PDA, netbook, or what?

[janewilliams20]

A friend at work pointed me at the Nokia N97, which looks like a very nice Smartphone/PDA. QWERTY keyboard that may be small, but I can use, ability to edit Office documents, and (new to me) GPRS for satnav functions, and a radio so I can listen to Classic FM. 3.5" screen, 640*360 (the current PDA is 640*480, so that's a slight drop).
http://shop.nokia.co.uk/nokia-uk/product.aspx?sku=5095166§ion_id=530&culture=en-GB
http://www.nokian97.co.uk/

So, I phoned O2 this morning to talk about handset upgrades.

O2 do not do the Nokia N97, and, I'm told, probably never will. Also, the data tariff I'm on at the moment is an ancient one that no longer exists - if I want any hand-set upgrade, I'll need a new tariff, and given my calling habits, it'll be more expensive while not giving me anything extra that I'd actually use.

They did point me at the latest in the O2 XDA range with a suggestion that I take a look and see if there's anything I fancy.

Well, there is, I think. Only three phones have a QWERTY keyboard: one of those is ruled out by not taking any sort of SD card (I don't mind going down to a mini or micro SD and an adapter to let PCs read it, but I need something!), the other is ruled out by having a tiny screen. But the "Flint".... that's interesting. Weird, but interesting. 5" screen, for starters.
O2 site: http://xda.o2.co.uk/devices/xda_flint.jsp
Review: http://www.4winmobile.com/forums/4wm-reviews-hardware/20049-review-o2-xda-flint-htc-x7510.html

Two potential problems: it's BIG, bigger than my current PDA (and that's already a little uncomfortable to hold up to my ear for calls), and it's potentially very expensive. The nice lady on the helpline suggested £500 or so. Ouch.

The Nokia has a better camera (but I have a camera), and the screen is a little smaller than I'd hoped for: I wanted to go up, not down. It has a radio. The sat-nav fucntions look better. Price? About £500 sim-free from Nokia, prices with contracts from free upwards.

Now I'm very happy with the O2 tariff I've got - but it looks like I don't get to keep that anyway. I think the next question is to find a provider who get decent reception in our office, because O2 is abysmal there (as are many others), and who do cheap data, especially when abroad. But the Nokia or the Flint? Dunno. I think I need to try both out.

Comments

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

Have you seen the Nokia E71? Its a bit like a BlackBerry but much nicer, says Forest who has one on the 3 network. It has a keyboard, camera, GPS, radio, does all the Office stuff and also nice fast internet, screen is small but very clear.

[janewilliams20.livejournal.com]

I haven't, no. Thanks, I'll go looking.

[janewilliams20.livejournal.com]

Ah. Having looked, that isn't a full keyboard, it's a little diddy one with a little diddy screen :( 320*240 - far smaller than I've got now, and I wanted to go bigger if anything. Thanks, but no.

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

Fair enough :)

[alaimacerc.livejournal.com]

I also went "oooooo" when I saw the N97. Then went "oh", when I got an idea of the price to buy outright, or the tariff to get it on contract.

I went "ooo" a bit when the G1 came out, but reviews of it seemed to be mixed at best, so I thought I'd wait until other Android phones came up, so's I could at least compare and contrast. That seems to be taking a good deal longer than I'd imagined, though. Seemingly the direct successor to the G1 isn't going to have a qwerty keyboard, so it must not be that much of a selling point.

[janewilliams20.livejournal.com]

Looks like the HTC Touch Pro 2 will be worth my while looking at, too. Ah, choices, choices...