Mobile Phone Advice

[telegramsam]

Having got back from NZ now need a mobile phone-dozens to choose from. Will get a contract so a free phone. retiring my battered old one and want a decent new one.

Anyone got a touch phone either Samsung Tocco, Nokia N96 or even the Apple I touch-what are they like?-stylus no stylus etc. Really need it for phone and text but may be tempted by internet surfing etc, decent photos. Any brilliant phones that are not touch I should look at. Comments please.

If I am going to have to have it for 18 months might as well get the right one...

Thanks as ever

[ratty]

I have an N96 and it is fantastic. It is not a touch phone though. Touch phones are just one more thing to go wrong!

[telegramsam]

-- moved topic --

[zephyr]

For years I have gone with Sony ericsson but got myself a Tocco at contract renewal. It is a lovely phone.

It does not require a stylus - in fact a stylus does not work. Its technologdy is that you have to use your fingers.

The camera is good and the music play is OK as well (though not as good as Sony Ericssons). I don't have a separate music player (ipod etc). It also plays video and on the 8g microSD I have 6 feature films (ripped at 320x240). The battery lasts days unless I have been playing a film.

Look at independent reviews such as this one - it will allow you to compare phones.

Both my boys also got Toccos as I put them on contract (very good deals)

[Applespider]

My only worry about the N96 (while I agree the specs are fantastic) is the S60 operating system it runs. I found with my N73 and then with my N95 that by the time it was 6 months old, it was driving me batty since the OS slowed down so much and it would randomly stop certain applications running (e.g. resizing pics to send as MMS) for no apparent reason.

I've got the iPhone now. The battery life isn't great (I charge it every other night) but I do use it far more than I've ever used any other phone since the applications you can get for it are so numerous. The camera is adequate but if I want good pictures, I take a proper camera out with me in any case. It doesn't have MMS - you send email instead and pick up MMS from a website but Internet access on it is excellent, the map features are very useful and it's very easy to use all the functions on it. All in all, I love it and wouldn't swap it for anything else at the moment.

One other thing to note on any touch phone though (as we approach winter) is that they won't work with gloves on!

[Jose]

sam, Must declare i have a commercial interest with google, but have been using the g1 / google phone - the touchscreen is genuinely good, plus the qwerty keyboard is nice for texting and emailing,and is has enough other buttons / roller ball on it then you can use it with gloves on - also the web browsing is mega.

That said, it isn't as nice to look at as the tocco or iphone and the battery life is a little flakey, although the android platform / OS it uses is really enjoyable to use and you can download tonnes of different applications

[ruffers]

And I have an htc diamond, which is nice. I've had a few touch screen phones back to mda compact and a motorola thing (A800?) donkeys ago. Every time I do I regret it but they are getting better. If you must then the iphone is great at what it does, I fancy trying an N96 though (not touch I know) as mrs ruffers is very happy with N95. Clearly I need a slightly bigger number!

I still go back to my K800 though from time to time, and then I get the K750 out. Happy days...

[telegramsam]

Some great advice so far thanks-do these touch phones scratch easily in wallets/bags etc? Any advantage of a stylus phone?

Sam

[Applespider]

I keep my iPhone in one of those iPod socks that I had lying around so that it's easy to get in and out but isn't entirely loose in the bag. So far, no scratches. If you left it loose, I suspect you'd get scratches on the plastic back but since the front is glass, it should survive better.

Stylus - the advantage is that you can still use all the functionality with gloves on. The disadvantages are that you have an extra thing to lose and that you tend to only be able to use the phone with two hands unless you have a surface to lay the phone down on. Probably one handed for calls but think you'd need both to text. I like being able to text one handed while walking if I need to.

[mattham]

if the others are anything like the iPhone they do scratch, which can be mighty annoying. I use a really thin plastic screen guard on mine, which is great; you don't even know it's there.

What are the pros of the N96? My father in law needs a new phone and that looks a pretty good one. Is the camera all it's cracked up to be? And can you do email/web browsing?