Advise me immediately thanks

[mank!]

I want to get rid of my E710 because I loathe it, a mate had one and I thought it was snazzy so ditched my lovely 6610 and got one. Once the novelty of it wore off I slowly began to hate it. I've looking at the following:

Samsung D500
Nokia 6230
Sony Ericsson S700i
Motorola V3

My choices of network are limited to Vodafone and o2 due to where I live and 3G won't work at all. I've done a bit of shopping around and I can get the 6230 for free on both networks, not sure if I can get the D500 and V3 on Vodafone as they're not on the website but I can get either from o2 for £50 for the handset and £30p/m thereafter. However, the phone I really want is the S700i but it's £100 for the handset. Is it worth the extra £50?

I'm reluctant to go for Samsung again because I don't like the E710 - texting is a nightmare and it fell apart the first time I dropped it - and whilst the V3 looks a very nice phone, it doesn't seem to have the features and overall excellence of the D500 and S700i plus it's a flip phone which I don't particularly like.

Anyone got any thoughts? I'm stuck now really.

 

[Ch3tan]

The d500 is okay, but the s700i is soo much better. I bought mine offline for £350 -and I wouldnt do that for a phone that wasn't worth it.

Only thing I would say is that it's big, if what you want it for is the 1.3 megapixel camera, then the d500's slide may be less annoying than the s700i's rotate.

 

[mank!]

That was quite immediate, thanks

It's not so much the size, it's how fat it is and how heavy it is. I'm really leaning towards the s700i at the minute...

 

[Gray]

Be very wary at the moment if youre going with o2 and getting a Sony Ericsson handset (S700i/K700i), theres a major problem with text messages at the moment, as you would have seen on Watchdog tonight :/

My next phone will probably be the D500, ive wanted that phone for soooo long, but as its new at the moment pretty much, wanna give it a few weeks incase theres a few software problems etc

 

[mank!]

If It's the s700i it'll be with Vodafone, which is another reason I'd like it. I know the coverage for Vodafone is excellent around here and never had any problems, whereas I'm a little unsure about o2.

 

[Trem]

D500 everytime, Got one, its great. Only phone I have prefered more than a Nokia. It has a freekick game on it as well!!

 

[Munkey]

if its a contract phone with vodafone you wont be able to put mp3's on the sony ericcson one i think. I know for sure you cant with the K700i if its a vodafone contract phone

 

[Gray]

I wouldnt be able to live without my MP3s on my phone,

fuck having that stupid shitty frog on a motorbike as a ringtone

 

[Tom]

You can put mp3s on SE phones with freely available DRM management software, I did a post about it somewhere or other in this forum.

 

[Ch3tan]

Heh, well mine is offline, so no problems with mp3's

As for the d500 being too new, it's not Gray, it's fairly old now.

Games wise -tennis on the s700i kicks the balls of all other phones games.

The thing that decided between these two phones for me was the screen on the s700i, it's soo much bigger, brighter and better than anything else. SAmsung menu's and software is shit too, better on the d500 but still annoying.

 

[nath]

www.onestopphoneshop.com

Best place for buying contract phones evar!!1

 

[Ch3tan]

Ahh, I see the 6630 is available on contract now as well. Although the screen isn't as nice as the s700i's, the camera is just as good and the software on the phone lets you do more. Plus its thinner.

I've always prefered to go somewhere like phones4u to get a contract -you can haggle a better deal, something the internet doesn't let you do.

 

[nath]

I didn't try haggling, but I looked around an awful lot, and couldn't find anywhere better than onestop. I ended up getting a k700i free on orange OVP 200 for 15 quid a month. Normally it's 30 quid a month, but you get the first 3 half price from orange then the last 9 months in the form of a rebate from the site. Dunno if I could've haggled a better deal at a shop but that's certainly better than any posted deals I've seen.

 

[mank!]

arghhh now I'm even more indecisive about it :/

although I can get the D500 for £9.99 / £18.00pm and the S700i for £59.99 / £18.00pm from that website, cheers for that link nath.

 

[Gray]

I would never ever buy from Phones4U, ever, the amount of fuckups they do is absolutely shocking.. I have always thought it best to go directly to the retailer (o2/Vodafone/Orange etc) as they give better deals out for longer, altho i do hear some good things about OSPS, but never of P4u ;o.

 

[Ch3tan]

I have been with both o2 and had problems. I have been with singlepoint on a vodafone and o2 contract, singlepoint do their own billing and never had a problem in 2 years. Singlepoint/phones4u are very heavy on the hard sell, but they are also desperate to keep your custom, you can haggle amazing deals out of them and as I said I have had problems with the networks direct before, but never singlepoint.

But another ten people could say the opposite, suppose its down to luck. Mank, the d500 is a girly phone, it limits to much, only 80meg built in and no expandable memory. Although the video recording on the s700 is shite, the pictures and bluetooth is far better implemented. Again its a girly phone the d500, Trem has it ffs.

 

[Xavier]

Although it's FA use for mp3's etc (6mb memory total) the V3 is lovely as a handset. There are a couple of software bugs, but otherwise it's just a lovely piece of kit.

Pity the bluetooth comms and file management is bespoke motorola shite

 

[mank!]

I bought the D500 because the fella in the shop gave me a super-duper ace deal on it and stuff

Not used it yet but it cost me £15 as opposed to the £140 the s700i would have set me back.

 

[Tom]

O2 start their 3G service next week, so they may have some deals going soon.

 

[mank!]

No 3G coverage here whatsoever.

 

[Ch3tan]

o2's 3g covergae will only be 33% of the country until July, when it will rise to 50%. Even 3 have better coverage with close to 80%.

 

[Tom]

It matters not, the phone will switch seamlessly between networks.

 

[Nos]

The phone will switch between 3g and 2g without you noticing. Unless you're using a 3g service like a videocall, in which case you'll be cut off from the call as the phone switches to 2g

So not entirely seamless.