Mobile Phone thread - please include links to good deals

[averybluemonkey]

It's worth mentioning that you can't compare processor speeds across OSes. Symbian is far more efficient than Android, and as such a Symbian phone runs a hell of a lot faster on a 600MHz processor than Android does.

[J0e Musashi]

Is anyone big on Android? My question is this:

Sometimes my contact list shows people's Google online status. I get either a green or an orange dot. It seems to happen randomly though, I can't find any options for it anyway. I'd like it to always be there. If anybody could explain it I'd appreciate it.

[Anpanman]

Bit of advice, am not really into phones but looking to buy a new one that has sat-nav.

I believe the Nokia ones have free maps so am looking at the 5230. Anybody got one?

If so what is the navi like. Also is the calendar any good, I have a works Nokia and the calendar is not a patch on my own Motorola flippy one.

[fishbowlhead]

Bit of advice, am not really into phones but looking to buy a new one that has sat-nav.

I believe the Nokia ones have free maps so am looking at the 5230. Anybody got one?

If so what is the navi like. Also is the calendar any good, I have a works Nokia and the calendar is not a patch on my own Motorola flippy one.

Every android phone has free google navigation beta, and its actually quite good (requires a data connection though)

The new ,desire hd, and ,desire z, also have a new off-line sat nav service. Haven't used this but apparently you have to purchase the function and the maps, obviously being off-line is a big plus though.


The calenders on all android phones are good, with the htc sense equiped having a very good calender as you can have a full screen widget.


Hope that's of some help to you.

[Anpanman]

Thanks for the advice I'll look into it, just really rusty on all the new equipment, Android, desire etc all completely foreign to me but it's nothing my mate Google can't sort out.

Cheers.

[Brad]

Bit of advice, am not really into phones but looking to buy a new one that has sat-nav.

I believe the Nokia ones have free maps so am looking at the 5230. Anybody got one?

If so what is the navi like. Also is the calendar any good, I have a works Nokia and the calendar is not a patch on my own Motorola flippy one.

Nokia Navigation with Ovi maps owns Google maps IMO. Everything else about Nokia phones is utter crap though including the calendar - it's so cumbersome and unintuitive (I had an E72).

[Anpanman]

Cheers FSW, even though I'm not into phones, my works Nokia is just as you say so unintuitive, a right pain to use.

I'll stay clear then and look into the others mentioned by fishbowlhead.

[averybluemonkey]

It's worth trying out a new Symbian^3 handset in the stores though, it's been revamped to use a single touch UI and has Live widgets on the home screens so you can have all your calender notifications on display without going into any of the menus, I found it quite usable.

[charlesr]

lol, http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/11...mobile_trojan/

[Brats]

Can I ask for some phone advice from you chaps?

My 10 year old daughter would like a mobile phone as she now has to walk further to school. I'm looking for a PAYG phone up to ?60. I don't want anything that looks like a smart phone because if she's taking it to school, I don't want it to stand out. She will probably also drop it.

However she would like a phone that will play her music, have some degree of online (youtube would be nice), a camera (doesn't have to be anything good), possibly some basic games and, last of all, Wi-Fi (as she'll probably use it in the house too).

I'm finding the phone websites rubbish at listing the features of the phones. Does anyone have any suggestions for a good kids phone?

[charlesr]

Apart from being £99 and looking like a smartphone, that Orange San francisco has everyone raving... I'm struggling to find anything with wifi for £60
Anything with wifi pretty much by definition is a smartphone, otherwise it would just have bluetooth.

[Brats]

I thought that might be the case about the Wi-Fi.

The San Francisco looks great - but I'd still rather she have more of a 'normal' looking phone rather than a possible theft magnet.

Leaving out the Wi-Fi, any suggestions for a normal looking phone with a camera, music and possibly Youtube?

[charlesr]

Nokia 3120? 3G, Opera browser, 2MP camera, MicroSD up to 4GB (additional cost, but should be dirt cheap now). Looks pretty indestructible.
Note, I'm just guessing - never tried one.

[fishbowlhead]

Palm pixi plus? great little phones with everything barring sat nav, got google maps though for ?100 on payg.

http://shop.o2.co.uk/mobile_phone/Palm/Pixi_Plus?lastPage=/mobile_phones/Pay_And_Go/page

[charlesr]

Budget Android Roundup