Gawd only knows why I'm asking you lot, but it's new mobile time and I'm not allowed an IPhone because "it's too expensive". I'm thinking HTC Hero or Touch Diamond 2 or maybe a Samsun Jet. Anyone got any experience/opinions of these or indeed other cheapish alternatives?

Nokia N97

LOL, an n97 is only slightly less than an 32gb iphone. Might get a better deal on one on contract, but I doubt it.

I do like my N97 though, but it's really a geek's phone, you need to know what you're up to with it.

What do you want from a phone, surely that's the driving factor?

I have just got myself a HTC hero on Orange for 30 pounds a month from the carphone warehouse.
WOW! Amazingly good phone.
I'm using right now.

I borrowed a TD2 for a fortnight and liked it. Apparently the HTC Hero has a newer version of their user interface which is nicer/better.
I want either of those phones but basically I can't get a decent deal on a network that covers where I live. 🙁

2nd the HTC Hero, had mine for nearly a month now, great phone!

n97 is 47 quid on 35 a month contract here
http://www.mobilephonesdirect.co.uk/Brands/Nokia/Nseries-Multimedia-Phones/sb489/n443/p12765.aspx

iphone is 275 on similar contract.

I was offered a N97 but went for a Hero, the Nokia is too slow and the os needs updating. i'm very happy with the Hero. The TD2 uses windows mobile where as the Hero is Android.

I'm on £35/month 600mins unlimited txt and Internet (you need Internet to make the most of these phones) – sorry for the random caps

I've an n97, yep its a geek phone but its bloody good, got mine from phones4u £40pm 1200mins unlimited text & internet and they said they'd have given me £100.00 for my old phone if it haddnt met its untimely end via an open car window and a particularly tight corner!!

My new N97 kept freezing – IT WHEN BACK IN 3 DAYS, RUBBISH! I'm now going for the iphone!

I want it mainly for playing music, surfing t'internet and a useable camera would be a bonus. I may even make an occasional phone call on it. It looks like the Hero is the way to go.

My Nokia 5800 does all that pretty well.

Quite like my Nokia 5800…

I have a HTC Touch HD and had a Hero that I sold.
The chipset that HTC use appears to be the same on all their devices, which IMO is not upto the task of dealing with complex web pages etc. Works fine but very laggy compared to an Iphone.

The Hero needs some new ROM updates as the reception was much worse than the HD and the data connection kept dropping. But I am sure HTC are working on this if they havent already sorted it.

I would say that the Hero is sligtly more Iphone like than the Touch in terms of UE.

Ultimately both good phones, dont know anything about the samsung but at a guess I would say it may be faster but will probably be able to do less with it.

I stuck with the Touch as I prefered the windows OS and wasnt sure if TomTom was out for the hero.

Still I was tempted to sell them both and get an Iphone, my mate did that and it is the superior device but we all know that.

Sony Ericsson W995 is apparently a good one at the moment , avoid the N97 like the plague .This is from my brother in law who's a manager at the distribution centre for O2 , he says they must be getting about 30% of the N97's they send out back with problems.

My upgrade is due in Oct so thats why I asked him what I should be upgrading to.

FYI N97 is not available on Orange (Directly from them) as it did not pass handset testing. Not sure what it failed on though

take a look at the

Nokia E 71

does everything I want and then some

my experience of nokia n series phones is that the first couple of firmwares are a little buggy, mines only frozen twice and I've had it for a week, using as my primary email, farcebook, phone, messaging, fm transmitted mp3 in the car, satnav and general tinkering around with, that aint too bad to be honest. it was a similar story with the n95 when it first came out and I had that for two years happly, I've no doubt that Nokia will have it fixed up all nice shortly and then it'll be rock solid just like my old n95.

if you're going for an n95 make sure you get one from Nokia Finland not the china made ones, I think the issues that folk have been having may originate from the china batch?

Sony C905…… Good for media, 8.1 MP cybershot camera and decent enough internet surfing….. love mine.

Not really interested in the 'geek' phones, I have a laptop that can do all they can but better.

Just got a refurbished [but effectively new] iPhone 3g free from O2 🙂

Loving my Hero, had a Samsung i8910 before it (got lucky on the whole orange termination debacle and made £300 from it).

Hero OS is brilliant prefer it to symbian (n97/i8910), just camera and screen aren't as good.

Wouldn't go back mind.