Talk to me about these smartphones ...

LE3

I am in desperate need of a new phone. My beloved Nokia N97mini is just about dead - for the last few days I haven't been able to get the screen to respond so it really must go to the great scrapheap I truly LOVE this phone - the slideout QWERTY keyboard is the main feature that I adore but I just can't find anything comparable on the market today

I have been looking at options but really want to hear from users of any of the following phones:

• Sony Xperia S
• Galaxy SII or SIII (somebody told me that as well as the cost, the Galaxy III has an annoying vibrate function when you are typing a text & that battery life is poor!)
• Nokia Lumia (various models)
• HTC One S

Alternatively if you have an alternative suggestion, please say!

I mostly use my phone for texts, some are quite long so need easy typing not a numberpad & multiclick letters only - and I MUST be able to text to a group of people without having to select everyone individually (thus ruling out the iphone 'cos it doesn't do such a simple task!)
I need a battery that will last at least a weekend (fri pm - Sun pm) on standby (no/little use)
It must be minimum tri-band, pref quad
I need it to pick up a google calendar, to be able to send the odd email, and occasionally browse the internet (eg to find a store opening time, an address, a train time etc)
I want to have a reasonable camera that's easy to use, though I wil only use the camera occasionally!
and ideally bluetooth

I don't need it to sing, dance or cook the dinner ...

jenniewb

re battery life (you mentioned in respect to the SII and SIII)

They are all bad from what I understand, actually HTC seem to be just the same as Samsung, Sony and Nokia marginally better (this is what friends tell me, not my own experience). I think the bigger the screen, the more power the battery requires to work and so the shorter the battery life because in their infinite wisdom, this is an area mobile phone manufacturers haven't yet begun to focus on dealing with.

If you look on the AGV forums they have many people talking about their experiences and posting their problems, should help to give you a better understanding but Samsung seems to be the brand of choice, shortly followed by HTC. For me, it matters just as much how the phone actually works, the speed, if the screen flickers, if the thing feels good in my hands and personally HTC seem to be my preference though I'd go for the HTC OneX, -though only if they sorted the battery issue out.

bunberry

LE3 wrote: »

[*]Galaxy SII or SIII (somebody told me that as well as the cost, the Galaxy III has an annoying vibrate function when you are typing a text & that battery life is poor!)

You can disable vibrate on keypress in options

jb66

For a slide down keypad the blackberry torch is one off the top of my head

Fifer

Be aware that of those phones, only the Samsung has a memroy card slot which might or might not be an issue to you. Also, if battery life is an issue, some Lumia's (the 800 I think) do not have a removable battery so you cannot carry a charged spare just in case.

Neil49

I use a Galaxy S (ie the model prior to those you mention) and can get battery life over a weekend if I don't use the data features i.e. the internet to any degree although I do leave it connected as this is how Google gmail and calendar update on your phone.

Aside from the Nokia Lumia all the phones you mention use the android operating system and there are a number of apps available on android to assist with text messaging. I use Swiftkey, which I believe costs around £2, and this uses predictive text and also learns from messages you type. So, for example, if you type a lots of messages that start with Hi John or Hi Mary then as soon as you type in Hi then it will bring up John and Mary as possible options for the next word you intend to type. You then just select the entire word and carry on. This app is available on a 30 day free trial but I wouldn't be without it now.

I suggest you go into somewhere like Carphonewarehouse and actually handle the phones (as suggested by Jenniewb). Although the Sony Xperia S gets very good reviews I find the balance of it in my hand doesn't feel right, almost top heavy, and you may find the S3 too large. I quite like the HTC One X which, although quite large, is very comfortable to hold.

As far as using the internet goes (and the requirements you mention) things like train times can either be accessed via an individual rail website or National Rail have an app on android (don't know about the Nokia on Windows) with a 'get me home' option based on your preset journeys which shows the next train and platform.

Battery usage is an issue on most smartphones but I've never been caught out with a flat battery but it helps to have an in car charger. One other point to watch out for is that some phones have built in batteries so you can't even carry a spare around with you in case of need. The Xperia S and both the HTC One S and X models are such phones. The Samsungs both have removable batteries so you could easily drop in a spare if necessary. I'm not sure about the Nokia but the 800 has had battery life issues in the past but latest versions are said to be better.

Hope this helps.

LE3

jb66 wrote: »

For a slide down keypad the blackberry torch is one off the top of my head

I don't want a blackberry though!
neither do I want a keypad on the bottom of a blackberry type phone, I want a landscape slideout keypad like my N97 mini has!

LE3

battery life is an issue - I need it to last through a weekend as I do do occasional trips where i am away from power for a weekend - I wouldn't expect to use the phone heavily in this time though! (maybe send 3 texts and no internet usage at all!)

LE3

Fifer wrote: »

Be aware that of those phones, only the Samsung has a memroy card slot which might or might not be an issue to you.

I don't think this would be an issue - I've only used the memory card on my existing phone a couple of times to download photos when I lost my cable! (copy pic to mem card, extract card & use a reader!)

Fifer

LE3 wrote: »

battery life is an issue - I need it to last through a weekend as I do do occasional trips where i am away from power for a weekend - I wouldn't expect to use the phone heavily in this time though! (maybe send 3 texts and no internet usage at all!)

You could use something like this with should fully recharge an average smartphone twice and then a little again.

jenniewb

LE3 wrote: »

I don't want a blackberry though!
neither do I want a keypad on the bottom of a blackberry type phone, I want a landscape slideout keypad like my N97 mini has!

Why not get another N97 mini? They are around £90 at the moment.

I think if you go to a phone shop you should be able to ask if there are any similar handsets (with sliding keyboards) I was sure some of the older Sony Ericssons had sliding keyboards but not sideways sliding and I'm not sure I've seen any with sideways keyboards.

I guess that would leave it up to you to decide if your willing to let go of the sideways-keyboard thing and update or if its just going to be too much of an irritation in which case just get another of what you've had before.

Have you tried any of the newer models? Some are quite intuitive and even a joy to use. Its really worth testing them out first if you can. I think Phones4u do this, some carphone warehouse stores to and also some of the branded phone shops tend to if you ask them let you test drive a handset or two for a few minutes.