Recommendations for new phone

Steak

right, so a few of you might have read my other thread about getting thrown into a fish-pond and my phone dying on me. anyway it's now time to invest in a new phone and so I'm looking for a bit of help.

I'm on 3Pay and wish to stick with them. I'm looking for a phone with a good camera as I'll be travelling in Summer and will be taking a lot of pics. I also want Skype on my phone. I don't care for MP3 playback as I already have an iPod. I have a max budget of €280.

I was checking out the Nokia N73 which seems to be a very good phone for €179. anyone here who has it want to share some stories, good, bad or indifferent!?

I was also checking out the Nokia E65 at €279 but it only has a 2MP camera compared to the N73's 3.2MP. anyone have the E65, what are your views on the phone?

also feel free to recommend other phones. any help appreciated.

masseyno9

If you want to use a phone for taking pics you'll actually use thenyou're going to be disappointed. I'd advise you to get a cheaper phone then spend your leftover budget on a camera. Its been said loads of times here that mobile phones are severely limited by sensor size, and are often pretty useless at taking shots of anything remotely un-stationary!! Even cheap digital cameras will get better shots than phones.

I have this camera http://cgi.ebay.com/Samsung-L73-7-2-Megapixel_W0QQitemZ310002140238QQihZ021QQcategoryZ107904QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem but in black. Brought it around europe last summer and was perfect, small enough not to bother you, but good enough to get quality pictures.

Don't be fooled by camera phones that say '3.2mp' or whatever. It might be fine for scenery shots or stationary shots, but there are still going to be times when the camera isn't up to the job.

CantGetNoSleep

How far are we from a phone which has a camera to rival an actual digital camera?

Is the LG Viewty the best camera phone atm?

Steak

masseyno9 wrote: »

If you want to use a phone for taking pics you'll actually use thenyou're going to be disappointed. I'd advise you to get a cheaper phone then spend your leftover budget on a camera. Its been said loads of times here that mobile phones are severely limited by sensor size, and are often pretty useless at taking shots of anything remotely un-stationary!! Even cheap digital cameras will get better shots than phones.

I have this camera http://cgi.ebay.com/Samsung-L73-7-2-Megapixel_W0QQitemZ310002140238QQihZ021QQcategoryZ107904QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem but in black. Brought it around europe last summer and was perfect, small enough not to bother you, but good enough to get quality pictures.

Don't be fooled by camera phones that say '3.2mp' or whatever. It might be fine for scenery shots or stationary shots, but there are still going to be times when the camera isn't up to the job.

hmm, yeah you're probably right.

the thing is I do have an old digital camera that I don't really use but I'll be going interrailing and don't want to be carrying extra stuff that I don't need.

I think I'll go for the N73 anyway because it is rather cheap and it's got Skype too. I'm not travelling until July anyway so there's plenty of time to check out how good the N73's camera is and if it's not up to scratch I can always use my digital camera.

cheers.

ChRoMe

The Sony Ericcson K800i has a sony cybershot 3.2 camera that produces great pictures FWIW

cooperguy

CantGetNoSleep wrote: »

How far are we from a phone which has a camera to rival an actual digital camera?

Is the LG Viewty the best camera phone atm?

It has some issues supposedly but it is still fairly good. The N95 is better I think and maybe the K850i.

Although there are times where a camera phone will let you down I still think the high end ones are ok at taking half decent photos. They will NEVER rival a good stand alone camera but I think some of them perform pretty well

Alanstrainor

The k800i takes great pics, now i'm a amateur photographer, so when out and about without my dslr i find the k800i more than adequate. And just so you know it's not about the megapixels so dont be fooled by that. I've heard the e65 has an awful camera though even with the 2mp. I find that the k800i is handy because you'll always have it but it wont take over from a stand alone camera. I would tend to agree with the above and perhaps buy a cheap compact camera.

Cyrus

b82 has best camera currently + xenon flash

DonFred

I had the N73 and picture quailty was fine, decent snaps came from it, I be the same about carrying both phone and camera around but you do get better snaps from digital camera. Now have the Samsung G600 and pic quailty is great but crap photo light. K800i is good too but hate the shutter thing on the back it slides open too easy.

Steak

DonFred wrote: »

I had the N73 and picture quailty was fine, decent snaps came from it, I be the same about carrying both phone and camera around but you do get better snaps from digital camera. Now have the Samsung G600 and pic quailty is great but crap photo light. K800i is good too but hate the shutter thing on the back it slides open too easy.

how's the shutter thing on the N73? would it slide open easily? say putting it in and out of your jeans pocket?

nick23

Ive got the n73 and i found it to be a very good phone when i first got it. After a while though i started to notice that the phone was actually quite slow at starting up apllications or anything like that, even the camera took a while before you were actually capeable of taking a photo.

Its a good phone but i wouldnt reccommend it really. The camera is decent but takes far too long to take a photo i.e. when you realise you want to take a photo, get your phone out and have the camera ready the moment has normally passed and your just not arsed anymore.

If you're still determined to get it then no the slider thing on the back isnt that troublesom. It wont open in your jeans pocket unless you take it out of your pocket with your fingers on nothing but the slider