Nokia E71

After saying back in June that I was going to get an iPhone 3G and then, in August that I was looking at the Nokia N96 instead, I’ve now gone and got a Nokia E71!

I thought about what I use my mobile for right now and it’s mainly used for Internet access while I’m at home and the keypad on my N95 is a right pain when it comes to entering URL’s and text. I realised I miss the full QWERTY keyboard that my old Treo 650 had so I started looking at devices with a full keyboard and came across the E71.

It got good reviews by AAS, Joel and a couple of other sites, and all have said pictures don’t do the phone any justice when comes it how good it looks and feels in your hand. It runs the same version of S60 & Symbian OS as my N95 which is a major plus point for me (more on S60/Symbian later).

Vodafone were also extremely pro-active in keeping me, they called me out of the blue to advise me that I’m eligible for an upgrade and when I asked them to call me back a couple of days later they did. They offered me an improved contract package (I’m saving £7.50 a month but getting more for my money) without me having to ask along with giving me the E71 for free and all on a 12 month contract.

I’ve had the device a couple of weeks now so expect a review sometime soon.

Nokia N96

Last week I was told by someone in work that the Nokia N96 should be available via Vodafone UK by mid October. With all the negative feedback I’ve been seeing on Twitter about the iPhone’s battery life & 3G quality I’m looking around at other options at the moment.

I’ve been really impressed with my Nokia N95 so far and it re-awakened my interest in the Symbian platform. The only things the N95 lacks when compared to the iPhone is a bigger screen, a touch screen and oooh factor in terms of looks. In terms of technology the N95 is far superior, quite surprising when you consider it’s been available for over 18 months.

With the recent news that Nokia is going to acquire the rest of Symbian and open source the platform makes a Symbian based phone even more appealing to me. The N96 is looking like the best alternative to the iPhone, improving on the excellent N95.

Think I’ll wait to see if the N96 does come out in October and if Apple do anything about the issues affecting the iPhone 3G before I rush out to get one.

iPhone 3G

Dear Vodafone, unless you can offer me the iPhone 3G in the next 3 months I shall be leaving you after 6 years and joining O2.

The 3G version of the iPhone has been announced by Apple and should be available sometime in July here in the UK. I’m assuming it’ll only be available via O2 again. It’s been released quicker than I thought, while the rumour sites had been predicting it would be I wasn’t so sure.

I upgraded to the Nokia N95 last September in the hope the 3G version of the iPhone would appear sometime this year. I managed to get a 12 month contract out of Vodafone (along with the free upgrade) just in case it was released. I was very tempted to get one last year but couldn’t justify the handset cost along with the 18 month contract required, I was also a little disappointed that it wasn’t 3G.

I’ve got to decide whether I go for the 8GB or 16GB version now. Decisions, decisions!

Vodafone Mobile Internet Part 2

I’ve just seen this article about Vodafone’s ad over at The Register. I remember seeing the ad in question a while ago while the limit was still 120MB. I couldn’t believe it myself, they were trying to sell a data allowance of 120MB as allowing you to browse any website, any time!

Talk about hyping a service up!

Vodafone Mobile Internet

I tried out the Vodafones Mobile Internet bolt-on when I got my Nokia N95 as it was free for the first month. I used the Internet quite a bit, more than I thought I would while trying out the various features of the N95. I cancelled the bolt-on after the free period was up but quickly found I was running up larger than usual bills due to my continued Internet usage. After a few months I signed up for the Mobile Internet pack again (that free month obviously worked Vodafone!). I thought £7.50 for 120MB allowance was pretty poor compared to what other networks were offering at the time but there wasn’t a lot I could do about it.

Recently Vodafone upped their limit to 500MB, not quite up to the deal on offer from other networks but a significant step in the right direction! Vodafone have now informed me that their data allowance is ‘unlimited’, although this is subject to a fair use limit of 500MB! If my understanding of Vodafone’s t&c is right they don’t mind you occasionally going over 500MB but if you do it continously they may charge you for the amount you go over.

I’m against the term ‘unlimited’ when it comes to data allowances or transfer limits and when I found out the fair use limit was still 500MB I was disappointed as it’s hardly an upgrade at all.

With 500MB though I can actually think of using my mobile’s 3G connection with my laptop without worrying about my allowance. One thing having the Nokia N95 has hightlighted to me, is how large some web pages have now become. An eBay listing page is nearly a 1MB alone!

Having said that I do try to use the mobile versions of most sites (Twitter, eBay, Facebook etc.) for their speed more than anything else.

Come on Vodafone get your act together!