Mobile phone question

[Dave Docwra]

Andy give it a month & you will love it...

 

[Ian Rubie]

Ian, you must know someone with an iPhone

I know two people with iPhones and their views could not be more different. One thinks it is the best thing ever invented and the other hates the thing!! I am still very much on the fence.

Ian

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

There's a review of smart phones in Pc Pro, meant to show it to you No suprises in it though, they think the iPhone4 is prettiest but give it the same score as the HTC HD or Z.

 

[whereisgibson]

I have an iPhone 4 32GB, and can live without it (which I did when it got nicked). But I am surprised to say it's become an indispensable travel tool now. I concede that the majority of the below can also be done on Android, apart from the last point.

It is obviously a phone. They look more delicate than they are; mine lives on a motorbike most of the time without fuss.
It does my satnav offline (£45+ for europe) so I can use it as a road aid with traffic updates.
It does my OS maps offline (£15+) so I can use it to confirm which trail I'm on and discover new ones easily.
It does my email without fuss.
It does wifi where available without fuss.
It does VPN well-enough.
It can do all the VNC/RDP/Putty/http-admin needs of a sysadmin on the go.
The weather apps can show you detailed map forecasts on the go.
It integrates with iPod devices - so my car's headunit can control the songs playing through the car speakers, whilst also charging the phone, whilst also working as a satnav/OSmap, whilst redirecting incoming calls, all with one cable.

It costs about £150 more than it's worth in monetary terms in my opinion, and I only had three good ones out of a total of six (you can tell immediately if there's a problem - screen, rattle, etc). Those two are big negatives.

I used to take a laptop with me on extended road trips, then a netbook. Now I am perfectly capable with just the iPhone. Even for basic video editing and youtube uploads. And because I always have a charged phone, I also now always have a charged laptop, satnav, ipod, etc etc etc.

 

[Gary Stockton]

We have an iPhone 3, 3G, 3GS and 4 at home between 3 of us and wouldn't change. Yes it can be clunky (and won't display any flash components because Steve Jobs hates Flash because it's insecure and buggy - which is mostly true). Have a good contact who was very senior VP at RIM in Canada (Blackberry) who got poached by Apple after getting annoyed with RIMs CEO intransigence on trying to make the BB more accessible to the Joe Public user. Most of the top R&D team left too, so I wouldn't go there

Only other one I'd consider is a decent Android phone, but that won't happen. I mean, a Land Rover to some is a perfectly adequate tool for the job, but we have Land Cruisers. The same goes for phones - we have iPhones

Tony - if you want to borrow a 3G phone for a while to decide let me know - I'm sending stuff down to The Doctor and can include it for you?

Cheers

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

I had the iPhone down as the LR and Android as the LC

 

[Gary Stockton]

That's coz you're a code slinger

Yep - comes down to usability and fit for purpose I guess. Be interesting to see what the iPhone 5 brings in the summer. I'm very happy with the 4 - it's quick and the display is fantastic. Battery life could be better but it charges from the Dension in the truck while providing 30gigs worth of music.

 

[Ian Rubie]

This thread has been almost exactly what I expected when I posted the original question! Thanks for all for your input. I fall into the not an Apple fan group for most things. Having said that I don't dislike them so much that I would exclude them on principle.

Looks like I am going to go the Android route. Narrowed it down to two, Samsung Galaxy S or Google Nexus S. I know they are almost the same thing except the Nexus S has a cleaner and newer version of Android.

Ian

 

[EvilEd]

The big downside to android for me was getting hold of updates. you only seem to get 1 or 2 updates before the phone is considered obsolete and they don't release a newer version for it. not such a big problem with V2, but you'll still be annoyed that you can't have the latest updates after 6 months. I think I have had 4 or 5 updates from Apple so far and there is nothing in the details of the next version of IOS (rumour has it due 14th Feb) that will exclude the 3GS.

I hate apple with a vengence from many years of marketing departments wanting those horrible things, but I have to say the iphone gets my vote over android. Unless you're a "code basher".... then the android is great

 

[pugwash]

Anyone recommend a smart phone with GPS that Memory map will work on?

Had an HTC Tytn 2 that ran on old windows software, and whilst it was very badly designed, it did everything i wanted in the way of GPS, WiFi, 3G etc etc

 

[piers_finlayson]

The big downside to android for me was getting hold of updates. you only seem to get 1 or 2 updates before the phone is considered obsolete and they don't release a newer version for it. not such a big problem with V2, but you'll still be annoyed that you can't have the latest updates after 6 months.

The Nexus S won't give you this problem. Google's Nexus One has always lead the charge in terms of firmware updates, and the Nexus S will pick up this mantle.

 

[spackrackman]

My brothers galaxy s is very plastic and creaks when he uses it.

 

[piers_finlayson]

I can't make it creak but it's definitely a bit plasticky and shiny. Nowhere near as nicely designed as the Nexus One.

Of course, out of all the mobiles I've used in the last few years, my favourite is Windows Phone 7 - it blows the socks off even the iPhone's UI. Not much good if you need lots of apps though.

 

[spackrackman]

Been wanting to try one properly. I am sure the apps will soon follow. What's so smooth about the windows?

 

[Gary Stockton]

MM have a native app for the iPhone that's not bad and integrates with your pc MM installation for tracks routes maps and poi stuff

Cheers

 

[Andrew Prince]

Ian, what phone did you go for in the end?

I am now thinking of going down this route - current leading option is the Nexus S... but as soon as I did some research, it doesn't sound that great and it seems that the next phone due to be released (whatever it may be) is sure to be the best

Anyone have new thoughts to add to the discussion here?

Cheers,

 

[Gary Stockton]

Still very happy with the iPhone 4. There's another one due out soon. My major complaint is that the apple os and safari browser doesn't support flash. So if you use it for a lot of mobile browsing it's going to pee you off sooner or later. Also doesn't do anything microsofty like ms video files etc.

But I still like it's usability from a hands on perspective - and iTunes native integration, and plethora of after-Market accessories.

At the end of the day it'll be an entirely subjective choice though!

Cheers

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

Anyone have new thoughts to add to the discussion here?

What phone do you use now and what do you want your new phone to do extra / better?

 

[Andrew Prince]

I have a geriatric Nokia N96, which I basically just use as a phone because it's so clunky doing anything else. I have a bberry for email & occasional web-browsing but it's pretty clunky too.

I would like a phone that does all of that, with a touchscreen plus do occasional web-browsing with minimal fuss. Some functionality for videos would be a nice-to-have but not a primary driver (and I think pretty much all phones do this these days). One of the concerns I have about modern smartphones is the poor battery life - I would probably place long-life above some of the fancier features.

Not a big fan of the iphone/apple mostly because of the marketing hoopla... I figure I should get something that is close to state-of-the-art today because I will probably be keeping the phone for a while and technology moves on quite quickly.

I would prefer not to select a new phone by trial and error BTDT and ended up with the Nokia, hence me hanging on to it for so long

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

Pretty much any smart phone will mean you have to change your charging routine I had a simple Nokia till recently, forgetting to charge it was rarely a big deal because it would go for a day or two still from half a battery easy. The HTC Z I have now would stuggle to go two days without a recharge and I don't use it much at all. According to a group test in the magazine I read the Z is better than most so I would plan to charge whatever you get at least once a day.

I'm happy with my Z by the way, battery life is the only thing I would complain about and now I've got into the habit of plugging it in more regularly it's more a worry than an actual problem. For longer txts the slide out keyboard is much better than pecking away at the on screen one