cellphone with wifi / gps

The BBC Click program recently showed what I can only describe as the Nokia "phone torture chamber" and it was interesting to see how much abuse a mobile phone can stand.

[Otherwise, I can't add anything to the discussion as my phone is ultra-basic]

 

Maybe take a look at the WiMo HTC phones? Than you also got a choice from like half a dozen of full gps navigation software packages.

 

To what countries? Do you want simply location GPS or turn-by-turn GPS guide capability?

 

The E71 unlocked is USD 340 at 125 grams and does all that even with IDLE for IMAP (push email if you server supports IDLE). No clue what it would cost in NZ.

 

I've got a HTC Touch Diamond and I dont notice its in my pocket at all. If any, the weight is the last thing you will notice on this model.

 

XDA-Devs FTW!

 

A full slide-out QWERTY keyboard will indeed add some weight, both for the extra hardware and for the mechanics involved. As for the touch screen needing a stylus? Most of the higher models come with a stylus, but I rarely (if ever) use it. For standard UI navigation, my fingers work fine.

I have the Diamond Touch Pro (AT&T Fuze here in the states) and I absolutely love it. It's like 160g when i went to check, but the weight doesn't bother me at all. I find the extra 50g more than an acceptable tradeoff for a full 5-row slide-out QWERTY keyboard that can be stashed away when I don't want / need to use it.

I've grown to abhor phones with the keyboard layout like the Nokia you linked to earlier. I used to have a blackberry that was similar in design (7100 I think?) with each key having two characters and the phone "detecting" what you meant to type. But now that I've used the full keyboard of the HTC Hermes and now the Fuze, I'll never go back.

 

I can fully recommend the Touch Pro (in my case it's the AT&T version Fuze). Thanks to the work of the guys at the xda-developers forum this phone is exrtremely (and easily) customizable and functional.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=437 is the section for this phone ("Raphael" is the internal HTC name for the phone). Poke around there in the ROM section and see the wide variety of UIs, application loadouts and even OS versions available.

I use this Rom, BTW.

It's not necessary to use install a custom ROM to get good use out of the phone, but doing so allows you to exploit the capabilities of the hardware much more fully than the stock ROMS do and if anything my current ROM is actually more stable than the stock ROM.

 

The HTC phones that use the touchflow3d interface dont really need the stylus. Though not all the wimo screens are converted so in some cases using the stylis still works better but by default for daily use its pretty much finger only and if you are willing to tweak you can get it pretty much finger use only.

 

Not so much I think. I'm running the latest official rom and that pretty much fixed all the performance problems of the interface. Though I have never tried a modded rom so it might offer some extra in performance.

Dont know about wimo7 but certainly there wont be a rom update from HTC for their phones so it will depend on xda and the likes on whether we'll ever see wimo7 on older devices.

 

HTC took the Hermes from wimo5 to 6.1 so it *is* possible. I hated both 5 and 6.1 on that phone - including a wide variety of custom ROMs - however, and haven't touched a windows phone since. I also never liked slider qwerty phones as you can't type one handed which is key for between flight messaging and email as you tromp from one terminal to the next.

 

How about the Nokia 5800? Not as hip as the iPhone, but everyone using one seems to very happy with them for both work and play.

 

I want the Nokia E55 but it's not out in NA yet. It has a UMTS 2100 band so I can talk in Japan which the E71 does not...it's tiny (98 g), thin and has a forward-facing camera for video VOIP. The only downside is the "half-qwerty" keyboard which I've not used...maybe I'll go E75...

 

Be careful with international roaming. Last time I was in Japan, my phone bill was over $500 for not that many minutes and no data. A better solution would probably be to rent something appropriate while you are abroad.

 

I make few calls on the mobile when in Japan, but they are key ones (saying goodnight to the kids for example). My hotel phone is dirt cheap but being able to be reached is critical and phone rentals are a pain IMHO (especially when the company pays the phone bill).

Also, local SIMs often have great rates so I tend to go unlocked.