I honestly can’t decide. Seriously I hope this isn’t going to go the way of me and frames or cars.

So….. I’ve had a Blackberry 9700 for the past two years. What I like?
– Its intuitive
– I like the keyboard

What I don’t
– Its screens bloody tiny
– Certain sites/etc wont work (no flash?)

What I’d like?
I’d like good Satnav to rival Tom Tom, an intuitive phone, good battery, takes good pictures and good browsing/screen size.

I’ve tried using my partners Samsung S2 and I found it fiddly, frustrating at times (easy to drop/lose a screen).

Recommendations?

A Samsung S2 and a ‘bumper’ style case, and the CoPilot app?

If you don’t want another Blackberry and don’t like Android, you’ve really only got one other option and that’s the iPhone.

Ah, hang on,

Is it Android you found fiddly or Touchwiz (Samsung’s front end)? Perhaps a HTC Android phone is what you seek. HTC’s Sense is exponentially nicer than Touchwiz IMHO.

It could have been touchwiz

I urge you to try and borrow one of each from a friend, even if only for a few minutes. Personally I find Android more fiddly and “geeky” than iOS; some people like that, some people don’t. I’ve never used a Blackberry so I can’t compare to that.

Another consideration. If you’re ever thinking of going down the Mac route for anything else (desktop, laptop, tablet) then they do all play together very nicely with the iPhone.

A final point…for now. If you get an iPhone and don’t like it there is a big second hand market, even for the older ones. I don’t believe old Android phones are so in demand. For someone who *ahem* likes to change their gear quite frequently that could be important 🙂

iPhone – will actually run TomTom 🙂

Get a ‘LifeProof’ case and it’s robust too.

iPhone will run NavFree too which, as the name suggests, is a free turn-by-turn satnav with local maps (i.e. you don’t need a data connection). TomTom is £50!!

Dont discount Windows phone 7, its is a million miles away from 6.5 and it probably suits less tech savy users better than android (and costs considerably less than iOS)

Nokia Lumia 800 getting good reviews and has inbuilt satnav

I was thinking of a Nokia Lumia, anyone know what the music playback is like ?

I looked at the 800 and found this:

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/nokia-lumia-800-1039101/review

and compared against their view on the N8.

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/nokia-n8-692448/review

Two years ago I had the N8 for a week, I found it so unintuitive to use that I asked 3 to pick it up/take it back even though it was used (they agreed with how I’d described the laborious tasks to just find a number/contact etc etc and gave me the Blackberry which has proved straight forward). Even though the review above says the 800 is inituitive a couple of user comments lower down counter this. I’d recommend trying it first.

Should I go and look at the screen size of the Blackberry 9900…..hmmmmmm

HTC One X seems to be the new daddy

There’s absolutely no doubt that the One X is a masterpiece of an Android device: it obliterates pretty much all of its competitors by giving even the mighty Galaxy Nexus a run for its money. HTC’s really crafted something special here, with a brilliant combination of branding, industrial design and user experience. This handset looks and feels stunning, with top-notch materials and build quality, the most gorgeous display we’ve ever stared at on a phone, a fantastic camera that’s fast and easy to use and a laundry list of every possible spec under the sun. Sense 4 is thin and light enough to enhance — not detract from — stock Ice Cream Sandwich. Pinch us, ’cause frankly, we’re smitten.

I was thinking of a Nokia Lumia, anyone know what the music playback is like ?

Quality wise, from the jack, not as good as some other stuff. Depends on how you’re listening of course.

Nokia music and zune as services though, are great. Listening to the “All time NME award winners” mix right now, for free, which is nice.

Pros and cons with the device in general, see my previous posts on the matter…

Even though the review above says the 800 is inituitive a couple of user comments lower down counter this

It’s an odd one this, easy to use, and intuitive aren’t the same thing (people often think they are!).

FWIW I found WP7 odd at first – it’s genuinely different to iOS/Android etc. At first I didn’t like it, but really like it now (sold my SGS2, and I liked that…could’ve partly been cos I like shiny new things tho?).

I find Google Navigation fine for Sat Nav duties, and it’s free.

I find Google Navigation fine for Sat Nav duties, and it’s free.

Need a data connection for it though, which could be costly

Need a data connection for it though, which could be costly

You do, but it uses b**ger all data really, and as most packages have a pretty generous data bundle included it’s not really an issue.

it’s not really an issue

I regularly go on bike rides and use the GPS to track my ride, but frequently struggle for a data signal. Even on my road bike, get into the Peak District hills and you can forget using Google maps for navigation. Get off-road and the problem gets worse.

Modern versions of google maps pre-cache data for the route when you start navigation, and you can install the labs addon for offline maps for the areas you use most.

This is where nokia wins big tho IMO, their maps solution is all offline on the phone, and works well IME.

I’ve got a Lumia 800, and can quite happily say that the Nokia Free Sat Nav is shit. It never takes you on anything like the best route, and it DOES need 3G connection for some weird reason when you type in your destination, however then the maps are off line.

I don’t use it for music so can’t comment…

Oh and also Endomondo doesn’t work well on the Lumia either.

Google Maps’ Navigation is fine in a pinch, but in comparison to TomTom or CoPilot it’s not really something I’d want to use in anger on a daily basis. I bought CoPilot because it was streets ahead (ho ho!) of Google’s Navigation app.

TBH, I’ve found Google Maps to be most useful when I’m on foot in a town I don’t know. In the car it’s ok but has a tendency to crap out on you, which is less than ideal when you’re in a car and lost with impatient traffic behind you. Or at least, it did last time I used it, they might have improved it by now. The caching of routes to remove the reliance on a phone signal will presumably help a lot.

Modern versions of google maps pre-cache data for the route when you start navigation

Interesting. I assume it needs to know your route first of course. For instance if you’re just tracking rather than navigating you’ll still have the same problem of requiring a data signal. I often ride by making up a route as I go along, but I’m going but still want to track where I’ve been.

It never takes you on anything like the best route, and it DOES need 3G connection for some weird reason when you type in your destination, however then the maps are off line.

They fixed the offline routing thing in the recent 2.0 update (last week or something?). Always seems to take me a reasonable route – some places where I have local knowledge I can do better, but then I’ve found that the case with TomToms too.

The endomondo thing, or rather than no WP app can properly multitask (it’s basically an even more limited version of the iOS multitasking model), is a bit crap tho. MS really need to sort that out.

Is NavFree available on Android yet?

(Nav Free is a free sat-nav with maps from OpenStreetMap stored on the phone so no data connection required.)

Their website suggests the ’droid version was due “December 2010”!

HTC One X seems to be the new daddy

No idea how accurate this video is (the YouTube comments are full of haterz, but then they always are), but it looks like the camera speed on the HTC One X is a little sucky.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iutd8PzRtCc[/video]

That would annoy me. The rest of it looks really nice though.

Hora, if you have been using a blackberry and are familiar wit it why not look at a Torch 9860?

http://uk.blackberry.com/devices/blackberrytorch9860/features.jsp

I got sent one from work and it’s the first smartphone I have used and I find it simple to use and have never read the manual. Great for emails and the camera is good. Also has gps so you could set up a sat-nav as well.

Is NavFree available on Android yet

yes i have it on htc desire and tablet its ok bit clunky

The new generation of blackberries are crap.

I’m refusing to give my Bold 9700 back as the battery life on the new 9900 is shocking. I went for the 9700 on the grounds that it should have had the better battery life of the options we had.

Turns out I was right and the other options are worse (9790, 9900 and 9860 were on the list) It’s a proper smart phone, in the sense you need to charge it up every day!

Get an iPhone, i was a hater but a convert now, it’s just so easy to use and the UI has some thought put in to it.

Scaled my Blackberry 9700 battery has never been the best but sometimes it suddenly reads ‘battery drained shutting down’ (even when it showed two bars etc!) – so for the 9900 to be worse? That takes some beating!

Isn’t that a known problem with BBs? You simply turn off the handset, leave it a couple of minutes, turn it back on and hey bingo! The correct battery reading and a miraculous return to normal battery life.

From that Video HTC One X seems top be far from the daddy. My Desire can load the Techradar page quicker than that on a 3g connection, albeit using Opera. I can’t believe after all these years, they still haven’t overcome Smartphone camera lag, seems to be worse on my Desire than it was on my 2005 Nokia 7610

Personally, I’ve never viewed smartphone cameras as much more than a toy anyway.

I use one at work for taking photos of kit at remote sites, where having to wait a whole couple of seconds is a non-issue. My own phone is mostly used to take stupid photos to upload directly to Twitter. If I want to take serious photographs, I’ll use a dedicated camera.

Personally, I’ve never viewed smartphone cameras as much more than a toy anyway.

Agreed and most of the shots I take with it are just for Facebook, but I do take a lot of pictures and video with it, much more so than my proper cameras, so that lag would annoy me.

(The iPhone camera is actually pretty good, especially when combined with some apps)

Personally, I’ve never viewed smartphone cameras as much more than a toy anyway.

Really?

Is that a crusty baguette?

Don, it’s certainly crusty, it’s around 90 tons and ten or eleven feet high, a bit gritty to the tooth, tho’. 😀

A review of the latest Nokia here: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/wordpress/xhfA/~3/fRQqhYZyleQ

Personally, I’ve never viewed smartphone cameras as much more than a toy anyway.

Try a web search for iphoneography. The limitations have their own characteristics that many people find interesting, for both stills and video, especially when mixed with apps like Lomo or Instagram. All cameras are toys, really, it’s why people have so much fun with them :]

Personally, I’ve never viewed smartphone cameras as much more than a toy anyway.

Till you buy one of these….

I’ve just offered a HTC One X, being delivered tomorrow. The camera is probably the best feature. Fires up for first pic in 0.7 seconds and 0.2 seconds between pics

Hmm not according to that TechRadar video.

Anyways, apparently the new HTC One S is even faster:

http://m.gizmodo.co.uk/2012/04/htc-one-s-benchmarked-qualcomm-beats-nvidia-in-smartphone-power-war/

😉