Mobile Phone thread - please include links to good deals

[Shez]

Need a phone quick sharp, my current phone is turned of on the 11th - Most important feature for me is battery life.

I like the look of the E51 and Nokia are bigging up the battery life - Any owners care to comment on battery life?

[Friction]

Might be a bit too early for me to comment on the battery life of the E51. Got mine on Wednesday gave it a full charge (mid morning) and had to charge it again last night (Friday). In fairness though with it being a new phone I was playing around with it all day, showing mates and using it like I usually do (plenty of texts, calls, and some mobile internet) so perhaps not a fair indication of how long it will last.

[gizmo1990]

Ok some more E51 questions!

How well does the browser work? Using the browser on my N73 is a real chore. Slow stuttery updates and scrolling make it a painful experience. How user friendly is it? Or to put it another way, if a iPhones web experience is a 9/10 how close is the E51's?

And also have you tried using Nokia maps yet? Do you get UK maps included with the phone? How good a navigation program is it?

[melenko]

Ok some more E51 questions!

How well does the browser work? Using the browser on my N73 is a real chore. Slow stuttery updates and scrolling make it a painful experience. How user friendly is it? Or to put it another way, if a iPhones web experience is a 9/10 how close is the E51's?

I used opera mini on my N73 which was a lot better, then i got rid of the phone because it was so slow at loading anything anyway.

[Friction]

The web browser isn't too bad actually. The one I am using is all T-Mobile branded so to speak - with it being Web and Walk. It's very much like Opera Mini which I installed on my 6233, but not quite as quick, and not as simple somehow, but all the same still very good.

Nokia Maps comes installed on the phone. I've only had a quick play with it. It's a bit slow and takes a while to download the data it needs when you zoom in and stuff, and you need a bluetooth GPS reciever thingy to get any navigation out of it so I can't really be much more help than that I'm afraid!

[QualityChimp]

So after a few weeks of use with the E51, is it all that you hoped for or are you looking longingly at the huge screen of the N95 or the excellent camera of the N82?

I've got it down to these 3 phones, but there's no clear stand out phone... yet!

[Wolverine]

this is probably a really really dumb question and you've probably heard this a million times BUT im after a phone with the following:

ORANGE network
good internet browsing
wifi (WLAN)
sat nav system
good camera
long (or longlish) battery life


Now I've been told by mates (who kinda know thier stuff) that the best phones to get are the:
XDa Orbit,
N95 (8GB),
N82

can somebody please tell me which is best for what I want - or if there are any other I should be looking at - Thanking you so much in advance.

[Mr_Skinny]

Well the N95 fits your list of requirements perfectly, aside from the battery life.

[Riskbreaker]

This might be useful for some peeps using the original N95 phones. I've got the N95 Plum on T-mobile and I used the following tutorial to change the product code to a generic Nokia one allowing me to upgrade to the lastest firmware and strip out some of their installed pap.

http://www.nokia-n95.net/how-to-s/how-to-change-your-n95s-product-code-2.html

It's really straightforward. You won't need to buy any extra accessories as it works with the supplied USB cable, you will need the Nokia Software Updater (supplied on the Nokia website) and the Nemesis Service Suite (link in article).

As with all these things, doing so voids your warranty and could screw your phone, so do it at your own risk and backup your phone using PC suite beforehand.

Personally it worked fine for me and I managed to upgrade to firmware to v20 instead of the v12 allowed by T-mobile. So far I've noticed that the camera works better and the GPS seems to achieve a lock far faster as well. It also seems to have removed a bug on the multimedia key that caused it to cease functioning for no known reason. Some of my apps had to be reinstalled after restoring the phone backup, but that was no biggie. So far so good.

[PeteJ]

My E51 keeps crashing, or more specifically it stops me from getting into the menu without first doing a restart. Becoming a bit of a pain - on latest firmware.

[Wolverine]

this is probably a really really dumb question and you've probably heard this a million times BUT im after a phone with the following:

ORANGE network
good internet browsing
wifi (WLAN)
sat nav system
good camera
long (or longlish) battery life


Now I've been told by mates (who kinda know thier stuff) that the best phones to get are the:
XDa Orbit,
N95 (8GB),
N82

can somebody please tell me which is best for what I want - or if there are any other I should be looking at - Thanking you so much in advance.

but Ive heard the N95 have pretty crappy GPS so is the N82 better? Im really thinking about the XDA Orbit - is it better than the N95 (8GB) and N82?

[Oh_Mutants]

Ok guys, want some opinions please. I'm due an upgrade in a couple of weeks, and am looking for a reliable phone that i will be mainly using for calls/texts (Obviously), web browsing & the occasional camera usage.
Am on T Mobile and am thinking between an LG Viewty, Nokia N95 or a Samsung G800, based purely on what looks good in their brochure tbh. Thoughts?

[Friction]

Can't comment on the other two, but N95 isn't a bad phone - my brother has one. I got my upgrade recently (also on T-Mobile) and I chose the Nokia E51, pretty much all the features of the N95, bar the 5MP camera - E51 only has a 2mp one. But it's a nice slim and function loaded phone. I've had it for about a month now and I love it. Nice and easy to use, does everything I want it to

[nightstalker100]

Just been instore and on the phone to the l and r team at vodafone.

Can't believe that after 16 mths at ?35 per month i'm not allowed an n95gb on the same tariff???

The guy instore said they base it on previous usage and i said fair enough but how do you do that for a new customer who can get one on that tariff.

Seems to me new customers get a better shake.

Anyway l and r offered a 50% line rental discount for 15 mths for a new 18 mth contract but no new handset, giving a saving of ?260.

My alternative is move to a current ?25 tariff offering the same allowances but getting a w910 which i'll punt on ebay for around 120-15, potentially saving ?300.

any advice?

[Rossco]

Become a new customer and get the N95 that way if you want it?