New Phone... Suggestions Please

[Tomm]

If you really want me to critique the photos, here goes:

All those are taken in bright sunlight with fast shutter speeds. If you start using lower light, then you'll get horrible blur and noise. Secondly, look in the first photo at the silhouette of the tree. There is so much slight spilling in to the areas that should be dark. Similarly notice how it's very hard to see the edge of the signpost against the sky. The third one is a very difficult exposure because there is very bright light in places and shadows etc. But look how there are huge blocks of 100% white with no detail in them.

Like I say, it's no better than a 7 year old digital camera.

I will admit that I use my phone's camera for snaps of something funny etc, but at the moment I'd never consider buying a phone on the strength of its camera.

[guineasmithpig]

Sorry for thread hijackage, but how well are the N95's holding up? My dad is a manager at Vodafone, and I've just had a phone upgrade, but he refused to sort me the N95 as they reckon the software ain't running properly yet? APPARENTLY the GPS doesn't work right when you're in the car, and struggles to find appropriate signal when out and about (i wanted this feature for xc rides and adventures), and there can be issues when trying to view high res pics on the phone?

As it happens, I ended up goin for one of the Ltd Ed McLaren mercedes Z720's, which is probs gonna be all flash and no massive features, but my D900 has held up really well, with no issues (unlike my 2 previous phones, K700i and 32-something, which were both replaced 2 or 3 times due to faults). Still, would be a bit gutted if the N95's are really living up to all the promises now!

Smithy

[JonMack]

Well... I got the M700 and it's f**king schweeeeeeet!!

I'm currently installing stuff on it to pimp it out! I need to pick up a mini sd card for it, but apart from that, it's all good!

[Krisboats]

If you really want me to critique the photos, here goes:

All those are taken in bright sunlight with fast shutter speeds. If you start using lower light, then you'll get horrible blur and noise. Secondly, look in the first photo at the silhouette of the tree. There is so much slight spilling in to the areas that should be dark. Similarly notice how it's very hard to see the edge of the signpost against the sky. The third one is a very difficult exposure because there is very bright light in places and shadows etc. But look how there are huge blocks of 100% white with no detail in them.

Like I say, it's no better than a 7 year old digital camera.

I will admit that I use my phone's camera for snaps of something funny etc, but at the moment I'd never consider buying a phone on the strength of its camera.

Reflection off the car window of (i think) my friends head The areas of bright white i agree with though, but similarly, hadn't noticed before you mentioned. To be fair though, my dads silly good digital camera gets the same large ares of white if i try and get the same shot of my frame.

[Tomm]

Nah, I wasn't on about any reflections, just the way that the tree outline is poorly defined. Which is to be expected with a small (plastic?) lens. I think they should make cameras with phones in them, rather than the other way around, if you get me.

[Fish-Finger-er]

Sorry for thread hijackage, but how well are the N95's holding up? My dad is a manager at Vodafone, and I've just had a phone upgrade, but he refused to sort me the N95 as they reckon the software ain't running properly yet? APPARENTLY the GPS doesn't work right when you're in the car, and struggles to find appropriate signal when out and about (i wanted this feature for xc rides and adventures), and there can be issues when trying to view high res pics on the phone?

As it happens, I ended up goin for one of the Ltd Ed McLaren mercedes Z720's, which is probs gonna be all flash and no massive features, but my D900 has held up really well, with no issues (unlike my 2 previous phones, K700i and 32-something, which were both replaced 2 or 3 times due to faults). Still, would be a bit gutted if the N95's are really living up to all the promises now!

Smithy

erm right my n95 story:

its a n95 i got on tmobile on 14th april(So if people want to see how early or late version of it is).

i got it, ignored the whole 16 hour charge your meant to give it to start with, gave it an hour and went out with it. to be honest, i was very very disapointed, i couldnt use the gps without the whole phone crashing and resttarting, likewise, could do the same with the mp3 player if started goin to quick for it, or writing texts at the same time. took me a whole 40 minutes in the beer garden to get a gps lock on where we where with it crashing. then about 7pm that night, while the phone was just sittin on the table, message tone, and a box saying service update complete. and it stopped crashing totally, i mean literally it hasnt crashed once since then, and gps lock takes a couple of minutes.

then get onto the battery life, first charge lasted about 6.5 hours, as to be expecting, was a short charge, was playing on it constantly, ringing everyone with my new number, using wi-fi, gps, bluetooth etc constantly.

then gave it a full overnight charge, took it off charge at 8 am in the morning,didnt really touch it all day, about 5 texts and 2 shots with the camera.(including the one you saw above). and ha wi-fi and bluetooth off(apart from 1 minute or so while i sent afile) was beepin low battery at 4ish, and was totally dead by 5.30pm, was all ready to take it back, be pissed off that id got a shit phone. etc.

but now, its had a few charges, some from half, some from empty, will generally get 3 days use out of it easily, possibly push 4,obviously with a saturday night and 100 drunken pics, this may change. and thats about 30 minutes callin, 20 texts, hours music, and bluetooth on all the time.

im now real impressed with it, despite being a sony ericsson camper, im really liking the nokia.

oh yea and gps wise, im yet to try it in the car, its not designed to be in car navigation really in the way a tomtom is, itll work in an emergency, but its useful on a different level, i went to dk offroad in newcastle under lyme on tuesday, and having pretty good sense of direction, i just kinda looked at the google map the night before, and drove there, got to the kind of area i thought itd be, pulled into a side street so i could get some parking, and went on the net on it thanks to some unprotected wifi in my vacinity(could of used t mobile web an walk, buts its a bit slower, plus i like being a rebel). got the postcode off the dk offroad website, whacked it into me sat nav, and it showed me on the screen where i needed to go(turned out i was about 600 metres away, and was on the right road before i turned onto the side street), so could drive straight there. was perfect. dont know what itd be like keeping a signal in the car, or with turn by turn, but thats not why i bought it, i bought it cos its a phone. and in a kris term.

i use it because its there, low quality sat nav is better than no sat nav, a mediocre camera(when compared to compact digitals of say £80-150ish) is better than no camera, a mp3 player that has a decent interface but perhaps isnt the best in the world, is better than bugger all. all have there uses on a night or day out somewhere, but id never carry a phone, a digital camera, a sat nav unit and an mp3 player with me. its just handy that they are there

tomm once it drops dark, ill take some pictures in my room, with the room pitch black using flash, room lit normally using flash, and room lit normally, no flash and night mode, its not that grainy and blurry.

[Walleee]

Havn't read the full thread but I have an XDA graphit (smartphone) and f**k me it's great. Wifi is fantastic for taking a shit and watching the news.

[Tomm]

Do you people find having a PDA-phone a bit annoying? Especially without a keypad? I've got a PDA which is pretty basic (I.e. no bluetooth/wifi) and could easily be replaced by a recent phone. But then I do use my PDA where it would be inappropriate to have a phone. Not sure if it would be better to have one 'do everything' gadget, or just keep two.

Also how big are the current smartphones compared to a 'normal' size phone - I'm on a w810i at the moment?