FOAK: Mobiles

It's new phone time. Current phone is a K800, which I'm pretty sick of.

I'm currently looking at HTC's offerings - the Hero, the Magic and the new
Tattoo job. A blackberry would be a possibility but I wonder if the ones
that are available relatively cheaply (ie, the 8520 Curve) are chopped down
models.

What I'd like is a decent browser - either bundled with the phone, or Opera
Mini. Obviously Wifi is required, but it will need to operate behind a
proxy - does this cause problems for mobiles?

A good diary application would be useful too, with some form of sync to a
PC. My current Sony has a diary, but it's so long winded that you never use
it. The ability to program the phone to switch to and from silent at set
times would be very useful.

The ability to view gmail, outlook mail and facebook would be good, either
through a built in app or the browser. Obviously Blackberries have native
support for Outlook, but as a lowly student I'm unsure whether my Uni would
set up all the push gubbins for it to work.

Battery life of more than 1 day is pretty much essential - I'm rubbish at
remembering to charge phones. I don't really like waiting for my mobile
phone to do things, so speed would be good. Camera is pretty much
irrelevant, as are music players and video watching things. If I want to
watch something, there's a telly at home.

I also don't want an iphone, because the contracts cost a mint.

 

Then don't get a contract iPhone? It's easy one of the best web surfy
handsets and has a very good email client (for a mobile phone).

I've tried HTC phones and really don't like the Windows mobile offering.

 

I don't know enough about new phones to make a recommendation but I've
always liked SEs. What's sick-making about your K800?

 

Is probably the right answer.

Depending on the volume of calls made, the O2 PAYG offer is pretty good
- coming with 12 months unlimited internet.

 

Yebbut you're *Timo*

In the interests of balance, and not helping the OP at all, I rather
love HTC Windows phones

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I changed my phone a few weeks back. I opted for the HTC Hero which uses
Android O/S not Windows.

Has browser, email client, sync software, several Google apps including Maps
(as you'd expect seeing it's Android), QuicktoOffice, PDF viewer, Youtube,
Facebook, Twitter, Bluetooth, Wireless (can use your own router), MP3,
camera, GPS. Works on the same principle as iPhone i.e. touch sensitive
screen and sliding windows.

Still learning how to use everything and messing around with the config, but
very happy with it so far.

 

WM6.5 is pretty good.

From the hardware side, HTC phones rock (apart from the HTC dream)/

The good thing about WM based devices is that there are always custom
ROM's available from a great developer community.

 

I had a K800i, which I liked lots, but I'm not really that impressed by
the Nokia E75 I replaced it with. I'm seriously thinking of going back
to my K800i because my satnav won't support the E75, but the Sony
Ericcson works fine with it.

 

I have a C905 SE & it is utter fucking crud.

--


Nige,

BMW K1200S
Range Rover Vogue

 

HTC Hero - check, not sure about proxy - I'm sure it must be supported
but on a quick look couldn't find it in the menus.

HTC Hero, check.

HTC Hero, fail. Though there might be an app to change volumes at set times.

HTC Hero, check.

HTC Hero, fail. Unless you don't use it.

HTC Hero, check, with latest firmware.

AONTL, not because of contracts, but because everyone else has one.

 

Pretty sure it doesn't do this although it may eventually arrive as an
OTA OS update since it's basically the same OS as the G1. Also no WPA2
Enterprise network option. Fortunately (for me) I've got a really good
3G connection at work so it's not really a problem.

 

Eh? That's got to be the lamest reason not to want something... "I want
to be different, I'm special"

 

I've seen what people with iPhones and Blackberry's become. I do not
want to be one.

 

Then there's the small issue of having to fork out £400 for an Iphone on
ebay (and also run the gauntlet of buying a high value item from ebay). I
really can't be doing with that.

Of course, the other major advantage of having a contract phone is that I
can chuck it back at Voda or Orange and tell them to fix it. Try that with a
phone you bought off Ebay.

 

So have I. Had SEs for my last 4 phones. First was a Z600, then a K750
(massive leap over the Z), W810i which was a bit of an incremental jump
(same hardware etc.), and then a K800 which seems barely improved.

The software on the current SEs seems to be a prettied up version of the
software on my K800, which in turn is a prettied up version of K750i
software, which is oooh, 4 or 5 years old. For one, adding a diary entry is
a massive faff, and has been forever. The only other thing that bothers me
is the joystick which always goes a bit crap.

 

I'd want to check one specific exchange mailbox - my uni email. All official
communication goes through that mailbox.

 

Looks like it doesn't support proxies. Bugger.

Hmm. To be honest, at present it seems that if you want a reasonably specced
phone, you have to buy one either with a touch screen (most of which don't
work very well) or with a full qwerty keyboard (most of which are
unreasonably small). Nobody seems to make a decent phone with a "normal"
layout.

 

How bad exactly is the battery life? Considering I'm likely to use it for
diary and email checking in a convenient form?

 

I thought it was really bad at first, but that's probably because I was
playing with the wifi etc. quite a lot. Seems to be I need to charge it
at least every other day now.

 

You can also wander into an O2 shop and by the thing over the counter,
which is the way to get the 12 months unlimited internet
access. According to O2 it's not any old O2 PAYG SIM that you stick in
there.