FAO : Mobile Phone Nerds

[Uncle_Meat]

Right then. My trusty old Samsung D600 is on it's way out. Even with a new battery and different chargers it refuses to charge properly 3 times out of 4, and with the screen now being rather badly scuffed with it being chucked around for Bob knows how long, it's time for a replacement.

I always was one of those "Fuck it, so long as it makes/takes calls and the odd text it'll do" types, but I'm rather used to the assorted minor geekery I could do on the D600, half decent camera, bluetooth, and decent music player so I want something with similar features.

Now, I'm not a phone nerd so I'm unsure as to what qualifies as a decent, reliable handset nowadays. I'm on Orange PAYG, only topping up a tenner every 3 months, so getting something dead fancy on a contract is not worth it to me.

So, what qualifies as a decenti handset, with similar features to my old D600, for not too much money?

I've been looking at a Sony Ericsson K550i from Argos for £59.99 as it seems to have a similar amount of features as my old one, but reviews appear to be mixed, as the reviews are on every fucking handset I've looked up. Some love it, some hate it, others say it does not suit people with fine, chunky, muscle-bound manly fingers such as I have.

Help me out here phone nerds, if your irradiated brain is up to it. Point me towards telecommunication Nirvana.

Ta.

[Vincent Vega]

You wont get better than this for the money Meat. Great camera, good battery life, good games, bluetooth, easy to use. Only draw back is that the joystick can have a tendency to go faulty with time/excessive usage.

[Uncle_Meat]

Originally Posted by Vincent Vega You wont get better than this for the money Meat. Great camera, good battery life, good games, bluetooth, easy to use. Only draw back is that the joystick can have a tendency to go faulty with time/excessive usage.

I was looking at one of them. Better looking buttons, and a bit chunkier and maybe stronger as I do give my phones a bit of a hard time sometimes... The cheapest I've found one of those on Orange (Where I live, Orange is the most reliable coverage. O2 suck arse out here in the sticks) is £79.99.

Is it really £20 better than the 550i?

[Vincent Vega]

Originally Posted by Uncle_Meat I was looking at one of them. Better looking buttons, and a bit chunkier and maybe stronger as I do give my phones a bit of a hard time sometimes... The cheapest I've found one of those on Orange (Where I live, Orange is the most reliable coverage. O2 suck arse out here in the sticks) is £79.99. Is it really £20 better than the 550i?

I'd say so mate. Have a look at these links; you can compare the 2 phones and gage other peoples opinions. I had the K800i and it is a fine phone, with a superb camera.

K550

K800

[Captain]

I'd stay away from the joysticks, Meat. It was what eventually killed my K700i and according to the repair guy it was a common fault with them.

The phone pretty much becomes inoperable without it.

[Uncle_Meat]

I'd heard a few things about those joysticks giving a bit of grief, and that was one thing that the 550i had going for it, plain old-fashioned buttons.

My problem is that with needing a PAYG handset, I'm going to be paying a fair couple of quid for it and I don't want to end up with something that has left me with not much change out of £100 and sucks arse at the end of it.


Fuck it. Think I'll just get a new battery for my old Nokia 3210.

[Gav]

Originally Posted by Uncle_Meat I'd heard a few things about those joysticks giving a bit of grief, and that was one thing that the 550i had going for it, plain old-fashioned buttons. My problem is that with needing a PAYG handset, I'm going to be paying a fair couple of quid for it and I don't want to end up with something that has left me with not much change out of £100 and sucks arse at the end of it. Fuck it. Think I'll just get a new battery for my old Nokia 3210.

Meat ,get yerself over to Dublin on a cheapie Ryan air flight ,theres a shop in Dublin Airport that sells 6230's and 6230i's for €100.Best phones that were ever made

[Hazel Motes]

Got myself a new phone, a Sony Ericsson W660i (walkman) and I must say it's great - I can use it as a multi-tool; camera, phone, mp3-player etc. Anyhow, I realize, there's potentially a game boy embedded in this phone. I have never owned a game boy or anything similar but I love playing games at work. Ok. Question goes as follows:
Is it possible to download FREE mobile phone games anywhere - safe and virus free?

[Gav]

Zedge is where I get all my phone games etc

[Ezekiel 25:17]

Virgin Mobile (uk) - Product Details

If you wanted to stick with samsung Meat, pretty decent phone, looks and skillzzzz wise. Not sure if you have to have that colour though but the price has just come right down.

[Uncle_Meat]

Well, my phone dilemma has been solved by our kid giving me his old K550i when I was up in Liverpool visiting over the weekend.

It wasn't working properly at first, kept coming up "Please insert SIM", just dirty/flat contacts where the sim goes in. 2 minutes soon fixed that. Groovy!

Secondly, it's now not just any K550i, it's now a W610i, courtesy of crossflashing the phone with the W610i firmware. Gains you the proper Walkman software, ability to use shockwave flash themes/menus and a few other odds & sods that the 610 has over the 550. Unlocked it to any network whilst I was there and jobs a goodun.

Next thing to do once I've recharged the battery (loads of warnings about flashing/fiddling with a less than 90% battery. Play it safe..) is to install some custom camera drivers for better camera/video quality, some audio drivers for louder/better sound quality and then get some custom themes/menus/icons on there.

Happy days. I was running out of things to flash/tweak/geek, so this should keep me going for a bit...