3G iphone Just how good are they?

morris944s2john · Dec 22, 2008

"who really wants one but can't bring himself to get one.
"

Thats me too, I really wanted the iPhone since I tried one out. I am a bug fan of Apple products having had a Powerbook and iPod for many years. However, cannot justify the cost atm for a PAYG iPhone- too much to be spent on parts to get my S2 back on the road. I will just stick with my phone, camera and iPod. For now...

Neil Haughey · Dec 22, 2008

ORIGINAL: peanut

not at all keen on the 905. It has a small screen and frankly I think the camera spec is a bit overblown considering the small size of viewing screen no zoom and other limitations . If i wanted a good image I'd use my trusty Fuiji S5600
It seems to have little else going for it

Actually it seems to do pretty much everything else these 3G phones do such as GPS with google maps. I bought it for Steph principally because I read the reviews comparing camera phones and this one wins easily. For Steph it is ideal, if I bought her a camera it would always be left at home and she takes a lot of pictures on her phone/s. I have also had a couple of Sony erricson phones and always found the HMI to be fantastic. Very good menu structure and typically less operations to do things then many other phones. Also never had a reliability issue with phones from this manufacturer and in general most other ppl's experience is the same.

peanut · Dec 22, 2008

ORIGINAL: Peter Bull

Hi Guys

Just to throw a spanner in here - I did a little research into the iPhone other phones that reckoned to be of similar working functionality.

I looked at the iPhone, the HTC Touch Diamond and also the Samsung i900.

I finally settled for the Samsung (8GB) and have been over the moon with it. It's got more functions than the iPhone, and not only does it have a better quality camera but it also has video capability which the iPhone hasn't. What really sold the Samsung for me was the Windows mobile 6.1 that has all the office packages too!

I have installed TomTom on it now and that works superbly too. It's more accurate than the dynamically loaded GPS system too as the maps are preloaded.

It took some getting used to I admit and like all touch screens they can be a bit flaky but overall it's a neat piece of kit. I have a screen protector on it and the rear is pretty robust

The only downside for me is that the stylus is separate and not internally stored. But I am used to that now and a pen or pencil is just as good!

Its basically the same features as the 02 Mini S which was brought out 3 years ago. except the Mini S is larger heavier and bigger screen.
I got 2x but the missus found it too fiddly for texting and foneing so hers went back.
I used mine very little and sold it on ebay eventually .
My gripe was the screen is just too small for sensible office work or net browsing. Its essentially an emergency use browser /windows PC.
Loved the video playback though and the camera was quite acceptable for emergency snapshots.

I personally don't think the manufacturers are listening to the end user .Offering a 6-8mp camera on a mobile fone is crazy imo .I feel sure more cellfone users would prefer video /conference calling and 3G multimedia features .
Personally I would prefer a PC Fone with a 4" touch screen with a thinner depth so it fits easily into a shirt pocket not too bulky .No silly slideout keypads but a decent sized screen for practical satnav, Windows office stuff ,good video playback size and maybe some games for the kids and multimedia playback and editing on the move. Bit like a mini tablet really
Now that would be a real winner.

poprock · Dec 22, 2008

I'd get an iPhone in an instant if they weren't only on O2. Can't bear that company.

One thing Fen missed in his comments: The iPhone doesn't do MMS. You can send text messages, but not picture messages. Apple's argument is that you don't need to because you can send an email instead "¦ which isn't a very good retort, really.

peanut · Dec 22, 2008

ORIGINAL: poprock

I'd get an iPhone in an instant if they weren't only on O2. Can't bear that company.

One thing Fen missed in his comments: The iPhone doesn't do MMS. You can send text messages, but not picture messages. Apple's argument is that you don't need to because you can send an email instead "¦ which isn't a very good retort, really.

yeah that's a real bumma . Apple have got that very wrong. Can't see why its such a big deal to add it for the European market . They sell enough of the blasted things over here afterall.

Fen · Dec 22, 2008

The 890i looks to be a facelift of the 880i which was my previous phone. In general I really, really liked it. My wife still has her one and the only problems we have had is that for some reason I can't work out neither of them can find the IMAP mail server after a restart unless the SIM had been newly inserted and they have gone through the language selection etc. and a few weeks ago my wife's battery just suddenly died and wouldn't take a charge.

I found Windows smartphones to be slow, unresponsive and unreliable. I guess they will get better (maybe they have as it's probably fully a year since I last looked at one), but it looks to me like typical Microsoft pushing the CPU performance so hard it struggles with response speed even for core functionality.

The iPhone touch screen has been 100% accurate and reliable and you don't even need to calibrate it, plus it's glass so there is no need for a screen protector. The lack of Office apps and unexceptional camera without video are valid criticisms as I acknowledged above.

Something else I forgot to add above is that in common with all iPod devices, changing the iPhone battery is a repair centre job as the case isn't openable, and it's not possible to add any sort of removable storage. The fragile back (fragile as it's a high-gloss and not very scratch resistant plastic) is a needless downside which is born out of Apple's efforts to make all their devices look sexy; the metal back of the ipod range can't be used as it shields the phone radio signal.

Fen · Dec 22, 2008

Oops, I replied above to page 1 and missed the next few posts! Forum newbie error #1 [

]

Anyway I did forget the MMS thing. I knew about it, but it's another feature I have nerver really used when I had it. Once upon a time some colleagues and I had an in joke where we'd MMS each other pictures of food if one of us missed lunch, but that's all I have ever used it for. I think it's supported in NZ, but the one time I tried to use it to send one to the UK (of a BBQ, to one of the ex-colleagues) it didn't work. I think I might be lucky that almost all of the common phone features the iPhone is missing don't happen to be features I really care about.

Regarding phones generally I have to agree on the camera comment above, especially as I'd bet that the sensors in phones are considerably smaller even than those is compact cameras, and ramming ever more megapixels into a smaller sensor is actually detrimental to image quality.

SimonP · Dec 22, 2008

quote...
''Personally I would prefer a PC Fone with a 4" touch screen with a thinner depth so it fits easily into a shirt pocket not too bulky .No silly slideout keypads but a decent sized screen for practical satnav, Windows office stuff, good video playback size and maybe some games for the kids and multimedia playback and editing on the move. Bit like a mini tablet really
Now that would be a real winner''

I have an Orbit XDA which was supplied by O2, most of the functions you listed Nick, excellent screen, adequate sat-nav, all the things I need really, its now just over a year old and I looked recently to see what had replaced it, just a newer version which wouldn't give me much more than I have now.
I had a friend ask me to set up an iphone recently and I agree with the posts above, I didn't like how tied in to Apple's systems they are.

peanut · Dec 22, 2008

ORIGINAL: SimonP

I have an Orbit XDA which was supplied by O2, most of the functions you listed Nick, excellent screen, adequate sat-nav, all the things I need really, its now just over a year old and I looked recently to see what had replaced it, just a newer version which wouldn't give me much more than I have now.
I had a friend ask me to set up an iphone recently and I agree with the posts above, I didn't like how tied in to Apple's systems they are.

Yes I like the XDA format better than the 02 XDA Mini S which was more powerful but too small.
I used an old XDA lli at work this year for recording Decent Homes Surveys it was quite good given the serious lack of processor power and tiny memory and storage.
Reasonable fone and camera too.