Other manufacturers and OS discussion

[RonMacRae]

Hi all,

          I'm about to renew my phone and I can't find any info to help me decide which phone to go for.  An important feature is that my phone be able to download my address book and diary info from MS outlook easily.  My current phone is supposed to be able to do this but the software interface is complete rubbish. It duplicates entries in my address book by reversing the names and gets the dat&time wrong for repeated events where an individual entry has moved.

Are there any reviews that concentrate on being able to manage diarys and address books wiith MS Outlook?

I can't find any comparisons where interfacing with MS Outlook is even mentioned.

To me this is a much more important feature than the number of megapixels on the camera or the processor speed.

Ron.

[Jebelious]

Firstly i would get your contacts uploaded as soon as you can to a cloud based contacts service such as GMAIL, export them from outlook as a csv and upload them all.

Spend time to make sure that they are all correct and formatted correctly on gmail and you are good to go to any device that way.

When it comes to a device you need to take some things into consideration - Are you after games/apps? reliable battery? price point? have you seen friends devices?

There are some big names on the market at the moment that would be worth looking at:

Android (HTC/Samsung are generally the better ones here)
iOS (Apple iPhone)
Windows Phone 7 (Nokia/HTC/Samsung)
Blackberry

All of these offer something different when it comes to user experience so it would be worth looking at some videos maybe the vodafone help ones on youtube, pop over to a store to take a look at what you feel comfortable with.

I am using the Lumia 800 Nokia at the moment which is Windows Phone 7 - I have found that this OS suits my style of using a phone, i can quickly pick the phone up and see if i have email waiting, SMS/MMS, Missed calls - also at a glance see friends and family updates on Facebook/twitter.

Zune software works nicely however Windows Phone 7 does not sync to desktop outlook only to Zune/

When it comes to processor/megapixel well as long as the phone you are using performs when it comes to the tasks you want to do then having a quadcore 1.5ghz device is not going to do much for you, my single core Lumia 800 performs well against most dual core devices.

Camera is good on most top end phones these days, they all boast different technologies but as long as the picture looks good on facebook i think you will be ok

[RonMacRae]

I understand all of that but if I want apps I'll use my iPad, but it's too big to cart around all day. I just want my phone have a diary and address book that I can sync easily.  OK I Occasionally use it as a Sat Nav and sometimes use the Kindle app to read a book if I'm hanging about killing time. But I don't want it to do much more.  I can wait til I get home for Facebook etc. I really don't have a desire to be wired into the internet 24x7.

I've actually got a Gmail account as that was the only way to transfer my address book, but it still garbles up the names. My data is on M$ Outlook and I'm happy to keep it there.  I want my phone to be able to pick that up without a lot of messing about.

I also don't want my data on anybody's cloud as I'm oftern out of network range.

My work phone is a Blackberry and that syncs in fine because we've got a BES server at work but the phone is otherwise poor. I do like my Galaxy S phone but the interface to Outlook means I won't get one again.

I just wish the reviews would consider interfaces to PC application as some phones are very poor in this area and the only way to find out is to buy one or know someone who has one.

Ron.

[Kay]

Good Evening RonMacRae, 

Welcome to the eForum! 

I'd recommend a Windows Mobile for what you've mentioned you're looking for. Have you taken a look at the Nokia Lumia 800? 

To discuss an upgrade further, please follow the instructions in the private message I've just sent and a member of the team will be in touch as soon as possible. 

You can find your PM inbox here.

All the best, 

Kay

[RonMacRae]

Kay,

     Thanks for that. It does look like a good candidate, but again I've got so sign up for another email account I don't want.

Might end up reverting to a dumb phone and a filofax....

Ron.

[Jebelious]

Windows Phone (not windows mobile )will not sync to Outlook it will only sync via cloud services or by using the contacts transfer on the lumia will allow a bluetooth sync i believe. One thing to note is that Just because contacts are on the cloud it does not mean you need a constant connection to access them, the phone will download the contacts and store them on the device.

You do not have to sign up for another email account - you can use existing email accounts as a live account