Which SE Phone for me?

[faraaz]

Hi all, I've been using an N80 for 1 year now and I am totally SICK of how slow it is and how crap the battery life is. Camera is okay I guess, but after using it for so long, I honestly feel buying such phones in India is a waste, because half the features aren't supported here anyway.

So, now that I have decided to shift, here's what I'm looking for:

1) A freakin fantastic still camera. SE is famous for this apparently.

2) Good video recording capability...I've been shying away from SE phones for a while because of how bad the video recording capability is...but if there is any phone out there in their lineup that I don't know about which has good video recording, please tell me! But...I'm willing to adjust with crappy QCIF resolution if I have to because I am SICK of Nokia.

3) E-book reader or Document Viewer. Thing is, I read e-books a LOT on my phone so it is very important for me that I have some way of reading .txt, .htm, .doc or .pdb files on my phone. As long as atleast ONE of the above formats is supported either natively or through freeware third party applications, I'm satisfied. And yeah, Notes don't count for .txt files...has to display it like a proper document viewer.

4) Music...I listen to a lot of music on my phone so good music quality is a must. From what I've heard of SE, this won't be a problem.

5) Battery life...the 2 most important reasons I am shifting is crap battery life and crap speed. As far as battery life is concerned, I want it to last atleast 36-48 hours with moderate use (8-10 photos, 4-6 hours of music, 1-2 hours talktime etc). At any rate, if its significantly better than the crap that was N80, I'm a happy camper.

6) Signal reception. Not many people make this a sticking point, but thing is I work in an area with very weak signals so its important that the phone have strong signal reception. Some phones are great at this, some aren't. I'd like one which is!

7) Miscellany...this counts things like the looks of the phone, price etc. Price no bar really! But I want a fantastic bloody phone...so tell me what to buy!

[Pathik]

1.k790i
2.
3.nah
4.w830i
5.48hrs??? u serious??
6.most new fones r good at it...
but for all the features i wd tell u to get a n73me...

If you can live without document viewer or high resolution video, then i'll suggest going for SE W810i. If you must have them then go for the upcoming P1i.

[faraaz]

P1i eh? Hmmm...what's the price on this? And is it fast? Or is it going to be slow like all other smartphones? And I was very impressed by the SE K810 & K800i phones...are they available in India? And if so, is it possible to get a document viewer on these phones? I don't really care that much about video..

[a_k_s_h_a_y]

man k790i has got a 3.2 mega pixel cam..........so is the best cam phone
also will have auto focous and good flash

but i dunno if it has megabass or not.......which is bad for music department of the phone.........its great phone man

[gxsaurav]

Since your main requirment is a document viewer then go for N73 ME. It has 3.2 MP Camera, good music capabilities when coupled with a 1 GB memory card

[bhushan05d251]

K790 K800 K810

I think i've found the perfect phone for you, Samsung U600.
1. It has got a 3.2 mpix camera with auto focus.
2. It has 352x288 (CIF) resolution video recording.
3. It has document viewer including pdf reader.
4. It has music player with good sound quality.
5. Dunno about the battery life but should be adequate.
6. Signal reception should be good.
7. It has great all-round features and most importantly it looks great. It costs around 15k. Overall its much better than K790i and would be perfect for you.

[faraaz]

@krazyfrog: Thanks for the recommendation, but it has a Li-Ion 690 mAh battery...for comparison sake, N80 has Li-Ion 820 mAh (BL-5B) battery...so I'm not too sure if adequate is good enough, considering the whole reason I am shifting is crappy battery performance and phone speed.

@gx: Trying to get away from Nokia completely mate...don't think it hasn't crossed my mind. My girlfriend has the N73 and its a killer phone. BUT, its still slow, still based on Symbian and still doesn't have enough battery life to suit my taste. What I'm looking for is something beyond that. And I'm willing to sacrifice on Video quality to do it.

So basically, guys, I need a phone with document viewer capability, that isn't from Nokia and has all of my other requirements...

PS: The Samsung looked HOT, but how's the software? My brother has a D600 and its a PAIN to use because although the hardware is fine, the software is about as easy to use as driving a lorry blindfolded...

Read here the review of Samsung U600. Everything you wanted to know about it is here.
Part 1: http://www.mobile-review.com/review/...-u600-en.shtml
Part 2: http://www.mobile-review.com/review/...600-2-en.shtml

[Pathik]

Originally Posted by gx_saurav

Since your main requirment is a document viewer then go for N73 ME. It has 3.2 MP Camera, good music capabilities when coupled with a 1 GB memory card

U get a 2GB micro sd free with a n73me..

[ashisharya]

go 4 se w850i

[max_demon]

u can read txt file in k750 using book reader

[faraaz]

Originally Posted by max_demon

u can read txt file in k750 using book reader

seriously? So will this work in the k810 also? Because if so, i'll buy it right now! Can you pls confirm for the k810?

[Quiz_Master]

Ofcourse you can read e-books on K810. Its a J2ME phone. And there are lots of Java applications to read books on mobile.

One such is mjBook and its legally free too. Second is Libris.

You can read books through them in SE K810i. For mjBook you need to have mjBook Maker through which you can use pretty much all the formats and convert them to mjBook format.

There is also RepliGo Viewer. Its commercial but good one.

[faraaz]

Whoa!!! That's amazing! Okay, now that I can read my books on any phone, I can go ahead and just buy whatever phone I like...and I'm loving the K-series...mostly for that 3 MP autofocus camera, which is the most important thing I need from a phone.

Also, for comparison's sake, how is the sound quality on the K-series phones (specifically the K810) as compared to the N-series (N80, N73ME etc) ??

[Pravas]

Hi, i am using Sony Ericsson k790i from the past 9 Months.

* It has great still photography features but bad video quality(--->As compared to Nokia N72 2Mp cam)]
*Sound Quality is Good with a 5 band Equalizer...but no Megabass.
*But its got a great speed as compared to other Symbian Smart phones as it is based on Java Operating System.
*You can directly read A complete webpage (.html) saved. Just copy entire links and folders into your phone and navigate from the start link
*I dont have any idea about book reader.....but you can directly read .txt messages.
*You can also edit .txt messages using MobiExplorer v3.
*Huh..one more thing...the speaker is sound is Descent but great on earpieces.
*Battery life is good as you mentioned.
*I have not tested on higher mem cards...so no idea

[faraaz]

Nice nice...

Okay, can someone please confirm whether K-series phones support flight mode? You know, where you remove the SIM card and can still use the phone normally? Can't confirm this in any of the websites.

Also, I'm hearing bad things about K-series loudspeakers...can someone tell me what the volume level on the loudspeaker is like? When making phone calls, for instance, or just playing music like a tape deck!

[gxsaurav]

Check GSMArena.com for review of K790i & above phones which support flight mode.

Volume in K Series speaker is quite good for phone use but not good for music use.

[faraaz]

Nice...K810 it is...does anyone know if an 'i' version is available in India?

[gxsaurav]

Ya it is. But I K810i has no support for pdf etc

[faraaz]

yeah...but who cares?? not like I read pdf's anyway...its mostly .txt and .htm format e-books! Cool...I guess the K810i is going to be my next phone! I wonder if Sony World stocks this...

[gxsaurav]

Why don't u take a look at Windows Mobile based smart phones? They render htm & txt pages properly, you can also edit, & if you are paying for a k810i then I would say a Windows Mobile Phone isn't that far.

[faraaz]

True true...but what about the Camera?? SE has mindblowing cameras...and I'm not too impressed with the battery life on these things...my friend has an i-Mate with WM5, so yeah, I had a look at them but I didn't like them too much.

[dhan_shh]

U can hav try at SE P990i,with 19.6K I think it has all necessary features including Symbian OS UIQ 3.0,so variety of 3rd party softwarwe supported.

[Pravas]

@Faraz....What at Flight mode....remove sim...What you talking about. I do have a flight mode option (SE k790i)but i cant operate my phone without a SIM card. Or correct me if i am wrong..cuz i tested it several times in my phone.

P990i for 19.6k...May i know the place

[spidyweb]

All K series phones after k750 has got flight mode.You don't have to take out your sim.When you start the phone it asks you to start in normal or flight mode.I bought K800i day before yesterday from UK.its camera is awesome and flash is compared to any digital camera.there is a small difference of it from k750i which I had been using for last 1 and half years.in k750 if you play music in speaker they don't sound much(I am talking abt the intensity)...but if you set as a ring tone or if you are just trying the ringtone volume then thats very intense.there was another case with fm radio.if you listening to the radio in speaker that sounds as intense as the ringtone volume.the case is different in k800i.whehther you listen to radio or listen to music in speaker they sound loud enough(obviously louder than k750i when you listen to music in speaker,but bit less than the k750 radio)but not louder as ringtone.when you listen as ringtone its equal to k750 ringtone.overall its better than k750 only with whe exception that k750 has magabass.But,if you increase the bass in your equalizer to max and listen to it in a headphone its 90% comparable to megabass.trust me i am the user of both and i also tried w550i,w810i and w710i.

one more thing i forgot....don't go for k810i.its keypad really sucks.its got only one advantage over k800 and thats usb 2.0
now i have one qn to the forum..can anybody tell me the price of k800 in india.I bought it in uk in 160£.so,i am trying to compare.

[gxsaurav]

Originally Posted by faraaz

True true...but what about the Camera?? SE has mind blowing cameras...and I'm not too impressed with the battery life on these things...my friend has an i-Mate with WM5, so yeah, I had a look at them but I didn't like them too much.

Camera isn't that bad. A quick search in Microsoft India revealed for iMate & O2 XDA for Windows Mobile PDA/Phones. Personally if you decide to go for Windows Mobile phones then wait for O2 to upgrade there products with Windows Mobile 6 cos it is already out now.

[Third Eye]

i have heard that the camera of k800i is equal to n95.is it true.

[spidyweb]

n95 has got 5 megapixel camera and se k800 has 3.2 megapixel.but megapixel doesn't guarantee you the quality...its just resolution of the picture that means the dimension...in k800 sony has incorporated some amazing features of their famous digicams.only catch is in nokia the video resolution is 640*480 whereas in Se its only 176*144.
so,if you really want to be a good photographer then go for sony...but for some video recordings you can go for n95.......but anyway for a video with 640*480 is not at all good as compared with a videocam