Random cellphone babbling thread #1

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I've got a Blackberry now. So no more monochrome Nokia 3210. It served me well for 5 years (it still works) but works says I have to be able to get my emails when away from my desk.

 

Now you'll find out why it's called Crackberry, Harbs. This thing is ADDICTIVE.

And as for the iPhone... my boss says he can get me one - $600 bucks is a little too much, though. Besides, my relationship with GSM is strained.

 

Got an 8gb N95 coming tomorrow. Managed to blag a free one out of Vodafone (winner) as I'm at the end of my contract and said I was doing one. Been with them years, too.

Should be good.

Anyone interested in a W800i Walkman?

 

DotW, got a question...

Some dude at my work is selling a Nokia 8800 Sirocco 18K Gold Edition for $650. Now, I'm sure the actual ammount of 18k gold on the phone makes the phone cost a little more, but the dude selling claims that this phone "so popular all over the world that there has been a hot craze for it."

Please tell me there aren't a bunch of people all over the wrld who are dumb enough to buy that thing.

 

650$ for a 8800 Scirocco Gold Edition?!? Man, he's litteraly GIVING it away! The original 8801 sold for over 1250$ back then, and the Gold Edition for 1600$+!

The 8800 is part of Nokia's luxury lineup. Yes, it's expensive... but the 8801/Scirocco are DAMN good phones that are DEFINITIVELY worth EVERY SINGLE penny spent on it.

But as for your inquiry... yes, the 8800/8801/Scirocco were EXTREMELY popular, despite the fact that only two carriers in North America offered it... and the steep price tag.

If I wasn't done with GSM, I'd DEFINITIVELY get one... the regular stainless edition, though, the gold one is FAR too gaudy.

The only catch with the phone your coworker sells is that the 8800 is the European version, so it's 900/1800/1900. The 8801 is the North American version with 850/1800/1900. At any rate, both versions are world phones.

 

anybody ever had a sony ericsson k618i? i'm thinking about getting one. or the sony ericsson s500i.

 

You should go for the K850i if you want an Eriksson. 5mp camera on that baby.

 

I've said it before and I'll say it again... Sony Ericsson are nothing but pieces of s***.

 

@Barmy

I'm actually not looking to spend too much on my phone.. I just need it to call, text, have a decent camera and video and bluetooth. I'd also like it to be relatively small and light so it doesn't take up too much pocket space. I don't actually need all the 3g internet access stuff as I'll be getting a laptop as well and will probably be doing all my stuff on that.

@DotW

What brand would you recommend then? I've never had anything but a Nokia and I think its time for a change. I certainly dont want a Motorola because while their phone designs are pretty sleek, I find the phone interface quite crappy. I know nothing about Samsung though.

 

Enagonios - DotW is the biggest Nokia fan ever. Blackberries come close though…

If it means anything to you, we only buy Samsung phones. My wife used to work for Sprint in customer support, and the majority of broken phone calls she got were for Nokia phones, followed by LG phones.

We have T-Mobile too…and between the 4 Samsung phones my wife and I have ever had, we've never had a problem with them. They last a long time and take abuse very well...the fact that my wife's last phone lasted 2 years speaks volumes.

And to be honest, the only reason we got new phones was because our contract allowed us to upgrade for a minimal price on the phones. I've had the Samsung T629 for about 9 months now, and it's the best phone I've ever had.

 

Yes, I am the biggest Nokia fan ever. Did you ever stopped to wonder there might be a reason for that? (watch out, short temper kicking in!) Like, oh, say, 95% of my phones were Nokias? If Nokia has made it, likely I had it. I had an analog Nokia (which still works like champ, BTW), a TDMA (Works just as well as it did when it came out of the box), many GSM Nokias (The 3595 is one of my all-time favorites), CDMA Nokias (6015i, 6275i, both outstanding phones).

Maybe your wife saw an astounding number of broken Nokias. Maybe she saw an astounding number of broken LGs.

Hey, I worked in the phone industry too, you know. My experiences with broken phones were in direct opposition with what your wife saw - in order form most to less - Phoney Ericsson, Motorola, Pantech, Samsung, LG and Nokia comes in last.

Yes, CDMA phones are not Nok's specialty. Notice that Nok no longer sells CDMA phones because they chose to focus on GSM, which is great because GSM are amongst the best damn phones they make.

If you're going with a GSM provider, Enag, I vouch for Nokias. If you're going with a CDMA provider, then it's a totally different game.

As for Samsungs, they make outstanding CDMA phones. But I'm not touching their stinking GSM with a 100 foot pole.

As for BlackBerry - the Pearl is a great jack-of-all-trades. The music player works great, the cam dishes out surprisingly good pics - add that to the email, web-browsing, fax and phone capabilities of the Crackberry and you've got a all-in-one. Only caveat: the SureType keyboard, although it's not all bad - it makes for a sleeker Crackberry.

The Nokia N Series are also outstanding phones that would be worth your while, Enag.

 

Um, around 3months ago, my plan upgraded me and gave me a Nokia N73. I had that phone for a month then drunkenly dropped it in a ****ing toilet. that was the end of that.

bit please. whats the diff between GSM and CDMA? I thought all that stuff was immaterial now that most phones are "tri-band"? Because I'm going to spain after the new year so i need a phone that can use both a philippine sim (GSM iirc) and a spanish sim and not do extra charges or whatever because its anti GSM or CDMA :/

Also, like i said earlier, don't want to spend too much on a phone that can do "all sorts of stuff". i have a laptop for the internet. i have an ipod for music. i have a camera for pics. I just want a phone that wont break easily, will not cause a huge bulge in my pocket, can call and text and also have a decent camera for when I'm out with drunk hot girls Those are my pre-requisites what would you recommend? All my friends are saying the Nokia 6300 which most of em (including my dad) have :/

Also, what complaints did you receive/experience with ericsson? because aside from the complaint that the joystick (for the phones with that thing) would break mostly everyone i know loves using that brand.

 

CDMA is another wireless standard mostly used in North America and Korea.

It's hard to explain the difference between the two without falling into techno-gibberish... but basically, CDMA is a competitior of GSM. Both have their pros and cons, but GSM is more widespread, and some believe that CDMA is doomed to fade away, and it is the case.

Anyway, the 6300 is a good choice. 2MP cam, a 24-bit color screen (those look AWESOME), microSD slot, music player - it's a pretty well-rounded phone.

As for bands - North America and Europe both use GSM, but on different frequencies. North America uses 850 and 1900 MHz, while Europe uses 900 and 1800 MHz.

A typical North American phone supports both North American frequencies (850/1900), but not the European frequencies. Same thing for dual-band European phones, who only supports European frequencies.

The number of bands supported on the phone affect roaming when travelling. You cannot use a dual-band North American phone in Europe, and a dual-band European phone in North America.

As for Triband and quadband phones, let's for example take a triband North American phone. This phone, unlike it's dual-band counterpart, will support one of the two European frequencies (usually 1800, though 900 is common), so you could take that phone on a trip to Europe and the phone will automatically switch to the European frequency it supports.

Quadband phones support both North American AND European frequencies. Quadband phones are better than triband phones at holding a signal because they support BOTH European frequencies.

The same thing applies to European phones, but a tri-band European phone would support one of the two North American frequencies, while a Quad would support both.

As for Phoney Ericsson... I worked for Robbers (a Canadian GSM carrier) for two years, and Phoney Ericsson were the brand for which I had the most number of returns/broken phones. It ranged from firmware problems, physical breaks of various kinds (like a Phoney Ericsson clamshell breaking in half - saw that more than once), battery problems, defective chargers, the phones doing freegames... I've seen more than enough problems with Phoney Ericsson... and I wouldn't recommend a brand I would not use myself to someone. I don't want Phoney Ericssons, neither would I recommend them.

It's up to you, though. If you get a Phoney Ericsson and have problems down the line... tough luck, but you will have been warned...

And on a different note, my good old Kyocera 5135 started doing freegames a couple of days ago - it would find a signal, hold it for a while, then search for another signal, not finding anything and kicking in power saver mode, like if I was outside of the coverage zone. Then, yesterday, I powered it up and it says it requires service. I have no idea why it did that... but seeing as I don't have the proper box to flash it, well, for now, rest in peace, Kyocera.

I'm not getting another Kyocera anytime soon.

 

Some Nokia news regarding the S60 platform and touchscreens:

http://www.redferret.net/?p=9533 - Preview on the Nokia Haptikos 'touch feedback' touchscreen. "You press a key on the screen, and it clicks under your finger with exactly the same sort of fingertip feedback as if you’d pressed a conventional keyboard key."

http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/view.php?cid=18&id=2418 - S60 Touch UI @ Forum Nokia Mobile Application Summit 2.0. Presentation of the upcoming S60 Touch UI. A good read if you want to know what is happening to the S60 platform in 2008.

The upcoming touch interface looks very interesting. Cannot wait to get my hands on one.

 

@DotW

Hmm, I've actually been considering the Nokia 6300 already. My dad has one and so do many of my friends and they are pretty happy with it. Also, it's around the same price as the Sony Ericsson K618i iirc.

The 6300 certainly meets all my aforementioned requirements. Sorry to ask again as you've already explained quite painstakingly in your last post, but if I take the Nokia 6300 (which is a triband european phone because Nokia is a Finnish company, right) then it will work with a European (Spanish) sim card, right? As I said, my dad and friends already have it so I know that it supports the Philippine sim card.

 

Enag, the 6300 is also offered in North America. Nokia generally makes both European and North American versions of their phones.

But as for your question, yes, the 6300 will support a Spanish SIM. The European version uses 900/1800/1900 MHz, and Spain uses 900/1800 MHz frequencies, so you won't have any problems.

The only problem I *could* foresee is the SIM lock that would prevent using SIM cards from another provider... but every country has it's own policy regarding that. I don't think this will not be a problem for you.

If you get a 6300, and for some reason there is a SIM lock on it (you will know if the phone refuses SIMs from other providers), then let me know, I have the tools to crack that lock.

 

Oh no worries on that score afaik. Because iirc the only time a phone is sim-locked here is if you get it through a promo from a service provider (Globe, Smart, etc.). But if you buy it on your own from an independent cellphone distributor it shouldn't have any such restriction.

If I can scare up enough money by the time I leave I'll probably end up getting the Nokia 6300 My current Nokia 6020 which is battle-worn and whose camera no longer works is just waiting to be retired

 

You're lucky you can buy unlocked phones - around here there are little independent retailers, and the phones they sell are still locked. But there's little point in buying GSM phones other than for my collection, seeing as I'm an iDEN mark. CDMA sucks. GSM sucks.

Back to you, though. The 6300 is a fingerprint magnet... both the stainless body and the huge screen, just like my own 6275i. Nevertheless, polishing the phone is a small price to pay for such a gorgeous phone.

To sum it up, the 6300 gets the DotW Seal of Approval.

 

cool, thanks for the advice DotW, you can get one around here for around 205$ now more or less, so I'm willing to save that much before New Year's.

 

No problem. This was the ultimate goal of this thread - to be a source of information for anything regarding phones. I'm glad my knowledge helped.

Also, if you feel like reviewing the 6300 once you get it, then feel free to - I try to field test and review as much phones as possible... but the more reviews posted, the better.