MemeCode - Blog

I Need A New Phone...

Date: 25/2/2009

I'll be working on this sheet over the next week or so... and you can see how things progress.

Columns:

3G: Must have 2100 3g capabilities (I'm currently with Three)
USB Mass Storage: Must be able to act as a USB mass storage device when connected to a computer.
Charge over USB: Must be able to charge the battery over USB. Via an adapter if necessary (although I'd rather avoid adapters if I can). Nokia generally suck in this area.
3.5mm audio jack: Should have a 3.5mm jack for headphones. Not a show stopper but I'd like the convenience.
MP3/AAC: I have a bunch of MP3/AAC's and I'd like to be able to use my phone as a media player. Decent media functions is a must.
H264: Must be able to playback iPod style video, aka 300-450kbit H264+AAC @ 320x240px video. Must handle videos over 1hr in length. I occasionally get stuck somewhere killing time and having a couple of movies on the phone is the best.
Camera: Must have an average 2MP camera. A bad camera will rule the phone out, must not suck completely. If it takes reasonable video as well, bonus! (Current phone's video recording is a joke of a slideshow)
Fast Menus: Showing/navigating menus must be near instantaneous, no excuses.
PC Sync: Should be able to replicate contacts and calendar events to an open format or API on a computer without using the bundled tools (which invariably suck).
Call Quality: Must have clear call quality with decent reception. No lemons please.
Battery life: Must have a standby of 4 days min (no music or serious usage). Call time not an issue.
Web Browser: Reasonable web browser, not WAP. Not a deal breaker but I'd like to be able to look some things up on the go.
Price: Looking at getting something used below $250. Unless it's an iPhone, which is probably worth whatever you pay for it. Killer combo on almost all fronts, still I'm hoping I can line up something I can live with for a lot less.

(Items that have been striked out are no longer being considered)

Update: I've won a k800i on the 'bay ($96aud+s/h) and I'll see how that goes for a month or 2. If it doesn't annoy the snot out of me that'll be it for a year or 2 otherwise I'll chuck it back on the 'bay and try something else. The 6600 slide is a bit steep at the moment though.

One of my friends has a k800i so I checked that it plays mpeg4 properly. And while it doesn't have the grunt for higher bitrates I found a reasonable compromise with mp4 (mpeg4 @ 430kbps, 320x240 + aac @ 64kbps). If the video bitrate is too high it skips, like up around 500kbps. I couldn't test seeking and longer movies because they didn't have a memory card. But I'm reasonably sure it'll be ok. If not there is always ebay.

Update: The one from ebay wasn't good, all sorts of problems. Wouldn't stay on, screen would go all white and become unresponsive and sometimes wouldn't turn on. Fun fun fun! Fortunately the seller is prepared to accept returns, so I'm back looking for another one as I've already bought a 4gb M2 card.

Comments:

Michael Neale
25/02/2009 3:47am

Pretty sure you could assume the iphone does a PC Sync - not sure exactly what you mean though.

fret
25/02/2009 4:22am

Blank cells means I havn't investigated that yet. Sync for me means that the data is not locked up in some proprietary app/format written by the phone manufacturer, which are invariably sad pathetic pieces of junk. I don't know what sort of software support the iPhone ships with, but I would assume that it won't suck on the same level as the rest of the world. One of the things I bought my current phone on was SyncML support, which proved to be non-existent. So I'm looking to avoid that this time round.

gringo
17/04/2009 1:42pm

I own a Nokia 5310

You could mark the following cells as green
- USB Mass Storage
- 3.5 mm Audio
- MP3/AAC Play
- Camera/Video Rec
- PC Sync (through Google Mobile Sync or ovi.com)
- Web Browser (Opera)

it''s a good phone for a intermediate/advance user.

another good feature si that includes an email client (pop3, imap, smtp)

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