[Question] cellphone/smart phone

[murdock]

went and had a look at replacing my damaged cellphone...i am not fussy about make or model...considering my last one cost 250 bucks second hand and has served me well for a couple of years...but now i dropped it for the last time and the power on button broke off so thats it...cant switch it back on.

took one look at the stands with all the cellphones and thought maybe thats not a good idea because i dont know where to start...the only phone that appealed to me was i think the nokia e or n8 the one with the top that slides with a keypad and nice size buttons...which non of the other phones had they all had these little girly sized buttons...i would need to stick toothpicks onto my finger tips everytime i use the keypad... cost R6000... almost bought it but decided to rather hear what comments people have about the diffrent phones and why they selected the one they have...the fella in the shop said i should rather take the blackberry...but the buttons on the blacberry wher ealso those litlte girly ones with the screen that slides up.

then i stopped off at the cell c shop to pick up a 3 g high speed data stick....eeeish another R2999...that would have been a cool R9000 bucks on a cellphone and data stick...when i got home i thought maybe it is maybe a better idea to hear some comments first.

50% of the people i have spoken to say iphone and 50% blackberry nobody has recommended a nokia

[adrianh]

And when you drop one of those...If I were you I would get a ruggedized phone that can take lots of punishment. I think it better to carry a Fluke around than a R10K state of the art scope! If you want more functionaly then buy a Netbook as well that you can leave in your bag.

[AmithS]

I have a Samsung i9000 Galaxy S Android based phone.

I am very happy with it. Integrates fully with Google so it gives me a central location to sync my contacts with and all my emails etc... (I route my other email addresses also through gmail to make it easier) Also gives me full sync function to my Gmail calender which is very handy on the go.

I belive you can also do this with most other types of phones.

Its has a full touch capacitive screen - very responsive and large, I think 3.7inch or 4inch with on screen buttons which are nice large (non girly) size

[Blurock]

I am very happy with my Blackberry Bold. I hate SMS because the keyboards are always too small. But I find that the minute keys on the BB is actually easier to use than my old Nokia, because they are elevated. Beware of the cheaper BB's - I've heard lots of complaints. I suppose it's the same as with cars, the top of the range is always better.

Also look at the packages on offer. Prepaid vs contract etc. Depending on your own use the package (which includes a free phone) may work out cheaper. The package may also give you free internet or BB connectivity which makes it more cost effective.

[twinscythe12332]

I use a nokia 5800 xpressmusic. It's awesome for the touch screen. It looks a bit cheap because of the plasticy feel, but it's rugged. I've dropped my phone a few times and it has always brushed that off.
You keep speaking about features on phones but here's the real question:
what do you want to do with the phone?
Nokia has been the safe bet for generations, but their business model is beginning to show its age. I've spoken to plenty of people with blackberry issues, but BBM seems to make them glaze over that. Iphone is a market dominator but boy do they break and you're locked into getting everything from them. Samsung is flashy and stylish. They tend to focus on something and make it pretty impressive, but then the rest seems to suffer. LG normally focuses on a good phone camera.
so yeah, what are you looking for?

[irneb]

It really depends on what you want from your phone. If it's to be used as just a phone and you want large buttons, but have a tendency to "drop" it now and again: Some quick Google search: http://reviews.cnet.com/rugged-cell-phones/

Those Sonim's are what the US army recommends for their troops. I just wonder why you'd want a phone which could do SMS's while you're deep-sea-diving!

If you want something which is a near PC in your pocket, then look at Smart-Phones. I'm not so happy with BlackBerries here, we've got endless problems with them connecting to our office's network - to the point where we now call them BumBerries! The iPhone's are working reasonably well, as do the Androids. If you want a Smart-Phone which you aren't scared of spilling your coffee on, perhaps the MotoDefy: http://www.techhuman.com/2011/04/rev...hower-sexting/
http://www.pricecheck.co.za/offers/2...otorola+MB525/

As for Nokia, there's nothing "wrong" with them ... it's just a question of uncertainty as they're in the process of ditching their Symbian operating system for MS WinPho7. The "uncertainty" is that what's going to happen with a Symbian you buy now? And all Nokias use Symbian ... not just the "Smart-Phones". E.g. I had an E65 about a year ago ... when it decided for the 2nd time to blow it's battery in as many years. It was incredibly slow to start-up, or even just open the contacts list. It got me so P'ed off I threw the damded thing against a wall and decided to go with anything BUT Nokia. I bought myself a Motorola Milestone for around R3000 - has the on-screen keyboard same as all other touch-screens, but also a full qwerty sliding out to the side (much larger than the BB's - similar to what's on the Nokia C6). Though there's now the Milestone2 ... http://www.expansys.co.za/motorola-m...one-eu-203474/ ... not as cheap anymore, but still a bit less than an iPhone/Galaxy/Xperia!

As for Samsung, I really do think their looks are the best. Though a friend of mine is complaining about his Galaxy S turning itself off for no reason every now and again (but he's the only guy I've heard of with this complaint, perhaps he's just got a dud). Another guy I know is very happy with his Sony Xperia. As for iPhones, you should rather not ask me - I'm a bit against any company who tries to tell me what I'm allowed to do with something I bought! Other than that I can't say anything against them, for around the same prive as the Galaxy/Xperia you get something which is close to the same in functionality and ease of use - though I still think the extra keyboard on the Milestone puts that over the other 3 (not to mention even the M2 costs only around 2/3rds of the others' price).

[johnwarner75]

my iPhone changed my life-and I'm an android fan! hectic!

[SilverNodashi]

I have been using Nokia for the past, say, 10 years now and I'm very happy with them. There has been times when I tried Samsung, Blackberry, Siemens and HTC, and none of them came close to the Nokia's ruggedness (I lost count of how many times I've dropped any phone) or usability. Nokia (or Symbian) is constant, so you can pretty much always take a new Nokia and use it without needing to learn a new rocket science course.

I use gmail, Skype, Opera Mini (for internet) and google maps on my Nokia E71.

IMO the only reason people rave about Blackberry's is cause they have free internet and BBM. If you look on the internet, and ask friends how many problems they have with BBM's in general you'll quickly see that it's not entirely the easiest phone to use.

The new Andriod OS is very powerful, but it takes a while to figure it out, and I would have loved if Nokia would offer Android on their phones but I guess my next phone will probably be a Samsung Galaxy S or something like that. With my big fingers I need a bigger phone than the BB's and HTC's if it's full touch screen.


The other main reason why I took the E71 is cause it has a full QWERTY keyboard and I can probably type 30 or 40 words/s on it

[Just Gone]

I have had Nokia my whole life, but changed this year to Blackberry Torch. Never looked back - my whole family have blackberry so we have groups wherby you can bbm the group and let them know you might be late or if you need to tell the whole family something and thie bbm is free. The internet connectivity is slightly slower than I would like, but is all inclusive and you know you are not going to get a high bill at the end of the day.

[irneb]

... There has been times when I tried Samsung, Blackberry, Siemens and HTC, and none of them came close to the Nokia's ruggedness (I lost count of how many times I've dropped any phone) or usability ...

I've had the opposite with Nokia. I've had a 5110 and a 3210, supposedly "the best phones Nokia ever made" ... both of which broke like nobody's business. The 3210 also had bad battery life. Prior to that I had one of those Ericson bricks and a Philips Savvy ... nothing great about them. But the one which I have the most respect for: Siemens ME45. I generally work on building sites, so there's a lot of ruff-n-tumble around, this phone has dropped many a time (worst was from 5 floors up onto concrete - it only had a scratch and didn't even turn off). I've had it for 10 years, it's still my fall-back phone ... and I've used it many a time when that E65 of mine decided it wasn't in the "mood".

Thus far I haven't had the need to go scratch in my cupboard for that old phone again, the "Droid" hasn't given any problems yet (apart from me having it inside a leaking zip-lock while kayaking down the Orange. That killed the battery, but Motorola JHB gave me a new battery and the phone still works perfectly).

As for Nokia/Symbian staying "constant" ... are you sure:

• http://mobilementalism.com/2011/02/1...t-nokia-event/
• http://www.brighthand.com/default.as...indows+Phone+7
• http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/03...icrosoft_deal/
• http://www.gsmarena.com/nokias_first...-news-2904.php

Note how Nokia's shares plummeted after them announcing the move to WinPho7: http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/echarts?...e=off;source=;

Hope (for their part) the $1bn made up for that!

So apparently they'll keep making Symbians for "a couple years" more, but only the low-end to mid-range phones - no more "Flagships", i.e. high-end-smart-phones. The 1st WinPho7 to come around the end of this year.

[irneb]

Wha-ha-haha! LMAO!

Today came into the office and 2 guys were pulling their hair out due to their phones!

No1: BB Bold. He wanted to "charge" it using his office PC. It WILL NOT charge until he's installed all the drivers and support software, which he doesn't want to do on this PC. Usually he brings his laptop for such things but today he didn't. The office PC must have as few CR@P and bloatware installed as possible so it can at least respond when you click on something. Yet another reason to call it a BumBerry.

No2: Sony/Ericson Xperia WinPho 6. Had message about available update, so plugged it into PC after downloading and installing the ENORMOUS update package (all of 200+ MB) - didn't want to download direct on the phone. First thing it did when he plugged in: Copied EVERY email in his Outlook onto the phone, without even asking him if he wanted that! Worst, he didn't even setup the phone with an email account, but still this happened without any user acknowledgement at all! So now! Doing the update in the on-screen-steps: 1. Plug in phone (OK unplug & plug back in, syncing emails and contacts again) ... found phone! 2. Click here to upload update (Ok, fine!) 3. Turn off phone and remove & re-insert battery (WTH? Do I need to unplug it? Well it's impossible to get at the battery without removing the cable, so probably yes!) 4. Turn phone back on: you should see the Sony logo appear ... uhm ... no it doesn't ... how long should I wait? Nothing happens on the phone! It's been 2 hours now!

Read step 5 so long: Plug phone into PC ... AHHH! So yes I should have unplugged it to remove the battery! So disconnect, redo the remove-reinsert-battery and turn on. No there's no Sony logo, the phone starts up normally and that email duplication is also still there! Anyhow, plug it back in - that "syncing emails" and contacts goes again! Yet the update package now does nothing! Just shows that it's waiting to connect to the phone! No-update at all!

So for my own I'd say: Stay away from M$ as far as you can. And if you want anything near a PC (but don't want it to require all sorts of BS), stay away from BB as well. That leaves Apple / Android ... hang-on, doesn't iPhone REQUIRE iTunes? Oh yes it does, so if you despise iTune-BS then stay away from the bitten fruit as well!

So back to Android, without anything installed on a clean Win7-64bit Pro. Plug in: Recognizes phone, can use it as external storage, it charges without needing any BS, can use it as a modem for internet connection. NO extra programs to install. Tried it again on Ubuntu, same thing: no cr@p needed!

And no, you don't need a GMail account to use Android. The other bloke with the Sony Xperia Android doesn't have gmail. A bit different when he wants an App from the market place - needs to download it through PC and save on phone's SD card, then install from there. Though I've later found out he could log into the Market using his facebook / youtube / etc. accounts.

Now please explain why anyone would still want the other SHT? Especially when they're usually lots more expense?

And the BBM? What? Have you ever heard of IM (like Yahoo, Google, Skype, AIM, Gadu-Gadu, ICQ, Meebo, MXit, Paltalk, etc.)? Some apps on the Android (and probably iPhone too) will allow you to connect through multiple IM services at once, automatically using the "correct" one for each contact you send the message to! Bulk/group IM? Well that's what personal chat-rooms are for! Create one for your family and friends, invite them and all the messages are shared to all linked to that room!

How's this "different" from BBM exactly? Cost? You sure? Do you know how much data a text message uses? You'd have to message the whole bible (monthly) before you make up the R75 BB surcharge for that "free connection" you're duped into.

[Livespace]

I have a blackberry torch 9800 and i am very happy with my phone. I use it mainly for emails and for the internet.
I had a Curve 8520 and it gave a bit of hardware problems. I would recommend a blackberry with 3G, browsing the internet with the torch is a pleasure compared to the curve.
A blackberry is feasible if you use it mainly for emailing and social networking.

[irneb]

I would recommend a blackberry with 3G, browsing the internet with the torch is a pleasure compared to the curve.

Another funny ! 3G is what my phone downgrades to when the signal is bad! It's usually running on HSUPA (i.e. 7 MB/s or higher: ~700 kBytes/sec) or in areas where this is not available then falls back on HSDPA (i.e. 3 - 4 MB/s: ~300 kBytes/sec), only rarely does it go to 3G (~350 kB/s - ~35kBytes/sec) or EDGE (~130 kB/s - ~13 kBytes/sec). It's only when I'm out in the bundu's where I've ever seen the GPRS thingy and I've got speeds like I had in the 80's with a dial-up!

I've heard that BB's are slow, but this is ridiculous! You mean you have to search for one which at least has some 10 year old technology built in? My Siemens Me45 had EDGE in 2000, so the "usual" BB is comparable to that?