Opinions on Mobile Phones??

[Preen59]

Hey guys. I lunched my N96 at work yesterday. It was a blessing is disguise really, because it's a heap of crap anyways..

So now i need a new phone! I've done a little bit of research on what phones i have seen that i would be interested in via the interhighway.. And the one at the top of the list for me as far as functionality and price goes is this one..



The Samsung Omnia SGH-i900

I get on the web a bit and check emails etc etc plus use it for wifi and taking pictures, so it seems like a whizzer. My mate has one and as far as i'm aware he loves it. From what i've read the newer one to this sucks as far as software etc. Plus it's 300 bucks more expensive..


Has anyone got an alternative view or know of another phone similar?

(Not an iphone. Sorry but nooo.)

[The_Hawk]

The father in law has the Omnia and likes it. Running Windows Mobile makes it very similar to pretty much every other WM phone out there, which is to say not all that bad really

I used a bunch of different WM phones and liked bits and pieces of all of them, but at the end of the day I wouldn't trade any of them for the iPhone I have now Funny when it comes to iPhones there is those that love them and those that hate them.

Right now if I had to give up my phone and get a new one I wouldn't touch any of the Nokia's with a Ford Drivers hand Sony Ericsson phones are nice and all but aren't really "smart" phones. Samsung have made a very good phone in the Omnia, but I have to say I'd be checking out the HTC phones. Had a few of them (friends have the newer ones too) and have always thought they made a quialty device.

There is a lot of good noise around the Palm Pre or the Android Phones (which are also made by HTC).

Have a hunt around at http://www.htc.com/ and pick what you like, chances are it will be good

[Treza360]

I just got a HTC Magic through Vodaphone. $59 cap, 500mb of data a million hours worth of calls and several hundred million texts. It uses the Google Android OS so it's freaking quick as well as having pretty much all the same features as an iPhone but without the stupid coupling with iTunes. It also doesn't have the whole iPhone stigma with it.
It's also smaller than an iPhone and you can also get it in black.

http://www.htc.com/www/product/magic/overview.html

Win win win.
Cheers,
Trent

Edit: Damn you Aaron...

[Preen59]

Ok thanks guys. Looking at that now. I should have mentioned however that i just want to buy a phone outright as i'm already on a business plan..

[Treza360]

Ok thanks guys. Looking at that now. I should have mentioned however that i just want to buy a phone outright as i'm already on a business plan..

Just get on eBay and buy an unlocked HTC Magic or Hero then.
Job done.
If you can't get one, than an iPhone is still one of the best options. The latest ones are quite good, my Dad uses his as his business phone and it works well.
His business partner has the Omnia and he likes that as well.
As Aaron said, I've also read good things about the Palm Pre.
Cheers,
Trent

[quozl]

Trent with the HTC phone can you buy it outright from Vodaphone and then use a Telstra NextG sim in it? Reason I ask is I need to use NextG when I'm down in Tassie for the rally as the Vodafone access is limited.
Cheers Al

[Arctra]

I have one of these Omnia's and am very disappointed with it. It's a Windows Mobile device which means it's got tons of apps available for it, it supports activesync over the air (I get my work email from Exchange/Outlook pushed to me), and best of all supports SBP Shell for a great user interface. But it's slow. The lag when you are trying to do things is annoying.

The touchscreen based keyboard is not as easy as the iPhone either. I find I use the Samsung Keypad rather than the keyboard as the "keys" are a better size. The most frustrating part is the delay wehn switching between portrait and landscape.

From a satnav point of view it doesn't come with anything despite having a built in GPS module. iGo8 works perfectly on it and auto detects the GPS. Tomtom does not recognise the inbuilt GPS so you have to use GPSgate to trick Tomtom into thinking the GPS is connected to a com port. It's easier to use a bluetooth GPS reciever to be honest.

The camera takes nice pictures. Video is a bit motion blurred, but then again, it is just a mobile. The web browser is Opera (though Explorer is on the device as well) and it is slow. I'm with 3 and the Planet 3 access isn't great with a lot of the features not available or not working properly.

I can live with all of those positives and negatives, but the one which I find the most disappointing is BATTERY LIFE. It plain sucks. It doesn't last me the whole day. Every opportunity I get I have to plug it in to charge. Getting a second USB cable and charger are not easy as it's not that common a phone. eBay is your best bet.

If I had to do it again I wouldn't get this phone. A mate of mine just got the HD version and seems impressed with it, but I can't comment.

If you're looking for a decent phone I'm told the HTC Magic is pretty good. Very nice interface, but I can't comment much more about it.

[The_Hawk]

After you find what you want, put it's name into here: http://www.staticice.com.au/

Then buy from the cheapest (decent looking) place it spits out. Maybe ask around for the experiences since some of the sites that show up I know I wouldn't touch.

One very good place that I have dealt with a few times is Organiser World in Melbourne. www.ow.com.au

And to Trent: I used to be a hater of iTunes, but then my previous MP3 players software sucked so so so so so so so so so so so much worse (so). Sure you could still choose to drop and drag files, but in the end I found myself trying iTunes, making playlists and dragging them from iTunes to my other non iPod devices... so I bought an iPod... then an iPhone.... Now a MacBook Pro I still have my PC for gaming and still like things about both sides of the fence, but really the iPhone does (nearly) everything I want it to and iTunes is the best alternative available for managing your music.

Still gotta say if I had buckets of cash to throw around I would probably get a WM phone and an Android phone to play with.

[mk3pete]

iv had my htc touch pro for 6 months now and its been great
awesome battery life
decent camera
the keyboards a breeze to use
and iv dropped it about a dozen times (one tough phone)

[evorobin]

Before I bought my second iphone I looked at all the comparos and HTC was worse than iphone. Bought a nokia N95 as always liked them but had to sell it and get another iphone. Hate macs but the phones rock!

[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.