Hey

Apologies if this has been done to death but my phone contract is about to expire and I am two minds. Do I:

* Keep my current phone, which works ok, and get a £15ish a month SIM only deal

* Keep paying £35 a month and get an all singing, all dancing GPS cum internet touch screen beast?

The thing that is putting me off the Smartphone idea is the 24month contract on a lot of deals, the fear that whatever I get now will be superseded in 3 months, and the fact I already have a sat nav, a phone and a net book. Do I need them all in one? I do like gadgets though….

Can anyone convince me that I NEED one of these devices to revolutionise my life and if so which one? Iphone deals look very expensive, and I hate Apple products. Would like real GPS, not the internet driven one, and not a qwerty keypad.

Cheers

Tom

I'm liking the look of the HTC HD2. plus it will be upgradable to WM7 when that comes out.

not a qwerty keypad?? might struggle there then.

if you already have all the individual devices, it's prob not worth it and save your cash for bike bits!

i was wondering the same thing as you a week ago and got all excited about htc phones for a bit. then i realised that i could just keep my old phone on a tenner a month simplicity deal, saving myself at least twenty squid a month, with no contract to worry about so when the phone gives up the ghost i can then have another rethink. i just sat and did the real costs calculations (months x line rental + initial cost) and whatever deal i had came to about 500 quid. i wouldnt be spending that on anything else at the moment so why spend it on a phone.

Would like real GPS, not the internet driven one

? The GPS is "real" in most phones. By "internet driven" do you mean you want that doesn't stream the maps from Google Maps? I know there are several iPhone apps that can download selected maps onto the device in advance (MotionX GPS, Outdoors) or come with full maps built-in (TomTom). I imagine similar stuff exists for other smartphones like the HTC/Android.

Personally, I think there are really two and a half sensible smartphone options.

If you are only really interested in a)being able to check email and b)GPS, then windows mobile is okay, and memory map is pretty good (although costs a fair bit).

If you want an all singing & dancing smartphone that will still be useful in the future, then it is all about applications. In that case, either an Android phone, or an iPhone are the only real choices nowadays. Windows Mobile has pretty much failed in terms of getting a decent developer infrastructure and getting developers interested, Symbian has basically shafted all developers up the arse, so no-one much writes apps for that any more. Blackberry just doesn't seem to interest many developers for some reason – I guess they are mainly a bit too corporate.

Android phones have way better GPS chips than the current iPhones if GPS is important, and reportedly much better battery life when the GPS is being used, making them practical for all day rides.

Joe

Sim-only deal (no contract) for Iphone on 02 is £20 including unlimited data. Of course, you have to get your own iphone…

5800 – cheap, and good, almost everythign an iPhone does and for less money and on decent networks. The GPS mapping software lets you pre-download the whole world onto memory card if you want so no network charges, and I think turn by turn navigation is now free according to some ads I saw yesterday.

Thanks guys; some good opinions. Keep 'em coming!

A colleague has a HTC G2 (Android I think) and I'm quite taken with this, but the cost is a barrier!

Think I'm leaning towards SIM only…

Android phones have way better GPS chips than the current iPhones

What chipset are the Android phones using joe?
And how are they better? Faster TTFF?

I think the iPhone is an Infineon PMB2525 Hammerhead II GPS (was definitely that in the 3G but may have changed since).

5800 – cheap, and good, almost everythign an iPhone does and for less money and on decent networks. The GPS mapping software lets you pre-download the whole world onto memory card if you want so no network charges, and I think turn by turn navigation is now free according to some ads I saw yesterday.

+1 Turn by turn navigation is free as of last week. Sportstracker which I tried at the weekend for the first time is surprisingly good and I've been playing around with Viewranger which offers OS mapping and gets great reviews. Free on a £15 18 month contract from Virgin.

I've recently got a Palm Pre, due to it not saying iphone on its label I managed to get it for £14 (random price I know a bit of haggling) on a 18month contract, 500min 400text or something like that and unlimited data. Sure you'll be able to get similar if you go to an O2 shop and ask for something other than an Iphone.

Stuck with Palm as they have a hardware keyboard, good interface, the Web OS seems slick enough to me and plus with it not saying IPhone its slightly less prone to get stolen.

What chipset are the Android phones using joe?
And how are they better? Faster TTFF?

I think the iPhone is an Infineon PMB2525 Hammerhead II GPS (was definitely that in the 3G but may have changed since).

Not sure about the chipset, but we have the G1 and Hero, and they are both way faster to fix, and you get much better accuracy than our iPhone 3G units. The tracks from the iPhones really suck compared to a modern garmin unit, whereas the HTC phones are some of the best consumer GPSs I've seen – very accurate.

About the 5800 – the Nokia symbian phones are quite nice for mapping currently, but not at all future proof, very few people bothering to develop applications for them any more, as it is such a pain to do. We are pretty much stopping bothering with Nokia here, and we have something like 30 handsets.

Joe

+ 1 for 5800

Joe, where do you work?

As for future proofing – it's a phone, it'll be either in the bin in 18 months' time or broken most likely. I'm sure I'll look at something else when my contract's up.

+1 for hardware keyboards tho. Better than the touch jobs.

Interesting, cheers joe. I had heard the GPS antenna on the iPhone was a bit small, I wonder if that is the cause. Apparently the TomTom iPhone car mount has a second antenna within the mount to boost the signal.

I know the iPhone (and probably the Android phones) also tend to get a faster fix in populated areas, as they also do basic triangulation off mobile masts and wi-fi signals.

XC steve, where did you get the deal on the Palm Pre, I'm just about to take out a new contract & that seems ideal

I have Tom Tom installed on my 2year old HTC Touch Diamond – works great, tho can be a bit laggy when running – but 99% of the time its fine when using it for navigation when driving. But the reason for the lagging is it having to run the graphics/program of TT + the GPS circuit. I tried using a seperate GPS reciever bluetoothed to the phone – and there was no lag.

Have got the option of Googlemaps which is quicker, but i dont have the voices for directions.

Installed Tom Tom the missus' HTC Touch2 and it works much quicker (and a bonus too is that the touch2 has a much bigger battery – the diamond was compromised by its 900mA battery)

There is a lot of apps out for the WM platform – but it is very fragmented. Microsoft have only just taken on the app store idea. But there are alot of useful apps out there either for free or small cost. and XDA-developers.com is a great site for WM devices.

+1
For the Nokia 5800
Ovi maps is free. with turn by turn GPS mapping for 150 countries.
Cheap as well.
The free OVI mapping is also there for the other symbian phones but you have to look for it as they are not on the default drop-down list.

Nokia also distribute Sportstracker free.
And Viewranger runs beautifully on it.

So Ovi maps for driving, sporttracker for running and viewranger for cycling. 🙂

Incidently, Nokias also use A-GPS which relies on mobile phone positioning to aid a faster GPS fix.

Heard the Palm Pre has a fair few glitches. Which maybe not surprising since it is relatively new.

Polar have made a bluetooth heart rate chest strap which the 5800 can use.. but they won't actually sell it to you. GRRR! It's only available bundled with some phone that you can't get in the UK.

Im looking forward to the Sony Ericsson Xeperia X10 when it comes out in the next month or so. 4" touchscreen, 1Ghz processor, Android 1.6 (upgradeable to 2.0 when its out), potentially a VERY well specc'd phone, assuming the SE don't make a complete pigs ear of their implimentation like they have with their last few top end phones (Satio – S60 LOTS of bugs, C905 lots of hardware problems)

so if i want 64gb memory will i be able to upgrade my smartphone with one of these micro sd cards??

http://www.mobileburn.com/news.jsp?Id=8551

Apparently nokia Ovi maps is free but charges for navigation!! Nokia haven't publicised that! Sneaky.

navigation seems to be free on my phone (5800)

see here http://maps.nokia.com/explore-services/ovi-maps

Incidently, Nokias also use A-GPS which relies on mobile phone positioning to aid a faster GPS fix.

<geekmode>

Actually A-GPS goes a bit further than that. Aiding-Data, such as the almanac, ephemeris and time, is downloaded over an external system (like a mobile phone network) instead of waiting for it from the space vehicles.

</geekmode>

I can recommend the HTC Touch HD. Had mine for over a year now and it is quite impressive. The screen is much better than the IPhone and I managed to get a copy of Garmin Mobile XT for £16 from Carphone Wharehouse which works extremely well. The GPS locks on with mobile signal first and then GPS so is very quick. Google maps is a pre-installed app along with Youtube etc.

Looking at the prices though, for some reason the Touch HD 2 seems cheaper than the Touch HD! I think the 2 has a capacative screen now which should be even better.

I have to say that having the phone, GPS and MP3 player and web in one useable device is very handy even though I'm not a particularly heavy user. I'd never go back to a normal phone.

Oh – and the software keyboard is pretty good as well.

Apparently nokia Ovi maps is free but charges for navigation!! Nokia haven't publicised that! Sneaky.

Somebody at work showed me his E71 with Ovi maps installed.
With investigating – Ovi maps ver 3.0.3 is the only free version.
And this compatible with currently 10 nokia phones. Nokia 5800 being one of them.

3 are doing a deal on a Nokia E71, £25pcm for 500mins plus unlimited internet, texts, 3to3 calls and skype.

I realise for you techno-junkies that this isn't bleeding-edge, but I'm still using a Nokia 6310i…

Apparently nokia Ovi maps is free but charges for navigation!! Nokia haven't publicised that! Sneaky.

That used to be the case. I think now turn-by-turn nav is free also.

http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/30958/nokia-makes-turn-by-turn-navigation-free

E71 is nice with the keyboard, but Symbian 3 is looking old hat now. Symbian 5 is a lot nicer.

E71 looks a bit chunky? Might have to actually venture into a phone shop 🙁

It's wide but very thin. They advertise it as the smallest thinnest full keyboard phone out there, and they could be right.

@peakprowler went into the o2 shop they said the standard, went next door to Phones 4 U, initially they said the same offer as the o2 shop to which I replied ok well I'll go next door then… Bit of bargening back and forth got it down to £18.99 but their odd system meant they could only do it in multiples of £5 so got it for £14.99 i think… either way below £20 for a 18month contract!

I've my old smart phone unlocked lying about if your interested? http://www.totalpda.co.uk/Palm/Palm-Treo-Pro-sim-free-unlocked.7478.html Give me a email if your interested?

I'm in the same position, itching to get one. But, having got advice from a techy mate at work, I'm now going to wait for the new HTC Bravo 🙂

The GPS in my iPhone 3GS is amazing compared with my HTC Kaiser and Garmin Etrex – faster and more accurate and pretty good indoor coverage (which I was amazed by as I didn't think that was possible).