OS9.1;

2. If I installed tomtom mobile software, would i need any hardware to use GPS? If so what will be required?

- Yes, a bluetooth antenna. LD-3W, use the same battery and charger of Nokia phones, so could be better then others;

3. Will my provider (Orange) charge me per minute for using GPS?

- No. Is not network dependent (Tomtom);

4. Are any of these phones NON-UNLOCKABLE?

- None. The network operator can unlock all;

5. Last of all, having looked at my answers so far, what phone would you experts HIGHLY recommend? And please give me not one but a couple to look at. If necessary, number them by priority and give any advantages/disadvantages they may have.

- N73, E70 and E61 - why? Because are the only ones with enouth battery to work without problems more then one day!

ok guys, sorry about this, but there has been a change of plan...

the only main reason I was looking for the above was so that I could every now and then use my phone for gps. Well I've just found out that i could use my existing laptop to do the same thing and I'll just need a gps receiver and software.

So because the above is okay, i now have different specs for the phone required. Here are the top 10:-

1. Small/Slim phone as possible
2. Must have good battery life
3. Very good calender/organiser
4. Must have good call quality and signal
5. Reasonable technology features
6. Should be easily and cheaply unlockable
7. If possible, it should have loud ring tones and good viberation as I'm sometimes working in a noisy environment.
8. If possible a flip or slide feature would be preferred.
9. Should be easily connectable to PC
10. Nice screen would be an advantage

Sorry about the inconvenience.

Thanks for helping

froggyoggy wrote:ok guys, sorry about this, but there has been a change of plan...

the only main reason I was looking for the above was so that I could every now and then use my phone for gps. Well I've just found out that i could use my existing laptop to do the same thing and I'll just need a gps receiver and software.

So because the above is okay, i now have different specs for the phone required. Here are the top 10:-

1. Small/Slim phone as possible
2. Must have good battery life
3. Very good calender/organiser
4. Must have good call quality and signal
5. Reasonable technology features
6. Should be easily and cheaply unlockable
7. If possible, it should have loud ring tones and good viberation as I'm sometimes working in a noisy environment.
8. If possible a flip or slide feature would be preferred.
9. Should be easily connectable to PC
10. Nice screen would be an advantage

Sorry about the inconvenience.

Thanks for helping

6. Nokia 5500!

nj7 wrote:6. Nokia 5500!

nj7 - thank you very much!

If anyone knows of anymore mobiles that they can recommend, then i'd be most grateful