Opinions on Mobile Phones??

[Preen59]

Hey guys. I lunched my N96 at work yesterday. It was a blessing is disguise really, because it's a heap of crap anyways..

So now i need a new phone! I've done a little bit of research on what phones i have seen that i would be interested in via the interhighway.. And the one at the top of the list for me as far as functionality and price goes is this one..



The Samsung Omnia SGH-i900

I get on the web a bit and check emails etc etc plus use it for wifi and taking pictures, so it seems like a whizzer. My mate has one and as far as i'm aware he loves it. From what i've read the newer one to this sucks as far as software etc. Plus it's 300 bucks more expensive..


Has anyone got an alternative view or know of another phone similar?

(Not an iphone. Sorry but nooo.)

[The_Hawk]

The father in law has the Omnia and likes it. Running Windows Mobile makes it very similar to pretty much every other WM phone out there, which is to say not all that bad really

I used a bunch of different WM phones and liked bits and pieces of all of them, but at the end of the day I wouldn't trade any of them for the iPhone I have now Funny when it comes to iPhones there is those that love them and those that hate them.

Right now if I had to give up my phone and get a new one I wouldn't touch any of the Nokia's with a Ford Drivers hand Sony Ericsson phones are nice and all but aren't really "smart" phones. Samsung have made a very good phone in the Omnia, but I have to say I'd be checking out the HTC phones. Had a few of them (friends have the newer ones too) and have always thought they made a quialty device.

There is a lot of good noise around the Palm Pre or the Android Phones (which are also made by HTC).

Have a hunt around at http://www.htc.com/ and pick what you like, chances are it will be good

[Treza360]

I just got a HTC Magic through Vodaphone. $59 cap, 500mb of data a million hours worth of calls and several hundred million texts. It uses the Google Android OS so it's freaking quick as well as having pretty much all the same features as an iPhone but without the stupid coupling with iTunes. It also doesn't have the whole iPhone stigma with it.
It's also smaller than an iPhone and you can also get it in black.
http://www.htc.com/www/product/magic/overview.html
Win win win.
Cheers,
Trent

Edit: Damn you Aaron...

[Preen59]

Ok thanks guys. Looking at that now. I should have mentioned however that i just want to buy a phone outright as i'm already on a business plan..

[Treza360]

Ok thanks guys. Looking at that now. I should have mentioned however that i just want to buy a phone outright as i'm already on a business plan..

Just get on eBay and buy an unlocked HTC Magic or Hero then.
Job done.
If you can't get one, than an iPhone is still one of the best options. The latest ones are quite good, my Dad uses his as his business phone and it works well.
His business partner has the Omnia and he likes that as well.
As Aaron said, I've also read good things about the Palm Pre.
Cheers,
Trent

[quozl]

Trent with the HTC phone can you buy it outright from Vodaphone and then use a Telstra NextG sim in it? Reason I ask is I need to use NextG when I'm down in Tassie for the rally as the Vodafone access is limited.
Cheers Al

[Arctra]

I have one of these Omnia's and am very disappointed with it. It's a Windows Mobile device which means it's got tons of apps available for it, it supports activesync over the air (I get my work email from Exchange/Outlook pushed to me), and best of all supports SBP Shell for a great user interface. But it's slow. The lag when you are trying to do things is annoying.

The touchscreen based keyboard is not as easy as the iPhone either. I find I use the Samsung Keypad rather than the keyboard as the "keys" are a better size. The most frustrating part is the delay wehn switching between portrait and landscape.

From a satnav point of view it doesn't come with anything despite having a built in GPS module. iGo8 works perfectly on it and auto detects the GPS. Tomtom does not recognise the inbuilt GPS so you have to use GPSgate to trick Tomtom into thinking the GPS is connected to a com port. It's easier to use a bluetooth GPS reciever to be honest.

The camera takes nice pictures. Video is a bit motion blurred, but then again, it is just a mobile. The web browser is Opera (though Explorer is on the device as well) and it is slow. I'm with 3 and the Planet 3 access isn't great with a lot of the features not available or not working properly.

I can live with all of those positives and negatives, but the one which I find the most disappointing is BATTERY LIFE. It plain sucks. It doesn't last me the whole day. Every opportunity I get I have to plug it in to charge. Getting a second USB cable and charger are not easy as it's not that common a phone. eBay is your best bet.

If I had to do it again I wouldn't get this phone. A mate of mine just got the HD version and seems impressed with it, but I can't comment.

If you're looking for a decent phone I'm told the HTC Magic is pretty good. Very nice interface, but I can't comment much more about it.

[The_Hawk]

After you find what you want, put it's name into here: http://www.staticice.com.au/

Then buy from the cheapest (decent looking) place it spits out. Maybe ask around for the experiences since some of the sites that show up I know I wouldn't touch.

One very good place that I have dealt with a few times is Organiser World in Melbourne. www.ow.com.au

And to Trent: I used to be a hater of iTunes, but then my previous MP3 players software sucked so so so so so so so so so so so much worse (so). Sure you could still choose to drop and drag files, but in the end I found myself trying iTunes, making playlists and dragging them from iTunes to my other non iPod devices... so I bought an iPod... then an iPhone.... Now a MacBook Pro I still have my PC for gaming and still like things about both sides of the fence, but really the iPhone does (nearly) everything I want it to and iTunes is the best alternative available for managing your music.

Still gotta say if I had buckets of cash to throw around I would probably get a WM phone and an Android phone to play with.

[mk3pete]

iv had my htc touch pro for 6 months now and its been great
awesome battery life
decent camera
the keyboards a breeze to use
and iv dropped it about a dozen times (one tough phone)

[evorobin]

Before I bought my second iphone I looked at all the comparos and HTC was worse than iphone. Bought a nokia N95 as always liked them but had to sell it and get another iphone. Hate macs but the phones rock!