Which cell phone should I get?

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Mar 07, 2004
by Calvin Correli
1 min read

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.

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About Calvin Correli

I've spent the last 17 years learning, growing, healing, and discovering who I truly am, so that I'm now living every day aligned with my life's purpose.

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19 comments

Yonatan Feldman
 

Re: Which cell phone should I get? <p> You should list some more of your requirements. Mine are the following: <ol> <li>Tri-band (world) GSM</li> <li>Bluetooth with Mac OS X AddressBook sync'ing</li> <li>Fast UI</li> <li>Small</li> </ol> </p> <p> 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. </p> <p> Unless another company comes up with something better I think my next phone will be the Nokia 6230: <a href="http://nokia.com/nokia/0,8764,47676,00.html">http://nokia.com/nokia/0,8764,47676,00.html</a> </p> <p> Here is a site that allows you to select different criteria to search on which I find myself using when looking for a phone: <a href="http://4cellular.com/search/features.cfm">http://4cellular.com/search/features.cfm</a> </p>
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Lars Pind
 

A couple more requirements - fast UI Bonus features, but not required: - small - light - tri-band - bluetooth
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Jarkko Laine
 

Re: Which cell phone should I get? <p>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 <a href="http://www.pakkurti.com/mohan-blog/one-entry?entry%5fid=8873">Mohan's</a>) and actually hold a SonyEricssion model in hand. </p><p> 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. </p> <p> 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. </p> <p> I'm also looking forward to Nokia 6230 Yon mentioned. Its only downside at the moment is that it's not available yet.
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Lars Pind
 

T610 stinks, yes My wife has a T610, and I must second Mohan in that it stinks. Its UI is slow, the quality of its phots is miserable, and it seems fragile, and yes, that usability is quite poor. On the other hand, Nokia 3650 doesn't seem all that much better. <p> 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.
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Yonatan Feldman
 

Some phones to avoid <p> 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. </p> <p> 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). </p> <p> 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. </p> <p> 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. </p> <p> Hope this helps narrow down your choices. </p>
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Jarkko Laine
 

Re: looks etc Lars, <p> 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. <p> 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. <p> 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.
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speedy g
 

Nokia 6600 I would recommend the nokia 6600, I've had this phone for 2 months, it takes great pictures (relative to other cam phones), and the symbian OS enables you to do anything. (messenger, ssh etc) Especially if you have a mac. iPhoto integration, iSync of contacts/calendar information, Salling Clicker, go online with your cell through the mac (and vice versa) etc. it even runs *hacked* N-gage games;)
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Guan Yang
 

P900! I like my Sony Ericsson P800 a lot. The P900 is supposed to be even better. It's ugly, but it takes great pictures, Opera functions more or less like the Windows version, and I can even troubleshoot servers with PuTTY. Playing Doom on a phone is cool.
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karl thurston
 

T610 to 6230 I just got rid of my T610, it was good with the Mac but a terible phone. But the 6230 will not isync (not supported yet) any ideas when apple will support?
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chris bee
 

Nokia 6230 I received mine today, and was blown away by it. It really is a work of art and is loaded with features, some which I probably will never use (like the mp3 player - I have a faithful Ipod). Nonetheless, bluetooth is an immensly useful feature. Having used a series40 phone before (Nokia 7210 and Nokia 7250), I can tell you the UI is much faster and responsive. Nokia finally got the polyphonic ringtones right so they don't sound horrible either! Built in memory pool of 8MB + 32MB included MMC card is likely more then enough for my needs.
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Lars Pind
 

Tried to get one I just tried to get the 6230 today, but apparently they were recalled because of a bug, and they're not back in the stores until tomorrow or Friday, is what they told me ... bummer :)
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karl thurston
 

6320 - what a phone!!! Just a quick one, if you keep the phone clear (store all your stuff on the mmc) th UI stay as fast as it was when you took it out of the box, nice. There is a feedback section on the isync website, it may be worth asking for the 6320 to be supported.
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karl thurston
 

6320 - what a phone!!! Just a quick one, if you keep the phone clear (store all your stuff on the mmc) th UI stay as fast as it was when you took it out of the box, nice. There is a feedback section on the isync website, it may be worth asking for the 6320 to be supported.
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Branimir Dolicki
 

OK, so which one did you buy? I'm wondering which phone you ended up buying and whether you are happy with it.
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Bill Rainey
 

6230 no good with Macs The 6230 is a groovy wee phone but not compatible with Macs...ibook G3 10.2.8 as yet. It disconnects from the GPRS network after a few minutes...in NZ anyway. Anyone got a solution??
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Lars Pind
 

Got the 6230 And I have also found that it's not very compatible with my mac, either. I haven't tried using GPRS, but it doesn't sync with my address book, and SMS'ign via bluetooth is flaky.
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Brendon Bushman
 

Considering 6230 but worried about mac support... I really want to get a 6230... but calendar and contact sync (of some kind) on my Powerbook is crucial feature for me. Lars (and other 6230 Mac people!) have you tried <a href="http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/productivity_tools/phonedirector.html">Phone Director?</a>? I"m very curious as to whether this makes the 6230/Mac experience at least bearable... Also, has anyone found the SE T637 to be any better than the T610?
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Dave
 

Did you or anyone ever find a way to get the 6230i to sync with your Powerbook on Mac os10.4? Does Phone Director work ok?
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Lars Pind
 

I switched to 6630, which as of 10.4.1 does work with iSync and other native Mac OS X apps. Don't know about 6230.
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