Which mobile phone?

[BOAC]

I am unfortunate enough to have a Sony-E T68i for a while which has been a constant pain in terms of signal strengths/call performance. I think have worn 'Kelkoo' and 'Dealtime' out with searches.

I seek:

Sim-Free
GPRS
Bluetooth
IRDA
'Covered' keyboard if poss
Tri-band (quad nice)
Good performance
RS232 connection or USB would be a bonus

I do NOT need:

Camera
Polyphonic ring tones (whatever they might be:eek:)
Games
Colour screen
Any other gismos

Has anyone come across such a beast at a 'reasonable' price?

NB: Any 'sales' posts will almost certainly be deleted/edited, so if that is where one would aim, please use PMs:D

[pilotwolf]

Not sure if they re still made but something like the Nokia 6310 has most of your requirement - no USB/RS port but there's plenty of ways to connect to PC

The 'i' version is triband too if you travel much...

Keyboard not covered but cheap case will protect it well as they re pretty robust, had mine for couple of years now and only replaced previous as it got runover! Simcard and battery still in 100% working order thou!

Try ebay? Good if your careful.

PW

[419]

BOAC,
I would highly recommend a Nokia 6310i.

It has all the features you list, except the covered keyboard, and none of the bits you don't want.
I'm on my second one now (first one nicked). I think it's one of the best phones Nokia have ever made.
Performance any sound quality are fantastic, and the battery lasts approx 10-12 days on stby. (Nokia quote 16-17 days, but this is a bit optimistic.

They are not available in shops any more, but there are usually plenty of new or nearly new ones on E-Bay.

Nokia used to make a connectivity lead, which went from the phone to the serial port on your comp. This is probably also available on E-Bay



What's a "quad band" phone. I thought that there were only 3 frequency bands available

[BOAC]

Ta PW - I think that is the one I have as a 'company phone' and if so, I have had mucho trouble with the Bluetooth connection, and I believe this is a known problem - unless you know differently?

Edited for 419 - I see 'quad-band' phones advertised - 'work on 5 continents' - thought I wanted one....:D :D

[pilotwolf]

Had some problems initially but seem to have sorted it with latest software download from Nokia.

Only thing I was disappointed with is the fact I can still only connect to the internet at 9600 with the phone - not sure if that's my cock up or just a problem with bluetooth.

PW

[BEagle]

Nokia 6310i - absolutely excellent phone!

With no kiddy-gimmicks!!

[Tinstaafl]

Pax Domina & I have just bought new phones. Both are quad-band types although we each have different models. We wanted quad band since we're US based but want unhindered GSM availability when we're overseas. Just about all phones seem to have gimicks these days. Pity.

I have a Motorola MPx220. I really, really wanted the A780 Linux phone but the cost was waaay too much & availability for our required carrier pretty much non-existant. The MPx220 is a M$ Windoze smart phone with lots of features, including all that you specified. In typical M$ fashion the OS limits quite a lot of what should be user configurable with some crap, memory wasting example files included but decent, really audible ring tones left out. The good features are nice though: It has a mini-SD card slot so plenty of room for documents. It can open & read Word, Excel & Powerpoint files as well as having IE for standard web access, has Bluetooth & IR, GPRS, MP3 player etc.

Pax D. got the Motorola V551, mainly due to carrier phone eligibility vs. cost while keeping her current account. I suspect it has a better user interface since it's not hobbled by M$ however lacks the memory card slot & file reading capability. It has EDGE ability which is a high speed data ability (faster than GPRS).

[BOAC]

Thanks for all inputs. Tinstaafl - sounds nice! I think, however, I do not need the 'smartphone' as I am still in 'the dark ages' with a PDA/phone combo. I'll look at the 551.

The problem I have with the 6310i is that although the 'Nokia suite' does 'the bis' on the desktop, it appears to be a known problem that the BT function on this phone is 'immature' and I cannot get the PDA to connect to it, the connection dropping evey time I try to actually do something with it!! If anyone has a 'fix' then I'd be happy to stick with the 6310 as it is, as all say, functional and simple.

[Keef]

It's probably more phone than you want, but I've been delighted with my Motorola V3. It's a flip phone, so keypad covered when not in use. It's quad-band and has GPRS as well as Bluetooth.

There's no IR, but the BT is brilliant. If I turn on the (Motorola) BT headset, it immediately re-establishes the link: I can answer an incoming call by flipping open the headset, putting it on my ear, and pressing its button as I do so.

BT connection to my iPaq stays up for as long as both devices are switched on. I've not had a single dropout.

The phone is extremely thin (they call it "Razr"), quad-band, and has good sound quality, with even a useable speakerphone facility. It fits in my shirt pocket, and you'd not know it's there.

It has a camera (which will take 640 x 480 pix, so reasonable quality). I've never bothered with the cr@ppy cameras in previous phones, but this one is useable.

It has some basic PDA functions of its own, and will synch with a PC if you need to do that. The interface is USB, and it charges its battery through the USB.

The only serious drawbackI've found is that the phonebook (enormous number of possible entries) only lets you search on the first letter of the name - you then have to scroll down all the entries with that initial letter.

They're selling for around £200 on Ebay nowadays.

[BOAC]

Sound great, Keef. Was hoping to spend a bit less, though, and looking at Motorola, they seem to have quite a few models which look promising. Anyone tried a V620 with the IPAQ and any comments on the phone in general? I read that the preceeding V600 was not good.

[Wrongstuff]

BOAC, Sounds like we had the same problem. My T68 wasn't the best in terms of reception, the real problem was when I needed to replace the battery. It costs a fortune as it is part of the body of the phone.

I bought a V600 second hand from e-Bay for 50 quid, have to say it works very nicely. I get a signal in all the places the T68 didn't (Orange). Battery life is okay currently around 5 days between charges.It has bluetooth/Quad band. Have just found all the buttons are user selectable, which is great. Open the clam and I have put the alarm clock, phonebook, calculator, bluetooth on the front screen. Agree the phonebook is a bit of a pain to use, but by pressing the call button it brings up a list of the recently called.

Bit bulky, especially with a leather case. I believe that a cable is available to connect to a PC, although how well it works I don't know.

Was worth fifty quid just to be able not to sign up for another year with Orange

[BoeingBoy]

Hi BOAC,

Like Keefer, I am writing this on a laptop connected to a Motorola V3 via a USB cable (that is charging the phone as I surf) and a GPRS connection at 115kbs. (Onspeed enabled to boot!)

I have only had the phone for a few days and it's shown that the Moto bluetooth software is totally incompatible with anything other than Moto Dongles, and as you won't get the phone to charge that way forget about bluetooth for the internet.

It found my old Medion bluetooth headset without problem and that works OK.

The software that comes with it is OK, but the latest update does not function for the diary mode so Moto will need to sort that out.

O2 have dropped the upgrade price to £50 so it's worth going for now. Full price they are £374, so ebay @ £200 is good value.

[drauk]

I use a Motorola V3 with Bluetooth extensively with two different BT headsets and two different computers, none of which are Motorola and all of which work perfectly.

[Ray Darr]

I completely agree on recommending the Nokia 6310i. :ok:

I've owned one for over two years now, and the main thing that have pi$$ed me off about it are an odd quirk how it resets all by itself occasionally - without warning, usually when replying to an sms text message. It just plain "reboots" or freezes up completely. The limited custom dictionary is a pain too.

Besides these, it's been a great multi-band, use anywhere phone.

My next quest is to decide on buying either an I-mate Jem or the full-sized I-Mate...

Cheers,
Ray Darr

[pilotwolf]

Have you had a software upgrade ?

Had similar problems with my first - took it to a Nokia dealer and they did a free software/firmware upgrade which solved the problem. Also check your battery contacts as they re also prone to not making continous contact if the phone has a hard life.

PW

[HughMartin]

I would certainly endorse the previous recommendations of the Nokia 6310i. My wife and I have had one each which replaced our older 6310's which were also very reliable.

I dropped my 6310i into Loch Lommond last summer. Eventually found it 36 hours later in about 4 feet of water. I assumed it would be dead but I wanted my sim card back.

Emptied all the water out and ten minutes with a hairdryer and it has worked fine since.

You can get a USB connector for phone/computer connection. I have used the bluetooth for web browsing put it is very slow.

I am told the 6310i is no longer produced but you can pick them up on ebay.

[Techman]

I have a V3 as well, and while it's looks and build quality are top notch, the menu system is a real pain in the neck.

It is so incredible cumbersome to use when compared to a Nokia or Sony Ericsson. I wouldn't recommend it unless the "posing factor" has a high priority.

[BEagle]

Motorola menus have always been awful!

Find a good 6310i !!

[BOAC]

Thanks all for replies. I am currently using a 6310i which I 'have' and it is ok, but I have to link my PDA via IR with it as the BT does NOT work with the PDA. 'Keef' and I have very similar 'equipment':eek: :eek: and I am keeping an eye on the V3 prices etc. I CAN learn to live with a rubbish menu if the thing does what I need. Meine Frau has an oldish Moto so I know about the menus!!

[Windle Poons]

Going to agree with those advocating the V3. I use mine via bluetooth with my lap top (Sony) and PDA (iPAQ) and have had no problems at all, and it is used both as a GPRS connection and a dial up modem. It does have a whole load of features that I'll never use, but I was sold on the build quality, looks and the USB port.

Don't rule out the V3 on price. I paid nothing for it as I sweet talked Orange/threatened to change to another operator! You never know until you ask.

WP

[BOAC]

Well, I'll be round Keef's house to 'duff him up' if it is not the 'bees-knees' as I have just done a deal on ebay for one.:D :D

Thanks again, all.