vB Easy Archive - Smallest 850 mhz phone?

Pages: 1

Smallest 850 mhz phone?
(Click here to view the original thread with full colors/images)

Posted by: SiRkd

Im looking for a gsm phone that supports 850 mhz... and that is small.

After having my 3650 for years, Im looking for something much smaller. If its short on features that ok with me. The novelty of the camera and all the other stuff the 3650 could do wore off quickly for me. Even with todays better cameras in the phones I dont really see myself wanting it. It could come in handy sometimes but the whole idea is just meh to me. I can just use my digicam.

I really like the size of the panasonic gd55...yeah I know uber small. Its a little to bare bones for me though. Id like a nice colour screen, mp3 capability too is something id rather have(then say a camera). I like the samsung d500 but its pricey and was a bit to thick for my liking.
its been a while since ive paid any attention to new phones so I really have no clue whats out there.

any suggestions are welcome. thanks

Posted by: SiRkd

awe

.....

Posted by: braindead5400

maybe nokia 6230b, screen is tiny though

Posted by: giant236

S307, i believe

Posted by: braindead5400

That's a good one too but I'll be a little harder finding one and there is no mp3 capability

Posted by: SiRkd

well at least those are some suggestions. THANK YOU!

anyone else?

Posted by: boston_errol

6590i is really small...

x427 is also small even though its a POS

Posted by: Ian Brantford

Nokia has several fairly small phones in the bar form factor -- all about 10cm long and no more than 20mm thick. The 6230b, 3220, 6590i, 3100b, 3120 all fit this description, and have 850 MHz (sorry if I missed a "b" designation somewhere). The 6230b plays MP3's. The 6230b and 6590i have FM radios too. I have used all of the above except the 3220. From what I can tell, they all sport the expected high reception and durability from Nokia.

I used a 6590i for a week, a year or two ago. It suffered from a common problem with older Nokia's -- transmitter buzz when in weaker signal areas. It was otherwise very good.

I you can live without the MP3 player, probably the smallest GSM phone ever made with 850 MHz is the Panasonic G51u (http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/phone.php?p=429). It is just slightly thicker than the GD55, but with 850 MHz and colour screen. I do not have a good review at hand that could coment on its reception or other qualities. It hasn't been for sale new for a while. You might want to look for a used one. Panasonic never got a North American provider to offer it, so I expect that they never sold many of the G51u.

BTW, Phonescoop has a good "phone finder" page: http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/finder.php .

Good luck!
Ian

Posted by: awaveform

Sony Erricson Z520i

Posted by: timmacnaughton

Samsung E635.

Posted by: wdst

The Sony Ericsson t637 is a pretty small candy bar style phone that uses 850 and gets good reception. I have had mine (bought on e-bay) for about 9 months and its worked out very well.

Posted by: nationalexec

You Definately need to pick up the Samsung T809 for your requests. A V360 also works well for your application. Bluetooth is a "must have" feature for anyone using the phone 600 + minutes, which is the majority. V360 has been the best all-around phone that I have ever used. Downside of T809 is Charger compatibility with most BT headsets, meaning, 2 chargers are always needed to keep them powered. Easily scratchable face and half the included TF memory are other downsides. 64mb on V360, 32mb on T809.

Posted by: boston_errol

Check out the newish Motorola L6 (which can have 850mhz enabled via seem) and the slightly larger Motorola L7. Get these if you can tolerate the Moto UI. I might pick up the L6 for clubbing purposes (dont want a bulge in my pocket when females rub up against me

)

Posted by: Cruisin1966

Sony Ericsson J300a, about as small as one can get. Has decent battery life, the UI is typical SE, and can do anything other phones can do, except take pictures, of course. No camera.

Posted by: SiRkd

Awesome! thanks for the suggestions everyone.

Another important factor for me is Caller Volume. My 3650 is retardedly quiet. I have a real hard time using it anywhere that is noisy(like in the mall, my car etc). It is very hard to hear(even with the volume on high). My sisters samsung (one of the top of the line flip ones from bell, i forget the code name) is amazing. nice and loud.

I happend upon blurbs on the Motorola E1060. It looks great but I guess its not out yet.

Also, anyone know which Sony this is? (the one on its own)a sony ericson j200?

I do like the z520i aswell. I am a big fan of nokia's but if I am worried about caller volume(as I only have a cell phone, no house phone ). Im not sure how those nokias listed do in that dept. I do know that most others are acceptable though.

I also dont want to drop a lot of money on it. Say $250 tops(used, or new).

Thanks again for all the help. I appreciate it.

Posted by: Junglizt1210

z520 is the one on the top.. I think the bottom one is either a w550 or w600 not sure, maybe solmeone can confirm,

Posted by: Ian Brantford

Quote:

Originally Posted by SiRkd

Awesome! thanks for the suggestions everyone.
Another important factor for me is Caller Volume. ...
.

You are quite welcome.

Regarding volume, I just went through this while helping my father get a new mobile phone. He's somewhat hard of hearing, and prefers not to combine his hearing aid with any phone. I got a chance to make direct comparisons between:
- two new black Motorola V3's
- my Nokia 6230b
- a Nokia 3220
- a Nokia 6101
- some silver clamshell from Samsung that the Rogers dealer carried.

The first V3 was surprisingly poor in both volume and quality. The other one was a bit louder, but still muffled and of mediocre quality. Maybe a bad batch came out of rushed production for the holidays. My information from others was to expect high sound quality from the V3, but testing personally showed otherwise.

The 6230b, 6101 and the Samsung were all of at least fairly good sound quality and sufficient volume for me.

The standout winner, for both volume and clarity, was the 3220. I.e. the speaker is not only loud, but it remains clear at maximum volume. Others can degrade quality a bit at the top volume levels. My 6230b is supposed to have some kind of automatic volume boost when it senses high background noise at the beginning of a call, but I prefer just being able to manually crank it up like on the 3220.

The 3220 is also an inexpensive, fairly small 4-inch bar phone, like many others mentioned here. I didn't particularly like the keypad, but that'll probably be fixable with a change of faceplace later.

Good luck!
Ian

Posted by: Zaku_4

Quote:

Originally Posted by SiRkd

Im looking for a gsm phone that supports 850 mhz... and that is small.

After having my 3650 for years, Im looking for something much smaller. If its short on features that ok with me. The novelty of the camera and all the other stuff the 3650 could do wore off quickly for me. Even with todays better cameras in the phones I dont really see myself wanting it. It could come in handy sometimes but the whole idea is just meh to me. I can just use my digicam.

I really like the size of the panasonic gd55...yeah I know uber small. Its a little to bare bones for me though. Id like a nice colour screen, mp3 capability too is something id rather have(then say a camera). I like the samsung d500 but its pricey and was a bit to thick for my liking.
its been a while since ive paid any attention to new phones so I really have no clue whats out there.

any suggestions are welcome. thanks

if u liked the gd55 what about the g51 or was it the 50? the g5x series, i forget which model, supports 850

Posted by: somemale

does gd51 have bluetooth?

Posted by: Zaku_4

Quote:

Originally Posted by somemale

does gd51 have bluetooth?

not to my knowledge, and its the g51 no d. =p

Posted by: SoCal91302

Quote:

Originally Posted by giant236

S307, i believe

I would have to agree on this one.

Posted by: Cool_girl

Quote:

Originally Posted by timmacnaughton

Samsung E635.

guyss i have an Arion G902 and for some reason i cant recieve or send picture msg's does anyone know how to fix it ?

Posted by: Zaku_4

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cool_girl

guyss i have an Arion G902 and for some reason i cant recieve or send picture msg's does anyone know how to fix it ?

lol u need to find the correct internet/mms settings for your provider

Posted by: Cool_girl

i dont know how to do that because i dont know my manufacturing number

and i dont know where to get the setting from

Posted by: bassoprofundo

I'd second the s307 recommendation someone made earlier. I just switched off mine to a Cingular 8125 so I could consolidate my phone and PDA, and I already miss being able to slip my phone into a pocket and not even know it's there. It's the smallest phone I've seen. I did feel a bit like Derek Zoolander using it, though. I'm 6'4", 230lbs, and it was a bit uncomfortable for long periods of time in my big hands. I realize it doesn't do MP3, but on sheer size, you can't beat it.

Posted by: Skyline R34

if size is what u want...i won really recommend panasonic and nokia.for panasonic,its rather user unfriendly.and if u sms alot,small fone won be ur fav.thumb get cramped..argzz..anyway..nokia fones have alot of problems..the 2650 i got a year ago,i tolerated it for 9 days b4 i trade in.in these 9 days it hanged 3-4 times..and the se qn, the top is difinite z520, W550 and W600 externally has no difference.just w600 has EDGE(i think,some1 pls confirm) the one on its own has to be the j series.j210 or j300.can we have the front pls?

Posted by: squish37

If you are looking for small I have a VK2000 that I am getting ready to list on ebay. I paid about 250 for it about 3 weeks ago. I like it a lot but I can't figure out how to change the settings so I can access media net for one and also it turns out I REALLY want the camera which it does not have. I didn't know how much I really used it until I didn't have it on this phone. It has only been used to make a few calls. It has beautiful graffics, wonderful color screens with great animation. Nice and loud too. If you are interested pm me before I list it. I am hoping to get 235-250 for it.

Posted by: ChunkyRice

vk2000? isn't that a euro triband phone (900/1800/1900)?

try a nokia 3220, pretty small but great RF! decent camera, but if you need small, this thing reminds me of those old school nokia 8260s

Posted by: squish37

No, all the information I saw does say tri-band but it is quad-band. 850 is included and it does work on cingular net work.

Posted by: schuster

I happened upon this thread late and am taking notes. My
favorite is the Nokia 6590i because of its toughness, long
battery life, and excellent RF performance. Unfortunately
the volume of the earpiece and ringer leave a mit to be
desired. I also have a 3595 which is excellent in
performance, but a little too large, and the display has
too little resolution and washes out in sunlight.

Before this genre of tiny candy bar phone disappears
completely from the marketplace, I scanned this thread and
am trying to decide. I am looking for excellent battery
life, escellent RF performance, loud earpiece and
ringer, and a display which remains readable in sunlight.
Except for the Nokias, all of the phones mentioned are
clamshell or sliders, which I do not feel will be durable
long term, or have poor performance like the S-E
models. The Panasonic looks intriguing, but I've read very
nasty comments about inadequate volume, poor battery life,
and flimsy construction leading to hardware failure.

So it seems to come down to the Nokia 3100, 3120, and 3220.

Along the way I've collected these impressions and
questions:
Are the 3100 and 3120 the same phone with different
faceplates? Is the display on these better than the 3595?
Between the two, which would you choose?

I've read that the better display on the 3220 cuts into the
battery life. Also I REALLY don't like the side bumpers and
cutesy design stuff of the 3220 ... is there any way around
this?
Between the 3100, 3120, and 3220, which would you choose
and why?
Thnaks for any insight.

Posted by: Zaku_4

Quote:

Originally Posted by schuster

Are the 3100 and 3120 the same phone with different
faceplates? Is the display on these better than the 3595?
Between the two, which would you choose?

I've read that the better display on the 3220 cuts into the
battery life. Also I REALLY don't like the side bumpers and
cutesy design stuff of the 3220 ... is there any way around
this?

Between the 3100, 3120, and 3220, which would you choose
and why?
Thnaks for any insight.

first, all nokia displays (well most of them) suck really really badly.

the 3100 and 3120 ARE the same with difference housing. and dont get the 3595 as u mentioned u wanted a smaller phone (3595 is huge comapred to the porevious 2)

the 3220, i dunno about any battery life problems, my parents last alongtime and they dont really charge it. then agin they dont really use it either. anyways the side rubber bumpers are removalble. my parents work at our resruaerant so obviously they got dirty really quickly and really badly lol. like i said u can remove them

based on what ur looking for and your options (a small phone whihc is good on battery life) i would just get the 3120 over the 3100, just cause i my friend uses the 3100 and its more of a girls phone then the 3120. but keep in mind all these screens suck badly. doesnt matter about the specs, these phones had the ****** screens nokia was known for (and still are depending on the model now).

Posted by: schuster

Thanks, Zaku_4, for confirming that the 3100 and 3120 are
the same hardware.

If you remove the side bumpers fom the 3220, what is left?
Are there mounting holes, or bare chassis exposed ... does
it look like something is missing?

Posted by: cellspeed.ca

Vk2000 is got to be the one of the smallest i have seen in a while.

Posted by: schuster

Quote:

Originally Posted by cellspeed.ca

Vk2000 is got to be the one of the smallest i have seen in a while.

True, but the VK2000 leaves a lot to be desired performance-wise.

Posted by: schuster

Been looking at those recently-discontinued Nokia 3XXX models mentioned earlier, and then I happened upon the 6030. Same basic size (4 x 1.7 x 0.75 inches), dual-band, initial reviews seem very positive. Any comments?

Posted by: Zaku_4

Quote:

Originally Posted by schuster

Thanks, Zaku_4, for confirming that the 3100 and 3120 are
the same hardware.

If you remove the side bumpers fom the 3220, what is left?
Are there mounting holes, or bare chassis exposed ... does
it look like something is missing?

not that noticable that somethings missing, but something is obviosuly missing lol..

the 6030 looks like a very weird phone but suits your needs. personally i LOVE the styling of the 6020 and would choose that over your 30. but its your choice lol

EDIT: just thougt u might want to know, the 6020 is 2mm taller, 2mm thicker, and has a tft lcd at 65k colours instead of the cstn for the 6030 (tft is better simply put), also has 0.5 mb more memory, usb connection, and irda. all of which the 6030 does not have. then again, my sources could be wrong (gsm arena) as they said the 6030 has no camera but the nokia site says it does so...

Posted by: Ian Brantford

Quote:

Originally Posted by schuster

True, but the VK2000 leaves a lot to be desired performance-wise.

There are several active threads on VK Mobile phones in the "Other Manufacturers" section:

http://howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=875156

http://howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=859859

http://howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=756823

My summary of these threads so far: VK2000 is fair overall, with enough hardware problems to make it not suitable as a primary phone; VK2010 and VK2020 appear to have addressed these -- remaining issue is getting firmware updates. VK2020 is reportedly excellent on 1900MHz, fair on 850MHz. VK2000 is easily available in North America (now including HoFo vendors) for around CDN$250 or less; newer models cost a bit more, and are only available from overseas so far.

Posted by: schuster

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ian Brantford

Thanks for the pointers. I am looking for something suitable for use as a primary phone; the issues with lack of US support, significant firmware bugs, etc. make these phones interesting to watch but not ready for prime time. The 2020, which looks for all the world like a miniaturized version of the SLVR L7, is particularly intriguing.

Posted by: CalmLikeaBomb86

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChunkyRice

vk2000? isn't that a euro triband phone (900/1800/1900)?

try a nokia 3220, pretty small but great RF! decent camera, but if you need small, this thing reminds me of those old school nokia 8260s

the vk2000 is quadband, but you have to go to the menu to switch it on and off to which frequency set you want it to be.

As for the 3220, I highly recommend it. Its taken quite a beating from me mountain biking with it and it still works after numerous impacts. Great RF on that too, not too fancy, and I think those lights kick ***.

Posted by: schuster

Quote:

Originally Posted by CalmLikeaBomb86

Thanks. In the end I decided the Nokia 3220 was too gimmicky in spite of its good performance.
I went with the Nokia 6030, which is only a few hairs taller than my old 6590i and has performed quite well so far.
The only gripe is the lack of a **LOUD** ringtone that sounds like a phone. It comes with a "Deskphone" MIDI ringer which has the least volume of anything in the preinstalled ringers.

Posted by: O_loung1

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zaku_4

all of which the 6030 does not have. then again, my sources could be wrong (gsm arena) as they said the 6030 has no camera but the nokia site says it does so...

6030 does not have camera.

how much did you pick up your 6020 for?

Posted by: paolo1185

you can also take a look at the nokia 6103, its a 6101 with bluetooth.

I also have a sony ericsson W600i and i think its awesome, its loud, the callers are loud and they hear you loud as well, so they can never say to you, "what did u say?" The battery life on it as well is awesome, it lasts me days with moderate usage.

Posted by: ts

I have owned the Nokia 3120 and it was one of the best phones I have ever owned! Get it, you will not regret it.

Posted by: Tjash2010

You want a small phone?

Well the Pantech C300 would fit your needs then. Its Quadband 850/900/1800/1900 and its hailed as the smallest flip phone ever with camera and flash....

Posted by: fretster

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tjash2010

You want a small phone?

Well the Pantech C300 would fit your needs then. Its Quadband 850/900/1800/1900 and its hailed as the smallest flip phone ever with camera and flash....

Yeah I played with one of those in store a couple days ago; that thing is nuts! I think it's a Go-Phone too, so you'll get 30 minutes or so when you purchase it as well.

I'm tempted to get one and hide it in my shoe so I can be like Maxwell Smart.

Posted by: Tjash2010

Good idea!!! LOL

Yea they are gophone but you arent commited to anything. I just used the 10.00 starter minutes to purchase a few ringtones and then I just took out the sim and popped in my regular postpaid one in and forget about the prepaid one.