vB Easy Archive - Best voice quality smart phone

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Best voice quality smart phone
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Posted by: jwmvermont

I understand this is a bit of an open question, and not really a phone "battle" per-say, but I figured this was the best place to post this so here it goes.

I'll be moving to canada in 3 months or so, and I've been looking at the carriers. I'd perfer to go with rogers or fido for GSM as that I can get a pre-paid or very basic plan for when I come back to the states occasionally without having to get a new phone. Although I'd be willing to settle for Telus and their CDMA stuff.

My question is this. What are the best VOICE quality, as in calling, smartphone available? I hear nokias N series are pretty spectacular, but I'm not to keen on having an uber powerful smartphone that is stuck into a 9 button shell(I've never been good at using a regular phone keypad for typing, its way, way to slow). The Nokia E series are supposed to be pretty good as well, but they are oddly shaped and sized(don't really fit against the head well when talking) and they aren't exactly media powerhouses in terms of camera, internet, or features.

I've heard that the HTC touch is a spectacular PDA and internet device, but I hear, but like the iphone the phone itself is positively middle of the road, if not worse, plus the camera isn't great, and windows mobile is supposedly somehwat unstable.

I'd love an iphone, but some things kind of stop me. First, as I said its phone is supposed to be not so good, secondly, and I understand this will be corrected in the future now that the SDK is out and in the wild, its rather...low on the actual PDA scale.

I don't know a whole lot about smart phones, but I've become increasingly aware that I need one. Not just for the convience, but because being able to produce documents and such at will, without having to cart around my macbook pro with me everything, or using up its battery for smaller stuff, seems like a godsend. Plus GPS will help me get around a new and unfamiliar city, maps, etc.

I'm not exactly sure of the features I want but...

A) A full qwerty keyboard, or at least one of those semi-qwerty 20 key pads would be ideal. Touch screen qwertys are fine, as I have no problem with touch screens(part of me loves the idea of it, it just seems so organic and intuitive).

B) Obviously great phone bit. I've been using a razr2 V9m and the voice quality and signal strength are astounding. I'd be hard pressed to go back to using a phone that provided less.

C) Document viewer, and editor would be more or less required. And while this second bit is obviously a hoop dream, being able to install something like a mobiel version of FinalDraft, or at the very least being able to view, and edit PDF files.

D) Rogers and Fido data services are astoundingly expensive. Especially considering their CDMA rivals offer what is, really, fairly reasnable data plans. Obviously internet and data are a large part of the smartphone formula, to having wifi would be a big help as well as I could at least hop on a coffee shop service or something if Rogers and Fido continue to believe competition is barbaric and ungentlemantly.

E) This is less important than the others but...form factor matters, at least a little. As I said, I tried a Nokia E series phone out at a dealer and while it was amazingly functional as a pure PDA/messanger(albiet that its UI was a bit...clicky), as a phone it was just to wide, and short to feel comfortable. It can be big, or fat, or skinny, or whatever just as long as it doesn't weigh so much, or is so big that it wont fit in a pants pocket, or suit jacket inside pocket(I suppose if it came down to it I could store it in a backpack or carrier bag as I always have one on me, I just perfer to stash my phone in an easily accessable place).

F) And lastly, I'd prefer not to spend 700+ dollars on the phone. As I am extremely limited in my choices, canada being a backwater of cell phone technology such as it is, and I understand I'm either going with Telus offered CDMA phones, or unlocked(since rogers selection sucks, and fidos is worse), I would be willing to pay a decent amount for a good phone, just not the insane prices most unlocked/import stores and online shops charge.

I've tried blackberrys, and they seem nice enough. I'm not to keen on their UI though, as like the E series nokia I tried the whole menu system is just extremely clicky, so many submenus and button presses. I will say I quite like the keypads they use on their full qwerty stuff.

So suggest away and thanks for the help.

Posted by: Topy

E71 sounds like a phone you have been looking for....that is if you are ready for the waiting game that has been on now for a month

http://www.howardforums.com/showthr...38#post10955838

Posted by: jwmvermont

Quote:

Originally Posted by Topy

E71 sounds like a phone you have been looking for....that is if you are ready for the waiting game that has been on now for a month

http://www.howardforums.com/showthr...38#post10955838

That doesn't look like a bad phone, and being Nokia its a pretty safe bet that the phone bit will at least be nice.

That being said it does me no good if its not coming out within the next 3 months. Sadly. Plus, I assume to get one in the states its going to cost something like 500+ dollars to have it imported

Posted by: break-r

I'd say the E71 will deliver, but sadly it will probably be quite pricey upon release

Posted by: jwmvermont

I've heard blackberry's have great voice quality and reception for a smartphone, and there apears to be a decent amount(not ALOT though sadly) of cheap, or free 3rd party apps which can add things like document editors and viewers.

Anyway does anyone have an opinion on them? I mean sure, the E71 looks great, but

A) Again, its not out, and its almost certainly not coming out within the next 3 months.

B) Even when it comes out its not coming out in the USA or Canada. Which means its going to have to be gotten from either an import store, or website, and it will cost a fortune(nokia has never been known for pricing subtly).

If I was soley going off of whats going to come out sometimes before christmas, and be awesome, I'd really love a SE X1, but thats going to cost an absolute arm and a leg. Plus its WM.

So unless the E71 comes out within a month or two, and only costs like 600 dollars at most from an unlocked store its pretty much out of it. Blackberry Curve seems to be my best bet. Hopefully the BB1000 comes out in a few months as that, as long as its not astronomically expensive, looks quite nice(BB seem pretty "middle of the road" when it comes to pricing).

Posted by: Urthwhyte

Unless you absolutely need the camera, I'd reccomend the 8820 over the Curve. While many rave about the Curve keyboard, I vastly prefer the 8820's. It has both WiFi and GPS, instead of one en lieu of the other which I find is great for when you need to download a large PowerPoint or spreadsheet or just want to browse the web at non slow speeds. One should also consider the looks aspect of the two, where the all black casing on the 88x0 series comes out ahead of the 83x0 in every way.