Need Phone upgrade advice

[0iD]

Now my old Nok 3510i is prettymuch knackered, so I asked work for a replacement & I got offered the following:

Handspring Treo 600
Orange SPV C500
Orange SPV E200
Nokia 6600
Sony T610

Now I need a good camera to take snaps when on site visits & e-mail + PC connectivity would be great. But which of the above is best?
I did want a Nokia 7610 but they told me to knob off

[Aaron]

The Nokia 7610 has a superb camera, the best I've ever seen on a phone. It's an expensive phone though, maybe you could offer to pay the excess?

Handspring Treo 600

The Treo 600 has been pretty popular in the US. The US is pretty backwards when it comes mobile technology though, so I wouldn't recommend it.

Orange SPV C500

Certainly the best MS Windows phone out there. Small and responsive, but looks like the cheap generic Tawainese phone that it is.

You're also locked in to MS software really too. Don't expect it to sync with your work PC if you use Lotus Notes (which 40% of large businesses do).

Orange SPV E200

An old brick of a phone. Heavy, slow, poor battery life and a lack of features.

Nokia 6600

It's been out for a while, and it's a bit behind the latest Symbian phones. It's a bit on the fat side and a bit slow, but otherwise a decent phone. Definately the best camera out of the bunch, though it's only VGA resolution. It also has the best range of software available out of the bunch (see the forum sticky ).

The Nokia 6600 is soon to be replaced by the 6670, which does include a lovely megapixel camera.

Sony T610

The only non-"smartphone" out of the phones you've been offered. Being a regular phone it has all of the advantages (good battery life, small, easy-to-use) and disadvantages (limited functionally and customisability, decent looks) that are associated.

[0iD]

Cheers Aaron
U tha man!

[Aaron]

No problem.

* waits for Tom to post

[0iD]

Recon I'll hold out for a Nokia 6670 as they're due out in October.

[Atomic]

You could ask if you could get a SE K700, it'll cost about £50 ontop but its an excellent phone.

[Tom]

lol aaron Wasn't goin to post til you mentioned me

C500 is the best out of that bunch in my opinion, and I'm not quite sure where you got that the 6600 has the best camera out of them from :S C500's cam is actually very good, just lacks a camera.

As for synching with lotus notes, it is very possible with this software:

http://www.sync.com/is_desktop_main.html

Whether or not the phone looks cheap is very subjective, but I as I have said before you're the only guy who I've ever heard say that It has a very good build quality

It is a LOT smaller than the 6600, and more powerful.

Only thing I can say is go into carphone warehouse and ask to play with one then make your own decision.

The t610 is a VERY dated phone now, but it does offer better battery life than the rest. As for easy-to-use, I don't think it can get much simpler than with windows mobile 2003SE, anything you need to do is logically placed, most stuff right where you need it. To dial a number you just dial, to find a person from phonebook you just press the letters of their name straight from the home screen, messages is the first start menu option etc

[0iD]

Well it looks like i'm going to have to go on a reckie to have a look for myself. Thanks for the advice Tom.
As for office apps I use Office XP at home & work so perhaps a MS Smartphone would be better.

Good job I asked tho, was going for the Treo. All those buttons appealed to my geeky side

[MD]

I am surprised the 6230 was not in the list, I had a 6600 and HATED the thing with a vengence, am tempted by the C-500 but heard a few reliability issues, my 6230 on the other hand, absolutely superb phone.

m@

[Tom]

Originally Posted by m@ttz

I am surprised the 6230 was not in the list, I had a 6600 and HATED the thing with a vengence, am tempted by the C-500 but heard a few reliability issues, my 6230 on the other hand, absolutely superb phone.

m@

hehe matz, reason it wasnt top on the list as it isn't the best phone out Best non-smartphone is between it and the K700i, both of which I have used but the 6230 falls behind. I have a c500 and a 6230 (well the 6230 is my sisters) and I can definitely say the k700i is better. The c500 is better in my opinion and in fact simpler to use

The only plus of the 6230 is the fact it uses MMC which is cheaper when you get to the larger sizes (above 256) than miniSD (which is used by c500) (512mb is biggest largely available miniSD and you pay the premium! its 3x more expensive than 256mb which comes in at under £30) and the k700i doesnt have any expansion what-so-ever.

6230's camera is pitiful as well.

K700's boasts a higher max res in the software than either phone but I'm pretty sure this must ust be interpolated as the quality is crap at this res, and I achieve better results upsizing my c500 pics to the same res. It does have a light but it isnt that useful from my experience. 6230 is just very very poor quality in anything but perfect light, where it is maybe on par with c500.

Might sound like I am too pro c500, but I am asking purely out of interest what reliability issues have you heard of?

EDIT: just noticed that aaron called the e200 a brick (rightly so, it is) but it is very similar in size to the 6600 thus making that a brick too

You also mention lack of features? you must be mistaking it for the original SPV. It has almost all the features of the c500 but with less battery life and much bigger, and a 70ish mhz slower. Still has bluetooth, camera, and anythin that runs on c500 runs on e200 Except java apps, as that is new to the c500. It also runs 2003 instead of 2003SE.

[0iD]

For the K700i i'd have to pay a premium of £75

[Aaron]

lol aaron Wasn't goin to post til you mentioned me

I think we balance each other out in terms of biasness.

C500 is the best out of that bunch in my opinion, and I'm not quite sure where you got that the 6600 has the best camera out of them from :S C500's cam is actually very good, just lacks a camera.

Best camera out of the bunch, it just lacks a camera?

just noticed that aaron called the e200 a brick (rightly so, it is) but it is very similar in size to the 6600 thus making that a brick too

My definition of a "brick" is: big, heavy and ugly.

The E200 is all three. The 6600 is big, but I'd hardly call it heavy or ugly. The 6600 looks like a regular phone that's just eaten a few pies.

You also mention lack of features? you must be mistaking it for the original SPV. It has almost all the features of the c500 but with less battery life and much bigger, and a 70ish mhz slower.

The whole of the Windows Mobile platform lacks features.

It's about 12-18 months behind SymbianOS. Specifically, it's very immature when it comes to MIDP, EDGE, UTMS, MFI, LFO, etc, etc.

[Swafe]

apprently you can decefity c500s, so they can run normal apps, not just ms ones

not seen the trio, so wont comment mate, but i think ive had all them phones


C500 is by far the best, definutly an all rounder

E200, if you got a choice, of a C500, dont go with it, the C500 is the same - but better (even if slightly uglier)

6600s are alrite, there nice phones, good in term of software, but prob not as good as a C500 - the camera im not sure might be better, as i had one and it was prety great - but id still say the C500 is the one to go for

t610 ? dont bother bit of an old ugly square phone now



i used to have a E100, which was a E200, without bluetooth, or integrated camera, i used to encode mpeg films @ screen res, if you have a 128MMc card for it, ull be able to fit a film on it good thing is that you can full screen, and the phone will play it full speed (either e200 or c500) with full sound, mp3 players u can get too, msn messenger

personally c500, but if you have to pay cash on top to get it might not be worth it as much for u

E200 and 6600 are both equal id say, if you had to pay extra, the 6600 is beefier, but has a better camera - the e200 you can put more apps on tho

[Tom]

lol swafeman uglier only in pics, (unless you've seen one irl in which case ill FOAD)

[Apex]

Don't touch the T610....it's horrid tbh.

[0iD]

Well I'm going to have a look at the C500, K700i & the Nok 6230 (late offer) at the weekend. It's all so confusing for my tiny lil mind :S