What phone should I get?

TKK

I'm looking to upgrade from my htc p3300 (O2 XDA Orbit) as it's developed an extremely annoying buzz during calls.

I need to get something with good quality phone, wifi, bluetooth and gps. The rest of the features I'm not all that worried about though I would like mp3 capability.

I'm with Vodafone and have an upgrade available (no great point in moving as most of my contacts are on Vodafone so I get good use from the free calls). The two main choices would appear to be the Vodafone V1520 (Asus P550) or the Nokia N95 (I know the N96 is out soon but it's sure to be a horrendous price and I also usually prefer to wait until most of the wrinkles are ironed out before buying a device). Both are going for the same price so I'm wondering what are peoples views on them?

Are there any other devices out there that I should be considering?

Black_Knight

I myself have a HTC Touch Cruise, great phone, took a bit of getting used to after having Nokias all my life. Its basically all touch screen, ive not used the buttons other then the camera in a long time.
Its got all you ask, bluetooth, Wifi, GPS (eats your battery in about 2-3 hours), Ive not tried MP3s as ive an Ipod, maybe not the best pending on how it goes through batteries, although it could be great, ive no idea.
Battery isnt the best though, a few days (2-3) on normal usage.
The camera isnt great, new drivers were expected late last month but none so far.

Friend of mine has the N95, says the only thing wrong is the lack of battery time. Though that could be from using Wifi quite regularly (or so I hear).

The E51 looks a good one too. Wifi, GPS (AFAIK), Radio/MP3, bluetooth and alot cheaper then a HTC!

TKK

Hmmm...E51 you say...

The touch cruise is basically the replacement for what I currently have and it looks good.

I'll agree the gps eats batteries but I've got a car charger and when setting it up it gets plugged in straight away. Only time I use gps on batteries is an odd time when I'm holidays and need to get somewhere walking so it's a short time anyway.

I've used the p3300 as an mp3 player when travelling and can't say it was all that heavy on juice though I didn't pay it all that much heed.

Black_Knight

Dealextreme.com have what looks like the older version of the touch cruise. Albeit a knock off, but still uses Windows Mobile 6.
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.12811
Alot cheaper, but again, a knock off.

Id say if the P3300 wasnt bad on the battery then the Touch cruise mustnt be too bad either, it has a 1350mAh battery compared to the P3300s 1250mAh, so id guess they'll last similar lengths of time.

Touch Cruise is an awful ammount of money though, serious phone IMO appart from the much needed video driver update.

Black_Knight

By the by, have a look at the Touch Diamond

Warning: Jaw may drop uncontrolably!

TKK

Black_Knight wrote: »

By the by, have a look at the Touch Diamond

Warning: Jaw may drop uncontrolably!

Very very nice...also very very expensive but mmmm...

Black_Knight

I think ill hold on to the Touch cruise for a few years anyways before I go changing. Diamonds nice, but I think id prefer to have the money instead! Defo get it on the house insurance! They didnt know what a HTC was when I got mine put on the insurance, twas funny.

TKK

It doesn't look like the E51 has gps and anyway the screen at 2" would be a bit too small. The 6110 Navigator has but again the screen, at 2.2" is a bit too small. Ideally I'd like something with a screen at least the same as the P3300 - 2.8".

Black_Knight

TKK wrote: »

It doesn't look like the E51 has gps and anyway the screen at 2" would be a bit too small. The 6110 Navigator has but again the screen, at 2.2" is a bit too small. Ideally I'd like something with a screen at least the same as the P3300 - 2.8".

I was sure the E51 had GPS, I might be getting friends phones mixed up. N95 and E51, then again, i might be thinking of the E65, my mam has that, Wifi, GPS, bluetooth and im sure theres an MP3 player. Again though, the screens about the same as all the Nokias these days, bar a few.

My bro has the HTC TyTn II, he loves it. Its a slightly older phone, but not even a year after its release now. Its good if you dont like the complete touch screen thing, its got a slide out keyboard (landscape ways). More or less the same as all HTC, Windows Mobile 6. Bluetooth, Wifi, GPS, MP3, and a bit cheaper then the Touch cruise

witnessmenow

I have the N95 8gb with vodafone and i have to say im very happy with it.

It ticks all your boxes:

Wifi
Bluetooth
GPS
8gb hard drive.

Battery is fine if you dont have the wifi on, if you do it will only last about 6-7hours.

The only problem is it has gone up in price in the last few weeks, it was €170 i think its €240 now, im sure it will drop again though. I've seen the HTC cruise that Black_knight is talking about, its very nice but its alot dearer than the N95-8gb will cost you as you'll need to buy it sim free (think its about €400-€500). You also need to say goodbuy to buttons, cause it basically has none!

TKK

Having read the specs I can see that the N95 battery was changed for the 8gb version to one with more capacity. Of course with any device the extras like wifi and gps will get through the battery quicker. I'm used to having no buttons due to the P3300 having very few.

Ultimately the cost is going to come into it and that's why I'm leaning towards using my upgrade to avail of some subsidisation.

The Vodafone pda jobbie, the V1520 has a good processor but appears to be let down in the RAM stakes. Other than that it's as close a feature set to the Cruise as there is from Vodafone. I've not been able to find many reviews on it though so I'm not sure if indeed it's any good.

Black_Knight

I think its also known as the Asus P550
Website here has a few user reviews on it.

Might be of some assistance

mkennedy

Black_Knight wrote: »

I was sure the E51 had GPS, I might be getting friends phones mixed up. N95 and E51, then again, i might be thinking of the E65, my mam has that, Wifi, GPS, bluetooth and im sure theres an MP3 player. Again though, the screens about the same as all the Nokias these days, bar a few. My bro has the HTC TyTn II, he loves it. Its a slightly older phone, but not even a year after its release now. Its good if you dont like the complete touch screen thing, its got a slide out keyboard (landscape ways). More or less the same as all HTC, Windows Mobile 6. Bluetooth, Wifi, GPS, MP3, and a bit cheaper then the Touch cruise

The Touch-Cruise is actually cheaper than the Tytn II sim-free. If you want to get the equivalent of the Touch-Cruise on contract get the Orbit 2 for around 300 (comes bindled with copilot). Otherwise you're talking about 500 for the Cruise. The Touch-Cruise is an amazing device with one minor flaw. The touchscreen is a tad unresponsive when using the stylus- it's a different type of touchscreen to previous HTC devices and there is a subtle lag sometimes because of the video driver thing. Otherwise it's absolutely great. GPS is flawless with Tomtom- an absolute breeze. The HTC TouchFLO app is nice and intuitive allowing very easy access to email, text messaging, contacts, phone dialler etc. The touchscreen is more responsive to finger movements than the stylus in this sense. The Audiomanager for playing MP3s is easily accessed via TouchFLO and is great- very easy to navigate between albums/artists/genres etc. The photo and video manager associated with the camera is decent. Again finger gestures allow you to navigate between /manage photos. Not quite iphone standard but decent nonetheless. Browser is PocketIE so make of that what you will but Opera Mobile is also bundled on the Cruise. So atleast you have a choice. You can always install opera mini because it has a java app manager. External storage is micro-sdhc so you can store up to 8gb at the moment, but up to 32gb in future. FM radio is decent. You need to plug the headphones in to play it though. As for battery life while playing MP3s it doesn't use much at all. But if you're using 3g, bluetooth, gps etc all the time obviously you can't expect it to last too long. With normal use i've found the battery life to be decent enough tbh. Weight of the device is acceptable (less than the iphone IIRC)- the Orbit II being more pocketable than the Cruise because of its more rounded edges. The n95's gps is not fantastic tbh (TTFF too long etc) and wouldn't really compare to the gps on the Touch Cruise. Also there's only a select few 3rd party satnav apps that will actually work with the n95's internal receiver. And the native satnav app requires a data connection for voice instructions. As for the Diamond should be out next month with a hefty price tag but one big drawback is the limited 4gb storage. Otherwise it looks sweet.

Black_Knight

mkennedy wrote: »

The touchscreen is more responsive to finger movements than the stylus in his sense.

I only use the stylus for texting really. Its all finger work otherwise.

And after reading that, it makes me love my phone even more!
Have to get me some headphones, really could do with a radio at work... prob cheaper to get a €2 radio from the €2 shop but I factor batteries into it, Headphones it is.

Where can I get headphones? Or should I have them im the original box?

mkennedy

Black_Knight wrote: »

I only use the stylus for texting really. Its all finger work otherwise. And after reading that, it makes me love my phone even more! Have to get me some headphones, really could do with a radio at work... prob cheaper to get a €2 radio from the €2 shop but I factor batteries into it, Headphones it is. Where can I get headphones? Or should I have them im the original box?

The touch keypad isn't bad at all for short-ish texts. Handier than dragging out the stylus.
For lengthier text input it would definitely take some getting used to though so i just use the beloved/hated stylus
There are TC/Orbit 2 headphones on ebay for ok prices btw.

TKK

I reckon the Asus P550 should be on par with the Cruise in the gps stakes as it has a SiRF Star III chipset. Anyway I sync regularly so the A-GPS is usually up to date giving a quick lock. Does the N95 work this way too?

One concern I'd have with the P550 is the RAM - will it be a choke on performance? Also the lack of TouchFlo would make it slightly less user friendly.

TKK

mkennedy wrote: »

The touch keypad isn't bad at all for short-ish texts. Handier than dragging out the stylus.
For lengthier text input it would definitely take some getting used to though so i just use the beloved/hated stylus
There are TC/Orbit 2 headphones on ebay for ok prices btw.

I have an input "keypad" on the P3300 which drops a large buttoned phone keypad onto the screen with full T-9 support. I find this makes texting pretty much as easy as a standard phone so long as you don't mind the lack of button feedback.

TKK

TKK wrote: »

I have an input "keypad" on the P3300 which drops a large buttoned phone keypad onto the screen with full T-9 support. I find this makes texting pretty much as easy as a standard phone so long as you don't mind the lack of button feedback.

The P550 is a lot bigger than the Cruise too! 121 x 70 x 16.5 mm!

mkennedy

TKK wrote: »

I reckon the Asus P550 should be on par with the Cruise in the gps stakes as it has a SiRF Star III chipset. Anyway I sync regularly so the A-GPS is usually up to date giving a quick lock. Does the N95 work this way too? One concern I'd have with the P550 is the RAM - will it be a choke on performance? Also the lack of TouchFlo would make it slightly less user friendly.

One incidental point about the GPS chips:
I was also concerned before i bought my previous device (p3600) about it only having a Qualcomm GPS chip and not the sirf III one.
But in all my times using it i never once lost a fix and it worked flawlessly.
Exactly the same with the Qualcomm chip on the Cruise: Quick TTFF, never lose the fix, always locked onto atleast 6-7 satellites.
TBH once you have it in the cradle in view of the sky (where it's always going to be anyway) there is no appreciable difference between sirf III and the Qualcomm chips in those devices.
Admittedly sirf III is more sensitive but the real-life difference is academic imho.

TKK

How does the N95 perform if the A-GPS is kept up to date? I would assume this can be done when connected via wifi or usb which my phone is most days.