Which mobile network?

[Lrd]

HTC's forthcoming One X looks quite interesting - HD screen, Quad-core processor and a camera that can take stills and video at once (like some camcorders). It will have Sense 4.0 which is quite different, although personally - having used the Galaxy Nexus - I like ICS without any modifications.

You don't have to use Sense though, just use the stock launcher. I am sure you know this though...

 

[Flamingo]

Wait until the Sony Xperia S comes out then, if only to eliminate it. However, it ticks all the boxes, especially the 1280x720 resolution screen!

It's the one phone from everything coming out this year (including new kit announced next week at the world's biggest mobile event in Barcelona) that really excites me.

As for Sonim, I'm not sure if you can still get any that aren't branded JCB or some other 'tough' brand. They are pretty basic though. Samsung, Sony and Motorola all make strong Android smartphones.

Sent from my Commodore 64 using Tapatalk

Thanks for that, I do like Sony, I might just get a sim only contract until that one hits the shops.

 

[SS4]

HTC's forthcoming One X looks quite interesting - HD screen, Quad-core processor and a camera that can take stills and video at once (like some camcorders). It will have Sense 4.0 which is quite different, although personally - having used the Galaxy Nexus - I like ICS without any modifications.

+1 for AOSP roms. I find Sense to be a waste of battery since it only looks nice.

You don't have to use Sense though, just use the stock launcher. I am sure you know this though...

I prefer the Apex launcher. For the OP it may be worth noting the relatively short official upgrades on non-rooted Androids. My Desire is officially on Froyo or Gingerbread and will not get an ICS upgrade.
I shall be looking forward to CM9 though

 

[jon0844]

You don't have to use Sense though, just use the stock launcher. I am sure you know this though...

Yes, but the new version looks pretty good - with Dropbox integration and lots of other new things.

 

[junglejames]

So as we have an expert in our midst!! Iphone or Blackberry?!! Myself i hated the Iphone because of the touch screen.

 

[jon0844]

iPhone v BlackBerry is relatively easy, unless you're looking at one of the Torch models that tries to be a little more iPhone/Android-like, but in reality is way off as there are simply far too few apps, or apps that you'd expect to get on other platforms.

BlackBerry is great for email, and there are some good tariffs that include email, web etc. Things like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter can all places updates, private messages and alerts in your unified inbox. The keyboard on the Bold 9900 is second-to-none (the best keyboard I've ever used on any phone, including landscape folding/slide-out smartphones) and since the latest firmware update, the battery is actually quite good.

The Bold (and to a lesser extent the Curve models) is also great for making calls and texting.

And the iPhone is the opposite. Not great for making calls, a bit tricky for texting and emailing as the virtual keyboard is quite small given the tiny (by today's standards) 3.5-inch screen. Amazing display though with 340-odd DPI, and the battery is quite good too. But you have apps and games, which are probably still better than Android (in terms of overall choice).

Personally, it's not a comparison where I'd make a choice as I have a Bold 9900 for work email and social networking, and an Android phone (or three) for day-to-day use. I then have an older iPhone and the iPod touch for iOS stuff - but they don't go out of the house (home office in fact).

I wasn't a touchscreen fan for a while, even using touchscreen devices over 10 years ago - but with a stylus. Back when you had resistive screens, entering text or dialling numbers was hard as it needed pressure and forget the nice kinetic scrolling we now have. Since we got the new touchscreens, I've become a bit of a convert. Even the Bold 9900 has touch, although it hardly needs to.

Anyway, I've waffled on long enough (what was the question again? ) so ask me another question !!

 

[Hydro]

Can I just make another suggestion not to go with O2? Last night was yet another episode of fun and games of myself and the other party (both O2) being cut off mid speech, both of us with full signal. Once the conversation abruptly ended, my signal steadily decreased one bar at a time (rate of a bar every 2 seconds or so), until it reached one bar. The internet coverage also dropped from 3G to EDGE to GPRS to nothing at about the same rate. Then they all increased again. Utterly crap.

 

[jon0844]

Dropped calls can happen if the sites are incorrectly configured, such that when handing off from one cell to another - the change doesn't succeed and you went back to the old site soon after. If that's the case, it could potentially be worth contacting O2 to see if there's a problem in the area, or for them to investigate. However, it's quite hard to get to speak to the right people and given the size of the networks today, even harder.

Believe it or not, but back in 1994 when Orange launched you could actually get transferred to the engineers based at Bristol and speak to someone who was on one of the many teams that went out and about to install, maintain and configure the network. As they add more sites, including 'in-fill' sites things did go wrong. The problem I think for O2 is that they're so far behind with rolling out 3G and they're probably having loads of capacity problems and being forced to put in 'in-fill' sites - which take a lot of setting up to work properly.

It's such a shame that O2 provides such good customer service and regularly wins awards, as the network is the weakest. Three has the strongest network (both in terms of cells, data speed and the backhaul network needed to carry calls and data reliably) but a bad rep on customer service!

If you can do all of your phone management via the 'My3' website then I really can't see any reason not to give Three a try. Then you remove the weakest link!

 

[Flamingo]

From what you are saying about Blackberry Jon, I might give them a second look. I have a work one that is adequate, but I want the phone for calls, text and a little net surfing. That seems to tick all the boxes you say are the Blackberry strengths.

 

[richw]

Dropped calls can happen if the sites are incorrectly configured, such that when handing off from one cell to another - the change doesn't succeed and you went back to the old site soon after. If that's the case, it could potentially be worth contacting O2 to see if there's a problem in the area, or for them to investigate. However, it's quite hard to get to speak to the right people and given the size of the networks today, even harder.

Believe it or not, but back in 1994 when Orange launched you could actually get transferred to the engineers based at Bristol and speak to someone who was on one of the many teams that went out and about to install, maintain and configure the network. As they add more sites, including 'in-fill' sites things did go wrong. The problem I think for O2 is that they're so far behind with rolling out 3G and they're probably having loads of capacity problems and being forced to put in 'in-fill' sites - which take a lot of setting up to work properly.

It's such a shame that O2 provides such good customer service and regularly wins awards, as the network is the weakest. Three has the strongest network (both in terms of cells, data speed and the backhaul network needed to carry calls and data reliably) but a bad rep on customer service!

If you can do all of your phone management via the 'My3' website then I really can't see any reason not to give Three a try. Then you remove the weakest link!

Just spotted a major flaw in your case that 02 is weakest network, and 3 the strongest. 3 use 02 airspace and signal!

 

[Barn]

Just spotted a major flaw in your case that 02 is weakest network, and 3 the strongest. 3 use 02 airspace and signal!

Think you may be a few years out of date there. I'm sure they operate an infrastructure joint venture with T-Mobile. Not sure how that is affected by the latter's hook up with Orange though.

 

[junglejames]

iPhone v BlackBerry is relatively easy, unless you're looking at one of the Torch models that tries to be a little more iPhone/Android-like, but in reality is way off as there are simply far too few apps, or apps that you'd expect to get on other platforms.

BlackBerry is great for email, and there are some good tariffs that include email, web etc. Things like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter can all places updates, private messages and alerts in your unified inbox. The keyboard on the Bold 9900 is second-to-none (the best keyboard I've ever used on any phone, including landscape folding/slide-out smartphones) and since the latest firmware update, the battery is actually quite good.

The Bold (and to a lesser extent the Curve models) is also great for making calls and texting.

And the iPhone is the opposite. Not great for making calls, a bit tricky for texting and emailing as the virtual keyboard is quite small given the tiny (by today's standards) 3.5-inch screen. Amazing display though with 340-odd DPI, and the battery is quite good too. But you have apps and games, which are probably still better than Android (in terms of overall choice).

Personally, it's not a comparison where I'd make a choice as I have a Bold 9900 for work email and social networking, and an Android phone (or three) for day-to-day use. I then have an older iPhone and the iPod touch for iOS stuff - but they don't go out of the house (home office in fact).

I wasn't a touchscreen fan for a while, even using touchscreen devices over 10 years ago - but with a stylus. Back when you had resistive screens, entering text or dialling numbers was hard as it needed pressure and forget the nice kinetic scrolling we now have. Since we got the new touchscreens, I've become a bit of a convert. Even the Bold 9900 has touch, although it hardly needs to.

Anyway, I've waffled on long enough (what was the question again? ) so ask me another question !!

I suppose its another case of depending what you want the phone for.
IPhone is supposedly better on the internet, and if you want to use Apps, but for normal everyday emails and basic web surfing, then Blackberrys are probably better.
When I had a blackberry it sometimes stalled whilst on the internet, and it didnt always like every site. But thats probably down to the signal, and it was on O2, which you seem to say is rubbish for internet/ data.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

From what you are saying about Blackberry Jon, I might give them a second look. I have a work one that is adequate, but I want the phone for calls, text and a little net surfing. That seems to tick all the boxes you say are the Blackberry strengths.

When i was looking at smartphones, I went and tried out an iphone in the shop, and that quickly put me off of them. Emails and texting was a nightmare on the touchscreen. I went on MSN and started sending messages on there, and not once was i able to type out what i intended to. Kept pressing wrong letter. Tried it on Blackberry, and it was a lot quicker and more accurate.

 

[ralphchadkirk]

Just spotted a major flaw in your case that 02 is weakest network, and 3 the strongest. 3 use 02 airspace and signal!

As far as I know, 3 operate their own network mostly and haven't had any associations with O2 since 2006.

 

[martin2345uk]

As far as I know, 3 operate their own network mostly and haven't had any associations with O2 since 2006.

Aye, didn't they switch to orange for their 2G back up?

I just switched to pay as you go on Three, from a Vodafone contract and so far they are approximately 125 times better.

 

[ralphchadkirk]

Aye, didn't they switch to orange for their 2G back up?

I just switched to pay as you go on Three, from a Vodafone contract and so far they are approximately 125 times better.

Yes, I think their 2G does come from Orange.

I'm on Three and have never had any problems with them, about anything. They are fantastic.

 

[jon0844]

Just spotted a major flaw in your case that 02 is weakest network, and 3 the strongest. 3 use 02 airspace and signal!

No they don't. They never have and never will. Three for some time had a roaming agreement with O2 that was for voice only (2G/GSM), which then changed to using Orange on the same basis (I think you could also access the Three website, but nothing else). It was a deal to allow Three to build its network up, as it entered the market in 2003 (it launched on 3/3/03 for obvious reasons!) and didn't have anywhere near the same network provision as Vodafone/O2 (launched 1991/2 with GSM), T-Mobile (as One2One in Sept 93) and Orange (April 94) because it never had a 2G network at all.

Three then entered into a site/network sharing agreement with T-Mobile to form MBNL, a joint venture that sees sites shared but NOT the backhaul (so if T-Mobile or Three has more capacity, they may still offer more connections/faster speeds for their respective users).

With Everything Everywhere being a JV with Orange and T-Mobile, Orange joined in and the first phase was to allow Orange and T-Mobile users to begin roaming on the other network (but not Three). That started with 2G and then around November 2011, it became possible to seamlessly roam as the networks were combined into one (so no roaming required). 3G roaming then came on in late Nov/early December, so now you can use high-speed data but not with seamless switching. This will come in the Spring this year, until ultimately there will only be one single network when you search.

The upside is seamless switching from what was Orange and T-Mobile. The downside is that in many places where both networks were strong, some sites will be removed. If that happens, someone who was very close to that site may find their coverage actually drops a little.

Three will then begin to add its equipment to what was an Orange site before, if it is kept. Three also has some sites of its own that aren't shared yet, so are still way ahead of everyone for now and have a deal with Virgin Media to provide high-bandwidth data connectivity to support the increase in data speeds from 21 to 42Mbps this year.

...Phew, hope that makes sense!

 

[Flamingo]

Jon it is a pity this site does not have a "Thanks" or Kile fi=unction for posts, I'd click both

 

[junglejames]

Jon it is a pity this site does not have a "Thanks" or Kile fi=unction for posts, I'd click both

Just say 'Thanks'!!
I find it does the same thing

 

[Lrd]

No they don't. They never have and never will. Three for some time had a roaming agreement with O2 that was for voice only (2G/GSM), which then changed to using Orange on the same basis (I think you could also access the Three website, but nothing else). It was a deal to allow Three to build its network up, as it entered the market in 2003 (it launched on 3/3/03 for obvious reasons!) and didn't have anywhere near the same network provision as Vodafone/O2 (launched 1991/2 with GSM), T-Mobile (as One2One in Sept 93) and Orange (April 94) because it never had a 2G network at all.

Three then entered into a site/network sharing agreement with T-Mobile to form MBNL, a joint venture that sees sites shared but NOT the backhaul (so if T-Mobile or Three has more capacity, they may still offer more connections/faster speeds for their respective users).

With Everything Everywhere being a JV with Orange and T-Mobile, Orange joined in and the first phase was to allow Orange and T-Mobile users to begin roaming on the other network (but not Three). That started with 2G and then around November 2011, it became possible to seamlessly roam as the networks were combined into one (so no roaming required). 3G roaming then came on in late Nov/early December, so now you can use high-speed data but not with seamless switching. This will come in the Spring this year, until ultimately there will only be one single network when you search.

The upside is seamless switching from what was Orange and T-Mobile. The downside is that in many places where both networks were strong, some sites will be removed. If that happens, someone who was very close to that site may find their coverage actually drops a little.

Three will then begin to add its equipment to what was an Orange site before, if it is kept. Three also has some sites of its own that aren't shared yet, so are still way ahead of everyone for now and have a deal with Virgin Media to provide high-bandwidth data connectivity to support the increase in data speeds from 21 to 42Mbps this year.

...Phew, hope that makes sense!

Thanks, great post. Makes me glad that I'm with Three.