What is the best phone for surfing the net and emails? Can I just buy a phone and stick my sim card in? Thanks for any help.

You’d be better with a contract that gives you unlimited email and web browsing or it could get very expensive.
Any of the Nokia N series, E series or Blackberrys will do the job. Or of course there is the iPhone to consider, which IMHO is the best of the bunch for web and email.

iPhone on PAYG won’t cost you anything for unlimited data for the first 12 months, then only £10 per month.

Of course, it’ll cost £350 to but though….

I have a Nokia E71 and it’s great. N96 is awful to use whilst iPhone too gimicky for me. I’ve also tried Samsung Omnia and handed it back 1 minutes later, a great gadget not a phone. Mind you, Sony is meant to be good and you should be able to use Opera Mini too which you can’t on the Nokia AFAIK.

iphone is unbeatable for web.

get a bold on 02 (unlimited internet useage) has push emails so you dont have to keep checking for mail 🙂

Little miss smudge has a itouch and although the screen is bigger and better for internet its a nightmare for typing with its touch screen.

Plus alot of the extra features are free downloads unlike the iphone.

E71 is great for email. On Vodafone it’s cheap too. I like it better than a Blackberry as it’s made of metal (and I like Nokias). Blackberry though seems better at pushing emails (can you send attachments easily nowadays?). iPhone works well for the web but I’m not convinced about the email.

You can get Opera on a Nokia.

I’m using the N78 – nice device. The N79 Active will be along shortly – I’d deffo consider one of them.

I already have a contract with Vodaphone and just looked on their site and I can add on unlimited web for £5 per month. So i just need to buy a phone now! Anyone got one for sale? Thanks for the advice everyone.

N78 here with opera mini installed as standard browser not much use. Use it to pick up my emails, can set up googlemail accounts and others to download to phone at regular intervals. Keyboard too small for banana fingers but otherwise ok.

Darren probably has my blackberry in a drawer somewhere should i ask??

I’ve just got a T-Mobile G1 on an 18 month contract at £31.50 a month. £200 worth of texts & phone calls per month, plus free internet. “Flext 35” is the name of the contract. main screen slides to the right to reveal a small but useful qwerty keypad

Only downside is battery life – when you can get a mobile internet signal that is (was v poor for the first few days, now it’s excellent, BTW). Standby – up to 130 hours; in use – up to 5 hours! :-0

got one of these nokia 5800 touch screen thing. Very cool phone, infact this message was sent to you by the nokia 5800

N96 is awful to use

…

should be able to use Opera Mini too which you can’t on the Nokia AFAIK.

nonsense.

Iphone probably the best if you can justify the expense.

Otherwise, any modern phone with opera (other touchscreens do not even come close though. A bigger screen helps alot.

Anything you can put opera mini on is fine for browsing. I use an O2 bolt on to get unlimited access, ten pounds per month gets me 300 texts, 15 anytime minutes, unlimited internet and 3.50 worth of calls. Of course, if you need a phone it might work out better to get a contract.

Mind is 30 a month with orange. 600 mins. Unlimited texts and internet, magic number also. Good deal i think.

E71 from Vodafone and Opera won’t work. Maybe other networks don’t block handsets.
N96 and its keyboard for email? You must be joking! Try running a business off one for a week. I had to when I was away, nightmare of nightmares.
I would check Sony smartphones 100%. They’ve been around the block a few times with them and should be good.

Take a look at the HTC Touch HD. 3.8″ screen and wi-fi. Some good deals from mobilephonesdirect. I’m using it now to post this. I’m happy with mine so far.

I’ve had a T-Mobile MDA Vario III for the last 18 months and it’s been faultless. The initial software on it was a bit slow, but I’ve downloaded the most recent version of Windows Mobile and it now runs really quickly. I wouldn’t go back to a phone without a QWERTY keyboard.

MDA Vario IV is out now, not much different other than it looking nicer.

al

I’m amazed when people say the iPhone is too gimicky. What utter b0110cks. I’ sorry, but anyone who’s actually spent more than two minutes with one would say the same. Also the statement about apps being free, “unlike the iPhone” is also rubbish. There are loads of free apps, in fact I’ve just downloaded one ‘mapmyride’, mentioned in a thread above, which is FREE! Many others are only 59p. It’s web browsing is second to none, in fact my laptop barely gets a look-in these days. While it’s email may not be quite as quick in it’s push as a crackberry, it’s more than good enough for your average user, and when you take into account the upgrade to OS3 in June, which enables A2DP stereo peer-to-peer Bluetooth, cut’n’paste, turn-by-turn GPS mapping, which will probably bring TomTom with it, the iPhone is just an incredibly useful device. I’ve got an entire library on mine, using Stanza and ereader, as well as a dictionary, weather apps, Wiki,etc, etc. I’ve had a Nokia N95, which was crap, and an XDA Mini, neat phone, great slidy keyboard, utterly, criminally useless OS. The next gen iPhone, probably also announced in June, will have a much better camera, video, faster processors, more memory, and a lot of extra whizzy bits and bobs.

Will – Snap, this message was also sent from a Nokia 5800. Tried an iPhone, didn’t like it. Like tyres its all down to personal preference, well if you can ignore the fanboys that is!