I need a new phone
Right, here it is: I need a new phone, and I’m looking for your advice on what to buy.
I have a set of requirements:
- A flip phone, or in some other way not have the buttons on the outside (it can have a slide, for example)
- SyncML support
- Enough Java support to run Opera Mini
- Looks nice
- Cost me nothing to upgrade to it
- Available on Orange in the UK
- Decent UI
- Decent battery life
- Bluetooth
I’d like a phone that does all those things: none of them are negotiable. If you were about to suggest any of the following, know that I have rejected them: the Motorola V3 (no SyncML, crap UI), the Samsung E720, Z500, D500, E530 (horrifically ugly), the Nokia 8800 (very feature-poor). I didn’t think I had that difficult a set of requirements, but apparently the conjunction of “nice looking”, “flip phone”, and “SyncML” is the empty set. Please prove to me that I’m wrong.
I have a Sony-Ericsson V800, which is the same as the Z800, but (originally) locked to Vodafone. The Z800 is a flip phone. According to the Sony-Ericsson wesite, all of their phones support SyncML. It supports java, but I’ve never had the inclination to try and run Opera Mini on it. IF you wanted, I’d give it a try and pass the feedback to you. I think it looks nice. It’s and older phone, so I’d imagine a free upgrade would be on the cards. I can find Deals for it on an Orange contract on Google. I alwasy have SE phones, as I like the UI. I’ve tried motorola, nokia and samsung in the last 18 months, and keep going back to SE. I can get about 4 days out of my battery, with making an hour or so of calls a day, an hour or so a day of playing Java games, and on standby the rest of the time. SE are the only brand I’ve had success it getting the bluetooth to work with linux first time of trying!
Hope that was of some help!
8 hours later
The Z800i actually looks really good, but…where can I get it on Orange? None of the shops seem to do it!
8 hours later
The Nokia N90 also looks good and also, afaict, isn’t available from *anywhere* on Orange. Why can’t I get a good phone?
10 hours later
V551 looks ok, syncML, flip etc Plus p2ktest and moto4lin work ok on linux.
* Compact design with soft-touch covers and vivid color internal display (65,000 TFT)
* Integrated VGA camera with 4x zoom and dedicated one-touch camera key
* Preloaded FotoFun Photo Editor for editing by adding clip art and backgrounds to existing images
* One touch video capture and playback
* GPRS and EDGE for high speed data exchange
* GSM Quad-band global roaming
* Dedicated carrier key for easy one touch access to a Web-related services
* Bluetooth wireless technology
* SyncML Device Management and PIM Synch
* Entertainment via Java preloaded and downloadable games, MP3 ringtones and more
* Picture caller ID & picture phone book
* Up to 5 megabytes of end user memory
* Multi-media messaging service (MMS), POP3/IMAP4 client for e-mail management and IM Wireless Village
* Conference calling and integrated hands-free speaker
11 hours later
I recently got a Nokia 6680 and I’m very happy with it (which is surprising given how much I’ve hated every other phone I’ve had in some way). I’m not sure if it has SyncML, but given the huge number of APIs that Nokia expose it wouldn’t be hard to do if it doesn’t. Also, with the Mac OS X skin, it looks very purdy.
15 hours later
Gary: the 6680 fails on not being a flip phone, I’m afraid.
nordle: the V551 is a typical “small and round” flip phone, and I just hate them, same as I hate the Samsungs :(
19 hours later
This scares me how much people know (and care) about phones. To this day my wife is puzzled how I can build application frameworks but can’t store a phone number correcly.
28 hours later
Dustin: I really do care. I use my phone *all the time*; I make calls, I browse the web, I store appointments in it and contacts. It needs to be good.
29 hours later
Ok, fair enough, I thought you were after syncml and flip phone, I must admit it can in some colours look like someones mothers makeup compact.
I’ve got a V3 and coming from a total nokia background (502, 503, 6210e, 8310) the ui did seem odd, especially the way you can click the same action through different buttons at any one time but that its not consistant throughout. Also, the 5MB is too small!
The software (win32), OMG, just when i thought nothing could be worse than the hauppage wintv crap, they proved me wrong.
Apart from that, I like it, Opera Mini works well too, thanks for the link! :)
33 hours later
If you’re looking at the N90, I’d suggest waiting for the uber-sweet N92. Just for the sheer hell of it, it has a really good LCD screen with a digital TV tuner. That’s not the “you MUST sit still” streaming crap you currently get, but an actual digital tuner.
Out of curiousity, why a flip phone? Seems like a fairly arbitrary form restriction, especially since, in my experience, they break far more easily.
3 days later
Gary: a flip phone is because I answer it in my pocket all the time. All the time. I am heartily sick of hearing someone’s tinny voice saying “hello? hello?” while I rummage around for my phone. My pocket’s a pretty hostile environment for equipment, to be honest; before now, the phone ha been known to ring people up because it gets bashed around so much that the buttons get pressed for calls (based on the Hundred Monkeys thing that they all get pressed eventually). Anyone thinking of saying “turn off Any Key Answer”, I have. Months ago.
I’ve changed my mind about the N90, because all the reviews say that the UI is slow and it’s very heavy.
Final call: can anyone better the Z800i? It’s the same phone as the V800 from Vodafone, except Vodafone have turned off SyncML (for no reason I can tell), so I have to have a pukka Z800i.
3 days later
Fair enough. The only phone I’ve ever had that problem with was my temporary Siemens mobile; a fairly cheap and nasty model with a one-button keypad lock. If you looked at it funny, it would unlock. My biggest problem with non-flip phones is that my keys tend to scratch the hell out of the screen. Given previous problems I’ve seen with flip phones along their hinge, I just gave it its own pocket.
3 days later
I like the idea of giving the phone its own pocket, but I don’t have enough pockets. Stuff in my pockets: wallet, house keys, car keys, cigarettes, lighter, coins, Archos mp3 player, phone, business card holder, pen. Can’t cram all that in :)
3 days later
If vodaphone have turned off a feature, its easy(ish) to re-enable it, as I’ve discovered with my 5MB non-video recording Orange V3, which now has 7MB and records video :)
Yes I know you should not have to do it, but google and see if it might sway your decision on not going with a particular carrier.
3 days later
Oh Stuart,
I meant nothing offensive. I was only making fun of myself. Phones are a necessary for todays communication needs. I just haven’t put in quite the effort to figure my phone out.
4 days later
Orange spvm5000, O2 XDA EXEC, HTC Universal, etc… its all the same phone
# 3G
# Bluetooth
# 2 Cameras
# Video Calling
# Video Messaging
# WiFi
# flip phone
# touchscreen
# 10 day standby
Engadget link: http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000777057087/
5 days later
How about the Motorolla V360. It is not in orange, but you can buy a face plates for it. It has blue tooth MP3 player and an external memory chip! I have one and love it!! It might be worth a try!!
12 days later
i want proper phones you idiot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
11 weeks later
thats nice
11 weeks later
[...] I’ve just used it to subscribe to the OpenMoko announce list, so I can find out when the all-new exciting OpenMoko phone becomes available. Looks suspiciously like an Apple iPhone, except it’s been in development for longer than since MacWorld so it must be independent invention. And it’s a completely open platform; runs Linux and X.org. I’ve been thinking about getting a new phone, since my z800i is starting to die, and is a Sony phone besides. (Bought before I really decided that I shouldn’t give Sony any of my cash, but that’s not the point.) For those of you who think the iPhone looks cool, there’s a comparison between the OpenMoko phone and the iPhone available, which makes it look to me as though the iPhone has the edge in terms of equipment (and things like multi-pointer) but the OpenMoko is going to be available sooner and is an open platform. Write your own software for it, which means that all of us unbeautiful people have the chance to make our phones better. If you’re not interested in that, fine; you’re welcome to not buy it. Me, I like the idea. Only £180 too, which isn’t all that much. I want one. And now I’ll know when it’s released. [...]
61 weeks later
[...] I’m in the market for a new mobile phone. My SonyEricsson z800i (chosen after lots of helpful advice from my glorious readship) is now starting to feel the pinch a bit: the buttons sometimes don’t respond, for example. It’s also the size of Bolivia, which means that if I’m not wearing a jacket and I try and cram it into my pocket then I look like John Wayne. Plus, people laugh at me on the train because they think I’m doing a Gordon Gekko impression and it’s some sort of performance art. [...]
69 weeks later
You need a “man bag”
113 weeks later