LebGeeks

abouelchich

Member

recommendations for a smartphone

Hey guys, i 'm having a difficult time making up my mind on which Smartphone should i buy? preferably touchscreen,...

BashLogic

Member

Re: recommendations for a smartphone

the term smart phone is a matter of interpretation.
please specify your requirements and budget.

having a touch screen does not imply that the phone is a smart phone.

I am using N900 and I am satisfied with it.

azife

Member

Re: recommendations for a smartphone

I'm using an iPhone 3gs but I think An android Is great Phone but the stronge point about the iPhone is his apps and if you don't need apps I suggest a nexus one

crazy

Member

Re: recommendations for a smartphone

I suggest you wait for the android 3.0 on the new HTC devices that should come in Q4 2010 ;)

babum

Member

Re: recommendations for a smartphone

I also suggest waiting, the nokia n8 is coming with the new version of symbian, making prices drop.
I wouldnt recommend the nokia x6, as it is a very delicate phone that can't handle a fall.

Ghaleb

Member

Re: recommendations for a smartphone

I am using an iPhone 3GS, I am very satisfied, however I'm thinking if trying an Android, maybe Nexus One or on an HTC.

azife

Member

Re: recommendations for a smartphone

yea me too if you like to play games  go for the iphone 4

abouelchich

Member

Re: recommendations for a smartphone

hmm.. as i understood by far the iphone is recommended for its apps , the Android is a promising OS yet what is its distinctive feature?

EddieEC

Member

Re: recommendations for a smartphone

Android is nice, but it doesn't satisfy me as much as my iPhone did. I have a Nexus One. The apps aren't very good quality. 95% of the apps are bad quality. I like the iPhone more. I'd suggest an iPhone 3GS or the new iPhone 4. Android has many cool features, is a good OS, but I think the iPhone's OS is better for apps and all that stuff.

babum

Member

Re: recommendations for a smartphone

Why dont you try a blackberry, I know they are really crappy phones, but the push mail is quite a functionality and you get 500mb internet, which come in handy whenever you need to search something on the go.

abouelchich

Member

Re: recommendations for a smartphone

Why dont you try a blackberry, I know they are really crappy phones, but the push mail is quite a functionality and you get 500mb internet, which come in handy whenever you need to search something on the go.

by paying 40 $ /month , no thanks!

Ghaleb

Member

Re: recommendations for a smartphone

in case you want an iPhone 4 you must pay attention that it requires MicroSim, a smaller sim card that is not available in Lebanon, however there are plenty of guides surfing the internet telling you how to make your own Microsim

vegetaleb

Banned

Re: recommendations for a smartphone

The Nexus One is a true bijoux!!
I absolutly love it.
If you are the kind of user who get bored from a phone quickly buy the N1 because with a new big OS update every 6 months and Custom Roms every day you will never get bored (it needs some geek pleasure to unlock then flash Roms)
The only negative point is that alfa's wap doesn't support Android because they are too lazy to upgrade their software system,anyway you can still use GPRS if you have normal line

Ghaleb

Member

Re: recommendations for a smartphone

The Nexus One is a true bijoux!!
I absolutly love it.
If you are the kind of user who get bored from a phone quickly buy the N1 because with a new big OS update every 6 months and Custom Roms every day you will never get bored (it needs some geek pleasure to unlock then flash Roms)
The only negative point is that alfa's wap doesn't support Android because they are too lazy to upgrade their software system,anyway you can still use GPRS if you have normal line

Alfa and MTC doesn't support iPhone either, however there is a way to bypass this on the iPhone :)

EddieEC

Member

Re: recommendations for a smartphone

If you're talking about WAP yeah they don't support it unless you fill in the APN info. GPRS-wise you just activate the service, and put gprs.mtctouch.com.lb as APN and leave username and password empty, and turn off 3G. That's for MTC at least.

vegetaleb

Banned

Re: recommendations for a smartphone

I have Alfa and I filled correctly the WAP APN from their own settings but it will not connect,it's the user agent that doesn't support the 1995 data connection that Alfa proudly use OR the Lebanese wap proxy that is ''banned'' from Google,that would explain why the Edge data works(without proxy)!
I hope the next network companies will FORMAT the entire data plans structure,because ALL the networks in the world WAP,Edge or 3G work perfectly with the Nexus One,this is really getting ridiculous

babum

Member

Re: recommendations for a smartphone

just a little question, isnt the blackberry service being used under edge?

vegetaleb

Banned

Re: recommendations for a smartphone

BB internet is as slow as wap...in Lebanon of course

Last edited by vegetaleb (July 5 2010)

samer

Admin

Re: recommendations for a smartphone

BB internet is as slow as wap...in Lebanon of course

Don't misinform people. The BIS is running on EDGE and is definitely faster than WAP.

battikh

Member

Re: recommendations for a smartphone

nothing beats a good hard-keyboard on a smartphone
touchscreen and stupid transition animations are overrated

vegetaleb

Banned

Re: recommendations for a smartphone

Yep and windows 98 is better than windows 7
Oupss sorry for bb internet speed, edge faster than wap?
Anyway there are not such as wap connection,wap is a protocol like http,alfa and mtc call it wap but it's simply edge.Now they slow it a bit more than the GPRS of fixed line or edge of bb but still it's nothing like compairing edge and 3G

Kareem

Member

Re: recommendations for a smartphone

BB internet is as slow as wap...in Lebanon of course

Don't misinform people. The BIS is running on EDGE and is definitely faster than WAP.

it's theoretically faster but not practically. Most of the time both are overloaded making the difference barely noticeable. GPRS and WAP are both powered by the same ISP and sharing the same bandwidth but with different quota and policies.
EDGE can enable data transfer rates of up to 1024 kilobits/sec vs 0 to 170kbps for GPRS

But the reality is that operators will not allow you to attain that speed. Max speed I got using GPRS was 68kbps at 4:00 AM vs 79kbps at the same time, same operator. During day time, the average speed is somewhere between 20-30kbps ( peak attainable transfer rate is another story, it's just that you rarely reach it) I have a bandwidth meter on my PDA and the edge speed is really pathetic, not to mention the latency.

Mobile internet in Lebanon is power by poor bandwidth provided by ISPs like Terranet etc.. that already have pathetic latency and stabiliy.

EDGE in Lebanon was implemented by Motorola providing a platform that uses packet compression technology providing enhanced data rate transfer over GPRS theoretically activated by a software and some tranceiver units installed on the BS. No changes were made to the core network

We are still using a 8-PSK modulation therefore the maximum speed is somewhere around 60kbps...
You only get higher speeds when the modulation is shifted to QAM ( 16 or 32 ) which is not the case in Lebanon. Using QAM you can get up to 800kbps download speed with reduced latency almost to half.

Now back to the topic, I'm a fan of HTC smartphones but Nokia is catching up lately with some great new products. However, I won't drop my HD2 until I find a good alternative.

Kareem

Member

Re: recommendations for a smartphone

I have Alfa and I filled correctly the WAP APN from their own settings but it will not connect,it's the user agent that doesn't support the 1995 data connection that Alfa proudly use OR the Lebanese wap proxy that is ''banned'' from Google,that would explain why the Edge data works(without proxy)!
I hope the next network companies will FORMAT the entire data plans structure,because ALL the networks in the world WAP,Edge or 3G work perfectly with the Nexus One,this is really getting ridiculous

see here, you can use WAP on your laptop

http://www.lebgeeks.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=5534

babum

Member

Re: recommendations for a smartphone

man, with my current network provider you gotta be lucky if the down speed surpasses 5kb/s I mean real lucky.

battikh

Member

Re: recommendations for a smartphone

while in lebanon, i was steadily getting 200+kbps when on edge
but well, that was 7months ago, have to see if since then there are much more customers and the network is now saturated.