Phone recommendation?

I don't want to appear lazy but I don't know much about mobiles and was looking for a recommendation. I'm still using an old SE k550im imode phone primarily for the free imail emails. It's great and someone here told me about imode at the time so I'm hoping for similarly great advice.

I'm not interested in surfing the internet on my phone. Not interested in using it to listen to music or radio. I don't care about the form factor or what the phone looks like.

The only features I know of that would interest me would be a really good camera (the 2megapixel camera on my current phone is rubbish really), GPS and the ability to use AFT (which I can't use on my imode phone) and I really really would like to continue getting my emails on my phone for free (probably asking too much). Thanks for any helpful advice

strecker

With today's data rates, email is, well not free, but relatively cheap on most networks/tariffs (unless you often get HUGE attachments?!)

Mentioning imode, you're obviously on o2 - I'm not, so I don't have the finer details re data add-ons etc... But getting emails really shouldn't be a big deal.
Since you mention gps, I'd go for a nokia with gps - you can install maps onto the phone via pc, so you don't need to constantly load them while travelling - makes it a lot faster and cheaper!
(google's maps app should run on most phones, but it always needs to download maps, so there can be a lag when you have a poor signal, and it also means you use up data from your allowance - plus: less drain on the battery because you needn't connect to the web to load maps)

Pop into an O2 shop and see what you like! Screensize should be good enough for maps; real keypad or touchscreen? If you mail/text a LOT, I'd go for a real keypad, but again: loads of ppl are happy with texting on the iPhone or Jet...

Caution though re Camera! Don't be bamboozled by 3.2 or 5 or 8 megapixel... Your old 2mp shooter is probably better than many current 3.2 phonecams (my old k750 certainly took better pix than my e71)... So, when you see a phone you like, hit google for some reviews re cam-performance. Some 3.2 cams are better than some 5mp; my Jet's 5mp is almost as good as my 'old' pixon's 8mp..

strecker

And I have no idea what AFT is :P and it's too early for me to google LOL

Matt Bauer

strecker wrote: »

And I have no idea what AFT is :P and it's too early for me to google LOL

I use the email and GPS quite a bit on the iPhone 3GS, and it's got quite a good 3 megapixel camera, supposedly better than the 5 megapixel cameras on some phones like the Droid.

However, do you really need GPS? You could get a new Sony Ericsson phone with a really good camera and no GPS without paying too much. On o2 prepaid, data costs 99 cents a day for up to 50MB, but if you only download a few kilobytes it costs less.

strecker

Matt Bauer wrote: »

I use the email and GPS quite a bit on the iPhone 3GS, and it's got quite a good 3 megapixel camera, supposedly better than the 5 megapixel cameras on some phones like the Droid.

However, do you really need GPS? You could get a new Sony Ericsson phone with a really good camera and no GPS without paying too much. On o2 prepaid, data costs 99 cents a day for up to 50MB, but if you only download a few kilobytes it costs less.

Good point! I wasn't all clear earlier! You don't really need a gps equipped phone for google maps or ovi maps etc... And with the data tariffs you can use google maps all day without going bankcrupt!

Depends on what the OP means: 'gps' as in actual gps with voice guidance yadayada, or just a phone to run google maps or sth similar to look up an address. If looking up an address now and again is all he needs, then a gigantic screen is probably not as important as if he wanted to use real guided gps apps?!

My current phone has gps and I gladly would have bought it without gps! For my needs the odd look at a map is all I need. Still, Nokia/ovi maps have the advantage over google maps because you can store all of Ireland on a smallish memory card rather than download the maps everytime you're looking for a place. So, no download costs, and they load almost instantly from the card rather than over the air...

Matt Bauer

Matt Bauer wrote: »

However, do you really need GPS? You could get a new Sony Ericsson phone with a really good camera and no GPS without paying too much. On o2 prepaid, data costs 99 cents a day for up to 50MB, but if you only download a few kilobytes it costs less.

OK forget about GPS. Can you give me an example of a Sony SE with a really good camera? Also I'd only be getting a maximum of about 20 emails a day (without any attachments) so how much would I be charged for about 50KB (roughly even)?

strecker wrote: »

And I have no idea what AFT is :P and it's too early for me to google LOL

It's the thing on boards.ie that allows you to send webtexts from your phone for about a quarter of a cent. AFT=Almost Free Texts. Maybe it's defunct now....but you need a java phone or something to use it.

strecker

Deleted User wrote: »

OK forget about GPS. Can you give me an example of a Sony SE with a really good camera? Also I'd only be getting a maximum of about 20 emails a day (without any attachments) so how much would I be charged for about 50KB (roughly even)?



It's the thing on boards.ie that allows you to send webtexts from your phone for about a quarter of a cent. AFT=Almost Free Texts. Maybe it's defunct now....but you need a java phone or something to use it.

Oh, alright, gotcha! that should work on most phones then, and I know there are even iphone apps that let you send your webtexts for next to nothing.

50 kbs worth of email a day? Should hardly register on your bill!

I used to be big into SE, but I haven't really played with any of the recent offerings.
From what I read, it seems some of their walkman branded handsets now have decent cams as well, but naah...can't give you a proper reply