The perfect phone?

Tunney

Tunney

Tunney

Soldato
Joined
11 Oct 2004
Posts
14,551
Location
London
Hey everyone.

Yes, it's another "what phone is best for me" thread. Hopefully I've made this one fiendishly hard enough.

My contract is up with 3 next month and so now is the time to cancel if I want to jump ship. My current phone is a Nokia E71 which I love but I'm willing to jump ship to other platforms. I know a lot about Symbian and iPhone but maybe someone can fill me in with the details on the rival platforms.

Here's my top ten priorities in a phone from highest to lowest:
  1. Smartphone - i.e., Symbian/Android/WinMo/iPhone. Not so interested in BB since it only supports Java apps.
  2. Modern web-browser - WinMo seems to be the loser here
  3. Excellent synching with Google's services (e-mail/contacts/calendar) - All the major players can do this for free, I believe. Can anyone confirm?
  4. Podcasting client with ability to scheduled OTA downloads - Symbian can do it but what about Android/WinMo? I assume there's no app for the iPhone due to operator restrictions
  5. GPS - Can't think of a smartphone without it these days!
  6. Touchscreen - Preferrable capicative, I wouldn't go for a ressitance touchscreen phone without a keyboard
  7. Decent camera (N95 quality or better) - Tough one, only Symbian phones seem capable in this area
  8. 3.5mm headphone socket
  9. A music player that isn't completely horrible
  10. A good out-of-the-box experience - I don't want to have to faff about downloading (and paying for) 3rd party software to get the phone into a useable state. I want a phone not a hobby.
I assume there's no perfect phone for me. I'm tempted by two options at the moment - the Samsung i8910 HD and the HTC Hero. Price isn't really an issue although I'd prefer not to buy an unsubsidised device. Open to any and all suggestions though.
 
I8910 :) Ticks all the boxes you've said there.

The phone works out of the box, but has a few issues, but if you are willing to spend maybe half an hour updating the firmware it fixes these and becomes an even better phone.
 
i7500/Hero/iphone 3gs

The best non touchscreen phone is the N86, obviously the browsing cant compare to the above phones.
 
Nitrojan said:
I'd say iPhone 3GS however it lacks in the 'Decent Camera' section (although the camera isn't all that bad!)
Click to expand...

And number 4, the podcasting app. I'm also wondering how I'd get on without multitasking being available. Might be fine, might frustrate me. I have an iPod touch but I only use it for music/video.

Skidder said:
just get an android phone and a headphone adapter (£2)
Click to expand...

Doesn't the HTC Hero have a 3.5mm headphone socket?
 
Tunney said:
[*]Modern web-browser - WinMo seems to be the loser here[*]
Click to expand...

Actually WM is the best in this respect, the highest resolution screens an Opera (the best browser out there) mean WM is pretty much way ahead of all the others. :)

Tunney said:
[*]Touchscreen - Preferrable capicative, I wouldn't go for a ressitance touchscreen phone without a keyboard
Click to expand...

Why? Nothing wrong with typing on a resistive screen, there is no lag at all on my Touch HD. :)

As for what phone to get, well, as you point out there are so many "ok" options, but none that has everything.:(

I would suggest maybe the Touch Pro 2 or Diamond 2, however they may do with the ROM flashing to really get the best out of them. :)
 
Cybertronic said:
iPhone and iPod touch: Downloading podcasts from the iTunes Store

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to do scheduled downloading of podcasts.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I was really excited when it was announced and so disappointted with the implementation. Not doubt the culript is AT&T/operators in general. And because podcasts is deemed core iPhone funcitionality, it's against their app store rules for anyone else to write an app that does what I want.

Perhaps there's an app for jailbroken iPhones but I've grown tired of jailbreaking my iPod touch every time a new firmware update is released.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.
Amp34 said:
Why? Nothing wrong with typing on a resistive screen, there is no lag at all on my Touch HD.
Click to expand...

My experience isn't the same. There's two problems - the additional force required to register a button press and the inability to support multitouch (which helps when button presses overlap).
 
Last edited:
Sounds like you need to go Android/Symbian..

N97 - decent camera/browser, reportedly a little slow and resistive.
Omina HD - decent camera but slightly large
Hero - Excellent OS, but poor camera
i7500 - again good OS better camera than the Hero.
 
Tunney said:
My experience isn't the same. There's two problems - the additional force required to register a button press and the inability to support multitouch (which helps when button presses overlap).
Click to expand...

When did you try it? It sounds more like you tried the BB Storm, rather than a modern resistive screen? I have to just touch the screen of my HD to register a press. I'm a bit confused with the button press overlap to? Do you mean pressing shift and a letter for a capital? If so you don't need to press at the same time.
 
Amp34 said:
When did you try it? It sounds more like you tried the BB Storm, rather than a modern resistive screen? I have to just touch the screen of my HD to register a press. I'm a bit confused with the button press overlap to? Do you mean pressing shift and a letter for a capital? If so you don't need to press at the same time.
Click to expand...

I tried a HTC WinMo Pro device in Carphone Warehouse over the weekend and wasn't impressed with the responsiveness. I think it was a Touch HD.

What I mean by button overlap is that when people type fast they tend to overlap key presses. i.e.

Typical slow typing: +H -H +I -I = HI (where + is pressing the key down and - is taking your finger off it)
Typical fast typing on capacitive screen: +H +I -H -I = HI
Typical fast typing on resistive screen: +H +I -H -I = H

A Capacitive screen is able to register both key presses independently whilst a resistive screen cannot.
 
Tunney said:
Hey everyone.

Yes, it's another "what phone is best for me" thread. Hopefully I've made this one fiendishly hard enough.

My contract is up with 3 next month and so now is the time to cancel if I want to jump ship. My current phone is a Nokia E71 which I love but I'm willing to jump ship to other platforms. I know a lot about Symbian and iPhone but maybe someone can fill me in with the details on the rival platforms.

Here's my top ten priorities in a phone from highest to lowest:
  1. Smartphone - i.e., Symbian/Android/WinMo/iPhone. Not so interested in BB since it only supports Java apps.
  2. Modern web-browser - WinMo seems to be the loser here
  3. Excellent synching with Google's services (e-mail/contacts/calendar) - All the major players can do this for free, I believe. Can anyone confirm?
  4. Podcasting client with ability to scheduled OTA downloads - Symbian can do it but what about Android/WinMo? I assume there's no app for the iPhone due to operator restrictions
  5. GPS - Can't think of a smartphone without it these days!
  6. Touchscreen - Preferrable capicative, I wouldn't go for a ressitance touchscreen phone without a keyboard
  7. Decent camera (N95 quality or better) - Tough one, only Symbian phones seem capable in this area
  8. 3.5mm headphone socket
  9. A music player that isn't completely horrible
  10. A good out-of-the-box experience - I don't want to have to faff about downloading (and paying for) 3rd party software to get the phone into a useable state. I want a phone not a hobby.
I assume there's no perfect phone for me. I'm tempted by two options at the moment - the Samsung i8910 HD and the HTC Hero. Price isn't really an issue although I'd prefer not to buy an unsubsidised device. Open to any and all suggestions though.
Click to expand...

from the sounds of that list what you really want is the iphone, but the camera is the main thing stoping you(go on admit it).

just put everyone out of their misery(yourself included) and just get the iPhone and a compact digital camera for the times when you need a flash(you get get quite small lightweight cameras that'll slip into your pocket and not cost a lot).
 
fowler002 said:
from the sounds of that list what you really want is the iphone, but the camera is the main thing stoping you(go on admit it).

just put everyone out of their misery(yourself included) and just get the iPhone and a compact digital camera for the times when you need a flash(you get get quite small lightweight cameras that'll slip into your pocket and not cost a lot).
Click to expand...

I don't think the iPhone's camera is that bad. It's not all about megapixels and there's certainly worse on the market. What's stopping me is Apple's 3rd party app restrictions (see point 4).
 
Tunney said:
I don't think the iPhone's camera is that bad. It's not all about megapixels and there's certainly worse on the market. What's stopping me is Apple's 3rd party app restrictions (see point 4).
Click to expand...

if you've got a small amount of computer savy and can follow simple instructions, I'm sure you wouldn't let that stop you(you should read the posts by some of the people on other forums dedicated to such things. makes you wonder if they even know how to turn a computer on let alone use it. also if they bother to read the instructions first).

google podcaster, it's an app that apple rejected as it competed with itunes and then used some of the features in podcaster for the update of the itunes podcast features. the developer of podcaster released a modified version of the app to comply with what apple rejacted the original app for.

not sure if there is an app that has scheduled dowloading of podcasts, I'll have a look to see if I can find one and get back to you on that.
 
Tunney said:
I tried a HTC WinMo Pro device in Carphone Warehouse over the weekend and wasn't impressed with the responsiveness. I think it was a Touch HD.

What I mean by button overlap is that when people type fast they tend to overlap key presses. i.e.

Typical slow typing: +H -H +I -I = HI (where + is pressing the key down and - is taking your finger off it)
Typical fast typing on capacitive screen: +H +I -H -I = HI
Typical fast typing on resistive screen: +H +I -H -I = H

A Capacitive screen is able to register both key presses independently whilst a resistive screen cannot.
Click to expand...

Got to say I have never had that issue, and all I can say is you must be able to type fast to get that problem itself (bearing in mind almost every hardware keyboard can't register two buttons pressed at the same time either). Having said that I only type with two fingers (and a thumb)...
 
I found an app to (very roughly) do what I want for point 4 so I guess I'll be buying an iPhone. Back-up option at the moment is the Nokia N97 (though I've already got one as my work phone so that might be a bit pointless).
 
what app is it? I've been looking at other podcast apps on the ipod touch(I have the 1st gen 32gb(you get 29gb or so in reality), not using anywhere near the capacity as only have ~25gb remaining of the 29gb capacity. should have saved the money and got the 16gb but have to have the 'best' :) ). as I've mentioned have found podcaster and rssplayer which in reality one in the same(also mobilecaster but don't believe that does scheduled d/ling).

I'd suggest the touch hd but then I'm biased :)

was planning on waiting for the n97 but gave in and got the touch hd just after christmas. I've got s2u2(iphone lock screen look a like) and s2p(finger friendly music player with album view like on the iphone/ipod touch) on it, gives you the look of the iphone without having the iphone. http://s2u2.ac-s2.com/
 
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