Due to the dreadful customer service I’ve had from Orange I’m looking for a new mobile contract and therefore a new phone. This is proving a lot harder than it ever has in the past. My must have feature list should be fairly straightforward:
- Hands free phone calls (either wired or Bluetooth).
- Reasonable text entry.
- Ability to function as a modem for my N800 or replace it.
- Unlimited 3G data contract.
A 5MP or so camera would be a strong bonus – I broke my camera at FOSDEM and I’d be nice to replace it with just a phone – as would WiFi. It’d also be nice to be able to use it as an MP3 player, though my usage there is rather demanding. Size is a trade-off – the more the phone can do the larger the size I’m willing to tolerate.
The only things that are currently availiable and seem at all interesting are the Nokia N95 and the iPhone. The N95 checks most of the boxes and would use the same charger as my N800 but it feels a bit big for something without a keyboard. On the plus side, there are last.fm client applications available for it.
The iPhone is much more expensive (especialy considering the contract) , has a worse contract and doesn’t do 3G – I’d be more likely to go for the Neo Freerunner than an iPhone since it has broadly similar hardware capabilites and a very nice (and totally free) software stack.
What else should I be looking at?