What phone should I get?

[ciphergoth]

I need a new phone. I'm almost totally at a loss about what I want. I don't know whether I should get a smartphone, or whether the browser/diary/etc facilities of a normal phone are enough. Any ideas?

Rules (updated):

• 3G, Bluetooth
• No Microsoft
• Must work in San Francisco

Update: Currently tempted by the Sony M600i...

Comments

[babysimon]

The smartphone market is depressing at the moment. Hopefully the iPhone and (optimistically) the Neo1973 will shake things up a bit.

I don't know whether I should get a smartphone, or whether the browser/diary/etc facilities of a normal phone are enough.

You have to decide. How much do you want a browser? How much do you want a diary? Typical implementations on modern phones are basic but usable, and sometimes it's easier to sync a regular phone than a Treo.

I'm a bit disappointed with my N70, but it was the last Series 60 rev 2 device made - the rev 3 devices may be nicer, but I know rev 3 has mandatory signing for apps which has discouraged what freeware development there was. Dunno if that's important to you. If you do want a S60 phone and a qwerty keyboard, have a look at the E61. Sony-Ericsson have finally made a non-clunky UIQ phone, the W950i (doesn't look like a smartphone, but it is). Again, I haven't used it but it looks nice.

I *think* any GSM phone with 1900MHz support will work in SF. That should be almost everything these days.

[bileandvitriol.livejournal.com]

My experience with XDA-type devices says to just get a phone. Use a laptop with a 3G card if you want data functionality. If you want portable email, get a Blackberry.

[juliet]

A thought to consider: having been used to having an Actual Keyboard, would going back to predictive text etc bug you for diary/texts/similar? (I strongly suspect it would bug me, a lot)

Has the Treo 680 come out yet?

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

If the signing is the same as the "Symbian Signed" process for Symbian 9, then you can install unsigned apps, you just have to say that you really mean it a lot, at least according to this:

https://www.symbiansigned.com/app/page/overview/freewareFaq


Q. What's the advantage of having my freeware application Symbian Signed?

A. The freeware application - once it has been Symbian Signed - will get far greater prominence across the Symbian ecosystem and will install without an 'application source untrusted' dialog.

[purplerabbits.livejournal.com]

What's wrong with a Treo?

[devilgate.livejournal.com]

Coincidentally, I just got an M600i this morning. It seems quite nice so far. Unfortunately, I tried to use it earlier to leave a comment on this entry, and it got lost. I assume that I did something that jumped me out of the browser before the comment was posted, and I'm being charitable and putting that down to unfamiliarity.

Disappointing, though, that the text was gone when I made my way back to the posting page. In Firefox it almost certainly would have still been there.

Anyway, I don't have a lot to say about the device yet, but I quite like what I've seen so far.

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

Oh, good question, I should have answered that right away.

* I'm not sure I benefit enough for it to be worth the cost
* I might like something lighter
* I want 3G
* I'm going off PalmOS because they're never going to bring out Cobalt
* I'm just generally re-treading my assumptions

[pengshui-master.livejournal.com]

I'm reasonably happy with the N70, the goods bits are having putty and python diretcly on the phone. ALhtough I;ve not used python in anger yet.
(I have no idea wether it will work in SF).


Using putty is ok even with the text keyboard but I'd much rather have a bluetooth keyboard or <a href="http://www.cykey.co.uk>cykey</a>. The n73 is out now with a better display which might improve the readability under putty which could be better. Also good is the fact the default shell - phone app works pretty much like an ordianry phone which is in contrast to many other smartphones I've seem. Worst part of it is that despite pretty open in in standards support I haven't managed to back my contacts back to my debian desktop yet. Oh and the battery life could be a little better I get about 3 days of usage between charges.

[cairmen.livejournal.com]

I've had the M600i recommended to me.

[babysimon]

I'm going off PalmOS because they're never going to bring out Cobalt

Oh, I dunno. All they need to do is re-hire Steve Jobs, replace Coplandbalt with NextSTEP and launch a music player and they'll be all set.

[babysimon]

I want 3G

You may want to re-examine that. If you can find a decent data tariff it might be worth it, but Orange didn't seem to do one last I checked. I've even disabled 3G on my phone, since it seems to prefer a weak 3G signal to a strong 2.5G one.

[autopope.livejournal.com]

I bought an M600i last week. I am still in love with it.

Good points:

* 3G along with a sensible battery life -- at last!
* Weighs no more than an old Nokia 6310i, i.e. 60% as much as a Treo or an HTC TyTN
* The phone functionality is much better integrated than any Micro$oft phone I've ever seen
* The keyboard is about as good as a treo for text entry, but much better for numeric work (i.e. being a phone)
* PuTTY (need I say more?)
* Able to run Documents to Go for UIQ 3.0 happily, for those unavoidable fits of Micro$oft office interaction (DtG is better than the built-in QuickOffice suite, although if your needs are fewer you can probably do okay with the latter as it's free with the phone)

Disadvantages:

* Memory Stick Micro. I sprang for a 1Gb stick; larger sizes are currently distinctly expensive or unavailable.
* UIQ 3.0 lacks third-party apps at present, compared to Series 60 v.3. I expect this will moderate with time, but the lack of OPL or Python (as yet) is annoying.
* Likewise, Think Outside claim their keyboard driver is in beta test -- but it's not available yet. (OTOH, they tend to be fairly prompt in releasing stuff, so I expect external keyboard functionality will show up soon.)
* No camera. (To my eyes, this is an advantage -- if I want to take photos, I'll carry a real camera, thanks.)
* No Wifi. I'm on T-Mobile web'n'walk so I couldn't care less, I've got up to 2Gb of free downloads a month and they're only clamping down on egregious over-use. But if you're with a carrier who charge by the Mb, this could be painful. (I expect they'll fall into line behind T-Mobile and 3 over the next year, though.)
* Sync protocol has changed with UIQ 3.0 and OS/X and Linux don't support it yet. (But bluetooth file exchange works, and it can read vCards, so unless you really need Calendar integration and push email you're not going to care too much.)
* SMS reader doesn't thread messages. (On the other hand, apart from the Treo, whose SMS reader does? I smell a third-party niche application ...)
* Email client doesn't seem to have a setting whereby you can auto-delete stuff that's more than n days old. (Again: probably a minor third party app will fix this eventually. And this assumes you want to read email on your phone, rather than using something bulkier.)

All told, I'd give it 8/10, and as UIQ 3.0 throws up some third-party apps, this may improve to 9/10. It's the closest thing to a modern successor to the old Nokia 6310i I've seen -- a decent business phone that isn't overpowered by spurious entertainment crap and that does telephony properly -- and comes with 3G and the new features I need.

You missed a negative

[meta.ath0.com (from livejournal.com)]

The M600i is only tri-band, which sucks if you want something that works internationally. (In particular, the lack of GSM850 will limit the network coverage in the USA.)

[meta.ath0.com (from livejournal.com)]

The N70 should work in SF, but you'll get poor coverage because it's only tri-band and Cingular's new coverage is GSM850.

[meta.ath0.com (from livejournal.com)]

I like my Z520a. At the time I got it, it was the smallest quad band phone that would sync with a Mac. I haven't looked to see if anything better has come out in the last year.

The organizer facilities are adequate. I don't use the browser much, mostly because browsing the web via phone costs by the KB. I've tried some Java apps on it, including a nifty Amazon price check thing and a Jabber client.

It doesn't have 3G, but I've yet to hear of anything I'd want 3G for, even if the network around here supported it, which I'm not sure it does. It does have Bluetooth and work with the car, which was the other key requirement.

Basically, I'm of the "make it a good phone, make it small" mindset. Give me something I can put in the pocket of my 501s and use anywhere in the world. If I want the web as well, I'll carry an N800 with me, and probably use a free WiFi hotspot rather than an overpriced mobile data service.

Palm OS is dead (officially), and I'm tired of waiting for them to release their new Linux platform, so I wouldn't touch a Treo.

[calum]

Sony-Ericsson phones in general are pretty good. I really love my K800i, but I dont use it as a general diary. Opera Mini runs on it though, and dispite the small screen, works really well for web browsing. 3G and Bluetooth just work.

Orange decided, however, in the last N months or so, that 3G data should cost the same as 2.5G data, so there are no cheap, decent data bundles any more. The other networks are doing the same, I think.

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately Orange don't seem to be offering me any phones that have both quad-band and 3G. And I think 3G would be nice for using the laptop on the train to and from Hatfield and suchlike.

[devilgate.livejournal.com]

T-Mobile's Web 'n' Walk service gives you unlimited mobile internet connectivity (for certain values of "unlimited"), unless I've seriously misunderstood things.

[kitty-goth.livejournal.com]

Have you had a 3G phone before?

I feel strongly about this as I've had my Nokia N70 switched to GSM-only for the last 4+ months as the 3G signal was shit everywhere and I couldn't discern an end-user-noticable speed difference in the speed of mobile browsing over GPRS.

My next device will likely by a Treo 680 as I've decided I don't care about 3G but do care a lot about having a full keyboard and being able to install the apps of my choice.

[pengshui-master.livejournal.com]

You've said you had an N70 right?

If it like mine , and I do see problems with its 3G climbback (is the the inverse of fallback) - then there is a firmware update which is supposed to fix that.

I haven;t tried it myself since it tooscared I'll flash-trash my phone.

[pengshui-master.livejournal.com]

Why stay with orange?

It prolly worth shopping aropund at least. Unfortuantely orange _do_ seem to have the best data charges , on the other hand data is charged per MB so if you use efficeint protocol you can prolly get more use than the ave phone websurfer.

I don't really limit my use of the web/internet on the phone and rarely have spent more than a fiver extra a month on it. OTOH I could certianly use it more too.

I ended up changing becuae they would offer be a better phone buy changing , and discovered that vodaphones customer service is much quicker asnwering.

[babysimon]

http://geeksimon.deadjournal.com/29517.html

I want to know too!

[webcowgirl.livejournal.com]

Article in NYT today might help. Relevant info:

There are a variety of ways to get these applications, and you probably already have some. In addition to Bluetooth and a camera, the Nokia 6102i, effectively free after a rebate from Cingular Wireless, comes with software applications including an audio recorder, an alarm clock, a calendar, a to-do list, a note taker, a calculator, a countdown timer and a stopwatch. It also has AOL, Yahoo, ICQ and MSN instant messengers, a text messaging program, an FM radio, e-mail and, of course, an Internet browser.

And all of this is before you download any applications over the wireless network from the Cingular Mall, where you can buy games, ring tones, graphics and other applications.

Sprint’s Samsung M500, available for as little as $9.99 after rebate, has a comparable list of built-in features, along with a dictionary and the ability to store files and play music. Like more expensive hand-helds, it comes with a U.S.B. cable to sync with a PC and a 64-megabyte microSD card (for about $30 you can buy a one-gigabyte card) to store MP3 files that you can play on the phone.

It can even display an analog clock, but the real power of this and many other phones is the applications you can buy and download.

Some of the productivity programs that can be downloaded from Sprint are RandMcNally StreetFinder, MapQuest Mobile, Vindigo City Guide, Zagat restaurant guide and FlyteSource Mobile, which gives real-time flight status. These or similar services are also available on phones from other carriers.

All cellular carriers offer some type of e-mail service, sometimes for an extra fee. But consumers have choices. In addition to the carrier’s services, there are free third-party services you can use, including Yahoo Mail, Gmail and Flurry.

M600i is quite good..

[pitchtarn.livejournal.com]

I've got one, though I'm selling it on eBay.
The keyboard really is quite good - it makes typing much faster than using T9.
The display is nice, it does 320x240 video well and it's got a 3D accelerator (for some reason - ok games, but this is a business phone).
I'd say the interface relies too much on the stylus, but it beats the hell out of windows mobile, in my experience.

Nokia E61(i)

[rukzise.livejournal.com]

Hi Paul,

I can warm-heartedly recommend the Nokia E61. Just as the M600i it doesn't have a camera, but it has WLAN! Plus it does SIP connections over WLAN. I also like the keyboard on the E61 better than on the M600i (the 2 letters on a key is a nice idea, but I can type better on my E61). You can read PDFs on the device if you're pressed to do so (use PDF+ instead of the Adobe Reader though, since the Adobe Reader has a problem with LaTeX fonts). I haven't been to U.S of A. since I bought the phone, but from the specs it should work alright in the SF: Quadband GSM (850/900/1800/1900), unfortunately it lacks WCDMA (UMTS version used in the US) support though (Nokia babbles something about WCDMA 2100 support for the E61 on their web site, but AFAIK this is not true; the E62 does WCDMA, but it lacks 802.11g). You can feed 2GB MicroSD cards into it if you have a severe appetite for storage. Ah yes, and of course it does PuTTY. The browser on this thingie rocks! One caveat though: You might wanna wait for the E61i. It is supposed to come out in the time frame of the 3GSM in February and packs an additional 2MP camera.

-R

[emarkienna.livejournal.com]

Just a note about relying on the facilities of a normal phone - the web browser on mine (Motorola V980) is rather basic and doesn't work with many pages (e.g., LiveJournal). I don't know if this is typical of non-smart phone browers or I was just unlucky with this model. On the other hand, it can run Opera Mini which works a lot better.

Also the built-in email client is rather crappy (it seems to only want to download the first bit of messages if they are too large despite me increasing the relevant size option...).