I need to get a new cell phone. Which one should I get? My only real requirement is that it takes decent photos. Also, I tend to prefer Nokia, but I’m not religious. So what’s your recommendation and why?
Update: I ended up getting the 6230 a few weeks ago, and I like it a lot. The UI is fast, it’s small and light-weight, robust, fair image quality, etc. However, my operator is Orange, and they don’t support MMS or GPRS on this phone yet. They claim it’s because of Nokia and a software bug on the phone, but I’m not so sure: When my wife got the T610 a couple of months ago, also with Orange, they couldn’t make that one work, either.
19 responses so far ↓
1 Yonatan Feldman // Mar 08, 2004 at 01:52 AM
You should list some more of your requirements. Mine are the following:
I would prefer the phone not have much else. I'd rather it not have cameras, screensavers, color UI, etc; but, alas, that doesn't seem possible these days.
Unless another company comes up with something better I think my next phone will be the Nokia 6230: http://nokia.com/nokia/0,8764,47676,00.html
Here is a site that allows you to select different criteria to search on which I find myself using when looking for a phone: http://4cellular.com/search/features.cfm
2 Lars Pind // Mar 08, 2004 at 09:27 AM
3 Jarkko Laine // Mar 08, 2004 at 09:40 AM
I was thinking about getting a new phone with about the same requirements last fall to get rid of my old Nokia. At that time there was no Nokia model with bluetooth for decent price, so I was left to consider getting a SonyEricsson T610 or Siemens S45. The Siemens model seemed to have a very bad camera and it was worse than S-E in some features so I started to settle for T610. Until I read some reviews (like Mohan's) and actually hold a SonyEricssion model in hand.
I'm not saying the UI in SonyEricssons is bad. It might or might not be but I can't really say with my experience. It's just that the UI is so different from Nokias' where there's always many ways to accomplish a task (like sending an SMS or a bus.card) still keeping the UI rat-simple.
So you can do the pre-screening using the feature charts Yon gave, but be prepared to change your choice after you play around with the UI a bit. Unfortunately most "customer-friendly" phone shops only put a plastic model to the phone rack so there's no way to test the UI. I guess decent ones still give you the opportunity to really test the phone.
I'm also looking forward to Nokia 6230 Yon mentioned. Its only downside at the moment is that it's not available yet.
4 Lars Pind // Mar 08, 2004 at 09:52 AM
It's tough. It's been quite a while since Nokia has made a phone that doesn't look hideous. At least Sony-Ericsson knows how to make them look sexy. And pack them with features that you can't figure out how to use.
5 Yonatan Feldman // Mar 08, 2004 at 07:09 PM
I currently use a SonyEricsson T68i (the one I used in København, Lars). My main problem with it is the slowness of the UI. I thought that the newer versions of this phone, T610, T616, would solve this but i guess not.
I haven't had a Nokia in a while but I remember them having good, simple, and fast UIs. Of course this was before phones came with Java, digital cameras, video recording, mp3 players, FM tuners, and the kitchen sink. Some comments on current Nokia UIs from someone with a recent Nokia phone would be great help. I hope the Nokia 6230 is decent (I've given up on good UIs as far as cell phones are concerned).
Avoid Motorolas. I can name many reasons but one is enough for me: that they swapped the "Send" and "End" keys breaking one of the basic and most important (at least to me) rules of UI design: maintain consistency. The rest of the UI on Motorola phones I have used is terrible as well.
My friend got a Samsung and had to get it replaced at least twice because things broke. It also had some weird software bug that never got fixed. After seeing this I've steered clear.
Hope this helps narrow down your choices.
6 Jarkko Laine // Mar 09, 2004 at 05:55 PM
3650 is a cheapo teen model, afaik. 6600 is more like a model for "business users", with bluetooth and all other possible features, in-built hf mic and speaker being one of the coolest. I have heard some positive opinions about it but to me it seems a bit too big and clumsy. Thus waiting for 6230 with almost the same features in more compact package.
And about the looks. 8910, 6220 and even my faithful 6510 sure look nice to me compared to, say, P900. But it's a matter of taste, sure.
I think the UI's of Nokias have unfortunately gone in slower direction with color displays, java and friends, but it's not first hand knowledge so I would also appreciate some recent experiences from other people.
7 speedy g // Mar 10, 2004 at 04:52 PM
8 Guan Yang // Mar 28, 2004 at 11:22 PM
9 karl thurston // Apr 07, 2004 at 04:42 PM
10 chris bee // Apr 21, 2004 at 09:29 AM
11 Lars Pind // Apr 21, 2004 at 01:03 PM
12 karl thurston // Apr 23, 2004 at 04:32 PM
13 karl thurston // Apr 23, 2004 at 04:33 PM
14 Branimir Dolicki // Jul 08, 2004 at 02:42 AM
15 Bill Rainey // Oct 31, 2004 at 02:27 AM
16 Lars Pind // Oct 31, 2004 at 01:32 PM
17 Brendon Bushman // Oct 31, 2004 at 06:09 PM
18 Dave // Dec 21, 2005 at 05:35 AM
19 Lars Pind // Dec 21, 2005 at 08:06 PM