Guest Kallisti Posted February 4, 2008 Report Posted February 4, 2008 OK, I admit to having slightly lost touch with what phone does what in the past 18 months. I have had the SPV, the SPV E200, the SPV C500 and finally the T-Mobile MDA Vario II (oh, and there's a Virgin Lobster here for emergencies!). The contract is up on the Vario II today and I guess I'll get myself something new. My question is, what do you suugest? The only REAL important feature (other than being able to make calls, bluetooth and all the usual stuff which is always there), is that I should be able to run a good sat-nav on it. I currently have Tomtom using an external GPS, something internal would be nice, but wouldn't be the end of the world should I not be able to. I don't use 3g (battery life reasons, so if they're solved maybe), I don't use wireless (to be honest, GPRS is fine 99.9% of the time). What suggestions do you have?
Guest jimbouk Posted February 4, 2008 Report Posted February 4, 2008 Despite some concerns that the device isnt making the best of its internals, the Kaiser would suit you down to the ground... (Vario3). Compared to your Vario2, its a little quicker, it has double the memory, it has inbuilt GPS, it has the same fast hsdpa if you did use the 3g... The issues are: 1) It slides open the other way! 2) There are no other issues...
Guest Kallisti Posted February 4, 2008 Report Posted February 4, 2008 (edited) Thanks for the suggestion jimbo. I don't suppose anything's come out that's a little smaller? Something else has just occurred to me - have the other networks (not t-mobile) caught up with their data plans? I guess I use 100MB/month or so. Hell, if the entirety of the benefit from an upgrade is 'a little quicker', I might just get some nice company to send me a Wii and some junk phone instead! Although inbuilt GPS would be nice, the external unit I have has some nice logging features and a solar recharge so it's not all benefits. Must pop onto the Kaiser forum and see what the deal is regarding these drivers/class actions. I've not been paying much attention. Any other suggestions? Edited February 4, 2008 by Kallisti
Guest jimbouk Posted February 4, 2008 Report Posted February 4, 2008 There are plenty of smaller devices - like the touch... bt if you want a keyboard, then Kaiser is currently the closest to the Vario2. IMHO the class action thing doesnt have a hope. Especially with some of the rubbish that is being posted on the xda thread about it. Its like threatening to sue BMW because your 6 cylinder 2.0 litre isnt as fast as the 6 cylinder 2.8 litre.
Guest Kallisti Posted February 4, 2008 Report Posted February 4, 2008 Oh, no, I didn't think the class action had a hope, was just wondering if consumer pressure did :) As for keyboard - good point, I do want to keep some sort of half decent input... That 20key touch hasn't ever appeared in the UK has it?
Guest Confucious Posted February 4, 2008 Report Posted February 4, 2008 I agree with jimbouk on just about everything he said. Just like to add: 1) Vodafone do 120Mb for £8 / month if you really want to change still nowhere near T but might be enough for you so long as you NEVER go above it. 2) T gave me £15/month off my contract as I didn't want a new phone - if you're happy with your VII it might be an option? Other than that it's as jimbouk says - with KB VIII or without the touch range seem current phones of choice. Good luck.
Guest Kallisti Posted February 4, 2008 Report Posted February 4, 2008 2) T gave me £15/month off my contract as I didn't want a new phone - if you're happy with your VII it might be an option? Hmm, only problem with that offer is that it ties you into 18 months, which sucks a bit! I'm still hanging onto the 12th month contracts as tightly as I can!
Guest Neil5459 Posted February 4, 2008 Report Posted February 4, 2008 If you want small and fast, the new Touch Cruise or O2 Orbit2 may be an option. It doesn't have a hard keyboard however, so if that's important the TyTnII is a better bet. The Orbit2 has a fantastic GPS receiver, 128/256MB memory and HTC's new flush touchscreen with TouchFlo. I've been using one for 3 weeks, and it has been rock solid- may even tempt me away from the Ameo as my everyday device! O2 version looks nicer than the generic Touch Cruise, but of course if O2 is a no-go for whatever reason that takes it out of the equation. They do now offer much better tariffs with 'unlimited' data for £7.50 per month (superceding the 200MB plan)- this doesn't include modem. VOIP or streaming use however.
Guest Kallisti Posted February 4, 2008 Report Posted February 4, 2008 Just to prove to me that the world of mobile phones is still as nutty as ever.... I don't consider myself a high user - bill is from 30-50/month, usually the lower end. So, I called t-mobile retentions to see what they had to say, half wondering if they'd be doing the Touch Cruise (which does look pretty good to me)... Spoke to someone who, after a bit of bargaining, though not much, is sending me a Vario III for a fiver P&P and reducing my monthly for Flext25+WnW to £12.50 (from £27.50). 18 month contract, but to be honest, @12.50/month, it'd be viable to pick up a second contract if there was a phone I REALLY wanted! Thanks for the advice guys, looks like I'm staying with the 'housebrick' form factor. Hope it's not even bigger or my wife will laugh me out of the house. Every year her phone gets smaller (currently about the size of a lipstick, the Samsung X830, I can't wait to see how it's gonna get smaller next year!), and mine gets bigger. Thanks again, I'll bump this post in 18 months time :)
Guest Neil5459 Posted February 4, 2008 Report Posted February 4, 2008 That is a great deal! Well done. If you don't like the VarioIII you could Ebay it and buy the Touch Cruise!
Guest Kallisti Posted February 4, 2008 Report Posted February 4, 2008 lol, just called back as something else occurred to me... Now they've thrown in a copy of copilot as well :)
Guest Confucious Posted February 4, 2008 Report Posted February 4, 2008 lol, just called back as something else occurred to me... Now they've thrown in a copy of copilot as well :) So you got £15/ month off and a vario III with CoPilot for a fiver? And I thought I had a good deal! Congrats, hope you enjoy the VIII
Guest jimbouk Posted February 4, 2008 Report Posted February 4, 2008 Thanks for the advice guys, looks like I'm staying with the 'housebrick' form factor. Hope it's not even bigger or my wife will laugh me out of the house. Every year her phone gets smaller (currently about the size of a lipstick, the Samsung X830, I can't wait to see how it's gonna get smaller next year!), and mine gets bigger. Thats a great deal and just proves that retentions are keen to avoid churn... BTW the Kaiser isnt bigger than the Hermes... but its a little heavier.
Guest Monolithix Posted February 4, 2008 Report Posted February 4, 2008 Side by side i'd go as far as saying my Kasier is a fraction of a touch smaller! Nice job on the upgrade too :)
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