new smart phone needed!

bigtom71

I have a HTC TYTN smart phone at the moment (a Vodafone V1605 to be exact!), but the battery life is crap. It will only last a day or less before needing to be recharged and I suspect it is because of the touchscreen capability (I don't use the Wi-Fi on it).

While I will suffer this for another while, my boss has one too and he won't. He has generously given me the task of finding him a new phone, but I don't know where to start. He wants something that takes Exchange push e-mail, has an FM radio, and some sort of full keyboard (whether it is the slide out type on the TYTN or a small one on the face of the phone like a Blackberry). An absolute must is a decent battery life - more than a few days if possible. He is used to Windows mobile 5, so Mobile 6 would be preferable to a Palm OS. I found and checked out the iPaq 514 which has a great battery life - 7 or 8 days - but doesn't have a full keyboard or radio.

Can anyone help?

Tom...

quintron

What about S60 OS? Nokia E61i or E90?

bigtom71

quintron wrote: »

What about S60 OS? Nokia E61i or E90?

Thanks Quintron. I like the E90 but from reviews on the 'Net, there is some question as to its battery life - 2 or 3 days. What's your verdict of this?

Tom...

wirelessdude

i have used Nokia e50/i, e61/i, e65, palm treo 750v, v1605(tytn), moto Q9h and without fail most of them have bad battery life when used on 3G....change to GSM/GPRS and suddenly the battery life becomes quite good......if you are only using the device for mail then GPRS is fast enough

bigtom71

I will switch to GSM to see if that makes any difference. It seems that Nokia are pretty much the only manufacturer that has an FM radio in a smartphone. However, could someone confirm this for me - from looking on the 'Net, I think the Symbian OS does not do push email as well as Windows Mobile 5 or 6, i.e. it only really uses POP mail, which would mean that you have to forward Exchange mail to a POP address first? If this is the case, then Nokia isn't really an option, more's the pity.

Tom...

mkennedy

O2 XDA Orbit/HTC Artemis, Eten X500, Eten M700 and Eten X800 (afaik) are all Windows Mobile smartphones WITH FM RADIOS in them.

The M700 is the only one of those however with a slider keyboard.

They all use WM6.

TBH battery life is always going to be a problem on multitasking smartphones.

However non-touchscreen smartphones with smaller processors (Windows Mobile Standard) will have better battery-life than touchscreen smartphones (Windows Mobile Professional).
It's just they won't do as much.

Have a look at www.pdadb.net where they list all the newest smartphones with their specs
(i'm nearly sure that site is still around anyway..).

wirelessdude

bigtom71 wrote: »

I will switch to GSM to see if that makes any difference. It seems that Nokia are pretty much the only manufacturer that has an FM radio in a smartphone. However, could someone confirm this for me - from looking on the 'Net, I think the Symbian OS does not do push email as well as Windows Mobile 5 or 6, i.e. it only really uses POP mail, which would mean that you have to forward Exchange mail to a POP address first? If this is the case, then Nokia isn't really an option, more's the pity.

Tom...

the E-Series from nokia uses active sync which gives real time push mail....PM me if you want

quintron

All E series can do push, many are officially blackberry enabled ala E61, E61i, E65 or E90 or have an alternate. Try emoze its free! or Seven etc...
Battery life on smartphones has always been somewhat of a moot point for me as I have a charger at my desk and one beside my bed so I never understand when people complain about battery life.. get another charger and leave it at the same place you are always cursing for not having it...
Having said all that I do think the E90 battery life is excellent considering it powers 2 screens, 1 x 320x240 and the other 800 x 352, as well as using wifi, hsdpa regularly throughout the day as well as leaving BT on permanently etc etc, 2 -3 days IS good for current smartphones with large colour screens and lots of connectivity!
Standby of course without actually using the phone is considerably longer but thats a pointless benchmark.

ianblyth

I got this 2 weeks ago... great phone slide out keyboard.. battery lasts up to 4 days or more.. i use the wifi and bluetooth every now and again.. it has GPS built into it... that's what uses a lot of power.. so if you don't use the gps the battery stays pretty good... first smart phone I had was they Tytn or vodafone 1605.. the newer one is great faster better memory gps 3mp camera 3600 hsdpa.. (if you ever get that fast) but dosen't have a fm radio.. it can take a 6gb card in it... which you can fill with music.. also.. works great with A2DP stereo...

ollyk1

ianblyth wrote: »

I got this 2 weeks ago... great phone slide out keyboard.. battery lasts up to 4 days or more.. i use the wifi and bluetooth every now and again.. it has GPS built into it... that's what uses a lot of power.. so if you don't use the gps the battery stays pretty good... first smart phone I had was they Tytn or vodafone 1605.. the newer one is great faster better memory gps 3mp camera 3600 hsdpa.. (if you ever get that fast) but dosen't have a fm radio.. it can take a 6gb card in it... which you can fill with music.. also.. works great with A2DP stereo...

I have my bluetooth stereo headphones with fm radio built in on order so thats one way of getting around the fm radio issue with the TYTN II. I'm glad to hear you've had a good experience Ian.

I don't know about a battery life of 4 days though. I'd say 2 days max using wifi, camera and bluetooth etc. occasionally. I plug into the car charger when using gps so thats not an issue for me.

Given the OPs description of his boss I wouldn't recommend a TYTN II to be honest they guy sounds like he wants things easy and not too many "confusing" options. I'd keep it simple and go for a less specced phone.

If I was buying for myself it would be the TYTN every time

bigtom71

Thanks for all of the info. everybody. I have been trawling through various websites as well and every time a came up with a review I would have another recommendation for a different make of model. I have kind of narrowed it down to maybe two phones: the Nokia E90 or the HTC P3300 (the O2 XDA Orbit). It really depends on which is wanted - an onscreen keyboard or a full Qwerty. It also depends on the battery life of each but I think you should get about 2-3 days out of each with moderate use.

That was a great tip by Wirelessdude on the 3G to GSM. I tried it on my own TYTN and it made a massive difference - 24 hours standby time is suddenly increased to 3 days or more. Way to go. Perhaps I will let the boss know about this option and have him wait for the new version of the P3300 (the XDA Orbit II) although he would have to pay full whack for it as we are on Vodafone.

An yopbservations on any of the 3 phones above?

Tom...