Smartphone for £150
Discussion
I know there's been a few posts along these lines, but (I think) my circumstances are a bit unique.
Basically, my new employer will give me up to £150 to pay for a smartphone, but I have to cover the contract while I'm in the UK (because I won't have to use the phone for business). While I'm abroad with clients, it becomes my main phone and contract/calls are covered.
I don't know the precise details of how they split the contract in months when I'm away only half the time, but that's the essence of it.
So... I'm thinking that if I sign up for a reasonable contract (e.g. £30/month), plus have have a supplementary £150 to spend on the phone, I should be able to get something quite nice.
What would be even better would be if I can somehow pay more up front for the phone, and less for the contract (e.g. £150 up front, then much reduced contract bills). That way I can put at least part of the contract through expenses.
The main criteria are:
* excellent calendar/diary facility, to be synchronised with Outlook on my laptop
* decent email handling - "push" email if possible (i.e. emails sent to the phone as soon as they arrive)
* good battery life
Desirable features are:
* bluetooth
* camera
* wi-fi compatibility (is this too ambitious?)
At the moment, I'm looking at a Sony P910i, Orange C500, Vodafone Blackberry, Motorola C1000 or a Sony P700, which satisfy most of the criteria.
Any other ideas what I should be looking at - either phones, or specific deals/contracts? I'm not bothered about which network, or 3G (although think there's some good deals around on Three?). Either available now, or in the next 6 weeks. Thanks!
>>> Edited by blueski on Sunday 6th March 13:49
Basically, my new employer will give me up to £150 to pay for a smartphone, but I have to cover the contract while I'm in the UK (because I won't have to use the phone for business). While I'm abroad with clients, it becomes my main phone and contract/calls are covered.
I don't know the precise details of how they split the contract in months when I'm away only half the time, but that's the essence of it.
So... I'm thinking that if I sign up for a reasonable contract (e.g. £30/month), plus have have a supplementary £150 to spend on the phone, I should be able to get something quite nice.
What would be even better would be if I can somehow pay more up front for the phone, and less for the contract (e.g. £150 up front, then much reduced contract bills). That way I can put at least part of the contract through expenses.
The main criteria are:
* excellent calendar/diary facility, to be synchronised with Outlook on my laptop
* decent email handling - "push" email if possible (i.e. emails sent to the phone as soon as they arrive)
* good battery life
Desirable features are:
* bluetooth
* camera
* wi-fi compatibility (is this too ambitious?)
At the moment, I'm looking at a Sony P910i, Orange C500, Vodafone Blackberry, Motorola C1000 or a Sony P700, which satisfy most of the criteria.
Any other ideas what I should be looking at - either phones, or specific deals/contracts? I'm not bothered about which network, or 3G (although think there's some good deals around on Three?). Either available now, or in the next 6 weeks. Thanks!
>>> Edited by blueski on Sunday 6th March 13:49
justayellowbadge said:
I think you need a blackberry server to get the full advantage.
How about an Xda?
(I'm browsing PH and posting this on mine)
You don't have to have a dedicated server. I have my work emails pushed to my P910i by a piece of software running on my desktop. Of course it means that my desktop has to be permantentlyt switched on (since it is essentially acting as the server) but then it generally is anyway!
catretriever said:
You don't have to have a dedicated server. I have my work emails pushed to my P910i by a piece of software running on my desktop. Of course it means that my desktop has to be permantentlyt switched on (since it is essentially acting as the server) but then it generally is anyway!
I meant to get the full advantage out of a Blackberry - doesn't the real time email require a dedicated server?
I just have a rule on my exchange server that forwards my email to a pop3 account when I'm out of the office, and just periodically check the account - seems to work quite well.
justayellowbadge said:
I meant to get the full advantage out of a Blackberry - doesn't the real time email require a dedicated server?
I just have a rule on my exchange server that forwards my email to a pop3 account when I'm out of the office, and just periodically check the account - seems to work quite well.
I don't know about the balckberry specifically as I don't use it, but I have what you would call fully synchronsied blackberry-like access to my work email on my P910 without a dedicated server. This is not a periodic POP3 get/send type deal but a full blown push solution, i.e. email arrives at my PC then moment later on my phone, read email on my phone & it gets marked as read in Outlook on my PC, reply to email on my phone and it is sent out as though from my PC.... The software I use is called "Smartner Duality" & it works like a dream
mk6fiesta said:
Handspring Treo 650 shortly to come out on Orange, will also be the first UK phone to have Push To Talk
Yeh but it was supposed to come out last month problems ???
Im in a similar quandry used palms for years inc handspring 270 ( sim free ouch) currently on 2nd 600 that has dodgey sound on the reciever end...
Plus when will handspring/palm sort out a fecking car kit that actually works !!!!!!
I have a recently purchased Blackberry 7100x on O2 (same phone as the Vodaphone 7100v, just different cover/menus)
So far it is brilliant. Phone-wise it works just as well as any Nokia handset I've had. The screen is large, and a very nice resolution. I like the scroll wheel on the side. The qwerty style keyboard with two letters per key is a bit wierd, but once you train your brain and thumbs to remember it isn't a normal phone keypad, it's a lot quicker for text entry. The predictive text is good as well.
There are two routes you can go for the email side. If your company has a Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) then you can get full email/calendar/todo/memo synchronization in real time e.g. you receive an email/meeting notice on your blackberry as soon as it is received. This works with MS Exchange and Lotus Notes.
If on the other hand your company doesn't then you can use the Blackberry Web Client (BWC) to sync up to 10 POP3/IMAP addresses. This is basically a web service that collects email from your accounts and forwards them to your Blackberry every 15 mins. This works better than it sounds. I don't want every single email to get to my Blackberry, so when logged in at home or work, I set my email program to download my email every 4 mins - therefore BWC never receives any mail. When I'm out and about and not logged onto a computer - hey presto emails arrive on the Blackberry.
It has Bluetooth as well (though voice only, no data) and the usual WAP and internet browsers. Also can use midi and polyphonic ringtones and run java apps and games. No camera though.
All in all, a big thumbs up, which is more than can be said for O2 who took four weeks to get it working properly!
Cheers,
Aidy.
So far it is brilliant. Phone-wise it works just as well as any Nokia handset I've had. The screen is large, and a very nice resolution. I like the scroll wheel on the side. The qwerty style keyboard with two letters per key is a bit wierd, but once you train your brain and thumbs to remember it isn't a normal phone keypad, it's a lot quicker for text entry. The predictive text is good as well.
There are two routes you can go for the email side. If your company has a Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) then you can get full email/calendar/todo/memo synchronization in real time e.g. you receive an email/meeting notice on your blackberry as soon as it is received. This works with MS Exchange and Lotus Notes.
If on the other hand your company doesn't then you can use the Blackberry Web Client (BWC) to sync up to 10 POP3/IMAP addresses. This is basically a web service that collects email from your accounts and forwards them to your Blackberry every 15 mins. This works better than it sounds. I don't want every single email to get to my Blackberry, so when logged in at home or work, I set my email program to download my email every 4 mins - therefore BWC never receives any mail. When I'm out and about and not logged onto a computer - hey presto emails arrive on the Blackberry.
It has Bluetooth as well (though voice only, no data) and the usual WAP and internet browsers. Also can use midi and polyphonic ringtones and run java apps and games. No camera though.
All in all, a big thumbs up, which is more than can be said for O2 who took four weeks to get it working properly!
Cheers,
Aidy.
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