Changing TyTN II for a N95 / K850i?

[Dreaming]

Hey guys.

I got a Kaiser as i was the latest and greatest, but I only use texting / calls and the camera and really it's a 'jack of all trades' and unfortunately I'm getting frustrated with things such as the lag in the not-completely-optimised windows mobile 6 environment.

So thinking of leaving it, looked at a Nokia N95 and they look nice, and easy to work. And the camera on the K850i seems a big plus, that it's designed, born and bred to be a camera phone.

The only bit I'll miss is (trying) to browse the internet i.e. hexus, but I may be getting an eeepc or laptop soon (easter yay for good exam results) and my contract allows me to use my phone as a modem, and most phones support this functionality with the right drivers (as far as I'm aware). So those train journeys will have internet on a marginally bigger screen too

Are there any guys who play with quite a lot of different phones? I'd be interested to know what you think . I'd probably buy second hand off fleabay as long as the phones weren't broken - at the end of the day I just want it to do the job and feel like I'm wasting a lot of the 'value' in a kaiser, so if I sold it for £200 or so I could probably get a phone to better suit my needs for less.

The K850i goes I've seen for around £140 which isn't bad, and here's a very happy chappy whose using it exactly as I would:
K850i as a Modem - Absolutely fantastic. : General : Sony Ericsson @ Esato

So at least I *know* there are no issues with that. The N95 seems much more expensive, but you need to take account of the GPS - and I don't need that at all since I ride bikes and unless you ride a BMW it's useless .

[joshwa]

The thing that put me off the K850i is the video mode which is still low res 320x something ish size, whereas the n95 does VGA 30fps video which is actually pretty decent. The 5mp camera isn't great indoors, as flash pictures make people blue. But apart from that the N95 is a very good phone - especially as it has built in wifi, and gps.

Opera mini works very well on all the phones I've used (K800i, N73, N95), and is often much better than the built in web browser. It's better with a bigger screen though.

I've gone from the N95 to the N73, as I prefer not having the slide thing. Plus I don't like the N95 flash photo quality.

[Templar87]

Originally Posted by Dreaming

So thinking of leaving it, looked at a Nokia N95 and they look nice, and easy to work. And the camera on the K850i seems a big plus, that it's designed, born and bred to be a camera phone.

The K850i goes I've seen for around £140 which isn't bad, and here's a very happy chappy whose using it exactly as I would.

I wouldn't say the K850i was any better or worse than the N95 camera-wise. They've marketed it as a camera with a phone built in, but really it's just another camera phone, much like the N95 :-)

If you were buying second hand you could get a N95 for not much more than you quote for the K850i, probably £160 inc p&p. Of course I suppose it boils down to whether you would make use of the extra features the N95 has or even if you prefer a Sony user interface to a Nokia one.

[Ferral]

I would go with the N95, moreso the 8GB version. At least that way there is almost as much functionality as the HTC. It has Sat Nav, 5MP Carl Zeiss optics camera, Wireless LAN, N Gage games and also supports Realplayer MP4 etc

K850 does have a decent enough camera on it but by far the N95 surpasses it.

[Lee @ SCAN]

N95 gets my vote.

only had mine a week and so far it's a cracking phone

[Dreaming]

Originally Posted by Ferral

I would go with the N95, moreso the 8GB version. At least that way there is almost as much functionality as the HTC. It has Sat Nav, 5MP Carl Zeiss optics camera, Wireless LAN, N Gage games and also supports Realplayer MP4 etc

K850 does have a decent enough camera on it but by far the N95 surpasses it.

I see what you're saying but I don't really use many features on a phone these days! As long as it works as a HDSPA modem, and can take photos of me while drunk, and also permit me to enter phone numbers and names when drunk .

The kaiser is a step back in some ways - its missing loads of features that the htc wizard had such as t9 touchscreen input. There are roms with these included but to be honest I'd rather have a phone that just works than try 15 different roms working out which one has the best performance / feature balance.

I like the look of the n95 8gb but it looks like it retails upwards of £300? More than a kaiser...

unless someone wants to swap?

[Templar87]

You could go with the original N95, it's about half the price of the new 8gb model. The 8gb just has a few enhancements such as longer battery life, slightly bigger screen and some others I can't cite off the top of my head :-)

[Parm]

Dreaming, though you've specifically mentioned the N95 and K850i, have you considered a Samsung handset?

I've used my fair share of phones and though I like the gadgety ones like the Kaiser and N95, I tend to find they're a lot more awkward to use than more standard headsets.

You've mentioned that your primary uses are texting and calling, with a bit of camera usage too. With that in mind, I'd recommend the Samsung G600. It isn't as feature packed as the N95, not by a long way. But in my opinion, it looks a lot better, is a lot easier to use and is much more user friendly. It does have a 5mp camera too which works well in lighted conditions.

I tend to find if you're looking for a phone that's a good phone as opposed to an average smartphone, the Samsung handsets are a good choice.

[Lee @ SCAN]

N96 information is floating about now so the N95 is being replaced soon

I love the port on the side which allows you to use any headphones and the best thing is I can if need just plug my monitor speakers into it if required.

[Flibb]

Originally Posted by Dreaming

The kaiser is a step back in some ways - its missing loads of features that the htc wizard had such as t9 touchscreen input. There are roms with these included but to be honest I'd rather have a phone that just works than try 15 different roms working out which one has the best performance / feature balance.

To instal a keyboard or any other software to a WM6 phone you dont flash the rom, you just instal the software. Takes less than a minute and works on the shipped ROM. Touchpal is worth a look.

[Dreaming]

Originally Posted by Parm

Dreaming, though you've specifically mentioned the N95 and K850i, have you considered a Samsung handset?

I've used my fair share of phones and though I like the gadgety ones like the Kaiser and N95, I tend to find they're a lot more awkward to use than more standard headsets.

You've mentioned that your primary uses are texting and calling, with a bit of camera usage too. With that in mind, I'd recommend the Samsung G600. It isn't as feature packed as the N95, not by a long way. But in my opinion, it looks a lot better, is a lot easier to use and is much more user friendly. It does have a 5mp camera too which works well in lighted conditions.

I tend to find if you're looking for a phone that's a good phone as opposed to an average smartphone, the Samsung handsets are a good choice.

I'm just looking for a nice easy 'honest' handset mate . I had heard samsungs have awful battery life - but anything would be an improvement as I have to charge my phone every night anyway. Gone are the days of leaving it 7 days between charges

[GAteKeeper]

Battery Life and N95 just don't go together, I have got into the routine of just putting it on charge when I get in from work and I dont have a problem.

Having said that then N95 is a great phone, the GPS has saved my arse in London (on foot) a few times and its really useful to just look something up and know where to go.

As I understand it the N95 8Gb has a pysically bigger screen (.1/.2") but same resolution, no SD slot (you can put 8Gb microSDHC cards in a N95) and the newer battery for ~10% more life. Plus you can get it in more colours, N95 was limited to Plum and Silver on release I think.

GK

[Templar87]

True battery life is quite low - probably just a couple of days tops on the original. Although the new 8GB version is supposed to be a 25% to 50% improvement on this with a bigger battery and OS optimisations.

The K850i (if it's anything like my K800i) will probably do 5-6 days on a full change. Just another trade-off the OP will have to decide on...

[Parm]

Originally Posted by Dreaming

I'm just looking for a nice easy 'honest' handset mate . I had heard samsungs have awful battery life - but anything would be an improvement as I have to charge my phone every night anyway. Gone are the days of leaving it 7 days between charges

In that case, I'd definately recommend going to a shop and trying out the Samsung G600 mate.

For a nice easy handset, the N95 in my opinion doesn't quite cut it. It takes forever to turn on, it's fairly slow when using it and it will need charging daily. It is still a great phone as it has the ability to do much more, but I find truly useful apps for Symbian hard to come by.

The Samsung G600 has very decent battery life, especially considering how thin the handset is.

I've always looked at it like this:
Nokia = smartphones
Sony Ericsson = good walkmans and cameras
Samsung / Motorola - just good simple phone

[Dreaming]

There's so much choice.

If I can get on with the K850i I'll get that as sony cybershot is supposed to be fairly competent.

bit-tech.net | Nokia leaks N96 specs

N96 specs leaked though. *ponders*

[Dreaming]

I just re-flashed to a custom ROM (I thought **** it, was so pissed off if I brick it I'll just get a replacement and sell it on as un-used [i have fully comp insurance on it]) and Oh My God. Dutty's dualtouch v4 is amazing, it's literally 2 - 3x as fast in all operations, has about a million more features (and not just hacked ones, official ones from HTC) and... why are these not distributed in the normal channels I don't know. (he has reversed engineered them from later phones that had them pre-installed)

XDA dev is a nightmare to navigate. So for any people pissed off at the HTC Kaiser who don't have the patience of a saint:

Download and install HardSPL, this prevents your device from bricking when you flash it (and most flash programs won't let you install if it's not there as a safety measure anyway).
HTC Kaiser Hard-SPL v1 - CID Unlock & Flash any ROM to your device (4 free) - xda-developers

Then download and install Dutty's DualTouch v4 ROM.
XDADeveloperWiki - Dutty Series Kaiser

Remember to backup your contacts first, as someone in another thread of mine about lost contacts said, if you have outlook just export contacts to a .csv file.

So much faster and nicer, with new features! And a proper touch screen keyboard!