[mercury_element]

wow, this is truly confusing me now.

IB: I am not much into using internet on phone, I am looking for good phone mainly for all basic functions....calls, sms, alarm, etc...and good camera and good music.....i prefer nokia phones because they are reliable. i seriously dont like motorola phones. so any other suggestions are welcome.

[hk.com]

I think Nokia needs to bring out a real work horse phone.

- Minimal animated gui, remove all the crap off the phone, maybe go back to 2nd edtion S60 as the software works and far smaller.
- an average CPU, say 180Mhz or 200Mhz ARM. Longer battery.
- A sizable resolution and a display that can be rotated 90 degrees when you are reading or browsing.
- The ability to turn off system services on demmand. Eg on a S60 depending on the phone you have about 20 to 40 demons running different aspects. Some of them sit there eating cpu and are features that the telco does not use or provide. In HK the GSM operators don't use the do Cell broadcasts nor do they broadcast indexes of topics. In my phone this process is one of the biggest resource hogs. As it is a system process you can't shut it down.

- A large T9 dictionary with frequency scoring, like motorola have. The size of the T9 dictionary is not good and does not sort in terms of usage like Motorola does.

- The ability to import what ever language, fonts, & dictionary files you want into the phone. If you speak multiple languages why not let us import them as we require.

- A good joystick 6600 or roller ball mouse like the Pearl has. Most of the pointer devices on most Nokia suck after you tried joystick on the 6600.

- A large keypad which large keys where you can really blast like you can on on a Nokia 3210/3310. The more advanced the phones are getting, the slower we can SMS as the keypads are getting slower or crappier.

[mercury_element]

hi,

any clues if N95 8GB is out in the market? if yes, whats the cost? if no, then any idea when will it be launched?

Thanks

[mercury_element]

hello!! anyone??

[ICEBreaker]

Hi, I didn't realise there was a page 2.

The N95 8GB should be out before the end of the year in Europe, and based on experience, it implies that it will be out in HK before the Chinese New Year at the latest. More likely, it should be out before Christmas. The cost ought to be no less than the N95, which sold for $7,000 when it was launched.

You can still go for the original N95. I've upgraded my fireware, and everything is working OK now. For instance, the GPS takes only 10 seconds to acquire a signal, the button which was inoperable is now working again. The only problem that remains is the lack of RAM as this is a hardware issue. N95 goes for $5,500 or even less.

However, according to a previous post, you mentioned you simply want a good reliable phone. In which case, the N95 seems like an overkill. Why not go for something slim, such as the N76, which is only around $4,000 and was launched a couple of months ago. Or if you wanna splash out, why not go for the 8800 and 8600 now going for less than $7,000 though they are now more than 6 months old. For other brands, Sony Ericsson just released the K850 for a little lover $4,000, which takes great photos approaching or even matching N95 standards. If you want a touch screen, you can consider the Sony Ericsson P1 which is under $5,000 and was launched last quarter. You can also wait for the Samsung F700 coming out in December-ish for around $7,000, which is a direct rival of the N95, and some speculated, is what pushed Nokia to produce the 8GB version in an attempt to hold its ground. The F700 is superior to N95 in almost every aspect, except the camera may not be as nice, and it has no GPS.

[ICEBreaker]

Forgot to mention the very slim Sony Ericsson T650 going for around $3,000, which does everything a good phone ought to do.

[keto1]

Thought I'd put my 2 cents in.

I dont know exactly what features you guys want in a phone, but with the sony ericsson k850 out now (the one with 5 megapixel camera), the n95 is looking quite unattractive. the SE beats it in mp3 playback, size, cooler appearance.

Having said that, if you go to some forums, there are also some bugs in the SE too, since it just came out.

I guess if you have to have one, buy the SE.

If you can, wait a few months. There's always something better down the road

[HkChiQ]

A friend of mine had purchased an N95 last month. he was excited and was showing it off to all of us. Then few weeks later he started complaining that it would always hang and turn off all of the sudden. And sending sms was always slow. He ended up selling it to a local phone shop and got himself a sony erricson phone instead. other people I know have complained about the same thing. I had wanted to get a N95 as well but not after hearing what they had to say =/ the money isn't worth it.

[jimbo]

Originally Posted by keto1

If you can, wait a few months. There's always something better down the road

Yup Like the LG KS20, Now thats so much better than the Nokia N95, Will get myself one of those when I'm back.

[ICEBreaker]

Hi guys,

I can understand what you are all saying. But I think Keto1 makes a point which needs to be expanded on. Knowing what one wants in a phone is important. The N95 is in a league of its own, at least until the Samsung F700 is launched. It has EVERYTHING (except a touch screen and qwerty keyboard). Its problem is the lack of RAM which results in most of the complaints people have. The 8GB version promises to do away with this problem by doubling the RAM.

Now, I am all for Sony Ericsson phones, having owned the iconic K700 and Z800 myself. However, the much vaulted K (camera) series are not smart phones. The K850 does close the gap between itself and the N95 in that they both have superb photography and run on the HSDPA aka 3.5G network (SE's first, if I am not mistaken). The SE P1, is excellent, but does not have HSDPA capability, which is perplexing.

The other problem with the N95 is that it is a smart phone hybrid. Technically, it is a smart phone because it runs on the Symbian S60 3rd OS. However, it is not supported by a large touch screen or a qwerty keyboard. This makes it rather unproductive for true smart phone users. O2 and Dopod/HTC are the leaders in this area.

I would not trash the N95. It was not worth $7,000 but it's a bargain if you can get it for below $5,000.

To conclude, know what phone you need.

Best basic phone: K850
Best smart phone: O2 or Dopod/HTC
Best all-in-one: N95 (currently), N95 8GB or Samsung F700 in future

Jimbo: KS20 also an excellent phone. But it doesn't make the grade, since the camera is a very outdated 2MP one.