Opinions on Mobile Phones??

[Preen59]

The thing that got me with the samsung was that everyone i spoke to likes them and has no complaints of lag (something my N96 has baaaaaaaaaaaags of), plus i can get one online for around $435 with free shipping, unlocked..

Hmmm decisions decisions. My sister works for the corporate communications side of the Telstra Shop here in town and tells me my phone won't be all that expensive to repair. Maybe i should just get it fixed and hang onto it for a bit longer.. Not really sure.

[Treza360]

Al. Don't know about whether you can buy it outright. You might be able to on a prepaid and then unlock the thing. They will probably charge you to do that. There other ways of doing it though. I wish I'd seen your post earlier, I would've dropped around when I picked up the guard lining from Graeme tonight. Didn't have much time anyway though. If you want to have a play with the phone give us a yell.

Aaron. Don't get me wrong I like the iPhone and I have had an iPod for years, I just hate the fanboyism and hype that surrounds them.

Preeny. I've heard the Omnias can be a bit laggy. One of the big things with the Android OS is its' speed.

Cheers,
Trent

[maca]

If you're coming from a Nokia, stay away from the Samsung UltraTouch.

I had a heap of trouble coming out of an old 6110 Navigator and actually went back to using it.

But better days are ahead!! Should have an N97 arriving in the mail early next week (provided Optus can send it to Toowong in QLD this time, not Towong in VIC). If they cock up I'll be going for the N96 - the one I wanted from the beginning..

I'll second what Trent said about them being laggy. I've heard all Samsungs have that delay to them. Have you considered the iPhone? I wouldn't buy one but they don't seem too bad. Also check out GSM Arena for reviews and junk

[quozl]

Al. Don't know about whether you can buy it outright. You might be able to on a prepaid and then unlock the thing. They will probably charge you to do that. There other ways of doing it though. I wish I'd seen your post earlier, I would've dropped around when I picked up the guard lining from Graeme tonight. Didn't have much time anyway though. If you want to have a play with the phone give us a yell.

Cheers,
Trent

Bugger thought you were coming over in the morning we were gong to install it for you

Re the phone: I think I'll see if Telstra have a basic prepaid phone package that I can use on the NextG network when we are down there as I was comparing the coverage maps between Vodafone and Telstra and I would be without coverage on 60% of the stages if I stick with Vodafone.

Cheers Al

[EUS GTIMK5]

Preen,
looking at upgrading too. There are few phones that are interesting -
Nokia N97. Crap firmware at the moment. Upgrade shortly should improve this. Like most Nokias takes them 12 months to iron out the bugs. Thing I like is the physical qwerty key board.
HTC Hero - I'd put this as first at the moment. Would need to buy overseas look at smoothmobiles or similar. No physical keyboard but virtual is better than iPhone's.
iPhone - looks good but tried the virtual keyboard and did not like it very much. Some other points like cannot replace batery, apple locking it and itunes only sync.
SonyE - new satio model coming out which is supposed to be very good. SE usually do good UIs, I had a P910i which was at the time an excellent phone.
Nokia N900 - runs linux, no MMS more of a tablet device with a phone integrated. However, looks very impressive.
Palm Pre - looks very impressive. Would also have to get from OS.

One thing is if you are on Telstra next G should check that phone will work. Some models are only available on certain bands.

I'd be interested on what you choose. I'm holding out until early next year to see if any of the above are released in Aus.

[SoVeReIgN]

The iPhone is by far the best mobile phone on the market today. (IMO)

It may not have all the features of some of it's competitors, but everything it does, it does flawlessly.

I test these for work, I wouldn't recommend Windows Mobile in any of it's past or current iterations to anybody, Nokia's symbian is absolute rubbish (N97 has to be one of the worst smart phones ever made, they were really onto something with the N95 but N97 is terrible) and from what I hear Android is getting there - I haven't had a real chance to test any Android phones for more than a few hours.

I don't know anyone that has sat down and played with an iphone for a decent length of time and not loved it. Try it out, like most things that become popular, people naturally seem to form a bias against it. 30 million people can't be all stupid.

[Peter Jones]

Might be a bit OTT for you but my phone of the moment is a Sony Ericsson Xperia X1.

It's a WM phone and one of the better spec'ed ones out there. I couldn't survive without the full hardware keyboard.

Perfect for catching up on the forum on the train ride in and one of the best screens going for watching movies on. (800x480).

Push syncing 4 different e-mail addresses to it I still get 2 days battery life out of it.

Pete

[Arctra]

Preen,
One thing is if you are on Telstra next G should check that phone will work. Some models are only available on certain bands.

I think I can help you here. What you are looking for is a mobile that supports UMTS 850MHz to work on NextG. Most (all) carriers use UMTS 2100MHz in the major cities so it'll probably support that too. Voda/Optus use UMTS 900MHz outside of the major cities.

Please note, just because a phone is "Quad band" doesn't mean it'll support those 4 bands in 3G (UMTS)... quad band phones are usually referring to the 2G (GSM) frequencies they support which are irrelevant for 3G networks.

[Preen59]

Thanks for the replies, guys. I like good honest feedback.

I'm not getting an iphone. That's out of the question. I'd really like a better camera in it than what the iphone has. I dislike the fact you can't replace the battery and the fact that you can't send MMS really pushed it away for me.

I like the sound of the HTC phones. They seem like a good no nonsense sort of a deal. The HTC Hero sounds like it's not bad.

All the reviews on the LG take of the iphone say that it's a heap of slow junk. My mate with the Samsung told me last night that he likes it but if he could do it again would get something with a keyboard aswell because the touchscreen novelty wears off pretty quick..

[AUC-05L]

i got a nokia N97 a few weeks ago and love it. has a full keyboard as well as full touch screen, 5mp camera with twin LED flash, good internet browsing, and 32 GB memory with another 16GB in a card slot if you need it, not bad at all.

so far my only complaint is the lack of cool applications and games like you get in an iphone. but aside from that i love it......