Viewing 25 posts - 41 through 65 (of 65 total)
  • One for the geeks: iPhone 3G or N97
  • clubber
    Free Member

    Well I think I’m looking more likely to get a 3G now – reviews I’m reading all seem to suggest that the N97 isn’t as well integrated as it could be which is always going to be annoying and that the touchscreen is a bit laggy/inaccurate compared to the iphone. I had enough finger stabbing frustration with the Viewty to not really want it again.

    Can’t see the justification for the 3Gs price though since the changes aren’t that great and there’s likely to be a bigger upgrade around xmas time which would probably be much more worthwhile.

    DaddyPig
    Free Member

    Is there going to be a shortage of 3GS come Friday? Do You really need to pre order?!

    willard
    Full Member

    I think not. I heard horror stories about the carphone whorehouse’s pre-order status at the launch of the original 3G and the guys here at work just trotted along to the Apple shop and queued for a bit.

    Also, if you pre-order with the Carphone Whorehouse, you get their customer service, not O2’s thanks to them having a nice reselling deal. Not that I don’t trust them, but I would rather talk to the organ grinder than the monkey.

    brakes
    Free Member

    I thought the iPhone>O2 marriage had a finite timespan, maybe 2 years, after which other providers would get to offer it?

    willard
    Full Member

    Has it? How long has it been now?

    Not that I am worried… All providers are equally rubbish near my house

    joemarshall
    Free Member

    I thought the iPhone>O2 marriage had a finite timespan, may2 years, after which other providers would get to offer it?

    Only if Apple or O2 decide it isn’t worth keeping it locked to them. Which seems a bit unlikely right now.

    Joe

    brakes
    Free Member

    the internet says the current arrangement will run until 2011

    kimbers
    Full Member

    i though the EU were gonna try and take on apple for locking you into just one network?

    kimbers
    Full Member

    frak ive just taken a look at the cost of an iphone and monthly charges

    wtf????

    why do you lot pay these prices is it really worth it??

    the 32gb 3s is 540 quid, plus calls
    or u can pay up to £80 a month and get it for a mere 100pounds

    my ipod of similar size £150, my phone free and i pay 20 quid a month rental/ charges

    thats an extra 720 quid a year i can spend on bike bits!!

    richardk
    Free Member

    iPhone 3G is probably great as a personal phone. Good interface, lots of applications, slim design.

    as a work phone, its crap. That nice touch screen that you want to play with drains the battery. That 3G network connection, drains the battery. That wifi connection drains the battery. It can’t do calendar appointments properly. I can’t get through a whole day on one charge (mail on pull, BT on, 3G off, wifi off). Oh and the GSM/3G radio is crap as well. Next to an old Nokia, my iphone shows no network, the nokia shows 3 bars (same network).

    Mines going back tomorrow.

    GrahamS
    Full Member

    Richardk: agree the battery life isn’t great, but mine does make it a full day on a charge. Several in fact if it only gets light use. The battery on the new one is supposed to be better.

    Calendar works fine too. I have mine setup to sync via Google Sync, so I can seamlessly see all my google calendars and make appointments either on my PC or on the iPhone.

    STATO
    Free Member

    I think he means invites to meetings from outlook etc. It dosnt handle them very well.

    GrahamS
    Full Member

    Kimbers: you can also pay £274 upfront and the £29 a month for calls and unlimited data. Which isn’t too bad. Or if you can live with the 3G version: pay £34 a month and get it free.

    Still pricey, but worth it IMO. It’s the most used gadget I’ve ever owned.

    GrahamS
    Full Member

    STATO: ahh fair enough, I’ve not had to deal with meeting requests on it.

    richardk
    Free Member

    Correct Stato – Outlook invites etc

    jam-bo
    Full Member

    3.0 handles exchange stuff much much better.

    willard
    Full Member

    People at work hav them and use Outlook all the time. Not only does ther mail synch well enough, but they also have no issue with the calender stuff, or at least not that I have heard.

    Dammit, _still_ can’t decide to take the plunge or not…

    Toasty
    Full Member

    Odd one, I actually found my N95 by far the best phone I’ve ever had. What did people find bad in particular? Even the UI speed I found miles better than other similar smartphones. Also:

    The camera is top notch for quick snaps, I can upload to my flickr instantly as well. No chance would I take a proper camera out with me biking.
    The wealth of apps means I can do what I want with it, it’s got little bits, Sports Tracker, a Gmail client, joikuspot (use your phone as a wireless router), Geocaching stuff, loads of bits. All free.
    The built in GPS genuinely works like a proper in car GPS. We’ve let it guide us all over the place, it gets used about once a month minimum I’d say.
    I tether it to my laptop when we’re away from the house and have mobile broadband, it’s fast enough for browsing and streaming vids/small downloads.

    I’m a bit lost as to what I want next as well, the iPhone wins on ergonomics but loses on lots of other fronts. The tethering stuff is a pain, the 3G S supports it now but O2 charge £15 EXTRA a month if you want to do it. Did even ponder trying out a random Windows Mobile device like the HTC Touch HD which got decent reviews. If I can have my same contract with an N97 though I’d guess I’d go that route for all of the above.

    GrahamS
    Full Member

    The tethering stuff is a pain, the 3G S supports it now but O2 charge £15 EXTRA a month if you want to do it.

    Tethering is part of the OS 3.0 update (I believe… soon find out as I’m downloading it now) if so then you don’t need the 3GS for it.

    Also you may be interested in:

    http://www.iphonealley.com/news/tethering-activation-039hack039-found-once-again-for-iphone-30?

    CountZero
    Full Member

    Well, as an owner of an N95, I’d like to know just how toasty managed to get his to work. Mine was ok at best. The camera was largely useless, I spent twenty minutes trying to take a photo of my bike propped against a tree, and the camera wouldn’t focus, and even if I got a green box, half the time the pic was blurred. The GPS worked, but only with an external BT receiver, and the screen is too small for meaningful use in a car. The music player ran the battery out in less than three hours, and to get ViewRanger to map any significant ride I had to buy a larger battery with a new back that wouldn’t hold the battery against the sim holder so it kept dropping off the network. Web surfing was just plain frustrating with such a piddly little screen and the browser isn’t up to much either. The iPhone is just so far advanced in every way it just not true. It gets used for many things that I used to use my PowerBook for, to the extent that the computer stays unused for days, weeks even. At the moment it has over five hundred photos on it, many taken at gigs, and I’ve taken pics, sat in a pub garden and uploaded to Flickr and Facebook with no issues whatsoeverr where I doubt I ever took more than a dozen or so with the Nokia in the year I had it. The iPhone I’ve had six months…
    I’m afraid that the iPhone just beats the Nokia into a cocked hat, and now that TomTom is coming, well, who could want anything else.

    clubber
    Free Member

    I’m not asking for comparison of the n95 and iphone. That’s silly.

    It sounds like you had a dodgy n95 though. Mine’s fine with the camera as are mates’ ones.
    The default browser is ok but not great. I use opera mini (now in fact) which i do find decent.

    Not sure about your battery issues either. Mine just lasts a day with lots of browsing and usually gps use. From other iphone users that sounds about the same.

    The gps was crap until i did a firmware update but it’s great now.

    Toasty
    Full Member

    Tethering is part of the OS 3.0 update (I believe… soon find out as I’m downloading it now) if so then you don’t need the 3GS for it.

    True, unless you’re really trying hard to hide what you’re doing though it’s easy to see it’s a laptop and not a phone using the connection though. They have data bolt-ons set up for that:

    http://shop.o2.co.uk/update/internet.html

    Absolutely nuts pricing. I’m on a £35 (well £30 tarriff + £5 to tether) contract at the mo and can tether with a wire or via wifi. Takes the pee a bit that these phones offer this and we’ve already paid for data usage, yet these companies see this as another avenue to fleece a bit more cash.

    Toasty
    Full Member

    Oh and on the N95 note, we use a car charger when we’re using the GPS. It’s a small screen but big enough to see an arrow and you get the voice directions telling you which turn to take etc. The GPS works well, I don’t use it for sports tracker when I’m in the woods, through a Camelbak and tree cover it seems a bit patchy. On the road though it’s fine, the newer firmware spots where you are much faster as well. The iPhone hasn’t had ANY guided GPS since release anyway, I’m pretty lost as to what it thinks people use GPS for, wasted feature.

    Image wise:

    http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3111/2734290475_d71662a157_b.jpg
    http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3273/2714377675_e89cac8ec5_b.jpg
    http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3551/3491718739_d20f9bd17c_b.jpg
    http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2040/2383230838_af70820a9e_b.jpg
    http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3293/3354838130_239f811f50_b.jpg
    http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3233/2697075505_7da39ae225_b.jpg

    They’re not perfect, it oversaturates quite badly if you take shots into the light, bright photos like the last one can come out grainy too. It’s a mobile phone camera though, could do a lot worse. Due to the micro-SD slot I’ve got a good few GB of storage on there as well.

    The iPhone is just so far advanced in every way it just not true.

    Well, except for the above I guess, I still think the GPS is leagues behind. Yes, it’s got a bigger screen but aside from that it seems to do less 😛 It’s also literally a newer phone, it must be a year newer than the N95? And this is the original model, 3G must be a couple of years newer.

    Can’t really argue with the browser, it is a bit of a pain, it does render everything well though, even a lot of Flash stuff. Hence thinking the N97 with a big screen might be good 🙂 Once the 30 day novelty of wasting money on apps had run out I think I’d feel a bit cheated on the old tech with a spangley UI approach of the iPhone. 😛

    GrahamS
    Full Member

    Takes the pee a bit that these phones offer this and we’ve already paid for data usage, yet these companies see this as another avenue to fleece a bit more cash.

    Completely agree. I’m on the £35 a month contract too. That includes “unlimited data” so I was a bit miffed to discover they meant unlimited for the iPhone but data for a tethered laptop is “special” and is charged by the GB. Cheeky feckers!

    GrahamS
    Full Member

    Once the 30 day novelty of wasting money on apps had run out I think I’d feel a bit cheated on the old tech with a spangley UI approach of the iPhone.

    Had mine since Xmas. Still waiting for that 30 day novelty to wear off. I’ll let you know. 🙂

Viewing 25 posts - 41 through 65 (of 65 total)

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