Moving to 3 - Good phone 4 email, browsing + radio?

JayV

I'm moving to 3 from Meteor but I can't decide on a phone. I want one with a radio and a decent sized screen for email and browsing. I'm going mad trying to pick one. Any suggestions?

godskitchen

My first suggestion would be stay away from Three, but that wouldnt answer your question.

drdre

I would tell you to stay away from three.Look at the threads here.Most people are having problems with them.Pick the phone from o2 or vodafone.

JayV

Thanks. I've read all the 3 posts and the conclusion that I've drawn is that, while there are lots of problems with 3g and CS, they are still the best value for voice calls. I'm willing to put up with the problems (don't need cs) in return for the prices. Any phone suggestions?

Sam Vimes

JayV wrote: »

Thanks. I've read all the 3 posts and the conclusion that I've drawn is that, while there are lots of problems with 3g and CS, they are still the best value for voice calls. I'm willing to put up with the problems (don't need cs) in return for the prices. Any phone suggestions?

you'll need cs if your phone breaks or if you want to use services that don't work for months at a time. being told to turn your phone off and on again because the hundredth time is guaranteed to work gets quite annoying


anyway, what makes you think they're the best value? they are cheaper for some kinds of usage but not all. there are often offers and deals that aren't very obvious, such as vodafone's 500mb per month for €9.99. meteor has a data add-on too which i believe is 10GB for €30. where are most of your bills going at the moment?

answer these q's for me:

do you make many calls?

when (day, eve, w/e)?

to who (network)?

many texts and to who?

international?

internet usage?

email?

how much are your bills currently?

do you absolutely need your phone for business or something or would occasional outages be ok?
i have a 3 phone as my secondary phone just for the internet and quite often i have to swap out my 3 sim and put in my vodafone one because the 3 internet has stopped working again. the vodafone one is more expensive but it works

in answer to your question, i'd recommend the n95, the n73 or the k800i. the rest of the screens are all standard sizes.


edit: in fact, don't get the n73, its not great. if you can afford the n95, go for that, otherwise get the k800i

if you want to compare screen sizes of phones you can get that info an www.gsmarena.com

godskitchen

JayV wrote: »

I'm willing to put up with the problems (don't need cs)

I dont understand............................

Sam Vimes

OP, talk to the user foggy_lad. when he first appeared on this forum he went on and on about how crap meteor are and how great 3 are. we all warned him that he'd hate them within a few months. now pretty much every post he makes is about how crap 3 are. he got banned from this forum in the end because he kept posting threads about their customer care that should have been in consumer issues

here he is:
http://boards.ie/vbulletin/member.php?u=110969

he's even got a link about how crap theire broadband is in his sig

Danbo!

OP, unfortunately you cant ask your question without stating operator, which unfortunately means you cant get a straight answer when you say want to join 3 without people here trying to talk you out of it.

If you've made up your mind to move id suggest either of the high-end Nokias, the N73 or the E65, if your budget covers it. Both are decent multimedia phones and simple enough to use, although because they are feature rich, the operating system can be a little slow especially with 3's firmware, but this isnt a huge issue.

The N73 has a bigger screen but just by 0.2 inches. the E65 is more compact and has a decent keyboard. If your planning on writing a lot of email the N73 keypad has concave buttons which are a little awkward. Both have radios and Mp3 players and support most web features. E65 also has wi-fi which is cool (faster and free internet). Ive also found the battery life on the E65 lasted longer than the N73.

anyway theres a comparison between the two Here.

I've also just seen that 3 are now offering the N95. For the price id say stay clear. When this phone was announced i was very excited about it, but its a bit of a 'jack of all trades, master of none' type phone..

But all this is just my opinion!

EDIT: sorry OP after all that the E65 doesnt have a radio..DAM, sorry i never use the radio and i assumed it had one.....

Yggr of Asgard

I have the N73 and I'm happy with it (and I'm on 3 with it).

It is easy to use from voice over data to music and the display is resonable enough for e-mail or browsing .mobi webpages.

Now for the data aspect pop/imap are supported as standard, but if you need exchange sync you need a 3rd party product (www.dataviz.com is a good one).

I agree that 3 is offering value for money on the voice part until something goes wrong and you need Customer Service.

Having said that, the last time my N73 broke down and phone staff did not help me the local shop did a wonderfull job in getting a replacement phone.

If you wanta good phone for resonable money take the N73.

JayV

Thanks for all the posts. Very helpful.

Here are some answers for Commander Vimes:

Bill averages around €65 - €75 per month on Meteor on a 400 minute tariff.
Most calls are to landlines and various networks within Ireland.
95% of calls are during the day on weekdays.
Don't send many text - tend to use web text
Don't have email set-up at the moment
Don't use internet at the moment (currently with meteor)
Phone is mainly for business use but email & web is not business critical.

What I mean about being willing to put up with problems with 3 is that I can put up with the 3g problems (I'm not sure Meteor will be any different when they launch 3g).

Its a pity the e65 doesn't have a radio.

Thanks again!

godskitchen

I see what you mean now about putting up with them, meaning the 3g problems, if only it stopped there.

I would strongly advise you if you use your phone for business stay away from this "Company".

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

Sam Vimes

just going to bed now so haven't had time to read the posts but before you get your heart set on the e65, you should know it doesn't have a radio.

3REP

depdnds on your budget

3REP

try the nokia n73 or soy ericsson k770i

jimmycrackcorm

The big problem with 3 is their customer service but then how often do we have to ring them. For data, no one can touch three. I cut my monthly bill in half moving from Meteor to 3 and now have everything on my N95..

I've made my fair share of complaint posts here when I went to 3 initially but things have settled and I doubt if I'll move to any other operator. Yes CS would drive you mad but then we sign up for mobile services and not to ring CS. As I watched my TV on ORB while dravelling down from Dundalk yesterday I was reflecting how much better 3 have become.

If I were to fault them now then I think that they don't seem to be making any effort to extend the 3G coverage to be universally available in the country.

Sam Vimes

anon00 wrote: »

... i got banned from this forum cos of em ...

reregistering to get around a ban means a site ban

Sam Vimes

op, from your usage it does sound like 3 would be the cheapest for calls. Their outside minutes rate is more than the others but it doesn't look like you go outside by much. And you don't have any prevailing usage pattern that would something like unlimited on network calls worthwhile

your internet usage would of course be cheaper when it works. Would you consider just getting a 3 pre pay phone for the internet like i've done? I wouldn't trust them for my main phone. And you should note their roaming is still quite dodgy and can't be depended on to work even in countries where they have roaming agreements

and they don't do webtexts

flywheel

anon00 wrote: »

... i got banned from this forum cos of em

banned (again)

JayV

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions. I think I'm still going to go ahead and move to Three. I've narrowed it down to the N73 or the k800i. I've always had Sony Ericsson but I'm leaning towards the N73 because of the bigger screen. Haven't made a final decision yet but will make my mind up in the shop later today. I'll let you know how I get on with Three.

flywheel

JayV wrote: »

I'll let you know how I get on with Three.

hope it goes well for you, although if it doesn't please bear the forum rules in mind, particulalry:

This is not the forum to discuss consumer issues etc. that forum can be found Here, or you can contact the National Consumer Agency directly

thanks