Gaz6002 Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 I've heard several bad reports about the N95... I know someone who has had 3 of them in the last year and another mate of mine has had his repaired twice in 6 months. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lui Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 Samsung soul for me nice style / slim / 5mega pixel camera & all top features too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 I've heard several bad reports about the N95... I know someone who has had 3 of them in the last year and another mate of mine has had his repaired twice in 6 months. The problem the N95 has is that early phones could be a bit crap, a known issue with a few parts of the actual hardware (speaker rattle, slide mechanism etc) and some quite dire OS releases which some of the providers (Orange in particular) were slow to provide the upgrades for. Now it has a reputation based on the early months when the reality is that it's now very stable with vastly improved features and battery life, even more so with the 8GB (apart from the lens cover not being there on the camera anymore). All I would say is that when you get it run the software to upgrade the OS to the latest version before you even press any other buttons, get up to date and then you should be happy Then start looking back on here for all the cool toys that use the GPS / Accelerometer etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl0s Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 The N95 is a great gadget but it's limited as a business phone. It's too delicate, the wrong shape, and its software is of limited use for email sync. Blackberrys are all good and nice, but their problem is that you only have very basic OTA email, no proper over-the-air sync with your mail system for calendaring, read/unread status, sent items etc, until you agree to a ~£35/month BES tariff, and install BES or BPS (1 user free BPS, so I have done a few of those now) onto your back-end mail system. The idea of just 'doing it yourself', rather than relying on a different tariff & provisioning, blackberry servers etc, is one that I like a lot, so provided you have an Exchange server (2003 onwards), the Windows Mobile system (Exchange ActiveSync) ticks all the right boxes for me, alongside something like T-Mobile web'n'walk to cover the data usage and then some, however there is one problem, and that is that.. Windows Mobile sucks. It doesn't do a good enough job of being a phone, and it's very much like jumping back to Windows 3.1 in terms of how modern it feels. But there is light at the end of the tunnel.. Not enough people seem to be aware that you can do this 'blackberry type stuff' with a Nokia business smartphone (that'd be E-series then, of which E51 is the cream of the crop IMO, 3.5G HSDPA, wifi, fast CPU, acceptable battery life etc.). Nokia's free Mail for Exchange application speaks 'Exchange Activesync' with the Exchange servers. There are tons and tons of people out there who also prefer the "direct data-connection to your servers" approach, rather than the Blackberry approach, but think that this means they have to have a sucky Windows Mobile PDA-cum-halfphone. The Nokia 6310 was every business man's favourite phone. http://www.mobilesdata.com/images/big/Nokia/6310.jpg The Nokia E51 is, in my opinion, the smartphone equivalent of that. (almost everybody seems to not like it in pictures, but love it once they pick it up..) http://www.3g.co.uk/PR/Sept2007/E51.jpg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaz6002 Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 The problem the N95 has is that early phones could be a bit crap, a known issue with a few parts of the actual hardware (speaker rattle, slide mechanism etc) and some quite dire OS releases which some of the providers (Orange in particular) were slow to provide the upgrades for. Now it has a reputation based on the early months when the reality is that it's now very stable with vastly improved features and battery life, even more so with the 8GB (apart from the lens cover not being there on the camera anymore). All I would say is that when you get it run the software to upgrade the OS to the latest version before you even press any other buttons, get up to date and then you should be happy Then start looking back on here for all the cool toys that use the GPS / Accelerometer etc I see what you are saying although I remain un-convinced. My friends have had serious hardware issues on later incarnations of the thing. One particular problem happened repeatedly: The phone stopped working as a personal unit and would only transmit voice via the speakerphone system. This is not good when you're arguing with the girlfriend about how she thinks you should come home and spend time with her... trust me, we all had a lot of fun laughing at him for that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustGav Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 Not enough people seem to be aware that you can do this 'blackberry type stuff' with a Nokia business smartphone (that'd be E-series then, of which E51 is the cream of the crop IMO, 3.5G HSDPA, wifi, fast CPU, acceptable battery life etc.). Nokia's free Mail for Exchange application speaks 'Exchange Activesync' with the Exchange servers. There are tons and tons of people out there who also prefer the "direct data-connection to your servers" approach, rather than the Blackberry approach, but think that this means they have to have a sucky Windows Mobile PDA-cum-halfphone. I know what you mean, and while I do love the blackberry service, my work phone is a nice hardy bricky E61 which to be honest is perfect as a business phone as well. APART from the issue with VOIP with CCME (To be fair it is cisco's fault for the way they did SIP/skinny on CCME)... BUT the blackberry phone certainly has the edge when it comes to message management, the single interface, the ability to search, the contact history (where it combines, txt, sms, email and phone calls)... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl0s Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 I know what you mean, and while I do love the blackberry service, my work phone is a nice hardy bricky E61 which to be honest is perfect as a business phone as well. APART from the issue with VOIP with CCME (To be fair it is cisco's fault for the way they did SIP/skinny on CCME)... BUT the blackberry phone certainly has the edge when it comes to message management, the single interface, the ability to search, the contact history (where it combines, txt, sms, email and phone calls)... Well, I have to admit to never actually using a Blackberry, so I'll accept that you're definitely right There are, I am told, some rather nice features of Exchange Activesync with Exchange 2007 though, such as searching your entire however-many-gigabyte mailbox from your smartphone, rather than just searching those messages that are actually on the phone (I have mine set to sync 1 week back). As for the Cisco call manager stuff, I have no idea again but then the Blackberry doesn't do SIP at all anyway, does it? (does it?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustGav Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 Well, I have to admit to never actually using a Blackberry, so I'll accept that you're definitely right There are, I am told, some rather nice features of Exchange Activesync with Exchange 2007 though, such as searching your entire however-many-gigabyte mailbox from your smartphone, rather than just searching those messages that are actually on the phone (I have mine set to sync 1 week back). As for the Cisco call manager stuff, I have no idea again but then the Blackberry doesn't do SIP at all anyway, does it? (does it?) I'd be interested in finding out more about the 'blackberry' feature for exchange with the E-series phone, it is our standard phone here and would be nice to actually use them to their full potential. If you are ever down my way you are welcome to play with the blackberry and get a proper view of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl0s Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 I'd be interested in finding out more about the 'blackberry' feature for exchange with the E-series phone, it is our standard phone here and would be nice to actually use them to their full potential. If you are ever down my way you are welcome to play with the blackberry and get a proper view of it. When I say "blackberry type stuff", I mean OTA email/PIM sync. To the layman 'I want a blackberry' seems to mean 'I want mobile email' All you do is open up port 80 (or 443 for https) on the exchange 2003/2007 server, as you would for OWA, and install Mail for Exchange on the phone. The phone makes the connection to http(s)://owaserver/microsoft-server-activesync (you don't see the microsoft-server-activesync.. you just set the owa server's hostname in the phones setup). and keeps the connection open all the time, with a tiny heartbeat packet to overcome aggressive routers/firewalls that close the connection due to inactivity. My emails consistently arrive on the phone before they arrive on my Outlook desktop which is using a standard non-cached regular tcp/ip connection (i.e. not rpc over http). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bromy Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 Just ordered the LG secret (carbon fibre) will be delivered from vodafone on tuesday. Using the n95 at the moment and fancied something a little slimmer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustGav Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 When I say "blackberry type stuff", I mean OTA email/PIM sync. To the layman 'I want a blackberry' seems to mean 'I want mobile email' All you do is open up port 80 (or 443 for https) on the exchange 2003/2007 server, as you would for OWA, and install Mail for Exchange on the phone. The phone makes the connection to http(s)://owaserver/microsoft-server-activesync (you don't see the microsoft-server-activesync.. you just set the owa server's hostname in the phones setup). and keeps the connection open all the time, with a tiny heartbeat packet to overcome aggressive routers/firewalls that close the connection due to inactivity. My emails consistently arrive on the phone before they arrive on my Outlook desktop which is using a standard non-cached regular tcp/ip connection (i.e. not rpc over http). Got a link for it, might have a go with it over the weekend on our exchange server. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supra61 Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 Just orderd the samsung soul arrives tuesday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jake Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 I'm still very happy with the n95 I bought from Carl0s all that time ago. It's kept up to date with the latest firmware and, touch wood, I've had no problems with it at all. I know people say the battery life is crap but I've not found that. I turn off BT and WiFi when not using them and I usually get 3 days between charges. Anyway, so what if you have to charge the phone every day? Doesn't exactly cost you much/anything and only takes 15mins How do people manage to spend 2-3 hours a day on their mobile? Do you work miles away from where you work and spend your whole commute on the phone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobSheffield Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 I have an N95 and i find its nice too. Not found any of the niggles people talk about with regard to crashing. My only criticism if any would be that its too easy to exit/delete a text but i think the button configuration on the new models removes that problem (mines an older style one i think) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 One thing for the N95 users - delete texts before you end up with 2000 in your inbox, they get into a paddy at that point and stop telling you about new messages, you have to use the PC software to remove them all and then hard reset so it works again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl0s Posted May 24, 2008 Share Posted May 24, 2008 Got a link for it, might have a go with it over the weekend on our exchange server. Sorry, I thought you meant you had got a link for it. d'oh. http://www.businesssoftware.nokia.com/mail_for_exchange_downloads.php Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl0s Posted May 24, 2008 Share Posted May 24, 2008 I'm still very happy with the n95 I bought from Carl0s all that time ago. It's kept up to date with the latest firmware and, touch wood, I've had no problems with it at all. I know people say the battery life is crap but I've not found that. I turn off BT and WiFi when not using them and I usually get 3 days between charges. Anyway, so what if you have to charge the phone every day? Doesn't exactly cost you much/anything and only takes 15mins How do people manage to spend 2-3 hours a day on their mobile? Do you work miles away from where you work and spend your whole commute on the phone? I do think the N95 is a great gadget, and it is very fast and has a super screen. If I was due an upgrade I would probably go for an N95 8GB, but I would probably still end up selling it again eventually and keeping the E51 that I already have. I was going to do this, but decided that with these silly 18 month contracts, I would wait for the N96 instead. Now I am thinking of just going sim-only with T-Mobile, since it's becoming clear to me that the fancy-phone contracts are subsidising the fancy phones with a higher monthly charge. I always thought that if you spent a bit, you got a fancy phone regardless, and the providers have never really seemed to offer decent sim-only contracts, but T-Mobile seem to be doing exactly that (~£30/month for something like a thousand minutes sim-only, but only 700/800 minutes if it's done as a fancy-phone contract.). My bills are usually £90 - £100/month with Orange and a paltry 25mb data limit, so you can see why I'm enticed by T-Mobile. I think I have 600 inclusive minutes at the moment and I am using 800 - 900. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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