Which Series 60 Phone to Get
 

Okay I know that the question of which phone to partner with an N800 has been asked a hundred times here. Personally I love my imate JasJam but for a project I'm working on I really need to get my mits on a Nokia S60 phone.

Here in NZ the choice is actually quite limited but the options for me appear to be:

N95 - But not the 2nd version as it is unlikely to make it here anyway
E61i - lovely device but did feature pack ever get on there?
E65 - mmmmm
6110 Navigator - why not

My requirements will be for GPS (although I will probably use a BT GPS unit as you can't share the integrated GPS module with the N800), S60 interface and that's about it other than the standard stuff.

So given the 4 above, who would chose what and why?

Re: Which Series 60 Phone to Get
 

N81 ;)

No, seriously, depending on your budget. N95 is the best of the bunch, looks really terrific, but is bigger than the other ones you listed. I would choose the smallest of the nuch, as I want my mobile phone mainly for talking and I want it to fit my pocket. Especially if you intend to use n800 for net browsing, the advantage of n95 great scree is not that important.

Summa summarum: smallest and cheapest. And separated gps.

Re: Which Series 60 Phone to Get
 

OTOH: N95 will definitely be ovi compatible. So, that's a nice thing. And the UI is awesome compared to the others.

Re: Which Series 60 Phone to Get
 

konttori - the N81 will be Ovi compatible and have the new UI (it was only launched a couple of days ago along with the new 8GB N95).

However while the new 8GB N95 will have Ovi support and a new UI, the Nokia dude present at the launch refused to commit when asked if the existing N95 will be receiving these goodies via a firmware update. As BarneyC stated, the new 8GB N95 (2nd version) won't be coming to NZ any time soon, so he could end up without Ovi support and the old UI in the current N95 (unless you have a link where Nokia commit to updating the old devices with Ovi + new UI). :)

Re: Which Series 60 Phone to Get
 

@Millhouse - hadn't even considered the new N81. I agree it is a sexy looking wee beasty. Might have to do some digging to see if any of the grey channels are bringing it into NZ. That or get the rellies in the UK to buy one and ship it, like I did with a pair of N800's.

Re: Which Series 60 Phone to Get
 

I was going to get the E70 (for the keyboard and VoIP/SIP client), but ended up with the N95 (for the video camera, still camera, and GPS, and SIP too).

I'm very happy with the N95, although it took me a couple of weeks to get comfortable using many of the features. (It was my first smart phone of any kind). Setting up the internet phone in particular is complicated because you have to seperately configure the net Access Point, SIP account, and SIP settings.

Other bad things about the N95: I find that it has similarly bad power management behaviour with certain wireless access points as the N800 (specifically, I have to disable power management with my Billion 7404VGO router, but it works very well with a Netgear WPN824 at work). With power management the battery will be drained in a day with wifi switched on, so I have a cheap charging cradle. Without power managment, you can almost watch the battery discharge over an hour or so, even when the max transmit power is set to 4mW.

I've heard that there is a version coming with 8GB storage built in, but I also heard that it doesn't have an external microSD slot. Mine has 160MB of built in RAM, and I've read that it can take an 8GB card in the external slot (I've only used a 2GB card), so that's fine.

I've also seen the US version, which has a bigger battery compared to the European version that I have. That would be useful (but you'll probably still end up recharging every day anyway). I see that it doesn't have a lens cover (which also works as a switch to activate the main camera).

The camera in the N95 is very impressive (excellent "for a phone"), and the GPS is a lot of fun, and useful, and more responsive with the current firmware (v12.0.0.13). It probably requires a signed application to expose the internal GPS as a Bluetooth GPS device, but I've no doubt that it could be done.

There are lots of freely available apps, both in Java and natively compiled, and a python interpreter is available too. In particular mgmaps is a lot of fun (combining GPS position with Google Maps, MS Maps, Yahoo Maps, ..., and uploading your position to http://www.gmap-track.com

The GPS and maps: if you're in the UK, the http://www.viewranger.com/ application is great for hiking and biking, and looking at the stats for the tracks that you can record, and well integrated with the phone features. The built in map application is great for road travel, as is mgmaps.

It works very well as a modem for the N800, but the N95 on its own is very capable, and I actually prefer it for a quick check of email and RSS feeds vs the N800.

Final niggle, the N95 records MP4 videos at 600x480 that the N800 can't play back! The N95 can play back MP4 files encoded with Nero Digital AVC, which the N800 can't do either. (Yet?)

Sorry to ramble, but I hope it's helpful. Did I mention I love my N95?

===

Update

A built in app that I discovered was useful: local search. Type in a company or service name and search (the phone gives your current location as a default), and a list of companies from Yell (Yellow Pages directory) will be returned. You can add any result directly to the phone address book. Cute.

Update 2

The phone fits in my pocket very comfortably ;-)

Re: Which Series 60 Phone to Get
 

The new UI is probably RAM hungry, hence the increase in RAM in the new N95s and the rest of Nokia's new phones announced this week.
That could be a reason why the original N95 owners might not be seeing it in a firmware update.

Re: Which Series 60 Phone to Get
 

you are so right about no update
that's one thing i hate about these phones you spend all this money then you turn your back for a sec and here's the one they should of drop in the first place

Re: Which Series 60 Phone to Get
 

Welcome to the world of mobiles/handys/cellular telephones.
It's an industry-wide practice.

Re: Which Series 60 Phone to Get
 

Oooh yeah, if only there was a way to link the N95 GPS to the IT. That would be a killer combo.

But yeah, I've been eying the N81 as an ideal pairing, specifically with balancing the size differences and the "experience" focuses of the two. They just seem really complimentary.

Re: Which Series 60 Phone to Get
 

I might be able to help as I write for All About Symbian, a site which reviews Symbian phones including S60. I've had a go on quite a number of S60 devices over the summer, including the 6110, 5700, 6120, N95 etc and heard the thoughts of AAS staff members about their phones, so we've covered pretty much every S60 model there is.

My personal pick by a long way would be the Nokia 6120 Classic, if you can get it. It's definitely the best S60 phone I've ever used, possibly the best phone in general. It's very compact, as far as I know it's the smallest and lightest smartphone in the world right now (66cc, 89g). It's very very stable (it didn't crash at all in the weeks I had it), and the processor is 369 mhz so the menus are very fast. The camera is 2mp with a flash, which is good although not quite the headline-grabbing 5mp of the N95. The video camera is a QVGA one (320x240) at 15fps, but it's surprisingly good quality, easily good enough for YouTube, and there's a built-in video editor. It supports GSM (quad band), 3G (dual band) and 3.5G HSDPA so if your network supports it you can get phone network internet speeds up to several megabits, which is rather useful for internet tablet or laptop modem use.

On top of all that, the 6120 has the lowest ever launch price of any S60 device, it costs less than half the price of the N95.

If you can't get the 6120 though, I'd still go for a numbered S60 model if possible.

The recent numbered S60 models I've reviewed seem to be more stable than the Nseries models, possibly because the recent numbered S60 phones are all made by Nokia Mobile Phones (who make most of Nokia's phones in huge volumes) while the Nseries are all made by Nokia Multimedia (who only make Nokia's more expensive phones in smaller volumes). The numbered S60s are also significantly cheaper because they're being sold as phones rather than "multimedia computers". For example, the N76 and 6290 have virtually identical technical specifications and very similar form factors, yet the 6290 costs about 40% less than the N76.

Re: Which Series 60 Phone to Get
 

Krisse

Two questions...Is the Nokia 6120 available in the United States? Is the 3g radio compatible with the US 3g signals? How does it compare to the E50? Sorry if that's too many questions (I guess that was three of them), but I'm looking for an S60 phone to replace my N80. So far, the leader in the clubhouse is the E61i, but I'm not really sure how much I will use the wifi. On the N80, it killed the battery. On the other hand, it uses the same battery that my N800 and 770 use...

Thanks in advance for your input.

Re: Which Series 60 Phone to Get
 

I don't know what the availability is, you'd have to check with retailers and/or operators there.

The 6120 has dualband 3G frequencies, 850 and 2100, one of which (850) is used for 3G in at least some parts of the US. I don't know any more than this though, you'd have to ask your local network operators what frequencies are required.

The GSM/EDGE frequencies should be no problem at all as it's a quadband phone, it will work on any GSM network.

Sorry I can't help more but I'm based in Europe.

If you're in the US and want a 3G S60 phone, the new US-only version of the N95 might be a better bet as it uses entirely American 3G frequencies. It also has 3.5G (HSDPA) compatibility with US networks, which is good from an internet tablet point of view.


A lot of people asked this! The E50 is a bit bigger and heavier, and doesn't have 3G. It uses a slightly older version of the S60 platform, S60 3rd instead of S60 3rd FP1. It has a slightly worse camera and it uses pop-port instead of USB. Otherwise they're pretty similar

The 6120 costs about 20% more as it's a newer model, but I'd say the extra is well worth it considering everything you get for your money.


I've got an E61 (which also uses the same battery as the N800) and the wifi does quite well. I've had it about a year, it's a pretty good phone with a nice big screen. The one thing that annoyed me about it was the joystick, it cut into my thumbs, but the E61i has replaced the joystick with a direction pad so that isn't a problem any more.

Re: Which Series 60 Phone to Get
 

Well, in another month or two I'm dropping some dough on the new N95 US-model, mostly for the larger RAM. That's really my ONLY complaint about the original N95, not being able to multitask very well. Oh I can download podcasts/vidcasts while also updating RSS feeds via Headline easily enough, but the second I crank up GPS-anything or web browse, apps get closed without notice in the background. Not that I do that very often, but it would be nice to be able to use TomTom/Route66 in mute mode while also listening to podcasts.
Sometimes that works, but after a while the podcast client just closes.

Really it depends on how much "oomph" you want from your S60 phone.
If you're not into wi-fi data or GPS then the 6120 would be the best best.
Also, the 6120 is rated at the following HSDPA/GSM freqs so it should be possible to get your HSDPA on here in the states: HSDPA / GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900.
The 6120 also has full A2DP stereo bluetooth support, mini-USB connectivity, micro-SD slot.
It's a good little phone if a little "weak" for my needs (only 64MB RAM but still more than the 1G N95, no wi-fi or GPS).
If you ant something with more "oomph" but don't need GPS then go for an N81.
Need GPS and "oomph"? The US-spec N95 is the way to go.

Re: Which Series 60 Phone to Get
 

Great discussion thanks peeps.

Having done some hard thinking here is a list of the features I need / want for the projects we are working on (does this change the thinking?)...

Essential:
3G being GSM for NZ/OZ
802.11b/g wifi
Series 60 3rd Ed

Damn Handy
S60 3rd Ed Feature Pack 1 (just so it is the latest version)
A2DP
GPS
Some expandable memory slot (don't care about the format)

I still really like the E65 but it lacks FP1 - does anyone have details of what FP1 really provided?

Re: Which Series 60 Phone to Get
 

FP1 is nice but I wouldn't worry too much if you don't have it.

The main plus point is the S60 browser has been upgraded, it now lets you save passwords, run flash within pages, and allows you to rotate the screen so you can view pages in horizontal mode. The horizontal mode is the nicest thing, it makes viewing pages much easier than before, especially if you also zoom out and set fonts to small.

Other nice things:
-You can create folders and sub-folders (and sub-sub-folders etc), and place any icons in any folder at any level, so you can structure the UI more to your liking.
-The settings menus have all been placed in a single section, which saves a lot of bother.
-There's a blue ring which appears next to app icons which are still running (or next to their folder if you're at a higher level of the folder hierarchy). This is quite handy if you forget to exit applications, it reminds you to switch them off.
-There's a couple of 3D modes for the menu system. They look nice but they're not that useful, I switched back to the old grid view fairly quickly.

Incidentally, there's an FP2 announced which will have more radical changes, but it's not due to enter service until well into 2008.

Re: Which Series 60 Phone to Get
 

From an inside source, the upcoming N83 is expected to be usable as a wifi-modem/access point, so you can share a HSDPA connection full speed over wifi. Which is what I'm waiting for :)

Re: Which Series 60 Phone to Get
 

I'm glad BarneyC started this thread. I've been trying to decide on an S60 phone lately also. I think I'm going to go with the N95 US version for sure now. The specs just sound right to me. :)

Re: Which Series 60 Phone to Get
 

@=DC= thanks for that. In an ideal world the uS N95 8Gb would be my phone of choice, but for the simple truth that it is probably never going to get to NZ and by the time it does it will be horribly expensive AND almost ready to be replaced by the next and already announced Nokia phone in Europe or US.

Just to give you an idea - the N95 from Vodafone (we only really have Telecom and Vodafone here) is NZ$1,399. Yesterday we had a news story here showing the median take home wage to be $674. Of course you can get the N95 a lot cheaper if you take on a contract - Vodafone will most likely knock that price in half if you sign up for 3 years.

The upside is we now have half decent 3G data plans being 3Gb for NZ$69 (with an additional 3Gb for another N$10) a month.

To be fair the E65 still really appeals to me if it wasn't for a couple of glaring things:
- still uses that horrible popport (?) rather than mini-USB
- no a2dp
- FP1 (thanks for the update - given that we really want this phone for testing of applications under development and that we have an older S60 phone knocking around I think FP1 must be bumped up the list to essential)

Re: Which Series 60 Phone to Get
 

Yeah, I plan on throwing my prepaid T-mobile SIM in the US N95 to keep the connectivity costs under control (that or go SIM-free until I work up the nerve to go the contract route).

Anyone know if there are any issues with using tmo prepaid SIM cards in the N95? I'm trying to get a full-featured phone without the hassle of a full-featured bill.

Re: Which Series 60 Phone to Get
 

They work fine and the N95 works fine on T-Mobile nets here.
It also works great with AT&T pre-paid cards as well.

Re: Which Series 60 Phone to Get
 

Thanks iball. *pulls in a Napoleon Dynamite "Yesssss"* :)

Re: Which Series 60 Phone to Get
 

Okay so we had a suggestion of the 6120 and for me it lacked one thing Wifi.

Nokia's formal announcement of the E51 is the phone for me methinks.

The specs have everything I need (S60 3.1, wifi, usb, bluetooth 2 and so on) and whilst the form factor of the E65 is nicer I'm just fine with a candy bar.

As soon as I have checked out the 3G specs for here in NZ then I might just have found the phone for me. Great for testing apps, great as a modem for my much loved IT.