Wanting to upgrade to a WiFi phone...

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G.T

G.T

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Paganisterr
Ak Paganister
...but I'm not sure what to get.

I previously made a thread on what phone to get nearly a year ago (k800i), but I don't use it a hell of a lot since to browse the internet will cost me lots of money... So Wifi will make me use it a lot more. I remember I used it all the time on my PSP for years.

I'm willing to spend £200, maybe £250 at a push, but won't have the funds for another month or two. The older Nokia N95 is at the top of my list at the moment - it's for sale for £220 at a store at the moment pay as you go, which seems a steal for what the phone does. The iPhone is another potential buy but there's no word on the pay as you go one yet, and the camera is below what I have now on a much cheaper phone. I won't be surprised if that goes into the £300 barrier either...

Is there any other phones you can recommend?
 
You are strictly interested in wifi because you want to use it surf the web, right? If so, honestly, I don't think you're going to find anything that compares with the iPhone. I'm not sure how the carrier situation is in the UK, but the price of the 2G iPhones will be dropping dramatically over the next few weeks.
 
Or, oddly enough, if you just plan to use internet over the WiFi and not pay for a data plan, you might be interested in the iPod touch. I could probably answer any question on the touch, and a lot on the iPhone. In my opinion, if you want a pocketable internet device for use on WiFi, you can't beat the touch/iPhone.

If you did get an iPhone and aren't on AT&T, expect to do some trickery to make it content with whatever GSM provider you are on. From what I have seen reading about iPhones on T-Mobile, you don't change your plan at all, but you won't have some features like internet over EDGE, obviously.
 
I'm not sure what your options are in the UK, but here in the US, you're pretty much limited to the iPhone and one of the BlackBerry models as I recall. Despite the goodness that the Instinct could have been, it doesn't have WiFi, which makes me want to hate it. Almost.
 
Yeah, I'll mostly be using it for the Wifi. I did think about the iPod Touch but I don't fancy carry around my already bulky phone and the iPod.

So you guys don't get the N95 over there then? It's got extremely high reviews here. Apparently net browsing is very good, it has built-in GPS, runs Google Earth, 5 MP camera with 640x480 30FPS recording, hardware graphics accelerator good enough to play N-Gage games and much more... But without the touchscreen.

But yeah, I'll see how much the 2G iPhone costs in a few weeks to see what that's like. :)
 
AT&T and T-Mobile are supposed to carry it in the US (not a big surprise), so most people won't be able to get it anyway.
 
Well, looks like I'll have to wait for the 2G IPhone to drop in price then. The deal on that N95 just happened to disappear today... The cheapest one is now £290. :(
 
To be honest, it's worth sticking around to see what the 3G iPhone's price will be anyway. Even if it is out of budget, you haven't lost anything, and if the price does drop then the price of the standard iPhone will drop too. I wouldn't be surprised if by then the N95 has lost some value too.
 
Another option is a Windows Mobile device, unless you're dead set against it. I'm lovin' my HTC 6800 since the ROM upgrade fixed my Bluetooth issues.

On any of these, expect the battery to die before the end of the day if you forget to turn off WiFi when you're done. Sucks electrons right outa there!

Same caveat, not familiar with UK systems and availability, but I think it's proced under your stated budget.
 
My problem is what if you don't have a GSM provider or DON'T WANT to go GSM because their service sucks that much more around here? That's where the iPhone (new or old) is worthless.
 
Quite right... Since they put up that new CDMA tower in Ada, I get pretty clear reception just about everywhere in town now, and the only issues I have is when I'm down in that nasty little corridor between Kalamazoo and Battle Creek.

I'm always perplexed as to why they get the good phones first at AT&T and T-Mobile, despite the fact that Verizon is now the largest carrier. Oh well I guess...
 
What baffles me is there are people that will buy these phones anyway even though they know they will be paying for a crappy service that doesn't work? : shrugs: "control is nothing without POWAH" :dunce:
 
wfooshee
Another option is a Windows Mobile device, unless you're dead set against it. I'm lovin' my HTC 6800 since the ROM upgrade fixed my Bluetooth issues.

On any of these, expect the battery to die before the end of the day if you forget to turn off WiFi when you're done. Sucks electrons right outa there!

Same caveat, not familiar with UK systems and availability, but I think it's proced under your stated budget.
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Actually, that's not a bad idea. You'll have a wider choice of handsets, and they'll be relatively cheaper. The issue is that they tend to to overcomplicate stuff in the interface - it took me 10 minutes to set up and send something over bluetooth over my SPV. Once you're used to it, it's ok though. I miss mine, even if it was a pain :(
 
YSSMAN
I'm always perplexed as to why they get the good phones first at AT&T and T-Mobile, despite the fact that Verizon is now the largest carrier. Oh well I guess...
Click to expand...
I am almost positive that more goes into it than that. I am sure the amount of support the company is willing to give to the producer, or upgrades they will make to their system vs making the producer fit the current system, etc. Telecom is a huge bunch of technical mumbo jumbo that gets very complicated when it comes to the details.

V1P3R
What baffles me is there are people that will buy these phones anyway even though they know they will be paying for a crappy service that doesn't work? : shrugs: "control is nothing without POWAH" :dunce:
Click to expand...
Service quality is subjective based on location. I know here in Kentucky AT&T has the largest coverage while T-Mobile has managed to get coverage in out-of-the-way rural areas that almost no one else covers. I use AT&T because nearly everyone I know has it. I rarely ever get charged minutes. My rollover minutes actually drop off and I have the cheapest rollover package I can get.

Then in cases of iPhones and whatnot I have a feeling that the cellular provider is not the biggest concern to those who wait in line to buy it on launch day.
 

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