A smart phone that you can use as a phone

Moaner

I fancy a smartphone but everyone I know who has one says stuff like 'great gadget, but the phone isn't up to much'
The exception to this is blackberry, but it's a bit business-man-looking....

Is there a smartphone that is decent for making phone calls?

nicklouse

my old iPhone 3G works as a phone for me so wellI still have it.

whyamihere

All of the Nokias.

brin

there you go, does what it says on the tin

http://www.johnsphones.com/

SteveR_100Milers

HTC Desire, as good at being a telephone as I could ever imagine one being....

pdstsp

Blackberry pearl - normal phone keyboard and gadgets if you want them. Plus slim and fits in pocket rather than rucksack. Mind you I've only had mine a week so whaqt di I know.

amaferanga

whyamihere wrote:

All of the Nokias.

I disagree. My girlfriends Nokia smartphone wouldn't connect to roaming networks in the US. I find it so unintuitive to use compared to the Blackberry and HTC smartphones I've owned.

amaferanga

Moaner wrote:

I fancy a smartphone but everyone I know who has one says stuff like 'great gadget, but the phone isn't up to much'
The exception to this is blackberry, but it's a bit business-man-looking....

Is there a smartphone that is decent for making phone calls?

How can a smartphone be crap as a phone provided it allows you to make calls, receive calls and send some text messages? :?

Pokerface

Despite stories of bad reception if you hold it a certain way, my iPhone 4 handles calls much better than any of it's predecessors. Plus it's a great gadget

-spider-

HTC Desire - the phone is great. The 'other stuff' exceptional.

Spender45

+1 for HTC desire

bookwormhk

iPhone does have reception problems. Frequent call drops - can be frustrating.

A user

Anonymous

Not had any probs with my iPhone 4 on Orange...

Never had any probs with my BlackBerry on O2 either...

bennj

+2 HTC Desire, good as a phone, great as a smartphone!

joshtp

Got a HTC, Like a smaller, lighter Desire, with a smaller processor. Love it, great phone in every way. Very good as a phone too!

Much cheaper than the Desire too.

dsharp7th

agree with the sentiment of this thread - my T-Mobile Pulse android phone is fantastic as a web browser, emailer, calendar, gps tracker...

but to actually find a contact or enter a number and dial it is far more of a faff than it should be, and takes much longer than it did on my nokia 3210 of many years ago!

my wife's htc wildfire, also an android phone, is far better in this respect.

bompington

I've had 2 smartish phones, a nokia 5800 and now a Samsung Galaxy, and I'm not sure what the problem is: a quick test showed that I can phone my home number in 7 seconds from a locked screen (you can bypass the lock to phone 999, it took about 1 1/2 seconds to phone 888), and you can put quick dial shortcuts on the home screen to dial with one touch. It seems to drop calls neither more nor less than any other phone I've had.

Combine that with the apps, both built in and downloaded, and it's an extremely useful tool.

Which smartphones exactly is it that are so bad to make calls with anyway?

robz400

I've got an iphone 4 and its the best phone for phone calls i've ever used.

Never had an reception problems and less dropped calls than any other mobile i've used.

Plus all the other stuff it does so well.

Couldn't recommend it highly enough

ps, I've had a nokia 5800 and blackberry in the past

rick_chasey

S'all about the service provider, not the handset.

i.e. Avoid 3 at all costs.

Monkeypump

My iPhone 3GS on Orange handles calls fine - certainly as well as any other mobile I've had.

Same for Blackberry Curve 8520 (work phone) on O2.

Don't use iPhone abroad so can't comment on roaming ability, but 'Berry works fine in all the countries I've been to (US, Europe, Eastern Europe, North Africa, etc.)

Stewie Griffin

joshtp wrote:

Got a HTC, Like a smaller, lighter Desire, with a smaller processor. Love it, great phone in every way. Very good as a phone too!

Much cheaper than the Desire too.

My desire (superb phone) was free so please point me in the direction of cheaper than didnt cost me anything.

mcj78

Got an HTC legend - really nice 1 piece alu body, surprisingly well finished in fact, no probs with it other than vodafone apparently having no reception north of Stirling! Free on £20 per month contracts (18 months I think), would recommend one of those if you don't want to shell out up front for a phone, or you don't want an expensive contract.

J

danlikesbikes

Iphone4 never had an issue with mine works like a phone and being Apple you know its gonna be easy to use as its designed for Americans. If you don't want to use the other functions then you don't need too, but even my 5 year old sister can sync mine with I-tunes.

shouldbeinbed

On my desire now. It's a proper phone and easy to use as one

Moaner

Thanks guys - that's very reassuring.

Zombie_donkey

HTC Desire is very nice.

fuelex

HTC desire as well, great phone.
carry your charger everywhere with you though.

micken

+2 more for HTC Desire, mine's rooted and wife's is stock. Both excellent phones and do so much more than that.

bompington

micken wrote:

+2 more for HTC Desire, mine's rooted and wife's is stock. Both excellent phones and do so much more than that.

A bit OT but what benefit do you find you get from a rooted phone? My geekish inclinations tell me that I should do it but I've looked plenty on the net and I still can't really see how much you gain from it.

micken

Flashed ROM, more control over memory and backups, plus more applications are available. Take your point on the geek angle, hence the wife's phone not being rooted.

louthepoo

Whats rooted?

I've got a Nokia 5800 and i'm on my 6th handset in 15 months and waiting for another replacement, i'd advice anyone against getting one.

I'm getting a Htc Desire HD after payday, i'm not even seeing out the contract on the 5800 its that bad!!