Smart Phones - which one?

kavanaa1

Hey
I want to get a smart phone. Looking for a pretty high spec.Good browser, wifi, bluetooth, music, touchscreen, gps..dont care too much for camera

Im meteor pay as you go, but want to go bill pay. Im in the UK a lot with work, 1/2 weeks a month. So what operator has the best phone roaming rates and offers at the minute?

Been looking at windows phine OS too and am very impressed from what Ive been reading. But am open to any suggestions, Thanks in advance!

jimmycrackcorm

If you are in the UK a lot then nothing beats going with Three and having three like home to do without roaming.

liamog

I second the recommendation for 3, there 3 like home program is excellent. I've been using the Omnia 7 since launch and it is a really nice phone. The Desire HD is also pretty good.

srsly78

The roaming sounds good, but 3 are a terrible network here in Ireland. Data connection kept dropping for me so I switched to Meteor. Meteor have good roaming for calls, but not for data >.< Windows phone is terrible, avoid

If 3 have actually fixed their network I would switch back, but I doubt it. They have no 2g coverage, and when you have weak signal you get switched onto vodafone, then it won't switch back.

kavanaa1

Thanks for advice, think I'll go for the Omnia 7 on Three Classic Flex Max plan.

Think Three make you wait for three months before alowing you onto the Three like home which sucks.

Will it be a problem automatically connecting to networks that Three use for 'Three like home', because the prices for non affiliated networks and out-of-tariff mins/txts are pretty high.

Hope I'm not disappointed by Windows phone, just want something different and 18 months is a long time to have a phone

liamog

I was up the North with it the other week, choosing the network is quite straight forward.

Settings > Mobile Network

Press the Network Selection dropdown and it will scan for Networks, don't forget to set it back to Automatic when you get back home.

As for the roaming, give them a call they may be able to turn it on earlier if you pay a deposit. Basically they'll take an amount off you and offset it against your future bills. I'm not sure if they do offer this but it's probably worth asking.

srsly78

It's not straight forward. I'm in London, roaming with Meteor. I get cheap calls with T-Mobile ONLY, so I must make sure I'm connected to this network, and not others.

Problem is when I come out of the tube for example, I will have lost connection and it MIGHT connect to Orange or Vodafone instead. Need to keep checking it constantly to make sure, very annoying.

rossc007

kavanaa1 wrote: »

Thanks for advice, think I'll go for the Omnia 7 on Three Classic Flex Max plan.

Think Three make you wait for three months before alowing you onto the Three like home which sucks.

Will it be a problem automatically connecting to networks that Three use for 'Three like home', because the prices for non affiliated networks and out-of-tariff mins/txts are pretty high.

Hope I'm not disappointed by Windows phone, just want something different and 18 months is a long time to have a phone

I have the LG Optimus 7, and while I do love it, I find it lacks a lot of features that I had on my HTC Legend. Im not an iPhone fan because of the way apple tie you into doing things their way, but Microsoft have gone down the same road with Zune I miss just dragging and dropping music (even downloading directly) on my Android phone.

There are a couple of bugs I find annoying, like not being able to disconnect from a Wifi network Yesterday even when I turned Wifi off. And after a factory reset all my paid apps had gone, still haven't managed to get them back yet! No copy and paste is annoying, as is the fact that if you reopen Internet Explorer, the back button will take you back out of internet explorer rather than back to the last web page you where on.

However, on the plus side, its a slick, user friendly interface and there is a "big" update coming after the Mobile World Conference on 12th Feb.

My advice at the moment would be to get a high end Android phone, Windows phone has a lot of potential, but its not able to compete with the iPhone or Android at the moment due to lack of Apps (Skype, Layar, Gtalk) in my opinion, and Im a Microsoft fan boy

ronan1001

kavanaa1 wrote: »

Think Three make you wait for three months before alowing you onto the Three like home which sucks.

They don't seem to make you wait the 3 months anymore, I moved to them last month from Meteor and was in Italy last week using the 3italia network, didn't cost me anything extra at all!

kavanaa1

Considering all of your advice ( much appreciated) I think I will go with the Samsung Galaxy S on Three Classic Flex Max (€40 per month). I've never used Android, but I'm sure it will be great.

Only concern is that it will pick up ThreeUK network by default so I can use my bundled mins/txts while over there. And I'll ask in store later if they will put me on the Three like home plane from the start as I'm over in the UK for the next two weeks.

dlambirl

kavanaa1 wrote: »

Considering all of your advice ( much appreciated) I think I will go with the Samsung Galaxy S on Three Classic Flex Max (€40 per month). I've never used Android, but I'm sure it will be great.

Only concern is that it will pick up ThreeUK network by default so I can use my bundled mins/txts while over there. And I'll ask in store later if they will put me on the Three like home plane from the start as I'm over in the UK for the next two weeks.

I'd rather go with the HTC Desire HD over the Samsung Galaxy S.

angel01

kavanaa1 wrote: »

Considering all of your advice ( much appreciated) I think I will go with the Samsung Galaxy S on Three Classic Flex Max (€40 per month). I've never used Android, but I'm sure it will be great.

Only concern is that it will pick up ThreeUK network by default so I can use my bundled mins/txts while over there. And I'll ask in store later if they will put me on the Three like home plane from the start as I'm over in the UK for the next two weeks.

The Galaxy S is a super phone, I love mine.

kavanaa1

HTC Desire HD vs Samsung Galaxy S ; seems people cant agree which one is better from looking at some discussions on boards and elsewhere!

evolutionqy7

rossc007 wrote: »

after a factory reset all my paid apps had gone, still haven't managed to get them back yet! No copy and paste is annoying, as is the fact that if you reopen Internet Explorer, the back button will take you back out of internet explorer rather than back to the last web page you where on.

However, on the plus side, its a slick, user friendly interface and there is a "big" update coming after the Mobile World Conference on 12th Feb.

Well what you expect after a hard reset?

All my apps are automatically downloaded after hard reset so maybe thats a problem at your side. The back button here takes me back to the previous page unless its the last page available.

Copy paste will come soon as well with hopefully extra features.

I got WP7 then went back to Android 2.3 which lasted for a day and i went back to WP7 cause i felt that Android was just too damn plain and ugly.

I do agree i miss drag drop and other features like flash. But meh i can survive its the first release so will just wait for updates.

rossc007

evolutionqy7 wrote: »

Well what you expect after a hard reset?

All my apps are automatically downloaded after hard reset so maybe thats a problem at your side. The back button here takes me back to the previous page unless its the last page available.

Copy paste will come soon as well with hopefully extra features.

I got WP7 then went back to Android 2.3 which lasted for a day and i went back to WP7 cause i felt that Android was just too damn plain and ugly.

I do agree i miss drag drop and other features like flash. But meh i can survive its the first release so will just wait for updates.

I expect that when I re-sync my phone that I get my apps back... iPhone has been doing that for years! No too much to ask really! As you said, may be a problem at my end but I cant figure it out.

If your using internet explorer, then you go back to your home page, then reopen internet explorer, can you tell me how to browse back one page? That would help

You went back to Android 2.3? Are you running a ROM?

I have the phone since November, and at the moment its not as useful as my year old HTC Legend 2.3, but its a quicker better looking device for sure.

srsly78

kavanaa1 wrote: »

HTC Desire HD vs Samsung Galaxy S ; seems people cant agree which one is better from looking at some discussions on boards and elsewhere!

People can agree. Samsung ship buggy software with theirs, is only good if you fix yourself. Get a HTC.

evolutionqy7

Oh that way. Lol I never noticed that I couldn't go back after going home.
Regarding Samsung vs HTC. The screen is miles ahead. Gpu is better. But software side and CPU are ahead. Samsung touchwiz will leave you laging. You can read around in the Samsung galaxy thread and you will see

KrisW

evolutionqy7 wrote: »

Regarding Samsung vs HTC. The screen is miles ahead. Gpu is better. But software side and CPU are ahead. Samsung touchwiz will leave you laging. You can read around in the Samsung galaxy thread and you will see

So... which do you prefer?

jimmycrackcorm

KrisW wrote: »

So... which do you prefer?

HTC makes sense

srsly78

Actually, I take that back. Seems maybe samsung have got their act together, they are shipping vodafone galaxy 2.3. So maybe stock 2.3 for all top-end samsung phones? It has the best hardware, with fixed software it would be #1.

evolutionqy7

Well the SLCD that HTC uses are no match for AMOLED. Graphics are also better for games.

But in terms of speed the processor in htc phones are faster.
For your day to day business id go for HTC since they issue updates faster than samsung and over built quality feels higher cause of the materials they use. Also their HTC Sense is the best manufacturer software included with Android phones that include many helpfull apps and features I wish for the HTC will get something in the league of amoled. Too bad samsung cut HTC of the supply

Walkman

kavanaa1 wrote: »

I'll ask in store later if they will put me on the Three like home plane from the start as I'm over in the UK for the next two weeks.

3 like home is automatic you don't have to ask for it, it's full roaming outside of the EU you have to ask and pay for prior to being with them for 3 months

kavanaa1

OK I played with a HTC desire last night at a Miracle Bell gig and was really impressed. I'm going to go in and get it in carphone warehouse today. My head will explode if I keep reading reviews

evolutionqy7

enjoy make sure to mess around enough it will make it easier for you to unleash the full potential of the phone in the long run Its not hard but it will save the confusion if your looking for a certain feature or something

Having a quick skim through the manual always helps too

kavanaa1

Went with the HTC desire. Really happy with it. Have a long way to go.to get if setup the way that I want it but I'm looking forward to it.

I'm in the UK now but I can still use ny data as if I was back in Ireland right? And is there an easy way of putting movies on the phone?

shadowninty

if you are looking for something cheap but decent, the Orange San Francisco is good
can be bought in UK for ₤100, easy and free to unlock

of course it has ARMv6 processor so no Flash or Google Earth


EDIT: Whoops see you got the Desire
Great phone, enjoy it!