I am looking to upgrade my mobile and it will be an 18month deal, so I want to get something up to date with good features. I am looking at the Sony Ericsson with the 5mega pixel camera.

What are people using and how are you finding the phone. Any recommendations would be appreciated.

i love my Blackberry 8310... it has loads of features..and he qwerty keyboard is a real bonus.
i just upgraded from the 8300 to the 8310 the only difference is the 8310 has gps.
also a feature i love is the timer to turn itself on and off mon - fri and weekend settings.
:0)
it has a camera, and a big screen, the only think it lacks is a video camera...you get a 1gb memory card with it, but i have upgraded to a 4gb, the only thing it lacks is a video camera which isn't a feature that is so important to me, although it does have video play back.
its great for surfing the net, sending email etc.

What features do you specifically need? I've realised there's no such thing as the ideal phone, so first you need to work out what features are most important to you, for example:

main use (business, media-focus such a watching vids and playing tunes, just calls etc)
body type - i.e. slider, candy bar, etc
size and weight - does it need to be thin or dont mind a brick?
how long do you expect battery to last?
touch screen?
really good camera required?
wifi, 3g?
expandable memory?
operating system?
keyboard?

The list goes on. I just bought a HTC Touch Diamond which is thin, top notch touch screen, windows os and great for internet and business stuff and looks lovely - Samsung Omnia is a good rival. But if you want a cutting edge camera and video recorder, you may be better off with a Nokia N Series or maybe the upcoming Samsung INNOV8. And none of these phones have a particular good battery life, so if that's important, you need to look elsewhere and perhaps compromise on other features.

Hi Shadow,

What do you think of the Touch Diamond? I'm tempted by one but have reservations about the on-screen keyboard for texting etc.

I've only had it for 5 days, so haven't had a chance to put it through its paces, but basically:

Looks - I actually caught my breath when opening the box, it's a very beautiful looking phone. I'm also definitely in the 'loving the diamond shape backplate' camp. I have put the provided screen protector in place (wouldn't know it was there), and today am applying 'invisibleShield' to the rest of the body (£12 off ebay)

3D TouchFlow - I upgraded the ROM to the latest official one and touchflow works fine, no slowdowns that most reviews talk about (most reviews are for the old ROM). In all fairness, it's a bit of a gimmick though, but it looks great

Telephony - so far so good - people hear me fine and I hear them fine. The screen turns off during calls which is a pain (buttons still work though, and there's a registry hack to fix this anyway). Plus having no buttons means going through call centre options requires some menu jiggery pokery

On screen keyboards - absolutely fine for me as I don't spend all day writing emails on the phone. There's 5 or 6 different keyboards to choose from and built in magnetic stylus is great if you prefer using that. Obviously get the touch pro if you feel hardware keyboard is a requirement. Can't complain, just be aware that on-screen keyboards will sometimes obscure the area you are typing on!

Browser - fantastic (opera mini). Currently using crappy PAYG Orange, so cannot really comment on speeds, but whizzing on Wifi.

Camera - not great, long shutter lag so no action shots. Quality is fine, but this aint no camera phone though. Video is again okay, but frame rate seems to change based on available light. A mentioned in previous post, a Samsung or Nokia will be for you if you need a really good camera.

Music - have'nt tested this yet.

Wifi - top notch, connects very quickly and signal remains in my bathroom (most of my wifi devices don't work while I am on the toilet!)

Office stuff - not really used any of the office-type stuff yet but there's everything you'd need I expect.

Email - works a treat.

Games - Teeter is great, worth the £400 I paid for the phone, lol. Uses the accelerometer and vibration to great effect.

GPS - only used Google MAps so far (no satnav software yet), got a satellite fix within 30 secs.

Battery - uninspiring; charging every day ATM, but am playing with all features constantly and wifi constantly on. Suspect 2 days max charge under light use - apparently a larger capacity battery (same size) is being worked on, plus even larger official HTC battery is coming (comes with larger backplate)

All in all, a great phone but would like to see a better camera implementation and obviously a lower retail price on the SIM-free models (I'm not into getting phone contracts, PAYG all the way...)

Nobody going to mention the iPhone? I wouldn't want one myself but a lot of people would claim it was the best phone on the market. :)

I love the iPhone, I also love Sony ericsson phones...I upgraded last week to the Nokia N95 8GB...got mi sen a reyt deal on it.

Its got what I want, which is the WLAN, loads of memory....just wish it had sony ericsson software...

http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_touch_pro-pictures-2413.php

like the diamond but streets ahead.. i am waiting for this hopefully end of the month .......

so nice looking ..

I want the Touch Pro too.... My work TyTN II might get run over or something in October.... ;)

http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_touch_pro-pictures-2413.php

like the diamond but streets ahead.. i am waiting for this hopefully end of the month .......

so nice looking ..

I was going to get it, had my heart set on it, but in the end the keyboard just makes it too much of a brick, and its considerably more expensive - £550 for a phone is just too much IMO. The extra ROM and RAM apparently makes no difference in performance to the Diamond - nice to have the upgradable storage though and the bigger battery. I think hardcore typers will go for this one, but the more image conscious users will prefer the thinner, pocket friendly Diamond.

\i also worry about too many moving parts in a phone...

I have an Orange SPV E650. I wouldn't recommend it at all, its heavy, low battery life, tries to do too many things, none of them particularly well. I much preferred my old Nokia 6310i.

An "insiders" perspective:
For SE Cybershot phones, wait for the C905, the C902 is good but the screen just isn't big enough.

The iPhone isn't a contender atm because of various issues with it, most Apple fans will adore it but I'm not a great Apple equipment lover so doesn't do it for me.

Samsung i900 Omnia is my favourite phone at the moment; 16gb inbuilt flash memory, an expandable slot supporting Micro SDCH cards, WM6.1 implemented so much more smoothly than any HTC phone I've used, its one downside is how expensive it is (it matches o2s price plans on the iPhone).

Obviously there are many others and my most used phone at work is a Sony Ericsson W890i, because its small light and phone calls sound really clear on it.

Horses, courses.

I was going to get it, had my heart set on it, but in the end the keyboard just makes it too much of a brick, To me, it's not much of a brick as the Diamond is soooo much smaller than my TyTN II that it would still be a downsize.
I've not had any problems with the slide out keyboard on any of my previous handsets (it's no more complicated than a clamshell design).
The qwerty keyboard is just so much better for anyone who actually wants to type emails etc and HTC really seem to be getting to grips with hiding the outrageously embarrassing default Windows Mobile screens.

Nobody going to mention the iPhone? I wouldn't want one myself but a lot of people would claim it was the best phone on the market. :)

I can see why, if internet browsing and iPod-ing is your thing, it's about the best there is (I guess...not really used one for that long). But I can also see why people wouldn't really consider it, as it is lacking in several areas (don't want to start a debate on that though, each to their own!). It's certainly not the ideal phone yet (IMO), but who know in the future? As someone mentioned though, the Omnia is a well-spec'd phone and certainly addresses many of the iPhone's failings, but obviously has it's own problems.

The ideal convergence device is still way off, if it's even possible, as having one cool feature usually means another feature is adversely affected (e.g battery life, size, price, reliability, usability etc).

Just bought a Samsung Omnia - I'm used to an really old Sony Ericsson phone and have been trying to get my head around my new piece of technology....it's all a bit flash for me and maybe I'd have been better getting two polystyrene cups and a piece of string! The reason I got it was so I could sync my work (which runs on Windows).

I'm managing with it, but I'm peed off as the bloke in the shop copied all my contacts from my sim onto the new phone and they're not displayed how they were before. E.g. the surnames come before first names and sometimes don't display the whole name e.g. "John and Lucy Smith" on the old phone is now displaying as "And Smith Jo and Luc" ????

Should I take it back to the Orange shop, as this has been really frustating - and the reason why I'm still up at 3.20am!

I went to the Apple shop once I'd bought the Samsung and they said I should take it back and get an IPhone 3G (but I suppose they would?)

Any help for a phone technophobe would be appreciated! Have I made the right choice?

There have been loads of fads like iphone over the last few years but Nokia still outsell the rest by far.
Why?
Because they are the easiest phones to use, reliable and easy to find accessories for where ever in the world you happen to be.

I can't wait until all the iphone batteries start to konk out and the poor sods that bought them realise that you have to have them serviced at an apple dearer (sorry, dealer) for some silly amount of cash. :D

http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_touch_pro-pictures-2413.php


Wow. I've got the HTC Kaiser, and love it, but that is loveerley! :)

Just bought a Samsung Omnia - I'm used to an really old Sony Ericsson phone and have been trying to get my head around my new piece of technology....it's all a bit flash for me and maybe I'd have been better getting two polystyrene cups and a piece of string! The reason I got it was so I could sync my work (which runs on Windows).

I'm managing with it, but I'm peed off as the bloke in the shop copied all my contacts from my sim onto the new phone and they're not displayed how they were before. E.g. the surnames come before first names and sometimes don't display the whole name e.g. "John and Lucy Smith" on the old phone is now displaying as "And Smith Jo and Luc" ????

Should I take it back to the Orange shop, as this has been really frustating - and the reason why I'm still up at 3.20am!

I went to the Apple shop once I'd bought the Samsung and they said I should take it back and get an IPhone 3G (but I suppose they would?)

Any help for a phone technophobe would be appreciated! Have I made the right choice?

iPhone 3g has nothing on the i900. The Apple shop know this but I imagine they work on commission too so work it out ;)

As for contacts, don't blame the guy in the Orange shop, blame Sony Ericsson. The contacts are sorted like that so that other SE phones will read them like yours does. It's annoying but theres nothing you can do!

With the Omnia easiest way to sort contacts is sync them with Outlook, then edit them in Outlook, then sync them back.

Hope that helps!

Hi Carl

Thanks for putting my mind at rest - I thought I'd got a dud one and nearly threw it at the wall! Had a look at some reviews on the internet and they seem good. It'll take me a while to get used to, but most new things do.

Thanks again!

Hello,

If you are fan of wide screens, I would suggest go for Nokia e71.
If you are usability and clickability fan, don't for any PDA.
If you like fun with apps and games go for a PDA (o2 or Imate)

Here are few picks ...

gsmarena.com/nokia_e71-review-266.php
gsmarena.com/o2_xda_atom-review-122.php

Thank you