O2 XDA Orbit 2
Click here for the full review
What's not to like about the O2 XDA Orbit 2? For the money, you're getting a perfectly decent Windows Mobile smartphone and a capable satnav system. When you consider that you can get the thing free with a £45-a-month contract or for only £50 with a £35-a-month contract and that it comes bundled with £80-odd worth of CoPilot 7 software, it's also quite the bargain.
Reg Rating: 90%
Nokia N95 8GB
Click here for the full review
With the N95 8GB, Nokia has added significant improvements to an already feature-loaded multimedia mobile. The enhancements aren’t solely cosmetic - it’s not just an iPhone-challenging memory upgrade either. Nokia has refined the screen design to make it more media-friendly, enhanced the GPS system, and worked in a number of software upgrades. Battery performance has been extended. It’s still quite a large handset, which may put off some buyers. But the real heavyweight you get is the package of useful and entertaining features in what is a sophisticated smartphone.
Reg Rating: 95%
The Top Ten 3G iPhone beaters
COMMENTS
@Robert Hill
Touch virtual keyboard? Yes, it's shite, if you stick with the OOB version. But CooTek's Touchpal is free and pisses all over the iPhone's slightly-better-than-most-but-still-a-sack-of-shit version.
But then, when you're using a WM6 phone you can put whatever you like onto it to customise the UI without having to get down on both knees and beg St Steve's indulgance first.
Depends what you want. If you're happy with the OOB plus approved addons experience go with the iPig. If you want to actually own a device and do what you want with it, don't*.
*Yes, I know that you *can*, with judicious use of Rocket Science, customise the things, but living on the bleedin' edge and continually looking over your shoulder in case the Lord Jobs decides to piss on your picnic ain't my idea of "usable".
@pctechxp
Hardly a review, more an observation - but I'm glad I can assist in your (all be it not wholly traditional) weight loss program...
N95 top???
You have to be kidding me!?!?!?!
The interface on the N95 is completely unusable (needing 7 button presses before even getting to the screen where you can change the ringer profile is just ridiculous).
I cut my teeth on Motorola and Nokia phones, and I was a hardcore Unix Engineer for many years (so I have no love for Microsoft), but I have to say that Windows Mobile is by far the best mobile platform I've used (yes aesthetically it is ugly - and no I haven't used an iPhone, but more on that later).
I have a HTC WM6 phone (stylus only - no hard buttons for me - I don't think the model is particularly important), with all the bells and whistles - Wifi, GPS (with maps on the storage card - so it works when out of coverage area), HSDPA, SD card slot, Camera, I can play mp3's and video's and best of all - no-one tells me what I can or can't install on it (it's not even locked to a provider) - about the only thing my handset doesn't have is the accelerometer (but there are other HTC WM handsets that do). Even without any 3rd party helpers tools, all of the important applications and settings are only 1 or 2 taps on the screen away.
Another plus is the many free apps available for download - I have quite a few games and productivity apps installed, and I also have some interface enhancing apps too - like CooTek TouchPal (a brilliant virtual keypad), IrisBrowser (built on the same rendering engine as the iPhone browser), and PointUI Home (which takes some inspiration from the iPhone UI). This gives me an experience that is very similar (I'm told) to the iPhone on my WM handset (bigger controls, swipey type control actions and a more aesthetically pleasing interface).
So even without the extra bits, my HTC WM handset stomps all over the Nokia handsets, and with the extra bits it's on par with the 3G iPhone (interface is almost as good as the iPhone, but I have full control of the my handset - a pretty equal trade in my book)
Let the flaming begin (likely to come from all sides with this post)
@matt bryant
I was able to connect to and use my PC remotely via VNC through my iphone months ago, get with it grandad,
Human race to split in two
Apple fanboys, and people who want them to STFU.
