(Rant) Vodafone Range of Mobiles (Rant)

Sengoku79

Is anyone else here f*ck3d off about the pathetic range of crappy phones they fob off one us and the prices they charge,

I mean ffs on their UK site for example they give the Samsung E900 away for free a phone you can't even get over here yet, the Nokia 8800 is £170 ~€300 but over here is €600

O2 are just as bad too it drives me nuts, and all they are doing is helping perpetuate the Sim-Free market arrggh

Slice

I have to admit I feel the same about Meteor's range of phones. Whatever happened to practical-sized phones that are nice on the eye? Most phones these days are big and ugly and all the nicer ones are never released over here.

Sengoku79

I know the feeling, I have what you could call a portable brick the 6680, now don't get me wrong great phone but BIG, it's an "American" phone if you get my drift.

I am eligible for an upgrade and wanted to get something small that way I can use the 6680 for work etc and have the smaller one for personal use, but arrggh stymied by vodafone's crappy outpriced overrated selection, the small phones are pieces of budget cr*p bar the 8800 and I for one am not forking out e600 for one of them.

Why can't they just balance it out with a couple of mid-high range small phones like the Samsungs or the LG KG890

Rant Rant Rant!!

Sam Vimes

Sengoku79 wrote:

I know the feeling, I have what you could call a portable brick the 6680, now don't get me wrong great phone but BIG, it's an "American" phone if you get my drift.

the 6680 is a great phone. mines fantastic. and ironically america is far behind the rest of the world in terms of mobiles. apparently the latest model available there is the v3.

Sengoku79 wrote:

I am eligible for an upgrade and wanted to get something small that way I can use the 6680 for work etc and have the smaller one for personal use, but arrggh stymied by vodafone's crappy outpriced overrated selection, the small phones are pieces of budget cr*p bar the 8800 and I for one am not forking out e600 for one of them.

the 8800 is a piece of crap. it has fewer features than a 6230i which retails at 189 on pre-pay and constantly goes faulty. in fact, if you want a small, good phone, go for the 6230i

Sengoku79

Commander Vimes

Yes the 6680 is a brilliant phone but its just too big to be lugging round 24/7, re the 8800 I was only using it as an example of the idiocy of vodafones policy.

As regards the 6230i whilst a great phone would still prefer something smaller but with a similar feature set, and feel that since its all part of the same company (UK & IE), we here are getting shafted in relation to the choices made available to us and the prices beng charged, whereas the UK gets them free!

jesus_thats_gre

I must admit to being frustrated by the lack of good handsets available through networks here also. It is something that has been the case for years now..

Back in the day the reason for it was thet Eircell/Vodafone used to be incredibly picky about what phones they released on their network and if literally any bugs in the software existed, the handset wouldnt be released.

That is only a rumour though and I do not know if that is still the case now.

I'd agree that the 6680 is a big phone but like anything, the more features you put into it, the more hardware that's needed. All UMTS phones are considerably thicker than their GSM counterparts. The size of the 6680 doesn't bother me at all.

I doubt you'd find anything smaller than a 6230i unless its a really cheap model like the 1100/1600 or whatever. But personally if I were to go that low I'd stick with the good old 3310!

NiSmO

This post has been deleted.

Sam Vimes

Sengoku79 wrote:

Commander Vimes

Yes the 6680 is a brilliant phone but its just too big to be lugging round 24/7, re the 8800 I was only using it as an example of the idiocy of vodafones policy.

As regards the 6230i whilst a great phone would still prefer something smaller but with a similar feature set, and feel that since its all part of the same company (UK & IE), we here are getting shafted in relation to the choices made available to us and the prices beng charged, whereas the UK gets them free!

you're really not going to get anything smaller than a 6230i with any kind of features. unless you want to go for a *puke* v3. i've carried around a 6680 for almost a year and it hasn't bothered me at all.

of course, we are getting shafted. i've no argument about that



edit: in case you thought i was presenting the v3 as an option, do not under any circumstances buy a v3

NiSmO

NiSmO wrote:

This post has been deleted.

Much of the US still relies on analogue networks.

I'd assume this - the land mass to cover with GSM cells is very extensive, also up to recently GSM was restricted to 1900MHz which has poorer range than the 900MHz used over here. But they've now been allocated 850MHz so that should resolve that problem.

TempestSabre

All of the Irish networks phone ranges are poor, and expensive.

jesus_thats_gre

Its down to competition imo..

jrey1981

It could be worse, you could be on O2 like me!

I agree the range is poor and we are being shafted on prices, but the UK market is more than 60 million people with something like over 100% penetration, so there are different dynamics involved that affect pricing.

Not that I am making excuses, that is just the kind of line I would expect the networks to trot out if you complained.

I really want a cheap new Nokia or an N73 when it comes out, but it looks like I am in for a long wait or a horribly expensive sim-free purchase.

1huge1

TempestSabre wrote:

All of the Irish networks phone ranges are poor, and expensive.

i find 3's bill pay phones very cheap
but there credit phones are just a bit cheap than vodafone

byrnefm

Karsini wrote:

Much of the US still relies on analogue networks.

I'd assume this - the land mass to cover with GSM cells is very extensive, also up to recently GSM was restricted to 1900MHz which has poorer range than the 900MHz used over here. But they've now been allocated 850MHz so that should resolve that problem.

You're on the right track with the reason - they have too many phone standards. Up until about two years ago, there were CDMA, TDMA, GSM, NexTel and Analog. Those on TDMA were going to go to CDMA until Japanese investment "encouraged" them to go GSM (phew!). CDMA and GSM are the two main standards now in use (analog as backup, mostly for 'rural' states). On top of this, the bands that the US use are unique pretty much to N. America and S. America. This means that any new models that Nokia, etc come up with have to be customized and tested specially for the US on the less popular (?) network, GSM, which means I guess they don't get priority.

I was over in Chicago two months ago and all the papers were advertizing about the latest V3c phones (ie. the RAZR V3 for CDMA networks)... For those on CDMA, their choice is very restricted indeed - makes Vodafone IE's range look like a superstore

Sengoku79

Definitely not touching the v3 with a bargepole, know too many ppl who have reurned/exchanged/sold theirs as they are crap.

However in the small but well specced range there are phones like the Samsung e900, d800 etc, LG K800, SE w810, k800, v630i etc that are all available in Europe.

It's like we are Europe's America re Mobile phones, stuck in the back with outdated handsets whilst everyone else is steaming ahead, and were being charged through the nose for the privilege

TempestSabre

I've a V3 for 18 months and have no real problems, other than its a bit slow and dusty. Lovely size for a phone. But yeah tons of issues on the web.

Sengoku79 wrote:

...It's like we are Europe's America re Mobile phones, stuck in the back with outdated handsets whilst everyone else is steaming ahead, and were being charged through the nose for the privilege

Yeah we're being fleeced. :mad:

Slice

I would love to see BenQ Siemens and LG enter the Irish market - some of their phones look very sexy.

Sengoku79

Yeah would love to see some of them come out too, like some of the Benq designs, though a little light weight on the features

Linoge

I can honestly say that there is not one desireable phone in vodafones range (unless you have a 5110, wait... make that a 1610).

I've had the K750i for a year and its still the top phone in its class. Not saying what a great phone it is, just proving how bad Vodafones range is!

TempestSabre

Linoge wrote:

I can honestly say that there is not one desireable phone in vodafones range (unless you have a 5110, wait... make that a 1610).

I've had the K750i for a year and its still the top phone in its class. Not saying what a great phone it is, just proving how bad Vodafones range is!

Same with Meteor. I've just switched to them and K750i was the only resonable phone they have.

Sengoku79

So I decided feck it, I've emailed vodafone looking for answers to fairly simple queries in relation to this topic esp the lack of decent handsets and requesting a list of handsets coming soon.

I'm sure I will get a full detailed response from them covering all these qns

Me hole.

Darando

I recently changed from Vodafone to O2 purely because of the choice available. Vodafone(largest operator here) didnt carry any decent phones and any they did seemed kinda old. Ended up choosing a SE K750i, now although O2 arent brilliant either they are better- offering K750/W800 etc. along with Meteor. However the price of some phones are expensive compared with UK.

Anyone just has to look at a UK provider and be jealous. The simple fact is that is a competition issue. They know people will accept the phones on offer as they have no real other choice. (similar to people swappping network- no real price difference - hence no aggresive marketing for each others business).

Vodafone UK carry more phones than here because over there they have to try get customers due to the competition here they dont. Also tehy have a larger market - population-wise. Same with price.

end of rant!!

(btw-mobile phones are expensice pieces of technology to make design so dont expect everything to be €10!!)

Sengoku79

btw Luxembourg a country with a tenth of the population of Ireland has the same range of phones on vodafone.

jesus_thats_gre

same range of phones as here or in the UK?

Sengoku79

Same as here!!

Sengoku79

Ok guys here we go, this is vodafone's response it appears there is some hope for us yet.

Dear Customer

Thank you for contacting us with your query. Please accept our
apologies for the delay in responding to your query.

We have no information at the moment with regards to the Sony
Ericsson m600i or the Samsung e900.
We are currently testing the LG KG800 but as yet do not have an exact
launch date.

Here is a list of handsets we hope to launch within the next few
months:

Nokia N73 - We hope to launch this handset at the end of September
Nokia 6131- Due to be released in July
Sony Ericsson K800i - Due to be released by the end of August
Sony Ericsson W850i -No exact date is confirmed for this handset

If you have any further queries, please call us on FreeFone 1907 and
we will be happy to assist you.

Yours sincerely


Vodafone Customer Care Team

Pythia

I generally find Meteor have the best range of phones, both the CPW and Meteor store range.
Only downside to them is they don't do the 3g phones.

Dankoozy

i couldnt be bolloxed with locked branded phones from providers i just buy my own ones off ebay

i have a nokia 9500 with a pre paid sim. not too many of those around eh?

assasinator

Anyone seen the Nokia 6234 that Vodafone are selling ? Looks great to me....

secret_squirrel

The only way to force the mobile companies to get a bigger range of phones in is to vote with your wallet.

Drop that over priced contract bag o'****e for a pre pay sim and an unlocked phone from the Web.

I started doing that with my Imate SP3i with no regrets...

Now looking at Qtek 8500/HTC StrTrk a HTC Hermes or a Sammy SGH-I750 (smartphone with 2mp autofocus camera). Just not sure if I can wait for the last two which are iminent. Cash burning hole....must buy phone....