Recommend a mobile for me?

Grand Dizzy · 15-10-2011, 13:42

I wonder if anyone could recommend a model for me?

First thing I should say is that I only want a very simple mobile purely for texting. I never make calls. I don’t want bluetooth, Internet, colour screen, camera etc. I just want something small and simple with a long battery life.

My current mobile is a Nokia 1100. I do like it: it’s fairly small and simple and lasts about a month between charges. But there are four things that really annoy me about it. In order of annoyance…

1. It only has enough memory to store about 20 texts! 20 texts is ridiculous! Even a mere 1gb of memory could store about 2 million text messages. Even a single megabyte cold store a few thousand texts!

2. There’s no way to back up text messages to PC (which I like to do with my girlfriend’s texts) so I end up typing them out by hand! A USB connection or micro SD card would therefore be ideal so I can transfer messages over.

3. The predictive texting dictionary is appalling and doesn’t remember which words I use the most. Often I have to go through a long list of weird words I never use to get to words I use regularly! Also, if someone sends me a text containing a word, that word isn’t added to my dictionary so I have to manually spell it out! To make things worse, all words that I spell manually begin with a capital letter, even if it’s mid-sentence.

4. There’s very poor support for punctuation. The mobile lacks common symbols such as apostrophes, quotation marks, dashes, and ellipses, yet it allows you to type unusual symbols such as ^ and §.

So, in a nutshell, I’m looking for something basic like the Nokia 1100, only with much bigger memory, better texting facilities, and ability to transfer texts to PC.

fmradiotuner1 · 15-10-2011, 13:49

Don't know what kind of phones you like maybe

HTC wildfire

Or

HTC ChaCha

If you like Nokia then

Look here

http://www.mobilephonesdirect.co.uk/.../b434_pg0.aspx

Sounds like you want a simple cheap one though.

Grand Dizzy · 15-10-2011, 13:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by fmradiotuner1

HTC wildfire

Or

HTC ChaCha

Thanks for the suggestions, but this is the complete opposite of what I want! These are big, bulky things with large colour screens. I want something small and simple!

pi r squared · 15-10-2011, 14:47

I think you may be out of luck since you are asking for fairly advanced features out of a simple phone.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grand Dizzy

2. There’s no way to back up text messages to PC (which I like to do with my girlfriend’s texts) so I end up typing them out by hand! A USB connection or micro SD card would therefore be ideal so I can transfer messages over.

Very basic phones that sync rarely sync anything other than contacts and perhaps calendar and photos. I've never encountered a basic feature phone that allows you to back up SMS onto your PC, and certainly never to microSD.

Quote:

3. The predictive texting dictionary is appalling and doesn’t remember which words I use the most. Often I have to go through a long list of weird words I never use to get to words I use regularly!

Can you give examples of this, or how often you encounter it? I can't imagine the list is all that long or the words are all that weird, or that it's all that common. Nonetheless, newer phones with newer versions of the T9 predictive text software address this by switching the order of words based on your own usage.

Quote:

Also, if someone sends me a text containing a word, that word isn’t added to my dictionary so I have to manually spell it out!

I don't know of any phone that automatically adds words from someone else's text message into your dictionary. This would be a nightmare, especially if you have friends who txtspk constantly and would add "luk" "OMG" "lol" "2mrw" and other such wank to your dictionary!

Quote:

4. There’s very poor support for punctuation. The mobile lacks common symbols such as apostrophes, quotation marks, dashes, and ellipses, yet it allows you to type unusual symbols such as ^ and §.

Punctuation will come from pressing 1 to insert a full-stop, and then rotating it with * until you get ', ", - or whatever. It's inconceivable that you would not be able to add a hyphen.

Before I moved to a smartphone, the last feature phone I had was a Nokia 6500s slide. This was a pretty good phone that would address at least points 1, 3 and 4 of your list. It has a colour screen but I don't think you're going to find a monochrome phone with later versions of the T9 software on them. In conjuction with the Nokia PC Suite, I believe it can also address point 2 too.

On the Rocks · 15-10-2011, 14:54

I have the Samsung E2121B as my main phone, which is available for about 20 pounds from Carphone Warehouse (and presumably various other places).

I don't know about transferring texts to the PC, or the custom dictionary (I don't text a great deal) but the memory stores 1,000 contacts, 300 text messages and 400 calendar entries according to the settings. It's really fast and easy to use and the battery lasts about a week.

I actually moved away from an Android phone because the slowness of it was starting to get to me. There are only so many times you can wait a minute for the 'phone' app to load so you can, you know, call someone for instance, and the half-day battery life was irritating me.

When I first came to the US, my Android wouldn't work on the local networks, so I bought the cheapest LG pay-as-you-go phone Walmart had, and it was a revelation. I could call people, and text people, without it crashing and rebooting like a petulant little computer! I'm definitely a convert to simple phones.

c4rv · 15-10-2011, 15:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by fmradiotuner1

Don't know what kind of phones you like maybe

HTC wildfire

Or

HTC ChaCha

If you like Nokia then

Look here

http://www.mobilephonesdirect.co.uk/.../b434_pg0.aspx

Sounds like you want a simple cheap one though.

Did you not read OP request, they didn't want a smart phone and they wanted long battery life.

c4rv · 15-10-2011, 15:11

OP - first question. Do you want a touch screen phone

Second are you happy using the numeric keypad for data entry ?

Grand Dizzy · 15-10-2011, 16:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by c4rv

OP - first question. Do you want a touch screen phone

Definitely not! I hate the idea of a non-tactile interface. I like buttons you can feel push in. Touch-screen would be horrible for texting!

Quote:

Originally Posted by c4rv

Second are you happy using the numeric keypad for data entry ?

Definitely. That’s the only way I’ve ever texted.

Besides, a full keyboard is out of the question as I want something as small as possible. One of the reasons I wanted to upgrade was to get something smaller than my Nokia 1100. I’m sure there must be much smaller mobiles on the market these days. I was hoping for something a couple of inches tall and virtually flat, like my Sansa Clip+ for example.

For me, the Sansa Clip+ is the perfect music player: tiny screen, no backlight, long battery life, and 40gb of storage. Perfect. That’s exactly what I want in a mobile phone!

wilt · 15-10-2011, 16:32

You're being a bit specific - There definitely wont be any phones with a monochrome display that can be hooked up to a computer for SMS backup. SMS backup in itself is at least a mid-range feature-phone feature.

I think you're going to have to go into tesco/argos (I wouldn't bother with traditional phone shops) and take a look at the lower-end phones yourself. The trouble with asking on a forum like this is that more or less everyone who is going to reply are going to be into their high-end phones. And there's not much about on the web about releases of lower end ones so it's still hard to help you after we've done a quick search.

If you really want to look on the web before you go and buy, then perhaps GSM Arena can be of assistance, they pretty have a comprehensive list of phones and their features, including the low-end.

pi r squared · 15-10-2011, 16:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grand Dizzy

Touch-screen would be horrible for texting!

Touch-screen is maybe not to everyone's tastes, but you may be pleasantly surprised if you were to try it. I for one can text much faster on a touch-screen device than on a 12-pad even with predictive text.

Quote:

I’m sure there must be much smaller mobiles on the market these days. I was hoping for something a couple of inches tall and virtually flat, like my Sansa Clip+ for example.

I'm sure you can appreciate that there's a lower limit to the practical size of mobile phones, given that unlike a music player there is a need for at minimum fifteen buttons and unless you want to be texting on buttons the same size as those horrible calculator watches in the 80s/90s, they need to be a decent size. Plus they need to be at minimum the length of half an average person's face in order for the earphone and microphone to do their jobs properly.

Grand Dizzy · 15-10-2011, 17:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by pi r squared

I'm sure you can appreciate that there's a lower limit to the practical size of mobile phones, given that unlike a music player there is a need for at minimum fifteen buttons and unless you want to be texting on buttons the same size as those horrible calculator watches in the 80s/90s, they need to be a decent size.

Well, the number buttons on my mobile are only about 4cm from top to bottom. So if you had a device with 4cm of buttons, and maybe 2cm of screen above that, that comes to 6cm. so I think 2 or 3 inches in total would be absolutely perfect.

As for the non-number buttons, they could easily go on the side. Or they could be touch-screen.

As for the distance between the user’s ear and mouth, I never really thought that was much of a consideration since most mobile microphones don’t sit in front of the mouth. Or, the mouthpiece could fold out?

Grand Dizzy · 16-10-2011, 21:06

Well, after a bit of searching, I have finally found the mobile for me!

The Torque E35.

I’ve never seen a mobile so stylish and attractive before. I looked through hundreds of ugly, ugly mobiles. They all look really old-fashioned, like they were designed in the 90s and mostly large, black and tapered (ugh)!

Finally, here is a mobile with a cheerful contemporary look, in a range of colours. And it’s the size of a credit card, which is just what I was looking for.

Apparently it stores about 50 texts, which is an improvement on my Nokia. I don’t even care if the SMS facility turns out to be as bad (or worse) than Nokia’s. I am head over heels in love with this mobile and need to own it!

I just have to wait ages for it to arrive as they’re only sold in the Phillipines.

bearcub24 · 16-10-2011, 22:41

That reminds me of something.....I know what it is, my Barclays PINsentry card reader

staceyxxx23 · 16-10-2011, 22:42

Get a nice old Sony Ericsson

pi r squared · 16-10-2011, 23:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grand Dizzy

Well, after a bit of searching, I have finally found the mobile for me!

The Torque E35.

I’ve never seen a mobile so stylish and attractive before.

Beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder as "stylish" and "attractive" are not the adjectives I would use to describe that device, but I'm pleased you managed to find (or at least semi-find) what you were looking for!

bearcub24 · 16-10-2011, 23:09

Mmm, I thought the OP was being Tongue-in-cheek with suggesting the Torque phone, I guess it's not to everyone's taste, is Torque the name of Fisher Prices telecommunications division?

Grand Dizzy · 17-10-2011, 16:19

Funny how tastes vary. I’ve never seen a mobile I thought was more attractive than the Torque. I wholeheartedly love it.

Maybe I have unusual tastes? I’m a professional graphic designer, if that makes any difference, so I probably see things from a slightly unusual perspective. (I’m not a product designer though.)

Do most people really think mobiles like this, this, or this are more attractive? I find them pretty vile. They have big, unnecessay, inconsistent curves. They have fiddly detail and no sense of elegance. They don’t use clean, geometric shapes.

I would love it if anyone could give me an example of a mobile they think is particularly attractive. (A regular mobile, not a smartphone.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by bearcub24

is Torque the name of Fisher Prices telecommunications division?

Hmmm. Do you think it looks babyish because it has bright colours? People buy bright coloured cars and wear bright coloured clothes. So why is it babyish for a mobile phone to be a bright colour, but not, say, a pair of shoes or a cap? I don’t see any distinction myself.

Don’t get me wrong, if I were buying a mobile phone for business I wouldn’t buy a bright-coloured one. I’d buy something that looked sensible. But since I am using mine purely as a toy—for sending personal texts—a bright, fun colour seems appropriate. When I look at it, I want to associate it with fun. A black mobile would not make me feel that way about the product.

I associate black with functional devices that sit in the background and people don’t actualy look at, like a TV bezel or speakers. Along these lines, if I had a smartphone I would want that to be black, because it is merely the frame within which the content/picture appears. But in the case of a device that one looks at and plays with, for me, that should be a fun design to reflect its nature.

On the subject, what I do find confusing is the design of toothbrushes. A toothbrush is something that a lot of people would like to leave out in the bathroom. So they really should all be designed in nice subtle colours like clear plastic, white, cream, greys—colours that don’t clash with the décor of the bathroom. But instead, ALL toothbrushes use combinations of vivid, garish colours, forcing you to keep them away in a cupboard or your bathroom will look a mess.

Dai13371 · 17-10-2011, 16:51

not sure if it is attractive per se, but the 6303i is very elegant. Yep its screen is colour but not what we would call a smartphone.

mred2000 · 17-10-2011, 22:05

It has nothing to do with you being a professional designer at all, it's down to your personal tastes. I'm a professional designer and think it looks like a hunk of junk. Goudy, brash and cheap.

The 6303i is nice though.

prking · 17-10-2011, 22:54

It looks like the binatone phone they couldn't sell a couple of years ago (minimo? ) A real pig of a handset awkward to use and poorly designed.

GrizzyDee · 18-10-2011, 01:37

I've got a sony ericsson w200i, cost me about £30 4 years ago and it does everything you want including backing up SMS messages to your PC.
Not sure if you could still buy it in a shop, but perhaps a slightly later version would be available that would do the same things.

c4rv · 18-10-2011, 08:16

Ah, so you are after a phone designed for kids ?

As for the sets you asked about the answer is I don't find them attractive aside from the Nokia but they are out there because I guess there are enough people that do find them attractive.

Aside from kids (even that is changing) and the older generation you will find most people in the UK are now moving towards phones that are multi-function and have internet connectivity. And that is where the greatest profit is so that is the area where you are going to get the greatest number of handsets.

As for colours, you can personalise your handset for a few quid with a custom cover.

Grand Dizzy · 18-10-2011, 11:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dai13371

not sure if it is attractive per se, but the 6303i is very elegant. Yep its screen is colour but not what we would call a smartphone.

I hadn’t looked at models like that because of the large screen, but yes, that’s alright. I don’t find that offensive at all. I especially like the buttons which are nice and clear. It looks like it was designed in this century!

Still, for my own tastes/purposes it’s a bit too serious-looking. It’s the kind of “sensible” design I would want for a practical gadget like a camera. Not for something I use to text my girlfriend. Pink reminds me of my girlfriend. Black doesn’t.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mred2000

It has nothing to do with you being a professional designer at all, it's down to your personal tastes. I'm a professional designer and think it looks like a hunk of junk.

The fact that there are no brash, colourful mobiles like this on the Western market suggests that people with my taste are a tiny minority. So I wonder if people who like it are among the “arty types”; people fascinated by bold, unconventional designs. Could this be just too quirky for someone who has no interest in art? Just a theory.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GrizzyDee

I've got a sony ericsson w200i, cost me about £30 4 years ago and it does everything you want including backing up SMS messages to your PC.

Thanks for that, and you know what I actually think it’s quite a nice-looking mobile! I love the orange.

However, I’ve come to realise that if I want a mobile that can back up texts to PC, it will also have to be a mobile with lots of features I don’t want, like a camera. That is a dealbreaker for me. I hate unnecessary bloat. The thought of there being a crappy little novelty camera inside my mobile would drive me nuts.

Quote:

Originally Posted by c4rv

Ah, so you are after a phone designed for kids ?

No, it’s for me, an adult!

Quote:

Originally Posted by c4rv

As for colours, you can personalise your handset for a few quid with a custom cover.

Oh yeah. I knew some mobiles allowed fascias (like my own Nokia 1100) but I’d totally forgotten.

GrizzyDee · 18-10-2011, 11:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grand Dizzy

I hate unnecessary bloat. The thought of there being a crappy little novelty camera inside my mobile would drive me nuts.

I bet you don't use all the features of your computer/whatever you're using to be on this forum right now. Or even when you're cooking you don't use the hob and grill and oven all at once. And I bet there are some TV channels you receive that you don't watch either.

Don't dismiss something that will be useful just because it has something extra that you don't use. Just don't use the extra bit! You'd be hard pushed these days to find a phone that does the high-ish spec thing of PC backup of messages, yet that doesn't have some kind of simple camera on it. Broaden thine horizons, grasshopper

November_Rain · 18-10-2011, 12:20

I have a Samsung E1170 as my secondary phone, which is absolutely fine as a simple calling and texting device. I'm not sure if you can back up text messages with it though, you'll have to look into that. Is this a "must have" feature or more of a bonus for you?

15-10-2011, 13:42	#1
Grand Dizzy Forum Member Join Date: Sep 2003 Posts: 7,132	Recommend a mobile for me? I wonder if anyone could recommend a model for me? First thing I should say is that I only want a very simple mobile purely for texting. I never make calls. I don’t want bluetooth, Internet, colour screen, camera etc. I just want something small and simple with a long battery life. My current mobile is a Nokia 1100. I do like it: it’s fairly small and simple and lasts about a month between charges. But there are four things that really annoy me about it. In order of annoyance… 1. It only has enough memory to store about 20 texts! 20 texts is ridiculous! Even a mere 1gb of memory could store about 2 million text messages. Even a single megabyte cold store a few thousand texts! 2. There’s no way to back up text messages to PC (which I like to do with my girlfriend’s texts) so I end up typing them out by hand! A USB connection or micro SD card would therefore be ideal so I can transfer messages over. 3. The predictive texting dictionary is appalling and doesn’t remember which words I use the most. Often I have to go through a long list of weird words I never use to get to words I use regularly! Also, if someone sends me a text containing a word, that word isn’t added to my dictionary so I have to manually spell it out! To make things worse, all words that I spell manually begin with a capital letter, even if it’s mid-sentence. 4. There’s very poor support for punctuation. The mobile lacks common symbols such as apostrophes, quotation marks, dashes, and ellipses, yet it allows you to type unusual symbols such as ^ and §. So, in a nutshell, I’m looking for something basic like the Nokia 1100, only with much bigger memory, better texting facilities, and ability to transfer texts to PC.

15-10-2011, 13:49	#2
fmradiotuner1 Forum Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: TheEssexSunshineCoast Clacton Posts: 15,220	Don't know what kind of phones you like maybe HTC wildfire Or HTC ChaCha If you like Nokia then Look here http://www.mobilephonesdirect.co.uk/.../b434_pg0.aspx Sounds like you want a simple cheap one though.

15-10-2011, 13:54	#3
Grand Dizzy Forum Member Join Date: Sep 2003 Posts: 7,132	Quote: Originally Posted by fmradiotuner1 HTC wildfire Or HTC ChaCha Thanks for the suggestions, but this is the complete opposite of what I want! These are big, bulky things with large colour screens. I want something small and simple!

15-10-2011, 14:47	#4
pi r squared Forum Member Join Date: Apr 2003 Posts: 4,185	I think you may be out of luck since you are asking for fairly advanced features out of a simple phone. Quote: Originally Posted by Grand Dizzy 2. There’s no way to back up text messages to PC (which I like to do with my girlfriend’s texts) so I end up typing them out by hand! A USB connection or micro SD card would therefore be ideal so I can transfer messages over. Very basic phones that sync rarely sync anything other than contacts and perhaps calendar and photos. I've never encountered a basic feature phone that allows you to back up SMS onto your PC, and certainly never to microSD. Quote: 3. The predictive texting dictionary is appalling and doesn’t remember which words I use the most. Often I have to go through a long list of weird words I never use to get to words I use regularly! Can you give examples of this, or how often you encounter it? I can't imagine the list is all that long or the words are all that weird, or that it's all that common. Nonetheless, newer phones with newer versions of the T9 predictive text software address this by switching the order of words based on your own usage. Quote: Also, if someone sends me a text containing a word, that word isn’t added to my dictionary so I have to manually spell it out! I don't know of any phone that automatically adds words from someone else's text message into your dictionary. This would be a nightmare, especially if you have friends who txtspk constantly and would add "luk" "OMG" "lol" "2mrw" and other such wank to your dictionary! Quote: 4. There’s very poor support for punctuation. The mobile lacks common symbols such as apostrophes, quotation marks, dashes, and ellipses, yet it allows you to type unusual symbols such as ^ and §. Punctuation will come from pressing 1 to insert a full-stop, and then rotating it with * until you get ', ", - or whatever. It's inconceivable that you would not be able to add a hyphen. Before I moved to a smartphone, the last feature phone I had was a Nokia 6500s slide. This was a pretty good phone that would address at least points 1, 3 and 4 of your list. It has a colour screen but I don't think you're going to find a monochrome phone with later versions of the T9 software on them. In conjuction with the Nokia PC Suite, I believe it can also address point 2 too.

15-10-2011, 14:54	#5
On the Rocks Inactive Member Join Date: Dec 2009 Posts: 139	I have the Samsung E2121B as my main phone, which is available for about 20 pounds from Carphone Warehouse (and presumably various other places). I don't know about transferring texts to the PC, or the custom dictionary (I don't text a great deal) but the memory stores 1,000 contacts, 300 text messages and 400 calendar entries according to the settings. It's really fast and easy to use and the battery lasts about a week. I actually moved away from an Android phone because the slowness of it was starting to get to me. There are only so many times you can wait a minute for the 'phone' app to load so you can, you know, call someone for instance, and the half-day battery life was irritating me. When I first came to the US, my Android wouldn't work on the local networks, so I bought the cheapest LG pay-as-you-go phone Walmart had, and it was a revelation. I could call people, and text people, without it crashing and rebooting like a petulant little computer! I'm definitely a convert to simple phones.

15-10-2011, 15:10	#6
c4rv Forum Member Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Essex Posts: 16,218	Quote: Originally Posted by fmradiotuner1 Don't know what kind of phones you like maybe HTC wildfire Or HTC ChaCha If you like Nokia then Look here http://www.mobilephonesdirect.co.uk/.../b434_pg0.aspx Sounds like you want a simple cheap one though. Did you not read OP request, they didn't want a smart phone and they wanted long battery life.

15-10-2011, 15:11	#7
c4rv Forum Member Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Essex Posts: 16,218	OP - first question. Do you want a touch screen phone Second are you happy using the numeric keypad for data entry ?

15-10-2011, 16:11	#8
Grand Dizzy Forum Member Join Date: Sep 2003 Posts: 7,132	Quote: Originally Posted by c4rv OP - first question. Do you want a touch screen phone Definitely not! I hate the idea of a non-tactile interface. I like buttons you can feel push in. Touch-screen would be horrible for texting! Quote: Originally Posted by c4rv Second are you happy using the numeric keypad for data entry ? Definitely. That’s the only way I’ve ever texted. Besides, a full keyboard is out of the question as I want something as small as possible. One of the reasons I wanted to upgrade was to get something smaller than my Nokia 1100. I’m sure there must be much smaller mobiles on the market these days. I was hoping for something a couple of inches tall and virtually flat, like my Sansa Clip+ for example. For me, the Sansa Clip+ is the perfect music player: tiny screen, no backlight, long battery life, and 40gb of storage. Perfect. That’s exactly what I want in a mobile phone!

15-10-2011, 16:32	#9
wilt Forum Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Potterspury Posts: 930	You're being a bit specific - There definitely wont be any phones with a monochrome display that can be hooked up to a computer for SMS backup. SMS backup in itself is at least a mid-range feature-phone feature. I think you're going to have to go into tesco/argos (I wouldn't bother with traditional phone shops) and take a look at the lower-end phones yourself. The trouble with asking on a forum like this is that more or less everyone who is going to reply are going to be into their high-end phones. And there's not much about on the web about releases of lower end ones so it's still hard to help you after we've done a quick search. If you really want to look on the web before you go and buy, then perhaps GSM Arena can be of assistance, they pretty have a comprehensive list of phones and their features, including the low-end.

15-10-2011, 16:40	#10
pi r squared Forum Member Join Date: Apr 2003 Posts: 4,185	Quote: Originally Posted by Grand Dizzy Touch-screen would be horrible for texting! Touch-screen is maybe not to everyone's tastes, but you may be pleasantly surprised if you were to try it. I for one can text much faster on a touch-screen device than on a 12-pad even with predictive text. Quote: I’m sure there must be much smaller mobiles on the market these days. I was hoping for something a couple of inches tall and virtually flat, like my Sansa Clip+ for example. I'm sure you can appreciate that there's a lower limit to the practical size of mobile phones, given that unlike a music player there is a need for at minimum fifteen buttons and unless you want to be texting on buttons the same size as those horrible calculator watches in the 80s/90s, they need to be a decent size. Plus they need to be at minimum the length of half an average person's face in order for the earphone and microphone to do their jobs properly.

15-10-2011, 17:29	#11
Grand Dizzy Forum Member Join Date: Sep 2003 Posts: 7,132	Quote: Originally Posted by pi r squared I'm sure you can appreciate that there's a lower limit to the practical size of mobile phones, given that unlike a music player there is a need for at minimum fifteen buttons and unless you want to be texting on buttons the same size as those horrible calculator watches in the 80s/90s, they need to be a decent size. Well, the number buttons on my mobile are only about 4cm from top to bottom. So if you had a device with 4cm of buttons, and maybe 2cm of screen above that, that comes to 6cm. so I think 2 or 3 inches in total would be absolutely perfect. As for the non-number buttons, they could easily go on the side. Or they could be touch-screen. As for the distance between the user’s ear and mouth, I never really thought that was much of a consideration since most mobile microphones don’t sit in front of the mouth. Or, the mouthpiece could fold out?

16-10-2011, 21:06	#12
Grand Dizzy Forum Member Join Date: Sep 2003 Posts: 7,132	Well, after a bit of searching, I have finally found the mobile for me! The Torque E35. I’ve never seen a mobile so stylish and attractive before. I looked through hundreds of ugly, ugly mobiles. They all look really old-fashioned, like they were designed in the 90s and mostly large, black and tapered (ugh)! Finally, here is a mobile with a cheerful contemporary look, in a range of colours. And it’s the size of a credit card, which is just what I was looking for. Apparently it stores about 50 texts, which is an improvement on my Nokia. I don’t even care if the SMS facility turns out to be as bad (or worse) than Nokia’s. I am head over heels in love with this mobile and need to own it! I just have to wait ages for it to arrive as they’re only sold in the Phillipines.

16-10-2011, 22:41	#13
bearcub24 Forum Member Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 25	That reminds me of something.....I know what it is, my Barclays PINsentry card reader

16-10-2011, 22:42	#14
staceyxxx23 Forum Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 11,936	Get a nice old Sony Ericsson

16-10-2011, 23:03	#15
pi r squared Forum Member Join Date: Apr 2003 Posts: 4,185	Quote: Originally Posted by Grand Dizzy Well, after a bit of searching, I have finally found the mobile for me! The Torque E35. I’ve never seen a mobile so stylish and attractive before. Beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder as "stylish" and "attractive" are not the adjectives I would use to describe that device, but I'm pleased you managed to find (or at least semi-find) what you were looking for!

16-10-2011, 23:09	#16
bearcub24 Forum Member Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 25	Mmm, I thought the OP was being Tongue-in-cheek with suggesting the Torque phone, I guess it's not to everyone's taste, is Torque the name of Fisher Prices telecommunications division?

17-10-2011, 16:19	#17
Grand Dizzy Forum Member Join Date: Sep 2003 Posts: 7,132	Funny how tastes vary. I’ve never seen a mobile I thought was more attractive than the Torque. I wholeheartedly love it. Maybe I have unusual tastes? I’m a professional graphic designer, if that makes any difference, so I probably see things from a slightly unusual perspective. (I’m not a product designer though.) Do most people really think mobiles like this, this, or this are more attractive? I find them pretty vile. They have big, unnecessay, inconsistent curves. They have fiddly detail and no sense of elegance. They don’t use clean, geometric shapes. I would love it if anyone could give me an example of a mobile they think is particularly attractive. (A regular mobile, not a smartphone.) Quote: Originally Posted by bearcub24 is Torque the name of Fisher Prices telecommunications division? Hmmm. Do you think it looks babyish because it has bright colours? People buy bright coloured cars and wear bright coloured clothes. So why is it babyish for a mobile phone to be a bright colour, but not, say, a pair of shoes or a cap? I don’t see any distinction myself. Don’t get me wrong, if I were buying a mobile phone for business I wouldn’t buy a bright-coloured one. I’d buy something that looked sensible. But since I am using mine purely as a toy—for sending personal texts—a bright, fun colour seems appropriate. When I look at it, I want to associate it with fun. A black mobile would not make me feel that way about the product. I associate black with functional devices that sit in the background and people don’t actualy look at, like a TV bezel or speakers. Along these lines, if I had a smartphone I would want that to be black, because it is merely the frame within which the content/picture appears. But in the case of a device that one looks at and plays with, for me, that should be a fun design to reflect its nature. On the subject, what I do find confusing is the design of toothbrushes. A toothbrush is something that a lot of people would like to leave out in the bathroom. So they really should all be designed in nice subtle colours like clear plastic, white, cream, greys—colours that don’t clash with the décor of the bathroom. But instead, ALL toothbrushes use combinations of vivid, garish colours, forcing you to keep them away in a cupboard or your bathroom will look a mess.

17-10-2011, 16:51	#18
Dai13371 Forum Member Join Date: May 2007 Location: Ammanford, South Wales Posts: 7,911	not sure if it is attractive per se, but the 6303i is very elegant. Yep its screen is colour but not what we would call a smartphone.

17-10-2011, 22:05	#19
mred2000 Forum Member Join Date: Nov 2008 Posts: 8,673	It has nothing to do with you being a professional designer at all, it's down to your personal tastes. I'm a professional designer and think it looks like a hunk of junk. Goudy, brash and cheap. The 6303i is nice though.

17-10-2011, 22:54	#20
prking Forum Member Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Weston-super-Mare Posts: 9,167	It looks like the binatone phone they couldn't sell a couple of years ago (minimo? ) A real pig of a handset awkward to use and poorly designed.

18-10-2011, 01:37	#21
GrizzyDee Forum Member Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: The Heaviside Layer Posts: 1,220	I've got a sony ericsson w200i, cost me about £30 4 years ago and it does everything you want including backing up SMS messages to your PC. Not sure if you could still buy it in a shop, but perhaps a slightly later version would be available that would do the same things.

DS Forums

Recommend a mobile for me?

18-10-2011, 08:16	#22
c4rv Forum Member Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Essex Posts: 16,218	Ah, so you are after a phone designed for kids ? As for the sets you asked about the answer is I don't find them attractive aside from the Nokia but they are out there because I guess there are enough people that do find them attractive. Aside from kids (even that is changing) and the older generation you will find most people in the UK are now moving towards phones that are multi-function and have internet connectivity. And that is where the greatest profit is so that is the area where you are going to get the greatest number of handsets. As for colours, you can personalise your handset for a few quid with a custom cover.

18-10-2011, 11:46	#23
Grand Dizzy Forum Member Join Date: Sep 2003 Posts: 7,132	Quote: Originally Posted by Dai13371 not sure if it is attractive per se, but the 6303i is very elegant. Yep its screen is colour but not what we would call a smartphone. I hadn’t looked at models like that because of the large screen, but yes, that’s alright. I don’t find that offensive at all. I especially like the buttons which are nice and clear. It looks like it was designed in this century! Still, for my own tastes/purposes it’s a bit too serious-looking. It’s the kind of “sensible” design I would want for a practical gadget like a camera. Not for something I use to text my girlfriend. Pink reminds me of my girlfriend. Black doesn’t. Quote: Originally Posted by mred2000 It has nothing to do with you being a professional designer at all, it's down to your personal tastes. I'm a professional designer and think it looks like a hunk of junk. The fact that there are no brash, colourful mobiles like this on the Western market suggests that people with my taste are a tiny minority. So I wonder if people who like it are among the “arty types”; people fascinated by bold, unconventional designs. Could this be just too quirky for someone who has no interest in art? Just a theory. Quote: Originally Posted by GrizzyDee I've got a sony ericsson w200i, cost me about £30 4 years ago and it does everything you want including backing up SMS messages to your PC. Thanks for that, and you know what I actually think it’s quite a nice-looking mobile! I love the orange. However, I’ve come to realise that if I want a mobile that can back up texts to PC, it will also have to be a mobile with lots of features I don’t want, like a camera. That is a dealbreaker for me. I hate unnecessary bloat. The thought of there being a crappy little novelty camera inside my mobile would drive me nuts. Quote: Originally Posted by c4rv Ah, so you are after a phone designed for kids ? No, it’s for me, an adult! Quote: Originally Posted by c4rv As for colours, you can personalise your handset for a few quid with a custom cover. Oh yeah. I knew some mobiles allowed fascias (like my own Nokia 1100) but I’d totally forgotten.

18-10-2011, 11:58	#24
GrizzyDee Forum Member Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: The Heaviside Layer Posts: 1,220	Quote: Originally Posted by Grand Dizzy I hate unnecessary bloat. The thought of there being a crappy little novelty camera inside my mobile would drive me nuts. I bet you don't use all the features of your computer/whatever you're using to be on this forum right now. Or even when you're cooking you don't use the hob and grill and oven all at once. And I bet there are some TV channels you receive that you don't watch either. Don't dismiss something that will be useful just because it has something extra that you don't use. Just don't use the extra bit! You'd be hard pushed these days to find a phone that does the high-ish spec thing of PC backup of messages, yet that doesn't have some kind of simple camera on it. Broaden thine horizons, grasshopper

18-10-2011, 12:20	#25
November_Rain Guest Join Date: Feb 2010 Posts: 8,506	I have a Samsung E1170 as my secondary phone, which is absolutely fine as a simple calling and texting device. I'm not sure if you can back up text messages with it though, you'll have to look into that. Is this a "must have" feature or more of a bonus for you?