mobile

What mobile phone to get?

I brought my sick N70 to the Nokia centre this morning and they said it is officially dead. They are sending it away to see if it can be repaired, I’m not holding my breath. That process will take a couple of weeks at the least in any case.

In the meantime I have use of a 2310 which belonged to my mother but that isn’t usable long term. No Internet access, no camera and no bluetooth rule it out!

I’d want to be able to synch the phone to back up the data.

I am kind of overwhelmed by the array of phones available these days – what phone would you recommend?

Does anyone know anything about the Nokia E65 or N80? Are they any good and where are they available?

UPDATE – I see Nokia have announced the release of their N95  – however at €940 from Expansys, I think I’ll have to hold off on considering it!

21 thoughts on “What mobile phone to get?”

  1. Hi Tom,

    I love my Nokia E61 dearly. It certainly has its shortcomings, too, but its advantages outweigh them by far. It’s the base of my always-online life, be it via WiFi or via UMTS.

    Cheers,
    Jochen

  2. Jochen,

    I considered the E61 but I got really used to having a camera with the N70 and I’d have a hard time now going back to a non-camera phone.

    Thanks,

    Tom

  4. Ehmm. …Sorry to hear about your misfortune Tom. I just read about Zyb (the online backup service for your mobile) on Pat Phelan’s blog yesterday. And have my fingers crossed in the hope that you didn’t lose you contact and messages along with the phone itself.

  5. I can second the k800i – great phone and the camera is fantastic. If you want to stick with Nokia the N73 is nice too – not as pretty but the camera is almost as goo.

  7. – Niall, thanks, no fortunately I backed the phone up first using iSync on the Mac so I haven’t lost anything.

    Jan, thanks for that. I thought about the N73 but it doesn’t have wifi whereas the N80 and E65 do. Wifi isn’t vital but when there isn’t much in the price differential…

  8. Tom,
    If I recall correctly, your N70 can be rescued, it just needs to be re-flashed by Nokia. There are lots of reports on the Nokia support forums about the updater killing phones, and for a while they were advising to stay away from it (They actually pulled it from their site a while back and rightly so). I was going to flash my E70 until I saw the issues.
    As for a good phone – definitely an e-series as you can run Blackberry Connect on them which gives you push-email. This allows you to take the chain off and get away from the PC at any time. I have an E70 (chosen so I wouldn’t look like a tech-head in the pub). The keyboard is a bit of a pain I have to admit (look left, look right, look left,…). I reckon the new E61i is a good bet although its not available just at the moment. It has a 2mp camera, and more RAM (I think) which the current e-series are lacking.

    Just my 2 cents 🙂

    Richard

  9. I had the N70 and while I loved the interface, I found it slow and clunky. I went on to the Motorola PEBL for a year. That kept me going with its coolness factor, but was also slow. And clunky.

    I recently got a new upgrade from Vodafone the Nokia 6234 – it’s quite possibly the best phone I’ve ever owned. It’s like everything the N70 wanted to be, but wasn’t quite there yet on – large screen, big, tactile buttons, snappy interface, camera that feels real, reliable bluetooth ( it worked with isync with a plugin before recent OS X update, but I’ve not needed to sync since. ) … even the screen is wonderful — it’s got a really wide angle of view, so the colours are bright at every angle – feels like once of those demo phones, but it actually works.

    Definitely one to consider if you’re used to the N70 and a fan of the Nokia interface.

  10. If money is no object – the Nokia N95 which is just shipping now. It’s got practically everything – HSDPA, 802.11b/g, 5MP camera and even GPS!
    specs:http://url.ie/3c8
    being pre-ordered in online stores in Germany for €660

    I’ve heard that the E61 is very good and the addition of a camera on the E61i will be welcomed I bet but how long before it arrives…

  11. Hey Tom – both BernieG and KenMc are also raving about the k800. If i needed a new phone in the morning that is what i would be getting.

    keith

  12. Co-worker has the Nokia N80i and it has all the bells and whistles but I find it frustratingly slow. Make sure you try it before you buy it, I thought the N70 was a bit slow too.

  13. Tom,
    Wasn’t I asking you for advice on phones a few weeks ago ;). move away form the dark side – it’s time to get a sony ericsson. the k800 is the business. good browser, push email, rss feed reader, amazing 3.2 megapixil camera… oh and yeah it’s a great phone.
    and thanks again for the joost invite
    cheers j

  15. Second the 6234 (actually I have the 6233 which is the non-Vodafone version). I have the 6233 and the N70. Recently put the N70 back in the drawer – its too slow and clunky. The 6233 may not be Symbian nor have a lens cover but its fast, very customisable (java apps) and has a good battery life. Can’t recommend it highly enough.

  16. You’re not the only one having problems with N80. Via ev’s twitter:

    So freakin’ happy to be back on a Treo 700 (one that works). Couldn’t handle N80 bad design/sluggishness/brokeness. (Good form-factor, tho.)

  18. The N95 is pricey but you are getting quite a bit for your money. I have been waiting for the N95 since I first found out about it last year. It has quite a bit that makes the wait and price worthwhile – 5 megapixel camera, 640×480 video, HSDPA, GPS and all the Nokia smartphone goodies.

  19. i would suggest you go for any other make rather than sticking to any other than nokia. i had n70 earlier and a nokia6600 before then. i just bought a SE K800i two months earlier and found out that nokia were all pieces of junk compared to sony ericcson. The symbian OS though we can find lots of softwares for it is useless. It’s so slow and hangs a lot. I even used the Nokia N95 for a week and was having problems with the phone hanging time and again. Believe me, nokia is now far behind in quality. Go for any other make, i suggest Sony Ericcson!!!!

  20. Madwho, thanks for the advice.

    However, I took delivery of a Nokia E65 yesterday and it is fantastic. Built-in wifi, camera, email and Nokia seem to have solved the slowness which was in the N70 – this phone is very fast!

  21. I brought my sick N70 to the Nokia centre this morning and they said it is officially dead. They are sending it away to see if it can be repaired, I’m not holding my breath

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