After much humming and harring, plus a very helpful advanced phone search website that Karl found, I decided to get myself a Nokia E65. Yes, I know what you’re saying – it wasn’t even on the shortlist – but it still seemed like the right choice to me.
For me, the number one feature of this phone is that it has built in Wi-Fi support. Admittedly, I can’t see myself using it to surf the net on unsecured networks all that often (but I guess it’s handy to know that I can if I need to, and the browser is better than I thought it would be). But the big plus of this is that the phone also has built-in support for VoIP. Better yet, you can configure the phone such that if a Wi-Fi network is available and you make a phone call, it will default to using VoIP instead of the cellular network.
Other selling points of the phone – for me at least – were:
- It’s a slider phone. I’ve never had one of these before but I liked the concept and was keen to get one.
- Built in 2MP camera. Admittedly, it’s not exactly time to trade in my dSLR just yet, but still the photos are much better than they were in my 1st-gen Razr.
- Built in bluetooth and IR.
- Long battery life. The battery is rated to 10 days on standby, but we’ll see what that actually equates to.
- Small form factor. Obviously bigger than my Razr was but when closed, this is still a pretty small phone.
So far so good! Oh, and most importantly, it seems to make and receive phone calls quite well, too 
.
Now we just need to find a new phone for Kristy…
4 comments
I agree the VoIP thing would be very cool in the big apple as there are so many unsecured wireless networks over there – where as here in Brisney Land you would struggle to find one.
Hey Gerry, very nice. What is the updake of the apple phones over there like? They look pretty swish, but seeing as we arent special enough to have them, Ive only seen pictures (and video!).
Oh and Jason..there are a few wifi points, its all about knowing where to find them! Vroom Cafe (New Farm + City) offers free wifi and I think I heard that McDonalds does too as well as a couple of other cafe chains.
Hey Lou – as far as I know, the iPhone comes out a bit later this year. I haven’t seen a working prototype yet either.
I believe that to get the 4GB one it will be $400 up front, plus you have to sign up to a two year service plan (not sure how much per month). The 8GB one is $500 up front. Some what more than I’m willing to pay and more than I’m willing to commit to, really!
I chose teh E65 some time ago, going down the whole VOIP and Wi Fi access. After spending several weeks trying to get VOIP working and reading several hundred forums I finally gave up. I can connect to the web using wi fi no problems, I signed up to several VIOP providers without success. Hopefully you have better luck.