BEST PHONE ON THE IRISH MARKET????

hick

Hi folks

I'm considering getting a new phone my E51 is just annoying me now, being on vodafone the iphone isn't really an option that and I hate the proprietry nature that apple has adopted since the launch of ipod/itunes.

So to that end what's the best phone on the market currently, must have good web browsing and wifi, usability and longevity!!!!

So anwers on a postcard... would be very interested to hear all yer thoughts

What and why....

Sparks

Nokia e71. Does everything it says on the tin.
Good build quality, good screen, excellent qwerty keyboard, wifi, 3g, the works.
Camera's pretty lousy, but if you want a good camera, get a DSLR. Only thing I use mine for is photographing whiteboards as a way of archiving whiteboard sessions.
Tested one for a fortnight, then bought my own two weeks ago.

Creamy Goodness

THE TERM BEST IS SUBJECTIVE!

godtabh

Sparks wrote: »

Nokia e71. Does everything it says on the tin.
Good build quality, good screen, excellent qwerty keyboard, wifi, 3g, the works.
Camera's pretty lousy, but if you want a good camera, get a DSLR. Only thing I use mine for is photographing whiteboards as a way of archiving whiteboard sessions.
Tested one for a fortnight, then bought my own two weeks ago.

great phone

Kenno90

i love my nokia 5800

rainshowers82

I love my Blackberry.... great for emails...

cheapskate

Hi,

I too have the E51, a great phone but it bugs the hell out of me too!
I was so impressed with it too though that I went searching for another E## and ok you say the E71 is great but it's a bit big!

Anyone familiar with the E66? ...Anyone?

CS

gcgirl

I have had E51,Tocca,Iphone and Now E71 and i can say best out of lot is E71, iPhone is good but had issues around connecting bluetooth headset, mms,transfering data from one phone to the other, its grand for surfing once you have a data add on, vodafone should have a data add on for payg, E71is a gem wifi,3G its much easier transfering stuff from one phone to the other and i can connect to me bluetooth head set!!

seanybiker

n95 8gig. Best phone at the moment by far. Simple

Rsaeire

The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 and HTC Touch HD are currently the best Windows Mobile handsets and the Nokia E71 would be the best Nokia handset; all in my opinion.

matrim

I've an N95 and really like it but if you didn't like the E51 because of the OS \ software then you probably won't like any of the E or N series nokias as they are all similar.

Rebel021

Sony W595
Excellent battery does everything is says on the tin,
Sticking with it even though I had a Tocco,I-Phone,N95 and storm
Agreed that the term best is subjective what you need is a phone that
suits your needs.
All you need really is a basic phone if all you do is talk and text no point in spending
a fortune on a phone if you're not going to need all of its functions.

hick

as many of you have said the term best is very subjective, but in this instance it's for those of us that would be considered power users, the main reason the e51 is annoying me is shabby attempt at web browsing. the softeware is just a bit too dodge but all phones suffer from this now, i think its something you have to live with as the manufactures seem to for features instead of stability, while I like the idea of the E71, I want to think outside the noka box haveing been on that side of the fence for 12 years now.

Lets face it if your using a phone to it's extremem today, you should be listening to music and watching movies.
Phone first browser second multimedia device third, and a 2mp camera just doesn't cut it any more.

Has sony/ericsson improved much, Samsung and LG seem to be making waves too. thanks for replies to date makes for interesting reading

ednwireland

well i'm waiting for my e66 so we'll see how that goes

Jimdagym

Have a c902 and love it.5 meg camera, great web browsing, great media. Couldn't recommend it more.

besty

Love my N95 8gb and would definitely recommend one. Good phone, good apps, great camera.

Walkman

Have a nokia 6220, best nokia I have used in years. Have it six months and never had any issues (touch wood :-))

Kristopherus

INQ on Three

jessconr

Nokia N95 8gb is the best phone by far available on the Irish Market. Great Camera, 150mb Ram, GPS, Great MP3 Player, Loads of Memory, Large Screen for Video Playback, 100s of applications available for it..... The list goes on and on

hick

haven't heard great stuff about the n95, see it spawned a thread much like this. http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055121791

Have to say the e71 is lookin like a winner, any body using the blackberry storm?

towel401

Kristopherus wrote: »

INQ on Three

Nice flamebait


the e71 will have the same software you hate. its an excellent phone but i would say the same about the e51.

sony xperia? its windows mobile ****e but that might just be your thing. even more proprietary than apple though.

They don't make phones the way they used to. so getting good quality will be extremely hard.

there's a whole slew of linux (android) phones around the corner but most of them will be highly customised with integrated facebook icons and you probably won't be able to do much hacking on it either.

mkennedy

jessconr wrote: »

Nokia N95 8gb is the best phone by far available on the Irish Market. Great Camera, 150mb Ram, GPS, Great MP3 Player, Loads of Memory, Large Screen for Video Playback, 100s of applications available for it..... The list goes on and on

There's a lot of other phones around now that are as/more powerful than the N95 8gb tbh.
Those features are now all pretty standard in most of the new uber devices.

hick

I see there's an n96 on vidafone upgrade now, a snip at €389 on top tarriff

And it's bloody free on the UK website
http://shop.vodafone.co.uk/shop/catalog/compatiblePlanListView.jsp?dependantSkuIds=sku180032&phoneType=post&skuType=phoneSku&selection=null&initalFilters=flt_paymonthly&_requestid=900193

Lushed1

seanybiker wrote: »

n95 8gig. Best phone at the moment by far. Simple

Totally agree. Without doubt the best phone i have ever used. I don't even use my laptop as much now. It has so many features like a really good sat nav and fantastic camera

PADRAIC.M

yeah n 95 8 gb best around at the moment really, i have mine now 14 months and will only change it for the n97, the blackberry storm- you either hate it or love it, i had one for a week and its touch/click screen drove me up the wall!

Oafley Jones

towel401 wrote: »

Nice flamebait




sony xperia? its windows mobile ****e but that might just be your thing. even more proprietary than apple though.

How do you arrive at that conclusion?

Another vote for the e71 here.

towel401

Oafley Jones wrote: »

How do you arrive at that conclusion?

Another vote for the e71 here.

because OS X actually includes a lot of open source software. dunno how much made it across to the iPhone but Windows is generally as proprietary as it gets.

Rsaeire

towel401 wrote: »

Nice flamebait
sony xperia? its windows mobile ****e but that might just be your thing. even more proprietary than apple though.

I missed this post until Oafley Jones quoted it.

I have an X1 and far be it from me to be biased, especially since I voted for two other handsets in my previous post, but how exactly does proprietary come into it? The X1 has a microSD memory card slot, so it doesn’t even use Sony’s M2 memory cards and there are tons of open-sourced programs available for Windows Mobile; just go look on XDA Developers for examples.

I honestly cannot fathom how anyone can say OS X is more open-source than another competitor given the fact that the iPhone is the most restrictive handset available; unless it is jail-broken.

towel401

Rsaeire wrote: »

I missed this post until Oafley Jones quoted it.

I have an X1 and far be it from me to be biased, especially since I voted for two other handsets in my previous post, but how exactly does proprietary come into it? The X1 has a microSD memory card slot, so it doesn’t even use Sony’s M2 memory cards and there are tons of open-sourced programs available for Windows Mobile; just go look on XDA Developers for examples.

I honestly cannot fathom how anyone can say OS X is more open-source than another competitor given the fact that the iPhone is the most restrictive handset available; unless it is jail-broken.

the iphone is definitely the most restrictive but windoze mobile is very much integrated with windows and microsoft services. not the worst out of the lot though. they are supposed to be making symbian open source i think

O2_Daryll

Yes I am going to say it I love my iPhone however I have an E51 which acts as my work phone and I am very very pleased with it.

hobochris

N95 is probably the best phone allround at the moment. but if your in the market for a new phone hold out a couple of months... the n97 looks brilliant.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD-elt8MN3I&feature=related

towel401

the n97 is ridiculously expensive. and touch screen based. i never liked touch screens on phones. they also took out the VoiP client which i use regularly and of course nothing integrates as well as the nokia client

the e75 red is nice though.

Rsaeire

towel401 wrote: »

the e75 red is nice though.

…if you like a small screen.

I would have thought Nokia might have released a touch-screen E series handset with slide-out keyboard with a bigger screen, but then I suppose the N97 sales may suffer as a result.

towel401

Rsaeire wrote: »

…if you like a small screen.

I would have thought Nokia might have released a touch-screen E series handset with slide-out keyboard with a bigger screen, but then I suppose the N97 sales may suffer as a result.

the screen is grand. was actually thinking of getting the e90 which has similar specs and an extra screen but there's no red version. the only thing that annoys me about the e51 is the lack of keyboard

Rsaeire

towel401 wrote: »

the screen is grand. was actually thinking of getting the e90 which has similar specs and an extra screen but there's no red version. the only thing that annoys me about the e51 is the lack of keyboard

I can understand the E90, as the main screen is 4”, but to have a handset with a slide-out keyboard and a screen that is substantially less than 3” should be stopped by every manufacturer.

Oh, and you're welcome.

towel401

Rsaeire wrote: »

I can understand the E90, as the main screen is 4”, but to have a handset with a slide-out keyboard and a screen that is substantially less than 3” should be stopped by every manufacturer.

Oh, and you're welcome.

o thx for teh link don't really need a bigger screen than that but the keyboard would be great for email / sms. i assume its around the same size as teh E51's screen

else i might just get the e63 which is cheap and cheerful. once 2nd hand red ones start appearing on the ebay.

mkennedy

Rsaeire wrote: »

I missed this post until Oafley Jones quoted it.

I have an X1 and far be it from me to be biased, especially since I voted for two other handsets in my previous post, but how exactly does proprietary come into it? The X1 has a microSD memory card slot, so it doesn’t even use Sony’s M2 memory cards and there are tons of open-sourced programs available for Windows Mobile; just go look on XDA Developers for examples.

I honestly cannot fathom how anyone can say OS X is more open-source than another competitor given the fact that the iPhone is the most restrictive handset available; unless it is jail-broken.

I agree.
Windows Mobile is not what i'd call proprietary.
It's extremely customisable and flexible with an enormous amount of freeware apps.
Hard work at times maybe trying to find these great apps (no real user-friendly app store).
But certainly not restrictive/proprietary.

towel401

mkennedy wrote: »

I agree.
Windows Mobile is not what i'd call proprietary.
It's extremely customisable and flexible with an enormous amount of freeware apps.
Hard work at times maybe trying to find these great apps (no real user-friendly app store).
But certainly not restrictive/proprietary.

maybe not restrictive but it definitely is proprietary.

even the supposedly "open source" phone operating systems come with all sorts of restrictions to enable DRM and prevent people from easily unbranding/unlocking the phone. like symbian has some security features in the name of virus prevention but really it is so the user can't access certain parts of the phone's OS. they might publish the source code of the OS but actively try to prevent people from loading modified firmware onto their phone, so again not really open. same goes for Android

hick

So as the OP I'll jump back in

baseds on a lot of feedback from here I managed to get a friend to lend me his e71 for the past two days, have to say I'm very impressed, it basically is an e51 done right, it's obvious now that the platform on the e51 was designed for and e71 and just crammed on there, that and this has the original nokia SW/FW as opposed to the vodafone tinkered version. I think I shall be having one of these very soon.... only 1 downside is the size of the numbers on the keybad and that they don't light up, apart from that it's class.
So just have to check it's not going to be superceeded too soon

chavezychavez

Got my E71 at the weekend and have to say, its fantastic. Took a small bit of getting used to, but I'm typing on the keyboard like a pro.
Even after 2 years of my previous phone (K800i), I still couldn't get used to texting on it. The qwerty keys on the E71 may be small, but with a tiny bit of practice, you'll start to fly around it.

TheAlmightyZeus

chavezychavez wrote: »

Got my E71 at the weekend and have to say, its fantastic. Took a small bit of getting used to, but I'm typing on the keyboard like a pro.
Even after 2 years of my previous phone (K800i), I still couldn't get used to texting on it. The qwerty keys on the E71 may be small, but with a tiny bit of practice, you'll start to fly around it.

Yeah, the learning curve is around 2 days for the keyboard on the E71. Went back and was trying to text on an N71 the other day and I was getting a bit frustrated! Full QWERTY keyboards on mobiles are the way forward. May encourage people to stp txtin lk f00lz 2...

Love my E71, great phone!

hick

http://thenokiablog.com/2008/09/21/closer-look-at-nokia-e72-better-camera-and-smaller-spacebar/

20goto10

Lots of people mentioning the N95 and talking about upgrading to the N97 on here. Just wondering whats wrong with the N96?

Rsaeire

20goto10 wrote: »

Lots of people mentioning the N95 and talking about upgrading to the N97 on here. Just wondering whats wrong with the N96?

The N96 is overpriced, under featured and not much of an improvement over the N95.

colman1212

is this a ridiculous question or something?!!!

Damomayo

gcgirl wrote: »

E71is a gem wifi,3G its much easier transfering stuff from one phone to the other and i can connect to me bluetooth head set!!

+1 for the E71 .... apart from the standard earphones

what bluetooth head set do ppl recommend?

20goto10

Rsaeire wrote: »

The N96 is overpriced, under featured and not much of an improvement over the N95.

In what way? I'm curious cause I'm looking for a high end(ish) phone. Was thinking the iPhone but leaning more towards a nokia. Is the N95 3G?

hobochris

20goto10 wrote: »

In what way? I'm curious cause I'm looking for a high end(ish) phone. Was thinking the iPhone but leaning more towards a nokia. Is the N95 3G?

yes, it has always been even in the early models unlike the iphone which is only just catching up on some of the features.. I have an n95 its a brilliant phone.

Rsaeire

20goto10 wrote: »

In what way? I'm curious cause I'm looking for a high end(ish) phone. Was thinking the iPhone but leaning more towards a nokia. Is the N95 3G?

If you look here and compare the features, you can see that there are very few differences between the N95 and N96. The main differences are the additional 8 GB of onboard memory and the DVB-H TV tuner on the N96; the latter feature being of no use since there is no support within Ireland.

Sparks

hick, the keys on the e71 do light up, but they seem to do it on a timer, so if you're typing a long message, they can go out, and then come back a moment later. Not sure if there's a firmware fix for that on the way or anything though.

20goto10

Rsaeire wrote: »

If you look here and compare the features, you can see that there are very few differences between the N95 and N96. The main differences are the additional 8 GB of onboard memory and the DVB-H TV tuner on the N96; the latter feature being of no use since there is no support within Ireland.

Yeah paying for a mobile TV you can't use seems a bit of a waste. Doesn't the N96 have a qwerty keyboard? I can't imagine using the web or email to any serious degree without a decent keyboard.

Also, N97 is bound to have the TV feature too but people are willing to upgrade to that.

I'm not knocking any of them, I'm still trying to figure out which phone to get. Would people who have the N95 consider the its lack of keyboard a problem?

Edit: OK sorry no qwerty on the N96 either.