Mobile Phone for 8k?

[IronManForever]

Guys.
Im here on behalf of 2 friends who want a cellphone. One's gone kaput and the other got sick of his old BnW . And Im doing all the research to give them the best I can at the price. And I have come to you guys.

Here's what they want. There are two categories, one phone needed in both categories. The budget is 8.5k and at the max extendable to 9k.

1. Smartphone
A good combination of:
- Software compatibility.
- Ergonomic usage.
- Fair enough screen.
- Fair enough sound (2.5/3.5 mm Jack if possible, rather than the pop-port).
- Fair enough camera (for uploading to blogs, etc).

2. Multimedia Phone
Something that has;
- Good Music quality and volume. (a 3.5 mm jack if possible)
- Good music format supprt.
- Good enough screen for videos.
- FM (it oughtta be there isnt it?).
- At least 2MP camera. Can we have some kinda flash-cam in this budget?.
- Ergonomic enough.


All that has to be done is the mentioned budget; the best possible mobile in the budget. If there's some model higher-priced than that but good enough, do quote it also; although please recommend one in the price range at least.
They have given me 2 days; so be quick guys. Ive seen this sub-forum to be very responsive for requests. I hope Im right.

IronMan.

[1235Sam]

2. Multimedia Phone
k550i flash it to walkman
it has everything u need except 3.5mm jack

or if can extend ur budget then k790i(price near 10k)

[krates]

K550i, W580i

[ico]

Originally Posted by IronManForever

1. Smartphone
A good combination of:
- Software compatibility.
- Ergonomic usage.
- Fair enough screen.
- Fair enough sound (2.5/3.5 mm Jack if possible, rather than the pop-port).
- Fair enough camera (for uploading to blogs, etc).

No other options than Nokia N70 or N72.....

Everything is fair enough in those phones........

Originally Posted by IronManForever

2. Multimedia Phone
Something that has;
- Good Music quality and volume. (a 3.5 mm jack if possible)
- Good music format supprt.
- Good enough screen for videos.
- FM (it oughtta be there isnt it?).
- At least 2MP camera. Can we have some kinda flash-cam in this budget?.
- Ergonomic enough.

W810i.....

The best 2mp camera in the history of mobile phones, very good sound - Its a Walkman phone. It will play MP3 and AAC formats.

You can't expect a phone of 2.2 or 2.4 inch screen with a resolution of 240*320 in this budget for playing videos.

For video playback, Video Resolution of 176*144 - 3GP file. Use Super to encode.
Preferable settings to encode,
Output container - 3GP, Video Codec - MPEG4, Audio Codec - AAC, Frame rate - 25.

[desiibond]

Smartphone: Nokia E50 (if available) or SE G502
Multimedia Phone: W350i or W380i

[IronManForever]

Originally Posted by 1235Sam

2. Multimedia Phone
k550i flash it to walkman
it has everything u need except 3.5mm jack

Yes; thats a pretty good Multimedia phone. They say it can multitask despite being a multimedia phone. Is it true? Source- GSMArena User Review. I guess ELFpack has to be applied and custom firmwares should be used, isnt it? And does it support unlimted voice recording?
It at least has a 2.5 mm jack; isnt it? Something like a pop-port/USB in a multimedia phone isnt appealing.
Also what kinda flash does K550i have? LED perhaps? or Xenon? Please clear it out.

Originally Posted by krates

K550i, W580i

Whats the price of W580i? Is it in the budget? I feel its a bit weak/delicate as it has shake controls, isnt it? Please elaborate it. Im noob about SE mobiles.

Originally Posted by gagandeep

No other options than Nokia N70 or N72.....

Then, N72 will be better for my friend. 3G wont be used and EDGE will be enough. So N70 has more features than required. And rest is same between N70 and N72. I actually like N72 looks, much better (subjective though).

Originally Posted by gagandeep

W810i.....

Price dude? I dunno much about SE. Any source where I can atleast find Indian prices of these phones?

Originally Posted by gagandeep

You can't expect a phone of 2.2 or 2.4 inch screen with a resolution of 240*320 in this budget for playing videos.

True.

Originally Posted by gagndeep

For video playback, Video Resolution of 176*144 - 3GP file. Use Super to encode.
Preferable settings to encode,
Output container - 3GP, Video Codec - MPEG4, Audio Codec - AAC, Frame rate - 25.

Thanx.

Originally Posted by desiibond

Smartphone: Nokia E50 (if available) or SE G502
Multimedia Phone: W350i or W380i

E50, is it that cheap? Camera one?
And I wont call SE G502 a smartphone. It has the propietary OS, none like Symbian, WM or Linux for that matter.
W350i => New phone, don't know how it performs.
W380i => Clamshell not preffered, Many negetive User opinions and buggy according to some reviews.

Thanx for the Input guys, Im open to suggestions.

IronMan.

[ico]

Originally Posted by IronManForever

Price dude? I dunno much about SE. Any source where I can atleast find Indian prices of these phones?

Rs. 8.5K.....It has a LED flash.

K550i also has a LED flash.

Considering the camera, prefer W810i over K550i. W810i pwns K550i anyday.....
W810i = The best 2mp camera phone ever produced alongside its brother K750i.

[krates]

W810i is bit old and does not look very good ( for me )

W580i is way out of your budget

mmm you must buy 3120 C very good phone for it's price

[ico]

Originally Posted by krates

W810i is bit old and does not look very good ( for me )

W580i is way out of your budget

mmm you must buy 3120 C very good phone for it's price

Nokia 3120c can also be considered. It has got a good screen resolution of 240*320. And video playback is 352*288. It has got 3G too.

But its camera and music quality both completely suck if compared to W810i. Camera also lacks Flash and AutoFocus. The Nokia S40 platform is a bit buggy too.

[IronManForever]

@gagandeep.
How can video playback on 3120C be 352*288 when resolution is 240*320? You are talking about Video recording I believe. And 3G is not to be used, thats why I dont wanna pay for features not to be used. (will not-be-affordable and overkill for simple browsing, chatting purposes.)

@krates. I was actually impressed by k550i. More because it has Java multitasking as I have read. And It can be soft-modded to W610i. (What are the actual benefits of flashing to W610i apart from more volume and Megabass? Are there any compromises like lowering of cam-quality after flashing? Any new feautures introduced?)

And yes, for the smartphone part I think N72 is the best.

[ico]

Originally Posted by IronManForever

@gagandeep.
How can video playback on 3120C be 352*288 when resolution is 240*320? You are talking about Video recording I believe. And 3G is not to be used, thats why I dont wanna pay for features not to be used. (will not-be-affordable and overkill for simple browsing, chatting purposes.)

Can't the mobile play the video it recorded??....
It records video in CIF resolution and it can definitely play them. It resizes the video to fit the screen.

And yeah, Nokia 3120c is 7.5K if I'm not wrong. Do correct me though.

Smartphones like N82 are also able to higher resolution videos after resizing the video to fit to the screen.

[IronManForever]

@ gagandeep

Yeah, but I thot that ur telling Video plays at the resolution; of course I do know it has to be downgraded. Just like some TVs which are 1080p supporting but not capable.

And N82; I would expect that from a dual ARM CPU and discrete GFX itself.
Even my N73ME plays .3gp videos @ 640*480 and 512*384 at 25 and 30 FPS respectively (I had such videos from my digicam and I did convert them but didnt decrease their resolution while transferring. ).

[clmlbx]

3120c should be considered .

using it ....has flash too

good phone

[shaunak]

Smartish multimedia phone: SE g502

[Cool G5]

Get SE W810i.
A good phone but the output via onboard speakers is low. Not one would expect in a 'w' series phone.
But I think it can be circumvented via some patch !!!

Ask SE gurus of the forum, dreamcatcher.

[skippednote]

Get Nokia 6233
The phones great in sound quality as well as display.....

[IronManForever]

Originally Posted by clmlbx

3120c should be considered .

using it ....has flash too

good phone

Yes a good multimedia phone.

Originally Posted by shaunak

Smartish multimedia phone: SE g502

Duh! I dont like that one, doenst fit into any category.

Originally Posted by vicky9897

try for nokia 5310 it has all the features u need including 3.5 mm jack with tv out . but the only thing is that it is very slim(9.9mm) if it is ok with you then it is a very nice phone. but i am not sure about its price.i think it is around 9k.

Tried it. Low volume from speakers. Not a good camera. Slim and sexy but a bit too slim for my friend's taste. Sorry, the guys are damn hard to convince.

Originally Posted by Cool G5

Get SE W810i.
A good phone but the output via onboard speakers is low. Not one would expect in a 'w' series phone.
But I think it can be circumvented via some patch !!!

Ask SE gurus of the forum, dreamcatcher.

Dunno about the phone, lets see. But it looks a bit from 2005-6. :\

Originally Posted by bassam904

Get Nokia 6233
The phones great in sound quality as well as display.....

Yeah. Great sound as I have heard.

GUYS. Bought E50 @ 8050 for the smartphone. A good phone at its price. Rugged, big screen(better than N72 at a very less amount more than it.) The guy liked the joystick. (I also like it over the D-Pad, dunno why even the expensive phones of today dont come with it? It is a lot more functional IMO). Camera of that Mobile is just okay for a 1.3MP one. Video is no good to talk about. But its fine with him as he wont use the camera except to post images to blog and to view them in the mobile itself.

For the multimedia phone, Im thinking of SE K550i for my friend as its cybershot and even w/o xenon flash, its awesome in picture-taking. And can be modded to W series as well. Plus multitasking is there which is a very good plus point.

Anyways thanx for all the help guys. Keep those suggestions coming.

IronMan.