ILX, help me decide on a mobile phone (June 2006)

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

I need one badly - mine has developed cellphone alzheimers and I'm well beyond the twlve-month contract period, so I can get a new one any time I want. But... I really don't know which. I have been with Nokia since 1998 and I really like their intuitive systems, so ideally I'd stick with them. I won't even think about Sony or (spit) Motorola.

I don't need a PDA; I don't want any sort of aerial on the phone; I am a fairly light user so anything above basic spec will cost me $$$ (which is fine up to say £100, especially as I reckon I can argue them down). I'd like it to have at least a 2m pixel camera, but no other specific requirements. Small is good.

So advice please, especially from people who'd recommend their own!

― Crimea River (Mark C), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 12:13 (nineteen years ago)

I've got a Nokia 6230i, which has a 1.3m pixel camera, so not quite meeting your requirement there, but it does take pretty clear pictures, noticeably better than my wife's Motorola. And it's free for monthly contract customers (on T-mobile, at least). I've got no complaints with it so far.

― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 12:22 (nineteen years ago)

it's always worth looking around to see if you can get a better deal than your current contract, too, of course.

― toby (tsg20), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 12:28 (nineteen years ago)

I upgraded about a month ago to a Motorola Razr V3X and I like it. The camera and video are really good quality (2mp). You can plug it in direct to your computer with USB cables (with my older phone I had to use a bluetooth dongle) for tranfering photos & mp3s. It's fatter than the older Razrs because it's got a lot more memory. The main thing though is that it's a flip phone, so the buttons/screen are protected when it's in your pocket. When you say you're a 'light' user, what do you mean? I pay about £38 a month, and I got this phone as a free upgrade.

― Teh HoBBercraft (the pirate king), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 12:32 (nineteen years ago)

I pay about £26 a month and I could probably get that reduced by shopping around, to be honest. I think the 6230i is the step up from my current phone, so while it does look very nice (and is the right kind of solid, straightforward phone I like) it would lack the excitement factor a bit!

I guess if I knew what I want, I could go to Vodafone, T-Mobile etc and see what they could offer me. Are places like Carphone Warehouse even worth bothering with?

― Crimea River (Mark C), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 12:52 (nineteen years ago)

Also, about providers: I've been thinking of going to Cingular on the basis of their ads saying they have a union workforce. I've also heard from some Cingular users that their reception sucks a lotta ass. Any input on either of these issues?

― Keywords: revenge, knife, granddaughter, demonic-possession, rock-star, eel (Aus, Tuesday, 30 May 2006 12:58 (nineteen years ago)

I've also heard from some Cingular users that their reception sucks a lotta ass.

ugh, see: trying to call my girlfriend indoors

― JW (ex machina), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 13:28 (nineteen years ago)

otm! my friend's cingular phone doesn't get good reception inside her house (or anywhere else for that matter).

i get great reception on verizon, but when this contract's up i'm thinking of switching because verizon are a bunch of bastards.

― tehresa (tehresa), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 13:34 (nineteen years ago)

http://3gnewsroom.mobiles.co.uk/images/accs/sony-ericsson-t630-black-side.jpg

― Nathalie (stevie nixed), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 14:09 (nineteen years ago)

i have cingular and it does indeed suck a lot of ass. the whole temptation of rollover minutes is not really worth it, either.

― i've dreamt of rubies! (Mandee), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 14:12 (nineteen years ago)

" I won't even think about Sony"

why not?!?

― Nathalie (stevie nixed), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 14:16 (nineteen years ago)

in my experience, samsung's are excellent. i think there is a samsung out now that's similar to the razr if you want that look.

― tehresa (tehresa), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 14:17 (nineteen years ago)

When my Dad was looking for a new phone we trawled round every shop in Woking and the Carphone Warehouse had by far the best deal for his type of use (very light, learning 2 send txts sometimes) so don't write the CPW off completely.

x-post: I like my Samsung but it has little niggles with texting - stuff like it being default CAPS when you add a word to the dictionary - and they seem to change their chargers all the time, which Nokia haven't done at all until very recently.

― Mädchen (Madchen), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 14:28 (nineteen years ago)

Past and present girlfriends have owned Sonys/Ericssons and I just hate the way their menus work - they really rubbed me up the wrong way. I'm sure the phones are fine but unless they've got vastly more intuitive I'd rather not complicate my search still further!

There's a CPW opposite my office. I'm tempted to go in there and present my dilemma, apart from the fact that mobile phone salesmen are not people I really want to let into my life...

Samsungs have been recommended to me several times. They're a close second behind Nokia, I think.

― Crimea River (Mark C), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 14:37 (nineteen years ago)

Oh, and the other thing with Samsung texting is once you move on from a word, you can't go back to it and change it to something else in the dictionary. For example, if you type 'of' but want it to say 'me', you can change it while your cursor is still at the end of the word, but the minute you type in a space you're buggered! You have to go back and delete 'of', then retype 'of', then change it to 'me' before moving on. Nokia, on the other hand, is sensible enough to highlight the word ready for changing when you move your cursor back to it.

― Mädchen (Madchen), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 14:46 (nineteen years ago)

i have a sony and i like it okay. i definitely am with mark as preferring nokia overall, though.

― i've dreamt of rubies! (Mandee), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 14:53 (nineteen years ago)

Sony Ericssons have that annoying text thing that Madchen describes as well. The menus are as annoying as hell too.

― ailsa (ailsa), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 15:05 (nineteen years ago)

I own a Motorola right now and owned a Nokia before this:

Nokia:

address book is more logically laid out.
better bluetooth and sync support

Motorola:

better ringer / volume control options
better text input

― JW (ex machina), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 15:06 (nineteen years ago)

Sony Ericssons all have stupid joystick controls that stop working after a while. Avoid.

― Teh HoBBercraft (the pirate king), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 16:11 (nineteen years ago)

you guys are mental. it works perfectly fine. (now i of course totally jinxed it: in two weeks time the joystick will stop working...)

― Nathalie (stevie nixed), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 17:28 (nineteen years ago)

i like the PEBL!

― chaki (chaki), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 17:33 (nineteen years ago)

I don't understand why people are so down on Cingular -- I've never had any problems with them.

― pleased to mitya (mitya), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 17:44 (nineteen years ago)

I like my PEBL; glad I didn't shell out for a Treo or some such nonsense that will be instantly superceded and left behind.

Mitya, you're in DC right?

― JW (ex machina), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 17:57 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, I'm using a second-hand Sony Ericsson just now, and the joystick thingy is annoying as hell - keeps going left when I want to go down, and various other annoyances. I don't hate it, but it's quite annoying and I wouldn't recommend it to others.

― ailsa (ailsa), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 18:43 (nineteen years ago)

anyone though who thinks nokias work more logically than sony's obvivous has a brain that works in a weird way

though the joysticks can be annoying

― secondhandnews (secondhandnews), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 20:08 (nineteen years ago)

I've just switched from Sony Ericsson to Samsung, and it has been a happy and harmonious thing for me.

― Matt (Matt), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 20:17 (nineteen years ago)

get the perfectly boxy nokia (is it 6230i, that's my guess) with the 1.3 megapixel camera, it is the Saab of mobile phones. dependable and sleekly boring, it won't let you down.

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 20:21 (nineteen years ago)

PEBL is nice-looking. Is it tri-mode?

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 20:26 (nineteen years ago)

Gabbneb, you never leave midtown -- WHY DO YOU CARE?

― JW (No, of course not. No one neeeds tri-mode anymore.) (ex machina), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 21:12 (nineteen years ago)

Gabbneb, you never leave midtown -- WHY DO YOU CARE?

― JW (No, of course not. No one neeeds tri-mode anymore.) (ex machina), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 21:17 (nineteen years ago)

Like, we have EDGE and GPRS now.... get with the 90s

― JW (ex machina), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 21:18 (nineteen years ago)

Sony Ericsson 810i has done fine for me. Its got no joystick or aerial, and has a 2 megapixel camera and 512mb memory card. Don't know about the internet functions or bluetooth because i never use them.

― dmun drive-in (dmun), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 22:03 (nineteen years ago)

JW -
1) I can't remember the last time I was in Midtown or why I went there
2) I make regular trips out of town
3) I like the wilderness

― gabbneb (No one needs tri-mode anymore if they spend all their time in major cit, Tuesday, 30 May 2006 22:18 (nineteen years ago)

I've had a GSM-only phone for like 2 years and have never had any problems.

― JW (ex machina), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 22:27 (nineteen years ago)

Have had two Nokias and they've both had annoying problems - such as not enough characters in a text message, not enough space in the inbox, only ringing for two rings before cutting the incoming call off - which is useless when you need time to fumble about in your bag to retrieve phone - and irritating quirks like having to trawl through a menu to end a call (which also adds time onto the call). Perhaps these two examples of Nokia hell are aberrations though?

― salexander (salexander), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 03:58 (nineteen years ago)

today i am getting this chap
http://www.coolhunting.com/images/K750_Dual_front_Low.jpg

― not-goodwin (not-goodwin), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 05:30 (nineteen years ago)

the characters in the text messages isnt nokia's fault theres a set limit per text message

i can't belive i defended nokia i fell dirty

― secondhandnews (secondhandnews), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 14:05 (nineteen years ago)

My Nokia let me compose messages that could span multiple SMSs

― JW (ex machina), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 14:24 (nineteen years ago)

yeah mine too, it just tells you how many SMSs it will be. I think all nokias do this.

― Ronan (Ronan), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 14:52 (nineteen years ago)

I have unlimited SMS/Email/Picture messages. What do I do?

― Courtney Gidts (ex machina), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 15:41 (nineteen years ago)

I dunno what you've been using, but every Nokia I've had has:

1. a 160-character limit in SMSs (like all other phones)
2. a ringer whch you can set to ring as long as you like
3. a "hang up" button

― Crimea River (Mark C), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 15:46 (nineteen years ago)

Get a Nokia, but don't get it on T-Mobile. PA:

T-Mobile is bottom of a consumer satisfaction league of mobile phone companies published today.
Rival provider O2 was named the best phone company in a survey of pre-pay and contract customers.
Pre-pay customers spent an average £19.29 per month compared to £21.48 last year.
And contract customers spent an average £40.44 per month - down from £41.81 in 2005.

The new Nokia N80 is the Nokia that all the phone geeks are raving about just now, btw. You can get Commodore 64 and Spectrum emulators for it, ha.

― stet (stet), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 15:51 (nineteen years ago)

T-Mobile is bottom of a consumer satisfaction league of mobile phone companies published today.

You don't have Sprint in the UK, huh?

― Courtney Gidts (ex machina), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 16:22 (nineteen years ago)

My Nokia let me compose messages that could span multiple SMSs
-- JW (jo...), May 31st, 2006. (later)

Unread Messages
yeah mine too, it just tells you how many SMSs it will be. I think all nokias do this.

Uh, my SE does this too. So?

― Nathalie (stevie nixed), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 17:44 (nineteen years ago)

T-Mobile customer service is arse, but it is cheap and I've hardly ever had to call it.

― Ed (dali), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 17:49 (nineteen years ago)

Nathalie, salexander was complaining about SMS character limits and implying they were specific to Nokia.

― Courtney Gidts (ex machina), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 18:32 (nineteen years ago)

What's your mobile phone tariff?

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 18:56 (nineteen years ago)

DOODS IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR A NEW CARRIER HELIO HAS SOME COOL PHONES I USED THE KICKFLIP AND HIRO TODAY. THEY WERE COOL.

― chaki (chaki), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 18:59 (nineteen years ago)

T-mobile's brick+mortar staffers have always been perfectly helpful, and I've only ever had to talk to their call center staff about thrice, each time they've again been as helpful as I would ever expect. This is a huge contrast with Sprint and ESPECIALLY verizon wireless, in Sprint's case they just kind of don't know how to handle any of your problems ever and in verizon's case well frankly they're one of the worst companies I've ever dealt with bar none on every possible level.

Though I could certainly understand if people's mileage varies overseas.

― TOMBOT (TOMBOT), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 20:08 (nineteen years ago)

hello world!

i'm moving to the UK realsoonnow and thort maybe you guys could tell me who's got the best deals etc?

it looks like i should go w/ 02?

i'm sure i'm going to get another ericsson, i just like their software too damn much. t68 --> t610 --> ???

(p.s. i have t-mobile in the states and have only had to call them once, otherwise everything has been totally great except for reception in my HOME, which is due to my t610 and not t-mobile, cause my roommate has t-mobile too and his nokia works fine)

― Tracey Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 20:09 (nineteen years ago)

T-mobile's flext package is very popular round these parts, Tracer. See the thread ken c linked to.

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 20:19 (nineteen years ago)

Also, Spring royally fucks you if you go over minutes

― Courtney Gidts (ex machina), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 20:22 (nineteen years ago)

Also, Sprint fucks you if you go over minutes

― Courtney Gidts (ex machina), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 20:22 (nineteen years ago)

Is that a feature?

― Tracey Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 20:23 (nineteen years ago)

Boo hiss to T-mobile, which is rubbish for reception, in Madchen's front room at least.

Boo to Orange, which is weird and has been bought by the French.

Yey to Vodafone with their lush tariffs, especially for students.

― stet (stet), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 20:24 (nineteen years ago)

"weird" + "bought by the French" = my ideal provider??

― Tracey Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 20:25 (nineteen years ago)

markelby: i said i'd never touch a motorola phone either (especially after that truly dreadful one stet had ... i'm sure he'll remind us all what kind it was, but FUCK ME it was bollocks) but i've now got an L6 (long story, largely to do with orange being cunts) and i have to say it absolutely fucking rocks. it has a good calendar, syncs with my mac perfectly and ... er, does nice(ish) black-and-white video too.

and looks lovely ;)

tracer hand: orange works perfectly and the network doesn't let you down, but their customer service is the worst in the known universe. to say they are total and utter cunts, and beyond useless, would be an insult to total and utter cunts who are beyond useless.

i was with O2 back in the day when they were cellnet and left because their coverage was bollocks ... i assume this has been fixed, although a friend is with them and is having all sorts of weird problems with SMSes not arriving etc.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 21:02 (nineteen years ago)

i think probably everyone hates the customer service somewhere - eg i found orange = great, o2 = total cocks, t-mobile = somewhere between.

t-mobile tariffs do seem to be way better than anywhere else, or at least hey were a few months ago. and i'm not even on flex-t.

― toby (tsg20), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 21:09 (nineteen years ago)

Orange customer service was brilliant when I was with them, except for one annoying matter of policy that I can't really blame them for. I was so impressed with the Orange staff at the Glastonbury recharging thing in 2003 that I nearly wrote a letter.

T-Mobile's call-centre staff sound like the most demoralised, uneducated staff in the world by comparison. But as Ed says, if you're lucky you shouldn't really need them.

I can't get Orange reception in my flat but T-Mobile is fine. Horses for courses.

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 21:10 (nineteen years ago)

i'm moving to the UK realsoonnow

hurray!

― toby (tsg20), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 21:14 (nineteen years ago)

i'm sure i'm going to get another ericsson, i just like their software too damn much

I'll say it again: No. Joystick hell. Avoid.

― Teh HoBBercraft (the pirate king), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 21:48 (nineteen years ago)

as the guy says, the 810i doesnt have a joystick. i'm v happy with mine anyway, altho - maybe alba can help me here - is there any way of switching off that poxing t-mobile coldplay theme when u switch the phone off?! i see nothing.

― rtccc (mwah), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 22:09 (nineteen years ago)

Markelby: Take GF with a pinch of salt. For "it absolutely fucking rocks" read "its sometimes send texts while I'm in the middle of writing them" and for "syncs with my mac" add "after I spent £200 on software". Besides, most phones do colour video.

Orange *were* great, but are now rubbish. The customer service went downhill with the French buyover, and all the technical stuff is following suit, it's just that few people have realised it yet, because they're resting on the investment that Real Orange (with juicy bits) made.

― stet (stet), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 23:46 (nineteen years ago)

Nathalie, salexander was complaining about SMS character limits and implying they were specific to Nokia.

Actually, I realise that all phones have character limits, but my current Nokia is particularly stingy with characters (160), in comparison to the previous Nokia which allowed more characters (459 - who knows why such an arbitrary figure?). It also refuses to transfer text over the limit to another message, and cannot find any option to choose how long it rings out. This - and other woes - mean that phone might soon be given as a free 'gift' to some unknowing soul.

Really though, on a scale of world problems, my pesky phone doesn't rate highly. Carry on with the good advice.

― salexander (salexander), Thursday, 1 June 2006 02:33 (nineteen years ago)

Some phones can't do multiple messages, which is all the larger-than-160 ones are. 160 is the maximum character limit of all SMS (on GSM networks, anyway) messages.

459 comes from Nokia's maximum multiple, which is three messages. The missing 21 characters are from the overhead that tells the phone at the other end that this is part 2/3 or whatever. You can see it when you get a multiple message on a phone that can only do singles.

And now I'll slink quietly off.

― stet (stet), Thursday, 1 June 2006 03:15 (nineteen years ago)

don't get a motarola V3. that's all i'm saying

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 1 June 2006 03:23 (nineteen years ago)

it's so rubbish at handling text messages that you sometimes reach a point where you don't even really know whether you have sent a message or not, and indeed, whether it receives all the messages that were sent to you.

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 1 June 2006 03:25 (nineteen years ago)

Oh ken. Did we not TELL you not to go Moto?

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 1 June 2006 06:49 (nineteen years ago)

oh i know.. but my thinking was that i already had a decent digi camera and it comes with an ipod so i wouldn't need anything fancy on the phone - but i just never realised that it failed at the very primitive level of sending text messages properly!!!!

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 1 June 2006 06:55 (nineteen years ago)

and for "syncs with my mac" add "after I spent £200 on software"

WTF are you talking about?

if you mean that it didn't work with 10.3 but did with 10.4, that's hardly fucking surprising, is it? i mean, i wouldn't necessarily expect a BRAND NEW PHONE to work with software that was made LONG BEFORE THE PHONE EXISTED. you tit.

and, er, if you've ever paid £200 for a new OS, you've been savagely ripped off, stet ;)

as for the text thing: yes, the buttons are ever so slightly smaller than i'd like and it is annoyingly easy to send a half-finished text

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 1 June 2006 10:14 (nineteen years ago)

and of course it does colour video too, you unmitigated toller of the big bell-end. it's just B&W is a lot more aesthetically pleasing, and you can fuck about with it to get a nice high-contrast effect.

i used to think you knew what you were talking about. now i'm rather less convinced :p

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 1 June 2006 10:15 (nineteen years ago)

What about Panasonic? Does anyone have any experience? I'm looking at this fellow.

― gooblar (gooblar), Thursday, 1 June 2006 10:29 (nineteen years ago)

Until Motorola realise that it is time to go with a faster processor inside, steer clear (that said, I am not sure what chips are in the latest models).

(some x-posts into the Motorola dissing)

― steal compass, drive north, disappear (tissp), Thursday, 1 June 2006 10:32 (nineteen years ago)

yes, the L6 isn't fast. however: it is very cheap.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 1 June 2006 10:59 (nineteen years ago)

call me a super-tit, but isnt there sth as backwards compatibility?

― Nathalie (stevie nixed), Thursday, 1 June 2006 11:55 (nineteen years ago)

You also bought more memory and the sync app itself, didn't you? Whereas my Nokia syncs perfectly -- including address book pictures -- with a 10.2-running G4, because you can write to a sync standard, not that Motorola can be bothered. Mah. You even had to post here to get it to work! That's not "syncs perfectly". Oh, and it has small buttons. And is slow. Motorola can GTF, GF.

― stet (stet), Thursday, 1 June 2006 12:23 (nineteen years ago)

I think it's time for me to get a new phone as well since my old moto is a fat ugly broken piece of shit. does anyone have any recommendations from the phones currently in T-Mobile (USA)'s line-up?

I recall having scheiss und drang experiences with:

1. Samsung
2. Nokia
3. Motorola

Which leaves me with very little to choose from. Help.

― TOMBOT (TOMBOT), Thursday, 1 June 2006 12:35 (nineteen years ago)

You just want a phone for making calls right? I am actually liking the PEBL.

― Courtney Gidts (ex machina), Thursday, 1 June 2006 13:06 (nineteen years ago)

Jon we need to stop being clones

― TOMBOT (TOMBOT), Thursday, 1 June 2006 13:39 (nineteen years ago)

I am resisting the PEBL because it seems like it will be a repeat of my poor experience with this VS330 or whatever this turd's model # is.

Are their any phones which have scientific/financial calculator functionality? Built in, not like "yeah it runs Excel"

― TOMBOT (TOMBOT), Thursday, 1 June 2006 13:40 (nineteen years ago)

You can get MathZ and Scientific Calculator for Symbian phones.

Hell, you can get just about anything for Symbian phones, from Doom to an Apache web server.

― stet (stet), Thursday, 1 June 2006 14:03 (nineteen years ago)

Are their any phones which have scientific/financial calculator functionality? Built in, not like "yeah it runs Excel"

Dude do you remember those early POCKET ORGANIZERS that ran DOS and had LOTUS 123 installed? Those were cool... there was one that was coupled with a phone...

― Courtney Gidts (ex machina), Thursday, 1 June 2006 14:09 (nineteen years ago)

The only truly arse phones i have encountered have been motorollas. Nokias and Sony Erricssons have been good to me, and a Siemens I had wasn't bad, although the menu system needed work. Nonetheless my Blackberry is the best phone i've ever had.

― Ed (dali), Thursday, 1 June 2006 14:17 (nineteen years ago)

My T610 was the best, before that the last phone I ever liked was me old Motorola Timeport, back before they went shit and decided functionality was for twits (why develop new features or bother keeping up with korea when you can just sell crippled junk to walkie-talkie addicts and style-conscious dopes)

― TOMBOT (TOMBOT), Thursday, 1 June 2006 14:21 (nineteen years ago)

It is interesting that decent calculator functionality built into a phone is much much more expensive than buying a basic phone and a TI separately. Ah, convergence, such a trampled whore of a word.

― TOMBOT (TOMBOT), Thursday, 1 June 2006 14:24 (nineteen years ago)

speaking of walkie talkies, at the place i was in in florida, they all had nextel walkie-talkie phones which was a good solution to there needs. I kind of wish we had them over here.

― Ed (dali), Thursday, 1 June 2006 14:24 (nineteen years ago)

i have a w800i and i can recomended it quite higly, the only problems i've had is ther joystick which is probably due to my dirty pockets than a terrible flaw in design and the fact i lost the headphone adaptor so i can't listen to music on it.

though the camera is the best of any i've used or mates used, and it has like a little speaker on it that gets quite loud so you can annoy people on the bus playing mp3s like the kids now a days

― secondhandnews (secondhandnews), Thursday, 1 June 2006 14:25 (nineteen years ago)

The next after the T610 is the k750i which is a really nice phone with the interface from the t610 with snazzier graphics. Its a pretty good phone as well.

― Ed (dali), Thursday, 1 June 2006 14:26 (nineteen years ago)

how nice that T-Mobile USA has stopped selling all Sony Ericcson products save the GPRS card.

― TOMBOT (TOMBOT), Thursday, 1 June 2006 14:28 (nineteen years ago)

Also their EDGE/GPRS service seemed to go down for 48 hrs whilst I was in Orlando. Cingular's was working fine

― Ed (dali), Thursday, 1 June 2006 14:31 (nineteen years ago)

that decent calculator functionality built into a phone is much much more expensive
what do you mean? Are there any phones with decent calc functionality built-in? The two apps I linked are £5 and £20 though, which doesn't seem all that much.

― stet (stet), Thursday, 1 June 2006 14:37 (nineteen years ago)

There are some scientific calculator MIDlets listed on this page (I haven't used any):

http://java.mob385.com/en/kalkulatori.shtml

― steal compass, drive north, disappear (tissp), Thursday, 1 June 2006 14:50 (nineteen years ago)

The thing that bugs me the most about my Motorola (and this was true on my Nokia) is the lag in response in text edit mode. FFS, why should using backspace or arrowing around have lag? This was possible without lag on a 286.

― Courtney Gidts (ex machina), Thursday, 1 June 2006 15:33 (nineteen years ago)

The processor is comparitively slow in Motorola phones, Jon. I think they may well still be using ARM7s, even in the V3 lines.

― steal compass, drive north, disappear (tissp), Thursday, 1 June 2006 15:36 (nineteen years ago)

(IOW, predictive text chokes the CPU)

― steal compass, drive north, disappear (tissp), Thursday, 1 June 2006 15:37 (nineteen years ago)

I will give my old fat motorola V330 credit where credit is certainly due regarding being a whizkid at predictive text, and very fast in that regard. not the best interface I've ever used but how many phones can guess that I'm trying to spell Rofflesberger on only the second try?

― TOMBOT (TOMBOT), Thursday, 1 June 2006 15:44 (nineteen years ago)

my k750i which I love, has just decided to stop using T9 input, which is maddening as it's perfect (and you *can* go back and change the word by highlighting in it)for me. I can't go back to multi-tapping, these aren't the dark ages for sobbing out loud.

Anyone got anyideas? The phone says to press the * button for a while to toggle it but this just ain't happening.

― Porkpie (porkpie), Thursday, 1 June 2006 15:57 (nineteen years ago)

If I remember the last SE phone I had, there's an option somewhere in the settings for "Dictionary", which needs to be set back to "English (T9)", or something like that.

― steal compass, drive north, disappear (tissp), Thursday, 1 June 2006 15:58 (nineteen years ago)

yep, I'm trying to find that and failing dismally :(

― Porkpie (porkpie), Thursday, 1 June 2006 16:00 (nineteen years ago)

It's buried somewhere in the phone's settings menu I think.

― steal compass, drive north, disappear (tissp), Thursday, 1 June 2006 16:02 (nineteen years ago)

I'm not even bitching about predictive text! I'm bitching about fucking how slow the text widget is to response to simple EDIT.EXE level shit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_architecture#The_cores
minimum 16 MIPS

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Million_instructions_per_second

hmm....

― Courtney Gidts (ex machina), Thursday, 1 June 2006 16:04 (nineteen years ago)

how weird, I never found the toggle in the settings or anything - an dnow T9 is back??? maybe my phone is haunted

― Porkpie (porkpie), Thursday, 1 June 2006 16:09 (nineteen years ago)

On the moto I had, the lag came from it reloading the prediction dictionary for each word you backspaced into. They really have the worst possible software on dem things. And T9 is relatively cheap to licence!

Apparently, motorola have just realised this and are doing a rewrite of the whole thing. Which will probably just turn out to be prettier fonts and gradients :(

― stet (stet), Thursday, 1 June 2006 16:11 (nineteen years ago)

Maybe their memory pipeline is shit?

xposts

― steal compass, drive north, disappear (tissp), Thursday, 1 June 2006 16:15 (nineteen years ago)

(Actually, no, I don't see how text input would be memory bound)

― steal compass, drive north, disappear (tissp), Thursday, 1 June 2006 16:15 (nineteen years ago)

txting? what are you, britishes?

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Thursday, 1 June 2006 16:18 (nineteen years ago)

On the moto I had, the lag came from it reloading the prediction dictionary for each word you backspaced into.

Right but once you're out of predictive text mode on mine (and backspacing in EDIT.EXE style) it is STILL SLOW.

― Courtney Gidts (ex machina), Thursday, 1 June 2006 16:19 (nineteen years ago)

tissp, I bet the overhead is because they coded the thing in like C++ and there's 8000 levels of nested calls to parent versions of methods in the overloaded code for the text widget.

― Courtney Gidts (ex machina), Thursday, 1 June 2006 16:20 (nineteen years ago)

Yes, quite possibly. Are Motorola a C++-loving company? This would explain a lot of things.

― steal compass, drive north, disappear (tissp), Thursday, 1 June 2006 16:29 (nineteen years ago)

I know my old Nokia used Symbian which is the worst C++ clusterfuck ever. Thank god companies haven't gone with an "all java" phone.

― Courtney Gidts (ex machina), Thursday, 1 June 2006 16:31 (nineteen years ago)

Tremble in fear.

http://www.savaje.com/

― steal compass, drive north, disappear (tissp), Thursday, 1 June 2006 16:33 (nineteen years ago)

Symbian is great (now)!. It even has a rudimentary Perl.

― stet (stet), Thursday, 1 June 2006 16:37 (nineteen years ago)

I know my old Nokia used Symbian which is the worst C++ clusterfuck ever. Thank god companies haven't gone with an "all java" phone.

um yeah hands up who's heard of BREW? Verizon likes it.

― TOMBOT (TOMBOT), Thursday, 1 June 2006 16:39 (nineteen years ago)

Brew isn't all that bad; I think Chaki knows some shit about it.

― Courtney Gidts (ex machina), Thursday, 1 June 2006 16:40 (nineteen years ago)

I've heard of BREW, its been quite the thing for J2ME apps.

― Ed (dali), Thursday, 1 June 2006 16:40 (nineteen years ago)

I have to say that the SavaJe phone is surprisingly responsive for an all-Java phone, but it does have some good technologies inside it.

― steal compass, drive north, disappear (tissp), Thursday, 1 June 2006 16:42 (nineteen years ago)

You also bought more memory and the sync app itself, didn't you

eh? i didn't buy more memory to make my phone work - or even make 10.4 work - you ludicrous lunkhead. i bought more memory because my mac was teh super-slow0r and would take so long waking up from sleep that it'd, umm, go back to sleep again. running 10.4 in 256MB might even have been a tiny bit faster than 10.3, but it was still unbearable in the long run. and so i finally got round to buying the memory i'd been meaning to buy for 18 months. (qv "that DVD burner" etc.)

the "sync app" you so wrongly refer to was, umm, a free hack for iSync written by some dude from edinburgh. i think you're thinking of that other thing i looked at when they were trying to flog me that godawful orange-branded SP50 MP3-player that also makes the odd phonecall.

You even had to post here to get it to work!

jesus christ, you're being a toss today. no i didn't. i posted here to say, fuck, anyone know if i can get it to work with 10.3? the silence was deafening. i looked around a bit and thought, hang on, everyone's off playing with google earth on 10.4. time i upgraded too.

nath (how nice: someone sensible to talk to now): yes, backwards compatibility is all very well as a notion when you're dealing with one manufacturer (eg new apple kit talking to old apple kit), but i hardly expect motorola - of all people! - to consider old-mac compatibility as an issue when they're designing new phone architecture. indeed, they probably deliberately fuck with it so it doesn't work :)

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 1 June 2006 16:43 (nineteen years ago)

(and before you say another word: said free hack has now ~~been stolen by apple and incorporated into iSync itself~~ been superseded by the newer version of iSync itself.)

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 1 June 2006 16:44 (nineteen years ago)

indeed, they probably deliberately fuck with it so it doesn't work :)

And this is why Markelby should buy one of their phones? They're slow, possibly deliberately obtuse, have too-small buttons, are rubbish for texting, and nobody here likes em much apart from Stockholm Syndrome you whose hand was forced by shitty Orange customer services, right?

― stet (stet), Thursday, 1 June 2006 16:46 (nineteen years ago)

woah there cowboy. as i've said before, i think the texting is - seriously - better than nokia's.

as for "people here" ... umm. i'm yet to see any sign of consensus AT ALL. (about anything ever. which is good, don't get me wrong.)

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 1 June 2006 16:54 (nineteen years ago)

Colonel Poo: His nokia takes better pics than Motorola.
Teh HoBBercraft: Likes the V3X.
Jon: Thinks they have better text input. But that it's SLOW.
Chaki: Likes the PEBL.
Ken C: Hates the Moto.
Alba: Reminds him that everyone warned him not to get the Moto.
You: Accidently send texts mid-compose.
Tissp: They have slow processors
Tombot: Has had bad experiences.
Me: Loathe the things from the core of my deeply sad soul.

So that's two likes, and a whole heap of problems.

― stet (stet), Thursday, 1 June 2006 17:05 (nineteen years ago)

did you really just go back through the thread to do that? no wonder our once-proud newspaper industry is dying on its arse.

(actually, i'm grudgingly impressed.)

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 1 June 2006 17:06 (nineteen years ago)

we popped one of our own support staffers yesterday for something involving BREW, Trillian, her verizon.net address and yahoo messenger's file xfer servers. Still haven't figured that one out all the way.

― TOMBOT (TOMBOT), Thursday, 1 June 2006 17:08 (nineteen years ago)

Tombot: Has had bad experiences.

See: Apple threads!

xpost, popped = fired? ooooo

― Courtney Gidts (ex machina), Thursday, 1 June 2006 17:10 (nineteen years ago)

BREW, Trillian, her verizon.net address and yahoo messenger's file xfer servers

Mind blown.

― stet (stet), Thursday, 1 June 2006 17:11 (nineteen years ago)

no just spotted it. You have to commit some serious junk to get fired around here. we got someone out in bumfuck ohio who's been sharing torrents full duplex almost nonstop for about three months from the same machine and nobody's done a damn thing.

― TOMBOT (TOMBOT), Thursday, 1 June 2006 17:13 (nineteen years ago)

though if you and a latino friend call each other beaner and redneck in casual conversation you'd better watch your fucking back.

― TOMBOT (TOMBOT), Thursday, 1 June 2006 17:15 (nineteen years ago)

can't you just bandwidth cap the hoe?

― Courtney Gidts (ex machina), Thursday, 1 June 2006 17:17 (nineteen years ago)

mr. hand, based on my experience with 02 customer service i would recommend staying far away. the rates weren't especially great, either, at least when i got my contract. i had to use them because of work, but i probably would have gone with t-mobile otherwise.

i have cingular now (nyc), and it's been great so far.

― lauren (laurenp), Thursday, 1 June 2006 17:22 (nineteen years ago)

rather just cap the hoe at this point

― TOMBOT (TOMBOT), Thursday, 1 June 2006 17:23 (nineteen years ago)

Just to add to stet's statistics, I hated my RAZR but I seem to recall RJG loved his.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Thursday, 1 June 2006 18:27 (nineteen years ago)

RJG also likes Windows laptops and brutalism and Bruce Springsteen
which I suppose means I should be taking more of his recommendations and not going along with all y'alls hivemind counterculture BS

― TOMBOT (TOMBOT), Thursday, 1 June 2006 18:37 (nineteen years ago)

Emma B is infuriated by her RAZR.

― Ed (dali), Thursday, 1 June 2006 18:39 (nineteen years ago)

I think most of the anti-Razr brigade are hating on the original Razrs, not the V3X.

― Teh HoBBercraft (the pirate king), Thursday, 1 June 2006 18:42 (nineteen years ago)

there's a real love-hate thing with those. people seem to either get lemons that malfunction in a variety of ways (plus get infuriated by how the text/phone book features work) or think it's the best phone ever.

― lauren (laurenp), Thursday, 1 June 2006 18:43 (nineteen years ago)

So it IS just like Apple

― TOMBOT (TOMBOT), Thursday, 1 June 2006 18:52 (nineteen years ago)

Except the RAZR has like... no functionality that wasn't available 4 years ago.

― Courtney Gidts (ex machina), Thursday, 1 June 2006 20:27 (nineteen years ago)

and itunes came out in 2001.

― TOMBOT (TOMBOT), Thursday, 1 June 2006 20:54 (nineteen years ago)

BEEYOTCH

― TOMBOT (TOMBOT), Thursday, 1 June 2006 20:55 (nineteen years ago)

Oh look. GF's phone has the highest amount of brain-frying radiation. And the other motorolas aren't far behind.

― stet (stet), Sunday, 4 June 2006 17:32 (nineteen years ago)

what's a good no-frills phone? i don't need no mp3s or cameras

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 4 June 2006 17:42 (nineteen years ago)

i look at a page like this:

http://www.fido.ca/portal/product/product.do

and my head spins

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 4 June 2006 17:56 (nineteen years ago)

What Tom -- YOU DON'T LIKE LISTENING TO PODCASTS?

― Courtney Gidts (ex machina), Sunday, 4 June 2006 17:57 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.achewood.com/comic.php?date=05182006

― TOMBOT (TOMBOT), Sunday, 4 June 2006 18:01 (nineteen years ago)

so many different kinds of cell phones... argh

― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 5 June 2006 17:59 (nineteen years ago)

I think I am going to get a PEBL this afternoon, assuming it's time for my super 12 months discount again.

― TOMBOT (TOMBOT), Monday, 5 June 2006 19:29 (nineteen years ago)

My PEBL was a lemon with a bad solder to the external (ringer) speaker! However, T-Mobile replaced in with no questions; so awesome!

― Courtney Gidts (ex machina), Monday, 5 June 2006 19:30 (nineteen years ago)

motorola v190?

― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 5 June 2006 21:30 (nineteen years ago)

the other day I just saw a RAZR that was NON-FLIP!! i about lost it. i don't think it's called RAZR but it looks exactly like it, except that you don't have to "open it" up. then i remembered how the Motorola software makes me grind my teeth into sand. i am such a sad sack, i am 99% certain to just go with the meandering river of ericsson upgrades and get the k750i. my only regret when i die will be that i never lived to see the future iterations of what was once the humble t68. (which still kicked the ass out of its predecessors in SEVERAL areas - mainly, it had kewl little LEDs on top of it so you could find it in the dark!!! i can't believe they removed them! and one of them feckers turned BLUE when your bluetooth was on, how cool is that??)

― Tracey Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 5 June 2006 22:16 (nineteen years ago)

i don't predecessors, i mean PROGENY ahem er. thanks.

― Tracey Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 5 June 2006 22:17 (nineteen years ago)

now i'm thinking of going with the motorola v235 but i can't find any reviews of it anywhere... or maybe the sony ericsson z520a??

people seem to really hate motorolas, why is that?

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 6 June 2006 14:13 (nineteen years ago)

Non- flip RAZR is the SLVR and it comes in red bono chariddee flavour.

― Ed (dali), Tuesday, 6 June 2006 14:14 (nineteen years ago)

sorry red = (red)

― Ed (dali), Tuesday, 6 June 2006 14:15 (nineteen years ago)

Slocki, the problem with Motorolas generally falls into two areas: sucky software and an insistence on sticking with (slower) ARM7 based designs when the rest of the world moved on to (faster) ARM9 devices ages ago.

― steal compass, drive north, disappear (tissp), Tuesday, 6 June 2006 14:35 (nineteen years ago)

how is the software sucky?

and will my arms actually move slower or is that a figure of speech

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 6 June 2006 14:37 (nineteen years ago)

does anybody have this:

http://www.mobiledia.com/phones/images/sonyericsson/z520a.jpg

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 6 June 2006 14:38 (nineteen years ago)

It's another month and a half with Zombie Moto for me.
Why does RAZR v3 suck and PEBL v6 is good? What's the genuine difference?

― TOMBOT (TOMBOT), Tuesday, 6 June 2006 14:38 (nineteen years ago)

how is the software sucky?

No real reason, but I think people just find it cumbersome and slow. Personal preference and all that.

and will my arms actually move slower or is that a figure of speech

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_Ltd
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_architecture

― steal compass, drive north, disappear (tissp), Tuesday, 6 June 2006 14:43 (nineteen years ago)

RJG was telling me that they launched the SLVR because apparently men find clamshells "girly" or some such nonsense. Men are stupid. Well, everyone's stupid if they buy a Motorola in my opinion but bleh.

The other day someone in here was moaning about their RAZR for a reason I'd not heard before: the touch-sensitive keypad doesn't work when there's any moisture on it. Actually, that's the case with all touch-sensitive keypads, isn't it. They are dumb.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 6 June 2006 14:43 (nineteen years ago)

Er, the RAZR doesn't have a touch-sensitive keyboard, does it?

― steal compass, drive north, disappear (tissp), Tuesday, 6 June 2006 14:44 (nineteen years ago)

with all this motorola-hatin' i'm starting to reconsider

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 6 June 2006 14:45 (nineteen years ago)

s1ocki, don't be too put off: Motorolas are perfectly functional phones if all you want to do is send/receive calls, but there are better options otherwise.

― steal compass, drive north, disappear (tissp), Tuesday, 6 June 2006 14:47 (nineteen years ago)

calling & occasional texting, as well as hilarious ringtones, these are my priorities.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 6 June 2006 14:50 (nineteen years ago)

Then if you like the Motorola, just go with it. It will be fine.

― steal compass, drive north, disappear (tissp), Tuesday, 6 June 2006 14:57 (nineteen years ago)

it will be FREE is kind of the operative word here! (but seriously... is it the interface or what? i'm still confused as to what drives the hate... and bad design drives me crazy... so i'm still a little wary)

although i'm considering shelling out $50 for the sony ericsson cuz of the bluetoothiness and slight increase in snazz factor.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 6 June 2006 15:01 (nineteen years ago)

I find the interface ugly and badly designed, but that's a personal preference. For what it's worth, the Sony Ericsson software is much better (again in my opinion).

― steal compass, drive north, disappear (tissp), Tuesday, 6 June 2006 15:06 (nineteen years ago)

The settings organization is annoying on Motorolas but just configure your home keys for what you actually use and its pretty fucking easy.

― Courtney Gidts (ex machina), Tuesday, 6 June 2006 15:10 (nineteen years ago)

Oh, well it looks touch-sensitive. Either way, this guy said it doesn't work when it's wet.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 6 June 2006 15:27 (nineteen years ago)

i imagine most phones don't work when they're wet!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 6 June 2006 15:30 (nineteen years ago)

Not soaking. I mean like if your fingers are sweaty or there's drizzle outside. Buttons with proper motion work fine. YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 6 June 2006 15:35 (nineteen years ago)

Hmmm, never found this with my RAZR, but that's not to say it's completely untrue.

― steal compass, drive north, disappear (tissp), Tuesday, 6 June 2006 15:39 (nineteen years ago)

(Meaning, I can see how moisture getting under the keypad would fuck it pretty easily)

― steal compass, drive north, disappear (tissp), Tuesday, 6 June 2006 15:40 (nineteen years ago)

Wait, does this mean you also can't use it whilst wearing gloves a la the ipod? Cos that'd be awful!

― melton mowbray's APOCALYPTO! (adr), Tuesday, 6 June 2006 15:50 (nineteen years ago)

texting is rubbish on the RAZR. although answering calls is ok.

― ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 6 June 2006 22:37 (nineteen years ago)

although answering calls is ok.

You'd think that'd be a piss take, except I once had a Motorola that crashed when trying to answer calls from numbers not in the phonebook.

― stet (stet), Tuesday, 6 June 2006 23:02 (nineteen years ago)

christ, this thread is repetitious. slocki, i have a motorola L6 and it kicks ass, as i said above. i've had three motorolas now and one nokia: all have, in their own way, been great wee phones.

mrs fiendish's work gave her a sony ericsson of some kind and the interface sucks dick. granted, she's had it a while now so it's probably quite old. but it's a weird, counter-intuitive thing.

however - my god, subjectivity! - YMMV.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Wednesday, 7 June 2006 07:10 (nineteen years ago)

so i went for the sony ericsson z520a, for the bluetooth capabilities. and i love it.

the end.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 7 June 2006 20:18 (nineteen years ago)

have you seen the ericsson bluetooth robot?

― lord pooperton (ex machina), Wednesday, 7 June 2006 20:19 (nineteen years ago)

i have a nokia n91 which i got for free. its pretty nice. 4gb mp3 player, 2mp camera/video thing, bluetooth/wifi, etc. its kinda clunky though.

― phil-two (phil-two), Wednesday, 7 June 2006 20:23 (nineteen years ago)

what does the bluetooth robot do? does it sync your address book?

― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 7 June 2006 20:37 (nineteen years ago)

i like that i can make my own ring tones (right now it's the first couple of bars of "one more time") and shoot 'em over wireless... also i can use my phone as a remote control for my computer which is MAD RAD. esp when i hook it up to my tv and watch AVIs off it

― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 7 June 2006 20:39 (nineteen years ago)

(when i hook my computer up that is)

― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 7 June 2006 20:39 (nineteen years ago)

what does the bluetooth robot do? does it sync your address book?

http://www.lordpercy.com/rob-1.htm

― lord pooperton (ex machina), Wednesday, 7 June 2006 20:54 (nineteen years ago)

FUN

― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 7 June 2006 20:58 (nineteen years ago)

two weeks pass...

http://www.ameinfo.com/images/news/7/19257-J220.jpg

This is the phone (sony ericsson j2201) that I just bought, forever consigning my ancient no-charge-holding nokia to the dustbin of, er, my apartment. I was well tempted by the t-mobile flex plan, but it's a minimum 18 month contract, and I've no idea if I'll still be in the UK a year from now, let alone a year and a half (though, now that I've decided to stay with PAYG, I'll definitely still be here then). I nearly threw a crispy walking around central london mobile shops--why do CPW, the Link, Phones 4 U, etc. have such big shops with lots of empty space and NO PHONES? There's like 4 PAYG phones in each shop!

Anyway, this little guy was £40, so I said fuck a camera and crazy fun features, it's a phone. I'm actually really liking it (a lot), but, as I said, I had the sort of boxy plastic nokias that they don't make anymore. Yay (slight) upgrade!

― gooblar (gooblar), Friday, 23 June 2006 10:48 (nineteen years ago)

one month passes...

sony d750i? chris?

― -- (688), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 14:40 (nineteen years ago)

I had that before it got nicked. It's good enough, though it made me realise I do really want a clamshell or slider thing with my phone. Sod locking a keypad. Other downsides to it: the camera's about the best you can get in a phone but it does have a looong shutter lag. And that joystick is supposed to not stand up to much wear. The new w810i replaces it with a more durable-looking "navi button",

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 18:40 (nineteen years ago)

so i think my new phone is the sony ericsson k610i 2megapixel cameraphone

it looks alright!

http://files.se-world.info/images/sonyericsson/datenblatt/k610i.jpg

― -- (688), Thursday, 17 August 2006 11:03 (nineteen years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.