Sim free phone for £450, which one?

[Andeh13]

Long story short i cracked the screen on my HTC kaiser, then had a few problems with the insurance company who ended up writing me a check for £430 to buy a new phone for myself!

Now, as much as i loved the kaiser i found it a bit cheap on the outside, a tad sluggish on the inside and a bugger to operate when im walking, or doing anything other then sitting down. Other then this, i loved it! However, with this much money comming my way & the knowledge that i use my phone a huge amount i wouldnt mind looking for an upgraded model.

What alternatives should i look at? Im keen on the HTC touch HD, but im not so sure about the on screen keyboard. Is it any good? How similar is to to the iphone setup?

As for the others, im not so keen on the diamond (too kaiser like, but minus keyboard), touch diamond (again too kaiser like but without the tilt action), or the iphone (just, no thanks).

As a result, what do people think of the HTC touch HD? Any advice or tips?


cheers guys

[SiM]

HTC touch MD? You mean HTC Touch HD? (Get your ninja edit it quick!)

I got one. Its good. On screen keyboard is quite good, IMO only slightly slower type rate than the Kaiser's physical keyboard (but you lose half of the screen when the keyboard is up).

The screen is brilliant for web browsing. I never bothered with mobile web before this because 320x240 is grossly inadequate.

[Andeh13]

The typing is my biggest concern, i can quite happily mow through 800 txts a month, so i need to be happy with the txting side of it. You said it is slightly slower then the kaiser? Is that due to the software or just the fact its physically harder to txt with your fingers?

How similar is it to the iphone's on screen keyboard?

In terms of overall responsiveness, how much better/worse then the kaiser? Have many custom Roms been released for it yet? Do they improve on the standard ROM?

Many thanks mate

[SiM]

I would say it's not more responsive - about equal, or maybe very slightly less (because of TF3D). But the Kaiser that I have tried is plain vanilla, not a single piece of software on it. If TF3D was on the Kaiser I'm sure the speed would be pretty much identical. Also my HD has not been tweaked in anyway yet.

Regarding the keyboard, its slightly less accurate than the physical keyboard. I can't remember what the iphone keyboard was like, but I didn't get on with it at all - I thought it was crap - but apparently it learns your typing over time....

No custom roms are available afaik (check the blackstone forum at xda developers) but it doesn't need one at the moment... what can they put on extra? or what can they take off (its got 256mb ram, so you don't really need a "lite" rom to speed up like on the normal HTC Touch)? Not much really, I am not going to look at custom roms for at least 3 months.

TBH, if you text that much I would go for the Xperia X1 or the Touch Pro

[finlay666]

Xperia X1 is the one I am going for, more powerful than the pro and I felt a better slide out keyboard.

Still waiting for O2 to get some stock so I can get it though........

[SiM]

Xperia X1 is the one I am going for, more powerful than the pro and I felt a better slide out keyboard.

Still waiting for O2 to get some stock so I can get it though........

The Pro has an extra row on the keyboard... afaik most people prefer that over the X1's keyboard

[finlay666]

Well it's between the X1, the HTC Touch pro and the G1 for me....ideally want the X1 as I like the look of it the most and there is the headphone jack, but between the other 2 I kindof fancy the G1 on price

[gtech]

My friend has had the HTC touch HD for 5 days now and although it's a lovely screen with decent res, he cant cope with the texting, he says it's not very accurate, he touches his stylus on one letter and it will click the one next to it. That's his main gripe, i think he is giving it back (has 7 days to try it) and since he's played with my n96 he prefers that, i think he's just had enough of touch screen.

Have you thought of this phone?....

http://www.pomegranatephone.com/

[SiM]

My friend has had the HTC touch HD for 5 days now and although it's a lovely screen with decent res, he cant cope with the texting, he says it's not very accurate, he touches his stylus on one letter and it will click the one next to it. That's his main gripe, i think he is giving it back (has 7 days to try it) and since he's played with my n96 he prefers that, i think he's just had enough of touch screen.:

Sounds like he was using the small keyboard, he should try the full qwerty... It works very well for me. If he is not accurate with that then he has serious problems with his hand/finger co-ordination.