Mobile Phone Advice | April 22, 2004

My Apple iPhone post got me thinking that I could do with a new mobile phone. Here are some of the things I’d want from a new mobile.

Some cool, but not strictly necessary features would be:

So I’m looking for some advice here. Do you have a mobile phone that you’d really recommend? If so, what is it about your phone that you like so much? Is there anything around at the moment that meets my main criteria, or would it be better waiting a few months to see what new phones are released?

Posted at April 22, 2004 9:07 AM

Comments

Colin Frame said on April 22, 2004 9:53 AM

Ive previously used a Nokia 7650 to moBlog and read email (kinda). It took alright quality photos (649×480 vga) but compared to the newer phones on the market it wasnt really so good. The mail client wasnt really so hot and I could never get it to work with my uni email which needed an ssl connection to work. It could sync with iCal but only on a remote server, not on a local machine for some reason (on windows anyway).

Now using a Motorola v600 which does pretty much all of the same features as the Nokia did but in a smaller (clam shell) package. Not had much time to play with it, feature wise, yet because of huge amounts of uni work but the email client seems to work with my free orange email anyway. Menus arent quite as user friendly as the Nokia’s but it is quad band so you can use it just about anywhere on the planet!

ben said on April 22, 2004 10:21 AM

Sony Erriccsson (sp?) phones are all nice, especially for a design fascist such as yourself.

T610 is quite nice, and does all the stuff you describe, (I think).

Lau Taarnskov said on April 22, 2004 10:25 AM

Nokias Series 60 phones meet those requirements. Except that they are not all especially compact. The up comming Nokia 7610 seems pretty cool and reasonably compact though.

The Sony Ericsson T610 is a bit smaller, but with a worse camera. While it can sync with Addressbook, it does not AFAIK store street addresses, but only phonenumbers and email. The T630 is more advanced, but has a more plasticky design.

Both phones look pretty good IMO. All with tri-band, GPRS, bluetooth, supported by OSX.

I use a Nokia 3650 (Series 60) with my iBook that has built in bluetooth. I can send SMS messages from Addressbook. Syncs with iCal and Addressbook. Even the pictures get synced. And if I take a picture of someone and attatches it to a contact in the phone, the same picture will show up in the OSX Mail application when viewing an email from one of the addresses from that addressbook/contact list entry. Also has a XHTML browser with CSS support - superior to the SE T610 browser. BTW Opera is availible for Series 60 phones.

Jack Mottram said on April 22, 2004 11:30 AM

I’d recommend the t610 too - the picture quality isn’t great, but it does everything else you need, and works very well with OS X when it comes to using iSync, dialing up or transferring files between devices.

One proviso - the t610’s UI is pretty bloody awful. It takes seven steps to start writing a text, for example, and pretty much every feature seems to be buried beneath a heap of needless sub-menus.

Andy Walker said on April 22, 2004 11:31 AM

I’ve been looking into this for a while too - mainly to Sync up my iCal info.

The has all the features, but it is bulky and looks pretty nasty (and I can’t see the flip down keypad lasting for too long).

There’s a new phone coming out soon called the Sendo X which might be worth a look, although no known release date.

Ben Pirt said on April 22, 2004 11:41 AM

I have the SE T610 and a 12” powerbook.
The combination works extremely well and I am very happy with it. It does everything you require except having a good camera (it is terrible).

The interface isn’t as bad as the T68i (my previous phone) and you can create shortcuts to speed things up.

@ Jack Mottram: Try setting the first shortcut as “Write new text message” then at the main screen just push the joystick to the left and it should go straight in to writing a text. Does for me.

Ben

DarkBlue said on April 22, 2004 11:45 AM

“The … Nokia 7610 seems pretty cool and reasonably compact though.”

It sure is an ugly mother though and that keypad really sucks.

Andy Warwick said on April 22, 2004 12:10 PM

Have a look at the Treo 600. Great for browsing/email, runs loads of Palm apps. Not sure about iCal and Address Book syncing, as I use it to sync to Daylite (www.marketcircle.com), which works fine.

The only thing I miss is bluetooth, which my old T68i had, but other than that I’m really happy with it.

If you do get it, get the Palm ap Agendus too; comes with a great email client, and knocks the built-in address book into touch.

Drew McLellan said on April 22, 2004 12:29 PM

As others have said, the T610 is a great little phone and works well with a Mac, but forget it if you’re interested in using the camera. The camera is utterly rotten.

Example photo appears here - and that’s after a little ‘shopping and cropping :(

aj said on April 22, 2004 1:39 PM

Danger’s Hiptop (aka the Sidekick) is pretty close - nice big colour screen, GSM phone, AOL built-in, reasonable graphical browser and an optional camera module, full keyboard for moblogging. When they first launched it they were touting its open service platform capabilities, so service providers could design almost any service they want T-Mobile in the US has them and Fido in Canada. I’m waiting for a future revision that removes some of the GameBoy-like bulk from it and, as you say, a better integrated camera and worldphone capability. In the meantime my Kyocera Slider satsifies my blue LED jones :) Btw - this link is a nifty Flash site as well, for Bell Canada’s prepaid mobile service, Solo.

ck said on April 22, 2004 2:03 PM

I have recently got the Nokia 6600 (in Australia - 6620 I think in the US?) which syncs perfectly with my 12” Powerbook. Haven’t tried GPRS wireless bluetooth yet (expensive), but having Real Player and Opera in the phone is awesome. Live TV streaming to your phone!

Here’s 2 reviews I found useful when trying to decide between this and the T610/T630.

InfoSync and O’ Grady’s PowerPage.

Team with this the Crystallized theme or any others here and you’ll be in heaven…

Michael Simmons said on April 22, 2004 2:11 PM

I have the Sony Ericsson T616, and I am pretty happy with it. It does (or so I think) everything you want it to do.

Chris Clark said on April 22, 2004 2:12 PM

I’m yet to see a cameraphone that takes decent photos, and I believe the current generation still sits at VGA resolution; with the next gen looking to max out at 1 megapixel, which isn’t at all impressive.

Sony Ericsson phones have excellent iSync support and work a treat with Salling Clicker, but as Jack said: the UI is horrible. I have an old T68i, which I bought purely because it was one of the first phones to support iSync, and I wish I’d never strayed from Nokia’s side… Sony Ericsson wouldn’t know usability if it bit them in the ass.

ck said on April 22, 2004 2:23 PM

just checked your criteria again - the Nokia 6600 matches EVERY feature you’ve specified (well, design I guess is subjective), including Salling Clicker (even supports CD artwork displaying on the phone)… Even the email app isn’t half bad - used extensively while travelling.

Philipp Eigenmann said on April 22, 2004 2:30 PM

Hi,

check out the K700 by SonyEricsson. It has all the features you’re talking about and ist nicely designed (at least in my oppinion). Further it comes in candybar layout and offerst the best mac/iSysnc/salling clicker etc. compatibility on the market (SonyEricsson in general ist great with mac).

Check it out here

At the moment, it is about the closest you can get to an iPhone ;-)

Best wishes,

P.

Philipp Eigenmann said on April 22, 2004 2:32 PM

Oops, forgot the link:

http://www.sonyericsson.com/k700

ck said on April 22, 2004 2:40 PM

Another thing that impressed me with the Nokia is the Symbian Series 60 UI which has great programs to load up on your phone - SSH into your server/mac from your phone? Yep. IRC, Messenger? Yep. Another reason that swung me away from my previous T68i and the Sony Ericsson phones in general (the P900 was just too big). The UI on these is fantastic - especially the multitasking capabilities. I was in the same position and yes, I researched this extensively… :)

ck said on April 22, 2004 2:41 PM

Another thing that impressed me with the Nokia is the Symbian Series 60 UI which has great programs to load up on your phone - SSH into your server/mac from your phone? Yep. IRC, Messenger? Yep. Another reason that swung me away from my previous T68i and the Sony Ericsson phones in general (the P900 was just too big). The UI on these is fantastic - especially the multitasking capabilities. I was in the same position and yes, I researched this extensively… :)

ck said on April 22, 2004 2:41 PM

Another thing that impressed me with the Nokia is the Symbian Series 60 UI which has great programs to load up on your phone - SSH into your server/mac from your phone? Yep. IRC, Messenger? Yep. Another reason that swung me away from my previous T68i and the Sony Ericsson phones in general (the P900 was just too big). The UI on these is fantastic - especially the multitasking capabilities. I was in the same position and yes, I researched this extensively… :)

ck said on April 22, 2004 2:49 PM

damn, sorry - flakey connection Aus - UK never good at the best of times - someone will delete those right…

Jeremy Johnson said on April 22, 2004 4:58 PM

T-Mobie and and Sony Ericsson T68 or T610 will do about everything your asking for. I use my T68 to connect to the internet over bluetooth on my Powerbook all the time ($10 unlimited access). The phone (and service) also work out of the US (worked great in Vancouver).

Everytime the power goes out at work - I’m the only one still online :-)

Grant said on April 22, 2004 8:40 PM

I would like to reiterate the comment about how poor the picture quality is with the Sony Ericsson T610/616. Other than that I love the phone as it does have all the described features, and its very easy to use with a great design.

The Motorola v600 looks great, but it’s bigger than the Sony Ericsson phones.

Check out Mobile Burn. They have reviews and pictures of almost any phone you’d like more info on.

Mike Hayes said on April 23, 2004 2:39 AM

STOP STOP STOP - READ THIS!

Get the Siemens SX1 - I use it with my 12” Powerbook to do everything you want and more
* Sync ical, address book via iSync & Bluetooth
* Use Share2Blu2th (mobilewhack) to share internet connection via BT, synch my email and AvantGo
* Full Salling Clicker support (unbelievably cool - especially auto status setting for iChat depending whether or not I am in the room)
* Triband, candy bar unique design
*Pop3, IMAP, SMTP mail app
* Great qual VGA camera 640 × 480
* GPRS modem, IR, Bluetooth connection, USB as well
*Video recorder, MP3 & Ogg Vorbis player, FM Radio
* Get Total IR remote control app to use with all consumer electronic devices
* Downloadable firmware updates from Siemens
* Get Agile Messenger connect to all IM protocols
* Use Opera for internet browsing
* Great games available
* Symbian development environment benefit from alot of available programs

Get it!

Tim said on April 23, 2004 11:24 AM

@ Mike Hayes: What country are you in? Is the SX1 available in the UK? If so, what mobile network?

MaThIbUs said on April 24, 2004 1:36 PM

For more info about Sony Ericsson, visit Esato.

Moses said on April 26, 2004 4:42 AM

I have recently gotten a sony ericson t616 model phone. Some of the features that are present that i just love are

check mail pop3/imap
wap 2
gprs internet
bluetooth (mac compatible for the built in bt module)
auto sync’s with my address book everytime i’m within 30’ of it
the camera takes great daylight pictures
send sms from my laptop

features that suXor.

the camera takes horrible low light pictures.
the internal user accesable memory is a lame 2mb
limited set of carriers (att and voice stream) not sure about others.
you can’t customize the shell

other notes
my friend recently decided to try and eat my phone while the visible screen area was quite resistant without even a scratch. the metal casing and some of the softer plastic was marred with small indentations. and since theres no customization options i am stuck with the not so splendid appearance. This was a surprising improvement over the performance of my phone the last time this happened. i forget the model of the phone but it’s casing actually crumbled away. so all in all i must give the t616 remarkable props!

——————————————————
the world is a ghetto.

Andrew said on November 28, 2005 2:02 AM

get the Treo 650 from Palm.
Works great with the Mac (iCal, Address Book, et al, or Entourage).
screen is 320×320pixels.
Plus it run heaps of other apps, it’ll open word and excel. Great web browser (true html, not WAP).
GPRS so you can use it as a modem with your iBook.
Can’t say enough about this great phone (although I know some people have had trouble with theirs).
I use it with Vodafone in Australia and it works like a dream.
Still and movie camera, 32Meg on board, plus you can use SD memory cards with it (up to 1 or maybe 2gig).Candy bar shape (okay, fat candy bar), has bluetooth so you can use salling clicker. Looks great, full QUERTY keyboard. Can have POP and IMAP email (POP as standard). 22,000 aplications available. Get it now!

Jim said on May 15, 2006 3:30 PM

OK folks.. Theres been a mighty 6 months or so in the technological world since the last post. Can anyone respark the debate with a more current model..?
I’m on the look out for all the features Andy was after, but I’m hooked on the Nokia UI. The 6600 looks pretty dated now I gotta say.. anyone know which model would fill its shoes these days..?