iphone or something else

greasedscotsman

My contract is up soon, so time for a new phone! Quite fancy an iphone, but just how easy is the touch screen to use? I currently have an LG KU990, which has a touch screen and to be honest, it's not the greatest thing to use. For example, I can't type a txt on the move, I have to stop and stand still to type it. So is the iphone any better? Or is there something else I should get that's so much better (or cheaper) than an iphone?

tlw1

lots & lots & lots of posts on this

As an iphone owner - I would always recommend it! Re: texting, I haven't tried texting on the move due to the fact I would always rather phone!

balthazar

The capacitive touchscreen on the iPhone and other recent highend phones is incomparably better than the resistive screens on earlier and cheaper ones. Just have a play with one in a shop. Palm and Google Android based phones are competitive, though in my judgement iPhone is still on top.

beatsystem

check the gadget show review on channel 5, it on the web. They did test of potetial iphone beaters this week.

redddraggon

I've had an iphone for nearly 18months. Normally my struggle to last out a 12month contract before I break them, or get fed up with them, but the iphone is still going strong after 16months.

I'll probably get a new one when it's time to renew the contract, although 24month contracts seem to be coming the norm now to get a decent amount of minutes/texts, and I'm not sure that my phone would last that long.

benpinnick

iPhone is the way forward, although my friend has a google nexus and I have to admit thats pretty good too.

Headhuunter

Here's another phone question and sorry to hijack the conversation. If I'm not interested in unlimited internet access (therefore bumping up my basic charge before calls from about 15 quid to 30+quid) and I don't need an ipod in my phone (any other type of MP3 would do - Sony, whatever), what's the best phone to get? I've got an N95 at the moment which is about 18 months old. The N95 has got a 5MP autofocus camera which I like, too, so I don't want one of these luddite type phones with no features whatsoever...

thel33ter

I recently got an HTC Hero with unlimited texts, internet and 300 minutes, for 20 quid a month. I recommend it and I still haven't found something that an iPhone does that this doesn't.

Headhuunter

thel33ter wrote:

I recently got an HTC Hero with unlimited texts, internet and 300 minutes, for 20 quid a month. I recommend it and I still haven't found something that an iPhone does that this doesn't.

That sounds interesting. I get 600 mins anytime/any network, unlimited texts, free insurance and I'm an Orange Premier member for £15 per month so I'm just not interested in raising that cost enormously, losing minutes and free texts just so that I can have an iphone and internet access. Not only that but I'd probably have to pay for the iphone as well.. They can keep it at that price...

cheesebeanie

I am an iphone user and to be honest, i would never go back to a 'normal' phone. I love it! Great touch screen (best i have used and i have had alot!)
V happy with it.
Go for it!

PS I use the 02 pre-pay £20 per month sim only contract - its fab! From memory it has 600 mins free calls, 1000 free texts and unlimited free internet use. Alot of companies run these sim only contracts and all are quite competetive. I like the freedom of not being tied into a massively long contract. This one is only 30 days notice to cancel.

Headhuunter

cheesebeanie wrote:

I am an iphone user and to be honest, i would never go back to a 'normal' phone. I love it! Great touch screen (best i have used and i have had alot!)
V happy with it.
Go for it!

PS I use the 02 pre-pay £20 per month sim only contract - its fab! From memory it has 600 mins free calls, 1000 free texts and unlimited free internet use. Alot of companies run these sim only contracts and all are quite competetive. I like the freedom of not being tied into a massively long contract. This one is only 30 days notice to cancel.

Problem is you have to pay something stupid like £300+ for the phone don't you?

guinea

Any phone you can't take on a night/weekend away without a charger is useless in my opinion.

mattbass789

guinea wrote:

Any phone you can't take on a night/weekend away without a charger is useless in my opinion.

at least with non apple devices you can take spare batteries... or at least upgrade them to better ones. Stock batteries are never great.

scally56

Headhunter, whats the Orange premier member all about.

Simon

lochindaal

New iPhone expected in a few months. If you want to stay with it might be worth waiting a bit

DonDaddyD

iPhone, accept no substitute.

People go one about, not having a decent camera (I got camera), people go on about not having a decent radio (I only listen to the raido when I'm driving, LBC).

People go on about it not having Flash, battery life or this piece of hardware blah blah blah.

I just want:

i) A phone that works and is intuitive
ii) Features that work
iii) The phone not to leave me frustrated when using it
iv) features that keep my interest

And my iPhone does all this. Best phone I've had during 10years of owning mobile phones.

My iPhone is on T-moblie after several days haggling for the upgrade.

antfly

I recommend the Nokia 5800 musicexpress. It`s very good, it`s got gps with speed and distance and a great touchscreen and it`s small and neat.
It comes second in "Which" best buy after the Nokia N97.

Headhuunter

scally56 wrote:

Headhunter, whats the Orange premier member all about.

Simon

To be honest it just seems to mean that when you call customer services you get through to a special line which says "welcome to Orange Premier" and then your call gets answered very quickly and they're very nice to you on the phone and they call you "Mr such and such" rather than by your 1st name! I think there were other anciliary benefits but I've forgotten what they were as they were irrelevant to me....

ExeterSimon

DonDaddyD wrote:

iPhone, accept no substitute.

People go one about, not having a decent camera (I got camera), people go on about not having a decent radio (I only listen to the raido when I'm driving, LBC).

People go on about it not having Flash, battery life or this piece of hardware blah blah blah.

I just want:

i) A phone that works and is intuitive
ii) Features that work
iii) The phone not to leave me frustrated when using it
iv) features that keep my interest

And my iPhone does all this. Best phone I've had during 10years of owning mobile phones.

My iPhone is on T-moblie after several days haggling for the upgrade.

Apart from the HTC HD2. Now that is a phone worth considering. And not being made by Apple means not every other bugger will have one.

Headhuunter

antfly wrote:

I recommend the Nokia 5800 musicexpress. It`s very good, it`s got gps with speed and distance and a great touchscreen and it`s small and neat.
It comes second in "Which" best buy after the Nokia N97.

That sounds interesting. Although a guy at work has got the N97 and he hates it - is on his 2nd one and still thinks it's sh*t...

antfly

He could be right, I stole this from the Which website, it`s a bit geeky.
No such problems with the 5800 though.

"The Nokia N97 handset that we reviewed in July 2009 performed extremely well in our extensive tests, making it a clear Best Buy. However comments on our Customer Views page have revealed that some people have experienced problems with this phone.

We put these complaints to Nokia. While it didn’t acknowledge that the handset was faulty it did concede that the technology used to run a smartphone has become increasingly complicated, and so needs to be updated accordingly. It has therefore issued two software updates since the phone was launched to ensure that it runs smoothly (users should be notified by text when a new upgrade is available).

According to Nokia, the first update, Version 12.0, improved the performance and stability of the N97. The latest software is Version 20. This should improve the overall touchscreen experience, allow users to access their Nokia email and provide easy access to the Ovi store. It should also add the ability to download Ovi Maps 3.1 with 3-D Maps, improve memory, battery performance and image and video stability.

The firmware is made available through the Nokia Software Updater, via a PC or through the handset itself.

To ensure your Nokia software is refreshed, click on to the following link: http://www.nokia.co.uk/support/download ... are-update

We’ll continue to monitor the situation and will provide further information should any new developments come to light. And we ask that Nokia N97 owners keep telling us their thoughts on the phone, be they good or bad, on the Customer Views page.

We’ll also continue to assess how reliable Nokia phones are through our annual member survey. Last year our members gave Nokia phones a reliability rating of 94%, the highest score in a very reliable product area. We’ll publish our new results in July and will study the data closely to check for any change in Nokia’s performance."

DonDaddyD

ExeterSimon wrote:

DonDaddyD wrote:

iPhone, accept no substitute.

People go one about, not having a decent camera (I got camera), people go on about not having a decent radio (I only listen to the raido when I'm driving, LBC).

People go on about it not having Flash, battery life or this piece of hardware blah blah blah.

I just want:

i) A phone that works and is intuitive
ii) Features that work
iii) The phone not to leave me frustrated when using it
iv) features that keep my interest

And my iPhone does all this. Best phone I've had during 10years of owning mobile phones.

My iPhone is on T-moblie after several days haggling for the upgrade.

Apart from the HTC HD2. Now that is a phone worth considering. And not being made by Apple means not every other bugger will have one.

No its not.

It's buit on the windows operating system and while the touch interface covers most of that ghastly windows mobile operating system, it is still there and once you get to it, you'll realise that the phone is the devil in disguise.

If it had Android, maybe.

I understand all the techy bits of the phones (snap dragon processor, capacitive and resistive screens, multi-touch screens etc). The iphone was surpassed ages ago in terms of hardware. It's just that it works and works well that gives me piece of mind.

My Uncle has the Nokia N900, its good, but compared to my iphone its clunky slow and less intuitive. If they gave it (the Nokia or a Black Berry or HTC) for work I'd be happy, but I'd leave it at work on Friday to enjoy the pleasures of my iPhone my personal choice.

Also the fact that everyone has got one, although there are other more productive ways to express your individualism outside of owning a mobile phone, it may mean that it is in fact good. Further more, like Apple computers: You never hear anyone complain about the performance, functionality, quality or getting viruses its the same for the iphone. I never really hear people complain about anything.

I've sung bloody murder and heard people scream about other phones (not iPhone) in the past.

antfly

They loved the HTC on the gadget show.

sbadham

I'd recommend any of the cheap Nokia/Symbian touch screen phones - I've got a Nokia 5800 Xpress Music. Plus I bought my wife a Nokia N97 Mini for Christmas (I was so impressed by the 5800!).

I've got a iPod touch too. My experience with the iPod touch and with iPhones is that they're very pretty, there's some nice apps out there and the capacitive touch screen is better than the resistive screens on the Nokia's. BUT they don't multi-task (and neither does the iPad apparently when it arrives). This is simply shocking, I can't believe that if I use the LastFM app on the iTouch or an iPhone then I can't do some web browsing in Safari at the same time!!!

The Nokia 5800 was a free upgrade with T-Mobile. It multi-tasks, I can launch any of the apps simultaneously and they all play nicely together. Web browsing, LastFM (via Mobbler) and GPS stuff - all running at the same time!.

Other great features on the 5800 are that there's a free GPS app called Nokia Sports Tracker that tracks and maps various sporting activities. These can then be viewed on the Nokia Sports tracker web site. Also Nokia has just release the new totally free version of their Maps software with FULL GPS voice navigation, turning the phone in to a sat nav.

To be honest I was looking at buying an Android phone, but the platform is constantly being upgraded and phone providers aren't guaranteed to keep up with the updates. I'd wait until Android is more established and stable.

iPhone Is pretty, but crippled in a number of areas.

Oh, and by the way if I wan't to use the Wifi/3G connection on my Nokia 5800 to connect my iPod touch to the internet when I'm on the move - there's an app for that! JoikuSpot for Nokia/Symbian!

balthazar

ExeterSimon wrote:

Apart from the HTC HD2. Now that is a phone worth considering. And not being made by Apple means not every other bugger will have one.

HD2 suffers with Windows Mobile 6 operating system, unfortunately; even Apple-phobics look on that as a lost and hopeless child that probably needs to be slipped into an institution, forever away.

Those of us who've used Apple gear for a long time (I've used Macs since the 80's) well remember that we were invariably dismissed as bloody-minded elitists with inflated self-worth. Now with the iPhone being so popular, we're commoners! Can't win...

FWIW, if I couldn't have an iPhone anymore, the "next best" for me would be Google Nexus (made by HTC, whose hardware is the nearest to Apple's) And as somebody noted, an iPhone refresh is expected in the summer, so it may be worth waiting.

DonDaddyD

People just want to criticise the iPhone because its the best.

They want an alternative because 'different is cool'. Which was ironicallypart of Apple's original marketing themes.

There is nothing wrong with the iPhone and for the life of me can't think of a time when a phone has cornered the market for so long with little to no improvement on its design or functionality

When everyone had the Nokia 5110 it was only a year before the 3210 came out and then a new phone, new range, new features every year after.

I could have my iPhone for 2 yrs and be happy with it 24months into owning as I was the first day I got it. I've never had a phone like that.

Gav888

My contact is up in a couple of months and ive got a BB Storm and at the moment and its rubbish to be honest, constantly crashing, no wifi so web access takes ages, even when you have full reception, its just to fiddly and things take ages. There is a BB Storm 2 now but after my experiences with this one they can piss off.

Most of my mates have the iphone so im going for that next. Who cares if everyone has one, that just confirms its a good phone that is worth having.

bails87

Gav888 wrote:

Who cares if everyone has one, that just confirms its good p

Just like Windows PCs

Pross

I've got a Palm Pre, currently only available on O2. It's a great phone, the only downside compared to an iPhone is that the App catalogue is fairly new and much smaller than the iPhone app store.

acidstrato

just to reiterate what has already been mentioned as it may have gone unnoticed

Iphone 4G is expected this summer, some rumours say as early as may to beat its competitors to the punch, most say a traditional June/july release.

My contract also ends this month, infact tomorrow. o2 mentioned i might get an offer as i've been paying 20quid a month for the last 8 years but even if i dont i'll go for the 35quid a month tariff., but i think i'll wait a while rather than ordering a 3GS tomorrow

DonDaddyD

acidstrato wrote:

just to reiterate what has already been mentioned as it may have gone unnoticed

Iphone 4G is expected this summer, some rumours say as early as may to beat its competitors to the punch, most say a traditional June/july release.

My contract also ends this month, infact tomorrow. o2 mentioned i might get an offer as i've been paying 20quid a month for the last 8 years but even if i dont i'll go for the 35quid a month tariff., but i think i'll wait a while rather than ordering a 3GS tomorrow

The new iPhone is due out though Apple as usually aren't annoucing anything.

Recent developments with iPods (which usually mirror the iPhone) is the inclusion of a video camera and radio and an increase in capacity for the touch.

So we can safely say that it is likely the iPhone will come with an improved camera and the ability to upload direct to YouTube hassle free (judging by the Nano), a radio with live pause and 64gb space - like the new iPod touch.

May be worth waiting.