SE K800i on 3: Yay or Nay?

PaddyofNine

Anyone any comments?

Want a phone I can open attachments on and listen to the odd mp3, with a middlin' good camera and a good battery life. I need to roam in South Africa for a while this summer, think it looks cheapest on the 3 Network.

Currently a PayAsYouGo customer on the Meteor Network with a Motorola L6 which has seen better days...

chrislad

To be honest, I'd leave it, for the simple reason you can't disable 3G which eats battery. You'll be lucky to get 2 days out of the Three model, whereas you'd get closer to 4 out of the O2 or sim free models.

Such a shame Meteor never got that phone.

Regarding roaming, you'll be better off getting the phone unlocked and getting a South African sim, something that's close to impossible to do on Three.

Random

You say you want to "open attachments"? What exactly do you mean by this?

In my experience:
- camera is brilliant
- battery life is roughly 2 days with moderate usage on the 3G network (O2 in my case)
- MP3 support is good - memory cards up to 2GB available at the moment.

I've heard awful things about 3, getting unlocking codes and roaming issues!

Creamy Goodness

yey on phone
ney on operator

PaddyofNine

Cremo wrote:

yey on phone
ney on operator

Yea are people really that turned off by 3? The price plan seems to suit me... Anyone else as good for call costs?

Any other good phone recommendations? As for the attachment thing, I was under the impression I could open PDFs on the thing but could be getting senile...

neilled

ciaranfo wrote:

You say you want to "open attachments"? What exactly do you mean by this?

In my experience:
- camera is brilliant
- battery life is roughly 2 days with moderate usage on the 3G network (O2 in my case)
- MP3 support is good - memory cards up to 2GB available at the moment.

I've heard awful things about 3, getting unlocking codes and roaming issues!

The unlocking issues were mainly related to nokia bb5 platform handsets. Sony Ericsson users (inc myself) have had no problems getting codes.

Sam Vimes

neilled wrote:

The unlocking issues were mainly related to nokia bb5 platform handsets. Sony Ericsson users (inc myself) have had no problems getting codes.

if he's talking about signing up to a contract with 3 they won't give him the code

event

chrislad wrote:

To be honest, I'd leave it, for the simple reason you can't disable 3G which eats battery. You'll be lucky to get 2 days out of the Three model, whereas you'd get closer to 4 out of the O2 or sim free models.

can you not disable it on the 3 version?

you can on O2, thats a bit crap

Sam Vimes

event wrote:

can you not disable it on the 3 version?

you can on O2, thats a bit crap

nope, dual mode is the only option when you go into the network settings

cooperguy

Most definatly yay on the phone Iv had one myself for the past few months and its very good. Ull fit a nice few MP3's on it using a memory card (buy the memory card on ebay for a 1/4 of what ull pay in the shops). The battery life is good for a 3g handset about 2.5 days And the camera is one of the best on a camera phone in Ireland at the moment.

You should have no problems getting an unlock code with Three (I didnt have any with my last phone) but they probably wont give it to you untill the end of your year long contract unless you pay a fine. Price plans are good. The main downside to Three is that the roaming is great as far as I know.

Sam Vimes

cooperguy wrote:

You should have no problems getting an unlock code with Three (I didnt have any with my last phone)

you probably got the code on 3pay before they changed the 25 euro charge policy. now you have to have spent 130 in credit.

cooperguy wrote:

but they probably wont give it to you untill the end of your year long contract unless you pay a fine. Price plans are good. The main downside to Three is that the roaming is great as far as I know.

the way it works is you have to pay off the contract (monthly commitment * number of months left) and they terminate your contract so there's no point signing up to a contract if he intends to ask for the code

Urban Weigl

event wrote:

can you not disable it on the 3 version?

you can on O2, thats a bit crap

If you're on 3, there would be no point turning off 3G on the phone, as they're a 100% 3G network! It never ceases to amaze me that people on 3 want to turn off the 3G capability on their phones. It's because of ye they had to disable being able to turning it off.

Sam Vimes

Urban Weigl wrote:

If you're on 3, there would be no point turning off 3G on the phone, as they're a 100% 3G network! It never ceases to amaze me that people on 3 want to turn off the 3G capability on their phones. It's because of ye they had to disable being able to turning it off.

the feature is needed for people down the country on the edge of a 3g coverage area. the phone tries to latch onto the weak 3g signal rather than the strong 2g signal and the result is no signal at all. it would be pointless in dublin because there is only 3g coverage there

nodger

Commander Vimes wrote:

the feature is needed for people down the country on the edge of a 3g coverage area. the phone tries to latch onto the weak 3g signal rather than the strong 2g signal and the result is no signal at all. it would be pointless in dublin because there is only 3g coverage there

Where I live in Clonee, I sometimes have zero coverage (SEK800 on 3). Is that because the 3G signal is so weak there, and the handset is struggling to connect to that instead of taking the available 2G signal?

Urban Weigl

Commander Vimes wrote:

the feature is needed for people down the country on the edge of a 3g coverage area. the phone tries to latch onto the weak 3g signal rather than the strong 2g signal and the result is no signal at all. it would be pointless in dublin because there is only 3g coverage there

That's buggy firmware. I live on the edge of 3G signal, and while it switches back and forth from time to time as a result (some rooms have 3G coverage, some don't), I never miss any calls or get out of coverage. The 3G phone I'm using is a Nokia E61, which interestingly also allows itself to be set to "3G only", though I have it on dual-mode.

drdre

Cremo wrote:

yey on phone
ney on operator

Thats exactly it, its an amazing phone but it cant be unlocked easily on 3 .i really hate that network you can buy it from o2,vodafone or even sim free.its a better option to buy it sim free.

PaddyofNine

Went for the K800i on O2 and love it. Good sturdy phone, clear screen, fast and responsive OS, and the camera's fantastic.

christophicus

Im thinking about getting the SE K750i is there much of a difference between the 750i and the 800i?