Be Excellent To Each Other

So, it really annoys me the short lifespan of mobile phones. Even is my current one (Nokia 6280) has a record of almost 4 years, i still think it's stupid to change mobile phone so often. I'm still not sure what's wrong with it, but i can't make or receive calls even though i have maximum coverage.

So, if i need a new phone, anyone has any recommendations for brands whose phones last a little longer? I don't care for fancy stuff, the only think i demand is a decent camera. I always used Nokia, though, but people often say other brands last even less time.

My N95 lasted for two years, and was still working a year later when I tried it a few weeks back. It still had charge, surprisingly.
Camera is okay.

Good little phone, that one.

iPhones last as long as you don't drop them, but they're expensive. Same for some Android phones - the HTC ones seem pretty tough.
Both can suffer from battery degradation though (and it's hard to replace the iPhone one - not so much the HTC).

N95 photos: http://www.flickr.com/cameras/nokia/n95/

Hmm my old faithful K800i is beginning to go flakey. Messages need sending a few times before they'll go through and calls can now take several attempts to connect. Unless it's Orange being useless twits.

OMG STOP HOLDING IT RONG!

Steve.

Right now i'm thinking about the Nokia X3 and the Sony Ericsson W715.

The Sony has GPS, wifi and 3g but it's 20 euros more expensive and i never used one so i don't know if their reliable or not. The X3 looks kind good (except for those red/blue bars that i could do without) and not much different from my older phone.

For me, WIFI would be the deal breaker on the phone. Does the Nokia do Wifi? If so... I'd go with that.

The X3 is a close relative of the 5800 and N series, being a Symbian based phone, so It'll deffo do WiFi and 3G (in the UK at least). Not sure about GPS

I've never heard of a phone called Steve before. Are they good?

Not a fan of the 5800, so hopefully will not be that bad!!

Although the 5800 is worth £70 cash from Mazuma. Paul Daniels said.

I saw that, may contract is up in Feb but can renew in Nov..... not sure if I will wait till out of contract this time.

I played with both the Ip4 and Desire on Sat... both are great phones.. but how expensive is the iphone in comparison

Gentlemen,

I seek your advice and knowledge. Bored of the pain of having to manually top up my phone, I've decided I need a new call plan and cellphone. I have narrowed the field down to these, as I've heard that the 3 network isn't too hot.

Of these, which should I consider? The Orange and Vodaphone plans look best to me, due to more minutes per month, but I intended to really use the phone on a receive only basis. If it could actually ring like a telephone, that's be great as well, and the slimmer the handset is, the better.

I'm far from an expert on phones, but I've got one of those on the list. I've had the Ericsson Elm for a couple of weeks now and it's not bad. It's lightweight and slim and does pretty much anything I need it to do. The Push email seems a little temperamental but other than that I'm pretty happy with it. 5MP camera if that's your thing too.

I really like my Nokia 6303, if you want a 'just a phone' type phone then it's great, the camera is rubbish, though, as is the web browser. Feels nicely made for a low end phone, calls seem clear and dependable and the battery lasts for ages. It reminds me a bit of my beloved old 6310i.

Dropped mine loads. A decent hard case helps.

Vinny Jones?

Hmm, interesting...

Arbitrarily deciding that wifi is a must have The contenders have now been narrowed down to:


The only thing pushing o2 ahead at the moment is the XPress Music with free Nokia GPS stuff. Is that worth an extra 50 minutes a month, when the Monte has that built in with Vodaphone?

The Prefect gives the thumbs down and o2 £10 calling plans sighs resignedly as Team Vodaphone applies the coup de grace.

Suddenly, the Monte, spins and kicks the Elm onto the floor. The team might be victorious, but the Elm knows who the real champion is.

I had a Nokia 5800 for 18 months. They're a solid, well built phone. Nice and easy to use. Decent web browser and touch screen. It even has apps if you're into all that. Battery life is quite good too.

It was premium phone a couple of years back. so I'd go for that.

Also, the free GPS stuff is surprisingly excellent. You don't need a data connection (which trumps other free gps) as you can download and store the maps like a normal sat nav.

I am still using mine..

I decided it wasn't worth not having an extra 50 unbilled minutes.

Still using mine also, it is a good phone for the price, but don't compare it to an iPhone/Android phone it really doesn't stand up against them.
The App software for the PC is woeful as well.
Battery life, I get 4-5 days with standard use, 1-2 days when using it for games/videos/significant WiFi usage.
Screen is a good size, but it is touch screen only, and it really isn't as responsive as some other phones, dialling numbers can get annoying, and typing a text requires the use of a stylus and even then you get errors.
If you can get it for a tenner a month, can't really complain.
Oh, and it has a pretty good camera on it as well.

That said, I have never used the other phones in the list, so can't comment on them.

Good oh. Thanks.

*chortle* I love customer reviews:



From the vodaphone website.

Is she saying she loses all sense of where the phone is? :? she should try ringing herself.

If that is about the 5800, it does stall occasionally, ans seems to take ages to pick up a signal if it loses it, but I have never lost sense of where it is. Normally because I keep it in my pocket.

It was about the Monte. I might pick one up today. Not sure yet.

I have a 5800 and I can't wait to get rid of it.

I find the touch screen hopeless, scrolling though contacts is very hit and miss. Also the GUI is shocking with a mix of double taps and single taps needed.

Some apps, gmail for example, seems to refuse to load until you've hammered the screen multiple times, other times it will load straight up.

No built in ogg support in the music player.

The music player has crashed the phone a couple of times.

My pet hate is that the apps don't run in the background if you lock the screen, so the countdown timer app (you have to download one as it doesn't even have one by default!, I use this one, doesn't remind me that the beer is about to freeze

Take good photos though.

Mrs Z has a 5800 and she loves it. The touchscreen is fiddly though, better with a stylus than finger tip.

It just feels like a rushed to market job to me, the scrolling on iPhones or Androids is simple, just flick it up a page with a finger.

On the 5800 its a nightmare as it either doesn't move or jumps from one end of the list to the other.

And the stylus keeps falling out!

Nothing a bit of bluetac won't fix.

That said, I would much rather have an Android phone, but you are going to struggle to get a really good phone for £10 a month. I think the 5800 is worth that.

I have done this now. It is a bit plastic but seems to function. See Sinister Facebook for contact info.

Some apps do run when the screen is locked. The ones that don't are wrt based, I think, or something along those lines.

Anyway, I found this countdown timer the other day. It can work with the screen locked, but isn't as pretty.
http://code.google.com/p/eggclock60/

Couple of things MrsA has tasked me with discovering..

Is anyone on the 3 network, if so, is it good/shit/bananas?

iPhone 3GS for £29 and then £30pcm a decent deal with three?

Thanks.

Yes, I'm happy with them on PAYG. Depends where you are, although when there's no 3G signal it borrows O2s 2G network so it should be fine. Potential problem is that their call centres are in India but they understand me so...

Cheers, boss.

Assuming that's 18 months, Tesco is cheaper for TCC (£569 vs £462).
The Tesco one is over 12 months, though.