Help me decide please!

Tea_Bag

Im due an upgrade for bill pay (meteor), and i was in the shop looking at phones, and the 2 that stand out for me are the Nokia 5800 Xpress Music and the Sony Ericsson W995.

im used to a sony now, but i used nokia's in the past and was never dissapointed.

Most important feature for me is WLAN, and decent quality music player. im leaning towards the nokia for its 3.5mm audio jack, because i keep losing my earphones, and its easy to replace, but is there anything that stands out for ye fine folk? any experience with any of them, or another phone you recommend?

thanks!


EDIT: worth waiting out for a possible HTC Hero?

Rsaeire

I recommend you have a read of this HTC Hero review and see what you think.

I see you've also mentioned the W995 and 5800. Would you prefer a touchscreen handset over a standard one or are you not bothered?

Tea_Bag

generally, i dont like touch screen because of the crap keyboard for texting. but i hear that the 5800 is preety good and smart, and it has a qwerty keyboard. generally though, i avoid.

Im used to sony, but i feel that the W995 is outdated even with its WLAN, and im wondering if its worth the €50 cost, when the 5800 is €60, and seems to be much better supported with apps etc.

Im not looking to spend much over €60, so im not even sure if the Hero is out of the question anyway, as there doesnt seem to be a price for it yet. also, going by that review, a few things worry me about the Disadvantages, namely;

Flash video playback is laggy
Somewhat limited 3rd party software availability
No DivX or XviD video support or a third-party application to play that
Poor MP4 playback performance - barely watchable in video resolution above QVGA
No Bluetooth file transfers (not without rooting)
No proper file manager (not without rooting)

what is the "rooting" they're referring to?

Rsaeire

Tea_Bag wrote: »

generally, i dont like touch screen because of the crap keyboard for texting. but i hear that the 5800 is preety good and smart, and it has a qwerty keyboard. generally though, i avoid.

The 5800 definitely does seem to have the advantage over the W995 with regard to features and support; it has a firm following on Boards too.

Tea_Bag wrote: »

what is the "rooting" they're referring to?

Rooting is a term that describes gaining full root access to an Android handset's operating system enabling you to make modifications, run custom roms and enable features, such as those mentioned in GSMArena's review. You can find further information here.

Tea_Bag

which would you pick? would you wait it out for the HTC? (unconfirmed to be the Hero)

also, would you reckon the HTC would be in my budget?

Rsaeire

Tea_Bag wrote: »

which would you pick? would you wait it out for the HTC? (unconfirmed to be the Hero)

You have nothing to lose in waiting and it will allow you to better assess the situation once the unconfirmed Android handset is released.

Tea_Bag wrote: »

also, would you reckon the HTC would be in my budget?

It's hard to say. Meteor may price it low for Christmas, however, they may want to ensure they make enough of a profit and price it higher than your budget will allow.

Tea_Bag

Thanks. guess i could wait a week or so to hear of any news on the HTC. would you get the 5800 is it wasn't the Hero, and a different one instead?

Sephiroth_dude

The camera is meant to be fairly bad on the w995.

Rsaeire

Tea_Bag wrote: »

Thanks. guess i could wait a week or so to hear of any news on the HTC. would you get the 5800 is it wasn't the Hero, and a different one instead?

If Meteor release an Android handset other than the Hero, I can't see it changing things too much, if at all, as there isn't a great difference between the available options. You should have a look at a comparison between both the 5800 and Hero here.

I would recommend waiting until Meteor release their Android handset and going into one of their stores and testing it along with the 5800. You may prefer the usability of one over the other, therefore making it an easier decision. In the mean time, you should read some of the user opinions of the Hero and 5800, if you haven't already, which should no doubt help your decision too.

long_b

Tea_Bag wrote: »

generally, i dont like touch screen because of the crap keyboard for texting. but i hear that the 5800 is preety good and smart, and it has a qwerty keyboard. generally though, i avoid.

This may be the biggest issue.I had the 5800 for 6 months and, while I enjoyed the big screen, trying to do any decent size text on the yoke drove me nuts.

Back on a real QWERTY now and I don't know meself

E63 maybe ?

strecker

Another reason to wait might be the upcoming 'major' firmware update for n97 and 5800... If it delivers as hyped, the 5800 should feel like a 'new' model you never know.

As to typing on touchscreen: I personally prefer a 'real' qwerty like on the e71 etc, but a good onscreen keyboard does at least as well as a bad 'real' one (wink wink, n97...oops, I know some like the n97's keyboard. I think it's bad. Sue me)

The fact that you have used Nokias in the past is probably irrelevant though. Though much of symbian s60 5th looks familiar to the 'usual' Nokia UI, there are quite a few differences. Combined with touchscreen, you may not 'recognise' the overall packages. If you can, try, really try the 5800 before you buy.