iPhone alternative
Discussion
Been looking round for a new phone as its upgrade time. I currently have a Nokia N95 which pretty much introduced me to mobile internet. Whilst its been a decent phone for these last 12 months, its buggy, shouts memory full all of the time and screen size isnt enough.
Currently on TMobile and have been for some time. Dont actually mind the coverage and is acceptable for my use.
Ive been considering the following
Nokia 5800: Looks ok, cheapest option but heading out of date?
HTC HD2: Like the look of this one, bang up to date but uses WM with a Sense UI. Limited in terms of apps etc?
HTC Hero: Some decent deals on this and on the Android OS which appeals.
I dont want to buy an iPhone as I dont want to spend £35 a month and I dont want to be tied in to iTunes. I like to upload my own music to the phone, like having GPS capability (free if possible), browsing the net, but would also like the likes of Spotify, bbc iplayer etc and semi decent battery life (I know big smartphones arent known for this). I do occasionally use camera/video.
I've never been one for mobiles in the past, but before they were an image statement. Now they are a so much more in terms of gadgetry and tech and I love tech!
I dont really want to spend more than £25-30 a month, so its unlikely the HTC Bravo will be within price range on release.
Currently on TMobile and have been for some time. Dont actually mind the coverage and is acceptable for my use.
Ive been considering the following
Nokia 5800: Looks ok, cheapest option but heading out of date?
HTC HD2: Like the look of this one, bang up to date but uses WM with a Sense UI. Limited in terms of apps etc?
HTC Hero: Some decent deals on this and on the Android OS which appeals.
I dont want to buy an iPhone as I dont want to spend £35 a month and I dont want to be tied in to iTunes. I like to upload my own music to the phone, like having GPS capability (free if possible), browsing the net, but would also like the likes of Spotify, bbc iplayer etc and semi decent battery life (I know big smartphones arent known for this). I do occasionally use camera/video.
I've never been one for mobiles in the past, but before they were an image statement. Now they are a so much more in terms of gadgetry and tech and I love tech!
I dont really want to spend more than £25-30 a month, so its unlikely the HTC Bravo will be within price range on release.
Rob13 said:
HTC HD2: Like the look of this one, bang up to date but uses WM with a Sense UI. Limited in terms of apps etc?
.
http://www.windowsmobile.com.
quite a few apps but probably no where near as vast as the iphone
http://marketplace.windowsphone.com/Default.aspx
I have a htc touch (couple of years old) running wm6.1
my old games http://www.windowsgames.co.uk/ have been running on older versions of WM for the past 5 years and still run on WM
i also installed a free soduku, that gices you a new set of puzzles each day via download
http://www.astraware.com/all/sudoku/?link=1,6,1
and google maps works on it fine
HTH
Edited by lestag on Saturday 20th February 09:05
Edited by lestag on Saturday 20th February 09:05
I have a 5800 and i love it... It's fine for browsing (using it now), the maps app is free and much better than the older versions, has iplayer and last.fm apps...
The only things i don't like are the limited icons on the homescreen (4), and the text input can be a little tricky (for example when quoting/editing bigger posts, it's sometimes awkward to scroll up or down the text accurately).
All in all, on a cost basis at least, i'm very happy with it... It's light, it's been dropped a couple of times onto a wooden floor and it's still in one piece and has no marks or scratches... If i had an iphone, i'd been too worried about scratching rather than just using it...
The only things i don't like are the limited icons on the homescreen (4), and the text input can be a little tricky (for example when quoting/editing bigger posts, it's sometimes awkward to scroll up or down the text accurately).
All in all, on a cost basis at least, i'm very happy with it... It's light, it's been dropped a couple of times onto a wooden floor and it's still in one piece and has no marks or scratches... If i had an iphone, i'd been too worried about scratching rather than just using it...
I have an HTC touch diamond running WM6.1 and find it adequate. Some annoying quirks like the phone answering itself in my pocket as the screen reactivates on an incoming call. I quite like the look of the HD2 but the phone itself looks too big! And thats another reason why i am also avoiding the iphone.
I'm due for an upgrade soon and will be looking at the Nokia X6 and see how that performs. I'm not one for filling my phone up with crap applications, my current phone has what i need like MP3 player, GPS, Google maps, mobile internet (works as a modem too for the laptop) and i can text and talk with it!
I have found Windows and Symbian based phones a lot easier to sync contacts and calender info with my Outlook and understand an iphone cant.
I'm due for an upgrade soon and will be looking at the Nokia X6 and see how that performs. I'm not one for filling my phone up with crap applications, my current phone has what i need like MP3 player, GPS, Google maps, mobile internet (works as a modem too for the laptop) and i can text and talk with it!
I have found Windows and Symbian based phones a lot easier to sync contacts and calender info with my Outlook and understand an iphone cant.
Mikey G said:
I have an HTC touch diamond running WM6.1 and find it adequate. Some annoying quirks like the phone answering itself in my pocket as the screen reactivates on an incoming call.
What ROM version are you running? The answer issue was addressed in the 2.03 ROMS, where now you have to slide from the centre of the screen to the left to answer the call and slide to the right to ignore.Teppic said:
Mikey G said:
I have an HTC touch diamond running WM6.1 and find it adequate. Some annoying quirks like the phone answering itself in my pocket as the screen reactivates on an incoming call.
What ROM version are you running? The answer issue was addressed in the 2.03 ROMS, where now you have to slide from the centre of the screen to the left to answer the call and slide to the right to ignore.Ah, found it, i have Version 1.37
Will be upgrading soon anyway so not bothered anymore. Cheers anyway wish i knew months ago!
Edited by Mikey G on Saturday 20th February 19:22
Rob13 said:
I dont want to buy an iPhone as I dont want to spend £35 a month and I dont want to be tied in to iTunes. I like to upload my own music to the phone, like having GPS capability (free if possible), browsing the net, but would also like the likes of Spotify, bbc iplayer etc and semi decent battery life (I know big smartphones arent known for this). I do occasionally use camera/video.
The £35 bit is the only thing that's correct in the above.Have you updated your N95? Mine is a lot less buggy since I plugged it into Nokia Software Updater, might be worth a shout as a temp stop-gap measure.
Failing that, I'd honestly say iPhone. I had a 2G, then got rid for an HTC Touch Pro, and I'm waiting for that contract to finish in June or July to get a iPhone 3GS or whatever is out at the time.
While having the HTC, I bought a SonyEricsson C902, and flipped to my N95 again - WinMo is just not as user friendly as the iPhone (even HTC's TouchFlo) and for the most part, WinMo phones are dog slow.
Failing that, I'd honestly say iPhone. I had a 2G, then got rid for an HTC Touch Pro, and I'm waiting for that contract to finish in June or July to get a iPhone 3GS or whatever is out at the time.
While having the HTC, I bought a SonyEricsson C902, and flipped to my N95 again - WinMo is just not as user friendly as the iPhone (even HTC's TouchFlo) and for the most part, WinMo phones are dog slow.
Why are you worried about what everyone else thinks?? is everyone else going to use your phone?!
If you really want to be unique, buy a Palm Pre - you'll soon find out the price of being unique though. The iPhone is popular because it works and works well.
I use my N95 with Nokia Sports Tracker on my bike, but battery life is shockingly poor - couple hours using AGPS and it's dead. If you really want that kind of functionality, you'd be better off buying a Garmin E-Trex and a cheaper phone tbh.
If you really want to be unique, buy a Palm Pre - you'll soon find out the price of being unique though. The iPhone is popular because it works and works well.
I use my N95 with Nokia Sports Tracker on my bike, but battery life is shockingly poor - couple hours using AGPS and it's dead. If you really want that kind of functionality, you'd be better off buying a Garmin E-Trex and a cheaper phone tbh.
Edited by Frederick on Saturday 20th February 21:55
Frederick said:
Why are you worried about what everyone else thinks?? is everyone else going to use your phone?!
If you really want to be unique, buy a Palm Pre - you'll soon find out the price of being unique though. The iPhone is popular because it works and works well.
I use my N95 with Nokia Sports Tracker on my bike, but battery life is shockingly poor - couple hours using AGPS and it's dead. If you really want that kind of functionality, you'd be better off buying a Garmin E-Trex and a cheaper phone tbh.
I could probably get around battery life by using something like a Powermonkey (for when walking) as all smartphones eat batteries. If you really want to be unique, buy a Palm Pre - you'll soon find out the price of being unique though. The iPhone is popular because it works and works well.
I use my N95 with Nokia Sports Tracker on my bike, but battery life is shockingly poor - couple hours using AGPS and it's dead. If you really want that kind of functionality, you'd be better off buying a Garmin E-Trex and a cheaper phone tbh.
Edited by Frederick on Saturday 20th February 21:55
So, do I just buy everything from Apple on the iPhone?
It depends if you jail break it or not. If you do, you get access to Cydia which lets you download non-apple-approved goodies, but may have a negative impact on your warranty.
Belkin do a case for the iPhone with a built in auxilliary battery, it's not cheap at about £50-60 but worth it if you worry about the battery life. I've got something called a "Free Loader" which I can use as a portable power supply. It can charge from USB or using solar panels (albeit slow on solar).
Seriously though, research the differences between smartphones - check Modaco and XDA-Developers for WinMo, modmyi and ilounge for iPhone and palmpreforum or forums.palm.com for the Pre. If you weigh up the positives and negatives, it will give you an overall idea about each phone but seriously speaking, unless you have a need to run more than one app at once (which WinMo and the Pre can manage but the iPhone cannot), then get the iPhone.
Belkin do a case for the iPhone with a built in auxilliary battery, it's not cheap at about £50-60 but worth it if you worry about the battery life. I've got something called a "Free Loader" which I can use as a portable power supply. It can charge from USB or using solar panels (albeit slow on solar).
Seriously though, research the differences between smartphones - check Modaco and XDA-Developers for WinMo, modmyi and ilounge for iPhone and palmpreforum or forums.palm.com for the Pre. If you weigh up the positives and negatives, it will give you an overall idea about each phone but seriously speaking, unless you have a need to run more than one app at once (which WinMo and the Pre can manage but the iPhone cannot), then get the iPhone.
Rob13 said:
But is having an iPhone not just following the crowd?
Does anyone use their phone as a GPS for walking/cycling? I fail to see how any of them could work effectively as the GPS would drain the battery within a couple of hours (which isnt long enough for walking).
thats because they are trying to do many things at once, so drain the battery. A MP3 player only does 1 thing so is better on batteries. Turning of the phone, bluetooh and GPS function , along with the display will lengthen batery like . Does anyone use their phone as a GPS for walking/cycling? I fail to see how any of them could work effectively as the GPS would drain the battery within a couple of hours (which isnt long enough for walking).
I'm in a similar position, upgrade available middle of next month, currently using a HTC Touch Diamond on Orange which I like and really want to unlock to enable me to keep running it as a PAG phone on T-Mobile. Does anyone know where I can get the phone unlocked? or is it easy to DIY?
Engineer1 said:
I'm in a similar position, upgrade available middle of next month, currently using a HTC Touch Diamond on Orange which I like and really want to unlock to enable me to keep running it as a PAG phone on T-Mobile. Does anyone know where I can get the phone unlocked? or is it easy to DIY?
Orange should be able to unlock it for you for free after end of contact. call teh customer services dept. I remember years ago vodaphone would do it for free when it was out of contractwhoops quick search on orange site
http://search.orange.co.uk/all?q=unlock+phone&...
Edited by lestag on Sunday 21st February 10:19
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