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Nokia's N-Series range is very impressive in terms of features.

Um, yeah.

And that is ignoring all the very successful 9x00 series communicators.

Seriously, I held the E61 today and it feels like an awesome pice of kit.

Most Nokia phones have such a nested phone book. Personally, I'd recommend the 6310i which doesn't have any of the camera rubbish, just a basic phone and a very long battery (>2weeks in my experience). I'm not sure how worldwidely it's available but it is certainly in the UK/Europe.

HTH.

S.

I can only recommend the Nokia 9300 - almost identical to the 9500 in spec, except without wi-fi and a camera. In exchange for these features it is far smaller and much more friendly to carry - it is not much bigger than the Nokia 6310, but a bit chunkier and heavier.

There is an excellent implementation of PuTTY for the phone, and I use it daily. As long as you feel that most connections will be over GRPS instead of needing wi-fi there is no reason to go for the excessive bulk of the Nokia 9500.

-- Pete.

I can only recommend the Nokia 9300 - almost identical to the 9500 in spec, except without wi-fi and a camera. In exchange for these features it is far smaller and much more friendly to carry - it is not much bigger than the Nokia 6310, but a bit chunkier and heavier.

There is an excellent implementation of PuTTY for the phone, and I use it daily. As long as you feel that most connections will be over GRPS instead of needing wi-fi there is no reason to go for the excessive bulk of the Nokia 9500.

-- Pete.

I can only recommend the Nokia 9300 - almost identical to the 9500 in spec, except without wi-fi and a camera. In exchange for these features it is far smaller and much more friendly to carry - it is not much bigger than the Nokia 6310, but a bit chunkier and heavier.

There is an excellent implementation of PuTTY for the phone, and I use it daily. As long as you feel that most connections will be over GRPS instead of needing wi-fi there is no reason to go for the excessive bulk of the Nokia 9500.

-- Pete.

Hmm although this may make some technical sense, I think that you need to consider the companies....

Nokia's Overview shows it to be an old Finish company that moved from a Cable Works company into mobile phones as the market grew.

Cisco's Overview shows it to be a 20 year old company that was set up by a group of American university hackers.

What Symbian are you talking about? It doesn't sound like the same one I use (a Nokia 9300)

Firstly there wasn't any Symbian phones in 1999. AFAIK the first one was the Nokia 7650 released in 2000/2001. The most advanced smartphones and communicators in Nokia's range all run Symbian.

For example the Nokia 6680 Bluetooth, 262k colour screen, twin video camera, video calling over 3G (UMTS) networks, loads of RAM, removable storage on MMCmicro (up to 1GB?), 32-bit multi-tasking OS, full web browser, bluetooth keyboard accessory available, etc. There's no Windows CE phone that does all that.

What Symbian are you talking about? It doesn't sound like the same one I use (a Nokia 9300)

Firstly there wasn't any Symbian phones in 1999. AFAIK the first one was the Nokia 7650 released in 2000/2001. The most advanced smartphones and communicators in Nokia's range all run Symbian.

For example the Nokia 6680 Bluetooth, 262k colour screen, twin video camera, video calling over 3G (UMTS) networks, loads of RAM, removable storage on MMCmicro (up to 1GB?), 32-bit multi-tasking OS, full web browser, bluetooth keyboard accessory available, etc. There's no Windows CE phone that does all that.

Pretty good organizer/phone with the added benefit of not getting into religious bullshit.

" Come to think of it, the iPod's Clickwheel would probably do okay for a cell phone. Just get it to emulate an old rotary phone or something."

Like this one from Nokia.

An interesting phone in that it only has start and stop call buttons plus two "soft keys" and the wheel. To enter numbers you spin the wheel until you come to the right number and then press the soft key to move on. This means it has to sync with something else really to make it work and yet the styling is aimed at the opposite end of the market from people who spend their lives synching things together, perhaps the intended market would get their butler or PA to do this or only ever use them for incoming calls. Anyway, although I've seen them in shops I never saw one in the wild.

I recently bought a new Nokia 9300 with a mobile contract in the UK. I had the 9110 and the 9210 communicators in the past and I love the format.

The thumb keyboard is very good, and it can easily cope with SMS, emails, documents, etc. I also have a version of PuTTY installed to ssh to servers.

Okay, so the battery life isn't anywhere near as long as your old RIM950, but then almost nothing does these days. You certainly won't need a PDA if you have a 9300, it does everything in a very nice format, and at last a reasonable size that can be carried around everywhere. The 9500 is identical, but has a camera and wi-fi, but for me the additional bulk is far too much to pay for the limited additional functionality that I would rarely use.

In fact, I welcome the lack of a camera on the 9300, as a contractor I need to be aware that in future I may receive work at locations that object to you bringing a camera onsite, which would cause all worlds of pain with any camera phone...

-- Pete.

I recently bought a new Nokia 9300 with a mobile contract in the UK. I had the 9110 and the 9210 communicators in the past and I love the format.

The thumb keyboard is very good, and it can easily cope with SMS, emails, documents, etc. I also have a version of PuTTY installed to ssh to servers.

Okay, so the battery life isn't anywhere near as long as your old RIM950, but then almost nothing does these days. You certainly won't need a PDA if you have a 9300, it does everything in a very nice format, and at last a reasonable size that can be carried around everywhere. The 9500 is identical, but has a camera and wi-fi, but for me the additional bulk is far too much to pay for the limited additional functionality that I would rarely use.

In fact, I welcome the lack of a camera on the 9300, as a contractor I need to be aware that in future I may receive work at locations that object to you bringing a camera onsite, which would cause all worlds of pain with any camera phone...

-- Pete.

I recently bought a new Nokia 9300 with a mobile contract in the UK. I had the 9110 and the 9210 communicators in the past and I love the format.

The thumb keyboard is very good, and it can easily cope with SMS, emails, documents, etc. I also have a version of PuTTY installed to ssh to servers.

Okay, so the battery life isn't anywhere near as long as your old RIM950, but then almost nothing does these days. You certainly won't need a PDA if you have a 9300, it does everything in a very nice format, and at last a reasonable size that can be carried around everywhere. The 9500 is identical, but has a camera and wi-fi, but for me the additional bulk is far too much to pay for the limited additional functionality that I would rarely use.

In fact, I welcome the lack of a camera on the 9300, as a contractor I need to be aware that in future I may receive work at locations that object to you bringing a camera onsite, which would cause all worlds of pain with any camera phone...

-- Pete.

I recently bought a new Nokia 9300 with a mobile contract in the UK. I had the 9110 and the 9210 communicators in the past and I love the format.

The thumb keyboard is very good, and it can easily cope with SMS, emails, documents, etc. I also have a version of PuTTY installed to ssh to servers.

Okay, so the battery life isn't anywhere near as long as your old RIM950, but then almost nothing does these days. You certainly won't need a PDA if you have a 9300, it does everything in a very nice format, and at last a reasonable size that can be carried around everywhere. The 9500 is identical, but has a camera and wi-fi, but for me the additional bulk is far too much to pay for the limited additional functionality that I would rarely use.

In fact, I welcome the lack of a camera on the 9300, as a contractor I need to be aware that in future I may receive work at locations that object to you bringing a camera onsite, which would cause all worlds of pain with any camera phone...

-- Pete.

• a monochrome screen that's actually visible in daylight
• superb battery life
• ability to make and receive calls and texts
• phone number memory
• predictive text input
• built in LED torch!

• WAP
• IR/Bluetooth
• Java games
• Downloadable ringtones
• Polyphonic ringtones
• Half second lag between pressing a key and phone responding (Sony Ericsson T610, I'm looking at you)
• Crashes
• Crazy Frog

as an example of a phone that can do up to 300 hours on stand-by

Nokia 5140i

I've had it for about 5 years. It's basically just a phone. It works great.

What about http://www.nokia.co.uk/nokia/0,,28358,00.html?pres s_release_id=http://press.nokia.com/PR/200505/9958 45.xml

I don't understand why people are complaining about the excess of phones with many features. Nobody forced you to buy one; there are *plenty* of alternatives on the market if you just look past the ones being advertised the loudest. I use this one (black, though, not blue), it's extremely small, functional, and its single "feature" is a small white LED at the top which works very well as a flashlight. What less could you ask for?

My perspective is that I would LOVE the combination of a decent phone and decent MP3 player. There isn't one out there. I find that to be a far more compelling combination than a camera / phone.

The 'camera phone' idea seems to have been driven more by the concept of video conferencing than what users actually use their phones for which is a low- to mid-range digital still camera.

What I want is a phone about the size of my Nokia. That phone is almost cell phone nirvana. All I really want is about three times more battery life in the same form factor. I don't want a battery crushing colour screen. I don't want a camera. I don't want a QWERTY keyboard to send emails with. I just want to make calls and not have to charge it up more than once a week. BUT I would trade my battery life if the tradeoff didn't completely destroy the phone's utility. Unlike my el-cheapo MP3 player, I am sure that they could engineer in a Lithium - Something battery and built in charger controller too.

Usually I carry one of those memory stick MP3 players. So what would be true convergence? A slightly bigger than Nokia 8130-sized MP3 player / phone with good battery life, reasonable 2-gig+ storage and a decent set of ear-bud headphones. Hell, all they need to do is add a reasonable mic in the bit where the two sides of the phones join in the middle and you would be sorted.

You cannot tell me that the iPod design team haven't thought of it. The iPod's circular touch pad controller screams old school rotary telephone.

Shame the iPod / iTunes thing was originally so US-centric simply because the GSM / SIM card thing makes the idea of a cross-network iPod phone combo very compelling. If Apple built an iPod that was about 2 cm's narrower, with a built in GSM phone and good battery life I would go buy it in a heartbeat.

You really need new glasses if Nokia 9300s bigger screen is not good enough for you. http://www.nokia.co.uk/nokia/0,,63586,00.html

Also forgot to mention that it does have a memory card, It came free with a 32 mb card and I don't really need anything bigger. Syncing with a PIM is easy, it uses SyncML so it can be done anywhere over wap/gprs.

Hate to sound like a phone geek, but my new Nokia 3220 with this standard mod has this feature, supported by 'Java motion' for programming, and ships games that use it...

I went into a phone shop two days ago.
Most major phone companys had a camera & java-less phone!
http://www.nokia.co.uk/nokia/0,,46548,00.html

There are lots and lots of phones that offer just the basics when it comes to features. If you don't want all these features, then go ahead and buy something like Nokia 1100 (I bought my non-technological mother that one. Really solid construction, works very well, good reception and it cheap as well!)

Me? I have a Nokia 6600 with just about all the imaginable features. And I do use those features (yes, that includes the web-browser!).

Seriously: It's pointless to whine "But I just want to make phone-calls! I don't need all these features!". In that case: just buy a basic phone! There are lots of those available! just because there are phones that are packed with features, does not mean that you are forced to buy one.

I am so bloody sick of this argument!

Go and buy a Nokia 1110.

It's a brand new Nokia with no camera, no mp3 ringtones, no gimmicks.

There are loads of basic phones out there which are nothing but talk and text devices. And they sell like hot cakes.

T
--
Not speaking for my employer

Nokia 1100. It's a plain old phone. No fancy gizmos.

The Nokia 1100. Just a phone. It's a big seller.

My girlfriend's Nokia 6230 can play mp3 and aac files, and also play mpeg4 files. And it (as another poster wished for) also has Bluetooth. I can't seem to find it sold in the US though, at least not under that name.

6600
has all the features as the phone in that Image and a conventional keypad. I thought the model in that pic is discontinued?

This depends on your definition of a row. I want straight, parallel lines of identical sized buttons.

Of the phones Nokia currently sell in the UK (where I live), the comparison shows only 4 phones that are conventional enough for me - one is the brick-sized 9220 Communicator (which doesn't fit in my pockets - trust me on this, my last phone was the similar-sized 9110i), two are spacialist TETRA phones and the other is the bottom of the range model. 3 of the 'coming soon' phones also look usable to me.

Take a look at the Nokia that actually has the features I want and tell me it's going to be intuitive to use!

Maybe the Nokia 6800 is the phone for you:

Nokia 6800

built in qwerty keyboard, quite nice, and not as heavy or bulky as you would expect.